CHAPTER FIVE.
shake your groove thing + if tomorrow never comes

Bailey's interns were all gathered in the viewing room of an OR. Meredith had been allowed to assist Burke with heart surgery, so they were watching. Vienna multitasked between watching the surgery, drinking a soda, and doing a crossword puzzle.

"I wish I could hold a heart," George sighed.

"A monkey could hold a heart," Cristina said.

Izzie entered the gallery, "George, I need more ice and chips," She said to the man.

"Who else did you invite?" He questioned, referring to what was supposed to be a small gathering at Meredith's house that night.

Vienna scoffed, "She so invited the whole damn hospital."

"We said the list was jocks only. Surgery, trauma, and plastics," Cristina reminded her. "Who else did you invite?"

"Just some people from the pediatric floor," she shrugged nonchalantly.

"You invited the preschoolers to Meredith's house?" Cristina groaned.

Vienna looked at her, "Hey, not all people on the pediatric floor are preschoolers. Some are very handsome men."

"Oh, really? Anyone in particular?" Cristina raised her eyebrows. Vienna simply stared at her with narrowed eyes for a few more moments before turning back to her crossword. "Next, you'll say that you invited the shrinks."

"Uh, well ━━ "

"She invited mental defects."

Vienna and Cristina spoke in unison, "This party is DOA."

"You know, Meredith thinks this is going to be a small, meet-your-boyfriend cocktail thing," George told her. "Did you clear this with her?"

"No, but I will. I promise," Izzie said.

"Bullshit."

"Why are you wasting the only weekend your boyfriend is in town at a big party? Is he bad in bed?" Cristina asked.

"No," Izzie said in an obvious lying tone. "I just want him to meet some of my friends."

Vienna cackled. "Oh, shit, the sex is totally bad!"

"Bad sex," Cristina grinned teasingly at the blonde. "Sucks for you."

"I heard there's a party tonight," Alex said as he walked up to the group.

"A party?" Cristina played dumb.

"No party," George shook his head.

"Uh, news to me," Izzie shrugged.

Vienna stared at him before grinning mischievously, "Yeah," she nodded. "There's a party. At Mer's, ━━ You should come."

♱

"Vienna, Dr. Warren has requested to have you on his service," Bailey told the woman. "You can meet him up on the PEDS floor now."

She chuckled awkwardly, "I didn't know he was serious about that." Cristina and Meredith turned to the woman with questioning looks, prompting the girl to ignore it and swiftly turn on her heel, walking away.

Arriving on the peds floor and stepping out of the elevator, she made her way toward Bowie, who she found standing at a nurse's desk waiting for her.

"So, you managed to convince Dr. Bailey."

He smiled, "What can I say, I've got charm."

The two made their way to one of the beds in the peds ward occupied by a young child and an adult woman on the side. "Benjamin Lewis, age 11. Fever, tenderness on the lower abdomen." Vienna presented.

Bowie nodded, "Can I check your stomach?" He asks the child who nods. After barely pressing on his abdomen, Benjamin lightly screeched in pain. "Okay. The appendix is inflamed." He muttered.

"Is he going to need surgery?" His mother asks.

"Yes, but don't worry. It's a small surgery, and you, little man, will leave here with the tiniest scar." Bowie smiled, looking toward the boy, "And after the surgery, you can convince your mom to buy you ice cream."

"Admit him and then book an OR," Bowie tells Vienna.

After assisting Bowie in his appendectomy, the two were now in the scrub room scrubbing out, and Vienna turned to him. "That was awesome."

He placed the soap down to rinse his hands off as he glanced over at her. "Oh, that was nothing," Bowie said humbly.

"No, really ━━ " Vienna laughed, "You're kind of cool."

"Kind of? You wound me."

The blonde laughed. "Well, you'd be cooler if you lost that scrub cap."

"Oh, what?" He gaped, "Don't tell me you're hating on my snowmen?" His scrub cap was gray, the bottom covered in snow with a bunch of snowmen plastered onto it, flurries of snow in the air, too.

"No way. We are nowhere near Christmas or winter," Vienna shook her head.

"Some people like snowmen all year around."

"And those people aren't cool," She smirked nonchalantly, throwing her mask into the trashcan. Bowie laughed, hand raising to rub the back of his neck as he watched Vienna leave the room.

♱

Vienna found Meredith and began telling her all about the appendectomy as the two waited for an elevator together when Derek walked up to them while eating. "Hey, I hear you did a CABG with Burke."

"Yeah," Meredith answered shortly.

