season 7, episode 7 - that's me trying

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      SAGE HAD DESPISED skills labs for as long as she could remember. Sure, some of them taught her important skills, but the rest were pointless and boring. That being said, there was one constant positive that applied to all of them. Skills labs always meant an early lunch, which she was looking forward to.

Little did she know, there would be no time for lunch that day.

She was standing around a table in the lab with Meredith, April, Alex, and Jackson when Owen rushed in, a stack of bright yellow trauma gowns in his arms.

"Charter plane was forced into an emergency landing and collided with a greyhound bus," he announced, gaining the rooms full attention, "Mass-casualty situation. Do I need to say it again? Let's move!"

They didn't need to be told twice. The group of doctors all rushed to grab gowns and hastily tied them on before sprinting after Owen.

"Close to 30 victims in the field, some critical. Multiple blunt trauma injuries," he told them as they reached the trauma bay. He pushed the door open and Sage yelped, grabbing April's hand to stop herself from tripping over a bloody dummy. The confusion only lasted for a few moments before she realized what was going on.

Jackson sighed, "And I was really looking forward to an early lunch."

"Me too," Sage muttered, stepping over the dummies that were lying on the ground.

"This is gonna suck."

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      "WELCOME TO TRAUMA CERTIFICATION." Owen opened the back doors of an ambulance that was filled with supplies. "You will work in teams of four. Each team will be responsible for nine casualties," he continued as Steve divided up the residents into teams using pieces of colored tape.

He pressed a strip of blue tape to Sage's trauma gown which caused her to look around to see who else was on her team. She saw Alex sporting a stripe of blue tape and grinned, knowing this would be fun. April was also put on team blue, as was Jackson.

"You may treat your patients using only what you can carry with your two hands from this ambulance," Owen continued. "The evac helicopter is on its way. You get your patients on the helicopter, you get certified. Are you ready?" They all nodded. "Then get to work."

All the residents immediately ran towards the ambulance with one goal in mind: get as many supplies as possible. Due to their size and speed, both Sage and April were able to make it in before most of the others, so when they got to their station, they had more supplies than most.

"This is going to be fun," April grinned at the brunette as she began examining the first dummy. Sage returned her smile and nodded in agreement.

This was way better than a normal skills lab.

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      BLUE TEAM HAD lost two patients, but besides that, everything had been going well until it started pouring rain. Alex had found a red plastic trash bag to try and keep himself dry but the rest of them had no such luck.

She had no idea why, but for some reason, Sage was loving this particular skills lab. She was drenched and her hair was a mess, but she was having a great time. She always thought she was cut out for general or neuro, but trauma might be a good fit too.

Unbeknownst to her, Owen Hunt was thinking the same thing as he watched her work.

"The helicopter has to be getting here soon. It's been three hours. Just—just a few more minutes," April said, her teeth chattering as she attended to her patient. "Right? Right, Dr. Hunt?" she asked when Owen walked over to their team. "The helicopter will be here any minute?"

Owen ignored her and turned to Alex, "Nice rain gear Karev. Shouldn't you be more concerned with your patient staying dry?"

"Yeah, well, he's a dummy, and I'm a person, so..." Alex shrugged, not moving his eyes away from the dummy.

"You know," Owen began, kneeling down beside Alex, who rolled his eyes, "a dry patient is less likely to die of hypothermia or shock. Something to think about." He gave Alex a put on the shoulder before standing up and walking away. "

"Alex, you can't break the rules like that," April scolded, turning around to glare at him. "That's unsanctioned use of a trash bag. You're gonna mess up our certification."

"Oh, you need to relax. This whole uptight thing? This is why you have no friends," he snapped, causing her to look down at the ground.

"Hey!" Sage and Jackson yelled at him, both throwing him the same dirty glare.

"Ok, this is why you have two friends," Alex amended.

April clenched her jaw before whirling around to face him. She grabbed his trash bag and tore a big piece of it off.

"Hey! Give me that back!" Alex demanded but it was too late. "Are you crazy?"

"There you go, little guy," April smiled, covering her dummy with the plastic. "No hypothermia for you."

"Give me some of that," Sage said. April nodded and tore some more plastic off of Alex and handed it to her friend.

"Thank you, April." Sage covered her patient's abdomen with the plastic and smiled, satisfied.

"Everyone!" Owen called out. All the residents turn to see him standing over green team's dummies, which were all flipped onto their stomachs. "Green team's patients are all dead. Only red team and blue team remain." Green team's doctors began to walk towards the door but Owen quickly stopped them. "Whoa. You see a helicopter?" They shook their heads. "Take a knee, learn something."

"Take a knee?" Jackson scoffed. "He's gonna scalp them. We're in "apocalypse now," and we're gonna get scalped."

Sage rolled her eyes, ignoring her not-boyfriend boyfriend's words as she turned to April.

"We could win this," she whispered, smiling.

"We could," April agreed. "No thanks to those two." She jerked a thumb in Alex and Jackson's general direction.

