Bright early in the morning Renee made her way into the hospital, Mark was by her side holding Ilaria's hand as the little girl walked beside him, they hadn't had a chance to talk about anything, Ren had spent the entire night being awake in case anything happens with Izzie. Izzie hadn't woken up from the surgery and while it was completely normal for some patients to wake a latter than usual, she couldn't help but be worried. They were about to enter the elevator when Renee's pager went off, it was a message from Derek, Izzie's awake.
"Izzie's awake," she said to Mark who nodded.
"That's good,"
"Could you drop her off in the daycare? I have to run,"
"Yeah," Mark said as he pressed a kiss to Renee's lips.
"Bye, my love," she said to Ilaria before pressing a kiss to her cheek and running off. Mark watched her before turning back to Ilaria, who seemed very much interested in his penlight, turning it off and on repeatedly.
"Come on, baby girl, let's get you to the daycare,"
"Did you get the whole thing? Did you get the whole tumour out?"
"Just let me finish my exam. Can you tell me your name?" Derek asked.
"My name is Isobel Stevens. It's 2009. And I'm in the ... neuro I.C.U. at Seattle Grace hospital. Did you get the damn thing out?"
"Got the whole damn thing," Derek gave her a smile.
"Did you get it?"
"Yeah,"
"Oh, god. You got the whole thing. And I can talk and I know my name and I'm not a turnip. nope. No offence,"
"Oh, no,"
"You are a great surgeon, but I really thought I was gonna be a turnip. This is so unbelievably great,"
"Your, uh, kidneys are a little sluggish, So we're just gonna keep an eye on your electrolytes for a few hours. Your post-op crit was ... was fine," Christina said.
"Okay, good. good. Good. How did the surgery go? Did you get the brain tumour? Did you get it out?" Izzie asked. Renee exchanged eye contact with Derek, this wasn't good, she could feel the panic building up in the room, Alex looked like he was about to break down again.
"Iz, you just asked him that. We just talked about it," Alex said.
"No, no, it's okay. She's gonna be foggy for a while. The tumour's out. There was a little bleeding during the post..." Derek said.
"You got it? yeah. All of it? mm-hmm. That's amazing. Derek Shepherd, you ... are a hero. And I know that that's Derek Shepherd. And you're Alex. and you should kiss me. Alex ... I don't have a brain tumour, I'm tumour-free,"
"Yes, you are,"
"What's wrong? Why do you look weird?"
"No, nothing. nothing. Uh, your kidneys are a little slow. We're just gonna watch them," Renee said as she gave Izzie a calming smile.
"Okay. So you'll just recheck my electrolytes in an hour?" Izzie asked.
"Mm-hmm,"
"Okay. How did the surgery go? Did you get the tumour?" Derek looked up from his chart, he looked worried, Christina and Renee exchanged a glance, this was what they were afraid of, Izzie losing memory but this was something else, her short-term retention was working well, it seemed botched.
"We did. The tumour's gone. There was a little bit of bleeding, And we took care of that,"
"You got it?"
"Mm-hmm,"
"Oh, my god. And I can talk, and you didn't kill me. What's wrong with you people?"
"We will, soon, Izzie, soon,"
"Dr Foster, I need to tell you something,"
George O'Malley walked towards her, he had a huge smile on his face as he fell in step with her, over the past few days he had been a huge support to her, he had made sure her Post-ops were taken care of and everything with her other patients went smoothly.
"What's up, O'Malley?"
"I know this might come as a shock and you'll be angry, god knows Dr Bailey was but this feels right, you know?" George said without taking a breath.
"O'Malley, deep breaths,"
"Okay, you can hit me...I joined the army to be a trauma surgeon," George said finally. Renee stopped filing her chart before looking up, he had a huge smile on his face and he looked very proud of his decision. She saw a split of Issac in him, telling her how proud he was for the job and the work he was doing, she couldn't smile or encourage him and it was petty, she knew that but she had lost someone she loved because of it. She liked George, not in a romantic way but as a friend, someone with whom she had shared many happy moments, he was there when Ilaria spoke her first words.
"Dr Foster, say something please. I know this is-OW!!" Renee hit him on the head with the file which was in her hand.
"You idiot!!"
"Who suggested that you join the army?"
"Well, Dr Hunt told me that I have a natural instinct for trauma,"
"So you joined the army? No, you stay here and do trauma. Have you even thought about your family? or friends?"
"Dr Foster. I know you are angry and you're trying to convince me to not join but this is my calling. I need to know if I have your support because you're my mentor and my friend...I think,"
"Oh screw you and your emotional blackmailing George,"
Renee watched as Mark told Lexie off for not doing the sutures properly, she narrowed her eyes at him, he was being cold about everything, she didn't know what to do, on one side moving in together would be great for their relationship but on the other side, it was such a huge step that it almost frightened her. She huffed to herself, she couldn't believe that she had suddenly become the commitment-phobic in their relationship and Mark was responsible and the sensible one. She shook her head before approaching him from the behind where he was doing the sutures on a girl who had been brought in along with the man who had been run over by a man who jumped in to save the said girl.
"You are giving me the cold shoulder," she whispered to him.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Mark said without looking up from his sutures.
"The hell you don't,"
"Dr Foster...my question was very clear. I asked whether or not you will move in with me. You didn't answer and I think I got my answer,"
"Come on, don't do this Mark,"
"No, I am being the responsible one while you're being a commitment-phobic, I get it, I know it is because of me, I am the one who screws up every time but this time I am not the one screwing up,"
"Okay. You brought up moving in together and I put it off. And now you're angry and you won't make eye contact with me because you feel that I have all the power in the relationship,"
"I am not bothered if you've all the power in the relationship, hell, I love when you boss around, it's sexy but I want us to move forward and we can't do that if you don't trust me,"
He looked up to see her nodding her head before she walked away, he shook his head before looking at his patient who obviously had listened to their entire conversation, he gave her an awkward smile before returning to the sutures.
"I'll totally pretend I didn't hear any of that,"
"Women do this to me. I don't do this. 'Let's get a house together.'"
"Sucks being the girl, huh?"
"I'm not the girl.....What do girls do?"
"Well, uh, we start with the cold shoulder, so you're right on track. And we go to our girlfriends and we bitch and our girlfriends say, 'You want to build a future, build it yourself. You don't need a man to give you that. So you want to buy a house? Buy a house.'"
"Huh. You're good at this,"
"I ought to help someone get a love life. I suck at my own. He jumped in front of a bus ... for me,"