S2 EP6

NORAH SAT OPPOSITE Webber in his office with a pen in her hand. She could feel her palm getting numb from scribbling and writing on the many papers and documents for her transfer. It did take her by surprise the amount of paperwork that needed to be filled and signed.

With the final signature placed, she set down the pen and handed the document to the Chief of Surgery. "That is... a lot of paperwork," she commented, mainly trying to break the awkward air in the room.

"I agree," Webber replied.

There was a knock on the door, and it swung open; there stood a woman with a pale yellow shawl around her shoulders, who was staring at the chief with dagger eyes.

"Chief, I am supposed to be home early tonight," she grumbled, her heels clicking on the floor.

"Dr Bailey, this is Dr Lawrence, your new intern," Webber introduced.

Norah got up from the chair and turned to the resident. "Hello, Dr Bailey. I'm Norah Lawrence. Nice to meet you." Her extended hand was left hanging between them, causing the intern to clear her throat awkwardly, "...Or not?"

"Did anyone tell you what they call me here?" Bailey asked; Norah gave her a delayed nod. "I don't care what medical experience you had before, you're new here, and your shift will start tomorrow and lasts for 48 hours," Bailey informed. "Are we clear?"

"Crystal."

"I'll keep it short. I have five rules. Memorise them-"

"Got it."

Bailey glared at the new intern, who returned a hesitant smile. "Make that six. The sixth one is not to interrupt me when I speak."

Norah nodded. Nazi indeed, she thought grimly.

"Rule number one, don't bother sucking up. I already hate you. That's not gonna change..."

As Bailey went on with her rules with speed, Norah kept her mouth shut and nodded along with her words. The resident left shortly after, leaving the new intern and the chief in the office.

"How are you feeling?" Webber queried.

"Quite pleasant."

"This isn't your first time as an intern?"

"Nope," Norah replied, shaking her head slightly.

"Well, keep in mind that this hospital is highly competitive. And although your med school results and previous internship showed that you're well-qualified, I advise you to be at the top of your game at every second."

"I won't disappoint, Chief."

Just as Norah was about to leave for the night, the news on TV caught her attention. Webber picked up the TV remote and turned up the volume.

"A massive train wreck occurred just outside of Seattle minutes ago. The Vancouver-bound train was carrying over 300 passengers. Paramedics are on scene helping victims..."

Webber let out a long sigh, turning to the intern. "Well, Dr Lawrence, can you start your shift immediately?"

❦ ❦ ❦

"NORAH?" A VOICE CALLED from behind the brunette as she tied the knot of the trauma gown around her waist.

"Oh, hi," Norah greeted. "Guess my shift starts now."

"You're the new kid?" a guy asked; Norah frowned at his smirk. "I'm Alex, Alex Karev."

"Norah Lawrence. And I'm not a kid. I could read before you even existed."

The other interns snickered at him while they helped each other to put on the yellow gowns. Bailey walked towards them and pulled a trauma gown from the rack, handing her purse to Alex. "Let's move, people."

"Hello. I seem to be a little bit drunk," Meredith smiled, "I was off duty."

"So was I," Bailey scowled. "Anybody else half in the bottle?" she questioned, receiving 'no's and shaking heads from the other interns. "Alright then. Grey, just stay out of the way. I'll deal with you later."

Meredith returned with a drunken nod, and Bailey turned to the rest of her interns. "The rest of you, stick with me and wait for your assignments. Now you get all aquiver at the sight of blood and organs, but it's gonna be a long night and you already tired... Lawrence, I do hope that you, of all people, are not tired?"

"Not at all," Norah responded with a firm nod. "Awake and energised, ready to-I'll shut up now."

"Good, at least I have one good brain to use," Bailey mumbled under her breath before her voice raised to her interns again. "I don't want any mistakes. Come on."

The resident pushed the door open and led the interns into the ER. Norah's eyes widened at the scene; this was unlike any trauma she had seen before.

The ER was full of victims from the train wreck, where there were close to no vacant beds. There were still many gurneys getting sent in by the paramedics. Patients were everywhere; the sight of blood and bones were... everywhere.

"I'm so not tired anymore," Cristina stated, her face already freshening up.

"Me neither," said George, "I'm not tired either."

"I've got a third-trimester burn victim here," a doctor with red hair announced. "Dr Bailey, I'm gonna need some help."

