12x02
Walking Tall
"This can't be right. They live here?" Maggie said incredulously fron the passenger seat.
"I mean, when you said carpool, I thought you meant just us." Meredith said from the driver's side. "Where is Alex?"
"Are Owen and I going out and I didn't even realise it?" Amelia asked the three women. She had not stopped talking about Owen and it was doing Ophelia's head in. "Does that happen? Do adults even do that?"
"I don't know. Stop asking." Meredith said. Yesterday, her and Ophelia had gone to get their DNA tested and were meant to get the results back today, so they were both on edge. "Carpooling is supposed to save time."
"The guy with the beard, I have seen him perform a sex act to buy drugs, take the drugs and fall asleep. He's had a full day already." Maggie said, staring at some bearded homeless guys in the street.
"And yet we're still here." Meredith laughed.
"At least I think he's asleep." Maggie said, squinting at the man.
"I hope he's dead." Ophelia said.
"God, when did you become so morbid?" Maggie asked her.
"When she stayed up all night, watching some shitty TV show." Amelia said.
"Oh, it is a great show, and you know it." Ophelia countered. " and I thiught today was my day off, but it got changed for some god forsaken reason."
"Adults go home together. They don't go out they don't steady." Amelia said, ignoring Ophelia. "We're not 15."
"You made out with him on our front porch." Meredith told her.
"And I have no idea what that means." She replied, leaning forward. "I though we were friends. What does it mean?"
"You sound 15." Meredith told her.
"She sounds stupid." Ophelia murmured.
They all jumped out of their skins when Alex walked up to Maggie's window and yelled, "Boo!"
"Alex! I've benn sitting out here for 20 minutes." Meredith scolded him.
"Well, yell at Jo for not changing her oil in over a decade." Alex told her. Ophelia wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"Between you and this anatomy class, my morning is shot." Meredith complained. "I need to stop teaching this anatomy class."
"Your neighbors seem nice." Maggie told Alex as he got in beside Ophelia and put on his seatbelt.
"Yeah, the block's a pit, bur it's cheap." He told them.
"Everybody buckled?" Meredith asked.
"God, you're such a mom." Ophelia told her.
"You're not buckled." Meredtih pointed out.
Ophelia turned to look at the seatbelt, before turning back to Meredith. "I'm too tired." She reasoned.
Amelia sighed before leaning over Ophelia and put on her belt for her. "Thank you." She told the neurosurgeon.
Meredith's pager beeped, and she pulled it out to read the message. "Webber needs one of us to walk Bailey into her surprise breakfast thing this morning." She told them five of them.
"I vote Meredith." Ophelia offered. The others all showed their argeement. "Have fun, Merry."
"I hate all of you." She said.
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Walking into the attendings lounge, Ophelia walked over to Callie and dramatically threw her arms around her.
"What's up with you?" She asked.
"She stayed up all night because she thought today was her day off, but it got changed, so now she's exhausted." Maggie told her.
"I went on a date." She told the Latina. That made her look up.
She went on to tell Maggie, Amelia and Ophelia about her, all while rubbing a comforting hand along a half-alseep Ophelia's back, Amelia watching her hands with a look she couldn't determine.
"I think... I mean, I just... I barely know this woman. We had, like, two dates last week." She said. "She asked to see me again tonight. It's crazy. I can't stop thinking about her. You know when you meet someone and you get that flutter, that rush, and it feels like you know them and they know you, and you think to yourself, "I could stare at this person's face forever"?" She asked them.
"Nope." Ophelia said, half-asleep.
"So, I looked it up, and Bailey's the first." Arizona said, interupting the group. Ophelia detached herself from Callie and wrapped herself around Arizona, who hugged her back. "Did you stay up all night again?" She asked her.
"I was supposed to be off, but it got changed." Ophelia whined into Arizona.
"First what?" Amelai asked, trying her best to ignore Arizona's hands on Ophelia.
"First female Cheif of Surgery of this hospital." Arizona said. "Before that, all men."
"I say it's about time." Jackson shouted over.
"And all the department Cheif's are ladies." Amelia pointed out. "Neuro, Cardio..." she said, pointing to herself, and then Maggie.
"We got trauma." Jackson said, pointing at Owen.
