In Which Addison's Nerve is Struck

"White male. GSW to the left shoulder," a paramedic say as Meredith and I walk into the hospital through the Ambulance Bay, "Multiple walking wounded. Five injured coming in behind us."

We get the 911 page after we already walked through the ER. We run into the other interns in the hallway along with a bunch of patients on gurneys. Meredith asks what we both we thinking, "Why are they all in the hallway?"

"Overflow from the ER," Cristina answers simply.

Izzie chims in, "A paramedic told us an employee went postal; shot up a restaurant."

"I heard he got away," George adds.

I speak up this time, "Really?"

"Grey! I need some assistance over here," someone shouts from the ER.

Meredith stands on her tippy-toes to give me a kiss, "Sorry, gotta go."

"I'll talk to you later," I smile before heading upstairs to my office.

I don't get very far before I'm paged from the Neurology department. I head over to Neuro to find that I was paged by Dr. Cam… I still don't like him. He's way too stuck up… for even me. Just because I don't like him, doesn't mean I'm not cordial and professional around him. He asks me to check on his 19 year old pregnant patient's womb. She has a gunshot wound to the head and he just wants to make sure the baby is well enough to handle the surgery. After my initial workup, I leave the room to find Dr. Cam who's in the Scrub room prepping for surgery.

"Kendra's fetus is 12 weeks along. It seems healthy," I pause waiting for him to respond. After no response, I speak up again, "Did you hear me, Dr. Cam?"

"I heard you," he says rudely not even looking up at me.

I'm offended. I use words that I don't normally use, "Dude, what the fuck is your problem?"

"You're my problem, Dr. Montgomery. You just waltz in here from New York like you own the place. You actually think that one day the Chief will pass down his position to you but you're wrong. You're a woman, doctor. You should stay in a woman's place. We don't have time for wannabe overachievers," he says as finishes scrubbing out.

Luckily, before I'm able to speak, Dr. O'Malley walks into the room, "Kendra's parents are here."

"Let them know the situation, have them sign the consent forms, then scrub in," he says to him.

George nods, "Yes, Dr. Cam."

"Thank you," he says to George before he leaves out of the room to go to Kendra's parents. I take this is my opportunity to blow off a lot of steam.

"Look, I mean, it's okay that you feel inferior to women because you are. Even Richard knows that. When there are high-profile Neuro cases, he doesn't page you… he pages Dr. Saroyan. So, I suggest you take what I'm saying in and maybe one day learn to better yourself before you find yourself out of a job. Oh, and don't get your hopes up about being Chief. You were never in the running," I say feeling a lot better now that I got those words off my chest. I turn on my heels and stride out of the Scrub room.

On my stride back to my office, I walk past a conference room that just so happens to be occupied by Meredith. I walk in to see her sitting alone with a pile of charts in front of her and she smiles up at me. I smile back, "Hey."

"Hey," she reaches up for me.

I sit down in her lap and collapse my body into hers as I lay my head on her shoulder, "Have you seen Dr. Karev?"

"Uh… hours ago," she says reaching over me to continue working on her charts.

I just nod, "Ok."

"Addison, you're really going to torture him forever? He says you're ruining vaginas for him," she laughs, "He calls you the gyno-beast."

I want to laugh… I do but for some reason I can't get over what Dr. Cam said to me a few minutes ago. I sit up and look at Meredith then I say mostly to myself, "He's a misogynist."

"Who?" Meredith looks up at me.

I shake my head standing up from her lap, "Dr. Cam. He asked me to come down for a consult then flipped out on me about how I am a woman and I need to stay in a woman's place."

"Addison…" she starts.

I wave it off knowing what I'm going to do next, "No, no. Thanks. I'm… I'm okay. Thanks. I'm great."

"Addison, what are you going to do?" she asks.

I just shake my head and I walk out of the conference room then upstairs to my office. I'm in a middle of writing an angry letter to the Chief about the way one of his surgeons are acting when that surgeon in question just happens to knock on my door. When I acknowledge him, he walks into my office.

He shifts on his feet, "Hey, you got a minute?"