Norah, Cristina, George and Izzie immediately put up their hands; they were all eager to assist the case. Surgical junkies, Norah thought, standing behind them and was not quite able to peek at the new cases.

"Izzie, go."

Norah caught the sight of a male with a severed leg, screaming in agony. Her hand shot up immediately but got beaten by Cristina by a mere second.

"Yang, he's yours," Bailey instructed, and Cristina sent a smug look to Norah as she hurried to the patient.

The two interns, George and Norah, stood in the middle of the ER while Meredith was still standing against the wall. Norah scanned the patients before her eyes while being alert of the ER entrance at the same time, eager to jump in on the next gurney wheeled in. Big case or not, she was not going to be picky tonight.

"Was that a nod?" she heard George ask. She turned to her side to see him talking to Meredith.

"Yes," Meredith replied.

"Do we know what it meant?" George queried again.

"No."

Meredith caught the brunette's curious look, and with the help of the alcohol in her system, she blurted out their conversation. "I slept with an attending," she admitted, "who happens to be married. And I had a whole speech yesterday, practically asking him to pick me over his wife..."

Norah blinked in surprise. "Wow, that's... a tad complicated... Was the bloke hot, at least?"

"He's McDreamy," Meredith chimed, and her smile soon faded again. "And I'm a dirty mistress."

George shook his head with a sigh. "Eh. Well, life's short," the brunette merely shrugged.

Just then, the patient-or rather, patients-that came through the ER doors caught the interns' attention. An older man and a young blonde woman were on a gurney together, a metal pole sticking through their abdomens.

"Holy crap..." Norah's eyes widened twice their sizes; even the thought of the surgeries involved in that case gave her an adrenaline rush.

That was when she knew she had picked the right hospital for her internship.

❦ ❦ ❦

"IS THERE ANYONE you'd like us to call?" Norah asked Tom and Bonnie, who were getting wheeled slowly towards the X-ray room.

"No, they called my wife from the ambulance," Tom responded.

"And my fiancé," Bonnie added with her best smile. "They're flying down from Vancouver together."

"Normally, Amanda would be a tad upset to find me pressed up against another woman," he joked, trying to ease the tension. "But in this case, I think I'll get a pass.

"You two weren't travelling together?" George asked.

"No," Bonnie replied, "We just met."

"Wow," Norah voiced, staring between the two. "That's..."

"Bit of an awkward introduction," Tom finished her sentence grimly.

"You have very nice pores," Bonnie chuckled before turning to the intern. "You seem pretty young, don't you?"

"Me? I'm not that young, honestly," Norah smiled. "I might be one of the oldest interns in this hospital."

"Then you'd know what to say if I ask to know how... severe our injuries are?" Bonnie asked. Tom, too, had turned his eyes to look at the brunette intern, both waiting for a reply.

Norah debated with herself about what she should say to them while George slowly got them to the front of the X-ray scans queue. A pole through their abdomens, anyone would expect the worst in this scenario.

"To say that you'll be just fine would be an obvious lie," Norah kept a smile on her face, "I would never know how you both are feeling right now, but I can assure you that every staff in this hospital will make sure to give you two our very best care."

Bonnie sniffled back a tear and gave the intern a soft smile. "Thank you," she said, right before they were pushed to the machine for scans.

Norah and George waited for the scans anxiously; the former tapped her foot while the latter picked on his nails. It took a good half hour for them to capture all the needed angles, then the interns paged their resident and attendings.

In the CT room, George and Norah leaned towards the computer screen. They were both squinting at the scans; neither could quite believe what they were viewing.

"Is... Is it going straight through her spine?" George asked, slightly baffled.

"T8's completely crushed, isn't it?" Norah added.

"That does not look good," he commented.

"If it 'looks good', it wouldn't be in a hospital," Norah muttered back, and George just stared at her. "Just saying, you know?"

"Lawrence, do not joke about-"

"Dr Lawrence?" a voice interrupted Bailey. Norah lifted her head from the scans, and her eyebrows shot up in shock. "What a surprise seeing you here."

"You two know each other?" Bailey questioned before Norah could speak up, looking back and forth between the new intern and the attending.

"New York," the both of them replied in unison. Derek gave her a brief grin as she was still stunned by the appearance of her ex-mentor.

