=1= Seattle, Queen Anne, Meredith's House
The day after the hospital shooting, Meredith sat on the swing on her front porch with her legs up early in the morning to appreciate the sunrise. Her internal clock was very much still on east coast time, and she couldn't really sleep after yesterday's incident. She soon came face to face with the postman with today's newspaper. Weirdly, the postal worker eyed her strangely for a while, and then broke out into a small smile and wished her good morning before taking off. After the strange interaction, Meredith looked at the stack of paper in her hands and realized why she was receiving second glances. Across the title page of the today's Seattle Times splattered the bold title of "Veteran Trauma Surgeons Put a Stop to Brutal Shooting at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital". Beneath it, her photo when she was awarded the Superior Civilian Service Award in Landstuhl and George's headshot in Army Green Service Uniform were right in the middle of the page. Meredith sighed and planted her face in her hands. This was so not how she wanted to wrap up her vacation. She knew that with this coverage, by mid-day, her phone was going to ring non-stop once the news reaches the east coast. Plus, she still wasn't used to her name affiliated with that hospital.
Cristina quietly opened the main door behind her and plopped down next to her, wrapped in a brown knit blanket. She opened the blanket and enveloped Meredith in it as well. Cristina then stuck one arm out of the warm cover to rub her eyes in the soft morning light to wake herself up. Once her eyes focused on the newspapers, she bursted out into laughter. "God, Mer. You always have such good publicity. The first time with Jackson and Sneezy at the soccer field, it's like you're cursed or something."
"Hmph." Meredith sniggered next to her, "I really don't try."
Behind them, George stumbled out of the door in his pyjamas and sat down next to Meredith on her other side.
"Can't sleep?" Meredith asked, putting her head on his broader, and more muscular shoulder.
George mumbled, "Military training, jet lag and a time difference."
Cristina waved the paper excitedly in his face, "George, you're famous!" George grunted, snatched the news print off her hands, scanned it, and let out a painful groan. "Ugh, mom is gonna see this. That's not good."
"You haven't talked to her about the shooting yet?" Meredith asked, surprised.
"Come on, I came back from the war zone to go home only to shoot a man who was pointing a gun at me in the knees." George scoffed, "She is worried about my deployment enough as it is, and now to have this at the hospital? Even though to be fair, the shooter was pointing the gun at you." He nudged Meredith in the ribs with his elbow lightly.
"Yeah, I think it was because I was wearing scrubs. He was looking for doctors." Meredith contemplated, drumming her fingers on her lap.
"Have you told anyone yet?" George asked.
"I texted Jackson and Helen after I got back, telling them I am completely fine, not a hair out of place, but no details. They hadn't replied yet, I'm gonna assume that's because it was late on the east coast, otherwise my phone would be ringing right now."
George laughed softly, "Do you plan to tell them the details?"
"Oh god no. Definitely no. Especially not when you brought him down. Our plan was so sketchy and full of holes. I couldn't believe we pulled that off." Meredith chuckled. "It could have so backfired."
"What did you guys do exactly?" Cristina questioned. ignoring the pun Meredith intended. She was working on one of Teddy's post-op at the time of the shooting in the cardiac ward, so she hadn't been privy to the details.
"I shut the lights and ducked, while George shot him exactly when I turned off the lights. I was confident George had a stable enough aim to hit him out of the blue." Meredith explained, "Which he did. Disabled the shooter with one bullet." Meredith turned to look at her friend with a proud smile.
Cristina whistled, "Not bad! Guess we'd have to really call you double-o-seven now."
"It's not exactly what I planned." George cleared his throat beside the women and explained, "I was aiming at his elbow, on the arm he was holding his gun with, but I guess he flinched when he couldn't see, so I hit him in the knee instead. But luckily the pain was so debilitating it knocked the weapon out of his hand."
"Oh that makes me feel much better." Meredith rolled her eyes playfully, "That you didn't intentionally shoot him where it hurts the most."
"Yeah, that was a well deserved, and well appreciated incident, isn't it?" Cristina commented, "Serves the sick bastard right." Her hand pointed to that of the copy of the newspaper resting on Meredith's lap. "Mer, you know this isn't the first time you were mentioned in Seattle Times?"
"It wasn't?" Meredith flashed her eyebrows in surprise.
"You were mentioned when you were nominated for Harper Avery. You were featured when you won, and then again when you were awarded the Superior Civilian Service Award, all three times as a 'veteran' physician at SGMW. That's where the images come from. They reused it."
Meredith mused, "Ugh. I guess I shouldn't be surprised about my appearance on local newspaper then."
At the heel of her words, Lexie found them out on the porch, stepped out, and sat on the ground with her legs cross, back leaning against Meredith's legs.
"Wow," Meredith feigned shock, "A house of early birds."
"More like a house of early residents. None of the attendings are up yet." Lexie commented yawning. After bathing in the orange sun rays at sunrise for a few minutes, she seemed awake enough. "Meredith! You did amazing in that craniotomy! How did you know where to cut without imaging?" She pulled her older sister's pyjama pants excitedly.
