CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
don't stand so close to me.
season three, episode ten.

          MUCH TO CASSIE'S SURPRISE, CRISTINA HAD BEEN HELPING BURKE HIDE A TREMOR IN HIS HAND. After Derek performed surgery on his arm when he was shot the night of Denny's transplant, there was a post-op complication, which Cristina had helped him keep a secret from everyone else.

Cassie knew something was going on with Cristina, but she never imagined it was that drastic. Cristina was also planning on letting Burke operate on George's dad, so Cassie wasn't exactly sure how to feel.

If the same thing had happened to her mother when she was getting a mastectomy for her cancer, Cassie wouldn't be very forgiving.

She didn't like choosing sides, but this time, she felt like she had to.

"Maybe she'll be on look but don't touch patrol too," Izzie said, putting on her coat. "At least I'll have some company."

"Whatever she gets, I hope its bad. Really bad," Alex added, causing Meredith to roll her eyes.

"She made a mistake."

"A mistake?" George scoffed, joining the others. "She was going to let Burke, Burke with the shakey hand, operate on my father."

Cassie looked down in thought, moving to stand next to George.

Cristina walked in, causing everyone to stop talking. She narrowed her eyes at George. "Could you stop looking at me like that? It's creepy, and makes you look like you haven't been fed."

Izzie and Alex scoffed at her and left the room, George following soon after.

"So, how's it going?" Meredith asked.

"How's what going?"

"You and Burke, are you okay?"

"Um," Cassie frowned suddenly, finishing up tying her shoes. "I'm late for— I, um, have to go. I'll see you guys later."

☆

The interns, minus Meredith who was on Addison's service, we're doing rounds on their patients. When they got to Harold O'Malley's room, Cassie grinned at the family.

"Hi mom," George smiled, kissing her cheek.

"Honey," his mother greeted. "I put out some breakfast in case you kids were hungry."

Alex and Cassie simultaneously pumped their fists in the air. "Score!"

"Harper, Karev," Bailey scolded.

Cassie smiled apologetically, moving to give George's mom a hug. "It's nice to see you again."

She returned the sentiment, squeezing the girl tightly. "You too, sweetie."

"Alright lets make this fast people, I have a day," Hahn stated, coming into the room with a straight face. "Which one of the interns is mine?"

"It's my case," Alex declared, pointing to George, Cassie, and Izzie as he spoke. "He's family, she's on Shepherd's service, and she's a candy striper."

Izzie stood proudly. "I'm ready."

"You're not," Cassie blatantly disagreed. "Dr. Bailey, I've been on this case since he was admitted."

"What if you did pick me," George proposed. "What if you picked me?"

"Ooh, pick me!" George's brother's mocked.

"Guys, this is serious."

Bailey glanced over their heads, to Cristina who was standing against the wall. "Yang."

"What?!" the interns exclaimed.

"Dr. Hahn, Christina is very good with cardio. I'm sure you could use her for the day," Bailey smirked. "What are you waiting for Yang, present the case."

Cristina hesitantly stepped forward. "Harold O'Malley, 63, diagnosed with oesophagial cancer and severe aortic regurge. Is scheduled for aortic valve replacement this afternoon."

☆

"Dude, that case was mine and she gives it to Yang," Alex complained. "I haven't had a cardiac case in ages."

"It's not just any case," George frowned. "It's my father."

"So, there's a double standard. Yang does something wrong, and she gets rewarded. That's fair," Izzie rolled her eyes.

Cassie glared at her. "Hypocritical much, Izzie? Honestly, I'm shocked that you're still allowed to practice medicine after what you did."

George sent her a frown. "Why are you defending her?"

"I'm not, George. Neither of them should be allowed to work right now." She gave him a genuine look. "I'm not defending her."

Alex shook his head. "It's so not fair."

Bailey abruptly turned around to glare at them. "If you four thumb suckers don't stop whining, I swear I will not show you what's behind this door. And trust me, you want to see what's behind this door."

