Again, nothing belongs to me! I'm having a little trouble with getting into character, what with the dearth of new episodes. Anyways, just had to write this little bit--sorry this story is a little slow-moving, but I believe in savoring!
Review away!
Meredith found Cristina in the theatre for OR2, watching one of Burke's surgeries with Avery and a pack of interns. "You know, just because she's probably a future surgical junkie doesn't mean it's a foregone conclusion and you have to feed the addiction." Meredith smiled at the five-year-old pressed up against the glass.
"It calms her down," Cristina said, bouncing Cooper on her lap. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah," Meredith replied, "Where's Nelle?"
"Kariin still has her; she didn't want to go shopping. Burke'll take care of her. Only, that means you have to drive, or else he doesn't have a way to get home."
"Do you have the car seats?"
"We'll have to move them." Cristina shrugged. "Come on Avery."
"But he's about to close the chest cavity!" Avery cried, dismayed.
"Come on, honey, you've seen this before," Cristina said as the interns tried not to laugh.
"Okay, but if there are any complications that I miss I'm gonna be mad." Avery huffed to her mother.
"Remember when she was little and the only thing that would make her sleep was coming into the OR and turning the music on?" Meredith reminisced fondly, patting Avery's hair.
"Yeah, that doesn't work for Nelle or Cooper. I think it's the lights. Where are you parked?"
"Front of the employee lot." Meredith replied. "How was school today, Avery?"
"Boring. We're studying the body in science."
"Well, that should be interesting."
"Yeah, that's what I thought! But we're not doing anything interesting! We're just learning to wash our hands and to take baths and use soap and everything. Kindergarten is boring" she said scornfully. She turned to her mother, "Mom, I think you and Dad should come in and show us cool body stuff. Like livers."
"Maybe in a few years, babe." Cristina said, pressing the elevator button.
"Can we come to Grace for a field trip?" Avery stepped into the elevator, "Oh, please, Mom, that'd be so cool!"
"We'll think about it."
"Where are we going?" Meredith asked as they emerged from the building.
"Probably just the Neiman Marcus downtown." Cristina said, "Hopefully this'll go quickly."
"Do I get a new dress, too?" Avery asked.
"No way, you'll just wear your Easter dress from last year or something."
"What if it doesn't fit?"
"That's where the 'or something' comes in."
They maneuvered the two car seats from Cristina's Land Rover to Meredith's Audi, a difficult task with baby Cooper and an excitable Avery. Finally, though, they were humming towards Neiman's.
"Dixie Chicks?" Cristina asked, surprised, when the music came on.
"Yeah, I like it." Meredith said defensively.
"Ho-kay," Cristina chortled and gave her a look. Meredith knew that Cristina knew Meredith only listened to the Chicks when she needed to calm down and focus.
"Did you have a surgery this morning, Mom?" Avery asked.
"Yeah, I did. I worked on a man with liver cancer."
"Did you have one today, Meredith?"
"No, but Thursday I have a craniotomy."
"Cool," Avery said, playing with her hair. "What's the brain really feel like?"
"Warm…and wet, I guess." Meredith said. "Very slick." She shifted in her seat. "How did kindergarten go today, Avery?"
She shrugged. "Pretty good. We painted 'cause it was Art Day. But we still have to use the stupid water paint, the ones that you have to get what and then they're all clumpy and it's really hard 'cause you're painting with clay. And then we did our Hot Readings today and I finished the Gold Level so Mrs. Evany is going to go talk to Mr. Nabholz and get first grade books for me. We had our Reading Buddies come down from 4th Grade. And in math we had to take a time-telling test and I totally passed. Plus we learned the days of the week and all the months in Spanish. Do you wanna hear?"
"Sure." Meredith said, and Cristina rolled her eyes sideways until they met Meredith's, and then quirked an eyebrow. Meredith raised both of hers in response.
"Enero, Febrero, Marzo, Abril, Mayo, Juno, Julio, Agosto, Septiembre, Octubre, Noviembre, Diciembre." Avery recited proudly. "Plus we're doing a spelling bee on Friday. Mom, can you help me study tonight?"
"Sure, babe." Cristina said. She turned to Meredith. "Your day go okay?"
"Yeah, it was fine." Mere said quickly. Cristina raised an eyebrow(again) and settled back in her seat.
They found a parking spot and trekked into the store, Avery chatting non-stop about her piano lesson and recess and things that Kariin had said and funny things Nelle had done. The hospital visit and ten minutes of surgery had put her on a giddy high from which it was seemingly impossible to come down. Cristina quickly found the little boys' section and marched them towards it, but they got distracted when Avery found the clock section and wanted to stop and show off her time-telling skills. "Come on, watch! I'm really good!" she pleaded. "Look! 1:14, 4:53, 4:17, 9:21—5"
"Come on, Aves, we don't have all day." Cristina said, practically pulling her daughter along.
