Season One, Episode Seven
The Self-Destruct Button

Do you ever get that feeling when you wake up and you feel like a whole new person? You feel that everything you wanted to do but never done is in arms reach. Maggie liked to call this her 'Refresh day', these days came about once a week for her, it made her feel happy, lighter and just different. Everything she wasn't when she had her normal days, that's why she soaked up these days as much as she could.

She started off with a run, it was a beautiful day in Seattle and Maggie loved running during the crisp morning air, she decided that running the short mile to work would be an amazing idea.

Spotting her friends in the parking lot, she jogged over and smiled at them, "Hello, friends" That made her receive weird looks.

"What happened to you?" Izzie laughed.

"Good day" Maggie shrugged, still moving her feet to keep her heart rate up. She felt someone jog next to her, looking over she saw, Alex making her groan softly.

"A run? You guys run?" Izzie exclaimed, it was more directed toward Alex because he was a dickhead and everything he did was wrong.

"I do it almost every morning, at least. If not, I like to hike" Maggie answered honestly.

"Wow, something we have in common" Alex smirked at her, "Minus the hiking"

"Please, don't make me want to stop running" Maggie gagged at the single thought of having something in common with Alex.

"Not suffering enough?" Meredith walked past the three and asked.

"What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" Alex huffed out. The group began walking toward the main entrance of the hospital.

"Don't go acting all indefatigable, you're dragging like the rest of us" Christina told him, her tone sounded somewhat miserable.

"Oh, what is that- professional weakness Dr. Yang?" Alex smirked.

"It's called the flu" Christina ignored his pass and continued walking.

"Yeah"

"Have you tried wellness shots? There's a couple recipes that I can give you for various sicknesses" Maggie looked of at Christina and asked.

"Nobody wants to try your hippie, new wave medicine" Alex snarked.

"Mmm" Maggie hummed out, "In that case, I guess I should tell you that the nurses are going around telling each other that your dick is way too small for pleasure" Maggie held up her pinky and waved it around.

"Oh, real mature" Alex scoffed.

"Whatever, Karev. While you're walking around wondering if women are faking it when you have sex, I'm over here knowing people are satisfied when I'm finished" Maggie flipped him off and grabbed George before walking ahead of the group, she somewhat smirked when she heard the howls coming from Izzie, Meredith and Christina.

"Should I turn around and look at his face?" George asked, "Yeah, I should- I want to see it"

"Don't, Georgie" Maggie stooped him before he could turn, "I can practically hear the names he's calling me from his mind"

"Why do you do it?" He asked, "Make people angry" He added once he noticed her confused look.

"Why not?" Maggie shrugged, playing it off as something that didn't matter.

Deep down, Maggie knew that it did matter. Countless of therapists friends made it known that she loved to get a rise out of men, some called it daddy issues and some called it a bitch disorder but when you grow up with a self proclaimed king like Derek Shepherd, it was definitely hard to get noticed in her own home so she acted out against him and she never regretted a single moment of it. Derek however, did regret making those choices that made Maggie turn against him, if only his ego and pride weren't in the way.

Maggie changed into her scrubs quickly, she needed to get ahead of everyone else if she was going to go into a surgery that was actually cool enough to talk about.

"I need a major rush to make it through this day, I need a kick-ass surgery" George shuffled his feet, you could definitely tell that he was tired.

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

"That would be Meredith" That one simple sentence made Maggie was to curl up and die.

"You a bad boy, Meredith?" Alex walked passed her and asked.

"Do tell"

"I'm in for some sex talk" Maggie shrugged, turning her attention to Meredith.

"Nothing to tell" Meredith said frustratedly.

"That says it all, huh?"

"Sorry, I have a sex life" Meredith said as Izzie slammed her locker shut and stormed away from Meredith, Maggie looked at George confused but he only gave her the 'I'll tell you later look'

"Embrace it, sex is probably best thing that was ever created" Maggie gave Merediths back a pat.

"Yeah, don't apologize, embrace it" Alex agreed with Maggie, "Share it, count me in" Maggie almost laughed at the last thing he said, was that a viable quote from the man saying he wasn't getting any?

"Next time, just let me know if I need to go to a hotel so I can get some sleep" Izzie looked at Meredith, even Maggie jumped back from the amount of attitude coming from the blondes mouth.

