Season Seven, Episode One
With you I'm born again
Max wondered how many times she could cheat death before it actually caught up to her, would it be a couple of years from now or should it have been a couple of years before when she almost drowned? Or maybe it's today.
It didn't hurt much when she died, honestly she could barely remember the moments before she did. Did she try her hardest? Of course she did but sometimes your best isn't good enough.
She watched the look on her friends faces when they got the news that she died, everyone cried and most cried out to her, begging her not to be gone and to come back. She watched as her brother flew back from Switzerland so that he could say goodbye to his sister.
Watching her family grieve was the hardest part, Mark a newly widowed single Dad who now has to live his life doing things without Max, but she knew that he would do just fine besides, he had a whole team on his side ready to jump in and help.
Maeve will never be the same, not since her Mom died. The little girl didn't have the motivation or encouragement that she had gotten from Max so Maeve just stopped working on her inventions altogether. And Malakai would grow up without a mother, he wouldn't be able to feel the fierce love a mother gives her children and he would never know how great of a mother Max truly was.
Max wondered how many times she could cheat death before it actually caught up to her, would it be a couple of years from now or should it have been a couple of years before when she almost drowned? All she knew, that it wasn't today and she was stronger then those bullets.
"What does Change mean to you?" Dr. Perkins asked, waiting for an answer, "Dr. Mallard?"
"Change is normal. It's a sometimes unwanted event that nothing can stop even if you try. The shooting changed me, it changed everyone in this hospital but I can't let it destroy me so I'm ready to go back to work. I need to save lives again, I can't stay at home" Max honestly felt like going back to work was the best thing for her.
"You were shot, you almost died. That's a lot to worry about"
"I'm worried about a lot of things but myself, is not one of them. I'm worried for Miranda after seeing Charles get shot and die, I'm worried about Derek because he got shot and Meredith for everything she's going through and Christina and for Graham for finding me like that and Lexie for putting her through that and for Mark, my Mark because he shouldn't have to worry about me dying all the time" Max told him him honestly.
"You saved a lot of people that day, including your friends even though you got shot for it"
"They're fine, we are all fine and we are all coming back to work. We're fine" Max repeats, not knowing if she was trying to convince herself or Dr. Perkins.
Max did not get cleared for surgery, Dr. Perkins said something about acceptance so she ignored him for the rest of the session.
"I just don't know why I didn't get cleared for surgery" Max huffs to Mark, Lexie and Graham who just give each other a look.
"If Dr. Perkins says you shouldn't be in surgery right now then maybe it's for the best" Lexie tells her gently in her blue scrubs.
"I mean Lexie for cleared and she went a little crazy, no offense Lex, I love you to bits but seriously? Her and not me? And don't even get me started on Derek, he thinks he's invincible and he's only almost died once, I've almost died twice! Twice!"
Max squints at Derek when he walks into the room, everyone is clapping for him and Max doesn't understand why.
"Hey, uh, yes, good Morning. Thank you. Thank you very much" Derek says as he walks to the steps.
"You get cleared for surgery?" Meredith asks Max.
"Nope, I think Dr. Perkins needs to go back to school, where did he even go to school?"
"Me neither and April Kepler got cleared before me" Meredith rolls her eyes.
"Get in line, Mer. I get first dips on Dr. Perkins" Max groans.
"Good. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's great to be back. First of all, I'd like to thank dr. Webber for stepping up in my absence" Derek stops for a moment so Richard could get an applause. "I'm grateful for all of you, for all of your support during my recovery, thank you. Uh, it's just, uh, so great to be back as chief, I'm grateful for the, uh... I'm sorry, that's a lie. That's what people say and the truth is... I hate being chief. I hate it"
Max started laughing at that point, "Chief Webber, Chief Webber is our Chief and I'm sorry, but this giant... sorry I gotta go look at this Choroma. I'm sorry but... I quit "
The staff stands there shocked and quietly talking to the people around them, Max is laughing and Meredith is upset because he is now unable to clear him for surgery.
"Wait just one second" Max stops for a second, "I own this hospital, I can clear myself, right? Right?"
