Chapter 38

"You've found a 7.5 centimeter triple-a on your 85 year old patient, go." Callie says as we walk around the park.

"Get an angio, assess his pulmonary and cardiac function and see if he's a candidate for an angiovascular repair." I say.

"Nope." Callie answers.

"Why not?" I ask.

"Because the patients dead. You killed him. He's dead." Callie says.

"I didn't kill him. I did a stent graft and now he's living without the threat of a rupture, which is not dead." I frown.

"Mm, I think you should buy him flowers, 'cause he dead." Callie says.

"He is not dead, I saved him the complications of an open procedure with a minimally invasive technique, he's not dead. Why are we stopping?" I argue as we stop walking.

"Because we're done." She says.

"Because I killed him? I told you, I did not kill him."

"I know and so do you, even when I try to psych you of it, which means you're ready for the boards. The Torres method is inside of you. So I'm gonna go home to my wife because I am sick of pushing this baby around this park, every morning at the butt crack of dawn and you're free Garcia. Go do whatever it is you do." She smiles. I can't believe we're finally finished. Callie has been helping me study for weeks now and I'm finally done. I knew exactly what it is I wanted to do now that I have a little bit of free time. I drive to the hospital and immediately get dressed in my scrubs before going to an on call room to page Jackson. I was about to enjoy myself. Jackson walked into the on call room a short time later, and we handle our business.

"I really wish we could just go home and spend the whole morning in bed." I sigh as we get dressed

"Me too, but Mark insisted on having us on his service today." He says.

"I understand why he wants you on his service, but why did he request me. I'm not even into plastics." I say.

"Because Hunt's out today, so Mark's chief for the day and he says we're the only residents he can trust to help him make sure the day goes smoothly." Jackson says.

"So we're pretty much being used as his personal secretaries?"

"Yep, pretty much." Jackson nods.

"I normally would mind, but since Derek hasn't let me back on his service since I let Lexie remove that tumor I don't even mind being on Mark's service today." I sigh.

"It's been like 2 weeks now. He can't keep punishing you for that one mistake." Jackson says.

"When the result of that mistake is that a lady can't speak anymore he can punish me as long as he feels, but it's fine anyways Nelson's still been letting me operate on a lot of his surgeries, so it isn't like I'm not getting any neuro time at all. Now come on let's see what Mark has planned for us." I say before Jackson and I walk out of the on call room to find Mark.

"Just the two people I was waiting for." Mark smiles handing us paperwork as soon as we enter the conference room..

"What is this for?" I ask reading over it.

"The procedures and motto's that are to be followed while I am Chief."

"Mark, you're only Chief until Hunt gets back. Is this really necessary?" I ask.

"Of course it is. We're striving for excellence here." Mark says.

"Whatever you say Chief." I smile, holding back a laugh.

"Now I need you two to page the head attendings to meet here and give all of them one these papers. I'll be back in a couple of minutes." Mark says before walking out. Jackson and I do as told, paging the attendings and handing all of them one of the sheets as they take their seats.

"Excellence is not an act, but a habit, Aristotle. Avery and Garcia what is Aristotle doing in our staff meeting and why are you two even handing these out?" Dr. Bailey says reading over the paper.

"You mean when we could be practicing medicine or studying for our boards? Yeah, I've asked that sane question." Jackson says.

"Not to brag, but I'm finished studying for my boards the Torres method is in me." I smile confidently.

"You know just because you say not to brag, doesn't mean it's not bragging." Jackson says making me laugh. He was just jealous that I'm not freaking out like him about the boards.

"Mmm, these are delicious. When did Hunt bump up the donut budget?" Arizona asks eating some of the food Mark had set out for everyone to eat.

"As Chief, I'm a firm believer that a nice variety of baked goods is the right way to start any meeting." Mark smiles walking into the conference room.

"As Chief?" Bailey frowns.

"What are you talking about?" Derek asks as chatter fills the room because of Mark's announcement.

"Okay, calm down everyone. Dr. Hunt and Dr. Yang are down with the flu. I'll be acting Chief in Dr. Hunt's absence. Could be a day, could be a week. What do we got for today?" Mark asks.

"Let me get this straight, Dr. Hunt asked you to fill in as Chief? You Mark Sloan by name?" Dr Bailey asks.

"Yes he did, any other questions?" Mark asks chewing on a pastry. We finish up the meeting and Mark releases everyone.

"Where have you been? We're halfway through the new batch of flash cards" April says as Jackson and I join her and Alex at the front desk. Her, Jackson, and Alex have been using flashcards to help each other study for the boards.

"Yeah, Hunt and Yang are out sick today, so Sloan's the Chief and we're the Chief's bitch." Jackson says.

"Lucky us." I sigh sarcastically.

"No distractions, Kepner hit me again." Alex says.

"Okay ,a women with dysuria, incomplete voiding, and a palpable suburethral mass." April says.

"Urethral carcinoma. Damn it I had one of those last year. Um we did uh, radiation and surgical excision. No, would it be uh chemo?" Alex asks.

"An ectopic ureter or it could be, I mean I scrubbed in on one of those, but I don't remember the technique the urologist used, damn it." Jackson sighs.

"Sounds like urethral diverticulum and if it's proximal I would do a partial ablation because it's much less likely to result in a fistula." I say gaining jealous stares from all three of them.

"You don't even need to know advanced urology for the boards." Alex frowns.

"But I do because the Torres method is in me." I smile.

"Total crap, you get to study with Torres while the rest if us get to sink like rocks. I hope you're happy when you're alone in the OR and the rest of us are working the free clinic at the mall." Alex says.

"My whole brain is crammed with so many hypotheticals, I can't even remember what real cases I was actually there for. I am screwed." Jackson says.

"I'll tell you who's screwed, Yang. The boards are around the corner no ones seen her study. She's out sick. She's gonna get creamed." Alex says.

"Yang is fine." Meredith says walking up to us.