FIC: Love Wins Every Time 7/?
Hi everyone :) Back with a little more tonight. So glad you are enjoying it! I am surprising myself by how much I am enjoying getting into Burke's head, and as for Addison, I do think she's still in kind of a delicate place, and she'll have her ups and downs. But for all who wanted to see Addison a little more girl-powery, this one's for you! In this installment, the season of the intern exam gets underway, Addison gets good juju, and Burke takes her on!
A quick note about the timeline, they never spelled out on the show just how much time this whole series of episodes was taking. I took them off canon just before the trip to LA, so if I am assuming she was there for a week or so, then came back and had a few days before the not-wedding, I feel comfortable scheduling in the intern exams for two weeks from now in Story Land. I am trying to stick to the show as closely as possible and explore how things might have played differently if only...
Previous Parts:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
And now, on with the story :)
--
The rest of his day is a blur of post-ops, patients, and bounces from the pit. He's restless, and he doesn't know why. Certainly, this is not the only day he's been visited by one of Cristina's moods, and he tells himself they don't bother him now. He remembers his father telling him about women, about how they were diamonds, and sometimes, you found them just sitting there, shining in the sun, but sometimes you had to slog in the mine through the cold, dark winter to unearth them. And those diamonds were just as beautiful, were they not? Did they not shine just as brightly?
He wraps up his last patient check and nearly runs into Cristina on his way to the locker room.
"Oh, good," she says.
He moves to kiss her, and she squirms away. "Yeah. Um, I'm having a thing tonight."
He frowns. "A thing."
"Did you forget what tomorrow is?"
He thinks for a moment. "Thursday?"
She smacks his hand. "I told you already! It's Study Season! Two weeks to the intern exam."
"Oh! Right!"
"We're launching it at midnight, in high style. I'll be at Meredith's. Izzie's baking."
"Ah."
"So…bye! See ya!"
She pecks him on the cheek and skitters away, and he is briefly irritated. But then he remembers that now he has a friend…
Mark Sloan comes in, gives him nod. He smiles back, and prepares his things.
"So, meeting," Sloan says.
He looks up from his locker. "Hmm?"
"I'm supposed to tell you. Meeting. All attendings."
"Now?"
"Yup. Something about interns, I think."
The exam. He supposes the chief is going to remind them about the exam.
"And speaking of interns," Sloan continues. "Heard yours was in a catfight today, and got scratched."
Juju, coming home to roost. "Oh?"
"She mouthed off at Addison. And darn it all if Addison didn't fight back…"
He picks up his briefcase and gym bag. "Well. Shall we?"
--
He gets the rest of the story from Addison herself, from the chairs outside the chief's office, where she is regaling a bored Derek with the tale when he and Sloan arrive.
"And she just gives me this look, like 'fine, whatever,' and I said 'Excuse me, Dr. Yang. Something you wanted to share with the rest of us?' And she rolls her eyes…again! And I pulled her aside…actually pulled her, put my hand on her arm and pulled, and I said 'Look, I don’t know what your problem is, exactly, or how on earth a tiny person like you managed to get such a very large stick up her you know what, but this surgery is four and a half hours long, Dr. Yang, four and a half hours long on a good day, and if you think I'm going to spend them holed up in a tiny O.R. with a baby's heart in my hands and your sparkling personality and scowling, sulking self for company, you have another thing coming."
Sloan stifles a chuckle and holds him back to prevent his interrupting.
"So she stammers a little, and looks around at all the nurses, and then she says 'But Dr. Montgomery, I'm already on the board.' And I just looked at her…the same way she looked at me…and I said 'Dr. Yang. I am going to explain this to you very clearly, in plain, simple language so that I can be sure you understand me. This is my surgery. This is my O.R. This is my hospital. And if you don't start checking that attitude at the door and behaving like a god-dammed professional, I will shut you out of it all so fast that the intern exam will be the least of your problems. Do you understand me?"
Sloan gives him a kick, and he stumbles out of hiding. "Preston!" she all but squeals. "I was just telling Derek…"
"So I hear," he says.
The grin is on the impish side. "Yeah. By stunning coincidence, the nurses were in the middle of a shift change…"
The door opens and the chief pops out his head. "Guys? This'll be a short one…"
They file into his office, and he tells them about the intern exam. "Two weeks tomorrow, so the countdown is on. Our hospital has a history of turning out some of the best test scores in the state. I would like to see that record hold. For the next two weeks, the interns will be studying for their lives. I expect you all to do whatever you can to help them. Any questions? No? Okay, people. Dismissed."
They walk together, the four of them, and Addison notices his gym bag. "You going somewhere?" she asks him.
"I was," he tells her. "But I've just learned that Cristina has made other plans for the evening."
