𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐗 ━━ 𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐤 𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐝

twenty eight | oxygen

"Hey, welcome to the Denny Duquette Memorial Clinic. Barring any surgical emergencies, you will be working here today."

Bailey motions to the free clinic recently renovated using Izzie's eight million dollars, hence the given name.

Cristina glances at the array of empty beds. "Working on what?"

"Right now," Bailey raises her voice in irritation. "Olivia will be familiarizing you with the protocol for the flu vaccine."

Once the woman is gone, Cristina's able to reveal her true emotions.

"I have got to get out of here."

"Can't we just sneak out of here?"

"Burke has a bloodless pulmonary valve transplant patient flying in from Denver. I should be preparing, not working at the free clinic."

"You're not scrubbing in on that one." A nervous look crosses my face. "He picked me for it."

Olivia leads the two of us to the back corner of the clinic where she walks us through the protocol rather quickly.

"We got married in Vegas!"

By now, Mark Sloan and Chief Webber have arrived to work at the clinic for a shift, and they all stare in shock at the newly-wed couple: George and Callie.

"We're married!"

"No words, Cristina. I want no words."

"You can't stop me from thinking them."

Realizing that no one will be arriving for a while, Bailey assigns us interns back to our regular assignments, only me and Izzie get to look for patients to bring in.

"Hey." Izzie sits beside one of the people in the waiting area. "You been waiting long?"

"Almost an hour." He sighs under his breath. "Are you my doctor?"

"I can be. We have a clinic right outside those doors with no wait." She wiggles her brows.

"What's the matter with you?"

". . .it hurts when I pee."

"Well, it's your lucky day because we can help you."

"Yeah, it's easy. It's nothing. We could have you out of here in less than an hour."

The man simply looks between us. "Are you hitting on me?"

"We need patients, and you need doctors." She giggles lightly. "And we just so happen to be surgeons."

"You think I need surgery?"

"It's possible. But I guess you'll never know."

"Unless you come with us to the free clinic."

"But my copay's only ten bucks."

"Well, there's your lunch money."

A woman nearby begins coughing rather loudly, startling all three of us. She hunches over in her seat while continuing to wheeze.

"Could be T.B.."

"Very contagious."

One by one, we take wheelchairs from the clinic, steal patients from the waiting room, and wheel them to the clinic.

Unfortunately, before George can scrub into the O.R. for surgery on a cancer patient, he falls sick and crawls into a clinic bed.

Fortunately, though, it means I get to scrub into surgery with the chief and my dad.