Chapter 11: Name Wisdom
To say Cristina was upset was the understatement of the year, she had a headache from lack of sleep and felt like she could drop at any minute. And it was all Meredith's fault or more specifically the idiot redhead's fault. Meredith had been rambling all night long about how angry she was and how sad she was and how confused she was by Addison's behavior. At 3 a.m. she was still droning on and on until Cristina physically lifted her and threw her on the bed. Now she was here waiting for the assignments downing bad coffee next to a pissy and pouty Meredith as if everything was her fault.
"O'Malley with me, Karev with Shepherd, Yang with Sloan, Stevens with Montgomery, and Grey the pit." Bailey listed their assignments.
Cristina watched as Meredith sent a small glare at Izzie as if it were her fault she had been assigned to Addison and began to chuckle. Her amusement died out as Mark waltzed his way over to the group of them remembering what he had said about setting her up with gynie.
"Dr. Bailey. I have a request." Mark grinned, making Bailey roll her eyes.
"And what's that Dr. Sloan?" Bailey gave him an exasperated look.
"Could I have Stevens? Dr. Webber, Stevens, and I were working together yesterday. I want the patient to keep having the same faces around her." Mark gave her a pleading look.
'How very convenient.' Cristina thought to herself rolling her eyes.
"Fine. Stevens, you and Yang switch. The rest of you scurry." Bailey said and with that Mark threw Cristina a wink and left with Izzie trailing behind him.
"Of course." Meredith mumbled.
"Hey, it's not my fault." Cristina groaned.
"I know. Sorry." Meredith said with a small smile.
"I accept the apology along with fries for lunch." Cristina shrugged.
"Fine." Meredith grinned. "I'm also sorry for the not sleeping."
"As long as I get those fries it's fine." Cristina grinned back, making Meredith chuckle a bit, which made her feel a bit better.
Bailey was about to yell at them both for doodling until the distinct sound of clicking heels echoed in the hall. Cristina let out a sigh as she saw Meredith's demeanor revert back to the sad and sappy one from before.
"Morning Miranda. Who do…" Addison began.
"You have Yang. Morning to you too. The rest of you, scram." Bailey said, turning on her heel and leaving with George. Alex left as well leaving Cristina alone with Meredith and Addison.
"Morning, Dr. Montgomery." Meredith smiled a bit.
"Dr. Grey." Was the only greeting Addison gave her turning to Cristina. "Come along, Yang." She turned to leave but Meredith spoke again.
"About Mrs. Burns…" Meredith began.
"Mrs. Burns isn't here. Let's go Yang." Addison interrupted and kept on walking without looking back at Meredith.
Cristina resisted the impulse to hit the attending on the side of the head as she threw an apologetic look back to Meredith, who just shrugged in resignation.
Addison was unusually quiet, not that she spoke much to Cristina but still. When she was in her service, the attending would talk about what they would be doing during the day or if not she would be talking about past procedures. Cristina hated the vagina squad but she did not mind it as much because Addison was always eager to teach and her enthusiasm on the subject could be contagious. Today, it seemed, Addison was not up to teaching at all, there was no eagerness, the usual sparkle in her eyes was gone.
They made it over to the OB floor and Addison took some charts passing some over to Cristina. Wordlessly the attending motioned for her to take a seat. Cristina sat obediently waiting for Addison to give her some kind of direction but she just sat and began to work on the charts.
"Umm?" Cristina leaned to the side to see the attending's face.
"What is it, Yang?" Addison asked without looking up.
"What am I supposed to be doing?" Cristina asked, trying to keep the bite out of her tone.
"Revise the charts and organize them. We have nothing until the afternoon." Addison announced as she got back to work once more.
"You have no surgeries?" Cristina asked, this time not filtering her tone very well.
"Not now." Addison replied.
"Then why am I here?" Cristina blurted out before she could contain herself.
"You have a problem with being here, Yang? Do you need a lesson like the one Karev got? I can be very unpleasant when I want to be." Addison practically snarled as her eyes snapped angrily to her.
"No. I'm sorry. Usually when that happens they send us to the pit. You know." Cristina tried to backtrack. She needed Addison to talk about personal stuff, not be angry with her. "I'm really sorry." She apologized again.
