In Which the Rain Falls Down on Addison

I pull off my raincoat walking into the lobby of the hospital. It's a rainy day in Seattle and Meredith has suddenly come down with some sort of stomach virus. Not wanting to be late for her shift, I dropped her off this morning and ran to the store to get her some Pepto Bismol. I round the corner and into the locker room moments later. All the interns are running around getting ready for their day which makes it easy to spot Meredith who's sluggish. She looks pretty sickly and swallows down a big gulp of Pepto the moment I gave it to her.

"You sure you're going to be okay to work today?" she merely nods in response.

George turns around to us, "So Izzie left the house this morning. That's a good sign."

"Yeah," Alex nods.

George looks at Meredith concerned, "Are you okay?"

"I'm just… not feeling like myself."

"O'Malley has that effect on Women," Alex interrupts and I hold back a laugh, "Ask Dr. Torres."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You threw her out on her ass."

"I did not. Who told you that?"

"Torres. Don't worry. I get it. She's hot… but she's not for you."

"Why is that?"

"Cause she's hot."

"Karev, leave him alone," I finally intervene although it was quite funny.

Callie walks by the locker room and George runs out after her, "Callie!"

"Let's go people," Miranda says walking into the locker room seconds after, "I've been in surgery since two a.m. I'm not in the mood."

All of Bailey's interns file out and I follow closely behind to keep an eye on Meredith. I really don't think she should be working today… Cristina comes running in after everyone's lined up, "No cutting… No cutting!"

"Yang, you're late," Alex smirks.

George comes running up to the group and Cristina defends herself, "Hey, I got here before George."

"I'm here!" George corrects, "I was here!"

"Nice of you to join us, Yang," Bailey rolls her eyes at her as she starts sending interns off to certain attendings.

Cristina looks at Alex's smug face, "Oh, what are you smiling about? Aren't you supposed to be on the Gynie Brigade?"

"Yeah, whatever," he shrugs.

Cristina looks at Meredith concerned, "Woman troubles?"

"Karev, let's go," I call him out of the crowd.

Meredith forces a smile at me and I smile softly back at her before walking away. I really hope this is just some sort of bug and she'll be feeling better come the middle of the day. For now, I need to focus on my work.

I send my intern off ahead of me to get our patient situated before I made an appearance. I take the little time I have to stop by my favorite coffee cart. Usually I get hot chocolate but today feels like a coffee morning. Meredith woke me up this morning at three sick to her stomach. Although she kept going in and out of sleep, I couldn't go back to sleep even if I wanted to. Knowing that my girl was sick was enough to keep me up worrying all night.

"How we doing guys?" I say walking into my patient's room.

Alex shakes his head then speaks, "She's at eight centimeters but the baby's still at minus two station."

"So what do we do?" the husband starts to panic, "Pattern breathing? Squatting?"

"Dude… Squatting?"

"Dr. Karev," I pause, "how do we normally proceed in a situation like this?"

"We monitor the baby's progress… If the descent stops entirely during active labour, then we perform a c-section."

"Not on me you don't," the wife interrupts, "I'm sorry Dr. Karev, but Jeff and I have a natural birth plan. And Dr. Montgomery promised us…"

"I promised we would do what we can… but if your labour intensifies and the baby doesn't descend…"

"Well, then we wait until he does. Right? I'm not having a c-section," she says looking from me to Jeff.

Alex comments, "A c-section is actually the safest way…"

"To what?" she looks at him, "Avoid a lawsuit?"

"We don't have to decide right now," I intervene. There will be no lawsuits… I already had one patient try to sue me since I came to Seattle and I'm really not in the mood for another.

Rebecca shakes her head, "I'm not going to miss out on an experience my body was made for just because it's more convenient for you."

Trying to avoid getting frustrated out of my mind, I head off to find my girlfriend. I know she's working but I just wanted to know if she was feeling any better. When I spot Meredith, she's with Dr. Bailey and the rest of the interns in a patient room. Meredith looks up and notices me approaching. She smiles faintly but I can still see the pain on her face. I stop at the door and Miranda walks up to me.

"Dr. Bailey can I get…" I trail off as I see Mark Sloan walk up to the nearby nurses' station, "Oh…"

Meredith looks at me confused then follows my eyes to the elephant in the room, "Oh…"

George walks over into view, "Is that…"

"McSteamy," Cristina grins then Meredith throws up on the floor.

I run to her with Miranda on my tail, "Mer…"

"No, Mr. Sullivan don't light that!" is all I hear before I see the explosion. The top half of his body is engulfed in flames.

