CODE BLUE
020. SUPERSTITION
season two, episodes twenty and twenty-one
────────
JOANNA RHODES' DAY HAD BARELY BEGUN AND IT ALREADY SUCKED. It was not even eight a.m. and she already had to tell a husband that his partner had passed away in surgery. And as luck would have it, Joanna wasn't the only one. Burke -- who was operating without his own scrub caps -- and she had lost this emergency valve replacement patient; Bailey lost a Whipple patient; Christopher and Addison lost a woman who had just given birth to twins; and Emily and Derek had a tumor removal gone terribly wrong.
"It's eight seventeen and there were already four deaths," she muttered to Christopher as they watched Burke pace around nervously as he talked to dry cleaning.
"I've never seen him so worked up about anything before," Christopher whispered.
"There are ten. Music notes. Colorful patterns," Burke said on the phone. "They were sent out last night."
The Chief, who was analyzing the surgical board of the day, noticed Burke's presence and said. "Sorry about your valve replacement."
Burke blinked. "The laundry misplaced my scrub caps," he said as if that was the real underlying issue.
Webber turned to Christopher, Joanna, and Rose, the scrub nurse. "There's some foolish talk about fatality clusters in threes and sevens."
Burke, still on the phone, spoke, "Are you sure they weren't sent to another hospital?"
"How many electives have they canceled today?" Webber asked the trio.
"Three so far," Joanna answered. "Including my gender reassignment surgery," she added with a slight pout. "I'm going to have to double interns so they can all get OR time today."
"And what have the surgeons' reasons been?" Webber asked.
"Because I prefer my own caps!" Almost as if answering Webber's question, Burke snapped at the person on the phone, grabbing Webber's attention.
The Chief turned to him. "You're not pushing surgeries because you don't have your caps, understood?"
Burke looked slightly offended. "I didn't push any surgeries," he said, before getting back on the phone. "No, no. The question is: when will you find them?"
Webber turned to the trio again. "No one changes that board unless they talk to me. No one."
As he and Burke left, Christopher and Joanna looked up at Rose. "So, from the top of your ten-year-long expertise, do surgery casualties come in clusters?"
Rose shrugged. "All I can say for sure is that when God is mad, he does not joke around."
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
AT THE INTERN'S LOCKER ROOM, the mood was still weird. Ever since that mess with George, Meredith, Mia, and Aaron, the dynamics between them were off.
"I for one am more than happy to be back at Bailey's service," Cristina said, celebrating officially the fact that Bailey was back.
"Liar," Nicholas said. "But I am more than happy to go back to not being forced to share all the cool cases."
"Who says Bailey doesn't have cool cases?" Cristina asked, a little defensive.
"Oh no, she does," Nicholas spoke. "But Joanna has cooler ones."
"You call Dr. Rhodes, Joanna?" Cristina asked in horror.
"Four surgeries, four fatalities, and the day have barely started," Izzie said, joining the duo.
George eyed the chocolate bar Cristina was eating. "Can I have a bite of that?"
"No," Cristina said. "You're in my apartment, not my food."
George shrugged. "Dr. Burke gave me a protein bar."
Cristina turned to Nicholas at Rosa. "Burke packs his lunch for him. Did I mention it?"
"How adorable," Rosa taunted.
"I think you have some serious competition, Yang," Nick added. "Are you afraid that Burke will realize he makes a better girlfriend than you?"
Izzie, still with her head stuck on the fatalities rate, announced. "I talked to the morgue guy. He said surgical fatalities come in threes and sevens. There'll be three more today." Cristina shot her a look, and she added. "He's the morgue guy. He knows things about death."
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
AFTER LOSING his patient early in the morning, Christopher Hughes found, much to his excitement, that the interns on Burke's service today were Izzie Stevens and Alex Karev. Not that he was particularly a fan of either of them, but any day he didn't have Cristina Yang up his ass was a good day.
"Denny Duquette. Age 36," Izzie presented the case.
"37 in three weeks," Denny chipped in.
Izzie smiled as she added the new piece of information. "37 in three weeks. He's having difficulty breathing and chest pains."
