A/N: Hey everyone! So, I'm liking the positive reaction to this story and I hope everyone is ready for the ride of their life with it! A couple notes, first, I wasn't ever clear on the timeline of when Bailey was born, so we're going to pretend his due date is in March. Sound good? But this is set mid-season 9. Also, this is in fact MerDer, for those of you who were asking. It'll become more clear as we progress and the characters EJ has described are identified. And on that note, keep in mind EJ doesn't know these characters like we do, so he is making his own assumptions and judgments, he will continue to do so throughout the story. He doesn't have the full story so it sometimes will seem harsh and unfair. And he is a kid, so we're looking at everything through a different lens when it's his point of view. And, on that note, the chapters will switch POVs. Odd numbered chapters belong to EJ and even numbered chapters belong to Derek, but I'll make sure to mark them to avoid confusion.

Also, thank you to Lexbex1126, shawnakat1, Gina and Guest for the reviews. It means a lot that you guys took the time to do it, and it's helped motivate me to update in a timely fashion. I hope you like this chapter!

-R

Derek's POV:

"Have you ever considered knocking up your wife to be a bad idea?" Alex is leaned against the counter and hunched over paperwork that he's clearly not focused on. He has that tale-tell smirk on his face but the tone of his voice suggests he's not amused.

"What? Can't take a hormonal Mer?" I can't help but smile, he has obviously done something to upset her. I look down at the iPad to focus on EJ's paperwork and entering him into the system.

"Oh, I can. I'm just not sure the rest of the hospital can. I mean, she's only halfway through the pregnancy and already irritable as all get out." I can't help but smirk at this, he has no idea, truly. "I'm just not sure that you knocking her up was a good idea. I mean, we've still got 20 weeks of it and she'll be even worse once the kid arrives and you guys are both sleep deprived."

"We weren't that bad after we got custody of Zola" I try to defend but get interrupted before I can argue it.

"Yeah but Zola was almost 1 and already sleeping through the night. Not to mention Mer hadn't been all over the place with hormones and all the other pregnancy crap. Adopting an almost 1 year old and having a newborn are entirely different ball parks."

"Alright then. I'll keep your thoughts in mind the next time we decide to procreate. Wouldn't want to inconvenience the great Alex Karev, now would we?"

"Thanks man." Alex is sarcastic as ever, but his remarks aren't on my radar, not really. I'm too preoccupied with my new case to truly be worried about his thoughts on a hormonal Meredith and the concept of a new baby. Alex however seems to be looking for an excuse to chat and avoid work more than to vent about Meredith and whatever he's done to be scolded by her.

My thoughts are interrupted by Alex motioning to behind me and asking, "Hey, who's the kid?"

I turn my head in the direction Alex has gestured to and see EJ making himself comfortable in a wheelchair about 10 feet behind me, a little pale for what I'd normally like to see but I don't know him well enough yet to know if it's nerves or his natural skin tone or that he's not feeling well. My gut says it's nerves, he's trying to come to terms with the fact that I care and I'm not going to give up on him. It's probably the first time anyone has believed in him, and it's more sad than anything.

"Oh, yeah, his name's EJ. He was a consult and I think I'll be taking him on as a case. We're getting him admitted now for further studies." I don't bother watching for Alex's reaction as I continue working to enter him in the system and getting everything ready.

Before Alex can prod anymore, I hear the tell-tale sound of retching. I spin around on my heels to see EJ hunched over in the wheelchair he had commandeered and painting one of the nurses with whatever he last ate. It only takes Alex and I half a second to respond and jump to their aide.

Looking at the nurse, I can tell she's pissed by the steam that's practically billowing from her ears. I opt to ignore her rather than engage her, kid trumps nurse, always, as shown by the fact that everyone within the vicinity has stopped to make sure he's okay, and have pushed the nurse to the back.

EJ is still vomiting, so rather than bombard him with questions, I check the vomit and almost shrink back in relief- no blood. I figure the best thing would be to comfort him and its clear Alex has decided that's the best course of action as well, already rubbing soft circles on his back. I always knew Alex had a soft spot for kids, but it's more pronounced now than ever. Rather than overcrowd EJ, I motion for the extra people to carry-on with their original tasks. I see one of the interns step to the nurses' desk, while the other nurses and interns walk away so that it is just Alex, EJ and me left near the mess. Even the nurse who got puked on walks away- a sour look still painting her features.

It only takes a few more moments for his retching to stop and become more dry-heaving than anything, and I help him to lean back into the wheelchair, pulling the ball cap he had been wearing off his head as I see the sweat drizzling on his forehead. I push the matted blond hair that's stuck to his face up, and, in the process, can feel that he does not have a fever without telling him that's what I'm checking for.

"How are you feeling EJ?" I ask, trying to continue assessing him without being overbearing.

"Not great." He gives me a small smile, and I can tell, it's obviously not too bad since he can joke. "Pretty tired. Would you think I was a little kid for wanting to take a nap?" The innocence in his eyes and voice break my heart.

