Chapter Nine: Green Eyes

Honey, you are a rock
Upon which I stand.
And I come here to talk,
I hope you understand
That green eyes
Yeah, the spotlight
Shines upon you.
And how could anybody deny you?
I came here with a load
And it feels so much lighter now I met you.
And, honey, you should know
That I could never go on without you.

Coldplay

…

"Alex… I'm starting to feel kind of strange," Leni said suddenly in the middle of their Blackjack lesson; out of pity, she'd offered to show them a thing or two about the game.

She wasn't one to complain, so Alex was immediately on alert. "Okay, Len… How are you feeling bad? What hurts?" he questioned, trying to remain as calm as possible although he had already begun to tense up.

"My head hurts and I feel like I'm going to vomit… and I keep seeing these flashing lights," she replied as she dropped the cards.

"Do you think it's the tumor?" George wondered aloud.

"Could be," he replied, but then he noticed something unusual that he couldn't believe he didn't see before. "Leni, when did your hands start swelling like that?"

She shrugged. "Within the past couple of days, I guess? That's normal, though, right?"

But instead of answering her question, he said, "I'm just going to check your blood pressure again, okay?" He had a sinking feeling that he knew what it was. "One-fifty over ninety-five," he said, confirming his worst fears. "O'Malley, go page Addison Shepherd right now. Run, damn it!"

Pre-eclampsia, George realized immediately with a jolt of fear. They all knew that Leni was like a ticking bomb, but the reality was beyond terrifying.

"Alex, don't let my baby die," Leni pleaded as the tears began to stream down her face. "No matter what, don't let anything happen to Elle."

He took her hand into his and assured her, "I'm not letting either of you go anywhere, okay? Hang tight, Len; George'll be back any minute with Addison, and then she'll take care of everything." As he stood near her bed trying to keep her calm, he silently willed George to hurry.

…

"Where's Dr. Shepherd—Addison Shepherd?" George demanded when he arrived at the Nurses' Station a moment later.

Olivia noted his frantic look but didn't waste time on questions. "She's in OR two," she answered and watched as he hurried away.

When he got to the operating room, he quickly grabbed a mask and burst through the door. "Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd—"

"Dr. O'Malley, I am in the middle of an operation. What is so important?" Addison demanded.

However, when George replied, "It's Leni," her face dropped. "Her BP is skyrocketing, and we need you to come right away. We don't know what to do."

Her heart was racing, but she did her best to keep her composure. "Dr. O'Malley, I want you to go back into that room, and you and Dr. Karev will do whatever it is you have to do to keep her stable. I'll be there as soon as I'm finished here, but until then, I am counting on you two to make sure that nothing happens to either one of those little girls. I want you to administer an intravenous dose of lebetalol—twenty milligrams over two minutes. That should hold her until I get there, but if not, give her forty milligrams more after ten minutes," she instructed. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

In the hallway, he came across Meredith, Cristina, and Izzie, who all noted his panicked state and wondered what was wrong.

Izzie, however, was the one to question. "George, what's going on? You look a little… freaked out."

"You busy? Come with me," he said in practically the same breath, and they followed him straight to Leni's room, where Alex was slowly beginning to panic, despite his best efforts.

"Where the hell is the She-Shepherd?" he demanded. "She's getting worse; she's barely freaking conscious."

"It's okay; she told me what to do," George replied then repeated what Addison had instructed, "Twenty milligrams of lebetalol over two minutes."

"Well, did you get the lebatalol?" Alex demanded.

"Damn it!" George replied as he hurried out of the room once more.

"What's wrong with her?" Meredith wondered as she gently stroked Leni's dark hair; it was extremely unnerving to see her face hidden under the oxygen mask as she struggled to stay awake.

"Pre-eclampsia. She was fine a few minutes ago, then all of a sudden, her BP was out of control. We were playing cards one minute, and the next… she was like this."

