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Chapter Two - Jersey
Season 6 - Episode 5
Invasion

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Hannah was unsure if she had ever seen the ER as full as it appeared the moment she walked through the double doors. The yearly Dead Baby Bar Race did not leave it lined with this many patients. She was sure the ER was possibly at double its capacity. A little part of her felt anxious at just how many people she saw waiting upon help. And as a nurse brushed past her darting in between rooms trying to reach each of her overloaded patient load, Hannah was unsure just how they were going to make any progress. Or how they were going to see everyone in a timely manner and ensure that nobody deteriorated whilst they were waiting on being seen by a member of staff. 

Hannah had yet another love-hate relationship with ER residents. She could clearly recall the introduction she had to them by Miranda Bailey in her intern year. She had found that a few really did know their medicine, that they were competent. But often she found herself agreeing with the older and far crankier surgeon. She knew that surgeons had a god complex, she found herself battling said complexes of her colleagues very frequently, but she wasn't sure that ER residents were that far behind. But even now she could see how busy they were, and Hannah knew that the most important part of the medical profession was working well as a wider team, a multi-disciplinary team. And therefore, she needed to pull her weight to make it easier upon her colleagues. Even if she was sure that the ER resident just a few feet before her needed to learn what personal hygiene was considering she could smell him from her position. 

Quiet shoes fell into footstep beside her. Hannah turned to look at the deep chocolate roots of Lexie Grey stood beside her. Lexie might have been in the resident year below her but the younger woman was not only smarter than most of the attending around them but she was a medical legacy. The same couldn't exactly be said for Hannah. The two bumped shoulders quietly as they waited for the rest of the residents to arrive so they could maybe make a plan of action for trying to see the sheer number of patients who had arrived in the ER. It was in this time that Hannah was finally able to take in the four surgical residents who had joined them. Their bright orange scrubs clashing harshly against the stark white of their jackets. And as she took the time to read their names more clearly now she knew that this was an important step. 

Reed Adamson

Charles Percy

April Kepner

Jackson Avery

Four people she would have to force herself to get close to, force herself to befriend. Knowing that if they all wanted to make it through their remaining years of residency that it would pay to at least be a bit more than civil to one another. The four new comers seemed much less frightened by the busy, packed ER compared to those who usually worked in the much calmer Seattle Grace Hospital. Hannah had to take a second to remind herself that this was due to the clear differences in hospitals, Mercy West had been a Trauma 1 hospital, they dealt with all the important high risk casualties. Seattle Grace from this morning onwards was now that Trauma 1, they had to learn to adapt. Even if they didn't want to. 

"Okay where do you want us?" Alex offered towards Owen Hunt, the frank tall ex-military doctor. The older man seemed to take a deep breath in at the residents words casting his eyes across the room, his head going blank at a straight forward plan. 

"At this point, anywhere is good." Owen responded and Hannah went quickly to move to his words. She wouldn't admit to anyone else but she was slightly scared of the older doctor still. She held a great amount of respect for him, that she wouldn't deny. Her father was ex-military having retired before Hannah was around, but he had not failed to teach Hannah the importance of respecting those from the military. And it was something she was sure would follow her for the rest of her life.

"At Mercy West, we do zones. When it's super busy, we just give everyone a zone, a space. The nurses put a person in that space, you know it's your patient. Helps you get to 'em quicker." One of the newcomers spoke, Jackson Hannah recalled from reading his name earlier. She hated to admit that his idea was a bright one. Actually it made perfect sense, and she knew that Owen would like it too. Therefore, she would need to prepare herself to have her own area. 

"Yeah, well this is the ER not a school yard. We're not playing four square." Cristina grumbled, instantly against the idea purely due to the person who suggested it. 

"I like it."

"What?"

"It's a good idea, let's try it. What's your name?" Owen protested, clearly impressed with the new resident moving his eyes away from the ones he knew well, some more than others, and to the new faces.

"Jackson Avery."

"Dr Avery, Dr Hunt. It's all yours, zone away, let's go." As Owen motioned for Jackson to separate the room into sections so they could assign a resident there, Hannah took a moment to think. Avery surely wasn't that common of a surname. Not around this area anyways. And she was quick to connect the dots, it would turn out that the Grey sisters were not the only medical royalty now hired by their hospital. They had another little medical prodigy and probable millionaire at their mercy. She just wondered how long it would take the others to work it out. 

