11x25
You're My Home
Lets imagine Ophelia's the same height as Amelia.
"We need four units of O-neg, bring that bench over here!" a redhead called as she jumped down from what looked like a truck.
It was Ophelia's first day at Grey-Sloan Memorial hospital as their newest trauma attending. Upon arrival there was a mass casualty, which is really good for the first day. She was told to go find Dr. April Kepner, and was told that she would be coming in from the ER soon.
"Woah, is someone under that?" She asked the brunette in attending scrubs as she ran up. "It sure is."
The redhead who Ophelia assumed to be Dr. Kepner, whipped her head around. "Are you the new trauma attending from Hopkins?"
"Yeah, I am, where do you need me?" She replied. "Help them with that bench." She ordered. "They went gonna cut the door, and all I thought was 'No he's going to bleed out, we need more time' I was pissed,but then I thought, 'No, we need less distance to the OR'"
"So you-" the brunette from earlier
"Brought the whole damn car." another one of the attendings said. She had brown skin and curly black that was tied back into a bun.
"How is he?" the blonde asked as she jumped up onto the truck.
"Hanging on. Barely." Kepner replied.
"This isn't the way we usually do this." a man behind her said. He seemed to have an air of authority about him, as everyone fell quiet when he spoke. Ophelia looked at his lab coat and it read 'Doctor Richard Webber'.
"I had to do it this way." Kepner replied.
"No no, we see why you did it." a guy with short black hair came forward said. He and April were obviously in a relationship, but there was some tension between them.
"A second chance? We got a second chance." the blonde attending said.
"I, for one, think it's pretty cool." Ophelia said, climbing up onto the truck alongside Kepner who smiled at her in thanks and the blonde. I turned to her and held out my hand. "Ophelia Lopez."
"Meredith Grey." she replied, shaking her hand before turning around to the crowd that had gathered. "And that's April Kepner, Amelia Shepherd and Maggie Pierce." she pointed at them each in turn. Maggie lifted her hand in greeting, and Amelia was just staring in shock at what April had brought to the ER.
Meredith leaned down to see the person trapped underneath the car. "Hey, Keith, it's Meredith."
"Thanks for having me over." he joked. "How's Joan? What's the word on my baby?" he asked.
"We'll find out for you. We got you." Meredith said in return.
Keith screwed his face up as if he were in pain or about to cry, and Ophelia couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy, to be stuck and not know how the people you loved were.
Going back inside to put her trauma gown on with the other attendings, Maggie took out her phone and rang someone. "Yeah, I spoke to Mom." she said. She wore an expression of concern over her face, so obviously something bad was going on at home.
Ophelia was behind Amelia grabbing a gown when Meredith walked up to her. "Amelia." she greeted.
"I don't know how fast you're moving on the house." Amelia said. "I haven't even accepted an offer yet so.." Meredith continued.
"I'll be out by next week, is that soon enough?" Amelia continued. Ophelia tried not to feel bad for her, as it was clear something terrible had just happened to her and Meredith because, not her circus, not her monkeys. She could hear Maggie arguing with someone called Ted about how she didn't care whose side of the story it was.
"I'm not sure I can make it any sooner.." she said.
"You don't have to!" Meredith tried to reason.
"I should've been out a while ago, Derek is the one who invited me, and he's gone so..." Amelia said, and then she got a page and left, walking the opposite direction of Keith and the car.
"Yes... Dad, I am listening... Dad... I have to go." Maggie said before hanging up the phone. She turned around and saw Ophelia. "I'm sorry, this is a really bad time for you to join, everyone's stressed because we didn't expect April to turn up with a whole-ass car."
"You're okay, probably one of the best first days I've had." She told her, smiling genuinely. "Should we head back outside now?"
"Probably, yeah, we've been gone too long." Maggie replied, and they made our way back to April.
They walk outside and stand behind a tall ginger man who turns when he hears them approach. "Oh, are you the new trauma surgeon?" he asks, pointing at Ophelia. After she nodded, he held out has hand and said, "Owen Hunt."
"Ophelia Lopez" she replied, shaking his hand. A man called Owen's name and nodded at him. "Grey, we're ready to cut the roof." he yelled to her.
"Okay, Keith, it's gonna get real loud and then it's gonna get scary, and then we're gonna get you out okay?" Meredith said to Keith, and then the very loud sawing began.
