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28

walked between Callie and Jackson through the skills lab, the intern class sitting in chairs in front of them. All three Attending's had serious looks on their faces and all the interns eyed them warily.

"This is it, people. Your chance to scrub in in one of the coolest, most innovative surgeries you will ever see."

Brooks moved her hand to her mouth and yawns quietly. Eleanora's eyes narrow and she points at the intern, voice accusing.

"Brooks yawned! Jackson, did you see a yawn?"

Jackson shook his head, eyes narrowed and hands behind his back. "Brooks, you're out. If you can't handle one overnight shift, you can't handle this surgery. Look alive, people!"

"The rest of you will each get a chance to examine our patient before we move on to the skills lab portion of the contest." Eleanora spoke, crossing her arms across her chest. Callie nodded, continuing off of her words.

"Dr. Avery, will you bring in our patient?"

Jackson leaves Eleanora's side to head to the doors, opening them and peeking his head through the hall. When he comes back, Derek and Mark are following him, the neurosurgeon giving the interns a small nod and Mark glaring at them.

The interns all perk up, their eyes widening and faces paling as the realization that they would be preforming the surgery on sinks in.

"Now," Jackson starts, moving back to Eleanora's side as Mark settled in directly behind her, "Dr. Torres, Dr. Amedeo-Sloan, Dr. Sloan, and I will all be preforming a nerve transplant. Sloan and Sloan will perform the nerve procurement on our donor while Torres and I will transplant it into Dr. Shepherd's injured hand."

"We need an intern we can trust." Mark speaks out, all the interns moving their wide eyes to his narrow-eyed look. "I personally trust none of you as far as I can throw you, which is why we're having this contest."

"Whoever does the best, scrubs in. It's as simple as that." Eleanora pipes up. Callie eyes the group of interns, her eyes calculating. She hums to herself and speaks up, voice sharp.

"Wilson! You're up."

Jo jumps up quickly, making her way to stand at Derek's side. Eleanora peers around Callie, eyes zeroed in on how Wilson is handling the injured hand.

Jo hovers over the hand for a few moments, brows pulled in confusion and frustration. Derek sighed, his tone a little joking. He could sense the tension in the room, the four surgeons across from him not helping matters.

"I'm not gonna bite you, Wilson." Jo laughs a bit, focusing back on the neurosurgeons hand. She takes ahold of it finally, and Derek's face scrunches up in pain.

"You're done." Mark snapped, Jo's head moving to look at him. His face was unamused, along with Callie and Jackson's. Eleanora's lips were pursed but she stays silent, watching as Jo sets Derek's hand down as Mark continues.

"Maybe you should stop being so rough with the patients, Williams. You'll catch a lawsuit."

"It's Wilson." Jo corrects. Mark just stares at her blankly and she nods, mumbling under her breath. "Right."

As Jo flops down in her seat, Callie hums, calling out another interns name.

"Edwards!"

Stephanie confidently stands up and makes her way over. Eleanora straightens up a bit, liking the sense of confidence in the intern. Edwards carefully takes Derek's hand, looking at it for a moment before turning to Callie.

"Did you do a Proximal or Distal repair the first time?"

Eleanora winces, along with Derek, as Mark and Jackson both let out snorts. Callie looks unimpressed as she stares at the intern, crossing her arms.

"You should know the answer to that by looking at the scars. You're done." Edwards face falls, and she looks over at Eleanora with wide eyes.

Eleanora was one of the Fellows/Attending's who actually to the interns and their questions and never made them feel bad for having them. However, this time, Eleanora shrugs, voice passive.

"This is different, Edwards. It's Derek Shepherd's hand, we need natural perfection. Go sit down."

Stephanie huffs and shuffles back to her seat. Mark grins a bit, leaning down to whisper in his wife's ear.

"It's sexy when you get all mean and serious."

Eleanora grins to herself, and she hears Jackson groan from beside her.

"Absolutely disgusting."

"Ross!" Callie calls out. The male intern looks nervous as he makes his way over, gulping a bit. As he stands beside Derek, he gives the man a warm smile, nodding his head.

"Hi. I'm Dr. Ross."

"Yeah, I know who you are, Shane." Derek laughs, Eleanora smiling at the situation. Mark even gives a small grin, but it quickly goes away when he realizes he is still surrounded by interns he needs to intimidate.

"I know, I was just...." Shane starts, but he quickly shakes his head. He takes Derek's hand carefully, only hovering around the edges. "Do you have any pain with prehension or pronation?"

"Yeah." Derek confirms, nodding his head a bit. He eyes Mark and Eleanora warily, slightly uncomfortable with admitting this in front of his two closest friends. "It's getting worse, though."

Shane takes a moment to assess the situation before focusing back on Derek's hand. He slowly and carefully takes it and moves it a bit, examining all aspects of it. Shane then looks at Derek, voice understanding.