Owner of a lonely heart
Season two episode eleven
Max went home around two in the morning but she made sure her pager was on and next to her, luckily for her it didn't beep but her alarm clock however did. She groaned turning over in her bed to turn off the awful noise, she sat in her bed for some time dreading going to work, all she wanted to do was stay home with her daughter and watch movies but she knew being a doctor had its rewards.
She finally got up and walked to her bathroom to take a shower and brush her teeth. After she was done she got dressed for the day and then walked to her daughters room.
"Mae Mae, it's time to get up sweetheart" Max called out softly as she opened the door, she walked in and sat on Maeve's bed, but to her surprise she wasn't in it. Max got up quickly and ran to the hallway "Maeve?"
Max ran down the stairs when she didn't answer "Maeve Mallard-Sloan!" Max called out again, Max walked into the kitchen sighing when she saw her daughter with her parents.
"Mom, Dad? What are you guys doing here?" Max asked picking up her daughter and giving her a kiss on the head.
"Oh we wanted to see you dear, we got in early this morning, and I just couldn't wait to see my beautiful granddaughter" Max's Mom, Piper, said walking over to pinch Maeve's cheeks.
"Okay Mom, I've got to get to work but if you want you could take Maeve to school and then pick her up, I don't know when I'll be home so if you're willing to watch her until I get off, I'd appreciate it" Max suggested handing her daughters clothes to her Mom.
"Yes! Yes, I would love that" Piper said smiling down at Maeve.
Max looked behind her Mom and saw her Dad eating an apple "Dad, I've missed you so much" She walked over to give her father a hug, she was closest to her Dad so whenever she got to see him she was the happiest.
"Maxine! My sweet, sweet Maxine!" Her dad said patting his daughters back "We've missed you, you never visit anymore" She had just visited them not even a month ago.
"Right, well I have to get ready for work" Max said retreating back to her room "And Mom please call me if you run into any problems"
Max was a little worried about leaving her daughter here with her mother as she tends to do the opposite of what Max asks but Maeve hasn't seen her grandparents in a while so it was okay, just this once.
Max was in the NICU checking the babies vital signs and there movement, Dorie and Tom were staring at there babies with sad looks.
She took off her stethoscope as Miranda and the interns walked into the room. "Oh, good! I'm glad to see you guys, Mom and Dad are anxious for an update" Max said looking at the group of people that just walked in "Dr. Yang?"
"Uh, We've done the initial surgery on Julie's omphalocele. A primary closure was attempted, but there was pulmonary compromise, so we couldn't contin-"
"Yang, how about we do this in plain English?" Miranda said interrupting the intern, Max smiled at that.
"Oh, um, we operated on Julie's external sack of organs, and we pushed in as much of the bowel as we could, and we think we can push in the rest, with a second operation" Yang said to the parents a second time but with a term that they both could understand.
Dorie sighed "She has to have a second operation?"
"Yeah" Yang said simply but when Miranda gave her a look she continued "Oh, well, not for a few days"
Max nodded her head as she followed along "Okay good Dr. Yang. Uh, Dr. O'Malley?"
"We put in Lucy's brain shunt yesterday, and she's doing very well. We just have to keep monitoring her to make sure that the spinal fluid doesn't back up" George told the parents giving them all the information he had.
"Good, Stevens?" Max said calling on Izzie to present after George.
"Dr. Mallard's brother Dr. Mallard used a catheter to open Emily's atrial septum last night. Today we're gonna go in and try to reconstruct the left chamber of her heart, we're very hopeful" Izzie said, laughing a little as she talked about both of the Mallards.
"Dr. Grey?" Max called out.
"Charlottes lungs were a little more underdeveloped than the rest of the quints. So we put a special mask on her to help her breathe, and we're monitoring her closely"
"And that just leaves Kate" Max said looking at Alex.
