S10, E16
"Happy birthday, Richard." Helena smiled, as she saw the man walking through the nurses station.
"Thank you, Lena." He smiled back.
"Transoral fundoplication day!" Arizona smiled at Helena, making the girl smile back.
"What's that?" Mark asked.
"First we go in orally and then we go in through the belly button to fix the kid's reflux without leaving a scar." Helena explained, leaning over the nurses station, as Mark had his arm around her shoulders.
"It puts the fun on fundoplication." Arizona nodded.
"It's like the best ride at the fun fair." Helena agreed, with a giggle.
"You peds people are scary. You call cutting kids open fun." He furrowed his brows. "You know what's fun?"
"What? Giving someone bigger boobs, Mark?" Helena teased, looking up at him.
"I was going to say skin grafts but, yeah, that, too." He shrugged.
"Arizona, I'm also starting to pick the patients for the biliary diversion trial today! Want to come take a look, after?" The brunette told her.
Since the success of the biliary diversion using the appendix, Hunt had given Helena permission to start a clinical trial, as to determine the success of the technique. As such, Jo was currently helping her go through the applications for the patients.
"Yeah, duh!"
——
"I mean, you're fixing baby hearts, you're inventing a whole new surgical procedure and Derek's mapping the brain and I'm..." Meredith complained, having lunch with her people.
"Having the most amazing surgery ever." Cristina let out, Helena peeking over her shoulder as they looked at Meredith's patient's films. "I mean, please tell me it's pressing-"
"It's nowhere near the heart." Meredith argued, Cristina visibly deflating.
"It's an absorbed twin. It's a baby. Technically, it's a peds case." Helena pointed out, putting the dimples to good use.
"You and the dimples back off, it's the reason I live!" She complained, making Helena pout and steal one of her fries.
"You're just mopey cause you let a lab rat loose in her lab." The cardio surgeon points out.
"It's like leaving the kids with the babysitter. I mean, you say 'put them to be at seven', but will they? Or will they drink all your tequila, pass out, leave the gas on, the whole house blows up and everybody dies..." She complained.
"Oh, yeah. I get it now. Be mopey." Helena nodded in understanding.
"Ok, what do you think of her?" Cristina asked, showing the two a picture of a stranger on her phone. "She's hot, right?"
"Very." Helena hummed.
"Have you given up on men?" Meredith asked.
"No, for Owen. It's from an internet dating site. There are pages of women like this. Owen should be doing this, right?"
"Or you could just keep banging him." Alex sat by them, taking one of Helena's apple slices. "At least it's legal for you guys. You know, Jo's not gonna sign that stupid love contract you gave me."
"Why not?" Helena took a sip of her chocolate milk, through the straw.
"Oh, I don't know, because it's stupid. I knew I shouldn't have given it to her." He denied.
"Just tell her it's just a stupid piece of paper." Meredith shrugged.
"If she runs, I'm blaming you." He accepted, getting up.
"She looks like she's twenty." Cristina still stared at the picture.
"She's cute." Meredith agreed, Arizona, Callie and Mark sitting by them.
"I hate your husband." Callie let out, putting her tray down.
"Owen said not to talk about it." Arizona warned.
"I'm not, I'm talking to myself. I hate Derek Shepherd. Really? Why? Because he's an arrogant, stealing bastard." Callie let out.
"I totally agree." Mark smiled.
At that, Helena gasped in betrayal. "You know and I don't?!"
"No, I don't know, honey." He put his arm around her, with a mischievous smile. "I'll just take any reason to insult Derek."
"Do you ladies think she's hot?" Cristina asked the two older women, showing them the picture.
"Yeah. Very." Arizona agreed.
"Right? I told you." Helena lightly smacked Cristina.
"And now I hate you." Callie pouted, getting up, as Mark complained.
"Hey!"
"She's hot, but you're hotter. Happy?" Helena smiled sweetly, making Mark narrow his eyes at her.
Just then, the girl's eyes widened, as she felt a pressure release from the bottom of her stomach. The sound of water dripping to the floor was noticeable, Helena looking down to see she'd left a small puddle on the ground.
