A/N: Another day, another chapter! A lot of you picked up on Derek's connection to the consult for Meredith's surgery...that is dealt with a lot more in this chapter and the next. I hope you enjoy it!
"Really, Kathleen, I'm sure there are more exciting things for you to do in Seattle than follow me to work," Derek laughed as Kathleen tagged along behind him into the attendings' locker room the next morning.
"Nope. You know I love to watch you work. Besides, I want to meet your friends. I need to find out what Seattle Derek is like," Kathleen said, taking a seat while Derek grabbed his scrubs.
"I don't have friends here, Kathleen," Derek said. "Not really."
"Derek, that is the saddest thing I've ever heard. Who do you talk to all day?"
"My patients and my colleagues," Derek said.
"And what about Mark? Are you still mad at him?"
"No," Derek sighed. "I stopped being mad at Mark a while ago. We're friends, sort of. I mean, not like before, but we talk sometimes. So okay, maybe I have a friend."
"So if you wanted to grab a drink after work and Mark was busy, who would you ask?" Kathleen asked, already knowing Derek's answer. Her brother was never the type to form a casual friendship. Derek tended to have a few very close friends and no one else. Most of the many friendships he'd had in New York had been "couple" friendships, and had been maintained mostly by Addison, so it didn't surprise Kathleen to find that, given the amount of time he'd invested in his relationship with Meredith, Derek had neglected to form many other relationships.
"I'd go alone or I just wouldn't go," Derek said.
"Fine, be that way. Don't introduce me to your friends. Does Meredith have friends?" Kathleen asked.
"Yes, Meredith has a lot of friends," Derek said. "Why?"
"I want to meet Meredith's friends, then," Kathleen said, smiling slyly. "Maybe one of them will tell me what happened to your nose."
"I thought I told you to lay off that. I don't want to talk about what happened to my nose, Kathleen," Derek said quickly.
"My, my. Touchy, aren't we?" Kathleen laughed playfully. "Come on, I wouldn't want you to be late for rounds, Dr. Shepherd."
"Man, even lying in a hospital bed, Meredith gets all the good surgeries!" Cristina moaned, clicking her phone shut as she walked into the residents' locker room.
"What are you complaining about, Yang?" Bailey snapped at her.
"Um…nothing, ma'am. I was just commenting that it was very exciting that Meredith is going to have a sub-patellar impulse regulator implanted when she gets back to Seattle Grace," Cristina said quickly.
"She's having a what?" Izzie said, nearly spitting out her coffee. "Seriously?"
"The girl sure knows how to keep things interesting around here," Bailey said, shaking her head and laughing slightly as she left the locker room.
"Grey's getting a sub-patellar? Dude, there's only been what, a dozen of those done?" Alex said. "That's going to be one hell of a surgery. Who're they bringing in to do it?"
"Larkins is flying in for the neuro, but you want to know the kicker? Webber's letting Torres do the ortho herself. I mean, he's letting a fifth year perform a solo sub-patellar!" Cristina said.
"Callie's doing it solo? Wow, that's going to be amazing for her career," Izzie gushed. "I mean, if it works…and it's Mer, so let's face it, it has to work…so when it works, she can publish. This is going to be incredible for her. Is she getting a satellite consult?"
Cristina and Alex stared at Izzie as if she'd just sprouted another head.
"Dude, Iz, are you feeling alright?" Alex asked. "You're actually talking nice about Torres."
"It is strange, Barbie," Cristina agreed.
"Guys, I'm trying here, okay? I screwed up the first time around, I get it. I'm trying to be nice, because all Callie ever did was love George, and I messed that up because I was jealous. So this time, if they do get back together, I'm trying to be nice, because I am not going to be responsible for breaking up a marriage twice," Izzie said, trying to keep her voice from shaking.
"Aw, I think Barbie grew a brain," Cristina said.
As soon as Derek and Kathleen stepped out of the locker room, Derek found himself cornered by two interns. He knew he should know them…the woman at least looked familiar. Guzman, he was fairly certain. He was pretty sure she belonged to Izzie.
"Dr. Shepherd, are the rumors true?" the woman he presumed to be Dr. Guzman asked eagerly.
"Are you listening to nurses gossip when you should be saving lives, doctors?" Derek asked the interns sarcastically, feeling fairly certain they were talking about one of the many rumors now circulating about his love life.
