No one believes their life will turn out just kind of okay. We all think we're going to be great. Abd from the day we decide to become surgeons, we are filled with expectation. Expectations of the trails we will blaze, the people we will help, the difference we will make. Great expectations of who we will be, where we will go, and when we get there.
Okay, you can't hate me. I spent the night with George. I'm not taking advantage of him, he practically begged me to. I know he wasn't in the right state of mind after his father, but I just wanted him to feel better. Of course, it can't stay a secret since Izzie knocks on his bedroom door. "George. Can I come in? I made you some cookies and brownies and muffins of course. I always make muffins."
George is in the bathroom and I'm still in his room, so I answer the door. "Izzie thank God you are here. I can't take it anymore. Three times already tonight and he's getting ready for a fourth," I desperately tell her.
"Are you talking about... oh," she realizes.
"Yeah I would get it if he were all crying and depressed. Everyone deals in different ways but this is not grieving. This is my legs bent in ways my legs do not go. And I know. I know his dad died. I know. Trust me, I get it. I feel horrible, but ow ow ow," I complain.
"I'm going to give you guys some privacy," Izzie whispers, trying to walk away.
"No you stay. You take over for me okay?" I beg her.
"Rachel Lopez!" Izzie yells.
"No, not like that. I am giving him to you okay? You are officially now on George watch. You are his friend. Yay. I need a break. And I need to heal," I tell her.
"No. What am I supposed to do?" she asks me.
"Thank you, goodbye," I say. I ran downstairs, got in my car, and drove straight to the hospital before anyone could stop me.
I get to the hospital and I'm on Callie's service for the day. "How's George?" she asks me.
"Dealing I guess. He has quite an appetite," I tell her.
"You know, some people bake, others eat," Callie shrugs.
"No, not that appetite, I mean the other appetite," I tell her.
"Whoa. okay, we aren't that good of friends Lopez. Please don't talk to me about what George eats," she says, shuddering in disgust.
"Okay I was just concerned and I thought you would be concerned. But you know what? Forget it. I don't like you," I joke.
"Oh, now my feelings are hurt," Callie says, fake frowning.
I walked into the ER with her and read off a patient's chart. "Steve Beck, 32. Right patellar dislocation secondary to a fall while running a marathon."
"Paramedics told me I blacked out," Steve says.
"Any theories as to how Mr. Beck passed out?" Callie asks me.
"No sign of head injury. His BP was low in the field. 80/60," I report.
"Athletes have low BPs," Callie says.
"Well in that case it's probably dehydration," I tell her.
"I drank a lot along the way," Steve says.
"What else did you do today?" Callie asks him.
"Ate a couple of protein bars. Took a couple of aspirin for this cold that I'm fighting. I got another race last month," he tells us. While he's distracted, Callie pops his leg back into place. I flinch and he yells out in pain. "OH!"
"All right, put him in a patellar brace, get a couple of post-reduction films and run some labs. Make sure he's not too dehydrated. And Steve, next time you have a cold, you might want to skip the race," Callie tells him.
"Never," Steve says. We both shake our heads at him and walk away.
While we are walking away, I get stopped by george. "Rachel! Hey," he says to me.
"Hi. Uh, sorry. Busy. izzie,'' I say before rushing off.
"Who'd you piss off now?" I ask. I got a page from Alex to the room Meredith and him were in, so I'm stopping by.
"Sloan," Meredith tells me.
"Nice," I nod.
"Did you get anything good?" Alex asks me.
"Not even a fracture. You think a guy that passes out while running, I would at least get a fracture," I complain.
"Anyone available to assist me on a truncus arteriosus surgery?" Burke asks the three of us as he walks into the room.
"Yeah," Alec says.
"Yes absolutely," Meredith says. I just stay silent.
"Good. Then the first one of you to accurately describe the condition will get to scrub in," he tells us. The room is completely silent. Nobody knows the answer. "No one knows the answer? That's too bad. It'll probably be years before we see another one like this. Oh well,'' Burke shrugs, before leaving the room.
"It's a single arterial trunk coming from the ventricles. How could you not know that?" I asked both of them.
"How could you not say it?" Alex asks me.
"I just think something better will come along," I lie. I don't know why I didn't answer. It was just a gut feeling. I leave the room and try to find Callie.
