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You know how when you were a kid and you believed in fairy tales? That fantasy of what your life would be. White dress, Prince Charming, Who'd carry you away to a castle on a hill. You'd lie in bed at night and close your eyes, and you had complete and utter faith.
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Eddie Sousa entered the frat house bright and early to find Izzie is in the kitchen, a sink full of dirty dishes, and cupcakes everywhere. While George is there eating cupcakes.
"Wow, did you rob a bakery?" Eddie asked as she looked at the cupcakes.
"Eight hours, 16 ounces of chocolate, and 32 cupcakes, and they still don't taste right." Izzie muttered.
What was she forgetting? They tasted nothing like the ones who mother used to make.
"No, these are good. Martha Stewart would be proud." George said with a mouthful of cupcake.
"Yeah, look where it got her." Izzie said before turning to Eddie. "Eddie, have a cupcake."
"You don't need to tell me twice." Eddie said as she picked up a cupcake and practically groaned when she bit into it.
"Peanut and I aprove." Eddie said, as Izzie sent her a smile before she frowned looking at the little index card she had written the recipe on.
"See it is good!" George happily told Izzie.
Eddie quickly finished up her cupcake and grabbed a glass from the cabinet and made her way to the fridge.
"There's something missing, some specific ingredient. Why can't I remember?" Izzie asked annoyed.
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Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Prince Charming, they were so close, you could taste them. But eventually, you grow up. One day you open your eyes, and the fairy tale disappears.
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"Look, just call her. Call your mother and ask." George said to Izzie. This was her mother's recipe it made sense to just call her if she thought something was missing.
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Most people turn to the things and people they can trust.
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"I don't want to call my mother." Izzie snapped.
Eddie and George shared a look as Eddie poured some milk into a glass and sat down next to George with another cupcake. Eddie had a feeling Izzie had a complicated relationship with her mother, Eddie could just tell, probably from her own complicated lack of relationship with her own mother. Maybe she, Izzie and Meredith could form the sucky mother club.
Upstairs, in Meredith's room, Meredith and Derek still getting ready. Derek is brushing his teeth.
"So let's go sleep at your house tonight." Meredith offered to Derek.
"What?" Derek asked.
"I mean, why are we always sleeping at my house? Do you even have one?" Meredith asked.
"One what?" Derek asked.
"A house. With a closet. With your stuff in it. Your personal stuff. Do you even have one of those?" Meredith asked her boyfriend.
"Mmm." was all the intern got in response.
A few minutes later, Derek and Meredith enter the kitchen to see it covered in ingredients and chocolate cupcakes.
"Good morning." Derek greeted the three interns in the kitchen.
"Hey. You guys want a cupcake?" George asked, already on his fourth or fifth.
"Oh, no." Derek turned down.
"Izzie made them." Eddie said.
"You know, I like it here. You said so yourself, you liked having your things around, sleeping in your own bed." Derek said looking at Meredith.
Derek is getting cereal and a bowl out.
"You're like a health nut, aren't ya? You eat muesli every morning." George commented.
"No, I don't." Derek denied.
"Ok, the muesli thing, you do. The last seven days, at least." Izzie commented.
"Oh, come on. I haven't been here for a whole week. Have I?" Derek asked the interns.
"See? Even they think it's weird." Meredith commented.
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But the thing is, it's hard to let go of that fairy tale entirely. Cause almost everyone still has that smallest bit of hope, of faith, that one day they'll open their eyes and it will all come true.
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Meredith, Eddie, and Cristina were looking at some film that the psych doctor had brought down.
"This guy belongs in Psych. What are you doing turfing him here?" Cristina asked annoyed.
"He's my gift to you. Had a seizure two days ago and another one this morning." The psych doctor informed the three girls.
"What are you talking about? It says right here, "He talks to dead people, his family things he's dangerous. They had him committed." " Eddie said as she read the patients chart.
"That's Psych, not Neuro." Meredith finished.
"Man, didn't you go to med school?" Cristina asked, as if the psych doctor was stupid or crazy...or both.
"Yes, and unlike the correspondence school you attended..." The psych doctor said condescendingly.
"Oh, that would be Stanford, Dartmouth, and Yale right?" Cristina asked, listing the three prestigious schools the three interns attended for medical schools.
