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Pain comes in all forms.
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Izzie and Alex make their way up to Meredith's front porch. And, Izzie felt the downpour of rain and thunder capped off a very crappy date.
"I had a good time. Really. Thank you. It was the perfect evening. Best date ever. Ever." Izzie said sarcastically.
"Izzie..." Alex knew that he blew this chance. He truly liked Izzie, but he couldn't get out of his own head with the news the chief gave him. And, he couldn't bring himself to tell Izzie why he was like this.
"You know I especially like the part where you treated me like crap the entire night. That was fun." Izzie ranted.
"I had a good time." Alex said honestly, because he was spending time with Izzie.
"Really?" Izzie asked shocked.
"Yeah." Alex said.
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The small twinge, a bit of soreness, the random pain, the normal pains that we live with everyday.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"I gotta go." Alex said when he was only moments away from kissing her.
"Seriously? Seriously?" Izzie yelled out in annoyed frustration.
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Then there's the kind of pain you can't ignore.
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Izzie storms into George's room and turns on the light before crawling into his bed. George groans.
"Seriously?" was all Izzie would say.
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Then there's the kind of pain you can't ignore. A level of pain so great that it blocks out everything else;
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Move over." Izzie said as George did so sleepily.
"I was sleeping." George said with a groan.
"Oh, shut up." Izzie snapped.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
...makes the rest of your world fade away...
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About twenty minutes later, Meredith and Derek were on the front porch as well. And, like Izzie and Alex they were having an argument.
"I don't want to have this conversation again." Meredith said for what felt like the hundredth time.
"Meredith." Derek said.
"You didn't sign the divorce papers. Fine. I get it. End of Discussion." Meredith said with finality.
"Meredith." Derek said.
"What?!" Meredith demanded, sort of curious what he had to say.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
...until all we can think about...
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Oh." Derek said.
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...is how much we hurt.
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"I usually just say "Meredith" and then you yell at me. I haven't thought past that point. I actually didn't have anything planned." Derek said honestly at a loss of what to say.
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How we manage our pain is up to us.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Meredith gives him an incredulous look and in anger, she starts to hit him with her purse.
"Ow! What is that? Hey, stop it!" Derek said as he held up his arms to block the blows.
"Seriously? SERIOUSLY!" Meredith yelled, as she swatted Derek with her purse out the door.
Once Derek was gone, Meredith made her way upstairs and barged into George's bedroom.
"Seriously!!" Meredith exclaimed as she joined Izzie and George in his bed, putting George in the middle, to listen, once again, to his roommates relationship problems.
"This is very small bed." George commented, unsure if he should even move...or breathe. With how angry and annoyed at men his roommates seemed to be.
"He's a brain surgeon." Meredith complained.
"I look fantastic. I shaved my legs!" Izzie exclaimed.
"He's a brain surgeon. How can he be so brainless?" Meredith asked.
"Hello? Seriously!" Izzie yelled.
"Seriously!" Meredith agreed.
George pats both of their shoulders in comfort.
"Shhh..."
Just then the storm raging outside caused the power to go out.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Pain. We anaesthetize, ride it out, embrace it, ignore it... and for some of us, the best way to manage pain is to just push through it.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Today was one of Eddie Sousa's favorite day of the year, October 8th. Her birthday! She was finally twenty-one. But, unlike other twenty-one years old she wasn't going to go on a wild drinking bing, or skipping out on a day of school or work.
But, not Eddie.
She obviously wasn't going to go out drinking because she is pregnant. And, while taking a day off for her birthday was highly tempting. But, with the fact she was going to have a baby early in the new year, she needed to save up as much time off as she could for the baby. She had eight weeks of maternity leave, but she wanted to make sure that if she needed some extra days she wasn't taking any personal days unless she was really sick.
It was a bit of a dreary day. In Seattle, it wasn't uncommon whatsoever to have rain. But it was a constant down pour from late last night until now. It was crappy weather to have on her birthday. She just hoped that the rain let up.
Eddie pulled her car in front of the apartment that belonged to her older brother Conrad. His car was in the shop, and he had planned to bike to work, but the raging storm outside changed those plans. So, when he called Eddie for a ride the night before, she was happy to drive him.
"Good morning." She greeted Conrad who quickly got into his car, looking only a little bit damp, which was a miracle considering the amount of rain.
"Morning, and happy birthday." Conrad greeted her giving her a kiss on the cheek, which caused Eddie to laugh, but smile.
"I also have your present." Conrad said as he motioned to his bag.
"You did not have to get me anything." Eddie said seriously.
"Yes I did. It's part of the big brother hand book. We give birthday gifts." Conrad said seriously.
"Well, I guess I have to accept. Thank you." Eddie said, "Now, I need to find out your birthday to get you a gift."
"April 12th." Conrad said, "and I don't need a gift...." he saw Eddie's pointed look. "But I will accept it because my sister gave it to me."
"April 12th." Eddie said with a nod. "Expect an amazing gift."
"Okay, I will." Conrad said with a laugh.
The two were quiet for a few minutes while the only noise was coming from the radio playing some top 4o song.
"So, I heard a rumor." Conrad started.
"What rumor? Seattle Grace is brimming with them." Eddie said as she drove safely through traffic.
"Not about Seattle Grace," Conrad said, though, it would be a true statement that Seattle Grace more like a high school with its gossip, but it wasn't the case this time. "About you. Dad said you learned the gender of my niece or nephew."
"Ah...and you're jealous I didn't tell you first?" Eddie agreed.
"Yes, and I am so hurt." Conrad said with mock hurt as he laugh. "Dad didn't say what the gender was...but I have to admit, I am curious."
"Well, you'll be happy to know you're having a little niece in a few months time." Eddie said.
Conrad grinned.
"Congratulations." Conrad said, excited for another niece.
"Thanks." Eddie said.
"Dan's girls will be thrilled." Conrad informed her, "they love babies, and Katie's sister just had a baby boy and they were disappointed because in their words "boys are icky.""
Eddie laughed.
Conrad and Henry had both told her about her brother, Daniel's children. They ranged from the ages of nine to two years old, with the two eldest being her nephews: Adam and Jeremy, at nine and seven, and then her nieces: Rosie, Amanda, and Elsie, at five, four, and two.
"Well, tell Daniel to enjoy that stage, they won't hate boys forever." Eddie said knowingly. "My boys-had-cooties stage stopped when I was ten, granted, I was in high school."
"Oh don't say that!" Conrad groaned, he already had an irrational urge to protect his newfound little sister, despite knowing Eddie could take care of herself.
"No, they will stay young forever. Including this little one. They will forever be little to me. I'll be in denial...forever. Though, I do look forwards to Daniel's reactions when any of his kids start to date."
Eddie laughed and rolled her eyes.
"You're horrible." Eddie said.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Eddie was able to get to the hospital without any issue, and with her umbrella she kept in her car, she made it into the hospital relatively dry and so did Conrad. The two siblings spilt up as they went to their separate locker rooms to get ready for their days.
Eddie quickly made her way to her locker, and started to change into her light blue scrubs and was in the middle of braiding her long hair into a braid when Meredith, Izzie, and George entered.
"Hey how was your dates?" She asked Meredith and Izzie, while George shook his head no frantically.
"It sucked." Izzie complained. "Completely and totally sucked. And, I shaved my legs!"
"Oh," Eddie said sympathetically. "That sucks. But, it's Alex's loss, Iz."
Izzie sent the pregnant intern a smile as she angrily banged thing around in her locker as she got ready.
"Derek didn't sign the divorce papers Addison gave him." Meredith informed Eddie, "he didn't sign them and he said he would. He keeps saying there is nothing left and he wants her gone, why wouldn't he just sign them? Seriously!"
"I am sorry, Mer." Eddie said sincerely. "What did he have to say?"
