- - -
we'll try again and we'll fail again because that's what progress looks like. progress looks like a bunch of failures.
- - -
"i tried to change," mark sighs as he, derek and richard stand on derek's land, looking at the view. "turn over a new leaf."
"but the leaf isn't turning, you weren't ready to change. and that's okay," richard says, unaware that the reason he'd tried to change was because of his daughter. "adele wanted me to change, to retire. well, i'm still the chief, and our marriage is stronger than ever. she was wrong. i was right. and now we're-"
"doing it like bunnies," mark finishes his sentence with a smirk. "i can't change. i can't change. i can't change."
"be who you are. i am who i am," richard encourages. "a man."
"a man," mark repeats, smugly.
"a man who is who he is," richard continues. "i have the right to be that man."
"i'm not going to say anything. no judging. but the man you are slept with my wife, and the man you are lived on my land for six months when his wife threw him out last year," derek shakes his head at mark and richard before pausing. "i'm gonna miss living on this land."
"it's a beautiful piece of land," mark agrees.
"wanna buy it?" derek asks, turning to face mark.
"you can't sell this land. you have blueprints," mark argues. "this is your living room window. the house that derek built."
"yeah, well, that's over," derek sighs. "i'm thinking about getting a place in town."
"but you love this land," mark reminds him. "this land and ferry boats are who you are."
"a man can change. i'm selling the land," derek says waking away. "and ferry boats. crash."
■ ■ ■
"my god," richard gasps, entering the room of a boy encased in cement, where there are no doctors present. only firefighters stood doing nothing. "why- wh- what is everybody doing standing around here?"
"this is what your guys told us to do," one of the firemen shrugs.
"and where exactly are my guys?" richard asks, before he hears them all shouting in the trauma room next door.
"this is what we have to do," mark insists as richard enters the trauma room where all of the surgeons are talking over each other in front of a whiteboard.
"i am telling you, i am right!" lia argues.
"why is the patient in there and all of you are in here?" richard asks, making all of the surgeons stop arguing and look at him.
"dr. torres is worried about the limbs. dr. bailey is worried about abdominal crush injuries. dr. sloan feels the third-degree burns should take the first look, and, uh, dr. webber feels the heart and lung issues are gonna kill him before, um, we get to any of this," cristina explains. "so in other words... no one can agree when to start."
"no, i know where to start," callie shakes her head. "the cement's contracting, and if i don't get in there, he could lose both of his legs and his right arm."
"well, he can live without a leg," bailey reminds them. "i'd like to see him live without a liver."
"so, we're saying we'd prefer him to suffer a long, slow, painful death as the alkaline in the cement continues to burn through his skin?" mark asks.
"you can't just start chipping away," lia snaps at him. "once his circulation opens up, the built-up toxins will stop his heart, not to mention the rhabdomyol-"
"we could treat that with dialysis," cristina suggests, cutting her off.
"yang, let us work," lia scolds, still slightly mad at her due to her performance in the o.r the other week, as they surgeons continue shouting at each other.
"you are so wrong," lia shakes her head at mark.
"i'm so wrong?" mark raises his brow.
"you are," callie agrees. "wrong."
"you two working together on this?" mark shouts at the two best friends who are clearly letting their personal vendettas against mark take a toll in the work place.
"okay, everybody stand down!" richard bellows and the room falls silent again. "we are fighting the clock, people. it took one hour for the kids to call nine one one. it took three hours for the search and rescue to get this guy cut out of the cement. this gives us less than four to six hours to get him out of the cement and into the o.r before he is dead. now we are fighting one hell of a clock. every minute counts. we work as a team or that man dies. do you understand?"
"yes, sir. of course, sir," the surgeons all answer in unison.
"what's the patient's name?" richard asks.
"andrew langston," lia tells him.
"okay, let's go and save his life," richard says, leading them back to the patient.
■ ■ ■
"all right, it's at twenty centimetres," lia announces. "inflate the baloon, yang."
"i am," cristina tells her.
"alright. so then inflate it more," she instructs the resident.
"yes, dr. webber," cristina nods.
"every time they loosen another piece of concrete, this leg swells more," callie reveals. "his pressure is eighteen."
"alright, does he have a pulse with that?" lia asks.
"i'm finished, i'm in," cristina announces.
"yang, do not sew that in," lia warns. "hold it. i will check your work when i'm done."
"chief, i've gotta do a fasciotomy," callie informs richard.
"what? a what?" andrew asks, full of worry.
"we've got to relieve the pressure in your leg or you could lose the entire limb. don't worry," lia smiles. "you probably won't feel a thing."
"oh, god," andrew groans.
■ ■ ■
"derek!" lia calls when she gets out of surgery, and sees him walking out of his patient, beth's room. he turns to look at her before walking over to meet the brunette. "how did it go? how did it go with your last patient of the clinical trial?"
"it worked!" derek beams. "the tumour is shrinking. beth has just woke up."
"oh my god, that's amazing!" lia squeals, hugging derek who slightly picks her up off the ground. "you've made a break through in medicine. this is insane."
"i've got to find, meredith," he says, putting his best friend down, and running down the corridor. "i'll catch up with you later."
- - -
and you're going to have feelings about that because it's sad, but you cannot fall apart.
- - -
"lia!" meredith calls, as she's walking away from the hospital, causing the brunette to stop and spin around so that meredith can catch up.
"meredith, hey," lia smiles, greeting the resident. "i heard your trial worked, that's amazing!"
"thank you," meredith says, then pauses. "i need your help."
"with what?" lia asks, as the two begin to walk to the car park together.
"derek."
- - -
and then one day, we will succeed and save a person's life and we will walk on the moon.
- - -