Chapter Fifty-Eight: Holidaze
Thanksgiving
"When did that bleeding start?" I asked as I held gauze to the little boy sitting in front of me, Nicholas' nose, hoping the pressure would slow the bleeding.
"This morning." The mother told me. "He's had these before. I just... I've never seen a nosebleed go on like this."
"There's blood on Timmy, Mom." Nicholas told his mother, talking about the drawing of a turkey that he was working on.
"Mr. and Mrs. Jacobsen, can I see you?" Derek asked the parents from where he and Arizona were standing next to a monitor, looking over their son's scans.
"Go ahead. We'll be fine." I assured them as I continued to wipe the Nicholas' nose, watching as they went over to talk to Derek.
"Nicholas has what is called an arteriovenous malformation." Derek told the couple.
"It's a cluster of tangled blood vessels in his brain." Arizona tried to simplify it for them. "It's what's causing the bleeding."
"In order to stop the bleeding, we need to remove it." Derek said.
"Y-Y-You mean like brain surgery or..." Mr. Jacobsen stuttered.
"I'll do everything I can to protect the brain tissue and minimize damage." Derek promised them.
"I'm sorry." Arizona shook her head. "I know it's scary. But we have to go in right away."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"She's eighteen. That's not very much younger than me." I shook my head as I assisted in Nicholas' surgery later that morning, after learning that a young woman had showed up, claiming to be Mark's daughter.
"Well, it's not that shocking actually." Derek commented. "I mean, the way Mark got around before he met you, there could be a gaggle of Sloans. Sloan Jones. Sloan Smith. Sloan Sloan."
"Mean." Arizona told him.
"I'm overreacting, right?" I asked my friends, choosing to ignore Derek's comment. "I mean, I have a kid. What's so different about Mark having one, too?"
"Well, his is legally an adult while yours in only eight." Arizona pointed out.
"Ah, damn it. Son of a bitch." Derek swore, causing Arizona and I to drop our conversation. "I can't access the feeders."
"So, what does that mean?" I asked.
"It means I can't get at it." Derek told us. "I can do a temporary fix, but once he starts bleeding again, which he will, there won't be anything we can do."
"So we're just gonna... send him home to die?" I frowned underneath my surgical mask.
"Happy Thanksgiving, Jacobsen family." Arizona sighed, clearly not happy with the result either.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"I-I-I-I don't- I don't understand." Mr. Jacobsen stumbled over his words as we all stood around Nicholas' hospital room, Derek having just informed the parents on their son's condition. "You- You said that- that he would die without the surgery. And now you're telling us we're supposed to just take him home?"
"Right. Well, I've stopped the bleeding temporarily." Derek told them again. "But the only way to remove the AVM safely is through the sinus."
"Well, why don't you do that?" Mrs. Jacobsen asked.
"Because there are no instruments that can maneuver through a nasal cavity this small and get the appropriate angles." Arizona tried to explain.
"Why not? Who does that?" Mrs. Jacobsen pressed, not willing to give up on her son. "Who invents those things?"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"This is the best Thanksgiving ever." Cristina said as she, Alex, Meredith, and I sat in the skills lab. Meredith and I were both eating our lunches, watching as the two practiced a new stitch. "No obnoxious relatives. No stupid traditions. No going around the table and saying what you're grateful for."
"Yeah, I think we should do the opposite." Alex suggested. "Talk about what we're not grateful for."
"The merger." Cristina said instantly.
"The Mercy Westers." Meredith nodded in agreement.
"They're like the plague. I mean, stealing all our surgeries, eating all that pie in the nurses' station." Alex complained as I glanced around the room, my eyes landing on Avery as he and Percy sat at another table, working on their own stitches.
"You're doing that wrong." Meredith told Alex.
"I am not." Alex shook his head.
"You are. Can I show you?" Meredith took his things and started to show him the right way to do it.
"Private lessons with the Chief," Cristina scoffed. "Man, those daddy issues are working for you."
"I don't have daddy issues." Meredith insisted. "He's teaching me."
"You're his bitch." Alex teased her.
"He's right." I nodded in agreement.
"Well, in that case, you're Teddy's bitch." Meredith told Cristina, referring to the new head of cardio that Hunt had brought in, one of his friend's from Iraq. I chuckled, only to have Meredith look at me. "And you're Arizona's bitch."