"She seems to be pretty healthy. No major issues have been identified, but we're gonna keep her in the isolette until she makes it to four pounds" Alex said finishing the last update they had.
"You hear that, honey? Kate's doing really well" Tom said trying to reassure his wife.
"I'll be in my room" Dorie told the group and wheeled away.
"Dr. Mallard" Tom called out desperately trying to understand what was happening with his wife.
"Tom, she's just had five babies. Her hormones are all over the place, you've just got to give her some time, she'll come around" Max said guiding Tom out of the room.
Max stopped at the coffee station to get some much needed caffeine, she ordered her usual and put some money in the tip jar. She made her way to the main lobby to see if there was anything she could spend her spare time on.
Her eyes drifted to the front of the hospital and surprisingly enough she saw her dad standing next to Alex Karev, "Dad?" Max called our walking over to the two.
"Dad?" Alex questioned looking at the older man and the doctor, "but he's black"
Max rolled her eyes at his behavior "There is a thing called adoption, Dr. Karev, maybe you should look into it" She grabbed her fathers arm and walked him up the stairs to the chiefs office.
She knocked on the door before walking in, "Chief?"
Richard looked up from his desk and was surprised at what he saw "Robert, wow what a surprise"
Max's Dad walked over to the couch that was by the wall and sat down "Shut up Richard"
Richard stood up and crossed his arms "Robert, don't treat me like that, this isn't like when we were kids, Mom isn't here to defend me"
Max rolled her eyes at her Uncle and Fathers little fight, "Dad stay here, I'm going to talk to Uncle Richard for a minute" She said signaling the chief to the hallway.
"He's getting worse" Max said once they got out of the room with the door closed.
Richard sighed "I can tell, I mean I'm surprised he even made it this far"
Max nodded her head "Yeah, I know me too. His memory loss is getting worse, before I left for work he asked me where Mark was and who the little girl was, it's been years since I had Maeve and a little longer when me and Mark broke up"
"How's your mom handling it?" He asked crossing his arms, which he only does when he's serious.
"You know how she is, she doesn't want to believe it" Max told her uncle.
"I'll talk to Piper, maybe it'll be best if they move down here, you know to be closer to family" He suggested, he put his hands on her shoulders "You don't worry about a thing"
Max gave him a sad smile as she wiped a stray tear "It's hard not to worry"
"I know kiddo I know" Richard said pulling her into a hug.
They both walked back into the room, Max was still undecided on what she was going to do with him, she could call her Mom but Max was positive that her Mom didn't take Maeve to school.
"I'm going to call my Mom, I'll be right back" Max said deciding that calling her mother would be best.
She grabbed her phone and tapped on her moms name, she put her phone to her ear and heard it ring a couple times "Hello?"
"Mom! Do you have any idea where Dad is?" Max asked sitting on the edge of Richards desk.
"Well I sent him to the store" Piper replied like it was no big deal.
"Mom, he came to the hospital" Max told her Mom, She was unbelievable, who sends a person who has Alzheimer's to the store, by themselves?
"He didn't go to the store?" Piper questioned, like she didn't believe her daughter.
"God Mom! You are unbelievable" Max said laughing a humorless laugh.
"What! Maxine Mallard" Piper said scolding her daughter.
"I don't have time for this Mom, I'm going to talk to Leo and we are going to have a talk tonight, I'll see you then. I love you" Max said before hanging up the phone.
She shook her head in anger "I'll be back, I've got to go talk to my brother"
Max walked out of the room and went to the Cardio wing, where she knew she brother would be. She saw him talking to Christina and walked over to him grabbing his room and pulling him into the nearest empty room, which was the janitor closet.
"Max!" Leo said in surprise.
"Dads here" She said once the door closed, she looked up his startled face.
"Dads here? In the hospital?" Leo questioned, he thought they were all the way in New York.
"Yes! Come on Leo, process it faster" Max said, she was not in the mood she his slowness.
"Wait, where's Mom?" He asked scrunching his eyebrows.
