A/N: Special thanks to those who consistently read and vote on my stories! I appreciate it so much!
Enjoy!
Owen looked down with concern at the mangled insides of his patient- a thirty-two-year-old woman T-boned at an intersection. Severe crush injuries, internal bleeding, organ damage. "Three-oh proline, Bohkee."
"Dr. Hunt?" April asked.
"Yeah?" Owen couldn't look up from his work.
"I think there's too much damage to the left kidney, can you take a look?"
He finished his stitch and peered over. He could barely see the kidney from his vantage point. "Brooks, can you retract a little more please?"
"Of course sir," the young resident pulled back further on the retractor and Owen reached over and palpated the kidney. He shook his head, "It's a goner, Kepner. Good thing the right kidney is still intact."
"Damn," April sighed sadly, "Scalpel."
"You guys paged me?" Another voice entered the room. It was Callie.
"Unstable pelvic fracture," Hunt answered.
Callie stood beside him and took a quick look at the X-ray. "Lateral compression fracture. Damn. I used to love these," she muttered, "Now it just reminds me of what happened to Mer."
"Can we not talk about that please?" April asked softly, and Owen's gaze drifted to April's midsection. Of course that would be painful to think about. Although he was quite happy that April was having another. He enjoyed being Uncle Owen.
"Sorry," Callie said apologetically.
"So... The new Cardio Chief? What's she like?" asked April.
Owen felt his heart constrict. Cristina was now officially replaced. She was gone. "Ten blade."
"Well?"
"Uh...she's-uh," Owen stammered.
"She's sweet," Callie said, looking down at her work, "and apparently brilliant. I heard she's published like, twenty articles.? She's the Lisa Simpson of surgery."
Owen chuckled at his friend. It was a fairly accurate comparison, he thought. "That's an interesting observation Torres."
"You miss her?" Callie asked. She was talking about Cristina.
Owen switched tools and focused on the tissue in front of him that needed stitching. "Yeah... he sighed, "But what can you do?"
"You're not gonna go after her?"
"She doesn't want kids. I want kids. It always came down to that." That was the dealbreaker. The heartbreaker. He thought somewhere down the line, Cristina would reconsider... but Cristina wouldn't compromise on that.
"Hm," Callie said. The drill whined as she drilled a small hole in the pelvis to put a pin in. "Arizona and I were talking about having another... she mentioned adoption."
Owen opened his mouth to respond, but had to stop, there was another bleed. "Brooks, I need suction here... laps, more laps." He threw in the small absorbant pads as he tried to find the source, "Kepner, a little help here."
April was in the middle of cauterizing another bleed, "One second..."
They worked quietly until the bleed was controlled. Finally Owen risked a glance over at Callie. "Adoption is not a bad thing," he thought about Thomas, the boy who lost his mother and almost lost his father. He had seriously considered stepping up and fostering the boy himself, "Everyone needs family."
Callie's tools clinked on the tray and she sighed as she worked to stablize the pelvis. "It's just- I wanted to be pregnant again, you know? That baby feeling. But I can't. So we were thinking of surrogacy. I mean that feeling of holding a newborn, someone that is totally dependant on you... it's just-"
"I get it." April cut in, "Noah was amazing. Totally unexpected, I mean I flipped when I found out I was pregnant. I was supposed to be married first, you know? Mint to be and all that. And I was so freaked out about what my parents would think, and my sisters. Jackson and I weren't even official... but Meredith was like, 'If I can do this, so can you.' And it turned out Jackson was supportive. We were both so scared at first, but having Noah? That life inside you? The miracle? It's-" she shook her head, at a loss for words.
Owen finished another stitch. "Look, if you and Arizona want another child, you'll have another child. Just- adoption? Don't rule it out. Just because it didn't come from you, or share your DNA doesn't mean you can't invite another child in your life to love."
Just then the monitors beeped loudly, signaling a sudden drop in blood pressure. "What the-?" April cried out, frantically searching the body cavity for another bleed. "We got most of the bleeders, this shouldn't be happening."
Owen looked up sharply, "Brooks, check the pupils!"
Brooks peeled open the patient's eyelids. "Left pupil's blown sir."
"Dammit! Page Neuro!"
xxx
Amelia's pager beeped. A 9-1-1 for OR one. She sprinted down the hall to the elevator. She knew that crash victim could be trouble. Hopefully, she'd get there in time to actually do something before the patient turned into a vegetable.
The elevator opened and she was face to face with Lexie. Crap.
Lexie stood there clutching three bags of chips, a chocolate bar and a suspicious looking envelope. When she saw Amelia, her face morphed into a scowl. Dammit, she'd been trying to avoid Lexie all day. Still she had a patient to get to, she pushed past the other woman and pressed the button for the door to close.
Lexie reached over to press the emergency stop button, but Amelia grabbed her hand. "I have a 9-1-1. Wanna yell at me? Do it later. But just for your information, Mark didn't tell me he was involved."
The chip bags crinkled as Lexie pulled her arm back. "I still hate you."
She could live with that for now. "Fine," she said.
"Good."
The door opened to the surgical floor and Amelia dashed into the scrubroom. A few minutes later, she was gowned and gloved, hovering over the patients head.
"Brooks already prepped her for a crainiotomy, left pupil is blown," Chief Hunt said by way of greeting.
"Good," Amelia said, "What's her ICP?"
"ICP is twenty five," Brooks said.
"Okay, push one of Mannitol." As she was speaking, the nurses were already gowning her and fitting the headlamp on. "Drill."