"I learned not to jump to conclusions. Sorry, ladies. We can't take him back until he's cleared." The psych doctor said.
"So, you're dumping him on us?" Cristina asked.
"He thinks his seizures are visions." The psych doctor explained.
"Hello! They're not seizures. I'm psychic." The patient, Mr. Duff, called.
Eddie looked at the patient. She knew people couldn't tell the future, despite what her grandmother believed, she had a very big interest in the occult. It was just impossible. Eddie remembered her grandmother's friend who was a fortune teller, reading from crystal balls and tarot cards. And, her predictions were so vague it was easy to believe if you wanted to. She was a genius and she knew there was a high chance a probability, of a person being attuned to reading facial tics, or they know how to listen in a put on a production. She had truly never met a honest to god psychic.
"Of course you are, and I'm a chicken." Cristina responded sarcastically to Mr. Duff, then turned to the Psych Doctor. "Hey, genius."
But he was already gone.
Great.
The three interns made their way into the room.
"Ok, Mr. Duff. We're gonna start our workup now." Meredith informed their new patient.
"Work me up, work me down, I'm telling you it's a waste of time." Mr. Duff informed the three pretty doctors, annoyed.
"Ok, well, humor us." Cristina said, trying to hide her annoyance.
"Can you grip my fingers, please?" Eddie asked as his hands were limp in her's.
He seems to be in a trance, not noticing the women trying to talk to him.
"Cristina." Meredith said, motioning to Mr. Duff's state.
"Mr. Duff?" Cristina asked.
"Mr. Duff, are you ok?" Eddie asked concerned.
"Someone..." Mr. Duff started.
"Someone what?" Meredith asked.
"Someone's gonna check out. Bye-bye." Mr. Duff said knowingly.
"Oh, man, he's nuts." Cristina said.
"I'm dizzy, not deaf, lady. And I'm telling you, someone on the fourth floor is gonna die." Mr. Duff said.
Eddie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Of course someone was. The fourth floor held the ICU. Death happened there, more often than any other place in the hospital. It wasn't that far of a stretch.
"Code blue, fourth floor. Code blue, fourth floor." A male voice over the PA said.
Just then, the Code team goes running by in the hallway. Okay, that had to be a coincidence. Because, it would be freaky if it wasn't. Meredith, Eddie, and Cristina leave looking bewildered.
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"How are you feeling Mr. Duff?" Eddie asked as she entered her patients room to look over his vitals.
"I'm fine." Mr. Duff said. "I don't need to be here."
"Well," Eddie said looking at his chart. "Which medical school gave you a degree to decide that? Because until we figure out why you're seizing, you're not leaving." Eddie stated.
"Can you talk to patients like that?" Mr. Duff asked.
"Mr. Duff, I understand you believe you have a gift. I also know that left untreated these possible seizures will kill you." Eddie said, "and not to be rude, but, we're trying to help."
"I don't need help. I have visions." Mr. Duff said.
"Maybe you do." Eddie agreed. "Anything is possible. But, you could also have a serious medical condition. A life threatening one if you don't allow us to take care of it."
Mr. Duff didn't seem offended, he just looked at Eddie, as if in a trance.
"Your grandmother will love what you name your daughter." Mr. Duff said, "you decided to name her after her, after all. She'll be beautiful."
Eddie looked at the man, with visible shock. Eddie had decided not to find out the gender of her baby, much to the dismay of Meredith, Cristina, and Izzie...though mostly Izzie, since she was the one who wanted to throw Eddie a baby shower dripping in either pink or blue. And, she never mentioned the names she had narrowed down to. Mainly because she didn't want or need anyone's opinions about names. Because in the end it was her baby, her choice.
The girls name had been easy, she always knew she wanted to name her baby after her grandmother, she had a few other names, but she was curtain it would be her grandmother's name. She had a longer list of boys names, not sure which name she'd chose, because none of them fit.
"I don't know what I'm having." Eddie said, trying to shake off that rattled feeling. A lot of people named their children after a loved one. He made a good guess.
"A bouncing baby girl. Congratulations Dr. Sousa." Mr. Duff said.
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After Cristina got off the case, by her own request and promising to do Bailey's charts for a month just to get away from Mr. Duff. Eddie and Izzie were the ones to bring him down for an MRI.
