Chapter 21
Gloria returns to Dr Webber's office and the other doctors are still there arguing with Richard. She knocks on the door and all of them looks up.
"Dr Webber may I speak with you?"
"What is it about?"
"Dr Grey, sir"
"Has she changed her mind?"
"No sir, she wants me to hand in her resignation."
"She does what?" Derek stutters.
"Richard, are you OK with this?"
"She won't do it. She has all her life here."
"Excuse me sir, she wants me to pick up her personal belongings and her wheel-chair will be picked up by DHL later today."
"Richard" both Derek and Mark turns to him.
"Dr Shepherd" Doc Bill says.
"Yeah, what?"
"Are you still prepared to do this surgery if I can get you an OR in Boston or any other hospital?"
"What, yeah sure, I can probably get an OR at Mount Sinai, right Sam?" Derek turns to Dr Carmichael.
"Would you consider Boston General?" Doc Bill asked.
"I want her to be able to walk again and I will do this surgery wherever she feels comfortable."
Both Drs Anderson and Carmichael reach for their phone and walks out of the room. Derek looks at Dr Webber and then at Mark and last at Ms. Winter before speaking.
"Dr Webber, I believe I have an unsuspected family emergency and I'll be taking a leave of absent due to personal matters. I will hand my patients over to my fellows.
Mark looked at Derek before he said
"Dr Webber, as you are well aware of, I have grown up as a son in Dr Shepherd's family and I'll also be on a personal leave. I'll have some patients as well to move to my fellows."
"Dr Webber, your assistant just received Dr Grey's resignation I will just sign it and be out of your way. Good day" Ms. Winter said as she stood up and closed her laptop.
The three of them meet up with the other doctors in the hallway.
Patricia knocked on the door and walked in with a stern look on her face.
"Was this what you promised Dr Ellis Grey, is this how you are to look after Meredith?" she slammed a signed resignation down on his desk and marched out and before slamming the door behind her she stopped and said
"By the way, I'll be taken the rest of the day. I'm too mad to work with you today" and with that she slammed the door shut.
An hour later Dr Webber had to leave his office due to surgery. On his way out he noticed that the surgical floor was unusually quiet. He looked after Nurse Debbie but there was no nurse at the nurses' station. When Dr Torres passed him he asked where everyone was.
"Those who aren't sick are in the OR with emergencies."
"Oh, OK then I'll talk to them in the OR."
"You sir. are not on the board. The ORs are only opened for emergencies as since the last thirty minutes."
"What, why haven't I been told?"
"I don't know" she leaves in a hurry as her pager goes off.
When Dr Webber stops to read the OR board he can see that there is only three emergency surgeries on it. He doesn't have any surgery. He walks in to the closest scrub room grabs a mask and steps into Dr Bailey's OR.
"Dr Bailey"
"Yes sir" she answers without stopping her work.
"You know everything that happens in this hospital. Where are everyone and where is my surgery?"
"I believe it is a bug going through the staff sir and your surgery is cancelled sir."
"Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"That I don't know sir. She looks over to the scrub room when a person in a uniform enters with question in his eyes.
"Sir could you handle that" she nods towards the scrub room.
Dr Webber turns and sees a man reaching for the door opener. Before he can contaminate the OR Richard is out the door pushing the man back outside into the hallway.
"What do you think you are doing? That is a sterile area. Can't you see the doors over there saying authorized personal only?"
"Sorry sir, but I am asked to pick up an electrical wheel-chair that is in room 505B" the man looks at the doors in front of him and sees the specific door.
"Excuse me sir, but the room is there." He walks around a stunned doctor and finds the wheel-chair. After some trouble starting it he can move it out and puts a box with the name Dr Grey on in the seat before moving the chair along the hall.
"Wait, stop, where are you taking this chair?"
"To my truck sir?"
"Where is it going?"
"I don't know sir, I am only to bring it down to our dock and someone else will transport it."
Richard looks as the man leaves with the chair, he then looks around and finally he realizes what he has done. He walks briskly back to his office and finds Meredith's resignation. He looks at it and picks up his phone calling Meredith. There is no answer at her home or on her cell phone. At the bottom of the page he finds a phone number to the lawyer.
"Winter and Kovalevsky" a pleasant voice answers.
"Ms. Winter, please"
"Sorry sir but she is in court. Can I take a message?"
He hangs up and lets his head rest in the palms of his hands. What has he done? An angry phone signal sounds through the office. He reaches for the phone.
"Are you out of your mind Richard?" the head of the board yells at him.
"No sir"
"Then can you explain to me why your head nurse and several department heads have called me?"
"Why have they called you?"
"You refused a patient that asked for extra privacy? A patient going through a very prestigious surgery? A surgery that was paid in full? A surgery that this hospital would benefit from."
"Sir, it is a tumor removal and the patient is one of our interns and she want to put a legal gag on us."
"Where is your surgical staff right now Richard?"
"I am told there is a bug going around."
"That bug is you Richard"
"The second thing is that the chief of surgery at Boston General expects an evaluation of Dr Meredith Grey emailed to him today. She is starting there this coming Monday. Don't tell me it is her tumor that is supposed to be removed."
"As I guess your caller already told you, it is"
"Fix it, now! Make her withdraw her resignation and sign the good damn legal gag. I want Seattle Grace to do this surgery. It will be enough publicity for us in all the articles that are bound to be written. Doctors from all over the US and probably abroad will send patients to us. We don't need the common man to know. The cases this surgery will pull are high profile anyhow."
Richard tries to reach Ms. Winter one more time.
Meredith is on the phone with a cleaning service in Boston when her roommates and Cristina enter the kitchen.
"Meredith" she can hear Cristina even before she is in the kitchen.