The intern's eyes widened when they stepped into the room, at the sight of adult conjoined twins.

"Excuse me doctors, you're going to have to wait a few minutes."

"He has to go pee! Every five minutes, he's got to pee."

"I've always had a small bladder. Oh, I can't live like this any longer."

"You? I'm the one who has to put up with your whining!"

"Like the whining you're doing right now? If you don't move, it's going to go all over your leg."

"So, what else is new?"

The group gaped at the sight before them as Bailey gave them all a smug look. "So, who thinks Yang got the better case?" They all stayed silent with wide eyes. "Mhm, that's what I thought."

☆

"Jake and Pete Weitzman. 35 year old adult pygopagus conjoined twins. Attatched at the lumbar sacral junction."

The twins were surrounded by about eight doctors, all of whom were doing their best not to stare at them in awe.

"But not for long, right Dr. Webber?" Jake asked hopefully.

The Chief nodded. "The Weitzman brothers came in about six months ago for a separation procedure. They opted out because of the risk."

"Pete chickened out."

"Well forgive me for wanting to live longer," Pete scoffed, "even if it meant living with you."

"Yeah, well you wasted six months of our lives, thank you very much."

"You guys came back at the right time," Alex informed as Mark and Derek walked into the room. "We just scored New York's top plastic surgeon."

"Mark Sloan, plastics," Mark introduced himself. "And you remember Dr. Shepherd, your neurosurgeon."

"Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Sloan are the best of the best," Cassie input, smiling kindly at the brothers. "You're in very good hands, trust me."

Mark sent her a wink before adding, "We used to work together, as a team, actually."

"We worked together. We were never actually a team," Derek countered. Cassie stifled a laugh, resulting in a playful glare from the attendings.

"Mr. Weitzman?"

"Call me Jake," Jake said at the same time as Pete said, "Call me Pete."

"Jake, uh, Pete," George said hesitantly. "Do you mind me asking, why now? When you thought the procedure was too risky six months ago?"

Before they could answer, a pretty blonde woman walked into the room, looking around sheepishly. "Guys?" she asked. "Woah, that's a lot of doctors. I'm going to come back—"

"No Elena, come in," Jake smiled. "You want to know why now? This is why. The love of my life, Elena."

"Cute," Cassie smiled to herself.

"Jake," Elena laughed. "I told him not to do this for me, because that's just crazy. Pete said they could end up paralyzed? They could end up dead?"

"Why do you tell her things like that?" Jake scoffed.

"I wasn't telling her, I was telling you," Pete replied. "She just happens to be the only one who listens to me."

"She happens to be right," Derek shrugged.

"Do you know what it's like to be stuck to the same person—"

"Here we go—"

"Yes here we go," Jake rolled his eyes. "To be stuck to the same person every minute of every day? To not have anything that's just yours? To never be on your own? Well, no one should have to live like that."

Cassie looked to the other brother. "What do you think, Pete?"

Pete sighed. "I think, why would I want to be attached to someone who doesn't want to be attached to me."

☆

"I'm calling it," Alex hounded Bailey the second they left the patient's room. "It's mine."

George stepped in front of him. "I have two brothers. I feel their pain."

"I have special training in plastics," Cassie persuaded.

Izzie paused. "I would be great at watching this."

"Quiet, all of you," Bailey demanded.

"We're all on the case right?" Alex asked.

"Right," she nodded. "Stevens you are to—"

"Look and not speak or touch or breathe. I got it," Izzie cut her off.

Mark came up to the group, throwing his arm around Cassie's shoulders in the process. "So, this is the crack team?"

"Feel free to take one."

"Cass, lets go," he said instantly.

Bailey quickly shook her head. "Uh uh, no playing favorites."

"I'm not playing favorites," he scoffed. Bailey pointed to his arm, which was still secure around her body. "Okay, fine, then I think I'll take the one who doesn't speak or touch or breathe."

Cassie frowned up at him. "Ew, why?"

"Harper!" Bailey scolded.

