Today Edit Constance Rose (Eddie) Sousa was no longer just a doctor, she
was at the starting line of her dream job. Today, she started the long and
hard journey of becoming a surgeon. The thing she had been working so
hard for since she was nine and she broke her arm and a surgeon had fixed
it. She had sparked something in her, and answered all of Eddie's questions
and Eddie was hooked.
And, thirteen years later it was finally happening. At just twenty-one (okay
twenty, but twenty-one in October, so practically twenty-one) she had
graduated medical school and was now starting her internship and her
residency at the top surgical residency programs in America. Seattle Grace.
She was also the youngest intern to date, and out of all her options--she had
gotten into all the programs she applied to--she chose Seattle Grace for it's
prestige but also for the fact it was the farthest from her home.
Eddie, due to her age, had to stay close to home when she picked her
college and medical school. Not because her mom, step-Stan, and younger
half sisters would miss her and they wanted her close to home. No, that
wasn't the case at all. They had to keep her because she was a minor. Eddie
was positive if her mom, step-Stan, and her sisters were happy to have her
gone long before now.
Eddie had never had a particularly close relationship with her mom. She
was her accident baby. A baby she got pregnant with from a fling with a
married man she had "fallen in love with" and he left her not wanting Eddie
to ruin his perfect life, and because her mom couldn't give her baby away,
even if she didn't really want her either. Her mom treated her as if she was a
burden to raise, she sucked all her fun youth away.
And, when Eddie was five, her mother met her second love of her life,
Eddie's Step-Stan, Stan Elliot, a handsome, young New York Real-estate
agent to the filthy rich, who was also filthy rich. He fell for her mother, and
simply put up with Eddie, as if she was some ugly piece of furniture her
mother refused to let go of, even after it broke. And, that is the start of when
Eddie started to feel as if she was unwanted in the family they created. And,
it was obvious when less than one year later her sister Amelia was born,
followed a year later by Beth, and three years after that CeCe, and then a
year after that Daphne.
Eddie was treated more like a red-headed step cousin than a daughter or
sister. And, the line was clear. Eddie was left behind while her mom and
Step-Stan took her sisters, their daughters, on exotic locations or even
Disneyland. And, her sisters even called her their "half sister" as if they
didn't share some blood. Or, they simply never talked about her.
Eddie had tried for years to get them to even like her. Did her best at school,
didn't argue, always nice. But, it didn't matter. Soon, the escapes to school
or even the local library was better than being somewhere she wasn't
wanted. It was the fuel that helped get her to this spot today...well along
with her eidetic memory and the fact she was a literal genius.
Eddie simply left her forwarding address for her family, but she doubted she
would ever hear anything from them again. Their lives wouldn't be affected
by her absence.
But, she tried to push those depressive thoughts out of her mind as she
looked up at Seattle Grace. It loomed over her. It looked so much bigger
than last night when she was here for the surgical intern mixer.
This was it, her new workplace. Her new life. Her new future. Her lifelong
dream was becoming a reality.
It was going to be hard, but worth it. Just like all the good things in life.
She took in everything Dr. Richard Webber, the Chief of Surgery at Seattle
Grace Hospital, was saying as he showed them around the hospital. The
intern locker room, the cafeteria, the labs, CT and MRI machines, and now
he was showing them the room they all wanted to spend time in, the OR.
While they were looking around the pristine OR when Eddie saw an older
blonde woman slip in trying to not draw attention to herself. Eddie
recognized her from the night before at the mixer. Most likely because she
didn't want to be called out on being late for her first day.
"Each of you comes here hopeful. Wanting in on the game. A month ago,
you were in med school being taught by doctors. Today, you are the
doctors." Dr. Webber said as he looked at the newest crop of interns, all
bright-eyed and eager.
"The seven years you spend here as a surgical resident will be the best and
worst of your life. You will be pushed to the breaking point. Look around
you. Say hello to your competition."
When he said that Eddie noticed that people were now eyeing others. As if
looking for any sign of weakness, or who would be the easiest to climb over
on the way to the top. Surgery was competitive, and if you wanted to be the
best, you had to prove it, and fight for your time. But Eddie was not the
type of person to trample on one to get ahead. She believed in working
hard, not taking the easy way out.
She knew that she was receiving some looks from her fellow interns. She
knew they all thought she was going to be easy pickings because of her age,
the fact that she looked like a little doll, at least according to her friend Eli
always told her.