Meredith could see the worry in Alex's face and heard it in his voice. She'd never seen him like this over a patient before. "She'll be okay, Alex. George is on his way with the meds, and Addison will be here in a few minutes."

"Okay, twenty milligrams over two minutes," George said again, shaking nervously.

"Give it to me," Alex demanded, then proceeded to inject the medication into her IV. "Stay with us, Leni… This is going to make you feel better, okay? Say something, Len."

"I'm scared, Alex," she whispered.

At that point, Izzie and Cristina joined the others at Leni's bedside. The first lesson they'd been taught was not to get attached to patients, but with Leni, they couldn't help it. They couldn't help but want to calm her fears and make everything better for her; after all, she had done the same for them.

They watched as her heart rate slowly but steadily returned to normal, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. However, it was only a matter of minutes before something else went wrong.

"Elena's heart rate is dropping," Izzie pointed out suddenly. "Why is that happening? That shouldn't be happening."

"Where the hell is the She-Shepherd?" Alex asked nervously to no one in particular. "I don't know what to do, but we have to fix this fast or we're going to lose the baby. I told Leni I'd make sure her baby was okay. Damn it! Where is she?"

Meredith wondered, "Izzie, have you seen anything like this before? You've spent a lot of time with Addison."

But as Izzie shook her head, Cristina announced, "Guys, it's getting lower. We have to do something. Somebody go get Bailey!"

"She's doing a gastrectomy," George informed them, and they all looked at one another in confusion and fear, hoping desperately that one among them had the answer.

"Screw it; the baby has to come out. That's the only way she'll have a chance," Alex decided and began prepping Leni for an emergency C-section.

"What? You can't just start cutting her open!" George replied.

Meredith put her hands to her head worriedly as she seconded, "He's right, Alex. Do you even know what you're doing? Do you seriously have any idea how easy it is to mess something like that up?"

"I've done it once before; I'm pretty sure I remember everything. If you're gonna help me, then get over here. Otherwise, just back the hell off and let me do this," he told them.

After a moment of silence among them, with the exception of Alex moving around the room prepping Leni, Izzie offered, "I've helped with a C-section before. I'll help you."

"I'm in," Cristina also volunteered, and finally the other two added their support.

Right before Alex administered the anesthesia, he whispered into Leni's ear, "We're gonna put you to sleep now, okay? But when you wake up, everything will be fine."

"I trust you," she assured them before her dark lashes closed over her bright green eyes.

Alex took a deep breath and began reciting aloud what he was supposed to do. "Okay, vertical cut from the navel down."

"You do realize how screwed we are when the She-Shepherd finds out about us doing this, right?" Cristina questioned bluntly, causing the other four to stare blankly back at her.

Meredith and George replied simultaneously, "Yes."

"All right, then. Just making sure that everyone realized it. Go ahead."

"Okay, now you need to make an incision across the uterus… but be careful not to go too deep or you'll risk hurting the baby. A vertical incision is quicker, but a horizontal gives her a better chance of not needing a repeat c-section for other births," Izzie added.

"We have to be quick," Alex decided and proceeded with the vertical incision. "Okay, amniotic sac is next… Look, there she is! Cristina, push down right here so I can take hold of her," he instructed.

Moments later, Elena Amélie entered the world. She was small, but she started to cry immediately, and at that moment, the interns couldn't help but feel like crying tears of joy as well.

"Hey, Green Eyes. Happy birthday," Alex grinned as he handed her off to Meredith.

"Go page someone from peds," Meredith instructed as she got a closer look at the tiny baby in her arms. "She looks okay, but we need to be sure."

But just as George was turning to leave, Addison appeared in the doorway and, viewing the scene before her, demanded, "What is going on here? What the hell did you do?"

"We had to deliver the baby. She was going to die if we didn't do something quick," Alex explained, honestly not caring very much whether or not he had pissed Addison off. He'd done what he needed to do, and that was all that mattered to him. That was all that mattered to any of them.

