Just a small dinner. That was Meredith's thought when she decided to throw a small dinner party for some of her friends, in order to celebrate her birthday. Meredith wasn't that person, who gets excited for her birthday and enjoys gather all of her friends and celebrate it. But that year, after so many things that happened, she felt like it might be a good change.
She would order some nice food and have Maggie doing some delicious appetizers, buy some fancy wine and that was it: just a pleasant night with some of her friends.
Since she didn't have anymore most of the persons she considered herself close, like Derek, Callie, Cristina, Lexie, George, and Izzie – she just had to rethink her idea of being close to someone. She still had Alex, which was definitely her person now. But she also had Amelia and Maggie, although Amelia still was something harder to deal with.
She had people from the hospital – Miranda, Richard, Jackson, April, Arizona – but now she must rethink her relationship with Owen since he and Amelia aren't in a good place right now. She wasn't close to the residents, although Jo and Alex were back together. She didn't know how she feels about DeLuca since the incident with Karev. She felt like she needed this dinner for recognize the people she wanted close to her again.
Amelia and Maggie were helping her writing an invitation for her to send, even though she thought that was unnecessary.
"Guys, it's not a party, nobody needs a formal invitation. I just need to inform the date, like: hey, Wednesday night, 8 pm, dinner at my place. That's it" – Meredith pointed to her sisters.
"Yeah, yeah. What's the fun in that Mer?" – Amelia said.
"Amelia's right, Mer. You need to rock at this dinner party. How about we just send a 'save the date', like a teaser. Not saying much, but preparing them for what can be" – Maggie suggested.
"Oh! I like that!" – Amelia agreed.
"No, no save the date, no teaser, no rocking on anything. Just an informal email letting people know I'll celebrate my birthday with a dinner at my house. Can you do that?" – Meredith asked them.
Little she knew that her sisters wouldn't let go that easy.
Hey, my birthday is coming up. Come celebrate with me at my house next Wednesday, starting 8 pm. – Meredith Grey
(We're sorry for this lame message our sister sent, we wanted to write something way more appealing like: Are you ready to have some fun? Are you ready to celebrate this amazing day with me? So come to my dinner party this Wednesday, starting 8 pm – bring some good wine, put on some good clothes and share a good playlist for us to dance, flirt and enjoy like nobody is on call next morning)
"They're impossible!" – Meredith said to herself when she received the e-mail.
She was finishing her last notes on some patient's chart and was ready to go home. The past week was insanely busy for her and she definitely needed some good sleep that night.
She was picking her things on the attending's lounge when Alex teased her:
"Who knew party-Meredith was back on?" – Alex said, laughing.
"It's not a party, it's just a birthday dinner. Amelia and Maggie wrote that, not me!" – Meredith answered him.
"Hey, Grey, nice invitation. Can't wait to party like old times!" – Jackson entered the lounge and teased her.
"It's not a party… whatever, this won't stop anyway" – Meredith said almost to herself, leaving the room.
On the corner, packing her things up, Arizona heard all the jokes and felt a little excluded for not being invited to the dinner or the party, like people were saying. She knew her and Meredith weren't exactly friends, but they knew each other for a very long time, and it felt weird to be left out when they were not exactly the largest group of friends on that hospital. Callie left to NY, she let Sofia go with her, she wasn't the 'bad guy' on that, so she didn't understand why Meredith wouldn't invite her.
The next day started oddly quiet and Meredith had a bad feeling about it. It was her birthday, she spent a lot of time buying things for the dinner tonight and they all knew that easy days generally mean massive tragedies soon enough. She had all things set up: her favorite babysitter, the next day off, food ordered since she couldn't handle cooking to so many people and the perfect amount of wine she needed to make her birthday a great day, instead of a sad memory of people she missed.
Just like she sensed it, a massive fairy accident brought many victims to the hospital. Most of them were non-critical but all that atmosphere of desperate and terror was hard enough. A 39-years-old pregnant woman was almost dead at the accident and Arizona had to go all the way there to try to save her so she would make it to the hospital, at least. Trying everything she knew and could, Arizona was fighting hard to save the woman, but she was stuck under a crashed car. It would take a long time until the rescue could get her out of there and she didn't have this time. Arizona, however, was having a difficult time by herself, she needed an extra set of hands to stop the bleedings the woman had.
