"What are you people looking at?"
Renee raised an eyebrow at the group of people standing at the entrance of the hospital chapel, she and Callie had gone to grab a cup of coffee when she saw Bailey, Richard, Naomi and Sam standing watching something. Sam had arrived a little while ago and Renee was feeling as if she was back in New York in med school but nothing was as simple as it was when they were in school. As she joined the group, she noticed Addison sitting in the chapel, praying, which was something Addison never did, Captain and Brizzy had tried to make their children religious but they didn't succeed.
"What is she doing?"
"Uh, she's praying," Richard answered.
"No, Addison doesn't pray," Naomi, Sam and Renee answered.
"She must be hiding," Callie said.
"I can hear you. And I'm not hiding. I am trying to pray, but I don't know how to pray because I'm a wasp, and we only go to church on Christmas,"
"You guys go. I got this,"
"All right, archer. I need to create room in the ventricle so I can manoeuvre the scope. If I deflate each cyst, the scope can remove them one by one,"
Everybody looked at Derek as he explained Archer the procedure which he thought was the best for this operation, Renee was standing behind with Sam and Mark as they watched on how ready Archer was to disagree with whatever Derek was going to say. Archer and Derek had never gotten along, it was true what Derek had previously said, Archer had chosen sides in the marriage and most of the time demeaned Derek and the work he had done.
"The cysts will rupture," Archer said.
"I'm gonna grab each one with forceps, pull it up to the edge of the port and suction out the fluid," Derek said as Renee exchanged eye contact with Mark who just shook his head.
"The suction would have to be precise ..."
"-It will be,"
"You can't do it," Archer said.
"Well, I think I can."
"Basically you can control the way the cyst ruptures?" Addison said.
"No, he can't. Look, I know you guys want me to go down fighting, but I ..."
"Coward." Derek interrupted.
"Excuse me?"
"I said "coward." You're a coward by trade. You're a neurologist. You guys feed off us, refer your patients to us, let us assume the responsibility, and if god forbid something happens, well ... I'll tell you what, I can assume the responsibility. The question is, can you?"
"Find Dr Foster. She's your patient. Ask her her symptom. Diagnose her correctly to receive your next challenge. What are your symptoms?"
The interns were having some sort of game and every attending and resident on the floor had been given a clue card and the next clue, Renee was at the cafeteria with Naomi and Sam grabbing lunch when an intern, Claire, came running towards her almost of breath.
"Breathlessness with exertion, swelling of the legs, ankles and feet, heartbeats that feel rapid, pounding or fluttering and dizziness,"
"Cardiomyopathy," the intern said excitedly and Renee brought out an envelope from her lab coat.
"Here you go. Best of luck,"
"Thank you, Dr Foster," Claire said as she ran off.
"What was that?" Sam asked.
"A resident over here has arranged a game for the interns to make them interested in medicine again,"
"Boy, I wish somebody would've done that for us," Naomi said.
"Tell me about it, I wish Richard would've been a little less bitchy," Renee said as she leaned back in her chair.
"Hmm..hmm," Somebody cleared their throat. Renee, Sam and Naomi turned to look back at Richard who was standing there with a blank look on his face, he had his hands tucked into his coat's pocket and his eyes were slightly narrowed.
"Chief?" Renee asked.
"I would like to say that I have a very good bitch face," Richard said before walking away.
"He's getting weirder day by day," Renee said as she turned back to Sam and Naomi.
"So, you're with Archie and what about you?" Sam shrugged.
"I am trying to live my single life," Sam said as Naomi scoffed.
"I haven't heard anything more pathetic than that,"
"Renee, how's your life going since we single people are pathetic?" Sam said as Renee and Naomi laughed.
"I am planning on adopting Ilaria," Renee said.
"That's great, can we meet her?"
"She's precious,"
It was about a half an hour before Archer's surgery that Renee, Sam and Naomi had decided to visit Ilaria in her daycare, the girl had quickly realised her mother and had come wabbling towards them falling once or twice in between. Renee had been proud to watch as Ilaria picked herself up and walked towards them without crying once, the little girl had started walking a few weeks back and was getting confident with each walk. As Ilaria grew older Renee found herself easing a lot, she found it relaxing than when the girl had started walking, Ilaria had even picked up new words including no but didn't understand the right time to use it.
"She is, hi baby girl," Naomi said as she offered Ilaria her hand which at first the baby looked suspicious but later held onto it tightly. Renee and Sam watched as she climbed up Naomi and settled into her lap.
