chapter three

winning a battle, losing the war.season one, episode three.

Izzie screamed, startling Cassie awake from her room next door. After much deliberation, the brunette agreed to move in with Meredith. What she agree to, however, was living with two fellow interns who argued more than they breathed. "I have more clothes, so I should have the bigger room!"

"I got here first!" George argued. "And if you're going to yell at anyone, yell at Cassie! She has the biggest room out of all of us!"

"Yeah, you're right, I have more clothes than her too."

Before the blonde could barge in, Cassie opened the door and glared at the two. "You're not getting my room, Izzie."

"Just put your clothes somewhere else!" George continued shouting, moving to let Cassie through to the bathroom.

"Everywhere else is filled with Meredith's mom's boxes," she complained, questioning Meredith as soon as she opened the door. "Meredith? When is your mom coming back to town anyway? Because maybe we can put her boxes in storage or unpack a few things, make this place a little more homey. Maybe some throw pillows and lamps, a few paintings."

"Oh, paintings would be nice," George mused.

"Yeah! You have all this amazing stuff just packed away. In the back hall, I found this box with like a hundred tapes of your mother performing these amazing medical procedures." 

"Really? We should watch them."

"Meredith, you want to watch—" Izzie started before Meredith shut her up by joining Cassie in the bathroom and slamming the door in her face, all while stealing her coffee.

"Do you want some privacy?" Cassie asked with a mouthful of toothpaste. "I can be out of here in a minute or so."

Meredith sighed longingly, "I wish they were more like you."

"Of course you do," she winked, stealing a big gulp of the caffeinated beverage before handing it back to the owner. "I'm leaving in a few minutes, you want a ride?"

"I'm good, I'll just meet you there," she declined, allowing Cassie to finally enjoy some silence on her way to work.

☆

After parking in a vacant spot, Cassie headed towards the building, running into Derek and Bailey at the crosswalk. "Hey," Derek said, smiling at the irritated look gracing her features. "Rough morning?"

"I'm going to murder my roommates," she groaned.

"That bad?" he laughed.

"Shut up," Bailey snapped, causing Cassie to share a look with Derek.

Derek tilted his head down at her. "You realize that I'm an attending and you're only a resident, right? That you work for me?"

"I know I've forgotten something," Bailey muttered. "Something is happening today. I know I should know what it is but I just can't..."

"Alright, nice talking to you Dr. Bailey," Derek said sarcastically.

When the light turned green, Cassie began to walk across the street. All of a sudden, a bunch of people on bikes started to barrel towards her unassuming figure. Before Derek or Bailey could warn her, one of the bicyclists ran directly into her, knocking her off her feet and causing her to hit her head on the concrete, hard.

"Cass!"

Bailey knelt down, removing her from the path of the bikers. "Are you okay, Harper?"

Feeling something warm running down the side of her face, Cassie reached up and winced when she touched what felt like a large open wound on her forehead near her hairline. Her fingers were covered in blood, and a lot of it. All she was able to get out was a soft "," before everything went black.

☆

"Thank god you're awake," Derek sighed gratefully as Cassie regained consciousness in the trauma room. "I just need to check a few things." Shining a light in her eyes, he frowned when she sat up straight.

"What the hell happened?"

"You should really lay back down."

"Derek, it's probably just a concussion and a head lack. Chill out," she waved him off. "But seriously, what was that?"

"I still need to cover all my bases," he ignored her, squeezing her fingers. "Can you feel that?"

"Yes. I can also feel my toes and every other part of my body. Wanna know why? Because it's "

"Still, I want to get you up for a CT just to be sure. And I'll page plastics to get you sewn up."

"I don't need a CT," she rolled her eyes. "So are you going to answer my question or what?"

"That was the Dead Baby Bike Race," he told her, reluctantly letting her skip further testing.

"That's ?!" Cassie squealed.

"Yeah, you've heard of it?"

"You bet your ass I have!" she exclaimed. "I heard there's literally no rules. You can do anything you want — except eye gouging, which sucks — but isn't that crazy?"

"You concern me," Derek deadpanned.

"Can I go now? They'll probably need my help in the ER—"

"Yeah, no," he cut her off. "You hit your head really hard. You lost consciousness, so I'm going to have to admit you for the next 8 hours at least."