AN: This is my first attempt at a Private Practice fiction. It seems like it's missing something, so any constructive criticism is appreciated. This takes place after the season 4 finale.
It had been a crazy week. First Charlotte had to handle a patient who had refused to have a rape kit done, and accused Charlotte of having fake sympathy for her, that she had no clue what it was like to be brutally attacked and raped. Charlotte wanted to tell her how much she really did know what it was like, and wanted to empathize with her, but that required being to personal with a patient and she wasn't sure if she could do that yet. After talking with Cooper, she decided that the next day she would talk to her patient, tell her how she does know what it's like, and that it is possible to survive.
The end of the week saw Charlotte talking with her patient, and coming forward with information that would help her to heal. They had been talking for a while when Charlotte heard her cell phone beep, alerting her that she had missed a call. Glancing at her phone she saw that it was from Amelia, excusing herself, she went out into the hall and listened to the message. As she listened to Amelia ramble, she started to become worried. She told her patient that she would check on her later, and went in search of her neurosurgeon.
Entering the scrub room on Amelia's OR, Charlotte spoke into the intercom that led into the OR. "Dr. Shepherd, how are things going?"
Looking up, Amelia saw Charlotte standing in the scrub room of her OR, "They are just fine, Dr. King, why would you ask?"
"I just got a message, and wanted to make sure you were ok. When you finish up here, I would like to speak with you, I'll meet you in my office," Charlotte told her.
"I'm ok, I'll be done here in about an hour or so, and I'll come find you," assured Amelia.
Still feeling something was off; Charlotte let Amelia go, so she could concentrate on her guy on the table, and went to work on paper work in her office.
Walking down the hall towards Charlotte's office, Amelia started to worry. She knew she shouldn't have operated on that patient in the condition she was in, but all ended fine, and he was alive and breathing on his own. Arriving at her door, she knocked, and after hearing a quiet, "come in," Amelia entered.
"Dr. Shepherd, please have a seat," Charlotte told her friend.
Amelia sat; she knew it wasn't good if she was being addressed by her formal name. This was the doctor/administrator in Charlotte talking. "I listened to your phone message; you sounded nervous, like you didn't want to do the surgery. It almost made me think that's because you had been drinking, is that true?" Charlotte asked. When Amelia refused to answer, she pulled out a breathalyzer test, and slid it towards her.
Seeing the breathalyzer, Amelia looked up shocked, "you can't be serious," she exclaimed.
"I am. Now do it," Charlotte told her.
"Fine, I'll tell you," Amelia shouted, "I did have a drink, but then I was paged, and didn't know what to do. I was too embarrassed to ask for help, and when I did, you didn't answer your phone. I felt like I could do it, so I went ahead with the surgery. He's still alive, so what's the big deal?"
"The big deal is that, you performed a surgery after you had been drinking, you should have called for someone to come take your place. So until further noticed, your surgical privileges are revoked. You may not practice medicine here until you've gotten some help. If you need, I can help you all you need."
Standing up, Amelia yelled at Charlotte, "I don't need your help, it was one drink." With that being said, she stormed out of Charlottes office.
Cooper was on his way to find his wife when he ran headlong into a very upset Amelia. "What's wrong?" he asked, catching her as she started to lose her balance.
"Leave me alone! It's none of your business," she told him, regaining her balance and storming the rest of the way out of the hospital.
Walking into Charlotte's office, he sees his wife focusing on the paperwork on her desk. As he moves closer he hears quiet sniffling, and when she looks up to acknowledge him, he can see she's on the verge of tears, but is too stubborn to let them fall. "I just ran into Amelia in the hallway, she didn't look too happy, and neither do you. What's going on?" Cooper asked.
"She's mad at me. I can't give you the specifics, but she's not allowed to do surgeries here anymore. Then on top of that I had a long conversation with my rape patient. It's just been a long and busy day, I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed. Let's go home," she told him.
Knowing not to push for more information, he waited for her to gather her belongings, and together they made their way to the car.
CRASH! Addison jumped as she heard her front door fly open and hit the wall behind it. She watched at Amelia stormed in and run upstairs. Minutes later she watched Amelia come back down in different clothes and headed back out the door. "Hey!" Addison called getting her room mates attention. "What's wrong with you? You trying to break my door down?"
Turning to Addison, she said, "Sorry, I'm just going out, I'll be back later." With that said, she left Addison staring after her, still wondering what was going on.
