It takes a few days for Max to get back to normal. Luckily Liam and Oliver don't get the virus but Santana doesn't go back to work until he's feeling better. Brittany, for her part, brings a lot of paperwork home with her so she doesn't stay at the hospital all night while Max is sick. Santana can tell that she's really overwhelmed and she wishes there was something she could do to help her. She figures that the only thing that'll actually be helpful is to not fight with her and after that night at the hospital, she doesn't even feel like she's mad at her anymore. It's just temporary, they'll get through it.
When Santana goes back to work, she has an overwhelming caseload. The surgical calendar in peds has been so full that no one could take her surgeries while she was out and she just has to do them all. She's halfway through her day when she gets a page that there's an emergency for her in the pit. She looks at the board and knows that she's going to have to push off an appendectomy until later in the day. It's not an emergency and if she can just deal with whatever is going on down there, she'll be able to have a clear head when she gets into her next surgery.
There was a car accident. She finds a little boy screaming with glass in his chest and he can't be much older than Liam. She wonders how in the hell he got so much glass in him being in the backseat, but then the paramedic tells her that his car seat wasn't buckled in properly and he was ejected through the front windshield. Marley Rose finds her sitting at his bedside making a surgical plan with her interns and Santana takes a breath, bracing for what's about to come next.
"Cecile Frank's appendix burst." She tells her. "Adams walked out of her surgery to deal with it. Dr. Corcoran wants to see you in her office."
"Goddamnit Rose, I'm in the middle of an emergency, it's gonna have to wait."
"Hey, I'm just the messenger. Tell Shelby I'll be in there after I remove eleven shards of glass from a five year old's chest. Whatever it is, it can wait."
She gets Thomas Harper up to the surgical floor and she's glad to find that Mercedes answered her cardio page. She's concerned about how close some off the glass is to the little boy's heart and she doesn't want to go in without backup. They scrub in together and luckily, the surgery goes off without a hitch. Still though, Santana makes a mental note to check all of the boys' car seats and she takes five minutes to grab a cup of coffee before she goes up to Shelby's.
"Santana." Shelby looks up from her desk. "Sit."
"Okay…"
"Did you push back Cecile Frank's surgery today?"
"Yeah, I—?"
"Did you know when you did that Dr. Adams was doing a hernia surgery that could have waited an hour?"
"It was an appendectomy, Shelby. I got paged to the pit for a kid who was massively internal bleeding because he had shards of glass sticking out of his body."
"And Cecile's appendix burst, almost killing her."
"I had to make a call."
"Well you made the wrong one." Shelby put her elbows on the desk. "Alexander Frank was threatening to sue us before Cecile was even in surgery and the hospital got a call from his lawyer about an hour ago."
"Shelby, we've all made wrong calls before."
"I know, but that doesn't mean I can protect you from this lawsuit. You're going to have to meet with legal and if they can't settle this out of court, you're probably going to have to testify."
"Testify to what?" Santana gasps.
"To the fact that in your expert opinion, you didn't believe Cecile Thomas was in any danger by having her surgery pushed back."
"I didn't. Is she…?"
"She's in recovery. Dr. Adams took care of it."
"Jesus. I'm sorry, Shelby, it was just going to be a couple of hours."
"It was a couple of hours too many. Look, I know you, I know you're a good doctor and I'll be by your side through the whole thing, okay?"
"Okay." Santana nods.
"You need to go up and meet with Brittany and legal."
"Brittany my wife?"
"Brittany the acting chief of surgery."
Santana feels like her world is tilting off its axis. She'd done what she thought was the right thing and now here she is, three hours later, in the midst of some kind of legal drama. She doesn't even know what is going to happen with Brittany being her wife and also in charge of the surgical department and even thinking about it as she gets in the elevator makes her head hurt. She goes to the conference room that Shelby sent her to and Brittany is sitting in there with a bunch of lawyers. Santana feels sick to her stomach as she sits down, wishing that Brittany could take her into her arms and tell her that it's going to be okay. But she can't. They both have to be professional right now and all they can spare is a quick glance across the table.
"Dr. Lopez, you understand why you're here?" One of the lawyers asks.
