chapter eleven ━ girl's night
( season six, episode eighteen )

❝Why not just go on a hike? Why do
something so drastic? You could climb
Everest.❞

ELLIE WALKED OUT to the ambulance bay with Alex. "How long?"

"Two minutes."

"It's Nicole, right?" Jackson asked with a smile. Ellie crinkled her nose in disgust just as Mark walked up, not noticing his sister.

"Three guys waiting on an ambulance?" Mark asked, looking at the group of residents. "Must be Nicole behind the wheel." Ellie cleared her throat and crossed her arms making Mark's eyes go wide.

"Have you seen her ass?" Charles asked the group. "Man, I'd love to hit that."

"You all are disgusting," Ellie told them just as Richard walked up to them. "Good morning, Dr. Webber."

Charles' smile fell instantly. "Sorry about that, chief. I—"

"That's quite alright," Richard waved it off. "And, um, I'm not the chief." The ambulance pulled up and Nicole got out of the vehicle.

"Hey, Nicole," Ellie smiled in greeting.

"Hi, Ellie." She opened the back. "Nick Kelsey, 32, injured skiing off a helicopter. Vital signs are stable."

Ellie slapped the back of Charles's head as his eyes wandered to Nicole. He grimaced in pain before they focused back on the patient. "It wasn't the helicopter that did it. It was the avalanche."

"Idiotic either way," Nicole said, shaking her head. "He's got two idiot friends coming in behind him, but he's got the worst of it - open fracture to the left tibia and left hip fracture." Nicole went to get something from the ambulance and Charles stared at her again when she noticed him. "What are you looking at, chachi?"

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Ignore them. Please. Are we still on for drinks tonight, Nicole?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you when my shift is done."

Ellie smiled before following the gurney into the trauma room. Jackson frowned at her. "You're getting drinks with her?"

"Of course I am," she said. "She's my friend. Besides, she said there's someone she wants me to meet. April and Reed are coming, too."

"Reed?" Charles asked and Ellie rolled her eyes.

"You, Charlie, need to pluck up the courage and ask her out," she told him. "Stop living in fear."

"What if she says no?" he asked.

Ellie patted him on the shoulder with a shrug. "You won't know until you try. Good luck." She moved beside her brother, helping him with the frostbitten fingers. Callie joined them to work on the bones.

"I need to reduce this ankle dislocation. Give him 10 of morphine."

"Ellie and I need to treat his frostbite," Mark said. "Nick, you like the tips of your fingers?"

"Yes, please."

"You jumped out of a helicopter on skis?" Jackson asked Nick.

He nodded. "Yeah. You can't get powder like that anywhere else."

"I'm seeing fluid around your kidney," Richard told him. "We're gonna need to do a CT of your abdomen."

"Do what you gotta do. Me and the guys are running with the bulls in Pamplona next year. Gotta be up on my feet." He saw one of his friends being wheeled by. "Hey, Phil! Tell those doctors they need to fix you up so you can run with the bulls next year."

"Why not just go on a hike?" Ellie suggested with a shrug. "Why do something so drastic? You could climb Everest."

"Okay, just because you did that doesn't mean everyone needs to do that," Jackson told her with a smile.

"You climbed Everest?" Mark asked his sister. "Uh, when was this?"

"Day after I graduated college," she replied, not looking up from her work.

"Why?"

"Why not?" Ellie said with a shrug. "And I would do it again, even though I don't have the time for that."

"Hmm." Richard nodded. "Better watch out, Sloan, or your sister is going to replace you for favorite Sloan."

Ellie smiled at the attending. "I beat him the moment I was born."

☀️

ELLIE AND MARK continue working on their daredevils, working on the frostbites. Their unharmed friend stood beside them. "Did you call Lani?"

"Um..." Callie wet the bone sticking out and looked at the group. "You should call your wife."

"She'll freak," Phil said, shaking his head. "Tommy, call when I go in. Downplay it. It's a broken leg."

"A little frostbite on your fingers, but nothing terrible," Mark tells him as Ellie lowered his hand into a bucket. "You're about to..."

"Aah!"

"Um, scream really loud," Mark finished, pursing his lips.

Phil panted. "That was worse than when I broke my ankle on Kilimanjaro."

"You guys climbed Kilimanjaro?"

Tommy nodded. "Couple of years ago. I made it to the summit while these guys got altitude sickness half a mile from the top."