Meredith chuckled, "I operated on many GSWs at Hopkins, Lexie. You learn by experience how to estimate the bullet trajectory by looking at the entry and exit wound. It entered right here, between her eyebrows on the forehead." She lifted her long, cold fingers onto Lexie's head to trace Reed's injury for better explanation. "Then it exited with a clean wound on the top of her skull to the left. When she was bleeding, the blood flowed out, not shooting out." She dragged her hand through her sister's soft brunette curls lightly and slowly, making Lexie shiver a little on contact. She closed her eyes and focused on her sister's deft finger moving on the top of her head. "This tells me that the bullet left a clean track, no wobbling in the brain, no additional explosion. And the track likely just passed through the frontal lobe on the left hemisphere, where there aren't important brain structures. So I suspected it just clipped a vessel based on the amount of blood loss. So I made an initial bone flap to make sure I got it all." She drew a rectangle about 16 centimetre long along Lexie's scalp, "I worked with my hands, no instruments, once I got in and cleared the sharp bone fragments. Direct contact gives me the most delicate touch and the quickest access."
"That's amazing!" Lexie turned around to look at her sister, her eyes shining. "I was watching from the gallery. It was full of people, like, there was barely any standing space, and it was dead quiet. It felt eerily like they were all spellbound by your mastery." She playfully winked.
"They were probably scared, Lex." Meredith corrected her, "It could very much be any of them getting shot point blank."
"Oh, come on! You think of them too highly." Cristina snorted, "They are not that serious, especially knowing both Alex and Reed were out of the woods. Some of the nurses had a betting tool going on saying you can out-operate Shepherd right now." She smirked.
"Ugh. The infamous betting pool, as if I still care." Meredith mocked, her hands continued to stroke through Lexie's hair. "Lexie, you'll get there one day, too. You're choosing neuro as your specialty, aren't you?"
Lexie nodded, "Yeah, next year, when fourth years comes around."
Meredith nudged Cristina, "What are your year's residents' specialties? I know you're headed for cardio, so no problem about that."
"You can just say you're curious about what Alex choose, you know?" Cristina grinned, "Evil Spawn surprised all of us by going into neonatal. Arizona released him to Nicole Herman a couple months back, and I think he's pretty set on the Gynie Brigade."
"Wow!" Meredith exclaimed in shock.
"Then for our shift, there are three Mercy West residents. Charles Percy, I think you've met him once at Hopkins. He's a complete idiot and he's dead set on neuro. Then there is Reed Adamson, the red head you saved. I think she was going for paeds or ortho? And then April Kepner, Adamson's best friend, she is going for neuro, too, I think. I'm not too sure about them, there is still half a year for official declaration, so they could change." Cristina shrugged.
"Meredith, there is something I want to ask you." Lexie poked Meredith's calf lightly as Meredith zoned out at the sight of the sun climbing higher in the sky, "Do you have any surgery tapes I can watch? I heard them all talking about Ellis Grey's surgery tapes, but you brought them with you to Baltimore and she was a general surgeon anyways. I'd like to learn from your tapes." She looked at her sister nervously, afraid she crossed the line.
Meredith was silent for a moment, contemplating her choices. She agreed, and let a soft smile crept up onto her lips, "Sure, I have some neurosurgery ones at Roseridge. I bet mom wasn't reviewing them as much as the general or paediatric surgery ones. I'll bring a few back for you."
"Oh thank you, thank you!" Lexie sprung up on her feet excitedly. "I can't wait!"
Cristina snickered, "Another fangirl eating out of your hand, Mer."
"Oh shut up." Meredith rolled her eyes playfully in response.
=2= Boston Children's Hospital
Meredith was soon summoned back to Boston by the Averys after the news of the hospital shooting made it to New England. Between then and her start day at Boston Children's, Meredith saw Jackson off to New York, and visited her uncle, Matthew Harrington, who moved to Boston five years prior and now worked as the chief of paediatric orthopaedic surgery at Boston Children's and his wife, Gemma Harrington, in his townhouse in Beacon Hill. Now the time had come for Meredith herself to make a debut at her new hospital.
On her first day, she picked up her scrubs, lab coat, welcome package, pager, hospital badge and ID from human resources, and was told to wait for someone to pick her up. Standing on the third floor of the main building, Meredith looked out of the glass door of the HR office and eagerly took in her surroundings. It was her first time working in a hospital geared specifically to children, and she immediately picked up the differences. Many walls were painted different colours, alternating between soft pastels in public hallways and offices, vibrant colours for the play areas, and dark tones for the waiting rooms. Children's books, plushies, pacifiers and various toys can be easily spotted on nurses' stations and information desks. Televisions in public areas played mainly cartoons and teen's TV shows. Various children's art work hang on the walls, and even visually stunning, large scale Disney murals appeared in unexpected places. There were a lot of floor to ceiling windows, letting in sufficient natural lights on a sunny day like today.
A soft female voice greeted Meredith, causing her to turn around. Behind her, stood a tall, lean, older woman dressed in a light blue suit dress holding a manila folder in her hands.
"Hi, you must be Dr. Harrington-Grey." The woman reached out her hand with a smile, "I'm Kimberly Hayek, the assistant to the hospital's chief of staff, Dr. Kyrian Bettencourt. Dr. Bettencourt asked me to give you a tour of the hospital before you start, given that you've never visited our facility during the interview process. This way."
Meredith shook her hand, and followed Kimberly down the hallway.