"Excuse me, I basically ran that department while April was gone!" Ophelia shouted at him.
"Ortho. Fetal." Amelia said pointing at Callie then Arizona.
"Badass!" Callie said. "Ladies. This place is run by ladies. It's 'ladyplace'"
"No. It is not ladyplace. Ladyplace is what my grandma calls her vagina." Maggie said. "To anyone who will listen, by the way, she is not shy. No, we can't call this place ladyplace. I don't need to think of that sweet, sweet raunchy, old lady's vag eveytime I walk through the doors." She said with a shudder.
"Me neither but I will now." Alex said sadly.
"She's coming, she's coming! OK?" Webber said from his position from at the window. They all quickly rushed to cover the cake that was on the table.
Meredith opened the door to reveal Bailey. "Well, I'm glad to see you're all here. But if you had read your e-mail, you would have known that one of the many things that I will be implementing as Chief, is no more weekly attendings' meetings."
"There was an e-mail?" Ophelia asked Maggie, who shushed her.
"Well, actually, this is a-" Webber began.
"See, less talking about saving lives and more saving of the lives." Bailey interupted him, and then turned and walked out.
"Can I still get cake?" Ophelia asked Amelia.
"I think you'll need it to stay awake, honey." She said, and lead Ophelia over to were the cake was, and cut her a slice.
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In the ER, Ophelia spotted two interns talking in very hushed voices with eachother, but before she could walk up and ask what was wrong, Bailey was there.
"Discharge who?" She demanded. Ophelia walked over when she saw Bailey begin to read the patient's chart.
It was a woman who had fallen ans bit her head after complaining of blurred vision and a headache.
"Jade Bell. Hello, I'm Doctor Bailey and this is Doctor Lopez." She told the extremely tall woman on the bed.
"Oh, good. More doctors." The woman said.
"The patient complained of a headache and blurry vision before she fainted and hit her head, so I did a complete syncope work-up, which was negative." DeLuca told the two attendings.
"So, what? That led you to..." Bailey asked them.
"Sew up her head lac." DeLuca said.
"What is her diagnosis?" Ophelia asked him.
"Hypoglycemia? She probably just forgot to eat breakfast?" He offered her.
"Wrong. You, what did this one miss?" Ophelia asked the other intern.
"Beta hCG. Could you be pregnant?" He asked the woman.
"Not a chance." Jade said. "Look, I was in a meeting, I felt dizzy, and I woke up here, but I feel fine now. Can I go?"
"No, you cannot." Bailey told her. "What are you missing?" She asked the interns.
"Migraine variant."
"Autonomic dysfunction."
Ophelia sighed and shook her head, trying to stay awake.
"This is really, really fun, but I have a work deadline so-" Jade said.
"Jade, stand up for me please." Ophelia asked the woman.
"What?" Jade asked, confused.
"Stand up, please." Bailey told her.
Jade pushed the covers off of her and stood up to reveal that she was definitley over the average height.
"Hi. Freak show's over. Can I go?" She said sassily.
"Whoa." The ginger intern said.
"That is what you missed." Bailey told the pair.
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In radiology, the group were waiting for Jade's head CT scan to come up on the screen.
"I'm surprised she fit." Isaac the ginger intern said. "20 bucks she's over 7 feet."
"I mean, is it drugs or the wrong combo of steriods, you think?" Andrew asked.
"I saw LeBron at an airport once. She's taller than him." Isaac said.
"Be quiet and stand outside." Jo told them. "Do we think it's drugs? A growth hormone, maybe?" She asked Amelia, Bailey and Ophelia.
"It's definitley not drugs." Ophelia said in a sing-song voice.
"Waiting for a scan to confirm it." Amelia said begrudgingly.
"Yeah, we're right, you'll see." Bailey told her.
"Oh, and just 'cause you're chief now, you'e knower of all things?" Amelia asked her.
"Look, Jade suffers from blurry vision, headache, dizziness." Baily told Jo.
"Adnormal growth." Jo added for her.
"Okay, put it all together, and you get..." Bauley trailed off as the computer beeped.
"A pituitary tumor." Amelia said, pointing at it on the screen.
"The knower of all things." Bailey told her joyfully. "I should be Chief of Surgery. Oh, wait, I already am. You are welcome.