Zone Seven had luckily only contained Hannah as the resident, Arizona Robbins, the paediatric attending had also been assigned to the same zone. Therefore, they found that it was mainly much younger patients coming through for their care. But Hannah did not mind, rather she wanted to journey down some of the more magical paths that a lot of the younger patients were dancing down. She begged them to take them with her, just so that she could move herself away from the trouble that she was experiencing back out in the adult world. Dragging her feet slightly into the next cubby her eyes caught sight of the bright green crocs which were swinging in the air. Her next patient a young boy by the name of Henry was rather well co-ordinated in his attire as he wore head to toe green. Her eyes cast upon the dinosaur soft toy he clutched close to his side, the one which had a few specks of deep crimson upon the top. 

"Heya little buddy, it's seems like your adventure came to a bit of a difficult stop huh? I'm Dr Hannah." Hannah approached the boy upon the gurney who immediately looked up at the doctor a not so bright smile upon his face and she could clearly see the reason he had been brought into the hospital by his mother. The large gash upon his forehead was still trickling blood gently down his pale face. 

"Henry hit the climbing frame when falling off this afternoon." Henry's anxious mother explained and Hannah took her time to ensure that the woman felt as though she was being listened to. 

"Oh no, that's not very fun is it?" Hannah replied before moving to get some of the blue nitrile gloves from the wall. 

"Do you mind if I have a look Henry?" Hannah asked waiting for permission before she got any closer to the boy. The cut upon his forehead was rather clean, she couldn't see any specks of paint, wood nor metal decorating it, and rather it looked as though it was a rather unfortunate injury. Her immediate thought was that it would close with just a little bit of glue and some butterfly sutures. But she knew that whilst doing this she would just need to check his other neurological signs, make sure that there was nothing else untoward going on. 

Yet after establishing, that Henry didn't lose consciousness, he didn't have any changes to his pupils nor nausea following the hit of his head on the climbing frame. Hannah was rather confident that he hadn't developed a neurological condition following his fall. And she wasn't sure he would be able to stay still long enough to complete some of the scans needed to check it out. So she would be able to prepare his paperwork for discharge so that he could go home with his mom for some much needed ice cream. She'd inform his mom to watch him to ensure that there's no significant signs of concussion or anything else alarming, and when to bring him back if she was confirmed.

Hannah would continue to work diligently in her area, seeing young patients left, right and centre. Dishing out her fair deal of stickers and lollipops and so many Tylenol tablets. That was until she could no longer continue to work without food, and therefore took herself to the cafeteria. She wasn't exactly one to purchase food every day from the cafeteria but there was a small staff section where there was a microwave they could at least use in their free time. She had spotted Cristina, Alex and Lexie at one of the tables and considering she had not had her own resident 'shadowing' her she was quite excited to hear from their perspectives what had happened. Of course the walls continued to talk so Hannah knew a little bit about what had occurred well she knew of one football tackle but that was about it. 

"I heard your's got a standing ovation in the ER." Alex spat just as Hannah pulled out the fourth chair at the table. Lexie seemed to be the only one to look up at her, giving the older woman an awkward smile in greeting. 

"Yours is the one who saved the whole ER from the maniac with the hammer?"  Lexie clarified and Hannah placed her wrapped sandwich down on the table no longer exactly interested in the lettuce peaking out of the wholegrain bread. 

"Okay he didn't save anyone. He did some stupid ninja leap and then tripped a guy. I used actual  medicine to stop a person from dying." Cristina argued and Hannah felt the need to roll her eyes before stopping herself. That wasn't the exact words of the gossips around the ER were spreading but she knew everyone had a different perspective. 

"Sounds like it." Hannah muttered.

"Hey you can butt out of it, you've been left without one." Alex jested at Hannah.

"Ooh you jealous of me Karev?" Hannah teased before she got a gentle push to her shoulder by said man, she would respond by giving him a rather adult gesture.

"Well mine has a notebook. A notebook that she takes notes in, notes of a very personal nature. And I stole it." Lexie interrupted what would easily become a playground bickering match between Alex and Hannah, something they all knew would happen just to lighten the mood at the table. 

"You what. Give it." Cristina became very much more interested in Lexie's story than she had been prior. Hannah could never really tell if Cristina really liked Lexie or just put up with her depending on how well Meredith could stand her half sister. 