"You ready to apologize?" I ask not looking up from the papers stacked on my desk.

He clears his throat, "Uh, my patient, Kendra Thomas. She's brain dead. Her parents want to keep her alive to have the baby."

"So, you want me to talk to the parents?" I question still working on my letter.

Dr. Cam speaks up again, "Well, I tried already, but I figured, you know, you're neonatal, you might have a better shot at it than I do."

"Ok," I agree.

Dr. Cam acts as if he doesn't hear me, "It's just that you could give the a much more detailed picture…"

"I said I'd do it," I shut him up by cutting him off.

I watch Dr. Cam walk out of my office and I sit waiting for the anger of just seeing his face to fade before getting up making my way to Kendra's room. When I walk in, I find her parents in the room basically coddling a corpse, Dr. Cam in the corner looking extremely awkward and his intern, Dr. O'Malley, on the other side of the room.

"Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, Dr. Cam asked me to talk to you about your daughter and her pregnancy," I say walking into the room.

Mr. Thomas waves me away, "We've made up our mind. She's having the baby."

"I know Kendra meant the world to you and I know the terrible grief you must be going through right now, but from a medical standpoint, this is a very bad idea," I say.

Mr. Thomas just shakes his head, "Well, if we'd wanted your opinion, miss, we'd ask for it."

"It's just… we love our daughter. Please try to understand," Mrs. Thomas finally speaks up.

I nod, "I do understand. I do. You think if you love her enough or love her baby enough that it will keep her close to you. But she's already gone and if you go forward with this, you're risking… I mean, if Kendra, were to contract an infection, she could pass it on to the fetus and it could cause brain damageㄧ"

"We're taking our chances," Mr. Thomas says adamantly.

Mrs. Thomas asks, "Now… they keep organ donors alive after they're… gone. Why not Kendra?"

"Organ donors aren't kept alive for six months. Your daughter is brain dead. She can't regulate body temperature, hormone output. These things are very important for a fetus," I explain.

Mr. Thomas asks, "You guys can regulate that stuff, right?"

"We could try," I say, "Iㄧ"

"Well then try, damn it! What the hell's the problem here?" Mr. Thomas snaps.

This only sets the water boiling up inside of me off, "The problem, as I see it, is you want to use your daughter's corpse as an incubator. That's the problem."

"Ok, I'm sorry," Dr. Cam jumps in, "Would you excuse us?"

"That's the problem," I say to them and to Dr. Cam as he tries to pull me out of the room. I remove his hands off me and escort myself out of the room, "What? Dr. Cam what are you doing?"

"They just lost their daughter," he says.

I look at him like he's stupid, "I know. That was my point, Dr. Cam. They need to face that. She's not coming back."

"A little sensitivity would be nice here, ok? They love their daughter. They don't want to let go," he says walking away.

I shake my head following him, "What they're doing is not about love, Dr. Cam. It's… it's…"

"Just calm down, please," he says quietly.

I'm taken aback, "What? What? You're not going to yell at me? Call me names?"

"What do you want from me, Dr. Montgomery?" he says turning around to face me.

" I want a freaking apology! I want you to grow the fuck up and lose that damn God complex! You are not the best neurosurgeon in the world let alone in this hospital! Listen, Dr. Cam, I understand that you feel inferior to me and you should. I'm a world-class neonatal surgeon with double board certifications in both Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Maternal and Fetal Medicine. On top of being a medical genetics fellow, I am one of only eight people in the world who can perform Maternal and Fetal Medicine on a world-class level. There are thousands of Neurosurgeons who perform on a world-class level and oh, you're not even one of them… Moving along, I get paid more than double your salary; probably more than triple. I am smarter than you and a hell of a lot more capable. That's why Richard personally asked me to come out here from New York. So, I suggest you take that God complex along with that big head of yours and throw it out of the window. Then maybe you can learn to respect women instead of being a misogynistic asshole and know your place at the bottom of the surgical food chain," I finish and Dr. Cam nods his head towards the floor below us.

I look over to see Meredith, Cristina, Chief Webber among others who have just witnessed the whole scene. Dr. Cam walks away and I, slightly embarrassed, shakes it off striding away towards my office. Before I could reach the safety of my office, I see none other than Richard Webber coming right towards me.

