Enjoy!
TW: emetophobia
Buzz buzz buzz. That's the sound of Meredith Grey's alarm clock going off telling her that she needs to get ready to go to work.
"I don't feel good." She mutters to herself. She turns the alarm clock off and tries to get enough energy to get out of bed. Her stomach is in a lot of pain right now and she scrunches up her eyes trying to ignore the pain she's feeling. "It's so cold in here." She says to herself. She doesn't want to take her covers off of her and give up some kind of warmness.
Eventually she takes her covers off and stands up, feeling dizzy as she stands up. All of a sudden she feels super nauseous and bolts to the bathroom. The door is closed but she opens it and heads right to the toilet.
"Hey - a little privacy would be nice!" George yells, thinking it's Izzie barging in while he's showering.
Meredith throws up into the toilet until there's nothing left for her to throw up. She rests her head on the wall, trying to get the strength to stand up.
"Hey are you okay?" George asks Meredith, popping just his head out of the shower.
"I'm fine. It's just a little stomach bug." Meredith says weakly and finally stands up. She gets dizzy and has to quickly reach out and grab the sink to steady herself.
"I don't think you should go to work Mer. You don't look good. You're super pale."
"I'll be fine." She says and leaves the bathroom. She slowly makes her way down the stairs and goes into the kitchen to make some coffee. She has no appetite for food right now.
"Good morning Mer!" Izzie says, smiling at Mer. She notices how pale Meredith is. "Woah Mer are you feeling okay?"
"I'll be fine." Meredith repeats for the second time that morning. Her stomach is hurting her so badly right now. All of a sudden she feels the urge to throw up again and rushes to the bathroom. Izzie follows her and holds her hair back as she throws up. Meredith moans after she finishes throwing up.
"Mer, you're burning up. You're not going to work today." Izzie tells her.
"I'm an intern. I have to go to work. I'll be fine." She throws up again.
"Mer. No. You need to stay home. You're sick. You have a fever and keep throwing up. You can't see patients today. You'll get them sick."
Meredith is about to argue but realizes she doesn't have the energy to argue. "Fine" she says and allows Izzie to bring her back upstairs to her room. Izzie helped her slowly walk to her room and helped her from falling over when she got dizzy on the short walk upstairs. She got Meredith settled into her bed and left the room. Meredith instantly fell asleep.
Meredith wakes up an hour later and rushes to the bathroom to throw up again. After she finishes she slowly makes her way back to her bed. She's feeling super sick and dizzy. Her stomach seems to be hurting her even more at this point. She clutches her stomach in bed and tries to fall asleep. Just as she falls back to sleep she feels super nauseous and rushes back to the bathroom. She throws up a bunch more. She lays down on the cool tile after she finishes trying to make her body temperature go down. She's feeling really warm.
Meredith ends up falling asleep on the cool tile floor in the bathroom. She wakes up two hours later sobbing in pain. Her stomach is killing her, she's in excruciating pain at this point.
"Owwww, owwww, it hurts. Somebody help me please. It's hurts owwwww." She moans. Her fever is higher at this point also. She sees that she left her phone in the bathroom earlier and grabs it and calls Cristina.
"Hey Mer, how are you feeling? Izzie told me you're home sick?" Cristina asks.
"Cris, it hurts! Owwwwww. Make it stop please. I don't feel good." She sobs.
"What hurts Mer?"
"M-my stomach. It hurts s-so much m-more owwwwwwwww now." She sobs. "I need you. I need my person."
"Mer, I'm on my way." Cristina quickly tells Bailey Meredith is sick and she's going to go get her and will be back. Bailey says that she will prepare an exam room for Meredith when she comes back with her. Cristina leaves the hospital and arrives at Meredith's house a few minutes later.
"Meredith? Mer? I'm here." Cristina climbs up the stairs and makes her way towards Meredith. She hears her crying and finds her on the floor in the bathroom. Meredith had just lain back down from throwing up again. Meredith is curled up into a ball and clutching her stomach in pain. "Omg Mer!" She rushes over to Meredith and feels her forehead. "Mer! You're burning up!" She grabs a thermometer and has Meredith open her mouth and she sticks it underneath her tongue. After a minute it beeps and she takes it out of Meredith's mouth. "Mer, you're fever is 103!" She helps Meredith off of the floor, Meredith crying out in pain as she does so.
"Cris it hurts! Make it stop! Owwwwww!" Meredith wails in pain.
Cristina helps her walk down the stairs. Meredith is very weak right now because she's thrown up what little she has in her system. Meredith has to stop walking at one point because she feels like she is going to pass out. Cristina steadies her and helps her through it.
She buckles Meredith in when they get to the car and off they go. Meredith's cries seem to be increasing in volume as they drive.
"You doing okay Meredith?" Meredith just shakes her head, which makes her dizziness worse.