"Nothing, he had nothing to say! He told me he hoped I'd just continue to yell at him." Meredith said, "I hit him...with my purse."
Eddie tried to stop the laughter that was bubbling up, at the thought of the coif, dreamy neurosurgeon being hit by the angry blonde intern.
"Oh happy birthday by the way, Eddie." Meredith said, remembering it was the twenty-first birthday of one of her persons.
"Thanks, Mer." Eddie said with a smile.
"Oh yes happy birthday! Remember tomorrow I will be making you a cake to celebrate when we're all off shift." Izzie said as she hugged the blonde.
"Thanks again Iz." Eddie said.
"Happy birthday." George said as he pulled his scrub shirt over his head.
"Thanks Georgie." Eddie said.
"Have you seen Cristina? It's the first day back right?" Meredith asked Eddie.
"Nope. Haven't seen her." Eddie said, "and hopefully she'll get here before Bailey comes and notice that she is late."
Just then, Bailey entered and stood in the doorway of the intern locker room as the interns get ready for their shift for the day.
Cristina Yang, who was running late, on her first day back due to the downpour and the fact that she had struggled to sleep the night before due to the pain, and was soaking wet, stands next to her and inadvertently wets Bailey with her hair.
"You're dripping." Bailey said deadpanned.
"I'm back. I just wanna make that clear. I'm back. I'm ready to work." Cristina said, trying to convince Bailey that she was good and ready.
"Has anyone seen Dr. Shepherd this morning?" Addison asked the group of interns she knew would probably know where her husband was.
"His name is on the OR board. He should be here somewhere." Bailey informed the guest attending.
"I'm good. I'm ready to scrub in. I'm 100% on top of my game." Cristina said once again to her resident.
"You just got discharged. Pace yourself." Bailey ordered her intern.
" I'm paced. I'm paced." Cristina insisted.
"Uh Huh. Rounds, people." Bailey said to her interns.
The interns start to file out. When Izzie passed Alex, she pointedly ignored him.
"What? You're not talking to me anymore?" Alex asked her.
"Okay, what happened last night? What is going on with you?" Izzie asked, really wanting to know what caused Alex to act so much like....the evil spawn.
"I'm fine. What your problem?" Alex deflected.
"Fine. Youe know what, Alex? No, I'm not talking to you anymore." Izzie informed the male intern as she quickly went to catch up with George.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Bailey and her interns entered Henry Lamott's room. He was one of Derek's patients that was going to be undergoing surgery. And, it was Cristina's turn to present her patient.
"Dr. Bailey?" Cristina said as she handed Bailey the chart, which she accepted.
"Henry Lamont. Age 42. Is scheduled with Dr. Shepherd for a Spinal Implant to control the painof his Herniated Disk. Is allergic to all pain medication." Cristina presented.
Then, the sound of girls laughing naughtily in the background distracted the doctors from their rounds. Cristina's eyes widened when she saw the screen. Her hand immediately put her hand over Eddie's eyes. While the other interns eyes looked at the T.V. that was playing something they never expected.
Porn.
"Is that...?" Cristina asked.
"Porn." Mrs. Lamott said with a nod, confirming that they weren't crazy and that they were seeing porn playing on the TV.
"Porn? As in "Porn"?" Bailey asked extremely shocked as she turned to look at the TV as well, her eyes going as wide as saucers.
"All right. What are we watching?" Alex asked, a little to excited.
"Karev, go stand in the hall." Bailey ordered the male intern, who knew it wasn't a suggestion, and under her glare he left the room.
"Uh, Mr. and Mrs. Lamott, I'm sure you are very nice people, and what you do in the privacy of your own..." Bailey stuttered out, this was the first time she ever encountered anything like this in the hospital. "Look we can't have porn in here. This is a hospital."
"It's for my pain. My doc says that it releases endorphins in the brain, and it helps keep my pain at a managable level." Henry Lamott informed them.
"Really...?" George asked interested, though his eyes barely strayed from the porn playing on the screen.
"George. Hall." Bailey ordered.
"Yeah..." George said guiltily as he followed Alex into the hall, where he was waiting.
"What is this?" Izzie asked, watching the scene.
Nasty Naughty Nurses, um," Mrs. Lamott said as she looks at the tv, to double check if she was right. "4."
Eddie (who had removed Cristina's hand from her eyes), Cristina, Izzie, and Meredith stare afixed to the screen and the three older interns tilt their heads to the right at the same time. While Eddie pointedly looked towards the ceiling.
She so didn't need to see this right now.
"That does not look comfortable." Cristina comments.
"Trust me. It's not." Meredith commented.
Eddie, Cristina, and Izzie look at her with mouths agape.
"Get in the hall, Eddie seems to be the only one here with maturity to stay and she is the youngest." Ordered the resident.
"Fools, all of them." Bailey muttered as the three female interns leave the room, with Izzie asking how exactly did Meredith know that move wasn't comfortable.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Sousa, O'Malley, Karev, you're in the pit today. Stevens, there's a cardiac patient waiting for you up on two. Yang, keep an eye on the Lamotts. I don't want any problems. Go." Bailey gave her interns their assignments for the day.
When she dismissed them, only Meredith stayed because she hadn't been given an assignment.
"Grey, your mother is being discharged this evening. You've made arrangements, or do you need more time?" Bailey asked her.
"The nursing home is coming at eight." Meredith informed her resident, who nodded.
"Alright. Then you're with Shepherd. Derek Shepherd, Today." Bailey informed her intern, knowing that was going to get a reaction out of her intern.
Meredith looks at her, and Bailey just shrugged.
"Hey, life is short. Times are hard. The road is long with many winding turn. He asked for you. Take it up with him." Bailey informed the interned whom looked less than thrilled.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Eddie Sousa had been sent into an emergent patient's room by Conrad Quinn. George and Alex followed behind her, both wanting to be on a possible case, seeing as it looked like most of the Pit's cases didn't look surgical. Conrad had been to busy to give more instruction, because he had a car crash victim in critical condition that he was rushing to the ER and he figured the two men could work it out themselves like adults and professionals.
George wanted to be on a surgical case after being on Ellis Grey duty and hadn't seen the OR in what felt like forever. And, Alex was in a bad mood and a good surgery while he still had the chance was something he needed.
"What do you know?" Eddie asked the E.R. Resident.
"Pete Willoughby, 25 year old. GSW to the chest. Immediate return of 860 c.c.s of blood from the chest..." The resident informed the young intern as she examined Pete.
"Oh, Man, this hurts." Pete cried loudly.
"He's put out more than 200 c.c.s over the past hour." The ER resident said.
"They never tell you in movies how much it hurts to get shot." Pete said, usually, he was more "macho" around beautiful woman like with the young doctor in front of him, even with the obvious bump, he'd want to come off as tough.
"Push Morphine 2mg." George instructed, then he looked annoyed at Alex, who didn't let him have the case even if he had gotten there first.
"Alex, this is my case." George said.
"Morphine 5mg. You didn't even call him." Alex said.
Eddie continued to check Pete over, and getting stats and vitals. While George and Alex bickered over who would get to be the other intern on the case.
"I don't have to call him. I was here first. There is only room for to interns, and Eddie was already assigned to the case." George said.
"You got here first because I let you." Alex informed the male intern.
"Do you have the chest films?" Eddie asked.
The ER Resident gave them to Eddie as she looked at them.
"You always get the surgery. Today, I'm getting a surgery." George said annoyed that Alex wasn't letting this go.
"Guys, knock it off." Eddie ordered, which caused the two boys to shut up under the glare that reminded them of a mother...or Bailey. Both knew that Eddie would kick them out of the room if it continued.
"He's one of Seattle's finest. You've got an entire police force watching you." The ER Resident said as he motioned to the window where officers were watching them.
George gives them a thumbs up.
