2017 Surgical Ward 2315, Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, Seattle

"We have evacuated the blood clots in Mr Miller's brain and repaired is lungs. To facilitate your recovery, we strongly advise you to start taking small walks. Mrs Miller, you may need to help Mr Miller." Derek explained to the couple with his McDreamy smile on.

"You heard the doctor." The wife put down the magazine she was flipping and talked to her husband, "Get your ass out of the bed after lunch."

"If you don't want to spend your day here, you can leave." The husband refuse to back down. Noticing a new round of argument is going to begin, Derek tip toes out of the room and sighed.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jackson, who is chatting with the hospital lawyer, asked curiously as it is quite rare to see a frustrated Derek Shepherd.

"The Miller couple. They are such…"

"A pain in the ass?" Jackson immediately filled in the blank for Derek, "Grey whined about them for the whole morning. Do you know what is going on between the Millers?"

"No. But there's one thing I am very sure: they love each other."

"Seriously?"

"Of course. Although they claimed to hate each other, they still care about the other's injuries. I can't think of a reason for people to do that except for love."

"Did anyone ever told you that you are such a romantic?"

"I take that as a compliment, thank you."

When Derek and Jackson are joking with each other casually, a scream erupted from Mr Miller's room.

"Oh my god! Wallace! What happened! Somebody help us!"

The two surgeons immediately rushed into the room to check on the couple.

"Mrs Miller! I need you to calm down and tell me what happened." As Jackson is doing exams on the man, Derek grabbed the woman's shoulders and try to get some information from her.

"I… I don't know… I was just, I was helping Wallace get up from bed for a walk. He was fine just now, but once he took a few steps, he… he moaned and he collapsed. He was fine before!" Tina was apparently in shock that she couldn't get her words straight.

"Avery, what do you think?"

"I don't know, let's get him a CT first. Do you think it is a stroke?"

"Possible, since he suffered from a brain trauma. Okay, you take him for a CT first, I will be here with Mrs Miller. Page me once you know anything."


CT exam room, SGMWH

"Avery you paged Cardio?" Cristina yawned as she walked into the room. She had just finished a 10 hours surgery when her pager squealed.

"It's Wallace Miller from the car crash. You know him right?" Jackson continued after he got a positive nod from Cristina. "He collapsed when he tried to get off his bed and start walking."

"Mm… It seems like pulmonary embolism to me. Let's get him to an OR, I will try to take it out."

"What is the successful chance?"

"According to the size of the clot, I am not that hopeful."

"Anyway, try your best to take it out first. I will go update his wife. Do you need a resident to help you?"

"Yes. Get me… um… Wilson. She had very few cardio hours."

"Alright."


OR3, SGMWH

"Wilson, what are you doing by the door? Get over here and learn something." Cristina yelled to the resident who is standing by the door, deciding whether or not to go near the OR table.

"Yes Dr Yang. I was just thinking, um, why you asked for me since I am specialising in Ortho…"

"Because your cardio skills are so poor that you will not be able to pass the board. Therefore it is my responsibility to train you more now, so that you won't lower our overall passing rate."

"I am very honoured to have the opportunity learning from you Dr Yang." The resident faked a smile and replied. She knows that Cristina is still not in a good mood due to her ex-husband's existence, and she knows even better not to poke her angry boss.

"Cut that fake enthusiasm crap. Now tell me, what are we looking at?"

"Em… there is a blood clot in the artery of the lungs, so I think it is pulmonary embolism.."

"How to treat it?"

"In serious case like Mr Miller's, we should do an embolectomy with catheter first. If we failed, we can open him up and do the embolectomy with conventional way."

"Mm. Not bad… Damn, this clot is too big, I can't take it out by catheter. Okay people, I need to open him up." Cristina quickly pulled the catheter out and decided to change to a more conventional way. She peeked at the clock, praying for some more time to save the man.

"Wilson, get over here and help me take the clot out."

"Wow! It's huge! That's why the whole artery is blocked." Jo couldn't help but squealed as she saw the clot. Cristina shot her a look, "Yeah. Go check the pupils."

The resident went to the man's side and gently flipped his eyelids open. She sighed as the man's pupils are already dilated, "Dr Yang, we are too late. He is brain dead."