I start, "I know what you're going to say, Richard, but if you knew that day that I hadㄧ"

"Everybody in this hospital has those days, Addison. And no one makes a scene in front of their peers. Get it together. Addison," he says then walks away.

I'm so freaking pissed. I need someone to rant to. Maybe I'll run into Meredith or Callie or Miranda. I go looking for someone to blow off steam with. The first person I run into is Dr. Bailey who is scrubbing her hands at a sink in the ER.

"I swear I've had it up to here with Dr. Cam's misogynistic ass," I start to rant but I stop suddenly when I hear gunshots go off.

Miranda looks at me, "What was that?"

"Were those gunshots?" I question as we both run off outside to where the sound came from.

There's a guy laid out in a pile of blood. I recognize him as one of the guys from the shooting earlier. I check his pulse but there is none. He's dead. I look up to see Bailey kneeled over another gunshot victim.

Miranda shouts, "Oh! Dr. Burke. I need some help!"

I run over to her motioning the paramedics to follow with a gurney. Miranda is performing CPR on Preston while we help him onto a gurney then I run in to find room for him all the while running into the Chief.

"Burke's been shot," I say to him.

As fate would have it, Cristina comes running up to us, "Chief! How bad is it? It looks bad. Um, I'm here. I can help. If there's anything surgical, I can help."

"Why don't you go run Trauma Two, Dr. Yang?" Richard offers up.

Cristina's eyes go wide, "I get to run Trauma Two all by myself?"

"Yes, but find me if you need help," he says then adds, "And get consults."

"I'm on it," Cristina runs off to Trauma Two while Richard and I walk over to the entrance where Dr. Bailey is wheeling Dr. Burke inside.

Richard turns to me, "How bad is it?"

"Uh, GSW to the right shoulder," I say being reminded of all the blood at the scene, "He's lost a lot of blood."

"All right. Get him to Trauma One and keep the blinds closed. Yang's on the floor," Richard announces as we all head to the trauma room.

Dr. Burke starts struggling to get off the gurney. It's getting tough to hold him down. Dr. Bailey steps up into his view speaking softly, "Hey, wait."

"I'm fine," Dr. Burke insists still trying to get up.

I walk up to Miranda trying to help keep him still while Richard tries talking him back down, "You need to lay down. You've lost a lot of blood."

"I'm fine. Let go. I'm fine," Dr. Burke tries to loosen our grip on him, "I have a patient that I have to go check on."

"No, no. No, you are the patient. Lay down!" I say using all the strength I have.

Dr. Burke, however, just starts laughing as he flops down onto the bed, "Dr. Montgomery, when did you get here?"

"Page Saroyan," Richard says after a second of all of us looking kind of worried.

It feels like an eternity later when Dr. Saroyan finally comes into the room. It's okay though because we finally got Dr. Burke to lay down. Bad news is that Dr. Yang walks into the room seconds after Dr. Saroyan.

It's silent in the room as she just stares at him. I don't like the tension in here. Thankfully, Cristina finally speaks up, "You're shot?"

"Cristina?" Dr. Burke sits up a little finally noticing her presence.

Richard steps in, "Get back to your station, Yang."

"He's shot?" she looks from Dr. Burke to the Chief.

Dr. Bailey answers for him, "Yang, we got it. It's ok."

"That guy shot you," she says to Burke but mostly to herself as she angrily storms out of the room.

After a short silence Dr. Bailey speaks up, "Ok, no, no exit wound."

"Entry upper right shoulder," Dr. Saroyan takes over, "Could be lodged in the spine. Ok, let's roll him over."

"Easy," Richard instructs as we all step in to help.

"Watch the arm!" Dr. Saroyan yells at an intern as she gets a better look at the wound.

"Easy," Richard says again as we lower him.

Dr. Saroyan smiles looking into Preston's eyes, "Hey, Dr. Burke?"

"Hmm?" he answers completely out of it.

Dr. Saroyan goes ahead and continues, "The bullet is in dangerous property here, ok? We need to check your hand function."