Eddie looked at the people in the OR with her. Some seemed scared, some
excited, some cocky, and some determined. Eddie didn't know which
expression was on her face, but she was determined to become the best
surgeon she could be.
"Eight of you will switch to an easier specialty. Five of you will crack under
the pressure. Two of you will be asked to leave. This is your starting line.
This is your arena. How well you play? That's up to you." Dr. Webber told
them.
Eddie's determination intensified and she lifted her head slightly, as the
Chief's words echoed through her mind.
This was her arena. And she was going to show everyone just what she was
made of.
The intern locker room was a flurry of activity as they got ready for their
first shift. Eddie had just pulled her light blue scrubs over her light purple
long-sleeved top, when she heard a resident start calling out names.
"Okay, Martin, Robinson, Bond, Hawkins."
Eddie already knew she was on Dr. Bailey's service, though she didn't know
who said doctor was yet.
She quickly started to braid her hair into two braids as she heard the blonde
from earlier, who's locker was right next to hers say, "Only six women out
of twenty."
"Yeah. I hear one of them's a model. Seriously, like that's going to help with
the respect thing?" The Korean said with a scoff.
Eddie raised an eyebrow at the slightly judgmental tone.
"Yeah, well I bet it helped with the student loans though." Eddie said
getting the two girls attention.
"You're Cristina and Edit, right?" The blonde asked, butchering her name
pronouncing like the word, edit like how you would fix a paper. "It's Ehdet" Eddie corrected, stressing her name, something she was used to. "But
you can call me Eddie, though." Eddie said as the curly haired intern,
Cristina nodded.
"I'm Meredith." The blonde greeted.
"Which resident you assigned to?" Cristina asked, "I got Bailey."
"The Nazi? Yeah, me to." Meredith said.
"I got Bailey as well." Eddie said as she tied off her braid.
"You got the Nazi?" A male voice asked, all three girls looked over to see a
nice looking, in a sweet boy-next door sort of way, brown haired man
looking at them. He smiled awkwardly at them.
"So, did I. At least we'll be tortured together, right? I'm George O'Malley,
uh, we met at the mixer, you had a black dress with a slit up the side,
strappy sandals..." George O'Malley started to ramble.
The three women shared a look with one and other, trying to hold back their
laugh.
"Now you think I'm gay." George said, realizing what his rambling sounded
like to them.
"Uh-huh." Cristina hummed as she walked away.
"No, I'm not gay, it's, ah, it's just that, you know, you were, I mean, you
were very, unforgettable." George tried to explain.
Eddie thought it was sweet, weird, slightly creepy but sweet. It was
obvious, he liked the older blonde.
"O'Malley, Yang, Grey, Sousa, Stevens." The resident called.
"And I'm totally forgettable." George muttered lowly enough that Eddie
could hear. She gave the older man a look.
"It'll be okay George, I'm impressed most men don't remember what a girl
wears, but just a little less details next time." Eddie said. "Oh, I'm Eddie by
the way, Eddie Sousa."
"Thanks," George said, "and...uh...nice to meet you too." George said as
they made a beeline towards to resident, with Yang leading the way.
"Bailey?" Cristina asked as she stopped in front of the stern-looking
resident.
"End of the hall." The doctor said.
As they walked towards their new resident, Eddie seemed to be the only
one who wasn't surprised. Dr. Bailey, The Nazi, was a short, plump, black
woman with an intense look in her eye.
"That's the Nazi?" Cristina said, shocked.
"I thought the Nazi would be a guy." Pointed out George with narrowed
eyes.
"Of course not. They'd never give a man that nickname, they'd probably
praise him for being intense and strict." Eddie pointed out, earning a nod
from Cristina in agreement. Eddie looked at her new resident. She was
hopeful she'd be a good teacher despite her frightening reputation.
"I thought the Nazi would be...the Nazi." Meredith whispered.
"I think the swastika is frowned upon in any setting." Eddie said, rolling her
eyes.
Eddie sensed another person coming up to walk beside her. Eddie glanced
over to see a pretty, tall, leggy blonde join them as she tied her hair up. This
must be Stevens.
"Maybe it's professional jealousy. Maybe she's brilliant, and they call her
Nazi because they're jealous. Maybe she's nice." The pretty blonde said
hopeful.
"Let me guess. You're the model." Cristina said with a scoff and slightly
dismissive. Stevens gave her a sneer, then plastered on a bright sunny smile.
"Hi, I'm Isobel Stevens, but everyone calls me Izzie." The blonde intern,
Izzie, introduced herself to the older woman.