"Why is everyone coming from New York?" Meredith groaned, shaking her head, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

Norah looked at her, then at Derek, who stared at Meredith with concerned eyes. It did not take her long after that to connect the dots; the connection left her even stunned than she already was. Holy crap-McDreamy.

"You're redoing your intern year?" George whispered to her, snapping her out of her mind that was spinning in shock.

"Oh, um, well... Something like that."

❦ ❦ ❦

"SO, ANY NEWS?" George asked while drawing Meredith's blood, "About..."

"No," she sighed out, "I can't read him."

"You know, I think it's pretty amazing you even gave him the choice," he stated sincerely. "And I think, for what it's worth, I think he's crazy if he doesn't pick you."

"The attending you slept with is Derek Shepherd?" Norah piped in suddenly, "Like, actually Derek Shepherd?" Meredith nodded. "So, is... Montgomery-Shepherd also here?"

Meredith nodded again, and Norah leaned back on her chair. "Damn. That's one crazy hospital drama," the latter claimed.

"And I'm the villain in that story," Meredith added bitterly.

"So wait, Norah, if you don't mind me asking," George started, "Did you um... failed your intern exam, that's why you decided to come to Seattle to... start over?"

Norah stared at him for a moment; both George and Meredith were waiting for her answer. "I guess you could say that," she shrugged.

Cristina rushed up to them from behind, looking anxious and in a hurry. "Please tell me you've seen a right leg," she asked urgently, "A cleanly severed right leg?"

The three other interns looked at each other, all shaking their heads. "No."

Cristina let out a frustrated groan, silently cursing at herself. "Severed leg lad not much fun of a case now, aye?" Norah teased.

The intern who was about to walk away shot the brunette a scowl. "I am beginning to hate you, new kid!" Cristina shouted as she hurried off in the other direction.

"How weird is this job?" Meredith questioned.

"Weird," George and Norah answered in unison.

❦ ❦ ❦

IT HAD BEEN MONTHS since Norah last scrubbed in on a surgery. As excited as she was about it, the surgery did not exactly have the most optimistic mood inside the OR-it was almost silent.

Nobody was talking, knowing that one of the patients would most likely be gone by the end of the surgery.

"This is messed up," Norah voiced out after dragging George into the OR with her, leaving the scrub room for Meredith and Derek.

"Messed up would be an understatement," George agreed as they got gowned up by the nurses. "We are killing her, aren't we?"

Norah sighed, "Feels like it."

"Hey, you two, stop talking and get here," Bailey ordered. The two interns immediately walked over to their resident, eager to help out in any way they could. "Lawrence, you're new, and I had not seen you in an OR yet, so you'll be helping aside; O'Malley, come hold-"

Before Bailey could finish her sentence, the monitors started to beep loudly. Everyone in the OR was alarmed. "Dr Shepherd, she's crashing!" the resident called out.

Derek entered the OR hurriedly, eyes fixed on the patients on the table. "What happened?"

"I just put them under," said the anesthesiologist.

"Pole must've shifted."

"I barely touched her," the anesthesiologist added defensively, "This isn't my fault."

What a wanker, Norah thought.

"It's nobody's fault," Burke interjected. "We'll need to remove her now if we're going to have a chance."

The surgical team had gotten divided into two for that surgery. Standing in groups, Burke gave instructions to cut the pole in two. George was tasked to hold the pole while Norah stood back and watched.

Trust has to be earned. That, she knew.

Bonnie was carefully slid off the pole, and the surgical team lowered her onto an operating table. The blood was gushing out her abdomen quicker than anticipated, but the surgeons got in action just as quick, too.

"Doctors, he's losing pressure."

Derek and Burke shared a look; both the attendings knew that Bonnie's rhythm was lost and that she had too low of a chance to survive. Deciding to save the possible life in the room, the surgeons left the table and changed their gloves, then rushed towards Tom.

Meredith's head snapped up, looking at the attendings helplessly. "What about her?" she questioned loudly, "We can't just abandon her!"

"Meredith," Norah tried, "she's-"

"We can't just abandon her!" Meredith stepped up and started trying to revive Bonnie's heart by hand. "She doesn't deserve to be abandoned!"

Norah shook her head and sighed. "Ugh-screw this." She walked over to the other side of the table and started to help Meredith revive Bonnie's heart.