"Dude, who did you have sex with that made her so angry?" Maggie laughed softly at the fact that Izzie was so mad.

"Am I missing something?" Meredith looked at Christina and Maggie.

"You were just a little loud" George said next, slamming his locker shut and walking out of the locker room.

"Do they know it's Mcdreamy keeping them up all night?" Christina asked, a little shocked at why just happened.

"Holy Shit, Mer, they totally know that you're fucking your boss!" Maggie laughed out manically, "I wonder if they think I'm getting special treatment since he's my brother"

"I hope not. I already have Bailey riding me, I don't need my roommates thinking I'm getting special treatment and no Maggie, everyone in this hospital knows that you two aren't besties" She shook her head before walking out of the locker room, Maggie was still silently laughing which made Christina give her a little 'sober up' punch.

Maggie walked into the hallway and stood next to the group, waiting for some instructions from Bailey. They began walking when everyone heard the massive yawn that came out of Merediths mouth and Baileys glare was not easy to miss.

"O'Malley, Yang, Karev, Shepherd- go on to clinic. O'Malley, patients are waiting" Bailey yelled out. Maggie grabbed George's arm the second he got in trouble and pulled him down the hallway that led to the clinic.

"Digby- Digby Owens. I have an appointment" A man said to the receptionist again. Maggie stood next to Alex, they both were updating some charts so it didn't take long for them to walk around the guy.

"Hey, Man, you know you're bleeding right?" Maggie looked down at the floor and seen a puddle of blood, "Do you care if I take a look?"

"Sure, sure. Have a look" Digby took off his leather jacket and showed Maggie the tattoo he had on his arm, that also held a gunshot wound.

"Okay, another question- Do you realize that you are bleeding from a gunshot wound?" Maggie looked up at him with furrowed eyebrows.

"Yeah" The man simply smiled at her.

"We got a gunshot wound. We got to get him down to the pit" Maggie looked over at Karev and then nodded to the wheelchair by the door.

"Take a seat, Digby" Maggie pointed to the seat.

"All right but it isn't an emergency, I scheduled it" Digby told them all nonchalant, as if it was okay.

"You scheduled an appointment to get shot in the arm?" Maggie quizzed, she was still definitely confused and by the look Alex gave her, so was he.

"Yeah, my buddy shot me" Digby smiled.

"Buddy?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, just as a favor"

"On purpose?" Alex asked, he was just trying to get his head wrapped around the craziness that was happening.

"Hell, yeah. I mean, he wasn't trying to hurt me or nothing, but you know..." Digby tried to reason with them.

"It's a metal bullet going into your skin, at average a bullet travels 760 miles per hour and your buddy didn't mean to hurt you? Well no shit it's still gonna hurt" Maggie scoffed at the man but continued walking by his side.

"Well, I like the scars" Digby laughed at Maggie's reaction.

"That's got to be some kind of weird addiction"

"Look, everyone in town has tats but my art is about commitment" Digby praised, he was so happy about his art even though it brings him pain.

"So, this is your art, huh?" Alex asked, he was cleaning off the rest of the blood from Bidbys arm.

"Damn straight"

"The bullet went all the way through, Digby. If anything your art is gonna kill you" Maggie lifted up his arm to see the exit wound and then the next entry wound.

"Bounced off my ribs, I have another one still in my shoulder" Digby brought his hand up and pointed to the bullet still in his body, "Nice, huh?"

"Sounds like a huge mess at the airport" Maggie joked, making Alex smirk lightly.

"I have an ethos. Why do anything unless you're willing to go one step further than anybody else? You get it right, Dr. Shepherd?" Digby looked at Maggie in question.

"I'm already better than everybody else, I don't have to try" Maggie looked at Alex and winked at him, she new that he hated when she put herself higher than everybody else.

"What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, right?" Alex ignored Maggie and turned to Digby.

"Exactly and pain is the great divide. My coach used to say, it's all about how we process pain" Digby enlightened them both from a motto from his past.

"Football?"

"Wrestling, Iowa State" Digby bragged.

"Iowa? 141"

"157"

Maggie looked up at the two men and noticed their weird little handshake, must've been an Iowa State thing.

