chapter nineteen ━ ortho
( season seven, episode four )

❝Okay, stop hitting each
other. It's annoying.❞

"SO, HOW'S THE first day going? Any crazy kids?"

Andy chuckled. "Not too bad yet. However, that might just be because it's eight in the morning. Give them a few hours. Are you busy tonight?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Ellie replied with a smile. "Why? What did you have in mind?"

"Just wanted to know if you wanted to get some ice cream with me after work. It's my first day of school tradition."

"You're sharing your tradition with me?" she asked and Andy hummed in response. "That's so cute. Ice cream sounds perfect. I'll talk to you later. Good luck with the chaotic kids later today."

Jackson looked up as Ellie hung up her phone while walking into the locker room with a smile on her face. "Hey."

"Hi." She put her bag in her cubby and started braiding her blonde hair. "We haven't talked in a bit. How are you?"

"I'm good," he replied, putting on his coat. "You seem perky. What's going on with you?"

"Just in a good mood," she said with a shrug. "Is it a crime to be happy?"

He shook his head. "No, of course not. You just seem extra happier than usual."

"I have an ice cream date tonight."

"Another one?" he asked. "That's, what, the third date this week?" She nodded with a smile. "Wow, that—that's great."

Ellie furrowed her brow and was about to reply when Richard walked in, handing out scrubs to the residents. "I have great faith in you... I can because I chose you. The training wheels are coming off, people."

Meredith looked up. "Navy scrubs?"

"Attending scrubs," Richard confirmed. "You are attendings today. Run the cases, take point, but don't be a fool. If you get in over your head, cry uncle. Until then... congratulations. You've just been promoted."

☀️

ELLIE TOOK A chart and started to look through it when Jackson and April joined her, bumping into each other.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Teddy asked Richard with a doubtful expression on her face.

"Of course it is," he said, nodding. "We all did it. It's the evolution of the craft, the passing of the torch, the lifeblood of the training process."

Ellie stumbled against the desk when April ran into her. "Okay, stop hitting each other," she said, rolling her eyes. "It's annoying."

Richard sighed at the sight. "Pray, people. We want God in the building today."

"Who's taking over my service?" Callie asked and Ellie turned, raising her hand.

"I am."

Callie smiled. "Oh, well then good. I have the good one, so this is gonna go well. Come on, Sloan. I wanna see what you're made of."

A short time later, Ellie was standing next to the patient's bed. "Meg Whealon, age twenty-eight, tibial plateau fracture caused by a bicycle accident. Your fracture was fixed with elevation and percutaneous screw fixture. Now, are there any questions that either of you have that I can answer right away?"

"Yeah, um..."

"She's good," Lexie whispered to Callie from the doorway.

The ortho attending watched the resident and nodded with a smile. "Yeah she is. I have an ortho goddess."

Ellie closed the chart and walked back to the other two. She stopped next to Lexie. "Can you check on her pain every so often and page me if anything changes?"

"Absolutely."

Ellie smiled and walked over to the nurse's station, filling out the chart as she went. Callie followed. "So, Sloan, have you thought much about what specialty you want to do?"

She looked up and nodded. "Yeah, actually. I've been meaning to talk to you about that. I'm considering Peds and Ortho."

"Ortho? Really?" Ellie nodded. "Because if you're serious about that, I'll put you on my service more. I have lots of wisdom to pass on if you're interested."

Ellie's face lit up. "Really? Yes, I'm very serious."

Callie smiled happily. "Then welcome to being an ortho goddess."

☀️

ELLIE SAT IN the lab with Jackson, Meredith, and Cristina. Jackson and Meredith were working on writing their names on eggs without breaking the yolk while Cristina talked to her best friend about Teddy.

"How's your day going?" Ellie asked Jackson, watching him struggle to write his name on the egg.

"I keep breaking eggs," he replied in frustration. "You?"

"Callie told me she'll turn me into an ortho goddess," she said with a smile. "I don't entirely know what that means, but I'm gonna be on her service more. Now, I just need to talk to Robbins, and I'm good."

Jackson scoffed. "Please, everyone loves you. I swear, you have them all wrapped around your finger."

"Not all," she contradicted. "Just Derek and Mark."

"Oh, damn it." Ellie looked over and saw yet another broken egg. He tried again and groaned. "Damn it!" Lexie burst in and Jackson looked up. "Grey! You broke my concentration!"

"Sorry." She walked over to her sister. "Um, he, uh, post-ops look good, so if there's nothing else..."

"Oh, could you discharge 12-24?" Meredith asked. "And his chart needs to be dictated."

