Chapter 12
About a week later, Helena was woken up in the early morning by loud music coming from Meredith's room. She threw the blankets by side and stood up. Cristina was widely dancing on a loud pop song. Meredith was standing by the side looking bored.
"Is it like a habit to dance like that in the morning?" Helena shouted to cover the noise of the music.
Meredith chuckled.
"It's like a tradition in this house," she explained. "When you're angry, you don't shout, you dance it out."
"So why is she dancing?" the Shepherd girl said yawning falling down on Meredith's med.
"Hahn is making her crazy," Grey answered.
"And why aren't you dancing?" the black haired girl inquired.
"I'm to tensed," Meredith sighed.
"Which is why you should dance," Cristina screamed over the music.
"No!" Meredith protests. "My problem is, I'm sleeping with a man who's dating. I don't care about the woman he dates. I just don't want that there is another woman. That's my problem. If I had any sense I would break up with the breakup sex."
"Shut up! Dance it out!" Cristina called.
Steele hearted, Meredith, started to jump around, moving her arms and hips to the rhythm of the music.
"You know, you should tell him how you're feeling," Helena said thoughtfully. "Derek is an understanding person."
"You're probably right," the girl nodded shaking her head to the music. "I'm gonna tell him I don't want him seeing other women."
"Fine, whatever," Cristina threw.
"I am gonna tell him and I feel good about it," Grey said smiling.
"Dancing makes you brave Mer'," the Shepherd girl said.
But throwing a look at her watch she quickly continued.
"But we're gonna be late with the meeting with Mark if we don't leave quickly."
At the hospital, Meredith and Helena were heading to the meeting Sloan called in for a new patient as they caught sight of Alex and Lexie kissing in a nearby on-call room.
"Sloan is waiting!" Meredith called interrupting them.
Lexie violently blushed leaving the room and walking ahead of them.
"What about Ava?" Helena muttered to Alex who was buttoning up his scrub.
"What should be about her?" he asked unconcernedly.
"I thought the two of you were making it out," the Shepherd girl wonder.
"We're trying to, but she's married and I'm not into halftime relationships," he retorted.
"So you think that to hook up with Mer's sister will help you out of that situation?" the black haired girl replied.
But before Alex could answer they arrived at the room where Sloan was waiting for them.
"Ok, ladies and gentlemen, this is Nick Hanscomb," the plastic surgeon introduced.
"Hi," Nick added.
He was a young man in the early thirties with red hair and brown eyes.
"Nick was lucky enough to have me remove a large carotid body tumor from his neck," Mark said removing the plaster from his neck showing a think white scar on the pale skin. "That I was able to get clean boundaries is pretty darn impressive," even for me."
"Congratulations," Alex called over everybody.
"Ball-sucker," Helena scoffed.
"Don't interrupt!" Mark called. "Now despite the fact that it was a widely successful surgery, we had to dissect out deep lymph nodes in his neck. There is now only a delicate flap of skin between his carotid artery and the outside world. That said, what am I worried about?"
"I'd think given to the friability of the skin that there's a great possibility that the artery could blow," Cristina jumped.
"Don't worry, I've heard this before," the patient said.
" If that happens, whoever's in the room, I don't care if it's a doctor, a nurse, an orderly, your job is to stop the bleeding, then page me, in that order, are we clear?" the plastic surgeon directed to the group. "Any questions?"
Nobody answered they were all looking quite concentrate on Nick.
"They look scared," the patient noticed.
"They're professionals," Mark answered. "A healthy level of fear is encouraged."
"Ok, then. If I do die, it will have been lovely meeting you all," Nick solemnly said.
"See? The patient is confident, you should be…" Mark was saying turning back to the doctors before being interrupted by the loud ringtone of a phone.
"Whose idiot is it?" the plastic surgeon asked annoyed.
Helena quickly noticed it was hers and quickly pulled it out.
"I'm sorry," she apologized looking up at Mark before hastily leaving the room.
He looked surprised after her.
"Ok people, that's it," he called.
The trainee surgeons scatter slowly. Mark followed the direction Helena took. He found her lying on a stretcher happily chatting on the phone.