"Dr. Harrington-Grey, I'm aware that you grew up in Boston, but it was on the other side of town, so I'll start the introduction from the basics. Boston Children's Hospital is the most prominent paediatric hospital in New England. We have multiple locations in Massachusetts, but this main location, sits in a campus called the Longwood Medical Area. We are affiliated with Harvard Medical School right next door on the right, and we are their primary paediatric program. We work closely with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute up north and the Brigham and Women's Hospital down the street. There are bridges connected to these two facilities on the third, sixth and ninth floor in the main building. Even though not comparable to the scale of your last hospital, we are still a pretty massive facility for a children's hospital, one of the largest in the nation, actually. We house 500 beds, about half of Hopkin's capacity. But in a city filled with hospitals, Mass Gen is the only one that even matches Hopkins' capacity remotely, which I'm sure you're familiar with." Kimberly chuckled and looked at Meredith, earning a nod as confirmation from her audience.
The two of them had now gotten back down to the main entrance at this point. Kimberly pointed to the emergency department across from the entrance, "Our ED accepts patients from birth through 21 years of age, and our annual capacity is about 60,000, 20% of which is trauma. We are a level one regional paediatric trauma centre, and the largest paediatric E.D. in the states. The E.D. has its own x-ray and CT machine geared to kids. You're the only one scoring the John Shillito Paediatric Neurosurgery fellowship this year, so you'll be the departments crown jewel, but we have six other surgical fellows. Each of you will take turns to run the E.D. once a week. You would also have to lead one of the two service teams, the Gross, and the Ladd, as the chief paediatric surgery fellow. The service team will be comprised of general surgery senior residents who rotate from area hospitals, two general surgery interns, 18 nurse practitioners 2 to 3 critical care surgical fellows, and 8 to10 surgical research fellows. Now we're standing in the lobby in the main building, Berthiaume Family Building, it's home to the emergency medicine department, and four trauma O.R.s. The four original hospital structures are all to its left. Going from north to south starting on Longwood Avenue, they are Hunnewell, Farley, Pavilion, and Bader buildings. Hunnewell houses administrative and clinicians' offices as well as the primary care clinic. Psychology, adolescent and developmental medicine, genetics, immunology, infections disease, nephrology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, hematology and nutrition, general paediatrics, gynaecology, and new born medicine are in Farley. Sports medicine, orthopaedics, physical and occupational therapy, and rehab are in Pavilion. Ophthalmology, otolaryngology, plastics and oral surgery, and urology are in Bader. You probably wouldn't remember any of this, but your welcome packet has a map and floor directory so you can refer to it until you're familiar with it. You would mainly be hanging out in the newer buildings on the right side closer to Binney Street though."
They took a right turn and boarded the elevators. "We've expanded several times in the past decade. The main building now has an 11-story extension called the main south building. We then built this Mandell building with Payette. Only 55% of its footprint sits on grade. Its upper eight stories are cantilevered 65 feet over the the original 2-story main building so our E.D. and original O.R.s could stay open during the construction. The interconnected three-building complex houses majority of our single bed inpatient rooms. The first floor has a chapel and spiritual care unit. Neuroimaging suites are on B2, and radiology is below that. Our patient wards are equipped with activity rooms on every floor, patient entertainment centre, and a family kitchen on B1." They exited on the sixth floor and trudged through many corridors and doors. "Now we're in Fegan building for neurology and neurosurgery. It's a smaller building sandwiched between Farley and Hunnewell, its ninth floor houses the office for paediatric neurosurgery department. We're heading there now, so you can see your own office in person." Kimberly smiled as Meredith widened her eyes in shock. She lead Meredith into the elevator and pressed 9. She continued to explain as the elevator climbed floors, "Fegan's other floor houses many clinical centres under neurosurgery and neurology, including the brain injury centre, brain tumour centre, epilepsy centre, cleft and craniofacial centre, spinal bifida and spinal cord conditions centre, vascular anomalies centre, programs for cerebral palsy, cerebrovascular surgery and interventions, complex cervical spine, hydrocephalus, medulloblastoma, moyamoya, neurofibromatosis, and tethered spinal cord. Fegan's basement floor has the only food court in the hospital, so it should be quite convenient for you. By the way, your meal plan has already been loaded onto your I.D. card. You can use it whenever you're ready."
Kimberly stopped in front of Room 917, and pressed a silver key into Meredith's palm. "It's yours." Meredith looked around, surprisingly found out her office was right across the hall from the office of her supervisor, chief paediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Callum Becket. After recovering from the shock, she nervously unlocked the wooden door. It was a decently-sized room with a big window facing the south, a closet, a filing cabinet, a book case, a mini fridge, a large desk with two monitors, a laptop, a chest of draws, a leather swivel chair, a fabric couch, a love seat, and a coffee table. Everything looked plain and simple, basics for an office, but Meredith couldn't feel more happy. She could already see herself pulling late nights here. She slowly moved passed the threshold into the office, as if more vigorous movements will pop her bubble. However, she couldn't contain the uncharacteristic squeal escaping her mouth when she found a small private shower in the attached bathroom. She ran out to Kimberly standing in the hallway and asked with sparkle in her eyes and that excited small girl expression on her face. "Are you sure you didn't mix this up, or make any mistakes? It was never mentioned in the offer that I could get an office of my own."
