A/N: Okay, we're back on track now, nice :) This one is a bit longer than the others so you don't have to endure that much medical drama in other chapters coming up. There are three parts in this chapter that I adore that I will let you in on at the bottom. But until then, here's chapter 27. Hope you guys like it ;) Also, from now on, I mean I could've done it from the beginning even though I didn't think of it, but would you guys want me to start giving brief descriptions of what each diagnosis is in the end Author's note when there is one in the chapter so you're more aware of what the hell is going on with the patient? Just let me know, I'll do it for this chapter anyway.
-B
February, 2015:
"Chest CT confirmed multiple lung cysts, one of which burst during the treadmill test."
"Luckily, Santana was there to re-inflate her lung." You state, breaking Noah's narrowed gaze from his cousin. He looks at you before nodding at Mike to continue while you and Santana share a glance.
"Lung cysts plus all her other symptoms could be amyloidosis which we can manage or pulmonary fibrosis-"
"Thank you." Noah cut her off and Santana slowly closes her mouth her brows raised. "Pierce, Chang, you can biopsy the cyst."
"You took me off this case because you thought I couldn't handle it. I just proved to you-" Santana tries, her voice rising before Noah cuts her off once again.
"You just proved that you know how to make an entrance." He states and Santana clenches her jaw as you shake your head, looking at the carpet.
"Noah, she deserves another shot." You tell him as Santana stares at the window, shaking her head. Noah leans back in his chair and arches a brow at you, "She found the cysts and saved the patient." You add, holding your hand out towards Santana.
"So you two dealt with whatever issue you were having." He notes, "It took me removing one of you from the case for you to get your shit together. I shouldn't have to do that. You're professionals for crying out loud." He runs his hand over his shaved head and you cross your arms, "Besides, our patient wouldn't have needed saving if she decided to show up to the differential in the first place."
"Just bring her back on, Noah." You say in faint annoyance and he shrugs his shoulders.
"Or you'll what?" he asks knowingly and you clench your own jaw, looking at the ground. "Go do the biopsy." He orders and Mike moves first before you give Santana an apologetic look and follow after the Asian.
You sigh heavily as you sink into the booth seat across from Santana. She lifts her head and you chew on your bottom lip while sliding her one of the lattes in your hand. She mumbles a thanks and you nod, taking a sip as you run over what you're going to tell her.
"The biopsy of her lung cyst showed smooth muscle cells. She has LAM, Santana." You tell her and she lowers the latte from her lips. "Noah's getting the papers filed to do the surgery." You add and she slowly wets her bottom lip, lowering her gaze to the table top as she nods slowly.
"They'll just come back." She shrugs slowly, looking up at you and you nod reluctantly, "Little by little they're going to replace her lung tissue until…they stop working."
You nod and tighten your hands around the latte, watching Santana, "Noah believes she'll has about ten years."
Santana lifts her latte to her lips, staring far off as she sips.
"I thought you'd want to know before we tell her in case…"
"In case what?" she asks, "In case I want to tell her?" she asks with furrowed brows and you just look at her. She lets out heavy breath and shakes her head, "Pierce, I might handle delivering bad news a little better than you but I can't. Not to her, you know? It'll just make it worse." She says and you swallow, nodding as you get up. You grab your latte and stop from leaving when Santana grabs your wrist, squeezing gently, "Thank you." She says softly and you nod before leaving.
You walk towards Jenna's room the next morning, flipping through her file trying to find an alternative diagnosis and smile politely in greeting as you pass a few nurses in the hall before coming to a stop at Jenna's room.
You pause from lifting your hand to open the door when you see Santana sitting with Jenna, smiling faintly as they talk. You watch Santana's smile grow as she chuckles at whatever Jenna says and tilt your head when you focus on Jenna.
Her eyes were bright and smile wide as she watched Santana laugh, and you wet your lips, swallowing down the green monster pushing to creep its way up from inside you. You shake your head and open the door slowly, knocking with the hand holding the file as you offer the two smiles.
"Morning." Jenna smiles, sitting up further in her bed as Santana looks at you with a smile, nodding in greeting. She looks perfect even in leggings a hoodie and her hair in a ponytail. You clear your throat as you glance down and let out a breath as you walk over.
"Morning." You reply, standing at the foot of her bed, "How are you holding up?" you ask Jenna and she nods.
"I'm feeling okay. Santana's managed to take my mind off the situation."