Luckily for Cristina's sanity, there was a toy area across the aisle from the boys' section, and she quickly—almost eagerly—gave Avery permission to play. "I love her, but she's got so much energy," Cristina marveled. "I mean, some days—it's impossible."
"She's so totally you at that age, only, you know, with encouraging parents who try to keep her curious and active instead of relentlessly pushing and criticizing her." Meredith replied, smiling. She lifted Cooper out of the stroller. "How do you think this one will turn out?"
"Hopefully laid-back. Maybe he'll be a surfer."
"You're kidding, right?"
"Yeah, probably." Cristina said. "So that consult with Izzie?"
"Went fine." Meredith said.
"Really? That mass you thought was there, magically wasn't? God, I wish my cases ended up that way."
"No you don't. Then you wouldn't get to cut." Meredith shifted Cooper on her hip. "Well, there was a problem, but it's small. It's a CCAM. You remember those?"
"Of course." Cristina's liquid eyes were unreadable; her mouth barely moved. "They're either resolvable after birth or they dissolve; but they can lead to hydrops and fetal heart failure."
"Well, that's only in ten percent of the cases." Meredith said indifferently.
"The pregnancy will probably be okay, you know, but if something goes wrong, it goes really wrong, fast. Have you looked anything up about it?"
"Not yet."
"Why not?"
"I haven't had the time," Meredith's voice rose a little. "But right now she's healthy."
"Not really," Cristina said, not unkindly. "It's an issue. There is surgery in her future."
"So we'll just…hang in there. See what happens. Izzie will have it under control. And it's not like we don't know good surgeons." She pulled a little sailor suit out. "What about this?"
"God, no. This will make me want to puke. I hate buying formal clothes for babies. They all just mess them up."
"It's the baptism. You'll have this video till he gets married." Meredith smoothed the nubbly blue fabric of the onesie down his back.
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. It's important to Burke. And it pisses my mother off." Cristina held out a dark blue onesie. "Honestly, what do little boys wear? Girls had dresses! That was easy!"
"Maybe something white?"
"Please. He'll get diarrhea that day. God hates me." Still, Cristina reached for a white silk infant suit. "Are you sure you're fine?"
"No, I'm not fine! I'm a surgeon; I'm supposed to have control. But what do I do about it? Whine?" Meredith said. "It'll come. It'll suck and be scary and I'm pretty much paralyzed here but it's going to happen and soon. So I'll cope. I mean, whatever." Her cell phone trilled and she grabbed it angrily. "Hello?"
"Mere, it's me," Derek said apologetically. "Listen—some guy just fell off a ladder; I have to operate."
"Alright." She sighed. "How long?"
"No clue. I'm really sorry. Where are you?"
"Shopping with Cristina. Listen, I'll be fine. Really. Go cut people open."
"Thanks," Derek said, "Bye."
"See ya."
"Derek? With a surgery?" Cristina picked up on the tone of the conversation.
"Yeah, guy off ladder."
"Do you want to come over for dinner? And then we'll make Burke deal with the kids and do the talking thing or whatever you want?"
"Yeah." Meredith exhaled. "Sounds great. You really want to do the talking thing, don't you?"
"If you don't want supportive, don't seek support." Cristina said. "Here. Does this look like it will fit?" she held up a white-and-blue linen sailor suit. "I mean, the sailor suit—he'll hate me when he's twelve, but it might work."
"Why don't you just get a christening gown?" Meredith suggested, grabbing a light blue one from the rack.
"Yeah, Burke'll go for the traditional stuff." Cristina grabbed it. "Let's get this. Thank God. Done."
Avery materialized, having wandered over to the little girls' section. "Mom, what do you think?" she pressed a Lilly Pulitzer print skirt to her hip bones and twirled. "Don't you think it's pretty?"
"It's very pretty. Now put the nice skirt back where you found it."
"But it's pretty!"
"With that argument, you should go shopping with Aunt Izzie. Put it back. I told you we were only buying something for Cooper's baptism." Avery stalked off to hang the skirt back up. "Honestly." Cristina huffed. "Her father's just wrapped around her finger—why six year-olds need brand names I'll never get. Come on. It's ridiculous."
Cooper burbled, and Meredith laughed. "He agrees." She smiled down at the baby. "Seriously, Cristina, I'm in awe of you and Burke and your kids. They're…amazing. And perfect." Her voice faltered, "And healthy."
"Hey, hey. You know nothing bad's actually going to happen. Do your research, do a procedure, fix it. It's fixable. You'll be fine."
Looking at her friend, with her utter faith in medicine and her kids, Meredith felt hopeful for the first time since the appointment. "Yeah. You know, I hope you're right."
Cristina smirked, a faint twinge of Elvis. "Of course I am. Let's go home."
