Chapter Fifty: Before and After
"Does anyone know the medical term for worms in the brain?" Webber asked all of the interns as I came around the corner, stopping by Meredith, Alex, George, and Cristina. I watched as all the interns looked around at each other, none of them knowing the term. "Dr. Stevens requested you today for a special project."
"Okay, take an envelope, and then pass the rest back, but do not open them." Izzie instructed all of them as she passed out a stack of envelopes. "You're gonna need them for the first game we're gonna play."
"That's what we're doing today, playing games?" Bumpus scoffed.
"Watch it, Bumpus." I warned him.
"Cheer up." Izzie smiled at all of them, not paying attention to their lack of enthusiasm. "We are gonna have so much fun. I said don't open the envelope! Don't you know how to play a simple game?"
"I did when I was eight." One of the other interns rolled her eyes.
"Let's just go." Izzie sighed, leading the group away while Webber joined the rest of us.
"Dr. Bailey's with Addison today, so I'm gonna hand out your morning assignments." He told us, bringing a frown to my lips at the mention of my red haired friend. Mark had told me about her being back in town, her brother being in critical condition.
"Addison's in the hospital?" Meredith asked, not having known.
"Her brother was admitted last night with parasites in his brain." Webber nodded.
"Addison's brother has neurocycticercosis?" My eyes widened, not having know that was the cause of his condition.
"Yes, and Addison's requested you to be on her brother's service." He nodded.
*~*~*~*~*~*
"Addison," I smiled at the sight of my friend. At the sound of her name she turned around, a small smile of her own making its way onto her face as I pulled her into a hug. "We've all missed you, you need to visit more often. Preferably, not for situations like this."
"I know." She sighed as we broke apart. She glanced back at her brother's bedroom where I knew Meredith was at work. I could hear someone singing in the room, accompanied by laughter. "Now, talk to me, I need to think about something other than the parasites in my brother's head right now. How have you been?"
"I'm good." I told her. "I've just been working a lot, as you probably guessed. Then spending all the free time I possibly can with Joel."
"What about..." she trailed off, though I knew what she was referring to. She wanted to know how things had turned out with Lucas and I after Mark had kissed me, if I had tried to fix things with him.
"Lucas and I are over, for good." I informed her.
"Are you okay?" She asked, her brows furrowing. "Because, I can always go and kick his ass for you, if you want."
"There's no need, I'm fine." I chuckled. "I'll admit, it wasn't the cleanest of breakups, but it's what needed to happen. I mean, I love Lucas, I still do, but I realized that I wasn't in love with him anymore. It wouldn't have been fair to anyone if I had tried to fix things and get back together. This is the best, for both of us."
"Greatest love song of all time." We both looked back towards her brother's room, finding Mark making his way inside. We both smiled, following the taller man inside.
"Hey!" I woman sitting at the foot of Addison's brother's hospital bed grinned widely at Mark.
"Did you guys get to the part where Derek rhymes 'gross anatomy class' with 'Addison's fine ass'?" Mark asked. "'Cause I wrote that line."
"Ahem," Addison cleared her throat, causing Mark to glance at me and then Meredith.
"Oh, my bad." Mark apologized.
"No, no, it's fine." Meredith assured them. "I, uh... I think it sounds like a fine song."
"Who's this?" The woman sitting on the bed nodded at me.
"Right," Addison nodded. "Beth, this is my friend Namoi and my brother Archer. Archer, Naomi, this is my friend Beth."
"Nice to meet you both." I shook their hands. "Though, I wish it was under better circumstances.
"You and me both." Archer gave a hollow chuckle.
"Archie, I heard you were gonna let Derek remove those little suckers from your brain." Mark raised a brow at the ill man.
"Maybe." Archer said.
"He is." Addison and Naomi both insisted.
"I hate surgery, especially brain surgery." Archer rolled his eyes.
"Yeah. Being a neurologist, you probably see a lot of patients post-op who are just, you know, scrambled eggs up there-" Mark began
"Okay, you know what, Mark?" Addison cut him off. "You're not helping right now. We're sitting here trying to convince him that surgery is-"
"Is not an option." Derek finished for her as he joined us. "According to these scans, the single cyst that you had in your last CT has now multiplied by eight, all clogging the third ventricle. There's no way I can surgically navigate through a mess like that without rupturing one."
"So what does that mean?" Addison asked.
"You're in a room full of doctors, Addison, who are all being very quiet right now." Archer pointed out to his younger sister. "I'm gonna die. That's what it means."