"Breath sounds?" Burke asked.
"Still a little junky," Christopher answered. "He has a build-up fluid in his system."
"Hughes, did you just call me a junkie in front of the girl I'm trying to impress?" Denny protested. "That's not very nice."
Christopher shook his head, a bit exasperated. "Denny, your congestive heart failure is getting worse despite the meds."
"Alright, so how do we proceed?" Denny asked.
Burke turned to interns. "Doctors, how do we proceed?"
"Titrate up his nitrate drip and continue with diuretics plus-" Alex began, but Izzie interrupted him.
"ACE inhibitors, Beta-blockers, and start dobutamine."
Burke nodded. "I also want his ins and outs recorded and one of you monitoring him at all times."
Izzie spoke surprisingly quickly. "I'll stay."
Alex shot her a sharp look before saying. "Me too."
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
JOANNA, who was now officially back into Derek's service after the fiasco with Burke, followed him down to the pit after Meredith Grey's page, quite surprised to see a woman with a fork embedded in her neck waiting for them. After they introduced themselves, they urged the couple to explain how the hell she got stabbed in the neck with a fork. "We were at the Hotel Monaco having brunch. I...we had some mimosas..." the husband, Kyle, began explaining.
"Uh, can we just skip that part? Can we pull this out and just go...I'm fine really," Sylvia, the patient, interrupted, blushing.
Kyle continued, "Sylvia was giving me some special attention. Under the table."
Derek looked up at this, surprised. Sylvia blushed, "Oh dear lord."
"Oh! Ok," Derek said, trying to act professional. Meredith tried to hold back a laugh but couldn't help but smile broadly.
"Sweetie, they're doctors. They've heard it all," Kyle reassured his wife.
Derek grinned at Joanna, and she shot him a look, trying not to smile.
Sylvia then explained what had happened. "While I was down there, something happened. It was like a shock went through my body."
"And she clenched," Kyle added.
"My jaw," Sylvia explained as the doctor shot the couple confused looks. "It just shut."
"And I panicked," Kyle said.
"Oh, yeah," Derek replied, his face contorting into agony as he imagined the feeling.
"And I grabbed a fork off the table, and it was just instinctual," Kyle continued.
"It doesn't hurt that much. We just didn't want to pull it out 'cause it's in there pretty good," Sylvia said.
"No, you did the right thing," Joanna reassured her. "Pulling it out could cause more damage."
"You know, I wanna do an x-ray. I wanna make sure there is no nerve or major blood vessels being compromised," Derek said. Kyle kissed Sylvia on the cheek. "Now, Mr. Booker, did you get your injury um, you know, checked?"
"Oh, doctors say I'm fine. It's just some bruising," Kyle replied.
"Good. Ok. I wanna find out what's causing the clenching," Derek said, before turning to the patient. "Do you have a history of seizures?"
"No, nothing like that," Sylvia replied.
"It may have something to do with her brain aneurysm," Kyle said hesitantly.
"Kyle!" Sylvia exclaimed.
"What?" Kyle asked innocently.
"I don't want to do this now," Sylvia hissed.
Derek shot Meredith a glance and immediately looked down at the chart. Joanna, perking up at the word aneurysm, peaked over his shoulder.
Meredith shook her head at the surgeons. "No, it's not there."
"Can't we just take this fork out and go?" Sylvia pleaded.
"No," Derek said firmly.
"She was diagnosed about 6 weeks ago," Kyle said.
"And your doctor didn't recommend surgery?" Joanna asked.
"All the surgeons have said it's inoperable," Sylvia explained. "That's why Kyle and I are here in Seattle. The Space Needle. I've always wanted to see it."
"We wanted to see it together," Kyle added, smiling at his wife.
Derek turned to Meredith and said softly, "Do an MRI."
"Derek, she has a piece of metal on her neck," Meredith pointed out in a whisper.
"After you pull it out, obviously," he added.
As he and Joanna walked out, Adam spotted them. He rushed to them and said. "Dr. Yang, and I got a 34-year-old male with a blunt head trauma and a severe case of OCD."
