S5 EP3

"LISTEN UP, EVERYONE," Webber spoke through the microphone, "We're busy people, so I'm gonna try and be brief. I am implementing a new teaching protocol here at Seattle Grace. Some of these rules are new, and some are old and are going to be newly enforced."

Whispers passed along throughout the auditorium as the chief continued, "First, second and third-year residents will no longer be allowed to de facto specialise. The practice interferes with the development of a fully-rounded surgical education. No more."

"Crap, this is gonna suck," Norah grumbled while he chuckled softly beside her.

"Personal relationships, personal loyalties and personal favourites will no longer be a factor in our training program. Attendings, you will spread your wealth of knowledge equally among all of the residents. In addition, we will refocus our attention on patient communication and bedside manner."

Mark furrowed his brows at the chief's words. "Okay-this is gonna suck."

"For some of us, this means learning the lost art of humanity and compassion. For others, this means learning how to treat patients without becoming emotionally involved with them. This is a surgical program. Psychiatry is on the fifth floor. Let's not confuse the two."

"Is he..."

...referring to a specific someone? "Yup."

"In addition, residents, your interns reflect on you. If they fail, you fail. If they succeed, you succeed. Attendings, that goes for residents as well. Teach with enthusiasm, learn with enthusiasm. We are surgeons. We cut out malignancies," Webber finished, "Let's start at home, people."

❦ ❦ ❦

"JACK O'BRIEN, 47," CRISTINA presented, "Scheduled for an abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. His last CT showed calcification. So I ordered a CT angio to determine if it had worsened or remained stable."

"Nice catch, Yang," Hahn nodded, quickly scanning through the patient's charts. "You can take him down after rounds."

"Dr Lawrence will take over," Webber interjected, and Norah looked at him in surprise. "Dr Yang, you're done here. Thank you."

Hahn glanced towards the chief, then to the brunette resident. "I'll do fine with Lawrence."

Cristina looked pissed at Webber as she handed the patient's charts to Norah grumpily; the latter shrugged in response.

❦ ❦ ❦

"HOW'RE YOU DOING IN there, Mr O'Brien?" Norah asked through the speaker.

"Could be worse," the patient answered, "Could have brain leaking from my ears."

"It'll only take a couple more minutes," she informed. "Hang in there."

"It's not like I can go anywhere."

Norah chuckled at his reply while she leaned against the chair in the CT room. Kirian, who was in the room with her, was bouncing his leg while they waited for Mr O'Brien's scans to show up. The hallway outside the room was buzzing with chats and conversations.

"Have you had a thought of what to specialise in?" Kirian asked.

Norah turned to him with a raised brow. "I'm an indecisive person," she stated, "so I'm quite open to all options, really."

"Word is, all options except plastics," the intern mentioned. "Why not plastics?"

"Lack of interest," she sighed, thinking about the number of times she had answered a question similar to this one. "What about you?"

"Plastics," Kirian replied definitely.

The resident let out a snort-like chuckle, looking amused. "You better start sucking up to Sloan, then."

"Well, see, that's gonna be a problem," he sighed, sinking back in his seat. "I think he already hates me for-you know-having a drink with you the other night." His demotivated look made her snicker.

Suddenly, the CT machine started to sizzle; bright lights flashed as the water droplets from the ceiling fell onto the machine, causing the resident and intern to jump up from their seats. "Holy crap-wow-I mean, Rook, page the chief!"

❦ ❦ ❦

"I QUIT MY SHRINK."

"Congratulations." Norah placed her lunch tray on the table, sitting opposite Meredith and adjacent to Cristina.

Meredith shrugged. "I'm happy. We're happy."

"Can I sit here?" Lexie asked as she took the seat next to Norah. The latter raised a brow at the stressful look on the intern's face while she peeled off the crusts of her sandwiches.

George entered the cafeteria, sighing, and Lexie immediately perked up. "George! George!" she waved for him to come to them, "How did it go?"

