S7 EP18
WALKING TOWARDS HER brother at the cafeteria, Norah felt queasy after having to retch out her breakfast, right after receiving the news. Timothy raised a brow at the lack of colour on her face, a pit of worry growing within him.
"What happened to you?" he asked but was met by a response he did not fancy.
The look behind her eyes was not fear nor horror, at least not directed to herself; he saw dread and pity behind her hazel eyes, which made the pit in his stomach redirect towards himself.
"Nor...? What-"
"C-Callie's six minutes out."
She watched the paleness struck his face; he felt the hair on every square inch of his skin stand. Within a single heartbeat, he sprinted out of the cafeteria, ignoring the yells and shouts of the people he had bumped into.
Norah took a deep breath before hurrying after him. Her concern grew for her brother, Callie, and her unborn niece or nephew.
Everything will be okay.
❦ ❦ ❦
TIMOTHY PUSHED THROUGH the ER doors where the surgeons of every department were waiting anxiously. They turned their heads to him in unison, and he felt sick of the stares.
It felt like the aftermath of the shooting all over again. Cameras and people's eyes, all directed towards him because he survived. It made his hair stand, not that it mattered at that moment.
"What the fuck do you guys know?" he demanded, looking frantically at every one of them.
"Car versus truck, that's all we know," Webber informed, his voice was hesitant-never a good sign.
The resident felt his whole body draining of life. "A-Are they at least... alive? Callie? T-The baby?"
The chief gave him a sad look before stating firmly, "We don't know."
Norah had caught up to him and hurried out of the ER doors, staring at her brother's frozen figure standing behind the group of surgeons. "Tim-"
"They don't fucking know anything, Nor," he choked out a sob as he turned around. She frowned at the sight of him. His eyes were empty; the fright was creeping up his skin. "They don't know... T-They don't..."
Norah stepped forward to wrap her arms around her brother, who started to shake-tremble. He was trembling in her hold, his hands gripping the back of her scrub top. He was a total wreck.
The ER doors opened again, and Mark hurried out after scrubbing out from his surgery. "What the hell happened?"
"Car versus truck, that's all we know," Owen informed this time.
Mark's eyes landed on his girlfriend, who was still holding her brother tightly while Timothy dug into the back of her scrub top.
"They don't fucking know anything," Timothy repeated, trying his best to compose himself, "They don't even fucking know whether they're alive..."
"Well, why... Why the hell don't you know?" Mark demanded with a scoff, turning on his spot, "Someone get me a trauma gown!" He was panicking, too; his breathing was shallow, and his jaw clenched.
"Mark, you need to sit this one out," Webber told him, but he looked back at the chief in disbelief.
"I'm not sitting this one out," Mark snapped back, "That's Callie. A-And she's pregnant, that's... She's-"
"Mark."
The concern at the front of his eyes was similar to when the one he had the night when things between them went south. The strain and worry were eating up inside him. She reached for his hand, squeezing his shaking fist tightly as he shook his head helplessly.
"Look, maybe I don't understand what you two have, how you have it, but I understand this-she is like your family," Webber stated, his voice firm and sincere, "Callie Torres and that baby are like family to you, and the best way that you can help your family is to step back and let the rest of us do what you can't rationally do: save their lives."
Mark turned his head to her wordlessly, in need of reassurance. "Everything will be okay," she spoke softly, "Today will be okay."
She believed her own words because she had not felt any prick of chills to her back, which meant everything will be okay. At least, that was what she was convincing herself.
She felt the tenseness in his hand loosening, and she pried the gown and gloves off his hand before hurriedly putting it on herself.
"I'm in the room, you hear me? I'm in the room!" Mark scoffed at the chief before storming over to Timothy, who remained frozen by the wall.
"Okay," Webber agreed his demand before turning to the resident, "Lawrence, you should sit this one out, too. That's your niece or nephew in there and-"
Norah snapped her head to the chief with her eyebrows knitted in disbelief. "Sir, I'm related to the baby, but I'm not biologically related to Callie, who had a traumatic head injury. And all due respect, you need all your best residents on this case-"
Her words got cut off by the blaring of the ambulance's siren. Webber, too, had dismissed her hastily and turned to the group of surgeons. "Hunt, you're in charge," he instructed.
