AN: Welcome to Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)! We are getting closer to the end of season 2 and the beginning of season 3! I hope everyone is enjoying this story. This chapter is more of a filler chapter than anything, and not my favorite chapter....but I worked hard on it!
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We all go through life like bulls in a china shop. A chip here, a crack there. Doing damage to ourselves, to other people.
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It had been a little more than a week since Meredith and Finn had their first date and they had three more dates and she had once again slept over. She had slept over after the first date, mainly because it was so late and she had her shirt in Finn's washing machine.
"So, uh, I don't cook." Meredith informed him.
"Nobody asked you to cook." Finn told her.
"I know, I'm just saying that, you know, I don't cook, so you don't have to cook. I don't expect you to cook for me." Meredith rambled.
She had never had anyone, Derek included, cook for her. So, him being adamant to cook for her was something new.
"Okay." Finn said, as he moved her, to sit at the island. "You. Sit there. Sit down. I want you to drink this and try really hard to act like you aren't scary and damaged."
He handed her a cup of coffee once she sat down and he then resumed cooking.
"I'm not scary and damaged." Meredith denied.
Dark and twisty. Yes.
Scary and damaged. No.
"Yeah, you are." Finn countered.
"No. I'm not scary or damaged." Meredith denied again.
"Mm-hmm. All right. Why don't you tell me about your family?" Finn asked, as Meredith went blank.
She didn't like talking about her family.
An emotionally unavailable mother who, yes, cared for her, but often saw her as a burden and a hinderance to her career, who was sick with early onset Alzheimer's, and barely recognized her, and was more excited to see Richard Webber than her.
A father who left. That didn't fight for her. She was sure while they were divorcing he could have demanded some custody of her. Instead, he left her alone with her mother in Boston and moved on with his life. He started whole new family without her. With a new wife, who seemed nice enough Meredith supposed. And, he replaced her with two new daughters: Lexie and Molly.
Her extended family wasn't much better. She didn't know much or anything about the Grey side of her family, because after her mother left Boston, they never contacted her, if they were did, they stopped before she could truly remember. Her mom's sister, was around for a while, having lived in New York and often visited them. But, by the time Meredith was a teenager, her aunt lived in Paris, living with some artist.
"Okay. Me not wanting to talk about my family does not make me scary or damaged." Meredith informed him.
"Okay. Tell me about the last guy you slept with." Finn said.
Okay...another thing she defiantly didn't want to bring up. She didn't want to explain the whole Derek or George situation.
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The problem is trying to figure out how to control the damage we've done, or that's been done to us.
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Meredith and Izzie were in the bathroom, getting ready for their morning, as Meredith informed Izzie all about her time with Finn.
"What did you say to him?" Izzie asked with interest as she put on a whitening strip.
"Nothing. I fled the scene." Meredith admitted as she plucked her eyebrows.
"You didn't tell him about George or Derek?" Izzie asked her voice muffled.
Meredith shook her head.
"No." She said.
It wasn't a topic she ever wanted to bring up, until they had been dating longer. Her miserable love life might scare him away.
"Hmm. You like him." Izzie said with a wide grin her voice still muffled as she keep her mouth opened slightly.
"I could like him." Meredith corrected.
She didn't know what she felt for the vet. Other than enjoying spending time with him and he made her feel something for the first time since Derek.
"Is the sex any good?" Izzie asked as she sat down on the bath tub edge.
She was sorely lacking and she wanted to live vicariously through Meredith. She didn't bother asking Cristina because she would never tell her about her and Burke, and honestly, she didn't want to know. Eddie had basically been a nun the entire time she knew her! And the girl turned more heads than she did. A lot of men flirted with her, even when she was pregnant! And she did nothing!
If Eddie hadn't been pregnant, she would assume the girl genius either didn't think about romance or was socially awkward like most geniuses you see in movies and tv shows, no matter how kind she was. Eddie was also busy being a single mom to even flirt with some of the handsome men who seemed to fall at her feet. And, she shuddered to think about what George and Callie did.
And, after the whole mess with Alex. She didn't want to hear about his sexual escapades. And, she still hated him for trying to interfere with her and Denny.
So, Meredith was the safest option.
"I don't know." Meredith said honestly.
"Four dates and two sleepovers at his place and no sex?" Izzie asked shocked.
Meredith was actually sticking to the celibacy thing.
"Not even a kiss good night." Meredith informed her roommate seriously.
She wasn't going to mess up this relationship with sex. She did that with Derek, and he turned out to be married and with the whole George incident...she was better off being single.
"Oh, I am proud. I am like a proud mama." Izzie said, with a wide smile.
Maybe Meredith was growing up. Her roommate had come a long way from picking up random men at the bar!
"Shut up." Meredith said.
Callie came into the bathroom, naked except for a pair of lacy red underwear. Unable to hold her pee any longer. She wondered why Izzie and Meredith had decided to have a conversation in the only bathroom used between Izzie and George's room. The downstairs bathroom was being occupied by George and the other bathroom was in Meredith's room and she didn't feel comfortable just going into Meredith's room without permission.
And, George said that there was no privacy anywhere in the frat house, so she assumed running in to pee would be fine, and she could wash her hands downstairs.
Especially, she all of George's friends, except for Eddie disliked her. And, while they hid it behind polite smiles and sarcastic or placating comments. Izzie and Meredith in particular. They were the catty mean girls of high school. And, at least Yang was honest and didn't hide her like or dislike of someone.
"Morning." Callie said awkwardly as she made her way to the toilet and quickly went to the bathroom then leaves.
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Sometimes the damage catches us by surprise.
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"Oh, my God. Did that just happen?" Meredith asked Izzie, with a shocked giggle.
"I'm having a seizure. I am clearly mid-seizure. I'm seizing." Izzie commented.
"Oh, my God." Meredith said as she looked at Izzie with shock.
"She didn't even wash her hands." Izzie said, not thinking about the fact that they were monopolizing the area and they weren't as sly as they thought they were with their comments.
"Oh, my God." Meredith said again.
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Sometimes we think we can fix the damage.
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Frankie Sousa-Sloan felt much better, giggling happily, as Eddie sang "A Dream is A Wish Your Heart Makes" as she danced around their apartment.
Eddie was happy that her daughter was feeling better. She had officially survived Frankie's first flu, and she couldn't help but feel relieved.
Frankie clearly enjoyed feeling better and her mom's good mood as she giggle and smiled.
Eddie caught sight of the clock.
"Okay little miss, we need to get going." Eddie said as she pressed a few kisses onto her daughter's head.
"Yes we do." Eddie said in an excited voice. "Let's go."
Frankie cooed happily as Eddie put her in the car seat and went about gathering her purse, diaper bag, and car keys.
Picking Frankie's carrier up by the handle the two made their way to the hospital. Eddie had a feeling that today was going to be a long day....she just hoped she was wrong.
When she arrived at the hospital, she ran into her brother, who was coming in for his own shift of the day.
"Good morning." Conrad said with a wide smile. "I see someone is feeling better today."
Conrad had stayed with Eddie and Frankie for two days with in the thick of it, and he was glad to see his youngest niece seemed to be feeling a lot better as she sat in her car seat reaching for the dangling toys on them.
"Yep." Eddie said with a grin. "She is back to her normal and happy self."
"Good, hi Frankie girl." Conrad said as Frankie's blue eyes found her uncle's and giggled.
