Chapter One: Better Days

Addison Montgomery was determined to have a good day, no, a great day. Her morning was fairly ordinary. She checked on some patients and delivered a baby by Cesarean. As she was scrubbing out, her pager beeped. After a quick glance at it she made her way down to the Nurses' Station. There, she was greeted by Derek Shepard.

"Addison, hey, listen my sister Catherine is here and she needs a consult. Actually, Natalie needs a consult."

"Okay, sure. What's wrong with Natalie?"

Derek sighed. "We don't know."

Addison's heart sank. "What room is she in?"

"2039. Come on, I'll take you."

She nodded and they maneuvered their way through the busy hallways to the room.

"Aunt Addie!" The girl on the bed exclaimed happily when she saw them.

Addison gave her a quick hug. "Hi sweetie! I haven't seen you in ages. I can't believe you're sixteen already!"-She turned to the girl's parents-"Catherine! Dave! It's so nice to see you again!"

The family reminisced for a few minutes before Addison changed the subject.

"So seriously, what's wrong with Natalie?"

Derek's oldest sister spoke. "Well, back in September, Natalie started having stomach pains and she lost her appetite. The pediatrician told us it was probably just stress, what with it being such a busy year and all, but in January she got this horrible cough. It didn't seem to be getting any better so we took her to the doctor. They said it was Pneumonia so she was treated for that. But it looks like its back and we wanted a second opinion."

Addison nodded. "Well, we can do some tests. I don't know how much help I'll be though. I'll send someone up in a little while. Okay?"

Addison left the room and was closely followed by Derek.

"So?" He asked her.

"I don't know Derek. We won't know until the test results are in."

"I know that but…you don't think it could be cancer do you?" He looked at her worriedly.

"She's sixteen Derek."

"Yes, but Aaron was diagnosed when he was 13," He pointed out, referring to one of Natalie's older brothers.

"I remember, but we shouldn't jump to conclusions, especially bad ones." She turned and went off in search of Bailey.

She found her filling out a chart at a Nurses' Station.

"What is it Dr. Montgomery?" She asked without even looking up.

"I need an intern for a case and to run some tests."

"Page Karev. He's in the clinic."

Addison thanked her and walked away to page Alex.

A few minutes later, Alex found Addison reading Natalie's chart.

"You paged, Dr. Montgomery?"

"Yes Karev. I need you to do a CT on Derek's niece Natalie, and an MRI too. She's in 2039. Page me as soon as you have the results." Alex nodded and took the chart.

Soon after, Alex was prepping his newest patient and her parents.

"I'm Dr. Karev and you must be Natalie and Mr. and Mrs. Giambattista," He said shaking their hands.

"Good to meet you," Dave told him.

"I'm here to find out what's wrong with Natalie. So, I'm going to take her off to do a CT Scan and an MRI, which are basically X-Rays of your body."

He explained the rest of the proceedings to the family and wheeled Natalie away. He put her into the CT machine and went into the next room to see the pictures. Slowly, the pictures started to appear. At first glance, everything looked clear but then he noticed a small mass near her lower abdomen. He zoomed in on the area and turned to the nurse.

"Page Dr. Montgomery, now."

The nurse rushed off to do as she was told. Within minutes, Addison had appeared.

"What've we got?"

He pointed to the screen. "It looks like there's a mass on her both her ovaries. But it's hard to tell."

Addison leaned over his shoulder to get a better look. "Oh God. Natalie, no!" She could feel her heart sinking as Alex turned to face her. "Take her back to her room. Don't say anything until we have the labs back. I'll be there soon."

Alex nodded and left.

Author's Note: This is the true story of a friend of mine named Natalie Giambattista. All the characters are either copyrighted to Shonda Rhimes or are real people. I tried to make Natalie's story as accurate as possible. The major difference is that the Giambattistas live in Fairport, NY. I will be giving commentary on what actually happened to Natalie at the end of every chapter. I don't know the exact dates that Natalie was diagnosed or when she had her surgery. I do know that the last day she was at school, before the events in this chapter took place, was approximately February 9, 2007.

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