Owen took the lead, rushing up to the vehicle that had just pulled up. "Alright, everyone. Multiple blunt trauma protocol. Let's go."
The door opened, and Arizona stepped down of it with a shock blanket covering her. "T-Tachycardic and hypotensive en route. Obvious h-head and chest injuries."
When Callie got lowered from the ambulance on a gurney, Mark stared in horror as he held Timothy up with one hand.
The woman was covered in her own blood, with multiple open wounds from the cuts of glass shards. Her eyes were opened wide, in shock, staring at the surgeons surrounding her.
"Callie? Callie, we've got you, you hear me?"
Her eyes found the brunette resident's, a pleading look in her eyes despite her mangled state. Norah leaned closer, swallowing back the tightness in her throat, as well as the sickness down her stomach.
"Everything is gonna be okay," she spoke, though she was not quite sure whether her words were towards Callie or herself.
Norah lifted her eyes briefly to Timothy, who looked pale, then to Mark, who ran a hand through his face stressfully. A look of horror spread across both their faces when the surgeons started wheeling Callie into the ER.
Timothy walked up to Arizona, the blonde still wrapped under the shock blanket. "What the hell happened?" he questioned, his voice hard.
"It came out of nowhere," she gulped, her voice trembling, "I... I asked her to marry me, and a truck came out of nowhere."
"What... What the fucking hell?" he let out a dry laugh before running into the ER, catching up to the gurney.
❦
NORAH RUSHED BEHIND the attendings who were pushing the gurney, overhearing their short exchange of words. She took a deep breath and shut everything in her mind out of her head.
The blood is not mine. I am okay.
That is not Jace Thompson, nor Kirian Rook or George O'Malley.
That is Callie Torres, and she and the baby will be okay.
When they arrived in the nearest trauma room, the surgeons quickly surrounded the gurney. Their hands reached under the spinal board and lifted Callie, transferring her onto the bed in the room.
"Get those IVs up."
"And make sure her lines are patent."
The residents scrambled to hook up things and push in machines to the attendings. They were working all at once. Timothy, Mark and Arizona had walked into the chaos going on in the room; everyone was desperate for a positive outcome.
"Depressed skull fracture with a probable bleed," Derek declared, shining the light at her eyes.
"Tell CT to get ready for her," Norah instructed a nurse, "Now, please-run."
"No obvious spinal deformities."
"Hang two bags of O-neg.," Bailey ordered.
"She's A-positive," Arizona and Timothy spoke in unison, their mountain of concern bouncing off each other.
"Scratch that," Bailey stated, "Type specific, A-positive."
"Is there a fetal heartbeat?" Arizona asked shakily. Her own injuries were still left unattended, and she had refused treatment until she knew Callie was alright. The surgeons in the room did not hear her as they continued shouting orders and status reports to each other. "Lucy, is there a fetal heartbeat?"
"Lucy!" Timothy bellowed, his voice gaining the attention of the OB fellow.
"Give me a minute!" Lucy yelled back at them.
Webber held an arm out, barricading all three of them as they attempted to walk up to the middle of the room. "You three need to back up," the chief stated; his voice was the calmest among everyone else.
"I want an answer!" Arizona pleaded.
"Against the wall and silent. You hear me?" Webber pushed the two surgeons backwards so that neither would interfere with the other surgeons in the room who were working to save Callie's life.
The three of them watched helplessly from the wall, their minds flushed with worry. Mark's gaze flickered between the woman on the bed and the brunette who was assessing her head injury. The shouting of orders resumed louder as the residents continued rushing in circles as they handed scans and tools here and there.
Norah was constantly switching the tools on her hand with Derek's, handing them to him before he even requested. They worked wordlessly and in utter coordination. The silence abled her to hear her own breathing, feeling her heart thumping in her chest, sweat beading on her forehead-but she did not care.
She spared a glance at Timothy, who had never looked paler than ever; Mark was looking back at her with strained eyes and the furrow of his eyebrows that failed to ease up. They needed her.
