Why do people lie? Is there a pathological reason for it?
3rd POV
Tara and Meredith were laying on their bathroom floor while Cristina was in the tub.
"It's not us. It's them. Them and their stupid boy penises." Said Meredith.
"I'm more angry about the fact that he lied about having a wife than the fact that he actually has a wife." Said Tara.
"It's not that Burke broke up with me. It's how he broke up with me. Like it was business. Like it was a business transaction like he's the boss of me!" Said Cristina
"He is the boss of you."
"And what's worse is that I care."
"Btw you never told us what's the whole history with Stone?" Tara asked Meredith.
She sighed. "He was a student of my mother's at Mayo Clinic. We dated for a couple of years then broke up and started it up again when we started working here. Then a few weeks ago we got into this big fight and almost broke up. But it turns out that that day he got drunk and slept with someone else."
"Sorry Mere—"
"Oh that's not even the worst part. The bitch showed up the other day saying that she is pregnant and Tim is the father. And now he doesn't know what to do."
"I think I'm gonna throw up again." I said. "No. Wait. False alarm."
"Look, the problem is estrogen."
"No, the problem is tequila."
"And vodka, and men. Stupid stupid men."
"I used to be all business, and then he goes and gets me pregnant."
"With the stupid boy penis."
"Now, I'm having hormone surges. He ruined me. I'm ruined. He turned me into this fat, stupid, pregnant girl. Who cares! Estrogen!"
Izzy walks in. "Penises. Penises Izzie." Said Meredith. Then George walks in.
"Estrogen George." Says Cristina.
"Stupid stupid men." Tara added.
"Okay. What did I miss?" George asked Izzy.
"I came home to full on vomit drama. Apparently she dumped Derek, Timothy dumped her and she's been sleeping with Burke!"
"So you are not with Stone anymore?" George asked Meredith.
"Men" Tara said rolling her eyes.
"I feel empty."
"Two hours of vomiting will do that to you."
Lie and lie and lie, is that all people do?
"No, I feel empty."
"You're lucky. I feel pissed off."
"Me too I almost punched him when I found out."
*
They arrive to the hospital and Derek is waiting for Tara.
"Stop."
"What?"
"Stop following me."
"Can we please talk."
"You're still married, there is nothing to talk about."
"No. Come on I bared my soul to you last night."
"It's not enough."
"How can that be not enough?"
"Like I said Derek, I told you things no one else knows, you lied to me for months and I had to find out about your wife by her showing up, all leggy and fabulous and telling me herself. I gave you my trust, which I don't do and you stomped all over it."
People lie all the time. We lie to hide embarrassment. We lie to avoid other people...
Burke walked in. "Dr. Shepherd."
"Dr. Burke."
"Ah, we have an organ donor coming in this afternoon from Wilkeson General. Dr. Stone is doing a harvest. In OR one at four."
"I'm in OR one at four."
"Your surgery is non-critical"
"You can't bump me"
"You'll be first up tomorrow. As Chief I can."
"Interim chief. Bump somebody else!"
"You're in the OR we need."
"Why don't they do the harvest at Wilkeson?"
"Small facility in the boonies. A duck in a box. We have the location, the airport nearby and the staff. Your surgery is rescheduled."
"Mine's bigger than yours." Cristina told Tara.
"Whip it out. I'll measure." Said Alex
"Shut up, Alex."
*
George and Meredith were trying to revive a death guy. Another ambulance approaches, Alex, Cristina, Tara and Izzy make their way over to it.
"We've got three more victims from the other car people coming in. Let's move people!" Said a medic.
"Abdomen's rigid. Okay hand's off. We need to page Burke and Domner. Prep this guy for the O.R. Who wants him?"
"I do!" They all yelled
"Stevens, take it."
"Parks and Karev, take the boy."
Another gurney enters and they join them.
*
Tara's POV
Alex and I were taking the kid for an x-ray "My mom's ok, right?" He asked, his name is Scott.
"Yeah, yeah, I think so." Said Alex
"They'd been fighting at breakfast. Dad it's ugly when it gets like that. He ran three stop lights before we even got on the freeway. Some guy in a pick up cuts us off. And my Dad just lost it. He started chasing the guy, blasting through traffic, screaming at him. The next thing I know, we're upside down on the other side of the freeway. My dad, he—"
"He's in surgery. It's pretty serious." I said.
"Yeah? Well. I guess the son of bitch got what he deserved." I stared at him.
*
We were looking at x-ray films with Bailey and Cristina.
"Scott Seibert,18. No fractures or internal bleeding. Got pretty lucky." Said Alex
"Recommendation?"
"Keep overnight for observation." I said.
Cristina puts up her x-ray film and switches on the light screen. I stiffened at the sight of her x-ray, it screamed abuse.
"Damn!" Said Bailey
"Lea Seibert, 43. Multiple healed fractures on her clavicle and humerus. Third and fourth rib." Said Cristina
"She's being abused." My voice shook slightly from anger, I wasn't one to publicly show my emotions, but this type of cases hit close to home.
"Kid said the accident was road rage. His old man got cut off in traffic, went ballistic."
"Oh, that's not the story I got. (She puts up another x-ray) She has a large yellowing bruise over her right kidney. Tender to palpitation. Said she got it from a fall last week." I scoff. "She's bleeding."
"Perinephric hematoma. What do you do?"
"It should take care of itself. We'll keep an eye on it. She needs ah bed rest and a shrink." Answered Cristina. Meredith walks in with her films of Mr. Hubble.
"It's drugs." She said.