Lexie looked down at her clipboard. "Uh... yes." She nodded. "It's gonna have to wait until after I check on Ellie's knee girl, turf the window jumper to psych, remove a June bug from some kid's ear in the pit, write some meds for screaming-kidney-stones guy, and then deliver labs to my goiter lady."

Ellie smiled. "Go off, Lex."

"I was born for this kind of day," she said, walking away and viciously clicking her pen at Jackson. Ellie chuckled softly while Jackson looked at her in annoyance.

She sighed. "Hey, cheer up. Here." She took his hand in hers and started to guide the instrument. "You just need a getter touch is all. You want to be forceful enough that you can break through the shell, but soft enough that you wont break the membrane. Try."

Jackson let out a breath and took the instrument from her. He started to write and halfway through, the egg broke. "Damn it."

Ellie laid a hand on his shoulder. "Okay. See? You're getting there. Let's take a break. Get some lunch. Your tools will be here when you get back." He let out a sigh before nodding and following her to the cafeteria. "You seem tense, Jacks. What's going on?"

He shrugged. "I feel like no one takes me seriously," he admitted and she knitted her brows together. "Or that they don't trust me."

"What makes you say that?"

"Ellie, think about it. Whenever there's a situation and they need a resident, you're the first person they page." She sighed. "Patient care, kids, bones, it's all you. Yang has cardio. Grey has neuro. Karev has peds. I just... I don't know what to do."

"Hey, look at me." She grabbed his face and forced him to look her in the eye. "You do belong. And they will take you seriously. You just need to prove yourself to them. Might I suggest plastics?"

"With your brother?" he asked in a doubtful tone. "I don't know, Ellie... I don't think he likes me."

Ellie frowned. "What makes you think that?"

"I don't think he's once said anything nice about me," he said before pausing. "Or any resident for that matter. Except you, of course."

She sighed. "That's just how he is. It's annoying, but it's how he is. Prove to him that you can work in plastics."

"But plastics?"

"Hey! What's wrong with plastics?" She snorted and chuckled. "I sound like Mark. I really don't care that much. Find your passion, Jackson. Hey, that rhymed." Jackson smiled in amusement when Ellie's phone began to ring and she looked down at the caller ID; Andy ♥️. "Sorry..." she said, glancing up at Jackson. "I should take this."

He nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. I'm gonna head back."

"Okay." She smiled at him before answering the phone and bringing it up to her ear. "Hi, there."

Jackson watched her go with a sigh when April walked up to him. "You're staring."

He jumped at her sudden appearance. "What?"

"At Ellie," she said, pointing at the retreating blonde. "You're staring at Ellie."

He shook his head. "No, I'm not. You're imagining things, April. Besides, she has a boyfriend and seems to be in a good relationship. She deserves that. She deserves so much, and if that guy can give it to her, who am I to stand in the way?"

"But you love her."

Jackson looked at her and sighed. "She's my best friend, Apes. I will always love her. But she doesn't feel the same."

"How do you know?" April asked.

"Just drop it, April," he said. "She's in a relationship. She's happy. I'm not going to ruin that for her." He left the cafeteria and April watched him go with a sigh.

Meanwhile, Ellie was walking down the hall, munching on a granola bar. "What made you call?" she asked Andy.

"I'm on my lunch break and I missed hearing your voice."

"You heard it this morning," she said with a chuckle. "How are the kids now? Driving you crazy?"

"Yes. But I love it. How are you? It's what I thrive off of."

"Our chief put the residents in charge of patients, so I'm doing ortho," she replied, throwing away her granola bar wrapper. "Not much has happened yet." She looked down when she heard her patient go off. "And I spoke too soon. Sorry, gotta go. See you tonight at seven?"

"Tonight at seven," Andy confirmed.

Ellie hurried into Meg's room. "Hey. Dr. Grey paged me. Is everything okay?"

"Something's wrong," her boyfriend replied while Ellie looked at the woman. "First she had a headache, and then—"

"I can't see," Meg finished and Ellie took out her flash light. "Everything is blurry."

Ellie nodded. "Okay, look right here." She shined a light in her eye.

"I'm freaking out," her boyfriend. "Dr. Sloan, tell me I don't need to be freaking out."

"The whole left side of my body feels weird," Meg told Ellie. "I thought it was because I fell asleep on it, but it's tingling."

"Okay." Ellie took hold of Meg's hands. "Okay, squeeze my hands for me."

"She had knee surgery," her boyfriend said. "What the hell is going on?"