"I'm supposed to give my version of events so you can see if you can manage a settlement."
"Look, the last thing we want is a case against this hospital or a case against your medical license. We're here to prevent that."
"Okay." She nods, looking at Brittany, who also nods.
"So tell us what happened over the course of today."
"I've been catching up on my surgeries. We're down an attending in the department and I was out with my sick son for most of the week. I checked Cecile on my rounds this morning and she was stable, she was brought in overnight with stomach pains and assigned to me. When I got a page from the emergency room that I was needed, I pushed back Cecile's surgery two hours. There was no indication in her testing that her appendix would burst in that period of time. I had a patient in the ER who was thrown through the window in a car accident. He had massive shards of glass in his chest and I did a joint surgery with Dr. Jones in cardio."
"And Dr. Jones wasn't able to do that surgery on her own?"
"I'm a pediatric surgeon, I got the page. I needed to be in that room with her."
"And you're aware that Dr. Unique Adams had an opening in his schedule and could have taken Cecile's appendectomy?"
"I wasn't aware until after the fact. We've been so overbooked that I didn't even assume anyone had an opening. I was in a rush to get down to the ER."
"And would you have made the same call if you knew that Cecile's life was in danger?"
"No!" Santana protests "I only made the call I did because I was confident given her tests that she'd be fine, if not a little uncomfortable, for the next few hours."
"And what about your patient in the emergency room?"
"I…don't know. Look, the problem is that we're understaffed. You can spin it however you want but we need another pediatric surgeon."
"Dr. Pierce?" The lawyer turns to her and Santana's chest hurts.
"I'm only the acting chief of surgery, I can't make big budgetary decisions." Brittany tells them.
"When it impacts that standard of care at this hospital, you need to."
"I'll be in touch with Dr. Sylvester and Dr. Corcoran." Brittany affirms and Santana could tell she was trying not to look at her.
"We'll be in touch with you further, Dr. Lopez. Like I said earlier, we're going to try to settle out of court but it's still only hours past when we received notification from Mr. Thomas' lawyer. There's a possibility that you could be put on administrative leave pending a hearing."
"What? No! You can't do that!"
"Hospital policy. Again, we'll be in touch and do will Dr. Pierce."
"Fuck." Santana mutters under her breath, staving back tears. Her wife is going to have to suspend her, she could have a malpractice case against her, she could lose everything.
Without another word, Santana stands up and walks out of the conference room. All she wants to do is talk to her wife but she can't with all of these lawyers around. Instead, she goes back to her office, pumps her breasts and then puts her head down and cries. She still has two more surgeries before her day is over and she goes into the OR trying to keep herself together. When she is done with the second one, she goes back to her office and Brittany is standing outside.
"I'm coming home with you today." She says softly.
"Didn't I just make a fuck ton more paperwork for you?"
"I don't care. Tonight I'm your wife, not the acting chief of surgery. We'll talk more when we leave the hospital."
They are silent on their way out to the parking garage. When they get in the car, Santana lays her head against the passenger side window and sighs heavily. Brittany takes up her hand and squeezes it hard, assuring her that she's there.
"What if you have to suspend me?"
"I can't. HR is fully aware of our marriage, if they put you on leave, Shelby will be the one to do it. But Santana, you don't know how many things like this have come across my desk just in the last few weeks. The hospital doesn't want bad publicity, Roger Thomas wants money, they're going to settle out of court and you're going to be just fine."
"How can you be so sure? Horrible things happen to me."
"Good things happen to you too. I will do everything in my power to keep you from going through a court case."
"I can't lose my job, Britt."
"You're not going to lose your job. I spoke to Shelby, she knows damn well that you did what you had to do today. I've been there too, you put the more pressing patient first."
"It was a stupid appendectomy compared to a kid who got thrown through a windshield."
"I know." Brittany nods, pulling out of the garage. "I don't doubt you, honey."
Santana is quiet for the rest of the drive home. She's just obsessing and she needs to take her anxiety medication. The house is a mess when they walk in the door and Santana pinches the bridge of her nose. She doesn't expect her mother to spend the day cleaning up after Liam but the sight of the mess overwhelms her and she sinks down into the couch before she even goes to find the boys. Brittany gives her a concerned look but Santana just shakes her head before burying it in her hands.
