CHAPTER THREE.
winning a battle, losing the war

Vienna's first morning in her new place was anything but peaceful. The blonde's hair sprawled across her pillows as she stared up at the ceiling, the sound of her new housemates and listen to the sound of the rain hitting the window, Vienna groaned, throwing a pillow on top of her face as she heard a faint, "George's room is bigger than mine! I have more clothes, I should have the bigger room!"

George argued back, "I got here first! And I'm pretty sure Vienna's room is bigger! The only person who's been in there is her and Meredith!"

Hearing footsteps nearing her door, she was quick to yell out, "I swear to God, Isobel Stevens, if you so much as touch this door, I promise you will lose your fingers! Put your damn clothes somewhere else!" The footsteps then quickly retreated, going elsewhere.

Vienna threw the mound of blankets off of her body, throwing open her door. "Oh, paintings would be nice," The blonde ignored her two housemates, making her way into the bathroom to get ready. "Good morning, Vienna." George smiles, earning a half hearted wave in response.

"You have all this amazing stuff just packed away. In the back hall, I found this box with like a hundred tapes of your mother performing these amazing medical procedures."

George gasped, "Really? We should watch them! Meredith, do you want to watch ━━ " He was then cut off by Meredith joining Vienna in the bathroom, slamming the door shut in their faces after stealing Izzie's coffee.

His muffled voice then came through the door, "Meredith, do you want some privacy?"

Vienna grit her teeth as she gripped the sink, "George. Back away from the door or I swear I will steal a scalpel from the hospital and maim you." She watched through the mirror as Meredith sat on the floor, her back against the closed door as she sipped the coffee she stole. "I'll be done here soon, then it's all yours." She sighed.

♱

Now at the hospital, the interns all followed Bailey around as she mutters things to herself, "Fools on bikes killing themselves. Natural selection is what it is."

Alex looks confused and looked toward Vienna, "So what's up with the Nazi, is she off her meds?"

"Dude, you've never heard of the race?" She scoffed.

Bailey saw Webber and called out to him, "Chief! Dead baby bike race started twenty minutes ago."

"All right, people! Dead baby bike race day!"

"Every year this bar ━━ "

Meredith cuts George off, "The Dead Baby Bar."

He sighed, "Every year, they hold this underground bike race."

Izzie grimaced, "Don't you wonder why someone would name a bar something so disgusting?"

"Keep your panties on, Nancy Drew." Cristina said.

George stared blankly for a moment, "Anyway, the race is completely illegal, and ━━ " He tried to explain, only to be cut off by Vienna this time.

"Crazy, a bunch of bike messengers racing against traffic trying to beat each other for free shots of tequila."

Alex raised his eyebrows, "All-out, no-holds-barred competition, sounds like fun."

"Hell yeah it is," Vienna cheered as she slapped Alex's ass, causing the boy to spin around and glare at her, the woman raising her hands in defense.

"The race doesn't even have any rules. Except eye gouging ━━ no eye gouging."

Vienna sighed, "Ugh, I so wish there was eye gouging."

Bailey looked at her interns, "Okay people, the rules of trauma. Don't mingle with the ER interns, they don't know their ass from their esophagus. Sew fast, discharge fast, take bodies up to the OR yesterday. Don't let me catch you fighting over patients. Got it? Come on, let's go."

They all scattered to find patients, seeing injured bike riders everywhere. "Oh, it's like candy, but with blood, which is so much better." Cristina laughed.

"Oh my god. . ." Izzie trailed off.

Cristina noticed what she was staring at, "Mine!"

"I saw him first!"

Alex and Vienna were standing next to each other at a patient when he looked at her, "Heads he's mine, tails he's yours."

"Why do you get to be heads?"

"Because I have a head, and you are a tail," Alex replies while smirking.

"Excuse us," Vienna says with a fake smile to the patient and closes the curtain. "How can you possibly make everything dirty? Like is your brain only occupied by medicine and dirty thoughts?" Alex rolled his eyes before flipping the coin, which lands on tails. "Well, there are plenty of other cases."

"Yeah, so go get one. I was here first." Alex told her.

"As if. I won and I'm not going to be sewing idiots up all day while your stupid ass is up in the OR. This is a surgical case."

"It's superficial. I mean, it's cool, but it's superficial."

"How do you know those things didn't rupture his peritoneum?"

"Because he's sitting up, and he's sitting there talking to us!" Alex exclaimed as the patient pulled the curtain back open.