"Hey man, we just figured if anyone would know, it would be you," the male intern stated. He reminded Derek a little bit of Alex Karev, only less smooth and, if possible, even more annoying.
"And why would he know anything about hospital gossip?" Kathleen asked. "Does my baby brother look like a nurse to you?" She giggled as she said it, knowing she could defend herself by saying she was only sticking up for Derek, even if embarrassing him had been a fringe benefit. Derek just glared over at her.
"Oh, we know he's not a nurse," Dr. Guzman corrected. "We just figured, he's the head neuro guy around here, so if anyone would know if we were actually going to be doing a sub-patellar impulse regulator implantation, it would be you, right? Because yeah, it's mostly an ortho thing, but they still need neuro on board."
"It would be totally awesome if it were going to happen here," the male intern agreed.
Totally awesome? Derek thought, smiling slightly. Definitely Izzie's interns.
"So, is it true?" the interns asked together.
"I can honestly say, this is the first I've heard of it," Derek shrugged.
"Damn," Dr. Guzman muttered. "I knew it was too good to be true."
"I would kill to get in on a surgery like that," the other intern said as they walked away from Derek and Kathleen. "Then again, Stevens hates us, she'd probably stick us down in the clinic or something on the day it came in."
Kathleen laughed. "Interns are aggressive in Seattle, Derek. Very aggressive," she shook her head slightly. "I hope you have a good on staff psychiatrist for them. What the hell is a sub-patellar impulse regulator anyway? It sounds familiar, but I can't really place it."
"Yeah, I'll bet you've heard about it…that's Matt's baby," Derek said as they headed towards the nurses' station.
"Abby's Matt?" Kathleen asked. "I guess that would explain why it sounds familiar. I usually just tune him out after a few minutes…there's only so long that I can listen to him talking about cracking bones before I go insane."
"Yup, Abby's Matt," Derek laughed. "He's been working on it with a few other ortho guys. He actually called me about a year ago to do the neuro work on the procedure, but I had a lot going on out here, so I turned him down. The whole thing is very new and very experimental. Basically, the theory is that a lot of leg amputations occur because of a problem with nerve transmissions after a trauma, rather than because of any actual bone issue. It's pretty controversial, but the regulator is a little device they implant under the kneecap that supposedly reads and transmits the impulses when they hit the nerves that would have been there. I think it's only worked in about a third of the cases it's been tried on, and it's only been attempted maybe a dozen times."
"Sounds kind of strange to me…I mean, how can they be sure it's a nerve thing? And how can they be sure they're putting it in the right place for the right nerves?" Kathleen asked, intrigued by the concept.
"That's one of the reasons it's so controversial. At this point, you get in there, the neurosurgeon examines the nerves and makes his best guess, and then the ortho implants the device based on that. It's a guessing game. I'm glad the interns are wrong, too, because I know if we were doing one, the chief would want me in on it."
"And how is that a bad thing?" Kathleen asked.
"I hate experimental surgery. I like going in and knowing what I'm doing. Even if it's risky, I like knowing that I know how to do what I'm going in to do. I don't like fumbling in the dark, making guesses. Experimental surgery gets everyone's hopes up, and I don't like it."
"Good morning, ladies," Kevin smiled as he entered Meredith's hospital room the next morning. Spotting the tray by Meredith's bed, he could tell Addison and Molly were trying to convince her to eat hospital food. "You aren't seriously thinking about eating that soup they're calling scrambled eggs, are you Meredith?"
Meredith smiled coyly. "Maybe, maybe not. Did you bring me something better?"
"Well," Kevin laughed, producing a box from behind his back. "We may have had a few extra donuts at the station this morning."
"I think I love him," Meredith smiled at Molly and Addison. "Are you sure he doesn't have a brother somewhere?"
"Sorry," Addison smiled as Kevin placed the box the table and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. "There's only one of him, and he's all mine."
"Fine. If I can't have the man, can I at least have the jelly donut, please?" Meredith laughed.
"You see? This is how I know that we are sisters," Molly giggled as she reached over and handed Meredith the donut. "You've got your priorities perfectly straight."
"Oooh, who brought donuts?" Callie asked happily as she and George entered the room.
