Summary: Part three of the Muddy Buddy World. Erica and Erin bring a case to Seattle Grace-Mercy West.
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Part three… SWEET! Ya'll asked, and now ya'll receive!
Arizona had worked on big cases before. She was the best pediatric surgeon in the country, she had worked on at least five cases that had gone in the medical text books, of course she had worked on big cases before.
But not at Seattle Grace – Mercy West, and not with Erica Hahn.
If there hadn't been a little girl's life on the line, if her skills at leading a team and overseeing the case weren't needed so badly she would have turned Erica down flat when she called. But she couldn't let a child – a tiny human – suffer and possibly die over the fact she didn't want to work with Callie's ex.
It was pretty straight forward, Erin had gotten the case of Abby Gibbs who was 1 year old and had DiGeorge syndrome. She had a laundry list of physical and mental problems that would need work all through her life. But the biggest seven problems were going to be taken care of now.
When she went to Derek, asking if she could take the case, he was thrilled a complex case was coming to the hospital. More thrilled he was going to be in the OR and performing one of the operations. He told her to choose her team and he would make sure all the cases they had were redistributed. It didn't hurt that Abby's father pledged $50,000,000 if his little girl was taken good care of, if she lived.
Arizona was alone in the apartment two days after Callie and she got back from Miami. In 48 hours Abby would be flown in, Erin and Erica with her. She was excited to see her little sister, to be able to work with her, it would be their first case together.
"Alright let's go over this one more time." She said to herself, reading over her file. "Mark would be fixing her cleft palate, his resident will be Lexie." Arizona knew that putting them together was a risky move but she hoped it would clear the air between them and Lexie was very good with plastics.
"Derek will be fixing the Tethered Spinal Cord." Arizona read over her chart. "With Meredith." She knew they worked very well together and thought maybe a case together would be a nice change for the couple that worked so much apart now.
"Callie will be performing Scoliosis surgery, and fixing her club feet." Arizona looked at the blank spot next to her girlfriend's name. She had been going back and forth if she should put Alex or Jackson down. She knew that there was nothing between them now but still she wanted to hit him with a brick. "Jackson." She muttered, writing his name down.
"I will be performing the surgery on her inguinal hernia and fixing her Vesicoureteral reflux." Arizona checked over that everything was written down properly. "With my little sister." She could help but smile a little. She had always wanted to work a case with Erin, always wanted to see her skills up close.
Arizona's smile faded when she got to the last surgery on the list, both who was performing it and the surgery itself had Arizona uneasy. Hahn and Teddy would be performing it, with Cristina as their resident. Arizona had been very surprised when Erica had made sure Teddy was also on the case, not wanting to step on her toes. "Erica, Teddy and Cristina, surgery to fix the tricuspid atresia." It had been performed before but it wasn't working so they had to go in and fix the damage. Poor Abby's legs were always cold, the blood not getting to them.
Arizona looked over everything a few more times, the day Abby and her parents arrived she would be moved to her private room and they would run CT's and MRI's and double check Hopkins' results.
First, Erica would do her magic and fix the girl's heart, hopefully before the former patch gave out completely. Mark would then fix her palate that same afternoon. Derek would go in the next day and clip the tail of her spinal cord. Callie would piggyback and while she is still under fix her spine and hips first; how that went would depend on whether they would fix her feet then or wait until the next day. After two days of rest, she and Erin would go in and do their surgeries.
Arizona turned when she saw Callie come in; they were the only two that knew about the case besides Derek. He thought it was better to have a meeting tomorrow with everyone else and give them the case together. "How was your shift?" Arizona asked, putting all her paperwork away.
"I got to do a lot of work on my research today and then do a full knee repair." Callie walked over, kissing Arizona before sitting. "Get everything together on the case?"
Arizona nodded. "Every piece is timed out and accounted for. Who is doing what, the OR's are booked, the nurses told, everything but getting Abby here and telling the team." She rested her head against Callie's shoulder, she felt very tired at the moment.
"It's going to be fine, Arizona. We are all really good at what we do and you will lead the team with that fierceness that you have when a kid's life in on the line." Callie rested her head on top of Arizona's.
"Thanks." Arizona laced her fingers with Callie. "I told Erin she could sleep here on the pull out couch. I want to be able to see her as much as I can, and she and Cristina are funny together."
"You just like watching Erin wind her up."
"That, too."
Arizona couldn't sleep. Callie was spooning her from behind, the room wasn't too hot or too cold, she didn't need the bathroom or a drink. But no matter how hard she tried sleep wouldn't come to her.
Her mind drifted to Erica. They had been friends before the big blowout over the kid who needed a heart. They had gone out drinking a few times and talked about a lot of different things. Erica took her under her wing and really taught her a lot of the skills she knew. But then the fight and Arizona changing to PEDS had ended that cold. Working with her again would be interesting with or without her being Callie's ex.
"Go to sleep." Callie muttered from behind her.
"How did you know I was awake?" Arizona turned her voice soft. The moonlight was coming in the room, making everything look ethereal.
"Because I know you." Callie brushed some of the hair out of Arizona's face, giving her a soft kiss. "I know that you want this to work, that working with Erica is hard and you want to help this little girl. I promise I will help you at work and at home."
"Thanks." Arizona kissed her back. "You are a great girlfriend, have I ever told you that?"
