chapter twenty-one ━ supporting friends
( season seven, episodes seven & eight )

❝I'm little and fourteen years younger
than Mark. I learned how to play dirty
at a very early age.❞

ELLIE WALKED INTO the resident's lounge and saw Cristina sitting alone. She set down her belongings before sitting down beside her. "Hey."

"Hi."

"How are you?" Ellie asked gently. "I know people have asked you that many times already, but really... how are you?"

"Honestly?" Ellie nodded. "I don't know if I can do this. Any time I step foot in an OR, my heart races, and my palms sweat. What kind of surgeon can I be if I can't even go into an OR?"

Ellie sighed. "I think they've been pushing you too hard," she said with a shrug. "I think that if they really want to help, they'd let you go at your own pace."

"If only."

She looked at the defeated resident and let out a breath. "How about this? After work, we go to Joe's, I'll buy you a drink and you can tell me anything and everything on your mind. I'm a great listener."

"Really?"

Ellie nodded. "We haven't talked much since we've gotten here, but I like you, Cristina. You're determined and you know what you want, even if you're a little mean sometimes. But I would hate to see a resident like you disappear."

"Thank you."

She smiled and rubbed her shoulder before changing into her scrubs and walking to the skills lab the residents were required to attend, arriving at the same time as Meredith. "Am I early?" she asked. "I tried really hard not to be."

"That doesn't bode well," Jackson said as Ellie stood next to him.

"We did the same thing with Bailey when we were interns," Alex told them. "Take turns treating a dummy, get an early lunch, then get back to work. It's lame."

Just then, Owen ran into the lab with an armful of trauma gowns. "Charter plane was forced into an emergency landing and collided with a greyhound. Mass-casualty situation." He looked at the residents. "Do I need to say it again? Let's move." The residents scrambled to grab a gown before running after him. "Close to thirty victims in the field, some critical. Multiple blunt trauma injuries."

The residents stopped at the sight in front of them, looking around at all the dummies. Jackson sighed. "And I was so looking forward to an early lunch."

Ellie smiled. "Ooh, fun."

☀️

"WELCOME TO TRAUMA certification." Owen divided the residents into groups. "You will work in teams of four. Blue team, you have an extra person. Each team will be responsible for nine casualties. You may treat your patients using only what you can carry with your two hands from this ambulance. The evac helicopter is on its way. You get your patients on the helicopter, you get certified. Are you ready?" They all nodded. "Get to work."

Ellie, being smaller than most of the residents, squeezed through many of them and grabbed as many supplies as she could. Alex looked at her. "How did you do that?"

"I'm little and fourteen years younger than Mark," she replied. "I learned how to play dirty at a very early age."

Alex nodded, impressed with the blonde. "Respect."

The residents started to work on the dummies and April began reading off a list. "According to this card, this guy's got a blown right pupil, an atlantocipital dislocation, open-book pelvis, a large open abdominal wound — jeez! — a sucking chest wound with seven broken ribs." Ellie and Meredith glanced at each other. "This guy is all messed up."

"Or he's dead," the two blondes said in union.

"Ah. Right. Yes. Moving on."

Out of the corner of her eye, Ellie saw Cristina standing in the ambulance bay watching the other residents. She handed her patient off to Jackson and started in the direction of Cristina. "Where are you going?" he asked, furrowing his brows.

"I'll be right back."

"Sloan, where are you going?" Owen asked, seeing the resident walk away.

Ellie pointed at Cristina and he nodded. She nudged her gently. "Hey. You look too tense. Everything okay?"

"Shouldn't you be doing this?"

Ellie shrugged. "They'll be fine without me for a bit. You look like you have on your mind. What's wrong?"

"I shouldn't have been left alone," Cristina said. "It was a mistake leaving me alone."

"No, it wasn't," Ellie contradicted softly. "You're a very capable woman, Cristina. You operated under dire circumstances, circumstances that should have never been thought imaginable. But that doesn't mean that you're any less capable. Now, is the patient stable?"

"Yes."

"Okay..." Ellie nodded. "And... if he needed a chest tube. What would you do?"

