I've been getting back into the groove of things, and would like to thank everyone on the reviews from multiple stories this past week. I do not really watch grey's as much as I used to, but I have watched the two latest episodes (15x11 sparked the idea for this story) and WOW are they just going to ignore that they're recycling storylines? Along with the leaving of multiple characters, I stopped watching because once I saw ER, I noticed that Grey's copied a lot of their plot lines and executed them poorly.
That said, I am still working on chapters for my other stories—most of my focus is towards my first fic Blindsided, followed by When You're Gone, and Ties That Bind more than any others. Through the operating room's door, Bailey helped steer Thatcher's gurney to the table. She looked down at him and smiled. "I am very good at my job, but I really need you to not pull anything funny on me. Your daughter has done enough of that for both of you. I her to be happy, and whether she'll admit it or not, she loves you and doesn't want you going anywhere. Do you understand me, Mister Grey?"
Thatcher smiled at Miranda before nodded. "Fierce and protective, just like Lexie told me. I'm staying here for Meredith, so let's get this transplant going." Miranda nodded and the anesthesiologist began putting Thatcher under. Bailey left to go scrub in while the process was being done. As she scrubbed in, Bailey sent prayers out that Thatcher did not die on her table.
Meredith sat in the waiting room for news on her father. She played with her thumbs as she made a promise to herself that she was going to be a real daughter to Thatcher, and allow him to be a grandfather to Zola and any other future Shepherd children. But, she had one of those feelings again, the feeling that took her back to the day she almost became pink mist. So lost in her thoughts, she didn't realize that someone sat down next to her until they nudged her. Looking up, she saw Cristina.
"Are you really going to do this, Mer? After everything he's put you through?"
Meredith nodded. "Yes, I am. I'm doing it for me, for Thatcher, for Zola, and for Lexie. I know this is something Lexie would have loved, so, yes, Cristina, I am going to try and keep my father in my life."
Her person nodded her head. "Alright then, I'll be sure to kick your ass if you start bitching about him." Cristina smiled when she saw Meredith give her a small smirk. Meredith turned in her seat, no longer sitting leaning forward.
"You should have seen him and Zola. She's only met him one other time and she was completely fine around him as if Thatcher has been in her everyday life. And he smiled when he saw her and did his best to interact with her considering his IV and everything. It was nice to see her with another one of her family members—that is mine and Derek's blood relatives."
Cristina pulled a face, similar to what she did whenever she handed Zola to her with a full diaper. "You're turning into sappy, happy married, Mommy Meredith again," she said jokingly. "Seriously Mer, if this is what you want, I'm behind you, and I'll make sure you stick to your word."
"Thanks, Cristina."
Bailey was just attaching the renal artery of the donor kidney to the external iliac artery when the monitors began to go off. She froze in place, looking around, before ordering a nurse to go get Webber. The heart monitor began to flatline, so she ordered her resident to begin chest compressions.
"You call those compressions?" Miranda barked at the resident before gently handing the instruments to another resident, then took over the compressions. When she saw Webber walk through the door, she spoke to him, "we need cardio. NOW. Page Yang." He personally paged Cristina as he listened to Bailey talk. "Do you dare do this, Grey. I swear this family is out to give me gray hair. You told me you weren't going anywhere, and that's what you're gonna do. I am not letting you die because then I will have Meredith Grey on my ass about you dying on my table."
By the end of her speech, Richard had taken over the compressions. They continued on with compressions and shocking Thatcher until Cristina arrived two minutes later, out of breath.
"So, what's going to happen when he comes out of surgery. You know, home care wise?" Cristina asked Meredith.
Meredith shrugged. "I'll be here when he's out of surgery, and then Derek and I will probably take him to stay with us and I'll take a family—" she was cut off by Cristina's pager. Her person looked down, and her eyes grew wide. Cristina jumped up ready to run. "What?" Meredith asked at the unusual behavior.
Cristina shook her head. "Mer, I have to go. I have to go like right freaking now. Stay here, and do not move from that spot," she warned as she began to run to the OR. Running down the halls, she made it to the OR in two minutes and pushed the doors open. "What the Hell is going on?"
"Renal artery attached, heart monitor went off. Lost his pulse. We've been doing compressions and shocks for about three minutes," Bailey replied.