"That's good." You say, looking at her file before glancing at Santana, her arms crossed as she itches to look at the file as well. You arch a brow and she lifts her gaze to your eyes, mumbling an apology as she straightens.
"I don't mean to be nosy but," Jenna asks with a chuckle, "Are you…I mean, I know you said you weren't," she tells you and your eyes widen slightly as you stare at her not daring to look at Santana when her head turns to you, "But were you together once? I'm just curious." She shrugs and you and Santana exchange awkward glances before shaking your heads, you clearing your throat.
"No, we're just friends." You tell her. "Anyway, I'm just here to look over your monitor." You tell her and move to her bed side, looking at the monitor and writing down her stats into the file. You finish the touch up on her chart and close the file as you give her and Santana a nod, stopping from leaving when you see something.
"What?" Santana asks, catching your furrowed brows, and you motion her over. She walks around to stand beside you as you move Jenna's gown to the side, revealing her wrapped side, blood seeping through the gauze. "Shit." She breathes, looking at you and you nod, straightening and run your hand through your hair.
"What's going on?" Jenna asks, her voice shaky, and you wet your lips.
"All of her blood counts are down." Santana says as the two of you walk into the diagnosis office. Mike furrows his brows from getting a coffee and you frown, glancing around.
"Where's Noah?"
"He had to talk to Schuester." He says while putting the spoon he used to stir his coffee on the counter, moving to the whiteboard, "So blood counts are down." He asks and you nod, moving closer to the board as Santana follows closely behind you. "It's a new symptom." He comments, writing it on the board.
"Aplastic Anemia." Santana suggests and you purse your lips in thought, nodding faintly.
You hear the door open and look behind you at Noah walking into the room with a binder in his hand. He stops when he sees Santana and looks at you and Mike with his shoulders lifted before looking at Santana.
"Lopez, you're off the case. What are you doing here?" he asks, moving to his office. You watch him open his door, placing the binder on his desk before he comes back out, arms crossed, "Go finish some clinic hours." He waves her towards the door and Santana lets out a heavy breath, glancing at you before shaking her head in defeat.
"Wait, Noah," you say, grabbing Santana's arm. Everyone looks at you and Noah lifts a brow while you shift, letting go of Santana, "Just let her do the case. She's already proved she can handle it. Sure it was difficult in the beginning but she's fine now." You tell him, "And to be honest, I think you're being a little too hard on her. You're letting your feelings get in the way of your medical judgment because she's family and you can't stand the thought of her breaking your trust. That's a personal issue, and if you were thinking and acting professionally, you'd let her back on the case because that's what's best for our patient." You tell him.
"Pierce, you don't really have a place to-"
"Listen, Puck, I agree with her." Mike says with a sigh and Noah lifts his brows, giving him an expectant look to explain. "Santana saved the patient. If it wasn't for her she's be dead right now. And yeah, you've been way too hard on her for this hook up thing. You're making it personal when our focus is supposed to be on Jenna."
Noah blinks and looks between the three of you as you look at Santana and back at Noah, "I trust her, Noah."
"It pains me to say it but I do too. When it comes to our patients." Mike chuckles and Santana rolls her eyes with a twitch of her lips.
"Thanks." Santana mumbles quietly and Mike nods, clapping her on the shoulder as he moves to sit at the table.
Noah nods slowly, keeping his arms crossed.
"Fine. You're back on the case."
You break into a smile and look at Santana as she blinks in disbelief, smiling, "But only because these two convinced me and I agree that I have made it personal. Our patient doesn't deserve that, and our best shot at helping her is with you back on board."
"Thanks, Puck." She smiles faintly and he nods, looking at the board.
"Low blood counts." He states, "So now if we don't figure out what's wrong with her she has days, not years." He says. "Aplastic anemia takes LAM off the table. Unfortunately none of our other choices are any better."
"PNH with some sort of respiratory infection." You say and Mike scratches his forehead.
"Best case gives her twelve years." Santana nods slowly, shifting on her feet, her arm brushing yours.
"Or fast-moving Langerhans." Mike offers with a held out hand.
"A few months." Santana states and you look at her. "Mastocytosis, which can cause systemic shock and kill her in days." She says to you and you lean back against the table, resting your hands on the table. Santana sits on the edge of the table and crosses her legs.
"Test for everything." Noah says and you all nod, getting up.
You, Santana, and Mike leave Noah in the office, heading for the lab and Santana grabs your wrist before you follow Mike to turn into a different hall, and you stumble back, looking at her in surprise.
