A/N: Chapter 7 is up. Thank you for the reviews. Next chapter takes place in Switzerland!
I do not own Grey's Anatomy or its characters.
"Dr. Shepherd, there is a patient in the E.R. calling specifically for you." A nurse informed Amelia who was sitting in her office.
"I'll be right there." Amelia said, confused. None of her prior patients had messaged her about anything wrong.
She met Stephanie on the elevator and headed downstairs. She opened the curtains to tend to the patient, slightly more confused as she hadn't met the woman laying in front of her ever.
"Who are you? I asked for Dr. Shepherd." She complained.
"I am Dr. Shepherd" Amelia replied, amused.
"Dr. Shepherd is a guy." She replied. Realisation struck Amelia, she was looking for Derek. "Look I was here, years ago..."
Just then, she heard Meredith, "My first year, my first day, you're Katie Bryce."
"Oh my God. They still let you be a doctor here?" Katie asked surprised, re
"It was my first day!" Meredith defended herself.
"Okay... Stephanie take Katie here for a head CT." Amelia instructed her resident.
Meredith left Cristina a message and then followed her youngest sister-in-law up to the CT room. She had paged Derek there too.
"Why are you following me?" Amelia asked.
"She was my first patient. She was Derek's and mine first patient. Please Amelia." Meredith requested. Amelia conceded.
"Hey, you paged." Derek asked as he met with the doctors in the CT room.
"It's Katie Bryce." Meredith said.
"What's wrong? Was there something wrong the first time?" Derek asked. He of course remembered the patient. She was special to both him and Meredith.
"I don't know, yet." Amelia dead-panned. "You know what? Derek, Meredith why don't the two of you take charge, here?"
"Amy... Sorry. I won't press for answers." Derek apologised.
"No... I'm serious and not in an angry way. She was your patient. Think of it as a vow renewal present form my side." She smiled. She knew that even if she did take this patient the couple in front of her would not rest without having updates every hour. She couldn't blame them. She would do the same if it were one of her prior patient's.
"So, Dr. Grey, how would you like to switch the Neuro for today?" He smiled at his wife.
"You got yourself a date in the OR, Dr. Shepherd," she winked. Amelia saw the interaction with a smile and left the room. She of course didn't mind her brother taking up a few cases, especially they were this special to him. She had heard a lot about Meredith and Derek working together in Neuro, maybe she would see for herself today.
"Hey, I was told you were looking for me?" Derek smiled at her when she was brought out of the CT room.
"What's wrong with me, Dr. Shepherd? Was the suregry you did all those years back not done well? Is there a problem because of it?" She fired questions.
"Katie, your CT scans show another aneurysm. We don't yet know if it's related to the previous surgery, or it's a new one. We need to do some additional tests to come to a conclusion. But, don't worry, Dr. Grey and I will operate and make sure you're all good to go." Derek explained.
He and Meredith then hit the patient files from all those years back. He saw the scans, the lab results and his operation notes. They spent hours comparing her stats and brain scans and movements.
They were in the display room, reading when Bailey came, "Grey, you wanna tell me why my Chief of General Surgery has a name next to a Neuro procedure?" She asked.
"It's my first patient Bailey." Meredith explained.
"Our first patient." Derek added.
"Hmm... one procedure, that's it. And the OR doesn't became the place for you two to make lovey-dovey eyes everyday." She remarked.
"One procedure, Bailey." Meredith promised.
"Okay. And I'm shifting it to an OR with a gallery. I'm sure many would like to see the two of you operate together after all these years." Bailey said. Derek held her hand below the table, showing he was excited about it too. He missed bouncing off Neuro ideas with his wife. Those times they spent in the OR together, were ones he still treasured and he never found a resident better than his wife to work with.
Meredith entered her lab to grab some things before the surgery. "Hey, where have you been?"
"I was a surgery." Meredith said.
"What is it?" Cristina asked. She would scrub in with her if it were something interesting.
"Brain aneurysm." Meredith replied
"Why are you...?" Cristian was confused. Meredith didn't operate on brain aneurysms anymore.
"It's Katie Bryce. Derek's and my first patient." Meredith elaborated. Cristina then realised who she was talking about and why Meredith was scrubbing in.
"Let me guess, you and McDreamy are doing the procedure." Cristina smiled.
"Yup. Got to go. It's an open gallery. Come watch." Meredith suggested ad left the lab to join Derek in Katie's room.
When she got there, Derek was explaining to Katie the new situation she found herself in and why the upcoming operations was riskier than her previous one. She was scared but gave the permission for the surgery. Derek and Meredith left Katie to be prepped by an intern and went to the Neuro lab to finalise the plan of action.
The gallery was full of people. Whether it was the new class of interns who wanted to watch Dr. Derek Shepherd operate or the younger residents who were yet to see Dr. Grey scrub in on a neuro surgery. Even the older doctors who had seen Meredith start her internship learning from her husband had come there.
When the two doctors scrubbed in and entered the OR, Derek first checked her stats once again. When he saw that her BP was not as good as he would have liked, he turned the microphone on. "Her BP is not what I would have liked" Maggie and Cristina got up to go downstairs and Maggie was about to tell the other doctor to stand down, when Derek's voice came again, "Cristina, just scrub in please."
Cristina smirked and went downstairs. Maggie just sat disappointed, when Alex whispered, "Don't take it to heart. It's Cristina."
"I'm the head of Cardio, but ever since she has come, people are preferring her over me." Maggie pouted.
"Listen, most people here do that because they know what a world-class surgeon Yang is. Not that you aren't. But you've been here for what, a year? She was there for seven. These people taught her, then operated with her." Alex explained. He got where Maggie was coming from, but even in his opinion, no one beat Dr. Cristian Yang.