Eddie could see this was not going well. It seemed like her resident didn't
like overeager interns. Dr. Bailey stared at the woman in front of her with a
blank look, not taking Izzie's hand. She then turned her attention to her four
other interns, as if judging their potential.
"I have five rules. Memorize them. Rule number one, don't bother sucking
up, I already hate you, that's not gonna change." Dr. Bailey said after a
moment. Eddie tilted her head slightly, as if trying to figure out if her
resident truly meant those words.
"Trauma protocol, phone lists, pagers. Nurses will page you, you answer
every page at a run. A run, that's rule number two." Bailey continued on,
motioning to the pagers on the ledge of the nurse's station.
Eddie grabbed hers and followed her resident who was walking down the
hall. She quickly attached the pager to the waistband of her scrubs. She was
now right behind her resident next to Cristina.
"Your first shift starts now and lasts forty-eight hours. You're interns,
grunts, nobodies, bottom of the surgical food chain, you run labs, write
orders, work every second night till you drop and don't complain!" Bailey
said as she lead them across a skywalk and into another hallway, stopping
in front of a room labeled on call .
She opened the door to show a small room with two bunk beds pushed
against one wall. Not at all comfy, but Eddie assumed it was because if they
were comfy, doctors would never get anything done.
"On call rooms. Attendings hog them, sleep when you can, where you can,
which brings me to rule number three, if I'm sleeping, don't wake me,
unless your patient is actually dying. Rule number four, the dying patient
better not be dead when I get there, not only would you have killed
someone, you would have also woke me, for no good reason, we clear?" Dr.
Bailey continued.
Her interns nodded. After a moment, Meredith raised her hand, Bailey
looked at Meredith.
"Yes?" Bailey asked.
"You said five rules. That was only four." Meredith said.
"Rule number five. When I move, you move." Bailey said, as if by
coincidence Bailey's pager went off.
She quickly started down the hall. Yelling for people to get out of her way.
Their first shift officially started, as Eddie and her fellow interns followed
their resident.
At lunch, Eddie sat down in between George and Cristina with a sigh as she
opened up her bottle of lemonade and took a sip.
"Katie, Meredith and my patient, is officially one of the most annoying
teenagers ever. I tried to calm her down about her pageant, and she told me
I needed to wear more makeup if I wanted to be considered more than
"pretty "." Eddie said rolling her eyes with a huff. "She reminds me of my
teenage classmates when I was eleven."
"You had classes with teenagers at eleven?" George asked looking at the
younger girl with a surprised look on his face.
"Uh-huh," Eddie answered, "I skipped a lot of grades school as a kid.
Started a year earlier I was barely four, and skipped third, fourth, and fifth
grade."
She blushed slightly at the shocked but mostly impressed looks from her
fellow interns.
"Are you a genius or something?" A male intern who Eddie didn't know
asked.
"I don't believe intelligence can be accurately qualified, but I do have an IQ
of 187, an eidetic memory, I can also read about 20,000 words a minute...."
Eddie said, at his glazed over look she said lamely and flatly, "yes I'm a
genius."
"How old are you? Eighteen?" Cristina asked, trying to judge the younger
girl's age by appearance. She assumed Eddie was just young looking, but
she was trying to see how old her fellow intern was.
"I'm twenty, I'll be turning twenty-one in October." Eddie replied as she
popped a French fry in her mouth.
She then looked over to Izzie, who wasn't eating and just playing with her
food. "You should eat you know. It helps keep your energy up."
"This shift is a marathon, not a sprint, eat." George added on to the younger
girl's comment.
"I can't." Izzie said with a slightly disgusted look on her pretty face. "You
try eating after performing seventeen rectal exams. The Nazi hates me."
Eddie nodded sympathetically. Eddie didn't know if it was because Bailey
disliked her, or if it was because someone actually had to do it, maybe a bit
of both. Though, the one thing Eddie did know was that she was glad she
wasn't the one doing rectal exams.
"The Nazi's a resident. I have attendings hating me." George said trying to
make the blonde feel better.
"Oh, come on, residents and attendings are meant to be hard on us, we're
learning and they're teaching, and we're going into a field which is very
much life and death. Unlike annoying teenage patients, who can hate you
because you don't look like you stepped off a beauty pageant stage." Eddie
said as she took a bite of her cheeseburger.
"You know Meredith's inbred?" Cristina asked, joining the conversation.
