"So... This is a regular thing. You all come up here and you watch surgeries. Why?" Maggie asks looking at Rory and Meredith.
"Not just surgeries... the big surgeries, the whale surgeries, the rare ones, the crazy ones." Rory tells her as she looks down at Amelia.
"I mean, you're on the edge of your seat. The patient could die. This is life or death. The adrenaline, the rush..." Meredith tells her as Rory nods in agreement.
"Okay, so you watch, like, the worst day of a person's life like a movie." Maggie says to them as Rory shook her head.
"No, not like a movie. That's insulting. This is not entertainment." Rory tells her as Meredith pulls a face slightly at Maggie comments
"Movie." Meredith groans as Rory smiles slightly. "Oh, okay. This is where the good part starts. Shh." Meredith says as she hands Rory some food as she smiles at her before looking back at the surgery.
~
"Dr. Shepherd is now cutting the tumor away from the gyrus rectus." Edward told them all.
"Gyrus rectus?" One of the residents ask looking at Rory as she rolls her eyes at him.
"The area responsible for our sense of smell." Rory tells him.
"Wait, fetal surgery? By herself?" Callie said loudly as they all looked at her and shushed her.
"Oh, relax. It's not the ballet or whatever." Callie says to them.
"Though... though it is a kind of a dance. There's grace, a rhythm... An elegance." Webber tells them.
"Oh. Oh, okay. I got shushed, but the purple prose is fine. Okay. She is gonna pull it off, though, right?" Callie asks as Rory nods her head.
"Yes. Yeah, she will." Rory says smiling down at Amelia.
"Dr. Shepherd is now clearing the tumor away from the midbrain structures...the fornix, the thalamus." Stephanie told them.
"Uh, using extreme care not to violate the interior commissure. Dr. Shepherd calls this the dream box." Edwards tells them.
"Dr. Karev, I'm sorry, but "dream box"?" One of the residents ask as Rory looked at them.
"Where we create dreams and memories and discern shapes and colors. Read a book, for god's sake." Rory says to him as she shared a look with Richard and Owen.
"Webber, you okay?" Owen asks him.
"Oh, I'm fine. Her shoulders are tense. Something's bothering her." Richard says to Owen and Rory looking at her.
~
Rory watched Amelia closely seeing the expression she had seen many times before on Derek. "How's this going?" Jackson asks making Rory jump slightly as he walked in with April.
"Uh, she's trying to dissect around the fornix. But she still has a long way to go." Rory tells her husband as she watches Amelia.
"So, why are they not operating?" Jackson asks them as Rory looks at her before getting up and walking out of the gallery.
~
"If I go any further posteriorly, I violate the. hypothalamus.If I take a lateral approach, I hit the carotids.If I go inferiorly and I wreck her optic apparatus...I am lost here. I am lost in the forest. There is no clear path.I am trying to find a way to keep her whole, Edwards.I can't move without letting a piece of her go." Amelia says as Rory puts on a mask and walks into the O.R.
"Dr. Shepherd." Rory says looking at her.
"Dr. Karev. What do you need?" Amelia says looking at the chief of neurosurgery.
"I thought I could help, maybe be a sounding board. We could work through whatever it is you're stuck on." Rory says to her friend as she meets her eyes.
"Kill the intercom, please." Amelia says as she turns back to Rory.
"Dr Karev ,step over here, please. Edwards, would you mind taking a step back?You can be a big help. I need you to call our brother. Tell him he needs to get on a plane. He's in D.C., so if he goes now, he could be here in, what, six hours, seven?" Amelia says as she looks at her friend.
"I'm not sure that's the right idea." Rory says as Amelia looks at her.
"I am in over my head.I made a mistake. I took on an impossible task, and my hubris is going to kill her. Please.Get him on the phone. Get him on a plane. Get him here. Now. I need him or I need you to take over this surgery." Amelia says as she look at Rory who shook her head.
~
"Amelia You have it in your head that he's better than you.But it isn't true. I've been with him standing exactly where you are now, staring at an impossible spinal tumor, terrified, unsure where to go next." Rory says to her remembering Isaac's tumour.
"I know that tumor. He's got it hanging on their bedroom wall." Amelia says to Rory.
"This is your tumour and your plan. I can tell you right now what would happen if I called Derek. He would hop on a plane, and seven or eight hours from now, if she hadn't already herniated, Derek would come in here and he would take this surgery, your surgery, away from you. Then he would kill her.
Because this is your plan. He wouldn't know where you've already been or where you need to go next.
Because I don't know either and you are on your own here. No one can help you, and you do not need them to. He's not here. You are. You've got this.Now what's next?" Rory asks her as Amelia nodded at her.
~
Rory stood smiling as Amelia continued Herman's surgery as she continued to talk with her. Edwards suddenly passes out as Amelia looks at Rory..
"Could you scrub in? I need another set of hands." Amelia says as Rory smiles nodding.
Rory scrubbed in with Amelia as she finished up the last part of the surgery placing the seeds into the brain to kill any cancerous cells that were still there and to stop the tumour reoccurring.
~
Rory walked out of the O.R after finishing closing for Amelia as Jackson stood waiting for her as she smiled at him. "Are you okay?" He asks her.
"Just tired baby and very hungry." Rory tells him as he wrapped his arm around her waist.
"Let's go home and eat." He says as she nodded in response taking his hand. The couple headed off to get changed before heading home.
YOU ARE READING
Aurora Karev
FanfictionAurora Karev is the twin sister of Alex Karev. The two had been inseparable since the day they were born as every challenged they faced was together. To say Aurora Karev had an easy life would be a complete lie. As her father left her and Alex to lo...