"I want you to try and squeeze my fingers, ok?" Richard says as Cristina bursts into the room again.

She pushes past everyone to get a closer look, "They moved my guy upstairs. How is he?"

"I need you to wait outside," Dr. Bailey instructs her.

She shakes her head, "I'm not gonna wait outside. Burke?"

"Can we have a moment?" Dr. Burke asks the Chief.

Richard hesitates but gives in, "Only a moment. I don't want to waste any time, ok?"

On that note, we all step outside. My pager goes off. It's a 911 from Adele, the Chief's wife. It also says not to let him know that she's here. I wonder what that's about. I excuse myself and make my way over to Trauma Six.

Almost to the room, Adele pulls up the curtain spotting me walking up and she shouts, "Addison! Thank you for meeting us."

"You wanna tell me what's so important I'm keeping it secret from my Chief of Surgery?" I say looking from Adele to the young girl on the hospital bed in full prom attire.

Adele nods towards the girl, "I was chaperoning a prom for my niece. We had a little bit of a situation."

I grab the chart off the end of the bed, "Camille Travis, 17, lost consciousness during sexual intercourse?"

"Oh, keep it down," Adele shushes me closing the curtain after us.

Camille laughs a little at Adele, "It's okay, Aunt Adele, I'm fine."

"When your Uncle Richard finds out you were cashing in your V-card, none of us will be fine," she says slight jokingly but I know how serious she's being.

In the middle of my exam, two girls and a boy enter also in their prom attire. The brunette girl speaks first, "Camille?"

"Mrs. Webber!" the other one says.

The brunette one asks, "My God! Is she ok?"

"She has to be ok, right?" the other one asks before I even get a chance to speak up.

They just go back and forth, "No one ever died from having sex, right?"

"You're not going to tell my parents, right? I mean, I even used a condom and everything," the boy says finally.

I just shake my head as Adele escorts them out of the room. I can still hear them. They're just on the other side of the curtain, "You girls should go back to the prom."

"Are you gonna call Camille's parents?"

"Not until I have to. You know her mom. She gets a little hysterical…" Adele trails off before speaking up again. This time a little more hectic, " Brian, disappear."

"What?" he says to Adele. Both of the girls come back into the room.

Adele's pitch gets a little higher, "Disappear! Go! Disappear! Richard. Richard."

"Adele," he says simply.

"Hmm."

"Um, what? Are you here to see Preston?"

"Preston? No," Adele says now worried about Preston too, "What happened to Preston?"

"Preston was shot."

"Preston was shot?"

"Yeah," he pauses, "Camille. What happened to Camille?"

"Richard…" Adele pauses as I look over my shoulder to see a slight opening in the curtain. Oops, so much for keeping this from Richard, "she fainted while… when… she was… she… was having sex with her boyfriend."

He's clearly hysterical. It doesn't seem as though he heard that last part, "Why didn't you call me?"

"She's 17, sweetheart. She'll be 18 in a few months. Most girls lose it way before…"

Richard cuts her off, "Uh-huh! Do you think I want to hear that? Do you think I wanna picture my baby niece… "losing it"?"

"Richard, Richard, take deep breaths," Adele tries to calm him down.

I walk out of Camille's room and up to them when I'm finished with my initial exam, "Well, the bleeding has stopped, but her pelvic exam does concern me. I'd like to do an ultrasound."

"Three years ago, Camille was diagnosed with ovarian cancer," Richard speaks up, "They only removed one ovary to try and preserve fertility, but her checkups have been clean since then."

"Ok. Well, let's not worry until we have to," I say as Brian walks by.

Richard spots him, "You! You wait right there! I want to talk to you!"

Adele motions for him to run and Brian starts to run away. Richard goes after him, "I said wait. Stop! I said stop!"

"Richard, take deep breaths! Richard!" Adele yells after them running off too.

I just laugh going back into Camille's room going over her chart and notes from her previous doctor visits. The girls, who I now know names are Natalie and Claire, are in here with Camille and they're talking about prom.

Natalie goes ahead and talks about the elephant in the room, "So… was it totally romantic?"