Cristina sighed, "Crack his chest open right now. I'm going to scrub in. Get ready for CABG and do NOT inform Meredith of this. We are not letting him die, so there is no reason for her to worry about it."
As Cristina ran off, Meredith sat there confused. She had a feeling it had to do with Thatcher, but she knew she wouldn't even make it to the OR because she knew Bailey had people set up to prevent her from getting there. She turned her head and saw Derek walking towards her.
"What are you doing here? Where's Zola?"
Derek sat next to her, putting his arm around her shoulders as she leaned into him. "Torres offered to take her for the night and bring her to daycare tomorrow. So any news so far?" He felt Meredith shake her head and became confused because by this point in a surgery they would have come out to inform family what was going on so far.
Meredith knew that too. And the feeling in her stomach had gotten more intense since Cristina had gotten that page. "I think something happened in there. I have that feeling, you know the one that I had when I almost became pink mist, and the ferry boat accident? And Cristina was sitting here talking to me and her pager goes off. Next thing I know she's flying up and running, telling me not to move a muscle. Something had to of happened. But why wouldn't they come out and tell me." She was saying this more to herself than Derek as she tried to fit all the pieces together.
"Hey, he's got Bailey doing the procedure. She's one of the best general surgeons in the hospital."
"And he might also have Cristina in there doing a different procedure."
Derek sighed as he squeezed his wife's shoulders. "Meredith, even if—and that's a big if—he does, she's the best cardio surgeon around here. Why don't you try getting out of that dark and twisty place and try to sleep a little. You've been up for over twenty-four hours." To his surprise, Meredith nodded, and before long, she was sleeping.
Cristina and Bailey walked into the scrub room, pulling their scrub caps off as they began to scrub out from the surgery. Bailey sighed and clenched the rim of the sink. Cristina stopped what she was doing and focused on her mentor.
"Doctor Bailey?"
"I just need a minute, Yang. Just a minute before I go out there," Bailey replied, taking deep breaths to calm herself.
Cristina nodded and waited for Bailey to begin scrubbing, to be sure her mentor was okay to continue on. "She won't hate us, you know."
Bailey nodded, "I know. But still, it was a lot. And yes, she is a doctor, so she will understand what we did, but right now, she is family so we have to explain it to get it through her head."
When both women were finished scrubbing out, they began the walk to the waiting room—side by side, a united front. They both saw Meredith sitting and talking with Derek, something they let out a sigh of relief to before they continued making their way over to them.
Hearing footsteps coming toward them, Meredith looked up and saw the way Bailey and Cristina were walking towards her. Her eyes began to fill up with tears, now feeling like she did when Derek was shot and she thought he died on the table.
Bailey had wanted to speak first, to go in order of the surgery, and to cushion the blow that was about to come. "I completed the transplant. We closed up. There were some unforeseen complications. During the transplant, when the renal artery was getting connected to the external iliac artery, your father went into cardiac arrest. He eventually had no pulse," she spoke softly and saw Meredith's eyes grow wide, her face one of shock. "Yang came in and had us crack his chest open…"
Derek put a reassuring hand on Meredith's shoulder, having complete faith in the two surgeons in front of him. Cristina continued before Meredith or Derek cut in. "I performed a CABG on him to retire the blood flow that was lost. It was touch and go for a while, but we got through it. Right now he is being monitored in the CICU. We'll want to run more tests on him when he wakes up, but right now, it seems like he's going to be just fine."
"Do you plan on doing a nuero exam?"
Bailey rolled her eyes, though her expression was still soft. "Yes, Shepherd. We are going to run everything we need to in order to make sure these Greys stop scaring the hell out of us."
It all seemed to click for Meredith when Bailey spoke. "He's okay. Not dead in the morgue?" Bailey shook her head and became shocked when she had her former intern lunge at her and hug her. "Thank you. Can I go see him?"
Bailey, shocked over what just happened nodded her head. "5813. We'll be up for a post-op check later," as she spoke, Meredith began leading Derek away and Miranda looked at Cristina.
"She's happy-married, mommy Mer. She's all gooey inside and she hugs now."
Is my medical knowledge right? Probably not, but I did my best. When You're Gone and Blindsided will have at least one new chapter up tomorrow/Sunday.