Ch. 35: Long day (and long filler chapter)
Meredith sat in her office flipping and skimming through medical journals, waiting for her intern to page her with the MRI and CT results. Leaning back into her chair, she took a sip of her coffee and clicked on the next article hoping to find her answer. Skimming down the page, she stopped suddenly, almost spitting out her coffee. Looking at the title and the author, Meredith quickly clicked on it, not believing what she was seeing. As the article opened up, she skimmed the article; being startled by every sentence that she read. Being so intrigued by the article, she didn't even hear her office door open and Derek come in.
"Hey." He said, putting his hands around her waist. Meredith, startled by the sudden gesture, jumped about a foot out of her chair and spilt her coffee all over her desk.
"Jesus Derek doesn't do that!" she snapped, grabbing the nearest tissue box and started to clean up the desk. Chuckling, he leaned over to help her, seeing it was his fault. Grabbing loose sheets of paper off the desk, the article on the screen caught his eye.
"What's this?" he asked reading the article.
"Oh that…I was just um reading up on the surgery."
Not listening to her, Derek continued to read.
"Hey this, this is my article that I wrote after the Levangie surgery." He said, recognizing the writing. Meredith glanced up at the screen and then back to the mess.
"Uh ya it is." Standing up, she threw away the last of the coffee filled tissue and stood next to Derek.
"You never told me you wrote a journal about Mr. Levangie." She said accusingly. Derek stood up and faced her.
"You never asked." He replied slyly edging in to kiss her.
"You're sneaky Dr. Shepherd." She whispered answering Derek's movements.
They both were about to engage in a long, passionate kiss, when Meredith's pager went off.
"Shit, it's the intern." She grumbled, pulling away. Derek smiled
"Will you need me?" he asked, shinning his McDreamy smile. Meredith rolled her eyes.
"C'mon Sparky." She said giving, walking out of the room. Like a little dog, Derek followed behind her out of the office, and into the elevator, still playing eye sex with each other.
----
Christina stood over her patient in the middle of the heart transplant. Slowly and carefully she cut away the old heart from the owner and raised it from the chest cavity. Before she slid it into the plastic bag, she gave it a good hard look. The heart was almost black because of all the smoking from the previous owner. It was almost double in size from a normal heart because of all the extra blood it was trying to pump to the body.
"This is why we tell you not to smoke." She announced to the gallery. She looked up to see the interns and residents cringe from the sight of the unhealthy heart. Christina turned back around and faced her intern who was standing near the vital machine.
"Watson." She shouted, getting the interns attention. His head shot up and looked at Christina with fear. "Get over here and help me out with this heart." She said with a little more kindness in her voice.
Slowly the intern edged his way over to the patient and looked down at the body.
"Okay now take this heart and put it in that bag." She instructed.
Slowly the intern took the heart and slid it into the bag. He tired to do it slowly with out mistake because he didn't want to be on Christina's dead list for the rest of his residency.
"Good, nice and slow. Perfect." She coached, and the heart landed softly into the bag.
"Now we put the new heart in."
Christina took the new heart out of the bag and slowly lowered it into the chest cavity. Carefully, she hooked everything back up as the intern watched her every move.
"Ok now Dr. Watson what do we do?"
The intern froze for a second, thinking of the answer.
"Watson!" she snapped.
"We uh take the new heart off of bypass Dr. Yang." He answered, hoping he was right.
"Good. Nurse, take him off of bypass."
The nurse nodded, as she slowly turned the bypass machine off.
"Patient off of bypass Dr. Yang."
Good, now we see if this heart will beat on it's own. Would you like to do the honors Dr. Watson?"
The intern nodded eagerly as he stepped up to the table and put his hand into the chest cavity. He massaged the heart ever so slightly so he didn't puncture the heart. All the doctors held their breath as they waited for the heart to beat on it's own. After a few seconds of no movements, Christina took over.
"C'mon beat for me…beat!"