"Maybe that's my problem." Alex mused. "I'm nobody's bitch."
"Oh, well, you were Izzie's bitch." Cristina shrugged.
"You're the bitch." Alex glared at her, still not over Izzie's leaving him after the Chief fired her.
"You know what?" Meredith cut it. "It's Thanksgiving. Can we just have no name calling?"
"Yeah. Please." Cristina nodded in agreement.
"Whatever." Alex sighed. "Just show me that stitch again."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Seriously, where did you two learn to cook?" Arizona asked Callie and I as the three of us stood in Callie and Cristina's kitchen, cooking together while Joel was watching TV in the living room. We only laughed before hearing a knock on the door.
"Hey!" We all greeted Mark as he let himself in.
"Hey." My eyes widened at the young blonde that walked in after Mark, Sloan.
"Welcome." Callie greeted her. "Happy Thanksgiving. Who wants wine?"
"Ooh, I do." Sloan said.
"No, you- you don't." Mark shook his head as I continued to cut the celery. "Um... hey, everybody. Uh, well, the results are in. It, uh, turns out Sloan was right about her parentage. I am her dad. Um, so here's another thing to be thankful for. Beth, Sloan here is gonna move in with us for a little while."
"Oh, my God." Callie exclaimed as I glanced down at the cutting board, seeing that I had cut off the tip of my pinkie. She grabbed a dish towel and wrapped it around my hand to slow the bleeding, but I could only stare at my hand in shock, thankful that Joel hadn't seen it.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Christmas
"How's it feel?" Mark asked as he walked over to where Joel and I were finishing up decorating the Christmas tree together. I glanced up from the ornament I was hanging as he took my left hand, my pinkie still bandaged from what had happened on Thanksgiving. "Still tingling?"
"Oh, it's fine." I assured him. "I pretty much have full sensation."
"Great. Good." He nodded, glancing over at where Sloan was sitting at the kitchen bar. "So... I mean, uh, you think you could ask her how long she's planning to stay?"
"Mark, it's been a month." I shook my head. "And you've exchanged three sentences with her. Two of them were, "pass the cereal." In the spirit of the holiday, maybe you can ask her yourself. She's pretty easy to like once you get to know her."
"Really?" He raised a brow.
"No." I admitted. "She's a vapid, vapid girl, but she's your daughter, okay? So- so try. Okay? Try- Try to be her dad, like you do with Joel. Go."
"Uh..." Mark cleared his throat as he walked over to Sloan, leaving me with Joel by the tree.
"What are you looking at, you old perv?" Sloan teased him.
"Mom, what's a perv?" Joel asked, making my eyes widen.
"Nothing," I shook my head, grabbing another ornament. "Here, why don't you hang up this one? Batman, your favorite."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I chuckled as Joel pulled me over to the middle of Meredith and Derek's living room the next day, having been invited for Christmas dinner. Hunt was playing guitar as Webber and Arizona sang Baby, It's Cold Outside for everyone and Joel wanted to dance. I smiled as he stepped onto my feet, letting me lead him around the empty space in the middle of the room, some of the others smiling and laughing at us.
"Mind if I cut in?" Lexie asked, smiling down at Joel. He didn't hesitate to jump off my feet and hurry onto Lexie's letting him lead him around while I stepped back to watch.
"Hey," Sloan nodded as she stood beside me.
"Hey," I offered her a small smile. "So, what did you end up getting Mark for Christmas?"
"Snow globe of Seattle." She shrugged, taking a sip of her drink.
"You're not serious." I scoffed, turning to look at her. "You got him a snow globe of Seattle?"
"What? He likes Seattle." She shrugged.
"I gave you fifty bucks." I reminded her. "Where's my change?"
"Hey, I needed some things." She defended herself. "Don't freak."
"I didn't have to give you that money." I reminded her. "That was money that I was planning to spend on my son, to use to give him gifts. It wasn't for you to go and blow on random crap."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"The house looks beautiful, Mer." Lexie complimented as we all sat down at the table for dinner later that night.
"Thanks." Meredith offered her a smile.
"Callie?" Derek asked Arizona.
"Working." The blonde told him.
"Oh, that's too bad." Derek commented.