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"Roof coming off!" A guy yelled, and then the roof of the car was lifted off, revealing a door that had jammed itself into Keith's abdomen.
"We need a trauma panel, type and cross for eight." April ordered, jumping up on the truck once it was clear. "Got it, drawing labs." Owen said. Ophelia ran to Owen's side seeing as he appeared to have the better side of things.
"No blood in the pericardium." Maggie said after a while.
"Penetrating thoraco-abdominal injury. Ultra-sound, please." Hunt said.
"Keith, talk to me, how do you feel?" Meredith asked, climbing into the car.
"Uh... popular." he mumbled out.
"Funny. That's funny." She replied to Keith. She was looking at Ophelia curiously, almost she had seen her before.
Ophelia was confused. She had never seen this woman, and yet here she was giving her strange looks as though she knew her from somewhere.
A firefighter walked over to them and began to explain the situation to them. Ophelia looked up from where she was working to look at him. "Okay, guys, when you clear, we're gonna cut away at the piece of the door that's impaling him, then you can can get him inside, okay?" He said. They all nodded in confirmation and he walked away to continue his job.
As they were cutting through the door, a girl in resident scrubs came up to them. She had hair that was brown and short, and was gently curled. "Dr. Grey?" She said. Meredith turned to look at her. "I have and update on his fiancée"
Ophelia didn't think he could handle anymore bad news this month, so just in case she got off the truck, sheilding her face from the sparks flying everywhere.
She walked over just in time to over hear two women talking. "You know, old Kepner was..."
"Was what?" She asked. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interupt, but I only got here, I want to know what people were like before.
"Well, there was pigtails, and bunny rabbits and smiling. Lots of smiling, but Kepner 2.0, she's crazy! She's fierce. She's woman-ed up. Thank you, United States Army." The shorter one of the woman said.
"She served? How long?" Ophelia asked. "Wait, sorry, I'm Ophelia Lopez, the new trauma attending."
"I'm Miranda Bailey, and this is Catherine Avery, and that is Richard Webber..." she said, trailing off confused as he marched over to the three women.
"Bailey, Hunt has this. I need you to handle everything else in the ER. You are in charge. Get used to it." He said.
"Yes, sir!" She said mockingly, giggling as she walked away.
"And you," he said to Ophelia, "Get back on that truck, it's not often Kepner does something rash and stupid."
"Alright, then." She said, walking back to the truck.
"Hey, where'd you go?" Meredith asked as she pulled herself up onto the truck.
"Oh, just talking to some of the doctors. Gotta make a good first impression, you know? Why, I miss much?" She joked.
"Nope, they've been cutting basically the whole time you were gone, only stopping to switch out the guy who was cutting." Meredith replied, sighing heavily. She turned to look at Ophelia, and there it was again. That look that said she knew her from somewhere.
They turned their heads at the sound of raised voices, seeing that Richard was yelling at Catherine Avery. "How stupid does he have to be, to yell at a woman that gorgeous?" Ophelia whispered to Maggie, who held back a laugh. Catherine grabbed Richard's hand, before slamming something into it and then walking away.
Meredith leaned down beside Keith, Ophelia following suit. "I can't. I'm..." He murmured.
"Hey, Keith. Stay with me. I have some news for you. Joan's okay. She's headed into surgery and you have a baby boy." She said, smiling down at him.
"A boy? I have a son" he said, smiling back at her.
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"Keith, hang in there. Hang in there." Meredith begged. Keith started screaming and flung his hands up in the air, striking Ophelia across her right cheek. Meredith was begging for the firefighters to stop cutting.
"What is it Grey?" Hunt asks, not sparing Ophelia a second glance.
"We can't do this. Not like this. It's gonna tear him apart." Meredith said. She looked at Ophelia, noticing the cut on her cheek. "You okay?" She asks concerned, to which she nodded in return.
"What happened?" Maggie asked, turning Ophelia's fave towards her. "You'll be fine, but get it stitched when you get a chance." She said.
"Aye, aye, Captain." Ophelia said mockingly. Maggie jokingly shoved her shoulder.
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"We're gonna open him up? Out here?" The brunette resident from earlier said. She had introduced herself to Ophelia as Jo Wilson, as well as Ben Warren and Jackson Avery. The group were standing in a circle trying to work out how to save Keith's life.
"It's the only way. We start an ex-lap" Meredith said. She seemed to have experience with people who were in impaled, Ophelia thought.