"Oh?"
He notices the gleam in her eye. "What? You have an idea?"
"I have a brilliant idea. Bring the gym bag with you."
He follows her in his car, back to the Archfield. But when they reach the elevators, she veers off and leads him through a set of smoked glass doors into what's obviously the spa.
"It's one of the perks of living here," she tells him. "One of the only perks, actually. Isn't it fabulous?"
Indeed, it is: all chrome and class and elegance, with a gilt-laced check-in desk and a mound of puffy towels in a deep, wicker basket on the floor. She pulls two out, tosses one his way. "Well? You up for a little workout?"
He smiles. "Name your poison."
"We row. We box. We swim."
She is already peeling off layers, and as she gets down to her camisole, he sees her arms pop. Damn right she rows.
"All right," he says. "But I should warn you. I'm good."
He walks off before she can answer, and hurries into the locker rooms. He meets her on the gym floor, and she is still wearing the same playful smirk he had left her with.
"How good?" she asks him.
He is already into his warm-up stretches. He breaks off and looks up at her. "Hmm?"
"I said, how good?"
"Addison…"
"This is a swanky place, Preston, and swanky places have really neat toys. These things? They have head-to-head mode."
"Is that so?"
"It is. So I'm thinking…I win, and you come to the bar with Callie and me and pay for both our drinks."
She can afford her own drinks, but he supposes that isn't the point. "And if I win?"
She tosses back her hair, then catches it into a fist and ties it back with something. "Let's not worry about that unless we need to."
--
He is tempted to let her win, but she is in full-on tough girl mode, and as they hit their second rematch, it's still a draw.
"Addison. Let's swim."
"Giving up, Preston? Already?"
"Your arms are wobbling, and you can buy your own drinks."
"But…"
"Addison."
"Fine, fine. If we're quitting anyway, I wouldn't say no to some food."
"I didn't say we were quitting."
She puts up her hands, mimes a quick, weak punch, then drops them down again. "Wow. That was…"
"…exactly what an hour of showing off will get you," he tells her. "If you're still up for a swim, I wouldn’t mind cooling off a little. Then…do they do steak here?"
"They do indeed."
"Steak dinner. Baked potato. My treat. But you buy your own drinks."
"Deal. Can Callie meet us? I promised her we'd hook up."
He must look apprehensive, because her eyes get that puppy-dog look, and she smiles. "Preston. She's no Cristina. You'll like her, I promise."
A part of him wonders if he should take offense, on Cristina's behalf. But he lets it go. He thinks Cristina earned that one.
--
A quick note about the timeline, they never spelled out on the show just how much time this whole series of episodes was taking. I took them off canon just before the trip to LA, so if I am assuming she was there for a week or so, then came back and had a few days before the not-wedding, I feel comfortable scheduling in the intern exams for two weeks from now in Story Land. I am trying to stick to the show as closely as possible and explore how things might have played differently if only...
Previous Parts:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
And now, on with the story :)
--
The rest of his day is a blur of post-ops, patients, and bounces from the pit. He's restless, and he doesn't know why. Certainly, this is not the only day he's been visited by one of Cristina's moods, and he tells himself they don't bother him now. He remembers his father telling him about women, about how they were diamonds, and sometimes, you found them just sitting there, shining in the sun, but sometimes you had to slog in the mine through the cold, dark winter to unearth them. And those diamonds were just as beautiful, were they not? Did they not shine just as brightly?
He wraps up his last patient check and nearly runs into Cristina on his way to the locker room.
"Oh, good," she says.
He moves to kiss her, and she squirms away. "Yeah. Um, I'm having a thing tonight."
He frowns. "A thing."
"Did you forget what tomorrow is?"
He thinks for a moment. "Thursday?"
She smacks his hand. "I told you already! It's Study Season! Two weeks to the intern exam."
"Oh! Right!"
"We're launching it at midnight, in high style. I'll be at Meredith's. Izzie's baking."
"Ah."
"So…bye! See ya!"
She pecks him on the cheek and skitters away, and he is briefly irritated. But then he remembers that now he has a friend…
Mark Sloan comes in, gives him nod. He smiles back, and prepares his things.
"So, meeting," Sloan says.
He looks up from his locker. "Hmm?"
"I'm supposed to tell you. Meeting. All attendings."
"Now?"
"Yup. Something about interns, I think."
The exam. He supposes the chief is going to remind them about the exam.
"And speaking of interns," Sloan continues. "Heard yours was in a catfight today, and got scratched."
Juju, coming home to roost. "Oh?"
"She mouthed off at Addison. And darn it all if Addison didn't fight back…"
He picks up his briefcase and gym bag. "Well. Shall we?"