"Not at all, I just need you to stay awake a couple more minutes okay?" He gives a slight nod of his head and I turn to see the intern who was stood by earlier, Dr. Edwards, with a bottle of red Gatorade and a damp wash rag. I smile at her and take the items. I help EJ to wipe his face a bit of the sweat and to cool the flush that has overtaken his face, then let him take over, resting it on the back of his neck. "I need you to take a few sips, okay?" I crack the Gatorade open and help him hold it steady so he can take a sip.

"How'd you know red was my favorite?" EJ looks up at Dr. Edwards, a small smile working its way onto his face.

"Red's my favorite too. And it doesn't leave a mysterious after-vomit taste like the others," Dr. Edwards gives him a wink and has EJ smiling genuinely now.

"Right? The nurses always gave me yellow or blue, it was like they didn't know that it leaves an awful after-taste. I would even ask for red and they'd still bring every other flavor!"

I like that Dr. Edwards has him coming out of his shell, so I motion for her to keep talking with him and for Alex to stay with them while I finish the last of the paperwork process. I can tell EJ is completely exhausted but trying to stay awake like I asked.

It's no more than 5 minutes before I'm done and walking back over with a wrist band for EJ and a peds room assignment.

Dr. Edwards looks up at me when I walk over, and I can see an apologetic look on her face when she speaks up. "I'm on Dr. Grey's service today, so I need to get going."

I nod, but EJ interrupts, "Can't you stay Steph?" I raise my eyebrow at this and wonder how Dr. Edwards could break EJ's tough exterior so easily. "You can help me bug the nurses! Or I'll even share my red Gatorade with you!" He has his hand outstretched with a half-finished bottle of the drink.

"Sorry buddy, I have to go be a doctor. But how about I come find you later, okay?" EJ looks solemn but nods. I can see it pains her to have to leave him. "I promise, okay? You don't want me to get in trouble, do you?"

"No, but," EJ starts, but runs his hand through his hair when he can't come up with a good excuse for her to get in trouble for hanging out with him instead. He's staring up at us with his little almond eyes, shining in disappointment.

"No buts, okay? I'll be back, and you can tell me the rest of your story and if you're good for Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Karev then I'll tell you one of mine, sound good?"

"Alright." EJ clams up and I almost want to ask Edwards to stay, but I know that I won't have any surgeries for her to scrub in on like Meredith surely does. "But who's Dr. Karev?"

We all can't help but laugh at this. "It's me buddy, I'm Dr. Karev." Alex tells EJ, who looks up at him with his mouth cracked open.

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense. What kind of doctor are you?" I motion for Edwards to leave while we have EJ's attention.

"Well what kind of doctor do you think I am?" Alex picks up EJ's two bags and keeps talking to him while I finish securing the identification band to his wrist and begin pushing him towards the elevator.

"I know you're a surgeon because you have the same scrubs as Dr. Shepherd, but I don't think you're a brain surgeon."

"And why not?" Alex acts offended as he hits the elevator call button but I know neurology never did interest him as a resident.

EJ makes me want to laugh with his answer. "Because I've met a lot of them and your personality doesn't match."

"And what personality is that?" I butt into the conversation as the elevator doors shut and we begin moving to the 4th floor, where peds is.

EJ looks pensive for a minute before he answers. "It's hard to describe. But it's like when you walk in the room it's like you own the room AND you know it. It's like you think you're in charge because you mess around in people's heads."

"Ok, so if I'm not a neurosurgeon, then what do you think I am?" The elevator arrives and we step on as Alex turns to keep speaking with the boy.

"Well, I'd say you're a plastic surgeon cause you seem like you like to pick on your friends and the only plastic surgeon I've ever met was like that." EJ pauses for a second and I can imagine Alex's retort, but EJ continues before Alex can defend himself. "But, you also seem like you're good with kids, because you're being nice and funny with me and it looks like you're on my case, which means that you'd have to be a pediatric surgeon. So, my guess is that you're a pediatric surgeon."

"Well then, you're a very observant person EJ, because you're right, I am a pediatric surgeon. And I am going to work with Dr. Shepherd on your case. If that's okay with you, of course."

It looks like EJ is considering his answer carefully as we leave the elevator and begin walking through the peds department. "Are you good? Cause I need someone good."

"I'm one of the best." Alex smirks when I roll my eyes at him.

We take a right turn before we enter the room he's assigned to and I put the brakes on his chair. EJ stands up to look at Alex in the doorway, and moves to take his backpack from Alex and to snatch his ball cap from my hands. "Okay, you can stick around."

By the end of the day, EJ is sound asleep in frayed blue plaid pajamas he had in his duffle bag that he insisted on wearing as opposed to the standard peds hospital pajamas, and all the tests I needed for a full assessment are done, so I pull Alex into a conference room with me to look over everything.

I begin setting all the scans up, putting them up on the screens around the room. Alex flops into a chair and is reading part of his chart and speaking. "Hey, where are the kid's parents? I haven't seen anyone come up looking for him at all today."

