After Tragedy hits
I had this badass professor in med school. She seemed invincible. Then, one day, she needed her gallbladder out. And the surgery killed her. Her platelets stopped clotting, she bled out on the table. Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. Surgeons have a name for it. We call it a "perfect storm". Funny. Never thought it would happen to me. There's an end to every storm. Once all the trees have been uprooted, once all the houses have been ripped apart, the wind will hush, the clouds will part, the rain will stop. The sky will clear in an instant and only then, in those quiet moments after the storm, do we learn who was strong enough to survive it. Meredith Grey, Perfect Storm
Derek and Cristina rushed to OR3, and both of them expected the worst. Derek stopped abruptly and looked around. Then he breathed out, in a few seconds he was on Meredith' side and took her hand into his. Cristina followed. "Thank you for not dying." she said these words with tears in her eyes. Suddenly Dr. Bailey was in the room.
"I ... I'm sorry, I didn´t mean to cry and scare you ..." Before she could finish the sentence, Derek came up to her and hugged her tightly.
"I can not thank you enough."
Dr. Bailey states brought a wry grin and began: "Meredith had a massive splenic bleed, in order to stop this, I had to perform a total splenectomy. She has lost a lot of blood, but now.. Right now, she stable. Because of the power outage, it is better if she stays here, at least until she wakes up."
Derek nodded and Dr. Bailey left the operating room, after she had told Derek to page her when she wakes up. It was completely quiet in the OR. You could hear the faint beeping of the monitors in the background.
But Derek did not care. All that mattered was that Meredith lived.
She was alive. Is. She was breathing on her own.
"I knew she would make it through this." He heard Cristina say.
"She is far too stubborn to just die." Derek half turned and replied: "Fortunately, she is." "She is our person. She just has to.", Said Cristina, happy and at the same time relieved that her Person survived. "She fell down the stairs and almost died because of it." He said suddenly. "The fall- That must have been the cause." Cristina nodded thoughtfully.
"But the important thing is that she is okay now. Everything else is no longer relevant." Suddenly Cristina noticed Meredith moved. Slightly, but she did move." She wakes up." She said. "Yes." Derek leaned over to his wife and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
"Meredith. You hear me?" Cristina asked loud and clear.
"Cris ... Cristina?" Meredith asked, her eyes were half open. Everything was a blur.
But soon, her Vision cleared up. With an effort she turned her eyes on Cristina. "Where is ...?", She asked exhausted. "Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, they did a full Check-up to be on the safe side. His sats were a little low, but everything normalised." Derek's voice said.
"Derek.", Meredith exclaimed and Derek greeted his wife with a kiss.
"I'm here, Mer." "Okay, I'll leave you two alone. We'll talk later, Mer, okay? And, congratulations. I'm proud of you." Cristinas pager beeped and she said goodbye to the proud parents.
After Cristina left the OR, Derek paged Bailey, who came immediately after Derek´s page, although it wasn´t a 911.
"Grey, you´re awake. That´s great. You gave us quite a scare in there. YOu should really try and stop that."
She checked her vitals, which were stable.
"I think we can move you to a regular room.", Dr. Bailey said and started oraganizing Meredith´ Transfer to a regular room.
Meredith just nodded.
Then Meredith held her son for the first time. She immediately fell in love with him. she looked at Derek, he held Zola and said, smiling: "He's perfect. Just perfect." After a pause she added: "He has me wrapped around his finger in no time." Derek laughed. "What do we Name him?" Meredith thought. She tapped the baby lightly against the cheek.
"What do think of 'Bailey'? As a name for the baby?" She suggested and waited for Derek's reaction. "Bailey?" Derek repeated, smiling. "I like it." "Derek Bailey Grey- Shepherd. Sounds good." Meredith repeated.
"It´s Bailey then it is." Derek noticed after a short time that Meredith was pretty tired, which is normal after surgery. C-Section and extensive surgery will do that to you.
"Okay, Zola, come on. We have to let Mommy sleep now. She´s really tired." Meredith smiled at him gratefully. Derek took his sleeping son and sat down on a chair near Meredith' bed. Zola was however was Standing around indecisively. "Come on, Zozo. Callie will come and drop you off at 'Daycare', okay?" Zola nodded and asked with wide eyes:
"Is this my brother?" Derek had to laugh at her funny pronunciation. "Yes, Zola. Bailey is your little brother."
There was a knock at the door. It was Callie who picked up Zola.
Meredith was half asleep, the happenings of the day, the cesarean section and extensive blood loss took its toll.
"Hey, how is she doing? I heard about the whole Thing. Bailey performed the surgery, right?" Callie asked quietly.
"She is doing well considering she has had major abdominal surgery recently and yes, Bailey saved her life." Derek continued, now he was speaking to Zola: "Zozo, Mama and Papa love you so much. Be a good girl, okay?" Zola nodded and followed Callie, who was leaving the room. Meredith and Derek were alone with Bailey. Derek put back Bailey in the crib that had been set up in Mers room.
Then he sat down at the chair next to her bed and watched Meredith sleep. It was quiet, he just listened to Meredith breathe. Gently he stroked her hair. "I love you, Mer. So much so that you do not believe.", he whispered.
Meredith did not answer, she was still sleeping soundly. After a while he reached for Mers hand and sat there until the annoying sound of his pager interrupted the quiet.
Slightly annoyed he groaned. What are they paging him?
Can´t they page someone other than him, he wasn´t even on call. And Meredith just had major surgery. He wanted to be with Meredith, damn it.
He gave Meredith a quick kiss on the forehead, then he answered his pager call.