CHAPTER FIFTY TWO
life during wartime.
season five, episode six.

CASSIE TIREDLY WALKED TOWARD THE LOCKER ROOM, WITH MEREDITH ON HER RIGHT AND CRISTINA ON HER LEFT. As she rubbed her eyes, a small smile came her her face as Meredith showed them an Anatomy Jane doll her mother had bought for her when she was a child.

Cassie took it from her hands, smiling amusedly at the removable organs on the barbie-type doll. Turning to Meredith, she raised a brow in question. "How long have you had this?"

"She bought it for me when I was five," she explained with a grin. "Which is a super creepy gift for a five year old, but I loved it."

Laughing, Cassie handed the doll over to Cristina to play with. But when she glanced up, her entire body froze in place.

In front of the elevators, was Derek, Mark, and the Chief... having a conversation with Owen Hunt.

Eyes going wide in alarm, she latched on to Meredith and Cristina's arms, squeezing hard as she gasped out, "Run!"

With that, she took off in a sprint, leading them aimlessly in the opposite direction. The pair shared a concerned glance over her shoulder as they rushed through the halls, only stopping once Cassie darted around a corner for safety.

"Okay," Meredith panted heavily, turning to her incredulously. "What was that all about?"

"Owen," Cassie cringed, banging her head against the wall as she thought back to what happened the day they met.

Cristina tilted her head in recognition. "Owen? As in Major Hunt, hot pen-trach dude?"

"As in, the guy who kissed me in front of my boyfriend," Cassie corrected, watching as the other two stumbled over their words in shock. "Yeah, did I forget to mention that?"

"He kissed you?!"

"Well, not kissed me kissed me, but tried to kiss me, which is basically the same thing, right?"

Meredith shrugged in thought. "I mean, what kind of kiss?" At Cassie's look of confusion, she elaborated. "Was it a just the heat of the moment kiss?"

"Or," Cristina continued, "was it a I'm into you and want you to be my soldier bride kind of kiss?"

"He didn't actually kiss me!"

Cristina and Meredith shared a knowing look.

"It's basically the same thing," they chorused.

Cassie ran a hand through her hair in frustration, before a dark thought passed through her head, making her look up in fright.

"Oh, no, no, no, no."

"What?"

"He knows," Cassie said plaintively, rapidly shaking her head in fear. "Oh, my god. He knows about me and Mark."

Cristina frowned, "Okay, so—"

"He knows about me and Mark," she repeated slowly, "and he was just talking to Mark... and Derek."

"Oh," Meredith stammered, as her and Cristina grew terrified expressions. "Oh—"

"RUN!"

Meredith was cut off by Cassie immediately sprinting back towards the elevators, causing her and Cristina to haphazardly follow behind.

"Cass!"

"Cassandra Harper," Cristina scolded as she ran after her person. "Get your ass back here!"

Cassie rounded the corner, only to see strangers standing in the place the others once were. As she turned in circles while looking to see where they may have gone, Cristina and Meredith caught up to her, both of them out of breath from all the running.

With a sigh of despair, Cassie shook her head in hopelessness. "Crap."

☆

"Okay, two things," Bailey started, joining the residents in the locker room. "You all have a skills lab this morning. It is mandatory, so don't even think about trying to get out of it. Second, one of you will not have to go to the mandatory skills lab, because you will be assisting me, in my efforts to remove an inoperable tumor from an eleven year old girl."

"I'll do it!" George raised his hand eagerly.

"No, you won't," she retorted. "You have a hundred delinquent charts. You will do those after the lab."

Cristina smirked. "Slacker."

"How can you operate on an inoperable tumor?" Alex wondered.

"Karev is also out."

"What did I say?"

"You doubted me."

Cassie, using basic critical thinking skills and the knowledge that Owen was a trauma surgeon, had a gut feeling the lab would be ran by him.

Thus, why she shouted out, "Me, please!"

"No," Bailey deadpanned.