But between them and the woman on the trauma bed, all she could do was lower her eyes back to the latter.
There were two lives to save.
"This monitor's not picking up," Lucy shook her head as she struggled to find the heartbeat on the fetal monitor.
"Doppler's here," Alex informed, and the OB fellow nodded.
"Okay, let's switch."
Norah peered up from Callie's head when they quickly changed the machine on the other end of the bed, hooking it up and pressing the device on the stomach. She could see the faint image on the monitor's screen; Arizona froze on her spot with Timothy holding her shoulder.
Derek had noticed the worried look on the resident's face and lifted his head momentarily. "How are we doing with the heartbeat, Lucy?" he queried while Norah held the gauze on the still-bleeding scalp.
"Systolic's down to 72," Webber informed, referring to the mother.
"If I'm gonna find a heartbeat, I need everybody to shut up for a second," Lucy stated, but her voice got overlapped by the shouting orders in the trauma room. The room was still in complete chaos.
It ticked her off when nobody listened, and Norah finally snapped at the situation. "Everybody just shut the fuck up-for fuck's sake!" Her voice was loud and strong; the shouts fell silent instantly. The surgeons in the room glanced at her briefly before returning to their work in a quieter volume.
"D-Dr Fields?" Timothy voiced out. His mind was still blank.
The familiar rhythm broke the silence in the room, and everyone let out a soft exhale of relief. "There it is. Fetal heartbeat."
Norah was still gritting her teeth but felt the slightest comfort; Timothy had pushed out of the trauma room after confirming that there was a fetal heartbeat. The sound of his hard footsteps indicated that he was heading away from the ER.
"Dr Lawrence-"
"Dr Webber," she cut him off before he could start, her voice dire and weighty, "Respectfully, I'm Shepherd's best resident, and Torres had just flown through a fucking windshield. Headfirst, if I might remind you again. So, if you're gonna suggest, in any way, that I'm off this case, I will scalpel you. Respectfully."
Jackson let out a low whistle at her snappy demeanour towards the Chief of Surgery.
"I'll pull myself out if I see myself unfit for this case," Norah stated, her immense glare finally managed to stare down the chief.
"You good?" Derek peered at her while she handed him more gauze. He could hear her heavy breathing and nervous gestures when she tapped her foot anxiously-and then he was also startled a little when her loud voice rang at the side of his ears.
"As good as one can be after god sent one of her closest friends through a windshield, who, mind I add, is carrying my brother's child," she responded crassly, and he narrowed his eyes at her words. "I'll be fine, Derek."
He nodded, trusting her judgement of herself, but then added in a low tone, "Mark isn't."
Her eyes met the blues once again. The distress radiating off him was clashing with her unease. Her worry drifted on and off between him and Callie; it was an uncomplicated decision on who to put their full attention on-it should be.
But right now, in her head, Mark Sloan was triumphing over her decision.
She was fine.
❦ ❦ ❦
"CT SHOWS A LARGE epidural and subdural. I need to get in there," Derek informed after looking at the scans. He stepped towards the surgical field where Norah had just prepped the head accordingly. "Is she under?"
"We're ready for you," the anesthesiologist replied with a nod.
"Alright, I'm going in. I need a ten-blade," he requested, "Bipolar to Dr Lawrence."
Norah thanked the scrub nurse, who handed her the surgical forceps, and she stood beside Derek. The other surgeons had positioned themselves in their respective places.
"Wait, wait, stop-her anesthesia's too light," Lexie informed sharply, causing the surgeons who were just about to cut into Callie to stop at their places. They let out complains and murmurs, their stressed minds placing blames on the anesthesiologist.
"Take a breath. Everybody, I mean it," Owen voiced out, "Stop what you're doing and every one of you, take a breath and centre yourself. There's no need to rush in there. We rush, we make a mistake. So, everybody... take a breath."
The surgeons did as advised, pulling in a few long breaths before pushing the air out of their lungs. Norah had taken in several breaths-hell, she had been doing it for a good while now-but the unsettling feel under her stomach was still consuming her.
When they eventually started to operate, working simultaneously as a team. The OR was in dread and utter silence.