"In the kitchen" she replies and finishes her phone call.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Cristina starts yelling even before she enters the kitchen.
"I'm making sure my house is clean when I arrive the day after tomorrow."
"Your house is clean! Izzy is a neat freak!"
"Not this house, my house in Boston. My plane leaves tomorrow evening and I'll arrive before lunch due to a lay over in New York. Do you guys want to come to my going away party tonight at Joe's?"
"Meredith what have you done?" Izzy butts into the conversation.
"I'll start on Monday as an intern at Boston General. I won't even lose time and can count everything I've done here. I'll have three full days in Boston before work starts on Monday morning."
"You are supposed to begin rehab on Monday not a new job."
"I know, but the surgery will not be done."
"Yes it will be done, if you want it" she hears from the hallway as Mark and Derek steps in to the kitchen.
"What are all you guys doing here? Your shift isn't over yet."
"We are on personal leave" Mark says as he opens the refrigerator and pulls two bottles of beer out and he throws one to Derek.
"Why?"
"Because, we can't work when a member of our extended family is mistreated."
"Meredith, can we talk" Derek asks her quietly.
"Yeah… sure… in a moment" she looks distracted at the rest of the people in her kitchen.
"You guys, why are you home already explain that when I'm back?" she moves towards the hallway and stops "If Dr Webber calls, don't answer and if it is DHL confirm my address in Boston, it's written on the papers beside the phone, Lakewood Road" she leaves the kitchen with Derek in tow.
"Do we need private or is the living room OK?"
"It is about the surgery" Derek answers.
"There won't be any surgery, because Dr Webber won't sign and my plane to Boston leaves tomorrow evening."
"Why are you leaving?"
"Because I resigned today and I'll continue my internship at Boston General"
"Why did you resign?"
"Indifferences with my boss"
"What did he say to you when the two of you left this morning?"
"He reminded me that SGH is a teaching hospital and I'm an intern. He wants to use this surgery as a PR-event to promote the hospital. I don't want that. I am a patient and I don't want to be ogled by my fellow colleagues. I want some kind of personal life. Everywhere I've been, since I got into this damn wheel-chair, has tried to use my personal life as a way to promote their business" she has to wipe away angry tears and takes a deep breath before continuing "Dartmouth wanted me in every damn folder going out to new students… they wanted me as a freak exhibition at college fairs… my high school tried to have me on their brochure… the company that sold my electrical wheels… the only place that never tried was Boston General but my mother made them sign a legal gag before hand… I'm no… fre…freak show… I can't walk thanks to the damn tumor… it is my daily misery not a thing others… should profit on" she is crying hard now and Derek who has been sitting on the couch silently listening gets up and wraps her in his arms. He moves back to the couch with her in his arms whispering soft words into her hair. They sit like that until he hears soft snores from her. Then he looks up and sees her roommates in the hallway looking at him.
"Is she alright?" George whispers.
"Can I get you something?" Izzy wonders.
"She is sleeping George, but she is not OK, could you please bring her some water for when she wakes up Izzy" Derek whispers as he slowly rocks her.
"That girl is extra ordinary" Mark says and sits down in a chair.
"Yeah, she is"
The front door suddenly slams shut and they can hear Cristina's bike take off with a loud roar.
Dr Richard Webber is sitting in his office listening to the woman in front of him.
"You are a fool Richard, what on earth went through you mind when you refused to sign that paper? She was a patient at that time! A patient scared of the future! A patient already brought down of her mother's death! A girl that has had to conquer the impossible to become a surgeon! Every single achievement that girl has won has been hard earned since high school! And you want to use her as a way to promote this huge dinosaur!"
"But she has impossible demands. She wants the gallery to be opened for invited people only, we are a teaching hospital damn it."
"Who did she want in there Richard?" Adele reaches for the legal gag paper and reads aloud "surgical interns and neuro residents, neuro fellows and attendings from SGH first and if there is more seats available visiting neurosurgeons. Can't you fill up your gallery with those? Do you really need any other people watching and learning from a neurosurgery?"
"But the surgery might go on for twenty four hours"
"So, this is a once in a lifetime surgery, don't you think your residents will camp up there. They won't want to miss a second of it. You are allowed to use the tape for educational purposes. She allows you every teaching opportunity possible from it. She doesn't want more people staring at her then needed."
"But she won't let the gallery be opened until she is under anesthetic."
"She doesn't want anyone she knows seeing her naked and vulnerable, she wants to be covered up and that the spectators only see the surgical area."
"OK, but the rehabilitation"
"What about the rehabilitation, she states here that she will if the surgery is a success allow follow ups be recorded for teaching opportunities. What she doesn't want is a camera in her face and questions like 'what do you feel now' or 'how does it feel to not use the wheel-chair' she is open for educational purposes but that has nothing to do with her personal life. Richard you have to find her, apologize profusely ask her kindly to withdraw her resignation and hand her this paper signed, then treat her like any other VIP patient you have at this hospital." Adele is interrupted by the office door slamming into the wall.
"What are you doing Dr Yang?" Dr Webber had time to ask before Cristina slammed a paper down on his desk.
"I am probably the second intern resigning today but my guess is that before the week is over there will be a lot more interns, residents and attendings coming this way. Do you know that the lobby is full of hospital staff using the wireless internet to search for new positions? As soon as they get them they will be heading this way. The local news should get a tip about it pretty soon and then you will have them on your ass as well."
Richard stared at the angry Dr Yang and realized he had done so many stupid things that he didn't know where to start to solve the mess.
"Richard you need to start with finding Meredith and apologizing"
"Where can I find her Dr Yang?"
"Crying at home" Cristina left the office without looking back.