"Page Dr. Burke. Let him know we're bringing up a GSW." Eddie said as she started to push the gurney. With the two men following behind her.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
It was just a coincidence that Derek and Meredith ran into each other, as Meredith wanders around the hospital looking for him. She wasn't searching to hard...she was still angry at him and didn't want to see him.
Last night did not go well. And, it didn't help that Derek had talked about signing the papers, and he clearly didn't.
She didn't want to be the adulteress whore. That wasn't her and she didn't want to make that her.
"Meredith." Derek said.
"Your wife is looking for you." Meredith informed him.
"Oh my god. This is hard for me, Meredith." Derek admitted, harder than he truly thought it would be.
"Well, let it make it easy then. I'm gonna be that woman. The one who breaks up a marriage or begs you to want me. You can sign the papers or you can not. The choice is yours. Either way, when it comes to this relationship, I'm out." Meredith said, angry and hurt.
And he could tell. Derek looked as hurt as Meredith felt.
"Now where's this patient I'm supposed to be helping you with?" Meredith asked.
"Down there." Derek said.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"You shouldn't have tried to walk the dog in the rain." Lou informed his wife, as Izzie took a look at her heart.
"Oh, Lou. It wasn't the rain. I just passed out." His wife, Verna said, trying to shrug it off.
"Actually Mrs. Bradley," Izzie started as she looked at the woman.
"Verna."
"Verna, you presented with Lateral S.T. Elevations and Reciprocal Inferior Changes consistent with an MI. A Heart Attack." Izzie informed Verna seriously.
"Oh my god." Lou muttered.
"Oh, don't worry. Come on, I've had these little chest pains before, and it turned out to be nothing. This is nothing." Verna said, trying to convince him that this was just like all the other times.
He kisses her forehead.
"Lou, not in front of the doctor." Verna said with a blush.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
In another room, Derek was examining his patient, Anna, as Meredith watched.
"I've had a twinge in my back for a while. I thought I would go away, but then last night, my leg went numb, this morning my back... Uh, the pain is just too much." Anna informed the doctors.
"Miss Chue, let me put you on a PCA pump, give you some morphine, which should help control the pain." Derek said wanting to give the woman some release.
"Thank you."
"But there's a greater problem here. I've just taken a look at your MRI," Derek said, but he was interrupted by a couple marching in. They looked severe and strict.
"Anna! Why didn't you call us before coming down here?" The man barked.
"I'm sorry." Anna said to her parents, as she turned to Derek. "These are my parents."
"Hi."
"What's going on?" Mr. Chue asked Derek harshly.
"I was just about to explain that Anna's MRI has shown that she has Myxopapillary Ependymoma. It's a tumor in her spinal canal, but the good news is that we can operate. You have a 95% of fully recovering if we get you into surgery as soon as possible. We can't wait another moment. With a tumor this aggressive, even waiting another day puts you at risk for permanent paralysis." Derek explained.
Anna's father, Mr. Chue, looked emotionless at the news.
"Father?" Anna asked.
"No. No surgery." Anna's father barked.
"Mr Chue, without surgery, Anna will be paralyzed probably within the next 24 hours." Derek said, seriously, shocked that her father wanted her to not have surgery.
"There will be no surgery today. We're taking her home." Mr. Chue said seriously.
"Anna needs the surgery." Meredith spoke up.
"Then she can have it at another time." Mr. Chue said.
"Look Mr Chue,"
"We are taking our daughter home." Mr. Chue said in a no nonsense tone.
"Anna, you're over eighteen. you don't need your father's consent." Derek informed Anna.
"I'm Hmong, and my father is the elder. If he says I go home, I go home." Anna said resigned.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
They had left Anna and her family feeling shocked that anyone would force their child to leave when there was something seriously medically wrong with her.
"Hmong? Let's find out what that means." Derek said to Meredith.
"Okay."
"Contact social services. See if we can get somebody down here to talk to him." Derek said as Meredith nodded.
"Do I continue to process her discharge?" Meredith asked, hoping the answer was no.
"Yeah, we have to. It's insane, but we have to. It reminds me of this case I had in New York one time where this woman came to the office," Derek started to tell Meredith.
"Look, do you need me for anything else work related?" Meredith asked, trying to separate personal Derek, the one she loved, from work Derek. Because she couldn't want personal Derek if he was going to go back to his wife.
"Look I was married for eleven years. Addison is my family. That is eleven Thanksgiving's, eleven birthdays, and eleven Christmas's, and in one day I am supposed to sign a piece of paper and end my family? A person doesn't do that, not without a little hesitation. I'm entitled to a little uncertainty here. Just a moment to understand the magnitude of what it means to cut somebody out of my life. I am entitled to at least one moment of painful doubt and a little understanding from you would be nice." Derek ranted to Meredith upset that she was putting distance between them because of this.
He had been shocked that he was struggling this much. Because, he made a vow right? He had to try and make it work, even if his wife was an adulterous bitch and he was falling in love with another woman.
But, he didn't know if he could move on from Meredith or if he could move past her sleeping with Nicholas.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Dr. Shepherd, still here, I see." Burke said when he saw the female Dr. Shepherd in the hall.
"I couldn't leave you. Have you seen the other Dr. Shepherd?" Addison asked Burke.
"I'll tell him you're looking for him." Burke promised as Addison nodded.
She needed to know if she was booking a flight back to New York or if she was going to be staying longer to try and start laying the ground work with Derek. And, hopefully, either way she would have her answer soon.
Burke continues to walk down the hall, and he runs into Cristina. Whom he hadn't seen since she was discharged.
"So thanks for, you know, being there." Cristina said to Burke honestly.
"No thanks needed." Burke said seriously. He would always be there for her.
"Okay."
"So, where are we?" Burke asked his ex-girlfriend.
He didn't know if they were going to try and start dating again or if it was going to be professional. It had surprised him how hard he had fallen for the intern.
"The northeast corner of the hospital. ... Oh, I'm getting back on my feet." Cristina said.
"Fine."
"But that doesn't mean that," Cristina started.
"Cristina."
" It's my first day back." Cristina said, she was trying to get back on her feet, and she didn't know what she felt.
"I'm not waiting forever." Burke informed her, as he walks ahead towards the elevator.
The elevator dinged open and Miranda Bailey stepped out.
"Hey, Sousa, O'Malley, and Karev is bringing up a GSW. You want to scrub in?" Burke asked one of his favorite residents.
" No can do. No extra work. I'm trying to get out of hereat a decent hour tonight." Bailey informed him.
She was going to spend some quality time with her husband. Both of them had been busy the past few months and they were going to spend a weekend alone together and bask in some couple time before the baby came, and it had been a while since Bailey had dressed up and been wined and dined.
"What, you got a date?" Burke asked with a knowing smirk, he had met Bailey's husband a few times over the years and the man was a good, solid, and kind man.
"Yes. Yes, I do. A handsome man is whisking me away to a love nest for the weekend." Bailey informed him with a grin.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"You got shot on the line of duty?" Alex asked Pete as the three interns made their way to the elevator.
"First month on the job. Can you belive my luck? Guys pulls a gun, and I freeze up. The rookie lets himself get shot. I'm never gonna live this down." Pete said sullenly.
"Sure, you will." George informed him.
"You think?" Pete asked hopeful.
"Absolutely." Eddie said with a smile. "you'll be the guy who lived to tell the tale."
Pete smiled slightly, through he was clearly in pain.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Hey, i got Verna Bradley's test back. I don't think she had a heart attack." Izzie informed her resident as she passed her in the hall, as she handed her the results of the EKG.
"Yeah, but look at the changes in her EKG. She had something." Bailey informed the former model.
"Yeah, but her Serial Enzymes and Dobutamine Stress ECHO came back negative. I actually think she's fine." Izzie informed her boss.
"Get a Cardio Cath. Izzie, be thorough." Bailey said, leaving no room for argument.
She was of the firm belief you did everything to make sure the patient was okay before sending them home. Especially if they were experiencing heart attack like symptoms.