"You got to be more than 180 now" Alex stated, trying to make conversation.

"I'd like to see you get back under 145"

"They're a lot of things I like too see my men in but wrestling tights, don't really make that list" Maggie interrupted there bro time.

"You're just mad that you've never been undefeated in anything" Alex grinned at Maggie.

"You've never seen me in College, Karev" Maggie gave his back a small pat before walking out of the room.

Maggie walked around with a bowl full of salad, none of her friends were on break so she liked to follow George around and bother him.

"Did you know that a Great White Shark is about the same size of a Megalodon's penis? Which would be considerably large since it's assumed that Megalodons grew to be about 15 to 18 meters long but even still they were 3 times bigger then a Great White" She looked at George and nodded her head as he looked at her baffled.

"Why would I know that?" George looked at her with wide eyes.

Maggie shrugged, taking a bite of the salad she had, "Why wouldn't you know that?"

"Not everyone has a weird fascination of the ocean and Sharks" George pointed out.

"They say that only 5% of the ocean will be explored by 2020, how does that not fascinate you?" Maggie looked at him as if he was the weird one, making George scoff in response.

"Oh, Hey, hey, hey- have you seen Shepherd?" George stopped Izzie as she passed by.

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

"What's that supposed to mean?" Maggie squinted her eyes at the blonde, stepping up to her slightly only to be pulled back by George.

"Are you trying to get her in trouble? She's our friend" George whispers slightly so others don't hear.

"George, this program will make or break our careers, okay? 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 attendings" Izzie turned back to look at George and Maggie.

"Meredith will get a good recommendation because she's a good doctor, not because she's screwing Derek. Don't ruin this for her because you're jealous that you aren't half that doctor that she will be" Maggie continued to glare at Izzie Stevens and all that talk from her about being from the trailer park did not faze Maggie one bit.

"Whatever" Izzie rolled her eyes and walked away.

"What was that about and when did you find out?" George asked Maggie.

"Nothing, it's just annoying that Izzie assumes that Meredith has to sleep with the attending in order to get great recommendations from doctors and who the fuck cares whose sleeping with who and I'm Maggie, I know everything" Maggie walked away from George with her Salad in hand. If Izzie thought about Meredith like that, it made her wonder what Izzie thought about her but only Maggie knew the truth of it all and if she was being honest she didn't care what Izzie thought about her.

Maggie stood next to Alex who was standing next to Collazo, they had just gotten the films back from Digby Owens x-ray.

"And if you would point your direction to here" Maggie lifted up her hand and pointed to the bullet in the x-ray, "That is a billet from a previous gunshot"

"Uh, previous gunshot?" Collazo questioned, "Okay" She said when she noticed Maggie's nod.

"I don't really see a reason to take it out though" Maggie told her.

"No, the guy likes pain"

"It's his ethos" Alex informed her.

"Pain as an ethos" Collazo hummed, "Holy crap, I think I know this guy" She grabbed the film and turned around to stop Bailey, "You remember this guy?"

"Hey, the tattooed masochist" Bailey remembered.

"Had himself shot... again"

"Glad to see he's still stupid" Bailey handed Collazo back the film and walked toward Meredith who was sitting in the corner.

"It's his ethos"

"Let's go tell him what he gets to do today" Collazo told the two and walked toward Digby who was waiting on a bed in the hallway.

You would've never known that Digby Owens was in pain, he laid in that bed as if it was just another regular day but Maggie guessed that it actually was his normal.

"Mr. Owens, we've really gotta stop meeting like this" Collazo held out her hand for the patient to shake, as they both pulled away, Collazo began helping him sit up.

"Digby" He grunted, "How many languages are you on now?"

"Four and a half, I almost have French down" Collazo smiled at Digby, half surprised that he even remembered. Maggie and Alex though were full all surprised.

"Damn, tell me something in French" Digby winced again when Collazo listened to his heart.

"Trouvez un passe-temps" The Doctor smiled a little because she knew he didn't know what she said.
(Find a hobby)

"I've got no clue on what you just said" Digby laughed slightly.

"I said 'find a hobby' and you should, at least a different one" Collazo winked at him, "He's running a fever"

"Due to the extra stress on his body from the gunshot" Alex stepped up and said.