"She's at my house with Maeve, and I guess she sent Dad to the store but instead of going there he came here and this morning before I left he didn't remember Maeve and he forget that Mark and I broke up" Max said filling him in.
"He's getting worse? Why does nobody tell me anything" Leo said raising his voice "Where is Dad now?"
"He's in Richards office, he was not pleased to see him" Max told her brother.
"Damn, he's in Uncle Rich's office" Leo said surprised.
Max got his shoulder "Richard hates when you call him that, but Richard thinks it's a good idea to move them both home since Mom doesn't want to accept the fact that Dads sick and since he's getting worse"
Leo nodded his head "I agree, if Mom can't watch over Dad then someone else should"
"That's not what I meant Leo, I don't want him to go to a home" Max said disregarding what Leo just said.
"Max, if he's getting worse and Mom can't keep up then he needs to have proper help, I'm not saying putting him into a prison" Leo said trying to reason with his sister.
"It's just hard to think about, it feels like time is moving so fast and I can't keep up" Max said sadly.
"I know, but if this is what he needs then we have to give it a try" Leo said pulling his sister into a hug.
Max walked into the NICU after being paged 911 "What happened?" She asked as she put on her glove.
"She had an appendix episode. She's still not breathing on her own" Meredith said moving out of the way so Max could listen to her lungs.
"Let's intubate and give her surfactant. Push .one atropine and three milligrams of ketamine" Max said to Meredith and the nurse.
"Meds are in" The peds nurse said.
"Tube" Max called out as she worked to help the baby breathe on her own.
"Okay. Place the C02 detector" Max said in a hurry.
"She was doing fine with the chest tube" Meredith told Max as they both tried to help the baby.
"That's the thing with R.D.S. cases. Just when you think the baby's getting better, they can slip right back" Addison said as she stood in front of the baby.
"Breath sounds equal. Good" Max said taking off her stethoscope and putting them down.
Meredith looks up "Mrs. Russel" She said once she noticed Dorie wasn't in the room anymore.
Max walked back in after she took some time to cool off, she looked around and saw Karev sitting with Kate, the baby he was in charge of.
"Dr. Karev" Max said nodding at him.
"Oh, Dr. Mallard, I didn't know you would be in here" Alex stuttered, getting up from his chair.
"No, no. It's okay, sit down" Max said motioning to the chair he was sitting on, she grabbed one for herself and put it next to Alex.
"I heard about Izzie" Max said bluntly.
Alex sighed "Why does gossip go around faster then a damn high school"
Max laughed at that "We are Doctors, if we don't get into each other's business then it's no fun"
"Right" Was all Alex said before he went back to writing.
"My Mom, or my biological Mom, liked pills more then her own children" She suddenly said, not sure why she was telling her life story to someone, especially Alex Karev. "Or at least that's what my Mom says"
"Yeah, I get that" Alex said, he understood what that was like.
"Don't get me wrong, I love my parents it's just that for most of my childhood I got made fun of for not looking like them, and then when people found out about my background it got worse But my Dad he's the best man in the world, I've always looked up to him, he was a doctor too so I guess he's the reason why I'm here" Max said confessing more about her life.
"Oh, uh , I'm sorry" Alex said, he wasn't so sure on how to go about this.
"He's got Alzheimer's" Max said like it was this huge fragile bomb.
Alex blinked his eyes in surprise, sure he's heard of Robert Mallard, he was famous, but he didn't know he had Alzheimer's.
"Good thing I'm adopted right?" Max said laughing at her own joke "I'm sorry that's not funny"
"It's fine, sometimes the only way to get through something is to pretend like it's not a big deal, it's easier that way" He said looking at the Doctor.
"Yeah" She gave him a small smile before getting up from the chair and walking out.
Addison knocked on the Chiefs door with Max standing beside her, they both heard a 'come in' and they entered, each sitting down on own of the chairs that was in his office.