The familiar heft of the drill in her hands reassured her. She could do this. Amelia worked quickly to cut through the skull and get down to the brain matter.
"So..." Callie said casually, "You and Mark?"
Amelia rolled her eyes. "Really?" Was she going to be a pariah now? She really didn't need this.
"Hey, he's my best friend okay? I'm just looking out for him."
"Suction," Amelia called. "He didn't tell me he was involved okay? It just kinda-sorta happened," she huffed as she worked on the patch of brain in front of her.
"So... you don't have feelings for him?"
"What? No! He's Mark... I thought that it was safe because he's Mark and sex with Mark is... just that. Safe. No issues... no commitment."
Callie sighed, "Well, he's not 'Just Mark' anymore. He's Mark and Lexie."
Amelia focused back on her patient, "Brooks, find a spot to sew this into the patients abdomen," She handed her a tool which held the circular skull flap. "We'll have to leave the skull flap open until the swelling decreases."
"Right." Brooks said, turning to April for assistance.
"Mark has to figure out what 'Mark and Lexie' means." Amelia snapped, causing Hunt and Kepner to look up from the patient.
It wasn't her fault that Mark cheated. She didn't know. Now if everyone would just get off her back..."I came here for a fresh start, not to cause trouble," she muttered as she worked to stitch the dura closed.
The surgery over and the patient in recovery, Amelia was scrubbing out when Owen came in. "That was good work in there," He said. "Do you think she'll make it?"
Amelia wanted to be hopeful... but with all the other injuries? "It's fifty-fifty," she said.
Owen nodded and began his own scrub-out routine beside her "Sorry about what Callie said in there."
"I'm used to it," she shrugged. "Always the underdog, always something to prove."
"Well, you're a good surgeon. You proved that to me already." Owen smiled.
Flattered by the compliment, Amelia smiled. "Thanks."
"So... where are you staying?" Owen asked. "I mean, I thought you would be at Meredith's but Lexie's sleeping on the couch there-"
Amelia huffed. Right, her living situation. "I'm mostly staying here. No commute. It's great."
"Oh." Owen said thoughtfully, "Uh, look-"
Amelia appreciated his kindness, but it wasn't what she needed right now. She held up a hand to stop him, "I know what you're going to offer and I'm thankful. I'm okay, really. Once Mark and Lexie figure themselves out, I'll either be back at Mer's or have my own place."
Owen nodded. "I understand," he said. "I'm still getting over Cristina.
"Okay then." Amelia said, seeing his sadness.
"Okay then."
She patted her hands dry with a paper towel, and looked at Owen again. He was a great guy. She was looking forward to getting to know him better, but she was going to take it slow. No head over heels rushing into things anymore. She had to know she could handle it. She pushed the door open and started down the hall.
"Amelia?" Owen called
"Yeah?"
"Chief of Neuro spot is still open, I'm expecting your application."
What? She hadn't given it much thought. She was starting over... she wasn't sure she wanted that much responsibility. Head of Neuro? That was a job. And she'd be Lexie's boss. Plus, they'd have to bring up the addiction thing again. Decisions, decisions. "Um, I'll think about it?" she offered.
"Apply." Owen said. "You're a good surgeon and a good doctor."
xxx
Richard sat on the bench outside the hospital. He often found himself here, pondering and reflecting on the life and death nature of this hospital. Today was the fifth anniversary of Derek Shepherd's death. Shepherd, who he had resented for taking his job, only to die because he took the job. The job he'd given up because things got too hard, and he'd turned to alcohol instead of his colleagues. He'd tried to cover things up instead of expose them.
Derek had, rightly so, corrected that mistake. But it cost him his life. It was a sobering thought. Literally.
"You don't get to spend the rest of your husband's life being a quitter." He'd yelled at Meredith when she'd been at her lowest. It was really something he was telling himself, but the stricken look on her face afterwards told him that it spoke to her as well.
He wondered how she was. Meredith was an expert at masking her feelings. She dived into surgery. She spent more hours at the hospital than any other attending. Today was her first day off in weeks probably. But every once in a while he'd see that same look of hopelessness and despair he encountered years ago when Cristina had dragged her 'Person' into the hospital.
"She needs to go to psych, Richard. You need to order a consult."
"Nooo," Meredith slurred from the gurney.
"She- she's going to harm herself. I can't help her."
"No I wasn't!"
"Shut up! You were!" The young resident turned to Richard again, "She had a knife. And she's drunk. Order the consult." Cristina's voice cracked, and through her tough exterior he could see how hard this was.
"Very well," He said. "Go home Yang, I'll take it from here." He put an arm around Cristina and pulled her in. He felt her body heave for a moment. "Owen's still here, in OR 3. He should be almost done."
"Okay," Cristina sniffed. She composed herself and headed down the hall, leaving him with Meredith.
"I wasn't..." Meredith whispered. But her eyes were glazed over and she had a very far off look. He'd seen it once before, in Ellis, a few hours before she died.
"Okay." He knew better than to call her on her lie. He picked up a chart and started her intake, before calling Dr. Wyatt for an emergency admittance.
Richard sighed and tried to push the memory aside. Meredith was strong. She'd been through so much and came out the other side, kicking and screaming. She just needed... a little hope.
"Hi," Someone said.
Pulled out of his reverie Richard saw the new Cardio Chief Maggie Pierce in front of him. "Mind if I sit here?"
A/N: Well how was that? FYI at this point, Richard doesn't know Maggie's his daughter. Thanks for reading this!
If you're feeling a little Derek deprived, you can check out my story In My Dreams if you want.