Finally, after a few minutes of massaging, the heart began to beat on it's own.
"Okay, lets close this guy up and get him up to recovery." Said Christina, tearing off her mask. On the outside, she was as hard as a rock, but in the inside, her heart was beating 150 mph. Not having that heart beat was one of the scariest moments in her life.
"Dr. Yang!" cried the intern, trying to catch up with her.
"What Watson?" she asked scrubbing out.
"I just wanted to say that was amazing. How you didn't give up on the heart."
Christina smiled.
"It's all in the job. Now I want these post-op notes done ASAP." She demanded, trying to cover up her smile.
Just before she left, the intern called her out again.
"What is it Watson?" she asked annoyed.
"How…How did you know you wanted to go into Cardio?"
Christina stopped and looked at the intern straight in the eye.
"I just did Watson…I just…knew. Now get on those post-ops!"
Christina left the scrub room, smiling. She turned back to see the intern nodding his head, smiling as he washed his hands.
So this is part of being the boss…cool.
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Izzy was skipping around the hospital all afternoon. Not only was she in a good mood that it was the holidays, but her perfect Christmas plan was brewing in her mind. Even her patients noted a different, happier, Izzy as she examined them and welcomed each new human into the world.
"Dr. Karev, why are you so happy this afternoon?" asked Addison as she met Izzy in an empty exam room.
"I guess it's just the holidays Addison." Replied Izzy hoping up onto the exam table. Addison laughed as she pulled up Izzy's scrub top and spread the gel onto Izzy's stomach. Izzy looked over to the monitor as Addison started to ultrasound. Halfway through, Izzy's smile suddenly feel as she noticed something on the monitor.
"Add…Addison…Dr. Sloan…why does the monitor show that my baby has a tear in her left ventricle?" asked Izzy, her voice trembling. Addison's eyebrows furrowed as she clicked several times and looked closely.
"Addison not as my friend but as my doctor, I demand you to tell me why aren't you talking to me!" Izzy said almost shouting. Addison turned around to face Izzy.
"We need to operate Izzy. There is no time to run tests or labs…your baby may be in …danger."
Izzy squeezed her eyes shut, trying to take in everything. Finally, she nodded.
"Ok…I understand. Page Alex." She whispered. Addison nodded, and walked out of the room. Once the door shut, Izzy shut her eyes again, and started to cry, letting the tears run down her cheeks, onto her scrubs. Her hands traveled from her face, down to her stomach. She looked down, and started to rub her stomach, in circular motions.
"It's okay. Everything will be fine. You'll be fine. You'll get to live and we'll get to plan the perfect Christmas…everything will be fine." She told the baby. But no matter how much she repeated it, she couldn't get herself to believe it.
---
Meredith and Derek entered Mr. Sing's room to see Dr. Reyal (the intern) playing with his grandchildren as he lay back, watching TV. Meredith gave Derek a quick wink, before proceeding with her torture.
"Dr. Reyal!" she barked, scaring everyone in the room; even Derek. The intern quickly stood up and pushed the small child away.
"Dr. Shepherd…s, I-I"
"You don't know what to say?" finished Meredith, walking over to the intern. Dr. Reyal quickly shook her head, trying to blink under the hard stare that Meredith was giving her.
"You're excused, I'll talk to you outside." She said, turning her back to the patient. The intern hung her head as she shuffled outside, trying not to let the tears that were starting to fall be noticeable. Derek watched the intern go, and felt a wave of sympathy for her, but he didn't want to say anything infront of Meredith or the patient, so he just kept his mouth shut for the time being and watched Meredith do her work.
"Well Mr. Sing, you're CT and MRI scans show that you do indeed have progressive Parkinson's. There are multiple treatments but..."
"But you want to cut my brain open and operate on me so you can just earn more money!" snapped Mr. Sing, tearing his eyes are from the TV. The room went dead silent.
"Mr. Sing…" started Meredith.