"Mommy Noodle, do you have a headache?" Liam asks when he bounds into the room.
"I little bit, bud. I had a hard day at work."
"I made you a picture today. I even used glitter."
"You did?" Santana gathers him into her arms and holds him close. "My little guy."
"Ollie stopped screamin' so he won't hurt your head, don't worry."
"Ollie was screaming?"
"For a really, really long time. He didn't want to take a nap and then I couldn't take a nap and Maxie couldn't take a nap."
"Then I guess we're going to have to go to bed early tonight, huh?"
"We still have to eat dinner." He tells her as Brittany comes in holding Oliver and Maribel trails behind her with Max.
"I think we're just going to get pizza tonight, Li, and take baths while we wait for it to come. How about we give Mommy the night off? I think she deserves it."
"I can help, Britt."
"Just relax, you've been doing it all yourself. Have a glass of wine, lay on the couch, I've got this under control."
Santana doesn't protest. She says goodbye to her mother and goes in the kitchen to pour a glass of red. From upstairs, she can hear bath time going on but she sprawls out on the couch and watches a rerun of Friends while she pumps her breasts before she drinks anything. When the doorbell rings with the pizza, she goes to get it and she starts cutting up Liam's pizza before she makes plates for her and Brittany. She goes upstairs because she knows Brittany is putting the twins to bed and she kisses them goodnight, lingering a bit over them before she, Brittany and Liam go down to have dinner.
She lays on Liam's bed afterwards while Brittany reads to him and then she goes back to the couch, staring blankly at the television screen. No matter what Brittany says, she doesn't feel confident that this is going to be resolved. Everything is just a few hours old and it already feels like a mess, so she doesn't know what it will be like when the hospital gets the actual legal paperwork from the Thomases lawyer.
"Santana, did you take your medication?" Brittany asks, coming down from changing and sitting beside her.
"Yeah, I did."
"Honey, I know you're upset—"
"This has never happened to me before. I'm so careful all the time. My reputation…"
"It's happened to me." Brittany murmurs.
"It has?"
"Once, when I first got out of my residency. I did a skin graft on this woman's face and she ended up with a really nasty infection. I had no idea what was about to happen when I went into my department head's office."
"She sued?"
"She did. I was a mess for weeks, all I could see was my career going down the drain. I thought I was going to have a malpractice suit and my dreams of being the chief of surgery were going to go down the drain. The hospital settled for a half a million dollars. Everyone knew there was nothing I could have done to prevent it, but taking it to court would have done nothing but damage my reputation and the Brigham's. That's how I know the legal team at Columbia Pres is going to take care of this and you're not going to be caught up in it."
"I felt like I was in an interrogation room before. Like, if I didn't answer everything exactly right, I was going to lose my job."
"I know. I wish I could have been in there as your wife and not your chief."
"I'm glad you were in there at all. It's just…better when you're around."
"I'm here for you, always."
"I was totally shitty at the mom thing tonight."
"You weren't. You've had your hands full with these kids for weeks, you deserved a night off."
"Does this mean you're going to have to work really late tomorrow?" Santana asks.
"It might. I think I'm going to go in early, try to get some things done before the chaos of the day starts. I have to talk to Shelby and Sue about hiring someone in your department."
"Shelby has been trying to get Sue to let her do it for awhile."
"Well I think the word lawsuit will convince her that it's time. You shouldn't have been put in the position you were put in today. If we want to be the best hospital in the world, we need to hire like we are."
"You're really good at being the chief."
"I honestly have no idea what I'm doing." Brittany laughs a little.
"Yes you do. You're good at it, take the compliment."
"We'll see what Sue thinks when she gets back."
"You're a shoe in for the job someday. The whole hospital knows it."
"There hasn't been a plastic surgeon as chief of surgery in fifty years."
"There hasn't been a plastic surgeon like you iever./i"
"I love you for saying that."
"I only say what I mean."
Brittany and Santana go up to bed and after Brittany revealed her own past, Santana slept a little better than she would have otherwise. Brittany is gone when Santana gets up to nurse the boys at 5:30 and as much as she hates waking up alone, she hopes that it means she won't have to go to bed alone. She makes breakfast for her and Liam and dreads going into work where she's going to have to deal with more of the fallout from yesterday.