"Already?" Helena breathed out, then pouting. "It was fundoplication day and clinical trial day."
"Oh, God!" Mark stood up in a jump, his voice higher pitched. "Wheelchair! Yang, get me a wheelchair!"
"It's fine, Mark, I'm fine." Helena shook her head. "I'm not even in pain yet, this time. I don't think I've had contractions, yet."
"She's coming, Lee. Caroline's coming. Ok, just take deep breaths, stay calm!" He urged, though he still clearly panicked himself.
"I am calm, Mark!" His wife pointed out. "You're the one who's freaking out. Look, both times I've given birth before either someone was dying or people were actually dead. This is good, this is a breeze. As long as no one gets into another car crash and this baby stays healthy, I'm good. Just page our OB."
"R-right." He nodded, his eyes wide as he searched for his phone.
As Helena sat in the wheelchair, with the help of her people, she turned to Arizona. "You owe me a fundoplication, Arizona. Or I will resent you and this baby for the rest of my life... you don't want me to resent your goddaughter, do you?"
——
"Oh, God!" Helena groaned in pain. "Oh, I'd forgotten how bad this is. How did you let me forget how bad this is, Mark?!"
"I-I don't know how bad it is, honey. I'm not the one giving birth!" He yelped, as the woman's face scrunched up in pain.
"Ok, Dr. Campos, I'm going to ask you to start pushing." The OB warned, at the bottom of the bed.
At that, Helena nodded, her face sweaty, as she grabbed Mark's hand.
As she started pushing, she squeezed her husband's hand hard, making his eyes widen. "Oh, scratch that. I do know how bad it is."
——
"Hi, babygirl." Helena smiled, taking her little daughter in her arms. "Look how precious and tiny you are."
"She is. And she has my hair, this time." Mark smiled, running a finger though her head. "She's perfect."
"Hey." Meredith smiled, at the door, along with Cristina, Arizona and Derek.
Everyone else waited outside, the four doctors getting godmother, godfather and Helena's people privileges.
"Can I see my goddaughter?" The older blond asked, beaming.
"Of course." Helena smiled. "Everyone, meet Caroline Maria Campos-Sloan."
"She's so tiny. I'd forgotten how tiny they are." Meredith pointed out.
"Right?" Mark asked. "It's like a breeze could blow her away."
"Oh, she's a blond." Cristina scrunched her nose up. "Let's hope the rest is more Lena than Mark."
At that, the mother chuckled, before letting out. "Ok, I love my girls more than anything, but please, no matter how bad the baby fever gets, don't let me do this again. I don't know that my vagina can take it."
——
"She's so small!" Alice let out, in awe, as she looked at her baby sister, Helena still in the hospital bed.
"I know, honey." Helena smiled. "She's a little baby. They're all small."
"She has little hair!" She pointed out again. "Why?"
"It'll grow." Mark reassured, rocking the newborn back and forth, absolutely in love with his girls. "When you were a baby, you didn't have much hair either, sweetheart."
"I was a baby?" The toddler gasped in realization.
——
One week days after the birth
"All I'm saying is that I don't remember it being this hard the first time." Helena yawned, returning to Alice's playroom after putting Caroline down. "And Cara sleeps better than Ali did, so you'd expect it do be easier."
As she noticed Mark sleeping on the couch, she gasped at the betrayal. Then, noticing the little snores that came from his mouth, her expression softened, as she put a blanket over him.
Approaching Alice, she told her. "Come on, pequenina. Mama's going to put you to bed, instead of dada, after all."
——
Two weeks after the birth
"So you've sent over the files of the patients that meet the criteria?" Helena asked, on a video chat with Jo.
"Yes. The files and the films should be on your email." She nodded, at the hospital.
"And you've removed all things that could make me identify them, as I asked, so that I can be more objective? Because you know that with kids it's easy to get attached and I want this to be as credible as possible..." She urged.
"Yes, I did." Jo confirmed. "Also, I've just gotten the news that-"
She was cut off by the very audible sound of Caroline crying, Mark entering their home office holding the baby. "Lee, sorry to interrupt, but I think she's hungry."
