S5 EP14&15
DEREK, MARK AND NORAH were in Meredith and Derek's bedroom, filled with red petals and green stems. There were roses on the bed, roses on the walls, roses everywhere.
The two men were lighting up candles around the room while Norah stood by the doorframe, taking in the sight of what Meredith might see when she opened the door.
"This is stupid," Derek grumbled, "She's gonna hate this."
"What, the flowers?" Mark asked. "Girls love this crap."
They continue lighting the candles, one at a time. Norah furrowed her brows at the number of roses Derek had managed to get, which was, to say, a lot.
"Norah's not speaking," he glanced over to the woman leaning against his doorframe, "She agrees with me-oh no-she agrees with me. It's a cliché. I'm a cliché."
"Clichés became clichés for a reason," Mark stated, "Because they worked."
"Norah, please say something," Derek sighed as he stood up next to the bed. "What would Meredith think? Would she like it? Or is it too cliché? Please say something."
Norah folded her arms in front of her chest, tilting her head aside as she stared at the very blossoming red room. "You want me to be entirely honest?" she asked, and he nodded. "If I were Meredith... I would faint at the scent of all these roses... then freak out."
"If you were you?" Mark asked, and she turned her gaze to him. He had a small smirk on his face, knowing that Derek could not see him from behind.
"If I were me, I'd freak out, too," Norah replied, "I'm not a fan of surprises. Birthday surprises used to make to retreat into my room." When Derek turned his back to both of them to light up the remaining candles. Norah nudged her head towards him, sending Mark a serious look on her face.
Mark stared back and forth between his two favourite people, clearing his throat. "It's... great, isn't it?" he spoke nervously, "When you feel so strongly for someone, and it's... you know, not just about the sex."
Derek turned to him slowly, staring at Mark's seemed-to-be frozen at his spot figure; the former had a look mixed with bafflement and curiosity. Derek stared at Mark as though the latter had gone insane. Norah was sighing internally, knowing that this was not going as planned.
"It is..." Mark paused as he struggled to find his words, his eyes flickering to the woman at the door briefly, "It's true."
There was a long silence... before Derek let out a laugh; Mark looked at him confusingly while Norah narrowed her eyes, too. "You should not talk like that," Derek snorted as he adjusted the pillows on the bed.
"Yeah. You're right..." Mark turned his head to Norah, who merely sighed back at him. "Well, you're all set here. I'm gonna leave you to it." He stopped at the door, glaring at the amused face she failed to hide. "Congratulations," he told Derek.
"Thanks," Derek replied, admiring his cliché work.
"For a brain surgeon, he really is brainless, know what I mean?" Norah whispered as Mark walked past her.
"I know exactly what you mean." He leaned down and pressed a kiss on the side of her neck, not even bothering that Derek would find out-he was supposed to find out. Yet Derek was occupied by his phone ringing.
"Addison?" Derek spoke through the phone, catching both their attentions. "What happened?"
Mark and Norah shared a look; Derek's face and tone were enough to say it all.
❦ ❦ ❦
NORAH HURRIED TOWARDS the ICU with the newly-compiled chart in her hand. She knocked on the glass door before entering; four pairs of eyes shifted to her briefly before moving back at the patient. "Dr Shepherd, I downloaded and printed the patient's chart."
"Is it-"
"-arranged and coded the way you like it? Yes," she finished, and Derek gave her a brief nod. "Hi, Addison..."
The taller woman smiled at her and returned her greet with a hug-one that was slightly tighter and lengthier. "Norah, Naomi. Naomi, Norah," she introduced the other woman in the room hastily, and Norah shook Naomi's hand with a polite smile.
"Does he know how he got the parasite?" Webber queried as Derek checked on Archer's pupils.
"He thinks he got it from eating unwashed fruit in Mexico," Naomi answered.
"He's bradycardic," Norah informed, frowning at the heart monitor.
Webber shared a frown as he looked at the monitor. "Why is he bradycardic and hypotensive?"
"He's having a reaction to the fentanyl drip," Derek informed, turning to the nurse, "Stop the fentanyl drip and push the Narcan."
