Season Six, Episode Thirteen
State of Love and Trust
Max was not a happy camper, she was not happy that Derek went behind Max's back and told Jennings that Richard had a drinking problem, he should've went to her first. Yes, Max agrees that Richards drinking problem does make him unfit for the chief position but it still would've been nice for Derek to go directly to her first.
On the other hand, Max was happy. She finishes boxing up her bridesmaid and maid of honor boxes and she was over the moon excited to go be them to her girls. Mark had already asked Derek to be his best man, Leo and Graham to be his groomsman so now it was Max's turn to surprise everyone. She gathered her four surprise boxes and set them in her locker.
"Bubba? What are you doing here so late?" Mark walked into the room, a muffin in one and a coffee in the other.
"I was getting the boxes for the girls, I was talking to Graham and we was telling me that Lexie was getting anxious so I figured that I should probably ask them today" Max turned around to face him, holding Miranda's box, "I figured I would go to Miranda first"
"I know I got here earlier because of surgery but I ran to the coffee shop and got you some breakfast but when I couldn't find you, I got worried" Mark walked closer to his fiancé, giving her a sweet kiss on the lips.
"Thank you, I love you" Max sighed heavenly, she didn't think she would ever get over him.
"Do I have permission to talk about Derek?" Mark asked slowly.
"No, you do not" Max grumbled, taking the coffee and walking out of the room with Mark following, "You know, just a few short years ago Derek was asking Richard to be his best man but now he's backstabbingy and stealing jobs"
"He was doing the right thing" Mark tried to defend him friend.
"Doing the right thing also would've entailed telling me first or even Leo! I'm just so tired of his angled agenda and then having my Mom call me and ask about what happened? For a person who practically grew up in my house, he sure doesn't have any consideration for any of us" Max shook her head in disbelief. Derek would always be Max's family but she wasn't so sure if they were friends anymore.
"Shit" Mark said under his breath, "I've got to go, tell me what Miranda says! I love you!"
Finding the perfect time to tell Miranda was hard, she didn't want to ask her before surgery because that probably wasn't safe so when Max looked at her open morning, she jumped right on it.
"Miranda, Hi. How are you?" Max said bubbly, holding the box in her hands.
Miranda looked at the girl up and down and then to the box, "Why the hell are you carrying around a box?"
"It's for you" Max handed Miranda the box, she couldn't help but smile even though Miranda was hesitant.
Max watched as she opened the box, looking down at the pink paper, decorated cookies and a small wine bottle that said Officiant. She watched as Miranda's eyes traveled back and forth between the note and to Max.
"Really?" Miranda's voice quivered.
"It would be really important to me if you married us. When I'm standing up there with Mark, I want you to be there with us, not standing a few feet away like the maid of honor or the bridesmaids. You're one of the most important people in my life and I'm not sure how I ever could've made it without you when I first moved here" Max's eyes welled up with tears, Miranda is one of the few people that Max would trust with anything and she has always watched over for Max so it seemed fit for her to marry them.
"I would love to officiant your wedding, Max. Thank you" Miranda pulled Max into a hug, keeping her there for awhile before Miranda said she had to prep for surgery. Now, it was Callie's turn.
Max ran over to her locker real quick to grab Callie's box, Mark had messaged her and told her that he saw Callie sitting in the break room with Graham so she zoomed over there as quick as she could.
Opening the door, she walked in with a huge smile on her face, "Max? Are you okay?" Callie turned to her friend, letting out a little chuckle.
"Oh, of course! I did get you something though" Max placed the box on the table in front of Callie, "I immediately thought of you"
Graham looked up at Max and let out a sly smile which Max replied with a wink.
Callie opened the box but shut it as quick as she opened it, "Cal?" Max asked but she remained quite.
"You're not kidding right? Like this is serious?" Callie's voice came out nonchalant.
"I'm not kidding Callie" Max let out a laugh.
Callie closed the box and got out of her chair, both Graham and Max stared at her confusingly, not know what to expect.
They didn't expect her to do a little dance, "Is this a yes?"
"Of course it's a yes, Max!" Callie yelled, grabbing Max's hands so she could dance with her.
"We'll have to dance like this at the wedding" Graham said when he joined in.
"Wait, who am I walking with" Callie stopped dancing and looked at Graham and then to Max.
"Derek. Lexie will be walking with Lexie and Arizona will be walking with Leo"
"You're asking Arizona?" Callie furrowed her eyebrows, "Thank you so much" She pulled Max into a hug, her voice shaky when she spoke.
"I didn't expect to become so close to her so fast and with you girls by my side, it makes my day even better" Max couldn't help but cry along with Callie but when she heard Graham let out a little sniffle she lost it.