*~*~*~*~*~*
"Hey. You know, Addison's brother probably isn't gonna make it." Meredith told Cristina when we caught up to her, Derek having disappeared to look over Archer's scans again. "His cysts are inoperable."
"Worms in the brain- not how you want to go." Cristina sighed.
"Hey, we don't know for sure that he's gonna die." I pointed out. "Derek could figure something out."
"God, you sound like Izzie." Cristina muttered.
"I didn't even know Addison had a brother." Meredith shook her head. "I mean, you'd think Derek would've said something at some point or sang something while he played his guitar."
"Speak English." Cristina frowned, confused.
"Oh, Derek used to play the guitar." Meredith informed her.
"Oh." Cristina nodded. "Owen's ex-fiancée is in the hospital. His ex-fiancée he never told me about."
"What's wrong with her?" Meredith asked while I simply looked between the two.
"Well, she calls her dad 'daddy'." Cristina shrugged.
"No." I laughed. "What's wrong with her? Why is she in the hospital?"
"Oh, she isn't. Daddy is." Cristina said before she headed down the hall without us.
"Hey, you know, you should ask Owen if he plays the guitar." Meredith called after her, making me smile in amusement.
"I knew that was going to bother you." I chuckled, causing her to furrow her brows at me. "Derek writing a song and singing it to Addison."
"It doesn't bother me." She denied. "I'm just- I'm surprised, that's all."
*~*~*~*~*~*
"What is she doing?" Bailey asked as she, Webber, Naomi, Sam, and I stood outside the hospital's small chapel. In the front pew we saw Addison on her knees, resting her head in her hands.
"It looks like she's praying." Webber guessed the obvious answer.
"No." Sam shook his head. "Addie doesn't pray."
"What is she doing?" Callie asked as she joined us in the doorway.
"Uh, she's praying." Naomi hesitated before she answered.
"No, Addison doesn't pray." Callie chuckled. "She must be hiding."
"I can hear you. And I'm not hiding." Addison called back at us without turning around. "I am trying to pray, but I don't know how to pray because I'm a wasp, and we only go to church on Christmas."
"You guys go. I got this." I told the others. They all listened as I made my way inside, walking up to the pew Addison was in as she got up off her knees and sat down. I sat down next to her and, for a minute, neither of us said anything.
"I have no clout with God." She cleared her throat. "God doesn't even know who I am, which sucks, because I could... I could use some help."
"Okay." I sighed before I slid off the pew and got down on my knees. I clasped my hands together in front of me, clearing my throat before I closed my eyes. "Dear God, I need your guidance. I kissed a plastic surgeon."
"You kissed a plastic surgeon?" Addison repeated. "Wait, you kissed Mark? Again?"
"I never though I'd end up with anyone, God, I never thought I'd end up with anyone." I continued, ignoring Addison's question. "I mean, the problem's not that I kissed him. The problem is that I like him, I really like him. I didn't think I could ever really be with someone, even with Lucas, it just felt off. But with him... it feels right. So, help me get over my fear. Amen."
I made a cross over myself before kissing my fingers. Opening my eyes, I got up off my knees and sat back down next to Addison in the pew, meeting her gaze.
"You're an amazing doctor. You save babies." I told her. "God knows who you are."
"Do you really believe in all this... In God?" She asked me, glancing around the chapel before she looked at me again. I pursed my lips at her question, trying to think of what my answer really was.
"Sometimes." I shrugged. "There have been some points in life where believing in God was the only thing that kept me going. So, yeah, when it counts."
*~*~*~*~*~*
"All right, Archer. I need to create room in the ventricle so I can maneuver the scope." Derek started to explain once we were all gathered in Archer's room again. "If I deflate each cyst, the scope can remove them one by one."
"The cysts will rupture." Archer frowned at the idea.
"I'm gonna grab each one with forceps, pull it up to the edge of the port and suction out the fluid." Derek explained.
"The suction would have to be precise-" Archer said.
"It will be." Derek promised.
"You can't do it." Archer shook his head.
"Well, I think I can." Derek insisted.
"Basically you can control the way the cyst ruptures?" Addison clarified.
"No, he can't." Archer argued. "Look, I know you guys want me to go down fighting, but I-"
"Coward." Derek cut him off.
"Excuse me?" Archer narrowed his eyes at him.