"No Dr. Shepherd, let me talk. All my life I've been poked, prodded, been under the knife more times than I can count. I'm getting old and too tired for this. I just want to die peacefully."
Meredith shook her head
"But Mr. Sing."
"I SAID NO! NOW GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" yelled Mr. Sing, turning the TV back on. Meredith just stood there shocked, and then turned and ran out the door. Derek watched her go before stepping up to the plate.
"Mr. Sing…"
"I thought I told you to go away." Said Mr. Sing, trying to drown out Derek with the TV. Derek sighed and turned off the TV and grabbed the remote away from Mr. Sing then turned to his family.
"Can you give us a few minutes please?" he asked. His wife, daughter, and grandchild nodded as they quietly left the room. Derek smiled to each of them before the door closed. For a minute, the two men stood there in silence, and then Derek spoke up.
"You know…I had a patient just like you once."
Mr. Sing snorted, but didn't say anything. Derek nodded his head.
"I understand. You're old, tired and afraid that this will be it. You're afraid that you won't come out of this surgery. But think about your family that you have. Think about them watching you suffer every minute and day of their life. How much emotional turmoil that they go through, just to see you walk to the kitchen, your bed, or wherever. All my wife was saying was that we could fix this very easily. I did it to one patient about 10 years ago, and then she saw it happen again to another about 5 years ago. She was present in both surgeries so you have nothing to worry about. So you can go on living day in and day out, each day hurting with every move you make. Or you could let my wife operate on you and you can live another 10 maybe 15 years and watch your family grow."
Derek finished his speech and shook his head, heading for the door. Mr. Sing just sat there, taking in everything that Derek said.
"I'll get the nurses to bring up the discharge papers. Medically, you're free to go." Said Derek, before reaching for the door.
"Wait." Said Mr. Sing, quietly. Derek turned around to see Mr. Sing, facing him with a tear running down his cheek.
"Fine. If it will make you goddamn doctors happy then fine. I'll let you operate on my brain."
Derek smiled and went over to squeeze Mr. Sing's hand.
"You won't be sorry."
Mr. Sing just rolled his eyes as he shooed Derek away, going back to his TV.
---
George walked up the nurse's station and handed in his chart and leaned up against the desk. He had just finished a quadruple bypass, 9-hour surgery and to tell the truth, he couldn't feel any better. Looking around, he noticed that the hallway was unusually…empty. Hardly any nurses, no doctors, only patients with their doors closed. Noticing the board, he curiously walked over to it and began to study it. Seeing Meredith and Derek were about to go into surgery, Christina just came out, Burke was about to go in, Mark was doing a rhinoplasty, Callie doing a bone reconstruction, and Izzy…Izzy was…. George read over the line over and over again in his mind, and yet, he couldn't believe it. Taking one last look at the board, he walked away, hoping to get to the bottom of what he hoped was a bad dream.
----
"Okay, I'm almost done here…looks like her baby will live."
Addison was putting the finishing touches on Izzy and her baby as the surgery neared the end. Addison looked down into Izzy's abdomen looking for anymore damage. Finally, she sighed a sigh of relief.
"She's one of the greatest doctors and really compassionate and caring. This always happens to those kinds of people. That people is what we called a medical phenomenon that will never be explained. Close her up." Addison shook her head and walked away. It was those kind of surgeries that were the hardest. Walking into the scrub room Addison started to wash her hands, when George and Alex burst in.
"WHAT THE HELL!" screeched George looking into the OR. He saw the intern closing her up as they started to wind down the surgery. Alex just stood there, watching, not being able to form any words.
"Okay O'Malley out. You're not even her.."
"WHAT? FAMILY!?"
Addison sighed and shook her head.
"That's not what I meant. C'mon, lets go outside and talk. Alex...?"
Addison turned and looked at Alex. His face had lost some of its color as she watched Izzy…become another patient.
"Alex…" said Addison again gently.
"What? Oh ya…C'mon George." He said, still in a daze as he led George out of the scrub room. The three of them walked down the hall going towards and empty exam room.