"Oh, Hammy! Come in here, you!" Max unwrapped one of her arms and extended it to Graham, "I'm lucky to have you guys"
Max didn't have time to get to the other two because Derek wanted to put on a little show for everyone, letting them know that he hold the power.
She stood next to Mark, his arm was wrapped around her shoulders, he knew that Max would need some moral support.
"Hey, are you okay?" Arizona walked up to Max and asked, noticing her red eyes.
"Oh, y-yeah! Yes, I am. I just watched one of those kids getting adopted videos and I broke down, same old me" Max told her way to cheerfully, making not only Arizona look at her with a weird glance but Mark did too.
"Nice way of playing it cool" Mark joked.
"What the hell is he wearing?" Callie said from beside Arizona.
"He looks good. Chiefly" Owen said, totally ass-kissing the new chief.
"No he doesn't Owen" Max bit back, making Mark squeeze her side.
"He looks like an undertaker" Christina said from Leo's left.
"Maybe he's decided that being chief isn't for him and decided to treat dead people" Leo chimed in, backing Christina.
"I promised him we'd clap" Arizona said cheerfully.
"Why?" Max groans.
"Ahem. I want to thank you all for being here. I know you're busy, so I'll try to make this quick. As you may have heard, I have been appointed the new interim chief of surgery. It's my personal goal to make this transition as smooth as possible. I know we've had a rocky few months, mistakes have been made. I intend to right those wrongs and bring this hospital back to its former glory"
Max couldn't help but seethe at that, bring this hospital back to its former glory? Robert had never once talked about this hospital with Derek, what would he know about glory? And why is he talking like he just bought the hospital right under there nose? Like he has the money for that, Max thought.
"Former glory' undertaker needs a speechwriter" Christina whispered to Leo.
Everyone turned there heads when Chief Webber walked Into the room with Jennings, catching Derek off guard. "And, um, what I meant... uh, by that is- what I'm trying to say is, I want to thank you for your support in advance, uh, that's all"
"What a joke" Max laughed while everyone started to clap.
Max wasn't sure when she was able to get around to asking Lexie and Arizona, she had time in the morning but that was in the morning. Now, she and Karev had rounds to do.
"How long would you say Brads been having the pain?" Max looked up at the parents, she had his chart out to right any necessary notes.
"Off and on for months"
"Brad, is the pain constant or is it worse at times, better at others?" Max nodded her head as she wrote down what the Mom said and then looked up at Brad.
"Mm, it's usually bad in the mornings, like? Right after breakfast" Brad replies to Max.
"Which, I might point out, is, uh, when he has to go to school" The Dad shrugs.
"But I feel it at other times, too" Brad explains.
"Right, like, uh, when you have a Spanish test or, uh, have to give a presentation in history class"
"Stress can exacerbate abdominal pain" Alex informed the dad.
"Please doctor, don't encourage him. He's just faking so he could miss school"
"I am not" Brad tells his father.
"Abdomens soft, non-tender, not rigid, bowel sounds are good" Alex looked over at Max.
"I'd like to cover all the bases still, maybe it's something we can't see yet" Max made it a point to subtly look at the father, "Dr. Karev, how would you proceed?"
"We could try a triple-contrast C.T."
"Perfect, go do it" Max gave him a quick nod.
"Brad, this is gonna cost us thousands of dollars and insurance only covers part of it. You-you know that, right?" Brads dad stepped in again.
"I'm not faking it. I-I'm not faking it, dad. I swear" Brad looked at his Dad with hurt eyes.
After the scans came back, Max and Alex head into the film room, "What about that? That spot-see it?"
"Sorry, Alex but that's lint" Max said, taking her finger and removing it off the film.
"It doesn't make sense. I mean, no kid wants to be the loser missing class to go to the hospital, I don't care how lame you are" Alex explains to Max, of course it didn't make sense.
"Oh, well I actually loved going to the hospital growing up. Technically, my Dad worked there so I was able to see him but I thought it was all super fun" Max smiled at her distant memory but stopped when she say Alex's face, "Right, let's go over it again"
"He presented with severe but intermittent abdominal pain"
"Labs were normal, no fever" Max's added on.
"Soft abdomen on exam"
"We're missing something, Alex" Max sighed into her hands, face the film once again.
"Chronic mesenteric ischemia?" Alex said like a lightbulb went off.
"Mm, well, it's a stretch for a kid but if he had vascular problems-"
"No, it fits all the symptoms and it doesn't show up on the scans" Alex further explained his reasoning.
"The only problem with that is there's only one way to get an accurate diagnosis and that's to run an exploratory laparoscopy" Max frowned.
"So?"