"Did you call for a Psych consult?" Joanna asked.
"Yes," Adam replied.
"Let me know when you get a CT," Derek said, he then turned to Joanna and said. "Can we grab some food? I think this is going to be a long day."
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE E.R., Emily Hale and Nicholas Simmons were following Callie Torres and Aaron Dunn to an exam room where a teenager and his mom waited for them. Upon the sight of the hockey jersey, the peds surgeon let out a silent sigh. After introductions, Nicholas was first to break the silence and ask the boy how he had broken so many bones in his hand.
"After hockey practice this morning," Heath, the patient, explained. "I didn't have my glove on because I was getting a drink from the goalie's water bottle and the next thing I know this ass-head crashes into the net, my hand gets tangled in the mesh and I start hearing pops." Callie and Emily leaned over to look at the films, and he added. "Big pops."
"Dr. Dunn, what do you see?" Callie asked her intern.
"Dislocation of the PIP joint and multiple fractures," he replied, then turned to look at the boy. "That must really hurt."
Heath shrugged. "It's just a finger. Last season I took a puck to the face, and broke two teeth."
Nicholas, finding the entire thing a little too similar to his football practices, muttered. "I know the feeling."
"Orthos love hockey season," Callie muttered to Aaron. "It's like Christmas every day."
Emily rolled her eyes, discreetly. She hated when surgeons acted like hurt people were blessings, but it really got on her nerves when the patients in question were kids.
"Can we just put it on a splint or something?" Heath asked. "I've got a really big game this afternoon."
All of the surgeons in the room fell silent. Emily turned to him and spoke softly. "I'm really sorry, Heath, but you can't play today."
The kid looked at her in complete horror, while Callie turned to the mom. "I'll schedule the surgery for your son. In the meantime, I'm sending Heath home today with a prescription for hydrocodone to control the pain."
"Look, I get this is a bad break but it doesn't hurt that much." Heath tried to convince them. "I'm telling you I can handle this! So here's what I'm thinking, we take this off; we put a small splint on my fingers so I can jam it into the glove. I play today and then I'm all yours!"
"Heath-" Emily began, but the mom interrupted.
"You're not playing today," she snapped. "There's no playing today!"
"Heath," Emily tried again, speaking softly to the teenager. "You're mom's right. You can't play today. I'm truly sorry."
"Thank you," Mrs. Mercer said to her, she then turned to her son and added. "Did you hear that? I'm right," and back to Emily, she said. "Your mother must be very proud of you."
Heath, thankfully, decided to spare Emily from having to respond to that comment. "Scouts are coming today! College Scouts! I could get a scholarship today, don't you get it?"
Nicholas' heart seemed to break for the kid as Callie explained. "Heath, if I cut that bandage off, we risk doing permanent damage to your finger. I'm with you man but I'm sorry there's no way we can put your finger into a glove today."
Heath whimpered like an injured puppy. "There must be something you can do. I need to play this afternoon. This game's what I've been training for my entire life. This is my chance to go to college. This is my whole future."
Mrs. Mercer decided to interrupt her son, by saying. "Oh honey, you can go to community college and get your grades up--"
She stopped as he walked out and left. Emily moved to follow him, but she let Nicholas beat her to it. She thought that maybe, the intern who had gotten himself through med school on a football scholarship might be able to better connect with Heath than her.
"I'm sorry," Mrs. Mercer shook her head, moving to the door. "I'm so sorry."
She left, and shortly after, Nicholas came back. He turned to Emily and spoke quietly. "No offense Dr. Hale, but Peds suck."
Emily sighed. "Yeah."
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
IN THE CAFETERIA, the three third-year residents sat at their preferred table, watching the interns grovel as they grabbed their lunches. They heard George shout to Izzie at some point, "Tomorrow I'm gonna buy a T-shirt that says 'Stop asking me about Meredith' and I'm gonna wear it every day until people stop asking me about Meredith!"
The three residents burst out laughing, earning a side eye from the interns. "Oops," Emily muttered.