Kimberly grinned widely, "We wanted to give you a good surprise, Dr. Harrington-Grey, as an appreciation that you picked us amongst all the prestigious programs chasing you. I set this up the day you signed your offer."
"Oh, Kimberly, thank you so much. I love it! You really didn't have to do it. You guys are my first choice anyways." Meredith replied genuinely, gazing into Kimberly's brown eyes.
"Oh, I'm flattered." Kimberly beamed, "Let's just settle this at a mutual appreciation, then. Why don't you put your stuff down and change into your scrubs before we continue? I'll be able to stick this plaque on your door in the mean time. It got here today." She took out a thin plastic plaque from her folder.
Meredith nodded, went into her office, and drew the blinds. She changed into her indigo scrub and crisp white lab coat. She put her hair into a fishtail braid, clipped her pager and badge on her waistband and pinned her I.D onto her lab coat pocket. She didn't have time to stich on the new cartoon animal embroidery patches Arizona gave her in Seattle, so she settled for putting one of her aunt's crochet bunny plush in her lab coat pocket. A few minutes later, she emerged out of her office, finding her name plaque glued square in the centre of the door. Kimberly flashed her eyebrows, and lead her down the hall. She continued her tour. "Fegan is also connected to our newest expansion project, the 12 story Hale Family Building through a skybridge on the thrid, sixth and a ninth level. The Hale building is the main surgical wing, The first floor is the main pharmacy, pathology, clinical lab and sterile processing are in the basement. Second to fourth floor is for cardiology and cardiac surgery, cath lab is there, too. Fifth to eighth levels are for general and complex paediatric surgery. Seventh floor is a garden, our transplant centre, and surgical attendings lounge, you have access to that through your badge, too. Eighth, and ninth floor houses our NICU, PICU, surgery intensive care unit (SICU), neuro-ICU, cardiac ICU, post anesthesia care unit (PACU) and pre operative care unit (POCU). On tenth and eleventh floor we have our 14 state-of-the-art operating rooms. There is also a roof top garden on the 12th floor. Because you will probably be working with Brigham's, you need to know that they also have a Hale Transformative Medicine Building on Fenway Street. Their neurosurgery and neuroscience research centre are located there, about two blocks down. The Hale family donated fifty million for each building, so just make sure you don't mix them up." Kimberly made a face, "By the way, we have something called laughter league every week. Trained clowns costumed as doctors and nurses visit selected patient care units and intensive care units to entertain, and play with them. So don't freak out when you see them even though they've been made not creepy nor scary. That reminds me of something!" She slapped her forehead lightly mid sentence, "You have a dog, right?"
Meredith replied, "Yes, she is an Australian Shepherd."
"We also have an animal assisted activity program called Pawprints supported by Petsmart Charities. We recruit dogs to visit children in inpatient units and outpatient clinics, to provide patients and their families with a healthy diversion from the usual hospital routine and an opportunity for social interaction. You can help your dog apply. If she passes the criteria, she will be trained as either as service dog or a therapy dog. When she passes the training, she works two days a week, about four hours each day. The rest of the time she's not working, she could play with 20 other dogs in the program in doggie daycare."
Meredith seemed pleasantly surprised. She paused, "Hmm, sure, I will consider that."
"Alright", Kimberly began again, "The Pawprint program contact info is in your welcome package as well. You can give the coordinator a call when you're ready. Now moving on to the research facilities. North to the main entrance, we have the 11-floor Karp Family Centre for Clinical Research, one of the oldest, and largest NIH-funded clinical research centres, and the John F. Enders Research Lab. It houses the stem cell transplantation centre, the most prized, and advanced stem cell therapy research centre in the world." Kimberly stopped, and thought for a while. "I think that about concludes our tour, something else. Nearly all our attending-level physicians hold teaching positions at Harvard Medical School. It helps build their teaching experience towards tenured professor positions. It's unusually early to start as a fellow, but Harvard didn't want to let you slip by. So they've wanted to recruit you as an instructor for six month, then promote you to assistant professor upon successful completion. Their detailed offer and contract are in your welcome package. You can call them if you want to negotiate. After you sign, you can hand it to me, I'll help you forward them." Kimberly checked her watch. "I believe you have a meeting with Dr. Bettencourt, Dr. Becket, and chief of paediatric surgery, Dr. Anthony Leong in the chief's office in 15 minutes. Do you want me to walk you to his office?"
Meredith nodded, and they headed to the Hunnewell building.
As the two of them trudge pass the cafeteria, other surgical fellows starting on the same day watched them. A stalky redheaded general paediatric fellow called Andrew Moskovitz scoffed in jealousy, "Look at the chief rolling out the red carpet for her. First double fellowship ever, and she has her own office in the neuro wing! Even Harvard was preaching her to teach two years early! What, they think she walks on water?!" The other fellows listened intently to his outburst in silence, many of them curious about his statement but did not say a word.
"Chill off, Moskovitz. What can you say, double board certification, accelerated residency in three years at the best teaching hospital, a Harper Avery, a Superior Civilian Service Award, and she has multiple publications on high-impact journals under her belt. She deserves the star treatment. I heard CHOP offered to hire her as an attending." Gelareh Zadeh, the only fellow starting in the paediatric cardiovascular surgery fellowship defended Meredith.