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"Four hours?" Jackson asked incredulously.
"And in that time frame I need a complete surgical plan for resection of the pituitary tumor and repair of the spinal fracture that includes recovery time no more than a week." Bailey told the team of surgeons.
"Oh! OK, well, I have a knee replacement right now." Callie said.
"I have a VATS procedure." Maggie tild the chief.
"Then push that and delegate that. Now, we have to move fast. This woman has no interest in being treated. In fact, she's a flight risk." Bailey told them. "Wilson, you're in charge of making sure she stays put. Go." Jo left with Andrew and Isaac.
"Her tumor is massive. I mean, we need extensive scans and time to go over an approach for both procedures. That takes longer than four hours!" Amelia tried to reason.
"Well, actually you have three hours and 36 minutes." Bailey clarified.
"Bailey, we need at least until the end of the day." Callie said.
"What you're asking for is impossible." Jackson said.
"What? It's what? I know you didn't just say impossible." Bailey said. "No, nothing's impossible. You are smart people. You're good surgeons. This patient has sone big things to do, and I have every confidence that you will figure how she can do them."
"Bailey-" Callie started.
"And make it possible!" She said before walking out.
"I-I need to check on a patient, I'll be back in a sec..." Opheli said as she went to leave the room, but stopped as the room began to spin.
"Ophelia? You OK?" Amelia asked, standing up and grabbing her arms to keep her steady.
"Yeah, I just need to sit down for a minute..." she said, shakily lowering herself down into Amelia's seat.
The brunette crouched infront of her, and pressed a hand to her forehead. "You don't have a temprature, and I don't think this is because you stayed up all night." She said.
"I got some new medication from my therapist, could it be that?" Ophelia whispered.
"Yeah, don't take anymore of it and drink plenty of water." Amelia said, holding the Latina's hand softly.
Ophelia nodded and got up, slowly this time, and went to go check on her patient, stopping to get some water from a vending machine.
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"Can you do a minimally invasive-" Warren began to ask.
"No, no her vertebral bodies are too large. We'll have to use an anterior approach through the chest." Callie said, pointing to the scan as she talked.
"I'll do a right thoracotomy." Maggie offered.
"I'm gonna do a transcranial approach." Amelia told Jackson. Ophelia was sat on a chair, nursing her very painful headache, and the loud noises and the lights were not helping at all.
"Yeah, if Bailey wants a shorter recovery, then an endonasal approach will help." Jackson said.
"The tumors too big." Amelia said. She wanted to shout at him, but she knew that it wouldn't help Ophelia's growing headache.
"The head is abnormally big. You're gonna have space." Jackson reasoned.
"I'm doing a craniotomy. I need visibility." Amelia countered.
"I'm gonna get you where you need to be with less bleeding, all right? Just listen for a minute." Jackson told her.
"Apparently, we don't have a minute." Amelia told him sarcastically.
Meredith came into the room. "Avery, can you do a consult?" She asked.
"No." Eveyone answered at once.
"It's for one of Bailey's patient's." She tried to persuade him.
"Of course it is." Jackson said..
"She put all of their services on hold to fix her giant problem." Ophelia said, massaging her temples.
"Oh, I got it back by the way." Meredith said. Ophelia stopped what she was doing and looked at her.
"She had me push two procedure for this." Callie complained.
"She's doing it to you guys, too. I mean, she postponed five of my consults so I could handle her patients. She didn't ask, she just pushed them." Meredith complained.
"I told her I could barley stand for a minute and she told me to just od the surgery." Ophelia told the group.
"See, now that's just not fair." Amelia said.
"It's ridiculous." Meredith said. She looked bwhind the group of attendings and seen Warren standing there. "No offense."
"Can she do that?" Maggie asked.
"Can who do what?" Owen asked, coming into the room.
"Oh! Can you be Cheif again? I loved you as Chief." Callie told him.
"You did stay out of people's hair." Jackson said, pointing at him.
"Very hands-off, and great ties." Maggie pointed out.
"You know what they used to call her, her interns?" Callie asked the group.
"What?" Mafgie and Ophelia asked.
"The Nazi." Meredith and Callie said together.
