CHAPTER SIX.
the self destruct button

"I thought it was just a drink?" Vienna asked as she laid in Bowie's bed on her side, head propped up by her hand.

The shirtless male smirked, placing his arms behind his head, "So, maybe it was more than a drink."

The woman laughed, looking over at the alarm clock on his nightstand. Reluctantly she removed the blankets from herself, picking up her discarded clothes from the night before off of the floor.

Bowie pointed in the direction of the bathroom will a small smile, heat rushing to the girl's face as she made her way inside. Vienna stared at her reflection, shaking her head at her messy hair and the thought of having to wear yesterday's clothes.

At the hospital, Bailey's interns minus Vienna and Alex got out of Meredith's car, and noticed Cristina getting off her motorcycle. Some of their eyes widened in surprise.

"Yikes, wouldn't want to meet you in a dark alley." Meredith joked.

"Right back at ya." Cristina retorted as Alex cane over to the group in running clothes.

"A run? You run?" Izzie said in disbelief as she shared a look with George.

"Every day, babe, every day." He winked at her.

"Not suffering enough?" Meredith questioned.

"What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger." He smirked.

George noticed a silver charger sitting in the same spot it had been yesterday, and turned to his friends with furrowed eyebrows. "Isn't that Vienna's car?"

They all looked over and shrugged. "Yeah, so? She probably just left before us. Her car was gone this morning."

"I don't think she came home last night though," George pondered.

"Dude, who cares." Alex scoffed. "She probably got laid or something."

Vienna came into the locker room a few minutes later than usual, causing herself as her friends were still in there getting ready for their day. The woman acted as if nothing happened, silently making her way to her locker and taking off her jacket.

"Hey, where were you last night?" Izzie asked Vienna.

The blonde's hands froze, "A friend's house."

"Who?"

"No one you know," Vienna answered quickly, glancing at Meredith and Cristina who stared at her and with raised eyebrows.

Izzie bodded, "Okay. . . Just asking, because you left your car in the parking lot yesterday."

"Yeah. . . Got a ride." Vienna forced a smile.

"I'm gonna need a major rush to make it through this day. I need a kick-ass surgery." George sighed, unintentionally changing the subject.

"Ooh, you a bad boy last night, George?" Alex teased.

"That would be Meredith." Izzie said, throwing her under the bus with a slight attitude.

"Do tell." Cristina and Vienna looked at her in interest.

"Nothing to tell," Meredith shrugged.

Cristina snickers, "That says it all, huh?"

"Sorry, people have sex lives." Meredith scoffed as Izzie slammed her locker shut.

"Don't apologize. Embrace it. Share it. Count me in." Alex says.

"Yeah, next time, just let me know if I need to go to a hotel so I can get some sleep." Izzie sent Meredith a sarcastic smile.

"Am I missing something?" Meredith sighed loudly, becoming fed up with the blonde's attitude.

Vienna's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Am I missing something?"

"You were just a little loud," George said in an attempt to ease the tension before following the group out.

"Do they know it's McDreamy keeping them up all night?" Cristina wondered before turning to the two women.

"Oh, you slept with Derek again."

"I already have Bailey riding me, I don't need my roommates thinking I'm getting special treatment." Meredith shook her head.

"O'Malley, Yang, Karev, go on to the clinic," Bailey ordered the interns as Meredith let out a loud yawn. "O'Malley, patients are waiting." Bailey said sternly. "You three come with me. Good morning, Dr. Shepherd." She greets.

"Dr. Bailey." He greeted, "Late night, Grey?"

Meredith shook her head. "No, caffeine just hasn't kicked in yet."

Derek caught Vienna's eye and smiled at the girl pretending to vomit after hearing his comment.

"If you're at all religious, you would want to start praying it kicks in soon. There's a consult in the pit. Girl with a fever and abdominal pain. After that, Nicholas in 3311 needs his meds. Mr. Moeller's IV fell out, and he's a hard stick. Postops in 1337, 3342, 3363, and 2381." Bailey informed Meredith.

"2381. 3342, 3363, and 23. . . " Meredith whispered to herself as she turned to leave.

"You look more like me than you right now. What's the matter?" Bailey asked Izzie.

Izzie hesitated, looking at Vienna who stared back at her with folded arms. "Nothing." She sighed.