"I don't know if that's how it works, Bubba" Mark tells her, grabbing her shoulders and giving them a little massage.
"Nope, it'll work because I am Maxine Mallard-Sloan and I own this hospital" Max says with a hard voice before walking up to Dr. Perkins office.
Max walked into Dr. Perkins current office, "I own the hospital"
"I am well aware of that, Dr. Mallard" Dr. Perkins says not lifting his head to meet her eye.
"So I want cleared because I deserved to get cleared and I own the hospital which means I'm the boss of you which means clear me!" Max almost shouts, she didn't want to seem crazy.
"Max, tell me what happened when you went to the store" Dr. Perkins sets down his paper work and finally meets her eye.
Max stills, he wasn't supposed to know about that, nobody knew what happened except for Mark, Lexie and Graham. Max didn't say anything, she didn't know what to say, instead she stared blankly as her mind went back to a couple of weeks ago.
"Mark, we need food in the house! I can't go another day of take out and bad Chinese food" Max groans, grabbing her purse and her keys.
"Hey, that Chinese was not that bad" Mark remarks, defending his choice in food.
"It wasn't great, Dad. I miss Mom's cooking, just let her cook. Things need to go back to normal eventually" Maeve grabbed her book and waiting next to her Mom by the door.
"Fine but I'm driving" Mark tells them, grabbing Malakai and taking the car keys from Max.
The Mallard-Sloan family made it to there local grocery store, Maeve was already listing all the things that they needed and Max placed Malakai in the race car cart.
"Produce is over here so let's grab everything for this section and go down" Maeve instructed as if her parents have never been grocery shopping before.
"Is there anything special you guys want me to make so I can get the stuff for it?" Max asks, grabbing a bag of apples and placing them in the cart.
"I've been craving spaghetti, it's so simple yet Dad can't make it" Maeve tells her, "Mom?"
Max hadn't realized that she had been staring at a new mother and her new born baby, she could remember when Maeve and Malakai were that little with no care in the world, sometimes she wished they were still that little so she could give them snuggles and smell the tops of there heads.
"Honey? Maxine!" Mark grabbed her shoulders and stood in front of her, blocking her view.
"What? Maeve wants spaghetti, I think we need noodles" Max shook her head before placing a smile on her face.
"Max, I think it's best that we go home" Mark looks at her again, he noticed the scared look Maeve was giving her.
"No, we still need grocery's. Come on" Max waved her family on, Mark sighed before grabbing the cart and pushing it towards Max.
"What happened that day, Dr. Mallard?" Dr. Perkins asks her, giving her his undivided attention, "You were supposed to continue to go to your grieving classes, you can understand my concern when I was told you stopped going"
"Look, I don't know what you want me to say Dr. Perkins. One of the bullets that Gary Clark shot into me ruptured my uterus, making me unable to conceive babies of my own, is that what you wanted to hear? Dr. Perkins, you have my file you know everything about what happened" Max sighed as she sat down on the chair directly across from him.
"Dr. Mallard, you're career is focused on babies and children. You save them and in some cases, sometimes you aren't able too. How are you able to do your job efficiently when you're still facing the loss of never being able to conceive again?"
Max stared at him in disbelief, after everything she has been through he didn't have any right questioning her ability to do her job. "I have always put saving babies and children first, before anything else. I am able to do my job because of the two children I do have, I look at there faces and I promise myself that I would do whatever It takes to keep them safe, happy and loved. Me being a mother makes me a better doctor because I know that whatever I say or do can make a world of difference to families that are going through the unspeakable. Yes, I am heartbroken and angry that I am unable to bare anymore children of my own but that doesn't mean that my love has to stop for my children or children out there that need families like mine to love. I have an endless amount of love to give, so does Mark and that doesn't stop, that won't ever stop"
Max took a deep sigh before standing from her chair, "I'm in love with this hospital, this place is my home but I love what I do more so if I can't work here, I'll find somewhere else and you know damn well any hospital in the country is willing to hire me so do us both a favor and sign off on the damn paper"
Max wondered the halls of the hospital, watching the world go on without her. Everyone acted like nothing happened and Max wished she had that luxury, all she wanted to do was forget or go back in time, do something that could change the events of what happened that day.