"Bailey?" Owen asked, shocked.
"Last time she had avsolute rule over people, and here she is again." Meredith said.
"I love Bailey, but.." Callie said.
"Power corrupts." Ophelia finished for her, standing up and putting her head on Amelia's shoulder.
"She's an iron-fisted dictator." Callie said.
"She's a Bond villain." Meredith said.
"Speak your truth, I guess." Ophelia said from behind Amelia.
Ben walked behind the grouo to go leave, clearing his throat, which drew attention to him.
"Warren! I'm so sorry." Callie told him. "We weren't trying to be disrespectful."
"It's all good, it's all good." He clarified for her. "I'm just going to go look at some follow-up scans." He said and then left.
"Amelia. What do you think?" Owen asked. Amelia turned from looking at the scans to face him, which mad me Ophelia's head slip from her shoulder. The brunette moved infront of the Latina and linked their index fingers together to let her know she was still there.
"What? Me? I don't think... don't ask me." She said to him. Ophelia gave the neurosurgeon a weird look from where she was standing.
"Dr. Grey, I've got OR 4 for the small bowel obstruction and an angio suite for the Swanson case." Stephanie said, rushing into the room.
"I thought you said the angio suite was booked?" Meredith said to her.
"I have my ways." Stephanie said mysteriously.
"Let's go." Meredith said, and the two women left the room.
"Wait, so, they called Bailey the Nazi?" Owen asked, confused.
"Yes!" Callie and Jackson said to him.
Callie looked over to Amelia, and seen her index finger laced with Ophelia's, and the stressed look on the neurosurgeon's face.
"What do mean, 'Don't ask me'?" Callie asked her. "You're more pissed off than any of us."
"Yeah, that was really weird." Ophelia said, putting her whole hand in Amelia's, giving a reassuring squeeze.
"Have you ever had a friend who was like a really good friend, but you just want to make out with them all the time?" Amelia asked Callie.
"Oh, yeah." Callie answered. "Yeah, I used to do that for years."
"And what happened?" Amelia asked.
"Sofia." Callie answered shortly. She put her hand on the brunette's shoulder and walked away.
"You okay now?" Ophelia asked.
Amelia looked at the woman, and was struck by how stunning she was.
And in that moment, Amelia knew she was not talking about Owen anymore.
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"Okay, where are we?" Bailey asked the arguing attendings as she walked into the room.
"The tumor has invaded the cavernous sinus." Amelia started. "I'm planning an approach."
"The wrong approach." Jackson butted in.
"And the recovery time that you're asking for is completely unreasonable!" Callie cried.
"We need more time." Maggie stated simply.
"No, we don't have it." Bailey told the group. "Look, I have to go tell this woman something, so-"
"Jade's left. She just walked out." DeLuca informed them as him and the other intern ran into the room.
"You let her? I gave you one job!" Bailey scolded them.
"Dr. Wilson was trying to reason with her, but she knows that we can't legally stop her." DeLuca told the very angry Chief.
"Or physically stop her." The other intern said.
"Well, convince her!" Bailey shouted at them. "Go find her and get her back here!"
The two interns ran out of the room, Bailey shouting after them, "I gave them one thing!"
She turned around to the group of attendings. "I gave you one thing!" She yelled.
All the yelling was making Ophelia's head pound. She placed her hands on the table in front of her, raising her head up, trying to will the pain away.
When she looked back down, she saw a very angry Bailey and a confused looking Richard Webber in the doorway.
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Ophelia was orderd by Callie to go and lie down in an on-call room n and was told that she would be paged when the surgery was happening.
Just as she was about to fall asleep, the door to the on-call room opened, and Meredith walked in, shutting the door behind her.
"So. The results. I got two so we can open them at the same time and see, but you don't have to if you don't want to." Meredith told her, not wanting to put pressure on the girl.
"No, no it's fine." Ophelia said. She took one of the envelopes from Meredith's hand.
"Ready?" Meredith asked. Ophelia nodded and thsy both started to open the envelopes.
Scanning through it quickly, Ophelia and Meredith reached the bit the my needed.
"Oh my god..." Ophelia whispered.
"I was right." Meredith said.
"You were." Ophelia said back to the blonde.