"I assisted Warren in an appendectomy," Vienne admitted, only to be ignored. The girl rolled her eyes, "Just in case anyone wants to pay attention to me."

"Did you get to hold the heart?"

"Yeah."

"It's an amazing feeling. You never forget your first time.

"That goes for a lot of things," Vienna said with a smirk.

Derek smiled, "Hello to you too, Vee."

The two stepped into the elevator as Derek stood outside looking concerned for Meredith who seemed out of it. "See you later."

Vienna leaned against the wall, doing her crossword puzzle from earlier in silence when Meredith turned toward her. "I think maybe I did something to the heart when I was holding it. I nodded off a little ━━ Squeezed it."

"The heart's a tough muscle." Vienna told her without looking up, "It could take a squeeze or two, Mer."

"My fingernail popped the glove. Cut straight through." Meredith shook her head, "Vee, what if I punctured Mrs. Patterson's heart?"

The other blonde finally looked up from her crossword and went to stand next to Meredith, "If you punctured it, you would have known when they reperfused. They got her heart beating. She's okay."

"So I shouldn't tell Burke?"

"Tell him what?" Vienna quizzed, "Nothing happened. The woman's okay, right?"

Meredith hesitated before answering, "She's okay."

"She's fine."

"She's fine," Meredith repeated.

♱

Vienna, George, and Bailey stood in a room with Dr. Webber, looking at a woman's x-ray. "What do you see?"

"Hyper-inflated lungs, clouded with bullae, seriously diminished capacity." Vienna answered, "She must be having trouble breathing."

Bailey nods, "Course of action?"

"A bullectomy procedure, remove the bullae, reduce the pressure."

Webber looks up from her chart, "Says here we operated on her back in '99, so Mrs. Drake has been through this before, but talk her through it anyway. And resist the anti-smoking lecture, she feels bad enough already."

"We call this a spaghetti procedure. We cut and deflate the bullae to facilitate gentle manipulation of Mrs. Drake's lung." Bailey told the interns as they now watched the screen in one of the ORs.

"Dr. Bailey, do you see that?" Webber asks.

"Oh, my ever-lovin ━━ "

Vienna's eyebrows raised, "What the hell is that?"

"We need to open her up," Webber stated, deciding to scold her for her language later, "I'm taking out the scope."

"You heard him, people." Bailey said, "Let's move."

"Lights. Let's get set up. 10 blade. Get the scalpel ready." Webber removed his hands from the body temporarily, "Towel."

"Rib spreader."

"Suction."

Vienna's jaw dropped from behind her mask as they pulled a dark object out of Mrs. Drake's body, "Holy shit, is that a towel?"

"Language!" Webber scolded, "Get a pan." He told her, the girl doing exactly that.

"Where did that come from?"

"Best guess, her surgery five years ago."

Bailey sighed, "Something careless this way comes."

"A towel?" Cristina asked as she joined George and Vienna in the hallway, the three following behind Bailey and the Chief.

The blonde nodded, "A towel. In her chest, Cristina!"

"Not good," Webber stated blandly.

George looked at Cristina, "She complained about pressure on her chest. Said nobody took her seriously."

"Not good for the patient, not good for the hospital. Not good." Webber repeated, more so to himself than the others.

"Cristina, Vienna, hit the files. Find out everything you can about that initial operation. Who was in that room, who was responsible for closing." Bailey ordered the two. "George, you stay with the patient. Keep her happy, she seems to like you."

"Right, okay, um, how long do you think I mean just technically, I'm off at 6." The male said ungracefully.

Bailey turned back around toward the three, "Am I invited?"

"Excuse me?"

"Am I invited to the party?" Bailey clarified.

George laughed, "Oh! You, well, yeah." He said awkwardly, "Yes ━━ Yeah ━━ Of course."

Vienna scoffed as she and Cristina gave George annoyed looks once Bailey left, "Seriously?"

"What was I supposed to say?"

"A simple no would have sufficed."

Cristina and Vienna then headed down to the records area where they'd found out that Burke was the surgical fellow in the OR for that surgery, and Bailey ordered them to say nothing about it. Cristina had agreed not to say anything, but Vienna wasn't making any promises.

Now the interns stood talking together in a hallway, Meredith having told them how she admitted in front of a patient's husband that she might have knicked her heart during surgery when her glove popped.

"You got called before the chief?" George asked.

Meredith sighed. "Tomorrow morning. I could get kicked out of the program. I could, right?"

"You're not getting kicked out."

"You could," Vienna nodded. "But you probably won't."

