Eccedentesiast

Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital

Seeing the name monogramed on the side of the building made it real. We'd all been hearing about the merger for weeks, and it was finally happening. We were getting a new set of surgical residents and interns. No one's job was safe, and I gulped as I stepped through the sliding doors. Inside, everything was chaos. There were too many people on the floor, everyone was talking at once, and it seemed like the ER got a special treat. The room was completely full, and I didn't understand how anyone was functioning. There was barely any place to move. I stepped forward, colliding with a hard body.

"Shit. I'm sorry." He towered over me, and I rubbed at my face, tilting my head up to look at the person that had given me a migraine. I swallowed my insult when I got a good look at his face. His eyes were captivating, a striking shade of green. Every horrible thing I fixed my mouth to say quickly left my brain.

"It's fine."

"Are you hurt? Are you looking for someone?" I looked down, noticing the orange scrubs which meant he was one of the doctors from Mercy West. I tried not to sneer as I pushed my hair away from my face.

"No. I'm a doctor." He seemed puzzled by my words, almost like he didn't believe me. He wouldn't be the first, but I rolled my eyes all the same.

"That's a joke, right? You can't be more than 16." I opened my mouth to give him the cuss out of a lifetime, but one of the nurses ran in my direction, shoving a chart into my hands.

"Dr. Harper, Mrs. Morris keeps coding. We've revived her twice, but she's seizing. I've paged Dr. Shepherd, but he hasn't responded." I didn't have time to argue that size didn't mean anything, nor did I have time to put on scrubs. Something told me I should have come to work already dressed.

"Shit." I mumbled, sprinting down the hall to Mrs. Morris' room. She came in a few days ago with a tumor in her frontal lobe that was the size of a golf ball. We were supposed to operate today, but if she was seizing and Dr. Shepherd hadn't answered his pages, that more than likely wasn't going to happen.

"Her heart stopped. We've started CPR, but she's not responding." The rubber gloves snapped onto my hands, and I walked to the right side of the bed, grabbing the paddles.

"Charge to 120." When I started my internship, I'd seen one too many patients code. It happened on my first day, and it was then that I knew I absolutely belonged in a hospital. I loved saving people's lives, "Clear." First shock. I looked at the heart monitor, waiting a few seconds and seeing no change, "Charge to 200." I needed this woman to live. She had a granddaughter that was going to be absolutely devastated if she didn't make it.

"Dr. Harper, I-"

"Shut up," I snapped, keeping my eyes on the heart monitor, "Come on, Mrs. Morris," I whispered, willing her heart to start beating. I saw a flicker and watched her heart rate go up, letting out a sigh of relief.

"I'm here. What happened." Derek Shepherd was just about the greatest teacher I'd ever had. He was a hard ass, but his line of work required that. I hadn't selected neuro as my specialty yet, but I was leaning between it and PEDS.

"She coded and started seizing. She's stabilizing." I took off my rubber gloves, allowing myself a small smile as he beamed at me.

"Good work. Get her another head CT. They need you in the ER, Ariana." I still needed to change, so I nodded and walked to the locker room, changing into my scrubs as fast as my body would allow. I secured my hair into a bun, jogging back to the ER. I saw Owen first and walked to the side of the patient's bed.

"What do we have?"

"This isn't anything serious. He needs stitches. Can you handle it?" Out of all the things there were to do in the hospital, stitches were the last thing I wanted to deal with, but I knew I wasn't going to get anything big. I was a first year resident. Most of the procedures that I'd seen or been able to participate in happened out of luck. Having a photographic memory came in handy.

"Yeah, I got it." I took his spot at the other side of the bed, sterilizing the large cut on the man's arm.

"You look awfully young to be a doctor," he commented, eyeing me skeptically. I tried my best not to roll my eyes. Bedside manner wasn't a strong point for me, but I was trying. Both of my parents were doctors, and they taught me that getting emotionally involved would only end in disaster. Their endless lectures replayed in my head every time I felt myself getting ready to cry.

"I don't think Dr. Hunt would have left me to do your stitches if I was too young to be a doctor," I said, starting off his sutures. One would think that the comments didn't bother me anymore because I got them so often, but it wasn't my fault I looked like a 12 year old. I didn't want to be constantly questioned in my profession, especially when I was a good doctor.

"Did you graduate early or something?"

"No. I graduated on time. I did my required 8 years of schooling, and now I'm here. Can I finish sewing up your arm? Or are you going to continue to question my age?" I raised my eyebrows, trying my best to keep my tone neutral. I didn't want to take my frustration out on this man when I was really upset about the asshole doctor that knocked into me.

"People must tell you that you look young a lot." I sighed, continuing on with the stitches.

"Yes. I do get that a lot." I tied off the last stitch, thankful that I was done and could move onto the something else. I placed a fresh bandage over the wound and took off my soiled gloves so I could put on a fresh pair.

"Thanks Doc." I gave him a fake smile and nodded, tossing the gloves in the trash. I grabbed a fresh pair and walked around the ER. I wondered who made the call for me to come down because no one had asked me to do anything. There was a lot of commotion, but I hadn't heard anything about an accident.

"What's going on?" I asked one of the nurses that was passing by me.

"Mercy West shut down their trauma center. Everyone is being transferred here." That made sense, but it was inconvenient for the rest of us. Did everyone just assume that we had enough room? And what about the rest of the people that were coming in with emergencies?

