Chapter 3
"So I'm pregnant? Impossible." Amelia had said without any emotion, already way past the stage of fear and more into numbness part.
She had lost her husband after he ran away to Germany in order to find Teddy, she was after all, his lifeline, not her. He hated the idea of being a dad this late in life when he had already accepted the fact that he was a cheater and Amelia in fact did not want children. They spent years working at a marriage despite believing that it wouldn't work, but they learned to compromise and work out their differences. However, their marriage worked best when they were together yet apart, and mostly just sex.
"Amelia, we'll get through this. But you need to talk to Owen first, tell him what's going on." Meredith consoles her, careful not to get too personal with the result before Amelia herself could accept what was coming. "But wait until the labs actually come back, okay?"
Amelia lays back on the exam table, waiting for actual confirmation that she was going to be a mother. And a terrible one, she might add. But Meredith felt optimistic for once in her life, that these could just be symptoms that were in her head as result of fear and anxiety. That this was just a misunderstanding.
"We won't know anything until we get your blood back." Meredith tries to reassure her.
It was then that an anxious Andrew Jameson rapped his knuckles on the wooden door three times, waiting for an answer before letting himself in to find Amelia with her arm thrown over her face, and Meredith with an extra blood vile sample in her hands, examining the label.
"Speak up, Jameson." Meredith demands, waiting impatiently with Amelia's hand now in hers.
"Dr. Grey, we're slammed today with patients, so I'm hoping you'll understand when I tell you that we've had some sort of mix up with your labs and another woman's." He begins, wringing his hands together.
"Well Jameson, who was it?" She demands again. "Is it one of my patients that you mixed up their charts?"
"Dr. Robbins says I can't disclose that information to you. You know that's patient confidentiality." He replies robotically with hesitance laced in his voice.
"Forget doctor Robbins!" She blatantly dismisses. "Stop acting like I can't handle bad news. My husband died in a crash, my mother had alzheimer's... do you want me to go on?"
"No, Dr. Grey. But I can assure you I'm very sorry..."
Jameson was interrupted by a series of groans from the women, rolling their eyes at the young intern. He chooses to ignore them, continuing his spiel.
"I've been a doctor for almost twenty years and can tell when someone is hiding something. Do you think I'm an idiot, Jameson?" She asks rhetorically.
"Meredith, that's not fair." Amelia jumps in, trying to calm her.
"Who is this woman that you don't want me to know of?" She pushes.
"Dr. Robbins is a professional and this was my mistake. I misread the paperwork. With all due respect, Dr. Grey, you're not on this case, so it's not really your concern..."
"Like heck it's not! Especially if it's one of my own. But discussing that here would be inappropriate and you know that, so who else is it?" She interrupts him, growing impatient with his carelessness.
The doctor in her felt terrible. If this had been her intern she would have been embarrassed and furious. She would have made him or her apologize for their mistakes and even though she knew that she herself wouldn't disclose it. But she was in the reverse position, and she could see that Amelia was just as concerned despite being so quiet during this argument.
"We've just mixed up the test results, but I can assure you that Dr. Shepherd is in fact, not pregnant and I'm here to tell you that in person." He tries to make the good outweigh the bad in order to distract her.
"That's impossible; Unless you labeled the viles wrong. But Arizona would never trust an intern to do that so that means the names. Are our names similar and you misread them?" Meredith draws to conclusion.
"Um, Doctor Grey. I think you really need to relax. You're not the OB here and we have it under control." he replies, trying to stay calm under interrogation.
"Jameson, are one of my daughters or my son here? And you don't want me to know? Because as their mom I'd like to know if someone is hurt and you have their labs!"
"Actually, can we talk in private, Dr. Grey?" He asks, suddenly calm.
"Answer me this Jameson: If this was any other patient you wouldn't be so hesitant, correct? You're lying, I can see that, Amelia can see it. So who is it?" Meredith rips the paperwork from his hands, her eyes feeling as if they were falling from their sockets as she read the name on the top, right corner: Shepherd, Zola.
"Is this the one you misread?" She asks, suddenly confused.
"Dr. Grey, the labels weren't mixed. I simply just saw 'Shepherd', and assumed they were hers."
"So you accidentally told my daughter she was pregnant, when she wasn't? All because you couldn't follow the simple procedures of delivering labs? And who gave you permission to do so anyways?" Meredith grows concerned, both as a mother and a doctor.
Andrew buried his head into his palms, preparing himself for the storm. The one where he would come in with bad news, stirring up the calm, then passing the damage onto her, were she would then spin out of control.
"Actually, the ones I read her were Amelia's from earlier. These are actually hers; She's pregnant." He finishes, darting his sorry eyes away from Meredith's and backing up, hand on the door handle. "I'm sorry." He adds with guilt, realizing how he had just stirred the family.
"Now what? You came here to give her Zola's labs as the easy way because you knew Meredith would talk to her daughter instead of you?" Amelia implies in disbelief. "Fasten your scrub cap, Bucko. Your not setting the scalpel down that easily." She laughs cynically.
"You should be fired Jameson, if this was any other of the interns or if it wasn't your third day!" Meredith angrily informs him, shoving the papers back into his chest.
"However, being a doctor doesn't mean you're exempt from making mistakes. And honestly you're lucky I'm a doctor and I've been in you place. Because if this was anyone else, your butt would be sued and thrown out of this hospital. This hospital might not even exist. So you caught a break, and I pray you learn from this, do you understand me?" She asserts, waiting for his frightened nod.
While Andrew grappled with the idea of Meredith hating him so much he would never get hours on her case, and the possibility of losing his job, Arizona scurried down the hall, hoping to catch Maggie before she left. Maggie was still on suspension but could still come as a patient, but she knew Maggie probably would want to be out of there as fast as possible out of embarrassment.