She knew that the patient on the table was far beyond saving, but for some reason, Meredith's words had got to her. Nobody deserves to be abandoned.

"Dr Grey!" Bailey yelled, "Dr Lawrence!"

"We cannot just abandon her!" Meredith cried out, "We have an obligation!"

"Uh, this is me helping aside, Dr Bailey," Norah defended, feeling a flush of heat from her back that her resident was going to stab her with a scalpel on her first day here.

Bailey walked over to her interns while the rest continued saving Tom; eventually, Norah, too, had finally given up and lifted her hands away from Bonnie.

"Meredith, come on, there was too much damage," Bailey tried, nudging the blonde's arm. "There was never anything we could do. We have to let her go." Meredith looked at Bailey, shocked and upset as the monitor flat-lined.

"Time of death 3:49," Bailey noted, before returning to the other table.

Norah and Meredith stood opposite each other, the latter breathing heavily at the patient they had lost. "Are you okay?" Norah asked; Meredith could not reply, staring at Bonnie's now-lifeless body on the table.

"Grey, Lawrence, close her up," Derek instructed from across the OR. Norah gave him a nod but was cut off from her resident interjecting.

"Hey, what-no," Bailey disagreed. "Grey is not... Grey, right now. And Lawrence is new!"

"This is a teaching hospital, Dr Bailey. And Lawrence is not new. She was one of my hand-picked students back in New York," Derek stated while Norah stood awkwardly at her spot between the two operating tables. "You'd be surprised how well an intern can stitch someone up. It's not like you're giving her anything to do in this OR, are you?"

Bailey was about to speak up but lowered her head back down to Tom, shaking her head disapprovingly. "Lawrence," Derek called; Norah's head snapped up at once, "Close her up, stitch her well, and make her look... presentable."

Norah turned back to the table as the nurse brought the surgical instruments to her side. "Presentable was never the word, Shepherd."

Derek merely sighed; George narrowed his eyes and whispered to Bailey, "Did she just straight call him 'Shepherd' to his face?"

"O'Malley," Bailey snapped, "Save the patient and leave your questions somewhere else!"

❦ ❦ ❦

IN THE INTERNS' LOCKER room, Norah, Meredith, George and Izzie sat next to each other quietly. Everyone was too drained to talk, maybe except Norah, but she was still new and had no idea how to strike a conversation with them.

Alex put on his white coat and left the room, with Cristina glaring daggers at him. The latter, too, walked over and sat down; no words, nothing.

The door swung open, and Bailey stepped in, looking at her tired interns on the bench. "Better get cleaned up," she said in a slightly warmer tone than usual. "Rounds. Five minutes."

The interns stiffened a yawn and dragged themselves back up to their lockers. Norah got up, too, stretching her back. "Lawrence," Bailey called, nudging her head to get the intern outside.

The brunette stepped out of the locker room and stood in front of the resident. There was a strong aura coming from the shorter surgeon, which made the brunette feel like she was about to get yelled at-

"You clearly had a history with Shepherd," Bailey said instead, flipping through the clipboard in her hand, "You have or had anything going on with Shepherd?"

"Oh, no. No, god no-definitely not. He's married," Norah clarified. Bailey cocked a brow at the intern, who had just realised how stupid she just sounded. "Pretend I never said that last part."

"I don't care," the resident deadpanned. "Rounds in four. Your 48 hours isn't over yet." Norah nodded and turned back to the room, not before Bailey stopped her again. "And Lawrence, you did... close up the patient well."

Norah grinned back at her broadly. "Thank you, Dr Bailey."

"That is not a compliment."

As the resident walked away, Norah re-entered the locker room, only to find the other interns who had eavesdropped on their conversation out of curiosity.

"That was totally a compliment," Izzie muttered, "And from Dr Bailey. I am officially jealous of you, new kid."

"I need to rid off that bloody nickname," Norah shot the blonde a tired glare as she shrugged on her white coat. "I may look tired, but these are my best I'm-gonna-murder-you-and-toss-you-off-a-ferryboat eyes, for now."

Cristina snorted aloud as she rounded the lockers, standing next to the new intern with a smirk on her face. "Thank god you're just as dark as we are," she clapped the brunette on the shoulder, "Sweetheart, you'll fit in just fine."