The man in question shook his head as he struggled to find his words, finally dropping his head on the table. "There's a water problem. And I'm just trying to help the chief," he grumbled, "Now... Now the medical facts are falling out of my ear..."

"Eat this," Lexie spoke up, feeding George something from her tray, "It's brain food."

"Hey, my aneurysm guy fell in the water, smacked his head, then the CT machine was fried with him in it," Norah shared, biting off her sandwich. "He's a magnet for misfortunes-kinda like me, now come to think of it..."

"Well, my patient's dying," Meredith sighed. "I hate it when I like them, and they're dying."

"Our guy's been living in pain at a constant eight the last seven years because of an inflamed nerve in his nose," Lexie joined it. "It's crazy!"

"Sloan's on the case?" Norah queried, and the intern nodded.

"I wish I had an inflamed nerve in my nose," George groaned in frustration.

"There is no way that guy's been living at an eight. He's a wimp," Cristina scoffed, "His eight? My three. I can take pain."

"You can't talk to my boyfriend for ten minutes," Meredith cocked a brow at her.

"There's pain, and then there's torture," Cristina grimaced. "I can take pain. Test me."

Alex started licking his fingers while he stood up. He reached for Cristina's hand and smacked it-hard-but the latter did not budge. "Impressive," he nodded.

"Shut up," George narrowed his eyes at Alex, "You barely touched her."

Alex immediately got up and smacked both George and Meredith in the forearm, both of them yelping in pain. He made eye contact with Norah and was about to reach for her hand-but finally decided against it and sat back down.

"How did you diagnose that nerve?" Cristina asked the intern, "Because I've never heard of that condition."

"I remembered an article from the British Journal of ENT," Lexie replied, "It was issue 47, page 19, from 1964." The others stared at her, impressed yet baffled. She spoke up hesitantly, "A photographic memory..."

"Dude," Alex smirked, "Lexipedia."

❦ ❦ ❦

"YOU CAN OPEN THAT retractor up a little more if you wanna get a better look," Hahn stated as she and Norah worked on Mr O'Brien in the OR; Kirian assisted next to the resident. "Just make sure you keep the small bowel inside. I wanna avoid a post-op ileus."

"That'd be good for him," Norah commented, "Man's a magnet for misfortunes."

"Well, that sounds overly dramatic," Hahn commented.

"The tripped on water, hit his head, then got stuck in the CT machine," Kirian recalled, "All in an hour."

A drip of water fell on the attending's head. "What's that?" she questioned, just as more water started to drip on the operating area.

Bailey knocked on the thick glass up in the gallery, gaining the surgeons' attention. Norah frowned as she vaguely made out the words that the Chief Resident was repeating: Move the patient. Norah followed her gaze and looked up to the ceiling, only to see a big crack with more and more water droplets leaking down to them.

Suddenly, the crack on the ceiling tore larger, and it started to fall on them. Norah immediately bent over to cover the open abdomen of Mr O'Brien's body, shielding his internal organs from the water that was pouring on her back. Kirian had broken scrub and lunged himself forward, too, covering both the patient and the resident.

"Is everyone okay?" Hahn questioned after the OR seemed to be still once again, "How's the patient?"

"He's stable."

"Rook, go get yourself checked up," Norah ordered her intern, "That was some solid ceiling boards."

"But-"

"Kirian, now," she snapped before her expression softened, "And thank you."

The intern nodded and left the OR just as Bailey entered. "How can I help?" she asked.

"Find the chief and tell him what happened," Hahn replied, staring at the mess around them; there were fallen chunks and definitely lots of dust everywhere which would jeopardise the patient's well-being. "God, we need a new OR."

"They shut down the other ORs except for this one and Dr Sloan's," one of the scrub nurses informed.

"I'll get the OR," Norah volunteered, and the attending nodded.

The resident headed out of the OR while the others in the room prepared the patient for transport. She hurried down the hallway and pushed open the door, grabbing a mask hastily before entering the OR.

"Dr Sloan, we need the OR!"

Everyone in the room turned their attention to her. Cristina narrowed her eyes at her drenched gown; Derek did a double-take. "What happened to you?" he questioned, "You're soaked."