"Cut a one-inch slit and insert it by the ribs," Cristina answered.

Ellie smiled softly. "See? You have nothing to worry about. And if you ever did need help, then there are plenty of attendings in this hospital who would be more than willing to help."

Cristina took in a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah. You're right."

Ellie gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze before returning to her certification, passing Owen. "Thank you," he said.

She nodded with a small smile. She continued to work on her patient, glancing occasionally at Cristina who suddenly looked more freaked when she looked down at her pager. Owen watched her go with a sigh.

"Sloan."

Ellie looked up at the trauma attending. "Yeah?"

"I'm certifying you," he said. "Can you help Cristina with her patient?"

Ellie glanced at the door that she had gone through and knitted her brows together. "Well, did she ask for help?"

"Ellie." She looked up at his soft tone. "Please."

She saw the concern on his face and nodded. "Okay."

"Thank you."

☀️

AFTER WALKING THROUGH a few hallways in the hospital, Ellie finally found Cristina in an x-ray room. "Hey."

She looked away from the scans at the blonde. "What are you doing?"

"Owen thought you might like another pair of hands," Ellie replied, putting on a vest. "You don't have to use me, but I'm here in case you do. Now, who's this?"

"Roy Henley," Cristina said. "He went into cardiogenic shock, so I'm inserting an intra-aortic balloon pump and hoping there are no other complications before Teddy gets back."

"Okay."

"Um, actually..." Cristina looked at Ellie. "His daughter is up in ICU and needs an update..."

"I can do that," Ellie said with a nod. "I'll be right back. And Cristina? I'm not here to be a babysitter. I'm just here in case you need a hand, that's all."

"Thanks."

Ellie took off her vest before going up to the ICU and finding a woman in the hall. "Are you Roy Henley's father?"

"Yes. How is he?"

"He's stable for now," Ellie informed the daughter. "Um, Dr. Yang is inserting an intro-aortic balloon pump to help his heart until Dr. Altman comes back with his new one."

The daughter nodded. "So, he really needs this new heart?"

"Yes."

"So, if Dr. Altman doesn't get this new heart, is that, like, game over on the lung transplant?" she asked.

"Well, there are a variety of factors."

She nodded. "Okay. Uh, where are we on the heart?"

"We have not yet received a call from Dr. Altman," Ellie said. "As soon as we do, we'll give you that update. Right now, she could either be in surgery getting the heart, or she just landed and is about to go into surgery."

"Alright. Uh, when can I see him?"

"As soon as Dr. Yang finishes. I'm sorry I don't have more information. I'm new to your father's case and Dr. Yang is—"

"I called him Roy."

Ellie raised her eyebrows. "I'm sorry?"

"I decided to do that on the drive over 'cause I hadn't seen him in twenty years, and I want to blame him for that. Except... he tried. He tried to be... my dad in the beginning. And... I couldn't forgive him for leaving my mom. And then he stopped trying. And... I have twins. They're three. And I don't even know if he knows that. I never told him. And then... and then I walked in there... and I called him Roy. I called my dad Roy. And I just... I need for that to not be the last thing he hears from me. Please."

Ellie nodded. "As soon as find out anything, you'll be the first to know, okay?"

"Thank you."

Ellie smiled and returned to Roy's room. "Okay, his daughter is updated," she said. "Where are we now?"

"Um, checking his levels, and—" Cristina lifted the blanket revealing that his legs had turned blue and Ellie's eyes went wide.

"Crap."

A short time later, Ellie was on the phone with Teddy. "Alright. Look, get him on Ecmo. That should keep him alive until I get back with these lungs. There is a shot that once we get them in, the heart damage will reverse without the excess pressure."

Ellie nodded, watching Cristina and a nurse bring a large machine into Roy's room. "Okay, Cristina is on it. She's bringing the machine in."

"Sloan... how's she doing?"

"She... she's doing well, all things considered. She's trying."

"Good, good."

☀️

"HE'S STABLE?" ELLIE asked, walking back into Roy's room.