"C'mon, let's talk in here." Led Addison.
She opened the door to let the boys in but instead of it being empty, Callie sat on the table, looking worried.
"I-I think I'm pregnant." She said softly.
---
Meredith ran out of Mr. Sing's room and headed for the nearest on-call room. She didn't care if there was anyone in there, she'd kick them out. Throwing open the door, Meredith proceeded to throw herself on the nearest bunk, but stopped, since another body already occupied it.
"Dr-Dr. Shepherd, I'm sorry…I'll just…" Dr. Reyal, started to stand up, wiping away the tears on her face, before proceeding for the door.
"Dr. Reyal…wait." Said Meredith, sighing. The intern stopped and faced Meredith. Meredith collapsed on the bottom bunk and put her head in her hands.
"I-I'm sorry for snapping at you in Mr. Sing's room." Said Meredith quietly. The intern looked at Meredith with disbelief.
"W-What?"
Meredith shook her head.
"I had no right to snap at you. You made Mr. Sing and his family comfortable. I don't know why that set me off like that. It just…did. I'm sorry."
The intern just stood there, looking at Meredith.
"Did you get an answer though?"
The intern looked at Meredith startled.
"W-What?"
"Mr. Sing…did you get the answer?"
The intern nodded
"He said yes to the surgery." She answered quietly. Meredith nodded, and wiped away her own tears.
"Then I suggest you prep him for surgery and I'll meet you down there in 30 minutes."
Meredith stood up and headed for the door, holding it for the intern to walk on through.
"Thank you Dr. Shepherd."
Meredith nodded, as the intern walked out and started to head for Mr. Sing's room. Right when she opened the door, Derek stepped out and smiled at the intern, as she walked out. Spotting Meredith at the on-call room, he headed over to her.
"What was that all about?" he asked, sternly yet softly. Meredith shrugged.
"Honestly I don't know. I could say it's my hormones, but it's not…so I'd be lying. I guess I was just jealous because I never had that interaction with patients." She confessed.
Derek looked at her like she was crazy.
"What do you mean? All your patients loved you."
Meredith snorted.
"Don't you mean, you loved me?" she asked, heading down the hall. Derek laughed.
"And I will never stop loving you." He said, planting a kiss on Meredith's lips. She laughed
"Don't you have patient's Dr. Shepherd?" she asked. Derek laughed
"I'll meet you in the OR in a bit."
She nodded, as she watched him go.
God I love him.
----
Izzy opened her eyes and looked around. The last thing she remembered was lying on the OR table, being told to count to 10. Proceeding to sit up, she suddenly felt this sharp pang in her side, and she let out a small cry. Hearing Izzy cry out, Olivia came in, and greeted Izzy.
"Good afternoon Dr. Stevens." She said cheerily, as she upped Izzy's morphine level. Izzy just grumbled a hello and turned to look out the window.
"How'd my surgery go?"
Olivia smiled
"Perfectly. Dr. Sloan is expecting a full recovery."
Izzy nodded.
"Can you page her and Dr. Karev for me?" she asked, still not taking her eyes off the window. Olivia nodded and walked out of the room. Hearing the door close behind her, Izzy looked down at her stomach. Taking a deep breath, she touched it, fearing for the worse. Right when she was feeling for a heartbeat, the door opened to show Addison, Alex, George, and Callie coming in.
"Welcome back Dr. Karev." Said Addison smiling. Izzy nodded her head in acknowledging everyone's presence.
"Is my…"
Addison nodded.
"You're baby's heart is fine. You'll be able to go home tomorrow."
Izzy let out a sigh of relief as she closed her eyes and rested her head on the pillow. Alex came over and squeezed her hand.
"I love you." He whispered. Izzy smiled
"I love you too. But…what is Callie and George doing in here?"
Callie and George exchanged glances.
"Well I was worried about you and Callie,,, kind of has some news…"
Izzy eyed Callie.
"I-I'm pregnant." She said.
