Helena Campos was a girl of strong morals. She knew what she thought was right and she didn't often stray from it, having a string conscience keeping her in track. This made her honourable and trustworthy, however, it also made her overthink a lot of situations, having internal debates on different moral dilemmas.
Now, sitting in the gallery and watching Meredith's open heart surgery, Helena sipped her coffee and scanned through another article, her head in George's shoulder.
"I wish I could hold a heart." George complained.
"A monkey could hold a heart." Cristina pointed out.
"At least she has a better view. And you're just mad Burke didn't choose you." Lena sighed and Cristina frowned at her.
"George, I need more ice chips." Izzie joined them.
"Who else did you invite?" The boy asked.
Helena wasn't one for parties. She liked going to the occasional club, but house parties just left way too much of a mess. And, to be honest, she knew she and Izzie would end up being the ones to clean it.
"We said the list was jocks only: surgery, trauma, plastics."
Lena narrowed her eyes at Izzie's guilty face and asks "Isobel Stevens, who else did you invite?"
"Just some people from peds." She answered with a shrug and Lena takes notes on her readings.
"Some people from peds...! You invited the preschoolers to Meredith's house. Next thing you'll say that you invited the shrinks." Cristina complained. At the blond's silence, the Asian exclaimed. "She invited mental defects. This party is DOA."
"Cristina, not nice and, FYI, peds surgery is one of the most competitive specialities. Besides, the peds nurses are all really nice." The small girl scolded.
"Fine, I'm sorry, Baby Einstein. Happy now?"
"Very." She flashed her an adorable smile.
"Meredith thinks this in going to be a small, meet-your-boyfriend, cocktail thing. Did you clear this with her?" George confirmed.
"No, but I will." The three flashed her accusing looks. "I promise!"
"Why are you wasting the only weekend your boyfriend's in town on a big party? Is he bad in bed?" Helena giggled and Cristina looked at her with a softly.
"No, I just want him to meet some of my friends."
"Right. Sixty geeks in scrubs are your friends." Cristina pager's went off and she got up to leave. "Bad sex, sucks for you."
"I hear there's a party tonight at Meredith's house." Alex come in.
"News to me." Izzie denied as Lena looked down with a guilty look. She didn't yet know the boy well, but she had a feeling he wasn't nearly as bad as he thought he was.
Just then, the heart monitor started beeping in the OR bellow them, and they observed intently. Eventually, the cardio thoracic surgeon managed to get the patient's heart to start beating once again.
——
Dr. Bailey had paged both George and Helena to work with her on a case. The girl loved working with her resident, so she was more than thrilled to tag along. Now, looking at the patient's scans, the older woman questioned them. "What do you see here?"
"Hyperinflated lungs, clouded with bullae. Seriously diminished capacity. She must be having trouble breathing." The boy answered.
"Course of action?"
"A bullectomy procedure. Remove the bullae, reduce the pressure." She answered that time.
"It says here we operated on her back in '99, so mrs. Drake has been through this before, but talk her through it anyway. And resist the anti-smoking lectures, she feels bad enough already." The chief instructed them.
"So, do you think if they put a picture of these in a pack of cigarettes people would stop smoking?" George suggested, looking at his friend with adoration.
"Don't think so. Maybe some but not most. Addiction is complicated." The young girl responded.
——
"The surgery before was supposed to help. But it never felt right." Mrs. Drake told the pair.
"Probably would be a good idea to quit smoking..." George let out.
"Georgie!" The small girl elbowed him in the ribs.
"Oh, it's fine, dear. I did! Four-pack-a-day habit. It was hell. Didn't do any damn good."
"Well then, it seems congratulations are in order Mrs. Drake." She smiled at the woman.
"Well, it looked, I mean, from the damage, we all thought you were probably still smoking." George informed.
"Cold turkey, five years ago, and what did I get for my trouble? I still had to quit my job at the restaurant. But even sitting, it hurt. Nobody believed me, they said it was in my head."
"We've seen the films, and it's clearly not in your head." The girl told her.
"Come here, the two of you." The woman signalled them to come closer and said in a tone of secrecy "You're too damn young to be doctors."
"Hey! I'm older than I look." The boy defended.
"I'm probably not, but rest assured that I'm more than qualified." The girl smiled once more.
"Do you think this is gonna work this time?"
"I think it's your best option." George said.
"And we certainly hope it does." Lena answered.
"Straight shooters, huh? I like that... you're a nice couple."
"A... hum... a... what?!" George squealed, the girl's eyes widening in shock.
"Oh, no, we're... we're not..." She attempted to explain, blushing.
"Huh, could have fooled me." The patient answered, the interns looking at each other.
——
Later, at a nurses station, Helena watched with furrowed brows as Burke gave Cristina a cup of coffee. Not wanting to be a gossip, but certainly being too curious to ignore it, she overheard their conversation.
"Just coffee." Burke said.
"Good."
"Okay."
"Okay." She answered as he left.
The brunette grabbed her charts and approached her curly haired friend.
"You are sleeping with him." She pointed out.
"Is that a question?" Cristina asked.
"Nope. More of an accusation." The girl joked.