"Brads father didn't even want us to run a C.T. Do you really think that he's going to agree to exploratory surgery?" Max asked him seriously. The dad was just complaining about the cost of the C.T. and now Max didn't want to know what he was going to say about the surgery.
Max knew that speaking to the parents wasn't going to go well, at least not for that Dad. Once they had brought up the idea, the man started to yell and Max didn't appreciate that so much.
"No. Just no. You are not cutting open our son with no evidence that there's anything even wrong-"
"Dad"
"Jim"
"No! Listen to me, that is thousands of dollars we're talking about on what, a hunch, huh? He's got nervous stomach and crappy grades. That's it. I hated school, too, Brad. Okay? I got it. Your mother and I, we have jobs and we go to them, you have school, that's your job. No surgery. It's insane, just- no. No!" The man continued to argue with people that weren't even arguing back until he walked out with the Mom following after.
"You think it's right for them to take him home?" Max turned to Alex and asked.
"It isn't" Brad said harshly.
"Shh, Brad. Teaching moment. You think he's faking?" Max turned to the kid and then back to Alex.
"No"
"What are you going to do then?" Max asked further.
"I'd like to push his dads face into a wall" Alex said, looking over to the kid, "No offense"
"Yeah, no. That-that'd be good" Brad agreed happily.
"You can do whatever you want as long as it's not in my hospital. Besides physical force, what are you going to do?" Max shook her head at the kid and than did the same to Alex, "This is Peds, Alex. The patients can't advocate for themselves so other than surgery, a big part of the job is advocating for them. Think you can do that?"
Alex stared at Max for a money before stepping out of the room to let the parents know that although they may not find anything, there was also a good chance that they did.
"Yes. This is exploratory surgery and, yes, Brads scans look clean but if we're right, if he has mesenteric ischemia and you take him home, the blood flow to his intestine will slowly stop, killing the tissue, causing Brad to become septic, forcing his body into such intense shock that by the time you realize what's happening and you call an ambulance, the chance of Brad getting back to the hospital alive is next to zero. You think he's faking, I get that. The only real question is, how sure are you? How sure?"
Max stared at her guy with happy eyes, he was going to do great and she would bet any amount of money that he would become the face of Peds someday and she would happily step away if her role was given to Alex.
Brads surgery went okay, there were some complications which led to him being on a tube but there was nothing serious that Max had to worry about, until Alex paged her about Brads tube leaking blood.
Luckily, Alex was on it and so was Teddy Altman which was something Max was happy to hear.
Brad was now out of the second surgery and resting, now Max and Alex had the privilege of speaking to the parents.
"His heart ruptured?"
"This is unbelievable. How could you not find this?"
"His hear symptoms presented itself as abdominal pains, it's an extremely rare presentation and it's almost impossible to diagnose" Max told the parents softly, they were already on edge and she didn't want to set them over, "But the most important thing is that Brad is doing fine"
"Fine? You call him being hooked up to tubes and you call that 'fine'?" The man pointed at his son as he yelled at Max.
"Dude, seriously, we're the only reason your kids alive-"
"Okay, Karev-" Max spoke up when he was beginning to cross the line.
"If you had it your way, you'd have been home when Brads aorta ruptured and he'd be head right now. Think about how much school he'd be missing then, huh?" Alex ignored Max's warning and continued to belittle the parents.
"Karev! We're done here. Excuse me" Max looked at the parents, "Follow me right now"
Max lead Alex down the hallway, far enough so that they couldn't be heard by the parents, "If you want to work in Peds, you can't get emotional"
"You said it was part of the job" Alex said back.
"No, there is a different between advocating for children and berating terrified parents. You're good with kids, Karev, I can see that. You've got great hands and great instincts, we already knew that and you're one of the best people I have seen who does a great job advocating for there patients but until you have been a parent, until you've stayed up all night listening to a crying baby or dealt with a manic toddler or stayed up ever night worried that you aren't doing a good enough job, you don't get to judge parents. You advocate for children, you make sure that they are being heard, you don't sit there and yell and judge a parent. Do you understand me, Karev?" Max's voice became hard in an instant. If Karev was going to be a Peds surgeon he was going to have to learn all of this.
"Yes"
"Great. Now you go and apologize to that family" Max began to walk away, "You saved that kids life today, how'd it feel?"
Alex let out a smile, "It feels great"
"Hard-core, right?"
"Yeah" Alex agreed, chuckling a little.
"Welcome go Peds, Karev"
Max's day was coming to an end, all of her surgery's were done and all of her patients were situated. It was the perfect time to finish giving out her boxes.
Lexie was the second person to be standing on her side, so it only made sense to give her the box after Callie. Sporting the box in her hand, she caught Lexie standing with Graham getting ready to go.
