A/N: I was going to update A Fight to Remember, but I am battling some writers block on that one, so... here is another install of this. When I posted the previous chapter for this story, I didn't get much response, I think maybe I posted it too soon and didn't give readers time to miss my story... Chapter 8 was a huge chapter and I'd really like to hear your thoughts, if you feel so inclined to post a review, that would be awesome!
Anyway...
"Dad, look!" Noah called from his room.
Jackson smiled as he padded down the hallway to his son's room. Noah was obsessed about trains. He probably wanted to show him the new tracks. He walked in to find him half dressed, pushing a four car train down on the wooden tracks, which resembled an 'S' shape. Noah navigated the curves carefully and made chuka chuka noises as he did so. The end of the track was nothing but carpet and Noah made a crashing noise as he pushed the train off the track and onto the carpet.
"Okay," Jackson smiled, truly proud of his son. He was growing so fast. "But it's time to go Noah, and you need to put a shirt on."
"Oh yeah," he said, looking down at his scrawny bare chest. Then he stretched out his arm and bent it to flex his muscles, "Look, I'm strong, just like you!"
"Yes you are," He acknowledged. "Do you want transformers or tiger?" he asked, holding up the T-shirts April had picked out earlier.
Today was no contest. "Transformers!"
"Okay, buddy." He tossed the shirt to him and headed out the door, knowing it would encourage him to follow. "Put your shirt on and come for breakfast."
A few seconds later, Noah blew past him into the kitchen, where April placed some fruit and toast for them to get started on. April almost ran into Noah on her way out of the shower. She stood there, wrapped only in a towel and watched Noah in amazement.
He followed April into the bedroom for a quick second, "Okay," April said, "Noah's bag is packed and ready for playschool, there's extra clothes in there for him and his swim trunks since he's going swimming. And I packed some leftover lasagna for lunch for us... oh, and my OB appointment is at ten, so I'll see you then?"
Jackson smiled as he watched April change. He walked towards her and kissed her forehead, "Unless I see you earlier?"
"Mm, I might have to page you for a consult in the pit, you never know," She pecked him on the lips. "Oh yeah, remember that little girl from the house fire? I know why she looked so familiar... she's in Noah's playschool."
"Really?" Jackson was concerned the foster mother was still in critical condition. "Karev's probably going to be discharging her today." He hoped she would be put in a good home.
"It's so sad, we might not see her again, who knows if they'll keep her in the same program?"
"Yeah..." Jackson sighed, "Well, If I see the social worker, I'll talk to her." Having a child of their own showed them that the world was so big, and there was so much to lose. Compassion came a lot more naturally now. "Okay, see you. Love you. Bye Noah, Daddy''s going to work, and Mommy's going to take you to playschool."
"Yeah! Payskoo!"
xxx
Callie sliced strawberries while the waffles cooked. When she finished, she had a large plate of waffles and fruit for them. "Good morning," she greeted Arizona, who had just slipped her prosthetic on and appeared in the doorway.
"Good morning," Arizona said cheerfully. "Sofia up?"
Callie nodded to the TV, "Watching Dora..." Their little girl was bouncing and pointing as the cartoon latina heroine led the way to a new adventure.
"Good morning, munchkin," Arizona called.
"Mama!" Sofia ran to give her mother a hug and kiss.
Afterwhich Arizona hopped up to take a seat at the counter. "Mmmm, waffles?"
"Yup." Callie grinned widely.
"Last night was..."
"Amazing." They'd managed to put their issues aside last night and just enjoy each other. For awhile, they forgot about surrogacy and pregnancy and adoption and fellowships, and rested in the comfort that they had each other. They were both alive and breathing and could be happy if they wanted to.
"It was nice not fighting for once," Arizona read her mind.
"Yeah..." Callie took a sip of her coffee.
"So, adoption? You want to do it?" Arizona asked, drizzling syrup on her waffle.
Callie decided to give it a shot, after listening to what Owen said about adoption yesterday, she realized he was right. A life was a life. And they had a home, and love, and they could give that to someone else. But first she had to guage if this was the right course right now. Especially if Arizona wanted to pursue her career. "Okay, first tell me about this fellowship," Callie asked. They had to figure that out first. How much time would this take from them before they chose another child to be in their life?
"Well... a fetal surgery fellowship would be intense for sure," Her wife rambled, "but Dr. Hernan is going to be a great teacher. I mean, to be able to work on a tiny human in utero?" She shook her head, "That would be amazing... plus, there are so very few people who can do what she does..."
"So this isn't something you want to put off?"
"I don't think I can,"
Callie shrugged. "Okay, no problem right? We can wait a year, and when you're done the fellowship, we can look into adoption." No harm done? It sounded so simple.
"Actually..." Arizona tapped her fingers on the counter, "Remember Alex's Africa project? Well we have another group arriving soon and... well there's this one little girl with spina bifida... she's adorable and..."
Callie raised an eyebrow, "You want to adopt internationally?"
"Um, well... maybe?"
xxx
Meredith lay on the exam room table staring at the ceiling while Connie, the OB, finished her examination. She was trying to force herself not to think too much about the future. Since last night's revelation, however, she couldn't stop and it was killing her. Hope? What was that? How long would it last before it came crashing down on her again?
The snap of Connie's gloves brought her to reality.. Meredith pushed herself up on her elbows and removed her feet from the stirrups. "So... um, how does it look?"
Connie stood up from her stool and turned to write a few notes on the chart. When she looked over, her face was impassive. A bad sign, "I'm sorry Meredith, but there was a lot of damage done to your uterus when you had that c-section. I don't think you'll be able to successfully carry to term."