"Was everything okay yesterday?" Her mother asks when she gets there.
"Not really. Someone is suing the because I pushed back their daughter's appendectomy to do an emergency surgery and then her appendix burst. I'm going to have to deal with a bunch of crap until it's settled."
"Mija, that's terrible. Is your job okay?"
"I guess so. I don't really know anything yet, I gave a statement to the legal team yesterday so we'll see what happens. You know, it just pisses me off. I had a botched boob job and that man kept his job for how many years. I save a kid's life and this is where I am."
"Your father never would have let us sue."
"Yeah, because he's an asshole and the reason why I had the surgery in the first place."
"I'm not disagreeing with you there. If only—"
"Ma, we don't have to rehash it. You were as much of a victim as I was."
"You're still my child."
"It's behind us, okay?" Santana begs her to drop it, not really wanting to add talking about the trauma of her childhood to a day that was already bound to be stressful. "I have to run, the last thing I need is to be late."
Santana kisses Liam and the twins goodbye and makes her way to the hospital. She half expects her name to be off the surgical board when she gets there, but it isn't and after she does her rounds, she scrubs in for her first surgery. She is glad to have Heyward on her service so she doesn't have to act like a babysitter and after the first surgery, she gets her a cup of coffee.
Lunch? Mercedes texts her and Santana realizes that's exactly what she needs.
She does one more surgery and then heads up to Mercedes' office. She's engrossed in some file and Santana taps on the door frame alerting her of her arrival.
"Let's get the hell out of this hospital." Mercedes closes the file and Santana nods in agreement.
They go to the little Thai restaurant around the corner and Santana orders noodles and cheese rolls. She'd barely been able to keep down dinner last night so she realizes that she's really hungry.
"So I might be getting sued." She tells Mercedes, sipping her iced tea. "Because of our surgery yesterday."
"What? He's doing fine, I checked on him this morning."
"Yeah, not by his family. I pushed back an appendectomy to do the surgery and the kid's appendix burst."
"Well how were you supposed to know that was going to happen?"
"Exactly." Santana rolls her eyes. "I had to meet with legal last night and Brittany was there and I've gotta tell you, kinda fucking sucks when your wife is the chief."
"Can she do anything?"
"If I get suspended she's not going to do it. Conflict of interest or whatever. She thinks they'll settle out of court."
"All these people ever want is money, she's probably right."
"I'm distracted." Santana confesses. "I've never been distracted in my career before, but I know that I am. Coming back from Max being sick, I've been worried Oliver is next. I don't know if it's throwing me off my game or what."
"It absolutely is not. I was in surgery with you yesterday, you're completely on point. So surgery isn't the sole focus of your life anymore, I've been telling you for years that was unhealthy."
"It just feels weird to me. I mean remember those times where I wouldn't leave the hospital for days?"
"Yeah, completely sick. Shelby threw you out of the on call room on more than one occasion."
"Don't get me wrong, I love being a mom, I just want to make sure I'm still a great surgeon too."
"You're one of the best. We all know that Brittany is going to be chief of surgery one day and I don't see you being head of your department because you hate paperwork but that doesn't mean you won't be one of the best peds surgeons in the country."
"So you really don't think I'm losing my touch?"
"I know you're not. You're just learning balance."
After lunch, Santana feels a little less unsettled. She does her afternoon surgeries and she's glad she doesn't get called to Shelby's office. When her shift is over, she goes to Brittany's office and finds her swamped with paperwork. She sits down across from her desk and grabs her hand over the mess that's between them.
"I'm ready for Sue to come back now." Brittany says honestly. "I need like ten more years before I'm ready to handle this. I haven't done a surgery in two days…"
"Babe."
"The crap that goes on in surgical is insane. I'm still running plastics while I'm doing this, no human being should have this much paperwork."
"Mercedes made the point at lunch today that I'll never be the head of my department because I hate paperwork so much."
"You're also a brilliant surgeon."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Santana offers.
"I wish." Brittany sighs. "But you should get home to the boys. I'm really going to try and get out of here in the next hour."