"No. No, I- I am not sinking to their level. They are vindictive and they are aggressive... and they are not team players and if we are not careful that spirit is going to infect our hospital. We have to fight it." Lexie spoke and like a true horrible liar, it was clear that she didn't really believe those words. Hannah supposed she was not like the others sat at the table, she had yet to have any true interaction with any of the new Residents, bar the one in the changing room. She wasn't sure if they were all bad people, sure she didn't like Reed a whole lot and first impressions were important but she gathered that these new people could grow on her. Just like the people sat around the table did so. 

"Which is why you stole her notebook? And read it?" Cristina responded and it was clear from the look on Lexie's face that they had found the truth behind her previous lies. 

"Well, she's not a very nice person." Lexie attempted to give herself a reason for her actions. And Hannah didn't think she could be more thankful for the arrival of Izzie as she rocked up to their table in the cafeteria. Hannah watched on as Izzie attempted to explain that she had started to try and form a friendship with the resident who was assigned to shadow her around the hospital. Something Hannah could see, Izzie always was more of the open friendlier one compared to the rest of them, but it was still strange. But she allowed Izzie to do whatever she wanted, after all there was no way that Hannah could convince her otherwise either way. 

"Dudes... they're not here." Alex seemed to come to a sudden realisation and Hannah wondered what he was talking about at first. 

"Hallelujah."

"They're not eating. They're working."

"Oh, my god. They don't eat lunch. Oh, god." Cristina seemed to rush and Hannah watched as the rest of them suddenly stopped eating and headed back to the ER, but considering she didn't have a resident shadowing her, she really didn't have any competition. Therefore, she stayed seated in her chair, now at a much quieter table and proceeded to just continue to eat her lunch. 

It would continue to be much later in the day when she got to see the rest of her resident class again, well all bar one. This time Hannah had made it to Meredith's room following her shift, she had arrived a while after Cristina, or so she assumed and as the there sat there watching old, shitty, movies the figure of Alex would enter the doorway of the room. 

"Izzie left me. She wrote a note and she left me. I... I don't... I don't know if she's coming back." Hannah was sure she would have dropped anything if she was holding something in that moment as she looked over to her friend in shock. She wasn't sure she was ever truly a fan of Izzie and Alex together, but she did like the person Alex was developing into from the man she met on her first week of work. 

"What do you mean, she left? Where did she go?" Meredith asked and though they got no response it was clear that Alex didn't have an answer from the way his eyes shone with tears. Cristina and Meredith would argue about what their plans were in trying to support Alex but Hannah only stood to follow him out of the room. 

But that was one thing about the man, considering he was significantly taller than all of them, when he wanted to speed away, Alex could do that. And Hannah was quick to lose him in the vast maize that was the hospital corridors. Deep down she had a feeling of where he was heading, she would go and find him in either the NICU or somewhere in the paediatric floor, still wants to be a plastic surgeon yeah sure. But she would be stopped on the way. 

An arm would come out and stop Hannah in her path by coming to hold onto her arm. Hannah did immediately pause, making an effort to remove her arm from the other person's grip remembering what her elder brothers had taught her about escaping any situation like this. She turned sharply to look at her left hand side where the other person stood, taking note of the bright orange colour which grace her eyesight immediately. She looked up and to the green eyes and pondered just what Jackson Avery wanted with her. 

"It's Cole right?" Jackson asked and Hannah rolled her eyes, he could have at least addressed her properly.

"Dr Cole yeah. You're Avery right?" She played his own game, she wasn't going to be horrible to the new comers but she had seen the way they had treated her friends, and right now her mind was preoccupied with trying to find Alex so she could keep him company as he worked out his emotions. 

"Dr Avery." There was a brief pause as she wondered just what the man wanted. "I'm just wondering if I'm on the right track for the Resident locker room?" Jackson clarified and Hannah wanted to tell him wrong but her morals wouldn't let her and she had to curse herself out for being a semi-decent human being. 

"No, it's back on the way you can and take a right, follow that corridor down until you see a sign for changing rooms, if you see the CVICU you've gone too far." Hannah pointed as she explained the directions, hoping that he could make sense of them. 

"Thanks." Jackson huffed before turning on his heels back in the direction he came from. 

"Wait, is it true you football tackled someone in the ER today?" Hannah called after him. Jackson paused turning back to look at her again. 

"Yeah played college football."

"What was your jersey number?" She couldn't help herself, an innate part of her needed to know the answer to this question. 

"17." Hannah smiled as she let him go this time around. The number 17 did always seem to follow her everywhere.