"Help! I need immediate help." A woman yelled, the three women rushing over.

"What's the problem?"

"My damn boyfriend swallowed my keys."

"I didn't want her to leave." The male said, throat clearly obscured.

Bailey looked at Vienna and Izzie, "Locate the lady's keys."

The two women took him to get a scan, and now they were with Bailey as they looked at his films. "I assume the lady needs her keys to leave this guy's sorry ass behind."

"Yeah."

"Well, help her out."

Bailey starts down the hallway, the two interns following after her.

"He needs a bronchoscopy." Izzie said.

"See one, do one, teach one." Bailey said simply.

Izzie's eyebrows furrowed, "I haven't seen one."

"Vienna has. See one, do one, teach one."

Vienna turned to Izzie with a smug smile as Bailey walked away, the blonde huffing annoyed. The two were on their way back to their patient's room when they ran into George.

"Hey, hey, hey. Have you seen Shepherd?"

"No ━━ "

"Not as up close as Meredith has." Izzie snarked.

Vienna groaned, "Are you still on that?"

"Are you trying to get her in trouble? She's our friend." George told her.

"Yes, Vienna, I'm still on that. This program will make or break our careers. Some of us will make it through, and some of us won't. And that decision depends entirely on recommendations from doctors like Shepherd. There is a reason we don't sleep with the attendings."

"It's not her fault, ok. It's Shepherd's." George shrugged. "He's the attending, he should know better. He's taking advantage of her."

Vienna glared at him, "Watch it, George."

"It didn't exactly sound like anything was happening against her will last night." Izzie mumbled, Vienna turning to glare at her next as George walked away.

Now preparing JP for his procedure, Vienna pulled her gloves on as she talked him through it, Izzie sitting on a stool in the corner of the room as she watched on from a distance. "It'll be safer to wait until your lunch digests before we do the procedure."

"Perfect, this is just perfect. I was hoping to be in Portland right now."

"You're gonna be under conscious sedation JP, which means you'll be awake, but groggy."

"Wait, wait. Is this gonna hurt?"

"You'll have some discomfort but we'll give you something for the pain." Vienna told him.

"Do you know how stupid you make me look?" JP's girlfriend scoffed.

"I thought you would think this is funny."

"Funny?"

"Romantic?"

"Like the therapist thing was funny and romantic?"

"That was funny."

"No, that was sad. He called my therapist pretending to be his therapist, to find out what I'd said about him."

"That's a little weird, don't you think, JP?"

"A little? He is the king of passive-aggressive. And he's manipulative. . . and needy."

"Well, that's the trifecta."

"What do I win?" He asked, Vienna simply staring at him with a dull look on her face. "What?"

While the two interns left JP to digest his food, they made their way up a set of stairs, finding Cristina and George talking with each other.

"When are you gonna figure out that I know everything?"

George looked at the two, "She knows."

"What, about doctor-cest?"

Vienna snorted, "Is that what you guys are calling it?"

"It's been going on for, like ever."

"Seriously?"

"And you didn't tell us?"

Cristina laughed at George, "Ooh, you're a gossip, huh?"

"I am not!"

"I am." Izzie said.

"Yeah, we know." Vienna rolled her eyes.

"He's about to go into major brain surgery on no sleep?" George asked rhetorically as they walked toward the hospital's coffee shop. "Not very responsible."

"Jealous much? Sex all night isn't about being responsible."

"No, it's about sex all night. I can't believe you're not more pissed off about this, you of all people."

"Well, she works hard all day. She's good at her job. Why should you care how she unwinds? I mean, you like to bake all night. Some people like to drink. Others like an occasional screaming orgasm."

"Yeah, we do." Alex agreed as he walked up to them, all four interns turning to stare at him in disgust. "Forget I said that. Pretend like I'm not here. Continue. You look like you need to be spoon-fed." He told Cristina.

"You look like Alex."

"Yeah, about drinking, Dr. Taylor, the anesthesiologist. . . " He nodded over to the male, "Do you think he drinks?"

Vienna furrowed her eyebrows, "Dude, who doesn't?"

"I said, whatever gets you through the day."

"I mean here, at work." George clarified. "Earlier, I thought I smelled. . . Do you think ━━ I mean, his patients trust that ━━ So I should say something, right?"