"He's critical," Cristina replied. "I have to keep, uh, checking his acid-base balance, but, yes, he's stable-ish for now. Can you go tell his daughter that his blood pressure is coming up?"

"Are you sure you don't want to?" Ellie asked gently. "You know this case better than anyone."

"I can't. Ellie, I can't." Cristina shook her head. "She shouldn't hear an update from me. All she wants is to make sure that I know that she's afraid, and I can't hear that right now... because I am scared enough as it is."

"Cristina—"

"I was scared when he coded," she continued. "I'm scared now that he's stable. I'm scared walking across the lobby. I am scared all the time."

Ellie sighed and sat down beside her. "That's normal, Cristina. That's all normal. Did you know that I still avoid that area of the ER? Where I was shot? I went there once. Just once. And I had a panic attack. Now if a nurse needs supplies, I send someone else. You aren't alone in this, Cristina. You may have been the one to operate on Derek, but you aren't alone. Please, please, know that."

"How do you seem so fine?"

Ellie smiled lightly. "Believe me, I'm not. I'm far from fine. But, I'm working on it. I was in psych because I couldn't comprehend that I had died. That two of my best friends had died. But it takes time. No one magically heals. What you went through... what everyone in that OR went through... it was traumatic. And you should take all the time you need to heal from that."

"You're the only one who isn't pushing me to do work."

Ellie shrugged. "Well, I don't think that would help anyone. It wouldn't help a patient, it wouldn't help you. You do this at your own pace, okay? Forget about the others and their expectations. You know you best."

She nodded as a nurse came in. "Dr. Altman is thirty minutes out. We need to get him to the OR."

"Can you do that?" Cristina asked Ellie and she nodded, watching the scared resident leave the room.

☀️

ELLIE FOUND CALLIE at the end of the day. "Hey, I'm sorry I didn't make it to your going away party. I was busy."

"Oh, it's fine," she replied. "You didn't miss much."

"I just wanted to say thank you," Ellie said. "For everything you've taught me, even if it hasn't been long. And for being Mark's friend. And also to say good luck in Africa. I think the two of you are gonna do great things there."

"Thank you, Little Sloan." Callie smiled softly. "You'll keep your brother in check for me?"

"You know I will."

Callie hugged her. "Good luck, Ellie. Make me proud. Become a badass ortho goddess. I expect to hear good things when I come back."

☀️

ELLIE SIPPED ON her iced coffee, walking into the hospital beside Jackson. "Hey, pizza night tonight?"

He looked over at her and nodded with a smile. "I'd like that. The usual?"

"You mean two pizzas and three orders of potstickers?" she asked and he nodded. "Obviously. I thought you knew me better, Avery."

"Right. Sorry, I asked. Hey, what's this thing we're doing this morning?"

"Oh, Dr. Altman is explaining her surgery on Roy Henley," Ellie replied. "We have to go. It's a requirement."

"Sounds boring."

"He's nice," Ellie said. "It just sucked that it pushed Cristina over the edge."

They quickly changed into their scrubs and joined their friends in the auditorium as Teddy began her presentation. "When a heart wasn't available, I oped to continue with Roy Henley's lung transplant..."

"It's all in your head," April told Jackson as he complained to the two girls.

"My name isn't on the OR board," he said and Ellie held her head in her hand. "I checked the schedule. Nobody wants to work with me, 'cause I'm not on anybody's service."

Ellie leaned toward him. "Okay. And what are you gonna do about it?"

"Do you know how many things I've screwed up in the last month?" he asked her and she rolled her eyes.

"Yes, because you call me every time you mess up. Just ask around, okay?"

"...suggested no pulmonary sepsis."

Alex walked in and Ellie immediately wrinkled her nose at the smell while Meredith looked at him. "You smell like you're sweating booze. Where have you been?"

"I want the weekend you had," Jackson said.

"What happens in Vegas, you know? Hey, who's Stark?" he asked. "I'm supposed to be on Stark's service."

"Oh, me, too," April replied, turning in her seat to look at him. "He's the new peds attending, since Robbins left."

Alex groaned. "Crap. I can't handle a bunch of sick kids today. I can't do it."

