As Helena read a book in the tunnels, before rounds, she suddenly heard voices coming from inside a closet. Realising it was George's she furrowed her brows and approached the door. The boy had moved out of Cristina's place and no one knew where he was staying. As for their friendship, it had pretty much gone back to normal, both getting over the feeling they used to have for each other.
She Helena opened the door cautiously, she called out. "Georgie?"
Suddenly, the voices stopped and the intern emerged from behind a shelf. "Lena! Wh- what are you doing here?"
"You are... you're in your pyjamas?" She scrunched her nose up in confusion as she tried to move past the boy.
"I- uh, don't- don't go in there." The boy asked her, barring her passage gently.
"Georgie, it's a supply closet!" At the boy's suspicion face, she walked forward, asking. "What are you hiding?"
At the end of the large closet she saw Callie, equally in her pyjamas, laying in a mattress. The older woman looked up at her awkwardly, as Helena's eyes widened.
"Oh, so this is where you're staying." She turned to the boy, remembering to greet the resident after. "Hi, Callie, good morning."
Callie smiled back at her, still slightly rubbing her eyes with sleep. "Morning, Lena."
"You are staying in a supply closet and you couldn't have told me, George O'Malley?" She narrowed her eyes at him, hitting his arm and then turning back to the woman. "So, living in a closet, I see." Helena giggled.
"Hey! Why do I get hit and Callie gets jokes?" The boy pouted slightly.
"That's because I still haven't earned the right to mother Callie. Besides, she didn't purposefully hide it from me." The girl explained, sitting on the border, of Callie's bed.
"I promise I'm not crazy or anything. I just spend so much time at the hospital either way..." The taller woman explained, getting out from her bed.
"And, Lena, please don't tell Izzie. She's been annoying me about it forever."
"Well, it certainly is spacious for a closet." Helena joked. "Oh, and don't worry about it, my lips are sealed."
"And that is why you're my favourite out of George's friends."
The boy watched the altercation between the two women, as Helena looked at him, raising her brows. "See? Callie is honest." She flashed him her charming smile.
——
As the girl walked through the hallways, Alex approached her. "Morning." She wished.
"Morning. Lena, about the other day, I didn't meant to..." He started, clearing his voice.
"I know and I forgive you. But, really, you can't just go around lashing out at us like that. It's not fair." She told him.
"You're right, I'm sorry." The boy apologized.
At that, Lena nudged him lightly and friendly. "Water under the bridge."
——
Later, at the nurses station, the interns chat about Meredith's crush of her dog's vet.
"It's weird, right? I mean, he's Derek's vet, Doc's vet, he's my vet..." Meredith explained.
"He's McVet." The shorter girl giggled quietly.
"Wait, did you say vet?" Cristina questioned, looking up from her chart. "Like animals? Oh, you can't date a vet. He's not even a real doctor."
"And? I say, if you really do like him, go for it." Helena shrugged, as Addison came in.
"Dammit. Sex. Hot sex. I need that. Hahaha, very funny." The woman laughed ironically to herself as the portuguese girl's forehead scrunched up.
"Must not have gone very well this morning..." Meredith whispered to her people. "Just run if she looks at you." She advised.
"I need an intern, now." The attending approached them.
"I'm with Bailey." Meredith answered.
"I'm with Burke." Cristina justified.
"I'll take it." Helena smiled at the woman, enjoying working with her.
——
"Hello, Wards." Addison greeted the many kids in her patient's room as she and Helena came in."We're just waiting on your labs. How are you feeling?" The attending told the pregnant mother.
"I'm feeling large, large and cow like." The woman answered.
"A cow?!" The little boy on the woman's lap asked, excitedly as Helena smiled at him, Addison softly ruffling his hair.
"Your mommy is a cow, who needs a quiet talk with the doctors." The mother complained.
"You know, we do have a very nice ice cream machine in the cafeteria." The intern suggested.
"Great suggestion." The father of the kid's answered. "Guys, who wants ice cream?" At that, all the kids jumped up excitedly and left the room. After they left, the smile that had been present on the mom's face fell.
Just then, a nurse came in and handed Helena the lab results. "CBC and chem look fine." She informed, before noticing tears on the patient's eyes. "Ms. Ward?"
"I'm sorry... I'm so tired." She explained.
"You know, six kids, 38 weeks pregnant... a saint would be tired." The read head reassured her.
"Well... I'm no saint. This baby, Joseph... Dr. Shepherd, I need him to be my last. And I really seem to be the most fertile woman on the plant." She explained, whipping away her tears.
"Well, if you're interested in alternative forms of birth control..." The attending started.
"No. What I mean is... today, during the c-section, I need you to tie my tubes. And I need you to do it without my husband ever knowing." At that, Helena's brows furrowed with aggravated concern.
"Rose, you're an adult. He's your husband, not your legal guarding..." The attending said.
"Yes, telling him would be entirely up to you." The short girl answered with a tight lipped smiled.
"Well, if you charge my insurance he'll see it. Any bill you send, he'll see it. I've been saving for this and I can pay you, privately."
"So you're saying you want me to do the surgery and leave no record of it." Addison explained.
"Ms. Ward, I don't want to assume, but if you are being abused we have people you can talk to." The short girl explained.
"Oh, Chris is... Chris is the opposite of abusive." The woman reassured. "I think God will understand what I'm going through. And I think God will forgive me. But Chris... well, for him, religion isn't a buffet table where you can choose what you want to take and leave the rest." She explained, laying down at the table for the examination. "And the pope says no to birth control. So... I need your help." Helena and Addison shared a look.