Bailey hands the results back to Izzie and leaves her standing there.
"I am thorough." Izzie said to herself.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"So, Dude, what's the deal with Izzie?" Alex asked George as the three interns and Pete were in the elevator, going down to the OR.
"She shaved her legs for you." George informed the male intern.
Eddie nodded in agreement. Girls don't put in that much effort to not even get a kiss goodnight. When a girl shaved her legs for a guy, she was looking for something more. And, Izzie truly liked Alex, and when he treated her like crap, which made the night that much worse.
"And?"
"And you didn't even kiss her good night." Eddie added for George who nodded seriously.
"She shaved her legs for you, and you didn't follow through?" Pete asked weakly in shock.
"See, Pete here is a smart man." Eddie said sending the man a smile.
"Hey, I follow through. I always follow through." Alex informed them.
"You didn't last night." Eddie said as Alex sent her a glare.
"Mind your own business, Ed." Alex said, as Eddie rolled his eyes at the man's unnecessary rudeness.
At that George became defensive. "Mind her own- She had expatations. Women have expectations and you didn't meet them. I live with these women and everytime you guys don't meet their expectations I have to hear about it. I didn't get any sleep last night. So, you know, it is my business."
Just then there is a loud noise and a jolt. George quickly got behind Eddie and made sure she and the baby were okay, and didn't crash into anything. They are immersed in darkness for a few moments. They look around as the emergency lights come on.
"You okay Eddie?" George asked the blonde concerned.
"Yeah, thanks for the catch Georgie." Eddie said as she rubbed her bump to sooth her baby, who was reacting to her nerves as she realized they were trapped in an elevator with a gun shot wound patient who needed to get into surgery as soon as possible.
"Dude, we're not moving." Alex said pointing out the obvious.
"Really? You think?" George asked sarcastically.
"Pete, someone is going to come get us soon. I don't want you to worry." Eddie said to their patient who looked concerned.
"What if they can't right away?" Pete asked.
"We'll worry about that if it gets to it, okay?" Eddie said, as Pete nodded.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"You know how long a surgical scar takes to heal. You must be in pain. You should take something." Meredith said to Cristina when she saw her friend wince.
Meredith, Izzie, and Cristina were leaning against the railing that overlooked the main lobby of the hospital. All three of them taking a moment from their cases, when the lights had started to flicker.
"Drugs are for babies." Cristina informed her friend seriously, which resulted in Meredith rolling her eyes.
"I hate Alex." Izzie blurted out, still annoyed about last night's date.
"And the non sequitur award goes to ..." Cristina said dryly.
"I'm Sorry. I hate Alex." Izzie said.
"I broke up with Derek." Meredith informed the duo.
"Burke wants to have a relationship." Cristina informed them.
"Boys are stupid." Izzie agreed.
"Yep." Cristina agreed.
All three women went their own ways to check on their patients. If Bailey saw them lounging she would not be happy, and they already took fifteen minutes, and with the power going down and everything on a back-up generator, they needed to go check on their patients.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Alex tried to open the doors, Eddie was staying with Pete, keeping up with his vitals which were getting worse. And, she was trying to keep calm, it would not do her, her little girl, or her patient any good if she started to freak out. While George read the direction of the elevator panel.
"If elevator should stop, do not become alarmed. Press the button marked 'Alarm' to summon assitance." If they don't want us to be alarmed, then why call the button "Alarm"?" George asked his fellow interns.
"That didn't work the first 5 times you did it. Get it through your head, we've lost power. We're stuck here." Alex complained.
"Oh." Pete groaned.
"You okay?" Eddie asked with concern then she turned to the two men, and whispered so Pete wouldn't start to freak out. "His pressure is falling. Alex, George, there's a lot more of his blood in the Pleurovac. We need to get him to the OR."
"Okay. You're whispering. Don't whisper. I mean, I don't want to complain here, but I got a bullet in my chest. And whispering isn't a sign that I'm going to be a-okay, you know?" Pete begged.
"Okay." Eddie said. "Pete, someone will be getting us out soon. I need you to remain calm and stay with us okay? Can you do that for me?"
"I'd do anything, if a pretty woman asked." Pete said weakly as Eddie smiled.
"Damn, it's out." Alex said.
"It's bad. It's bad right?" Pete said, starting to freak out.
"Someone's gonna get us out of here. Don't worry." Eddie said, as she tried to keep him calm.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"How are we doing?" Cristina asked as she entered Henry Lamott's room.
"Oh, Can you move me to another room? The lights and the TV went out." Henry said as he started to feel his pain returning without his porn.
"Power outage in the East wing. Thet'll have it back on soon. You're not a critical patient. You'll be fine here." Cristina informed the man as she marked something in his chart.
"Oh god. What am I gonna do?" Henry asked, his pain was unbearable without it, and he can't exactly have pain medicine unless he wanted to get worse.
"You mean...?" Cristina asked realizing what he was asking.
"Without my porn?" Henry said with a nod.
"Read a book, talk to your wife." Cristina said, not truly believing that porn was helping his patient.
"No, school closed early because of the storm. She had to leave to pick up their kids. She won't be back until after dinner." Henry informed Cristina, truly upset.
"Well, I'm sure you can find some normal way of amusing yourself." Cristina playacted.
"I need my porn!" Henry exclaimed upset that the doctor didn't seem to care.
"Yeah."
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Lightning hit a substation. We're running on backup generators. One of them's down. Richard, breathe." Addison informed the chief as they made their way towards the elevator that was down.
The only elevator that lead from the ER to the OR.
"The only direct means of transporting patient from the ER to the OR isn't working. Don't tell me to breathe. I'll breathe if I wanna breathe." Webber informed his former mentee and close friend.
They joined Burke, Bailey, and a few maintenance men working on the elevator in question.
"The car's between floors." The maintenance man informed the group as he worked to try and open the door as far as possible
"How bad is it?" Richard asked.
"Three interns and a G.S.W. to the chest. One of the interns is Eddie Sousa." Burke said trying to remain calm.
Addison felt fear for the patients and interns. Especially Eddie. She didn't need to worry about this stress especially while pregnant. When the elevator was able to be opened, she would want to make sure she gets checked out before she joined them in the OR if possible.
"Good air in, bad air out." Addison reminded Richard who looked about ready to freak out.
"Come on people. Get those doors open." Richard snapped.
"It's jammed up. It won't open anymore. This is as wide as it goes." The maintenance man said, motioning to the small gap big enough gap to look through and pass smaller items without having too much issue.
"What did you two do?" Bailey asked as she bent down to look at her three interns. Eddie hid a smirk knowing Bailey was referring to Alex and George and not her. "Eddie, are you okay? Any cramping...light headed?"
"Nothing!" The two men yelled.
"I'm good. The baby is kicking regularly, I've been counting them, and I haven't felt anything like cramping or lightheadedness." Eddie said.
"How's the patient?" Burke asked, having replaced Bailey after she got the answer she needed.
"He's not looking so good." George informed the attending.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Why do the lights keep flickering?" Anna asked Meredith as she was putting in a pump for the morphine drip.
"Something about a backup generator. This pump will provide you with a Morphine drip, and it should stop your pain." Meredith informed Anna.
"I told you, I don't need it. I'm going home." Anna said, though she was scared knowing the risks, but she couldn't go against her religion or her father.
"You realize you'll have to sign an AMA form stating that you're leaving against medical advice." Meredith informed Anna.
"Fine."
"I know this is new and confusing. I called a social worker, and she's willing to come down and talk to you." Meredith said, hoping the young woman would take her up on it. She didn't have to listen to her father.
"Spare me your white girl cultural divide love. I grew up down the street from here. I play in a band. I went to U-Dub. I get it. But my father doesn't. He says no, it's no." Anna informed Meredith, she was not some lost little girl who was new to America. She knew this sounded crazy to others but, these were her and her family's beliefs.