A few tables over, Meredith sat down with Cristina and Rosa. "How's your guy?"
Cristina sighed. "Brain's bleeding. Needs surgery. Want to know why? He couldn't move his car until he stopped counting."
Rosa shook her head, her eyes widening in disbelief. "My girl? Ruptured spleen? Won't have surgery because of her horoscope."
Cristina snorted. "Well, we should introduce them. They make a nice crazy couple."
"My girl went down on her husband in the middle of breakfast in a hotel. She bit his dick and he stabbed her with a fork."
Cristina and Rosa exchanged a look. "Meredith wins," they chorused.
As they spoke, George approached with his tray, taking a seat next to Cristina.
"Uh, you know what? I'm sitting with Meredith. Have some self-respect," Cristina said, dismissing him with a wave of her hand.
George shrugged, turning his attention to his food. "Dr. Burke's orders trump any personal issues I might have," he muttered.
Meredith raised an eyebrow. "Is the craziness rubbing off on him?"
Cristina smirked. "He's trying to steal Burke's lucky cap from me."
Meredith laughed. "Burke has hat juju?" she asked, incredulous.
Cristina nodded. "Apparently."
"And you're against him?" Rosa asked.
"Well, they're forcing me to," Cristina replied, rolling her eyes. "Because of all the clarinet playing and running and all the breakfast food."
Just then, Izzie pulled up a chair and joined their conversation. "You guys, this whole death cluster thing is just ridiculous, right?" she said, her eyes wide with disbelief.
Meredith nodded, her expression serious. "Are you worried about Denny?" she asked.
Izzie hesitated for a moment before answering. "Yeah. Of course, I am. He's my patient. But if you're asking me if I'm 'worried' about Denny, no. I'm sleeping with Alex, so..."
Cristina snorted. "I don't know why you'd care. You're sleeping with Alex, right?"
Izzie nodded. "Right. No, whatever. I'm just saying. There's no such thing as a death cluster. It's just stupid. Right?"
A few tables over, the residents still watched the intern's conversation like it was a live-action soap opera. At some point, Joanna let out a content sigh. "I'm so glad I'll only have my ducks from now on."
"Can we talk about what the hell is happening to O'Malley's hair?" Christopher asked. "It's like he had a mental breakdown or something."
"Is it true that he is living with Burke?" Emily asked.
"Apparently so," Derek answered, stopping by their table. "Adam was right, his guy needs surgery. I want you scrubbing in and repairing the bleed by yourself."
"Are you serious?" Joanna asked, her heart almost stopping at the prospect of flying solo on a neuro case.
"Extremely," he replied. "But only after we operate on Mrs. Booker. And yes, I figured it out."
Joanna's eyes widened. "How?"
Derek turned to her, his eyes sparkling. "A double barrel bypass."
Joanna jumped out of her chair. "GREY!" She shouted, scaring Meredith enough to make the intern yelp. "Lunchtime is over, come on. We have the coolest surgery in the world ahead of us."
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
THE THING ABOUT having the coolest surgery in the world ahead of you was that it implied convincing a very stubborn patient to let you cut open her brain and do a procedure that had only been done a handful of times.
Sylvia, the patient, blinked as Derek stopped speaking. "A double-barrel what?"
"A double-barrel brain bypass," he explained. "I'm gonna use two scalp arteries to redirect the blood flow in your brain around the aneurysm."
Kyle, the husband, voiced his skepticism. "How come no one else has mentioned this?"
"Well," Derek began, measuring his words. "It's a surgery that's been performed less than a dozen times. I have performed one successfully and I've watched one. I don't want to understate the risks. The aneurysm could rupture on the table."
"But you think there's a chance that it could work," Kyle concluded.
"No," Sylvia shook her head. "Hell no. I'm leaving. And we're going to Europe. We've always wanted to see it. We've never had the time. This is the time. We're going. That's it."
The three doctors, noticing the couple needed a moment in private, excused themselves. Joanna followed Derek towards the nurses' station so they could grab their other patients' charts when Kyle came rushing to them. "Dr. Shepherd?" he asked a bit out of breath. "Can I get a word?"