"Stupid. Stupid, stupid. One burst and he's dead in 5 minutes. Okay what do we do?
"Run his bowel."
"And what does that mean? Parks?"
"Running the bowel entails removing all 36 feet of the intestine from the body cavity, hand searching for the balloons and then cutting them out."
"Grey, book an O.R. Parks, Yang, Karev you're in. I need all the hands I can get."
"I don't think they're balloons?" I said staring at the x-ray
"You have reason to believe they're not balloons?" Bailey asked me.
"For one, they've got faces." Bailey dims the light on screen a bit. The balloons take on more face like structures.
"I'll be damned. They're Judys."
"Judys?"
"He swallowed the heads of 10 Judy dolls."
*
Alex and I were in the elevator. Scott was in the gurney. He was knocking his fingers against the metal rod of the gurney.
"This guy came in this morning with 10 Judy doll heads in his abdomen. Is that some kinda sick or what? I mean, when you think about it, those things can't be that easy to swallow. They've still got their hair on them. That's some bad spaghetti. Dude's crapping toys." Said Alex trying to call him down. "You know, when you're little you can hide. Ignore the shouting, the screaming, you pretend like you're someplace else. Then when you get older, bigger, you feel like you should be doing something. Something to stop it. You know, to protect her. And when you can't, you don't know who to be angrier at, Your old man or yourself. Usually it's yourself." I grab the metal rod until my knuckles turn white but I don't say anything.
"Did she tell you?"
"She didn't have to. It's all over her films. He's not beating you, is he?"
"No, just her. So what do you do? About the anger?" I wanted to punch someone.
"Me? I think about the guy who eats doll heads. He's got problems."
Addison walks up to us. "Dr. Parks, may I speak with you for a moment?"We walk down the hallway together.
"I assumed he told you why he left me."
"He did"
"And you didn't take him back? Good girl."
I laughed. "That's not a term anyone's ever used to describe me. What do you want from me Dr. Shepherd?"
"I just want you to understand that there are two sides to every story."
"Why?" She didn't answer. "You think that if I understand your side I'll walk away?"
"Tara sometimes people do desperate things to get someone's attention."
I shook my head in disbelief. "Look, I'd appreciate it if we could keep our relationship strictly professional from now on. And don't worry... I already walked away."
*
"Hey Tara" called Alex and pushed me into an empty room.
"What the matter with you!"
"You were abused" he said bluntly
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't bullshit me I recognize the signs. I saw how you reacted when you the mother's films and how you grabbed the gurney in the elevator."
I sighed. "Why do you care?"
"You heard my story now I wanna hear yours. And... if you ever need someone that understands to drown your sorrows with..."
"What, you?" He didn't respond. I sighed again. "I shuffled around foster care until I was 18. Some families were bearable and others had more... creative punishments."
As weird or depressing as it may be, from that moment Alex and I became friends...
*
Cristina, Izzie, George and I were in walking towards a table in the cafeteria.
"The father is an alcoholic wife beater. I mean there shouldn't even be a question." Cristina said.
"But if you could save somebody and you didn't, wouldn't you feel like you were committing murder?" Questioned Izzy.
"No." I said bluntly. They all looked at me. "The guy is abusing his family, the people he should protect. So why should he receive anything better from them."
"Like the guy did when crashed into George's DOA. He's the killer not the son." Added Cristina.
Olivia walked up to us. "Hey, George."
"Hey." He answered drily, so she leaves.
"George. She was trying to make up with you. You should go eat with her." Informed Meredith.
"No. No, I shouldn't."
"She's cute and she likes you. You shouldn't let a little syph get in the way." Said Izzy
"It's not the syph."
"It's so the syph."
"It's not the syph!"
"Then what is it?" George doesn't answer and looks down. "Oh."
"What?" Meredith asked obliviously. I rolled my eyes.
"There's this other girl." Said Izzy.
"Izzie!"
"Other girl? You have another girl?!"
"He hasn't told her yet that he likes her."
"Izzie! We are not in high school. It is a thing. A thing that is very personal. One day I would like to build on this thing with this other girl. Woman. She's all woman."
"You are a fucking idiot." I said.
"What—"
"You are lying to Olivia, you are lying to the other girl and you are lying to yourself. Is that all you stupid men do?! Lie, lie and lie?! You need to stop just stop."
"You're letting her think you're emotionally available. You're letting her think she has a chance. And there is nothing worse in the world than thinking you have a chance when you really don't!" Added Meredith.
"They are right. Tell her there's someone else. Tell her why George. I mean, I mean at least give her the chance to have some feelings about for god's sake!" Finished Cristina.
"Why are you yelling at me?"
"Because of the estrogen George! Because of all the estrogen!"
*
After surgery we all went home to get some much needed rest. Unfortunately for me a surprise was waiting for me.
I got to my room and found yet another tulip and a note: can't wait to see you!
I paled. He was coming here. No. No. Just no...Before I could panic more Meredith nocked on my door. "Someone is on the door for you." She said and I followed her out.
When I reached the door I was encountered with another surprise: Derek. "Hey." He said. "You okay? You look a little pale."
"I'm fine." He stared at me not believing me. When he didn't say anything I spoke. "Why are you here?"
"I asked Addison for the divorce." A part of me wanted nothing more than to run to him tell him how much I love him.
But the main reason to lie, is protection. We lie to protect ourselves and our secrets.
Another part was hurt for his lies. But the final part of me was terrified of the person who sent the tulip and the note because I knew what he was capable of. And I would do anything to protect Derek. Even if it tore me to pieces...
Or we lie to protect someone else. Even if they don't deserve it.