"Like it's uncommon around here to be a doctor's -" George started, but
Cristina cut him off.
"No, she means royally inbred. Her mother is Ellis Grey." Eddie said, she
and Meredith had made small talk while waiting for Katie's CT scans.
Eddie felt bad for Meredith. It was like plastering on a big bullseye for her.
With a mother like that, people would assume she got where she was
through her very famous mother. And, others would try to suck up to her, in
hope of getting to meet or get their work in front of her.
"Shut up, the Ellis Grey?" Izzie said in awe.
"Uh-huh." Cristina said.
"Who's Ellis Grey?" George asked confused.
As Izzie and Cristina laugh. Eddie tried to explain, "Oh Georgie, the Grey
Method."
"Where'd you go to med school, Mexico?" Cristina asked.
"First of all, rude." Eddie said, defending George, "second of all..."
Just then Meredith arrived and slammed her tray on the table as she sat
down. Just as frustrated as Eddie was over their teenage beauty queen
patient.
"Katie Bryce is a pain in the ass. If I hadn't taken the Hippocratic oath, I'd
Kevorkian her with my bare hands." Meredith said, as she looked around
the quiet table. "What?"
"I mean yeah, but I think she is just a bit spoiled. She's clearly not used to
not getting her way." Eddie said, trying to empathize with the young blonde
patient.
She was annoyed with her, yes, but she didn't want to off her. She was being
the typical teenage girl, a spoiled one, but a normal teenage girl none the
less.
Their conversation was soon interrupted by Dr. Preston Burke, the head of
Cardiothoracic Surgery. He swaggered up to them and spoke clearly with a
not-so subtle hint of arrogance that bothered Eddie.
"Good afternoon interns. It's posted, but I thought I'd share the good news
personally. As you know, the honor of performing the first surgery is
reserved for the intern that shows the most promise. As I'm running the OR
today, I get to make that choice."
That got all the interns attention. Eddie had heard about it, and would love
the opportunity to be in an operating room. Cristina shifted in her seat,
Eddie had a feeling Cristina liked Burke, whether it was because she was
interested in cardio and Burke was a very well respected and renowned
cardio-god or if it was because she was attracted to him. Or possibly both.
Eddie didn't see the appeal, something about him rubbed her the wrong
way.
Burke clapped his hand on George's shoulder.
"George O'Malley. You'll scrub in for an appendectomy this afternoon.
Congratulations." Burke informed them.
"Me?" George squeaked as Burke walked away, saying a sarcastic, "enjoy."
The whole table became quiet, some looking unbothered, but most looked
annoyed. If she couldn't be picked, she was glad her fellow intern has gotten
the surgery.
"Did he say me?" George asked again, as if he didn't believe it. He was
clearly panicking. "He said me, right Ed?"
Eddie nodded. "Congrats Georgie," she answered rubbing his arm
encouragingly.
Eddie and Meredith were in Katie's room after bringing her back from the
CT scan when an older man and woman, Katie's parents, entered the room,
clearly looking distraught and worried as they rushed to their daughter's
side.
"Katie, honey, mom and dad are here." Katie's mom said as she grabbed her
daughter's hand and soothed her hand over her daughter's blonde locks.
"They gave her a sedative for the CT scan, so she's a little groggy."
Meredith informed the parents.
"Will she be all right?" Katie's mother asked worriedly looking at the two of
them.
"Our doctor at home said she might need an operation, is that true?" Katie's
father asked worriedly.
"What kind of operation?" Katie's mother asked, panicking even more.
"Mr. and Mrs. Bryce, we're surgical interns on your daughter's case and we
cannot answer your question about if she'd need an operation, not until we
get her CT results and confer with her doctor, but her doctor would be
happy to answer any questions you have, would you like us to get him for
you?" Eddie said smoothly, before Meredith could mumble something off,
her new friend looked like a startled deer in the headlights.
Meredith shot her friend a grateful look. She was sure she'd mumble off
something about not being a doctor...or well, Katie's doctor. It would have
been embarrassing.
"Yes, please thank you so much." Katie's mother said, smiling at the
younger girl who couldn't be much older than her daughter, based on looks.
"No problem, we'll go get him for you. If you need anything, please ask the
nurse out at the nurse's station." Eddie said with a smile as she and
Meredith quickly hurried out of the room.
"How did you know how to do that?" Meredith asked quietly a few doors
down from Katie's room so her parents wouldn't hear her.