As Derek nodded, the husband spoke. "I'm sorry if my wife offended you."
"Oh no," Derek shook his head. "No offense at all."
Kyle let out a sharp sigh. "I didn't notice her."
Derek shot him a puzzled look. "I'm sorry?"
"For 15 years I didn't notice her," Kyle explained. "When we got married she was everything and somewhere along the way I stopped noticing her, I stopped seeing her and since she's been sick she's all I've seen. And I hate that's what it took, I hate it and I'm sorry. But I love her. And I don't want my wife to die. Please talk to her. Dr. Shepherd, please."
Derek shot Joanna a quick look, and she could see in his eyes how much he recognized Kyle's marriage story as his own. The neurosurgeon nodded his head and said. "Ok."
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
THE ONE GOOD THING about having a doctor in love with a patient, Christopher thought, is that at the very least, when things went south he would know quickly. Case in point, Izzie Stevens paged him as soon as his pain worsened. "Sinus tachycardia, low-grade fever, pulse ox 75," Izzie reported. Christopher listened closely and then frowned when he heard the rales in Denny's lungs.
"How bad is the pain?" Christopher asked.
Denny shrugged weakly. "I don't know. A five or six when I breathe."
Christopher shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips. "Which means a seven or eight when you're not trying to impress your doctor."
"Heard, uh... four people died in surgery this morning," Denny said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Said they were expecting three more."
"Get that from a nurse?" Izzie asked, her voice tight.
"Never reveal my sources," Denny replied. "I would just really like to avoid the OR today."
Christopher and Izzie exchanged a glance, both of them knowing that Denny's condition was serious. The resident let out a quiet sigh before speaking. "This could be a pulmonary embolism, Denny. A complication from the LVAD surgery. We have to talk to Dr. Burke."
Denny's face fell, and he looked away from Izzie's concerned gaze. "I was afraid you were going to say that," he muttered.
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
EMILY HALE walked out of the NICU when she got the 911 page from Aaron Dunn, which could only mean one thing: that boy from before had done something stupid.
"Heath," Emily greeted as she walked into the operating room, noticing the young boy laying on the gurney, ready to go under anesthesia. "Hi."
"Dr. Hale, I told you I couldn't miss my game and I didn't. I made 2 goals and 1 assist and there were scouts there" Heath spoke, his voice bubbling with excitement.
Emily paled as she saw the state of his hand. "What did you do?"
"I cut off my finger!" He answered. "It's ok. I saved it so you guys can sew it back on."
Emily wanted to smack him in the head at this new piece of information. She walked to the scrub room to get ready for surgery, and once she was done, he was already asleep.
"There's a tissue infection in here," Callie announced as they began the operation. "Not good."
"He said he found out how to do it on the internet," Aaron explained. "Who puts up Web pages on how to cut off your own finger?"
"He's got a passion and he sacrificed for it," Nicholas replied. "You gotta respect that."
"No, you don't," Aaron said. "He cut off his own finger. A finger that would've healed perfectly in a few months."
"Sometimes you can't wait. You just want the pain to stop," Emily interrupted. "So you cut it off. The problem and the pain."
"But that doesn't work," Aaron replied. "It won't stop the pain. I mean if it's that painful to start with, even if you cut it off there's always gonna be that phantom pain."
Callie, who had remained quiet through the discussion, turned to Aaron and said. "Grey did a real number on you, huh."
Emily shot the older resident a death stare as Aaron fell quiet from the embarrassment.
"Suction, please."
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
DEREK decided, of course, that he was not the best person to talk Sylvia Booker into having the surgery, so he sent Joanna in his place. The resident found the woman who had been discharged against her doctor's orders in the parking lot, waiting for her husband to bring the car.
"Mrs. Booker," Joanna greeted, approaching her like a scared kitten. "I know you're worried about the surgery."
"No, I'm not," Sylvia replied. "I'm not worried about it, because I'm not having it."
Joanna sighed. "You are a brave woman. It's not the medical risks that are keeping you from having the surgery."