"Wait!" Addison interrupted; her forehead was beading with sweat, and her face flushed with worry. "Derek, he was in status. I-I mean, if you take him off and he seizes up, there could be brain damage."
"We better hope that doesn't happen."
"Hope?" Addison stammered, "That's what your plan is... is hinging on-hoping the worst doesn't happen?"
"Yeah, I'm hoping he's stopped seizing because I know if we don't reverse the drip, his heart is going to arrest," Derek stated firmly, "So unless you have a better idea..." The look on Addison's face was helpless, and she was wordless.
"Push the Narcan."
❦ ❦ ❦
MEREDITH AND NORAH were in Archer's room; the former removed the tracking devices from his head while the latter checked on the imaging on the screen. The room was thick with tension-specifically, awkwardness-with both Meredith and Addison in the room.
"Our eyes met over the cadaver... And I knew I had to have her..."
Archer, who had woken up, along with Naomi, were both contributing to the unease in the room with their singing.
Meredith was looking slightly uncomfortable in the room, which Norah took notice of. The brunette gave her a nudge of the head, saying 'Are you okay?'; Meredith merely shrugged back at her.
"Can we talk about something else?" Addison whisper-yelled at her brother and friend. However, neither of them noticed her eyeing Meredith at the side of the room. She turned her gaze to Norah, pleading for help, but the resident returned an apologetic smile.
"Had his mitral valve grown too thick..."
"Is that what made out cadaver so sick..."
"You wanna run out?" Norah whispered to Meredith, "I can finish up the rest."
"It's fine," Meredith replied with an appreciative smile.
"Greatest love song of all time," Mark's voice spoke as he entered the room, flashing a grin at his old friends. Norah shot him a look and nudged her head to Meredith by her side, yet he did not seem to get the warning look on her face. "You get to the part where Derek rhymes 'gross anatomy class' with 'Addison's fine ass'-because I wrote that line."
Meredith's head snapped to the group, and Norah sighed to herself; Addison cleared her throat loudly. Mark turned around and only seemed to notice Meredith's presence in the room.
"Oh, my bad," he muttered. Norah gave him an unamused glare, which he returned with an innocent grin.
"No, no. It's fine," Meredith stated as she casually scrolled through the scans, "I, uh... I think it sounds like a fine song."
Addison had an awkward smile on her face as the singing and laughing piped down. Norah gave Mark a sharp kick at the back of his foot, in which he grunted while keeping a smile on his face. Addison cocked a brow at the interaction between the two.
"Archie, heard you were gonna let Derek remove those suckers from your brain," Mark voiced out.
"Maybe."
"He is," Addison stated definitely.
"I hate surgery," Archer sighed, "Especially brain surgery."
"Yeah... being a neurologist, you probably see a lot of patients post-op who are just, you know, scrambled eggs up there..." Mark trailed off; Norah bit down on her bottom lip to stop herself from cackling aloud.
"Okay-you know what, Mark? You're not helping right now," Addison deadpanned. "We're sitting here trying to convince him that surgery is-"
"-is not an option." Derek entered the room with a file of scans in his hands; his news caused everyone to turn their attention to him.
The look on his face was complex, but Norah recognised that frown-one that never followed by good news.
"According to these scans, the single cyst you had on your last CT has now multiplied by eight, all clogging the third ventricle," Derek informed, "There's no way I can surgically navigate through a mess like that without rupturing one."
The room had gone still and silent as they took in that piece of information. "So, what does that mean?" Addison spoke up, her eyebrows knitted into one.
Mark, who had been cracking jokes, too, had gone quiet. He had taken a step back and leaned against the wall next to Norah; she was fiddling with the loose piece of thread on her sleeve cuff.
The room was in utter silence.
"You're in a room full of doctors, Addison, who are all being very quiet right now," Archer turned to his sister, whose eyes were wet with tears. "I'm gonna die. That's what it means."
Norah felt a sting in her chest and frowned at Addison's quiet sobs. Everyone left the room one after another to give the siblings privacy. She blew a breath with a bleak look across her face as she handed the chart over to a nurse.
Cases involving siblings always hit her right in the core; it was one thing that had-and always will-bother her.