"Yes sure, tonight at 8 pm… You'll pick me up ?...Ok, nice….Yes...See you this evening," she said hanging off.
"Who was it?" the man asked reaching her side.
"A friend," the girl answered shoving her phone back in her pocket. "Sorry for the interruption before."
"You're seeing someone?" he asked.
"Yes, you know the man you saw me with a week ago," she explained.
Mark nodded.
"I'm glad you feel ready to move forward."
"Yes, I just want to forget about Ryan and to be happy and have fun again," the Shepherd girl sighed. "And James seems to be a fine man."
"I'm happy for you Froggy," Mark said hugging her tightly.
Sure he was happy that she finally decided to move forward. She deserved to be happy and everything but he doesn't know why he had a strange feeling about her dating again. It may be egoistic but somehow he always hoped that she stayed with him. Both of them together against the rest of the world, like as they were younger.
A loud noise interrupted their moment.
"What was that?!" Helena asked stepping away from her friend.
They saw lots of doctors and nurses running outside in the yard.
"I better go see what's happening," the resident added before running in the direction of the turmoil. In the backyard, two ambulances had crashed together. One had a completely smashed frontside and the other one was fully turned over to the roof. Helena stood there for a moment contemplating the surgeons and nurses provide the best care to the injured people. She saw Meredith and Richard checking on the two drivers of the turned up vehicle.
"Shepherd, don't stay there, go check on the driver!" someone shouted from behind.
Bailey was at the back of the second ambulance, dealing with a paramedic who has thoracic pain. Helena rushed to the front part. A young paramedic was sitting in the driver's place, her head had hit the steering wheel and she had a big bleed from her forehead. The badge on her vest told the Shepherd girl that her name was Mary.
"Mary? Can you hear me?" she first asked checking her pulse.
It was weak but still present.
"Come on girl, wake up. I need help here" she screamed. "Can someone page Torres?!"
"No!" the paramedic Bailey was taking care of called from the back. "Is she dead?"
"She has a bad elbow dislocation and a weak pulse," Helena called.
"She was driving, talking to me. She started convulsing and then we slammed into that rig," the lifesaver explained.
Torres arrived running.
"You page me?" she asked out of breath.
"Yes, she has a bad looking dislocation of her elbow," Helena indicated. "And I think we should ask for a neuro consult, she was convulsing before having caused the accident."
Torres nodded before taking over.
"Send me your brother if you find him!" the ortho girl added.
The black-haired girl nodded before getting back inside. There she saw Izzie and Cristina taking care of a middle age man with a piece of metal in his leg, probably from the accident. She was about to ask for there needs help but in that moment his family arrived.
"Jacob!" the wife called worried rushing to the bed followed by four children. "What happens to your leg?!"
"There was a...a little accident, but I'm OK. It doesn't hurt," he explained weakly.
Helena turned away. The poor man must have enough to deal with four children and a wife who seemed over-panicked.
"Shepherd, can you come over here?" a voice called from the other side of the pit.
Dr. Webber and Dr. Bailey were standing next to the paramedic's bed. Webber seemed furious.
"Bailey I have paramedics hanging upside down," he said with clenched teeth. "Can you handle this?"
He walked away.
"What's the problem?" Helena asked.
"Well, apparently that men want a white doctor," Bailey said with anger.
The petite woman turned back to the patient.
"Shane, I seriously recommend you let this fine doctor examine you. Dr. Shepherd, give him the best medical treatment possible. It's the law," she said walking away.
"Sir, I need you to move your hands," Helena ordered to the man.
Shane sighed before moving his hands from his chest.
"I just didn't want her to see. I thought she might take offense, you know?" he added.
"What do you mean?" the black-haired girl wondered. pulling up his shirt.
"I get it," she then added.
The paramedic had a big Nazi swastika tattooed on the chest.
Derek was walking in a hallway, catching a sight on the nearly blank surgery board.
"What's going on in the pit?" he asked Rose, a pretty looking nurse who was eating while sitting on the stairs. "They wiped the board?"
"A couple of ambulances crashed into each other in the backyard, I'm canceling electives for OR's for emergent surgeries," she explained.
