Chapter Text
In the weeks after the incident, many of Cristina’s colleagues—friends—had been making fun of her for losing to April of all people. Her pride had been wounded with all the poking fun, and her head hung just a little bit lower when it had reached the infamous rumor mill. Despite Alex also losing the same amount of money, it had been Cristina taking the flak for it.
Nowhere was safe.
Her person, Meredith, had teased her for days about it. But eventually, she moved on from it. She still laughed at some of the jokes though.
Jackson somehow managed to smooth things over…Cristina strongly suspected Mark had intimidated a lot of people about it. His protection over Jackson was laughable.
The winner of it all had been insufferable for two days straight. April had been extra sunshiney and rainbows about the whole thing, an extra spring in her step as she waltzed through the halls. It was nauseating.
But it had been the cardio wing, the halls she lived and breathed in had decidedly been the worst. The chief of cardio surgery would not let the hot dog incident go, any chance she got to bring it up, she took.
“Dr. Yang, guess what Miss McCarthy had for lunch?”
“You want a hot dog for lunch, there’s a big unclaimed pile at the cafeteria.”
“You are not gonna believe what I saw in the pit. There’s a patient allergic to hot dogs.”
“Guess who paged me?”
It was worse at home.
They’d be in the kitchen figuring out dinner and Teddy would get the package of hot dogs out from the freezer to show her. It was met with an unimpressed glare. The time Teddy put up a poster of a hot dog pile for her to see when she got home had almost amused her. Not that she would tell Teddy that. No way.
It would be infuriating if her green eyes didn’t sparkle every time she brought it up.
Today was gonna be different.
There was a promising trauma patient on the way by ambulance. Maybe paying off the nurse who answered the phone was a step too far for some. But it wasn’t to Cristina. She thrived on surgery, it was a mood booster.
And she sorely needed it, today was hot dog day again in the cafeteria.
Teddy had already sent the group chat a hot dog emoji along with the sign announcing it. Everyone had razzed Cristina about it. Who knew coming in second place would be worse than finishing last.
Anxiously bouncing on her toes, she waited out in the ambulance bay, already gowned and gloved up to receive the patient. There wasn’t a resident with her today. Not that she minded, it was nice to not have to teach today or deal with mumbled coughing of hot dogs behind her back. Her fierce glares and resulting punishments of scut could only go so far.
Sirens could be heard in the distance, it took her out of her silent musings. She took a deep breath and watched as the ambulance pulled into the bay. This surgery was hers, no one else was out here to call dibs. A sense of peace washed over her as the ambulance cut the sirens and lights when they parked.
Cristina wheeled the patient into Trauma Room Two with the paramedic. The patient was alert, her penetrating chest wound had been stabilized in the field. Scans would confirm how much damage she had sustained.
“Your name is Hope Thompson?” Cristina asked, she kept her voice calm.
“Yeah.” Hope gasped out. “I need to go home. My girlfriend will be wondering where I am. I just need her.” Tears welled up in her eyes and streamed down her cheeks.
Cristina pushed on, getting emotional herself would only make Hope panic more. “And she’s your emergency contact?”
“Yeah.” She sniffled and moved her arm when Cristina laid a hand on her wrist—holding her in place.
“Don’t move your arms.” Cristina dabbed at her cheeks with a tissue. “A nurse will inform her that you’re here and about to be in surgery. I’m ordering you to get scans and then we’ll get this out of you, okay?”
Hope calmed at hearing that, her heart rate lowered by a couple points, she sighed, “Thanks.” She breathed in and tried not to wince. “Why does it hurt so bad?”
“You have glass in your chest.” Cristina deadpanned.
“It was a rhetorical question. Don’t make me laugh. That hurts even more.” Hope let out a pained whimper, pushing her head against the pillow and tried to calm her breathing.
“Yeah, definitely don’t do that.” Cristina added some details to her chart, and then she couldn’t help but ask, “What were you even doing?”