"We're talking about your ability to ever walk again." Meredith stressed, reminding what Anna was jeopardizing with following her father's end-all be all decree.
"That's what you're talking about. I'm talking about my family. Have you ever even heard of the Hmong people? Our religion has got rules that are way old and way set in stone and way spiritual, and you don't mess with them. You don't anger the ancestors. Even if you pierce your togue and play in a band." Anna informed Meredith. She may be a typical American young woman in her twenties, but she still believed in her family's ways and traditions.
"What are the rules exactly?" Meredith asked, wondering if there would be a way to get Anna the help she needed without having to leave the hospital.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"All ICU patients are going to the South wing. All telemetry and step-down patients, North wing." Bailey instructed the nurse she was talking to, trying to keep her mind off her interns that were trapped inside the elevator with a critical patient.
"You paged me." Derek asked Bailey, as he came up to her side, as the nurse was leaving.
"Porn as pain Management?" Bailey asked, annoyed that Derek would even allow that.
Porn. In the hospital. Was he insane? How was that in any way appropriate?
"You met Henry? Yeah, there are a lot of different theories on how to treat pain." Derek informed Bailey with his McDreamy smile.
"Porn as pain Management?!" Bailey asked again incredulous a little louder.
"Look it's possible that Pornography, like art and music, can stimulate the brain to produce endrophines that minimize pain." Derek explained to the resident patiently.
"Porn as pain Management?" Bailey asked once again.
"I didn't prescribe it. It wasn't me. Take it up with the treating physician." Derek informed Bailey, he was just following what his physician had proscribed and it seemed to work for the man.
"If that man turns out to be some sort of sex weirdo, it's on you, that's all I'm saying. Oh, and your wife's looking for you." Bailey informed Derek.
"I know." Derek said with a sigh.
He was hoping he could avoid his wife his entire shift while he figured out what he wanted to do.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Derek." Meredith called as she raced up towards the attending, she had been looking for him, and she was just about to page him.
"Yes?"
"You need to talk to Anna's father. I'd do it myself, but I guess having testicles is a requirement." Meredith informed her ex-boyfriend seriously.
"What happened to social services?" Derek asked Meredith, wondering if she had followed up with them.
"According to Anna, they can't help us. Apparently, Anna's father believes she's missing something that she needs for surgery." Meredith informed Derek.
"Missing something? Missing what?" Derek asked. What could she be missing that would allow her to get the surgery she needed.
"One of her souls.We don't need a social worker, we need a Shaman." Meredith told the attending.
"A Shaman?" Derek asked shocked as Meredith nodded.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
After Verna got done with testing and she had gotten the results, Izzie made her way back to Verna and her husband.
"Cardio tells me that your cath went just fine." Izzie informed the couple.
"Is that much bruising normal?" Verna asked concerned about the bruising she got.
"Your wound looks good, Mrs. Bradley, and so the test results on your cath. You don't have any blockage in your arteries." Izzie informed the couple with a kind smile.
"Which means?" Lou asked concerned.
"You definately did not have a heart attack." Izzie informed the couple, much to their relief.
"So I can go home?" Verna asked Izzie.
"Not yet. Your EKG shows significant changes, and I'm gonna find out why before you leave the hospital." Izzie informed the couple.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Hey, Pete, what are you doing?" Alex asked Pete.
"I have to get home." Pete said, now delirious, as he tried to get up from the gurney.
"Pete, you're in a hospital." Alex said, trying to remind the young officer that was trying to get up.
"Pete, it's Dr. Sousa, I need you to stay still." Eddie said as they tried to get him to lay down.
"I need to get home. I need to get home." Pete kept repeating, but they were able to get him to lay down.
"What's his blood pressure?" Burke asked the interns.
"It's not reading. He's too agitated." Eddie said as she looked at the attending.
"How's his pulse?" Burke asked them, trying to gage what they needed to do.
"It's thready, but it's still there." George informed the attending.
"Do you any instruments in there?" Burke asked, hoping they had something.
"Just a code box and some gloves." Alex informed the attending this time.
"You didn't bring an open chest tray?" Burke asked sharply.
"No, we thought," Alex started to answer, but Burke cut him off.
"You don't have time for excuses. O'Malley, blood pressure?" Burke asked the other male intern.
"I've taken it three times." George said.
"And?"
"I can't hear a systolic over 50... He's gonna die." George said, realizing that it was a real possibility they were going to lose the young officer.
"No, no, don't say that Georgie...not yet." Eddie said, she refused to lose a patient without doing everything possible for him.
"Intubate him. I'll be right back." Burke told the three interns.
"Wait where are you going?" George asked as panic colored his tone.
"To get an instrument tray. You guys are gonna have to open up his chest." Burke informed them, which shocked the three interns as they shared a look.
They were going to do a surgery. Something most interns can't say they've ever done before. Sure there was the surgery the first day, but Eddie had a feeling that was more of a scare technique than actually preforming surgery. George had Burke in the room ready to take over. They were in an elevator, and unless it opened before they needed do open his chest, Burke could only instruct them.
"Are you sure about that?" Bailey asked Burke quietly, so that she wouldn't spook her interns.
"No." Burke answered just as quietly as he runs off to get what they would need.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"When's Burke coming back? When's Dr. Burke coming back?" George muttered, it felt like a lifetime since Burke had left. George manually intubated their patient.
"Oh, would you shut up." Alex asked agitated.
"I don't know, Georgie." Eddie said. "Hopefully soon."
At least she hope he did.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Derek found Mr. Chue, finally, outside the hospital smoking a cigar to calm his nerves.
"Mr. Chue! You want to take Anna home for a healing ritual?" Derek asked as he joined the man.
"When sickness comes it means one of our souls is missing. Anna needs to have her souls intact before she has surgery. She needs a Shaman." Mr. Chue explained to the doctor, shocked he knew what Anna needed.
"You could have told me that." Derek informed the man. He was a very open man to religion and traditions even if he didn't understand it.
"Why? So you would call me a fool?" Mr. Chue scoffed at the idea.
"I respect that you have traditions that I can't understand, but you're standing next to me in a three thousand dollar suit, so I also know you respect the fact that I'm telling you Anna needs the surgery in the next twenty-four hours if she's going to continue to walk. She can't leavethis hospital." Derek informed Mr. Chue, reading him correctly.
"She can't undergo surgery without her soul. She'd die." Mr. Chue said seriously.
"Alright then. We're jsut gonna have to get a Shaman, today. In the hospital." Derek said as if it was no big deal.
"Shanman's aren't listed in the yellow pages. Out shaman is 500 miles from here. You are an arrogant man." Mr. Chue informed Derek.
"No, I'm just a guy with access to a helicopter." Derek quipped back.
Mr. Chue hands Derek a cigar. Having seemingly accepted Derek's offer.
"Thank you." Derek said as he smelled it.
"Finding her soul won't be easy." Mr. Chue warned him.
"It never is." Derek said s he walks back towards the hospital entrance, to get the arrangements ready to get Mr. Chue's shaman.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"This is unconscionable. There's not enough power to move those elevators?" Webber asked as Bailey updated him on the status of everything going on in the hospital.
"They're doing what they can to replace the backup generator now. Fire department is standing by." Bailey informed the chief.
"All critical patients?" Webber asked.
"Move to South wing."
"Incoming trauma?" Webber asked.
"Rerouted to Mercy West." Bailey informed the chief, who nodded.
"Look at that backup generator should've been replaced last year." Webber complained to one of his favorite residents.
"Yes, Sir." Bailey agreed, but saying nothing else.
"Why didn't it happen?" Webber asked, knowing that Bailey knew everything that happened in this hospital, so she would know the answer.
"Chief, you'd... have to ask maintenance. I wouldn't know." Bailey said, awkwardly, not wanting to inform him the person he should be mad at is him.
