It's All Good

It was Valentine's Day and the hospital did its best to make sure that no one forgot. The entire building was decorated from floor to ceiling with banners and posters and balloons. Jars of candy donned every desk and table. She stood in line at a coffee cart and waited to place an order. Someone bumped up against her. She waited for them to apologize. When they didn't, she turned around to give them an wicked glare and to yell at them about their nonexistent manners. She whipped around and looked up into the face of Ben. Miranda sucked her teeth. "You know, a normal person would have just said 'hello' or 'good morning'" She said turning back around, her cheeks no doubt flushed.

"Good morning, Dr. Bailey," he whispered. He leaned down and allowed his lips to brush against her ear. The hairs on her body stood up. The sexual tension between them went unnoticed by all those around them, but it was driving her insane.

"Next please," the male cart attendant said. When he saw that it was Miranda, he said: "Dr. B., hi."

"David, hi. How's your mom doing?" Miranda asked. David's mom, Angelina had been one of her patients.

"She's good. She asks about you."

"Tell her I said not to worry about me and to focus on her."

"I will," David said smiling. "What can I get for you?"

"Two coffees, a bagel with cream cheese and a plain croissant," she said.

"Right away," David answered.

While David worked, Ben said: "Uh, tonight is still gonna work out, right?"

"Of course it is," she said with a small smile. "We have a plan."

"I'm just saying…"

"Here you go, Dr. B." David handed a coffee to her and the other to Ben.

"You cancel a lot," Ben continued. "Because of the scalpels and cutting people open."

Miranda pursed her lips. "Look, I was promised an elegant dinner. I rearranged my whole schedule. Everything is a go." She started to pull her money out of her pocket. Ben touched her hand and pulled out his own. When he got the change back, he dropped a couple of dollars into the tip jar. David thanked Ben and Miranda and handed her the bagel and the croissant. "Which one do you want?" She asked her boyfriend as she watched him pour some milk and sugar into his coffee. She liked hers black. "Oh! And I've got high heels in the back of my car," she said seductively. She knew that it drove him crazy when she wore heels. It turned her on just thinking about how much it turned him on.

Ben took the croissant, put it into his pocket and touched her waist. "I'm gonna spend all day thinking about 'em," Ben said and they walked off. Miranda laughed and he kissed her cheek once and then kissed her lips, shocking her system. Because they were right in the middle of the lobby, she resisted the urge to touch his face and deepen the kiss. She pulled away, starry-eyed, before she headed to a staff meeting.

All day Miranda rushed around making sure that all of her procedures, post-ops and patients were checked on and crossed off her list so that she would not have any reason to be late to her night with her man or an excuse that would make her miss what he had planned. She didn't want to let Ben down. He was big on holidays, the national ones and even the small, unnecessary ones that most people didn't care about. He once bought her and Callie tickets to a dine-in theater on "National Girlfriends Day," a day that she was certain that he'd made up until she'd looked it up. He did it "just because". It was the sweetest gesture and they'd had a great time. So while this dinner was about their relationship; it was also about him.

"What?" Miranda said approaching Meredith who'd paged her. The resident was standing in front of two computer screens eating candy. "We have surgery in half an hour. What do you need?"

"Mrs. Halverson's scans are coming up."

"And?" Miranda asked.

"And I thought we could spend the rest of Valentine's Day together, elbow deep in someone right after Mr. Pete's bowel resection." The girl offered Miranda some candy.

Miranda scoffed. "Uh, you may not have Valentine's Days plans, but I do, Grey. Plans that I am not willing to forfeit." Meredith smiled as Miranda reached for a piece of candy. "They're up. What do you see, Grey?"

"I think there's a mass here," Meredith said pointing to the screen. "And here."

"Agreed. So what's next?"

"We get her prepped and do the surgery right away."

"Good. You'll go over to Mrs. Halverson's room and inform her about the procedure that we'll have to perform," Miranda said picking up a few pieces of the candy up. "And then scrub in and help me with Mr. Pete." Meredith nodded as Miranda walked away chewing on a piece with a creamy middle and slipping the rest into her pocket.

While Mr. Pete, a lonely 50-year old man, was on the table, Miranda was almost done when she heard Meredith say: "BP's dropping!"

"I think I've got a bleeder. Suction," Miranda said coolly. "Did you check the SMA?"

"Yes. It's okay," Meredith replied.

The attending nodded and continued to work. As she scrubbed out, Miranda thanked God that the rest of the surgery had gone smoothly. She was peeved that a two to three hour procedure had turned into a five and a half hour one, but also glad that she'd had an intern text Ben to let him know that she would still be having dinner with him, but that one of her surgeries had gone longer than expected. "Damn it," she said to herself as she checked her watch and saw that it was just about four o'clock. She and Ben would be getting together in a few hours. Her frown turned into a smile. She pulled out her phone and double-checked the time and saw that she had a message from Ben and Tucker. Neither one was pressing so she continued to Mrs. Halverson's room.

"Hey," Ben said as Miranda opened some double doors while taking out another piece of the chocolate. She'd have to thank Grey one day. The candy was giving her energy and feeding her tiny hunger pains. "I got the message that your bowel obstruction went long. So, I pushed our reservations to eight o'clock." He spoke calmly with no hint of aggravation.

"Really?" She asked looking up at him, the confusion on her face showing. Getting reservations to fancy restaurants were hard enough. "Just like that on Valentine's Day?" She was honestly shocked. They continued to walk side by side.

"I got connections." Miranda gasped. "I could even push 'em to nine if you'd like."

She shook her head. "No!" They rounded the corner. "Absolutely not. No. As soon as I do my lung resection. I will scrub out, go out to my car, grab those heels, take a shower—"

"Dr. Bailey, Mr. Pete was just went into V-tach!" An intern said coming up behind them. "He had no pulse for several seconds. Dr. Grey is shocking him now."

Miranda shook her head, defeated. "Alright, fine. Push the reservation to nine," she said to Ben.

"Mmmhmm," he said sarcastically. Miranda rolled her eyes and bumped into Ben gently before following the intern to Mr. Pete's room.

"Mr. Pete, your CT shows that there's been a complication," Miranda told the man. "We will take you back in the OR and fix it right away."

The older man spoke slowly with jagged breaths: "Thank… you." Miranda nodded with a smile and gestured for everyone to follow her out of the room.

"Grey, let Mrs. Halverson know that her surgery has been postponed. That should make her happy and give her husband enough time to fly in. Then get Mr. Pete prepped… again."

Back in surgery, Miranda and Meredith mused over the open body cavity. "His bowels are all swollen and hardened, the anastomosis is leaking," Meredith said.

"Which explains why he went into shock," Miranda countered. "All in all, I'd say this is about the best news we could've asked for. Wouldn't you say, Dr. Grey?"

Meredith nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

"I don't understand," the intern who came to get her piped up. Miranda was sure his name was Mostow. "H-his bowels are perforated. He's leaking intestinal contents."

"Why?" The intern stayed silent. "Anyone?" Miranda asked the room.

"He's allergic to the suture. The chromic suture," another intern who was observing and taking notes said.

"Right," Miranda said.

"And there was no way of knowing that," Mostow added finally catching on.

"Which is why Dr. Grey and I are smiling behind our masks," Miranda said with a small chuckle. "Get the 3-0 silk ready, please, Bokhee."