If that's what it takes

75

"Thank God she's in here." Cristina panted when she looked from Derek to Mark and back to Meredith, she swallowed hard when she noticed the solemn looks on the two men's faces. "What? What's going on?" She whispered.

"Cristina, I need to have a word with you." Derek said in a low voice as he glanced to Meredith's closed eyes.

"Why? What? Did you... were you able to..."

"Outside the room, please." Derek replied.

"I don't under..." Cristina started as Derek grabbed her arm and pulled her out the door into the hallway. "Get your filthy mitts off me." She growled as she pulled his hands off her. "What's going on?"

"What's going on? What's going on? Cristina... she has a goddamned blood clot in her brain the size of Puget Sound... and you are asking me what's going on?"

"Blood clot." Cristina breathed.

"Yes, a blood clot... what did you think that I..."

"How long do you think she's had this blood clot?" Cristina asked, swallowing hard. "I mean... how did it look? Was there bleeding? Headaches...?"

"I haven't asked her yet, Cris." Derek whispered. "My thought, though... is that the fact that she's communicating is good in that she can tell us what's going on, but it's bad in that the composition of the clot is changing. She could be slowly bleeding out into her skull and we won't know unless we get a CT and another MRI, now that we know what we're looking for. Cristina... she may only have a day or two left..." Derek said, his voice high with worry as he swallowed again.

"Shit." Cristina muttered as she looked down the hallway. "I have to go find Bailey." She said as she turned.

"Wait... why are you looking for Bailey? I talked to Bailey, you paged me to tell me that Bailey was in the building. Why would you be looking for Bailey?" Derek started to sputter.

"Will you just cool your goddamned jets? Because Bailey is the head of the department, but she's also in charge of Neuro. If we have a blood clot, we need to get it out now."

"Get it out now? She hasn't been cleared for surgery! They don't even know that we did the tests!"

"Derek... I didn't page you to tell you the chief of surgery was in the building. I paged you to tell you the chief of staff is in the building. Doctor Webber... it's Doctor Webber that doesn't want any tests. We need to get her in for a real MRI now... right now, no fooling around or she's going to die. I'm not going to let her die."

"You were fine and dandy with her dying just an hour ago... and now you're all gung ho about letting her live?" Derek exclaimed.

"Don't make me slap you, Derek." Cristina growled. "She's my best friend, and I am not going to let her die..." She said quickly as she glanced down the hallway as Izzie rushed toward them holding Zoey in her arms. "What are they doing here?"

"She had a nightmare..." Derek said as he walked toward them. Zoey was holding Izzie tightly as Derek lifted her from her arms.

"Oh, DD..." She whimpered as he held her. "DD, DD..."

"It's alright, baby..." He whispered as he rubbed her back as Cristina watched for a second. "What are you still doing standing here? If you're going to find Bailey, find Bailey!" He whispered in a frustrated voice. "She said she had tomorrow off, you had better goddamned catch her before she leaves this building!" Derek whispered fiercely.

"Don't yell, DD..." Zoey whimpered as she rubbed his back as she popped her other thumb into her mouth. "No yelling... shh..." She whispered.

"DD is sorry, sweetheart..." Derek whispered as he glared back at Cristina as she watched on for a moment, seemingly in thought.

"Stay here with Meredith... don't move... I'll call you when we're ready for you and Mark to bring her down." Cristina said as she moved quickly down the hallway.

"Bring Meredith where?" Izzie asked as Cristina ran down the hallway quickly.

"To surgery." Derek whispered as he glanced to Izzie's surprised face. "We are saving her tonight." He swallowed as he turned and walked into the room, leaving Izzie out in the hallway for a moment.