"How- how do you...?" The taller woman trailed off.
"Ah, when are you all going to learn: I know everything." She took a gulp of her friends coffee. "Besides, why does everyone forget about the genius leve IQ?"
"Not a word of this, Baby Einstein."
"My lips are sealed, or, how I like to say, a minha boca é um túmulo." The girl promised to her friend with a Portuguese saying.
——
Now observing their patient's surgery, George and Helena listened to Dr. Bailey's explanation.
"The call this a spaghetti procedure. We cut and deflate the bullae to facilitate gentle manipulation of Mrs. Drake's lung."
"Dr. Bailey, did you see that?" The chief questioned.
"Sir? Oh my ever-loving..." The woman trailed off.
"We need to open her up. I'm taking out the scope."
As George's expression was one of confusion, Lena seemed to have caught on so what's going on. "I think that was something that wasn't supposed to be there." The girl explained to her friend is a hushed tone, him giving her an appreciative look.
"You heard them, people, let's move." Bailey pointed out as her interns looked over her shoulder.
As the older surgeons operated, the interns watched intently, until the chief pulled something out of the woman.
"Is that a towel?! Where did that come from?" The boy questioned.
"I'm guessing her surgery, five years ago." Lena suggested, her mouth slightly opened in disbelief.
"Something careless this way comes." Said Dr. Bailey.
——
Walking down the hallway with Bailey and the Chief, Helena and George filled Cristina in.
"A towel?" The woman said, chocked.
"She complained of pressure on her chest, but nobody took her seriously." George explained.
"She says she'd always know the surgery didn't feel right and that it hadn't helped." Lena informed, seeing her friend's expression turn into an even more surprised one.
"Not good for the patient, got good for the hospital. Not god." The chief told them.
"I'm guessing particularly not good for her surgeon." The smaller girl whispered so that only her fellow interns could hear.
"Cristina, hit the files. Find out everything you can about that initial operation. Who was in that room, who was responsible for closing? George and Helena, you stay with the patient and keep her happy. She seemed to like you two." The short girl nodded and just as she was about to take off she heard her friend and stopped in her tracks.
"Right, okay, um, how long do you think... it's just, technically, I'm off at six." George complained.
"Am I invited to the party?" Bailey questioned.
"Well, yeah, yes, yeah, of course..." The boy stuttered, Lena only managing to hold in her giggle long enough for her resident to leave before letting in out.
"What was I supposed to say?!" The boy asked.
"Ughhh!" Cristina complained.
"Anything, Georgie. Anything but that." The short girl pat her friends back as he let out a frustrated sigh.
——
"They told me I had a towel inside me." The older woman complained, laying in her hospital bed.
"Who told you that?" George asked, with Lena by his side.
"A surgeon, an older man. Handsome." It came out weakly, as if even talking took up too much energy for the woman.
"Must be Doctor Webber. He's the chief of surgery." Lena informed, looking at the woman with compassionate eyes and a small smile.
"It was a towel somebody left last time." The woman shared. "Who would do that? That doesn't seem right, does it?" She teared up slightly.
"No, it truly doesn't. But I'm sure they'll find however made the mistake and take the needed measures." The girl attempted to calm her down.
"I was walking around with a towel inside of me. How could that happen?" Lena looked at her friend as sees he appeared to be as distraught as she was herself.
"I don't know, Ma'am. You're ok now, though. You'll get better." She held the woman's hand, attempting to give her some comfort, George watching her in awe.
——
In the tunnels, Helena laid with her legs over Cristina's, eating an apple.
"You got called before the chief?" George asked playing with a glove he turned into a ballon.
"Tomorrow morning. I could get kicked out of the program. I could, right?"
"You're not getting kicked out." The boy said.
"Patterson is just gonna sue." Cristina shared and Lena nodded.
"Patterson's not going to sue and you're not getting kicked out!"
"What were you thinking, telling Burke? So stupid." Cristina told her.
"I told her not to." George revealed.
"Thank you, very comforting." The blond reacted sarcastically.
"What? No! She should have! Granted the way you did was not the smartest, Mer, but imagine if it'd actually caused a problem. Plus, I think the chief will see that you actually revealed professionalism and honesty by coming forward. You should have just made sure you didn't do it in front of the husband." Lena gave her little speech between bites of her apple, making Mer smile tightly. "At the very least your conscience is clear. I can say I've always had a hard time dealing with a heavy conscience..."
The troubled intern's phone rang and she got up to take the call, as Izzie arrived and took her place.
"Okay, so beer is coming at seven, and four nurses are bringing wine."
"Nurses? You invited nurses?!" Cristina complained.
"Did you clear this with Meredith?" George confirmed.
"A few more people isn't gonna make a difference. A party is a party."
"Actually, it is! She has a career changing meeting tomorrow and so you are going to make sure you talk to her about this, Izzie, are we clear? It's her house!" Lena spat out, like an angry mother scolding her child.
"Oh, Baby Einstein gets scary when she's mad... anyway, the bigger the party the less time for bad sex."
"Can you stop saying that! Hank and I have great sex all the time. In fact we'll probably have sex after or during the party." The blond snacked on some fries.