"Yeah," she nodded in agreement before passing me the stuffing so I could put some on Joel's plate.
"So, how'd Kelsey do?" Teddy asked Cristina.
"Great." Cristina said, taking a bite of her carrots.
"Who's Kelsey?" Derek asked.
"A girl with no heart." Bailey clued him in. "I had to do a laparoscopic bowel repair while the poor thing was awake on the table."
Miranda, mind your manners." Bailey's father gave her a warning look. "Even if surgery is your whole life, it doesn't mean you have to talk about bowels at the dinner table."
"My child is healthy." Bailey said.
"Excuse me?" Her father frowned as the rest of us sat around the table, eating in silence.
"He may not be with me tonight, but he's healthy." She told her father, clearly upset with him. "And he's well loved. He's a well loved boy. And he's a happy boy. And staying in an unhappy marriage-"
"Now is not the time or the place-" Her father warned her.
"Staying in an unhappy marriage, a marriage that I've outgrown, a marriage full of ultimatums and numbness and resentment..." Bailey continued, ignoring him. "That is not the kind of life I want to model for my child. That is not what I want him to believe married love is. Look, I know what's possible. I know what's out there for me because you taught me well. You and Mom showed me what true love looks like. So I chose not to settle, and I'm happier for it, even if I'm alone at Christmas. My child is healthy, and I'm happy. And, you know, part of my happiness is the fact that I got to repair a woman's bowel and save her life today. And that's God's work, which makes this appropriate Christmas dinner conversation."
"Yeah." I nodded in agreement, as did all of the others. All of us were happy for Bailey, that she'd been able to stand up to her father.
"Uh, green beans, anyone?" Arizona offered, breaking the silence that had fallen over the table.
"Yeah, thank you." Webber nodded, taking the dish from her.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
New Year's
"It's New Year's Eve." I whispered to Mark after he and I had woken up, finding Sloan already awake on the couch, before I had to wake up Joel to get him ready for the day.
"I know." He nodded, both of us talking in lowered voices.
"She shows no signs of leaving- no suitcase packed, nothing." I pointed out, glancing over at where Sloan was reading a book on the couch. "Talk to her right now, or no more sex for you."
"Beth," he sighed as I walked away, going into our bedroom to give him and Sloan some privacy.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"He's in hypovolemic shock." Arizona explained to Nicholas' parents as I worked on wiping away the blood from his face. "He's lost too much blood. And I didn't want to have to do this, but we're gonna have to put a tube down his throat to help him breathe."
"Nicholas." Mrs. Jacobsen looked at her son, tears filling her eyes.
"We need to tube him right now." I shook my head.
"Don't tube him." Derek said as he joined us. "Bag him till we get to the OR."
"The OR?" Mrs. Jacobsen questioned.
"We finished the instruments." Derek informed her.
"We did?" Arizona asked.
"Yeah, we're gonna operate." Derek nodded as he handed Mrs. Jacobsen some forms. "I just need you to sign a consent form."
"Pretty dramatic timing, Dr. Shepherd." Arizona commented.
"I like to make an entrance." Derek joked.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"How's it handling." Arizona asked as she, Derek, Mark, and I all stood around the operating table that Nicholas was laying on, just as he had been two months ago.
"It could bend a little more gently." Derek said.
"Don't get all critical. Thing cost me a fortune." Mark warned him.
"I could use one more day to practice. Okay." Derek admitted, clearly nervous. "Inserting the clip applier."
"Why don't you try torquing it a little to get a different angle?" Mark suggested. "Okay, there you go."
"Okay. There it is." Derek sighed as he worked carefully to take care of the AMC, all of us being quiet as he did so. "Got it. That's the last clip."
"Oh, my God!" Arizona stepped back. Even though she was wearing her surgical mask, I knew she was smiling, just like I was.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we're done here." Derek confirmed, taking a step back from the operating table himself.
"Nice work." Mark nodded. "Beautiful."
"Amazing." I chuckled.
"Hang on. Look at the clock." Derek pointed out, showing that it was almost midnight. "And that's, uh, seven, six..."
"Five, four, three, two, one." We all counted down together. "Happy New Year!"
I smiled, walking around the operating table to give Mark a kiss. Despite the fact that we were both wearing surgical masks, he and I pressed our lips together, a wide smile on my lips.