Conrad felt his heart melt a little. He was so glad she was feeling better. He had been worried for both Eddie and Frankie. It was good to see them both in good spirits.
"I've got to drop her off and then get ready for rounds, so I'll see you later?" Eddie asked.
"Of course. You're on my service today." Conrad said, having beaten Addison to getting her on his service.
As much as Eddie enjoyed being on neonatal, she was still an intern, and Conrad thought she needed to be exposed to various specialties to keep herself sharp.
"Cool! I'm looking forwards to it." Eddie said as they parted ways.
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A few hours into their shift, George and Izzie were both getting dressed in yellow trauma gowns as they made their way towards the ambulance bay. And, Izzie was complaining to George about Izzie.
"All I'm saying, George, is that if she needs to pee she could as least wear a bra. Or maybe wait until she's alone. And for the love of every sanitary, could she just wash her hands? She's a surgeon." Izzie complained as she ate her apple.
"You said yourself you guys were blocking the sink. I think you're exaggerating." George said rolling his eyes.
"She peed. Naked peeing." Izzie complained as they walked up to their fellow interns who were already waiting.
"Ask Meredith. Meredith?" Izzie said as she tried to get Meredith to confirm the story.
Eddie, Meredith, and Cristina were leaning against the hospital wall, while Alex seemed to have pent up energy and had been pacing.
Eddie rolled her eyes. Callie had told her what happened and she wanted to slap Izzie. How much of a bitch could she be? She had tried to get Eddie in on this bashing antics she had and Eddie had shut her down, much to Izzie's annoyance. She couldn't believe how juvenile Izzie was acting, when Eddie herself was much younger than her, and seemed to treat others the way she wanted to be treated. Izzie obviously never grew past high school and was your stereotypical mean girl.
George and Meredith said nothing. The two still weren't talking, even though George had moved back into the frat house once again.
"That's right, I forgot, you're not talking to her." Izzie complained.
Even though George was back, things were still not back to normal, much to her dismay. Why couldn't Meredith just apologize and George see that Callie wasn't good enough for him, and then everything could get back to normal.
"Oh!" George said.
"If you were she would tell you that Callie crosses the line. So crossed the line. So freaking crossed." Izzie complained.
"Oh. We're still pretending that you're not seeing a patient, right?" Alex commented scathingly as he glared at the blonde.
He noticed Eddie give him a sad smile. She seemed to be the only one that cared that he was hurting. That hadn't flocked to Izzie's side. That Izzie broke his heart, all to be person whom she could loose her medical license for if she continued.
You don't date patients. Especially if you are the one treating them.
Izzie with a dark look on her face threw an apple at Alex, but her aim was horrible and it missed him.
"People, what's with all the evil misery? Huh? Live and let live." Cristina said, happy.
Way too happy. And, she got a lot of strange looks from her friends, who was used to her typical brand of seriousness. Eddie and Meredith saw her like this when she was in an extremely good mood or drunk, but she was rarely in this good of a mood.
"You're cheerful." George said poking her face trying to see if she was okay.
"Oh, come on." Cristina said shrugging George off.
"You are. How's that possible?" Izzie asked shocked.
"I scrubbed in on a four hour parasophageal hernia last night. Then I got laid. And now, three ambulances are coming in full of bloody broken car crash victim, all who need to be cut open." Cristina said as he started to jump around and dance. "So, I'm cheery! I'm cheery! I'm cheery!"
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And sometimes the damage is something we can't even see.
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"I'm cheerful!" Cristina cheered as she accidentally hit Derek who was walking into the hospital, looking like he was in a bad mood.
"Sorry, sir, I..." Cristina started to apologize, embarrassed.
"Hey." Meredith said when Derek's eyes found her's.
Something was off with the usually dreamy doctor. He seemed like McDreary than McDreamy.
"How's my dog?" Derek asked her shortly, in greeting.
"Much better. Finn's running tests." Meredith informed him as Derek started to walk away.
"Good." Derek said shortly.
"Our dog." Meredith corrected.
"What?" Derek asked as he turned to face Meredith.
"Our dog. You said "my dog." He's our dog." Meredith informed him, trying to figure out what was wrong with him.
The two hadn't interacted at all since they ran into each other at the vet on Meredith's first date with Finn. Was he angry about that? What did he expect? For her to never move on and watch as he lived happily ever whatever with Addison?
"Yeah, whatever." Derek muttered
"Are you mad at me or something?" Meredith asked, as the other interns tried not to watch like a bad train accident.
"Now's not the time." Derek muttered as he walked away.
"What's up with McAss?" Eddie asked her friend.
"No clue." Meredith said with a sigh as she looked at her younger friend with a lost expression.
"If this is about McVet, he has no reason to be angry. He chose Addison, don't let him treat you like your the problem. He is." Eddie said, as Meredith sent her a small smile and nods.
Eddie was right if Derek was jealous or mad, it wasn't on her. It was on him. He was sleeping in the bed he made. And, if he didn't like it....then too bad. She couldn't wait for him anymore. She wasn't that girl. She deserved to be happy....and Finn was making her happy.
But, the train of thought was quickly stopped when the first ambulance arrived.
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"Twenty five-year-old restrained driver Noah Reynolds. Vitals stable. Chief complaint: right knee pain." Izzie informed Conrad who was in charge of the pit.
"Curtain three." Conrad said as Izzie quickly steered her patient towards where Conrad directed along with a few paramedics and nurses.
"Noah, you still alive." Eddie and Cristina's patient, Noah's wife, Melanie, called from her own bed.
"I'm still alive, baby!" Noah called out. Then said to Izzie; "My wife's side took all of the impact. Her parents were in the other car. Some jerk slammed into them and then they slammed into us."
"On three. One. Two. Three." Izzie counted as they moved Noah onto a bed.
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"Twenty two-year-old pregnant restrained passenger T-boned on her side. Prolonged extrication in the field. BP 90 over 50. Pulse in the 80s." The paramedic informed Conrad.
"Trauma room one." Conrad ordered as Cristina, Eddie, and the paramedics pushed her towards Trauma one.
"Trauma? No, I'm fine. Really. You don't have to go to all that trouble, mercy no. I am fine. The air bags went off. If you could just check on my baby and the rest of my family. My husband." Melanie said.
"We will, but we also need to check on you." Eddie said.
But, Melanie wasn't listening, and she called out to Noah with a thick southern drawl.
"Noah? You saw Mama breathing, right? And Daddy? Where the hell's Daddy? Mama and Daddy are still alive, right?"
"They're in the next ambulance right behind us." Noah called back.
"They're still alive, right?" Melanie asked.
"Please don't move, ma'am." Eddie said, worried about her and the baby, they had taken the brunt of the impact.
"Mama and Daddy, I need to know." Melanie said.
"Yeah, I'll ask someone about...Mama." Cristina promised.
"And Daddy." Melanie said.
"And daddy. They are in good hands here," Eddie promised, "let us focus on you and the baby okay?"
Melanie nodded as she watched, as much as she could the two doctors prepping the materials they needed.
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"Driver and front-seat passenger both early 50s, both restrained, both stable. The passenger has some leg and arm pain, the driver is complaining of chest pain." George informed Conrad as he lead in a gurney containing Jim, whom Conrad had to assume was "daddy" with Alex helping wheel in Betty, who was "mama".