"Okay, so here's the thing, Digby, the impact of the bullet on your chest fractures a rib and caused a hemopneumothorax" Collazo took the film from the light and showed Digby the problem.

"That sucks, I guess"

"There's blood in your collapsed lung, so yeah it sucks" Maggie gave him a weird look and then looked at Alex to see what his expression looked like.

"The price of body art went up since your last gunshot"

"Ah, no pain, no gain, right?" Digby laughed.

"That's one way to look at it" Collazo pointed out.

"We have that in common, you docs and me"

"Do we?" Collazo asked.

"Yeah, the way you guys push, push and push. When I was wrestling, if you wanted to pin me, you was gonna have to kill me" Digby bragged.

"Iowa style" Alex said, receiving a look from Collazo and a slap from Maggie.

"Iowa State style" Digby corrected, "Back home, we were sworn enemies but in Seattle, man, we're brothers" Alex and Digby let out a chuckle, "So, what are we gonna do about this, um... hemopheumo-durasis?"

"We have to insert a chest tube to drain the blood, then we reinflate your lung" Maggie informed him.

"Oh, please... tell me I get to watch" Digby pleaded with a smile, which made Maggie laugh at his reaction and Alex watched her laugh with a smile.

Cookies were Maggie's favorite dessert or snack if you asked her, so it was no surprise for her to be standing next to Christina with cookies in hand.

"Yay" George said startling the two doctors, "I get to scrub in on a hemispherectomy with Shepherd"

"Get out! I would kill you for that" Christina whipped her head around and looked at him, while Maggie just shrugged.

"We're gonna cut out half the girls brain and it's going to work. It's outrages, almost makes it hard to hate him" George said happily but then turned gloomy when he ended the sentence.

"Why do you hate him?" Christina asked, putting a couple quarters in the machine.

"Oh, no reason" George said trying to play it off.

"He knows about him and Meredith" Maggie smiled a slick smile at George, making him stick out his tongue in response.

"Wait, she knows? You know?" George followed after the two when they walked away.

"When are you going to figure out that I know everything" Christina gloated.

"She knows" George said as soon as Izzie walked up the stairs.

"What about Doctor-cest?" Izzie asked. Maggie wondered if she pushed the blonde down the stairs if George and Christina would pretend like nothing happened, they were better friends with Maggie than her so, maybe.

"It's been going on for, like, ever" Christina said, stirring the pot.

"Seriously?"

"You didn't tell us?"

"Why would we tell you anything that doesn't involve us? It's not our business and it's not yours either you gossipers" Maggie rolled her eyes.

"I am not!"

"I am"

"He's about to go into major brain surgery on no sleep? Not very responsible" George said, his tone hardened.

"Georgie, don't be so jealous" Maggie cooed.

"Sex all night isn't about being responsible" Christina mentions.

"No, it's about sex all night. I can't believe you guys aren't more pushed off about this, you of all people" Izzie said singling Christina out.

"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, Maggie liked to punch people and others like an occasional screaming orgasm" Christina reasoned. Maggie ignored the slight jab.

"I like the last one too" Maggie said obviously.

"Yeah we do" Alex walked up, agreeing with Christina and taking a bite from a donut, "Forget I said that. Pretend like I'm not here. Continue"

"It would be a lot better if you actually weren't here" Maggie sassed.

Alex raised his free hand and grabbed some of the jelly that was falling to the side and smeared it on Maggie's nose, "Are you kidding me?" Maggie looked up at him, watching Alex roll his eyes and then bring his face closer to hers and licked the jelly off of her nose. Maggie brought her hand to her nose and then look around to her friends, wondering if they saw but George seemed to be the only one considering the look she was getting.

"You look like you need to be spoon-fed" Alex coughed, trying to bring the tension down so he changed the subject.

"You look like Alex"

"Yeah, about drinking- Dr. Taylor the anesthesiologists, do you think he drink?" George wondered, mentioning softly to the man standing behind them.

"Whatever gets you through the day"

"No, I mean here, at work. Earlier, I though I smelled-" George gave them the look so they knew what he was talking about, "I mean, his patients trust that he- so I should say something right?"