Sylvia shook her head, "No, I'm not having it because, for the first time in 12 years I have a great marriage and I have a life. And I wanna live it."
"You have weeks," Joanna pointed out. "If this surgery is successful, you're looking at decades."
"I don't think you understand, Dr. Rhodes," Sylvia said, her patience wearing thin. "I'm not crazy and I don't wanna die but I don't wanna go back to being Kyle's bed warmer in a full-length flannel nightgown. Can you understand that?"
"I understand that you're tired of settling," Joanna replied. "So don't do it anymore. Fight. Fight for your life. Fight for your marriage. Let us operate. And make a decision right now that you'll never settle again."
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
DEREK stood in the operating room with the surgical team, staring down at the surgical area. He turned to Joanna and asked. "Do you want to do the skull flap? After all, you are the only reason we are here in the first place."
Joanna beamed. "Hell yeah," she said, happily taking the position as lead. She carefully made an incision in Sylvia's scalp, exposing her skull. "Surgical saw," she asked. Joanna cut through the bone in a precise motion, creating a flap that he could lift up to access the brain. With the flap lifted, she stepped aside so Derek could have a proper look at the aneurysm.
The aneurysm was massive, easily the size of a golf ball, and pulsating dangerously. Derek could see that it was located in a particularly sensitive area of the brain, which made the surgery even more challenging. "Dr. Grey, what is the next step?" Derek quizzed.
"You place a tiny clip on the neck of the aneurysm, effectively cutting off the blood flow and preventing it from rupturing. Then, using a high-powered microscope, you carefully insert a catheter into the aneurysm, through which you deliver the glue to seal the aneurysm, preventing any further blood flow and effectively curing the condition."
"What are the bad signs we look for?" Joanna asked.
"Any evidence of vasospasm or bleeding?" Meredith replied, a bit uncertain.
"Yes," Joanna nodded, adding a short compliment. "You know your path around neurosurgery, Dr. Grey. You don't need to doubt your skills."
After a moment of silence, Meredith asked the two older surgeons. "So, do you think they'll move to Paris?"
Derek sighed. "I do hope so."
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
CHRISTOPHER HUGHES was stuck in his own personal hell. As he found himself in the middle of a lover's quarrel, he regretted all of those times that he complained about Cristina. God, he would kill to have Yang back at Cardio if it meant getting rid of those two.
"What did you say to him?" Izzie hissed at Alex as they scrubbed in, not caring at the moment that she was losing her temper within her supervisor's ear reach.
Alex played dumb. "Who?"
"You know who!" Izzie snapped. "What the hell, Alex? Why does Denny think he's dying?"
Karev shrugged. "Well, maybe because there's a good chance he is."
Izzie was fuming as she spoke. "Just so we're clear, we're over, Alex. This is over."
"What? You're breaking up with me over a corpse?"
Christopher decided at that second that Karev would not be going into that O.R. As a matter of fact, he would no longer be stepping foot again into any of the operating rooms under his supervision.
"No!" Izzie snapped Christopher out of his thoughts as she yelled at Alex. "I am breaking up with you because, on your very best day, that 'corps' is twice the man you will ever be. You're not good enough for me, Alex. You're not good enough for anyone."
"You two," Burke hissed, walking back into the scrub room with nothing but fury in his eyes. "You're not scrubbing in. Whatever's going on with you, I don't need it in my OR."
"Fine," Alex huffed. "I'll watch from the gallery."
"No, no, you won't," Burke replied. "You will take your energy as far away from my OR as you can get."
While Alex left with an offended look, Izzie stood frozen in her place. "Both of you," Burke added to Izzie.
She nodded sadly, and Christopher spoke softly. "I'll let you know when it's over."
"Thank you," she said, glancing one last time at Denny and walking away.
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
OUTSIDE THE ORs, Izzie leaned against the cool metal railing of the staircase, anxiously waiting for news on Denny. "I heard they're dying left and right," Aaron told Nicholas, his brow furrowed, as they left the O.R.
Nicholas nodded grimly. "Told ya there'd be seven."