"Come on." Moskovitz huffed, "Her family practically owns the University of Pennsylvania health network. It's so easy for her to get into CHOP. Her mother is Ellis Grey. She was born into generations of surgical royalty. One of her families drops a crumb of resources through their fingers and boom, she becomes this surgical child prodigy. It's all nepotism I say."
Gelareh rolled her eyes, "God, you're so stupid. CHOP isn't part of UPenn Medicine. I went there for my internship before my residency at Mayo, I would know. Ugh, don't say I didn't remind you idiot, you don't want to get on her bad side, and you certainly wouldn't want to be her enemy."
Moskovitz made a disgusted face, "Kiss her ass, Zadeh, why don't you? You wait until I kick her ass."
Gelareh snorted and walked back towards the E.D., having had enough stupidity for the day.
After the meeting with her two bosses and the chief of staff, Meredith retreated back to her office to finish the remaining double fellowship and new hire paper work as well as going over the hospital's protocols. Around lunch time, she finished reading and signed everything off, including her Harvard teaching contract. She got the paperwork back to Kimberly and went back to her office. Catherine made the Avery family chef pack her week worth of lunch and delivered them to her penthouse apartment across the street from Dana Farber the night before and she pleasantly enjoyed the fresh green goddess salad. She looked around the room and took a few pictures of her office to her Seattle gang, Jackson, Amelia, Catherine, Helen and Clarissa with a caption of "My Own Office and my Harvard contract" and a side smiley face with many layers of chins.
Not waiting for a reply, she rinsed the Tupperware container in the bathroom sink and went down to the E.D. Crossing the threshold, she got a couple smiles from patients and parents for her bunny doll tucked in her front pocket. She flipped its ears playfully to elicit a larger grin as she walked by. Soon, her eyes were caught by three doctors standing in front of an outraged mother. The mom demanded loudly, "You are doing nothing, and you dismiss us just like Tufts and Urgent Care. I'm not gonna let you push me around. You either don't care about my son, or you don't believe me. You suck! I don't want you as my doctor, now get me another one!"
Meredith soon walked towards them, reached out a hand to introduce herself to the mother. "Hi, I'm Dr. Harrington-Grey, could you please let me know what was wrong?"
The young mother clutched Meredith's hand, looked up at her with large watery blue eyes, held her forehead with another hand, and sobbed uncontrollably. One of the doctors dressed in light blue scrubs replied nervously, and the other two looked at her with the deer in headlights look while their mouth hang agape. "Hi Dr. Harrington-Grey, I'm Heather Brooks, I'm a first year resident, I'm subbing in for third year resident Dr. Bessie Hughes, these are her interns. Dr. Qadri and Dr. Helm."
"Dhalia Qadri." The girl with darker skin soon snapped out of the daze and responded. The other girl with fairer skin and blonde hair soon added as if she didn't want to be left behind, "Taryn Helm, great pleasure to see you, Dr. Harrington-Grey."
Meredith patted the mother in front of her lightly for comfort and looked at the younger doctors strangely, "I was asking about the patient. But, ok. Now can you tell me what happened?"
The young mother stopped, straightened herself and wiped away her tears. She glared at the resident and interns, "I'm Casey Hedges, this is my son Parker. He is 5. He had been having a fever above 103 for more than a week. It dipped a little four days ago, I thought it was getting better, then it came back up with a rash on his belly. I couldn't get a paediatrician's appointment for another two weeks. I went to Urgent Care, they said it was a bad case of virus infection. I went to Tufts, and they referred me to you, said you guys are the best paediatric facility in the country. I came with him two days ago. This one over here," She gestured Brooks, "ran some tests and said it was strep, gave him some medicine and sent us on our merry little way."
Brooks quietly added, "Omoxacillin. I prescribed him omoxacillin, that's the antibiotic treatment protocol."
"Then last night, his fever was higher, and he is still weak, and he couldn't eat, not even potato chips! He used to be very energetic, and now he can barely sit up. Please believe me when I say something is wrong." The mother pleaded desperately.
Before Meredith could reply, a stalky redhead cladded in indigo scrubs walked in with another doctor donning a lab coat. They stopped before Parker's bed, practically ignored the four other doctors, and spoke straight to the distraught young mother.
The older doctor introduced himself, "Hi, Casey, I'm Dr. Peters. I'm here to help you."
Casey seemed relieved she was getting her request of new doctors confirmed, and repeated her debriefing to the new doctor. At the heel of her words, Dr. Peters asked her, "How about you, do you get enough sleep at all?"
Casey replied angrily, "Of course not! I told you he was up all night!"
"And it's just you, no husband, no boyfriend, or partner?" He continued questioning.
"It's just me." Casey crossed her arms in front of her chest defensively and shook her head, pain evident in her eyes.
"Well, that's a lot of pressure on you—"
His words was cut off by Casey and Meredith. The young mother fought back angrily, "Are you a shrink? You think I'm crazy? You think I skipped work and dragged my kid to the E.R. for fun?!" while Meredith asked Brooks incredulously, "You brought in a psychiatrist for a parent in distress?"
Brooks answered timidly and pointed the stalky redhead standing next to Dr. Peters, "I consulted Dr. Andrew Moskovitz, he's a surgical fellow in the paediatric general surgery program."
