𝙏𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙚

𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗕𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲, 𝗟𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗮𝗿

ᴀ/ɴ - ɪ'ᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ sᴡᴀᴍᴘᴇᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜᴏᴍᴇᴡᴏʀᴋ. ɪ'ᴍ sᴏʀʀʏ ɪ ʜᴀᴠᴇɴ'ᴛ ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇᴅ. ᴀs sᴏᴏɴ ᴀs ᴇxᴀᴍs ᴀʀᴇ ᴅᴏɴᴇ ɪ ᴡɪʟʟ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ғʀᴇǫᴜᴇɴᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ғᴏʀ ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴜʏs. ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ғᴏʀ ʀᴇᴀᴅɪɴɢ ᴀɴᴅ ɪ ᴀᴘᴘʀᴇᴄɪᴀᴛᴇ ᴀʟʟ ᴏғ ʏᴏᴜ.

ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪsɴ'ᴛ ᴡʀɪᴛᴛᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇsᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ɪsɴ'ᴛ ᴠᴇʀʏ ᴅᴇsᴄʀɪᴘᴛɪᴠᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ɪ'ᴍ sᴏʀʀʏ ɪ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴇᴅɪᴛ ᴏʀ ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇs ʀɪɢʜᴛ ɴᴏᴡ ʙᴜᴛ ғᴜᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴍᴜᴄʜ ʙᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ɪ ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ᴡᴀɪᴛ ғᴏʀ ᴡʜᴀᴛ's ɴᴇxᴛ.

√v^√v^√♥

𝐃𝐑. 𝐁𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐘 𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐒 eagerly down the hall, mumbling about bike crashes and spending the day in the emergency room. It was early; too early for the confusion and the group of interns were desperate to know what they were running into.

"Fools on bikes, killing themselves. Natural selection is what it is," she raged.

"So what's up with the Nazi?" Alex asked in a whisper. "Is she off her meds?"

"You never heard of the race?" George raised an eyebrow, following as they turned a corner and came to a stop.

"Chief," Bailey said loudly. "'Dead Baby' bike race started twenty minutes ago," she informed before speeding up again.

"All right, people," Chief Webber dragged, clapping his hands together. "It's dead baby bike race day!"

"Every year, this bar," George explained as the group raced off the elevator and over to the sanitary gowns.

"The Dead Baby bar," Holly clarified.

"Every year, they hold this underground bike race," he continued.

"You wonder why someone would name a bar something so disgusting?" Izzie exclaimed.

"Keep your panties on, Nancy Drew," Cristina chuckled, tossing down her lab coat.

"The race is completely illegal and-crazy."

"Bike messengers racing against traffic, trying to beat each other for free shots of tequila," Meredith finally joined in.

"No-holds-barred competition, sounds like fun," Alex admitted.

Holly laughed lightly, slipping on the yellow piece of fabric, pulling her caught hair out from under it.

"The race doesn't even have any rules, except eye-gouging. No eye-gouging."

"We'll be trapped in the pit Band-Aiding idiots when we could be up in the OR," Cristina complained.

"What kind of people engage in a race that has, as its only rule, that you can't rip out the eyeballs of another human being?" George chuckled, tying Holly's isolation gown while she tied Izzie's. George turned to Alex and tightened his strings.

"Men, Georgie. Men," Alex answered. George undid the trauma gown and pulled Karev's sleeves down to his elbows. Holly giggled lightly before standing behind Alex, tying his for him.

Dr. Bailey rounded the corner and stopped in front of her interns. "I need someone to get up to the OR floor. The chief needs a right hand."

Holly's hand shot up, as did everyone else's. Bailey sighed. "George."

"Okay, people," Bailey spoke loudly. "The rules of trauma. Don't mingle with the ER interns. They don't know their ass from esophagus. Sew fast, discharge faster. Get bodies up to the OR. And don't let me catch you fighting over patients. Got it? Come on, let's go!"

Bailey and George walked away and the rest of the group hurried their way to the emergency room. They stopped at the entrance, eyes wandering the scene of broken bones and bloody wounds.

"Oh, it's like candy, but with blood, which is so much better!" Cristina gawked. "Oh, my God."

"Mine!" Cristina and Izzie ran after a patient. "No! I saw him first."

