My Dad the Brain Surgeon

Chapter 6

"Cristina!"

"Hey, I heard! You ok?"

"Yeah. Can you take over my patients until she gets out of surgery, or find someone that can? I really need to stay with Derek!"

"I got you covered! Keep me updated on the surgery!"

I nodded and sped back to the waiting room hoping Derek was where I left him and not trying to control the surgery.

"Mer?" I felt Alex's hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"No one every really talks about it, but does she have a mom or someone I should call?"

"No. Derek has full parental rights. Taylor wasn't planned, he wasn't in a relationship with her mother. Her mom started drinking heavily not long after Taylor was born. It got bad, really bad, and he didn't trust her with Taylor. She wouldn't give the alcohol up, so he told her if she didn't stop he would take her to court. She didn't stop and when they went to court she signed her rights over. As far as I know, he hasn't heard from her since. That's why they are so close, he's done it all without help."

He gave me a sympathetic look before he spoke.

"I knew there had to be something that no one was saying. You know, you might be the perfect person to be a mom for her?" I smiled a little at the compliment, but as I scanned the room I didn't see Derek. Alex had a guilty look on his face.

"Where is he?"

"Who?"

"You know who! That's why you stopped to talk to me! You're covering for him aren't you?"

"He's uhmm... He's in the gallery..." He swallowed hard and turned to walk away from me.

"You're letting him watch his daughter's brain surgery?!"

"He was really stressed out!"

"I'm going to hurt one of you before this day is over!"

I ran as fast as I could to the gallery. I was ready to yell at him when I got to the door, but my mood changed when I saw him. He had his head resting on his hand which was twisted tightly into his hair. He was shaking both of his legs as he watched every move Dr. Nelson made.

I quietly sat in the chair beside him and put my hand on his thigh to steady him.

"Der, are you sure you want to be watching this?"

"The survival rate for this is only 50% and almost half of the patients that survive are left with permanent brain damage. I couldn't just sit out there and have someone come tell me what was happening. Youre going to make me leave though, right?"'

"No, I'm not going to leave you here by yourself though." He gave me a fake smile and laid his head on my shoulder. I gently ran my fingers through his hair to keep him from pulling it. For a moment, it was calm. For a moment.

He shot up, knocking his chair over in the process. "Damn it!!"

"What happened Derek?!" He didn't speak for a moment, just stared through the glass with his hands pressed firmly against it.

"The clip didn't hold, she's bleeding... a lot!" He tried to get Nelson's attention by beating on the glass, but he was too focused on the bleed. Derek spun around and was at the door in a split second cursing under his breath.

"Derek! Don't interrupt him! He could make a mistake!!" He completely ignored me and took off running. I ran after him hoping someone would stop him before he got into the OR.

"DEREK!" He didn't even flinch at the sound of his name. Before I could reach him, he started scrubbing. I heard Alex yell to page the Chief as I flung the door open.

"Derek!"

"I can't! I can't just stand back and let my daughter lose most of her abilities or die!" He pulled his hands up and watched them as he focused on keeping them from shaking.

"Listen to me, I know you are trying to protect her, but this could-" Before I could even finish my sentence, he walked into the OR. At first, I thought he was just going to stand to the side and tell Nelson what to do. Then he yelled to move and went to take the instruments. I didn't know what else to do, but scrub in.

"Meredith!"

"I know, Chief. I know. There's not stopping him now. I'm going to scrub in to hopefully help keep him calm. Please, just go easy on him right now!" I took a deep breath and entered the OR. Here we go.