The two giggled, turning their attention back to the dummies.

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      "OK, RED TEAM'S PATIENTS HAVE ALL DIED. ONLY BLUE TEAM REMAINS," Owen announced as red team took a knee by their station. He walked over to their team and stood above Sage. "Keep an eye on Chang. That's what resourceful looks like."

April smiled at her, proud of what her friend had done. Sage grinned and went back to work.

"Good effort, Avery," Owen praised. Jackson grinned, but sadly, that wasn't all the good Dr. Hunt had to say. "But this incision you made is too wide. You lacerated the superior thyroid arteries."

"Well I just—" Jackson began but Owen cut him off by flipping the dummy onto its stomach, indicating it was dead.

"Move on."

"Damn it!" Jackson exclaimed, getting to his feet and walking over to another dummy.

"I hear it," April said suddenly, looking to the sky. "I hear the helicopter!"

"You what?" Sage questioned.

"I—I—I—I hear it! I hear it!" she repeated, her gaze still locked on the gloomy sky above.

"Oh, wake up!" Alex shouted. "You don't hear the helicopter because "A," it's imaginary, and "B," the imaginary helicopter is never coming! Hunt's trying to break us, trying to teach us Some B.S. Lesson about how trauma isn't fair or whatever. We're not done until he says these dummies are dead. The end!"

Sage hated to admit it, especially after all the hard work she'd done, but Alex was probably right. There was no helicopter and Owen was just trying to teach them that trauma wasn't fair.

"That's not true!" April replied, trying to convince herself that he was lying. "No! You are wrong!"

The rainfall grew louder and Sage saw Jackson mutter something under his breath before he stood up, stopping CPR on his dummy.

"Screw this. I'm done," he decided, walking towards the door.

"What?" April asked, looking up from her work.

"Jackson!" Sage called after him but he kept walking away from them. She glanced at her dummy and then his before quickly jumping over a dead one to continue CPR on his.

"Avery, where are you going?" Owen asked when he noticed Jackson was leaving. "Avery. Avery, get back here!"

"No!" Jackson snapped, his hand resting on the door handle.

"No?" Owen echoed, a bit shocked by his answer.

"No, sir."

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      IT SEEMED LIKE years had passed, the rainfall becoming heavier and heavier with every passing moment as Sage continued CPR on one of their last patients. April was next to her, performing CPR on her's, Alex was next to her with his dummy, and Owen was in front of them.

"Sir! You said the helicopter was gonna be here hours ago, and it's not here, and I'm not complaining, But where is it?" she asked, looking up at Owen.

"Well," Owen began, looking up at the sky, "the rain's still pretty bad. Probably got caught in a hail storm."

He snapped his fingers at Steve. He immediately rushed forward and tried to place another card down, but neither Sage nor April were about to let him. Somehow, they both already knew what it was going to say.

"No!" the two women shouted in unison, Sage slapping the card out of his hand.

"No! I know what that card is gonna say," April continued. "It's gonna say he has cardiac tamponade with associated hypotension and bradycardia!"

"But he can't, 'cause we already did a pericardiocentesis and bolused him with I.V. fluids," Sage added.

Owen raised his eyebrows and looked to Steve, who was able to fish the card out of a puddle and was now reading it.

"They're right," he confirmed, an impressed look grazing his features. "What do I do? Do I..."

They both rolled their eyes and looked at each other, Sage nodded. They knew what they needed to do.

"Alex, grab his feet," Sage ordered, standing up to begin dragging the dummy to the ambulance. Alex rushed towards Steve, but April quickly stopped him.

"The patient!" she shouted. "Come on!"

Alex did as he was told and together, they dragged Sage's patient to the ambulance while April managed to get her's there as well.

"Hey, hey, hey," Owen began, trying to stop them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa."

"Son of a bitch, that's awesome!" Alex exclaimed as they reached the ambulance.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you think you're doing? This ambulance is not in play," Owen told them as they shoved Sage's patient into the ambulance and then got April's in as well.

"Oh, you're just making stuff up, which I can do, too!" April shouted, her and Alex going back for his dummy. "And I say it is in play. Can't fit nine patients on an ambulance. But I think three will fit just fine. Six of our patients may have died today, but these three won't! 'cause we're gonna get them on this ambulance, And we're gonna take 'em to that hospital right there!"

"April, I love you!" Sage laughed, climbing into the passenger's seat. April sat behind the wheel and Alex closed the doors for them.

"Kepner, Chang!" Owen appeared at April's window, "this ambulance was involved in the accident and no longer runs."

"Well, the keys are in the ignition, so let's see," Sage challenged as April twisted the keys and the engine roared to life. She threw her arms up and cheered as April laughed in delight.

"Looks like I got triple-a. Ha!" she continued laughing, and the laugh was so loud, so full of life, so somewhat maniacal that it almost scared Sage. April Kepner had always been a quiet, respectful girl. Now, that quiet girl was gone and replaced with the true April Kepner. The badass April Kepner. "Apparently they could get here when the helicopter couldn't. Now move! Or I will run you down!"

