Well I finally had the inspiration to finish this chapter! I was in the mood to write and I figured I needed to get this done, because it seems so many people really enjoy it. That obviously makes me happy, and inspired me to continue on with this story. But I would also be happy if maybe those who read this might also read my new story, Learning To Love. I know it's not a Grey's Anatomy fan-fiction, but it's still a story. I need feedback on it, I keep writing chapter after chapter for it and I don't even know what other's think of it. (Aside from the only person who does read it and review it.) But anyway, I hope yinz enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think. Thanks :) Happy 18th of July.
Chapter Two
Sitting in the bar, across his best friend, Derek took a swig of his beer and laughed. "So you're telling me that Mer is really okay with you dating her sister? Her younger sister that has a serious brain tumor? The one that I'm operating on tomorrow night?" He laughed again, unable to believe that his wife would be so okay with such a predicament. Meredith never really cared for Mark Sloan, and hated the way he slept around with woman after woman. So to hear that she didn't seem to object to Mark's liking her sister a lot more than just a friend brought a bout of laughter to Derek Shepherd.
Sloan rolled his eyes while taking a sip of the beer in front of him. He knew his friend to always get a kick out of anything that he said or done. "Well I mean, after she threatened my life, she seemed to come to an acceptance of my feelings for Lexie. As long as I don't do anything to hurt Lex, than Meredith is okay with it...and will spare me my life. And I definitely don't plan on doing anything to hurt her, I really like her. There's something special about her." He knew from the moment he bumped into Lexie Grey that something was going to build between the two of them. She lit something up in him that no women had ever done before.
"Now that sounds more like Mer," Derek nodded his head, a laughing grin on his face, "Isn't this ironic though? You're my best friend...and dating my wife's sister!" After finishing his drink, he went up to order another and one for Mark. When he came back to the table, he handed one of them to his friend. "This is to you, for finding a woman that you might spend more than a few weeks together with!" They each took a sip, after clinging their bottles together.
Lexie lay in her bed that night, thoughts of the major operation running through her mind. She couldn't believe how she went from being the surgeon one day to being the patient the next. How could a simple headache turn into a deadly brain tumor? A tear fell down her cheek, she prayed desperately that her sister's husband would be able to fully remove it. She just wanted to get back to her life - be the surgeon that she was born to be and get her own place.
The door to her room slowly creaked open, revealing a very drunken Thatcher Grey. He walked unsteadily over to her; staring at the frail woman who lie in the hospital bed - his daughter, who he spent most of the time ignoring or berating. "Thought you were the doctor, Alexandra?" He snarled, the scent of alcohol was very evident in his breath. "Why the hell are you in a hospital bed? Slacking off, are you? I knew you were never good enough to be a surgeon! All that fucking money I wasted so you could go to medical school, and here you are pretending to be a patient. What the hell's wrong with you?!" He yelled loudly, not taking his angry eyes off hers the entire time. Too drunk to realize what he was even doing, Thatcher walked closer to her and slapped her cheek - so hard that it left an imprint of his hand.
Already feeling upset about her surgery, Lexie let herself cry. The long month that she had spent in the hospital, suffering through treatments, never once did her father call or come to see her. It's not like she made any attempt to let him know about her condition, because she knew he wouldn't care - he was too engulfed in drinking himself to death. Yet it still hurt to see that her own father didn't even care to find out why she hadn't been coming home. And now, that he finally did make the decision to see her, he's drunk as a skunk and thinks that she's pretending. That made it all feel even worse; she held her cheek in pain and glanced up at him, "I'm sick, dad, really sick. This isn't pretend - I have a serious brain tumor and my sister's husband is performing surgery to try and remove it tomorrow. There's no way in hell that I'd ever make this up, why would I want to suffer?! Or want to pretend to suffer?! Do you think I'm an idiot or something? You think I want to have a fucking brain tumor, dad?!" The tears dissolve into anger as she glares at the man in front of her - the man she used to think of as her father, her dad. Now, she didn't think he had the right to consider himself her father. What kind of father lays a hand on their own daughter? Or accuses their daughter of pretending to be sick?
"You watch your damn mouth, Alexandra!" Mr. Grey seethes, bringing his hand up to slap her once more. "I don't give a shit what you have; that doesn't give you the right to talk to me - your father - like that! You know none of these doctors here know what they're doing! You're going to die, just like your mother did because these fucking morons can't do their damn jobs! They killed your mother, and now they'll kill you. And I don't really care. You're an awful daughter, unlike your sister Molly. Molly's the good one - she's got a real job, a husband, and a baby. You, you're just an amateur doctor - you will never amount to anything, so it's good you'll be gone soon. One less burden in the world!"