"Remember what you did to Addison when she was an intern?" Max asked getting straight to the point.
Richard looked at Addison "You told her about that?" He asked "but yeah, how could I forget. You didn't speak to me for almost a year, but you learned" He said looking at Addison again.
"Yeah, well, we both think we have to do it to Izzie Stevens" Addison said, she seemed hesitant but deep down she knew it was the best thing to do.
"Well, she's smart, hardworking. Gets a little too involved with her patients, a lot like you" Richard said giving Addison a look.
"I know" Addison replied as she stood up "It took me a long time to recover from that, Richard"
"But it made you a better surgeon, Addison. The question is, is she talented enough to make the lesson worth it?" He asked, he wanted to make sure that if they did this that she could handle it.
"She's the best I've seen in years, she's kind, she has amazing bed-side manner and she cares. I'm just scared that if we do this to her she won't understand why" Max said still sitting in the chair.
"I agree, and I was hoping that we could-"
"You're not here to make friends, Addison. You're here to make better surgeons, and being a teacher can be a lonely business." Richard said bluntly.
Addison nodded her head before walking out with Max following close behind her.
Max and Addison had already talked to Dorie Russel about her baby, so when Izzie took over, Dorie wouldn't be blindsided.
The two girls changed into the casual clothes and then walked down the stairs to the main lobby "Dr. Stevens"
"Uh, Dr. Shepherd, is there something you need?" Izzie said startled from the sudden voice.
"Yes, Dr. Leo Mallard and I have reassessed. We think there's a chance with the Norwood if Emily can make it through the next ten hours. Would you look after her for the night?" Addison said lying to the blond intern.
"I was on call last night" Izzie stated "but, I mean, yeah, of course" she said once she saw the look on Addisons face.
"Good. We've left a list of meds, and you're familiar with Pediatric like support?" Max asked from beside Addison.
Izzie looked over a nodded at the other Doctor "I got myself certified as soon as I got into the program"
"Okay then" Addison said stepping away from Izzie.
"Wait" Izzie said before they left "is there anything else I should know to look out for?"
Max looked at Addison, then back at Izzie "No. that should do it"
"Should I notify Mrs. Russel about Emily's-"
"No. I've done that, Dr. Stevens this baby is your responsibility, she better be alone when I get back in the morning" Addison said a little harshly.
"Okay" Izzie said as they walked away.
Max called everyone important to her house so they could help her talk her mother into considering a home for Dad. Addison, Derek, Leo, Richard and Adele sat on the couch with Piper and Robert in front of them.
"Mom, I know this is hard to hear" Max said beginning the conversation.
"We think Dad needs to go into a home. Somewhere that can help him and care for him 24/7" Leo said bluntly after Max tried to get there mothers attention.
"I'm sorry but no" Piper said without even consideration.
"Mrs. Mallard, we all know how hard this is and we all feel it too but if Robert doesn't get the care he needs then something might happen to him" Derek said softly leaning forward to hold her hand.
"How do I know that he'll have better care then what I can give him?" Piper asked looking at Derek. Leo and Max looked at each other, of course Derek would be the one to get through to there mother, he was basically her second son.
"He will have round the clock supervision, scheduled meals and people to talk too, and if you or him don't like it then you can always take him out, we just want you to give it a chance" Richard said from beside the couch.
Piper looked at Richard then to all of the other faces in the room and then she nodded her head. Max smiled letting a few tears fall down her face, she knew it was the best for him but it was still hard to accept his fate.
/
Woooo little sad chapter.
Also I picture Elena's house in the Vampire Diaries as Max's house
How do you guys feel about Max going to Alex to share her feelings?
I know it's a little bizarre for there to be three people in this show to have Alzheimer's but it's kind of like a theme now. Also I didn't want Max's life to be all bubblegum and rainbows (aside from a few speed bumps)
Hear you me by Jimmy Eat World