Sage switched on the sirens while April glared at Owen and began driving.

They reached the entrance to the E.R. a couple minutes later, where Owen and April were already waiting. Sage was the first to the back doors, and in an instant, she had her patient tossed over her shoulder.

"John Doe, multiple chest and extremity traumas," she reported, stomping towards the door. "Still hypotensive despite two large-bore I.V.S. started in the field."

"Alright, Chang, that's enough," Owen tried but Sage just kept on walking. April began reporting her patient while following Sage.

"We need a full workup and likely a thoracotomy. I suspect active bleeding in the chest!"

"Will you tell us we won," Alex pleaded, "or they'll never stop?"

"It's not a contest," Owen reminded him.

"Alex, call the O.R. and make sure there are rooms available," Sage instructed, looking over her shoulder.

Alex cast Owen one last dirty look before turning back to the other two remaining members of team blue with a smug grin on his face. "Will do!"

"All right, all right, fine!" Owen decided, having had just about enough of this. Sage and April stopped walking and turned back around, waiting for him to say the words. "Blue team wins!"

"Blue team wins?" Sage repeated, a grin making it's way onto her face.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you win. They're all gonna live for 40 more years and have 15 grandkids. You happy? Blue team wins!"

"Blue team wins!" April shouted in triumph. They both let their dummies fall to the floor and Sage ran to Alex, who already had his arms open and waiting for her. He caught her, lifted her up, and spun her around, laughing.

"We won! We won!" she cheered as he let her down. April ran after her and joined the hug, her terrifying laughter echoing throughout the hospital.

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      "CHANG!"

Sage, who was on her way to the locker room to dry herself off before going to find Callie and Arizona to say goodbye and then Jackson, stopped and turned around at the sound of her name. It was Owen.

"Dr. Hunt," she said as he came to stand in front of her. "Can I help you?"

"No, I just wanted to say how great you were out there today," he told her, his voice genuine and soft.

"Thank you," she replied, smiling up at him.

"Listen, I don't know what specialties you're thinking about going into, but you'd be really great in trauma."

"Really?" she asked. Sure, she liked it enough, but she didn't know if she was really good at it. Owen nodded.

"You have good instincts, you can think on your feet, you're a hell of a leader, and you're tough," he listed off, "I know it's early to make any final decisions, but I'm gonna see if I can have you on my service more often."

"I think I'd like that," she replied, truly meaning it.

"Great." He smiled and patted her back before walking away. She grinned and continued her journey to the locker room, where Alex was waiting for her.

"Hurry up and dry off," he said as she grabbed a towel and dried off her hair. "I'm taking you and Kepner out for drinks."

"Alex, I need to find—" she began but he cut her off.

"Find lover boy later." He waved a hand dismissively. "We're celebrating. Drinks. Tonight. Me, you, Kepner."

"Alex—"

"I will drag you out of here," he threatened. "Dry off and get ready for some damn alcohol."

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      AFTER A FEW drinks with Alex, April, Lexie, and Mark, those who lived at Meredith's house headed home to go to bed. Sage was clad in an oversized vintage Eagles shirt that she'd stolen from her brother, Elijah, and a pair of black shorts, as she read Death on The Nile while laying in bed.

Getting drinks was fun, but she'd spent the entire evening worrying about Jackson and the fact that she had yet to see him since the end of the skills lab. She didn't even know if he'd come back to the house after the event.

She was lost in thought, her head spinning and her stomach twisting as she tried to focus on her book, when the door opened and Jackson walked in.

"Hey," she greeted, a soft smile gracing her lips as she sat up.

"Hey," he replied, his voice rough and his green eyes were dark. She watched as he tossed his bag aside and sat down on the bed.

"We missed you at the bar," she said, placing her book on the bedside table.

"Yeah, sorry about that," he sighed, leaning back against the headboard.

The two sat in silence for a moment, both unsure of what to say.

"So, what happened?" she questioned, turning her head to look at him.

"I don't know," he mumbled. She raised an eyebrow at him and he sighed. "I just—I didn't want a lesson on how unfair trauma was after losing Reed and Charles."

Sage nodded and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug. He leaned into her and pressed his face into the crook of her neck.

"You wanna talk about it?" she offered. She felt him shake his head and she sighed. "Ok."

They stayed like that for a moment longer before Sage pulled away. She got under the covers and waited for Jackson to join her. He switched off the light and laid down beside her, wrapping his arms around her and pressing a kiss to the back of her neck.

"I'm glad you're here," he whispered, and though she knew he was only talking about her being in his arms, his words seemed to hold a double meaning.

I'm glad you're alive. I'm glad you're ok. I'm glad we're together.

Sage closed her eyes, allowing the steady rise and fall of his chest to lull her to sleep.

notes from lottie,

relativley uneventful chapter but it's the start of sagie and trauma!!!

anywaysss, hope u enjoyed!

comment and vote!

love ya,

- lottie.

published: 2/25/24