"Lex, hey! I got something for you" Max handed her friend the box, smiling cheekily at Graham.
"Oh, you did? That's so sweet of you, Max. Thank you-" Lexie opened the box and picked up the small wine bottle that said bridesmaid, "I'm going to be a bridesmaid?"
"Yes!" Max laughed at Lexie's surprised state, "I wouldn't want it to be anyone else"
"Ah!" Lexie screamed and laughed at the same time, pulling friend into a hug, "Thank you so much, Max. I love you"
Max looked up at the ceiling, trying to get her tears to not fall on her face, "I love you too, Lex"
"Did you know about this?" Lexie asked turning to her boyfriend and holding the wine to his face.
"Of course I did, darling" Graham pulled her into a side hug and kissed her hairline.
"You let me go on and on about me being worried that I wasn't going to be asked and you knew!?" Lexie pulled out of the hug and glared at him.
"I very well couldn't have spoiled the surprise, now could I?" Graham smirked at Lexie.
"As much as I love seeing you guys fight, I have one more box to give" Max held up Arizona's box to show them.
"Ooo, who are you asking next?" Lexie turned her attention to Max.
"Arizona will be my last bridesmaid"
"Who else did you ask?" Lexie asked.
"I asked Miranda to marry us and I asked Callie to be my maid of honor. I would've asked more people but Mark seems to only have two friends and my brother" Max half joked, even though it was actually true.
"You have to tell me how they reacted!" Lexie hurried out.
"I will, I promise. Besides I'm sure we'll all be talking about it when we pick out the dress and your guys dress" Max smiled at the overly happy girl.
"I'm so excited!" Lexie yelled, squealing a little.
Max bid her friends a goodbye and set out to find the last person she needed, she was most likely in the Peds wing so Max headed up there.
Walking around in the Peds hallway, with no sign of Arizona anywhere, "Hey, Dr. Chang, have you seen Dr. Robbins?"
"I think I saw her down the C hallway" Dr. Chang turned around and gave Max a small smile and then pointed to where the hallway was.
"Thank you, Dr. Chang. I'll see you tomorrow!" Max began walking down the hallway, turning left to go into the C hallway.
"Dr. Robbins!" Max yelled down the hallway, walking faster to meet the girl.
"Max? Hey, what's up?" Arizona placed her hands in the pockets of her lab coat.
"You are a very hard person to find" Max joked, handing her the box.
"Oh. A box?" Arizona lifted the box to her ear, shaking it a little.
"I wouldn't shake that actually, just open it" Max gave her a sly smile.
Arizona didn't say anything, instead she opened the box with a huge smile.
"What do you think?" Max laughed.
"This is awesome, really really cool" Arizona held her own mini wine bottle that said bridesmaid.
"You'll be walking with my brother, if you agree to be in my wedding"
"Of course I agree! This is going to be so fun" Arizona pulled Max into a hug.
"Thank you, Arizona. Callie is my best friend and I'm so happy that you've become a big part in her life, like you have in mine. I'm happy to have you girls up there with me" Max pulled away with tears in her eyes, today was a day for crying and that was evident.
Arizona was going to say something back but someone had called out Max's name, turning around to see Mark holding her stuff with a smile on her face.
"Maeve called, she said that she figured out how to activate her latest project" Mark lifted up Max's purse, "She asked if we could come home so she could show us. She sounded really happy"
"The robot?" Max asked slowly.
"The robot" Mark told her more confident.
"Arizona, I would love to stay and chat and cry but it seems like my little girl figured out how to turn on the robot, she's spent the past year building it" Max turned to her friend and then ran to Mark.
"This is so exciting" Max grabbed her purse from Mark, both of them picking up their pace so they could get home.
They got to the house as fast as they could and sprinted to Maeve's work area in the basement. The little girl didn't waste anytime before showing all of them what she discovered. Sure enough, the robot turned on. Of course, Maeve still had some stuff to tweak, she said the her goal was to be able to put a computer in his mind so that he could find the answers and even cook if asked.
After Maeve's show and tell, her and Max made dinner for everyone, just a simple spaghetti and meatballs and they all sat together watching Maeve's favorite movie, Iron Man.
//
Not edited.
HAPPY ELECTION DAY! Here's another chapter just for this special day(:
I love this family and I love this book. I'm so excited to share Max's wedding and what I envisioned it to look like. I've came up with their wedding songs, the invitations, how their wedding will look AND Max's wedding and bridesmaid dresses!!! So be excited for that!!!
GIVE ME SOME OF YOUR GUYS FAVORITE LOVE SONGS AND ILL INCLUDE THEM IN THE WEDDING PLAYLIST