I find her in the ER and she hands me the labs I have to report. "Your labs show that you are significantly dehydrated and your muscles are breaking down a bit. We just want to make sure that the fluids help get everything back to normal before we send you home," I tell him.
"Well my knees are going to be okay right? Because I blew this race, I got to win the next one," Steve asks.
"Your x-rays look fine. Your knee should be okay in about three weeks. You might want to try some physical therapy," I suggest to him.
"It's really sore," Stvee complains.
"The knee?" I ask him.
"Yeah, my calves too," he says.
"Oh well... your brace is probably a little two tight," I tell him while I lift the cover off. When I do, both of his legs are huge. "You've got extreme swelling in both legs," I mumble under my breath.
"What the hell happened?" Callie asks.
"He was just complaining of leg pain," I tell her.
"Please just make it stop," Steve says, groaning in pain.
"I can't find a pulse," I say.
"Oay, open a cut-down tray. Gloves. Alright, I need you to do everything exactly as I do okay? Steve? Listen to me. This is going to hurt. If you want to keep your legs I need you to hold still. Can you do that?" she asks him. He nods his head and he looks terrified. "Alright. Hold his hand. Follow my lead," Callie instructed me.
Callie takes a scalpel and cuts a line half down his calf, Steve is still awake. I do the exact same thing she does. Steve starts to cry from the pain.
We page Richard and he rushes into the room. "His kidneys are failing. Why in the hell is this progressing so rapidly?" he asks the two of us.
"Damn it," I mutter quietly.
"What?" Richard asks me. Apparently I didn't mutter quietly enough.
"The aspirin. Because of the marathon and his dehydration his muscles are breaking down and the Aspirin is accelerating the process. His whole system is crashing,''Callie reports.
"The toxins in his system are going to kill him. I need to put a dialysis under fluoro. Let's get this man to an OR now people!" Richard yells.
In the scrub room, I ask Callie, "Have you ever done that before?"
"Sliced a guy's leg open while he was still awake? No," she tells me.
"Impressive," I tell her, giving her a high five. Then, we both have to scrub again.
"You too. Not that we're friends or anything," she says. We both laugh and get ready to enter the OR.
"How far did he run before his body had the good sense to pass out?" Richard asks.
"12 miles," I tell him.
"You gotta be out of your mind," he says.
"Well he couldn't have expected a head cold and a couple of aspirin to do him in," I say.
"He probably felt dizzy for miles before he passed out. He should've stopped and sat his ass down," Callie says.
"I get it. I can understand that," I tell them.
"You can, can you?" Richard asks me.
"Well surgery is the most competitive field in medicine. We're all here to win," I tell him.
"It's a long road Dr. Lopez. And when you get to the end of it, you're not going to care about winning. You're just going to be relieved that you made it to the finished line," he tells me. I think about what he just said, and he has a point. I smile with my eyes and he smiles back. I've finally learned how to tell what people are thinking when they have masks on.
After the surgery, I decided to go back to my hotel room. George tells me he has something important to say, so I decide to let him come back too. "I don't want to waste another minute," he tells me once he walks into the room.
"I can't have sex with you again George. I can't I just... enough with the sex," I tell him.
"Since my dad died, I uh... I feel like someone ripped out my stomach and filled the hole with asphalt. I laugh every time that I remember I'm never going to talk to him again because it just sounds like the stupidest thing i've ever heard. I can't believe it's real. But... every time I look at you... I feel better. It shocks me, it really does. It knocks the wind out of me but it's the truth. And i dont have to have sex with you. I'd be happy just to look at you from across the room. And even that any piece of you, I mean hopefully all of you, that'd be the best thing. Because I love you," he tells me.
"George..." I say, worried that I know exactly where this is going.
George gets down on one knee. "Marry me. Will you marry me? Marry me."
We all think we're going to be great. And we feel robbed when our expectations aren't met. But sometimes our expectations sell us short. Sometimes, the expected pales in comparison to the unexpected. You have to wonder why we cling to our expectations, because the unexpected is just what keeps us steady... standing... still. The expectation is just the beginning. The unexpected is what changes our lives.
A/N!! New update! Okay, two questions. Do you think Rachel and George are going to get married. Also, do you think they should get married? Let me know! We haven't seen Rachel in an OR for a while so it was nice writing a chapter that doesn't totally revolve around her relationship. Please vote and comment any suggestions you may have for this story. Comments are motivation <3 (1816)