"It just hurts when Meredith and Derek choose her over me." Maggie honestly said.
"Well, Cristina was Mer's first family. Not Derek, not I. And Derek, well she did save his life after a bullet to his chest." Alex explained. Hearing this, Maggie conceded, having known what had happened that day.
Down there in the OR, Derek and Meredith worked like one body. They were completely in sync and rarely did one have to tell the other what they were doing next. Meredith took of the skull flap and then Derke proceeded to start clipping the aneurysm. Meredith provided suction and assisted Derek in any other way. Everyone else had ceased to exist for the couple. Cristina, seeing the couple in awe, was taken back to their first day when she saw the two of them making looking at each other with adoration from above their masks, she being the only person who knew about them that time. Amelia, looking at them from the gallery above, was glad she had given this surgery to her brother. It clearly meant a lot to them.
After scrubbing out, Meredith kissed Derek good-bye and headed to the lab, but promised to meet for lunch in an hour. Derek smiled and told her he would get it to her and at the lab.
Cristina and Meredith spent the entire time going over the patient's history and most recent scans. They had even set the 3-D printer Meredith had to print the latest CT and MRI scans of the tumour to give them a rough idea of what they would encounter. The final one would be printed the day of the surgery after the patient went through the final stage of testing.
They did not realise when an hour was spent and it was Derek arriving with lunch as well as Zola and Ellis, which got them out of their concentration. "Hey, look whose here." Derek smiled.
"Zozo, did school end early today?" She asked, setting her daughter on her lap.
"Yes, mommy. The teachers had work." She explained, hugging her. Meanwhile, Cristina had taken Bailey in her lap and was making funny faces at the kid, much to his amusement.
"Alright, ladies. Time to eat. I had Mexican ordered from the place you both love." He said, opening up the boxes of food and setting them up on the empty table.
"I knew there was a reason Mer kept you around." Cristina joked, in her way of thanking Derek.
"Glad to hear that's my only use." Derek dead-panned.
"It's not." Meredith replied, her eyes suggestive and twinkling.
"Okay... I'm trying to eat and there are kids here." Cristina said, pretending to be disgusted.
"What? I'm pregnant." Meredith shrugged unashamed. Derek just laughed and kissed her. "Now pass me the burritos." She demanded.
The group continued eating, chatting and bickering along. The kids had their meals and then the nanny they had hired, took them to daycare and Meredith excused herslf to go use the washroom.
"These the scans of the patient you'll be operating on?" Derek asked, putting the scans up in light to see them better.
"Yeah, but it's a growing tumour, so..." Cristina explained.
"Hmm... It's a beautiful tumour, and complicated." Derek remarked.
"Yup. That's why I'm here." Cristina agreed. "Do you know if there are any Cardio-cases for me? I haven't cut today." She asked.
"You need to ask Pierce, I got no clue." Derek replied.
"I feel weird around her. It's like she has a problem with me or something." Cristina said honestly.
"Well, you aren't the warmest person at the first meeting, you know." Derek laughed, earning a punch in the arm from Cristina. "She is different from you and Meredith."
"Not dark and twisty?" Cristina asked.
"Nope. Her family sent a 'giant singing sturgeon' when she started here." Derek recalled that day.
"Oh, wow! I know Ellis Grey would NEVER do that, and my mom would rather have me know about curtains and upholstery than hearts." Cristina remarked, shocked.
"Listen, both of you are amazing surgeons, do doubts, but so is she. She just grew up differently than the two of you." Derek explained.
"I know... Let me go talk to her. Maybe, even scrub in together." Cristina said, leaving the room.
Derek waited there for his wife, who soon came back. "Where is Cristina?" She asked.
"She's gone to talk to Maggie." Derek told.
"Alright... I'll go through these again. God! It's complex." Meredith groaned. Derek simply stood behind and and started rubbing her shoulders, wanting to relieve some stress. He continued doing that and giving her an occasional kiss on her cheeks until it was time for him to leave the hospital. He visited Katie's room once, making sure everything was alright, before picking the kids up and driving home. Meredith had told him that she would take a ride with Amelia and Cristina directly to the hotel his sisters were staying at as they were scheduled for a dinner that night as well.
"Good surgery today."Amelia complimented her sister-in-law after they sat in the car.
"Yeah... it had been a while since I tried my hand at a neuro procedure. And it was good performing surgery with Derek as well." Meredith replied.
"You were in Neuro?" Maggie asked. She had joined them as well, after Cristina suggested it and both Meredith and Amelia readily agreed and almost force her.
"Oh please. Derek and her had weekly dates in the OR." Cristina smirked.
"I was." Meredith replied.
"Why did you switch?" She asked curiously.
"Umm... I did something that I maybe shouldn't have. It was difficult for Derek to trust me after that for a while, especially during surgery." She explained, not wanting to delve a lot of details.
"Oh... so you followed Ellis' footsteps in General?"
"Yeah, everyone told me that I was a legacy and I had the pedigree for it."
"How is your islet cell research coming along?" Cristina asked.
"Good. I am about to use polymer tissue in the next batch, let's see." Meredith replied, and then explained to her what she had done until then.
They met with the Shepherd family at the hotel, and when they found out that Maggie was Meredith's sister, they welcomed her as well. They vow-renewal was coming closer and the next day, Derek's sisters and mom, were flying back to New York, so that thye could repack and leave for Switzerland with the rest of their family. Cristina was there for another day, so finalise the procedure with Meredith , but she left for Switzerland before the Grey-Sloan doctors too, so that she could set everything up for their arrival.