"Robbins, how are things in there?" – Bailey said, answering her call.
"Not good, Chief. I really need someone else here with me. She's stuck, she's not gonna make it if we don't get her out of here soon" – Arizona informed her.
"Do you need a specific resident? Or attending?" – Miranda asked her.
"Can you come over? I need a general or trauma surgeon here. A resident won't be able to handle it" – Arizona said and her voice sounded tired, she was having a lot of trouble doing that by herself.
"The ER is a mess Robbins, I can't leave. I'll send you someone right away" – Miranda said and hung up.
Meredith listened to the conversation and offered herself to go there.
"Chief, I can go there if you want me to. All the cases here are handled already and I don't have any surgeries so far. I can help Robbins"
"Great, you go there then. Take as many supplies you can, she's having a hard time there, Grey, you two may need to perform some miracles over there." – Bailey said and Meredith left quickly to the supply room.
Less than 20 minutes after the call, Meredith arrived at the accident to help Arizona.
"Hey, Bailey sent me here. How can I help? I brought a bunch of supplies from the hospital" – Meredith said.
"Oh, thank God. I'm already out of gauze and she needs more morphine. The baby is in a serious distress" – Arizona informed her.
"Ok, here it is. How about the arm? Can we save it?" – Meredith asked, noticing the woman had her right arm under the car.
"I did my best but she doesn't have much time left. I've managed to intubate her before her lungs collapsed but she probably had some head injuries too. I'm afraid she'll herniate soon if we don't relieve the pressure on her body. Do you think you can control the bleeding over here?" – Arizona said, pointing to an iron bar stuck into the woman's ribs.
"Oh my God, poor woman. Was she conscious when you arrived?" – Meredith asked Arizona.
"She was barely conscious. I had to sedate her, she was moving in desperation and she would hurt herself even more." – Arizona explained.
"She's receiving enough oxygen and that's already a miracle, I can't imagine how'd you intubate her by yourself! This bleeding won't stop easily, though" – Meredith said, amazed by how Arizona managed to control the situation better than anyone would, considering the limitations.
"I had no option, actually. I'm worried about the baby now, she's 9 months far, she can be in labor in any minute" – Arizona pointed, worried.
"I put a tampon here, but we need to turn her to this side, her blood circulation won't last in that position. Can't rescue cut at least this side of the car? Or whatever's left of it" – Meredith asked.
"They can't, if they move it, she'll die immediately. We need to take this bar out of her, and probably cut her arm, so we can get her out of here in time" – Arizona said, very uncomfortable. Amputations always mess with her.
"I'm sorry. Are you ok? I can ask Bailey to send someone here to do it with me" – Meredith asked her, realizing how difficult it must be for her to cut someone's limb.
"No, that's ok, I can do it. I mean, we can do it, together. But I think we need to remove this bar first, I don't wanna cut her arm until the last minute we must to, she already lost a lot of blood, she's in a high risk of infection right now." – Arizona said to Meredith.
"I agree. Let's start with the bar. Can you see the end of it? There's so many blood in here, Gosh… " – Meredith was shocked by how this woman was still alive.
"It's inside of her, I checked her back before intubating, the bar didn't exit the body and that can be either very good or very bad" – Arizona said, worried.
"It means it can be very close to her heart, then" – Meredith recognized.
"Yes, that's why I'm afraid. But do we have another choice?" – Arizona asked.
"I don't think so. Let's do it, we don't have much time left" – Meredith said and immediately started to enlarge the incision with a scalp.
"I gave her another dose of antibiotics, just in case. Where do you want me?" - Arizona asked.
"By my side, praying that I don't screw your miracle up" – Meredith quipped, making Arizona smile.
"You're not gonna screw anything up. I'm ready, whenever the bar's out, I'll make pressure on the bleeding" – Arizona said.
Meredith carefully pulled the bar out of the woman's ribs, but her blood pressure started to drop quickly and the doctors were worried.
"Damn it, she's losing a lot of blood, we need to get her out of here now" – Meredith said.
"I gave her another blood unit, I'm on the bleeding now, I think I've found the major one. We need to cut her arm now." – Arizona said, with her hand inside of the wound.