"Ok, I'm not going to lie to you, my first thought when I read that was 'god, another one? How active is my dad?'" Meredith joked, making Ophelia laugh as well.
Just then, Ophelia's pager went off and she looked up at Meredith. "I need to go. But we'll talk at home, OK?" She said.
"Yeah... yeah, I'll see you." Meredith said. Ophelia ran out of the on-call room, running to the OR to get scrubbed.
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"What the hell happened?" Ophelia asked as she walked into the scrub room to scrub.
"Collapsed on top of Wilson." Amelia said. She walked inti the OR with out another word, leaving Ophelia to scrub alone.
Well, that was weird, Ophelia thought.
When she had finished scrubbing, she pushed the door to the scrub room open it and walked into the mess of an OR. She was gowned and gloved and walked over to the table.
"Where do you need me?" She asked Amelia.
"Help Callie." was the short answer she got in response.
"Right then." Ophelia said as she walked over to help Callie prep to stabilize the spinal fracture.
"Hey, are we ready?" Bailey asked as she came into the OR. "Which approach are you going to use?"
"Jade's fall caused her spinal fracturs to become severly unstable, so Pierce and I will have to repair it at the same time." Callie told her. "It's not ideal, but..."
"If we sit Jade up for a craniotomy, it will paralyze her forever." Jackson summarised for the Chief. "So, we'll be doing this surgery endonasally."
"Which is the wrong approach." Amelia said.
"We're out of options." Maggie reminded her. "Warren go scrub."
"Someone needs to sign off on the case." Amelua said to anyone.
Everyone went silent for a minute until Bailey said, "All right, I will."
She left to go to the scrub room with Ben, Callie turned to look at Ophelia.
"Did you get any sleep?" She asked.
"Nope. Meredith came in. She had some... news." Ophelia said. She didn't know if Meredith had told the others about their relationship or not yet, so she was just going to keep it to herself for now.
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"
Bone graft is in, and..." Callie said. "Yeah, we're done."
"Warren, ease down on the retractor." Maggie told him.
"Got it." Warren said, easing down on the retractor.
"Shepherd how are we?" Jackson asked her.
"If I can get in a little further, the margins would be close to perfect." Amelia told him. "Hold on, can you advance the scope?"
"Damn it!" Jackson cried.
"What the hell happened?" Ophelia demanded.
"We hit the carotid. I can't see a thing. Avery, suction." Amelia said.
"We need to compress this artery." Jackson said. "Wilson, we need more packing in here, now."
"Set up another suction." Ophelia ordered, trying her best to help stop the bleeding, despite her headache.
"Blood's coming out of her mouth. Maggie informed them.
"God, she's going to bleed out." Callie panicked.
Everyone began panicking and yelling over eachother, and Jackson kept yelling for Wilson to pack.
Ophelia glanced up to the viewing deck, where she saw Bailey staring down at them with an expression she couldn't explain, and then she turned and walked out.
"Chest tube is in." Maggie said.
"Guys, is there a plan here?" Callie asked. "Because she's lost a third of her blood volume."
"Jackson can do a muscle patch. With a little glue, it could form a clot and seal the vessel." Ophelia offered her.
"No, that's temporary fix." Amelia countered. "We need to open her neck and do a primary repair of the carotid."
"That's a major stroke risk-" Jackson tried to argue.
"Before she dies on the table!" Amelia shouted at him. "Wilson, prep the neck."
"Wilson, keep suctioning." Jackson ordered.
"Who am I listening to?" She questioned.
"You listen to me!" Jackson yelled. "You open her neck, she's gonna bleed out in seconds. You let me do this, I can stop the bleeding and help you remove the tumor. Do not open her neck, please."
"Move!" Jackson demanded. Amelia backed away from where she was beside Ophelia, and Jackson made his way over.
"Alright, we can use the patch from the thoracotomy incison. Pierce, I need a piece of intercostal muscle right now please." Jackson ordered.
"Scalpel." Maggie said.
The monitors were still beeping madly, Ophelia noticed, as Jackson went to place the patch.
He was staring at the screen the showed him what he was doing very intently.
"Avery, we need something else-" Amelia said.
"Give it a chance." Jackson said.
"Shepherd is right, it's not holding." Ophelia said as more blood poured from Jade's nose.