She needed to stop reliving the past and focus on healing and growing with who she is now and with the people who love her.
"Bubba? What are you doing?" Mark watched as his wife stared out the window looking over Seattle.
"Would you still love me if I could never perform surgery again? If I couldn't be the chief of pediatric surgery, would you still look at me with all the love in the world?" Max whispered, she needed to accept any possible outcome and she needed to stop being mad at the things she can't change.
"I'm not in love with you because you're a doctor, I'm in love with you because of who you are. You are gentle and filled with love and compassionate and stubborn. You are a Mom and a best friend and you are my happiness and hopes. Being a Doctor is not everything you are and who you are won't stop" Mark held Max in his arms, he had loved this girl before she was a doctor and that'll always continue.
"Is it okay that I can't have anymore children?"
Mark pulled away slightly, grabbing her face in his hands. "Max, I am with you. All of you, no matter what"
"Good cause I'm not stopping into Perkins signs that paper so get ready" Max looked at her husband with determined eyes.
"I've always been ready, baby"
Max had went home after her talk with Mark, she figured that giving Perkins the day to think about what she said before barging back into his office.
"Mom, what's for dinner?" Maeve asked walking into the living room and sitting next to Lax on the couch.
"Well, what do you want for dinner?" Max asked, setting down the hospital news letter to look at her daughter.
"Spaghetti and meatballs?" Maeve thought out loud.
"That sounds like a good idea, you can help me make meatballs?" Max asked her, getting off the couch and grabbing Malakai to bring him with.
"Only if I'm in charge of rolling them into balls" Maeve smiled.
"Of course, there's nobody I would rather give that position too" Max held out her hand for her daughter to take and guided her two kids into the kitchen, "We should probably start now so that it's done by the time daddy, gets off work"
"Are you ever going to go back?" Maeve asked innocently as she got stuff out of the fridge.
"I hope so, I like being a doctor and saving people" Max shared honestly, she's tried her best to be honest with Maeve throughout this whole recovery.
"Just like how you saved people that day, when the bad man came in?"
"Not exactly like that but I do save little babies and children"
"Mom, you know how I said I wanted to be like Kathrine Johnson?" Maeve began, grabbing the noodles for the spaghetti, "Well, I think I'd rather be like you, I want to be exactly like you when I grow up"
Max smiled down at her daughter and pulled her into a hug, "I love you Maeve but I want you to be exactly who you are when you grow up, you don't have to follow anyone or anything other then your heart and mind"
"Good cause I really don't want to be a doctor" Maeve sighed before going back to the hamburger.
Maeve and Max finished dinner at exactly the same time Mark came home, they had just finished placing the last plate on the table.
"This looks amazing" Mark smiles happily, going around the table and giving each of them a kiss.
"I made the meatball, they're the best" Maeve gloats.
"As long as there your meatballs, Maeve, they'll always be the best" Mark tells his daughter and then looks up at Max and nods to the kitchen.
"Maeve, why don't you go wash up before we start eating" Max tells her as she walks into the kitchen with Mark.
"What's wrong?" Max asks him, her eyes filled with worry.
Mark didn't say anything, he just handed her an envelope, "What's this?" Max asked, taking the envelope and opening it.
"It's from Dr. Perkins"
Max unfolds the paper and notices that it was a clear for duty paper with his name signed at the bottom.
"Oh my god, is this- this is- I'm a doctor again?" Max shouts happily, throwing herself in Marks arms with a laugh. "Thank god"
"You're back, baby"
Season Seven, Episode two
Shock to the system
Max smiled when she entered the hospital, she was extremely excited to be back.
"She's already trying to redecorate the apartment?" Max asked Callie, who was trying to be all in for Arizona considering she was now moving all her stuff into the apartment.
"She wants to break down walls or something, I don't know I think I blacked out" Callie sighed, stopping at the nurses station to grab her charts.
"At least she has an interest to make these more her style then just yours, she could just not care at all" Graham popped up and said.
"Arizona has good taste but you're my best friend so I can side with you if you want?" Max shrugged, was it a curse to be good friends with literally everyone in this hospital?
