Babies with Unexpected Issues

Charlotte's Web, Chapter 1

Jo taunted Alex as he got ready for work, "Too bad you forgot to arrange to take the day off. You could be right here next to me." Alex huffed and grinned without a word. Jo stretched out, "Oh this bed is soooo comfortable! I think I'll just take a little nap." She closed her eyes, and Alex jumped at the chance to tickle her. Jo laughed and Alex wouldn't stop. "Now who's sorry?" he asked as he slowed the tickling and began to kiss her. She grabbed his shoulders and brought him close to her, whispering, "Why would I be sorry about this?" He smiled, kissed her on the cheek, and said, "Because it isn't gonna last long." He looked at his watch and sadly stated, "I really have to go." Jo stretched out on the bed again, attempting to take up both his spot and hers as she threw a pillow at him. "You missed!" he celebrated, as the pillow landed to his right and he hurried down the stairs.

As he headed to the car, he thought to himself, This last month has been the best. Man, I love my wife. Their wedding and honeymoon had been incredible, and now their day to day lives as a married couple were beginning to set in to a comfortable and wonderful routine.

About an hour after Alex left, the phone rang and Jo answered, "Karev's". She had decided to go the now uncommon route by taking his name when they married. After all, 'Wilson' was just some random name the foster agency had assigned to her at 2 weeks old when her mother had abandoned her. She welcomed the opportunity to have a name that had history and meaning, a name she shared with her husband. The voice on the other end of the line happened to be Alex's sister, Amber. "Hello, I'm looking for Alex Karev," Amber said. Jo offered, "He's not home right now, but I could take a message." Amber hesitated and then explained, "This is his sister, Amber, we…umm, haven't spoken in years, but I need to get a hold of him." Jo sat up in the bed in surprise, she knew about Alex's siblings but had never met them, "Hi Amber, I'm Jo, Alex's wife. Maybe I can help you? Is your mom ok? Is there an emergency?"

Amber was silent for a moment and then said, "His wife?" Jo confirmed and then Amber continued, "I didn't know Alex had gotten married again. Congratulations, I guess, and…umm… nice to meet you." Jo lightened her tone and added, "Well, I wish we were meeting in person, but it's nice to connect with you. Would you like me to ask Alex to give you a call?" Amber replied, "Yes, please. It's fairly urgent. If he could call me today, that would be ideal." Jo wrote down Amber's contact information, gave her Alex's cell and pager numbers, and assured her that she would pass the message along.

After Jo hung up and went to the kitchen to wrangle up some breakfast, she sat down on the couch with a cup of coffee and a book. She couldn't remember the last time she'd even begun to read a non-medical book, and she was hoping to get through most of this one in a day. As she finished Chapter 5, her cell rang. It was Alex, "Hey, we just had Twin one month olds come in. They both have breathing difficulties and my resident is sitting for an exam today. We're short-handed and need to get these babies into surgery. I hate to ask, but…" Jo interrupted him, "I'm on my way."

When Jo arrived about half an hour later, Alex was standing at the nurses' station in the hallway near the NICU. He and Arizona were discussing one of the twins as Jo walked up and greeted them. Arizona concluded her thoughts on Twin One and then turned to Jo, "I thought you were off today." Alex admitted, "I called her and asked her if she could come in and help. I know, rotten husband." Arizona laughed softly and then explained Twin Two's situation to Jo, "It should be a fairly easy procedure, but it is definitely emergent." Jo nodded and assured Arizona that she would handle it.

Alex offered to walk with Jo toward the OR. He put his arm around Jo as they were walking and told her quietly, "The mom is really freaking out, and I am a little suspicious about the dad. He doesn't seem to have any emotional reaction to the situation, and he was alone with the babies when their breathing troubles began." They caught each other's eyes and Jo understood what Alex was intimating. Then she asked, "Did your sister get a hold of you?"

Alex stopped walking and looked right at Jo, "Amber?" Jo nodded, "Yeah, she called the house today and is eager to be in touch with you. I gave her your cell and pager numbers." Alex looked perplexed, "Man, I haven't spoken to her in at least 10 years. What the hell could she want?" Jo shrugged her shoulders as the two walked into the NICU and as she handed him Amber's contact information, "I'm not sure, she just said she'd really like to speak with you today."

Alex and Jo approached the parents, and Alex began to brief them on the surgeries. He reviewed what he had already told them and introduced them to Jo, "This is Dr. Jo Karev, she will be performing the surgery on Julia." The mom of the babies looked at Jo and asked, "Karev? What an interesting last name to have in common. Are you cousins? Siblings?" Jo smiled and explained, "Husband and wife." Alex looked up from Twin One's chart with a grin and raised his eyebrows toward Jo knowingly. Jo concluded her pre-op conversation with the parents and excused herself to go scrub.