"What?" you ask as Santana glances around before leaning up and pecking your lips quickly. You open your eyes and blink repeatedly in shock as Santana licks her lips and lifts her brows, nodding. "W-what…uh," you clear your throat, shaking your head, "What was that for?" you ask with a faint blush.
"I don't know." She says with furrowed brows, "Thanks, I guess? So y-yeah, let's…testing." She says and you nod.
"Yeah."
"Okay."
"Okay."
"Right." You stare at each other before the both of you turn and head after Mike.
"This is taking forever." Mike mumbles, turning on his stool to face you across the room testing for other diseases.
"Yeah well, what can you do?" you mumble in reply before huffing, "She doesn't have Langerhans."
Santana sighs heavily from the table next to you and you and Mike both look at her, "She's going to need a bone marrow transplant." She says, looking at you before glancing at Mike.
"You got something?" he asks, getting to his feet as you lift your brows.
"I don't know." She says and you furrow your brows as does Mike, while he crosses his arms.
"Santana, jumping to a marrow transplant without even knowing what she has-" Mike begins.
"She has a blood disorder." She shrugs as you lean forwards, resting your chin in your hand, listening, "Could be PNH, she'll need a marrow transplant. Or Leukemia, she'll need a marrow transplant. Or Thalassemia, and she'll still need a marrow transplant." She states.
"Okay, but she'll never survive total body irradiation."
Santana chews on her bottom lip and glances at you and you slowly drop your hand, lifting your head, "You're thinking we don't radiate her." You say and she shrugs.
"Her bone marrow is nearly wiped out already. Her counts almost zero."
"Almost is the key word there, Lopez." Mike says shaking his head in disbelief, "The new marrow will wipe out the old marrow. She'll die from graft-versus-host."
"I know but…look do we have any better ideas?" Santana asks, "Because I can't think of anything and the sooner we do something the sooner she gets better."
"Santana…" you say, getting up. She looks at you and you walk closer, stopping beside Mike as you run a hand through your hair, "This is crazy."
"I know." She nods. You stare at her as she shakes her head, stuttering to come up with something and tilt your head, glancing at her lips. "But we need something or-"
"Wait." You say slowly, stepping forwards. Santana watches you closely as you lean closer, looking at her lips and glances at Mike.
"What are you doing?" Mike asks in confusion as Santana looks back at you.
"Your lips are cracked." You tell her, glancing at her eyes. "Have you been using your inhaler lately?" you ask, leaning back with a thoughtful expression as Santana touches her lips.
"Uh, allergies. Why is this-"
You furrow your brows and look at Mike and see the light bulb go off in his head.
"She didn't cry." You tell him and his lips twitch upwards.
"What?" Santana asks in confusion and you look at her holding your hands out.
"When I told her she had LAM, that she was going to die. She didn't cry." You tell her with a growing smile as Mike starts to chuckle. He hits your arm lightly before heading out of the lab.
"Come on." He tells you both and you smile, grabbing Santana's hand to follow after him quickly.
"Brittany, what's going on?" she asks and you stop, her name leaving her lips for the first time and widen your eyes, your smile growing even further before you squeeze her hand and once again pull her after Mike.
"Did you get the results back?" Noah asks as he bursts into Jenna's room, you and Santana to her left with Mike sitting on a stool on her left.
"We didn't finish them." You tell him and he holds his hands out in question when Mercedes pokes her head in the room with an arched brow. She looks to you and walks in, holding out an onion.
"I don't know what the reason is and I don't know if I even want to know." She sighs, handing you the vegetable and a knife. You grin and hand them to Mike.
"Chopping an onion releases a mist of syn-propanethial- s-oxide, a chemical irritant that makes people have a very predictable reaction." He says while squinting and glancing away from the onion, blinking rapidly.
"What's going on?" Noah asks before Mercedes shushes him, her arms crossed and an intrigued look on her face. He lifts his brows and looks at you and Santana, both of you shaking your head.
"She has no tears." Santana says in disbelief when Mike holds the onion close to her face.
"She has sjogren's." you say to Noah, nodding towards Jenna. "It attacks the glands that produce tears and saliva."
"Which also cause lung cysts and RTA." Mike grins, handing Mercedes the onion.
"But it doesn't cause bleeding." Santana says and Mike shakes his head.
"Not usually but that doesn't mean it can't."