"Fine." Addison said as her eyes began to soften once more.
Cristina released a breath of relief and began to think of ways to make Satan open up. Every time she thought she had something she shut it down immediately. This whole girl talk crap sucked. It may just be that she sucked at it but she would never admit she was not good at something.
"Dr. Montgomery?" She started as she settled in work as a start topic.
"What?" Addison responded, her eyes never leaving her work.
"Who is Mrs. Burns? She a patient or…" It was work intertwined with Meredith, of course, but work nonetheless.
"She's a patient, yes." Addison replied, a bit of annoyance on her tone. "Is this your question or Grey's?" She asked turning to look at Cristina.
"Well I guess since Mer seems so worried about it and now I'm on your service, maybe I should know. She seems important." Cristina covered as much as she could. Addison just watched her for a while making Cristina squirm a bit. Addison was one tough cookie to crack and after Bailey she was really the only other person she could get this nervous about.
"She is my patient. At some point in the next few days I'll be doing an assisted delivery for her because her baby has type 2 OI." Addison explained after a while.
"That sucks." Cristina shook her head.
"Yeah." Addison chuckled sadly. "Yeah it does." She continued and then turned back to her pile of charts.
Cristina let some more time go by before talking once more. There was actually something she wanted to say to Addison that she had not said before. It had nothing to do with Meredith, just her. It may be a perk that this could get her in the door though.
"Dr. Montgomery?" Cristina called once more.
"What now, Yang?" Addison looked at her.
"I just wanted to…" Cristina looked at her, really really looked and spoke once more, "thank you."
"What for?" Addison looked confused by her words.
"You saved my life. I never said anything." Cristina gave her a small smile.
"It was my job. Think nothing of it." Addison smiled.
"You were going to leave. You could've let anyone do it. But you decided to do it yourself. A world class surgeon worked her magic on me. So thanks." Cristina smiled and nodded.
"I'm just glad I was able to help out in some way." Addison offered her a kind and sincere smile.
Cristina could understand why Meredith was completely head over heels for this woman, not that she, herself, would be but she understood. She was truly kind. Under that devilish persona that she liked to give out, was a kind and gentle person. Someone who cared for others deeply. She really had to figure out why Addison was acting the way she was acting. She really needed to get her person back on track.
Getting back to her own charts she could still feel Addison's eyes on her for a while before the redhead turned back to her work once more. Cristina had finished two charts when she decided to push some more.
"Dr. Montgomery?" Cristina called yet again.
"Didn't know you were this talkative, Yang." Addison mused, this time not as much annoyance on her tone as before.
"Only when someone's fascinating enough." Cristina said and she knew it was the worst thing to say. She could see Addison's walls rising again as suspicion invaded her green eyes.
"Get back to work Yang. We need these done today." Addison answered.
'Dammit! Pushed way too out there.' Cristina was cursing at herself as someone approached the nurse' station.
"Hello, Addison." She recognized the voice and grew irritated. But then she heard the shifting and the dropping of the pen as she noticed Addison jump from her peripheral.
"Derek." Addison said seemingly composed but Cristina could tell something was off. "Something you need? Or are you just prancing about? Is the great and mighty Derek Shepherd bored?" She asked and Cristina snickered behind her.
"Relax, Addison. I just came to visit my ex-wife and see if by chance my girlfriend was here." Derek shrugged and at that Cristina let out a snort but she also noticed the sudden stiffness in Addison. "Something funny there, Yang?"
"Nope, I'm just thinking about dreaming McDreamers." Cristina grinned.
"What do you mean by that?" Derek's voice was cold.
"Nothing much. Just that I hope you weren't referring to my person." Cristina shrugged as she noticed the small grin on Addison's face out of the corner of her eye.
"Meredith and I…" He began.
"Last I checked there is no Meredith and you. By the way, how are the shoes?" Cristina sweetly grinned tilting her head.
"They're fine thank you." He said and Cristina could tell she was getting to him, which made her quite happy and proud of herself.
"Pity." Cristina shrugged.
Derek looked like he wanted to say more but a page interrupted his thoughts. He looked up at her once more and shook his head, his eyes twitching a bit.
"Bye." She waved with a big smile.