"Yeah, before… the pain and the paramedics and everything?" Claire finishes.

Camille blushes looking from me to her friends, "Ok, so… you know that feeling when you look into someone's eyes and you're totally comfortable and you aren't self-conscious and everything is just… is, like, perfect?"

"Camille, have you had any symptoms, um…" I say interrupting, "any abdominal pain? Nausea? Anything?"

"No, she's been fine," Claire answers for her.

Camille looks down nervously and I look at her sadly, "You haven't been fine, have you?"

"No, not for, like, a month or so," she admits.

Natalie looks at Camille surprised, "You've been feeling sick for a month?"

"I wanted to go to prom. I, I…" she pauses, "I didn't want to be the girl with cancer, again."

"You're not," Claire says to her then looks to me, "She's not, right?"

"Uh… I need to run a few more tests. Do you girls mind waiting in the waiting room for me? I'll come find you as soon as we bring Camille back down," I say although I'm pretty sure her cancer is back but I don't want to worry anyone until it's confirmed.

They comply and head out of the room and I call a nurse in to take Camille upstairs to get a few more tests ran. I sit in the room for a bit trying to compose myself and run through everything in my head again. When I walk out, I find Adele sitting on a bench near the Nurses' Station.

"Hey," I say sighing sitting down next to her.

Adele looks up at me, "Oh. I was just trying to remember the night I lost my virginity. And I can't. I remember who it was with and I remember I was 18, but… I can't remember any of the details."

"I can remember all of the details," I shrug, "Kind of wish I couldn't."

"That bad?" Adele asks.

I shake my head, "No, just not good. Good came later. And then really good came."

"That little girl in there's just getting started. She hasn't even seen what good is yet. Please. Addison. Tell me she's going to have a chance to see what the good stuff is," I don't say anything but I don't really have a good poker face. Adele just looks at me and she already knows what the answer is, "Oh."

"I'm so sorry, Adele," I say frowning.

I hug her then I head upstairs to my office where I hide for a little. The intern with Camille's test results knocks on my door and I invite him in. He leaves me with the results before heading back out and leaving my door open. I sigh going through her papers until I'm confirmed that her cancer really is back. I close the folder running my hand through my hair as I try to figure out how I'm going to break this to Richard and Adele. Speaking of the devil, Richard's walking by my office. I run out to join him as he walks down a four set of stairs out onto the hall and into the waiting room, which is full of teenagers dressed in their prom attire.

"Woah," I say mostly to myself.

Richard clears his throat, "Girls."

"Um, I called Jillian," Claire speaks up first.

Natalie adds, "And I called Tessa."

"And then they called Simon and Bianca and Deborah," Claire keeps it up.

Richard cuts them off, "Girls…"

They won't let him win. Natalie pleads, "It's her prom, Dr. Webber. She can't miss her whole prom! So… we, like, brought it to her."

"Kids! Kids! Listen up. Look, I know you wanted to see Camille. Why don't you come back tomorrow? During the day; in smaller groups," he says then tries again a little quieter, "Look, I'm sorry, girls. I can't have a bunch of teenagers running in the hallways. People are sick. People are d…"

"Dying?" Claire finishes for him, "Yeah, we know."

I can't take this anymore. I excuse myself making my way out the room and down the hall. I can't imagine losing my little girl to ovarian cancer at seventeen. Freaking seventeen… her life is just getting ready to get started. To take my mind away from this, I decide to go check on Dr. Burke. I hope he has a better outcome. When I arrive at his room, I see he's awake and Dr. Saroyan in there with him. I decide to slip in quietly while they're talking.

"How're you doing?" Dr. Saroyan asks him.

He lifts up his hand, "I'm developing numbness in my… fourth and fifth fingers."

"And there's a pseudoaneurysm in the subclavian artery," she adds. "You know the drill. Wait a few days, maybe the aneurysm won't grow."

"Yeah, if… if it stays this size, there's too much damage," he says mostly to himself.

Dr. Saroyan nods, "We'll just go in there and we'll fix it. Relieve the compression on the nerves."

