all that matters

part six

"What's your name?"

"Matt Casey."

"How old are you?"

"29."

"Where are you?"

"A hospital."

"Good."

Amelia had just finished testing his neurological functions, and his initial recovery after surgery had been surprisingly quick. He sat in the ICU following a light with his eyes or a finger up and down his face for what seemed like forever before he was finally deemed okay neurologically.

"No neurological deficits. Heart rate and BP normal." She said blankly. After everything that had happened in that operating room, she honestly thought it was a miracle that he had no deficits.

"Can I go see my wife now?" He pleaded.

"I'm sorry, Mr Casey, but I don't think you've yet realised that you have a long road of recovery ahead. You can't just get up and go." Maggie explained, but he brought more resistance.

"I'm fine." He retorted.

"Mr Casey, I don't mean to be rude, but have you not realised that both of your legs and your left arm are broken, so you physically can't get up and go anywhere." Callie got up, looking at his face turn from desperate to bewildered, as she lifted his bed sheets to reveal both his legs in a cast, and pointed at the bottom of his left arm, also covered in a cast.

"Oh. I guess the pain medications are too strong…ha." He laughed it off but as a man, in a profession such as a firefighter, he truly felt embarrassed that he'd been ashamed like this.

"We don't have you on any pain medications, Mr Casey." Callie smiled, joking with him.

"How's the pain on a scale of one to ten." Amelia joined, grinning, mocking him.

"A…two? I don't know. I'm a firefighter, pain just must have been numbed for me." He tried to explain, but both Callie and Amelia just stood there in front of him, sniggering.

"We're kidding. You're on high doses of morphine." She scoffed and turned way.

"Oh." He sighed again, confused as to how he was well...so confused. "My wife?"

"She's fine. In labour, but otherwise, fine."

"Let me see her."

"As we've already explained, we can't move you. It's against protocol and we have to follow protocol. It's there for a reason. I'm sure, as a firefighter, you'd understand."

"I want to see her! I don't want to miss the birth of my daughter!'

Callie and Amelia shared a look. Having both been mothers at some point themselves, they knew what they had to do in their hearts – it just contradicted what the rules where and what their brain was telling them to do.

"I'll take him in a wheelchair." Callie said, grabbing a wheelchair from the corridor. The man slid onto the wheelchair with ease, and Callie began wheeling him out of the ICU and into the elevator and down to maternity, as he was hoping that he didn't miss the birth of his daughter.

He got to her room, Room 404, and heard her screams of pain from half way down the corridor. He longed to be there with her, help her through this.

He entered the room, immediately each made eye contact with the other. You could hear the sigh of relief emitted from both even over the screams.

"I'm so glad you're alive. You had me worried there."

"I'm never going to leave you." Callie wheeled him over to the bedside as he kissed her hand. "You can do this, Gabby. I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"I love you, Matt."

"I love you too, Gabby."

Arizona and Callie shared a look before Arizona went back and focused her attention on Gabby. She could see the baby's head, and told her, joyously,

"One last push, go on!" Matt's free hand grasped hers as she screamed out.

It had seemed that the happiness radiating from Matt and Gabby had spread throughout the room and had brought energy to both Callie and Arizona, who shared a look before Callie left the room to go back to the On-Call Room for a much-needed sleep.

"Hi." They cooed at the baby, wrapped in a cotton-candy pink blanket. Gabby was resting her head-on Matt's as they occasionally looked up from their daughter just to smile at each other. They were truly in love, even after all of this.

Suddenly, almost every doctor they'd encountered at their time here entered their room, bearing a bouquet of vibrantly coloured flowers which they left on the side of one of the tables.

"What are you doing here? Is everything alright?" They each expressed concern for each other. Throughout their stay here, doctors entering their room didn't always mean good things were about to happen.

"Everything's fine…congratulations." Maggie grinned at their baby, fast asleep, wrapping her hand around Gabby's little finger.

"I wished Ellis behaved that well as a baby." Meredith joked.

"I think we just wanted to say some things to you all". Callie said.

"You were perhaps one of the most annoying patients I've had…but you taught me a lot. About never giving up hope…learning to love in difficult circumstances…all of that soppy stuff." Arizona laughed, wiping a single tear from her eye.

"You helped me finally get over the death of my brother. You taught me that mistakes happen; sometimes we can fix them, and sometimes we can't. But the love that two people share, that never dies, and it can conquer so much than we can imagine at first." Amelia laughed, putting her arm around Owen.

"You guys saved my life. You saved my wife and you saved my beautiful daughter. I'm glad we taught you things, but we as a family are never going to be able to repay the debt we owe to all of you. Thank you all so much." Matt smiled at the group of doctors gathering around the door, and then back at his wife and daughter. The doctors left the room and were tempted to look through the window, but decided everyone needed rest now. It had been a long day.

"You're all I ever want in this world. I can't imagine my life without you and I'll always be here for you, no matter what." He said, kissing his daughter's tiny hand, watching his wife slowly fall asleep in the hospital bed. "I love you, Adelaide Rae Casey."