Helping Meredith into the seat, I yell, "Somebody get a fire extinguisher!"

"Call a code red!" Bailey yells.

We put out the fire just in time for Mark to run in and take over, "Make sure he has an airway. Sir, can you hear me?"

"No, he's out," Miranda answers, "Hit his head. Small hematoma in the occipital region."

"Get him to the burn unit until he's stabilized and get a CT," he orders, "GO!"

"Right away, doctor," Dr. Bailey nods then looks at her interns, "Come on."

I get Cristina to help me walk Meredith out of the room. We get her settled in an empty bed before I make the call to admit her. She obviously isn't feeling any better… And on top of Meredith being sick and my stupid stubborn patient, I have to deal with Mark Sloan daring to show his face around here. Although Meredith said she was okay with him moving here, I did some more thinking on my own and decided that I was sticking by my initial word. I did not give Mark the okay to move him. I don't want him here… It's too distracting… He's too… distracting… God, do I still have feelings for Mark?

I think I still have feelings for Mark… but I can't think about that right now.

I press the back of my hand to Meredith's head, "You're burning up."

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," I disagree as Cristina hands her a glass of water, "You look beautiful but you don't look fine."

"Now I'm going to throw up," Cristina says rolling her eyes.

Mark walks by her room and I turn back to her with a sigh, "Go. You have babies to save… and surgeons to confront."

"You going to be alright?" I say hesitant to leave her side.

She nods unconvincingly and I turn to Cristina, "Will you look after her, please?"

"Mmm hmm," she answers as I walk out the door, "You think I'd miss this?"

Out in the hallway, I spot Mark and the Chief over near the nurses' station. As I walk closer to them, I can hear that they are talking about Miranda's patient, Mr. Sullivan. Poor idiot lit his cigarette up in the hospital bed while being attached to oxygen… I guess he didn't expect the big boom that came after…

The Chief shakes his head, "What kind of idiot lights a cigarette in a hospital."

"Apparently people do idiotic things all the time," I say walking up to the pair. It's silent for a moment while we all exchange glares. Richard does the smart thing by excusing himself and I turn to Mark, "I thought I told you to stay in New York."

"I thought it was time for a change."

"Why?" I ask and I can hear the giggles coming from Meredith's room. I turn around to see Cristina and Meredith watching and pointing. I roll my eyes turning back to him only getting more frustrated, "Why are you here?"

"Sublet the apartment. Sold the practice. Had nowhere else to go," he says walking up closer to me. His body basically on top of mine. He lowers his voice to a whisper, "Why do you think I'm here?"

"This…" I stutter backing away, "this is why I left you."

"I thought you left me to fix things with Derek."

"And then I left New York because of him," I say rolling my eyes and making my way back to Meredith's room.

He calls after me, "Addison… you can't seriously be mad at me for moving here."

I shut the door behind me as Meredith vomits again. Cristina yells, "Holy crap. Are you pregnant?"

"Oh, this is just perfect," I sigh walking up to her beside, "Meredith…"

Miranda opens the door to the room but before she could walk in she's stopped at the door. It's Mrs. Sullivan, the wife of cigarette guy, "Oh, doctor? I finished filling out the paperwork. When do you think I can take Shawnie home?"

"Uhhh…" Miranda trails off looking rather nauseous herself. Has no one explained to her what has happened or is she in denial? Miranda walks off leaving us alone in the room again.

I can't deal with Cristina poking around on Meredith's stomach right now so I turn away walking towards the window… There's too much going on today… I can't breathe.

And Cristina is so not helpful right now, "So who's the father?"

"I'm not pregnant."

"I didn't think I was pregnant when I was pregnant either… but the fever, abdominal pain, non-stop vomiting?"

"I'm not pregnant. I can't be pregnant, can I? I'm with Addison… Ow," Meredith squirms when Cristina pokes her too hard, "Was I this mean to you when you were pregnant?"

"I thought you said you weren't pregnant," Cristina counters.

Thankfully, Miranda walks in, "She's not. We'll have to run more tests."

"In that case can I have some morphine?" Meredith asks as I'm paged away.

I can finally breathe again… I rush out of the room barely waving goodbye to Meredith as I rush up to OB. Rebecca is nine centimeters dilated but the baby isn't anywhere near the right position and she's still refusing to have a c-section.

I walk out of the room still on edge and make my way over to my intern, "I want you checking the foetal monitor every thirty minutes."