"You look like you're going to cry," Sam commented.
"I might cry because look how cute,"
"I think it's great Ren that you're planning on adopting," Sam said as he gave Renee a side hug.
"It's time for Archer's surgery," Everyone looked at Mark who stood by the entrance. After handing Ilaria to Missy, the day caretaker, all four of them walked towards the OR, it was quiet, too quiet for anyone's liking but nobody dared to speak. It was a sudden change in the atmosphere, Naomi grabbed Renee's hand, her hands were shaking, she looked at her best friend and squeezed it giving her a smile.
"He'll be better, we have to trust Derek,"
"Say it, Derek. Come on, say it. Say it. Say it. Say it. Say it. Say it."
"Okay, everybody. It's a beautiful day to save lives. Scalpel."
Addison and Derek shared a look before Derek began operating on Archer, Naomi still hadn't left Renee's hand as they sat in the room, Sam, Mark, Bailey was also present and once again the feeling of being back in New York engulfed Renee. She looked over at Sam and Mark who were checking Bailey's forms about the Paediatric surgery fellowship and was about to say something when her phone rang.
"I'll have to take this," Renee said as Naomi nodded.
"Hello, Dr Renee Foster,"
"Dr Foster, this is Mr Chang from Seattle Adoptions,"
"Yes, Mr Chang,"
"You have requested our assistance in adopting your foster daughter?"
"Yes,"
"Well, we need to do a thorough background check on you and your family background. Here on your file, it is listed as you were a foster child, right?"
"Yes, is there a problem?"
"No, no problem at all. We'll inform you about the date and timing for your home checks and your interviews,"
"Sure, thank you,"
"Your welcome, have a great day ahead,"
"Everything okay?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, it's fine, it was just the adoption agency, they are going to do a background check," she gave a smile when she noticed Callie entering and she sat beside Addison.
"Okay. I need to be distracted. Someone, um, talk about something other than what's going on with my brother right now,"
"Uh, Mark is good at talking about himself,"
"Understatement of the year," Renee scoffed as Mark looked back at her with narrowed eyes.
"Actually, I've been using endoscopy for head and neck cancer resections, and if I could just focus on the criteria for patients, I might have a breakthrough on my hands,"
"What happened to you?"
"He met someone," Addison looked between Ren and Mark, before narrowing her eyes, she hadn't missed the eye contacts they had been exchanging or the change of the air when she first arrived.
The surgery went on with a little complication with the last cyst which had ruptured but in the end, everything went fine and Archer was going to be fine.
"Thank you, everybody. you just made some friends of mine very happy,"
Renee was standing with her friends ready to visit Joe's with them and for once everybody was standing without any malice or hatred in anyone's heart, Naomi was laughing as Renee leaned on her. Derek had just joined them and he had promised them to join them within the next few hours, Renee was also going to lag behind with Derek as she had a patient who recently had a surgery completed and she needed to explain his daughter the course of action.
"So, I heard you and Mark got back together," Renee looked at Addison who was looking at her with a sly smile. Addison knew something was going on between the two, ever since she arrived she had noticed something was different between Mark and Renee.
"Shhh, Derek doesn't know, nobody knows," Renee said as she pulled Addison to a quiet corner.
"How did that happen? You were hell-bent on not getting back together,"
"I don't know,"
"Do you think you'll be able to trust him again?"
"I think I am starting to,"
Joe's which was usually busy was slow at this time of the day, so there wasn't anyone around, Sam and Naomi were talking to Joe while Mark and Ren were sitting with Addison to whom Mark had blurted that Derek was planning on proposing to Meredith. Mark had his arm wrapped around Ren's chair as he sipped his whiskey, Renee, as usual, had gone for her low alcohol drink which she was happily sipping.
"You are such an ass,"
"I shouldn't have blurted."
"You... a little warning would have been nice."
"But you're okay?"
"You know, it's strange. I ... I expected this horrible feeling, this wave of sadness or something to just take over, but ... people get divorced ... they meet new people, they remarry. I don't know. You know, maybe it just. Seeing archer in that O.R., It just ... changed my perspective or something."
"But you sort of wished it'd been you first."
"Oh, shut it. So what, are you gonna tell Derek about you two?"
"We're not sure,"
"Oh, okay,"
"And I'm gonna tell him. I'm working on it. We'll tell him soon. There he is!"
Everybody clapped and cheered for God as he entered the bar with a huge smile on his face.
"There he is."
"That's the kind of welcome I deserve,"