"Ok, you can give her to me. Thank you." Helena nodded in agreement. "Just watch Ali, please."
"Dr. Campos, do you need to call later o-or just call me back after?" Jo asked, the brunette shaking her head.
"You can only see me from the neck up, I'll just feed her." She proposed. At the resident's confused face, she let out. "Wilson, you're a doctor. I'll breast feed my daughter, you won't see anything, we can just keep going."
"Oh. Right." She nodded, as Helena positioned her baby in order to feed her. "Uh, what I was saying is that I've gotten an email from the Harper Avery Foundation. They say that they are considering you for a nomination, this year, and they're asking for the records of the trial. Can I send them over?"
"I-I'm sorry, what?!" Helena let out, a disbelieving chuckle falling off her lips. "The Harper Avery?!"
——
Three weeks after the birth
"B-but it's the first recovery day of phase one of the trial. And I'm not there." Helena pouted, flopping down on the couch. "No one would die if I went in for a few hours."
"No one would die if you stayed and recovered from childbirth, either." Mark shot back.
"Ha, that's what you think. What if Wilson messes up? Or a nurse doesn't take care of the babies properly? O-or if somehow they catch another disease? People could die. Babies could die. Do you want that, Mark? Do you want babies to die because you wanted me to stay home?" She asked, her face dead serious.
"No one will die, doll." He chuckled. "You just need to relax, spend time with us and learn to not want to control everything."
At that, Helena gasped. "I do not want to control everything!"
Mark narrowed his eyes at his wife, making her pout, as she admitted. "Ok, maybe a tiny little bit. But it's my trial. My kids. It's normal for me to want it to go perfectly."
"It's also normal for me to want my wife to be fully recovered before she goes to work again." He tried, pressing a kiss to her head. "Wilson knows what she's doing. Besides, you ask her for hourly updates. Everything will be just fine. And you've been working so hard, taking care of the girls while also working from home on the trial... You can relax for a little bit, sweetheart." At Helena's pout, he simply suggested. "Come on, why don't we go get some sleep, while the girls are napping?"
——
"Shhh, don't wake daddy up, pequenina." Helena urged, picking Caroline up from her crib. "Don't cry, I'll put you in the baby sling, and you'll get right back to sleep, ok? Não acordes o papá..."
"Mama, I'm dressed." Alice announced, entering the nursery.
"Good job, honey. You look beautiful." Helena smiled, as she strapped the baby to her body. "Why don't you come and help me pick you some shoes, so we can go to the hospital?"
——
"Hey, Lena!" Arizona greeted, as the girl walked through the hospital hallway. "What are you doing here?"
"Uh, no, pretend you don't see me, please." She tried, her baby still strapped to her chest, after leaving Alice in daycare. "I might or might not have snuck off while Mark was asleep so that I could be here for the first day of my trial."
At that, Arizona chuckled, moving to see the little girl. "And how's that going?"
"I've checked on the babies, they all seem to be doing great. I also might have gone through their charts to make sure Wilson didn't accidentally give me the wrong info." She explained, then realizing, as she scrunched up her face. "Oh, God, Mark's right. I'm a control freak."
"The best of us are." Arizona shrugged. "So you're not doing surgery? Cause I have an anoplasty I'm doing in a way don't think you've seen. Dr. Lebackes is coming in soon to scrub in with us."
"Oh, the butthole guy? The one with the private practice?" Helena asked, tilting her head.
"Butthole guy has arrived." A man let out behind them, making Helena turn around, her eyes widening. "I get that a lot. Also Dr. Poop Chute, Dr. Rear Gear, Dr. Rump Chump... oh, and my favorite: the sphincter fairy. My friends call me Oliver. And you, Arizona, look radiant as always."
"It's really nice to see you, Ollie."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I-I'm Dr. Campos. I'm just sleep deprived a-and hormonal. I've just had this little one, along with my eldest, and I'm not really working yet so... sorry." She exhaled.