"Allo. Excuse me, I was wondering if you could take these out, and sew me up, so I can go and win my race?"

Vienna sighed, "Well, we can't just pull them out, I mean, we have to ━━ " She cut herself off, eyes widening as Alex did exactly that.

"Oh, wicked."

"Are you insane?" She scoffed at Alex.

"It's a superficial wound. Sew him up, and let him finish his race." Alex shrugged.

"My God, you are insane."

"Good man."

Since Vienna had no surgical cases after suturing a number of bike riders, she was rather bored. The woman was at a nurse's desk with George, updating charts when Alex walked over to the two. "What're you doing?"

"Hiding. There's this VIP patient, he likes me."

Alex wore a confused look on his face, "Well, that's good, right?"

"He likes me, likes me."

"Go for it, man, get yours. I'm down with the rainbow." Alex told him, "Oh. Are you not gay?"

"No."

Vienna shook her head, "I already told you, there's nothing wrong with it if you are."

"Really George? You're not gay?" Alex asked, causing Vienna to snort, which caused him to laugh, the two leaning on each other for balance, "Dude, sorry."

As Alex walked away, Izzie and Cristina walked up to the two next. "Do you ━━ do you think ━━ does Meredith think I'm gay?" George asked them.

"Are you?"

"No."

Cristina furrowed her eyebrows, "Really?"

Vienna burst out laughing, "That's what Alex said!"

George had a frustrated look on his face as a woman walked up to them. "I found this on a John Doe, it's a hotel key card," Izzie says to the woman, "I've called the police and they're going to send someone over, maybe they can figure out what hotel he's staying at, get his ID from there. Could you ━━ "

"I'll make sure the police get it."

"Okay. It's just, it's really important. We only have a few hours before we have to declare him and I'd really like to find his family."

"You want their permission for organ donation?" The woman asked, prompting Vienna and George to look up intrigued.

"I just ━━ really want to find them," Izzie said before leaving.

"You have a potential donor?" He asked as Cristina nodded, "What's his blood type?"

"Uh, O-neg," Cristina said as George pulls out a folder.

Vienna left him shortly after, her and Meredith walking to Izzie's patients' room when they hear alarms going off in a patient room by them. "Oh no. . ." Izzie looked into the hall briefly, seeing the two women. "Meredith! Vienna! He's crashing." Izzie cries.

"Well, what the hell are you doing? Call code!" Meredith said as they ran in.

"I can't, I'm not supposed to, he's brain dead."

Vienna scoffed, "What the hell, Izzie? If he's brain dead, you have to let him go."

"No. It's only been five hours and thirty-three minutes, he's supposed to get six hours." Izzie sighs.

Meredith looked at Vienna, who shook her head, "No way. Do not look at me."

She huffed, "Well, we can't do anything to make him live, it's not our place to make that call."

"No. . . He's a person, we're doctors, and we should have every right to make that call. We can't just stand here and do nothing while he dies. He has a right to the next twenty-seven minutes."

"Oh, my god, are we actually doing this?" Vienna looked to Meredith who nodded. "Jesus, fine. I'll get the dopamine, one of you get the blood, and we can transfuse him." She sighed, "Dude, we are so going to hell."

♱

After working on Izzie's patient, the female interns were stood in the stairwell as they talked about him, "He's stable."

"For now," Cristina said as she met them on the stairs. "I had a radiologist look at his chest, apparently he has a traumatic aortic injury. He's going to rupture and bleed out."

Izzie sighed, "So he needs surgery."

"If he's going to remain a viable organ donor, yeah," Cristina answered.

"If he's going to live."

"Izzie—" Vienna started.

"No! I'm not giving up on him. He has the surgery, he lives longer, that's the point. So I'm going to help find the family, you guys find a way to get him into surgery." Izzie said, already walking up the stairs.

Cristina looked at Vienna and Meredith, "She's the vice president of Fantasyland, I swear."

Meredith hummed in agreement, "So who do we go to, Bailey?"

Cristina shook her head, "No, we need to go higher than Bailey."

"Dude, now we're certainly going to hell." Vienna scoffed.

The three women walked to one of the men's bathrooms, and Vienna pushed the door open. "Dr. Burke?"

"Hello?" His voice echoed throughout the room.

Vienna grimaced and shook her head, closing the door. Cristina nudged her out of the way, "Dr. Burke, um, I know you're busy, but our John Doe needs an aortic repair."