"I am quick on my feet." Eddie said with a shrug. "I don't know really, I had
to learn to speak for myself, and speak well, as young as I am. Most people
didn't and still don't take me seriously."
Meredith nodded as they went to look for the attending on Katie's case.
Instead, they ran into their resident.
"Katie's parents have questions. Do you talk to them, or do I ask Burke?"
Meredith asked the shorter woman.
"No, Burke's off the case, Katie belongs to the new attending now, Dr.
Shepherd, he's over there." Bailey said, pointing to a group of attendings
that were at the end of the hallway, before leaving her interns to get the
attending.
"I'll go get Shepherd," Meredith said.
"Okay, I'll go get Katie's CT results. I'll see you in a bit." Eddie said.
It was nineteen hours into their first shift as surgical interns and Bailey's
five interns were all sprawled out on empty patient beds in an empty tunnel
of ground floor of the hospital.
Eddie was leaning against the wall reading a medical journal with a
highlighter in hand half-listening to George who was sulking after his
disaster of a first surgery with Burke a few hours previous.
"007. They're calling me 007, aren't they?" George asked, with pain evident
in his voice as he looked at his fellow interns.
"No one is calling you 007." The two blonde interns said at the same time.
"I was on the elevator and Murphy whispered 007." George informed them
for the third time.
"Oh, how many times do we have go through this, George, five, ten? Give
me a number or else I'm going to hit you." Cristina threatened fed up with
George's sulking.
"Murphy whispered 007 and everyone laughed..."
"He wasn't talking about you." Izzie said, trying to sooth the man's worry.
"You sure?" George asked, hopeful.
"Would we lie to you?" Meredith asked.
"And if they were, so what Georgie? We're interns, we're bound to make
mistakes. Murphy's a dick. Ignore him, you didn't kill anyone, and you were
picked for a reason, you'll do better next time." Eddie said as she flipped
down her magazine. "It's our first day, don't let it get you down. Use this as
motivation to do better next time."
"Exactly!" Cristina exclaimed agreeing with the younger girl, "007 is a state
of mind."
"So says the girl who finished top of her class at Stanford and the girl who
did that same from Yale before turning twenty-one." George bemoaned as
he rolled around in the wheelie chair.
"Georgie, I may be smart, but trust me, I always had people like Murphy
trying to tear me down. I'm young and smart, it can intimidate a lot of
people. And, people like Murphy, do things like this, mind games, because
he isn't as good as someone else. Trust me, just ignore it and do your best,
we're behind you, don't let people like Murphy get you down." Eddie told
him.
George's eyes softened in sympathy towards the youngest resident. He
didn't know how she put up with it. She was possibly always the smartest
person in the room, yet had to fight to be there, she was probably more
mature than the people who thought they had the right to be there.
"Sometimes, I forget how young you are Sousa, and your just not a pretty
face either." Cristina said as the younger girl laughed. "You are a girl
genius."
Just then Meredith and Eddie's pagers went off. 9-1-1 for Katie Bryce. Both
women practically flew off the beds as they raced towards their patient.
When they got to her room, both were shocked that the blonde teen was
fine, just bored, the young intern gave er a frighteningly good "mother"
stare and slight scolding before they both left the room.
Later into her shift, Eddie who was working on some charting in the tunnels
once again. When her pager went off. Knowing that even thought it could
once again be Katie being bored, she ran quickly through the hospital,
because of the 9-1-1 page she got. She was glad she did, because when she
got there, the room was in a flurry of panic.
"What happened? Did someone page Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Bailey?" Eddie
asked one of the nurses, Lauren, quickly taking the girl's chart from her.
"We did," Lauren, one of the nurses, confirmed before informing the kind,
young doctor, "she is having multiple grand ma seizers, now how do you
want to proceed Dr. Sousa?"
Scanning the chart, Eddie noticed she was already maxed out on diazepam
and lorazepam, quickly coming up with a game plan.
"Okay, give her six milligrams of phenobarbital and please page Bailey and
Shepherd again." Eddie instructed, trying to stay calm and level headed.
Where the hell was Meredith? Or Bailey and Shepherd for that matter? But,
right now, all that mattered was saving the young girl seizing.
"Pheno's in," Informed a different nurse, as Katie stopped seizing and
started to flatline. "Code Blue! Code Blue!"
"I need a crash cart right away!" Eddie said as she rushed to grab the
paddles. "Charge to two hundred."
Just then Meredith entered the room, shocked to see something was actually
wrong, and not just Katie being annoying. She stood back, letting her fellow
intern work.