April looked back at him. "So, was it a bachelor party, or—"

"Shh," Meredith interrupted. "They're talking about Cristina."

The residents turned their attention back to the front. "It became clear to Dr. Yang that they were gonna need to switch modalities. The patient was put on ecmo..."

"And why did Dr. Yang opt to use the intra-aortic balloon pump over an r-vad?"

"I, um..." Teddy cleared her throat. "I can't answer for Dr. Yang."

"And why isn't she here?"

Teddy glanced at Owen. "She, um... she quit. She left the program."

"I'm sorry," Mark said. "What? She what?"

"Dr. Yang cleared the balloon pump with Dr. McQueen who agreed that it was best—"

"Go back," Mark interrupted and Ellie sunk further down in her seat. "Go back. Yang quit the program?"

Derek looked at him. "Yeah, where have you been?"

"Well, that's the first I've heard of it," he said. "Hunt, what the hell happened?"

Owen shrugged. "She told the chief she quit," he replied.

"Richard—"

Teddy let out a breath, trying to get the presentation back on track. "If we could just finish the presentation, then—"

"I have a question."

Ellie sighed and held her head in her hand. "Oh, boy..."

"Can you tell us about your decision to put Dr. Yang in charge of this patient?" Derek asked.

Teddy knitted her brows together. "Sorry?"

"But she didn't 'quit' quit, right?" Mark asked, now standing up and Ellie pinched the bridge of her nose. "Grey, you're joined at the hip. What'd she say?"

Meredith cleared her throat as all eyes went to her. "Uh, she hasn't spoken to me about it."

"Ellie?"

"Me neither," she said, pointing at his seat. "Sit down, Mark. Let Dr. Altman finish her presentation."

"Does Torres know anything about this?" Mark asked. "I'm calling Torres."

"No, don't—"

Teddy sighed. "Can we please just—"

"Look," Derek said and Ellie shook her head. "I guess I'm asking you, why did you choose to put Dr. Yang under so much pressure that day?"

"I didn't," Teddy replied. "I intended the opposite. I gave her a simple pre-op checklist on a stable patient."

"Stable patient?" Derek repeated.

Ellie turned around to look at Meredith. "I have never been more happy that I'm not actually related to him."

She chuckled. "He's still your brother," she reminded the blonde.

"He's your husband," Ellie retorted.

Meredith paused. "Touché."

☀️

ELLIE AND LEXIE were looking over charts when April and Jackson joined them. "Ellie, Grey, who are you with?" he asked.

"Derek."

"Shepherd."

Jackson groaned. "Damn it. I've already blown it with Shepherd. I can't ask him. Uh..." Ellie rolled her eyes and he snapped his fingers. "Bailey. I haven't blown it with her yet."

Lexie looked at Jackson in confusion. "He thinks no one wants to work with him," Ellie explained and Lexie nodded.

"Are they saying that or are you saying that?" she asked.

Jackson turned to April. "Who are you with again?"

"Karev." Ellie looked at April who shook her head. "Uh, I mean Stark."

"No, you mean Karev," Jackson said. "And you don't want to go there."

April frowned. "You don't know where I'm going."

"He's right," Lexie said, putting away the chart. "You don't want to go there."

"I'm not—I'm not going anywhere," April stammered, turning red in the face.

"He's not the guy for you," Lexie continued. "Okay? Trust me." She looked at Jackson. "And don't be paranoid. Trust me on that, too. Let's go find Shepherd, Ellie."

Ellie flashed a peace sign to her friends and followed the brunette. They found Derek in an on-call room and his face appeared in the crack of the door. "But I don't understand," Lexie said in confusion. "We're on your service."

Ellie nodded. "And you forced me to join you."

"I don't need you two," Derek replied and Ellie crossed her arms. "The craniotomy's been cancelled. I don't have anything for the rest of the day."

"What are we supposed to do?" Lexie asked.

Derek shrugged. "Go study."

"Study what?" Ellie questioned.

"I don't care," Derek said. "Ellie, Lexie, go somewhere else."