"The guy from this morning? Isn't he legally dead?"

"Well, yeah, he's kinda still around? We gave him two units PRBCs and put him on pressers."

"On whose orders?"

Cristina closed the door, turning back to the women before Meredith opened it up again, "Mine."

Burke scoffed, "You gave a brain-dead John Doe a blood transfusion without consulting anyone. And now you want me to repair his heart."

"Yeah," Vienna said as if it was nothing.

"You interns do enjoy crossing the line, don't you?"

Vienna tried to defend their actions, "He is an excellent candidate for organ donation."

"I am a surgeon. I save lives. This guy is already dead. Now, this is the men's room. Either whip one out or close the door." He said, prompting Vienna to let go of the door, the women rushing away.

"Whip one out?" Vienna scoffed, "Seriously?"

♱

George looked up nervously, "What'd I do?" He questioned, seeing Vienna, Meredith, Izzie, and Cristina all stood in a line in front of him as he sat outside eating a sandwich.

"How close a match for the liver is your guy to our John Doe?" Meredith asked him.

George hummed, "Very. Same type, same size. UNOS couldn't find a better match, why?

"Okay, and he's the chief's VIP, correct?" Vienna asked him.

George nodded, and Cristina spoke up next, "How much would you kill to be in on a transplant surgery?"

"You underestimate me. I'm not a baby, I'm your colleague. You don't have to manipulate me, if you want something, all you have to do is ask."

"We want you to go over Burke's head to the chief," Izzie admitted bluntly.

George went quiet, "Ask me something easier." He said before walking off.

"I told you guys, we are so going to hell," Vienna muttered as the female interns watch George and Webber talk down the hall.

"Vee's right," Meredith agreed, "Burke is sending us straight to hell."

"On an express train," Cristina added.

"If it works."

Alex walked up to the four and questioned them, "What're you doing?"

"Nothing."

Alex followed their eyesight and saw them watching George and Webber. Burke walked past them, Webber stopping him and beginning to start talking to him.

Soon enough Webber is gone and Burke looked to George, who left immediately. His head then turned down the hall to look at the four girls plus Alex, causing them to scurry away. As they did, Alex stayed and watched as Burke turned to leave, he followed and called after him.

♱

Cristina scowled as Bailey's interns watched Alex assist in the OR with Burke. "I seriously hate that guy."

Meredith nodded, "Alex is vermin. That surgery is ours."

Vienna crossed her arms, "I'm going to hurt him."

Izzie shook her head, "At least Burke is doing the surgery. I don't care about Alex. George? You did well."

George sighed, "I'm going to have to dodge Burke for the rest of my career. He could kill me and make it look like an accident."

"Yeah." Vienna chuckled, picturing that in her head, "That'd be funny."

"The police called. They've identified your John Doe, his wife is on the way." A nurse informed them.

After the surgery, Izzie and Vienna were in a room when Derek stepped in with a young woman behind them. "Oh, my god. Kevin. . ." The woman said, entering the room where Izzie and Vienna are watching the Jane Doe.

Derek starts to speak, "It's okay to ━━ "

"Oh, my god."

"This is Dr. Stevens and Dr. Clark." Derek looked at the woman, "If you have any questions, please, please call me."

"Is there still a chance?" The woman asked the two female interns after Derek left.

"We can hold off till morning, but if there's still no change," Izzie paused, sharing a look with Vienna, "We'd— We'd like to talk to you about organ donation."

♱

"I'm telling you, she will not like this." Vienna tried, only to be ignored.

The woman was standing behind the couch with her hands on her hips, watching as Izzie and George went through Meredith's boxes. "Ooh, this one is skin grafting!" Izzie says excitedly. None of them notice Meredith walk in except for Vienna, who gives her a small wave.

George gasped, "Skin grafting? No way! I've never seen that done before.

"Are those my mother's surgical tapes?"

"I told you," Vienna said in a sing-songy voice.

"We should watch the skin grafting one first," George says.

Meredith scowled, "Where did all this stuff come from?"

Izzie shrugged, "Oh, I unpacked some of your mother's things. I was upset, and when I'm upset I like to nest."

Meredith stared at the two and then began taking pictures down. "Ooh! Hemipelvectomy." Izzie exclaims.

George showed Izzie a tape, "I think we should watch this one first."