She watched him go and then looked back at Addison who had started laughing as soon as he was out of ear shot. Cristina looked at her and chuckled.
"Wow." Was all Addison said.
"Sorry. He's stupidity with Mer has been gnawing at me." Cristina shrugged with a smile.
"I can see that." Addison raised her brow. "I think I like you, Yang."
"You're not too too bad either, Montgomery. Though sometimes you confuse me." Cristina said, shrugging once more and getting back to work.
"What's so confusing?" Addison chuckled. Cristina thought about just getting straight to the point but decided against shaking her head.
Down in the E.R. Meredith had pretty much been doing sutures the whole morning. She had just finished with a teen who had thought he could fly when he got high and landed on a fence. While making her way back to the counter a young pregnant woman walked in holding onto an older woman. Meredith could see the younger lady was in pain so she made her way towards her.
"Hi. Is there something I could do for you?" She looked at each of them in turn waiting.
"Just a second. Contraction." The younger woman said as her face scrunched up.
"Here, come this way." Meredith guided the pair to an empty bed helping the pregnant woman up to it.
"Helen?" The older woman said to Meredith and then hugged her.
"Sorry, you look a lot like her daughter. My name is Beatrice and she's Sonia. She's my neighbor. Has Alzheimer's." Beatrice explained breathing hard and with a pained expression.
"Oh." Meredith said awkwardly as Sonia kept on hugging her.
"You never come to visit anymore." Sonia said as she pulled back.
"I'm sorry." Meredith said. "Why don't you have a seat there and make yourself comfortable?" She pointed to the chair by the bed and Sonia complied happily.
"Thank you." Beatrice mumbled to which Meredith nodded.
"So I'm guessing you're here because of the contractions?" Meredith asked as she gently palpated her belly.
"Yeah. They've been on and off for the last few days but I'm only 30 weeks." Beatrice nervously.
"Ok. Well let me get your vitals, get some history and I'll get you something to stop the contractions, while our OB gets here ok." Meredith said, setting into action.
After having a nurse page OB she took the history and got vitals. Addison and Cristina were the ones paged and as Meredith saw the redhead walk in she was filled with dread. But she was better than this so she would do her job.
"Dr. Montgomery, over here." She waved her over and noticed the way she stiffened a bit before walking to her, as if she was bracing herself.
"What have we got?" Addison asked, all business.
"Beatrice Harris, 28. BP 160 over 100. She's 30 weeks pregnant presenting with contractions every 10 minutes. Already fitted the monitor for the baby and there are no signs of fetal distress so far." Meredith said as she passed over the chart completely avoiding the redhead's eyes.
"Thank you Dr. Grey." Addison said as she moved towards the patient. "Beatrice," she greeted with a smile but before she could introduce herself Sonia spoke.
"Helen. You brought a friend to meet me? You never do that. She must be important. She's very pretty." Sonia smiled at Meredith who was a bit stunned before shaking herself.
"Helen?" Addison asked softly as she stood next to her.
"I look like her daughter. She has Alzheimer's." Meredith explained softly. She looked back to Sonia and began to explain. "This is actually n…"
"Hi, it is so very nice to meet you. I'm Addison." Addison interjected with a smile. Meredith looked at her smile, her eyes soft and crinkling at the corners as she happily greeted the older woman. She felt her cheeks heat up as her breath caught for just a second.
"You're sweet." Sonia said as Addison tilted her head, a smile still in place. "You found a very nice friend Helen. Don't let her go. Friends are hard to come by." Meredith only nodded, swallowing hard.
"Well uh I'm also the doctor who will be helping Beatrice." Addison said quickly bringing the attention back to the actual patient.
"Right, so I gave her some terbutaline to help stop contractions. Also I was thinking just in case we should give her steroids to help the baby mature the lungs." Meredith said as Addison went to palpate the nodding approvingly. In the background Cristina threw her a thumbs up.
"Very well done Mer- Grey." Addison corrected herself quickly, clearing her throat. "Looks like the contractions are slowing down. I will have you admitted for a few days so we can monitor you and your baby."
"Beatrice? Why are we in the hospital?" Sonia asked, looking around confused. "The baby? Is it time?"
"Hey Sonia. Yeah the baby wants to come too early." Beatrice smiled.