"Dang it all to heck. Excuse my French, honey, but I need some whatever kind of horse pills you've got because this hurts like the dickens!" Betty exclaimed in a thick southern drawl.
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"Uh, that would be Mama?" Cristina asked Melanie who looked relieved.
"Mama! You okay?" Melanie called out.
"I am in pain." Betty, said.
"Get off. Get off!" Jim said as he fought George. He needed to check on his wife and little girl. He needed to make sure his family was okay.
"Sir, I need to clear your spine." George said, trying to push him back into bed.
"My spine is fine and you can sew up my head later. Where's my girl?" Jim demanded.
"Daddy?" Melanie yelled.
"Betty?" Jim called.
"Jim?" Noah called out worriedly.
"Mel?" Betty called for her daughter.
"Mama?" Melanie called out in response.
"The hillbilly picnic." Bailey said to herself as she and Rory Burkhardt entered the ER.
"No kidding." Rory said, having grown up in the Deep South, in Louisiana, was not shocked seeing this type of scene.
Jim ran past the doctors trying to stop him, and into his daughter's room.
"Could everybody shut up for a minute? I'm trying to find a fetal beat, hold on." Eddie ordered as she was using the fetal monitor to hopefully find the beating heartbeat of Melanie's baby.
"Is the baby ok?" Melanie asked worriedly.
"Hold on. The baby's heart rate is 152 and doing strong. It's...it's ok." Cristina said reading out the diagnostics.
Everyone took a deep breath of relief. The baby was okay, and hopefully the mother would be as well.
"They're both good. They're good." Jim called out to his wife and son-in-law.
"Thank the Lord. Thank the Lord they're all right." Betty cried in relief.
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"Dr. Bailey, Dr. Quinn, another car crash victim." Meredith said, coming in with their last patient, who had just arrived.
"That's him! That's the guy who hit us." Betty exclaimed getting Jim riled up in justifiable anger.
"I'll kill him, I'm gonna get you." Jim called, but he was stopped by Richard Webber and Conrad Quinn.
"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa." Webber said.
"You son of a bitch." Jim spat.
"Big Jim, just hold your horses. He's hurt. He's already hurt." Betty cried.
"Good!" Jim said.
"Daddy?" Melanie asked shocked.
"Don't ask me to be neighborly! He slammed into us." Jim snapped, he would never forgive this man.
"Trauma three. Page Ortho. O'Malley, give her a hand." Bailey ordered the former model and George.
"I'll cover Neuro, Dr. Shepherd will be in surgery soon." Rory informed Conrad nodded as she went to check over the car crash victims.
"What happened?" Meredith's patient, Marshall, asked confused.
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"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you think you are you doing, young man?" Betty demanded as Alex tried to examine her.
"I'm just trying to examine you." Alex informed her.
"I don't think so." Betty said, then whispered; "I don't have any panties on. I do not know you well enough to let you see my good girl. Get me a lady doctor."
"I need a chick over here!" Alex called out exasperated as Bailey made her way over to them.
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"What happened?" Marshall asked Meredith and Derek.
It had turned out it was all hands on deck, and Derek pushed his surgery back so they had the OR's needed. And, as fate would have it, he was looking over Meredith's patient.
"Marshall Stone, surgical intern at Mercy West." Meredith informed the attending, showing him the badge.
"What happened?" Marshall asked again.
"Page Ortho to look at his wrist and let CT know we're coming." Derek ordered as Meredith nodded.
"Yes, Dr. Shepherd." Meredith said.
"Marshall, I'm going to say three words to you, ok? And then I want you to repeat them back to Dr. Grey. Can you do that?" Derek asked the intern.
"Okay." Marshall said.
"Okay. Bat, orange, car. You think you can remember that?" Derek asked.
"Mm-hmm." Marshall hummed.
"Good. Okay. Here." Derek said handing Meredith his chart. "He has a closed head injury. Watch for vomiting, confusion and loss of consciousness, okay?"
"All right." Meredith agreed.
"Good." Derek said as he started to leave.
"Derek?" Meredith asked concerned.
"Not now. Let me know when you get the CT report back." Derek said as he left.
"Marshall,...can you remember those words?" Meredith asked, focusing on her patient now.
"What happened?" Marshall asked.
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George, Izzie, Alex, Conrad, and Bailey were in the CT Viewing room.
"And this is the father, Big Jim. I don't call him Big Jim. The family, they call him Big Jim." George rambled.
"Oh, stupid hicks." Alex commented.
"Really? Being Southern makes you stupid? Do you know that he owns half of Alabama." George asked the other intern.
"Yeah. And I bet he even washes his hands after he pees." Izzie snidely comments to George.
"That's uncalled for." George commented.
"This is a place of business Dr. Stevens, so keep any personal complaints from outside of work and catty behavior to yourself, this is a hospital not a high school. Act like it." Conrad said, which caused Izzie to flush. Conrad had made it clear that Izzie wasn't his favorite intern. Even before the whole quints fiasco. He found her to be stuck in high school and complained about doing intern tasks.
"Discharge the mother, discharge the father." Bailey ordered to the group who nodded.
"Yes, Dr. Bailey." George said as he left to go do just that.
"Karev, get the husband to the OR for surgery." Conrad said, as Addison entered, having been looking for Karev.
"Dr. Karev, there you are. You're supposed to be up on OB/GYN rounding on my patients." Addison said.
She had hoped to have Eddie on her service as well today but Conrad beat her to the punch. But, Karev could handle it...even if he didn't want to.
"Oh, yeah, I got paged. 911. Pregnant mom. Car accident. Very serious." Alex said, not wanting to work with the red haired attending who was trying to make his life hell.
"Pity. I've got three surgeries on the board. I was gonna ask you to scrub in, but I guess you should stay by that pregnant lady's side all day. You see to it, Dr. Bailey?" Addison said, as Alex felt deflated, even though he hated OB/GYN and Addison, he loved surgeries.
"Karev, go find your patient. Stevens, scrub in on Noah's patella fracture." Bailey changed her orders, much to Alex's shock.
"The She-Shepherd just walks in here and pulls me off surgery?" Alex asked.
He hated Addison Shepherd. She was definitely Satin. He didn't do anything--besides warn Chris Ward about what his wife had Addison do--she was punishing him for getting caught. He didn't convince her to do it...if he had, he would have tried to talk her out of it.
"You burn the She-Shepherd, she burns back. Go." Conrad said as Alex stormed out.
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Cristina and Eddie were getting Melanie into the CT machine.
"The CT won't hurt the baby or nothing, right?" Melanie asked them concerned for her baby.
"No, it won't hurt the baby, Melanie." Eddie assured the pregnant woman who insisted she'd be called Melanie by her and Cristina.
"One, two, three, up." Cristina said as she, Eddie, and a nurse moved Melanie to the CT machine.
"I was having a shower today. A baby shower. That's why Mama and Daddy are in town. Because I'm having a baby. How nice is that?" Melanie asked them.
"It is." Eddie said with a grin.
"Nice." Cristina agreed, not really knowing what to do or say.
Cristina never understood baby showers. She had gone to Eddie's baby shower, and had spent most of the time drinking and mocking things, but went and stayed because she loved Eddie and she was her girl genius and Frankie was her baby Einstein.
"Isn't it?" Melanie said with a happy smile.
