Chapter Text
Chapter One:
Elizabeth walked through the halls of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in utter astonishment. She was finally here, the Hospital she had dreamed of working at. Tomorrow she would be in her final year of residency.
She could hear the room before she saw it. The sounds of multiple voices attempting to talk over one another as they vied for control over their conversations. She paused before she turned the corner to the staff cafeteria. Reaching down, she rubbed the palms of her hands against the dark velvet fabric of her dress. Elizabeth told herself it was to smooth out the wrinkles, but really it was to dry the sweat from her palms.
“I don’t want to go in there either.” Spoke a voice from behind her. It jarred her from her thoughts and her already racing heart sped up even more.
“Can you see my pit stains from back there? I had hoped this dress wouldn’t show.” Elizabeth let out a laugh as she turned around to see who had spoken to her.
A man quite older than her stood before her. Slightly greying hair and a large smirk on his clean-shaven face. “Doctor Thomas Koracick.” He began as he stuck out a hand in greeting and approached, “You must be one of the brilliant new Interns?”
“Actually, I’m a transferring resident, a smart, brilliant, scared out of my mind, and regretting every moment that led me to being here, as a senior resident.” Tom gave a slight chuckle and glanced down at his still waiting hand. “Shit, sorry…, Doctor Elizabeth White, pleasure to meet you.” She spoke as she straightened8 her back and reaching out to grasp his hand.
“White? Any relation to Doctor Wilfred White?” Asked Tom.
“Yeah. He is my father.”
“I’m sorry.” Said Tom, releasing Elizabeth’s hand.
“Sorry?” Elizabeth questioned, not used to that response when it came to her family legacy.
“That you have to deal with that ego on a daily basis. What was it like growing up with him as a father? I can just imagine what dinners must have been like.” Said Tom as his eyes raked over her with a smile. “So were you planning on following in his footsteps?”
“Cardio, no, I’m interested in Ophthalmology.”
The smile on Tom’s face dropped. His mouth opened, and then he closed it, seemingly at a loss for words.
Elizabeth let out a laugh. “I’m joking. Neurosurgery is my specialty, the brain led me to becoming a surgeon. I had a grade two Atypical Meningioma.” Said Elizabeth as she raised the hand and tapped her skull. “Had to learn everything brain related when I was diagnosed, and now all I want is brains. All I think about now is brain tumours.”
“Sexy.” Tom said with a smile. “The tumour, that is. I’m assuming you’ve had surgery, and you aren’t about to enter your internship with a ticking time bomb?”
“Yeah, I was nineteen at the time.”
“Reoccurrence?”
“Radiation treatments after the total resection for good measure. So far, no reoccurrence.”
“And you’ve been keeping up with your scans?”
“Yes.”
“Who was your surgeon?”
“Doctor Samuel Gravely.”
“Samuel’s a quack. I’ll find you tomorrow, and we will do a CT. Make sure he didn’t mess up that legacy of a brain of yours.” Tom stepped forward and placed a fist to his hip and extended his elbow toward Elizabeth. “Now come on, I want to start some rumours before your first day.”
Elizabeth stared at him with wide eyes, unable to respond to his proposal. “Come on, trust me, it will give you some street cred. All the gossip tomorrow will be about you. Which gives you the advantage of standing out to all the important people.” Elizabeth laughed and slipped her arm around his before he walked the two of them into the busy room, the busy room of which a good few people stopped to watch as both her and Doctor Koracick.
She could hear a few whispered words asking who she was, and why she was with Doctor Koracick. It was then, though, that she spotted Doctor Bailey, who had also just seemed to have spotted her.
“Ah, Doctor White, I’m glad you could make it.” Miranda said as she approached her. Elizabeth noticed the side eye that was given to Tom as she came to a stop in front of them. “Doctor Koracick, do you two know each other?”
“We’ve been bonding over her sexy brain tumour.” Tom responded.
“Interesting.” Miranda narrowed her vision at the older man. “Doctor Webber!”
Elizabeth watched as an older man walk towards her. She knew from her look into the hospital’s staff that this was the Doctor Richard Webber.
When Doctor Webber was in front of them, he eyed Elizabeth suspiciously.
“Doctor Webber, I would like to introduce you to Doctor Elizabeth White. She was the one I told you about.”
“White…” Richard spoke as he extended a hand. “Like the Cardio…”
“Yes, Dr. White is my father, Doctor Webber.”
“Doctor Bailey told me she hired a prodigy, but I never thought…” he trailed off.
“I hope I can live up to his reputation.”
“I hope not.” Said Tom with a smirk on his lips. “He’s a prude. No offence.” He finished looking at Elizabeth.
“I’m sure we will see great things from Doctor White. She was top of her class at Harvard, and I offered her a great deal to get her to leave Duke.”
“I would have come, regardless.” Elizabeth laughed. “This was always my top choice.”
“Doctor Koracick, I didn’t realize you were still here.” Came the cheerful voice of Amelia Shepherd.
“Yeah, I had allowed for a few extra days to stick around, you know, in case you became a cabbage.” As Tom talked, a group started to form around Elizabeth.
“And who is your friend?” Asked Amelia.
Miranda took notice of the people around them and quickly threw a sweeping hand out. “This is our new Senior Resident Doctor, Elizabeth White…” Miranda stretched out the last name, giving everyone time to process what she was saying.
“Wait like…”
“Yes.” Miranda said quickly.
“Who…”
“She is his daughter.”
“But I thought…”
Miranda waved her hands in the air. “Let’s leave the poor girl alone. She can answer all your questions tomorrow. Now go, mingle, all of you. Including you, Doctor Koracick,”
Elizabeth extracted her arm from Tom’s and placed a hand on his chest instead. “Don’t worry, you get to check me out tomorrow.” Elizabeth threw a wink at him before walking away towards the drink table.
A dark squint was sent from Miranda to Tom. “Her brain. I’m checking out her brain tomorrow.”
“I’m watching you Koracick, I’m watching you.”