Stitches of Life

Losing My Religion

"We can handle this." George said as he looked over Camille's chart. "Camille Travis is a kid with cancer. So we give her whatever she wants for a couple of days. How hard can that be?"

"Harder than you might think." Bailey said as she joined us, two teenage girls standing behind her. "This is Claire and Natalie, Camille Travis' friends."

"Her very best friends in the whole wide world." Natalie smiled.

"Girls, who exactly is Camille Travis?" Bailey asked them.

"Like, the chief of surgery's niece." Claire informed us.

"And, girls, what does the chief of surgery's niece want, exactly?" Bailey asked.

"Like, a prom." Claire smiled widely.

"No." Natalie shook her head. "Like, the best prom ever."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"I didn't like teenage girls when I was a teenage girl." Cristina muttered as she, Meredith, and I stood in the hall while Alex and George spoke with Natalie and Claire in the conference room, trying to come up with ideas for this prom.

"I wore a lot of black." Meredith smirked. "Had the whole angry, pink hair thing going on. Wouldn't have been caught dead at a prom."

"My mother made me go." Cristina shook her head. "My date barfed on my dress and then tried to feel me up."

"What about you?" Meredith raised a brow at me.

"I didn't go to my prom either." I shook my head. "The night of prom I was working at the diner, serving everyone that was going to prom after they got dinner with their dates. I did spill soda over one girl's dress though."

"Nice." Cristina smirked.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Not to bother you, but..." George trailed off as we all stood behind Bailey.

"What?" Bailey narrowed her eyes as she turned around to look at us. "One of you better spit out the problem right now."

"The problem is the colors and the balloons and the "under the sea." "No, it's 'Titanic.'"" Alex informed her. ""Hey, let's go with 'tears in heaven.'" "No, that's too morbid. It should be pink." "It should be red." It should be a freakin' rainbow."

"What he's saying is that we're very, very hopeful that you speak teenage girl." George simplified. Bailey didn't say a word as she led the way back to the conference room where we had left Natalie and Claire.

"Silver and white." Bailey told the girls. "It's mystical and magical without being over the top. Ever seen fashion week in New York? Lots of silver and white runways and backdrops. That's because no matter what color the clothes are, they pop."

"They pop?" Claire asked.

"They pop." Bailey nodded. "Watley and Karev, get five hundred balloons in silver and white and a hundred in black. Shiny black, not the matte. Yang, stick with Camille. Keep her happy, keep her spirits up. O'Malley and Grey, get with Patricia, make sure we can rope off the second floor nurses' station and the waiting area. Got it? Oh, no, no, no. You don't get to look at me like that. No, you compromised my medical license. You nearly killed a patient, lied to the chief of surgery, and made me, your resident, look bad. Now we're gonna do this prom, and we're doin' it right. Move."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Later that afternoon I found myself sitting in a conference room, across from Webber as he watched me closely, as if waiting to see me crack before his very eyes. I kept my face blank though as I looked right back at him, my hands placed in my lap. I knew that I couldn't afford to break, not if I wanted to protect my friend.