Andrew stepped up, and greeted Meredith with a cocky, lopsided smile, "Dr. Harrington-Grey, I think this is a psych case."
Meredith furrowed her eyebrows, "So you're saying you think her son's illness are made up. You don't think he's sick, Dr. Moskovitz?"
Moskovitz replied smugly, "No, he clearly has a strange strain of strep, the mom is just worried out of her mind."
"So you don't think this is surgical, or even worthy of other treatment?" Meredith quirked an eyebrow and looked at him pointedly.
"It sounds bad when you say it like that. But eventually, yes." Moskovitz confirmed smugly.
"Fine then, I will give Casey a referral to see a psychiatrist at Mass Gen when we're finished here. You're a paediatric psychiatrist, aren't you, Dr. Peters?" Meredith turned to look at Dr. Peters. Seeing him nodding, Meredith continued, "Then wouldn't it be better for her to see an adult psychiatrist at the hospital with the best psychiatric care? And you, Dr. Moskovitz, you are off this case."
"Excuse me?!" Moskovitz questioned disbelievingly, his voice rising, "How dare you—"
"I'm gonna stop you right there." Meredith replied calmly, placing a finger over her lips before continuing, "I'm not pulling rank. I'm merely suggesting that you clearly don't think there is anything more you could do for our paediatric patient, but I do. So it's my case now. Go to Dr. Leong for all I care, Dr. Moskovitz. And I received training from the hospital with the best psychiatry department in the whole country, I've seen it, and it's not a psych case. Now, please walk away from my patient."
Moskovitz stormed off while Dr. Peters just strode away.
Meredith shot Casey a comforting smile, and asked, "Brooks, when you order the strep test, was it a rapid test or was it a culture test?"
"It was a rapid test."
"Rapid tests give off false positives easily. Have pathology run a culture. Admit him, and, order a spinal tap. If you can, put a rush to it. I'm suspecting meningitis."
Casey sighed in relief after she had calmed down, "Oh, thank you, Dr. Harrington-Grey. I knew something was wrong. I did all this research online, and there are just more and more things that makes me more worried."
Meredith smiled, "Don't worry. Do you want to go through the list you have, just to do the preliminary screening? It umm, makes you less worried and saves my time. Two birds, one stone."
Casey let out the first smile the whole night, nodded, and dug through her purse. She found a couple pieces of hastily folded paper with information from WebMD. "Lupus?"
"No, the rash is different and the criteria don't fit."
"ENT-Virus? Well you already suggested meningitis. Then Kawasaki disease?"
"Kawasaki would explain the rash and the fever. But has he been experience other symptoms like strawberry tongue, peeling skin, red eyes?"
"Not that I'm aware of." Casey answered after spending some time recalling the past couple days.
"Then we'll have to just wait for the tests to come back. Don't worry, Casey. We'll take care of your son." Meredith rubbed Casey's tense shoulders soothingly.
Casey shook her head, "Thank you, doctor, I'm so sorry. I must be bugging the hell out of you, I mean, making you listening to my unprofessional medical advice. I'm only a waiter—"
"No, Casey, I asked. And it's a mother's job to worry and care about her child. You're doing great. Believe it or not, mother's intuition is a great tool in paediatric diagnostics." Meredith assured her.
After walking out of the E.R. Meredith headed down to the Hale Family building basement to bribe the lab tech with a cup of coffee and some sweet talk to rush Parker's tests because she expected a first-year resident like Brooks didn't have much pull. On her way there, she spotted Moskovitz laughing with who she assumed to be his friends.
"She's listening to a server, for god's sake, about giving medical advice. Now do you believe me when I say she didn't deserve those awards? My buddy at Hopkins said it was pure luck that she was in the year with the first residency trial and the department heads just feed her and suck up to her because of her mother." Moskovitz laughed flamboyantly, not even faltering when he saw Meredith walking pass the crowd.
Meredith sneered internally, she was sure about her judgement, and it would bite him in the ass soon enough.
Two hours later, looking at the negative report for both the strep culture and the spinal tap, Meredith cursed, and soon ran through the corridors back to the E.D. She wasn't paged Parker's new room number so she assumed he hadn't been admitted yet. She bursted through the curtains isolating Parker's bed to find the mother-son duo sleeping peacefully. Startled by her barging in, the mother asked, "What's wrong, Dr. Harrington-Grey?"
Meredith rattled out the question as soon as she caught her breath, jesus, she needed to start running again. "Casey, how many days exactly have Parker had the fever? If the first day is Day 1. What day is it today?"
Casey took out the pocket-sized notebook and checked, "Day 10, why, Dr. Harrington-Grey?"
Meredith then physically lifted Parker's eyelids to check his eyes with her penlight, and found them to be red. She soon put Parker's bed down into the supine position, and called out, "Someone page cardio, I have a five-year-old with Kawasaki on day ten. Start an I.V.I.G. right away." Seeing the nurses respond, she turned back to fill Casey in, "Casey, I'm so sorry. Parker's spinal tap and his strep culture both come back negative. He has Kawasaki's disease. We are still within the window to prevent permanent heart damage. But I need to start on the I.V. treatment right away. After that, I'm gonna have to take him for an echo."
