Waiting
Category: Angst/Hurt and Comfort
Pairing: Owen/Amelia (Omelia)
Summary: He's been watching her, keeping his distance because she told him to get out but she's been braced against the operating table for nearly an hour and he can't stand it any longer. (Omelia)
Warnings: Contains spoilers for S11 and speculation from there onwards.
Disclaimer: Own Nadda
Authors Notes: This has been floating around in my head for the last couple of days and I wanted to start posting it to keep me motivated :P Sorry if the chapters are short but I'll try to upload quickly to make up for it :)
He's been watching her, keeping his distance because she told him to get out but she's been braced against the operating table for nearly an hour and he can't stand it any longer. She did everything right. There were moments he thought she was going to crack, that she was going to make a mistake. At one point he even ordered Grey to stop her but Meredith had seen something he couldn't; pure, undefinable instinct taking over.
Amelia Shepherd had done everything right, she'd saved Doctor Nicole Herman's life.
For forty-five minutes.
For three quarters of an hour she'd pulled off the remarkable, a miracle... until the consequences of waiting too long reared in an unforeseeable tragedy. Nobody could have predicted how her body would cope with the strain of surgery, much less acted in time to save the women's life. He'd already signed off on the press release. Doctor Nicole Herman, renowned fetal surgeon, had not regained consciousness after having a terminal tumor removed from her brain; she died an hour and fifty-seven minutes ago.
He wants to punch something, hard... because not only has he lost one of the best member's of his staff and a friend, if they'd operated sooner -before the tumor spread to her optic nerve- she would still be alive.
His hand is shaking as he pushes on the door to the O.R.
An hour ago the room was filled with a loud flurry of congratulations. Moral was high bustling with the surprise of success and the contrast now, the empty silence that he steps into is nearly deafening.
She doesn't move an inch as he approaches her and he breathes out slowly wishing he knew the right thing to say. When he tried earlier she hadn't gotten angry or even upset, she'd just politely asked him to give her a few minutes and he obliged slipping into the viewing gallery so he could keep an eye on her.
Only it wasn't just for a few minutes and it's become abundantly clear that if he doesn't intervene soon this could go on until she succumbs to exhaustion. And honestly, he doesn't even know how she's still standing. She's been on her feet for nineteen hours and if worrying about her mental state wasn't enough to pull him back, then his concern for her physical well-being certainly is.
"I told you, I just need a minute..." her voice breaks the silence and he can hear the tension radiating through her jaw.
It doesn't matter.
He could give her all the time in the world but it's not going to change what happened.