"Your nostrils are flaring." Mr. Duff said.
"They are not." Izzie said.
"You're into me. I can tell. "Dr. Small and Angry" was a hot appetizer, and blondie here is a hot mamma but I don't need a hot mama and baby, but you, doc, are a smorgasbord of lust." Mr. Duff said.
"Mr. Duff, you're pressing your luck." Eddie informed her patient.
"Would you press it for me?" Mr. Duff flirted, and Eddie sent him a glare that reminded Izzie of her mother or of Bailey when they were doing something stupid.
"I hope you're not claustrophobic." Izzie said annoyed. "You're staring at me. Stop it."
"I'm looking at you, sweetheart, but it's the strangest thing. I'm hungry for a chocolate cupcake." He informed Izzie.
"What did you say?" Izzie asked shocked.
"A chocolate cupcake. Maybe one of those fudgey things with the white squiggle on the frosting. Could you oblige?" Mr. Duff asked looking at Izzie.
"What, do I still have some chocolate on my face or in my hair or something?" Izzie looking at Eddie for confirmation. Eddie shook her head no.
"What are you talking about?" Mr. Duff asked them, confused.
"You. I know the drill, so keep it up. Next you'll be reading my cards, telling me my dead uncle is in the room." Izzie informed him annoyed, not believing him to be psychic.
"Is he?" Mr. Duff asked.
"I don't have a dead uncle. I'm watching you." Izzie said as the two girls left to watch the scans.
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Later in the afternoon, Cristina and Eddie were at a desk, the older woman smelled her sandwich and drops it, while Eddie was snacking on a large basket of fries and a sipping a water as she read a medical journal. Meredith and Izzie are there picking at their food, when George and Alex enter.
"If that's turkey, can I have some?" George asked Cristina.
"It's soggy." Cristina commented.
"If it'll kill you. Solve everything." Alex offered deadpanned.
"Hey," Eddie said giving Alex a look. "How about you stop wishing death upon to others, Alex."
"But it is so fun." Alex commented as Eddie snorted and rolled her eyes.
"I coulda gotten that intubation. I am good at intubations." George said.
"Why does everything in a hospital smell like a hospital?" Meredith asked as she took a bite of the sandwich.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, George. Everybody makes mistakes." Izzie consoled the man.
"You know, I'm good at a lot of things." George informed them.
"You know what, I'm gonna tell you something. Hey, George. You need to get laid. See that nurse over there?" Cristina said as she pointed to the red headed nurse, Olivia. "She's single. She's got red hair. Go ask her out."
Eddie giggled and nodded.
"And, from what I've heard, Georgie, she likes you." Eddie commented, she had heard from other nurses that Olivia had a bit of a crush on George.
"In case you forgot, I intubated an esophagus." George said focused on the procedure, not listening to Cristina and Eddie.
"Dude, you're tweaking. Maybe you should go see that psychic." Alex said before he left, looking at his pager.
"Mr. Duff is not a psychic!" Izzie yelled loudly after him.
"I am trying to help you. Go buy her a latte and freshen up your gonads, please." Cristina said as she got up and left.
"She'll say yes if you ask her out for coffee." Eddie informed George.
"Shut up." Izzie said when she noticed her friends watching her look at her phone.
"It's not too late to call her. You know, moms like that, surprises on their birthdays. You know, it's very Hallmark." George informed Izzie before he left, leaving her to her thoughts, while Eddie returned to her article and popped a French fry into her mouth.
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"We did an angio on my Psych case. The MRI came out clean, but I saw a ditzel. There's something here." Eddie informed her resident, showing her the MRI results.
"Yep, you're right. There's an AVM on his left temporal lobe." Bailey agreed with the girl's diagnosis.
"I'll schedule the OR for tonight then." Izzie informed the resident.
"Ohh, back up, girl." Bailey ordered, stopping Izzie.
"There's high risk of spontaneous hemorrhage." Izzie said, as if it was obvious about why she needed to schedule the OR.
"The attending has to see films. We need consent forms." Eddie reminded her fellow intern with a knowing look.
"Believe it or not, Stevens, we have to follow protocol. Take a breath." Bailey reminded her intern. "Eddie, can you take these results to Dr. Warner?"