"Why not?!"

Narrowing her eyes, Bailey looked her up and down as she shifted on her feet. "You're jumpy today. I don't need jumpy, I need calm."

"I can be calm," Cassie defended, reaching into her bag and pulling out her anxiety medication. "See? I'll just take an extra—"

"Put that back where it belongs," Bailey rolled her eyes. "You're out. Deal with it."

Cassie huffed, crossing her arms over her chest in defeat as Meredith was eventually chosen to skip the lab.

"This day sucks."

☆

Cassie stood with the other residents and her interns in the skills lab, staring through the glass doors in anticipation.

Once she saw Owen making his way toward them, she grabbed the nearest person her left, who happened to be George, and shoved him in front of her.

George raised a brow, "What are you—"

"If you love me," she hurriedly whispered, ducking her head. "You'll hide me."

"Um, okay?"

Owen pushed open the doors, introducing himself as he moved to stand in front of a large curtain, which was blocking off half of the room.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Hunt. Over the next few months, I will be teaching you how to work quickly and efficiently to keep someone alive, in circumstances where the safe bet is they're dead by the end of the hour. Does anyone have a problem working with live tissue?"

Cassie tilted her head in question, as George turned to whisper in her ear, "Live tissue?"

"I have no idea."

"Anyone?" Owen raised a brow. "Speak now. In fact, leave now. If not, I own you for the rest of the day." Everyone stayed silent, mainly because they had no clue what he was talking about. "Good. Here we go."

Owen pulled back the curtain, to reveal five pigs, each of them upside down on exam tables. Cassie frowned deeply, looking between the defenseless animals in pity.

"Each resident gets a pig," he continued. "Intern's assist. Oh, hang on."

Suddenly, Owen began carelessly stabbing each of the pigs in the stomach, forcing Cassie to clench her eyes shut with a gasp. George took her head in his hand, pushing her into his shoulder so she wouldn't have to witness them being mutilated.

The rest of the residents watched with various expressions, from disgust to disbelief.

"Go ahead," Owen said nonchalantly. "Save their lives."

Slowly, Cassie opened her eyes, feeling sick to her stomach as she looked over George's shoulder. As a harsh glare grew on her face, she stepped forward, the new attending finally noticing her presence.

"What the fuck?!"

Owen looked up at her with an unreadable expression. Before he could respond, Izzie spoke up.

"You're a monster," she scoffed, shaking her head at him.

"They're under," he shrugged. "They didn't feel any pain, ask the veterinarian."

"You stabbed them—"

"So we could save them," Cristina cut Izzie off, looking at the man she'd found attractive since she first laid her eyes on him.

Izzie continued to argue, while Cassie simply stared at Owen in revulsion. "We can practice on surgical mannequins! We can learn to do the exact same stuff—"

"Does that mean you're out?"

"Yeah," she said obviously. "I'm out."

"Alright then. Anyone else?"

From the back of the room, Rue stepped away from the group. "Dr. Hunt," she spoke up, not sounding the least bit apologetic. "I'm Buddhist, and this exercise goes against my religious beliefs. I refuse to participate."

Owen nodded in understanding, gesturing towards the doors. "You're free to go."

As Izzie and Rue stormed out of the room, Cassie's gaze shifted from Owen, to the pigs, and back to Owen. Everyone observed her in anticipation.

"Did you know that pigs are scientifically proven to be smarter than any other domestic animal?" Cassie wondered aloud, narrowing her eyes as the room fell silent. "It's well documented that the general intelligence level of pigs, under an IQ test created by accredited research veterinarians in 2003, was actually found to be several points higher than dogs or cats. So technically speaking, according to research combined with moral truths, if you were to murder five baby kittens in front of us, it would be far more ethical than what you just did."

With that, Cassie sent Owen one last disapproving scowl, before turning on her heel and exiting the skills lab, leaving the room in uncomfortable stillness.