——
"Rose... seven kids? It's a lot. Are you sure Chris isn't feeling the same way?" The redhead asked as she and Helena preformed an ultrasound on the patient.
"When we were first married we were so broke that I went on the pill for a while and Chris stopped taking communion. When he does that he thinks..."
"He'll go to hell." Helena shook her head lightly as she whipped the gel off the woman's stomach.
"The reason we haven't had a baby for four years is because we abstained for three. Can you imagine not being able to make love to your husband?" The woman asked. "And I can't find the pill, he'll find out. And we wouldn't..."
"He wouldn't look at you the same." The intern completed as Addison looked at her curiously.
"Exactly." The patient bit back her tears.
As the doctors left the woman's room, the attending turned to Helena. "Dr. Campos, or Helena, is it ok if I call you Helena, now that we've worked together for a while?" As the short girl nodded and smiled, she went on. "You seem to understand Rose's dilema."
"Well, I understand being judged based on religion." As the attending furrowed her brows and leaned against the nurses station, she explained. "I was never raised religiously, but my grandparents on my father's side were very religious. Catholicism is very prevalent in Portugal between the older generations." She explained with a sigh. "When they found out a had a girlfriend, at sixteen, they said I was going to hell, I was a sinner and was no longer their grandchild. My grandpa even slapped me and wouldn't have hit me if my grandma didn't stop him. Anyway... they completely cut me of, so I get how it might feel for Rose, especially with her being religious as well."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Helena. You know, sometimes people use religion as an excuse for their bigotry." Helena nodded in agreement. "Oh, and if I'm going to start calling you Helena, it's only fair you call me Addison." The woman smiled as she left.
——
As they sat at the nurses station, Helena and Meredith happily ate some ice cream as they chatted with Cristina.
"For the record, I'm on your side today." Izzie told Cristina, taking a bite of her peach. "George sucks."
"Burke doesn't think so. He's his new best friend." The woman replied with a mocking tone.
"Well, I don't think so either."
"I wonder if Burke knows where he lives. Do you know where he lives, Lena? You do know everything." The taller blond asked.
"I mean, yeah, I do, but I'm not telling you." At Izzie's frown, she simply explained. "I found out, he didn't tell me! Besides, it's not my secret to tell..."
"You find everything out, it's not fair." The formed model scrunched up her nose. "How's Denny doing? Bailey's not caving in on the LVAD thing, is she?"
"About that, I though Alex was kidding when we said you dumped him for a heart patient. Did you really dump him for a heart patient?" Meredith inquired between spoons of ice cream.
"Of course not."
"Izzie, Denny's a patient, we can't fall for our patients..." Helena said with compassion and worry.
"Well, Mer's falling for a vet." Cristina scoffed.
"I'm considering the possibility of maybe having a date with a vet." She explained herself.
"That's all I'm saying." The Asian woman left.
"What's with her and vets? Did one kill her childhood puppy or something?" Helena scrunched up her nose, focusing back on her food.
"My point is, Bailey's on a war path about you and Denny. So just be careful." She warned.
"Yes, Izzie, please be careful. Falling for patient's is dangerous... besides, I don't have the best feeling about it."
——
As Addison and Helena operated on their patient, the attending asked. "Sponge count, Dr. Campos?"
"They're all accounted for, but I do see a bleeder here. Should I cauterize it?"
"Yes, it's small. Go ahead."
"I got it." The inter informed a she worked.
"That's good. Huh, there's a little bleeding near the tube here." At that, Helena looked up at the attending, swallowing hard. "Can you hand me the bovie?"
The girl hesitated for a second before handing the woman the instrument. She hoped she was making the right choice.
——
Later, in the patient's room, Addison handed the mother her newborn baby. "Hey there, Joseph, welcome to the world."
As the intern watched at the baby with woman, the attending sat next to her. "Rose, before we bring you family in to see you, I want to let you know that there was a complication with the surgery." The patient's face fell slightly. "We had some unexpected bleeding that caused damage to both Fallopian tubes."
"So you're saying...?" Rose asked, hopeful.
""You won't be able to have any more children."
The patient's eyes filled with tears of relief. "Thank you, Dr. Shepherd."
The woman smiled down at her. "As I said, it was a complication."
——
As her patient's husband approached her at a nurses station, he asked. "Excuse me, you are one of my wife's doctors, right? Rose Ward?" At the girl's nod, he went on. "She just told me there had been a complication with her c section. It's just... it was shocking. Someone tells you there has been a complication and... everything changes."
"Mr. Ward, at times unexpected complications arise in surgery..." The intern explained.
"Rose says it's a blessing, it's God's will. Maybe it is." The man explained.
"Maybe it is." She sighed.
——
As Helena and Izzie were in the kitchen, the first curled up with some poetry and the second eating a cookie, George entered the room.
"George, hey!" The blond greeted, excited, as Lena looked up from her book. As Callie entered behind him, Izzie said. "Oh, hi."
"Hey." Callie put her bag down.
"Hi, Callie." The short girl smiled at her as the older woman sat down.
"So, we spent the night at Callie's last night so we figured we'd just spend the night here." The boy explained, taking a drink from the fridge.
"Ok, so... you're back then, just for tonight?" The blond asked.
"Because you could always move back in, Georgie." Helena encouraged.
"Well, Callie's here for the night. I'm... I don't know. It's my room, I pay rent."
"Welcome home." Izzie said, unenthusiastically, as Helena smiled at him.
——
Word count: 2162
AN:
Hope you liked this chapter! I really enjoy the dynamic between Addison and Helena and their sort of friendship or mentorship being developed.