(*cough* bonnie *cough*)
"Clamp everything we can. It'll buy us time till we get him upstairs." Hunt said.
"We only have five or six minutes till he bleeds out." Maggie pointed out. "That's plenty of time." April reasoned.
"Are you kidding me? You brought this guy here impales by a car, and, don't get me wrong, it was very cool, but the chances are he bleeds out before we get to an OR." Ophelia said.
"Guys, guys, all ORs are full." Ben said.
"All of them?" Hunt asked incredulously. "Tunnel collapse victims." said Ben.
"No, no we have a plastics OR available." Jackson said. "But that's all the way at the other side of the building." Meredith said.
"That' impossible." Jo said. "Nothing's impossible. We just..." Jackson trailed off. "All right, we clear a path to the east elevator. Move everything out of the way. Stop all foot traffic, lock down the elevator."
"Won't locking down the elevators turn them off?" Ophelia asked.
"No, not since an... incident a while back resulted in the death of one of our doctors." Owen said.
"Can he make that far?" Maggie asked.
"No, but he will." Jackson said joyfully.
"Okay, Superman." Ophelia said, putting her hands on her hips.
"He doesn't have a choice, alright?" Jackson said to her.
"So we run." April said confidently.
"All out like Olympians." Maggie said.
"It's plenty of time. It's plenty of time." Meredith said, although she sounded more like she was trying to convince herself.
"Let's prep him for an ex-lap out here." Owen said, and they all got to work.
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"Warren, you'll intubate then Kepner and I will do the ex-lap. Get control of whatever's bleeding. Grey, Lopez, I'll need you two and Pierce scrubbed and ready in the OR when we get there got it?" Owen ordered us. We all nodded in confirmation.
"Meredith, do me a favour. Tell Joanie that I loved her and that I..." Keith began to say.
"No. No, no, no. No messages from beyond the grave, Keith. We're not doing that." Meredith said. Keith directed his eyes to Ophelia, who nodded at him, letting him know she'd tell her. "It's okay. You guys have been great. You went way above and beyond."
"Keith, yes, a lot of people here are working very hard to pull this off, and you have to work, too, okay?" Meredith said fiercely.
It was all getting too much for Ophelia, so she walked away and began to help Maggie with what she was doing.
"Hey, Ophie, how are you?" Maggie asked.
"Ophie? Really?" She laughed.
"What, you don't like it? Ohh, I know, how about, Fifi?" Maggie asked teasingly.
"Oh, god, please no." Ophelia grimaced.
Maggie laughed and continued with what she was doing with Ophelia's help.
Soon, they were all gathered in a crowd as apparently Meredith wanted to do show Keith something. "Okay, everybody stop what you're doing. Quiet, please. Make a hole. Make a hole." April ordered.
Meredith and another man, who Ophelia could assume was one of Meredith's close friends by the way they looked at eachother, wheeled a small cot between them with a baby in it.
The man lifted up the baby gently when they had stopped and stood on the bench to hand the baby to Meredith who was on the truck beside Keith.
"I have something for you." She told him. "Oh, boy." Keith said, on the verge of tears. Meredith chuckled. "Hey, big man. Look at you. I'm sorry for all this crap. Sorry, I just wish I... I'm gonna see you when I get out of here okay? You and your mom, yeah? I'm gonna be there and we're gonna be together okay? I love you, Daddy loves you."
Meredith takes the fussing baby and gives him back to her friend.
"Alright, let's bag him. Push 200 of ketamine." April said gently.
"Don't go." Keith begged Meredith.
"No, I'm right here. Me and Ophelia are right here." She replied looking at the Latina woman as she said that.
Ophelia walked beside Meredith so that she was in Keith's eye line. "I'm right here, Keith, right here." She said.
"That was a bad idea, bringing him out there like that." Keith said.
"Why?" Both Meredith and Ophelia asked in unison.
"Because I'm gonna be really pissed if you don't pull this off." Keith said.
"Us too." Meredith said.
Then the ambu bag was placed over Keith's mouth and Meredith had to let go of his hand.
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"So, I guess, the wedding is off." Maggie said as they were scrubbing in to Keith's surgery. Ophelia was wearing her scrub cap that had an intricate design of space on it. She had gotten her cheek stitched quickly and messily by and intern earlier.