Izzy's eyes lit up.
"OMG…that makes like almost off the Seattle Grace girls…expect Christina but she's a little weird any way."
Everyone laughed
"Have you told anyone yet?"
Callie shook her head. "Well…I was going to plan this really big Christmas surprise thing and Derek was going to help…so…"
Callie nodded.
"I'll tell them then…then."
Izzy nodded.
Everyone started to talk happily, now that Izzy was healthy again, and Callie's good news brought everyone into the Christmas spirit again.
---
"Mr. Sing, I'm going to need you to do what the nurse is telling you to do. It's the only way we can find the problem."
Meredith heard Mr. Sing grumble a reply. Meredith rolled her eyes.
"Relax Dr. Shepherd, focus on the brain." Whispered Derek into Meredith's ear. She nodded and tried to focus, but couldn't knowing that her patient wasn't cooperating.
"Dr. Reyal, please go assist the nurse. He obviously likes you." Hissed Meredith, still searching for the aneurysm. The intern nodded, as she proceeded to the front.
"Mr. Sing..we really need you to do this excercise. Please? For your family."
Mr. Sing rolled his eyes and gave in. Meredith smiled as she listened to Derek's instructions. Slowly and surly, Meredith found the aneurysm and clipped it. She looked up to see Mr. Sing successfully doing the excercise and the intern and nurse smiling. Meredith smiled and turned to Derek who was also smiling.
"Mr. Sing, we found your aneurysm and clipped it. You will now be free of Parkinson's." Announced Meredith. "Dr. Reyal would you like to close up?"
The intern nodded and walked away from the patient. Meredith walked away, and threw her mask into the trashcan and saw Derek following close behind her. In the scrub room, he trapped her against the wall and started to kiss her passionately.
"I love you." He said, in between kisses. Meredith moaned and kissed back.
"Derek…we…can't …do…this…here."
Derek broke away and smiled.
"That was amazing what you just did."
Meredith smiled.
"All thanks to you Dr." she said, kissing him lightly on the lips. Walking out of the scrub room, the two of them headed for the nurse's station.
"Hey, do you know about Izzy's 'Christmas Surprise'?"
Derek nodded.
"I'm helping and I can't tell you." He said mischievously. Meredith gave him the puppy dog pout, but he didn't fall for it.
"You'll just have to wait and see." He said. Meredith huffed, and walked away, mumbling something about talking to Izzy and Christina. Derek laughed, feeling bad he couldn't tell her, but knew Izzy would kill her if he did. He sighed and went the opposite direction, now finally starting his day with his patients.
---
Meredith walked up to Maternity and up to the nurses station, still a huffy from Derek.
"Page Addison Sloan please." She said to the nurse. The nurse nodded, knowing that she didn't want to get on Meredith's bad side, and did as she said. A few minutes later, Addison arrived looking like she had just ran a marathon.
"Someone paged?" she asked a little out a breath.
"Ya…me….you okay Addison?" asked Meredith worryingly. Addison nodded.
"Ya…I'm fine." She said catching her breath. Meredith nodded, and directed Addison towards the nearest exam room. Addison followed in pursuit, knowing where this was going to lead. Closing the door behind her, Addison set up the ultra sound as Meredith hopped up on the exam table, and laid down. The room was quite for a few moments, as Addison prepared for the examination.
"You're quite Meredith." Commented Addison, running the monitor over Meredith's abdomen.
"I just got out of surgery with Derek for a Parkinson's patient." She replied shortly. Addison eyed her.
"There is something else wrong."
Meredith shrugged.
"I haven't been able to talk with anyone all day because I've been with interns and patients and Derek. I really want to talk to Izzy and Christina." She said, looking at the monitor. Hearing Izzy's name, Addison stopped for a moment, but decided not to tell Meredith at the very moment. Nodding her head, she continued on with the examination.
"Well everything looks fine here. You're in the second trimester, 5th month, and your baby is developing fine."
