doctors give patients a number of things. we give them medicine, we give them advice, and most of the time, we give them our undivided attention. but, by far, the hardest thing you can give a patient is the truth. the truth is hard. the truth is awkward, and very often, the truth hurts. i mean, people think they want the truth, but do they really?
•
anastasia opened her eyes slowly as the sound of an alarm going off filled her ears making her let out a loud groan as she sat up on the bed rubbing her face, her eyes were now fully open and she took in her surroundings realising she wasn't in her hotel room.
she slowly looked over to the other side of the bed she was in and her eyes widened as she saw alex now waking up because of the alarm. alex and her had went out for drinks last night but she couldn't remember drinking that much and she definitely couldn't remember getting into bed with him. alex was now also sat up on the bed, looking at ana who was just staring directly at him.
"did we?..." ana trailed off, still looking at him.
"no we didn't." alex answered.
"oh... oh thank god." she let out a sigh of relief, "No offence." She added making him laugh as he got off the bed and started to get dressed.
"need a ride?" alex questioned making ana nod.
"please."
☤☤☤
anastasia and alex were stood at the nurse's station giving their interns their orders for the day.
"pierce, you're in the pit." ana spoke as she read the chart that was in her hands.
"james, need you in peds." alex added.
"laura, you're on scut." ana spoke again, now looking up at the interns that were still stood in front of her.
"i was on scut yesterday." the intern replied making ana scoff.
"oh, and just for that, you're on scut tomorrow." she added making the intern roll her eyes which ana decided to ignore.
"get lost!" alex raised his voice at the three interns making them hurry off.
just as alex was going to speak again dr. webber walked up to the two residents with an older man beside him.
"dr. karev, this is dr. norman shales." webber informed him.
ana gave the man she now knew as dr. shales a small smile as alex smiled at him and the two shook hands.
"hey." alex greeted the man.
"oh, strong handshake. That's a good sign." norman commented.
"norman is transferring in from ucla. i want him to work with you." webber stated.
"oh, are you the new o.b-g.y.n guy?" alex asked him.
norman let out a nervous chuckle before speaking "i don't have a specialty yet."
"norman is an intern, you'll be his resident." webber told alex.
"he's my intern?" alex asked in disbelief.
"don't worry, son." norman assured him. "this tugboat's ready to pull his own weight."
"age is just a number, right, norman?" webber spoke patting the older man on the shoulder.
"absolutely." he responded.
alex let out a short sarcastic chuckle. "a pretty important number."
this comment had made anastasia let out a quiet snort which made them both receive a look from dr. webber, she put her hands up in defence as she walked away.
☤☤☤
anastasia followed mark into the patient's room with george and a few other interns following behind them.
"oh, joanne, this is why you and i need to get sick, these doctors." one of the two women sat beside connie's bed spoke as mark entered the room making him grin at them.
"one's more handsome than the next." she added with a laugh. "oh, and here comes the most handsomest one of them all."
"hi dr. webber." connie greeted richard with a smile as he entered the room and stood at the end of her bed beside mark.
"connie." he returned the smile.
connie turned to her two friends and began speaking. "he took my appendix out three years ago, barely left a scar."
"how's adele?" she asked richard.
dr. webber stuttered slightly as he answered the woman. "um, oh, she's good, good. uh, marriage is hard, uh, but we're dating again. uh, and she agreed to date me tonight." he rambled on and by now everyone was staring at him, slightly cringing.
richard caught himself on and cleared his throat before continuing to speak. "but, um... more- more importantly, how- how are you doing?"
"oh, i just had a little bump on my tongue removed is all, couple of taste buds. turns out it was a little touch of cancer so i'm here to have the rest out." she explained.
"i mean, you know, the cancer, not the taste buds." she added making her two friends and some of the doctors laugh.
connie let out a sigh as she looked up at mark. "i don't know exactly how bad it is because dr. sloan over there has been awfully quiet."
"cause you don't let him get a word in edgewise is why." her friend said, making her laugh.
"uh, how is she, dr. sloan?" richard turned to mark and asked him.
mark ran his hand over his face before speaking. "well, we just got back the pathology report. connie, unfortunately, the cancer is a bit more widespread than we'd hoped... it's over sixty percent of your tongue."
"well, what- what does she do, chemo?" one of her friends questioned.
"i think the, uh, best bet is a microvascular free flap." he advised but now all three women looked extremely confused.
"dr. shepherd?" mark looked at ana for her to explain the procedure.
"uh, he'll remove the cancerous part of the tongue, and then reconstruct it with a strip of flesh from your legs." anastasia explained to the woman and then looked over to george to continue.
"um, the extra flesh will provide the bulk your tongue needs to breathe properly, chew, swallow." george added.
"and talk?" connie questioned. everyone stayed silent and connie started to panic slightly.