Izzie walked up to her; the bright smile on her face caused Norah to raise a brow at her. "I'm playing a game with the interns," the blonde announced.
"A game?"
"The interns are broken," she stated, "They're on probation, and it's making them hate medicine. I'm trying to remind them that the thing they hate is actually the thing they love."
Norah was least to say, impressed at her words and effort. Izzie handed her several cards similar to the flashcards she used to study for her exams. "The interns will come looking for you and just quiz them," Izzie explained, "Switch between the questions so that they wouldn't cheat."
"Oh, cool. This is brilliant, Iz," Norah nodded and slipped the card into her pocket as the blonde hurried away.
She caught up to Derek, who looked prominently stressed as he shook his head at the scans once again. She peaked at the imaging in his hand, frowning.
"What do you see?"
"A seemingly inoperable surgery," she replied.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Seemingly?"
"I mean, obviously, you're not an actual god or something, but... you are a Neuro god." He frowned at her words, crossing his arms over his chest. "Sorry, it's just uh..." she sighed, "If it were my brother lying there right now, I'd hold a knife to your throat until you've exhausted all possibilities."
Derek stared at her for a long while before shaking his head wearily. "A knife to the throat wouldn't help, Norah," he stated, "Come with me. We'll try to come up with something."
❦ ❦ ❦
NORAH WAS 'HIDING' IN one of the office rooms in front of a computer. A part of her was looking up information and additional details on Archer's surgery that Derek had managed to come up with a risky procedure plan; the other part of her was just giving the interns an extra task to look for her in the hospital.
The coffee on the table had finished a long while ago; the watch on her wrist indicated that she had been sitting there for nearly two hours. Her eyes felt strained and dry from looking at the computer screen for a long time. Hence, she decided to lean back against the chair while she rested her eyes.
Of course, before she could actually rest them, the door blasted open. Footsteps approached her, and she groaned in annoyance when someone poked her shoulder carefully. She snapped open her eyes, only to see Kirian standing in front of her with a half-grin on his face.
"Coffee, Dr Lawrence?" he handed her the cappuccino, which she was actually grateful for. "Can you uh... give me an easier question, please?"
"Seriously, Rook?" Norah shook her head, and Kirian nodded keenly.
She fished for the cards in her pocket, switching between the few until she found the toughest one. His face mushed up into a big look of confusion, but after a few seconds, a bulb lit in his head, and he answered it correctly. She gave him a proud smirk.
"That was the hardest one, and you got it," she informed. "Now, you might have an actual prodigy of a boyfriend, but don't let that affect your judgement of yourself." He shot her an appreciative smile and scurried off to complete their game.
Timothy was panting when he entered the room shortly after Kirian had left. "Hey."
"Hey back," Norah frowned at the sight of him, "Have you been running?"
"Uh-yeah? Nor, you're hiding," he deadpanned, "That's unfair."
Norah merely shrugged at him as she read the card out loud, "Tachycardia, hypotension, angioedema, severe chest and abdominal pain, difficulty breathing-"
"Anaphylactic shock!" Timothy shouted out his answer before she could finish reading out the question; Norah nodded at his correct diagnosis.
He pumped a fist in the air before snatching over her coffee for a sip; she let out a noise of protest, smacking his head with the glittered cards. He cursed under his breath as he attempted to shake off the colourful shine on his hair, which only made her laugh harder.
With a scowl on his face, he nudged his head at the pile of papers. "What're you reading up this time?"
"Derek's gonna operate on a seemingly inoperable surgery," she replied, looking back at the computer screen, where its words had started to look distorted and dizzy.
"Seemingly inoperable?" he repeated. "That sounds cool."
"What's cooler is if you don't waste time here and finish this game," she snickered. "Oh, and just to give you a heads up, Lexie's gonna win. She found me here long before you did."
Timothy's grinning face fell to a more serious one. "Oh, fuck-bye, then! Good luck with the surgery!" he waved back before hurrying away to his next station.
Norah smiled to herself. Her little brother, all grown up, but still had that boyish grin on his face. Or at least that was what she saw through her eyes.