"Patterson's just going to sue," Cristina said.

George gave the two of them a look, "Patterson is not going to sue and you're not getting kicked out."

"What the hell are you thinking? Telling Burke. So stupid." Cristina scoffed.

"I told her not to."

As Meredith left to take a phone call, Izzie returned to the group with a small handful of snacks. "Ok, So the beer's coming at 7:00 and some of the floor nurses are bringing wine."

"You invited nurses? Ugh."

"Did you clear this with Meredith?"

"A few more people isn't going to make a difference. Okay? A party's a party."

Vienna shook her head, "You're throwing a party in her house. A party she thinks is a small get-together with your boyfriend."

"The bigger the party, the less time for bad sex with the hockey player."

"Would you stop saying that? Hank and I have great sex." Cristina hummed, unconvinced, so Izzie kept going. "All the time. "In fact, we'll probably have sex after the party, or during the party."

George took a sip of his water, "As long as you clear it with Meredith."

"Hank just needs to realize that doctors can have fun. We're not all workaholics with God complexes."

"We are workaholics with God complexes," Cristina told her.

Vienna smirked, holding her hand up to Cristina for a high-five which she reciprocated. "Yeah, we are!"

Izzie gave them a look as George turned around a glove he had been inflating, revealing a drawn-on face. Vienna reached over to grab it it, "Hey, it kinda looks like you, George." She giggled.

After that long, exhausting shift, Vienna pulled up to the house to see a massive amount of cars parked in the driveway as well as everywhere on the street. The blonde rolled her eyes as she found a parking spot, turned her car off and made her way into the house, where she found Cristina in the living room.

About fifteen minutes later, Vienna found herself dancing on top of a table with Cristina when Meredith entered, "Baby! You made it!" The Asian woman shouted at her.

"Come on, Mer!" Vienna grinned, waving her over. Eventually, she joined them with another bottle of tequila and started dancing with them.

"Oh, my ━━ " George muttered, walking in right after Meredith.

"George!" Cristina waved.

"Hey, George!" Marcella grinned widely. "Come dance with us!"

He sighed and walked over, hopping onto the table, and took a shot of Meredith's tequila as they laughed, allowing themselves to feel free first time in a while. After a little bit of drinking, Marcella, still only slightly tipsy, walked around the party when she bumped into someone.

Looking up she saw Bowie, "Dr. Warren." She smiled.

"We're not a work, you can call me Bowie," He said with a smirk.

"Bowie," She hummed, attempting to keep her balance, "Enjoying the party?"

He shrugged, "I'm not really a party person."

Vienna watched him for a few moments before taking his hand and leading him toward her bedroom, grabbing a bottle of tequila on her way there, and locking the door behind them.

The male watched her with slightly wide eyes as she climbed onto the bed, removing her top. "Uh ━━ "

"You coming or what?" She slurred.

"You're wasted," He shook his head, taking the bottle from her and leaving the room with it. "Stay here. I'll get you some water."

By the time Bowie had returned, Vienna had already passed out asleep, light snores coming from her mouth. The male laughed lightly to himself, placing the bottle of water on her nightstand. Although this was probably illegal, the male then went into their bathroom and looked through the medicine cabinet, pulling out a small two-pack of pills to treat Vienna's hangover.

Sneaking his way out of the bathroom, he entered her room again, setting the pills next to the water and covering her with the blanket. He dug through his pockets, pulling out a Post-it and scribbling something on it, taping it to the table before he left again, closing the door behind him.

When the blonde woke up the next morning the house was empty, and she checked her alarm clock, letting her know she was extremely late. Turning over she sighed, noticing Bowie wasn't with her. Getting up she looked at her nightstand, seeing a glass of water and two pills, with a post-it underneath that read: Good luck with that hangover.  Call me :) xxx-xxx-xxxx. Smiling to herself, she threw some clothes on and rushed to the hospital. Once in the locker room, she met Meredith and Cristina who were also extremely late. "Did you guys have sex last night?"

Meredith nodded, "I can't afford to piss off Bailey anymore. Do you think she told anyone?"

"About you and McDreamy?" Cristina asked.

"What'd McDreamy do?"

"Bailey caught us having sex in his car."

"Holy shit." She laughed, throwing her scrub top on. "I think I almost slept with Dr. Warren from pediatrics last night. He has morals though, he left a note and didn't have sex with me because I was too drunk."

"Seriously?" Cristina whisper-shouted.

Vienna pulled her silver watch on, "Next time, I guess."

