Santana has been waiting. Ever since Dr. Holiday brought Bruna and Fernando Martinez first came into her exam room, Bruna heavily pregnant, she's been waiting. She was in the operating room when Holly did the c-section, delivering Maria and Lucia Martinez. She'd watched with awe, as the twins were carefully lifted from their mother's womb, joined at the abdomen, one liver between them. She'd examined them first, and then she and Shelby worked together on a plan for a separation procedure.
Santana has been waiting, and slowly, a team of the best surgeons has come together to give these girls the best possible chance of survival. Santana is excited for their first meeting, to say the least, and after checking on them, at nearly seventeen weeks old, in their little isolette, she heads down the hall to Shelby's conference room, excited for the meeting she's been waiting months for.
She walks in, and she looks around at the faces at the table. She'd taken on the coordination a general surgeon, a cardiologist, and an anesthesiologist. Kurt Hummel, Mercedes Jones, and Tina Cohen-Chang, respectively, the very best of the best. Shelby, as the department head, handled the rest, and as her eyes scan past he group of young surgeons, her stomach drops as they settle on Dr. Brittany Pierce.
Keeping her cool, she goes down the line, shaking the hand of each surgeon and nurse on the team, thanking them, on behalf of both herself and the Martinez family for being part of her team. When she gets to Dr. Pierce, she swallows her pride, and she reaches out to take her hand. Unfortunately, her own nerves compromise her coordination, and before she can do anything to stop it, a hot cup of coffee spills straight into her lap, and all over another of those pencil skirts she seems to enjoy wearing.
"I'm sorry." Santana sputters. "I swear, it was an accident."
"Yeah. Cool. It's fine." Dr. Pierce stands up, quickly, letting the coffee run down to the floor, and she grabs as many napkins as she can. Nothing in her voice indicates that it actually is cool or fine though, and Santana shivers.
After Dr. Pierce excuses herself to change, and returns, the meeting is nothing, if not awkward. Of course they'll need someone to handle skin grafting, and all of that, but that doesn't dull Santana's caustic attitude toward the plastic surgeon. She's inherently rubbed the wrong way, and she just can't help but bite back, every time he woman interjects Santana's surgical plan with her own agenda.
"Dr. Lopez." Shelby corners Santana, once the meeting his through. "My office, please."
Shelby never calls Santana Dr. Lopez anymore. They've known each other for over a decade, since Santana was an intern. Dr. Shelby Corcoran is the reason Santana is even in pediatrics to begin with. She'd always pictured herself in neuro, or cardio, or even ortho, but because of Shelby, she's here, and she loves it. So hearing her say Dr. Lopez, after all this time? That's strange.
"Is there some sort of problem between you and Dr. Pierce, Santana?" Shelby asks, once Santana is seated at her desk.
"Dr. Pierce? A problem. No." Santana shakes her head. "It's not a personal thing. She's just new here, and I think we owe it to the Martinez girls to make sure who we have on their case is the best."
"Which is why I chose the head of the department."
"The…head of the department? I thought she was from Boston."
"And she transferred here for the job." Shelby continues to eye her skeptically. "I know you're interested in the well being of the patients, and so am I. But if I wanted drama on this case, I'd have assigned it to a resident. I've known you a long time, Santana. Whatever this issue you have with her is, drop it, or drop the case."
Shaken, Santana leaves Shelby's office. Something about Dr. Pierce really got under her skin that day in the elevator, even Ibeyond/I her being a plastics rat, but she absolutely refuses to lose this case or embarrass her in front of her boss.
She gets through their next two meetings. Mostly, she just avoids even looking at Dr. Pierce. She knows that Shelby has an eye on her, and she feels like she did her second year as an intern. She needs to stop. She needs to get her head in the game. This is too important, and she won't let someone she hardly knows ruin the surgery that could make her entire career.
The day before the surgery, Santana sleeps for twenty-two hours. She's eternally grateful for the blackout shades in her apartment, and for the bottle of melatonin beside her bed. She needs to make sure she's entirely rested, she needs to make sure she's on her game like never before. She's practiced in the lab since the twins were born, and now, sleep is all that can prepare her.
In the morning, Santana meets with Bruna and Fernando in the NICU. Though she doesn't typically partake in religious rituals, she takes the hand of the mother of these babies, as their father says the final prayers of a novena over their sleeping body. She finds herself praying too. For strength. For success. For the well being of this whole family she's come to know.
She's pumped when she gets into the operating room. She can't believe that if all goes well, Lucia and Maria will finally be separate from each other. Lucia won't have to worry about her sister, the stronger twin, taking the lion's share of the nutrients. They'll be able to grow and run and play. It's humbling, in a strange sort of way. Even though sometimes it feels like playing God, Santana also feels like her ultimate success is dependent on a higher power. Maybe it's the novena that's got her like this. She doesn't know.
Mostly, she works with Kurt on the liver. He has steady hands and a strong record, but she's more accustomed to working on tiny body parts. She can't pay much attention to what everyone else does. She has to worry about her own work, but one look at Holly tells her everything is going well.
By the time there finished, she's exhausted. Regular surgery is exhausting, but one like this, it's almost surreal. Seventeen hours have passed, but on the operating table, Lucia and Maria lay, very much alive, very much stable. She'd have worked for seventeen days, if she knew that would be the outcome, and when she leaves to find their parents, she can't describe the elation that courses through her. This is the proudest day of her career, her life probably, and though she briefly considers joining some of the other doctors at the bar for a drink, she opts, instead, for a shower and a bed.
In eight hours, she has to be back in the hospital. Once she grabs her bag from her office, she considers sleeping in an on call room, instead of going home. It would give her an extra forty minutes, at least. She could shower there, sleep, and then wake up and brush her teeth and just go right back to work. It seems like a great plan, until she opens the door, and sitting on the bed, is Dr. Pierce, with a small sleeping boy cradled in her arms.
"Oh, I—" Santana stammers, and Dr. Pierce looks up, startled. "I'm sorry, I—"
"Did you need something, Dr. Lopez?"
"No, I, um…" She catches a glimpse of the side of the boy's face, and her words stick inside of her throat at what she sees. "I just wanted to thank you, for today."
"You're welcome." Dr. Pierce nods slowly. "Goodnight."