"Ok, let's do it. Do you have more betadine there? Mine's over already, damn it" – Meredith said.
"Yes, inside my bag, there's a lot of them in there" – Arizona said.
Meredith soaked the woman's arm with betadine in order to clean as much as possible the area before she makes the cut. She took the saw and Arizona looked away, seeing that was hard for her. Suddenly the fetal monitor started to show a dropping heartbeat.
"Damn it, she's in labor, we need to hurry up!" – Arizona said.
Meredith focused even more and made a clean cut and quickly wrapped the woman's limb to control the bleeding, then went back to Arizona's side to help her pull out the woman from under the car.
"Ok, she's out now, can somebody bring us a gurney?" – Arizona shouted to the rescue team that was watching them amazed.
They took the woman to the hospital alive and with her baby safe and sound; ready to get delivered in a clean hospital. They both scrubbed in to operate on her. Arizona performed the baby's birth with no complications and immediately checked on the baby's vitals.
"Mer, I need to get him up to the NICU, do you need help with her?" – Arizona asked.
"No, I'm good, thank you. Go save this baby!" – Meredith said, smiling.
When Arizona was leaving the OR, Meredith called her name.
"Arizona!" – Meredith shouted and Arizona turned around to face the woman – "You save her life, you actually were a miracle worker there." – Meredith said to her, smiling.
Arizona smiled to her and left the OR with the baby on the incubator. After cleaning his airways and give him all the medications he needed, Arizona felt relieved that both mom and son made it.
Meredith was also relieved, even though the woman was still in a critical condition, she was alive, already breathing on her own and recovering at the ICU. The night would be rough to her, but if she survived the next 24 hours, she would have good chances to recover 100%.
At the attending's lounge, Meredith sat down on the couch exhausted after the long surgery. Arizona entered it, taking off her scrub cap and sitting down on the armchair in front of the couch.
"We did it" – Arizona said to Meredith.
"Yes, we did. You did most of it, actually" – Meredith said.
"We did it, Mer, together. Without you, she would've died in there. Thank you for your help" – Arizona said and immediately remembered that today was Meredith's birthday – "Oh, and happy birthday!" – she said, smiling.
"Thanks, I hope you're not too tired to come to the dinner later" – Meredith said and noticed an awkward look on the blonde's face. – "What? Are you not coming? Even just for a little bit?"
"I wasn't invited, actually. I heard people talking about it, but you didn't invite me" – Arizona said, playfully.
"What do you mean? Of course, you're invited! Amelia and Maggie sent an email, did you check your inbox?" – Meredith said, embarrassed.
"That's ok Mer, I understand it. It's not a big deal, don't worry! I really wish you have a happy birthday after this long day" – Arizona said.
"What are you saying? I'm sure it was a technology bug, you're invited! You're more than invited, your presence is requested there!" – Meredith said, smiling.
"It's ok, you don't have to invite me, it's your dinner, it's your birthday, I understand" – Arizona stated and was being honest with her.
"What do you understand? I'm the one lost here, why wouldn't I invite you to my birthday? You're one of the oldest friends I have in here" – Meredith pointed, confused.
"We know each other for a long time, but we're not close, and you're Callie's friend, so I get it, it's not a big deal, I mean it!" – Arizona explained.
"Well, I would love to get closer, then, because I consider you my friend already. That isn't Callie's business, anyway. We're friends. Would you come to my dinner tonight, as my friend? Please?" – Meredith asked her.
"Ok, then. I will." – Arizona said, smiling.
Arizona had a thing for Meredith, that she never let it become more than a weird feeling that appears sometimes. She knew Meredith was straight and more than that, she was Callie's friend. She had a few erotic dreams about Meredith since her attack last year, and she couldn't explain the connection between the events, but ever since this attack, she became more concerned about Meredith and tried to help as much as she could with the kids and the natural loneliness the other woman would feel eventually, without dating anybody or without her closest friends around her, especially with everything that happened with Alex and DeLuca, things were a little hard on Meredith.
But she knew that it was some irrational feeling and nothing more than a pleasant sight inside the hospital. Meredith was a gorgeous woman and she was an amazing and strong person, dealing with so many tragedies in her life and still being one of the best doctors and a hell of a mother to her three kids. She was something to admire and, well, have a little crazy crush on.