chapter forty seven

freedom.season four, episodes sixteen and seventeen.

The twisted triplets were sulking in Meredith's room, nursing a bottle of tequila. Why, Cassie had no idea, but she was never one to turn down free alcohol.

"No," Cristina sighed heavily.

"Do you want to drink tequila?" Meredith offered, holding out the bottle.

"No."

Cassie grabbed the bottle from Meredith's hand, taking a sip herself. "Do you want to call us names, mock us endlessly?"

"No."

Meredith rolled her eyes. "We're trying to cheer you up."

"Yeah?" Cristina scoffed. "Well, stop it. It's annoying, and it's not working. I'm deep in the wilderness here."

"Wait," Cassie paused, drunkenly sitting up straight. "What's your problem again?" She looked at Meredith. "What's her problem?"

"She's sad."

"Why?"

"Because," Meredith waved her off.

At that moment, Cassie's kitten, who she had decided to name Pumpkin, crawled on top of Cristina and rested his head underneath her chin.

Cristina frowned, unaffected by the purring bawl of fur. "See? Even Pumpkin can't cheer me up. I'm hopeless."

Cassie stared at Cristina's pouting face. In a drunken state of mind, the brunette layed next to her so that they were face to face. "Do you want the sparkle pager?"

Cristina gave her a deadpan look. "That's not funny."

"You're sad," Cassie sighed. "Actually . Do you know how I know it's the right thing to do to give you the sparkle pager? Because you're so sad, that you're not even asking me for it."

"Shiny, shiny pager," Meredith grinned, grabbing the pink object off of the nightstand and waving it directly in her face.

Pumpkin meowed in discontent at the action, jumping off the bed and running out of the room. Most likely, to go annoy Alex.

"With lots of shiny, shiny surgeries," Cassie sing-songed, grinning cheekily.

"Cass is only going to offer once. I'd take her up on it if I were you."

Cristina hesitantly grabbed the pager as a smile started to grow on her face. She looked at Cassie with a glowing expression. "If I were the kind of person who kissed people, I would kiss you right now."

With a giddy laugh, Cassie pecked Cristina on the cheek. "Lucky for you, I am the kind of person who kisses people." She sighed as she layed on her back and the other two laughed. "You're welcome."

☆

"Why didn't you come over last night?" Mark questioned wrapping Cassie in a hug from behind.

"Cristina was sad, and she needed me," Cassie sighed, closing her patients chart and setting it on the desk. "I'm sorry."

"She's your person, Cass, don't be sorry," he smiled. "Is everything okay?"

The brunette nodded as they both got a page to the ER. "It is, now that I gave her the sparkle pager." He opened his mouth to protest, but she spoke before he could. "Before you say anything, she needs it more than I do. Plus, I've already logged over two hundred hours in the OR this month, and we still have a week left."

The duo began to make their way to the trauma room, not noticing the herd of firefighters passing by them.

"Still, you earned it," Mark pointed out. "You shouldn't just give it away, and if you do, you should at least try to get something out of it."

"I'll keep that in—" Cassie cut herself off when she opened the door to the trauma room, to see a boy encased in a huge block of cement, surrounded by doctors who clearly had no idea what they were doing. "—mind."

☆

Cassie and Bailey stayed in the trauma room with the patient, Andrew, who was quietly sobbing to himself, obviously traumatized. Mark, Callie, Cristina, and Hahn were next door, trying to come up with a decent plan.

"What do you want to do first?" the remaining firefighter asked Bailey.

"I-I don't know."

"Okay," he sighed. "Well, what do you want to do first?"

"I don't know."

He rolled his eyes. "All right, look, we blasted him out of the job site, but we figured, don't blast him too close. But this is a lot of concrete, and if you're planning on treating him we need to get started. So, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know!" Bailey snapped loudly.

While Bailey was trying to figure out where to start, Cassie noticed how much pain the patient was in, emotionally and physically. "Dr. Bailey," she whispered, nodding her head over to him, politely telling her to shut up.

"I'm sorry," the resident mumbled, gaining his attention. "Uh, okay, I-I know I'm not doing my best to instill a sense of confidence in my abilities... um, you know, it's just that you are trapped in what I'm guessing is several tons of cement—"

"Okay," Cassie said, stopping Bailey from rambling. "We've never seen a boy— wait, how old are you?"

"Nineteen," he said through a choked sob.

"Okay, you're a man, then," she smiled comfortingly. "Look, we've never seen a man trapped in several tons of cement before. I know how scared you are, and I know that getting out of this seems impossible, but it's not." Cassie gently wiped his tears, as he looked up at her, slowly gaining hope. "I promise you," she said hesitantly, ignoring Bailey's weary look. "I promise that we will figure this out and save you. Right, Dr. Bailey?"