Meredith sighed, "If they find out, what can they do?"

"You'll just get edged out, blacklisted, banned from his surgeries. Passed over for chief resident. It'll be humiliating but you'll live." Cristina told her.

"That would suck, Mer," Vienna told her.

"I have to end it. I definitely have to end it," Meredith paused, "I have to end it right?"

"Um. . ."

"Cristina, Vienna, you're late," Bailey said as the interns came rushing up to the group who were on their way to round on Alex's patient.

"So is Meredith!" They both pointed out. Bailey ignored that and kept walking.

Vienna looked over at her, "You're fucked, Mer."

"When we walk in this door, you will maintain decorum," Bailey said sternly. "You will not laugh, vomit, or drop your jaw. Are we understood?"

"Why would we laugh?" Izzie asked.

"Oh, just wait," Alex whispered.

"Good morning, Ms. Connor," Bailey greeted the patient as the interns came into the room behind her.

"Good morning," Annie said, smiling at Alex.

Everyone's eyes widened at the sight of a tumor, which was probably about the size of the average person's entire upper body. "What is it?" George whispered.

"Tumor," Cristina replied as if he were dumb.

"Good morning, Annie, how are you?" Alex said with a smile. "This is Dr. Bailey, and these are my fellow interns.

"Dr. Karev, we refer to patients as ━━ " Bailey began before the patient cut her off.

"I told him to call me Annie. Ms. Connor makes me feel old and fat, which I am, but why feel that way?"

"Good morning," Burke said as he entered the room.

"Annie, this is Dr. Burke," Alex informed her. "Awesome surgeon."

"Dr. Karev."

"This is Annie Connor. She is forty-three years old and presented early this morning with progressive shortness of breath for the past three months. She was found to have a very large tumor of unknown origin pressed against her diaphragm. Vital signs are stable, scheduled for CT this morning," Alex said.

Thank you," Burke nodded before looking at Annie. "Are you at all claustrophobic?"

"I've been housebound for the last year. How claustrophobic could I be?" She said.

"Alright then. Dr. Stevens is going to take you up for a CT. It'll give us a better look at the tumor, and we'll know how to proceed."

"Could someone tell my mom?" Annie asked. "She'll worry if she gets back and I'm not here. And would it be possible for Alex to take me instead? I mean, he's just so fun to look at." Said male turned to the other interns with a smug look at her words.

"Sure, Ms. Connors," Burke agreed.

The group then went outside, "How much do you think it weighs?" Meredith asked.

"Sixty pounds?" George guessed.

"More," Izzie shook her head.

"She's carrying around a whole extra person."

Vienna nodded, "This one's going in the books."

"I've got to get in."

"I almost did," Izzie complained. "Have you ever seen Alex like that? He actually seemed sincere."

"Seemed to be the operative word," Meredith pointed out.

"He was on call this morning when she came in and helped get her to her room."

Cristina frowned. "I am never leaving this place again."

"Let's move, people," Bailey ordered. "Ms. Connor's surgery, should we choose to proceed, will take most, if not all, of the surgeons off the floor, which means you people will have to work extra hard not to kill anyone because we won't be there to fix your mistakes."

♱

The interns sat around a cafeteria table together, listening to Meredith rant about Derek, "It's just that he blatantly favors me in front of her and then blatantly dismisses me."

"How do you know he was favoring you? Look, you've got a brain. You got into this program." Cristina told her, "Just because Shepherd wants to munch your cookies doesn't mean you didn't deserve what you worked for."

"But he's making me look bad." Meredith sighed, "I have to end it."

"Right," Vienna nodded.

"It's over."

"Uh, huh," Cristina said dismissively.

"Is it true you get to scrub in on that tumor?" Alex asked as he walked over to the girls. Apparently, Alex had been talking bad about Annie while she was getting a scan, and the mic was left on, so she'd heard everything he said.

Cristina looked at him, "Don't sit here."

"You get to scrub in?" Izzie asked Meredith, "How psyched are you?

"On a scale of one to ecstatic, ecstatic."

"It's unbelievable." Alex scoffed as he sat down, "You know what I think? I think Burke wants to get into your scrubs."

"Why are you sitting here?"

Alex ignored her, "He kicked me off that surgery for the same crap you pull every day."

"You know what," Cristina looked at Vienna and Meredith, "If I stuck this fork into his thigh, would I get in trouble?"

"Not if you make it look like an accident." Meredith smiled.

George joined them at the table, "Hey!"

"Thank God, man." Alex groaned, "I'm drowning in estrogen here."

