Meredith, Evi and Bailey enter Denny's room. "How you feeling this morning, Denny." Bailey greets.
"Great. Be even greater if you'd get me off this machine." He says.
"Denny, you know I would, but then your heart would stop beating, and Dr. Burke would yell at me and that'd make for a very bad day for both of us." Bailey says.
"Is he a candidate for the portable LVAD?" Meredith asks.
"Now, see? That's what I'm talking about. Half the size, twice the fun." Izzie enters.
"Ah, you've been doing your research, huh?"
"I have."
"I've already told him, he's not ready for it yet." Izzie says.
"Dr. Stevens, didn't I assign you to neuro this morning?" Bailey reprimands.
"Yeah. I was...I'm on my way. But could you tell him about the complications?"
"You'd be risking air embolus, v-fib." Evi lists.
"Yeah and the tubing could kink inside of your body, in which case, we'd have to rush you to emergency surgery." Izzie continues.
"Dr. Stevens, unless Mr. Duquette's heart has suddenly grown a brain, you are currently not doing your job." Bailey says sending her off.
"I'm going." She turns to Denny. "Just don't be stupid, ok?"
"You're not the boss of me today, woman."
•.•|•.•|•.•
Meredith, Evi and Bailey are in Denny's room. "EKG, ECHO, and nuclear all within normal limits." Evi reads off.
"Denny, in that case, I see no reason why you can't be up walking." Bailey says.
"Music to my ears, Dr. Bailey." Denny says.
"Good. So, you have any questions?" She asks.
"No. It's..."
"We can put it off. No harm in waiting a few weeks if you have questions. If you're worried."
"I've got 20 tubes coming out of my body, one of which goes directly into my you-know-what. At some point I'd like to use that you-know-what for something besides peeing into a bag. Like, for instance, peeing into a toilet. It's just...Izzie gave me medical advice. You're giving me different advice. It just so happens that yours is the advice I want to hear."
"Well, Dr. Bailey outranks Dr. Stevens. So, it's safe to say Dr. Bailey's advice is the one to follow." Evi says. Meredith and Evi give Denny a "shut up" look.
"That's not what he's worried about, Dr. Jensen. He's worried that Dr. Stevens might get her ego bruised and her feelings hurt, am I right?"
Denny glances at Meredith and Evi. "No, no. Definitely no."
"Because, it would concern me if you were making medical decisions based on how our Dr. Stevens might feel about it."
"Well, in that case, I say we do this thing. Screw that dizzy blonde doctor girl."
"That's not helping, Denny."
"No?"
Meredith, Bailey and Evi all answer. "No."
•.•|•.•|•.•
"What's going on between Stevens and Denny? Is it a crush? Is it an innocent flirtation? Or is Stevens actually crossing the line?" Bailey asks the two interns outside of Denny's room.
"I know she likes him. I can't imagine Izzie would do that." Evi says.
"Uh-huh. I couldn't imagine Grey and Yang would be stupid enough to fall for your attendings, but I was wrong about that, wasn't I?"
"I'm knitting these days. Plus, I'm thinking about accepting a date with a veterinarian." Meredith says.
"Grey. Do you actually believe I care?"
"No."
"Good. Maybe you're not so stupid after all."
•.•|•.•|•.•
Izzie, Cristina, Evi and Meredith are sitting around a nurse's station. "For the record? I am on your side today. George sucks." Izzie says.
"Hmm. Burke doesn't think so. He's his new best friend." Cristina says.
"I wonder if Burke knows where he lives. How's Denny doing? Bailey's not caving in on the LVAD thing, is she?"
"About that...I thought Alex was kidding when he said you dumped him for a heart patient." Meredith says.
"Did you really dump him for a heart patient?" Evi asks.
"Of course not." Izzie denies.
"Because Denny's a patient. We can't fall for our patients." Meredith says.
"You're falling for a vet." Cristina says.
"I'm considering the possibility of maybe having a date with a vet." Meredith corrects.
"That's all I'm saying." Cristina says.
"My point is, Bailey's on the warpath about you and Denny. So just be careful." Evi puts the conversation back on track.
•.•|•.•|•.•
Bailey, Evi and Meredith enter Denny's room. Richard enters a moment later.
"Hey there, Chief. You here for my big moment?" Denny asks.
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it, Denny." He starts looking over Bailey's shoulder.
"Is there something I can do for you, Chief?" Bailey asks.
"His EKG?" Richard asks.
"Normal. As well as his ECHO and nuclear study." Bailey answers.
"Mm-hmm. His perfusion?"
"He's ready, Chief."
"Well, looking good. Carry on."
"Thank you, sir."
•.•|•.•|•.•
Evi, Meredith, Bailey and Richard were still in Denny's room, he is sitting up, wheezing.
"I...can't...breathe." He wheezes.
"Are all those batteries-" Richard goes to ask.
"Yes, they're charged. I checked them myself." Bailey says.
"He's having runs of V-tach." Evi says.
"Could be an air embolism."
"I got it."
"Should we intubate?" Evi asks.
"We'll call respiratory to do it." Richard says.
"Ok, the tubing could be kinked. We need to move him to the OR." Richard says as Bailey works on Denny.
"Sir, I got this." Bailey says.
"Well, it doesn't look like you've got this."
"I've got this."
•.•|•.•|•.•
Evi is in Denny's room checking on him. "Everything looks good, Denny." Evi says.
"Well, you gotta thank Dr. Bailey for me. I mean, I already thanked her once, but this here deserves a double scoop." Denny tells her.
"I know I don't know you very well..."
"You want to talk to me about Izzie?"
"Yeah."
"Because you disapprove?"
"No. This comes from nothing resembling a high horse. You know, this thing with you and Izzie, it's—there are strict rules about doctors dating patients."
"You know Izzie pretty well, right? You think if I went to her and I said, "Hey, you know, this is going to be really bad for your career." "You probably shouldn't come round and see me anymore," you think that'll have any effect at all? The thing is, I was healthy my whole life until I wasn't. And for the last year, I've had a lot of time to lay around in bed and think about my life. And the things that I remember best? Well, those are the things that I wasn't supposed to do and I did them anyway. So the thing is, Evi...life is too damn short to be following these rules."
•.•|•.•|•.•
A wise man once said, "You can have anything in life, if you will sacrifice everything else for it."
What he meant is, nothing comes without a price.
So before you go into battle, you better decide how much you're willing to lose.
Too often, going after what feels good, means letting go of what you know is right.
And letting someone in means abandoning the walls you've spent a lifetime building.
Of course the toughest sacrifices are the ones we don't see coming.
When we don't have time to come up with a strategy, to pick a side or measure the potential loss.
When that happens, when the battle chooses us, and not the other way around, that's when the sacrifice can turn out to be more than we can bear.
•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•