Holly looked around the room, scoping out her next patient while her competition did the same. Excitement coursed through her veins as she watched the abundance of crash victims flood the ER.

"I'll take that guy," Meredith smiled widely, eyes landing on a patient in the midst of the chaos.

"You'll have to beat me to him first," Alex bumped Meredith's side but she recovered quickly, racing to the patient with Alex following behind her.

Holly's eyes settled on a man with thin tire marks along his face and a chunk of metal penetrating his arm. "Yes!"

ꨄ

"So why do you do it?" Holly inquired, her eyes curious as she wrapped the ER patient's arm with bandages where the partial stop sign once was.

"The race?"

"Mhm."

"The thrill...I mean...something in life's got to excite you...right?"

Holly stared off for a moment, trying to pinpoint her excitement...surgery? She wasn't getting any of those. What excited her these days?

"I see your point," Holly began. "But does it have to be dead babies and bloody street signs?"

"Whatever gets you out of bed in the morning, I guess."

ꨄ

"What are you doing?" Holly asked, sauntering over to George who sat behind the reception area, nose deep in a binder.

"Hiding," he looked around discreetly. "There's this VIP patient. He likes me."

"That's good, right?" Said a voice from behind her. Holly turned with a raised eyebrow, eyes looking Alex up and down as he scribbled in his charts.

"He ''likes me,'' likes me."

"Go for it, man," Alex encouraged. "Get yours. I'm down with the rainbow." Holly stifled a laugh.

  George's eyes raised from his binder slowly, Alex soon following.

"Oh," Alex spoke awkwardly. "Are you not gay?"

"No!" George gawped.

"Really?" Karev deadpanned. "Dude, sorry." He chuckled with a light shrug before disappearing from the area.

"George," Holly sighed, turning back towards him, resting her arms on the desk in front of her. "If it makes you feel any better. I knew you weren't gay."

  O'Malley let out a prolonged sigh. "It doesn't... Cristina!" He called.

ꨄ

"Alex...come here," Holly waved the taller intern over with her hand. "Is this a '5'?" She scrunched her nose, pointing to his handwriting on a chart that she had to decipher.

"No. That's a '7'," he spoke confidently.

"A seven?" Holly exclaimed, squinting at the unrecognizable number.

"Maybe it's a three...Yep. Definitely a three," he nodded.

"That's not a three."

"It's a three."

ꨄ

  Holly made her way down the hall with a handful of discharge papers, coming to a stop behind Meredith, Cristina and Izzie.

"What are you guys doing?" she dragged, stepping beside the girls who had their attention on the other end of the hall where George stood talking to the chief.

"What are you doing?" Another voice repeated, Alex appearing beside Holly who gave him a small look of acknowledgment.

"Nothing," the three girls spoke in unison, keeping their attention on the other end of the hallway. Chief Webber pulled Dr. Burke aside to join the conversation, a few moments passed before George turned on his heel and excused himself from it.

  Dr. Burke turned his head to face the group of interns. "Oh, crap," Cristina warned as the three girls rushed around the corner. Holly stood still, staring at the attending blankly but soon was pulled back by Meredith. The group of girls fled the scene and began to explain their harvest surgery plan to Holly.

ꨄ

The group of interns watched the John Doe surgery from the OR 1 gallery; performed by Dr. Burke, all thanks to Chief Webber, though somehow Alex was the intern to scrub in.

"I seriously hate that guy," Cristina scoffed at the intern below her.

"Alex is vermin. That surgery is ours," Meredith raged with a calm voice.

Holly couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't get questioning looks. 'He's not that bad.' 'At least he's funny.' 'He's not an asshole all the time.' None were solid arguments, nor ones she really wanted to make, because they were kind of right.

"At least Burke is doing the surgery. I don't care about Alex," Izzie replied before turning her head to George. "George, you did good."

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

Their attention turned to the open gallery door behind them. "The police called. They've identified your John Doe." The nurse announced. Cristina and Izzie glanced at one another with a nervous exhale. "His wife is on the way."

ꨄ

  Meredith and Holly made their way into Ellis Grey's old home, after car pooling from work in Meredith's car.

"Oh! Izzie exclaimed from the living room, holding a VCR tape in front of George who sat crisscross on the coffee table.  "This one is skin grafting!"