"Kevin," Meredith said through a mouthful of sugar and jelly.
"Callie, George, I'd like to meet my boyfriend, Kevin Nelson," Addison said. "Kevin, these are my friends Callie Torres and George O'Malley, from Seattle. They came down to visit Meredith."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Kevin smiled. "I wish I could stay, but I just stopped by to drop off breakfast. I've got to get back to the station before my lieutenant figures out I'm missing."
As Kevin headed back out the door, Callie smiled mischievously at Addison. "Okay, now I definitely see why you won't come back to Seattle, Addie. He's yummy."
"Yeah, I guess he's pretty great," Addison softly.
"Oh please, just admit it, Addison," Meredith laughed. "You are head over heels in love with that man and you know it. You'd marry him right here, right now, if he asked you to."
"Morning, Chief," Derek called out as he and Kathleen walked past Richard on their way to the coffee cart later that morning.
"Derek," Richard said. "I was actually hoping to talk to you this morning. Do you have a minute?" He motioned towards his office.
"Sure, Chief. Oh, have you met my sister yet? Kathleen, this is Richard Webber, our chief of surgery. Richard, this is my sister, Dr. Kathleen Myers."
"Aren't all the Shepherd children doctors, Derek?" Richard asked with a laugh as he shook Kathleen's hand.
"Actually, our youngest sister isn't," Kathleen said. "Although her husband is, so I guess there's at least one doctor in every branch of the Shepherd family. Do you two need me to wait outside while you talk?"
"Oh, I don't think that's necessary," Richard said. "Why don't you two have a seat?"
"So, what's on your mind, Chief?" Derek asked.
"I just wanted to let you know that Charles Larkins will be coming in to perform a consult for us next week. I didn't want him to just show up and catch you off guard," Richard said.
"Larkins? Richard, I don't get it. I'm not trying to sound conceited or anything, but I'm a hell of a lot better than Larkins. Why would you call someone in over my head?" Derek asked, obviously offended by the gesture.
"On Monday, Callie Torres is going to be performing a sub-patellar impulse regulator implantation, Derek. Dr. Larkins has assisted on several of these procedures, including one successful procedure a few months ago. We need someone with experience with the procedure, since Dr. Torres herself has never performed one."
"And why exactly are you bending the rules to allow a resident to perform an experimental procedure on her own?" Derek asked. "Shouldn't you be calling in an ortho consult as well?"
"In theory, yes. And Dr. Torres is arranging a satellite consult. But Derek, the surgery…well, you see, the patient is Meredith Grey."
"Mer…Meredith? You intend to let a fifth year resident perform an experimental procedure on Meredith?" Derek asked angrily.
"Derek, there truly aren't any other good options here. Meredith specifically asked that Callie be allowed to perform the procedure; she doesn't trust anyone else. And quite frankly, this really is a last ditch effort…if this doesn't work, Meredith won't walk again, at least not with her own leg."
"So, everything is all set for the surgery," Callie filled everyone in as they hung out in Meredith's room. "Charles Larkins will fly in from Chicago on Sunday, so we'll be all set for the surgery on Monday."
"Who'd you get for the ortho consult?" Meredith asked.
"Oh, Matt Javenson in New York is going to be with us via satellite to walk me through it. He's done a couple of these procedures himself; actually, he was part of the group of surgeons who helped develop it a year ago, so he'll be a great help," Callie said.
"I'm sorry, did you say Matt Javenson?" Addison asked, to which Callie nodded. "It is a small world," Addison laughed.
"Hey, are you having a Disney sing-a-long without me? So not nice," Mark teased as he walked into the room.
"Very funny, Mark," Addison said. "No, I just think it's quite a coincidence that the ortho consult for Meredith's surgery on Monday is going to be Matt Javenson."
"Why is that so funny?" Meredith asked, thoroughly confused. "Am I the only one who doesn't get this?"
"No," Molly and Callie assured her.
"Wait, hold on, Matt Javenson, as in, little Abby's Matt?" Mark asked Addison.
"Well, I can't imagine there are too many other Matthew Javensons in New York who are also orthopedic surgeons," Addison answered.
"Excuse me!" Callie interrupted. "Would you two care to let the rest of us in on this little joke?"
"It's just…Matt Javenson went to med school with Addie, Derek and I," Mark said.