"When is Sue even going to give you an estimate of when she's coming back?"
"She promised me that this week she'd know. She knows everything that's going on with you, so I think she feels a sense of urgency to get back so I'm not put in a compromising position, but it also depends on her mom."
"I feel like…we still never really got to talk about everything after we had that fight."
"I know." Brittany nods. "With Max getting sick and then all this new stuff, it hasn't felt like the time."
"Can we maybe try tonight? I don't like feeling like there's something between us."
"I'll be home as soon as I can, then we can talk about anything you want."
Santana kisses Brittany goodbye and then she drives home. Things are actually calm at the house when she gets there and she thanks her mom before taking over. She nurses the twins and then starts dinner. Liam sits at the table playing with his trains and he talks away to her about his day. She loves hearing about all of the things he did with her mom and she tries to listen intently while she breads chicken cutlets and cooks rice. She's just getting dinner on the table when Brittany walks in the door and she's so glad that she'll actually be able to eat with them for a second night in a row.
"Mama!" Liam runs to her. "You came home!"
"I did." She smiles. "I miss having dinner with my boys."
"And your Mommy Noodle."
"And my Mommy Noodle. Babe, what can I do to help?"
"Nothing." Santana pulls the chicken out of the oven. "Everything's ready, I was just about to move Max and Oliver off the table."
"Let me see you guys." Brittany picked up Oliver's seat and kissed him before setting it on the floor, then did the same to Max. "You two are getting sleepy."
"It's because it's almost bedtime, Mama."
"That's true, it is. You better eat up your dinner quick so we can take a nice long bath."
"And then books!"
"Definitely then books."
Max squawks a little during dinner, so Brittany picks him up and holds him while she eats. When they are finished, Liam helps load the dishes in the dishwasher and then they go up to start bath time. They bathe the twins together and then Santana takes them in the bedroom to get their pajamas on and nurse while Brittany takes care of Liam. When she is finished and Max and Oliver are asleep, Santana goes into Liam's room for the tail end of his book time. She kisses him goodnight and they leave him with his nightlight on before going out into the hallway.
"How about a bath?" Brittany suggests and Santana nods, following her into their bathroom.
After the tub is run and Brittany gets in, Santana slips in in front of her and leans back in her arms. She can feel even from the front that Brittany is tight and tense and she hopes the hot water will do her some good.
"We're okay, right?" Santana asks.
"We're okay." Brittany nods. "I know you want to talk, but as far as I'm concerned, we resolved everything."
"I just get scared sometimes. I feel like I'm off balance without you and those first few weeks when you were working like crazy were really hard on me. I want you to be the chief of surgery when your time comes and I promise I'll be better about it."
"Thank you for that. It's also a lot on you having the three kids alone after you work a full day, I get it."
"You managed to be a single mom and a department head at the same time."
"You forget that I had Liam in day care at the hospital. He was fed there, he slept there, it was a little different. Most nights, I would pick him up and put him asleep into the car. I know his life is better now that we don't have to do that and I love you so much for what an amazing mom you are."
"We're going to have to figure out what to do when I go on overnights in two weeks." Santana blushes at the compliment, but since she's not very good at taking them, changes the subject.
"I'm hoping Sue will be back by then, but if not, maybe my mom can come down from Boston and stay here. I don't want to put everything on your mom and expect her to stay late every night."
"Yeah, that might work. I kind of regret that I'm doing that shift since it's so much harder now with three kids, but Shelby asked me to…"
"Hard to believe you used to love the overnights, huh?"
"That was before I had kids whose bedtime I cared about being home for. Sorry, I'm not saying you don't…"
"I know you're not." Brittany nods. "I was really happy to be home for bedtime the last two nights. I miss my snuggle time with Li and being able to help bathe Max and Oliver. And I especially miss going to bed with you. When I come home late, you look so beautiful all curled up and I never want to wake you up to take you into my arms."
"I wouldn't complain if you did. It's hard to fall asleep when my head isn't on your chest."
"I didn't want this to be so hard on our family."
"I know." Santana sighs. "Being a surgeon in general is difficult with a family."
"I'm glad to be doing it with you though."
"So am I, Britt. So am I."