A little over a week had passed since the new residents arrived. Grey Sloan Memorial was just returning to normalcy after the annual invasion of new doctors. The new residents were starting to make themselves noticed: some for their gab, some for their mistakes, some for their destructive nerves.

And then there was her. She arrived late—for reasons unknown to everyone except Bailey—but it took two days to get everyone in line. She was fast. Precise. Intelligent. The doctors were already fighting over having her next to them in the dining room.

Now it was lunchtime. The residents sat in noisy groups in the cafeteria. She was with them, but a little further away. She had opened a large surgical volume right in front of her tray, the food practically forgotten. Every now and then she looked up, laughed at the others' jokes, then went back to studying with the same calm.

At a table a little further away sat Jackson Avery, Meredith Grey, Maggie Pierce, Alex Karev, and April Kepner. They were chatting about this and that until, as always, Alex ruined the mood with her usual gentleness.

“Okay, serious question,” he said, spearing a piece of chicken with his fork. “Who’s this year’s sexiest resident?”

Maggie’s eyes widened, April lowered her gaze to hide a laugh, and Meredith let out a half-snort without even stopping chewing.

Jackson looked up from his phone slightly, then let his gaze roam over the residents’ tables.

And they stopped on her.

A moment of silence. A half-smile on her lips.

“That one over there,” she said, barely nodding her chin. “The one with the open book. She’s… different.”

Alex nods with a knowing smile, muttering "yeah" as if he's read his mind.

Meredith raises an eyebrow at Jackson, visibly amused, while Maggie stifles a laugh behind her coffee cup.

"The prodigy?" Meredith says, tilting her head. "No, no. Don't touch her, Avery. She's too good to be distracted by you guys flirting during shifts."

Jackson raises his hands innocently, but doesn't look away.

"I didn't say anything." Then, softly, he adds with a faint smile "by now."