"Look Doctors have this- Golden Rule, they never question each other about anything" Maggie told him, "And Derek goes by that rule"

"It's a can of works, George. Weren't we talking about sex, anyway" Alex asked, his face still a mess from the donut he was shoving in his face.

"Dickhead"

"Doofus"

"Ew"

Maggie didn't mind that Collazo chose Alex to be in the room when they took out Dibys bullet, she saw a lot of wounds like that in the ER but she sure as hell was gonna be the first to watch over his vitals to see if there was anything wrong.

"Hey, Doc" Maggie called out to Collazo, holding the piece of paper that held Digbys abnormal vitals, "Digbys post-op CBC shows a massive jump in the huge blood cell count"

"What is it?" Collazo pushed back her hair so it wasn't in the way.

"It's 27, with 16% bands. I'm thinking that something else is wrong that we missed" Maggie assumes.

"I agree, that's a little high for simple stress. Check for any other possible sources of infection or recent illness" Collazo turned back to look at Maggie and then walked away when she was finish giving orders.

Maggie paged Alex as she walked toward the room that held Digby, when she walked into the room, it wasn't good.

"Just checking in" Maggie smiled at Olivia and then walking toward the side of Digby.

"I'm freezing doc" He said just as Alex showed up, "I-I-I can't stop shaking"

"His temps way up and B.P.'s dropping, Doctor" Olivia handed Maggie the chart.

"Thanks Olivia"Maggie smiled, "Okay, Digby. Have you had any recent illnesses, new piercings, tattoos or wounds?"

"New tat on my calf" Digby panted. Maggie looked at Alex with a sigh, watching as he took the blanket off to reveal the infected tattoo.

"It's infected, Digby" Maggie looked closer at the swollen tattoo.

"Oh, my god. It was nowhere near that nasty this morning" Digby looked up and look at his tattoo.

"But it was infected? Why didn't you say anything?" Alex asked.

"Ah, it was nothing. I'm not here to complain about a little pain" Digby leaned back down and tucked the blanket further to his body.

"The infection had a negative reaction by the stress in your body from the gunshot" Maggie shook her head in disappointment, how could someone do this to themselves?

"Get him to ICU" Alex looked at Olivia, "We'll get you started on some antibiotics" Maggie gave Olivia another smile before walking out of the room with Alex.

"Hey, why did you page me down here?" Alex said once they closed the door and then looked at her confused.

"Because you're on this case with me?" Maggie started back at him, she wasn't really sure what he was meaning.

"You could've taken the case just for yourself but you didn't" He seemed hesitant to even bring it up.

"Alex, if I'm going to be asked to scrub in, it's not because I pulled the rug on you, it's because I deserved it and besides, I see shit like this all the time in the ER, Collazo knew that" Maggie shrugged.

He hummed in response, giving her one last look before walking away from her, leaving Maggie standing there by herself.

Maggie paged Collazo as soon as she noticed the state that Digby was in and he wasn't in a good one.

"What happened?" The doctor ran up to the patient.

"He went into multisymptom organ failure, secondary to overwhelming sepsis. Now he's all..." Alex cut off when Collazo saw what was happening.

"I'll fix his B.P., that should help his mental status" The doctor bent down and checked his heart rate.

"He's maxxed out..."

"We got V-tech"

"We should put the defib pads on him and give him 150-" Before Maggie could finish, Digby began to flatline.

"I lost his pulse"

"Do what Maggie said, defib! Get the pads!" Collazo shouted are the nearby nurse.

"Clear" Collazo shouted, "Again- 300. Clear"

"It's not working" Maggie exclaimed.

"Come on, give him some more" Alex rushed out.

"Push to 360"

Once that didn't work, Maggie brought her hands to Digbys chest to give him CPR. They needed to try everything before they called it.

"He's been gone for too long, Dr. Collazo" Maggie stepped back from the body and looked at the monitor, she felt hands moving up to her shoulders in comfort so she held onto his arm in response.

"Time of death, 2049"

"First guy I ever met out here from back home" Alex said, reaching down to turn over the photo he had taken from earlier. When he walked off, Maggie was still holding onto his arm.

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AUTHORS NOTE

I'm about tempted to make Alex not apart of the Olivia/ George/ Syphilis ordeal because I want him and Maggie together so bad.