"Charged. Clear! She's still in V-Fib." Informed the nurse after it didn't
work.
"Alright, charge to three hundred." She shocked the girl again, seeing no
change. Come on Katie, she thought, we have to get you back to your
pageants . "Charge them to three-sixty!"
Nothing once more.
"At sixty seconds your supposed to..." started the nurse, quickly being cut
off by her voice, that mustered as much authority no one dared questioned
it.
"Charge again!"
"I see sinus rhythm. Blood pressure is coming up!" said the nurse near the
crash cart.
"Please page Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Bailey again?" The youngest doctor
asked.
"Pressure is returning, rate's coming back. Good save, Doctor Sousa."
Lauren, said with a smile. Eddie smiled as she wiped some sweat the
formed on her forehead.
"What the hell happened?" Dr. Derek Shepherd, the newest attending to
Seattle Grace Hospital, asked staring at the younger doctor and the stillglued-to the wall Meredith.
"She had a seizure and her heart stopped." Eddie informed him, looking to a
flustered Meredith with a sympathetic look.
"Seizure? You were supposed to be monitoring her." The dark-haired
attending harshly to the older blonde intern.
"I checked on her and she -" Meredith managed to mutter.
"I got it, just go." Derek ordered, as Meredith left hurt and discouraged as
she left.
"What happened?" He asked, turning his attention to Eddie.
"I got a 9-1-1 page and when I got here, I immediately asked for both you
and Dr. Bailey to be paged. I read in her chart that she was maxed out on
Diazepam and Prazepam so I ordered Phenobarbital. It stopped the seizing
but she flatlined. So I shocked her four times to restart her heart." She
explained rather calmly though, with her adrenaline wearing off she could
feel how nerve wrecking the situation had been.
"Good work, Sousa," her attending said, Eddie was shocked he knew her
name, seeing as this was the first time they met, but she didn't think
anything of it, clearly somewhat impressed by her work. Then with a softer
voice than he used with Meredith he said, "You can go now too, I've got
her."
Eddie smiled softly and nodded making her way out of the room with a
small smile on her face, she had done it, she saved her.
Early the next morning, twenty-four hours into her first shift, all the surgical
interns were asked to meet in a conference room. Eddie was once more
reading an article, this time from a popular French medical journal while
she sat next to Cristina who was practicing suturing a banana.
"What are you two doing?" Meredith asked as she joined her two fellow
interns.
"I'm suturing a banana, with the vain hope that it wakes up my brain. Girl
genius here seems to be doing the same with her article." Cristina replied
dryly, and George laughed slightly.
"What're you smiling at, 007?" Cristina snapped, making George stop
smiling and frown.
"I know you get mean when you get tired, but now apologize to George."
Eddie said barely lifting her eyes from her journal. It reminded Meredith,
Cristina, and George of a mother lightly scolding a child.
"Fine," Cristina said with a long sigh, "I am sorry..."
"You know what? I don't care. I comforted a family, and I get to hang out in
the OR today. All is well." George said.
"Does anybody know why we're here?" Izzie asked as she joined them.
They didn't have a chance to respond, when Derek walked in like a man on
a mission.
"Well good morning. I'm going to do something pretty rare for a surgeon,
I'm going to ask interns for help. I've got this kid, Katie Bryce. Right now,
she's a mystery. She doesn't respond to her meds. Labs are clean, scans are
pure, but she's having seizures. Grand mal seizures with no visible cause.
She's a ticking clock. She's going to die, if I don't make a diagnosis." Derek
explained looking around at the surgical interns.
"Which is where you come in. I can't do it alone. I need your extra minds,
extra eyes, I need you to play detective, I need you to find out why Katie is
having seizures. I know you're tired, you're busy, you've got more work
than you could possibly handle. I understand. So, I'm going to give you an
incentive. Whoever finds the answer rides with me. Katie needs surgery.
You get to do what no interns get to do. Scrub in to assist on an advanced
procedure. Dr Bailey's going to hand you Katie's chart. The clock is ticking
fast, people. If we're going to save Katie's life, we have to do it soon."
Derek said before leaving, as Bailey put the files on the table, as surgery
hungry interns all pounced to grab a case file.
About fifteen minutes later in the hospital library Eddie, Meredith, and
Cristina were sitting in one of the stacks trying to figure out what was
wrong with Katie.
"Well, she doesn't have anoxia, chronic renal failure or acidosis. It's not a
tumor because her CT's clean. Are you seriously not going to tell me why
you won't work with Shepherd?" Cristina asked looking at the blonde.