Meredith sighed a sigh of relief and pulled her scrub top down again. Addison smiled.
"You know we haven't talked in a while." Said Meredith, jumping down from the table as Addison put away the monitor.
"Ya, we haven't. We've all been so busy with everything lately, that no one's had time to do anything lately."
Meredith nodded.
"Hey, do you mind picking up the kids today and maybe I don't know, we could go out with Izzy, Callie and Christina, like a girls night out thing?"
Addison's face lit up.
"That sounds like fun. But…I think Izzy's…busy." Said Addison, feeling bad that she wasn't telling Meredith the whole truth. But it didn't seem to bother Meredith.
"Okay that's fine. So I guess I'll see ya at my place around 8 and then we can go…party?"
Addison laughed.
"As long as there isn't any alcohol!"
Meredith laughed.
"All right no alcohol."
Meredith headed for the door but then turned around.
"Do you by any chance know where Izzy is?"
Addison's heart skipped a beat.
"Ummm Room 218 I think." She said, trying now to blurt anything out. Meredith nodded and left the room. Addison slumped onto the table and put her head in her hands. She didn't want to be anywhere near Meredith when she found out what kind of state Izzy was really in.
---
Izzy was lying in bed, flipping through a magazine, still a little sore from her earlier surgery. Hearing a knock at the door, she welcomed her visitor in.
"Oh my god Izz I've had the….WHAT THE HELL?"
Izzy turned to see Meredith standing in the doorway, her mouth hanging open.
"Isobel Steven why the hell are you in a patient's bed?" Meredith demanded, walking over to Izzy.
Izzy looked at her like she was crazy.
"Since when do you call me Isobel and my last name is Karev now."
Meredith shook her head.
"That's besides the point Izzy!"
Izzy sighed.
"I went in for a routine check-up with Addison and she found a tear on my baby's left ventricle. But…she operated and she's going to be fine. I get to go home maybe tomorrow or the next day."
Meredith shook her head and sat down.
"Izzy I…"
Izzy stopped her.
"No I don't want you feeling sorry for yourself. It's Christmas time. Just because I came out of surgery doesn't mean that the surprise isn't still on."
Meredith laughed.
"Speaking of the surprise, I heard that Derek is helping you?"
Izzy's mouth hung open.
"HE TOLD YOU!?"
Meredith nodded and Izzy went ballistic.
"What the hell! I told him NOT to tell you!"
Meredith laughed.
"He didn't tell me anything, just that he was…helping you out."
Izzy eyed her.
"How do I know that you're not lying?"
Meredith looked at her like she was stupid.
"Izzy…since when have I been a good liar?"
"That's true."
The two girls talked for over an hour before a page interrupted Meredith.
"Hey I gotta go take this. I really hope you get better soon, and if you see Christina or Callie, tell them to meet me and Addison at my house at 8 and Addison is picking up the kids."
Izzy nodded.
"What's going on tonight?"
Meredith felt guilty for not including Izzy, but she still told her.
"We're going to have like a girl's night out. But since you're kind of…"
Izzy nodded.
"I understand. Go have fun and NO ALOCHOL!"
Meredith hugged her.
"Yes mother." She snapped playingly as she rushed out of the room. Izzy watched her go, laughing going back to her magazine. But, she wasn't really reading it. In her mind, her brain was working over time to produce the best Christmas surprise ever.
A/N: ok i hate reading long a/n's so i'll spare u the grife. Nxt chapter will hopefully also b long...and it will b on x-mas eve...starting w/ the surprise. Ummm i've neglected A LOT of ppl (inculuding kids) so they'll b in there 2. So yes...finally updated...school and golf have taken over my life and so there are only 10 wks left of school...and hopefully the updates will be faster. For now...i'll update when i can. REVEIW PLEASE! ( i already have the ch. forming...so i just need to find time) (o and as u can tell i didn't proof read for once...SORRY for all the mistakes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
3+ reveiws gets me started on the nxt chapter!