flatline [m.s]

lxxviii.

"paul..." linda turns to her husband. "honey, every two years, we come here, they cut me open, and i watch it take ten years off your life. i can't do it anymore. and neither can you."

"what about you?" paul looks to dr. yang. "do you think this is the best idea?"

"oh, i'm not, um-" cristina shakes her head.

"because what you and dr. burke did, it's kept her with me so far," paul adds. "if this was your husband, would you let dr. webber tear apart his heart?"

"yes," cristina nods after a moment of silence. "an aggressive approach is your only option. this is what you want."

"okay. alright," paul exhales deeply, before hugging his wife.

"okay," lia smiles. "we'll see you in there."

■ ■ ■

"i'll resect both atria, and build new ones out of bovine pericardium," lia explains to cristina, mark, and jackson, demonstrating on the virtual o.r table. "and during reconstruction, dr. sloan will stay with linda, using a human donor aorta to prepare the vessels for reimplantation."

"and all of this in just four hours?" jackson raises a brow.

"we have to be fast," lia warns them. "we all set?"

"let's go," jackson grins with enthusiasm.

"alright," lia nods. "prep her and page me when she's ready."

they all turn to leave, but cristina remains stood looking at the virtual o.r table. lia realises and stops at the door to look back at her.

"cristina," lia says and the resident looks up. "are you excited?"

"yes, absolutely," cristina tells her.

"good. good," lia nods, and then leaves. she begins walking down the hallway, unaware that mark had stopped outside to wait for her.

"you sure your up for this?" mark asks, beginning to walk with her and she jumps at his presence.

"mark... i'm fine," lia warns. "i'm back, and i told you that i don't need you to keep checking on me. i just need you to prepare the vessels."

■ ■ ■

"alright," mark says at the beginning of linda's surgery. "the heart is ready."

"okay. here we go," lia nods. "start the clock. dr. yang... take the heart please."

cristina removes mrs. cotler's heart, and turns around to take it to put it on ice. when lia looks up, she notices mark is staring at her.

"what?" she frowns at him.

"nothing," mark says quietly, looking back down at at mrs. cotler's open chest.

lia rolls her eyes, before heading over to where cristina is placing the heart in a metal bowl of ice, and when she does so, mark looks back up at her.

"alright. here we go," lia says, wiping her gloved hands. "excising the right atrium. welcome back, dr. yang."

"thank you," cristina replies, whilst assisting lia.