"What's the point? The baby's nowhere near where he needs to be and you know you're going to have to cut her open. So why not get it over with?"

"That's not what the patient wants and it's our job as doctors to balance the desires of the patient against the risk of complication, so if the patient wants a natural birth…"

"So if the patient wants a natural birth, it's not surgical," he cuts me off and I try my hardest not to explode, "So why not just cut me loose and let me in on a surgery I might actually learn something."

"Like Sloan's burn case?"

"I'm going into plastics anyway."

"Do you think that Mark Sloan has anything to teach you? He's just like you. He's only looking out for himself."

"So what? The patient's looking out for herself. You're looking out for yourself…"

"No, I'm not actually."

"Well maybe you should be."

"Go. Go find Sloan. Do whatever you want just get out of my face Karev," I say finally fed up, "Go!"

He runs off and I don't feel badly about it either. I can't deal with stupid interns… I already thought he was incompetent in the beginning and I only took him onto my service to give him a fighting chance because he was lagging behind. No one wanted to work with him… he even got transferred from a different resident to Miranda because they couldn't stand him… Although, it makes me feel better to see Alex already making coffee runs on my way down to Meredith's room.

I can't help but smirk walking into the room, "That's what he gets… I tried to give him an education but instead he wants to be barista instead. His loss."

"Hello, beautiful," Meredith smiles up at me before puckering up her lips. I kiss her softly before going over to her chart. She turns to Cristina, "You're a good friend."

"You're so high right now," she rolls her eyes.

Meredith gasps, "Actually, you're my best friend in the whole entire world."

"Now I just feel sorry for you."

"Why? Cause I could die today?"

"This is why I hate being around stoned people," Cristina rolls her eyes and I can't help but laugh.

Meredith sighs, "If I did die today, I'd only be remembered as the slutty intern who ended up dating the hot doctor."

"That would be me," I say with my eyes still trained on the chart. By the looks of it, it seems as though Meredith may have appendicitis. We just have to wait on the blood test results.

"Probably, but none of that matters cause you'll be dead," Cristina shrugs.

Miranda walks in with George on her tail, "Dr. Grey, you've got a fever, high white count. And tenderness over McBurney's point which suggests…"

"Appendicitis," George, Cristina and I say all at once.

Then you hear Meredith a little behind us, "Appendicitis…"

"Dr. O'Malley, prep Dr. Grey for surgery. You're scrubbing in," Dr. Bailey orders.

George turns around to her hesitantly, "I am? For Meredith's appendectomy?"

"Uhh… Am I the only one who remembers last time George scrubbed in on an appendectomy? He almost killed the guy," Meredith interrupts, "Sorry George."

"I don't have to scrub in, Dr. Bailey. I could just…" he starts but Miranda gives him the evil eye, "uh… unless you want me to… not going to happen again."

Dr. Bailey turns back to Meredith, "That good enough for you, Dr. Grey?"

"You're pretty," she responds with the most adorable grin. They all head out and Meredith turns to me, "Can I have ice chips?"

"Yeah, I'll be right back," I say running off to the nearest ice machine.

It's about three doors down. I'm walking back towards Meredith's when one of the night shift nurses wave to me. I wave back before I hear Meredith calling, "Addison? Dr. Montgomery?"

"You bellowed, Dr. Grey," I say walking into her room.

She grins, "Hi."

"You're certainly aren't you? Well let's see. Your complexion is flushed. Abdominal wall is tender…" I say while touching both her face and stomach after I kiss her then I smile, "Lucky you, I got ice chips! Aren't you happy to have a girlfriend who works in the hospital?"

"You are just one of many people I happen to be dating at the moment."

"Really?" I smirk, "How many of us are there?"

"Well… there's you… and… and…"

"Right…" I cut her off, "You're a bad liar when your sober so…"

"Oh, shush."

"Forgive me for pointing out the obvious," I say while playfully rolling my eyes. She giggles and I lean in for another kiss.

George walks in right after, "Okay let's get you prepped and ready for surgery…"

My pager goes off and I sadly run off to my patient's room. I walk in as the nurse updates me on her status, "Another contraction, Dr. Montgomery."

"You're fully dilated, but the baby is only at minus two station," I tell Rebecca after examining her again.

Rebecca shakes her head, "We just need more time."

"We don't have it Rebecca. His heart rate is slowing with each contraction. If he starts having late decals…"

"Is he having late decals?"

