ᴄᴏᴅᴇ ʙʟᴜᴇ • ᴍ. ꜱʟᴏᴀɴ

𝟎𝟎𝟔. raindrops keep falling

"JOANNA," Addison called. The brunette pretended not to have listened and continued walking through the hospital corridors. "Joanna!" Addison shouted. "Stop ignoring me."

"Addison, I don't have time for this," Joanna responded, quickly turning her head to her former friend. "Derek's doing a standstill operation on my friend, I have been on call for the last 28 hours, you requested my best friend to be on your case simply to torture her and I really just need some fucking sleep."

"Please," Addison begged, grabbing Joanna's hand. "I won't be able to survive this without you. I just need a friend. For five seconds, I just need a fucking friend."

Joanna stared at the red-headed woman for a second, as if seeing her for the first time. 

Addison never begged, and there she was, begging her to do the decent thing and be a friend to her. She regretted her hesitation as she hugged Addison tightly. She knew why Addison had done what she did. And even though she was mad and loyal to Derek, Joanna had to admit, she had missed her friend.

Joanna pulled apart first, and Addison asked her with teary eyes, "Tell me what I need to do to win you back and I'll do it."

"What do you want me to say, Addison?" Joanna replied. "You didn't just cheat on Derek, you slept with Mark. Of all people, you chose to sleep with the guy who pulled my heart out of my chest and stepped on it until it turned to mush."

"I'm sorry," Addison spoke, a rebel tear falling down her eye.

Joanna spoke in a much softer tone.  "I just need a little time to adjust to this new dynamic, Addie. I want to continue being your friend but you can't punish Emily for her relationship with Derek."

"Just remember you were my friend first," Addison said as Joanna turned to walk away, leaving her with the memory of how good it felt to befriend Addison during her first weeks living in New York. How she had spent late nights helping her study. How funny it was to try on wedding dresses, with Addie drunkenly telling her she would make a beautiful bride one day.

She was brought back to reality by intense nausea. She took five deep breaths before entering Joe's room, where she, Derek, Preston Burke, Cristina, Christopher, and Rosa would explain the surgery to him.  

"It's the location of the aneurysm that makes it tricky," Derek explained.

"Your body temperature would be lowered cool enough to protect it from any damage and stop the heart," Christopher added.

"Which stops blood flow to the brain which reduces the risk of rupture," Derek continued. "I'll have 45 minutes to clip the aneurysm."

"Before I step in and get the heart started again," Burke said.

"You wanna freeze my body, drain my blood, and stop my heart?" Joe asked in horror.

"And bring you back," Christopher chipped in.

"In under 45 minutes?" Joe asked in disbelief. As Derek said yes, Joe shook his head in a negative motion. "How much? How much does something like this cost?"

"Joe, I don't think you should worry about that right now," Christopher said gently.

"Hey, look, you guys say that you can kill me and bring me back, I believe you. You're doctors, but I own a bar. I don't get any insurance so I'm not that concerned about the surgery, but I'm concerned about what I'm gonna do when I survive it," Joe said. "I need a number. Ten grand? Twenty? Thirty?"

Joanna felt completely heartbroken as she spoke. "It's a couple hundred at least."

"No way," Joe said.