"Are we friends yet?" Derek asked suddenly.
"I'm sorry?" Rose looked up, not knowing what he meant.
"Friends, are we friends?" the neurosurgeon pursue. "I know I just learned your name and all, Rose. But, I'd like to think I could call you a friend."
"Why?" the woman wondered.
"Because, if I'm your friend, I should probably tell you about the licorice in your teeth," he said with a flirting smile. "Where as an acquaintance, I'd just smile politely and pretend it wasn't there."
He walked away.
"Thank you!" Rose called after him smiling embarrassedly.
The Shepherd girl had brought Shane to the CT for a scan. Installing him on the bench, she wasn't delicate at all. He groans loudly.
"Go easy, I'm injured," he claimed.
"You've had plenty of morphine," Helena replied harshly. "You'll be fine. It's not like you are in a concentration camp or anything."
"You know when people are young and drunk they get tattoos, they wake up, they regret it," he tried to defend himself.
"Oh, so you regret it?" the woman asked raising an eyebrow.
"You've to treat me like anybody else," the paramedic protests. "That's the beauty of this country."
"Oh, yes it is," Helena sighed. "But when young people usually get tattooed when they're drunk, it's either a heart, a dick or the name of their mother on their ass and not the sign of an abusive ideology," she added sending him in the tube.
"Ok, the film's are up!" Helena announced as Bailey came into the room.
"Intraperitoneal bleeding," the petite woman noticed.
"His liver looks completely ruptured."
"He's gonna need a laparotomy," Bailey added. "Maybe it will be a little straightforward. You scrub in."
Helena starred a moment on her teacher.
"No."
"What?"
"I'm sorry Dr. Bailey, but I can't work on helping this man getting better," the Shepherd girl protest shaking her head.
Bailey looked at her without understanding.
"Dr. Bailey, do you know why he doesn't want you to touch him? He has a swastika on his abdomen. A giant black swastika."
"Shepherd, you and I will do this," the petite woman added. "We will do this and we will consider our self-having risen above. We'll rise above."
And then she left the room sighing deeply.
Rose was in the scrub room, storing some stuff.
"Sorry, Dr. Shepherd. I'm running behind today," she said exhaling deeply as she saw him came in. "I'll be out of your way in a second."
"Actually, I'm early, so technically I'm in your way," Derek added smiling brightly.
"Oh, in that case, don't let it happen again," she said falsely serious.
"You're staring at my chest," she noticed.
"What?" he asked looking up.
"I think, maybe, you are intending to admire my ring, but it's coming off as you're staring at my chest."
"Sorry, it's just that...you wear your engagement ring on your necklace."
"When I was engaged, I wear it on my finger. Now, necklace. The stone was my grandmothers. I don't want to lose it," she explained thoughtfully looking at the jewel.
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry what?" the woman asked looking up slowly.
"Your engagement. Do you call it off recently?" Derek inquired.
"That's a pretty personal question," the nurse noticed.
"We're friends now. I saved you hours of potential licorice humiliation, I think you can…"
"It ended a year ago," Rose cut. "Nothing to be sorry about. It was never gonna work out."
"How come?" the neurosurgeon wondered.
"Because I was always very clear about what I wanted and he … wasn't. And there's no way to build a future on that."
The door opens letting Helena get in.
"Am I interrupting something?" she asked unsure seeing the pair.
"No, her brother added quickly.
"I was just leaving," Rose said before going through the door.
The Shepherd girl turned to her brother who seemed pretty shaken.
"Is everything alright?" she asked starting to wash her hands.
Derek nodded.
"Are you on Bailey's surgery?" he asked.
"Yes," the girl nodded. "We have to operate on a white supremacist, imagine how she must me right now."
The neurosurgeon chuckled slightly.
"Is that what it is like now?" Helena asked suddenly. "You, flirting with the nasty nurses when Meredith is trying to overcome her fear of steadiness?"
"Do you blame me?" Derek asked sadly looking at his younger sister.
"Well, technically you're still together with her and I think you should wait," she added.
"I think I've waited long enough!" he said loudly before getting into his OR.