"No. What about infection?" Meredith asked.
"No. There's no white count, she has no ceteal lesions, no fevers, nothing in
her spinal tap." Eddie said not even glancing at the chart she had grabbed,
having memorized it already.
"Just tell me." Cristina said.
"You can't comment, make a face, or react in any way." Meredith said
looking between her two new friends.
"They had sex." Eddie said as she flipped through another case file, and
both older woman looked at her shocked. "What? You're not exactly hiding
it, the sexual tension was obvious."
The two older interns look at her. What was it because of her age or because
she was a genius, they thought she wouldn't date? She was a smart, yes, but
she wasn't social inept. She had dated age appropriate boys in her teenage
years, and a year and a half long relationship in medical school.
"I'm a genius, not a nun." Eddie said with a laugh, causing the other two
women to laugh.
As the two other interns continued their chat, and mock the fact that beauty
pageant contestants had talent , the youngest one closed her eyes and
replayed the conversation she had with the younger blonde.
"Wait, wait, just be quiet for a second?" Eddie asked, as an idea bloomed in
her mind. The other two interns looked at her confused, her pretty hazelgreen eyes opened a few seconds later and she smiled brightly.
"That's it! Ha! How didn't I think of it sooner?" Eddie said as she sprang up.
"What, what is it?" Both women asked.
"Rhythmic gymnastics!" Eddie said as she grabbed her things. "She does
rhythmic gymnastics as a talent for her beauty pageants, remember?"
"Yeah? So?" Meredith asked, not getting why the younger girl was excited.
"Just come on! I'll explain on the way." Eddie said, urging her two friends
up, both followed her confused as she explained her idea.
"Dr. Shepherd!" Eddie called seeing the handsome attending entering the
elevator. "Dr. Shepherd, just one moment"
She put her hand in the way of the closing door. "Katie competes in beauty
pageants." Cristina said as she stood by the younger doctor's side.
"I know that, but we have to save her life anyway." Derek said.
"She has no headaches, no neck pain, her CT is clean." Eddie said. "There is
no medical proof of an aneurysm."
"Right." Dr. Shepherd agreed.
"What if she had an aneurysm anyway?" Cristina added.
"There are no indicators..." Dr. Shepherd started.
"But, she twisted her ankle." Eddie said. "A few weeks ago when she was
practicing for the pageant."
"Oh good," Dr. Shepherd said, "I appreciate you trying to help.."
"She fell." Meredith said.
"When she twisted her ankle, she fell" Eddie continued. "It was no big deal,
not even a bump. Got back up, iced her ankle, and everything was fine."
"It was a fall so minor that her doctor didn't even think to mention it when I
was taking her history but, she did fall." Cristina added.
"Well you know the chances that a minor fall could burst an aneurysm? One
in a million, literally." Derek said as the elevator, closed on them.
The three young doctors looked at each other, annoyed, this was the first
lead that they had on a medical puzzle, and the attending that asked for their
help didn't seem to be bothered. When they decided to leave the elevator
doors opened again.
"Let's go." Derek said.
"Where?" Eddie asked confused as she, Cristina, and Meredith followed
him anyway.
"We're going to find out if Katie is one in a million." Derek informed them.
The three interns watched the scan alongside Derek.
After a double take of the screen, Derek said, "I'll be damned."
"There it is." The tech said, pointing to the aneurysm.
"It's minor, but it's there." Derek said, taking a closer look, along with the
three interns. "It's a subarachnoid hemorrhage. She's bleeding into her
brain."
As they were heading to tell her parents what they found out, Derek was
explaining to the interns a bit more about the brain bleed.
"She could have gone her entire life without it ever being a problem. One
tap in the right spot..."
"It explodes." Cristina and Eddie said together.
"Exactly!" Derek said with a snap of his fingers. "Now, I can fix it. You
three did great work. Love to stay and kiss your asses, but, I got to tell
Katie's parents she's having the surgery."
"Katie Bryce's chart please." Derek asked a nurse, who handed it to him.
"Dr. Shepherd, you said you'd pick someone to scrub in with you, if we
helped?" Cristina asked, hopeful.
"Oh yes." Derek said, as he looked between the three women.
"Unfortunately there is not enough room for the three of you...so Meredith,
you'll get to scrub in."
And, that good feel that Eddie had felt since figuring out what was wrong
with Katie Bryce, popped, then and there.