Norah glanced up to the gallery, only to find Arizona and Mark-Timothy was still missing, and it was close to driving her insane.
Derek noticed her gaze upwards and immediately understood the worry that clouded her head. "Someone has to keep an eye on Tim," he announced.
"Little Grey," Webber called out, and Lexie lifted her head.
She glanced over to Jackson as the two had something going on for a bit now; he nodded, and she quickly hurried out of the OR without another moment of thought.
❦
TIMOTHY SAT ON THE bench with his elbows on the row in front of him. His hands clasped together, and he rested his forehead on them. He heard the door being pushed open from behind, followed by a pair of footsteps approaching him.
A presence sat down next to him on the long bench. The quietness remained in the air until it was interrupted.
"Tim-"
"Look, I know you hate me, so-"
"I don't hate you," Lexie stated firmly, her brows furrowed in concern at his dishevelled state. His hair was messed up, obviously having to run his hands through it several times.
He slowly turned his head to her, and her face fell slightly at the sight of him. His tears had dried off on his cheeks; his mind still swam with thoughts, and his eyes were blank.
"I never really prayed before in my life, but here I am. People are fucking weird, aren't they?"
"They are..." Lexie nodded while she stared at him quietly.
"They're gonna be fine, right?" he asked, his voice small and close to breaking. The past hour had scared him beyond anything he ever experienced.
She nodded before shifting closer to him, putting a comforting hand around his shoulder. "Everything will be fine."
For that moment, her being there was enough for him.
❦
THE SURGEONS HAD AGREED on a temporary abdominal closure for Callie to recuperate so that she would not bleed to death in the OR.
Norah could feel that the sight of blood was making her mind foggy again. Her chest started heaving up and down at a quicker pace, but she mustered all she could to slow it while holding the bipolar in her hand.
She needed reassurance.
But glancing up to the gallery, she only saw Arizona sitting alone. The seek for comfort was overridden with her crazing mind.
"Fuck," she muttered under her breath, "Meredith, can you take over here?"
The resident perked her head up, as well as the Neuro attending next to her. "Norah, you okay?" Derek asked.
"Yes, I am." That was a lie. "But Mark isn't. I need to... He needs me." That was the truth.
She handed the tools to Meredith and immediately darted out of the OR.
The moment she stepped through the doors, she felt like she finally caught her breath. She stalked down the quiet hallways-too quiet-very much unlike the morning they had just started with; it was the total opposite.
The hospital was huge, and there were hundreds of places where Mark could be. Yet despite her heart pounding in her chest, despite her breathing that felt strangled, despite the intense feeling that her mind was falling to insanity-she found him after pushing open the first door.
She stood at the doorway; Mark was pacing anxiously in the stairwell, his footsteps echoed within the walls. She walked up to him, and he lifted his head to her. Weakly shaking his head, a single tear rolled down his eye, one that he did not bother to wipe off.
Norah wrapped her arms around him tightly; it was the only way she could think of to calm him down.
His body hardened a bit before he dissolved into her embrace. His arms held her tightly, and his face buried into her shoulder, staining her scrub top with tears.
"S-She's my best friend," he managed out, his voice slightly muffled.
The dampness in his eyes made her heart sink to the bottom, and the quiet sobs on her shoulder tore it into two. "I know, Mark... I know..."
❦ ❦ ❦
"A BABY BORN AT 23 WEEKS risks encephalopathy, ROP, cerebral palsy, developmental-"
"Yes-fuck," Timothy cut Arizona off in their mid-discussion of their decision to act on Callie and the baby. "I might be a fucking resident, but I know the damn risks!"
"No, do you?" she fired back with a scoff, "Because you're acting like you don't care about the baby."
"I'm thinking about both of them-both of them!" he snapped at her, "You don't fucking think I care?!"
"You're not being rational!"