☆

"I hate him," Cassie fumed, joining Mark at a nurses station. "I swear to god, I hate him!"

She reached down to grab the first thing she saw, which happened to be an empty clipboard, and threw it against the wall in agitation.

At the disapproving look she received from nurse Tyler, who watched the scene unamused, Cassie halfheartedly apologized before picking it up off the floor and setting it back on the counter.

Mark frowned, the sight of Cassie upset automatically making him upset as well.

"Woah, woah, what happened?"

"Owen Hunt happened. Again."

Tensing up, Mark stood up straight, a death glare coming over his face. "If that asshole laid a finger on you, I swear—"

"No, no, not that," she waved him off, making him sigh in relief; going to jail for the assault of an ex army surgeon wasn't very high on his to-do list. "He's running the skills lab, and decided that stabbing five innocent living beings was perfectly fine! You know, no biggie, or anything."

"First wet lab?" Derek said from behind them, causing the duo to nearly jump out of their skin.

"Um," Cassie stuttered, recovering from shock. "Nope, because I refuse to take part in that."

Derek rolled his eyes. "Come on, we all had to do it."

"That is true, bab—" Mark cleared his throat, "Cass. It sucks for you that's it's with Hunt, but it is true. You just need to tough it out."

Derek nodded, oblivious to his best friend's slip up. "Told you."

Cassie, although relieved Owen didn't say anything to Derek about her relationship, looked between the two men with a frown.

"Right now, in this moment, you both suck."

☆

Later that day, Cassie stood between Derek and Alex, and across from Mark in surgery on a trauma patient. She'd been busy doing her own work in a separate skills lab from the others, when Mark paged her to scrub in with him.

Partly because they needed the extra hands, and partly because he felt bad for dismissing her anger over the pig situation, and wanted to make it up to her.

As she was observing Derek's work, a deep cut on the patient's forehead caught Cassie's eye.

"What the hell?" she mumbled, drawing the other's attention to the laceration.

"Oh," Derek scoffed, narrowing his eyes at the wound. "Look at this crap."

Mark frowned, looking to Alex accusingly. "Is that glue? You used skin glue?"

Alex shrugged. "Dr. Hunt wanted to get him out of there pretty quick."

"Yeah, well, because Dr. Hunt didn't have you revise the wound, he could lose half his face," Derek input with a shake of his head, that Cassie mirrored.

Mark nodded in agreement. "You can't rotate a flap, you call someone who can."

"Well, he says the ER is like being in the field," Alex defended. Cassie rolled her eyes. "You use what's available."

"What qualifies us as a war zone?" Cassie sarcastically wondered. "Our undermanned gift shop?"

"Or maybe, the lukewarm drinks from the coffee cart?" Mark added, sharing a look of disbelief with his girlfriend.

"He's a meatballer," Derek scoffed. "What did you expect?"

"Meatballer?"

"Trauma guys. They just slap it together."

☆

Cassie tore off her scrub cap and mask, tossing them in the trash as she left the OR. Only getting a few steps away from the door, she ran into someone heading the opposite direction.

Looking up, she saw Owen, causing her to immediately roll her eyes and brush past him.

"Tetanus shot."

Cassie stopped in her tracks, turning around to face him with her brows furrowed. "I'm sorry?"

Owen crossed his arms over his chest, walking forward so he was only a few feet away. "Who do we have to thank for the tetanus shot? Horses." Cassie glared up at him, not in the mood to fight. "And, how about the polio vaccine, huh? That was—"

"Monkeys," Cassie cut him off with a blank stare. "And mice, and even guinea pigs."

Owen smirked down at her. "Exactly."

Cassie returned the expression, tilting her head in faux thought. "Of course, the tetanus shot was founded in 1924." Owen's face dropped slightly. "And the polio vaccine was developed in 1961."

"Okay," he deadpanned, "what's your point?"

