Code Blue • Jackson Avery

Chapter Thirty Six

It's been a month since George passed and it's been the toughest month for this whole hospital. We were all currently gathered to hear about the news Chief Webber had for us. He stood on the steps, towering over us.

"In the coming weeks, Seattle Grace will be merging with Mercy West. I'd like to tell you, you all will have a job but there's only so many jobs, and the board and I have some tough choices to make. So please be at your very best" Webber said leaving us with those words.

As if my days at work couldn't get any worse....

Work was agonizing, everyone was being cut throat. No one went home, no one slept and everyone was on top of their game.

Meredith paged us and we headed to the nurses station.

"Check your emails. HR- if you got an email you've been cut. I'm fine but I'm trying to be calm because if one of us got cut, I won't be calm" Meredith said.

"I'm good" I said followed by Karev, Izzy and Yang.

"See we are fine" Meredith said.

"For now" Yang said.

Turns out most of the interns got cut along with a lot of the nurses. We gathered in the lobby to say goodbye and wish them good luck.

It was truly heartbreaking to see most of our interns and our coworkers leave, be cut, and sent off with no direction as to where to go from here.

"You heading home?" My dad asked.

"No, I'm staying for the night" I said heading back to pick up the slack.

"You need sleep" my dad countered.

"No I need a job tomorrow" I said continuing further down the hall.

The next morning I walked into a sea of orange. Ugly, matte orange scrubs walking amongst the halls.

I walked straight out of the break room colliding into one of those ugly orange outfit doctors.

"Sorry" I said with only a slight sting of meanness.

"My bad. Doctor Jackson Avery" he said before heading inside. Ugh I hated that the enemy was cute.

I headed to Meredith's room to get some advice on how to deal with falling for the new guy.

"How's it going? Update I need an update!" Meredith said as I walked into the room. I plopped down on the couch that was next to her bed.

"I'm falling for the enemy and hard" I said letting my hands run through my hair.

"One of the mercy west doctors? No! Bella you need to stay strong. Go out there and reclaim what's yours" Meredith demanded. Her persuasion caused me to jump up from the bed and go head into the battle of the doctors.

As I exited her hospital room I received a page from my dad to head to one of the lab/practice rooms.

I walked in to almost every other resident and intern there, including Mercy West.

I sat down towards the back examining the room. It looked like my dad was giving a lesson on microscopic surgery.

"Welcome. Microsurgery is about precision. The microscope changes your perspective radically. The hand-eye coordination required can be learned but right now, I need naturals" my dad began.

In this moment I didn't want to feel cocky or smarter than the others but I felt it was my time to shine. My dad had been drilling me on this machine since it first came out.

"Each one of you will get a chance to guide this pen through the hole in the cup. The person who mark closest to the presidents nose and doesn't hit the side of the cup gets to scrub in" my dad continued as he lifted the pen making a perfect mark on the nose of the dollar bill.

"Who wants to go first?" He asked. Almost everyone hands rose immediately.

One by one doctors went up. They either hit the side of the cup or missed the hole entirely.

Cristina sat in the front of the room putting on a show. She yawned and acted like she had this one in the bag.

Third to last was Jackson Avery. He confidently walked up to the microscope and doted just west of the nose.

He holds up his dollar with proudness.

"Nice job. If somebody improves on that, I'll be out of a job" my dad said.

I stood up as Cristina was clearly wanting to be last.

"Okay let's see what you got" my dad said. I stationed myself at the microscope. Placing the pen almost directly in the middle of the dollar and pulling it out.

"Same as doctor Avery" my dad said. "I guess we have a tie for scrub in right now"

"We'll see about that" Cristina said hoping up out of her chair. Cristina lifted the pen and instantly hit the side of the cup.

"Okay, doctor Avery and Shepherd you'll be scrubbing in" he said. Walking out of the room.

"Shepherd uh?" He said.

"It wasn't favoritism if that's what you're wondering" I said as we walked out together.

"No it wasn't that at all. Just got to put a name to the face" he said flashing a cheesy grin.

I headed to go get ready for the surgery and met back at the patients room an hour later.

Lexie, Jackson and I were all walking the patient to the OR when I noticed Lexie wobbling and pulling at her pants.

"Lexie are you okay?" I whispered but before she could respond my dad began.

"If anyone opens their mouth, they're fired" my dad sternly said.

We walked through the double doors to see not only Chief Webber but the board members as well.

"Ah Dr. Shepherd. I was just showing our new schedule to some of our board members. This must be.... Mrs. Taylor and she's undergoing a craniotomy" Webber said glancing down at his notes.

"It's Mr. Taylor, Chief" my dad corrected as a male was laying on the gurney and not a female.

"We're, uh still working out a few kinks, clearly" Webber said trying to cover up the mistake.

"We should go. Keep the trains running on time. Nice meeting you all" My dad said rushing the patient closer to the OR and away from Webber and the board members.

My dad talked to the patient one last time and as we all scrubbed in.

"So I'm like technically your step aunt" Lexie said.

"Yeah no. Meredith is just my dad's wife, she's not my stepmom" I countered back.

"Woah what goes on in Seattle Grace?" Jackson asked after hearing the conversation.

"Too much drama" I said going in to the OR to be gloved and gowned.

"It's a beautiful day to save lives" my dad began minutes later. This was going to be a long and stressful surgery.