"Frank Nasbaum, 42, multiple, mostly superficial stab wounds. Vital signs stable. His buddy's got lacerated palm." A paramedic walked through the sliding door, wheeling a gurney in behind him. This was my chance to get near something worth seeing.

"Got it. Thanks Ray." Cristina was the first person to snatch the chart, something that didn't surprise me. She was an amazing surgeon, and a part of me aspired to be like her. She was so focused. She knew what she wanted, and she wanted afraid to knock anyone out of the way to get it.

"He's not my buddy. He touched my little girl, my baby!" There was another man walking into the ER, clearly angry. Two doctors were holding onto him. I looked back and forth between the two of them, trying to assess the situation.

"Okay, we got a bleeder here. Draw me up some lidocaine and, uh, get me a LAC tray with 3-0 silk." Cristina was completely calm while everyone else seemed to be freaking out.

"Need any help?" Obnoxious Doctor seemed to appear out of thin air, and I resisted to urge to roll my eyes. It was obvious Cristina had whatever was going on under control, and even if she didn't, she wasn't going to let anyone take over for her.

"Sir, this is gonna pinch." I was trying to get a good look at everything, but it seemed like the other doctors had to same idea. Being that I was short, I really couldn't see much of anything. I walked to the other man's bed to look at his hand. I was probably going to end up doing his stitches anyway.

"Sir, could you sit down please?" I asked as nicely as I could, but no one was paying attention to me,

"He came at me with a carving knife! He tried to cut off my-" The man Cristina was trying to sew up got cut off, and the man standing in front of me moved forward. I grabbed the back of his shirt, trying to get him to sit down, but he was too strong.

"Come on. I was gesturing! You ran into the knife. You're an idiot and a pervert." Why, of all days, did these two have to come into the hospital? They were causing a scene and putting other patients in danger, "She used to babysit your brats. I can't believe I ever let her in your house!" Whatever these two had going on was fucked up, but my main concern was everyone's well being. The man was starting to get aggressive.

"I love her, Don. I love her, and she loves me."

"I'm gonna kill him." The man lunged forward again, and I threw my hands up. We weren't going to catch a break.

"Easy, all right?" Obnoxious Doctor stepped in again, but this time I was grateful because he got the man to sit down.

"Let him die! Just let him die! It's what he deserves!"

"Are you sure there's nothing I can do-" There was nothing anything could do at this point. We had to get one of them to a different room.

"There. You know what? That's how we do it on our side of town." I realized that everyone was in a competition, and that was why so many people were hounding the ER. We were overstaffed, and there wasn't enough work to go around. I sighed, waiting for someone to give me something to do.

"Sir, could you sit down please?" I yelled, yanking the back of his shirt. I was getting fed up. I just wanted to sew the man's hand up and get to an on call room. My migraine was getting worse. He shot me a menacing glare, but I returned it with no problem. Men didn't scare me. They were all just little boys on the inside.

"Why is a 5 year old doing my stitches?" I stabbed him with the needle on purpose before numbing the area. He needed his ass kicked.

"I'm 26, and you can kiss my ass." I knew better than to make smart comments to the patients, but I'd only been at work for 30 minutes, and it seemed like the world was pissing me off.

"Frank!" A young girl ran inside, going straight for the man in the bed directly across from me.

"Oh my God." When they started kissing, I coughed and focused on my task. I was only halfway through the stitches.

"Honey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine sweetheart."

"Get off of her you perv!"

"Daddy!" Everything seemed to happen at once. I caught an elbow to the jaw, the man stood up, grabbing a hammer, and lunged forward for a third time. Today just really wasn't my day. I cursed, placing my hand on the side of my face. I wasn't even an hour into my shift, and I wanted to go home. I looked up, watching as Obnoxious Doctor tackled the man with the hammer to the floor. I raised my eyebrows in surprise. He didn't strike me as the type to take physical action.

"Nice work." Owen came around the corner with a police officer.

"Thanks." I needed to find an ice pack and soon. I could feel a bruise forming on my cheek, "Come with me." Obnoxious Doctor grabbed my wrist, pulling me into another hallway. I sat down on the free gurney when he disappeared. He returned with an ice pack wrapped in a towel, pressing it to my jaw.

"Thank you," I mumbled, still upset about his earlier comment.

"No problem. You okay? He hit you pretty hard."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Nice moves. Didn't know you had it in you." I smirked, grabbing the ice pack from him.

"I guess we're even then. Let me see your face." I let him put his finger under my chin and turn my head to the side. I was pretty sure my jaw was already red, if it hadn't turned purple yet.

"Is my money maker ruined?" He chuckled, shaking his head at me.

"Nah, you're good. I'm sorry about earlier though. I didn't mean to upset you. You looked like you wanted to punch me."

"I did, but it's cool. I know I still look like a child." I pressed the ice pack to my face again, knowing I was going to be down for a little while.

"I'm Jackson, by the way. Jackson Avery." He stuck out his hand, and I eyed it before deciding to shake it.

"Ariana Harper."

"It's nice to meet you, Ariana." He gave me a smile that would have made me swoon on a normal day, but this wasn't a normal day, and I wasn't in a normal mood.

"I wish I could say the same for you." I gave him a sweet smile, sarcasm coating every word that left my mouth.

"You're a feisty one." I shrugged, watching as he turned to walk away. I just knew that he was going to make my life hell.