Her eyes darted from Leni—who had yet to be stitched back up—to the tiny infant in Meredith's arms. She moved quickly to examine Elena and after a moment decided that she was doing just fine; Addison knew that she was a fighter. "We'll need to have her sent to the NICU stat," she instructed, then turned her attention to Leni. "I'll finish this, Dr. Karev. Nice work. All of you—nice work."

They looked around at one another and smiled in silent congratulations to themselves. And as they looked at Elena, so small and fragile yet so full of life, they couldn't help but be proud. Together, they'd managed to bring a life into the world, and that was something they'd always look back on and remember as one of the proudest moments of their lives.

…

"Isn't she the most beautiful baby you've ever seen?" Addison asked Derek as they stood in the NICU later that evening. "And look—she's moving her legs, Derek. She can move her legs." She said the last remark with tears beginning to build; their miracle baby was continuing to amaze them.

"She's definitely beautiful… She looks so much like Leni," he agreed as he gently stroked Elena's cheek. "I talked to Leni about staying with us for a while."

"Really? Well, what did she say?"

"She said she'd think about it," he answered, all the while never turning his attention from the sleeping newborn. "I'm going to stay the night with Elena. I have an early surgery tomorrow anyway. You should go home and get some rest."

But Addison shook her head. "If I left, I'd be too worried to sleep. Besides, between the two of us, it'll be easier to keep an eye on both of them. Leni's still sleeping, but I told the nurses to page me the second she wakes up. Do you think we should call Bill?"

Bill was Leni's father—in the biological sense, anyway. But aside from paying Leni's medical expenses, Bill Campbell might as well not even have existed, at least as far as Derek was concerned. "No, Addison, I don't think we should call Bill. Leni doesn't owe that man anything, and he doesn't deserve to take part in this. Give me one good reason why he should be a part of this?"

"I don't like him, either, Derek, but he is her father," she answered.

"She's medically emancipated, Addison. She flew across the country on her own, and he hasn't called once the entire time she's been here. They don't need him; they have us, and we'll take care of them."

She almost asked just how they were supposed to take care of those two little girls when they could barely handle their own disaster. However, she just took a deep breath and managed a smile as Elena once more gripped her finger with her tiny hand.

…

Meanwhile, Leni opened her eyes and tried to figure out exactly where she was. The hospital smell was unmistakable, but nothing else seemed to make sense. She attempted to sit up but suddenly felt a gentle restraining push on her shoulder.

"Leni, I'm gonna need you to lie back, all right?" a woman instructed, and Leni looked up to see a vaguely familiar face smiling back at her. "My name is Dr. Bailey. I don't know if you remember me, but I'm the one who's supposedly in charge of those five knuckleheads who have taken it upon themselves to take care of you."

"I remember," she replied, a bit surprised at the feebleness of her own voice. "Where are the knuckleheads?" she managed with a grin.

Bailey also smiled, pleased to see for herself that everything they'd said about her had been true. "If they have any sense at all, they're at home getting some sleep. More than likely, that's the last place they are. Do you know what happened today, Leni? Do you remember?"

She paused, trying to remember what had happened. But she couldn't come up with very much. "I was playing cards with George and Alex, and I started feeling sick, and then… I don't really remember anything after that. Oh, my God… Is Elle okay?"

"She's doing just fine. They had to do an emergency C-section—Karev and the others—but the baby is just fine. She's tiny, but she was breathing on her own, according to Grey. She was three pounds, two ounces with a head full of dark little curls. And big green eyes, just like you," she reported to Leni, who smiled in relief at the news.

"When can I see her?"

"As soon as the anesthesia wears off fully, you'll be able to go to the NICU; it shouldn't be more than a few hours. The Shepherds are in there with her right now. I can go get them for you," she offered.

But Leni shook her head. "No, that's okay. Elle needs them more right now, and I want them with her. They need to be with her."