"But the operation could cause damage to the nerves."

"Yes."

"And I could… lose function of the entire arm."

"Yes," she says again.

Preston looks start at her, "You can do this? You're good enough to do this?"

"I think so," she nods.

Preston squints, "But you're not sure."

"But I'm not sure."

"So… what do I do?"

"It's not like you to ask those kind of questions."

"It's not like you not to have the answers."

I can't take this anymore; this back and forth; the bad outcomes; the not knowing of answers, I bolt out of the room so fast that I literally run into Adele and Richard in the hallway. Adele is screaming at him.

"How dare you send those kids away?" I really don't want to be around for this but I can't seem to walk away.

Richard tries to calm her down, "Adele. Please. You're emotional. Ok?"

"I just told my sister her baby's cancer is back. You're damn right, I'm emotional. If you don't want to bend your precious rules for Camille, fine. Don't do it for her. Do it for me. Do it for your wife who never asks you for anything; who says nothing about your long hours; who looks the other way while you have an affair with another woman; who sobered you up when that woman left you; who stayed with you when everyone, everyone said I would be better off alone. I'm not asking you, I'm telling you, you're going to make this up to Camille. You're gonna prioritize the needs of your family above those of your other patients. Or… you're going to find a new place to sleep," she finishes and I walk away scared to be around them at this point.

Adele knew about the affair. There really is no denying her mother and Richard's affair now. I have to tell Meredith this new piece of information. I leave down the hall in search of Meredith. I haven't seen her all day. After looking for ten minutes, I stop by a couple of Nurses' Stations asking for her but no one seems to know where she is. I even paged her but I still haven't got an answer. Luckily, I run into Dr. Bailey coming out of Dr. Burke's room. She's gotta know where her interns are.

Walking next to her I ask, "Have you seen Meredith?"

"Walk with me," she says simply. I follow her as she grabs Olivia, the nurse, and we head upstairs to the CICU.

We stop walking outside of Denny Duquette's room. This is the patient that Dr. Stevens is so obsessed with that she can't focus on any of her work. When we walk into the room, we find the patient flatlining with Izzie standing over him pumping his heart as it starts beating again. All of Miranda's interns are in here except Alex. I'm so stuck on what's happening in front of me that the whereabouts of Alex Karev don't even concern me right now.

"Oh my god," I say quietly as I realize what's going down in here.

"You fools better have a good explanation for this. Step away from the patient," Miranda orders as everyone steps back except Izzie, "Step away from the patient."

"I can't. I have to pump his heart.," Izzie replies hectically.

That's when I notice the cut LVAD wire. Miranda notices too then says, "Olivia, take over for Dr. Stevens. Izzie, you're done here. I need you to leave the room."

"Izzie…" Olivia threads carefully knowing that Izzie has completely lost it at the point.

Izzie spazzes, "No! Do not touch me!"

God, I blame myself for not noticing that Izzie was losing it. I mean, I slowly witnessed her fall in love with this man and I did nothing to stop it. I should've done something. Now she may lose her license to practice. She was such a promising doctor. Now looking at her, I don't really know who she is. This is partially my fault. She was under my wing. I should've been paying more attention.

"Olivia, stay with Dr. Stevens. Help her if she'll let you. You three. Outside. Now!" Miranda steps out into the hall with the rest of the interns and I join them because I'm too in shock to do anything else, "Where was rational thought? Where was cognitive thinking? First do no harm? The morals, the ethics? Where was sanity when you three decided to help that girl?"

"We didn't…" Meredith starts but Bailey cuts her off.

"No, no. No speaking. Nobody speaks. I do not want to have to testify against any of you in a court of law; not one word. She cut his LVAD wire," George clears his throat and Miranda eyes him, "Look, I said no speaking!"

"I didn't say anything!" George defends himself.

Mirana yells as she tries to think, "Then no moving! Cristina, Burke is asking for you. Go!" Cristina runs off and Miranda turns to the other two interns, "I'm assuming you ran labs…? I'm asking a question. Answer me!"

"You said no speak…"

" I know what I said," Miranda cuts Meredith off.

Meredith just answers the question, "Yes."