"The, uh, ceiling collapsed on us," Norah replied with a sniff, "Literally."

"The what-?" Mark lifted his eyes from the patient and frowned at the sight of her. "Are you okay?"

"I am, but our patient is not," she replied hastily with a shiver, "He's a magnet of misfort-Mark, we need the OR!"

"Alright. You heard her, everyone. Let's move!"

❦ ❦ ❦

THE TEAM OF SURGEONS were working on Mr O'Brien's after the ceiling had collapsed, which scattered fragments of the ceiling board into his incision. Three attendings-none of them General surgeons-and a resident were thoroughly exploring the abdomen of the man whose luck seemed to be worse than a zero.

"Anybody see any more damage?" Hahn queried, "Any bleeding?"

"No bleeding. I cleared the lower left quadrant," Derek informed.

"Give me the pulse irrigator," Mark requested.

Norah furrowed her brows at the view inside the abdomen. "Dr Hahn, look at this... his pancreas," she pointed out, "Is that damage from the debris?"

"No, no," Hahn shook her head, "That's... a tumor."

Norah was not even surprised at that point. "Lad's a walking Friday the 13th," she sighed, "Well, lying, but-yeah, I'll shut up now."

She felt her nose getting itchy and runny. Oh god. She sniffed and shook her head before returning in assisting the surgery.

"You sure you're okay?" Mark asked with a whisper, his tone worried. Hahn looked between the two curiously; Derek was still focusing on the patient.

"Other than being showered in pipe water?" Norah raised a brow at him before nodding, "Yeah, pretty well."

❦ ❦ ❦

NORAH WALKED INTO THE interns' locker room, where most of the interns had started to go home. She rounded the corner and found her intern, who had just closed his locker door. "How's your back?" she asked.

Kirian turned to her with a grin on his face. "Just some bruising, that's all," he replied, "I don't even need days off."

The resident nodded. "That's great, then. Thanks again," she said before walking off, sniffing her runny nose.

"Hey, Dr Lawrence," he called out, "Drink?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Nice try, but I'm taken, Rook." The intern coughed out a snort, which she soon realised that he was messing with her. "See you tomorrow, Kirian. I'll take you off scut for the week."

As the intern pumped a fist in the air-followed by a hiss of pain-the resident chuckled, heading out of the room. Mark pushed himself off the wall when Norah walked out, joining her by her side.

"Ugh-damn bloody itchy nose, for god's sake..." She felt like sneezing every second, which irritated her a lot-until she finally sneezed and shivered. The cuss words flowed out from her mouth like a river as she rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Mark snorted at the sight of her and took off his leather jacket, holding it behind her. She stretched her arms into the sleeves, and he patted it down on her.

"My arms aren't that long," she sniffed again, lifting her arm in front of her face; only half of her four fingers were sticking out the cuff of the jacket's sleeve.

"Cute," he snickered, draping his arm around her shoulder as they left the hospital.

❦ ❦ ❦

S5 EP5

LUB DUB... LUB DUB... LUB DUB...

Mark was lying on the bottom bunk in the on-call room, with Norah napping soundly on his chest. Knowing how much of a light sleeper she was, he flipped the pages of the newly-published medical journal as quiet as he possibly could, but the fresh new pages were rather crispy.

However, the crispiness of the pages drowned away when the handle of the door clicked, and the door flew open. "God, I've been looking everywhere for you," Callie breathed out.

"Shhh-" Mark tried to shush her, but she had banged the door shut; Norah stirred on his chest, her arm tightening around his torso. "Really, Torres?" he sighed as Callie sat on the other end of the bed, "She was up till three last night, and I had an early morning palatoplasty."

"Whatever-"

"Oh, hey, you see this?" he asked, lifting the journal in his hands, "The Shepherd Method?"

"Yeah, yeah. Very impressive," Callie replied half-heartedly, "Listen, last night, Erica-"

"You think they airbrush these pictures?" Mark narrowed his eyes at Derek's face in the journal, "I mean, the man does not have one damn pore!"

