right, so there's this bit in this chapter which is sooooo unlikely but then again, my dad's a surgeon and he's NEVER heard of a hemespherectomy (cutting out half a kid's brain), so basically bear with me
For the rest of his life, Alex Karev was never going to remember how he got Meredith out. As much as he had tried to remember, he couldn't. And then after a while, he decided that he didn't want to remember anyway. His memory from then onward jumped to when he was in the ambulance, checking her pupil reactivity and other things. The minute that they arrived at the hospital, the Chief and Sloan were helping him take her to an exam room and get all her information before Shepherd found out. At some point in this mess, Bailey came in and started to help too. Somebody made the comment that too much shit happened to her and he agreed, they all did.
When the CT and films came back, the only injury was to her brain. The Chief held up one of her films and sighed. "There's only one surgeon in this hospital that can help with this"
"Who?" Bailey asked, even though they all knew the answer already.
"Shepherd" The Chief muttered and wiped his forehead on his arm, "And if he finds out that she is hurt, he'll be in no fit state to operate on anybody, let alone her"
"In fairness, Sir, they aren't together anymore" Alex added
"Karev, you know that whether they are together or not has nothing to do with how they feel…they are in love today as they were the last time something like this happened to her" Bailey told him, and then added, "Fool"
The Chief sighed again, "If she has any chance of surviving, he needs to operate…"
"But he won't be able to once he finds out" Sloan reminded him
"Unless he operates without knowing it is her" Alex suggested
"Don't be so stupid, how can he operate on her without knowing it's her?" Bailey turned to him
"We would have to cover her face" The Chief murmured as he thought this through
"And shave her head before he does before cutting into it" Mark added, "He'll recognise her a mile away if not…he loves her hair"
The Chief said nothing and everybody watched as he mentally worked his way through this. Then he said, "It might work…it might just work"
Bailey moved over to Meredith and stroked her hair gently. "We have to give her every chance we can…she needs this"
The Chief nodded and looked at her, "She does need this and she needs it now" he looked up, "Prep an OR, find something to cover her face and make sure she goes down on the board as Jane Doe"
XXX
Derek was finishing scrubbing out of craniotomy when Alex rushed in with a film.
"Dr Shepherd, we have a Jane Doe who needs you to operate asap" he said
"Can't one of the other neuro guys do it? Contrary to popular belief, I'm not the only one at Seattle Grace…just the head…and the best" he chucked and then looked at Alex and the serious expression on his face, "Show me the films"
Alex handed them over and Derek held them up to light.
"Ok, I am the only guy who can operate on her" Derek agreed, "Has an OR been prepped?"
"Yeah, OR 2" Alex told him, "She's ready right now"
"Right, well, let's go scrub in…I assume you want in?" Derek asked as they left OR 1's scrub room and made their way to OR 2
Alex actually didn't know. Normally, he'd had given a "That'd be great" or something along the same line almost immediately but this wasn't just any old patient, it was Meredith. But then he realised that if he wasn't in there, watching over her, he'd be far too worried to do anything else. "Yeah, I'd like to scrub in" he answered, "Thanks"
As they scrubbed in, Derek looked through the glass. "Why's her head already shaved?"
"Err" Derek looked at Alex expectantly, "It was like that before…weird, huh?"
"Yeah" Derek replied and finished scrubbing in.
When they got in, he saw that her face was covered, "And her face is covered because?"
Everybody in the OR looked awkward, how were they going to answer this?
"She's got some damage to her face…freaked out when she found out so we promised to cover her face" Alex blurted thing first thing in his mind out
Derek looked over at him as he put his overall on, "She's bald by choice, didn't give us her name but was conscious enough to be upset when she found out she had injuries on her face?"
Alex felt really stupid and didn't know what to say but was saved when one of the machines started beeping
"Doctor, her's BP's rising" one of the nurses called
"We need to start this now" Derek told everybody in the OR, forgetting the suspicious answers to the weird way he had found this patient, and immediately got to work.
XXX
After he had finished operating, he turned to Alex in the scrub room and said, "So, what were you not telling me about this patient?" he asked, "Why all the secrecy?"