"Ours didn't die," Aaron pointed out.
"He might as well have. His entire future relied on his football career," Nicholas spoke. "He even cut out his own finger for it."
Izzie jumped up as she overheard their conversation. "Who? Who died?" she asked, her voice trembling with fear.
"We don't know, Izzie," Aaron answered, feeling sympathetic towards his colleague. "But I would bet it was that spleen chick. She wouldn't let them operate."
Nick shrugged. "Maybe the chief's shunt."
"I bet twenty that Burke's guy went down," Alex announced, walking up to the trio. "Dude's a walking time bomb."
"You really are an asshole, aren't you?" Nicholas asked, not believing he had this little sympathy towards his own girlfriend.
As Mia, Rosa, and Dr. Bailey walked up, Izzie's anxiety only grew. Rosa rubbed something off the board as Dr. Bailey muttered to herself, "That makes five."
Izzie approached the two interns, her voice trembling. "You lost her?" she asked, already knowing the answer. As they nodded, she continued. "I heard there's a number six. Do you know who else?"
Mia sighed, her voice tired as she spoke. "Adam's patient didn't make it. I don't have any news on Denny, and we need to go to inform the family."
"It's going to be ok, Izzie," Rosa said softly, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "There have already been seven."
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
WHEN their patient woke up, Emily decided she didn't trust Callie enough to break the news of what had happened in surgery to the kid. He would feel like his life was over, and the very least he deserved was to learn from a doctor who actually knew how to show empathy. Casting a short glance at the interns standing by the door, Emily sat by Heath's bedside and spoke in the gentlest voice she could muster. "Heath, when you put your freshly severed finger into a grungy-bacteria-filled glove, you got a severe infection."
Heath, still a bit groggy from the anesthesia, took a moment to understand what she was talking about. Once he did, his eyes widened with fear. "What? No. The internet didn't say anything about infection."
Callie turned to the panicking mother, explaining why this happened. "Mrs. Mercer we didn't realize how deep the infection had gone until we were in there. There was too much tissue damage," she then, much to Emily's despise, turned to the boy. "Heath, the infection was caused by a methicillin-resistant staph bacteria and it's continuing to spread. We'll be lucky if we can preserve enough muscle for you to have any hand function at all."
Heath panicked, glancing at Callie. "What do you mean?" He then turned to Nicholas, the doctor that he had bonded the most, and asked. "What does she mean?"
Nicholas sighed. "You may never regain complete control of your hand."
"No," Heath shook his head. "That's wrong. You're wrong. Ronnie Lott played for the 49ers when he cut off his finger, he could still play. I got the directions from the internet. I--"
"My poor baby," Mrs. Mercer interrupted, tears swelling in her eyes.
"Mom, stop!" Heath snapped. "They're lying. They're just trying to scare me."
"Heath," Emily spoke gently. "I'm sorry. I really am but there was nothing we could do. Your hockey career is over."
"You are wrong," Heath replied. "You have to be wrong!"
"Heath," Emily tried comforting him with a gentle squeeze on his healthy wrist, but he battered her hand away.
With his chin quivering, he spoke in a hoarse voice. "But I got the directions off the internet. I did everything right."
Emily pulled the boy into a hug, and she held him as he finally allowed himself to cry. Glancing over at Nicholas and Aaron, they understood what she asked of them, and ushered the mother out of the room, Callie following close behind. On his way out, all Nicholas could think about was how he wished he had a doctor like Emily when he busted his knee and learned that his scholarship would be suspended.
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
GEORGE O'MALLEY walked into the locker room at Seattle Grace Hospital, not noticing the fuming doctor, ready to bully someone to make himself feel better. "O'Malley, you are a sad excuse for a man," Alex sneered.
George turned to face his colleague, confusion etched on his face. "Excuse me?" he asked, unsure of what he had done to deserve Alex's wrath.
"You know you heard me," Alex replied, his tone dripping with disdain. "You're like a whiny little girl."
Meredith, who was sitting nearby, protested. "Alex!"