"Mm-hmm." Cristina said.
Just then Alex entered.
"What are you doing here?" Cristina asked the evil spawn.
"I'm captain of the vagina squad." Alex commented.
Eddie sighed. Alex had called her to tell her about Addison punishing him because she had made the choice to do an undocumented surgery on Rose Ward, who had begged Addison to tie her tubes under the table. She had done so without any proof, and got into some legal trouble. Rose had told her husband there were complications instead of keeping her mouth shut, and just never having another kid and saying "oh god only gave us seven." She wanted him to enjoy their last baby....she never expected him to go to Alex.
And, Alex, angry that he had been put on the vagina squad as he put it and just angry told Rose's husband. And, when Addison found out she decided to punish Alex. And, her friend was not happy about it.
"Oh, this nice man is going to take care of you now and he really like to talk, so chat away." Cristina said, leaving Alex and Eddie to find a better surgery.
"It was nice meeting you." Melanie said.
"Not cool, Yang." Alex muttered darkly.
"What does she mean? Captain? And what kind of squad are you on?" Melanie asked.
Eddie bit back a laugh.
"Oh, he's working on our neonatal specialists care today." Eddie said as Melanie nodded and Alex sent her a grateful look. "She is the best, and expects the best from the doctors under her."
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George entered Marshall's room to see the injured intern who caused the accident looking over his chart. Callie had just finished checking his wrist, and was peeping a splint.
"Uh, you shouldn't be reading your own chart." George said as he made his way over to the man and took the chart from him.
"I want to find out what caused me to swerve my car into oncoming traffic and not be able to remember it." Marshall said worried there might be something wrong with him, then his face crumpled for a moment.
"Hey, those people, the ones I hit, they're going to be ok, right? No serious complications?" Marshall asked worriedly. He didn't want to hurt anyone. Ever.
"Uh, they're still checking them out." George said, not sure what to tell him.
George starts leaves the room with Marshall's chart as Izzie entered the room.
"Dr. Torres?" Izzie asked.
"Yeah?" Callie asked shortly.
"I was told you're performing the Noah Reynolds surgery." Izzie said.
"Yes." Callie said once again.
"Well, I'm your intern. So, whenever you're ready." Izzie said, wishing to be on anyone else's service.
"Okay, well, head up and prep the OR. I need to put on a splint." Callie said.
Izzie left and George couldn't resist the little voice of Izzie in his head, and had to ask.
"Um...did you wash your hands?" George asked.
"What?" Callie asked shocked that George even had to ask that.
"You washed your hands, right?" George repeated.
"Of course I washed my hands." Callie said as George started to nod.
"No. No. Of course you did." George stuttered out.
Callie sighed as she tried to focus on what she was doing. Hurt that George had to ask that.
"Um, Marshall, this is going to hurt a little bit, ok?" Callie said.
"My ETOH and tox screens were pristine, so I wasn't drinking or...under the influence. Ow." Marshall cried as Callie worked his arm.
Derek entered the room.
"Okay, we get the CT result back yet?" Derek asked Meredith, who was in the room, checking over his vitals.
"Not yet." Meredith answered.
"My GCS was 13. Why haven't I had a CT?" Marshall asked them, and Derek looked at her.
"Dr. Grey?" Derek asked annoyed that she hadn't done her job yet.
"CT was backed up. And he's lucid now, so..." Meredith started to explain.
"So get it done! Now!" Derek snapped as he stormed off, and Meredith watched wide eyed.
What the hell?
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Cristina found Burke looking through a chart at the nurses station. She was determined to keep her good mood. Hoping her boyfriend would have a cool surgery she could get in on.
"Hey. Daisy Duke's case was boring me to tears. So, um, you got any good hearts that I can cut open? Or, you know, bad hearts that we can make good?" Cristina asked hopeful.
Burke didn't say anything as he walked away, and Cristina followed him confused about his lack of response.
"Burke? Use words." Cristina said, she was not a mind reader.
"You fell asleep." Burke said quietly, so it couldn't be overheard by the others passing by.
"When?" Christa asked confused.
"This morning. In the on-call room." Burke reminded her.
"I fell asleep after we, you know..." Cristina said, not sure why that was a big deal.
"Not after. Not after." Burke said, and realization dawned on her face.
She fell asleep during sex. Oh god.
"Oh. Oh. I'm...sorry. I...I was really tired. Seriously. Seriously, my bad. I'm really sorry. Don't let this threaten your manhood." Cristina apologized.
"Oh, this is not...I am very confident in my manhood, thank you very much." Burke informed her, but he was still mad she fell asleep.
"Well good, you should be, because I mean...I fell asleep because I had already finished. Twice." Cristina said bluntly.
"I hadn't finished." Burke informed her.
"I was tired. It's not like I did this on purpose." Cristina promised him, not meaning to fall asleep, but she had a long shift.
"Oh, did you stay in the hospital last night on purpose? Because you weren't even on call." Burke commented looking at her.
Cristina had worked a long shift, only to go into another long surgery because she had never seen one before and she had basically lived in the hospital for two and a half days straight.
Sometimes he didn't understand Cristina.
"It was a paraesopageal hernia. I had never seen one. You know what, I'm a surgeon first, just like you." Cristina informed him, not seeing the big deal.
"No. No. Not just like me. I am a person first." Burke said as he left Cristina speechless.
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"Someone page me?" Izzie asked as she turned into the hallway of the cardio wing, having been paged there, shocked to find Denny sitting on the floor, slumped against the wall.
"Denny?" Izzie asked concerned as she rushed to his side.
"He collapsed." The nurse who found Denny informed Izzie.
" What happened?" Izzie asked both of them, slightly panicked and concerned.
What was Denny thinking?
"Too far, too fast." Denny informed the former model.
"What were you doing?" Izzie asked.
"Stairs. Real bright, huh?" Denny said, short of breath as she checked his LVAD battery.
"Your LVAD battery is almost dead. Um, get him to his room, I'll get Dr. Burke." Izzie said as she got up and made her way to page Burke.
"Let's get him up now. Nice and easy on one, two, three." The nurse said to the other nurse with her as a third brought around a wheelchair.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Izzie and Burke were in Denny's room. Izzie was pacing nervously hoping that Denny hadn't hurt himself while Burke looked over the test results.
"Now, Denny, you knew that LVAD wasn't a cure." Burke reminded the man.
"I want to go home. I want to go home yesterday." Denny said, he had been stuck in this bed for what felt like years and he just wanted his old life back. He missed being active. He missed not being able to go places. He hated hospitals and he had been spending months on end here.
"I know this is hard to hear, but that's just not an option at this point." Burke informed the man.
"Since when do you get to decide what's an option in my life and what isn't? My heart may be on your battery packs, but it's till my heart. It's my decision. It's my damn life." Denny demanded angrily.
He was tired of feeling broken and useless.
"That's right. It is your life. And it is your life that is at stake. And it is your life that well end if you continue to push like you did today." Burke informed the man, stressing how serious his situation truly was.
"You said the LVAD would make me better." Denny complained.
"I told you the LVAD would buy more time. And it will. If you respect its limitations and your own." Burke informed him seriously.
"I want to go home." Denny repeated.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"What do we do?" Izzie asked Burke worriedly. This was a new side of Denny she had yet to see and was worried about him.
He could have died.
Could have left her.