Behind her, a gorgeous dark haired, dark skinned woman ran up to Parker with a bag of I.V. in her hand. She quickly stuck the needle through his veins and stepped down the brakes on his bed. She didn't waste any time and started pushing the bed through the E.D. entrance with Meredith while Casey stood there crying. "Dr. Harrington-Grey, I'm Dr. Zadeh from paediatric cardiovascular surgery fellowship program, I can take care of Parker for you. Great diagnosis."
"Thank you." Meredith smiled at her, stopping before the echocardiogram suite on the cardiology floor. She checked her pager. Finally, Brooks sent her Parker's room number.
Thirty minutes later, the two female surgeons pushed Parker back into his room. Gelareh showed Casey Parker's echocardiogram, and explained to her that he had fluid around his heart, but the I.V.I.G. is fixing it. He should have no damage to his heart after that, and she would need to take him back for a check up in six months. Casey cried tears of joy when Meredith told her she was right about Kawasaki, and she hugged both surgeons tightly in her arms.
When Meredith exited the room with Gelareh, chuckling to each other, She saw Moskovitz standing around the corner with his friends, while Brooks and the two interns stood not far away from them. Meredith was going to walk the other way, but she soon changed her mind and walked until she was face to face with Moskovitz under Gelareh's amused gaze. "Dr. Moskovitz, you made quite a fool out of yourself today. I wouldn't want to rub it in your face but you see, I don't want to have to do this again. If you know people at Hopkins, maybe you should ask them what happened to Christian Prescott and where he is doing his neurosurgery fellowship now. I'm not saying I'm always right, but you should have the common decency to respect, and listen to your colleague, instead of being blindly obsessed with how unfair my life is. I will have you know that even with my heritage, I'm still a better doctor than you are. And no, I didn't get into the trial residency program because I was lucky. I got in because I ranked top 1 percentile nationally in the intern exam and i had the highest score at my hospital. Maybe you would know what it feels like to earn those achievements like I did with sweat and blood if you learn to pull your head from your ass and focus on your own clinical skills long enough."
She turned to the three younger doctors and sighed, "The misdiagnosis wasn't your fault. You did something wrong, but that's to be expected because you guys are babies. You're supposed to make mistakes. There wouldn't need to be a residency program if you are perfect from the beginning. Kawasaki is a rare disease, even if his mother has it down on a piece of paper. Plus he was not displaying all the symptoms. Next time, if you feel like something was wrong but you were dismissed, ask for a second opinion, and don't dismiss mother's instinct. It's the best tool in paediatric diagnostic. Keep trying."
=4= Boston, Longwood Galleria Tower, Meredith's penthouse apartment
Meredith sat in her bed, Sneezy lying next to her at her feet while she was on the phone with Jackson. She sipped her generously poured red wine from the crystal glass while waiting for her best friend to pick up.
"How was your first day being a fellow back home?" Jackson asked after he was put through, the rising pitch in his voice suggesting he was in a good mood.
"I didn't get to do a surgery, but I diagnosed a Kawasaki case. I put someone in their place and I taught interns for the first time." Meredith replied, her hand unconsciously brushing through Sneezy's coat, "I'm pretty sure tomorrow when I get to the hospital, people are going to be back calling me Medusa." She sighed, but then decided to switch topics, "Helen sent me her old lecturing slide shows. I start teaching at Harvard Med next week. I gave Grandma a copy of my key to my apartment. I sent you one in the mail, too. Just in case you want to come back but you didn't want to stay at home. She came to decorate my office, lined the bookcase with photo frames, my diploma, and awards, filled my fridge with beverage and snacks, put stationery in my drawers, populated my bathroom with all kinds of shower products, skincare, makeup and freshly laundered towels, brought me new blankets, pyjamas, pillows, socks, flowers, plants, and my basket full of handmade crotchet dolls. She even sew the cute animal patches onto my three lab coats!"
Jackson chuckled, "That's grandma for you. Mom would have done it if she wasn't so busy these days. I haven't gotten a text from her since I got here. And how did Medusa happen again, was there someone like Prescott?"
"Exactly someone like Prescott." Meredith snorted, "Thought my reputation came from the surgical world bowing down to my pedigree. Stupid. Honestly, why does this always happen to me, it's getting old!"
Jackson explained, "You're this big, mythical, legendary figure from Hopkins. Your achievements seems impossible at your age, and nobody worked with you there. It's natural for them to get curious, fearful, gossipy, and even hostile. Just don't take their crap."
Meredith clicked her tongue, "Of course not, Jackie. How about you, how was your first day in the city that never sleeps."
"I'm actually about to go to bed right now, Mer, so that statement isn't entirely true. But all in all it was good! I was in meetings with my bosses all day. Eloise Fielding, Head of ENT surgery at Sloan Kettering, Sharon Hiatt, chief of plastics at New York Presbyterian, and Dion Reyes, the joint fellowship director. Then they brought me to meet with their bosses, Aditya Gupta, chief of surgery at Presbyterian and Sebastian Chen, chief of surgery at Sloan Kettering. It was boring but they were all nice. And I get two offices, one at each hospital. But I have to share, so in total, two multiplied by a half, I get an office to myself." Jackson replied jokingly.