"Damn." She pulled away her scrub cap frustrated and started scribbling on the chart.

"Em, so what do we do now?"

"Go page the on call neurosurgeon for brain dead exams, and prepare yourself to go talk to the poor wife."


Conference room, SGMWH

"What do you mean? So he is dead now? He was fine a few hours ago!" Mrs Miller wiped away her tear and said. Jo immediately handed her the whole box of tissue.

"I am sorry, but yes your husband is dead now. He suffered from something called pulmonary embolism. A clot is formed in his legs when he stayed in bed. When he stood up, the clot travelled to his lungs and blocked an artery. Therefore his brain couldn't get enough oxygen for a period of time, which killed his brain cells. We caught it fast enough, but the clot is too big. I am very sorry for your loss."

"But… he can still breathe! And his heart is still beating!"

"It is the machine. There are machines that help him breathe and keep his heart beating, but as soon as we remove the machine, all those will stop." Lexie explained patiently, "Therefore you have two choices now: you can either keep him hooked to the machines and hope for miracles, or you can pull the plug and donate his organs."

Cristina silently kicked her and gave her a glare, accusing her for being so "aggressive" on a widow. Lexie shrugged and returned Cristina a look. The wife thought for a while and said,

"I understand my options, I am a social worker, I know the drill. It's just… hard for me, to accept the fact that my husband is gone, forever. He was fine 3 hours ago, talking, eating, walking… 3 hours later you guys are here, announcing to me that he is dead, and asking me to consider donating his body parts… It is hard for me.

"And the hardest thing is… the last sentence he heard from me is 'Move your stupid ass'. We were fighting, before we injured in the car accident. We were fighting because he spent the money we saved for an European trip for a diamond ring, a beautiful, stunning diamond ring. He got it for me as my 7th year anniversary gift. I loved the ring but I was mad at him for spending that money, so we argued. How stupid are we? We spent a week at arguing while instead we could use it to love each other a bit more.

"I never get to tell him how much I loved the ring and how grateful am I for the gift. Everything is too late, and I am never gonna have the chance to tell him how much I loved him again."

Mrs Miller finally lose control of her tears and started to sob. The two surgeons poked at each other, not knowing what to say. Fortunately, Mrs Miller gathered herself pretty quickly,

"Wallace is… was a very kind-hearted person who enjoyed helping people a lot. He would be very pleased to know that I have donated all of his organs. Where should I sign on the paper?" She grabbed the piece of paper on the table and quickly scrawled her name onto it. Just before she leave the room to be with her husband one last time, she muttered to Cristina and Lexie, "Remember, love the person you love when you still have time. Or else everything will be too late, and the only thing you will get is a lifelong of regret."


Burke's Apartment, Seattle

"Damn it, I am doing it." Cristina mumbled to herself before pressing the door bell of Burke's apartment.

Mrs Miller's words have been buzzing inside her head the entire afternoon. "Love the person you love when you still have time." She couldn't stop but thinking of Burke and herself.

No matter how many times she denied, she knows damn well that she is still in love with the man. She tried to move on, but every man she had been with is constantly being compared the Burke, and obviously, no one is half as good as him, not even Owen Hunt. Therefore she is quite sure that he is the love of her life. Though she always make fun of Derek for being a romantic, she actually believes that a person could only be happy when they are with their soulmate.

Now she has found her love of the life, she is not gonna waste anymore time pretending to be over him. And the only question left is…

"Cristina? What are you doing here?" Burke opened the door and found Cristina standing outside of his door. He raised his brows startled.

"I, uh, Mr Miller from the car crash died. Post op PE." Once the words flew out from her mouth, she regretted almost immediately. 'Seriously? Cristina Yang? that's the best you can do?'

"Oh, I am sorry. Are you here only to tell me this?"

"No! I mean, um, his wife, Mrs Miller, said the death of her husband taught us to love the person we love when we still got time. So, um," She took a few deep breaths before getting to her point. "I want to tell you that, that I am still in love with you. And I wonder whether you think the same about me."

Burke was completely shocked by the sudden confession from his stubborn, emotionless ex-wife, but before he can say anything, a sweet, feminine voice came out from the apartment.

"Preston? What's taking so long? Dessert's ready!"

Both Burke and Cristina froze upon the voice and stared at each other's face blankly.