She wasn't sure she heard correctly, "So..."
"Your uterus is hostile, it's very likely you'll miscarry any future pregnancy."
It was like someone ripped her heart out and stomped on it. Apparently that had already been done with her uterus. She pulled the paper sheet off her midsection, not really caring that Connie was still in the room.
"Dr. Grey?" Connie asked.
"You know... it's fine. It's okay really. I shouldn't have expected-" she couldn't finish her sentence as she swallowed the lump in her throat. Through blurry eyes she pulled on her underwear and scrub pants.
"We can discuss other options-"
Meredith didn't hear as she left the room.
xxx
April hummed happily as she entered the attendings lounge. In a few minutes, she' d be going in for her ultrasound. She'd had an initial ultrasound when she first found out, but Jackson wasn't there. This would be their first time together.
"Hey Mer," she said, noticing her colleague standing at her locker. It'd been a long time since they had a chance to talk, so she decided to take this time to catch her up. "So Jackson and I are going for our ultrasound today," she rattled off, making conversation. "I'm starting to show now... Oh, are you in the pool? Alex is starting a pool for the gender..." She paused when she was met with silence. "Mer?"
"Great." Meredith said in a bitter tone, smoothing the ferryboat scrubcap on her lap.
"You know, when are you going to get over this?" April asked, suddenly realizing that it came out a little harsh. She softened her tone, "I mean, I get that you lost a child... I do... I'm so sorry for what happened to you," she said, stepping closer. She couldn't imagine the pain Meredith suffered.
But then it clicked, when Meredith stopped speaking to her. "Ever since I told you I was pregnant... you've been avoiding me. You never say hi to Noah anymore... We used to be friends. You were the one who convinced me that Jackson and I could do this..."
"You should get to your appointment," Meredith shrugged on her labcoat.
"No, really Meredith, what's going on?" She wanted her friend back, and maybe Meredith just needed to talk it out. Maybe she could help. She could understand if Meredith felt a little jealous... she would if it was her.
"April... don't talk to me."
Just then Jackson entered, "April, there you are! Are you ready?" She felt his arm around his waist, and somehow that buoyed her a little more to confront Meredith.
"Can't you at least be happy for me? As a friend?"" April continued, life was a good thing, a happy thing... she wanted Meredith to be her baby's cool aunt.
"Fine April! I'm happy for you!" Meredith snapped and whirled to face her. "I'm happy you have a hot husband who loves you, and that you have the most adorable four-year-old son, and another one on the way! Yay you! You get to enjoy everything that was taken from me by the stupid crap universe- Or is it God? Did he do this? Kill my life... my uterus? You want me to be your friend? Why don't you ask Jesus what I did to deserve this, because I'd really like to know!" She slammed the door to her locker and barged out.
Meredith's emotional landslide struck April deeply and she leaned into Jackson, speechless. "I-Oh God... I didn't even... why? I feel so awful, I didn't know this was still so raw..."
xxx
Alex made his way through his rounds, last one up, four year old Anna. A little girl admitted yesterday with burns after she was rescued from a house fire. A freaking stove exploded. He shook his head at the craziness of it all. She'd survived though, only suffering from minor first and second degree burns on her hands and knees, and smoke inhalation. But as he thumbed through her labs, he noticed something that concerned him.
"Hey Anna Banana," he called as he approached her bed. She was gorgeous, dark curly hair and flashing grey-green eyes. The girl pouted slightly, roused from sleep, and rubbed her eyes with her one bandaged arm. "Let me check your bandages okay?" She sleepily offered her right arm, which had a birthmark the size of a quarter on her forearm. He ignored that, carefully pulling the edge of the bandage above it.
"Itchy." Anna said, touching the bandage.
"Itchy huh? That's good, it means it's healing."
Anna shrugged, and played with her gown.
"Hey Anna, I have to ask you a very important question... and I need you to tell me the truth. Can you do that for me?"
The little girl's shoulders bounced again.
"Does it hurt when you pee?" he asked, "like a burn?"
Anna nodded. "Hurts," she said, pointing to herself.
"Yeah?" It confirmed his suspicions, she had a urinary tract infection, which was common and thankfully easy to treat. "Are there times when you feel you have to pee really bad, but when you sit on the toilet nothing comes?"
"Uh huh."
"Well I'm going to give you some medicine so that you'll feel better okay?" He wrote up a perscription for antibiotics in her chart. Just then, an orderly arrived with breakfast and placed it on her table. Anna didn't show any interest in the food, however.
"Are you gonna eat?" Alex picked up a banana from the tray. She shook her head and collapsed back on the pillows. "C'mon, you gotta eat," he coaxed.
Anna scrunched her nose at the food in front of her. Something about that look was familiar, he didn't know what though.
"What do you like to eat?" he asked. At this point, it didn't matter what she ate, just that she'd eat something. He was reluctant to discharge her without seeing her eat.
Before he could get an answer, his pager beeped, "Crap," he muttered. "All right Anna Banana, you gotta eat something okay? Tell the nurse what you want." As he left her bed, he pulled the nurse aside, "I gotta go work on this thing," he said. "Make sure she eats something, fill this prescription, and give her the first dose. The social worker will be here at the end of the day, page me when she gets here."
Now he had to go and make arrangements for the African orphans.
A/N: A lot more to come! Oh, and please check out my story Growing Pains, if you're an Olivia Benson fan, it's a Greys SVU crossover, and I'm a couple chapters from finishing. Love to hear your thoughts on that one, crossovers don't get much attention.