Cristina is very worried about Meredith. She sees how pale her friend is and that really worries her. She can tell by the look on Meredith's face that her pain is getting worse. Cristina calls Bailey and tells her that they are almost there and to be waiting there with a gurney. She tells her how high Meredith's fever is and the amount of pain she is in.
They get to the ER entrance and Bailey is out front waiting for them. Bailey opens Meredith's door and helps her out.
"Shh, it's okay Mer. We're going to make you feel better." Bailey instantly sees how sick Meredith looks. To Cristina she says "She's burning up!" We need to get her fever down!"
They get Meredith to an exam room and Bailey starts taking her blood and taking her sats. Bailey doesn't like the results she is seeing. She notices Meredith clutching her lower left side of her stomach. She palpated Meredith's stomach at that spot and Meredith sobs harder when she touches that spot.
Bailey has her suspicions on what is wrong with Meredith but needs to see what the blood work says.
Cristina rushes back in with the blood results. Bailey takes the paper and quickly reads it.
"Okay Meredith you are not pregnant. You have appendicitis. We need to admit you and schedule you for surgery to remove your appendix."
"C-can I h-have morphine please?" She cries in pain. "It hurts owwwwww."
"Let's get you to your room and then I will set you up with morphine to take the pain away.
Bailey transfers Meredith up to a patient room and Cristina helps her change into a gown. This whole time Meredith is just clutching her stomach. Cristina helps her into bed and tucks her in.
Bailey comes into the room with IVs. "Okay Meredith, I'm going to give you fluids and morphine. You've lost a lot of fluids from all of the throwing up you've been doing today so we need to replace those fluids." She cleans off Meredith's skin and sticks her with the needle which makes Meredith wince in pain. She hooks her up to both the fluids and morphine.
As soon as the morphine hits Meredith's bloodstream, she feels the effects of the morphine and sighs in relief. A few moments later she falls asleep.
"I'm so glad she has the morphine now. She was in so much pain. Bailey she was on the floor in her bathroom in so much pain." Cristina told her resident with tears in her eyes. "She called me sobbing in pain."
"Yeah this is a very painful illness. The morphine will help her now and then she'll be all better once we take her appendix out." Bailey said.
They leave the room and let Meredith rest.
—-
Meredith wakes up a while later and is feeling the effects of the morphine. She decides to page Dr Bailey who comes in just a moment later.
"Hey Meredith. How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling great Dr B! Thanks for asking! You're too kind! Anyways wanna hear a secret?"
Bailey sighs. "What's the secret?"
"You can't tell ANYONE okay?"
"I won't."
"I slept with George and it didn't go well!" Her eyes are wide open as she says this.
"Why are you telling me this Grey?"
"Cause I know you like secrets! Meow!" Meredith looks around the room. "Did you hear a cat? I want to pet a cat. Where's the cat?"
"Meredith, there is not a cat in here. You meowed."
"No I didn't meow! There's a cat in here!" Meredith meows again and her eyes widen and she tries to get out of bed to search for the cat.
"Nope, no getting out of bed Grey!"
"But the cat!"
"There's no cat Meredith."
"Whatever you say Dr B!" She winks at her, thinking that Bailey is just playing with her and saying there isn't a cat in there when there really is.
Bailey just shakes her head and starts walking out of the room only to hear Meredith loudly start singing.
"SALT AIR AND THE RUST ON YOUR DOOR I NEVER NEEDED ANYTHING MORE" Meredith belted out.
"What on earth are you singing?"
Meredith looks all astonished. "august by Taylor Swift duh! How can you not know Taylor's music Bailey? She's the best singer EVER!" Meredith just shakes her head at Bailey.
Bailey just ignores her and walks out of the room.
"Meow! Meow! Meow!" Meredith's eyes widen when she hears meowing. She pages Bailey back to her room.
"What is it now Grey?"
"The cat is back! I heard meowing again!"
"No you didn't. You're the one meowing Meredith." Bailey says.
Meredith sees Mark and Derek walking past her room.
"McDreamy! McSteamy! Come here you two!" Meredith yells.
Mark and Derek stop walking and look at each other and stand in the doorway to Meredith's room.
"Are you talking to us?" Derek asks smiling at Meredith.
"Yup! You're McDreamy! And he's McSteamy!" She says pointing to Mark when she says McSteamy.
"Why do you get to be McDreamy? No fair Meredith." Mark complains.
Meredith rolls her eyes and says "Do you know where the cat is?"
"What cat?" Derek asks.
"There's a cat in my room! It keeps meowing! I'd get out of bed and look myself but someone won't let me out of bed". She says rolling her eyes and pointing at Dr Bailey.
"There is no cat! Meredith keeps meowing!" Bailey says rolling her eyes.