"dr. sloan..." she trailed off. "i'll be able to talk, won't i?"
mark let out a sigh. "you will be able to talk, connie, i just don't know how well you'll be understood."
now connie was panicking even more and her friends took it upon themselves to try to calm her down. "you'll be okay, it'll be okay." they reassured her.
☤☤☤
anastasia was stood at the nurse's station along with mark and george as they all went over some charts and george read up on the procedure they would be doing.
dr. webber came up to them and stood beside mark. "functional muscle transfer."
"what?" mark asked and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"for connie williams." richard replied. "i was reading up on glossectomies and saw the procedure, we could micro-surgically reinnervate her hypoglossal nerve."
"a nerve graft?" anastasia asked.
mark scoffed. "it's too risky, a free flap's still your best bet."
"yeah, sorry chief but i have to agree with dr. sloan, that surgery is extremely risky." ana spoke in agreement.
"oh, even if that goes well, you and i both know she'll never speak the same, that woman loves to talk more than anyone i know." richard stated.
"what's a functional muscle transfer?" george asked.
"you won't find it in the books, o'malley." richard replied handing him the information.
"it's cutting-edge. you connect the nerves from the leg with the nerves from the tongue." ana informed him.
"gives her a shot at really speaking." richard quickly added.
"if it works." mark stated. "they've only done a half a dozen of them."
richard shrugged. "better than none."
"sometimes you gotta push the envelope, sloan." he encouraged him.
"why?" george asked. "why is it better to do a surgery that neither of you have done than to do a surgery that you know at least gives her a chance to have a normal life?"
anastasia's eyes widened as she tried to cut george off from talking even more by making signals with her hands but he ignored this.
"do you know how to do this procedure?" he continued, questioning the two older men stood in front of them as they turned to look at each other, both clearly offended.
"are you saying that were too old to learn new ways, o'malley?" richard interrogated.
"no." he replied.
"are you saying we're old dogs who can't learn new tricks?"
"no, i just-" george tried to defend himself but mark quickly cut him off.
"we're not old dogs. we still got it." mark snapped.
"okay." the intern gave up.
mark rubbed his chin as he thought about something. "i did do a functional muscle transfer to restore elbow function once."
"elbow, tongue- that's pretty close." richard encouraged. "come on, what do you say? let's light this candle."
"yes, sir." mark finally agreed and the two fist bumped.
"age is just a number, o'malley." richard continued.
"oh, yes, sir." george muttered as the older men began to walk away
"nice one." anastasia congratulated him sarcastically as she gave him a thumbs up then quickly hurried off to catch up with the two men.
☤☤☤
mark was sat on a chair near the computer staring in to space, thinking about something as anastasia sat on the floor studying the surgery they were about do when derek entered the small dark room that held all the books and two computers with a cup of oatmeal in his hand and sat down on the other chair.
"do you ever feel old?" mark finally spoke, asking derek a question.
"i'm young, i'm a fetus." derek jokingly replied then put a spoonful of oatmeal in his mouth.
mark rolled his eyes slightly. "nah, i mean you ever feel like there's gonna be a time when new techniques pass you by?"
anastasia now looked up from the pile of information sheets and books in front of her and looked up at the two men. "is this because of what george said?"
Mark looked down at her and let out a sigh then looked back at derek.
"i'm a genius and a scholar." derek replied, teasing him.
mark scoffed. "shut up."
"mm-hmm." derek let out a hum before speaking again. "meredith isn't telling cristina about us. and well- she tells cristina everything."
"I thought you broke that off."
"you're still screwing meredith?" anastasia chimed in, making her receive a look from derek.
"i meant to." derek ignored his youngest sister and confessed to mark.
"you think she's gonna want to get back together." mark speculated.
"no." he quickly denied.
"you think she's gonna grow up and get all whole and... want a relationship." mark told his friend.
"i do not." he yet again, quickly disagreed with him.
"you're a bad liar."
"you're old." derek responded back and stood up and walked over to the door.
"i'm just gettin' started, my friend." mark called out as derek left the room, closing the door behind him.
mark let out another deep sigh, now gaining ana's full attention.
"you're not old." she reassured him, "george was just... being well george and not thinking before he spoke, you're a badass plastic surgeon, you're the best one i know and possibly one of the best in the country."
mark gave her a nod and smiled at her. ana gathered all her notes into one big pile and put them into a folder before standing up off the ground.
"oh... and for the record, even if you were old, older men are more attractive." she shrugged making a smirk appear on the man's face.
"oh? really?" the smirk remained on his face as he stood up and pulled the girl closer to him but she quickly placed her hand on his chest.
"really but i'm going to take a nap before the surgery so we aren't doing this right now." she teased and left him in the room as she headed to an on call room.
☤☤☤
the youngest shepherd was awoken by the sound of her pager going off, signalling she was now needed for the surgery. she quickly got up and pulled her sneakers on, tying the laces.
she checked the clock before she left the on call room and saw she had only been asleep for thirty minutes, she stretched her arms and quickly made her way to the o.r.
she put her scrub cap on and scrubbed in, she walked into the o.r with her arms raised, where she was met with one of the nurses who put her surgical gloves, scrub gown and surgical mask on her.
she looked at the patient laying on the table and saw mark, richard and george all ready, she quickly took her place near the table and got her instruments ready.