Since the door had still be open, as Thatcher was too intoxicated to remember to close it, everyone heard what was being said. Many were appalled at what they were hearing, including Mark Sloan. He quickly made his way into the room, irate to hear the awful things being said to Lexie Grey - one of the kindest persons he had ever met. "You need to leave, sir. We don't allow yelling in any of our patients' hospital rooms. If you have a problem, you can take it up with the chief. But you're not staying in here and making this poor woman feel any worse! She's got a brain tumor, for crying out loud, there's no reason for you to be yelling bloody murder at her," His voice stern and filled with anger, he harshly yanked him away from her bedside and threw him out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Even though the dark-haired woman was still quite upset, her heart melted when she watched Mark defend her. No one ever defended her in front of her father, and that act alone made her fall for him even more. "You-You didn't have to do that," she whispered, looking up at him with her eyes in tears. A thankful smile spread across her cheeks - this man was one of the nicest she had ever met. First he invited her to sit with him at lunch, than helped her when she was in severe pain, and now he just defended her to her own father. She'd be insane not to have feelings for such a person.
Mark can't help but smile back, walking over to her and wrapping her in a loving embrace. He stroked her cheek tenderly with his thumb, "I wasn't about to stand there and let your father insult you like that! For Christ's sake, you've be in the hospital for a while now, suffering majorly, and he has the nerve to treat you like that!? He thinks he can just come here and hurt you?! Some father he is." He shakes his head, holding her tighter. It never felt so natural holding another woman in his arms as it did Lexie. He ran his hand gently through her long, brown hair. "Anyway, how are you feeling? Nervous for tomorrow, Lex?"
Lexie lets herself snuggle into his embrace - it makes her feel safe and protected. "Leaning more towards scared than nervous," she admits, holding onto him tight. She hoped that this operation would be a success, she couldn't face losing her life. Not now when things seemed to finally be getting better for her. She had a great relationship with Meredith, a building one with Mark - she didn't want all of that to be taken away.
"Scared? Why are you scared, Lexie?" He strokes her back gently, pulling her closer as he peers lovingly into her brown eyes, "Don't be, you will be fine! Derek won't let anything happen to you; he's the best neurosurgeon in the country and he's Meredith's husband. So he has no choice but to get the entire tumor outta your brain!" Mark gives her a reassuring smile, then cups her face in his hands and presses a warm kiss to her lips.
She kisses him gently back, but then looks up at him with tears in her eyes. Lexie can't stop her mind from running through the 'What if's'. There's a possibility that the operation won't work - that she'll be left with a tumor until she dies from it's uncontrollable growth. Or that she might even die during the surgery. "What if it doesn't work, though? What if he goes in and the tumor hasn't shrunk? What if I don't wake up after it's done?! My sister would have to make the hardest decision of her life... I think I need to postpone this, I'm not ready. I can't go through with this!" She feels her body shake as she sobs loudly. It's all becoming too real for her, and too fast. This was easier when it was all just a thought rather than a painful event that would be happening to her in less than twenty-four hours.
The fear he hears in Lexie's small voice brings tears to his own eyes. Holding her tighter, Mark lays her against his chest and wraps one of the blankets around them. "Oh, Lexie... You're not going to die, I promise. You'll be fine, sweetie," He whispers gently into her ear, rubbing her back to soothe her. Truthfully, he has no clue if what he's saying is true. Tumors alone are complicated - tumors in the brain are a whole new level of complicated. But he knows Derek is the best surgeon there is and that he will do everything in his power to save Lexie Grey.
Meredith gets herself a coffee the next morning, trying not think about her sister's operation that's coming up in a few hours. She can't stand the thought of her going under the knife, especially with her husband as the surgeon. It's not that she hadn't trust her husband to do the best that he could, it's that she didn't know if she could trust her sister to stay away from the light. She sighed, and with her coffee in hand, she hurried to see Lexie. She had been given the day off to spend it with her sister, and that's what she intended to do - until she was being wheeled off to the OR.
When she finally got to her room and quietly let herself in, she saw Lexie sitting up in the chair. There were noticeable tear-stains on her face, and a dull expression as she stared blankly ahead. "Lexie? You okay, Lex? What's the matter?" She frantically questioned, hurrying to her side and looking at her with deep concern. She placed her hand onto the other's cheek, stroking it softly. "Look at me - talk to me, Lex! What's wrong?"