Alex looked down at his hands and lied, "There's nothing secret…she's just vain…cares more about her looks than who she is"
Derek finished washing his hands but stayed where he was, "You're lying to me" he told Alex, "Karev, you're lying and I want to know why and what about"
There was a pause and Alex didn't know what to do or what to say
"What aren't you telling me?"
Alex looked him in the eye, "It's Meredith" he told him
XXX
The Chief stood at the nurses' station, looking into the room they had put Meredith in. Derek sat in the only chair, watching her.
Unsurprisingly, he'd been angry when he found out they'd deceived him and, how much the Chief had tried to explain, he didn't want to listen. But they had done what was best for Meredith, whether Shepherd was going to admit that or not, and the Chief was not going to apologise for that. It had been a long day, he was glad it was nearly over.
Bailey came up to him with a piece of paper in her hand. "Er, Chief, we've got some more test results back on Meredith. I think you might want to see this"
The Chief took the piece of paper from her and looked at it. "Why didn't we get this sooner?"
"Well, we weren't looking for it when we did our first blood test…and then the second test, the wider test, well, with all the people that are here at the moment, they got backlogged and we only just got them" Bailey explained
The Chief looked at her and sighed. "Well, we need to check on her again now we know this…make sure she's still stable and everything's alright"
Bailey entered her room and went to check her vitals. She didn't say anything to Derek and he didn't say anything to her.
After checking on Meredith, she then looked at him and said, "She's doing fine, you know"
"I know" he didn't change his gaze and continued to watch Meredith
"You don't have to be here" Bailey told him
"I do"
"Well, you might want to know this" Bailey told him, "We only just found out…but it hasn't affected her operation and I don't think it's affected her recovery"
She was about to pass him the test results when Rose came in.
"I guess dinner's off then" she said
Derek didn't look at her but replied, "I guess it is…sorry"
Rose sighed.
Bailey frowned and passed Derek the test results. "Dr Shepherd, we just got these now…there's a backlog downstairs"
And with that she left.
XXX
He stared at her, waiting for her to wake up. He was tired but that stopped mattering a while ago. The monitors beeped continually, rhythmically; he relied on them to do so. Her eyes began to flicker but he didn't move over to her. He might have done before but not now.
XXX
It was blurry when she woke up. It took her a few minutes to see properly and then, when she could, she realised she was in a hospital bed. She turned to the machines on one side of her and then turned her head to the other side. And she saw him.
He was staring at her; anger clear on his face.
"What am I doing here?" she asked, her voice raspy
"Were you going to tell me?"
She was confused. Tell him what? What was going on?
"What do you mean? Tell you what? What am I doing here? What happened? I… I …I don't understand" she looked scared and instead of asking her the same question again, he asked, "What's the last thing you remember?"
She frowned a little, thinking back and then replied, "Going into that building with Alex…did something happen to us…is Alex Ok?"
"Alex is fine" he told her, "But there was some falling rubble, and you got hit…not by a big bit, you were lucky…but you got hit badly enough for me to be the only one that could operate on you"
Listening to him, she couldn't remember being beneath the rubble or when it fell but she could remember feeling, all of a sudden, like she suddenly had something to lose, like another chance was something to value, like she was scared for the first time in two months. And then he said that he was the one who operated on her and she felt like crying because if he operated on her then it meant he no longer cared.
"Thank you" she whispered, "For operating on me"
He gave her a small smile, "I didn't know it was you…they hid your face and I told me you were a Jane Doe"
And she didn't want to cry any more.
"Am I going to be Ok?" she asked
He nodded, "Yeah, now you're going to be fine, now you've woken up, bar any complications but I don't think it's likely that there will be any"
She smiled, "Ok then"
And then that angry expression was back on his face, "So, were you going to tell me?"
"Tell you what?" she asked, now confused again
"You know" he told her
"Derek, I really don't know" she told him and looking into her eyes, he realised that she was telling the truth, she didn't.
He leaned forward in his chair, "Meredith, you're pregnant"
