Chapter Nineteen

Peggy sat next to Lexie in the large auditorium as they waited for the chief to come in and begin his announcement. As the girl was looking down at the letter in her hand she missed the looks she was receiving from Lexie. Looking up she raises her eyebrow at her friend, "What? Why are you staring at me?"

The girl sighs, "I thought you and Alex broke up?"

"Seeing as we were never dating, there was no break-up." Peggy chuckles looking at her confused, "But what does that have to do with you staring at me?"

Lexie starts to stutter, "I-it's just that every time I see you, there are hickeys all over your neck. So I'm just confused on how you got them if you and Alex aren't sleeping together anymore."

The brunette laughs, "I got them from sleeping with someone. There are more available men out there than just Alex, my sex life is very active."

"I know that Peggy," Lexie shakes her head with a chuckle. "It's just I never see you at Joe's, so I'm wondering where you are meeting these men. Unless," She lets out a gasp, "You're sleeping with someone in the hospital."

She doesn't get a chance to respond when the chief makes his way in front of the podium. "Listen up, everyone. Listen up!"

Peggy gives her friend a tight smile, "We should pay attention to the man."

The man speaks loudly into the microphone, "We're busy people, so I'm gonna try and be brief. I am implementing a new teaching protocol here at Seattle Grace. Some of these rules are new, and some are old and are going to be newly enforced.

Peggy stood with all of the interns and residents watching Christina go over the patient's chart, "Jack O'Brian, 47, scheduled for an abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. His, uh, last C.T. showed calcification, so I ordered a C.T. Angio to determine whether it had worsened or remained stable."

Hahn nods at her as she's looking at the chart, "Nice catch Yang. You can take him down after rounds."

Webber walks over placing his hand on Alex's shoulder, "Dr Karev will take over. Dr Yang, you are done here. Thank you."

They all move to follow the Chief out of the room except Alex and his group.

"First, second, and third-year residents will no longer be allowed to de facto specialize. The practice interferes with the development of a fully rounded surgical education. No more."

Meredith stood next to the patient informing them all of his statuses in a whisper, "Barry Patmore, 63 ... Had been experiencing chronic headaches for the past seven years. Has been treated with narcotics, anti-seizure medications, antidepressants, and antipsychotic medications with no success."

Derek leaned closer to speak to the man, "How severe is the pain today, Mr Patmore, scale of one to ten?"

The man groans, "Eight. It's always an eight."

Dr Shepherd turns to look at the group, "Which is why Mr Patmore's last consult suggested a bilateral cingulotomy..."

Cristina leans forward to interrupt, "I'm sorry, a frontal lobotomy for a headache?"

The patient immediately groans, "Too loud. Please." Christina moves back in line with the group, "And could you do something about the buzzing? Do we need all these machines?"

Derek moves forward as the chief moves closer to the door, "Mr Patmore has been experiencing intense pain all day every day for seven years."

Meredith nods, "But the cingulotomy could cause seizures, or cognitive defects or behavioural changes."

"Which is why we are going to explore every possible option before resorting to such a radical surgery." The attending says looking over at them as the chief nods his head.

Mr Patmore squints his eyes, "More tests?"

The doctor nods at him, "Yes."

Webber leans over to Christina, "Dr Yang, you will be assisting Dr Shepherd today." The resident nods her head looking over at Derek who looks shocked. As they all walk out of the room the attending hands Christina the chart.

"Personal Relationships, personal loyalties, and personal favourites will no longer be a factor in our training program. Attending's, you will spread your wealth of knowledge equally among all of the residents. In addition, we will refocus our attention on patient communication and bedside manner. For some of us, this means learning the lost art of humanity and compassion. For others, this means learning how to treat patients without becoming  emotionally involved with them."

"This is a surgical program. Psychiatry is on the 5th floor. Let's not confuse the two. In addition, residents, your interns reflect on you. If they fail, you fail. If they succeed, you succeed. Attending's that go for residents as well. Teach with enthusiasm. Learn with enthusiasm. We are surgeons. We cut out malignancies. Let's start at home, people."

✗✗✗

Peggy stood next to Christina at the computers as Derek and Lexie hooked the patient up to the screens. The attending keeps his voice low, "Okay, Mr Patmore. I'm gonna give you a variety of different stimuli so we can take a look at the wave patterns generated." He picks up the headphones, "I need you to remove your hand from your eyes now." He groans following instruction, "OK, are we still at an eight?"

He nods, "It's still at eight."

Cristina turns on the screen, "Starting visual stimuli."

Derek walks over to stand next to them and watch the monitors, "If you two were me, you'd want them out...The roommates." When the women don't respond he keeps going, "I am not unreasonable. Right?"