"O'Malley, get me the lab results. Do not pass go. Do not even talk to another living soul. Get the labs! Get back here!" he nods running off and Miranda turns to Meredith, "You come with me."

We all walk back into the room and Miranda walks over to the bed, "How you feeling Denny?"

"Really, really good," he smiles, "Like an athlete or a superhero. Or some other kind of really healthy person."

"You're funny," Izzie says nervously as she continues to pump, "You're a funny guy."

"Izzie. No speaking," Meredith reminds her.

Denny looks at Dr. Bailey, "I cut my own LVAD wires, you know? I went rogue. All by myself."

"Shush. You're weak enough as it is. Please don't waste energy on lying," Miranda says looking at his monitor.

Cristina walks back into the room and Izzie speaks up again, "Dr. Bailey?"

"I did indeed say no speaking," Miranda rolls her eyes at her.

Izzie flips out, "I don't care! He's gonna get the heart right? You're gonna sign the charts and talk to the transplant coordinator?"

We all just look at her like she's crazy as George enters the room. All eyes move to him now as he hands over the labs to Miranda, "Here are the labs."

"See? See, his BUN and creatinine are increasing. He clearly has pulmonary edema. He deserves to move up to 1-A status on the transplant list. UNOS will give him the heart. You just have to call," Izzie keeps on. I can't believe she's actually lost it… I feel so bad for her right now. I don't know if she'll be able to come back from this.

Dr. Bailey looks up from the labs and scoffs at her, "Isobel Stevens, I take my medical advice from doctors. You are a visitor."

"What?" Izzie questions.

Dr. Bailey makes it clear for her, "As of now, you are a visitor in this hospital. You will not be a doctor in this hospital again until I decide you are. Olivia, take over the heart pump."

"He gets the heart though, right?" she says and now it's official. She is crazy.

I shake my head at her. I couldn't hold my tongue for much longer, "Izzie, please, just shut up… for your own sake."

Olivia takes over and Dr. Bailey makes all the interns get out of the room and go sit against the wall on the other side of the floor. I follow her already knowing she's going to Richard. We find him standing at a Nurses' Station. Miranda stops short and I turn around to look at her.

"Uh, let me do the talking," she says and I just nod. I didn't want to be the one to tell this to the Chief anyway, "Sir? Uh, I need to ask you a hypothetical question."

"Can we do this another time?" Richard tries to brush her off.

Miranda just keeps talking, "Uh, if someone on the staff deliberately unhooked a transplant candidate from his LVAD in an attempt to worsen his condition and get him moved up on the donor list…? Hypothetically, sir."

"I think you need to tell me exactly what's going on here, Dr. Bailey," he closes the chart he was focused on giving us his full attention.

Miranda shakes her head, "Believe me, sir, you want this to stay a hypothetical. Because I'm thinking if something like that did happen, you'd be duty bound to report it and the hospital would be in danger of losing its accreditation as a transplant site."

"So hypothetically?" he says finally realizing what's going on here.

Miranda continues, "Hypothetically, if the patient got worse, would it be unethical for him to receive the heart even though, medically, his worsened condition now puts him at the top of the donor list? Hypothetically?"

"How bad is he?" he asks.

Miranda answers, "In the few hours it would take a new LVAD to be delivered, he'll be dead."

"Our responsibility is to the patient. If, medically, he's at the top of the list, then he should get the heart. Hypothetically," he finishes.

Miranda nods and we start to walk away, "Thank you, sir."

"But practically?" he says stopping us in our tracks, "Whoever removed the patient from the LVAD, I expect to be given names and there will be severe, severe consequences."

"Yes, sir," she nods.

Dr. Bailey looks to me and it's like I read her mind. I nod back to her and we go off seperate ways. I'm assuming she's calling UNOS and I'm going back to the CICU to have them prep Denny for surgery.

About an hour later, I'm sitting in the viewing room watching Preston's surgery when one of the doctors ask me to go get Cristina. I nod running off towards the OR board where Miranda has the interns sitting up against the wall. I can hear them complaining from down the hall.