Callie laughed. "Man. You guys are hard-core."

"We gotta be," Nick told them. "I sell insurance. Phil and Tommy are accountants." Nick grimaced as Callie continued to wet his bone. "Ah! These trips are all we got to keep our blood moving."

"Hey," Phil said to Tommy. "Show 'em the pictures of you on top of Kili with the rubber chicken."

Ellie and Callie chuckled and Mark frowned at the picture. "That doesn't look like you on a mountain."

Tommy looked at it. "Oh, sorry. That's my daughter Hannah. Ladybug for Halloween." Mark took the phone and showed Callie the picture.

"You telling me you don't want one of those?" Callie looked at it and smiled.

☀️

ELLIE JOINED CALLIE while Nick was in surgery. They go out to find Tommy in the waiting room. "They're working on Nick's kidney. Uh, we were able to stabilize his legs, but it's gonna be a long recovery process. You may need to let his wife know it's a little bit more than a broken leg."

He nodded. "Yeah, I told my wife, and she's calling Lani. My wife can handle her better."

Callie chuckled. "So you—you summited Kili, you run with the bulls, but you're—you're scared of your friend's wife."

He shrugged and sat down. "I was scared on Kili. I hated every minute of it."

"So why are you doing it?" Ellie asked, tilting her head.

"Nick and Phil," he replied. "They're my boys. And they love adventure. Me? I got a kid... and bad knees. But I can't ruin it. We're a team, you know?"

"So you just suck it up, huh?" Callie asked, furrowing her brows.

"Close my eyes and hope I don't die."

The two of them left the room and Ellie sat down beside Callie. "Please don't be upset that I know, but Mark told me what Arizona told you."

"Did he?"

She nodded. "I'm not good at giving advice when it comes to kids, and I know how much you want kids, but I also admire Arizona for knowing she doesn't want kids."

"Admire her?" Callie repeated in confusion.

Ellie nodded with a shrug. "Yeah. Mark and I didn't grow up with great parents. I was raised by Mark's best friend's mom. And Mark. Because we had parents who didn't want kids. I couldn't tell you why they had us, but it made for a crappy childhood. And it made them not be the kind of parents they perhaps could have been. I always wondered... if they wanted kids, would our life have turned out differently? That's all. I admire that Arizona knows that she doesn't want kids because it saves everyone from a lot of pain in the future. Have a good night, Dr. Torres."

She stood up when Callie called out to her. "Do you think she can ever change her mind?"

Ellie turned around and shrugged. "The only person who has that answer is Arizona. But you should talk to her. You won't get any answers until you talk to her. I hope it goes well for you."

"Thank you."

She smiled softly and walked into the resident's lounge, finding April and Reed. "You two ready to go?"

"Yeah."

Jackson walked up to the trio. "Do you guys want to come back to our place? We can order pizza."

"We would, but we have drinks with Nicole tonight," Ellie replied. "Maybe another night, Jackie."

☀️

THE GIRLS UNLOCKED the door of their apartment only to see the lights on. Ellie looked at her friends. "Did one of you forget to turn off the light?"

"No..."

Ellie walked into the living room and saw no one there. Suddenly, Jackson and Charles appeared beside them. "Oh, good, you're home," Charles said making the girls jump.

Ellie punched him in the shoulder by reflex. "What the hell?!"

"Ow." Charles held his shoulder with a pout. "You have a hard punch."

"I grew up with Mark and Derek," Ellie replied, setting her keys on the side table. "They taught me how to properly punch when I was ten. Said I would need it for 'self-defense'." Ellie sat down on the couch. "What are you two doing here?"

"And how did you get in?" April asked, sitting beside Ellie.

"How was your night?" Jackson asked making Ellie roll her eyes.

"It was great," she replied. "Nicole's boyfriend told us when she went to the bathroom that he's going to propose soon. So that's exciting."

"Boyfriend?" Charles repeated.

Ellie tilted her head and clicked her tongue. "Did we forget to mention that? She's been with him for... what was it?"

"Three years."

Ellie nodded, snapping her fingers. "Right." She smiled. "Sorry, boys, she's taken." She stood up. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed, so you can leave. Have a good night, boys."

"Now when you say taken, you mean we'll never have a shot?"

Ellie shook her head at Charles and ushered the two out of the apartment. "We'll see you two lunatics tomorrow. Go to bed. Goodbye."

She closed the door behind them and sighed. "Boys."