"Oh, boo-hoo! You just can't accept the fucking fact that your girlfriend screwed a dude because you dumped her on the way to Africa? And then what? You fucking crawl back into her life weeks later in tears, finding out she got pregnant with my kid. Fuck's sake, you didn't ask for the kid, and now you're-"
"No, no, no! You know what I didn't ask for? I didn't ask for you, Tim! You're still a resident, and you're immature, y-you're a child!" Arizona cut him off with yells, "And y-you're basically a sperm donor. I mean, this is me, and this is Callie, and we're together. So I say-"
"Just shut the fuck up. Are you even hearing yourself?!" he spat, feeling the flames up in his head, "I'm not a fucking sperm donor-I'm the father of that kid just as much as you're their mom! But you're the one that's constantly trying to exclude me from my child. Mine. So before you start calling me an immature son of a bitch, use that pretty brain of yours to think who's being the immature one here!"
❦ ❦ ❦
IT WAS THE NEXT MORNING but Callie was still not out of the woods-she was still circling the drain.
Most of the surgeons had stayed over at the hospital for the night; Derek had informed Norah about Callie's status to keep her up to date. Yet what he told her was not news that she fancied hearing.
Norah tagged behind Derek and Meredith as they entered the ICU. "Callie? Callie, I know it hurts, but we're going to lower your sedation and check on your neuro function," Derek informed, "Don't fight the intubation. This won't take long. Can you follow me with your eyes?"
He started waving a finger from left to right while the brunette resident waited anxiously for her to follow... but she didn't.
"Can you squeeze my hand?" Meredith asked and placed her hand in the other woman's, hoping for even the slightest grapple.
"What about one finger? Can you move just one finger?" Norah asked instead, but there was still no response.
"I'm gonna put her under," Derek whispered to the resident before he started pushing the medication into the tubing.
Callie's eyes fluttered a little before shutting entirely. The attending and residents shared the same frown before they left the room quietly.
Norah had the faintest smile on her face when she saw the woman walking towards Callie's room; a wider smile met hers. "Addison," she exhaled out and hugged the taller attending, "Thanks for coming."
"Thanks for calling," the redhead replied before giving Derek and Meredith a hug, too. "How are you, and Mark, and... your brother?"
"I'm functioning, Mark's okay, and Tim's... surviving," Norah returned her with a small smile, "We'll be okay."
❦ ❦ ❦
NORAH WALKED INTO the gallery where the three other surgeons were sitting. Timothy was curled up in the corner, and Arizona was at the other end, both still not speaking after their row the night before; Mark was sitting in front of the glass.
"Nor, w-why aren't you down there?" Timothy asked, his voice small as his sister sat down next to him.
"I pulled myself out of the case," she replied uneasily, "I-I mean, Webber was right, I suppose. I'm close to the case, too. And Callie needs the best... who are in their right mind."
After a short minute, Mark got up and went to sit next to his girlfriend. The four of them sat in the quietness as they watched the surgeons starting their procedure through the glass.
"'Who are in their right mind'?" he quoted her words with a whisper, catching the oddness in them.
"I had a, um, panic attack yesterday... for the first time since the shooting," she admitted, and he turned his head to her, "I, well, had been trying to get off the meds for a while, you know... since it had been months... And this morning, my psychiatrist advised continuing my original prescription."
Timothy, Mark and Arizona perked up from their seats when they saw Teddy stepping back from the operating table, Cristina taking her place. The three of them furrowed their brows, but Norah remained calm... and hopeful.
For once, she was praying that hope would not bail on them.
"Why is Yang operating on Torres instead of Altman?" Mark questioned, almost getting up from his seat when Norah spoke up.
"Cristina is the best..." she muttered, but he stared back at her, unconvinced. "I'd trust her with my life... a-and yours, even."
She pulled Timothy back to his seat, then Mark, making them lean back against his chair. "I trust her," she reassured him, and he nodded wordlessly.
Arizona nodded, too, though her mind was more worried about whether or not Callie will be saved than who would be the one saving Callie.
Mark placed his hand gently on Norah's thigh, and her leg went still; she did not even realise she had been bouncing it out of nervousness.
The heart monitor started to beep rapidly, causing another wave of anxiety to the four of them who were sitting in the gallery.
The group of surgeons in the OR started to work together on the situation. The space was packed with surgeons, a quarter of which were standing aside from the surgical field, but they were all prepared to hop it anytime they were needed.
