Derek's cell phone rang, playing a song from the Clash. Disappointed that it wasn't Meredith's special ring tone, he glanced at the phone and noted the call was from Callie. Why would she be calling? He asked himself. His nerves began to tingle; this couldn't be good news. Given the disasters that had befallen his family, he thought it was understandable that he imagined terrible disasters whenever someone not his wife called from Seattle.
"Hi Callie," he answered.
"Derek, glad to get you. I hope all is going well with brain mapping."
"It's going great, but I doubt you called to ask about brain mapping. Is everything okay?"
"Meredith and the kids are fine, Derek. I'm worried about Amelia. Do you know about her plans to operate on Dr. Herman?"
"Yes, in my spare time, I've been watching her neuro lectures. My sister is very entertaining. And she has a great plan. Why are you worried?"
"Dr. Herman's tumor invaded the optic nerve four weeks early, and they're getting ready to start to operate."
"Amelia has a plan, and it looks great."
"Arizona's gotten very close to Dr. Herman, and she pushed her to do the surgery. She's going to be devastated if it doesn't work."
"Without the surgery, she was going to die. And now the tumor has invaded her optic nerve, she has very little time left anyway. This surgery is her only hope."
"I'd feel better if you were here to work with her, Derek."
"Amelia's an excellent surgeon."
"But it's just her and Stephanie, and Stephanie just a third year resident. And it's an 18 hour surgery, and I don't know when they last slept."
"Is Dr. Nelson on standby to help?"
"No. Amelia has no respect for Shadow Shepard, and he can't stand your sister."
Derek chuckled. "Amelia has very little patience for anyone who is not as brilliant as she is. But she is brilliant."
"I know she's your sister, and her ego may actually be bigger than yours, if that's even possible. But what if she needs help?"
"She likes Meredith, and Meredith is great at neuro. This surgery reminds me of Isaac's spinal tumor, and Meredith really helped me to figure out how to approach it. You know she came up with the idea for the malignant glioma trial. Why don't you talk to Meredith? She can be ready to help if needed. But don't tell her it's my idea."
"I thought you were working on the long distance relationship."
"It's hard to work on a relationship long distance."
"Arizona did come back from Africa. Of course, in the meanwhile I had sex with Mark and got pregnant."
"And then you wound up getting married, and you're both devoted parents to Sofia."
"And divorced."
"But you're calling me because you're worried about Arizona. You still love her."
"She's my daughter's mother."
"I think there's more to it than that."
"Well, I didn't call you for relationship advice. So you think Meredith is the best bet for help? She's not a neurosurgeon."
"She could have been. She would have passed the boards. She did specialize in in neuro for most of her residency."
"Until she screwed up the Alzheimer's trial."
"She did that for Adele Webber. Meredith has a heart of gold, and it led her astray there. But Meredith is great in a crisis. She is very calm. And Amelia likes her. I don't think Amelia will ever forgive me for going after her job. But you can let Mere know that I'm following the surgery. And if either of them ask for help, I'll help if I can."
"Thanks." Callie hung up the phone and went to the cafeteria where many doctors and interns were grabbing a bite to eat before going to watch Amelia's surgery. She spotted Meredith with Maggie and Alex, and bought a sandwich and joined them.
"Are you all going to watch Amelia's surgery?"
"Not me," said Alex. "I have a peds surgery to do."
"I will," said Meredith.
"Me, too," said Maggie.
"It's going to be challenging to do the 18 hour surgery without any notice. I don't know if either Amelia or Stephanie have had much sleep."
"Surgeons do 18 hour surgeries frequently," said Maggie. "And Amelia has done a lot of prep work for this surgery."
"Meredith, how familiar are you with the plan?"
"Very. Owen asked me to go over it, so I can help if needed."
Maggie looked at her, puzzled. "There's no general surgery involved."
"I didn't decide on general until a few months before the boards. I'd actually been focusing on neuro, so I have a lot of background in neuro."
"Derek told me he thought you were very gifted in neuro," said Callie. "He said you came up with the idea for the Shepherd Method."
"That's what he says now," said Meredith. "He could have named it the Shepherd-Grey Method."
"He was the attending on the study," said Callie, starting to feel bad that she had probed a sore spot.
"It was my idea," said Meredith.
"That's amazing that you came up with the idea when you were a resident," said Maggie.
"Thanks."
"Maybe Derek will be watching the feed of the surgery," said Callie, trying to bring the discussion back to Dr. Herman's surgery.
"I'm sure he will," said Meredith. "It's the talk of the neurosurgery field. I'm on a neurosurgery list-serve, and everyone is fascinated by the surgery. And I'm sure Derek will be waiting for Amelia to call and ask for help; he will have to wait until hell freezes over because she is never going to call him for help."
"Would you?" asked Callie.
"Me? If I was the surgeon and I needed his help to save a life, I'd call him," said Meredith. "But I'm confident that Amelia can do the surgery. And I think Owen is confident in Amelia. His main concern is that the 18-hour surgery will be tough on Stephanie.