As Alex headed back to the nurses' station before beginning to prep Twin One for surgery, Meredith walked by and greeted him. He didn't look up, and she wasn't sure if he heard her. "Hey!" Meredith said, "Alex. I said hi." Alex looked up and blinked his eyes, trying to engage, "Hey, Mer. I didn't hear you." Meredith leaned her chin to one side and observed, "You seem a little distracted." Alex stopped charting and looked at Meredith, saying, "Yeah, Jo just told me that my sister called this morning. I haven't spoken to her in at least 10 years. Just a little confused." Meredith responded, "Hmmmm…that's weird. You think it's about your mom?" Alex replied, "I don't know. I'm supposed to be her care facility's first call, so it seems weird that Amber would be calling." Alex shrugged and said, "I guess I'll call her and find out what's up."

As Alex reached the OR, he pulled his phone out from his pocket. It had been silenced all morning, and, sure enough, he saw a missed call with an Iowa area code. He entered the scrub room, and handed his phone to a nurse, "Hey, Connie, would you please call that top number with the 563 area code? I'm fairly certain it is going to be a woman named Amber. Would you explain to her that I am entering surgery and will try to call her after 12 our time?" Connie nodded and began to call the number and explain the situation. She reassured Amber that Alex would be sure to call her after the surgery. Amber, eager to speak to Alex, asked if there was any way she could speak to him very briefly.

Connie covered the mouthpiece and asked Alex if he wanted her to put the phone up to his ear, because his sister wanted to speak to him briefly. Alex mumbled, "She doesn't do anything briefly." Then motioned his head so Connie could put the phone up to it. "Hey Amber. It's been a long time. Look, I've got a baby in a lot of distress who I really don't want to have die because I'm chatting on my cell phone." Amber responded, "I'm really sorry Alex, and I wouldn't have asked if it wasn't important. I just really, really need to make sure you are going to call me when you're done. It is really important." Alex, being the sarcastic big brother that he was, asked, "Really? Really, Amber? I hadn't gotten that message." As any Karev would do, Amber responded, "Yeah, asshole. Really. If I don't hear from you by 2 your time, I'm going to start stalking your cell phone." Alex laughed and said, "Yeah, okay. Really. I will call. I mean it." Then he motioned to Connie to take the phone and said, "Hey, could you please remind me to deal with that call as soon as I'm done with surgery? I'm pretty sure it will be the furthest thing from my mind after this baby. Bonnie nodded affirmatively.

About 45 minutes later, Jo scrubbed in for Alex's surgery and entered the OR. Alex looked up as he was working, and asked, "How is Twin Two? Jo responded, "Should be just fine. Although I did see some marks on the back of the neck on each side. I contacted Child Services." Alex responded with disgust, "I found some marks on this one too, although they are all over the body. I'm pretty sure Dad was not too fond of being a dad. How the hell could someone do this to their child?"

After Jo and Alex finished the surgery, they walked toward the NICU to give the parents an update. The social worker was already chatting with them when the surgeons approached the mom. The father was nowhere to be seen. The mom looks tearfully at the surgeons and asked how her babies were. Alex said that it would be take time to know for sure and commented that there had been some severed blood vessels and other bruising. The social worker looked at Alex and slowly shook her head, as if to say no more details. Jo picked up on the hint and finished Alex's sentence for him by touching his arm with her hand and saying, "We will give you a more complete update later. Right now, we need to go to recovery and check on the babies."

Connie the nurse met up with Alex in the hallway and had his phone in her hand. She said, "Dr. Karev, you left your phone in the OR, and you asked me to remind you to call your sister." Alex nodded and said thank you to the nurse as he grabbed hold of Jo's hand with his right hand and hit the Iowa phone number with his left hand to call his sister back. Amber answered on the first ring, "Alex?" Alex responded, "Yeah, Amber. Hey, what's going on? Is it mom?" Amber responded with a big sigh and shared, "Mom is as fine as she ever it is, Alex. She seems to be doing well in the facility where she's been living. I'm calling to tell you about Sophie."

Alex looked confused and lowered his brow, and inquired flatly, "Sophie?" Amber responded, "Yeah, you know, your girlfriend from college?" Alex was even more confused and added, "Okay, I suppose. I am really not sure why you would need to give me an update on her, and why you would find it so urgent to do so." Amber responded, "Are you sitting down? It will all make sense in a minute."