❝𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐋'𝐒 𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃❞ ɢʀᴇʏ·s ᴀɴᴀᴛᴏᴍʏ

CHAPTER ONE.

THE FIRST DAYS HAVE ALWAYS meant change, new challenges, new beginnings; at least for Maddox. She feels like she's finally leaving behind a stage of her life she no longer wants to remain in, anchored to memories of the past she still can't forget, finally ready for the moment she's been waiting for practically her entire life. Putting aside the dysfunctionality of her family and the loneliness of her new life, Maddox feels she is ready. And if she's not, she'll learn to be, because that's what she's always done.

Seattle Grace doesn't bring those new beginnings. It brings back memories, both good and bad, and though Maddox tries to make a list of good things and bad things that have happened to her there, her mother's cancer pushes through all the positive things and squashes them down like ants. Still, the hospital's intern program is incredibly attractive, with amazing doctors and even better facilities and technology, and Maddox finds it strangely difficult not to sign her name up for the program. Against all odds, she's happy when she sees that she's accepted. Perhaps because she wants to change the imprint this hospital left on her life when she was just a child.

The faces are also familiar. She spent two long years there, trying to find a balance between college, so far from home, and her mother's illness. The doctors and nurses are getting used to her face, especially since she wants to go to medical school and seems to be really well informed about her mother's treatment. She's just a child, Bailey and Webber thought constantly, but it was amazing her ability to keep a cool head in a situation that must have been breaking her down inside.

So when Richard Webber sees her name on the inscription, he doesn't hesitate for a second to accept her. She's in the top tier of Harvard graduates, she's younger than most of the interns, and she's proven to have experience in that kind of situation.

"I must admit I'm surprised to see you here," Webber tells her when he sees her get out of the car. Maddox raises her head, first with a frown but then relaxing.

"Yeah, well, it's kind of surprising to me, too. It's almost like coming home, isn't it?" Maddox smiles a little, picking up her backpack from the passenger seat. "Mamá wanted me to participate in this program. I guess it's not hard to forget that the man who created it was the man who saved her life."

Richard just nods. "Good. Nothing like that ever happened again?"

Maddox shakes her head, grunting from putting her backpack on her shoulder. "She's all right. After recovering, with me being in Massachusetts and Dennis out there lost, my parents decided to leave cold, rainy Seattle and go to a quieter climate. They seem to like Los Angeles a lot. They bought a house there and now I see them only twice a year. The dream of every child going to medical school who barely has time to breathe without feeling guilty that they're wasting time."

Webber lets out a chuckle. "Welcome to Seattle Grace, Dr. Easton."

"Only six women out of twenty," says a blonde girl next to her. Maddox looks away from her locker, and sees that there's another girl who also stops sorting through her belongings.

"Yeah. I hear one of them is a model," she replies. She's a brunette, with Asian features, and Maddox can sense that she's hungry for competition. Then she looks at her. "Are you the model?"

"What? Oh, no."

"Seriously, you think that's going to help with the respect thing?" The girl picks up her hair, a little grumpy, and Maddox wonders why. "Which resident you assigned to? I got Bailey."

"The Nazi? Me too," the blonde girl replies.

"The Nazi? Why do they call her that?" Maddox interjects with a slight frown. She seemed nice to her. Maybe a little cold, but professional, so she settled for it.