"You know why he's not speaking to you? Because he's not over you," he spat at Meredith. He then turned back to George and continued. "Man, you got laid, it went badly. A man would move on. But you? You mope around this place like a dog that likes to get kicked. You make me sick, and if it wouldn't get me thrown out of the program, I'd smash your pathetic little face right into that locker."
With that, Alex attempted to storm out of the locker room, leaving George and Meredith standing there in stunned silence. Nicholas and Aaron, who were standing by the door, blocked Alex's path. "Speak to anyone like this again and I will personally make sure that the next thing coming out of your mouth will be your teeth," Aaron threatened from the top of his 6 foot 4 height. Alex might be tall, but he was taller. And he was also ex-military, stronger, and a whole lot capable of taking Alex down in a fight.
As Alex stood silent, Nicholas added. "What? Not so tough now that you're talking with somebody your size?" Nick had his share quota of bullies, and to be quite honest, he was damn sick of it. "You are a sad pathetic excuse of a man, taking it out on the weaker kid just because your girlfriend broke up with you."
"Move out of the way, fagot," Alex spoke, and sure enough Aaron kept true to his word. The next thing that came out of Karev's mouth was, indeed, his teeth.
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
ADDISON looked up, a mix of disbelief and confusion on her face. Sitting down at Joe's bar, she couldn't understand the words coming out of their mouths. "I... I don't," she said slowly, her voice trembling. "I don't understand. What are you saying?"
Joanna shifted in her chair, her face grim. "Derek was the father of my baby, Addison."
Addison shook her head. "No," she whispered. "No, that's not true. I... I don't believe you."
"It's true," Derek replied, his voice heavy with sadness. "The baby she lost was mine too."
Addison felt her heart sink as tears welled up in her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked quietly.
Joanna sighed and leaned forward in her chair, reaching out to take Addison's hands in her own. "We were afraid," she said gently. "Afraid of how you would react and what it would mean for our relationship moving forward."
Addison pulled her hands away from her and stood up, pacing back and forth as she tried to process what she had just heard. She stopped pacing suddenly and looked at them in horror. "When?" Addison asked.
Derek spoke, his words slow and steady. "My fifth night in Seattle, we got drunk. We had sex. We didn't think anything of it at first, but then... then we realized Jo was pregnant. And you know the rest."
Addison's eyes filled with tears as she looked at Joanna, the reality of the situation finally hitting her. "You slept with my husband, and you didn't tell me?"
"I didn't know how to tell you, Addie. I was scared, and I didn't want to cause you any pain. But now you know, and I'm so sorry."
Addison's mind was racing, trying to process everything. The betrayal, the lies, the fact that her best friend had slept with her husband and gotten pregnant. How could she have been so blind? How could she have missed all the signs?
"I need to go," she finally said, her voice choked with emotion. "I need some time to think."
"Addison, please," Derek said, reaching out a hand. "Let's talk about this."
But his wife pulled away. "I can't talk right now," she whispered. "I just need some time alone."
She walked away, leaving Derek and Joanna alone. They sat together in silence, both of them allowing the situation to fully dawn upon them. Neither one knew what to say, so they simply sat there surrounded by an ocean of awkwardness.
Joanna finally broke the silence. "I'm sorry," she said softly, her voice trembling slightly. "I know I can't undo any of this, but I am sorry."
Derek didn't respond at first and Belle wondered if he even heard her. But then he nodded slowly and spoke. "Me too," he said quietly, his gaze lingering on Addison's empty chair before turning back to her. "We shouldn't have done this."
"We had to tell her," she muttered, looking away, avoiding Derek's gaze as tears started to slide down her cheeks. She had betrayed her friend in such a deep way and she felt so guilty for it.
Derek reached out and grasped her hand tightly in his own, squeezing gently as if trying to draw strength from her touch. He squeezed again and gave her a sad smile before leaning forward until their foreheads were touching lightly against each other. They stayed like that for a few moments before breaking apart again - neither one daring to speak about what had just passed between them.
────────
A/N: Huge ass filler chapter.
Here is a cookie for anyone who got the TVD reference. 🍪