"I said 'coward'." Derek repeated himself. "You're a coward by trade. You're a neurologist. You guys feed off us, refer your patients to us, let us assume the responsibility, and if God forbid something happens, well... I'll tell you what, I can assume the responsibility. The question is, can you?"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Peds surgery fellowship?" Sam read over the papers that Bailey was filling out as we all sat in the OR gallery, waiting for Derek to start operating on Archer. I sat in front of the two, watching as Addison stood in front of the window, staring down into the OR.
"Yep, just when I'm almost done with my general surgery residency." Bailey sighed. "Crazy, huh?"
"No, just, uh... surprising." Sam told her. "Uh, you don't seem like a-a peds person to me."
"Why not?" Bailey asked.
"Because you don't smile." Sam was blunt. "Peds people smile."
"I smile." Bailey assured him. "Well, I'm not going to smile right now, but I do smile. I smile frequently. Watley, don't I smile?"
"Yes, you do." I nodded without turning around to look at them, not wanting Bailey to see the small smile of amusement filling my lips.
"Hey. He under yet?" Mark asked as he joined us.
"Yeah." Sam said.
"A peds surgery fellowship? Huh." Mark questioned, clearly looking at Bailey's forms too. I heard Sam snort, amused.
"I have a child. I'm familiar with children." Bailey insisted. "I am going to be an excellent pediatric surgeon."
"You're gonna want to keep that temper in check around the kids." Sam suggested.
"Weird seeing Archie on that table." Mark pointed out.
"Say it, Derek. Come on, say it." Addison muttered as Callie walked over to stand beside her, rubbing circles in her back as we all stared down at the OR, seeing Derek getting ready to start operating, Meredith at his side. "Say it. Say it. Say it. Say it. Say it."
"Okay, everybody. It's a beautiful day to save lives." Derek spoke up down in the OR, earning a sigh of relief from his ex-wife. We all watched as Derek worked, eventually removing the first cyst successfully, Mark and Callie both taking a seat to my right.
"Okay," Addison sighed in relief as she sat down with the rest of us. "I need to be distracted. Someone, uh, talk about something other than what's going on with my brother right now."
"Uh, Mark is good at talking about himself." Callie suggested.
"Actually, I've been using endoscopy for head and neck cancer resections, and if I could just focus the criteria for patients, I might have a breakthrough on my hands." Mark told us.
"What happened to you?" Addison asked him, clearly not satisfied with his attempt at distraction.
"He met someone." Callie informed her before glancing in my direction.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"He's getting bradycardic." Meredith alerted Derek as we all watched. As Derek had been removing the final cyst, it had ruptured, releasing the parasite.
"I need to irrigate, see if the flow is blocked." Derek said.
"Asystole." Meredith said as Archer started to flatline. "Start the code clock. Derek, asystole."
"Where the hell is it?" Derek swore as he continued to work, not even seeming to register Meredith's warnings.
"Get the crash cart. Starting compressions." Meredith instructed.
"No! Stop! Nobody move." Derek ordered. "We can't start compressions. I need to find the worm."
"But he's-" Meredith started to protest.
"We have two minutes, maybe three. Nobody move. Just stop." Derek cut her off. We all watched as Derek continued to look for the worm. I glanced over at where Addison and Naomi were standing at the glass, fearing for Archer's life. "How long has he been down?"
"Two minutes, twenty seconds." A scrub nurse told him.
"Got it." Derek said as he latched onto the worm. "Damn it. It's starting to tear apart. Maybe if I just rotate it and reverse it back. And that's number eight."
"Heart rate's coming back up." Meredith nodded, seeming to earn a sigh of relief from everyone in the gallery. I felt a pressure on my right hand and looked down, finding Mark grasping it in his own. I gave him a gentle squeeze back, assuring him that everything was okay. That I was here for him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"The lack of blood flow through the vessel is causing the mini-strokes and aphasia." Derek explained to his patient and her husband while I stood back with Meredith and Addison. "We can't put the surgery off any longer, so what I'm gonna do is a repair that's called an EC/IC bypass."
"And- And that will fix the strokes?" The husband, Rob, asked. "She'll be better after this?"
"I'm hoping it will work, yes." Derek nodded.
"But... the..." The patient, Jen, struggled to get her words out. "M-"
"I'm sure they wouldn't operate unless it were safe for the baby, right, Dr. Montgomery?" Rob looked to Addison for reassurance, understanding what his wife was trying to say.
"Oh, your- your blood pressure is still high, but that's why Dr. Watley and I will be there, to monitor both you and the baby." Addison told them.