"Could you focus? I need you right now," she deadpanned, yanking the medical journal away from him and sighing. "Last night, Erica and I... we... we did it-sort of..."

The plastic surgeon raised a brow curiously. "Congratulations."

"No. No, no," Callie shook her head, "It was not good at all... I choked."

"You choked?" Norah questioned as she stirred, slowly opening her eyes to take in the brightness.

Mark lowered his head to her and spoke in a softened voice, "You're awake?"

"Light sleeper. I was up when Callie decided to slam the door," she sighed as she sat up on the bed, "Oh, is that Derek's-"

"Hey, hey, listen-both of you!" Callie snapped at the pair. "I... couldn't go down there," she confessed, "I tried, but it just felt so weird and clinical-like gynie rotation." Norah rubbed her eyes as she listened attentively; Mark looked sick.

"I left this morning before she got up. I couldn't even face her," Callie sighed. "What if... What if me and Erica-what if we are a mistake?"

At this point, Mark looked more than disturbed. "You know, I'll leave this to you," he told his girlfriend, "I'm out." He pressed a kiss on Norah's neck before getting off the bed to grab his white coat from the coat stand.

"Where are you going?" Callie questioned.

"I can't talk about this," he answered.

"Oh, come on! Girl on girl-it's hot!"

"Two girls getting nasty and loving it? That's hot," Mark corrected with a shudder, "One girl talking about how much it sucked? Depressing-and wrong. Just wrong."

Norah sighed as he left the room. "You scared off my boyfriend," she turned to Callie, "You might be one of the firsts."

"You slept with women, right?" Callie asked. Norah nodded hesitantly, and the former smiled, "Help me out, please. I need many advice."

❦ ❦ ❦

"THE CHIEF WANTS US TO give George one of our interns?" Cristina questioned as the residents gathered in the locker room, preparing for their day.

"Except for Lawrence. She already lost O'Malley," Alex replied before shrugging, "Just dump your dead weight."

"They're all dead weight," Cristina deadpanned, "That's why I need all four, not three."

"Have them volunteer themselves," Norah suggested, "I'm sure all of them will be fighting to get away from you." Cristina scowled and her while she smirked back.

Norah lifted her head when the door opened. Lexie walked into the room holding a box of items and many colourful balloons. The other residents narrowed their eyes at her. "George is filling out paperwork, getting his real-life doctor wings," the intern informed cheerily, "So I thought now would be a good time to decorate his locker."

"Brilliant idea. I'll help," Norah stood up and walked towards the empty cubby next to hers. Lexie passed her half of the helium-filled balloons.

"Cinnamon or vanilla?" Lexie asked. "I just... couldn't decide between these two."

"Cinnamon, definitely."

❦ ❦ ❦

"HOLY CRAP, ARE YOU the Derek Shepherd?" Norah faked an awestricken look as she approached the attending. "I'm a huge fan of you, Dr Shepherd!"

"Very funny, Norah," he laughed, shaking his head, "Very funny, indeed."

"Have you seen your airbrushed-face on the cover?" she chuckled. "When I grab my copy of the journal in my cubby, I'm waiting for an autograph." The neurosurgeon rolled his eyes at her.

"Lawrence!" Bailey's voice rang from behind. Norah turned around to find the Chief Resident walking towards her with a large group of residents and interns following behind her. "Come with me."

"But I'm finally on Neuro today!" Norah protested but joined over reluctantly when Bailey started glaring daggers at her.

"Today is not about you. It is not about whose services you wish to be on. It's not about your career," Bailey informed as she turned to the group following her, "This is about me. This is a project I've been working on for a long time, and it's very important to me-therefore, it will be important to you."

The residents and interns looked at each other curiously.

"The only way we can pull this thing off is if we work together as a team," Bailey continued, "So, today, you are not fifteen individual doctors-you are one team of surgeons representing this hospital. Is everybody clear on that?"