Cassie shrugged nonchalantly, giving Izzie a once over. "I stand by my statement. Ew."

☆

At lunch, the interns were discussing their patient's love lives. "I think it's romantic. Two brothers fighting over the same woman."

"It's cliche, is what it is," Cassie rolled her eyes.

"You know what's freaky though? Conjoined twins having sex in front of the other one. How do you do that?" Alex pondered.

Meredith shrugged. "Family is complicated."

Cristina sat down and Alex glared at her. "You're still here? You haven't been kicked out of the program yet?"

"Alex," Meredith scolded.

She gave him a tight lipped, sarcastic smile. "No, not yet. I'm still here."

"How'd you do it? I mean, did you have some sort of secret signal in surgery so that the nurses wouldn't know?"

"Alex!" Meredith repeated.

"What?" he shrugged. "I'm just wondering how to get ahead around here. Me, I fetch coffee for Sloan. Yang, she gets surgeries none of us would get."

George joined the conversation. "Got a head count on how many patients you two have lied to in the past month?"

"George," Meredith sighed.

"Leave her alone. Her patients lived, so she gets to scrub in," Izzie shrugged innocently.

"Izzie!"

Cassie narrowed her eyes. "You have no room to talk, little miss murderer."

Izzie glared back. "You know what—"

"Meredith," Cristina interrupted, "could you stop defending me?"

☆

Though the test run was unsuccessful, Derek ended up doing the surgery on the conjoined twins. "The saphenous vein in place?"

"Yeah I'm ready," Mark said.

"Bailey?"

"I'm good."

"Chief?"

"I'm ready when you are."

"Alright. Moment of truth. Removing the clamps."

"Dr. Harper, check the nerve stimulator."

"SAP's are falling," Cassie said.

Derek nodded. "Alright, pump up the blood pressure. We need as much blood through the area as possible."

"I'm going up to 2 milliamps," Cassie said. "Up to 3."

"I see something. A flicker on the hamstring of twin A. Pump it up."

Cassie did as told. "Up to 4."

"I've got a twitch. A twitch in twin B's gastric."

"It's small, but it's there," the Chief observed.

"We have a signal," Bailey said happily.

"Congratulations ladies and gentlemen, we have 4 functioning legs," Derek clapped along with the others. "It'd be nice if every love triangle could be fixed with a scalpel."

Mark smirked. "If so, you'd have stabbed me with a 10 blade a long time ago."

Cassie grinned underneath her mask, happy that her two favorite people were starting to get along again.

☆

The locker room was filled with awkward tension. Meredith was annoyed, Alex and Izzie were bitter, George was upset, and Cassie was plain uncomfortable. After a few minutes, Meredith couldn't hold back.

"I can't take this any more!"

"What?"

Meredith put her hands on her hips. "Let her off the hook!"

"Mer," Cristina sighed from her locker.

"No, you know what? I'm done," she shook her head. "Izzie, you cut the LVAD wire. She stuck by you and did the echo. Alex, you cheated on Izzie with syph nurse, and she helped you study for your boards. Cassie, she's your person. You can't just ignore her, because she needs you. And George, when everyone was calling you 007—"

"She was calling me 007."

Meredith sighed. "Just let her off the hook."

Alex and Izzie shared a reluctant look.

"It's okay."

"Sorry."

The duo and George left the room, leaving the three best friends alone.

"Why can't you just mind your own business?" Cristina questioned Meredith.

Meredith ignored her, raising an expectant brow at Cassie. "Cass?"

Cassie looked at Cristina, biting the inside of her lip. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she answered, before adding, "I think."

"I'm here for you," she said honestly, "but George's dad has cancer, and he needs someone who understands, so I need to be there for him."

Meredith looked between them. "So what does that mean?"

"I'm still your person," Cassie sighed heavily. "Both of you. But George is feeling all alone, so right now, I need to be his person too."

"Okay?" Meredith questioned, glancing to Cristina, who rested her head in her hands.

"Okay."

author's note —
the next chapter is going
to be wild, so stay tuned!