"Get some rest. We'll see you soon." Derek offered the couple a smile before we all headed out of their room. Once we were out of the room, Derek looked back at his ex-wife. "Thank you for staying."
"It's the least I could do for you saving Archie." Addison patted him on the back.
"Um," we all looked back to see that Rob had followed us out into the hall. "I know we said before, about the baby, but if something should happen, if it comes down to a choice, save my wife. We can make another baby. We can't make another her."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Morning, Dr. Watley." Mark smiled as he walked over to me, a coffee in each hand.
"No," I shook my head, unable to keep the smile from my lips as he stopped in front of me. "You can keep your secret coffee."
"Huh?" He frowned, confused.
"I'm not doing this secret dating thing anymore, Mark." I told him, crossing my arms over my chest. I could see Callie and Addison watching us over his shoulder, but I ignored them. "Until you tell Derek, our relationship is gonna continue of you sneaking over to my apartment and then avoiding each other around our friends. Do you know what that makes you?"
"Your boyfriend?" He guessed.
"Yeah. Anne Frank." I rolled my eyes. "I am dating Anne Frank. And I'm tired of it. I want to be able to go out to the bar with you and kiss you without having to make sure that the others aren't around. I want to tell the Germans to kiss my ass."
"I'm gonna tell him soon." He promised me. "And when I do, you'll be my date to the wedding."
"Derek proposed?" I smiled widely at the news.
"Well, not yet, but when he does." He shrugged.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Is that the middle cerebral artery?" Meredith asked Derek the next day, during Jen's surgery.
"Yes, after I connect the STA, we will be able to close." Derek told her.
"The baby's having spontaneous decels." I warned the others as I watched the monitor.
"Mom's hypotensive." Addison said. "Derek, I don't know how much more they can handle."
"The MCA is bleeding a bit." Derek pointed out. "It shouldn't be contributing. Sutures please."
"Pressure's dropping." Addison sighed. "Derek, the baby's gonna need to come out."
"I'm almost done, Addison. Just wait." Derek tried to brush her off.
"It's not me that can't wait." Addison shook her head.
"The decals are getting more frequent." I warned.
"A twenty-four week old fetus can't handle this- three surgeries in four days." Addison said, glancing back over at Derek as he continued to operate on Jen. "We have to get the baby out, Derek."
"The baby is too young to come out." Derek pointed out.
"Last decel lasted a full thirty seconds." I frowned.
"All right, that's it." Addison moved over to the operating table. "Watley, let's go. I'm taking him out."
"Cut the suture." Derek told Meredith as Addison and I situated ourselves on either side of the operating table.
"Ten blade." Addison held her hand out to the scrub nurse.
"Leave the baby in." Derek told us as the fetal heart monitor continued to beep erratically. We stopped ourselves, looking up at him as the fetal heart monitor started to clam down, returning to normal. "Done. I'm done."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"You don't get much rest, do you, Dr. Shepherd?" Jen smiled at Derek when she woke up after surgery, finding all of us in her hospital room once again. Hearing her speak, we all smiled.
"Did you hear yourself just then?" Derek asked, unable to stop smiling.
"Oh, my God." Jen's eyes widened, realizing that she could speak normally again. "Oh, my God. I can- I can talk."
"I know! Listen to you." Rob grinned widely at her.
"And the baby?" Jen asked. "How is the baby?"
"The, uh, baby's stable, however, um, your new labs show that you're preeclamptic." Addison informed her. "Now we had hoped to keep it from progressing to this stage, but the stress of the surgery, it was a lot on your body."
"So do we- Do we need to be worried?" Rob asked, the smiles slipping off of their faces. "Come on, Dr. Shepherd. Please tell me we're done being worried."
"Excuse us for a minute." Derek told the couple before he led the way out of their room, heading right over to the nurses station across the hall. "This is the first moment of hope they've had in a week."
"Preeclampsia is serious." Addison reminded him. "They needed to know. You are too close to this patient."
"Stop fighting me on this." Derek shook his head. "We had a victory in there. Let's stay focused on that."
"We give the family all of the information. That's our job, Derek." She refused to back down. He only pursed his lips together before he walked away. Addison ran a hand through her hair before she turned to Meredith and I. "Meredith- uh, Beth, can you go get, uh, Jen's, uh, blood test results?"
"Sure." I nodded, taking the clipboard from her before I headed down the hall, leaving Meredith and Addison alone.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"What's wrong?" Izzie asked as she, Alex, and I joined Meredith and Cristina for lunch in the cafeteria. "Our entire health care system? 'Cause I agree."