"I know, did Richard talk to you?" Meredith asked her.
"Why would Richard talk to Maggie?" Ophelia asked.
The two women either side of her froze and Ophelia could feel the tension.
"Richard's my biological dad, but I was adopted as a baby. My biological mother is Meredith's mother Ellis Grey." Maggie explained.
"Wait so you two are sisters?" Ophelia asked, confused.
"Yep. Anyway, it was a complete surprise. Complete surprise." Suddenly, Maggie started to cry over the sink. Meredith and Ophelia turned off the taps they were using to turn and look at her, unsure of what to do.
"Are you okay?" Meredith asked eventually.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Maggie said, voice breaking. She turned and walked into the OR to get gowned and gloved.
"I call bullshit." Ophelia said after the door swung closed.
Meredith turned to look at her. "What? I'm speaking my truth." She defended. Meredith sighed and walked into the OR.
Soon enough, all three of them were in the OR, gowned and gloved, waiting for Keith to arrive.
Kepner, Hunt and the others soon rushed in, April on top of him performing CPR.
"What happened?" Jackson demanded.
"He coded in the elevator!" April screamed back.
Hunt helped April off Keith before counting to three and then moving Keith onto the OR table.
"All right, let's get him back." Jackson said.
"Hang some blood, paddles." Maggie ordered. "Push an amp of bicarb. Clear."
The paddles beeped and sent the charges through Keith's body. Ophelia keot her eyes intently on the heart monitor, begging it to start beeping.
"We have a pulse!" She cheered. Everyone looked at her. "What, I can't celebrate trying to save his life? Is that illegal here?" She asked. At that, they all went back to work.
"You got this?" Hunt asked.
"We got it, go." Meredith said in return.
"Gonna have to open his chest." Maggie said. "Get me thoracotomy try and scalpel. Suddenly, there was a massive bleed and the monitors started going crazy.
"Got a pumper here, Jackson." Ophelia said. "Right angle, please." She asked the scrub nurse.
"Bokhee." She said. "Nice to meet you Bokhee. I'm Ophelia Lopez." Ophelia replied.
"Come on, Keith. Come on." Meredith begged.
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"Vitals are steady. We may actually pull this off." Meredith said.
"Don't get your hopes up, Wonder Woman." Ophelia said, tying off a bleeder, successfully stopping it bleeding over the patient's insides.
"This will make one hell of a wedding story." Jackson said.
"Hey, what is going on with your mom and Richard?" Maggie asked him.
"Ah, same old crap. Clash of the Titans." He replied.
"What?" Maggie asked confused. Ophelia looked at Meredith, who just shrugged her shoulders at her.
"They both want to be boss. Both want to dig in and my mom is the smartest person in the room. She's used to everybody knowing that she's the smartest person in the room." He said. "So, when you challenge her, it's World War III. And Richard is the same."
"Well, that is just ridiculous and pathetic." Maggie started. "I mean, you don't just shrug your shoulders and call it quits." Jackson looked at Meredith and Ophelia strangely. "You find a way to worm through it. You don't just give up and throw it all away." At this, Maggie started crying across from Ophelia, who was tying of bleeders.
"Oh, oh. I'm sorry." Jackosn said.
"It's something else. She doesn't want to talk about it." Meredith told him. Jackson looked towards Ophelia curiously. "Don't look at me, I just got here, I don't know half the shit that's gone in here." She said.
He nodded and turned back to Maggie. "Don't look at me. Ignore me." She said, turning away from him.
"Welcome to the family." Meredith said to Ophelia as Maggie started to sob.
"I feel so welcomed." She said flatly. Meredith laughed at that.
At home, Ophelia never really fit in. Everyone else had their friend groups that they ate lunch with that were pure Spanish, but as her mother was Spanish and her father American, people viewed her as more of a 'half-breed', so she never had anyone to hang out with, or go scavenge for surgeries with, so it was nice to finally have people to do that with.
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In the attendings lounge, Meredith was showing Ophelia where she could put her things and now they were sitting at the table when Catherine Avery walked in.
Her and Richard stared at eachother for a few second before Catherine turned to leave.
"What is the matter with you two?" Meredith asked. "My husband is dead." Ophelia turned to face the blonde beside her, a little shocked. "Yeah, I'm gonna play that card. You." She said to Richard. "You walked away from Ellis, never got to be with her, and now she's dead. Adele is dead. And you." This was directed to Catherine. "I don't know who's dead for you. But the both of you are very, very much alive and breathing, and driving eachother crazy.