"Once or twice, now go to sleep." Callie groaned; she liked sleep, no, she loved sleep.
Arizona woke up to the sound of Callie in the shower. She looked at the clock and saw that it should have gone off a few moments before and Callie must have been letting her sleep a little longer. She was grateful she had someone looking out for her like this, who could talk her down.
She went out and made coffee, putting toast for both of them in before walking to the bathroom. Callie was in a towel, trying to dry her thick hair.
"Thanks for letting me sleep."
"You looked so peaceful I couldn't wake you. What were you dreaming of?"
Arizona got into the shower, turning the hot water on. "Us."Callie couldn't help but grin in the mirror as she went back to drying her hair. She loved when Arizona said corny things like that.
After both were dressed for the day, files in hand they walked to the door.
"Ready?" One asked the other.
"Ready." The other answered back.
"Any idea what this meeting is about?" Meredith enters the conference room to find Christina nursing a cup of coffee.
"Hey, any idea why we were paged?" Jackson enters the room before Christina can respond. The two new comers look to the third doctor who shrugs her shoulders in the negative.
"Nope. You two haven't heard anything?"
"Whatever it is, it's big." Jackson fixes himself a cup of coffee before taking a seat. "I heard a couple of the nurses talking. There are two surgeons from Johns Hopkins coming out, and whatever it is, the surgeries for half our attendings are being rescheduled."
"Which attendings?" Meredith questions, she hadn't heard anything about this from her husband.
"That I heard: Robbins, Torres, and Sloan. But I saw the nurses clearing Altman's schedule as well."
"Derek also." Lexie catches the last line and adds her two cents in. "Not that he has many surgeries to begin with."
"This is bringing in the Chief? Big." The junior residents fall silent as the attendings start to trickle in. Lexie's eyes go dark and her gaze goes straight to the floor as Mark and Teddy are the first to enter, sharing a private laugh over a cup of coffee. Derek enters behind them and moves to the front of the room, setting up his computer and hooking it up to the projector at the head of the table. Callie is the next to enter, smiling over her shoulder at the pair of pediatricians following her. The veterans of the former Seattle Grace tense up at the sight of the woman bringing up the rear of the group.
Mark immediately turns to defend Callie if need be, much to the surprise and confusion of the Cardio Thoracic surgeon at his side. Callie quickly looks to the group of her friends, subtly shaking her head for them to calm down. Christina is the only one to remain tense.
"Ms. Conway?"
"Hello, Dr. Yang; and its Doctor Conway. But I'll forgive you this once." The young brunette smiles broadly before taking her seat next to Erica at the head of the table. Derek takes a quick head count; noticing that everyone is there, he motions for Arizona to take the lead. She pulls up the scans from Hopkins, flipping through them as she mentions each procedure.
"Okay, I believe most everyone here knows Dr. Hahn, and next to her is Dr. Erin Conway, both from Johns Hopkins. And they have brought a case to our attention. We have Miss Abby Gibbs, age 11 months, two weeks, eight days. She was diagnosed, in utero with DiGeorge syndrome, and she has a list as long as my arm of issues that need to be taken care of, but we're going to take care of the most pressing first.
"We will start with her heart surgery. Dr. Hahn and Dr. Altman will be repairing her tricuspid atresia, which unfortunately is not her first. The patch she received at six weeks is failing, and we need to get it under control before we start on the remaining surgeries. Once that is done with, Dr. Sloan will take the lead with her cleft palate repair.
"After that, Abby will have the day to rest and allow us the opportunity to observe her and ensure that her patch is holding strong.
"First thing the next morning, Dr. Shepherd steps up and clips her tethered spinal cord. Piggy backing off of him will be Dr. Torres, who will be starting off with Abby's scoliosis repair. Judging how well Abby does with the anesthesia will determine when she will continue. The club foot repair is next, it may happen that same day, though we might have to wait until the next morning.
"Regardless, after the club foot repair, we'll be waiting a few days to repair her inguinal hernia and fix her Vesicoureteral reflux.
"And now for the resident assignments; Dr. Grey – Meredith, will be with Dr. Shepherd; Dr Avery will be on Ortho with Dr. Torres, Dr. Yang, you will be with Dr. Hahn and Dr. Altman, and Dr. Grey – Lexie, will be with Dr. Sloan on Plastics. Dr. Conway will be with me.
"Any questions?" Arizona concludes, looking up at the group assembled. She can tell that Lexie wants to be removed from her assigned service, but knows that she'll be missing out on the case of a lifetime if she does, and chooses to remain silent. Christina is shooting daggers at Erica – it never fails to amaze her just how protective the young resident is of her friends, even if she denies the friendship to her dying breath. Meredith is beaming at the fact that she finally gets to work with her husband after such a dry period; and Jackson is sitting back, taking notice of all the interactions.
Mark raises a hand, requesting for his scans to be put up again.
"We'll be getting new scans done as soon as Abby gets settled into her room in the PICU. Any other questions? No? Okay, with any luck, we'll be done with all these surgeries in time for Abby to celebrate her first birthday next week. Now, let's get to the PICU to explain the procedures to the Gibbs'." Arizona packs up, stopping Derek from speaking with a hand to the arm. She leans in close to deliver her next line with a whisper.
"Tell no one about the donation. They don't need the added pressure." Arizona doesn't move away until she gets an affirming nod from the chief of surgery.