You Promised | Mark Sloan ✓

34┃solo surgery

S5 EP10

THE GROUP OF SECOND-year residents gathered outside the conference room, where the Chief of Surgery and every attending surgeon were in. Chats were exchanged among the residents, and bets were taken.

The anxious mood in the air seemed to heighten when they saw the chief standing up from his seat at the end of the long table. The residents' eyes followed the chief's step before he finally opened the door; the attendings inside were staring at them with mixed expressions.

"I am happy to announce that the first solo surgery will take place tonight," Webber prefaced, "A below-the-knee amputation, bone cancer..."

"No appy?" Meredith asked the group of residents, who shrugged.

"Saw action, sweet," Alex smirked.

"Choosing who gets first solo surgery isn't just about who has the best surgical skills or who's logged the most hours in the OR. It's about the highest form of trust," Webber continued, "The trust to put a patient's life into one of our resident's hands.

"And for the first time that I can recall, every single attending picked the same person: Dr Yang," he announced, and Cristina stood behind him with a disappointed look on her face. "However, Dr Yang is out of the running. She is going to pick the winner instead."

The residents looked at each other with their eyes widened. "The chief's torturing Cristina," Norah whispered to the group.

"Dr Yang will post her decision on the OR board at 4:00 pm," Webber informed, "Also, since your interns are still banned from the OR... except for three of them... Well, the winner will pick a fellow resident to scrub in with them. Good luck."

The residents scattered off, going in different directions. Norah headed straight to the ER to flag down the Ortho resident, then planned to stay in the library to do some reading about the amputation.

She had assisted Callie in a few limb amputations, but none of which she took the lead in the OR, so 'talk to Callie' and 'hit the books' were the two only things that came to her mind.

❦ ❦ ❦

TALK TO CALLIE. HIT THE books.

Norah did manage to speak to Callie, but she was now stuck in the ER. She sat between two sisters, who were bickering back and forth without a break, filling the ER with yells and curses towards each other.

Norah had just bandaged up one of the girls, Emma's leg as Callie spoke, "I gonna have to check your X-rays. I think your leg's broken. You'll be off it for a while."

"No-no!" Emma shouted in frustration while Callie stared back at her blankly. "I can't miss my Future Leaders of America conference!" the girl snarled, throwing a glare at her sister, "Holly-!"

"Emma, I'm gonna be grounded till graduation," Holly scoffed.

"I was going to D.C.! I've been waiting for this for a year!" Emma yelled back, "Mom and Dad spent two grand-they've now wasted two grand!"

She tossed the first item she picked up towards her sister; Meredith chuckled at the annoyed look on Callie's face while Norah stared at them, amused. The brunette caught the ice pack that Holly was throwing back, and the senior resident finally snapped at the two girls.

"I'm separating you two," Callie drew the curtain that parted them from each other, and Norah turned to Emma to check on her stats.

"Listen, I've been here. Lots," Sadie comforted the girl on the bed while Norah flashed a light over the patient's eyes. "Your dad won't be pissed. He'll be happy you're safe."