Meredith shook her head, "No. No. We're not watching my mother's surgery tapes, we're not unpacking boxes, and we're not having long conversations where we celebrate the moments of our lives. And use a coaster!" She grits out at the two before storming up to her room.

"I ordered Chinese food," George calls out to her.

"I hate Chinese food!"

"Well, wasn't that lovely?" Vienna smiled sarcastically, before retreating upstairs to her room.

♱

"They're everywhere. All the time." Meredith ranted as she, Vienna, and Cristina walked into the hospital, "Izzie's all perky, and George does this thing where he's helpful and considerate, they share food and they say things and they move things, and they breathe." She sighs, "They're like happy."

Vienna pointed at her, "Seriously! Like how do they have so many things to be happy about?"

"Kick them out."

"I can't kick them out. They just moved in. I asked them to move in."

Vienna sighed, "Maybe I should go back to living on my friend's couch."

"So what, you're just going to repress everything into some deep dark twisted place until one day you snap and kill them?"

"Yup." Meredith nodded.

"Oh, please let me know when, 'cause I want in! Izzie took one of my good tops and thought I wouldn't notice. It's like a size too small on her."

"This is why we are friends." Cristina grinned.

Alex comes up behind them as they enter the hospital, "Why is the Nazi making us stay in the pit two days in a row?"

"Leftovers."

"Leftovers?"

Vienna nodes, "The cyclists who were too drunk, too stupid, or too scared to get themselves to a hospital yesterday."

"Meanwhile, she gets to do a freakin' organ harvest," Alex scoffed.

Cristina laughed, "Oh, that kills you, doesn't it?"

"What?"

"That two women got the harvest."

"No, it kills me that anyone got the harvest but me. Boobs do not factor into this equation. Unless you want to show me yours."

"I'm going to become a lesbian."

"Me too."

Vienna smiled, "I'm half way there already."

"Sweet. Girl on Girl," Alex said, prompting Vienna to scrunch her face up in disgust.

"Gross."

♱

"I've never liked harvesting," Burke said as they prepared the patient for the organ harvest.

"Why?" Cristina asked.

"Like I said, I'm a surgeon. I save lives. This ends one."

Izzie looks at him, "I know you tried, so no hard feelings, okay?" Vienna's eyebrows shoot to her hairline as she, Burke, and Cristina stare at her.  "I was just ━━ "

"You were saying goodbye."

Vienna reached over and grabs an extra mask, passing it to Izzie. "I'm not going to stay." She tells the other two women as they scrub in.

"It's your job, you have to." The shorter blonde tells her.

Izzie shook her head, "You guys are much better at this part than me. I don't want to watch him get taken apart. Look at the vultures, waiting to pick him clean." She says, referring to the other doctors.

"Every last one of them represents someone, somewhere, who's going to live because of Kevin," Cristina told her.

Vienna handed the mask to her again, "Put it on."

"Okay doctors, let's get this over with," Burke says as he entered the scrub room, putting his mask on and washing his hands.

Once all of the organs are out, they each get placed into plastic bags and then into sealed containers. The liver gets placed on ice, which George takes away. The patient then flatlined, and Burke removes his heart.

Each doctor in the OR packed up their organs and left, Vienna and Cristina moving to do the same when the latter turns briefly to see Izzie still by the body. "Izzie?"

"I'm going to sew him up. For his family."

The three women closed him up together before walking out to talk to his family. "You do it," Cristina tells Izzie.

"What?"

"Go talk to them," Vienna nodded.

After their shift the interns went back to Meredith's, where George and Izzie put on surgical tapes that belonged to Meredith's mother. "Okay, this is the best part, watch, this is where she pulls a flap of skin down over the face."

Their conversation was cut off by the sound of the door opening, the interns turning around to see Meredith standing by the door. "We were just ━━ " George started.

"Hi."

" ━━ Cristina made us." He blurted, earning a glare from the woman.

"What are we watching?" Meredith asked as she sat down with them, taking some popcorn. "Oh, this is the one where my mother ━━ "

" ━━ Literally pulls this guy's face off!" Izzie finished for her.

They watch for a few seconds and then at the same time, they all grimace and groan in disgust. "Holy crap!" Cristina yelled as she waved her pizza at the screen.

As the night grew quiet, Vienna looked around at the people surrounding her. George looked over to her and gave her a warm smile, holding a beer out to her. Vienna smiled back, accepting the beer before she pulled her legs up to her chest, realizing that these people are the ones she's decided she wants to keep around for a lifetime.

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