chapter thirty seven

testing 1-2-3.season three, episode twenty four.

If you looked at Cassie's track record of important tests, you would see that she'd aced every single one of them, quite literally; she'd never gotten anything less than one hundred percent on a test since her first day of college when she was fourteen years old.

Still, Cassie was totally freaking out. She hadn't slept in two days, and had her deck of three hundred flash cards practically burned into her brain.

It'd been like this for every exam she'd ever taken. She freaks out, has a panic attack right before, takes the test, and is super confident afterwards.

It's an exhausting cycle.

"How do you treat pancreatic divisum?" Cassie asked, sitting criss crossed on the kitchen counter. "Blondie?"

Izzie stayed silent, making Cristina shout her name to get her attention.

"Ugh, guys," Izzie groaned. "If you're not gonna let us sleep, you at least have to let me put coffee in my cup."

Cristina shrugged. "Okay, so go. No one's stopping you."

"I'm too tired to go."

"Pancreatic divisum," Cassie repeated.

"Dorsal duct sphincterotomy," Alex answered with a yawn, sitting down to eat his cereal.

"Not your turn, but correct," she nodded, handing him the flash cards. "Good job. Now you do me."

"I can't believe O'Malley's missing this," he sighed, taking the cards from her hands. "How's he gonna be ready?"

"Oh, you're kidding, right?" Cristina scoffed. "We have Callie's cards, but George has—"

"George has Callie," Izzie cut her off.

"But you know what?" Cristina shook her head. "We have Cassie, who is McAngel, Dr. Genius, and our own personal textbook all wrapped into one. We'll be fine."

Cassie tilted her head. "Thank you?"

"What's the most frequent cause of diarrhea in hospitalized patients?"

"Is Callie coming to this bachelorette thing tonight?" Izzie asked.

"Rotavirus. Yes," Cristina answered both questions. "Uh, no, no, no. Uh, salmonella."

"Diarrhea in patients," Alex repeated.

"The most frequent cause of diarrhea in hospitalized patients is C Diff, which can lead to toxic megacolon, perforation, sepsis and death," Cassie answered, after chugging her third coffee of the morning.

"That's what killed Susan," Meredith said suddenly, passing through the kitchen and leaving as soon as she entered.

A week before, Meredith's dad's wife, Susan, came into the hospital with hiccups, and never left, resulting in Meredith getting bitch slapped by her grieving father.

Cassie had to be held back, or else she would have punched him out.

Izzie frowned. "Is she okay?"

"Oh, she's fine," Cassie and Cristina said in unison, making subtle eye contact.

"Dude, she's messed up," Alex laughed.

"Of course she's messed up," Izzie said. "Susan was basically her surrogate mother."

"Yeah, her fake mom was better than her real mom."

"Is she going to the hospital first, or the funeral?"

"First to the hospital, then to the funeral, then to the test this afternoon," Cassie said nonchalantly.

"Has she even studied?"

Cristina waved him off. "Yeah, she studied. She's fine. She just needs to be left alone, okay?"

"So, what's inside the carotid sheath?" Cassie spoke up, answering the question in her head before anyone else got a chance.

☆

The interns were staring into the ER, longingly gazing at the hikers being treated, who had been stranded in the woods for days. Cassie was the only one studying, somehow managing to simultaneously read her flash cards and watch the scene unfold.

"We're supposed to be studying. If Bailey finds out we're down here..." Izzie trailed off.

"We are studying," Cristina said. "How do you treat frostbite?"

"Re-warm, avoid early surgery, unless there's a deep infection due to auto-amputation," Cassie answered quickly.

"See?" she smirked. "Studying."

"I haven't stopped studying in days," Cassie said monotonously. "I'm pretty sure I can actually feel the information being engrained into my brain."

"Should we be worried about her?" George asked Cristina lowly.

She shook her head. "No, this is her process."

Another hiker entered the ER, and the interns instantly perked up. Cassie even set down her cards to watch. "Okay, okay, Mr. Meltzer, Mr. Meltzer, I'm gonna need you to save your breath, okay? We're gonna give you some pain meds," Burke said.

"It hurts," he groaned.

Burke nodded. "You have several broken ribs, which are compromising your breathing. You understand?"

"Did you see that?" Cristina exclaimed to Cassie and Meredith as they walked away.

"That is freaky," Meredith agreed.

Cassie sighed. "I think that was a flail chest. I've never seen one before!"

"Come on. Come on," Cristina whined. "Why, oh, why, does today have to be test day?"

"Oh, I know," Meredith said grimly, causing the other two to give her sympathetic looks.

"Look," Cassie paused. "I bet you if you talk to the Chief, he'll let you take the test later... with the funeral and everything."

"I don't need to take the test later," Meredith instantly denied.

The other two shared a nervous look. "Okay."