"We weren't close friends or anything," Addison said. "Just acquaintances, really, but then after graduation we all ended up in the same internship program."
"And then two years later, Matt married little Abby Shepherd," Mark said.
"Derek's youngest sister," Addison added for clarity.
As Callie and Molly looked on with stunned faces, Meredith just sank her head back into her pillow and squeezed her eyes shut. "Karma really hates me," she muttered.
"Derek, are you okay?" Kathleen asked, reaching out and touching her brother's arm as they sat in the attendings' lounge. "You haven't said a word since we left Dr. Webber's office."
"I just…it's all so real, you know? I mean, she's hurt, and there's nothing I can do about it. They won't even let me help…I could do that surgery, Kath, I know I could. I mean, Larkins worked with Matt, but he was his second choice…he only asked him because I said no. And now he gets to be the one to help her?"
"Derek," Kathleen said cautiously. "You don't always get to be the hero, you know that, right? You can't always be the one to rush in and save her. I know you want to help. You're a do-er, you always have been. You like a clear solution, do this, get that. But Derek, life doesn't always work like that. Sometimes you have to take a step back and let everyone else take care of things for a while."
"I'm really not good at that, Kathleen," Derek laughed wryly.
"Yeah, trust me, I know that. But this time, you're just going to have to get over it and deal. Now come on, chin up, Shepherd. You've got a surgery in half an hour, and I want to watch my baby brother work."
"Well, now that we've established that this is going to be one incredibly awkward satellite consult…" Callie said.
"He doesn't have to know who I am. Derek doesn't really talk to his family that much these days, so he probably only knows me as the slutty intern. I mean, really, I shouldn't mean anything to him anyway…because Derek and I are through," Meredith insisted.
"Yeah, one of these days someone really ought to tell Shepherd that," Callie said. "Regardless, I need to talk to you about who else gets to scrub in. The chief says, since this is a learning procedure, I have to have at let at least one second year resident and two interns scrub in with me."
"You want to crack my leg open, George?" Meredith asked.
"Well, when you put it that way…" George laughed. "I'd love to help, Mer. That won't be some sort of conflict of interest, will it?"
"I don't think it should be a problem," Callie said. "If we excluded everyone with a connection to Meredith, we'd be flying in a surgical team from out of state. As long as you think you can stay objective in the OR, you're in, George."
"I assume you can't let Lexie in as well, right?" Meredith asked.
"Unfortunately, no. That one still does fall under conflict of interest, I'm afraid," Callie said.
"Wishful thinking, I guess. Well, whatever happens, do not let Izzie's interns scrub in," Meredith cautioned. "I mean, I don't really think it's entirely Izzie's fault, but they aren't exactly at the top of their game."
"That's for sure," Mark said.
"Mark, you can't judge, you think all interns are idiots," Addison laughed.
"Oh, you haven't met Stevens' interns, Addie. Nice people, that's for sure, but just not the sharpest bunch out there," Callie said. "It isn't even Izzie's fault, really. I don't think I've ever met a group quite like them. Yang's got some smart interns, though."
"True, they're smart. They know all the textbook answers, but she hardly ever lets them do anything, so when they do, they're not exactly up to par. Lexie's not bad, but I taught her most of the practical stuff she knows, not Cristina. And since I can't have Lexie, I'm not sure I want one of Cristina's other ones. Mine are, of course, the best interns, right George?" Meredith asked.
"Well…" George started.
"Of course they are. My interns kick ass," Meredith stated bluntly. "But you can't have two of them scrubbing in, someone might think it was favoritism or something. Which leaves us with Alex's interns. Pierce is pretty good, if I remember correctly. George, the overeager one with the reddish hair, is that Pierce?"
"Yup, that's him," George confirmed.
"Good. So, George and Pierce will scrub in. We still need to pick a resident, though," Callie said.
"Alex," Meredith said.
"Alex?!" George and Callie asked in shocked unison.
"Yes, Alex. I can't have Cristina scrub in, she's got as much of a conflict of interest as Lexie does. I don't want things to be awkward in the OR, so Izzie's out, which leaves Alex, because let's face it, those are the only second years worth considering. Other than me, of course, and I can't exactly scrub in on my own surgery."
"Although I'd pay money to see you try that one, Grey," Mark teased as everyone laughed.