When the monitor started to flatline, Webber started cardiac massage on Callie. Addison and Alex had worried looks under their masks, sharing the knowledge of the potential outcome if they failed to get the heart started again.
The surgeons had ordered a whole bunch of meds to be pushed in-but the condition was not improving.
The three surgeons in the gallery leapt up from their seats when they saw Addison standing up from the stool in front of the fetal monitor.
"Richard, you have one minute to get her heart back, or I'm taking the baby out," the attending declared, already gowning up with the help of the scrub nurses.
One minute.
When the scalpel contacted the skin, Norah heard a loud gasp on her left and a choked sound on her right; her own eyes widened, feeling alarmed.
Timothy was the first to rush out of the gallery; Arizona followed closely after him; Mark had dropped back onto the chair after feeling his legs giving out on him. Norah was still standing up, looking down to the OR, her hand pressing hard against the glass.
They had never stopped praying.
Addison had just handed the baby to Lucy, muttering the baby's status along the way. The attending glanced up when the door to the OR was pushed open, and a distressed-looking Timothy entered.
"Congratulations, Tim, you got a baby girl."
Timothy choked on a sob with a nod, but the smile underneath his mask got instantly wiped off when the OB fellow struggled to get the baby to breathe.
"I'm not getting a heartbeat," Lucy informed, "Dr Karev, I could use a hand." Alex rushed over from Callie to the baby, sparing a look at Arizona, who had just entered.
"Get those monitors on. Ventilate," Lucy instructed, "Apgar still zero. Come on, baby." After a moment of manual ventilation, she shook her head. "I'm getting no chest rise with the bagging."
"We should intubate," Alex suggested, and the OB fellow nodded for him to go on. "Tube's in. Starting ventilation."
Timothy snapped his head over to Arizona, who was looking between Callie and their preemie daughter. Time was a sacred factor here. "Arizona," he spoke up, "Save our little girl."
The Pediatrics attending nodded softly and walked towards them; the face under her mask was solely serious. "Move," she ordered in a slightly harsh tone and bumped Lucy aside, "Continue compression suction through the tube."
Timothy looked over to the group of surgeons who were working on Callie. "Got it. The bleeding's controlled," Owen announced on the other side of the room, sending an assuring nod at the resident.
"ICP's stable for now," Derek declared closely after.
"Push nine cc's of LR, .05 cc's of epi and .5 of bicarb," Arizona instructed.
The staff in the OR were still anxious, especially the residents who were away from the surgical field. They were staring back and forth between the mother and the daughter, praying for a good outcome-
"I have a heartbeat," Arizona choked out through her falling tears, her voice breaking. The monitor slowly picked up the rhythm, and it started to beat along with the other heart monitor in the room.
"Mom's heart is strong," Webber announced. Everyone let out a relieved exhale, feeling the stress and tension finally easing up.
Norah had slumped back onto the seat next to Mark, relieved gasps escaping both their lungs. She turned her head to him when she felt his grip on her hand loosen a little; he had a grin forming on his face.
Everything was okay.
❦ ❦ ❦
TIMOTHY SAT IN THE NICU next to his newborn daughter's incubator. He was visibly exhausted after stressing and not resting for nearly two days, but he did not feel sleepy at all.
He held his little girl's hand, that tiny hand. Tiny, but strong.
"Hi, my little wonder child. I'm your papa," he whispered with a soft smile on his face, and he started humming a slow lullaby to the tiny preemie.
Lexie was standing by the nurses' station right outside the NICU, admiring the relieved smile on his face. He did not notice her, though, as he was completely mesmerised by the new life brought into the world.
She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned her head to see Nina sighing at her. "We have gone through the whole Norah-and-Mark break-up phase, and they still ended up together," she advised, "I don't date, but I still know that whatever you have with Timothy is similar to them. Don't waste it, Lexie."
"He has a child now. He's gonna be... busy."
Nina snorted, shaking her head. "He's Timothy Lawrence," she deadpanned, "His multitasking and quick mind is how he's Hunt's best resident. You're worried that he can't balance his love life and child? He'll work out a miracle, and we both know it."
Lexie pondered on the other resident's words, letting out a long exhale. "But I'm with Jackson..."