To others, he may be a smart man who was always calm and strategic; to her, he still has a maturity of a ten-year-old with a cheeky grin and a playful side to his seriousness.
❦ ❦ ❦
THE OR WAS LAYERED WITH tension and pressure from the doctors in the gallery.
The surgeons were all scrubbed in and ready to operate. Derek stood in front of the draped head with Norah assisting by his side. Archer had already got put under anesthesia. All was ready to start.
Derek glanced up at the gallery, and Norah followed his gaze curiously. Addison was mumbling words through the window, more to the neurosurgeon than herself.
"Okay, everybody. It's a beautiful day to save lives."
Norah peered up at the smile on Addison's face, then focused back on the surgery. "Scalpel," Derek requested.
As Derek navigated the probe inside Archer's brain, the surgeons and nurse stared at the display screen nervously-except Norah, whose gaze was flickering between the screen and Derek's hands. His precise movements made her feel in awe.
One by one, the cysts were carefully removed and placed on the petri dish on her hand, in which she poked on it to check for the parasite worm. Seven cysts, seven scolexes; the surgery was going smoothly.
"Damn it."
Norah watched as the cyst tore apart on the screen, her eyes narrowed. "He's getting bradycardic," she informed. The monitor started to beep rapidly, and the people in the gallery were on the edge of their seats.
"See if the flow is blocked," Derek instructed. There was a long line of beep on the heart monitor; Addison stood up, pressing herself against the glass.
"Asystole," Norah stated before lifting her head to a nurse, "Start the code clock."
The nurse pressed the switch on the wall, and the large digital clock in front of them started to tick; the bright red numbers slowly increased. The ticking sound caused panic to some, yet to her, it was a rhythm.
"Get the crash cart!" Norah ordered, "Dr Shepherd, I'm starting compressions-"
"No! Stop! Nobody move!" Derek interjected, "We can't start compressions. I have to find the worm."
"Derek, he's-"
"We have two minutes, maybe three," he cut her off, "Nobody move. Just stop."
❦
AT NEARLY THIRTY SECONDS left to the three-minute countdown, Derek found the last scolex. He grabbed ahold of it and rotated it, reversing it back, and the parasite was now on its way out of the patient's brain.
"All eight of them," she informed after he placed the last worm in the petri dish, "And his heart rate's coming back up."
Through the glass, everyone exhaled in relief; they were all on the verge of tears of joy. Addison had a big smile on her face as she wiped away her tears. "Thank you, everybody," Derek spoke, "You just made some friends of mine very happy."
Norah saw the grin through his mask, a proud look in his eyes; she, herself, was baffled in amazement. The contended looks of everyone's eyes made her feel glad.
The seemingly inoperable surgery was a success-and it was a whole different level of high she had never experienced in an OR. She swore her eyes were glowing like stars at that very moment. It made her drunk in thrill and satisfaction.
Norah had always been open to different specialties all these while-except plastics-but at that very moment, she felt like a decision was made, and it would not be meeting a change-at least not in this lifetime.
Up in the gallery, they gave each other big hugs as they celebrated the success. Mark got up and hugged Addison, too. The latter held him tighter as she whispered to him, "She's the one, isn't she?"
"W-What do you mean?" he tried playing dumb, even though the stammer in his voice betrayed him.
Addison chuckled, shaking his head. "You're too obvious, Mark," she pointed out, "You can't even wipe that stupid grin off your face."
He smiled, turning back to the gallery. "Look at her-you've got the best resident closing up Archie's scalp. She has a damn good future in plastics..." he spoke, watching her focus and concentration as she slowly and precisely close up, "...but she's gonna be one hell of a neurosurgeon."
Addison raised a brow curiously at the plastic surgeon. "What makes you think she'd choose Neuro as a specialty?"
Mark grinned back with a shrug, "I just do."
"Honestly, I never thought I'd see Mark Sloan like this, ever," she mused, "You're completely wrapped around her little finger."
He nodded in agreement. "Even you can see that it's obvious... right?"
She sighed with her hands on her hips, giving him a look. "Derek doesn't know?" she deadpanned.
"I tried, but he's just... dumb," he sent her a guilty gaze, shaking his head, "I'm working on it... We're working on it..."