Eddie nodded and took the results, leaving the resident and the intern alone.
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Eddie and Izzie were once again in Mr. Duff's room, Dr. Warner had agreed Mr. Duff needed the surgery and they knew they were going to have an uphill battle to get him to sign the forms for the surgery. Because, he believed these seizers were part of his "gift."
"You need to sign these consent forms so we can proceed with your surgery." Izzie informed him.
"Sweetheart, I'm not signing anything unless it's got my name on it followed by a whole bunch of zeros." Mr. Duff informed them.
"Look, the AVM is located in this crucial part of the brain. It's a tangle of blood vessels that could burst and affect your speech, among other things. So, we know your visions are actually seizures." Eddie informed the man.
"Do you?" Mr. Duff challenged.
"Do I what?" Eddie asked him.
"Know they're seizures." Mr. Duff said.
Before Eddie cold say anything, Izzie decided to speak.
"You're really good at reading people, aren't you? Telling them what they want to hear?" Izzie asked.
"There's a really unfortunate alignment of Saturn in the house of Jupiter right now." Mr. Duff said, playing up the typical psychic babble.
"Ok, I know what you're doing. You watch people, read their body language. You say "chocolate cupcakes," I lean towards you, so you think you're on the right track. Not only do you know you're having seizures, but you're milking it." Izzie ranted.
"Hmm. Well, we'll just see about that, cricket." Mr. Duff commented, as Izzie's eyes widened at the nickname.
"What? What did you just call me?" Izzie asked him.
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A few hours later, Eddie was alone this time, Izzie had all but refused to accompany her after he correctly called her a childhood nickname, was once again in Mr. Duff's room wanting to get him to sign off on this surgery.
"I brought the consent forms again. You really need to sign them. Your surgeon scheduled the OR. Mr. Duff, are you all right? Are you having another seizure?" Eddie asked, noticing the man's spacing off.
"Yeah, yeah. I think maybe I am." Mr. Duff said.
"What is it?" Eddie asked concerned.
"It's me. I think it's about to be over." Mr. Duff said softly. He seemed to already give up.
"We know what we're doing, Mr. Duff. You saw the angio results. We're catching the AVM just in time. You don't need to be nervous. You're not gonna die." Eddie promised.
"I'm not talking about dying. My whole life has been about what I see and about believing in myself, whatever people think. And you're telling me there's a very good chance that will go away." Mr. Duff said lost.
Eddie felt bad for the man. He truly believed in his gift, and Eddie wouldn't know what to do if someone told her that her eidetic memory or her IQ was the result of some medical issue she'd be just as lost. Even if she didn't quite believe Mr. Duff was physic, but, she knew those who had the "gift" truly did believe they had it.
"Look, you're a healthy guy. You're gonna live a long, full life. And if your psychic visions are real, you've got to believe you'll have them when you come out." Eddie said, honesty in her tone.
Mr. Duff looked at Eddie for a moment and he held out his hand for the clipboard with a sigh.
Eddie handed it to him and he started to sign the forms.
"Dr. Sousa?" Mr. Duff called out as Eddie started to leave the room.
"Yes Mr. Duff?" Eddie asked looking at him with beautiful brown eyes.
"Your daughter will be lucky to have you." Mr. Duff said, "and you will not be your mother."
Eddie smiled a little less tensely than before.
"Thank you Mr. Duff." Eddie said before she left, to give the consent forms to Dr. Warner.
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In the tunnels Dr. Bailey's interns were laying on the extra beds pushed up against the brick walls. Eddie was laying on the bed, her head in Alex's lap, as she flipped through a medical journal, while the rest were scattered across the other beds.
"I tried to talk Shepherd out of that clot surgery. What is wrong with me?" Meredith asked the group.
"Basically, you tried to kill the guy." Alex said.
"Basically, you're an ass." Cristina stated.
"Come on. You know you want it. Come to papi, baby." Alex deadpanned to Cristina.
"Don't be gross, Alex. I just got over my morning sickness. I don't need to throw up again." Eddie said.
Just then George entered the tunnels.
"This, uh, is George." He announced, as he points at his name tag. "George has a hot date."