Derek closed the door and Ellie let out a breath, looking at the brunette to her left. "You do know he's in there with Meredith, right?"

Lexie sighed with a nod. "Yeah, I'm trying not to think about that."

"Hmm." Ellie hummed before shrugging. "Coffee?"

"Please."

☀️

THE TWO RESIDENTS joined their friends for lunch after their coffee date and Alex shot a pingpong ball at Lexie as she sat. "Ow!" she exclaimed. "Okay, since when is it okay to shoot people in this hospital?"

"Now, Bailey's given up on me, too," Jackson told Ellie and April before the blonde could reply to Lexie.

She sighed. "You're on her service," Ellie said. "Why are you still freaking out?"

Jackson shook his head. "No. Bailey's in surgery. She trusts me to watch her post-op drip fluid into a bag every ten minutes." Alex shot Jackson. "Ow!"

Lexie frowned at Alex. "Okay, inappropriate."

"You need to relax," Ellie said, turning back to Jackson. "You get an easy day, take it. Derek didn't need me or Lexie, so we got a coffee and then took a nap in the research library."

Lexie wrestled the pingpong gun out of Alex's hands. "Give me—Give it to me." She shot at him and he flinched.

"Jerkface."

"He's having a rough day," April explained to the group. "New Robbins is no Robbins."

Meredith walked up to them with a man behind her. "Check this out — armed escort to get a yogurt."

"Okay, who is it?" Lexie asked her sister, everyone having heard about the VIP patient that Meredith was working on. "Is it Bono?"

"It's totally Bono," April said with a smile. "It's all over the hospital."

Meredith shook her head. "It's not Bono."

Ellie looked at her. "Are you going to Cristina's tonight?" she asked, holding up her phone at the text invite she had received.

"I don't know." Lexie shot a ball at Meredith. "Okay... not okay."

Lexie laughed. "Okay, that's addicting."

"Put it away before my guy wrestles you to the ground," Meredith warned her sister, gesturing to the man standing behind her.

Alex looked at the ball. "Gimme that."

"No."

"Gimme the ball."

Alex took hold of the pingpong ball before nodding to himself and walking away. Meredith watched his retreating figure. "What's his problem?" she asked.

"Rough day."

The man behind Meredith cleared his throat and she looked at him. "Jeez, I'm coming."

Lexie pointed the gun at the man's back and shot a ball at him. He turned around and everyone pointed at Lexie who put down the gun and raised her hand. Ellie pursed her lips and buried her face in Jackson's shoulder, trying not to laugh.

☀️

ELLIE STOOD BESIDE Jackson at Owen and Cristina's housewarming party when she felt him nudge her. She looked up at him and he pointed at April who was crying in front of Owen.

"April?" she asked, furrowing her brow and walking over to the redhead with Jackson. "Hey, hey, what's wrong? What happened?"

"Alex," April choked out. "H—He..."

"He what?" Jackson asked, his tone and expression angry.

April looked behind her and they followed her gaze and saw Alex standing next to the snack table. Before Ellie could stop him, Jackson walked over to him and punched him. Once he stood up, Jackson punched him again before Owen and Mark restrained them both.

Meredith and Callie took Alex outside and Lexie stayed with April while Ellie followed Owen, Mark, and Jackson into the kitchen. "Everyone, out," she said, ushering the older men out of the kitchen and taking an ice pack out of the freezer. "Well, that was very noble of you, Jackie, but punching?"

"It's April," he replied quietly. "She's our best friend and he hurt her."

Ellie sighed. "I know that," she said. "But you're also a surgeon. You need your hands. That's why kicking is always my go-to." She stretched out his fingers and he winced. "Well, I don't think anything's broken, it's just bruised. Now, come on, Mr. Protective."

"Where are we going?" he asked as she dragged him out of the kitchen towards April.

"It's pizza night," she reminded him before taking April's hand. "You have quite the protective friend, Apes. Let's just hope you don't get fired."

"Not helping, Ellie!"

She smiled, starting to chuckle when the other two joined in. She wrapped her arms around them. "Come on. I'm hungry."