Walking down the hall the next morning, Addison passed Amelia's bathroom to hear someone being sick. Knocking quietly, she asked, "Can I come in?" Hearing a reply in the positive, she quietly entered to see Amelia leaning over the toilet and again loosing whatever was left in her stomach from the night before. "Amelia, you ok?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Just regretting my decision to drink last night," Amelia told her.
"You didn't drive home last night, did you?" Addie asked.
"No, I got a taxi. I'm gonna need you to take me into the office and later, take me to pick up my car," the younger women told her.
"I can do that," Addison told her. Helping Amelia to her feet, and back to her room to get ready, she started talking, "You want to tell me about last night? You were in a hurry to get out of here."
Moving slowly, so as not to upset her still nauseas stomach, Amelia told Addison about her day and conversation with Charlotte. "When I left here last night, I just had to get rid of some frustration, so I went out with some friends, and drank a little too much."
Turning to her friend, Addison told her, "Amelia, if your drinking is becoming a problem, you really should get help." Going into scolding mode she continued, "You know better than to do surgery after you've been drinking. Charlotte made the correct decision to suspend you surgical privileges."
"Addie, I've heard all this already," defended Amelia.
Ignoring her, Addison continued, "Getting drunk after you've gotten in trouble for drinking, is not the best decision. You really should talk to someone. I can help you or I'm sure Charlotte would be glad to help you."
Already regretting the decisions she had made in the last twenty-four hours, Amelia agreed with Addison, "I know I need to talk to someone. I'll talk to Charlotte when I get to the office today. I'm gonna get ready to go and I'll meet you downstairs in about an hour," done with her conversation, Amelia walked down the rest of the hallway to her room.
When Amelia arrived at the office, she found out that Charlotte was going to be spending the morning at the hospital, but would be in, later in the afternoon. Throughout the morning, Amelia nursed an upset stomach and killer, hangover headache; while trying to deal with this she was also catching up on paperwork and trying to figure out what to say to Charlotte. By mid afternoon, Amelia was just finishing her paperwork, when she saw Charlotte walking down the hall to her office. Giving Charlotte enough time to get to her office and settled, Amelia made her way over.
Seeing the door open, she knocked softly, stepped in and closed to door for privacy. "Can we talk?" she asked.
Nodding her head, Charlotte gestured to a chair and replied, "Sure, have a seat."
Taking a deep breath, Amelia started talking, "Charlotte, I just wanted to say, I'm sorry for how I acted. You were just doing your job, I shouldn't have yelled at you."
"You look kinda hung over, did you drink last night?" Charlotte asked.
"I was mad and frustrated, and that was the first solution that came to mind when I left the hospital," Amelia told her.
"That, right there, is a sure sign that you need help. If you want your surgical privileges back, you'll have to show me that you are getting help. You need to talk to someone, go to some meetings, anything that will help stop your craving. If you want, I can help you. I don't mind going to meetings and anything you say to me will be held in complete confidence," Charlotte told her.
"Yeah, I know, I didn't make a good choice last night, and Addison already let me hear about. She found me being sick this morning in the bathroom, so I already felt guilty for how I acted," Amelia told her, "I would like for you to come with me to a meeting, whenever you're free, I don't have any patients today."
"I'll come get you in a couple hours, I have a couple patients to see," Amelia was told.
"I'll be in my office. Maybe when we're done, we can go pick up my car. I had to take a taxi home last night." Receiving confirmation from Charlotte, Amelia headed to the door and to her own office.
Early evening found Charlotte and Amelia heading out of a meeting and on their way to grab some dinner and then pick up Amelia's car. On the way to the restaurant, Charlotte told Amelia about her plan for Amelia's being able to come back to the hospital. "You have a month to show me that you are better or at least getting better with help. At the end of the month, we will re-evaluate and see how you're doing. Does that seem fair?"
Though not happy that she wouldn't get to do surgery for a month, she told Charlotte, "I guess it will have to be, it I want to do surgery again."
"Yes, it will," Charlotte told her, "If you need me to be, I will be with you every step of the way. You can call me anytime, OK?"
Nodding her head yes, Amelia sat quietly in the car until they reached restaurant.
A month passed, and Charlotte and Amelia were back in Charlotte's office at the hospital. "I see that you've been making some good progress," Charlotte told her, while looking at a signed note that said Amelia had been to the meetings she said she'd gone to. "I don't see why you can't start doing surgeries. We'll start you off slowly, and then work you back up to full time. Does that sound doable?"
"That will be fine," Amelia told her.
"Well then Dr. Shepherd, welcome back."