"Dr. Bailey, you know everything. Tell me whose butt to kick." Webber ordered.
"That would be your butt, chief. You didn't authorize the replacement generators saving money for the new MRI machine. Um... I need to get on back on down to the... OR." Bailey said awkwardly and left the chief to kick himself in the butt.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Hey. This isn't gonna be too sterile. But we can still try. Prep and drape the patient." Burke said as he handed the three interns what they need; the drapes, gowns, and other equipment they needed.
Eddie, Alex, and George start to prep for surgery as quickly as possible.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Cristina was reading a file as she leaned against the nurse's station when Izzie joined her, and talked to the nurse working there.
"Hey, can you get me copies of all Verna Bradly's medical records and page me. I'll be on the OR floor." Izzie ordered the nurse who nodded, before getting to work once again.
"Hey, Where," Cristina started to ask as Izzie rushes off up the stairs as quickly as Meredith is coming down them.
"Hey, where are you two going so fast?" Cristina called after her two friends who seemed to be women on a mission.
"Burke is talking Eddie, George, and Alex threw heart surgery in the elevator." Izzie informed Cristina as she continued to ascend the stairs.
"Shepherd's setting up a Shaman healing ritual." Meredith called back as she was making her way down the hall.
"Rock on!" Izzie yelled.
Eddie, George, and Alex were going to do heart surgery in an elevator and Meredith had a Shaman Healing Ritual...and she is stuck with porn guy.
"I have porn guy." Cristina said shaking her head, annoyed she didn't have a better case.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
As Cristina made her way into Henry's room, the man in bed looked relieved to see her. He hoped she had a solution to help with his pain, because it was horrible.
"Help, please."
"Mr. Lamott, what wrong? Your pressure's elevated. Your pulse is racing. You're really in pain." Cristina asked almost in shock that he wasn't faking it. Porn had actually been managing his pain.
"What'd you think?" Henry asked sarcastically as he grimaced in pain.
"Are you telling me the porn actually sedated you?" Cristina asked shocked.
"What'd you think I was some kind of pervert watching that stuff in front of you." Henry asked offended. He wished he wasn't allergic to pain meds, because he knew what people thought of what he had to do to keep the pain manageable.
"Well, yes. Okay. Okay. You're allergic to most narcotics and nsaid. I suppose, uh, we could try droperidol and diphenhydramine." Cristina offered as she looked at his chart, trying to think of something to help the man.
"That put me into a coma last year." Henry informed her.
"Well, umm, I can get an anesthesiologist down here. Oh, no, but with your surgery tomorrow, I don't think he'll give you an epidural block." Cristina said as she was coming up with nothing to help the man who was clearly in pain.
"What am I gonna do." Henry asked in pain.
"Uh...Hold on." Cristina said as she started forming an idea, she just hoped no one ever found out she did this.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"We're really gonna do this?" Alex said to Eddie and George as they were all prepared and ready to work on Pete.
Burke reaches in to hand Alex the instruments.
"Take these." Burke ordered.
Alex almost seems to freeze. Understandable, this was way above their skills. As much as they wanted to be the ones preforming surgeries, they were still fairly new interns and they didn't expect to do any form of cutting until their second year.
"Karev take the scalpel." Burke said again.
"Alex, come on. Alex." George said.
Alex does nothing.
"I'll do it!" Eddie said as she grabbed the instruments from Burke's outstretched hand. "What do I do?"
"Make a large Anterolateral Midaxillary Incision in the fifth intercostal space." Burke told the intern who nodded.
"How - How large?" Eddie asked as she tried to think of the steps of this procedure she had read to keep herself calm and steady.
"As long as possible, you need to get two hands in there. It needs to be long and deep. Use the scissors if you have to." Burke informed her as Eddie took a deep breath to calm herself and nodded.
"Okay." Eddie said as she prepared to cut.
"But be sure you don't cut into the lungs and heart." Burke warned her.
"How can I be sure of that?" Eddie asked, she wished being a genius helped in this situation.
"You just have to be sure." Burke informed the girl who nodded seriously and started the first cut.
"We're not in Kansas anymore." George muttered to them, Eddie had to agree with that statement.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Your Shaman's late." Derek informed Mr. Chue, hoping the man would have arrived sooner, because Anna truly needed this surgery.
"My Shaman is never late." Mr. Chue informed Derek.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Sometime later, Eddie was preforming the surgery, rather well, under the watchful eye for Preston Burke. This was gaining just as much attention and crowd as Conrad's surgery did when he was in a similar position. Not, that the three interns in the elevator knew that.
"Can you guys see anything?" Izzie asked. "Hopefully Eddie is doing the cutting. Poor George doesn't have the steadiest hands."
"Izzie." Bailey warned.
"Yeah?"
"They can hear can hear you." Bailey informed her intern who snapped her mouth shut with a blush.
"Sousa. How you doing down there?" Burke asked, focusing on the three interns and their patient that were in the elevator.
"As good as we can be." Eddie said, as Burke nodded.
"Uh. Fire department is here. They can get the doors open." Bailey informed Burke.
"No, nobody moves. Nobody works on the elevator. I have an open chest in there. Keep them back until I give the word." Burke ordered seriously.
Bailey nodded and she quickly made her way to the fire department.
"Okay, guys, we're not ready yet." Bailey said as the fire department
"Sousa?" Burke asked focusing back on Eddie.
"I didn't cut the heart or the lungs. Dr. Burke, I didn't cut the heart or the lungs." Eddie informed the attending with a sigh of relief.
She had done it. She had successfully opened a man's chest.
"Good. Good, Sousa. Really good." Burke said relieved. "Now check for injuries and do a pericardiotomy."
"I'll need some lap pads, forceps, metzebaums, and satinsky clamps." Eddie said feeling more at ease now. And, her voice was more steady and secure.
"Yes, you will." Burke answered with a smile and pride in his eyes.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Cristina sits on the other bed beside Henry and gave him a very serious look as she was going to do her idea of describing a porno something that she never thought she'd have to do.
"You tell anyone I did this for you, not only will I kill you, I will sell your body parts for cash!" Cristina warned him threateningly.
Henry nodded. He hoped this worked.
"Okay, so, there were these women. Nurses. Three nurses. And they were naughty. They were really, really naughty. They were three naughty nurses. Saucy, even. They were saucy and bad and naughty. Three saucy bad naughty nurses. They were taking a shower together. Soaping each other up. And then this doctor walks in and he sees these three naughty bad nurses with these great big..." Cristina started.
God she hoped that the power came back on soon.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Mrs. Bradley, do you realize that you've been admitted to the hospital on this date for the past seven years." Izzie asked Verna seriously.
"Oh, that can't be. I don't remember the date exactly, but," Lou said, shocked, sure his wife has had some scares but on this date every time, it couldn't be possible.
"I have the medical records. On the date for the past seven years, you have what looks like a heart attacks." Izzie informed the couple.
"No. No. I know I've had some scares, but I don't-" Verna started to deny.
"Every year on this date?" Lou asked shocked.
Izzie nods as the couple lets that news sink in for a moment.
"Is there some significance to this date for you personally?" Izzie asked, hoping to find some reason why this might be happening on this day every year for the last seven years.
"No. Nothing." Verna said.
"What were you doing the first year, the first time you had a cardiac episode?" Izzie asked, hoping it might jog their memories.
"Oh, who can remember back that far?" Verna said.
"We were in the yard. I remember because our neighbor - What was his name?" Lou asked looking at his wife, who looked slightly uncomfortable.
"Ted."
"That's right. He died. Of an aneurysm, I think. And we watched those funeral home people took him away, and you had your first attack." Lou reminded his wife.
"And you were close to Ted?" Izzie asked the two of them.
"No, Oh we barely knew Ted." Verna denied, but Izzie felt like there was more to that.
"That was all very sad, but what does that have to do with Verna's heart?" Lou asked.