"Thanks Max, I can always count on you" Callie said sarcastically, before walking away.
"Anyway, grill out at my place tonight?" Max turned to Graham and asked, "I've still gotta invite Lex, Arizona and Callie who just walked away"
"Sure, I'll bring the pie" Graham nods, they haven't hung out in a very long time.
"You always bring the pie, I'll let you know what time after I talk to everyone" Max tells him, backing away as she does but bumps into someone. "Oh shoot, sorry" She turns around an places a steady hand on whoever she bumped into, "Karev?"
"Dr. Mallard?" He looks at her expectingly.
Max moved her hand around his ribs, feeling the hard bullet still in there, "You want to tell me why you still have that bullet in your chest?"
"We leave bullets in people all the time, it's fine" Alex tells her, patting her hand, about to walk away.
"I bet it hurts"
"Not really"
"Well does it hurt when I do this?" Max asked jabbing her hand into the surfaced bullet.
"Ow! Damn!"
"It is not fine, you can get poisoned from a bullet like that and it has no business in your body. Get it out now, Karev or else I will make sure you do not operate or see any cool surgeries until you do so" Max scoffed at him before walking away and to her wing.
"Tessa Reynolds. Hi, I'm Dr. Mallard" Max says softly as she walks into the patients room, "I've heard you've had some pelvic pain"
"That's where it started but the pain moved all over my stomach now and that pain just keeps building" Tessa shares, "This is my third try and the furtherest I've gotten in pregnancy so I'm a little on edge"
"Completely understand. Can you tell me where your pain scale is? And if you don't mind, I'd like to feel around and see if I can spot any tenderness" Max gets up from her chair to get a better angle at the belly, when the patient nods, Max brings her hands onto the stomach.
"I'm at about 6ish-7 on the pain scale, I originally thought it was pregnancy aches but as it continued, I began to worry"
"Is there any spotting?" Max asks making the patient shake her head no, "I don't feel any hardness, when I push down so you feel any pain?" The patient she's her head no to that as well.
Max sits back down in the chair, "If this is all okay with you, I would like to run a CBC and chem panel and a pelvic exam"
"Is the baby okay?"
"Not spotting is always a good sign but just to ease your mind, I would like to run these test to see if they have any idea as to what is going on" Max watches her patient nod once again so she gets up from her chair, "I'm going to have a nurse come in here and run those test, as soon as the results come in, I'll let you know"
Max walks out of the room and hands Tessa Reynolds chart to the nurse at the station, "Can you run these tests on Tessa Reynolds, page me whenever those are finished. Please and thank you"
Max stands next to the coffee cart with Callie, Graham and Mark. They had been talking about there lightning strike patients and the drama that came with them.
"It's some weird love square or something and then this lightening strike that almost kills all of them brings out this unspoken love" Callie laughs as she shakes her head.
"Wait so this girl likes all three of them or no?" Max asks.
"We don't know yet, we're waiting to see how it plays out" Mark tells her.
"I think all of this really makes people think about how short life is and in a split second it could be over" Graham says, making the whole conversation shift.
"Yeah, I guess. Life is too short to not be with someone you love" Max says, looking at Mark.
"I think I'm going to propose to Lexie tonight" Graham drops, making everyone stare at him.
"No" Callie says.
"No?"
"It's to soon, she just got back to work and actually is acting sane" Callie gives her opinion.
"I think Graham should do it, why not? She makes him happy and he makes her happy, why would you wait for the possibility of something bad happening? And in this hospital, something bad is probably just around the corner" Mark agrees with Graham, "Whatever you need man, I'll be there"
"Thanks, mate. I just don't know what I'm waiting fort you know? I know what I want and it's her, it's always been her. I'm just holding onto this ring, for what?" Graham tells them, he was determined to propose to her and maybe it was a good idea.
"I think it's great too, my two best friends being engaged and in love and so happy! It's great and plus I love wedding dress shopping and planning wedding is so cute" Max smiles a giddy smile.
"We've talked about it a little and we don't want anything big at all, we don't even think we want bridesmaids or groomsmen or anything like that"
Max gasped in shock and hurt, "How could you guys do that to me?"
