The Alternative (Mark Sloan story)

chapter 17

02X27

Losing My Religion 

"I cut the LVAD wire." Izzie said, as the interns stand in Richards office.

"Actually, I cut the LVAD wire." Meredith said. 

"No. I did it. I'm the one who cut the wire." George said.

"Fine." Cristina said, getting nudged by George to continue. "I cut the LVAD wire." 

Before Juliette could say she didn't do it, Alex had beat her to it. "Juliette and I had nothing to do anything. We're totally innocent." 

"Alex!" Meredith spoke. 

"We wasn't even here. He knows we weren't here. You think he doesn't know that? The guy's not mentally challenged." Juliette said. 

"That's not the point. What about loyalty?" George asked them. 

"We made a an agreement." Cristina says, as they all start arguing about it. 

"People! I know who did this." Richard said. "So, you might as well come clean. I know."

"With all due respect, sir, if you knew, you wouldn't be asking us." George said. 

"I did what..." Izzie starts to say. 

"You have your suspicions, but you don't actually know." Meredith said, interrupting Izzie. 

"Not for sure." Cristina said. 

"And you can't do anything to any of us without proof, sir." George said butting in.  

"Well, one of you compromised a patient's life. One of you stole an organ. One of you jeopardized the integrity of this hospital and of UNOS. Now, you tell me, and you tell me right now!" Richard said, but no one said anything so he continued with the one thing that everyone would miss. "All right, fine. No surgeries." 

"Sir?" Cristina questioned. 

"You heard what I said. No surgeries. No one scrubs in, no one watches from the gallery, no one so much as goes near the OR floor. Until someone confesses, the five of you will share a single patient: Camille Travis. Whatever she wants, the five of you will provide it! Whatever she wants. Now, get the hell out of my sight!" Richard tells them, as they walk out of his office. 

"This is bull, Alex and I didn't even do anything wrong." Juliette said pissed at everyone except Alex. 

"Wow, he didn't say we were fired." George said ignoring Juliette. 

"He might as well have." Cristina said. "No surgeries?" 

"That wasn't bad. We got off easy." Meredith replied. 

"Yeah, for now. You think this is over?" Cristina asked. 

"I could really use a good come right now." George said. "A nice, long coma." 

"You know, there's only been three careers I've ever wanted. Ruler of my own planet, Wonder Woman, or a surgeon. And I don't see any invisible planes or extra countries lying around." Cristina said.  

"I will go back and tell him." Izzie tells them. "I will tell him it was me." 

"And get kicked out of the program?" Meredith asked. "You will keep your mouth shut. We all will keep our mouths shut." 

"This is crap. I'm turning her in." Alex said, Juliette agreeing with him. 

"Alex." Meredith said. 

"What? You were the one who said we had to stand by Izzie."  Alex said. "But now Juliette and I  get stuck catering some V.I.P. chick patient? I don't think so." 

 "Alex, I am sorry and I really do appreciate what you did for Denny." Izzie said. 

"Izzie we only did it to get the surgery, not for you." Juliette replied.

"Hey! We stick together. You know, we all did this. Nobody's a victim. We...we stick together." Cristina said, also getting weird looks from everyone.  "Damn it." 

"Thank you." Izzie said. 

"You're welcome." Cristina replied. 

"We can handle this. Camille Travis is a kid with cancer. So, we give her whatever she wants for a couple days. How hard can that be?" George questioned. 

"Harder than you might think." Bailey said walking up to the group. "This is Claire and Natalie. Camille Travis' friends."