Lou was unaware of the look Izzie and Verna shared.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"I removed a small clot from the pericardium. No obvious cardiac injuries." Eddie informed Burke.
"Any changes in the vitals?" Burke asked Alex who was monitoring the vitals.
"BP's still too low to register on the monitor." Alex said.
"We need to cross clamp the aorta." Burke informed Eddie. "You might want to have O'Malley assist. Once we get you guys out of here, you're going to be check out by maternity."
Eddie nodded, she was a little put out she might miss the surgery, but her baby's health was important. She was kicking and moving, but she needed to know for curtain that all this stress hasn't started something.
"George." Eddie said as he nodded and looked at Burke for what he needed to do.
"Stick your hand in and bluntly dissect down until you feel two tube-like structures. Does oesophagus will be more medial and anterior." Burke instructed.
George did as Burke instructed and after a moment he seemed to find something.
"Um, I feel one tube that is easily collapsible and the other more muscular and spongy. I can feel the spine just underneath it." George informed Burke.
"Yes! You're touching the aorta." Burke said proud of George and Eddie, who were doing so well on something they weren't prepared for yet.
"I'm touching the aorta." George informed Eddie and Alex amazed.
Eddie smiled at George, excited for him, and Alex's smile was strained, kicking himself for freezing up.
"Wrap the index finger off your left hand around it Eddie and apply a satinsky clamp." Burke said as the two interns worked together.
"Got it! Wait, I think I can localize the bleeding. I think it's coming from the Inferior Vena Cava!" George informed Burke.
"Can you find the lesion?" Burke asked George.
"Yeah. Yeah. I think I can feel it. It's too far in to repair." George informed the attending feeling the lesion.
"How big is it?" Burke asked.
"Small. Maybe smaller than a dime." George informed the attending.
"Okay, O'Malley. I want you to take your finger and plug the hole." Burke said.
George did as he was told and with the lesion covered, he started to feel the heart fill.
"I think I can feel his heart starting to fill more. It's beating a little stronger." George said.
"Excellent!" Burke said, relieved. "Keep your finger there."
"Now what?" Eddie asked the attending.
"That's it."
"That's it?" George repeated.
Burke rolls over on his back. Relief filling his entire body. He was impressed and shocked. Eddie Sousa with the help of George O'Malley had successfully done a solo surgery.
"I just stand here with my finger plugging the hole?" George asked, unsure.
"Until we can get you out of that elevator and into an OR. Dr. Bailey, you can tell the firemen to get my guys outta there." Burke said as he rolled back over to look at his interns.
"Will do." Bailey said, a proud resident. Two of her residents did her proud, she needed to get Alex over his surgery shell-shock. Then she turned to the waiting firemen. "Okay, we're ready."
"Sousa?" Burke said as Eddie turned to look at him with big brown eyes full of excitement of doing a job well done.
"Yes, sir?" Eddie asked.
"You and O'Malley. You both just flew solo." Burke informed the genius intern.
"Thank you, Sir." Eddie said with pride.
She and George shared a bright smile. They had done it.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Okay, Anna, we're going to shut off the PCA pump now, which means you'll be in a lot of pain for the duration of the-" Meredith said as she was shutting off the PCA pump.
"The healing ritual." Anna finished for the intern.
"Are you okay with that?" Meredith asked her seriously.
"Yeah. I can't find my soul if I'm medicated." Anna said seriously, then she tried to lighten the air. "No pain, no gain. Right?"
"Well it's not just for your father. You believe it too, right?" Meredith asked, understanding now.
"I know it sounds like a load of crap, but watch the ritual, you'll see." Anna informed Meredith.
"See what?"
"The moment it happens." Anna replied as the Shaman entered with her parents.
"I'm ready." Anna said.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Cristina was now laying on the bed she had been sitting on, not looking at Henry as she was making a porn about the naughty nurses.
"'Oh yes, I'm so very, very naughty,' Bianca said as she, uh, dropped her stethoscope. 'Me too', said Crystal as she snapped on her surgical glove, and then there was Marta.."" Cristina said, she happened to look over to see Bailey was at the doorway.
Bailey was looking at Cristina confused appalled at what she was hearing. Cristina shrugs and gestures at Henry. Bailey looks at the two of them with slightly beady eyes then walks away. It was better not to know or think about it, was Bailey's philosophy at the moment.
"Where was I?" Cristina asked Henry, leaning back again.
"Marta."
"'Oh yes, Marta. She was the naughtiest nurse of all because she knew how...'" Cristina started again, and much to her relief the power comes back on and so did Henry's porn.
"Oh, thank God." Cristina cried.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Meredith and Derek were in the hallway looking inside Anna's room. Anna was lying in bed with her eyes closed as family members stand around her. The Shaman is performing the ritual. He is burning a symbolic paper around her, everywhere.
"How long do you think it takes to retrieve a lost soul?" Derek asked Meredith.
"I don't know." Meredith said honestly.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Izzie peaks her head into the elevator with a bright smile on her face.
"Way to go, Eddie, George!" She congratulated the two, but pointedly ignored Alex.
"I have my finger in a heart." George said excitedly.
"Very cool." Izzie agreed. "You doing good Eddie?"
"Yep." Eddie said as she leaned against the wall. "I want a smoothie and the biggest plate of French Fries, Cheese Curds, and Funyons though."
"I'll let a nurse know and see what they can do." Izzie informed her, after she and Alex shared a look and she disappeared.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Izzie, after giving Eddie's order to them, to see if it was possible, now sat alone by Verna's bedside.
"You have Stress Cardiomyopathy." Izzie informed Verna.
"Cardiomyopathy? What? Can you tell me what that is?" Verna asked confused and scared.
"It's Ted." Izzie said.
"Ted?"
"Ted. Not just a neighbor you barely knew, was he?" Izzie asked knowingly.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Verna denied.
"Because every year on the day he died, you got a rush of adrenaline caused by stress. Your pressure rises, you have chest pains, and you end up here." Izzie informed Verna.
"Twenty-seven years. I loved the man next door and he loved me. I know how this is gonna sound... Ted was my soulmate. And then he just died." Verna admitted sadly.
"It's grief. Your heart stops because you're grieving for Ted." Izzie said, letting that sink in.
"So what do I do next? I mean, how do you treat it?" Verna asked, desperate for an answer.
"I wish I knew." Izzie said honestly.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
It took about twenty-five minutes for the firemen to open the elevator. Eddie was greeted by Addison with a wheelchair in hand, and a stern look that meant Eddie had to sit in it. While, Burke and his OR team swarmed O'Malley, Alex, and Pete and rushed him off to finish the surgery.
She was brought to maternity and Addison gave her an in-depth check up, including yet another ultra sound to make sure that the baby wasn't in any more of distress. But, everything seemed good. There was no cramping, contractions, or blood. And, her baby was just chilling out and kicking her mom happily during the surgery.
"You're off duty for the rest of the day." Addison informed the intern who was quickly becoming one of her favorites. Eddie looked at her wide eyed, she was fine, but she knew it would be no use fighting against Addison.
"Not complete bedrest, but you and your baby need to relax for a few hours. Get some food and drink, and I will give you another exam before you go home." Addison said, as Conrad all but rushed into the room, sliding to the door.
"I'm on call." Eddie said, it wasn't the best birthday gift, but she had the next day off starting at five am tomorrow, and she planned to celebrate then.
"I will see how you are. But, if I allow you to work, you will be taking it easy. Lots of breaks." Addison said.
"Sounds fair." Eddie said.
"Dr. Quinn," Addison greeted the attending, "I am currently with a patient..."
"Eddie! Are you okay?" Conrad asked concerned.
"It's fine Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd." Eddie said, and after a moment decided finally inform someone other than her friends, "He's my brother. I'm fine Conrad really, please tell him I'm fine."