--
He gets the rest of the story from Addison herself, from the chairs outside the chief's office, where she is regaling a bored Derek with the tale when he and Sloan arrive.
"And she just gives me this look, like 'fine, whatever,' and I said 'Excuse me, Dr. Yang. Something you wanted to share with the rest of us?' And she rolls her eyes…again! And I pulled her aside…actually pulled her, put my hand on her arm and pulled, and I said 'Look, I don’t know what your problem is, exactly, or how on earth a tiny person like you managed to get such a very large stick up her you know what, but this surgery is four and a half hours long, Dr. Yang, four and a half hours long on a good day, and if you think I'm going to spend them holed up in a tiny O.R. with a baby's heart in my hands and your sparkling personality and scowling, sulking self for company, you have another thing coming."
Sloan stifles a chuckle and holds him back to prevent his interrupting.
"So she stammers a little, and looks around at all the nurses, and then she says 'But Dr. Montgomery, I'm already on the board.' And I just looked at her…the same way she looked at me…and I said 'Dr. Yang. I am going to explain this to you very clearly, in plain, simple language so that I can be sure you understand me. This is my surgery. This is my O.R. This is my hospital. And if you don't start checking that attitude at the door and behaving like a god-dammed professional, I will shut you out of it all so fast that the intern exam will be the least of your problems. Do you understand me?"
Sloan gives him a kick, and he stumbles out of hiding. "Preston!" she all but squeals. "I was just telling Derek…"
"So I hear," he says.
The grin is on the impish side. "Yeah. By stunning coincidence, the nurses were in the middle of a shift change…"
The door opens and the chief pops out his head. "Guys? This'll be a short one…"
They file into his office, and he tells them about the intern exam. "Two weeks tomorrow, so the countdown is on. Our hospital has a history of turning out some of the best test scores in the state. I would like to see that record hold. For the next two weeks, the interns will be studying for their lives. I expect you all to do whatever you can to help them. Any questions? No? Okay, people. Dismissed."
They walk together, the four of them, and Addison notices his gym bag. "You going somewhere?" she asks him.
"I was," he tells her. "But I've just learned that Cristina has made other plans for the evening."
"Oh?"
He notices the gleam in her eye. "What? You have an idea?"
"I have a brilliant idea. Bring the gym bag with you."
He follows her in his car, back to the Archfield. But when they reach the elevators, she veers off and leads him through a set of smoked glass doors into what's obviously the spa.
"It's one of the perks of living here," she tells him. "One of the only perks, actually. Isn't it fabulous?"
Indeed, it is: all chrome and class and elegance, with a gilt-laced check-in desk and a mound of puffy towels in a deep, wicker basket on the floor. She pulls two out, tosses one his way. "Well? You up for a little workout?"
He smiles. "Name your poison."
"We row. We box. We swim."
She is already peeling off layers, and as she gets down to her camisole, he sees her arms pop. Damn right she rows.
"All right," he says. "But I should warn you. I'm good."
He walks off before she can answer, and hurries into the locker rooms. He meets her on the gym floor, and she is still wearing the same playful smirk he had left her with.
"How good?" she asks him.
He is already into his warm-up stretches. He breaks off and looks up at her. "Hmm?"
"I said, how good?"
"Addison…"
"This is a swanky place, Preston, and swanky places have really neat toys. These things? They have head-to-head mode."
"Is that so?"
"It is. So I'm thinking…I win, and you come to the bar with Callie and me and pay for both our drinks."
She can afford her own drinks, but he supposes that isn't the point. "And if I win?"
She tosses back her hair, then catches it into a fist and ties it back with something. "Let's not worry about that unless we need to."
--
He is tempted to let her win, but she is in full-on tough girl mode, and as they hit their second rematch, it's still a draw.
"Addison. Let's swim."
"Giving up, Preston? Already?"
"Your arms are wobbling, and you can buy your own drinks."
"But…"
"Addison."
"Fine, fine. If we're quitting anyway, I wouldn't say no to some food."
"I didn't say we were quitting."
She puts up her hands, mimes a quick, weak punch, then drops them down again. "Wow. That was…"
"…exactly what an hour of showing off will get you," he tells her. "If you're still up for a swim, I wouldn’t mind cooling off a little. Then…do they do steak here?"
"They do indeed."
"Steak dinner. Baked potato. My treat. But you buy your own drinks."
"Deal. Can Callie meet us? I promised her we'd hook up."
He must look apprehensive, because her eyes get that puppy-dog look, and she smiles. "Preston. She's no Cristina. You'll like her, I promise."
A part of him wonders if he should take offense, on Cristina's behalf. But he lets it go. He thinks Cristina earned that one.
--