"Skin grafting?" He took the tape from her grasp. "No way! I've never seen that done."

"Are those my mother's surgical tapes?" Meredith pushed the door shut behind her, looking discomposed as she questioned her roommates.

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

  Meredith glanced at the room full of boxes, "where did all this stuff come from?"

"Oh. I unpacked some of your mother's things. I was upset," Izzie explained simply, her voice soft. "And when I'm upset, I like to nest."

  Holly glanced down at a tape that sat on the side table beside her, taking it in her hands she read the label with furrowed brows. Hemipelvectomy. Holly's attention returned to Meredith who gathered the surgical tapes in her path and tossed them in a near box.

  Holly slid the surgical tape in a nearby box but it was soon reclaimed by Izzie. "Ooh! Hemipelvectomy!"

"I think we should watch this one first."

"No! We're not watching my mother's surgery tapes. We're not unpacking boxes. We're not having long conversations where we celebrate the moments of our lives!" Meredith tossed down a final tape before marching over to the side table where George sat.

"And use a coaster!"

"I ordered Chinese food," George called to Meredith who was long gone in another room.

"I hate Chinese food!"

ꨄ

The group of interns made their way into the hospital the next morning, pressing their hand on the elevator buttons with coffee cups occupying the others.

"Why is the Nazi making us stay in the pit two days in a row?" Alex furrowed his brows, looking to the three girls who walked beside him.

"Leftovers," Meredith replied, stopping in front of the elevator doors before taking a swig of her coffee.

"Got to get the cyclists who were too drunk, stupid, or scared to get to a hospital yesterday," she added.

"Meanwhile, she gets to do a freakin' organ harvest," Alex grumbled, pointing to Cristina with his free hand.

"It kills you doesn't it?" Cristina chuckled, turning her head to face the complaining intern.

"What?"

"That two women got the harvest," Cristina answered, pressing down on the buttons a second time.

"No, it kills me that anybody got the harvest but me," Alex clarified. "Boobs do not factor in this equation."

  Alex held his coffee to his lips but paused with a coy grin. "Unless, uh, you wanna show me yours," the three girls glared heavily, exchanging looks as Alex glanced at each of them, before stopping at Holly and looking her up and down, who didn't notice at the time.

"I'm gonna become a lesbian," Meredith admitted suddenly.

"Me too," Cristina nodded and turned on her heel, the two of them heading for the stairs, Alex shrugging with a satisfied look on his face.

"You coming Holly?" Meredith called.

"No, I've had my cardio for the day," Holly let out a light chuckle as the elevator doors slid open. Holly slid past Alex who watched her step into the elevator, following soon after, the doors shutting behind him.

Alex shrugged. "No need for excuses. You can just whip one out. I won't tell anybody."

Holly tilted her head, brows furrowed with confusion but she soon understood. She watched him momentarily, her mouth parted, stifling back her laughter. "What did you just say?"

"I said-"

"No...I mean-" Holly sighed, holding a hand up before crossing her arms over her chest. "I heard you."

"So, do you want to show me now or-" Alex dragged nonchalantly, the ding of the elevator filling the space as the doors slid open.

"At least buy me a drink first," Holly narrowed her eyes with a sarcastic frown, stepping out onto the locker room floor.

  Alex followed behind her, looking down at his coffee cup and back up at her. "Here," he said cooly, holding his cup out for her to take.

"I already have one," Holly smiled rudely, swaying her coffee cup as they walked down the corridor.

"Oh! Hey, can I see that?" He asked, stopping abruptly with a hand out. As Holly protested in confusion, Alex pulled her creamed coffee from her small hands. The intern inspected the cup of coffee, running his thumb along the logo printed on the side before tossing it in the trash can behind him.

"Alex!" She exclaimed. "It was so good too."

Alex grinned cockily as he held his own coffee out for her taking, she mouthed an "oh" in realization. "Well played, I guess. I was thinking something more on the lines of...tequila...or vodka. You would have more of a chance seeing me naked if I were tipsy...not that you do have a chance. That was a joke."

Alex's chuckle was almost inaudible as he leaned forward in a low voice. "I think I'd like it better if you were sober."

Holly kept her eyes fixated on Alex as he continued down the hall, leaving her gripping his cup of coffee with heat rising in her core.