"Wait, here it is. Okay, 'March 3, 1979-" Cristina started to read from Meredith's mother's old journal. "'Assisted Margaret Campbell on a splenectomy. Impressive resume, adequate technique.' See? Hack. Even then."
"You're working with Margaret Campbell?" Meredith asked.
"Yeah." Cristina nodded. "Ye oldie timey thinks she's still sane enough to keep doing surgeries. See, that's what I like about your mom. She wasn't all alzheimer-y and still operating. Do me a favor and shoot me if I start making mistakes on patients and still think it's kosher to keep cutting."
"Sounds like Shepherd." I commented, causing Meredith's head to snap in my direction.
"Beth-" She started to warn me.
"Please." I shook my head. "Addison is right. Derek nicked an aneurysm, and now he's trying like hell to cover his ass."
"Your guy needs to shut up." Meredith warned me just as both of our pagers went off, it was Jen. We threw what was left of our lunches away before we started towards her room, finding everyone in a panic in the room, Jen crying. "What happened?"
"The patch must have blown." Derek informed us. "Page Addison. Tell her to meet me in the OR. Let's-"
"I just called her parents. I told 'em everything was okay." Rob told us as we started to wheel Jen out of her room. He started to call out for Derek, but he didn't seem to hear him, leaving Meredith and I there. "Hey, Dr. Shepherd- Look, I don't understand. He said that the surgery was a success."
"Okay, I'm gonna come out and give you an update as soon as we can, okay?" Meredith promised before she and I hurried out of the room as well.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"The swelling's not going down." Derek sighed in frustration as he and Meredith operated on Jen's brain, Addison and I both focusing on the fetal heart monitor.
"Maybe the ventriculostomy is plugged." Meredith suggested.
"No. Damn it." Derek swore, causing Addison and I to look at him.
"Derek?" Meredith questioned him.
"I have to take out the temporal lobe." He decided, causing my eyes to widen.
"Won't that kill her?" I asked.
"No, um, but she could lose some of her speech, uh... voice, memory." Addison explained.
"The brain can rewire." Derek assured us. "I've done it before to stop seizures."
"Have you done it before for this?" Meredith asked.
"I'm doing it now." He told us.
"Baby's got decels again." I warned them.
"What are we doing here, Derek?" Addison asked.
"Bayonet forceps." Derek told the scrub nurse, seeming to be ignoring Addison now.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"What are we supposed to say to him?" I asked Meredith as she and I headed out to the waiting room to fill Rob in on how the surgery was going so far. "'Dr. Shepherd's cutting out parts of your wife's brain, but we're hopeful she'll pull through'?"
"No, we're gonna tell him the truth." Meredith shook her head. "We're gonna say that Dr. Shepherd is doing everything he can to save your wife and child."
"Yeah, well, this guy's life ended as he knew it." I scoffed. "Let's tell him that."
"Beth, just be-" Meredith cut herself off when we reached Rob, the man standing up instantly.
"The baby's having some heart fluctuations but, Dr. Montgomery is taking every precaution to avoid an early delivery." I informed him.
"And my wife?" He asked, looking to Meredith for an answer.
"Dr. Shepherd is trying to get the bleeding under control, but we really won't know more until the surgery is finished." Meredith told him.
"But she won't die?" He looked between us. "Please tell me she won't die."
"Dr. Shepherd is doing everything he can to make sure your wife lives." I assured him when Meredith stayed quiet.
"She'll live?" Rob clarified, hopeful.
"Dr. Shepherd is doing absolutely everything he can." I repeated myself. "We should get back."
"Right. Of course. Yeah. Uh, thanks." He nodded.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"She's bleeding into the frontal lobe." Derek said. "Now if I can just stop the bleed, save the rest of the brain, she'd have a chance."
"Decals are getting longer." I alerted Addison.
"Derek, I have to deliver the baby." Addison told him.
"No, she- just... She's lost too much blood." Derek shook his head. "If you cut her now, she'll bleed out. I can save her."
"How?" Addison asked.
"I have to cut out the frontal lobe." Derek told us.
"What?" Addison questioned him. "D-Derek, no. Stop, Derek. You've done enough."
"Her frontal lobe?" Meredith questioned. "Can she live without her frontal lobe and her temporal lobe?"
"Yes." Derek nodded.
"No, Derek, she can't." Addison argued. "Listen to me. This baby is not getting any oxygen now. I know that you want to save Jen. I know you feel like you have to, but not this way."
