On the next day, a big storm was taking over Seattle. The ER was expecting a lot of victims from landslides and car accidents. Even though it was still 9 am, the skies were so dark it looked like nighttime.
Arizona arrived all soaked at the reception, trying to take off her wet jacket. Amelia saw her struggling with the jacket and smiled.
"Robbins, did you come swimming?" – Amelia joked.
"Have you seen the storm outside? I haven't seen one of these in years!" – Arizona exclaimed, pissed off. – "Oh my God! How did it go yesterday?"
"Horrible. Worst than this storm" – Amelia sounded disgusted.
"What? Why? You didn't text me, so I assumed you had a great time!" – Arizona said, a little disappointed with the news.
"I was totally relaxed after our conversation. And the place is great, indeed. So when I sat there, I just took a deep breath and started to enjoy the place, the music…" – Amelia began to explain.
"Then why it was horrible?" – Arizona was confused.
"The woman was a pain in the ass, Robbins. I mean, really, really annoying!" – Amelia said, trying to emphasize how awful the woman was.
"Why? What did she do?" – Arizona couldn't help laughing at Amelia's expression.
"She just kept talking about herself, and how an amazing lawyer she is, how an amazing lesbian she is. Oh, my God, I was actually dying on the inside!" – Amelia confessed.
"Wait a minute. Do you think she was all of that or it was all in your head because you were insecure about going out on a date with a woman?" – Arizona asked.
"I swear to God, it was her. I am actually pretty happy I went on a date with a woman. I just picked the worst one available!" – Amelia joked.
"I'm sorry! But hey, there are other fishes in the water! Keep trying!" – Arizona said, leaving towards the attending's room so she could change into her scrubs.
After the rounds, Arizona and Alex were making a surgical plan on a 5-year-old boy who had an aggressive tumor on his spine.
"Poor thing, he must be in a horrible amount of pain for so long. Why did she wait to take him to the doctor?" – Arizona said to Alex.
"She's a single mom, work in heavy shifts to get the kid some comfort. I understand her. It's tough being a single parent" – Karev said and Arizona looked at him compassionately.
"Does she reminds you of your mom?" – Arizona asked.
"Not really. We had both parents for a while. After my dad was gone, my mom was diagnosed with schizophrenia and I had to take care of my siblings and myself. I wish I had this woman as a mother" – Alex confessed.
"Anyway, we must figure it out how to remove it entirely without having him paralyzed. Any suggestions?" – Arizona asked.
"We should start from the bottom, maybe L5?" – Alex asked.
"We can't, it's too deep rooted in there. We need to have clearer margins before we get to that area" – Arizona said, pointing to the films on the negatoscope.
"Crap. It's all over his spine. Maybe we should have Shepherd in here" – Alex suggested.
Arizona paged Amelia to help them with the surgical plan, while Alex left to speak with the boy's mom.
"Did you page?" – Amelia said, smiling.
"Yeah, I did. I need a consult. More of an opinion, actually" – Arizona said.
"All right, what do we got?"- Amelia asked.
"Tumor in the spine of a 5-year-old boy" – Arizona said, finishing writing something on the patient's chart.
"Sad. Is it operable?" – Amelia asked.
"You tell me" – Arizona said, turning on the negatoscope.
"Jesus freaking Christ. It's a hell of a tumor!" – Amelia exclaimed.
"Yes. We can't start on the bottom because it's rooted too deeply in there, and up in here, we're risking paralysis." – Arizona sounded defeated.
"I need to study this for a little while. How much time do we have?" – Amelia asked.
"Not much, the boy is in an excruciating pain already. He's on the maximum dose of pain killers for his age and I'm starting to worry about his heart and kidneys" – Arizona explained.
"Ok. Give me this afternoon. I'll look into it" – Amelia took the films and smiled at Arizona.
"Thanks, Amelia. You're my biggest hope!" – Arizona said.
"Yeah, well, you owe me dinner now, it's a win win" – Amelia joked and left the room.
Amelia was locked inside an exam room staring at the films and trying to come up with a plan to operate on the boy's tumor. Maggie knocked on the door and entered quietly.
"Hey, you! I was looking all over the place for you, we were supposed to have lunch!" – Maggie said.
"Oh my God, Maggie, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot, I need to figure out some tumor battle now" – Amelia apologized and a sound echoed from her phone.
Amelia took her phone out of her lab coat pocket and quickly discard the text, putting the phone in the pocket again.
"Who was that? Was it the girl from last night? How was it?" – Maggie asked, excited.
"No, it's from another woman. The date was horrible. I thought doctors were self-centered and arrogant, but I guess lawyers can be worse" – Amelia said.
"No way! Seriously? But did you…. You know… had sex?" – Maggie asked, curiously.
"We didn't even kiss, it was that bad." – Amelia explained.
"I'm sorry. Who knew women could be as awful as men sometimes, right?" – Maggie stated.
"Well, I hope I have better luck next time" – Amelia said, laughing.
"And this one, from the text, are you going on a date with her?" – Maggie asked.
"I don't know. Right now I'm on a date with this tumor. Let's see how it goes" – Amelia joked.
Amelia stood up staring at the films and writing many notes on a piece of paper and throwing them away next. She kept talking to herself trying to convince herself to do the surgery, but all the ways seemed impossible. Either the boy was going to die at the surgery or he was going to be paralyzed.
A knock on the door woke her up from her surgical trance.
"May I come in?" – Arizona said, with a soft voice.
"Sure, yes, come in" – Amelia answered – "I don't have an answer yet, I'm trying to figure it out how can I start it"
"Don't worry, that's not why I came. Actually, I just was thinking about your date, I mean, your bad date, and I wanted to tell you that it was just a bad date, nothing more. You will have a good one, eventually. Sometimes, we just have to take baby steps, and go slowly. So, don't give up!" – Arizona said, rubbing Amelia's shoulder.
"Thank you, Robbins. It means a lot!" – Amelia said and as soon as Arizona left the room, an idea hit her right on the head.
"Yes! That's it! Baby steps!" – Amelia exclaimed, alone.
Quickly she gathered all of the films and labs, played her whole plan again in her head and went straight to the Peds ward to speak with Alex and Arizona.
"I can do it. We can do it. The surgery" – Amelia said, leaving Alex and Arizona gaped. They weren't expecting this answer, and surely not with such certainty.
"How? I mean, where do we start?" – Arizona said, still surprised.
"We need to do it slowly. In parts. We'll start with the easiest, take a piece out, close him, give him chemo and radiation, and then start over until the deepened part becomes accessible." – Amelia guided them through her idea.
"He'll need several surgeries. I don't think that's good" – Alex protested.
"It's not perfect, but it's his only chance. Kids heal faster and he has a pretty good chance of being tumor free in a short time" – Amelia explained, trying to receive some answer from Arizona.
"How many surgeries?" – Alex asked.
"I can't say. We'll need to see how fast his body reacts to the radiation and chemo, and how easy will become to remove the tumor from his lower back" – Amelia explained and Arizona remained in silence.
"What do you think?" – Alex asked Arizona.
"Do you think it will work?" – Arizona asked Amelia.
"I think it's the best shot we have" – Amelia answered.
"I'm not confident. I think we'll put him to even more pain than he is right now" – Alex stated.
"Well, do you have a better idea, Karev?" – Arizona asked him.
"No" – Alex answered.
"So that's it. We'll do it like Amelia suggested. Can you come with us to speak with his mom?" – Arizona asked Amelia, who nodded yes.