"Olivia?" Eddie asked as she turned to look at George, who nodded with a grin.
"Oh, that's great, George." Meredith said.
"Yeah." George said.
"Left pocket of my lab coat, Georgie." Alex said as he gently lifted up Eddie's head and laid it back down on the bed to stand up and leave. "No glove, no love."
George grabs Alex's arm as he passes and takes a condom from his pocket.
"Eddie and my psychic had his surgery." Izzie informed George as he joined them.
"Yeah?" George said.
"I wonder what happened with his...gift." Izzie commented thinking about what Eddie said about Mr. Duff's worry about loosing his gift due to the surgery.
"Come on. We all know he's crazy." Cristina said, annoyed by the talk of the psychic who knew her deepest secret that even Meredith and Eddie didn't know.
"Thought you said you didn't believe in that stuff." Meredith said looking at Izzie.
"I grew up in a trailer park. I waited tables, which was supposed to put me through college, but my mother was always calling these psychics all the time. And the bills started piling up, so I had to use my money to pay them. When I turned 18, I left and never went back. But this guy has been saying things to me, things he couldn't possibly know anything about. So I just wonder." Izzie said, thinking about the past she tried to put behind her.
"My grandmother studied and believed in the occult." Eddie said, as Izzie looked at her. "Her best friend, my "auntie" as I called her, believed she was psychic. I have to admit, she got some right, but other things wrong. I think people want to believe what they want to believe or bring them comfort."
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Izzie was in the elevator with Mr. Duff after his surgery. She looked down and saw that he was waking up.
"Mr. Duff, you're still with us." Izzie said with a smile.
"For your recipe...one tablespoon coconut extract." Mr. Duff informed her, as Izzie looked shocked, how could she have forgotten that!
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It turns up when you don't really expect it.
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Eddie Sousa looked at the name list in her book, as she looked at the name on the top of her list. Her grandmother's name. She looked down at her bump. A part of her wanted to believe Mr. Duff and that she was having a little girl. A little girl with her hair and maybe the beautiful blue eyes she remembered her one-night stand having.
She sighed as she closed her eyes trying to get Mr. Duff's prediction out of her head. But, in her dreams there was a sweet little girl, named after her grandmother, that felt almost all too real.
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It's like one day you realize that the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed.
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Outside the hospital, Meredith and Derek were getting inside his car. He wanted to show her something.
"Where are we going?" Meredith asked.
"Trust me." Derek said.
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The castle, well...it may not be a castle. And it's not so important that it's happy ever after. Just that it's happy right now.
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At the frat house, Izzie pulls cupcakes from the oven, and screws the lid on the coconut extract, the secret ingredients. After it cooled for a moment she eats one and picks up the phone and dialed a familiar number.
"Mom. It's me. Cricket." Izzie greeted when the person on the other end of the line answered.
"I'm good. I've been thinking about you a lot too." Izzie told her mom with a big smile.
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See, once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you.
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Meredith and Derek were walking in what looked like the middle of nowhere. Just beautiful land surrounded by trees and a trailer.
"Where are we?" Meredith asked the handsome attending.
"Shh, shh. I'm gonna tell you. All right. My mother's maiden name, Maloney. I have four sisters. I have, uh, nine nieces. Five nephews. I like coffee ice cream, single-malt scotch, occasionally a good cigar. I like to fly fish. And I cheat when I do the crossword puzzle on Sunday. And I never dance in public. Um, favorite novel, The Sun Also Rises. Favorite band, The Clash. My favorite color is blue. I don't like light blue, indigo. The scar right here on my forehead, that's why I don't ride motorcycles anymore. And I live in that trailer. All this land is mine. I have no idea what I'm gonna do with it. So that's it. That's all you've earned for now. The rest you're just...just gonna have to take on faith." Derek told her, telling her a few things about himself, because he realized she was right, she didn't know a lot about him.
Meredith takes a few steps toward the trailer. After a moment, Meredith reaches her hand out for him and they walk into the trailer.
It was a step towards their future.
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And once in a while...people may even take your breath away.
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A Quick Question because I am going back and forth on this. Should Mark be the one Addison cheats with or should it be someone else? I have ideas for both! Let me know what you think!!!! 🧐 🤔 💭 ❤️🥰🥰