"Okay, but how did you get this from my cracked lips?" she asks, pulling her gaze from Mike to you and you nod.
"Lack of spit makes her mouth a breeding ground for a fungus like Candida." You explain while looking at her, "Your inhaler did the same for you. Wiped your mouths immune system."
"So wait, she has what I have?"
"Just the opportunistic infection, not the underlying condition." You state and Jenna nods slowly, looking at Santana.
"Methylprednisolone to get the sjogren's under control, and some artificial tears." Noah lists and Mike nods, squeezing Jenna's shoulder reassuringly before getting up and leaving the room to retrieve the medication.
You park your car and stare ahead of you in thought. The case was over and it was an emotional rollercoaster for basically everyone but everything was back to normal.
You and Santana were back to how you were and when before Santana left the Hospital you saw her and Noah smiling and laughing. You were happy they seemed to have talked and gotten passed what happened.
But since she left you couldn't help but think about how she kissed you quickly in the hall. Sure it was a peck, but it was basically a sweet nothing kiss that she did just because. It kind of made you think that maybe she did feel something for you. Maybe that's why she got so upset when you declined the friends with benefits invitation, because that was her way of getting closer to you.
You chew lightly on her bottom lip and look at your purse on the passenger seat. You look back ahead of you and grab your bag as you get out of the car, walking to the apartment building as you fish out your phone and dial a number.
"Hello?"
"Hey."
"Pierce?" Santana asks in confusion and you smile faintly.
"You already called me Brittany, Santana, you can't go back now." She chuckles faintly on the other end of the call and you open the door, stepping inside the heated building and head up the stairs.
"So why'd you call?"
"I saw you talking with Noah." You tell her and she hums.
She lets out a sigh and you pull your gloves off, putting them in your purse, unbuttoning your coat, "Yeah, we talked a bit. He dropped the whole drug thing. I don't know if he completely believes me but it's a start."
"At least you know you kept your promise." You tell her, heading up the next flight of stairs.
"Yeah." She sighs again.
"Santana?"
"Hmm?"
"I know…I uh," you shake your head stopping when you reach the apartment and run a hand through your hair.
"Brittany?" You look at the door and lift your hand knocking three times as you hold your breath. "Hold on a sec." she tells you on the phone before you hear her moving to answer the door and you end the call, putting your phone in your purse as Santana opens the door. "Wha-" she starts in confusion, looking at her phone before hanging up and shaking her head faintly. "What are you doing here?" she asks and you shift, glancing around behind her before looking at her.
"That invitation of yours," you say, watching Santana's brows lift and her nod, "Is it still on the table?"
Santana's lips part and her brows rise higher in shock. "Uh…" she looks over herself before looking over her shoulder and nodding, turning back to you. "Yeah." Her lips twitch upwards and you smile sheepishly. You shift and she jumps, "Oh, now?" she asks and you let out a chuckle, shrugging.
"Well I'm here so…"
"Oh, yeah, okay." She nods and you chuckle, stepping into her apartment while taking off your jacket. She closes the door behind you and when she turns around you pin her to the door, kissing her heatedly.
A/N: Don't be mad! You must've known FWB was going to happen though. Who can stay away from Santana that long? You may not be fond of the whole Brittana FWB idea but I can assure you you'll be happy with the chapters it brings forth *wink wink*. So back to that diagnosis description idea. There were seven possible diagnoses on the table in this chapter, but I'm only going to do one because seven is a shit ton and would take a huge chunk of this authors note.
LAM (Lymphangioleiomyomatosis): A progressive lung disease in which an abnormal growth of smooth muscle cells invade the lung tissue; including airways, blood and lymph vessels. They grown uncontrollably and over time the cells bundle in the walls of the airways and vessels, causing them to become obstructed. The breakdown of the cells cause the tissue to form cysts. The airflow is then blocked and limits the delivery of oxygen to the rest of the body (LAM Foundation).
Sjogren's Syndrome: A disorder of the immune system. The mucous membranes and moisture-secreting glands in eyes and mouth are affected first, decreasing the production of tears and saliva (Mayo Clinic).
So if you want me to pick out one or two major diagnoses in chapters and tell you what they are then let me know. Doesn't matter either way, just thought some of you may want to know. Also, the 3 parts I liked most int his chapter: 1. Brittany trying to get Santana back on the case in the beginning of the chapter. 2. Brittany going boss on Puck and Santana's little peck. 3. Santana acting all surprised and cute when Brittany showed up at her apartment.
-B