Ellie let out a breath. "I'm not sure yet, but we're going to order a CT," she replied calmly. "And then I'm going to page our head of neurosurgery for a consult. We will find out what's wrong, okay?"

The boyfriend nodded and Ellie asked a nurse to page Derek. After several minutes, she still had not gotten a response so she tried again. When she still had not heard back from him, she had a nurse dial the number to his OR and she brought the receiver up to her ear.

"Ellie?"

"Derek, where the hell are you?" she asked in frustration. "I need a consult and you haven't been answering my pages."

"Slow down, slow down." She let out a breath. "I'm in surgery with Meredith. So just talk to me. What's going on?"

"Okay, uh, she's post-op day two from a tibial fracture repair. She's been fine all day until about ten minutes ago when she was complaining about blurriness and headaches. I ordered a head CT."

"Okay and what does the CT say?"

Ellie looked at the scans that the nurse held up for her. "Um... she has a brain bleed. Derek!"

"Calm down, you're okay, Ellie. You're going to need to book an OR and as soon as we're done with this surgery, I'll be there. But, Ellie... you're on your own for this."

She hung up the phone and let out a breath before looking at a nurse. "Okay, can you please book an OR and page Lexie Grey for me?"

"Right away, doctor."

☀️

ELLIE WAS SCRUBBING into the surgery when Lexie walked through the door. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Meg needs brain surgery and you're assisting," Ellie replied. "Scrub in, Lexie. We're going solo." She walked into the OR and let out a breath. "I need loops and a headlight, please." She stood up to the table and looked down at the skull. "Okay, scalpel, please."

She started to cut into the skull before taking the drill. Lexie made sure to keep adding liquid as Ellie continued with the surgery. She drowned out the noise from the OR and stopped a bleeder.

"Did you just stop that bleeder?" Lexie asked her and she nodded.

"Uh-huh."

"How did you even know to do that?"

Ellie glanced at her with a small smile. "I was raised by Mark and Derek, Lex. It's in my bones."

Just then, Derek walked in. "Okay, sorry I'm late, Ellie."

"That's okay," she replied, still looking at the surgery. "I've got it under control, Derek."

"What do we got?"

"Let me finish, Derek," she said. "I got this. I can do this."

Derek looked over her shoulder and smiled at the sight. "Yes, you do. Well done, Ellie. Really well done."

☀️

ELLIE PUT HER scrubs in the laundry bin, going around the bench where Lexie was fast asleep after the long day she had. She chuckled at the brunette before gathering her belongings and walking out to her car. She drove to the ice cream parlor and saw Andy sitting on a bench, holding two ice cream cones in his hands.

He smiled and stood up when he saw her walking toward him. "Hope you don't mind that I got you one already. It was a long line."

"I don't mind," she replied with a smile. "Thank you." She took a lick from the cone. "Mint chocolate chip?"

"I remember you mentioning that you liked it."

She nodded. "It's true. Though, I like all kinds to be honest. I'm not picky when it comes to ice cream. Or food, actually. I'm an easy girl." She took a lick from his ice cream cone. "Strawberry?"

"Like our first date."

She smiled and sat down on the bench. "So, how'd the rest of your day go?"

"Well, I finally got the kids to calm down," he replied, sitting next to her. "I have never been happier for a day to come to an end. How about you? You had to hang up pretty quickly."

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that," she apologized, taking another lick from her cone. "My patient needed brain surgery. But Derek wasn't available, so I did it."

"You did it?" he repeated and she shrugged. "That's really impressive. And you said it so casually."

"It easily could've gone wrong, it just didn't," she said. "I'm not going to get cocky about it. Though, that is the exact reason I will never go into brain surgery. Too much pressure. And the fear that I might accidentally paralyze someone."

He nodded. That's a good point. Hey, so, I was wondering... would you want to go to this karaoke bar that I know sometime?"

"Karaoke?" she asked. "I love karaoke."

"So that's a yes?" he asked and she nodded. "Then I'll finally get to hear this voice of yours." She chuckled and turned away to finish her ice cream. "Oh, wait, you have some ice cream on your chin." Andy took his napkin and wiped it away making her look at him.

"Thanks." Her eyes flickered to his lips momentarily before biting hers. With an air of confidence, she leaned forward and captured his lips with hers. He was taken aback for a moment before kissing her back. She pulled away and smiled sheepishly. "So that happened..."

"You won't hear me complain," he replied before kissing her again.

☀️

━ author's note:

I've always thought of Andy being the person Ellie needed at this moment in her life. The first person she dates after James but not the right person for her in the long run (that's Jackson ;))