He could have done so much damage that he died waiting for a heart.
He was giving up and she was scared.
If he gave up would his body stop fighting?
She couldn't loose him.
"We put him on a tight leash. Tell the nurses to keep an eye on him. Make sure he doesn't take any more endurance hikes in the stairwell." Burke informed Izzie seriously.
"Yeah. But...Preston, what do we do?" Izzie stressed.
"The damage to his body we can try to control, but the damage to his spirit...For a man like Denny to lie on this bed for years on end...That's not something we could really understand. And his feelings about it aren't something we should try to control. Give him room, Izzie. Just give him room to grieve." Burke informed the intern, who was deep in thought trying to find a way to make this better.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Eddie, Cristina, and Alex were standing its the CT room, while the tech pulled up the images.
"You finally got Melanie to shut up?" Cristina asked.
"Cristina don't be rude. She is a nice girl." Eddie said.
"Finally. Thanks for that by the way." Alex complained.
"Really?" Eddie asked, giving them both a look. Then sarcastically asked, "Sometimes I wonder why am I friends with you two?"
"Because you love me. Evil Spawn is a charity case." Cristina informed her.
"Because you're you." Alex said, shrugging. "You see the good in people. And have the patience of a saint."
He often wondered why Eddie was his friend, but he thanked whatever god the young girl was his friend, possibly his best friend, because sometimes he felt alone in this hospital.
Bailey entered the room.
"How's she doing?" Bailey asked them.
"Images coming up now." The CT tech said as the images appeared on the screen.
"Ooh, is that a teardrop fracture?" Cristina asked as she looked at the screen.
"No head bleed, though. That's good." Eddie said as Alex nodded in agreement.
"Look at her lungs." Cristina commented.
"Is that her liver?" Alex asked shocked.
This girl was lucky to have been talking and alert when she was brought in. Honestly, how is she alive?
"How is she alive?" Alex and Eddie asked at the same time.
"Karev, page Shepherd, Burkhardt, Burke, Montgomery-Shepherd, Conrad, and every surgeon with an available hand and get an OR opened. Go!" Bailey ordered as Alex took off.
All of a sudden, Melaine's monitors started to go crazy.
"Melanie? Mel...Get me a stretcher. Let's pull her out of there now! Melanie?" Bailey yelled as the three women raced to the CT room to check on their patient and make sure she stayed alive.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Hey, have you seen Izzie? She was supposed to prep an OR for Noah's surgery and she completely bailed." Callie asked George as she left Noah's room and saw her boyfriend heading her way.
George walks by without saying anything. His face showed no emotion.
"What?" Callie asked concerned as she followed him into Noah's room, where Noah and his in-laws, Melanie's parents were.
"Mr. and Mrs. Johnson?" George asked.
"Dr. O'Malley." Jim said with a nod.
He liked the young male doctor who had checked him over, and his wife liked Callie, and that other doctor, Eddie, who checked her over in the OR while they waited to take Melanie into the CT.
" That little girl right there says she's going to fix Noah's leg all by herself. And she just gave him a big old shot for his pain. I really like her." Betty informed George with a smile.
"Mr. and Mrs. Johnson? Big Jim?" George said again, this time the doctor's tone made them freeze, something was wrong.
"Is it Mel?" Big Jim asked.
"Yes, ma'am, it is."
"What? What?" Jim asked.
"When your daughter came into the OR, her body was over-pumping her bloodstream, with adrenaline, which kept her conscious and alert and, uh, pain-free. During the CT scan, she was lying still for an extended period of time and see her body relaxed. And the adrenaline stopped flowing, which allowed her to succumb to the full extent of her injuries, which... they're catastrophic." George explained, the feeling of dread and sorrow filled the room.
"Excuse me?" Betty asked shocked and scared.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
The OR was packed with numerous doctors working on keeping Melanie and her baby alive. Conrad seemed to be in charge of the OR.
"Bovie." Bailey ordered as she was handed the tool.
" More suction here." Conrad said to Eddie who did as her brother asked. "Clamp."
"Internal saw." Burke said as Cristina handed him the tool.
"Karev, sit down." Addison ordered, to the intern who was towards the back.
"I can't see." Alex informed her.
"The only thing I want you to do is sit at that fetal monitor and watch that baby's beat." Addison said.
"So now I'm a baby-sitter?" Alex asked, he didn't want to be on baby patrol. He wanted to be in the thick of this surgery.
"Okay, retractor." Bailey said.
"Addison, we're ready for you." Conrad called for the woman.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"We are going to do absolutely everything we can." George promised the parents, who were devastated. It was the worst news any parent could hear.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Uterus is protected. Baby's beat?" Addison said as she checked in the incision in Melanie's abdomen.
"146." Alex said.
"Okay, baby's safe. You can proceed with the mother." Addison said.
"Lungs are damaged pretty badly." Burke said as he looked at Melanie's lungs.
"Pressure just bottomed out." Rory called.
"Let's transfuse." Conrad said.
"Four quadrant packing. Come on, people, get me some lap pads." Bailey said as BokHee quickly handed the woman some lap pads.
"Cross clamp the aorta." Conrad ordered.
"Clamp. Got it." Burke said a clamped the aorta.
"There's too much bleeding, she'll never last. Shepherd? Burkhardt?" Conrad asked.
"Damage control." Derek said.
"Addison?" Conrad asked.
"If you want the baby to live, damage control." Addison said in confirmation.
"Burke?" Conrad asked.
"Damage control." Burke agreed.
"Everyone knows the rules. We're gonna move as rapidly as possible. Don't worry about finishing repairs. For now we're on crisis management people, just get it done. Once she reaches the triangle, we stop. No exceptions." Conrad ordered as they all started to work on what needed to be done as quickly as possible.
"Why's he talking about triangle? What triangle?" Alex asked.
"Blood stops clotting," Eddie started.
"Her muscles produce acid." Cristina added for her friend.
"And her organs get cold." The two said together, as Alex's eyes widened understanding what was happening.
"You're talking about the triangle of death?" Alex asked shocked.
"Yes, Dr. Karev, we are." Conrad agreed.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"A ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm." Marshall said out of nowhere while he and Meredith waited for a CT.
"What?" Meredith asked him, confused.
"I scrubbed in on an abdominal aortic aneurysm. It was a twelve hour surgery. I had already worked thirty hours, but I didn't want to miss it. I fell asleep for...a second behind the wheel. I closed my eyes for a second at the red light. A second. It was only twelve hours. I'd done it before." Marshall informed his fellow intern.
"We've all done it before." Meredith agreed.
"Dr. Grey?" Marshall asked.
"Meredith." Meredith corrected.
"Meredith." Marshall repeated.
"Does this mean...Are we actually saying that, uh...today...this morning...because I stayed in the OR to save a life...I may have kill a pregnant woman?" Marshall asked her seriously.
"Dr. Grey? You ordered a CT on Marshall Stone?" The CT Tech said as she stepped out into the hallway.
Meredith stands up and turned to the Tech for a moment.
"We're going to need a moment." Meredith informed her.
"I'm backed up here with five patients." The CT Tech informed her, annoyed.
"We need a moment." Meredith repeated as she turned around and saw that Marshall was gone.
"Marshall? Marshall?" She called.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Izzie was in Denny's room trying to cheer him up and find things to be happy or excited about.
"Izzie, please." Denny said tiredly.