"Maggie?!" She cried out with relief, quickly flooded with fear in her voice that she desperately wanted to keep hidden. "Where's Zola?"
Maggie turned on her heels in search of the voice that had called her and pleasantly smiled when she had seen that it was Arizona.
"Hey! We got the labs and everything is looking up. Of course we're still gonna have the 'talk' when we get home, but we'll have to wait for Meredith and I think Zola already has a pretty good idea what her mom's gonna say about this scare." Maggie laughs, her somber face replaced with a playful smile.
"Where's Zo? Did she go home?"
"Not yet, I was just gonna sneak up stairs to check on Mr. Peterson despite the suspension to make sure everything's okay. Zola is in the bathroom, hoping to hide from Mer." She slightly laughs.
"Maggie…" She begins.
Maggie was quick to realize that Arizona wasn't laughing or didn't find this amusing in the least bit, and her face quickly became somber. Had someone died? Was Amelia okay? She knew that Amelia was worried that she was pregnant but what if they had found something wrong with her or the baby? What if it was a benign tumor again?
"Arizona? What happened? Is it something with Amelia's results? Is she pregnant?" She quickly began to ramble, and Arizona held out one hand to silence her, her other palm on her forehead.
"Maggie, Amelia's results came back negative; She's not pregnant." Arizona begins.
"That's great! I mean, I was kinda rooting for another baby since we haven't seen one for years in our house, but that's good. I'm happy for her!" Maggie goes on and on.
Arizona turns towards the desk, thumbing through her paperwork before turning handing her a form. Maggie was so busy rambling on that she took it without a thought, beginning to thank Arizona for doing Zola's workup.
"Maggie! Listen!" Arizona grabs Maggie's hands in hers, keeping them from flailing. "But the test results that came back were mixed up and while Amelia was not actually pregnant, Zola was. Is, actually, I'm sorry!"
"W...what?! Zola's pregnant?" She stammers, stumbling upon her words as if she had been drinking. "But the results your intern read to us, said 'Shepherd', they were Amelia's?"
"Maggie, I'm so sorry. It's probably not what you wanted to hear and the intern, by the way, is already learning from his mistakes! I've got him doing postpartum hemorrhage checking."
"What do I tell her? She's sixteen! Do I start by telling her that her irresponsible actions resulted in foreseeable and obviously possible circumstances? That her life is now over because it's not just about her anymore?"
Maggie begins to pace, and Arizona sets a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Arizona felt horrible that this had to happen, and prayed to God that Sofia would never make the poor decisions that would lead her down this path. Being a teen was hard enough and so was being pregnant, but together the two were as she could compare, like taking antidepressants with alcohol: Depressing, stressful, anxiety provoking and dangerous.
"You don't get to make this call. The intern will tell her but ultimately she should be talking to her mother about it. Don't you think Meredith deserves to know?"
"Why is it that we spend all day delivering news to families, good and bad, but when it comes to our own family, it's so much harder?" Maggie sighs, her heart aching for not only Zola, but the other families who have been through a lot.
"Maggie, the best thing you can do right now is be with Zola when he tells her, and when she has to tell Meredith." Arizona reminds her softly, hand on Maggie's back.
Maggie wrung her hands together as she focused on calming herself, counting to the sound of her heels clicking on the linoleum in attempt to ground herself again. She eventually made her way back to the bathrooms on the peds floor, knocking on one of the stalls to the sound of Zola crying.
"Zo? It's me." Maggie gently calls before hearing the stall unlock and finding Zola in the corner, knees to chest.
"My life is over, Aunt Maggie." She gasps between heavy sobs.
Maggie sits beside her, brushing Zola's matted curls from her face and smiling. Zola somewhat resisted, moving her purse between the two as if it was some barrier. Zola was somewhat feverish to the touch, and her usually shiny cheeks were flushed.
"Do you guys just accept any medical students into your program? Is Grey-Sloan actually looking to teach and train, or just for the reputation as a teaching hospital. Because if so, your bar is set pretty low." Zola remarks, cracking a small smile.
"You heard? Great." Maggie puffs out her cheeks in frustration.
"Can you please tell your pea- brained intern that it's technically illegal for him to follow me into a woman's restroom?"
"To be fair, he was only doing what he was told; And I can guarantee everyone in their lives has screwed up. His was mixing up the test results, but we're not gonna fire him, since we want him to learn. We could say the same thing for you, Miss Zola. Don't you think your deserve some kind of growing experience lesson from this little "whoops" ? Don't you think you deserve some leg room to grow from this? A second chance?"
Maggie asks her with concern on her face but hopefulness in her eyes that the teen would come to the realization that things happened, and this wasn't the end. She was trying to make a point for the teen to realize that this was normal, this was human growth. That one little mistake doesn't define people but it teaches them how to grow. It's how she'll respond and learn from this that will count.
"I'm so sorry aunt Maggie! This doesn't mean I'm a screw up, does it?" She asks, more for reassurance than as a question.
"Not at all, sweetheart. This means you're human." She promises, squeezing her niece into a hug. "Not to go without saying that I'm not disappointed, but I'm also hopeful for you and your future. To see what you do with your mistakes that will help shape your future. I wanna see you take this experience and run with it. Use it to help others, not just yourself."
"Does this mean I still have to tell mom?" She smiles nervously, slight humor in her voice.
"I think it would be unfair not to. Not for yourself but for her too. She loves you Zola and will only want to help your once she's past the shock and anger and denial. She's a very strong woman and I see her in you everyday."
"I'm scared, Aunt Maggie." She whimpers.
"I know, but if you're half the woman your mom is, you'll be okay. Promise." Maggie smiles, holding out her pinky finger.