"No one invited you here," Vienna scoffed. "You're more than welcome to leave."

George looked at Meredith, "You look. . . Is everything okay?"

"Shepherd's a jackass."

"Really?" Izzie quizzed, "I think he's kind of great."

"He reamed her out in front of Bailey."

"Why?"

"Cause he's a jackass."

"Oh." George said as he threw his tray, "Well, bad days are. . . bad. Maybe tonight, uh, if, you know ━━ If you drink alcohol, I mean, we could all of us, I mean, go out and drink alcohol. . . because of the bad day."

Meredith's pager beeped, the blonde ignoring what George said, "I got to go."

"Dude."

"Shut up." The three laughed at George while Izzie patted his shoulder.

♱

Soon time later that day, Annie's surgery was in progress, and Vienna, George, and Cristina were blessed with the task of holding up the nearly hundred-pound tumor for fourteen whole hours. "We need more O negative," Bailey said to Burke.

"I'll call the blood bank," Cristina said as she stepped away, causing George's grip to falter, which then led to him letting the tumor slip while Vienna tried to pick up his weight.

"Damn it, O'Malley!" Burke shouted. "Do you want me to kill this patient?"

"No, I'm sorry," He apologized sheepishly.

"I mean, is the art of retracting just too much for you?" Burke continued. "Clark doesn't seem to be having any trouble, look at her."

"I'm sorry sir, it won't happen again ━━ " George started, "Vienna is also taller than me ━━ "

The blonde scoffed, "Barely. We're like the same ━━ "

"Enough."

"How are we doing?"

"It's more intertwined than the studies made it look," Burke informed.

"I need another bag. Call the blood bank," Bailey told the nurse.

"We need more O negative."

"I'm down ten units of blood, and I haven't even flipped her yet," Burke sighed.

"Look at that," Derek huffed as he got a better look at his portion of the tumor. "How am I supposed to get around that artery? All right, forceps."

After a few hours, Vienna's legs were beginning to burn and she was beginning to feel pain in her lower back. Taking a glance at Cristina and George, she noticed the two sweating and shaking while doing their best to remain still.

"Never a dull moment at Seattle Grace," Derek said, after hearing about Izzie opening up a man's sternotomy bedside, and seeing her scream at Alex in the scrub room.

"Oh my," Bailey exclaimed as she found a major bleed.

"Get right in there. Get it," Derek said as everyone began to rush around, trying to find the source.

"She can't afford to lose this much blood," Bailey shook her head.

"We need more blood!"

"Get me some suction here," Derek demanded as Vienna did as told. "I can't see what I'm doing. Clamp, clamp, clamp, please. Is there any blood in the rapid infuser?"

"We're waiting on two units," A nurse shook his head.

"What do you mean you're waiting?"

"We didn't anticipate this much blood loss," Vienna said. "A double supply was prepped but we've used it all."

"What did you cut?" Derek asked Bailey.

"Nothing," The resident said defensively. "It just blew. She came in with too much damage. The artery walls are too weak ━━ She's taken ten units of O negative already."

"I can't see. Vee, give me your hand." Derek said and took one of Vienna's hands and put it into Annie's open chest. "Push right down here. Pull, towards you. Suction, suction!"

"Pressure's dropping."

"She needs blood! Where the hell is the blood?" Derek yelled. "Somebody grab that. Push it back, Vee. Come on. There we go. Some suction, please, in here, now."

Flatline.

"We're losing her!"

After a few minutes of chest compressions, Derek stopped and sighed in defeat. "Time of death is eleven forty-two." He stepped back and removed his hand, feeling devastated at the loss.

"I got it!" Alex exclaimed, rushing in holding the blood they needed hours prior. He stopped when he saw everyone stepping away from the body with blank looks on their faces.

Vienna sat in the empty lobby after the surgery, tracing the lid of her empty water bottle. "Why the long face?" Looking up she saw Bowie, holding two cups of coffee. "Here, I was hoping I'd catch you."

The woman smiled in thanks, taking a sip of the coffee as he sat down next to her. They sat in a peaceful silence for a few moments until Bowie broke it. "Would you like to go get a drink with me? Across the street at Emerald City?"

Choking on her coffee, Vienna croaked, "What?" Hitting her chest a few times she cleared her throat, "Sorry, what?"

"I said, would you like to go get a drink with me?"

"Is that appropriate?"

"It's just a drink."

"Just a drink," Vienna repeated.

Bowie nodded. "Just a drink."

♱ word count 4132