"You look like my daughter Helen." Sonia said to Meredith who was a bit confused.
"She has moments when she's lucid for a while. Last time was almost two months ago." Beatrice explained with sadness in her eyes.
"What's your name, dear?" Sonia asked Meredith.
"Meredith. Meredith Grey." Meredith let out a smile.
"Meredith is a pretty name. It goes with your eyes." Sonia said.
"Yeah?" Meredith asked with a small smile.
"Yes. Meredith is a name of welsh origin and it means protector of the seas. Your eyes are blue grey like the deep seas." Sonia explained.
"Sonia's always had a fascination with names and their meanings." Beatrice said with a smile. "Her name fits her. Sonia means wisdom. Right?"
"Right. And yours means she who brings happiness. It fits you too." Sonia smiled sweetly.
As Meredith watched her she could not help but feel sad. She wished her own mother had more of those lucid moments. But then sometimes those moments were not good at all. Her mother would either stiffen or say hurtful things. Meredith was too caught up in her thoughts to notice that they had been talking to her until Addison spoke.
"Grey. Meredith." Addison's voice snapping her from her dark and twisty as she stared at those green eyes.
"Sorry." Meredith apologized quickly , her eyes on Addison's.
"Stormy seas." Sonia said.
"What about mine?" Cristina blurted out. Meredith was grateful for her person. "My name is Cristina." She said proudly.
"Cristina is Italian and it means follower of Christ but I'm not sure if you are." Sonia chuckled knowingly.
"Not really but one day I'll be a Cardio Goddess so close enough." Cristina smirked. "You know 'cause Christ is supposed to be god and stuff."
"I suppose." Sonia chuckled some more.
"What's your name?" Sonia asked Addison.
"Addison." Addison smiled.
"Addison is English and it means son of Adam. It used to be a boy-only name but with time it was used for both boys or girls." Sonia explained and like everyone else noticed the slight frown Addison had. "Do you have any other names?" She asked.
"Adrianne." Meredith blurted out before Addison had a chance to say it.
"That one means dark." Sonia said.
"I see." Addison sounded so defeated Meredith felt the urge to hold her but resisted it.
"Oh child don't fret. Dark doesn't always mean evil, just like light doesn't always mean good. The world is not that simple. Besides there's people who are inevitably attracted to the dark. I know some of the best are." Sonia smiled brightly at Addison, whose face softened once more as she began to smile again.
"I'll say." Cristina chirped, making Meredith glare playfully at her.
"Thank you Sonia." Addison said, ignoring Cristina's comment and turning to Beatrice. "Dr. Yang, here, will make sure you have a bed and there is a cot for Sonia so that she can be with you until someone comes to get her."
"Sounds great. Thank you. My husband should be here in a few hours, he was out of town. He'll take care of Sonia." Beatrice announced.
"Alright then. Yang, go get her a room. Grey please keep monitoring and let me know of any sudden changes." Addison commanded.
"Addison." Sonia called. "Would it be too much of a bother for me to stay with Meredith for a while?" She asked.
"I'm not sure that'd be wise. She is working the E.R. today." Addison replied. "It's really up to her. As long as you are not in any danger and stay where she tells you to." She continued and then looked at Meredith.
"I don't mind. I could keep her on a rolling chair and bring her with me." Meredith smiled. "I'm pretty sure I'll be doing sutures so I hope you don't mind a little blood." She said to Sonia who happily shook her head.
"Not at all. It'll be an adventure. At least until I'm gone again." Sonia said with a sad smile.
"Oh I'll show my extraordinary techniques and then I'll give you a tour. It'll be fun." Meredith offered, trying to encourage her.
"Alright then. Just… be careful." Addison said and excused herself along with Cristina.
Meredith stared after them a while before turning her attention back to a smiling Beatrice and Sonia. She told Beatrice to feel free to get some rest and not to worry about Sonia, who smiled sweetly at her.
And then there were 11! Had to divide this chapter because it was getting to be too long. Also the writer's block on these two was phenomenal :/. Hope you guys enjoy it though. Sorry for the very late update too. My mind decided to write two one shots and start a new multi chapter so not enough time. Anyway, the next chapter will be up soon. ;)