Medical Center.
Surgical Director's Office.
"Five interns are a bit much. Let's drop one."
Adam brought George along to discuss the list with Richard, the surgical director. Normally, a resident doctor just gets assigned interns and has to deal with it. But with Adam? Oh no, Richard made sure to give him a heads-up and let him pick whoever he wanted.
Thing is, Richard didn't know George was tagging along with Adam. So, he'd already handpicked four interns, prepared their files, and was ready to announce them once Adam gave the green light.
Adam skimmed through the files, pretty impressed with Richard's prep work. He shot George a meaningful glance and scratched one name off the list.
George stood there awkwardly, his chubby face turning a little red from embarrassment. Four interns per resident? That's the tried-and-true teaching model—not too many, not too few. But because of him, one intern who should've been with Adam got bumped. For that poor soul, it was a huge loss. Still, expecting George to play the saint and step aside? Yeah, not happening. 😅
"Jessie, pass this list to admin. Let the interns find their residents."
Richard made a quick tweak and handed the list to his secretary. Adam and George headed out.
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Nurse's Station.
Christina was hunched over, scribbling in a patient's chart, when she felt a shadow creep up behind her. She looked up and turned—four interns, two guys and two girls, all beaming at her with the brightest, most eager smiles.
"Holy crap, was I like this back in the day? …No way, I definitely wasn't this bad!" she grumbled to herself. Standing up straight, she faced the four newbie interns with a blank stare and said, "Listen up, I've got five rules. Memorize them!"
The four straightened up like soldiers. Two of them even whipped out notepads, ready to jot down every word.
"Rule 1: No sucking up! I'm always gonna hate you guys, so flattery gets you nowhere."
Christina's icy gaze swept over them. She's naturally a cold person, and this vibe? It shut those four rookies up real quick—they didn't dare make a peep.
Over on Meredith's side, things were way chiller.
"Trauma protocols, call lists, pagers—here you go, take them. If something happens, the nurses will page you."
She handed stuff out to her four newbie interns, keeping it nice and calm as she laid out Rule 2: "You've gotta be on call and show up fast—like, running!"
"Your first shift starts now. It's gonna be 36 hours straight."
Back to Christina—she was leading her four interns around, showing them the surgical wing. In her frostiest tone, she passed down the rules she'd inherited from Dr. Bailey: "You're interns. You're nobodies. Bottom of the surgical food chain. You run labs, write charts, and pull all-nighters. You keep going until you drop—just don't you dare complain!"
Since she was walking ahead, the interns trailing behind didn't catch the smirk creeping onto her blank face. She was loving this. Some superhero once said: Share joy, and it doubles. Share pain, and it halves, bringing relief. For Christina, devout follower of medicine, her intern year wasn't exactly "pain"—so no halved suffering turned into joy there. But watching these rookies squirm? Oh, that was pure bliss. Four interns = four times the fun! 😈
They reached the on-call room.
"This is the on-call room. It's usually hogged by attendings, but you can catch some sleep here when the time and place are right."
Christina pushed the door open, letting the interns peek inside, then gave them a cold stare. "Now, Rule 3: If I'm sleeping, don't wake me unless your patient's dying! And Rule 4: When I get there, your patient better still be alive. Otherwise, you didn't just kill a patient—you woke me up for nothing. Trust me, you don't wanna see that version of me!"
The four interns nodded like crazy—picture little chicks pecking at rice.
"What's up?" Christina asked, eyeing a bald Black guy raising his hand.
"What about Rule 5?" he asked cautiously. "You only gave us four."
"Rule 5?" Christina smirked, shifting from arms crossed to hands on hips. She patted the pager on her waist with a dramatic flair and said, "Rule 5 is: I move, you move!"
But then—awkward moment alert! Last year, when Dr. Bailey got to this part, her pager went off right on cue, and she smoothly demonstrated the rule by sprinting off with the interns in tow. Now? Christina kept tapping her pager… and nothing. Nada. Zilch.
She stood there, trying to channel Bailey's cool vibe, but the silence was deafening. The four interns just stared at each other, confused. Luckily, Christina's poker face was intimidating enough to hold the scene together. Realizing the script wasn't working, she rolled her eyes and barked, "Go!"
The four scattered like startled birds, no clue why they were running or where to go—but they ran anyway. That's the power of a senior doctor! 💪
Meredith, meanwhile, was also passing down Bailey's five rules, but she added her own twist. Tradition? Legacy? This was it!
At the on-call room, she got serious: "You can crash here anytime, but listen—don't sleep with anyone. Especially not an attending. Trust me, it's a terrible idea."
Too bad her warning backfired. Instead of scaring them off, two of her female interns' eyes started sparkling with interest. Oops. 😬
---
Adam's group? Way more chill. Three guys and one girl stood in front of him.
"Let's do some intros," Adam said with a smile.
"I'm John Carter, graduated from NYU School of Medicine. I did a medical internship in the ER here at the center under Dr. Duncan."
Carter, decked out in his white coat, oozed confidence. Adam gave him a look, sensing some cockiness, and mentally noted to bring him down a peg later.
"I'm Lexie Grey, Harvard Med grad."
Lexie flashed Adam a smile before glancing at her three peers.
"Grey?" George blurted out, surprised.
"She's Meredith's half-sister," Adam explained, then turned to Lexie. "In the hospital, we go by last names. I know you're not thrilled about it, but to avoid mix-ups with Meredith, we'll call you Dr. Little Grey. That cool?"
"Yeah, no problem," Lexie said with helpless shrug. With Alice Grey around too, the medical center now had three Dr. Greys.
"I'm George O'Malley," George said, grinning at Lexie. "Your sister's friend."
Adam's eyes landed on the last intern. Short guy, radiating pride, with a cool, detached vibe.
"Neil Melendez, Johns Hopkins," he said flatly.
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