Chương 39: Chapter Thirty-Eight
"Don't you look all perky." Karev's voice dripped of sarcasm as he came up behind me as we all waited around for Hunt to start the mandatory meeting he'd called. I glanced over my shoulder to see Jackson standing next to him, a cup of coffee in each of their hands.
"You would be too if a crying baby kept you up half the night." I snatched Karev's coffee from his grasp, taking a sip of it. "Thanks for the coffee."
"That was mine." He pointed out.
"And now it's mine." I shrugged, a small smirk filling my lips.
"Okay, folks. Let's just start." Hunt called over all of us as he climbed the stairs, standing high enough for all of us to see him. "As many of you know, Seattle Grace Mercy West has suffered a financial setback. The administration is working hard to keep the impact of that setback as small as possible. To that end, we're gonna have to initiate some cost-cutting measures. The board has hired a physician advisor to help."
"What's a physician advisor?" Meredith asked from where she was sitting at the nurses' station.
"Well, she consults on maximizing efficiency, streamlining processes, assessing where we can trim our budgets." Hunt explained.
"Who to fire and when to fire them?" Bailey commented, clearly not happy about what we were being told.
"She's here to advise and to help." Hunt cleared his throat. "I was hoping to introduce her in person, but she seems to be late."
"Oh, on her first day?" Yang spoke up. "Not very efficient."
"You can expect to see her in the halls, in your labs, in the OR." Hunt spoke over the laughter that Yang's comment had made.
"So we're gonna have an accountant following us around in the ORs? Derek frowned.
"She's not an accountant." Hunt clarified. "She is a trained surgeon. Frankly, she is here to try to help us."
"Oh, okay. Help us, right." I muttered under my breath.
"Thank you for your cooperation." Hunt finished, stepping down from the stairs as everyone began to disperse, going back about their day.
"Are you okay?" Jackson asked me when I turned back to face him and Karev once more, the latter still seeming to be sulking as he glared at the coffee cup in my hands. "You seem like you're-"
"Bitchy." Karev provided.
"Out of all the words in the English language, you choose bitchy?" I raised a brow at him.
"Seemed to fit." He shrugged as he snatched his coffee back from me. "And get your own coffee."
"What a gentleman." I rolled my eyes before looking back at Jackson. "As for your question, I'm fine. I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night, or the day before, or in the past month."
"That's why I don't want kids." Karev commented, taking a sip of his coffee.
"Are you sure you don't have one already?" I raised a brow at him. "Because from what I've heard, it wouldn't be a surprise if one of the interns here had a bun in the oven as we speak."
"Shut up." He snapped at me as Callie and Derek made their way over to us.
"What are you two still doing standing around here?" Callie looked between the two men. "Karev, you're supposed to be seeing your patient with Robbins. Jackson, don't you have a patient of your own?"
"Later." Jackson told me as he and Karev headed off down the hall, leaving me alone with Derek and Callie.
"What was that about?" I asked the older woman.
"I need you to stand in on Derek's surgery today." Callie told me.
"I don't need her to stand in!" Derek rolled his eyes as our friend.
"You're the one that picked a tough surgery to start my hand off with." Callie pointed out. "I want someone else in there with you in case something goes wrong. Nelson has a surgery today, but Howards doesn't so she's going to be in there with you."
"Callie, I'm sure that Derek's more than capable of handling this surgery on his own." I shook my head.
"No, no ifs, ands, or buts." She shook her head, not listening to a word I was saying. "You're going to be in that OR with him, there's no getting out of it. Understood?"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Hey, there's my guy!" The patient grinned widely as Derek walked into his hospital room with Wilson and I following in behind him.
"Jimmy." Derek smiled at the man in the bed before looking at the woman standing next to him. "Hey, Carla. How are you?"
"Please say you're not still married." The woman joked as she and Derek hugged.
"Ah, afraid so." Derek chuckled.
"Ignore my sister. No boundaries." The man, Jimmy, told Wilson and I.
"You think either of them care?" Carla rolled her eyes. "Unless one of them are the wife. You the wife?"
"Oh, no." Wilson quickly shook her head.
"I'm just the best friend." I assured her. "You're in the clear."
"Headaches still bad?" Derek asked Jimmy as he shined a light in his eyes, checking his reactions.
"He can barely get off the couch, he's so dizzy." Carla told Derek before Jimmy could get a word in. "Meanwhile, I have to wait on him like he's the boy prince."
"Warms your heart, doesn't she?" Jimmy teased his sister.
"Yeah." Derek nodded. "Wilson, what are some of the other symptoms of an acoustic neuroma?"
"Hearing loss, increased intracranial pressure, tingling in the face-" Wilson began to list the symptoms off.
"And being a giant pain in my ass." Carla cut her off.
"I tried to find another surgeon while your hand healed." Jimmy told Derek. "Turns out, no one will go anywhere near this thing."
"Well, we're gonna run some scans and some labs and see if the tumor has progressed." Derek told them.
"You mean, it could be worse?" Carla frowned.
"Well, we'll have a clearer idea once we see the scans." Derek tried to avoid the truth, that over the months the tumor could have become inoperable. Carla only nodded as Derek excused himself and we left the room again, heading down the hallway. As we did so Derek glanced at Wilson. "See if you can switch with Ross."
"Oh. Did I-" Wilson frowned, beginning to question what she'd done wrong.
"No, it's nothing you did wrong." Derek assured her. "It's that Ross knows what I want before I even ask for it. I won't have time to teach you on this one."
"Nice." I commented as Wilson walked away, seeming to be disappointed now.
"Shepherd. Howards." Hunt called our names as he headed our way, a woman at his side. "This is Alana Cahill. She is our physician advisor."
Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
-- Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
-- Đá
Quyền lực