"Uh.." Addison said shocked, having no clue Eddie was related to Conrad or Alec at all. In fact she had no idea they had a sister, she thought Alec and Conrad only had two other brothers, and she had known Alec professionally and personally for years.
"It's a new development and a very long story. We're half-siblings, paternal. Her mother never let my father know until many years later. And, we only found out a few weeks ago, when she accidentally ran into our dad." Conrad explained as he looked for any signs of something wrong from his sister.
When he had heard she had been one of the interns to do the surgery he was so proud, yet worried. He felt the same deep worry that he felt whenever his brothers were in any sort of dangerous situation. And, that type of stress could have really impacted her and the baby, and he wanted to make sure she was alright.
"She is fine." Addison assured Conrad, over some of the shock now. "She's order to relax for the rest of her shift, and before she goes, I am going to check her out again, and if all her vitals throughout the day are good, I'll see about her doing her on-call shift."
"Good." Conrad said with a nod. "Thank you, Addison really."
Addison nodded and left the two siblings to be with each other for a moment, seeing as Conrad most likely had to go back down to the Pit sooner rather than later.
"I'm fine, Conrad." Eddie said seriously as Conrad read over the chart.
"I know. Sorry, but I hear you're now as badass as I am. You preformed open heart surgery." Conrad said with a smile.
"Well, I guess it runs in the family." Eddie said with a smile. "This was one of the coolest birthdays ever. I don't any other twenty-one years old can say they performed open heart surgery on their birthday in an elevator."
"No they cannot." Conrad agreed.
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After finishing Pete's surgery, George is being thank and congratulated by numerous police officers. Apparently, while he was preforming surgery, they had stopped by with flowers for Eddie and gave her their thanks for saving their brother-in-blue and to make sure she was okay.
George had no idea that Alex was watching him slightly jealous.
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Henry is laying in bed and Cristina and Marie, Henry's wife, are speaking to each other from across the other bed.
"How do you put up with it? I mean, "Nasty, Naughty, Nurses 4"? And I'm assuming 1, 2, and 3?" Cristina asked the wife.
"He's my Henry."
"I know. But don't you find it misogynistic and degrading and kind of... twenty-four hours of porn? Seriously, that's your life?" Cristina asked shocked that she seemed so okay with this.
"I'm grateful for it. It takes away his pain. And, see, the thing is, Henry- Henry takes away my pain." Marie informed her with a smile.
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After Anna's successful surgery Meredith waited for Derek in the scrub room. She needed to get something off her chest. She needed him to know she was willing to fight for this relationship if he was. She needed to let him know she loved him before he decided whether or not he chose to go back to Addison or not.
Especially since Addison made it clear she still wanted Derek.
Time to throw her hat into the ring.
"I lied. I'm not out of this relationship. I'm in. I'm so in it's humiliating because here I am begging--" Meredith started, as Derek looked at her wide eyed and shocked, afraid he already lost her.
"Meredith."
"Just shut up. You say 'Meredith' and I yell, remember?" Meredith reminded him of what he said the night before.
"Yeah." Derek agreed.
"Okay, here it is. Your choice, it's simple. Her or me. And I'm sure she's really great. But Derek, I love you. In a really, really big - pretend to like your taste in music, let you eat the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over my head outside your window, unfortunate way that makes me hate you love you. So pick me. Choose me. Love me. I'll be at Joe's tonight. So if you do decide to sign the papers, meet me there." Meredith said speaking from her soul, bearing it all before Derek.
Now the ball was in his court. And, all she could hope for was the he chose her.
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Joe pours Meredith a shot of tequila. She had been here for almost thirty minutes and Derek has yet to enter.
"You think he'll show?" Meredith asked Joe.
"He'll show." Joe promised.
The door opened, and Meredith turned excitedly at the door when the bell dinged. Only to be disappointed that it wasn't Derek, but George.
"Hey." George said as he came to join them.
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Derek was sitting in the lobby at the front of the hospital, in deep thought, when he noticed Miranda Bailey out of scrubs in a beautiful green formal dress and heels.
"How's your patient? The one that got her soul back?" Bailey asked Derek.
"She's gonna be fine." Derek informed her.
From outside the hospital, a man knocked on the glass to get Bailey's attention. She smiles and waves at the man.
"Hey. Gotta go." Bailey said to the attending who had very big choice to make.
"Look at you." Derek said, noticing her dressed up for the first time. "You look like a girl. Is that your date?"
"It's my husband." Bailey informed the attending who looked shocked. He had no idea she was married.
"You're married?"
"Ten years today." Bailey confirmed.
"How come I didn't know you were married?" Derek asked.
"You never asked. You haven't signed those divorce papers yet, have you?" Bailey asked knowingly.
"Bailey... Tell me what to do." Derek asked, which caused both of them to laugh.
"God, why does this have to be so hard?" Derek asked the resident.
"It's not hard. It's painful But it's not hard. Come on, you know what to do already. If you didn't, you wouldn't be in so much pain." Bailey said sagely.
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Pain, you just have to ride it out, hope it goes away on its own, hope the wound that caused it heals.
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Burke is laying in the top bunk in his favorite on-call room. He was awoken by Cristina turning on the light and flipping on a light.
"So here's where we are: I work too much, I'm competitive, I'm always right, and I snore." Cristina informed the attending.
"What?" Burke asked sleepy and confused.
"I'm trying here." Cristina said, referring to their earlier conversation. She wanted him. This.
"Oh. Ohhh." Burke said waking up fully.
"Yeah."
"So?" Burke asked.
"Okay. We're a couple. Whatever. Don't make a big deal about it." Cristina said somewhat annoyed, she turns to walk out the door, holds the doorknob for just a moment. Before she turns back and jumps on the bottom bunk of the bed to reach him, and kiss him. They both smile as Cristina turns off the light and walks out, to let Burke get some sleep.
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There are no solutions, no easy answers. You just breathe deep and wait for it to subside.
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Addison had allowed Eddie to be on call as long as she took it easy and if she was going to be pulled into a surgery, she would need to take a break every couple of hours to rest for a little bit. So, Eddie was sitting at the nurse's station, while working on charts with a few gifts of food from the nurses to celebrate her birthday.
And, Addison also made Conrad, who was also on-call to watch her. So, she knew that those orders would be followed, because her brother was one of the biggest mother hen's besides herself that she met.
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Meredith, Izzie, George, and Cristina were sitting at the bar, with drinks trying to unwind from a long day.
"He's not coming. You don't think he's coming." Meredith said.
"He might come." Izzie said trying to sound hopeful.
"Yeah. You never know." Cristina agreed as she took a sip of her drink.
"He's definitely coming" George said.
Izzie elbows him.
"Ow. Do you want her doing tequila shots all night? I'll be the one cleaning up the vomit. Besides, I touched a heart today," George said with a grin, then turned to Cristina, "Porn-y."
The bell over the door rings again. They all look...it is not McDreamy.
The more time that passed, the less she thought he was coming.
And that broke her heart.
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Most of the time pain can be managed,
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"Pour me another one." Meredith ordered Joe.
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but sometimes the pain gets you when you least expect it,
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"I'm telling you, any second." Joe said to Meredith trying to give her some hope. But, it was looking less and less likely.
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hits way below the belt and doesn't let up.
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Addison finds Derek at the same place that Bailey had left him. In the hospital lobby.
"I have been looking everywhere for you." Addison informed her estranged husband.
"Well... You found me." Derek said.
"You gonna sign those divorce papers or not?" Addison asked curious.
They stare at each other.
Derek had to make the decision that would definitely hurt whichever woman he didn't choose. But he couldn't hide from this anymore.
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Pain, you just have to fight through, because the truth is you can't outrun it, and life always makes more.
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Happy 21st Birthday Eddie! How cool is it that she got to preform surgery on her birthday, she is Heart in the Elevator girl. What did you guys think about this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it.