⇢ CHAPTER 26

the hallway with Lexie as she nervously bit on her pen, looking over her patient's chart in anxiousness over the news from the Chief-- he would be firing a bunch of people and Holly hoped to be on the list of people that stayed.

"I'm staying tonight." Lexie nodded confidently, going over a plan in her head of how to make an impression.

"I'm gonna stay, too." Holly nodded, taking the pen out of her mouth, "I can't risk looking like I'm not doing the best--"

"Holly," Lexie reasoned, stopping in her tracks, "you're safe." 

Holly paused, tilting her head, "How do you know?"

"'Cause," Lexie rolled her eyes as if it was obvious, "everyone likes you-- they still give you sad widow eyes and they can't fire the widow."

"Oh." Holly chuckled, shrugging as they continued walking, "Do you think I should breakdown crying in the hallway?"

Lexie shook her head, "I think that might be too much."

✧

Holly sighed, holding onto Steve's arm as she patted his back after the bad news he received. She couldn't believe the Chief would fire a pregnant first year resident-- but at the same time, she was happy she at least got to keep her job.

And she felt awful about that.

"Okay," Lexie smiled, walking into the resident's lounge after surgery, "so I'm there in the spleen repair with Dr. Hunt, and he's got the cautery and he's moving it back and forth, you know, fixing bleeders, and then he just hands it to me... like it's the most normal thing in the world to do, like I repair spleens all the time. And so I do it. I-I repair the spleen on my own. And I just-- I realized, you know," Lexie continued, not noticing Steve's solemn gaze on the table, "if we just focus on our jobs, if we just focus on our patients, we're gonna be fine."

"Lex..." Holly trailed off.

"Megan got cut." Steve announced, "I didn't, but she did."

"What?" Lexie frowned her eyebrows at the two, "How?"

"The Chief sent out an e-mail to the people who got cut." Holly answered.

"He fired three-quarters of our class." Steve added, leaning back in his chair in disbelief, "We're having a baby."

Lexie stood up to check if she was safe as Steve brought his head in his hands. Holly continued to rub his back as she looked over at Lexie, nodding when Lexie mouthed she was safe.

✧

"Hey." Derek smiled as he walked inside the resident's lounge, finally finding Holly, "Are you safe?"

"Yeah." Holly sighed in relief before her eyes looked over at him, "I'm thinking about staying the night again, why?" Her eyes twinkled, "Are you doing another craniotomy?"

"Ha, no." Derek breathed out, "Want to play some baseball?"

✧

Holly stood next to Lexie and Meredith as Lexie and Mark bumped hips while Cristina stood next to Derek, who was playing around with his baseball mit and Owen stood next to the pitching machine.

"Okay," Cristina shook her head, unfolding her arms from her chest, "I'm sorry. I don't have time for games. I have to get back to the hospital."

"She's right." Meredith nodded, "She does have to go back to the hospital."

"We're not gonna talk about the hospital." Derek reasoned, "We're here to play baseball."

"And drink beer." Mark added, giving Derek a bottle of beer, "Drink your beer."

Mark walked over and gave bottles to Lexie and Holly as Lexie sighed, "How can I drink beer when all my friends just got fired?"

"Are Steve and I nothing?" Holly asked, chuckling when Lexie rolled her eyes and lightly pushed her.

"You know," Cristina brought a hand up, walking away, "I'm sorry. I'm leaving."

"Wha, whoa." Owen spoke, bringing a arm out to stop her.

"No."

"You need this." Owen put the baseball helmet on her, "Put this on. That's right. Trust me." 

He leaned over to grab a baseball bat as Derek smiled, "There we go. Look at this."

"Here." Owen guided her to first base, "Stand here. That's it."

"No," Cristina voiced, "I--- no."

Owen jogged over to the pitching machine, "Now hit the ball."

"You think she's gonna hit it?" Holly whispered, squinting at Cristina.

"Twenty bucks says she runs away from the ball and goes to the hospital." Mark nodded.

Lexie scoffed, "Twenty bucks says she makes it."

"Twenty bucks says she misses the first one." Holly shrugged.

Owen hit the button and the machine threw the ball towards Cristina, which made Cristina back away quickly and scream, "Oh, my God!"

"Hey, batter, batter, batter, batter, batter, batter." Mark chuckled as Lexie and Holly held in their laughs.

Derek grabbed the ball and threw it back to Owen, "Here we go. Here we go. Strike one!"

Cristina sighed as she adjusted the grip on the bat, "You need to stop thinking about what's gonna happen," Owen advised, "And you need to focus on what is right in front of you. Now hit the ball."

Cristina looked as the ball made it's way to her and hit it. They all began to cheer as they saw the ball fly to the other side.

"Oh, my God!" Cristina chuckled, not believing she made it, "Oh, my God! I hit it!"

Holly swallowed a few more sips of her beer before grabbing the baseball bat from Cristina as Cristina ran up to hug Meredith in celebration. Holly smiled, adjusting her grip on the bat , "My turn!"

✧✧✧

bro that episode was lowkey sad when people left like olivia (cause she was one of the OGs) and megan cause she was one of the interns/residents i actually remembered LMAO and she was prego :{ (but then she gets rehired ✨)