I pause for a moment and take a deep breath before explaining the situation. "He doesn't have any. He told me he ran away from his foster family." Alex looks up at me and sets the papers he was reading down, giving me his undivided attention. "He said that he knew his foster parents were just going to give up when the neuro guy at New York Children's said the tumor was inoperable. He said he knew that I was the guy for inoperable tumors so he ran away and came to find me to see if I'd take him on. I sat with EJ for over an hour this morning, but he's staying strong on that point. All I know is that he's 14 years old, his mom abandoned him when he got sick and he never met his father. He isn't ready to even tell us what the letters E and J stand for, much less his last name because he doesn't want to give up. And he thinks that's what he'll have to do if CPS takes over his case again."

I can see the sorrow in Alex's eyes as he asks, "well, aren't you at least going to call CPS? Let them know you have a mystery kid? You could get in trouble for not notifying them."

"I want a plan first. I want to show him that I have a plan and that I'm not giving up before we call them in. We need him to trust us, so that when I call them, I can tell him that I'm not giving up, that I'll keep treating him for as long as he wants me to do so; for as long as he needs me to."

"Alright, well, what have we got?" Alex nods his head, confirming that he'll go along with my shotgun plan.

I zoom in on the brain scans and motion for Alex to join me in front of them. I point out the tumor as I talk. "The tumor is located primarily in the temporal lobe but it has spread to include a small portion of the motor cortex in the frontal lobe." I point both sections of the tumor out to him. "While it is concerning that there is a portion in the motor cortex, it normally wouldn't concern me too much because it's so minor and EJ is 14. Any lost motor function would ideally be recoverable. Normally, I would just go in, dissect as much as possible and treat the rest with high dose chemotherapy and radiation." I sigh at this.

"Why can't you do that?"

"There are three major concerns, first, look here." I pull up the more detailed brain scans and point to the bottom area as I zoom in. "There's a small part that is slowly encroaching on the brain stem. Now, the MRI shows that it is still operable at this time. It's a massive and nasty tumor, one of the worst kinds of brain tumors, but it hasn't actually touched the brain stem yet." I point to the area next to the tumor, "can you see that dark spot right there?" Alex nods and I continue explain. "It's about 2 centimeters of separation from the brain stem."

"So the New York Children's doctors were wrong? It is operable."

"Well they were not entirely wrong. It is still a highly dangerous tumor. I mean, it is massive, and it has little tendrils instead of clean edges, so it will be hard to get clean margins."

"But you'd be willing to operate?"

"Well, there are still a few more problems. The second thing is the results of the spinal tap. It's metastasized. And here," I pass him the full body MRI, "there's a second tumor that is wrapped around his kidneys and liver. And the last problem is the history. It's a reoccurrence. He was 10 when he was first diagnosed, and 4 years ago it was just a tumor in the temporal lobe, and it was much smaller." I pull the original scans from EJ's chart for Alex to compare with, pointing out the tumor on it. "They removed it, treated with chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant and he was in remission for three years."

Alex is left speechless by my assessment.

"My other problem is when we compare the scans. EJ said that the scans he brought were only 13 days old. Look at the growth between the two scans." I pull out the scan from the chart for comparison.

Alex looks confused, "I don't really know what I'm looking at."

"Okay, here pass me the scan from 13 days ago." When I have it in my hands, I overlay the older scan with the newer scan."

A look of realization passes over Alex's face. "There's virtually no growth."

"Exactly." I toss the older scan on the table and flop into a chair, running my hands tirelessly through my hair and over my face, wishing for a different result.

"I don't get it. Why is it a problem that there hasn't been any growth? Shouldn't that be good news?"

"Normally it would be fantastic news. With Choroid Plexus Carcinoma, the reason it's so deadly is that it grows alarmingly fast and it a nasty bugger that doesn't respond well to only chemo. It's such a rare form of brain tumor that there's not a lot of research on the treatment of it. The problem I have is that given the size of the tumor, EJ would have been experiencing symptoms– headaches, fever, vomiting, malaise for a while, especially given the location of the tumor and where it is pressing. But also, even if he wasn't experiencing symptoms for some reason, the growth rate of the tumor indicates that his last set of scans- the 2 year and 9 month scans taken in July should've shown a growth, even if it was minor, it would've still been only slightly smaller than the original tumor, and since it originated from almost the exact same spot as the first tumor, the entire temporal area on the left side would've been tagged as the area most prone to reoccurrence and it should've been caught earlier."

I can see Alex is starting to fit some of the pieces together, "what do you mean by that?"

I rub my face once again and sigh deeply. "I think someone messed up. Either a technician made a mistake or the scans weren't properly assessed, something. I have to hope it's something like that because the alternative is that his doctors in New York sentenced him to death by ignoring the growth. Because there is no way this tumor wasn't present three months ago."

Another turn in the story… let me know your thoughts, and we'll hear from EJ next week. Fingers crossed I can stay on top of updating this story weekly.