Everyone nodded as they followed Bailey into the Clinic. "Dr Bailey, why do you need so many doctors for one surgery?" Norah queried.

"Because it's not just one surgery. It's twelve surgeries," Bailey announced as she pushed open the doors, "Six kidney transplants in six ORs, all at the same time."

Behind the doors revealed twelve patients, paired up and waiting for them. "Paired matching kidney donation. It's a six-way swap," she shared with a smile on her face, "Six people donate kidneys to total strangers, six people get kidneys from total strangers. Twelve people walk away happy."

"Paired matching kidney donations," Meredith repeated.

"Otherwise known as..."

"A domino surgery," Norah spoke in awe. Everyone had grins slowly growing on their faces as their excitement rushed in; Bailey had the happiest look among all of them.

❦ ❦ ❦

AFTER A LONG DAY OF family issues, relationship issues, and... many other issues that surfaced from the six pairs of donors and recipients, the domino surgery finally got a green light to get carried out. All six ORs were full of tension and excitement, as well as nervousness and uncertainty.

Nevertheless, the surgeries were successful.

"You dropped a kidney on the floor?" Norah questioned, her eyes wide.

Meredith sighed guiltily, "Yeah..."

"Dr Bailey quite literally yelled out a five-second rule," George added with a snort.

The group of residents and interns had just scrubbed out, gathering outside the hall as they went over the surgery which one another. There were still two teams of surgeons operating on the recipients, but exhilaration and relief had already filled the air.

"That was fucking insane," Timothy stated as he strode over to Norah, a mesmerising grin on his face. "Scrubbing in on a domino surgery? As an intern?" his smile widened, "Fucking insane."

"Nothing feels better than a good ol' adrenaline rush," Norah agreed before she started walking off. "I, have somewhere to be," she stated, and Timothy waved her off with a smirk.

Norah roamed down the hallway until she reached the room at the path. The door was unlocked, and the doorknob screaked when she twisted it. Mark was sitting on the bed with The Shepherd Method in his hand; seeing the delighted look on her face, a smile grew on him, too.

"The domino surgery was brilliant!" she exclaimed, her eyes glowing with stars.

"You look joyful," he stated as she seated on his thigh, "You sound joyful."

"My adrenaline is making me high."

"You know what can get you even more high?"

Ah, she recognised that suggestive smirk from anywhere.

❦ ❦ ❦

TIMOTHY STOOD IN THE interns' locker room alongside two other interns, who had gotten reassigned to their new resident, George O'Malley. George was giving them a short briefing while the interns listened.

"So, tomorrow we'll meet one hour before pre-rounds," he informed.

"Dude, that's like four a.m.," a female intern scoffed. "Dr Karev never made us come in before pre-rounds."

"Yeah, O'Malley, you gotta chill," another male intern added.

The two interns left the locker room, taking George's words more as a joke. Timothy narrowed his eyes at them and turned to George. "I'll be there," he voiced out, "Have a good night."

As he left the locker room, he passed by Lexie, who had a large frown on her face as she walked in.

"They probably should say Dr O'Malley," George sighed.

"So, those are your interns?" Lexie questioned, "Did you even ask for me?" She looked bewilderedly at him, yet he looked baffled. "I helped you study. I helped decorate your stupid locker, I-" she shook her head, "And you didn't... You don't even see it. You don't see anything.

"I am such an idiot..." her voice was shaky, "And you are a jerk. You didn't even think to ask for me?" George stood frozen at his spot as he struggled to form words, staring at the disbelief and disappointed look on her face. "Screw you, Dr O'Malley."

Lexie stormed out of the locker room and glanced at Timothy, who had overheard their conversation. He could not bring his legs to walk him away, no matter how much he wanted to. She scoffed and walked down the corridor as he followed after her.

"Lexie-"

"Don't, Tim," she shook her head while being on the verge of tears, "You're a good guy, but please, not now."

Yet when she continued storming down the corridor, he swiftly caught up to her with long strides. "I-I can be a shoulder to cry on," he offered, scratching the back of his neck, "I've been told I have a strong shoulder."