chapter thirty six

desire.season three, episode twenty one.

Over the last few weeks, the engaged couple had made up and began to prepare for the wedding.

Meredith and Derek were still happy, Izzie and George slept together and had yet to tell anyone, and Cassie was putting all of her focus and energy into studying to avoid thinking about Mark.

There was a lot going on, to say the least.

"What are the signs of a central line infection?" Alex asked Meredith, who was sitting in the hot seat.

"Puss, redness and fever."

"What's Kahn's syndrome?"

"Wait, wait, I know this," Meredith cringed.

Izzie pointed to her watch. "Tick tock, dude."

"Um—"

"Cracking under the pressure?" George exclaimed.

"No! Um... hypocortolis... cortolism..."

"Primary hyprodostrolonism!" Cassie shouted, a wide grin on her face. "Out of the seat bitch, my turn!"

Izzie got up, sprinted forward and beat her to the seat. "No, it's my turn!"

"No it's not," Cristina disagreed. "It's my turn!"

"I answered the question!" Cassie huffed, sitting back down on the edge of the couch.

Burke walked into the room, standing between Cristina and Cassie, holding a piece of potential wedding cake. "Try this one," he told his fiancé. "White sponge with vanilla butter cream."

Cristina scoffed. "Okay, yeah. I'm trying to study for the most important test of my intern career. I don't have time for wedding cake."

"Just try it."

"Go, go!" Cassie interrupted, gesturing to the cards George was holding. "We don't have all day!"

"What is the strongest layer of the small bowel?" he asked dramatically.

"Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it," Izzie mumbled, racking her brain.

"It is snot," George hinted.

"Damn it!"

"Submucousa!" Cassie yelled out, pumping her fist in the air when George nodded and gave her a high five. "Yes, suck it blondie!"

"Wait, wait," Cristina held a hand up. "How do you know that? Even I didn't know that."

Cassie shrugged. "I'm a genius. I know a lot."

"Ugh, you don't even need to study," Meredith huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Totally not fair."

"What about you? Are you studying with the wife's cards, George?"

"What cards?"

"Callie was ranked number one in her year after this test," Cassie explained. "She has flash cards!"

Izzie scoffed to herself. "So? We don't need the flash cards. We are independently brilliant."

George nodded. "Dream team."

"Yeah, yeah, I wanna hurl," Cristina rolled her eyes, pushing Izzie away. "Out of the seat."

"No, no, my turn," Alex said standing up.

Cassie stood as well. "No, it's still mine!"

"Oh, come on!"

Burke entered the room once again, going up to Cristina with even more cake. "This is the lemon, might be a little tart."

"What is atenicaratosis?"

"Uh, atenicaratosis is, uh," Alex stuttered, "premalignant lesion!"

"In old people," Cristina corrected.

"In ."

"Is it too tart?" Burke interjected.

"Baby, I don't care," Cristina said unapologetically. "I mean, is Alex right or am I?"

"You don't care? Well I'll get another bride."

Cassie awkwardly looked between them and stole a bite of the cake. "It's good," she grinned. "A little tart, but it's tasteful."

"Thank you, Harper," Burke scoffed sarcastically.

Cristina rolled her eyes at her fiancé. "I love it. I love all cakes. Now break the tie."

Burke hesitated. "Karev's right."

"Boo-ya!"

"Oh!"

"Go Alex!" Cassie cheered, stealing the cake from Burke in the process. When he gave her a look, she simply shrugged. "What? It's not like anyone else was going to eat it."

☆

The next day after a long and hard shift, Cassie was getting off the elevator, ready to go home and study until she got a migraine. With exactly three weeks until the intern exam, she was ready to step into her .

To her, this basically meant sleeping, eating, and breathing medicine every day until the exam; no personal issues or emotions getting in the way. It worked with every test all eight years of college, and she'd be damned if it stopped working now.