"No offense taken. I'll just cry myself to sleep tonight on my piles and piles of money." He joked. "You're not going to be scrubbing in? I've heard good things about you from Robbins here. And a anoplasty is always a fun one."
At that, Helena simply narrowed her eyes, before concluding. "That's tempting..." Then, turning to Arizona, she warned. "If Mark gets mad because I'm supposed to be resting, it's your fault."
——
In the OR, music played, as Helena, Oliver and Arizona worked.
"You know, they teach Dr. Lebackes' technique in med school, now." Arizona told Helena.
"It is impressive." Helena agreed.
"Dr. Campos, you making me blush. Everyone has to have a specialty, and everybody has to poop." He explained. "Your trial, though, has been the talk of pediatric surgery, lately. Using the appendix for diversion procedures? That was a great idea."
"Thank you." She smiled, then letting out. "God, I missed the OR."
"I know this is old hat for you, Oliver, but Dr. Campos has never seen this procedure first hand. Want to walk her through it?" The older woman suggested.
"Oh, God, I'm sorry. Kill the music, will you?" The man tried.
"Oh, that's ok." Helena shook her head. "It looks like you used a posterior sagittal approach, and then divided the parasagittal fibers in the midline. And I'm guessing you'll open the levator muscle next?"
"Girl wonder knows her stuff." He let out, impressed.
"I'm sorry?" Helena chuckled.
"You think I'm the only one with a nickname around here? Two boards at the same time and being considered for a Harper Avery nomination will earn you one."
"Oh, thank you." She smiled.
"You're the talk of the pediatric surgery community, Campos. Robbins here should be proud."
——
Helena was checking on her babies again, as she heard a voice call out behind her. "Lee."
At that, she turned around to find Mark standing in the doorway, hands on his hips, Cara strapped to his chest and Alice standing by him, holding his hand.
"Querido." She smiled sweetly, hoping the Portuguese and the dimples would do the work.
"You know, I woke up from my nap to an empty house. No kids, no wife. And, somehow, my alarm had been mysteriously turned off. It had been tampered with." He pointed out, narrowed eyes. "And then I heard my wife hadn't only come to check on her trial patients, but scrubbed in on a surgery. You, honey, are a woman on the run."
"I left a note, which said I love you and had a little heart!" She tried, her face one of guilt, as she tried to argue. "And, if you really think about it, I gave you the afternoon off!"
"I don't care about having the afternoon off, Lee. I care about you being at home, resting." He urged. "You can't keep going at this pace, you don't have to. You have to give yourself time to recover."
"I know, I'm-" Helena was interrupted by her own gasp, as she noticed a scrub cap peeking out of his pocket. "You were in surgery, too!"
"I was not!" He argued, his face one of faked offense.
"Oh, yeah?" She asked, taking the scrub cap from inside his pocket. "Then what is this? Because I might not have witnesses, but I have pretty strong, tangible evidence, mister."
"T-that's just... ok, fine, yes. I missed surgery just as much as you, and I took the opportunity. Can you blame me?"
Helena seemed to consider for a second, before she smiled, sweetly. "No. But this means you can blame me either. Now, the babies are doing fine and I gave a tiny newborn a tiny buttonhole so he can now poop in peace. Let's go home."
"Let's go home." He agreed, his wife picking Alice up, the family starting down the hall. "I ran across Lebackes, I know him from a few years back. You know, he just couldn't shut up about how amazing my wife is, how she's the future of pediatric surgery. He might be lazy and, honestly, a little bit greedy, but he knows what he's talking about. I'm really proud of you, sweetheart."
"Thank you, querido." She smiled, the older child's head resting against her mother's shoulder, her eyes fluttering closed after a day full of playing with her friends.
"How was your day at the daycare, pequenina? Did you have fun with your friends? Foi divertido?" She asked, the toddler looking up, through heavy eyelids.
"Divertido, sim." She nodded.
"Yeah, she missed the hospital just as much as her parents." Mark agreed. "And, Lee? The note was sweet, I love you too. Também te amo."
——
Word count: 3069
AN:
And, just like that, we have another very cute member of the Campos-Sloan family. I'm absolutely in love with these four.