"Come on, Denny, just..." Izzie started to say.
"Izzie." Denny interrupted.
"Smell. Smell. Chocolate. And not the crappy, processed, waxy kind, but the really good Swiss chocolate that you get at the gift shop that costs way too much money, but is totally worth it." Izzie said as she offered him the chocolate. "Try it. And exhibit B. Tabloids. Good old fashioned trashy celebrity gossip rags."
"Damn it, Izzie, stop it! Just stop it! You think I'm feeling sorry for myself, right? Poor sad sack Denny just needs a little perspective." Denny snapped angrily.
He didn't want her help like this. He wanted to be healthy. He wanted be out of the hospital and out of this bed.
"You do need a little perspective." Izzie informed him.
" You have no idea what it is to lose what I have lost." Denny said angrily.
"I know loss, Denny." Izzie said.
"No you don't! I'm a man. I'm a strong, virile horse of a man stuck in the body of some weak, sick bastard that I don't know, like, or recognize. Now if you knew what that feels like, you would have never convinced me to let a battery run my heart. If you knew what it feels like, Izzie...you would have let me go." Denny said angrily.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Systolic's 82, folks. Not getting any better." A doctor called out.
"How's the spleen, Conrad?" Bailey asked the young attending.
"Unsalvageable, I'm afraid." Conrad said.
"Karev!" Addison called out.
"Frequent decels and loss of variability." Alex said his eyes never leave the screen.
"The baby's fading." Addison informed them.
"PH is down 7.1. Core temp 93 degrees." Rory said.
"Okay, we've reached the triangle, people. Hands out." Conrad said.
"Still oozing." Bailey informed them.
"We're not trying for perfection people." Conrad reminded them, as they all started to pull out.
"Just give me a second." Derek called.
"Hands out! Damn it, stop! Everybody stop!" Conrad said once again, this time in the same no nonsense tone his sister used. Which, idly made Cristina wonder if it was a Quinn trait.
"Cristina, let it go." Burke ordered his girlfriend who stepped back.
"Slow. Erratic. But it's a heart beat." Rory said.
"Baby's holding steady." Addison said as she went to go look over Alex's shoulder at the monitor.
"Bring out the plastic." Burke said.
"Plastic? We're not going to close?" Cristina asked shocked looking at her friend who was across from her wide-eyed. She had never heard of anything like this.
Eddie shrugged confused as well.
"No. We're going to keep her open, cover her with plastic, and get her to the ICU." Bailey informed her interns.
"And then what?" Eddie asked concerned.
"And then we're gonna see if she survives." Conrad said.
Derek looks up and sees Marshall in the gallery.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Marshall was getting ready for his CT after having left the viewing room.
"Okay. We'll take care of you, all right?" Derek promised as he walked into the viewing room where Meredith was.
"How in the hell do you let a patient get that far off your watch?" Derek demanded angrily.
"I turned my back for a second." Meredith said, she didn't expect him to bolt when she talked to the CT tech for less than a minute.
"He was in the damned gallery." Derek snapped.
"He's a surgical intern at Mercy West..." Meredith started.
"I don't care if he's the surgeon general. In this hospital, he's a patient with a head injury who needs a CT. In this hospital, he's a scared guy who does not need to see the massive internal injuries of the woman he rammed with his car! This is your fault. You had him and you lost him! You got to take responsibility for your actions for once in your life!" Derek snapped at her leaving her looking at him in shock.
"Derek!" Meredith said.
But Derek said nothing as he left the room.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Conrad, Addison, and Bailey were in the ICU room, informing Mr. and Mrs. Johnson about their daughter's condition.
"We've given her medications to help her blood clot and to help counteract the acid buildup. We're slowly raising her body temperature with warming blankets, warmed IV fluids, and blood products." Bailey informed the parents.
"How long is she going to have to be like that? You know, with...open like that?" Jim asked worriedly as he looked down at his little girl who was cut open.
"We want her to regain as much strength as possible before we operate again. But at the same time, we want to repair the damage as soon as possible. So it's a balancing act." Conrad explained to the couple.
"I'm sorry. I don't quite know what you mean." Betty asked the three doctors confused.
"Melanie will die if we don't get her back to surgery soon enough and Melanie will die if we take her back to surgery too soon." Bailey answered.
"A balancing act." Betty said sadly as she looked down at her little girl.
"A balancing act." Addison said.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Uh, Yang, call me if she starts actively bleeding." Conrad said, "Ed, keep an eye on both the mother and baby with Karev. Call Montgomery-Shepherd if there is distress."
"Okay." Cristina said.
"Of course." Eddie agreed.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Addison walked out of the room a few minutes later. And saw Karev was starting to leave.
"Karev. Where are you going?" Addison asked her intern.
"What? She's in ICU. There's nothing I can do." Alex informed her.
"You can sit there with her and watch that fetal monitor." Addison said, "Eddie will be monitoring with you."
"You can't be serious. She's circling the drain." Alex said, "and it's a one person..."
"You know how long a baby can survive inside its dead mother. Four to five minutes. Minutes not seconds, Karev. Look at Melanie. Look at her. Now look around. You see all the doctors and nurses, even her parents. Their sole job is to take care of Melanie. My job is to care for that baby. Now, I've got a surgery scheduled, so when I step foot on that elevator and leave, you and Eddie are going to be the only people on this entire floor responsible for that baby. Do not let me down, Karev." Addison said as she walked away and Alex sighed entering the room and joined Eddie.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Her organs are bleeding, damaged, exposed, and covered in plastic wrap." Izzie said as she sat down on one of the couches with her friends.
Alex and Eddie were watching Melanie and her baby in hour and a half shifts. Alex had taken his first, having gotten some food. And, currently, it was Eddie's turn for a break, so she had gone to get Eddie, whom was being difficult and not wanting a bottle, so she was sitting with her friends in a waiting room, feeding her daughter, whom was covered by a lightweight blanket.
"Poor Marshall. I mean, one minute you're a surgeon, the next you've destroyed an entire family." Meredith said.
Eddie nodded.
"Last month, I fell asleep in the parking lot. On a bench. I literally couldn't even make it to the car." Izzie said.
"Two weeks ago I fell asleep at the daycare. I was sitting with Frankie, letting her nurse before we got home, and the next thing I knew Emma was waking me up two and a half hours later, Conrad had to come pick me up." Eddie said.
"I fell asleep at a restaurant. At a table while I was on a date." Meredith informed her friends.
" Yeah, well, I fell asleep during sex." Cristina stated.
George walked up to them.
"Izzie. Hey, Callie's looking for you. You blew off her surgery." George informed her.
Eddie looked at Izzie with a 'really' look. Did she hate Callie that much that she would do something like that?
"No. I...I had a patient. Denny. I...I had to go." Izzie said.
Eddie resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and shared a look with Meredith. Izzie was to close to Denny, and it only spelled trouble in Eddie's opinion.
"You were hanging out with Denny?" George asked shocked.
"Oh, please. Do not even talk to me about standards. The girl can't even wash her hands." Izzie snapped back scathingly.
As George walked away angrily.
"It is not the same thing, Izzie." Eddie informed the other blonde. "George and Callie, you and Denny, not the same. And the fact you can't see that is highly concerning."
Izzie rolled her eyes.
"Whatever Eddie, stay out of it." Izzie said, as Eddie resisted the urge to slap her.