Meredith chuckled at her best friend's antics, "Oh Jackie, good thing Children's didn't have a chief of surgery. All department heads report straight to the chief of staff. Maybe that's why he has an extremely capable admin assistant! Her name is Kimberly, she suggested about a Pawprint program where Sneezy could get trained as a therapy dog to work as an emotional supporting animal. She works two days a week and she can spent time at the hospital's doggie day care ran by charities. What do you think? I think Sneezy could give it a try, she is smart, and I feel like she doesn't see me enough everyday, so it's good for her to have something to do."
Jackson went quiet on the other end of a second, then finally replied, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. We can make the final decision depending on how she behaves in doggie school?"
Meredith confirmed, "Yeah, sounds good." She then let out another sigh, "Did I tell you about my sister?"
"Lexie Grey?" Jackson question skeptically. They never talk about her.
"No. I got a letter in my hospital mailbox today, together with a bunch of conference invites and coupons. Apparently, I have another half sister called Maggie Pierce. Her birth mom gave her up for adoption in Boston. She checked the sealed public records for her adoption paperwork when she turned 18 a few years back, and found out her mother is Ellis Grey. She didn't know how to reach out to Ellis, obviously. She knew about me after I was nominated, but it took her a while to work up the courage to write to me. She saw the announcement of my recruitment on Children's website and recognized it as a sign to write to me. She is five years younger than me, and is currently pursuing her surgical residency at Tufts right now so she's still in Boston. She wants to know more about mom, and her father, and she wanted to meet me." Meredith kneaded the area between her eyebrows frustratedly, "Ah, did I forgot to mention that she said she is black, or half-black? I opened it after I got home, and it's like my world just blew up and flipped upside down at the same time."
"Do you feel overwhelmed?" Jackson asked, concerned.
"A little bit." Meredith pouted even though she knew Jackson couldn't possibly see her, "I have no friends here, you're in New York. Ginsberg fired Amelia for insubordination, and she wants to hang around L.A. after she does the surgery next week." She sighed for the umpteenth time, "But I called Aunt Cissy, I thought she would know. She flipped out. She said the father has to be Richard Webber. The timeline checks out apparently. She was convinced enough that Richard ruined my childhood enough as it is, how she is lividi that he surely ruined my mom's life, too. Honestly, the creative curse words coming out of her mouth would make a sailor blush. Then she was practically screaming into the phone and telling me that children born out of wedlock are never acknowledged or accepted into the Harrington family, so she warned me to never bring her to Philly if I didn't want my grandmother and other ancestors sitting up in their grave. Then she hang up on me. I didn't even know what I want to do with her yet! I don't even remember my mom was pregnant!" She exclaimed in exasperation. "You know I brought back all mom's journals? I've been going through them and I still don't have a damn clue."
"Aww. Do you want me to come back?" Jackson offered.
"No, I'm surprisingly, still fine actually? Especially after Aunt Cissy lashed out. It was kind of hilarious and liberating. It's like she was mad at Richard for me." Meredith mused, "I might be able to deal with this without a mental breakdown. Just many bottles of wine."
Jackson let out an amused scoff, "Yeah, you graduating therapy when you left Hopkins and all that. It's good. You'll let me know if it gets too much? I'll make it back there in a blink of an eye."
Meredith grinned, "Always, Jackson. You know I'll do the same for you. We have each other's back." She smacked her forehead, "Speaking of which, I need to warn you. The reason why you haven't been getting Catherine's calls is because she is coming to you. She put together the nation's first penile transplant and she's bringing it to New York Presbyterian. I saw the chart on the dinner table last night in a folder with Presbyterian's logo, I think she did that on purpose. She didn't want you to be ambushed, so be prepared."
Jackson groaned, "Do you have to drop a bomb like that at the end of the conversation?"
Meredith grinned, "Come on, we have each other's back! I couldn't not tell you."
Jackson scoffed, "Fine. Good night, Mer."
"Night, Jackie."
A.N.
Happy reading! Please review, like and follow!
This is Meredith's first day at Boston Children's! I didn't know much about the place other than it was consecutively ranked U.S. best children's hospital in the last decade, and the show never mentioned such a hospital, unlike Hopkins. So I did some research. I may have over done the research. I put in a lot of details about the place, to make it more convincing, and to give you a picture of the facility. Most importantly, it gives me an opportunity to consolidate the place in my mind, so I could imagine my characters in it as I write, making it faster and smoother. This chapter came very natural to me, wrapping up the shooting and starting anew. I was a bit worried about cuing the new interns. Like I said before, I write in hopes that my characters, most of them at least are likeable to my readers. Out of the classes after Lexie's, I only liked Jo, Heather Brooks, Qadri and Helm. But Jo couldn't possibly still stay in Boston for her residency given Paul Stadler is an abusive scumbag and she needed to change her name and start new somewhere else. I hated how Qadri was let go, and how Brooks died because Shane Ross tricked her to go into the basement in a storm out of professional jealousy, so I made them a couple years older and brought them back. I might also bring Casey Parker in later. Can you please let me know if the Meredith proving her worth plotline was becoming repetitive? I thought it was required, especially between peers when she got to a new hospital. But please let me know if you find it too much and I will avoid it from now on.
Let me know what you think!
And lastly, I definitely won't be able to update again this week. Lots of things happening. But I'll sure come back with at least a chap next week. Don't you worry!
Love,
Allis