Eddie somehow couldn't help but feel slighted by the fact that Shepherd
chose Meredith over her for the surgery, even though she was the one who
found the one-in-a-million chances. And, she was one of the interns on this
case in the beginning to, not just Meredith.
Cristina was mad as well, she too wanted in on Katie's surgery to and called
Meredith a shark. Especially since she claimed she didn't want in on this
surgery in the first place and thought she only got it because she slept with
the attending. If Cristina wanted to lose to anyone, it would have been
Eddie, at least she actually diagnosed Katie.
Eddie tried to keep her mind off of it, by checking up on one of Dr. Bailey's
patients, since she was currently off Katie's rotation because Meredith was
watching over her. When she heard Dr. Webber talking with another man,
an intern, based on the color of his scrubs.
"She's still short of breath. Did you get an ABG or a chest film?" Webber
asked.
"Oh, yes sir, I did." He said with a nod.
"And what did you see?" Dr. Webber inquired, trying to figure out what
exactly was wrong with the post op patient.
"Oh, well, I had a lot of patients last -" The man tried to back track, Eddie
had a feeling he had a big ego and didn't think he could do so wrong.
"Name the common causes of post-op fever." Webber ordered the younger
man.
He pulled out a little notebook from his white coat, but Webber stopped him
saying, "From your head. Not from a book. Don't look it up, learn it, it
should be in your head. Name the common causes of post-op fever."
"Uh...the common causes of post-op..." He started to stutter out.
Webber then loudly asked, "Can anybody name the common causes of postop fever?"
The interns all pull out their books, but Eddie didn't need to, her eidetic
memory helped in situations like this. She had memorized them a while
ago, with an eidetic memory, it was sort of a bottom of the barrel thing for
her.
"Wind, water, wound, walking, wonder drugs. The five W's. Most of the
time it's wind, splinting or pneumonia. Pneumonia's easy to assume,
especially if you're too busy to do the tests." Eddie spoke up, causing the
chief of surgery to look at his youngest intern who was standing at the end
of another patient's bed.
Webber looked at the other intern with a pointed look before looking at
Eddie.
"What do you think's wrong with 4B?" Webber asked intrigued.
"The fourth W, walking. I think she's a prime candidate for a pulmonary
ambulus." Eddie said, having overheard the nurses when she grabbed
Bailey's patient chart.
"How would you diagnose?" Webber asked intrigued.
"Spiral CT, VQ scan, provide O2, dose with Heparin, and consult for an
IVC filter." Eddie replied promptly.
"Do exactly as she says, then tell your resident that I want you off this
case." Webber said to Alex, before heading towards Eddie. "Good work, Dr.
Sousa, very impressive."
"Thank you, sir," Eddie said with a smile, not ignorant to the looks her
fellow interns, especially the man she just showed up.
Towards the end of her sift, Eddie sat with Cristina, George, and Izzie as
they watched Katie Bryce's surgery. She tried to push down the bitter
feeling towards the blonde intern getting to scrub. So, she decided not to
focus on that fact, instead on the surgery going on. She could still learn in
the viewing room just as much in the OR.
The surgery went off without a hitch and Katie Bryce would go on to live a
successful life with many more beauty pageants in the future.
After the surgery Cristina, Meredith, and Eddie all made up from their
anger over the surgery. Feelings were high from the lack of sleep and
adrenaline they were all experiencing from their first shift. After that, she
changed back into her civilian clothes and made her way back to her
apartment.
It was crappy, but it was her's. She had put basically her life savings into
this small studio apartment, and luckily, the small inheritance her
grandmother passed onto her was still collecting interest so she wasn't stuck
eating Raman noodles and white bread for the next few months of hard-core
saving. Her furniture was one of the few things her mom and Step-Stan said
she could take, it wasn't expensive but sturdy. And it was all hers.
In her few weeks here she put a lot of effort making the queen sized bed,
crappy futon, coffee table, and three bookshelves feel like home. Her
personal oasis to unwind.
She looked at the three items she had swiped from the hospital. Okay, it
wasn't her best moment, but these things were expensive, and in the hospital
they were free. Especially with her five finger discount, she supposed.
She bit her thumb as she waited for the timer to go off.
When she did she shakily turned over each stick with a shaking hand.
All three said the same thing.
Pregnant.
Eddie Sousa was pregnant.
And, of course it had to be with the handsome stranger from her one and
only one night stand right before she left for Seattle from New York.
Oh, fuck.
What was she going to do?