"You'll be fine, don't you worry" Graham ruffles her hair with a smile.
"Can we still go with to pick out the dress though?" Max asks looking at Callie then to Graham.
"I mean, I guess? That's up to Lex"
"Yay, I can't wait to go dress shopping!" Max shouts. "No rush, Cal but your turn is next"
"Yeah, yeah. Say that to Arizona" Callie groans, grabbing her coffee and leaving the table.
"Wait, Callie! We are grilling at my house if you want to come over, Graham's making Pie!" Max yells after her. Why does she keep leaving?
"I'll be there and Graham always makes pie!" Callie shouts back, giving them a thumbs up.
Max got paged after Tessa's tests came back, she had been looking at each of them to see if there was anything bad happening to the baby but everything came out clean and good. She grabs the charts and heads to Tessa's room.
"Miss. Reynolds, it looks like everything came back perfectly normal. As for the pelvic pain, it could be numerous things pertaining the baby growing, pushing on your pelvis or even the weight of the baby. I'm going to call a pelvic specialist that I know, they'll come to your house to do some pelvic exercise that'll strengthen your pelvic floor, I would also like to send you home with some medicine and promise me to drink extra water, sometimes that'll help as well" Max takes a seat next to Tessa again and explains what most likely is going on, "If you have any questions let me know, if not let me call that specialist for you so we can get you all better"
"I don't have any questions for now but if I do, can I call you or even email?"
Max pulls out a card from her white coat and hands it to Tessa, "My email is on the card and the number to the peds wing is also on the call, if it's an emergency call that number and they'll transfer you directly to my cell. If you decide to email, I check my email as much as I breathe so you have a good chance at reaching with both options"
Tessa gives Max a smile as she nods to her, since Tessa didn't have any questions Max gets up and walks out of the room.
Since no one was on call, everyone got off at a reasonable time. Graham brought his pie as promised while Mark grilled up some hamburger and Max and Lexie made the side dishes.
"How's it feel to be back?" Lexie asked her, popping a cherry tomato in her mouth.
"It feels amazing, going from such a demanding job to staying home 24/7 was really taking a toll on me so I'm grateful to be back and Arizona was doing such a great job as acting chief of pediatric surgery, I'm very lucky" Max gives Arizona a wink, knowing she had heard the compliments. "I still have a long road but I'm learning to forgive myself and everything that happened, but I know being where I'm at with my career helps a lot and seeing the faces of my best friends is probably my biggest healing factor"
"Hey, Mom! Can me and Dylan go play outside?" Maeve runs into the kitchen with her friend.
"You may, your Dad and uncle Graham are out there making the food so they'll watch you" Max nods at her daughter and her friend.
"We don't need watching, we're old enough" Maeve rolls her eyes.
"Yeah well, you like to blow things up and I think we all would rather have someone watching you then you get hurt" Callie jumps in, looking at her Niece with a knowing look.
"Why does everyone in this family have to be worry wart doctors" Maeve grumbles and walks outside.
That makes everyone laugh, it definitely was true but for the most part, they were all pretty laid back.
"I can't wait for my future kids to hate us" Lexie jokes without realizing how excited that made everyone, especially Max.
"You'll absolutely love it" Max tells her sarcastically as Mark and Graham come in with the food.
"Wow, nice job guys" Arizona says, looking at the food in front of her.
"You sound surprised, didn't think we had it in us?" Graham turns to her with a raised eyebrow.
"Well considering last time you guys set the grill on fire, yeah I'm a little surprised" Arizona brings up the memory as they laugh.
"The game was on and they have a freaking tv outside!" Graham says, defending himself and Mark.
Max laughs as she sets down the plates on the side of the counter, the two still continued to bicker as everyone jumped in from time to time to put whoever in their place. Max sat back and watched for the most part, always thinking about how incredibly lucky she was to be in this life.
AUTHORS NOTE
Wow, hello, hi there!
It's been quite awhile hasn't it? My bad!
Hope you enjoy this chapter and be prepared for this book so soon come to an end! This season and one more till it's done. Wow, that's crazy.