George O'Malley

~fourteen~

Riley's POV

"When we walk in this door you will remain decorum. You will not laugh, vomit, or drop your jaw. Are we understood?" Bailey orders. We all nod to her as she opens up the door to room 2111. 

"Why would we laugh?" Izzie furrows her brows.

Alex smirks, rubbing hand sanitizer on his hands, "Oh just you wait"

I walk into the room behind George, and do exactly what I was told not to do. My jaw drops when I look at the woman laying on the gurney. She has a huge tumor on her left side. And when I say huge, I mean gargantuan.

"What is it?" George whispers in my ear

I slowly turn to him, eyes narrowed, "Its a tumor"

His eyes grow wide and he looks to the ground. Dr.Burke then enters the room, telling us all good morning.

"Oh,Annie. This is Doctor Burke-- awesome surgeon" Alex smiles, looking to the patient.

There is a long silence before Dr.Bailey reminds Alex it's his turn to present.

"Oh- Annie Connors is a 43-year-old woman who presented last night with progressive shortness of breath for the past three months. Found to have a very large tumor of unknown origin pressed against her diaphragm" Alex announces.

"Stable vital signs, scheduled for CT this morning."

Dr.Burke nods, "Thank you Dr.Karev. Ms.Connors, are you at all claustrophobic?"

"I've been housebound for the last year. How claustrophobic could I be?" Annie smiles at Alex when he covers her tumor.

"Alright then," Burke chuckles, "Dr.Stevens is going to take you up for a CT. It'll give us a better look at the tumor, and we'll know how to proceed."

"Could someone tell my mom? She'll worry if she gets back and I'm not here." Annie looks around the room.

Burke tells her that can be done, and Annie asks if Alex can take her instead.

"I mean- he's just so fun to look at."

My eyes grow wide, and I scoff. I can agree, Alex is a pretty face. What stops me from being attracted to him is his cockiness and know-it-all attitude.

We all exit the room, George immediately asking questions  

"How much do you think it weighs?"

"At least 60 pounds. She's carrying around a whole extra person" Izzie answers.

"This ones in the books. I gotta get in" Christina balls her fists.

"I almost did, have you ever seen Alex like that? He actually seemed sincere" Izzie leans back on the counter.

Meredith rolls her eyes, "seemed being the operative word"

"He was on call last night when she came in." I tell them.

To be honest, I want nothing to do with this surgery. I would rather be with Derek, working in neuro. There was just something about the brain that fascinated me. It's so complex, it holds all the memories of that persons life, their emotions, feelings. In neuro, you get to have your hands in that persons whole life. It's simply amazing.

"Lets go people." Bailey says, making my jump out of my thoughts.

"Ms.Connors surgery, if we choose to proceed, will take most of the surgeons off the floor. That means you people will have to work extra hard not to kill anyone, cause we won't be there to fix your mistakes."