"And you yell and you argue and fight, and you both should be thrilled to be able to do these things. I would give anything to be able to do those things. And none of those things are reason enough to not be with the person you love, especially when there just isn't enough. There will never be enough time. And you both know that. So what it is that's coming between you two, will you just please figure it out? Figure it out." She said. She gathered her stuff from beside Ophelia and then grabbed the girl's arm and dragged her out of the attending's lounge, leaving the awkward couple in their midst.
"That was pretty cool." She whispered to Meredith.
"Shut up." She whispered back, but Ophelia could tell she was smiling.
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When they were doing Keith's post-op checks, so were Amelia and another doctor with beautiful brown skin and long black hair, and Doctor Robbins, who Ophelia knew from her time at Hopkins, on his fiancée Joan
"Squeeze my fingers." Amelia said.
"Good. Very good." The black-baired doctor said.
"My baby. Is my baby okay?" Joan asked.
"He's doing just fine." The blonde doctor said.
"And Keith? Is he..?" She asked, but she was scared to know the answer.
"I'm right here." He said, looking straight at her.
"You're here?" She asked, not daring to believe it.
"I'm here. I'm looking right at you. I saw our baby. He's beautiful, so beautiful. He looks exactly like me." He said. At this, Joan started laughing at him. "Don't make me laugh, it hurts."
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Ophelia walked into the chapel in the hospital that Catherine and Richard were getting married in and took her seat beside the black-haired doctor from the post-op checks. She got an invitation very last minute purely because Maggie begged Richard to invite her.
"Hey, are you new? I saw you earlier with Meredith, but I wasn't sure." She said to her.
"Yeah, I am, just moved from Hopkins. Ophelia Lopez." She said, holding out her hand.
"Callie Torres. Do you speak Spanish?" She asked.
"Yep. Grew up in Spain." She replied shortly.
"Good. We talk shit in Spanish now." She joked.
"True, true." Ophelia laughed back.
Soon, Catherine and Richard were entering, and the ceremony was complete.
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At the reception at Meredith's house, Ophelia was feeling very out of place. She barely knew any of the doctors there, and the ones she did were busy with the ones she didn't and she didn't want to interrupt.
"Hey, you okay?" Callie asked her, walking up to her table.
"Yep, just feeling very out if place. You sure I should be here?" She asked her again. Callie had asked Meredith if Ophelia could come, and then basically forced the Latina into her car and drove her to Meredith's.
"Absolutely! This is key to you making friends here." Callie argued.
Without another word, she grabbed her drink, downed it and left.
She looked out the window and saw Meredith and Maggie talking, and Maggie crying.
Sighing, she got up from her chair and walked over to the door. She pulled it open and looked Maggie. "What's wrong?" she asked, although it sounded more like an order the a question.
"Parents. Divorce" she summarised.
"Well, you can talk to me because I can guarantee you that I've gone through worse." Ophelia said, sitting beside Maggie.
"I said that!" Meredith said, reaching around Maggie and hitting her shoulder.
"Oh my god, we're like, connected and shit." Ophelia said.
Maggie laughed and took Ophelia's hand. "You're lucky you guys are my only friends or I would punch both of you for touching me right now." She deadpanned.
"Shut up and enjoy it, Ophie." Maggie whispered.
Amelia walked out onto the porch. "What are you crying about?" She asked.
"What are you crying about?" Maggie countered. Amelia moved to sit beside Ophelia.
"Derek would have loved this. He would have loved you." Meredith said to Ophelia. "He came from this big, noisy family. I want this to be the last memory of this house. That's what he wanted, to fill it with noise and people."
Amelia slowly put her head on Ophelia's shoulder, unsure of herself. "Just put it there, but I swear, if any of you even think about touching me tomorrow, I will punch you." Ophelia said.
"Okay, we have to dance it out." Meredith stated. Ophelia turned to look at her, confused.
"What?" Amelia asked.
"What does that mean?" Maggie asked.
"Let's go." Meredith said. She stood up and grabbed Ophelia's arm. "If you think I'm dancing in heels, you are lying to yourself, Merry." She said seriously.
She led the three women inside the house, where they danced to the music that was playing, without a care in the world.
For once, in her life, Ophelia could say she was truly happy.
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