"Don't move the patch, just give it time." Jackson said.
"We could could try embolisation. Go up through the groin, coil it." Maggie said to the group.
"It'll take too long to get a C-arm in there." Amelia said back.
"There!" Jackson said. The monitors were no longer beeping madly, and blood was not pouring from Jade's nose.
"Oh, my god." Amelia said.
"It's holding. Is everybody ok?" Jackson asked.
"I hope so." Amelia said back.
"Yeah, me too." Jackson replied.
"Doctor Avery." A scrub nurse said, holding a phone. "It's Dr. Kepner. 911."
Jackson handed his instruments to Ophelia and then ran out if the room.
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"Well, pretty successful surgery, huh?" Amelia asked Ophelia as they wheeled Jade's bed out of the OR.
"Yeah..." Ophelia said, trailing off as the room began to spin.
"Oph?" Amelia asked, concerned. "You OK?"
Suddenly, Ophelia's knees buckled and Callie and Amelia both rushed beside her.
"My head hurts..." Ophelia whispered to them.
"Okay, let's go to the attending's lounge, OK, honey?" Amelia said softly.
Ophelia nodded, and Callie helped Amelia get her up of the OR floor, and then the neurosurgeon wrapped her arms around Ophelia's waist to help keep her up right, and they amde their way to the attending's lounge.
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In the attending's lounge after surgery, Ophelia had fallen asleep with her head on Amelia's lap, and her feet in Callie's, and the brunette was gently running her hand through the Latina's hair.
Jackson entered the room, soon followed by Bailey, who asked, "So, where are we with Jade?"
"I got the whole tumor." Amelia said softly, not wanting to wake the sleeping Ophelia.
"She had a bad left carotid bleed." Jackson told the Chief.
"I took her to angio, put in a stent." Maggie said, running a hand down her face.
"But she's likely to have deficits. Possibly a stroke, paralysis..." Amelia finished, looking down at Ophelia. "She shouldn't have been in there today."
"What?" Bailey asked.
"Ophelia collapsed after the surgery." Amelia said angrily. Bailey's face morphed into one of shock. "She warned you about her headache, and yet you ordered her to go into the surgery anyway."
"Jade's still out." Callie said, wanting to prevent a fight from breaking out. "Pressure's good, but we won't know."
"She could just be in a coma." Jackson said.
Bailey stood there, shocked at what she had heard. She glanced down at the sleeping Ophelia, feeling guitly for putting the woman in that position.
"You people are extraordinary." She said. "I mean, I came in here today and did all kinds of things wrong, but in spite of that, you all still did amazing and perfect work. And you found a way to do something that was, in fact, impossible. So if there is a bad outcome, it's my bad outcome. Tomorrow... I will be better."
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When Amelia got into the elevator in her street clothes and saw Owen, she immediately turned towards the buttons.
"Hi." Owen greeted.
"Hi." Amelia said back.
Owen reached round Amelia to press the emrgency stop button. "Why won't you talk to me?" He asked her. "You won't even look at me, so help me out, OK? Are you upset, angry, confused, or..." as he finished saying this.
"You like Ophelia." He told her. Amelia spun around to face him.
"No I don't!" She said, confused.
"Oh, you so do." Owen said, grinning. He pushed the button again, and the elevator started moving again, this time with a very confused Amelia.
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Ophelia was standing at the door of the hospial, waiting for Meredith and the rest of them so that they could all go.
When Meredith's eyes found her, she immediately ran over to her.
"Are you OK?" She asked. "Callie told me you collapsed after surgery?"
"I'm fine, Merry, it's all good now." Ophelia assured her.
Meredith wrapped her in a hug. "Meredith, I swear if you don't get off me right now, I will flip you over my shoulder." Ophelia said seriously.
Meredith laughed, and the two sisters stood talking until Maggie and Alex walked over to them, followed by a very confused looking Amelia.
"Hey, Amelia, you OK?" Ophelia asked her.
"Yeah- yeah, I'm good." She said.
"Alright then, let's go home." Meredith said, and the group of five left the hospital
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4620 words
Imagine that scene from s1 with mer, cristina, izzie and georgeleaving the hospital at the end bc it's cute.