“I tripped while carrying a vase of flowers...”
Cristina glanced up, she waited for the rest of it, sensing she wasn’t done.
“It was for my girlfriend, today’s her birthday. I picked her favorite roses from a neighbor’s garden...” Hope trailed off, despite the pain etched on her face, she gave off the air of someone incredibly guilty.
Cristina raised an eyebrow.
“I might have stolen them. And he might have chased me down the street.”
“Then you fell.” Cristina filled in the missing part.
“He called 911 when I started screaming.”
The door softly clicked behind her as Cristina stepped out of the room, softly closing the door, she made a beeline for the nurses station.
April suspiciously raised an eyebrow at seeing her down here, sipping her water, but she kept quiet.
“Hope Thompson needs chest scans. I need an x-ray, an ultrasound, and a CT with contrast.” Cristina ordered, placing her chart on the desk.
“On it, Dr. Yang.” The technician picked up her phone to put the order in.
Cristina nodded, “Let me know when it’s available, I’ll take her down myself for the ultrasound and CT.”
“Why?” April asked.
“She has a penetrating chest wound, I want to be nearby if she has any problems.” Which was true, but, in reality, she didn’t want another surgeon to steal her surgery.
“Okay,” she turned to the technician, “Reserve an OR for Hope Thompson.”
Cristina’s eyes widened, “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” April gazed behind her, she spoke a little louder, “Wilson, bed three needs sutures.”
“Make sure to call her emergency contact.” Cristina ordered as an afterthought. Hopeless Romantic clearly needed her girlfriend, Cristina wouldn’t stand in the way of love, even if it was far too mushy for her tastes.
“Yeah.”
Cristina left to get a snack, not noticing a certain green-eyed blonde opening the curtain on bed four. She had overheard every word of their conversation.
Twenty minutes later, Cristina came back to get Hopeless Romantic—only to find her missing, gurney and all. She did a double take.
Cristina marched out, finding the redhead in charge, she said, “Kepner, where’s my patient?”
“Altman took her.” April didn’t even glance her way, she was filling out a form.
Cristina snapped, “Where are they?”
“Check the board,” April pointed to the screen behind her.
Her fingers twitched, itching to snatch the form away—she bit the inside of her cheek and stayed professional. Glancing up, she zeroed in on Thompson she was in—
“Pre-op?!” She exclaimed and raced to the elevator—ignoring April’s scold of no running—she jabbed the button multiple times. Foot impatiently tapping, she tied up her curly hair in a bun. There was no way Teddy was stealing her surgery.
A ding was like music to her ears, the doors slowly opened, she squeezed in and hit the button for the surgical floor. She seethed as the doors slowly closed. It was so unfair.
Cristina’s worst fear came true, Teddy—hair braided and tucked into her scrub cap—escorting Hopeless Romantic out of the room with a nurse on the other side of the gurney.
“What are you doing with my patient?” Cristina demanded, ignoring Hope’s loopy hello, brown eyes locked onto Teddy’s.
“I’m taking this surgery.” Teddy frowned, with the help of the nurse, they turned the gurney and started walking down the hall.
“Why?” Cristina helped push Hope down.
“Because I want it.” Teddy shrugged.
Cristina whisper-shouted, “What?! Do you know how much money I—” She cut herself off before she could reveal more.
The nurse quietly laughed.
Cristina glared, clearly the nurse already knew and would gleefully tell Teddy later. The nurses ran the rumor mill with an iron fist, and surgeons were usually at the butt of them.
“It’s a penetrating chest wound. Which is my specialty, something you were just admiring about last—”
Cristina interrupted her, “Don’t bring that up here.” She would not be swayed by the memory of last night when they fell in bed. She tried again, “C’mon, Teddy, I found her fair and square. Hopeless Romantic is my patient.”
“Hey, don’t call me that.” Hope blew a raspberry at Cristina.
Teddy chuckled, “Not today, she’s not and her name is Hope.”