"Not yet but…"

"Then stop trying to scare me into having a surgery I don't want. I have a birth plan. Look I… I'm not going to be one of those weak-ass women who give all that up the minute things start to get scary."

"Rebecca, a birth plan is just that… it's a plan," I try to convince her.

Her husband tries to speak up, "I think she's just trying to be cautious…"

"Get out! Get out get out!" Rebecca yells.

Frustrated, I walk out into the hallway. Miranda Bailey just happened to be outside in the hall. She looks at me crazily, "Since when do you get out?"

"Apparently I'm not myself today."

"Never would have figured Mark Sloan to be your type…"

"He's not… he's not!" I say a little too quickly to be convincing, "What is he doing here? He's not supposed to be here. I can't have him here. He's supposed to be in New York. I can't… I can't function with him here. I'm a professional here, people respect me here… but when he's here I'm just… I'm…"

"A woman who gets the hots for man candy and cheats on her husband?" Miranda looks up at me.

I pause for a moment, "That is rude… and unkind and… completely true. What am I going to do?"

"For starters, you can keep your knees closed in his presence."

"Miranda…" I scold.

She smirks, "You asked. And also, you can remember that no person… not Derek, not Mark, not Meredith, defines who you are."

After talking with Miranda, I walk away feeling a little more confident about today. I figured with the crazy patient, I'd probably have time to see Meredith off to surgery… That is if they haven't taken her up already.

Walking up to her room, I see Mark passing by and Meredith calling out to him, "McSteamy! McSteamy! WOO HOO!"

"Is that what they're calling me?" he asks stepping into her room.

I hear Meredith giggle, "Yeah, but I don't think you're supposed to know that."

"How's my favorite dirty mistress?"

"Haven't you heard? Now I'm an adulterous whore!"

"Leave my girlfriend alone, Mark," I say finally reaching the door. He walks out but not without a huge smirk on his face.

Alex runs in seconds later with some scans, "You planning on killing a woman today?"

"What?" I turn around to him.

He hands me the scans, "The C-section you should have performed on Rebecca this morning? At this point it may be too late… for her and the baby. Nice work Doc."

"Get an OR and an anaesthesiologist. We're doing a crash C-section right now," I say running out of the room and up to OB.

Monitors are going off everywhere when I enter Rebecca's room, "He's in distress. We have to get you into the delivery room and get him out right now."

"No…" she trails off but it's too late. We're already wheeling her out of the room.

"This is no longer a conversation. I am your doctor and I am responsible for your life, and your baby's life. And I am not about to lose either one of you. Are we clear?" She nods then I look to Alex, "You just going to stand there, Karev, or are you going to do this?"

"He's so beautiful. So beautiful. Thank you," Rebecca smiles up at me as I hand her her baby boy. The c-section went by easily as always and now we're back in her room.

My job here is done. I put up her chart and I smile, "You're welcome."

I walk out of the room and down the hall with Karev following closely behind. Unfortunately, Mark walks out into the hallway yelling, "Where's my coffee, Karev?"

"I got pulled into an emergency c-section."

"Too bad. I was going to let you scrub in on a real surgery. Maybe next time. If OB can spare you. See you," he says walking away.

I roll my eyes as Alex sighs. He doesn't know that it's a trick and I almost… emphasis on almost, feel badly for him. I make my way downstairs losing Karev somewhere along the way. Walking into Meredith's room, she and Cristina are laughing. I smile happy to see her in a good mood, "How you feeling?"

"Mortified."

"I was just explaining the Meredith on Morphine experience," Cristina explains.

I shake my head laughing, "You don't remember?"

"Was it memorable?"

"I'll let Cristina tell you. I'll come back."

"Actually I've just been sent on a mission to get the patient some ice chips. Be right back," she says heading out the room.

"How badly did I embarrass myself?" she asks and after I don't respond she looks up at me, "What?"

It's just been a long day," I sigh sitting down with her on the bed.

I think I may have drifted off to sleep because when I look up at her door again, Mark is standing in the doorframe and Meredith is fast asleep.

"Addison, can we talk?" he asks and I roll my eyes getting up from the bed making my way out of her room. I close the door softly behind me and cross my arms defensively as he begins to speak, "Red…"

"Look, I don't want you here Mark. I think I've made that abundantly clear so if you insist on staying, just know that we're co-workers and nothing more," I say spotting Alex in my peripheral. I turn around to him, "Karev! As of right now, you are officially off my service. And for what it's worth… I think you're gonna miss me."

And at that, I turn around making my way back into Meredith's room and I close the door behind me.