Nina rolled her eyes, "He's hot, whatever. But fuck you for that stupid decision."
❦ ❦ ❦
CALLIE HAD WOKEN UP. A wave of relief was passed along the surgeons when Arizona broke the news. Several of them had teared up with bright smiles on their faces.
Their worry and exhaustion finally paid off, and hell were they tired.
Norah was walking under Mark's arm with a shared coffee in her hand as they made their way out of the hospital. "I'm not exaggerating, but Tim's gonna be camping in the NICU for a while," she chuckled.
"I completely agree with that," he nodded, "I saw him talking to his little girl when I passed by the-"
"Addison!" Norah called out to the red-haired woman who was also on her way out, cutting off Mark's words about her brother. He raised a brow at her before shaking his head. "Heading back already?"
"Yup. The Practice is screaming at me to return," Addison replied. She looked between the two; both were tired but had the same adoring looks on their faces. "You two are really perfect for each other."
"Thanks," Mark responded before smirking, "Although we already know that."
Norah rolled her eyes and nudged him; he let out an 'Ow', hissing back at her. He was about to take a sip off the coffee when his pager went off, and he frowned at it.
"Ugh, they need a consult in the pit," he ranted before turning to his girlfriend, "Will you wait a bit? It won't take long. An hour, tops."
"An hour? Uh-no?" she gaped at him as though he had grown three heads, "I'm exhausted, and we have a really nice bed waiting for me." She fished for the car keys from the pocket of his leather jacket, waving them in front of him.
"What about me?"
"You can walk, Mark. We live two streets away."
He let out a sound protest but ended up shaking his head before hurrying away. Addison stared at them amusingly while Norah sipped on the coffee with smug written all across her face.
"You might wanna cut back on the caffeine," Addison spoke up when the resident started to chug on the drink like it was a cure to every solution in life.
Norah gulped down the cappuccino before replying, "I run on caffeine. My body's 70 percent coffee. It helps me stay awake."
"In that case, I suggest you get more sleep."
"I'm a surgical resident, Addison, I'm in debt of sleep," she shrugged nonchalantly, "Besides, I'm already getting more sleep than before, recommended by my therapist... yet I feel more tired than I've always been-does that even make sense?"
Addison raised a brow at the brunette while they walked into the parking lot. "It does," she voiced out, earning a questioning look from the younger woman. She shook her head when the brunette took yet another gulp of coffee with a shrug.
"Norah, how far along are you?"
The mouthful of coffee was instantly spattered out on the tar road while Norah choked on Addison's words. She had a bewildered look on her face, more puzzled than shocked.
"Okay... I can't say that's the reaction I was expecting, but I think it's time for you to pee on a stick," Addison stated casually, while Norah was still nerve-rackingly processing her words. "But, I mean, how do you not know?" she cocked a brow, "You're a surgical resident and a genius-as per Mark and Derek's words."
Norah shook her head while coughing. "Because... I... Wait, there's no way, I-I'm on birth contr-oh, fucking hell." The knitting of her eyebrows loosened up with an 'are-you-kidding-me' look painting across her face.
"I take them with my antidepressants, and I've been lowering my meds for a while now..." she rubbed her forehead stressfully before lifting her head back to the red-haired woman.
"Y-You'll be seeing me on the news for murder... if I'm... actually... Holy crap-I'm gonna kill him," her voice cracked at the end of her sentence, feeling dazed by the probability.
"Please don't faint. I don't wanna have to explain to Mark how you fainted," Addison chuckled at the brunette's reaction, finding the horrified look on her face rather amusing. "Do you not have any idea when you..."
"Addison-I'm dating Mark-freakin'-Sloan!"
"Right... Why did I even ask?" she chuckled and clapped the younger woman on the back while the latter let out a small whimper. "Congratulations in advance...?"
A wave of shock flushed her from head to toe over this unplanned surprise. Yet, at the same time, there was a hint of excitement.
"Oh. My. Fucks."
━━━━━
For the sake of everyone, I did not include the ✨singing✨ part of this episode because just-no.(Putting that in writing is just gonna be awkward af)