"Don't worry about Bambi. If Burke can forgive me for falling asleep during sex, then George can forgive you for crying." Cristina said to Meredith.
" But Burke hasn't forgiven you." Meredith stated as Cristina looked her in shock.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"I found Izzie. She said she had a patient." George informed Callie.
"I knew you'd take her side." Callie said angry and disappointed.
"What?" George asked confuses as Callie left the room.
"He needs an IV." Was all the answer he got from the beautiful Ortho attending.
"Are you..." George started to say.
"She's mad at you." Noah informed the confused intern.
"I...I didn't know you were awake." George said as he made his way over to Noah.
"What did you do?" Noah asked, trying to keep his mind off everything that was going on.
"Uh, has...has anyone talked to you about your wife? About what's happening?" George asked him, concerned he'd have to break the heartbreaking news.
"What's happening? Uh...you know, I can't really, uh, wrap my brain around what's happening. You know, I'm from here. Uh, Seattle. And, uh...you know, I go away to college and I come back married to this big-haired, drawling Southern girl. And everyone I know thinks I'm crazy. But I love her. I just...I love her. And, uh...what's happening is that my...big-haired Southern girl could be dying. And...I can't think about that. You know, I need...I need to think about something else. I mean, it doesn't...matter so much. Something that doesn't...doesn't have me burying my twenty two-year-old wife and baby. So, uh, so...what the hell did you do?" Noah said.
He couldn't loose them. He loved Melanie and their baby. He needed them.
"I believed my friend when she told me that Dr. Torres doesn't wash her hands." George said after a moment.
"Well, I hope that's not true. Seeing as she just, uh...performed surgery on me and all." Noah said.
"Yeah." George said.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"You paged me." Derek asked as he entered Marshall's room.
"CT results." Meredith said.
"Good, thank you. All right, let's see what we've got here. Marshall, everything checks out fine. Your short-term memory loss was a result from the concussion. But to be safe, I want to keep you here overnight for observation, all right?" Derek said as he looked over Marshall's chart.
"I have to apologize." Marshall said.
"What?" Derek asked confused.
"To the woman's family. I have to tell them I'm sorry for what I did." Marshall explained.
"You should get some rest." Derek said as he left the room, followed shortly by Meredith.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"I never should have told you about George." Meredith said as she followed Derek into the stairwell.
"No, it's fine, I'm glad I know. About him. And the vet. You really get around." Derek said, as Meredith's eyes widened.
Did he just call her a whore?
"What did you just say to me?" Meredith asked, shocked and angry.
"It's unforgivable." Derek said.
"I don't remember ever asking you to forgive me." Meredith said angrily.
How dar he act like this? He broke up with her god damn it!
"So was the knitting a phase? Who's next? Alex? Because I hear he likes to sleep around. You two have that in common." Derek taunted.
"You don't get to call me a whore." Meredith said angrily as she stepped toe-to-toe with her ex-boyfriend.
"When I met you, I thought I had found the person that I was going to spend the rest of my life with! I was done. So all the boys and all the bars and all the obvious daddy issues, who cared? Because I was done. You left me. You chose Addison. I'm all glued back together now. I make no apologies for how I chose to repair what you broke. You don't get to call me a whore." Meredith said, unleashing everything.
Eddie was right, she needed to do this. She should have done this long ago.
"This thing with us is finished. It's over." Derek informed her.
"Finally." Meredith snapped.
"Yeah. It's done." Derek agreed.
"It is done." Meredith said as she walked away in anger, god what a McBastard!
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Her temperature is 95.4 degrees and her pH is 7.28." Eddie said as she, Conrad, Cristina, Alex, Bailey, Rory, and Burke were all talking around Melanie's body.
"Definitely clotting better. But some of the wounds are still oozing." Bailey said as she looked at her wounds.
"Well, still a fine line. She may not be quite stable enough." Conrad said as he looked her over with a critical eye.
"Y'all don't have to whisper. I'm sitting right here. I can hear you anyway. And she's my baby. She's my little girl. It's a big decision like this. Going back in. Sewing up her...organs." Betty said sadly.
Eddie looked sadly at the woman who was valiantly holding it together. Betty reminded her a lot of Esther, she was just...the Southern version. She and Eddie had talked on and off as she monitored her daughter and granddaughter. Betty had been shocked to learn she was younger than her daughter, but accepted it without the usual "are you a genius?" question and when she found out Eddie had a four month old baby at home, she had been shocked but immediately asked Eddie all about her. Eddie knew Melanie had a good mother, and that she was lucky. And, her baby had a great Grammy, as she informed Eddie was going to be called by her grand baby.
Eddie just hoped Melanie and her baby both survived. They deserved to live and have this amazing family.
"It's the kind of decision that a mama ought to be involved in. I mean, all her life, she's asked me everything. From...what color dress she ought to wear to her kindergarten dance to what she ought to name her baby. Because I'm her mama. And it's my job to have an opinion. It's my job to have an answer. I may not have an answer here, but...I'm still her mama. And you just don't have to whisper." Betty said, with tears shining in her eyes.
"All right. What do you think, Dr. Bailey?" Conrad asked the resident.
"I think if we wait much longer she'll go into multiple organ failure." Bailey said.
"Okay. If it's all right with you, Mrs. Johnson, we think it's time to get back in there and finish what we started." Conrad said.
Betty nodded at the handsome young doctor as she looked at her baby with sad eyes.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Okay, I'm done." Rory announced to the group.
"Yang. Get in here and start washing out the abdominal cavity." Conrad ordered his sister's friend.
"Bleeding is controlled in the chest. I had to resect a part of her lung but..." Burke explained.
"Fetal heart rate's down to 80." Eddie said as she and Alex looked over the monitor.
"Mom's heart rate is slowing down." Conrad said.
"48 and dropping." Rory said.
"Ruptured retroperitoneal hematoma. She's bleeding out." Bailey said as they all started to work faster.
"Idioventricular rhythm. Do we have a BP?" Conrad asked.
"Trying to run it. Nothing's registering." A nurse said.
"Yang, get your hands in here and hold pressure." Burke ordered his girlfriend who quickly did as she was asked.
"Fetal heart rate down to 60." Alex called.
"Heart's fibrillating." Cristina called out.
"Dr. Quinn, can you see the source of the bleed?" Bailey asked worriedly.
"Hand me the internal paddles." Burke ordered.
"We're losing the baby." Alex and Eddie called out together.
"Charge to 20. Clear." Burke yelled as he shocked the heart.
"We're chasing our tails here. Get Addison Shepherd." Conrad ordered as Alex left to do it while Eddie watched the monitor worriedly.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Alex entered the OR next door.
"Melanie's crashing." Alex informed the attending who was working on another patient.
"It's right there." Addison said to another doctor, instead.
"You hear me? She's crashing." Alex repeated.
"I'm elbow deep in a patient's uterus, Karev. What do you want me to do? Leave this woman and her child to die?" Addison asked the intern.
"I'm doing my job." Alex reminded her.
"And I'm doing mine. Do what you can, I'll be there as soon as I'm done. Ok, people, let's speed it up." Addison said as Alex made his way back to the OR.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
George was in Noah's hospital room, with Noah, Jim, and Betty all waiting for news on Melanie. Praying she would be okay.
"They'll know where to find us...when there's news? They'll know we're here?" Betty asked worriedly.