“But—”
Go and cover the pit for me.” Teddy lifted a hand from the rail and blew her a kiss. “Bye.”
Cristina ignored the sentiment, “I hate covering the pit.”
Teddy teased, “You love Kepner.”
Cristina corrected her, “No, I hate Kepner.”
“I hate you too.” April said behind them.
Cristina whipped around to find the redhead with an unamused look on her face, she turned into a patient’s room without another word.
“Go down there and be nice to her. Now get, I’ll see you later.”
Cristina huffed and let go of the gurney, she watched as they went through the surgical doors—without her.
For some godforsaken reason, the pit was extra busy today. Which normally, Cristina didn’t mind. Incoming trauma patients were incredibly promising. The only problem was that not a single one of them were cardio related. There wasn’t even a nervous nelly with a heart murmur. Hopeless Romantic had been the cream of the crop and Teddy had stolen it right from under her.
Meredith had already nabbed a patient right from under Bailey’s nose, she stuck her tongue out when she caught Cristina staring at them. She wheeled her patient with a slight skip in her step. It was the glowy steppiness of someone who recently had hot sex and was about to perform a kick ass surgery too. Sickening. Not even a hint of the dark and twisties was in her aura.
It was worse when Addison showed up to confirm a pregnancy. She was also happy and glowing—the same cause Meredith had—Cristina had eyed the redhead’s name on the surgical board this morning. It was a fetoscopic laser photocoagulation, the rush must have felt fantastic after leaving the successful outcome of a TTTS surgery.
Addison winked when she caught Cristina staring from the nurses station. She strolled over, patient’s chart in hand, “Are you sulking?”
“No.” Cristina pulled April’s medical journal to herself, to give the appearance of being busy.
“Hm,” Addison was silent as set the chart down with a thump and quickly jotted her notes in.
Cristina sighed, looking everywhere else but her.
“So I guess the rumors are true then.” Addison closed the chart, unclicking her pen and placed it in her lab coat pocket.
Cristina sharply glanced up, “What rumors?”
“The ones confirming a hot dog would cheer you up.” Addison teased.
“Ha ha, didn’t get it enough out of the group chat.” Cristina flipped a page, not taking in a single word of ways to do appies.
“Nope. You’re a sad sight when you lose out on surgeries.”
“I am not a sad sight.” Cristina protested, barely giving her a glance. “I’m covering the pit because my chief of cardio asked me to.”
“That’s not what I heard.”
Cristina scowled and aggressively flipped the page, tearing it, “What pray tell has Satan heard?”
Addison simpered at the moniker, “I heard an interesting tale of a surgeon paying off the nurse who answers the phones for a heads up on any cardio patients.” She dropped her voice to a whisper, “Who after filling out the initial chart lost the patient, and their boss stole it. Shall I continue?”
April wandered back into her domain, a spring in her step again. Cristina narrowed her eyes, “Kepner!” She tried to keep her voice at a respectable volume but judging by Addison’s wince she failed—not that she cared.
“Yeah?” April smiled, wandering over to them.
“Stop spreading rumors about me!”
“Nope.” She took her seat and took her medical journal back.
Cristina’s mood plummeted the further her day went along. Lunch had been a nightmare, it seemed like everyone was eating a hot dog. The afternoon hadn’t brought any other cardio patients along to the pit. Addison hadn’t been the only one teasing the stolen surgery fiasco, each new person just rubbed it in. Then to top it all, she stepped into vomit—a patient had eaten coconuts earlier and couldn’t stop—with her new shoes. April’s laugh followed her all the way to the bathroom to clean them off.
She just needed one win, something to clear her good name from everyone’s mouth. Something amazing. But she couldn’t think of anything, her mind fuzzy with their mocking words, she desperately needed a drink.
“Oh, now that’s an idea.” Cristina said out loud to herself. A devious grin appeared on her lips as she wiped the bottom of her shoe down with an antiseptic wipe.
She just had to wait for the end of her shift.
To be continued…