"so nice of you to join us dr. shepherd." mark teased, making the girl roll her eyes, "all right, let's begin." he spoke again and they all started the surgery, anastasia working on the patient's leg to harvest the nerve.
about half an hour went by and the doctors worked in complete silence until mark finally spoke up.
"the graft's a perfect fit." mark boasted.
"yeah. it's got good vascularization." richard added.
"and at this rate, you may actually get to go on that date with adele."
"yeah, i better." richard joked. "can't very well have her take me back if i cancel our first date."
"where you taking her, chief?" george butted in.
"oh, there's a nice little chinese restaurant we like to go to." he answered then the room fell dead silent again.
"hmm." mark hummed making anastasia look up from what she was doing.
"what happens next?" she questioned but it remained silent.
"um... dr. sloan, i don't-" richard commented, breaking the silence in the room.
"i know." mark quickly cut him off.
"is everything okay?" george quickly asked the two attendings.
"we're not sure." mark spoke again.
"well, what does that mean?" anastasia questioned, mark now looking at her.
"it means we've never done this before." he admitted.
the room quickly fell dead silent again for a few minutes as everyone looked at each other nervously until richard broke the silence again.
"what about if we coapt the lingual nerve underneath here?" he suggested but mark quickly disagreed with him.
"no, we'd end up losing the vascular supply, the graft might not work at all."
"she likes to talk, sloan. she likes to talk a lot." richard told him.
"we need an extra set of hands, someone who knows nerves." he stated.
anastasia quickly caught on and looked at george, "o'malley, get dr. shepherd." she urged and with this he quickly took off to go find derek.
☤☤☤
the surgery had went well and it was likely that connie was going to be able to speak again although derek wasn't too happy. the four doctors were now scrubbing out.
"i think that woman's gonna be able to talk for the rest of her life thanks to us." mark said cockily.
"i think i still got it." richard spoke.
"i think you do, too." mark told him. "now we just gotta figure out what you're gonna tell adele."
"oh, man... i forgot about that." he admitted.
"yeah. first off don't tell her you want to move back in." mark said.
"no?"
"reeks of desperation. it's a deal breaker, trust me." mark told him, making anastasia roll her eyes at the dumb comment.
"you know what?" derek finally spoke up.
"i can't take this anymore. you guys are kidding yourselves. you know how close you idiots came to that woman losing her tongue, to her never speaking again? oh, yeah, you were a couple of cowboys in there, telling yourselves you can do this, acting like the big boys. you had no business doing that surgery." he let out a chuckle, "no business. lucky i came in when i did... shame on you. and shame on you." he told mark and richard.
and just as everyone thought the rant was over, he continued.
he turned to richard again. "as for adele, tell her you can't imagine your life without her. tell her for the last month you have been walking around the hospital at night just thinking about her... tell her the truth."
"oh, you know what, derek.... just leave them alone." anastasia interjected. "at least they tried... they gave that woman a shot at being able to talk again and it's almost certain she will and yeah, maybe they were in over their head but at least they know when they are and ask for help unlike someone else."
now it was her turn to talk to richard. "although, chief, i do agree with derek on the adele situation... don't listen to mark."
and with that derek left along with anastasia but not before apologising for calling the chief an idiot.
☤☤☤
anastasia was now stood in the elevator, in her every day clothes ready to go home when the elevator doors opened and in entered george, lexie and three other interns. everyone squeezed in to get a spot and lexie stood beside alex. the interns had started to gossip about what went on in the hospital today until they eventually started talking about george.
"you got to reattach a woman's tongue." spoke one of the interns who ana knew as lucy.
"oh, i was there. i didn't actually do any reattaching." george responded, shrugging it off.
another intern spoke up. "yeah, but still, you're the intern they wanted on that case."
it was silent for a moment. "he's a repeater." alex blurted out.
"what?"
"your big hero here, he was an intern last year." alex told them. "that's why he, uh, knows some of this stuff. he's already been through it. but if you want to learn from someone- really, really learn- go to a resident, not this dude." he said smugly.
the three interns were now looking at george, awaiting an answer.
"uh, he's right. if you want to emulate someone, it's definitely not me. i'm not that guy." george sighed and walked out of the elevator as the door opened.
norman and lexie were the only two interns left in the elevator but that quickly changed when the two gave him a look.
"what the hell are you looking at?" alex barked at norman causing him to quickly leave.
"interns." he said, causing a scoff to come from lexie and her also leaving, making it just alex and anastasia left.
"you're such an ass." anastasia told him in disbelief.
he ignored her comment, making her scoff as she adjusted her bag on her shoulder, leaving the elevator to head home.