"Meow!" Meredith's eyes widen and dart around the room. "I wanna pet the cat! Please let me look for the cat Dr Bailey! I'll be careful I promise. Meow!" Her eyes widen more.
Derek and Mark smile to each other when they see Meredith meowing and not believing that it is her that is meowing.
Mark decides to join in on the fun. "Meredith I heard a cat!"
"Mark! Don't you even start!" Bailey says glaring at Mark who just smiles and shrugs.
"We gotta go Mer! Good luck with the cat." Derek and Mark leave the room.
"Bye McDreamy! Bye McSteamy! You both are so cute!" She yells.
"Bailey please. I just want to pet the cat. I love kitties. I wanna pet it."
"Nope." She says and leaves the room leaving Meredith to think about this "cat" on her own.
"I'm going to go get George so we can do pre-op on you."
"Wait George? Why George?"
"George is scrubbing in on your surgery today." Meredith's eyes widen when she hears Bailey say that. She beckons Bailey to her with her finger. Bailey gets closer to Meredith. Meredith motions for her to come closer. When she is close enough for Meredith's liking, she whispers in Bailey's ear "George is gonna kill me."
"Grey-".
"Do you not remember how he messed up last time? I don't wanna die Bailey! I have my whole life ahead of me! I have so much to live for! I'm gonna adopt the cat that's in this room and me and my cat will live happily ever after.
Bailey doesn't respond and just leaves the room and comes back with George a few minutes later.
"Meow!"
"George! There's a cat in here! You gotta find it!"
"O'Malley don't listen to her. There's no cat in here. Meredith is just meowing."Bailey tells him.
"No! There is so a cat in here! Don't you hear the meows?"
George doesn't know how to respond. Meredith meows again.
"George! The cat! Go find it! Or I'm selling your room!"
George pretends to look for the cat. "Oh sorry Mer, looks like the cat left the room."
Meredith looks sad at that. "Oh."
"Okay! O'Malley! Meredith's symptoms are high fever, chills, nausea, dizziness, stomach pain in the lower right quadrant. What would you diagnose her with?" Bailey questions him.
"Appendicitis." George answers.
"Appendicitis." Meredith answers a minute later.
"I wasn't asking you Grey!" Bailey says, shaking her head. "Okay George let's get her down to OR 2."
George pushes Meredith in her bed towards the OR. They pass Cristina on the way.
"Cristina! Hi! Come here buddy!"
Cristina comes over smiling at Meredith. "I see you're feeling the effects of the morphine." She says laughing at Meredith.
"Oh yeah! It's great! Cris, George is doing my surgery. If I don't make it you can have the cat that keeps meowing in my room. I know you'll take great care of him."
"There's a cat in your room?" Cristina asks surprised.
George shakes his head no.
Meredith says excitedly, "Yeah! There is! He keeps meowing but no one will find him for me. It's kind of rude that they won't find him for me when I'm not allowed out of bed."
Cristina tries not to laugh. "I see." To George she mouths "good luck with her". Cristina walks off after telling Meredith she'll be there when she wakes up after surgery.
They get to OR 2 and Meredith is placed on the operating table. They get her all situated and set up on all of the monitors.
"George!" Meredith says.
"Yes, Mer?" He asks.
"George you messed up big time the last time you did an appy. You gotta do this correctly this time. You better not kill me. I'll haunt you if you do. Anyways this is how you do an appy..." She proceeds to list each step of how you do an appy.
"Mer! I know how to do this!" George insists.
"Time to say good night Meredith." Bailey says.
"Good night Meredith." Meredith repeats back at Bailey making her smile.
"Count back from 10 Meredith." Bailey instructs her.
The anesthesia is put over Meredith's nose and mouth.
"10,9,8." Meredith falls asleep.
"She's finally quiet." Bailey says shaking her head. "Meredith Grey on morphine wow." Bailey said laughing.
"Okay George let's go. Let's make her feel better.
They go through all the steps and Meredith's appendix is taken out of her body.
The surgery was a success and Meredith is wheeled back up to her room where Cristina is waiting. Meredith is placed back into her bed. After a while she starts to wake up. Cristina notices a little bit of movement.
"Mer?"
Meredith starts to choke on the tube that's in her throat.
"Cough on 3 and I'll take it out for you." Cristina instructs her. Meredith coughs and the tube is out.
"My throat hurts." She says all raspy.
"I know. That's because of the tube. It'll get better. Do you want some ice chips?"
She nods. Cristina goes and gets her some ice chips and comes back a minute later with them.
Meredith is eating her ice chips. "Mmmm I love ice chips. They're so icy and cold."
"That would be why they're called ice chips Mer."
"Hey Cris?"
"Yeah Mer? You okay?"
"Is there a cat in the room? I thought I heard a cat and I really, really want to pet a cat."
Cristina bursts out laughing when Meredith says that.
"What? What'd I say?"
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