"As long as you clear it with Meredith." George told her and Lena made an approving noise.
"Hank just needs to realize that doctors can have fun. We're not all workaholics with god complexes."
"Who are we kidding, we kind of are." The small girl stole a few chips from the blond, as George showed them the glove ballon, which now had a face, making her giggle.
——
Late that night, Lena sat on one of the benches in the locker room with yet another article, pink highlighter in hand. However, this time, she couldn't bring herself to actually read. She'd just watched Izzie and Alex scrub in on a surgery, even though she was supposed to already be home.
Earlier, she had seen Dr. Burke and Dr. Bailey speaking, and, by the tone of the conversation, had realised that Burke must have been the surgeon responsible for leaving a towel inside her patient. It had scared her. Granted, the girl didn't take a particular liking to the man, but Burke was a good surgeon, a competent surgeon. If he'd make such a blatant mistake, what would stop others from doing the same? Worst, he hadn't come forward about the problem, endangering a woman's life in the process.
Now, the heartbroken woman's complaints and the sight of the towel coming out of her, five years later, wouldn't leave her head. In her thoughts, she barely noticed Alex Karev entering the locker room.
"Hey, what are you still doing here?" He asked, making her jump. "Not in the mood for a party?"
"Just a complicated day, I guess. Lots to think about." She told him. He started changing out of his scrubs, her staring into the void, thoughts still running through her head.
Looking at her with compassion in his eyes, the boy sighed, as if trying to convince himself not to continue the conversation. However, he caved in moments later, sitting next to her.
"Want to talk about it?" He asked.
"It's not that big of a deal, really. It's just today, we found my patient had a towel inside of her from a surgery she'd gotten five years ago. She spent five years in pain with no one believing her..." The girl trailed of for a moment and then continued on. "Just makes you think about how much responsibility we really have. In a minute, we could change someone's life, without even knowing it. In a minute, we could make a fatal mistake, compromise somebody's whole future... I don't know, I'd just like to know that whenever I'm helping someone, I'm actually helping them, not making them worse." She ended with a sigh.
"I think you're too good for your own good, Campos. This job can really suck sometimes." The boy agreed.
"It really can." They fell in a comfortable silence for a while, Lena's head against the wall.
"I should really get going. The party must have died down by now." She said and got up, putting her article in her bag and adjusting it on her shoulder.
"Not one for big parties either?" He asked with a soft smile she had yet to see graze his face.
"No, not today at least." As she walked to leave the room, she stopped and looked back for a moment. "You know, Alex Karev, I don't think you are nearly as bad as you tell yourself you are." Lena said softly and left the room, leaving a somewhat stunned Karev to think about what she'd just said. It felt good to have someone believe in him.
——
As she ended up falling asleep on an on-call room, Helena gets home the next morning to find an extremely dirty house.
"Oh god, what happened? How many people came to this thing?" She said, scrunching her nose in disgust as she sits down in the couch by Meredith, who was laying in the floor.
"I don't even know, I'm too hungover to think."
George came in and handed Meredith some coffee. "Why didn't you come home last night, Lena? I was getting a bit worried..."
"I fell asleep on an on-call room. I was too tired to come to a party, but thanks for the worry. When's your meeting with the chief, Mer?"
"In an hour." She said with a raspy voice as Lena pats her head.
Izzie then came in with a face the youngest girl assumed mirrored the one she had had. "Holy mother of destruction!"
"You missed doctor-palooza. I should probably never speak to you again." Meredith joked.
"I'm so sorry Meredith, I had no idea it was gonna get so..." The blond sat between George and Lena on the couch.
"Crazy? Destructive? Messy?" The short girl suggested, Izzie glaring at her playfully.
"It's ok. Really, I don't care. What would I be doing anyway?" The shorter blond forgave her.
"Preparing for a career altering meeting?" George said, earning him a slap on the back of his head form the Portuguese girl. "Ouch! Sorry." He says, rubbing the back of his head.
"That heart wall shouldn't have torn..."
"Anything in the patient's history?" The model tried to help.
"Husband said she was in the best shape of her life, she lost a hundred pounds last year."
"Mer, that might be it! Hundred pounds in a year? I mean, that muscle mass might not be great." Lena suggested, her eyes widening at her discovery, and Izzie took a gulp of a random bear.
"Gosh, it's 7 am, Izzie. Do you even know whose that is?" The girl complained.
"I was hoping it was George's." Lena let out a giggle, mixed with a disgusted expression.
——
"What do you think?" Izzie asked as her, Cristina, George and Helena waited to see how their friend's meeting goes.
"Fifty says Meredith gets tossed out on her ass and Burke walks away clean." Lena eyed her with narrowed eyes and gently hit her arm. "Ouch!"
"Be nice." The girl said.
As Meredith walked out, she informed. "One month probation. Burke saved my ass in there." They sighed in relieve.
As Lena learned that Burke had come forward about the towel situation, she felt a weight lifted off her chest. Maybe he'd made a mistake, but he'd taken responsibility and tried to fixed it. And if he had, what would stop others from doing the same?
——
Word count: 3061