"I can do this." Derek insisted. "I can save them both. She will live."
"Not as the person that her husband and child need her to be." Addison tried to get through to him. "She'll lost everything about her that makes her human. Meredith?"
"Are you sure you can do this?" Meredith looked at her boyfriend, seeming unsure in him herself.
"I have no choice. Bipolars." Derek focused on his work.
"The baby's heart rate is bottoming out." I frowned at the monitor.
"Damn it, Derek." Addison swore. "Okay, damn it. We've gone- This has gone too far. Taking the frontal lobe out, even if she does live, you are creating a monster. You don't get to play God here, Derek. Jen is gone, but this baby has a chance to live. You need to let her go. Let it go. Please let... I'm taking the baby out."
"Put down the scalpel, Addison!" Derek yelled at her as she went to start to perform the C-section. The both held their scalpels, starting each other down.
"You put down the scalpel." She told him.
"Addison, put the scalpel down." Derek insisted.
"You put the scalpel down! You have to let her go." Addison refused to back down. The two just started to argue with one another, continuing to demand the other put down their scalpel. "Meredith, go get the Chief."
"Do not go anywhere." Derek ordered Meredith.
"Watley, go." Addison told me. I didn't hesitate to listen to her, hurrying out of the OR to find Webber. I hurried down the hall, rushing into a scrub room, finding Webber there with Campbell and Hunt.
"Chief, we need you in OR one." I told him.
"Watley-" He began.
"Right now, Sir!" I cut him off. I held the door open for him as we both headed back towards OR one. When we got there we found Derek still working, Addison standing over the operating table with a scalpel in hand.
"The baby's still in distress. I need to take it out." Addison told him.
"Wait." Derek told her. "Just wait. The bleeding could stop. The baby could stabilize. If you do a C-section now, she'll lose too much blood and she'll die."
"She is dead, Derek." Addison pointed out.
"Please just wait." Derek insisted.
"Most of her brain is gone. For all intents and purposes, she's dead." Addison said.
"Watley, page Dr. Freedman's team." Addison told me. "Tell them we have a preemie on the way."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"The steroids we gave your wife allowed your baby's lungs to mature." I told Rob as Addison, Derek, Meredith, and I sat with him in the waiting room.
"That combined with the three extra days that Dr. Shepherd took to do the surgery makes us very hopeful that he'll survive." Addison assured him.
"I don't understand." Rob shook his head. "She just died?"
"I'm sorry." Derek apologized to him, again.
"Yeah, I know. You said that." Rob nodded, not seeming pleased with the apology. "Um... I'm asking how she died."
"We believe your wife's high blood pressure is what caused the bypass to fail." Meredith spoke up when Derek didn't. "That caused the bleeding and the swelling in the brain. Dr. Shepherd did everything he could to save her. There was too much damage to her brain. That's when Dr. Montgomery stepped in to deliver the baby."
"You said it was a routine procedure but that she would be fine." Rob's voice shook as he spoke to Derek. "Then there was a complication... and you said you fixed that. But then the baby got sick, and that made Jen sick, but then you said that you fixed that, too. And now she's dead?"
"I'm sorry." Derek shook his head, seeming to be unable to say anything else to the grieving husband.
"Stop saying you're sorry." Rob snapped at him. "You killed her. You're a murderer... A murderer. Where's my wife? I want my wife. I want my wife."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Hi." I sighed as I walked into the room where Callie was bandaging Mark's hand. I frowned at the sight of the cuts on his face, having gotten into a fight with Derek.
"Okay, well, it's not broken. But you should ice it." Callie gave Mark a small smile before she looked at me. Lots and lots of ice, okay? Bye."
"I'm so sorry." I apologized to him once Callie left, walking over to stand beside him.
"It was worth it." He told me.
"No. It- It- It wasn't." I shook my head. "I mean, maybe a little. Thank you."
"Do you want to get out of here?" He asked me.
"Definitely," I nodded. "But I have something I need to do first."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I stood back as Rob sat next to Jen's body, crying as he was forced to face the fact that his wife was actually dead. He held one of her hands in his own, pressing it to his lips before he then pressed one last kiss against her cheek. I watched as he got to his feet, trying to be strong. However, he stopped to stand beside me, opening his mouth. No words left it though, only a fresh wave of tears hit him as he started to shake. I didn't hesitate in pulling him into my arms, holding him as he cried for his wife.
"Oh... Oh, God." He cried.