"It's a can of worms, George. Weren't we talking about sex, anyway?"

"Ew."

♱

Vienna was now removing the keys from JP's throat, Izzie stood a little bit behind her as the girlfriend ranted relentlessly to JP.

"Do you really, seriously want to know why I'm leaving?! Seriously? How about when you started insisting that I quit my job, right when I started to make more money than you? That should have been the last straw. No, no. The last straw should have been when I found out that those mysterious phone calls that you've been getting that you kept denying were from other women were really coming from your mother. This isn't healthy."

"JP, hold still, please."

"Don't you dare try to patch this up!"

Vienna groaned, not taking her eyes off of the field. "Could the both of you please stop?"

"You don't love me, JP. You love to smother me. And if I could just get you to admit that, then I could leave you with an ounce of respect."

Vienna briefly looked over to Izzie, "Can you do something?"

The blonde looked at JP's girlfriend, "Athena, we let you stay in here to keep him calm. So, if you're just gonna keep ━━ "

Athena interrupted her, "Check that. I can't respect a man desperate enough to swallow my exit strategy. That is the last straw!"

"Michelle, can you get her out of here?"

As the nurse began to move her out, JP began choking, Vienna attempting to calm him down. Athena made her way back over to them, "What? What's happening?"

"The keys moved farther down." Vienna sighed, looking at the camera.

"Oh, my God, what does that mean?" Athena asked frantically as she leaned down toward JP. "What did you do? Don't you dare die, JP!"

"Quiet, please!" Vienna attempted.

Athena's voice became softer, "Breathe, JP. Just breathe."

"Got it." Vienna grinned as she caught they keys on the cord down JP's throat, lifting them out. "Very impressive, JP."

"Is he ok? Is he gonna be ok?"

"Yeah, he'll be fine."

JP smiled and laughed as he looked up at Athena, "You lit ━━ you did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"Can I offer you some advice?" Izzie asked, "Get in your car and go, for all of our sakes."

"You never gonna find where I parked it." JP said cheekily, Athena grabbing the keys and leaving.

♱

Vienna, Izzie, and Cristina were lounging in the intern lcoekr room talking with each other when Meredith ran in, the whole room beginning to smell instantly.

Izzie gagged. "Ew, what smells?"

"That would be me, or more specifically, my patient's insides all over me. A bowel busted." Meredith stated as Vienna covered her nose with a shirt.

Izzie smiled, "That makes me strangely happy."

Cristina pinches her nose. "Oh, God. Oh, Mer, you smell like ━━ "

"Karma," Izzie said again.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Cristina leaned over and blew air onto her head. "Something vile is stuck in your hair. You know, just go stand over there, please."

"I am not loving this whole surgeon thing right now." Meredith frowned as she tried to find spare clothing in her locker.

"Karma," Izzie whispered.

"What does karma have to do with anything?" Meredith scoffed, sick and tired of the blonde's snarky attitude.

"I'm just saying, you've been given all the best surgeries. And now you smells like putrid goo. And you're giving off a stench. Karma's a bitch." Izzie snickered.

Vienna groaned, "Give it a rest, Izzie."

Just then, Bailey entered the locker room and looked at the three interns with raised brows before rolling her eyes. "Dr. Shepherd needs an intern in surgery. Which one of you is clear?"

Cristina shot up from her sitting position. "I'm good, Dr. Bailey, where do you want me?"

Their resident eyed her, "You need to lie down somewhere."

"I'm fine, I'm completely healthy." She pushed.

"Grey?" Bailey calls, completely ignoring the girl.

"Of course." Izzie throws her hands up in frustration.

"What is your problem?"

"Um, you! Cause apparently you can help Dr. McDreamy in ways the rest of us can't." Izzie shouted.

"You did not just say ━━ " Meredith started only to be interrupted by Izzie.

"Yes, I did!"

"Hey!" Bailey yelled at them before turning toward Cristina. "Hemispherectomy in OR 1 with Dr. Shepherd. Go." Cristina and Izzie both leave the room, one of the two wearing a bright smile.

Vienna scoffed looking at Meredith, "I should've decked that ━━" She paused, catching the look Bailey was giving her.

♱ word count 2326

a/n

i needed to get this chapter out
so it's kind of short