Hearing someone talk brought Lexie out of the daze she was in. She turned her head to stare into the worried eyes of her sister, and felt tears form in her eyes. "I - there-there's something weird going on with me... I - I keep having these v-visions," she speaks quietly, a slight tremor noticeable in her hands. "My mom, she keeps talking to me, Mer. She was sitting on my bed before you came in here. Meredith, my mom has been dead for five years! Why am I seeing my mom?! Oh my God I'm gonna die, aren't I? The surgery is going to kill me, I can't do it! I'm not ready to die, Mer..." She looks at her, fear and a tiredness in her eyes.
The older woman feels her heart break as she quickly scoops her distraught sister into her arms, rocking her gently. She strokes her hair while peering down into her eyes, "You're not dying, Lex," she soothes into her ear, kissing the top of her head. "You're just scared, and seeing your mom - that's probably to comfort you. It's her way of telling you that everything is going to be fine. And that's true because everything will be fine! You will get through this surgery, and you will be tumor free." She keeps her voice strong and optimistic for her sister, because she knows that's the only way she'll get through it. "And when you wake up, I will be right there to take care of you. I promise, sweetie. I love you so much; I won't leave your side."
Lexie instantly feels much calmer in her sister's embrace, her eyes droop shut as she snuggles closer. "I love you too, Mer," she mutters tiredly, grabbing her hand and squeezing it, "You're the best sister I could have ever asked for; you mean the world to me." She soon drifts to sleep, holding Meredith's hand tightly in her own.
A tear runs down Meredith's cheek as she holds her sister close. She can't believe how much her sister still admires her - after the hell she put her through when they first met. She spent a whole year hating and ignoring her, yet here she is continuing to want Meredith's approval. That only makes her cry more as she gently the sleeping woman's head against her chest and kisses her head soothingly, "You are the sweetest sister there is, Lex. I'm the one who has the best sister - you've never once hated me even when I did you - all you wanted was for us to get to know each other, and what did I do? I ignored you, pushed you away, and made you feel like shit. I'm so sorry, Lex, so sorry for what I did to you and I swear to God that I will make it up to you. I will be the older sister that you need and deserve. You mean everything to me, sweetie." She says warmly into her ear, stroking her hair before drifting to sleep as well.
A half hour before Lexie's operation was due to start, Doctor Shepherd came into her room to get her. She looked up at him and felt her eyes water. This was it, she thought, it was really happening. "Is it too late to change my mind?" She innocently asks, but wishes she could change her mind - she hated the thought of her brain getting cut into.
"Unfortunately," Derek gently responds, a sad smile on his face. He's always enjoyed getting to save his patients lives, but this was different. This time he had to operate on his sister-in-law, and that made his nerves run high. He wants to do everything he can to save this woman - to scrape the entire tumor away from her brain. "It's about time to get you to the OR, Lexie." He states, moving towards the back of the bed so that he can wheel it out.
Meredith looks over at her husband, who's dressed in his dark-blue scrubs with his lighthouse cap already covering his head, and is silently pleading him to save her sister's life. She then glances down at Lexie, stroking her forehead in a mother-like manner. "You will be just fine, Lex," she kisses her head, smiling reassuringly at her, "And whatever you see, stay away from the light! I love you so much; I'll see you when you wake up, sweetie." The dark blonde woman wraps her in one last, tight, embrace while patting her head softly. Then she peers up at Derek, her expression toughens, "You better take good care of my sister, Shepherd - She better be tumor free when she wakes up!"
Once in the operating room, Lexie lies on the table - looking up at the ceiling as she thinks about how much her life has changed in the past year. She went from being a medical student, to an intern, and now to a patient - laying on the very operating table that she had seen many other patients lay on, ones that she had helped in performing their surgeries. She feels tears come pouring out of her eyes - realizing that this is what her patients faced everyday. They faced the possibility of each day being their last as does Lexie now while she lay against the cold OR table.
Doctor Shepherd finally walked in the room, after scrubbing in, and stood by where her head lay. Empathy was in his eyes as he stared down into her brown ones, "I'm going to do everything that I can to get this tumor out of you. I promise, Lexie." He usually waited until his patients were already asleep to come in, but this was different - Lexie wasn't just any patient, she was his wife's sister. And he couldn't let her lay there alone as she cry until the drug took over and lured her into a deep sleep. So gently, he placed a hand on her forehead and stroked it soothingly as he turned his eyes towards the anesthesiologist and silently motioned for him to start administering the medication. "You will be okay, Lexie. I'll take good care of you, and when you wake up there will be no more tumor. Now I need you to count to ten for me, think you can do that?" Derek strokes her forehead comfortingly, looking softly into her tired eyes.