"Yes, ma'am." George said respectfully.
"Good. Okay. Okay." Betty said.
"Is there something I should be doing, someone I should talk with? Something?" Jim asked, he felt like he should be doing something.
"You're doing everything you can do, Big Jim." George said as he noticed Meredith open the door slightly, and George made his way over to her.
"I know this isn't the best time, but Marshall would very much like the chance to apologize to the family if they'll let him. He's one of us, George." Meredith said.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Shepherd's still in surgery. I told her to hurry." Alex said as he joined Eddie's side at the table.
"How's her heart?" Conrad asked the older attending.
"Asystole." Baily answered for him.
"How long has she been down?" Eddie asked.
"Five minutes." Cristina said as Eddie and Alex shared a wide, panicked look.
"Well, I'm gonna do a C-section. Glove." Eddie said. "I need to get that baby out. Tell me what to do."
"Yang. We're going to...pack away the intestines. I'll expose the uterus." Bailey said.
"Okay, call pediatrics." Conrad order.
"Open the uterus with a midline vertical incision. Make sure you don't cut the fetus. Okay, go." Bailey ordered.
Unlike last time Alex and Eddie were preforming a surgery, Alex didn't freeze and he helped Eddie start the C-section on Melanie. They worked like they had worked together for decades not just months.
"Baby doesn't look good. How are we doing on the mother?" Conrad asked.
"Oh, she's still bleeding pretty profusely. Hmm. I can't get it controlled." Bailey said.
"Burke?" Conrad asked.
"She's not coming back." Burke said.
"Let's stop." Conrad said sadly, after a moment and a deep breath he called it. "Time of death, 19:48."
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"Conrad?" Addison asked looking distraught, then she Eddie and Alex working together in an incubator, with a baby, and it cries, the two interns look at each other with relief. Melanie and Noah's baby, a sweet little boy, survived.
"Oh, graças a Deus, ele está bem. Oh, graças a Deus." Eddie said relieved.
As Alex nodded, not knowing what Eddie said, but by the relieved sound of her voice, it had to be giving thanks that the baby survived.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
After the family had received the heartbreaking news that Melanie had died, but the baby survived. Big Jim, Melanie's father wanted to see the man who caused the accident.
"I am sorry. I am...I am so, so sorry. Please." Marshall cried sadly, having heard that the pregnant woman had died. He knew nothing he could say could make this better, but he was devastated and he wished more than anything it was him that died and not the pregnant woman.
Meredith and George Big Jim walks in looking like he is going to hurt Marshall but simply puts his hand on Marshall, they both cry. Marshall takes Jim's hand.
After a moment Big Jim leaved to go sit with his wife, son-in-law, and grandson.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
"You're gonna get in trouble." Denny said as he saw Izzie enter the room and come to his bedside.
"I don't care." Izzie said honestly.
"I'm not going to cheer up for you." Denny informed her.
"You don't have to cheer up. I'm not here for me." Izzie said as she lays down on the bed with Denny.
"I'm here for you. Okay?" Izzie asked as she curled up next to him.
"Okay." Denny said.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
We're all damaged, it seems. Some of us, more than others.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Cristina joined Burke at the small table in their apartment, watching Burke as he read a book.
"You must be tired." Burke commented.
"Yeah." Cristina said.
"I'm tired too." Burke informed her.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
We carry the damage with us from childhood, then as grownups, we give as good as we get.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Noah sat in the NICU with his baby boy. He was devastated that he lost his wife. But, he promised himself that he would do right by their baby. Their little boy. He would raise him the way he and Melanie had talked about, full of life and love.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Eddie and Alex stood at a window that looked into the NICU when Addison walks up to them.
"Good work, Karev, Sousa." Addison congratulated the two doctors, who had saved that little boy's life.
"Yeah. Kid's alive. Without a mother." Alex said as he walked away and Eddie looked back in on Noah and his son for a moment.
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Ultimately, we all do damage.
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Meredith and George were alone in the intern locker room getting ready to go home.
"See you at home?" George asked as he closed his locker door.
"Yeah." Meredith agreed, happy that George actually spoke to her for the first time in a while.
"Okay. See you." George said as he walked away.
"Okay." Meredith agreed.
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And then, we set about the business of fixing whatever we can.
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"Izzie?" Denny asked the woman lying in his arms.
"Hmm?" Izzie asked.
"Would it be wrong for me to feel you up right now?" Denny asked her.
"Hmm. Not so much." Izzie informed him with a grin as they both laughed.
"Such a dirty boy." Izzie teased.
"I know." Denny said.
"Hmm." Izzie said.
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George found Callie in her hospital basement bedroom, laying in bed, brooding. When she saw George she started her rant.
"I washed my hands. I...I went down to the kitchen and I washed my hands. I didn't wash my hands in the bathroom because those girls were staring at me like I was a rodent or something. Like I was in high school and I was...having the naked dream, only it was actually happening. I didn't even know they were home. I washed my hands. You have to stand up for me. You have to say I washed my hands." Callie said looking at him with wide eyes.
"I'm sorry." George apologized as he sat down beside her on the bed.
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Eddie was at home and cuddled with her baby a bit longer after today. They had gone through their typical bedtime routine and extra cuddles before Frankie fell asleep against her mother's chest. Eddie gently placed her in the crib and kissed her forehead.
"I love you peanut." Eddie said, then she pulled out her phone and dialed a familiar phone number.
"Eddie?" Esther asked after a moment. "Are you alright dear?"
"Yeah." Eddie said with a sigh, "I just had a long day....and I just...thank you for being there for me."
Tears started to well in her eyes.
"What happened Edit?" Esther asked in her no-nonsense mothering tone.
"There was an accident today, a pregnant mother died...and well...her mom...she reminded me a lot of you...and I....I am just lucky I have you. That Frankie has you." Eddie said.
Her own mother was no prize, and while she loved her, but, she wasn't her mom. Esther and her grandmother took that role for her.
"I am lucky to have you too sweet girl." Esther said. "I am so lucky."
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Meredith had found herself once again at Finn's apartment after work.
"You're driving me crazy with the hovering." Finn informed her as he cooked them dinner.
"This could be a mistake. This. Us. You're a really nice guy and...well...you...you don't want to get involved with me. If you knew me..." Meredith informed her.
"Scary." Finn said as Meredith gave him a look.
"Finn." Meredith said.
"And damaged. See? I told you." Finn informed her knowingly.
"If you knew me? If you knew my family? If I told you the guys that I've slept with lately? The scary and damaged may actually be more than you can handle." Meredith informed him seriously.
Finn gave her a look. A knowing look, like he was dark and twisty in a way to.
"My mother's dead. She got cancer when I was ten and she suffered for a really long time. And then she died. And my father never recovered. It's kind of like he died with her, except that his body's above ground and permanently placed in front of the TV with a bottle of Scotch in his lap." Finn informed her, as Meredith nodded, not expecting him to tell her that.
"The last woman I slept with was my wife, but she died too. It was a car crash, so it was quick. She didn't suffer, which I appreciated. Don't worry. I'm thinking that my luck is beginning to change because I've met you. And you like dogs and you enjoy pony births, and you have the ability to save lives. I never said I wasn't scary and damaged too." Finn informed her seriously.
Maybe this could work.
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AN: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Get ready for the season finale!!!