"My point," Cassie emphasized, "is that your so-called defense is completely invalid. It's been decades since animal testing was necessary for scientific advancement. Not to mention the fact that even when it was indicated, the results in animals versus humans often differentiated so drastically, that the testing ended up being completely pointless in the long run."

"Animal testing is still used today, in many medical scenarios, Harper," Owen argued.

"Yeah, by people like you, who lack basic empathy and the knowledge that not everything is completely set in stone," she fired back. "Like it or not, torturing innocent creatures in the name of medicine isn't as groundbreaking as you'd like to believe." Cassie stepped forward, narrowing her eyes. "Scientific findings grow at rapid pace, Major Hunt. I suggest you try and keep up."

Cassie walked away with a scowl, unaware of her boyfriend watching their interaction from a few feet away, glaring at the ginger as he did so.

☆

"Mark and I are going to yell at the major general," Derek said, passing by Cassie in the hallway. "You want to come?"

"Hell yeah," she nodded in slight amusement, dropping what she was doing and following after him.

The duo joined Mark on their way, who bravely grabbed Cassie's hand in his own as they approached Owen. Cassie raised a brow at the action, not sure whether to be flattered or offended by his protectiveness.

"Hunt," Derek said sternly. "Can I talk to you?"

Owen nodded, gesturing for Alex, who he was in the midst of a conversation with, to leave. "Sure. Karev."

"No, no, he can stay. You want Karev to hear how you screwed up the flap on my head trauma, that's fine with me."

Owen looked between them, an air of indifference in his words. "My job is to keep him alive. That's what I did."

"No, what you did was almost maim a guy for the rest of his life. You're lucky I saved the blood supply."

"So, what would you have done?"

"Well," Mark scoffed, taking a step forward so Cassie was moved further away from Owen. "You got a man with a deep scalp wound, and two of the best surgeons in the country standing ten feet away from him," he glared. "I would've asked those two surgeons to step in. That's what I would've done."

Not bothering to acknowledge the look he was receiving, Owen shook his head. "I mean medically. What would you have done medically, so I can do better?"

Cassie scoffed under her breath. "Oh, so now you're open minded?"

"Listen, I recognize there's different ways of doing things, even the basics. Over here, if someone appears dead, you go to them first. In Iraq, if someone appears dead, you don't go to them," Owen sighed. "This is day one for me, so if you think there's a better way, then tell me, and I'll listen."

☆

"You ready to get out of here?" Mark wondered as he entered the lobby, slipping on his leather jacket and laying a kiss on Cassie's forehead. She nodded halfheartedly, only humming as a reply. He knitted his brows, looking to her in question. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I just—" she sighed heavily. "Look, I love you, okay? And I only love you, and that's not going to change."

"I love you too," he smiled through his confusion, "but why are you telling me this?"

"Because," Cassie laughed humorlessly. "This whole stand back and let the big strong man protect you thing is getting really old, really fast."

"I'm not—"

Cassie cut him off with a blank look. "You are. And I appreciate that you're trying to look out for me, and I have to admit that seeing you jealous is usually super hot—" she smirked playfully, wrapping her arms around his neck, "—but I'm a strong woman, and I can take care of myself. I need you to let me."

Mark sighed, looking down at her in admiration with a soft smile playing at his lips. He checked to make sure no one was watching, before he put his hands on her waist and pulled her close.

"I'm sorry, baby. Really, I just—" he shook his head, "I hate that ginger." Cassie snorted at the name, making Mark grin. "And after seeing him all over you that night, it made me hate him even more. But, I admit, I should've just let my sexy, badass girlfriend deal with it."

Cassie smirked. "Damn right you should've."

Mark leant down, leaving a soft kiss on her lips. "Are we okay?"

"Yeah," she smiled fondly up at him. "We're okay. C'mon, let's go. I promised Pumpkin I would read him a bedtime story."

Cassie turned and headed for the doors, pulling Mark along by their intertwined hands.

"You do know that Pumpkin is a cat, right?"