Lexie can feel the anesthetic starting to work as her body becomes heavier, her eyes too tired to keep open, but she nods and begins to count. "Mmm one, two, nnn-uh three, fo-," Her eyes roll to the back and close as sleep quickly overcomes her. Once she's asleep, Doctor Shepherd stands up and gets to work at shaving the long hair from her head, along with the help of a few OR nurses, so that he's able to get a better look into her brain.
It takes about two hours before he can finally have a look at the nasty tumor that's been reaking havoc on Lexie's life for the past year, and when he sees it, he sighs. The tumor appeared to not have shrunk at all, infact it seemed to have taken over her entire brain. He knew this wasn't going to be an easy surgery, and now it would be much harder. He'd be lucky if he could get even a quarter of the tumor removed without damaging anything serious. He would have to put her on a stronger treatment plan, because radiation alone wasn't helping - she would need to indoor chemotherapy along with it, if there was any chance of getting the tumor to shrink.
Waiting makes Meredith restless. She can't sit still for longer than a few minutes; she paces the room anxiously. She hopes that the tumor is tiny enough to be removed - she doesn't want to watch her sister suffer anymore, nor does she want to lose her. Aggravated from not knowing what's going on, Meredith decides to go down and sneak in the gallery. She doesn't care that the chief had warned her that she hadn't the right to set foot in there - since it was someone close to her, she couldn't go anywhere near the OR. She just kept on walking down the corridor; her patience has run out, she's going to find out what's happening with her sister's surgery.
"Mer, didn't Weber give you the day off?" Cristina Yang catches up to her, giving her a look - one that resembles sympathy but not quite so. "You're not going to Shepherd's OR, are you? Oh who am I kidding, of course that's where you're going. You know that's not allowed, right? He's operating on your sister, you can't watch that." Comforting people is not one of Doctor Yang's strong suits, and even when she tries to, she fails miserably.
Meredith shakes her head, fastening her pace. She knows she's not allowed but that doesn't mean she won't do it anyway. If no one is going to update her on the surgery, then she'll do it herself. She needs to know how her sister is, if the tumor can be removed. "Allowed or not, I'm going anyway," she finally says, staring at her best friend - her person, "I know you don't have a sister, Cristina, but if you did then you would understand this. You would understand why I need to go watch my sister's operation, why I need to make sure that my husband does everything he can to save my little sister. I've made her life hell from the day I met her, and now she might be dying! I don't want her to die; but God-forbid this be her last day, I need to be there for her. Even if it's just sitting in the gallery, I need to be there with Lexie. She's alone and scared - and unconscious on a table, she needs someone to be there for her - Someone who loves her and will make her feel like everything is okay. So I don't care what you or Weber, or anyone, says, I am going into that OR and staying with my sister."
Quietly, Meredith makes her way into the OR gallery and sits in one of the empty seats. She looks down at her sister, lying motionless on the table, and her husband stands over her - focusing deeply on the brain in front his eyes. She lets tears run down her cheeks as she thinks of how awful this past month has been for Lexie. One of the most loving and caring women there is, her sweet sister Lexie, and she's been dealt an unimaginable amount of pain. It rips at her heart every time she thinks about it - seeing her suffer in silence, having her life pulled from right under her. "I'm here, Lexie, I'm here. No matter what the outcome is, I will be right here. Just - whatever you do, whatever you see - please stay away from the light," she gently whispers, squeezing her eyes shut.
Mark Sloan notices her and goes over to sit beside her. He places a hand on her shoulder, to try and comfort her. "I know I'm probably the last person you wanna see; but Lexie is so strong, she will survive this. And Derek - he is great at what he does, he will take care of her. It's going to be okay, Meredith. She will be okay, because she has you to help her through this." He pats her shoulder and is suprised when she leans her head on his shoulder, crying her eyes out. Sympathy rises as he wraps her in comforting hug, stroking her hair gently. "You should sleep a bit, it's gonna be a while before he's done. Nothing's going to change, if you sleep or not, so just close your eyes. I'll wake you when it's over," he whispers kindly, staring ahead through the glass window that seperates them from Doctor Shepherd and Lexie Grey. He silently prays, hoping for a miracle to save the woman's life - the woman who he has fallen deeply in love with and the woman who Meredith so desperately needs to survive.