"Bailey's treating us like we're children. We're not children. We shouldn't have to sit out here like we're on a time out, or something," Dr. O'Malley exclaims.

Meredith sighs, "It is a time out. What we did is way in need of a time out."

"You realize we could get kicked out of the program for this?" Cristina makes known.

Izzie shakes her head, "Not we. I did this. I did this. And you're probably right. Maybe I should run. But I'd rather be running towards somebody than running away."

"Yang?" I say clearing my throat making my presence known, "Saroyan's asking for you."

"Uh, for Burke's surgery?" she questions.

I nod, "Yes. Hurry up."

"Uh… IㄧI can't. I'm… I'm in a time out," she stutters.

I shake my head, "Time out's over. Right now."

"Yes, ma'am," she says standing up nervously.

I try to calm her, "Yang, he needs you."

She just nods and walks off while I'm left here just staring at them. Meredith is staring back at me and I want to ask what the hell happened but I can't… not now at least. It's silent for a minute while we just stare at each other. That is, until Izzie speaks up again.

"He said marry me, right? He did? That really happened?" she questions. I'm glad she's finally questioning her judgement but it's a little too late now don't you think?

George nods, "It really happened."

"It really did," Meredith answers her but still stares at me.

Izzie stands up walking off, "Screw this. I'm checking on Denny."

Now all that's left sitting is George and Meredith. Their time out doesn't really seem to matter anymore so I motion for Meredith to follow me before walking away. I keep walking until I find an empty on-call room. I slip inside and a few seconds later Meredith follows suit.

Once she closes the door behind her, I turn around to face her, "Explain. Now."

"Okay, so, George paged me 911 to Denny's room. I arrived there seconds before Cristina. It's chaos… George is shouting how… how Izzie cut his LVAD wires. She said she was trying to save him… she said to call Dr. Burke… that he would know what to do. Then Cristina tells us Dr. Burke got shot and everything gets even more chaotic because then she realizes that Dr. Burke isn't coming to fix this. They suggested telling but… I told them it was a bad idea. If we told, Denny wouldn't get the heart and Izzie would get kicked out of the program. I had to calm everyone down so we wouldn't actually kill him. Everyone was looking to me for a plan; a plan that I didn't have. I came up with the idea of confirming Denny's condition ourselves; to get the blood work; to do the echo; call UNOS and maybe no one even had to know what Izzie did. I found out that Alex was with Dr. Burke and was still over at Mercy West so I called him and had him stall while we got everything together on our end… He starts crashing and going into SVT. I grab the adenosine and it starts working the moment after you, Dr. Bailey and Olivia come into the room," she finishes taking a deep breath, "Please don't say anything. We made a vow to stick together on this. No one's snitching… We're a team. I told you because I trust you."

"Trust me, I don't even want anyone to know that I even walked in the room. I was never there, alright?" I sigh. Seeing that she's shaking, I take her in my arms, "Oh, Meredith. Well, I'm glad you were there. You saved his life and possible saved Izzie's from being charged with murder. You did good. Alright?"

She just nods and I stay there holding onto her for another moment before we agree on her going back to 'time out' before Dr. Bailey finds out that she's missing. We already have one intern gone rogue. We don't need another.

We go our separate ways, her to 'timeout' and I go back up to the viewing room to watch Denny's surgery this time and I see Izzie sitting in the corner… I don't say anything to her. Honestly, I try not to even look her way but just focus on the surgery. I spot Dr. Karev down in the OR and I make a mental note to dog him out for trying to skip out on my service today. I'm going to let him know that I'm adding more to his sentence. It looks like they're finishing up.

Alex Karev compliments the visiting cardiac surgeon, "It's beautiful work, Dr. Hahn."

"The hard part is still to come. All right, let's start taking him off bypass. See if this heart will beat on it's own," Dr. Hahn stops working for a second.

Miranda answers, "Nothing."

"All right come on, Denny. Beat for me," the Mercy West surgeon basically pleads.

Dr. Bailey grabs the paddles, "No response. Charge to 20."

"Clear," she removes her hands. Once shocked, she goes back to massaging the heart, "Come on. Come on. Come on."