III – Part 13
A pager burst to life Derek, Meredith and Addison all looked down. Addie sighed and said, "It's me." She shook her head. "It seems I'm needed in the ER again," she stressed the last word.
Derek and Meredith looked at her in surprise. Meredith asked, "You are wearing a pager and accepting consults while you are here?"
"Not my choice," she replied curtly. Then she looked over to Richie who was playing quietly with Ellie. "Hey buddy we have to go."
When he started to protest Derek asked, "Can he stay here?" She looked like she was going to protest. So he took her by the arm and guided her off to the side. "I promise I won't say a word. It's just that Ellie is really having fun playing with him. She doesn't get many visitors that are children." She pursed her lips not at all sure what she should do. "I promise you have nothing to worry about."
She reluctantly nodded and walked back over to her son. "I have to check on a patient, will you be good while I'm gone?"
He nodded vigorously and said, "I will." He smiled up at her. She gave him a hug and kiss. Then she quickly exited the room.
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Addie exited the elevator and walked up to the nurse's station in the ER. "I was paged?"
The nurse replied, "Yes Dr. Tucker has a newborn in curtain one."
"Thank you," she said with a nod and moved off to curtain one.
Tuck looked up as she entered. "I need you Addie." She looked down at his patient and rushed to his side. The intern watched on as she went to work on the newborn. A nurse entered with an isolette. Once the child was stabilized they transferred her to the unit.
She looked over to Tuck and said, "I'll need a pediatric surgeon consult on this." She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm sure they already have one on staff," she said in a warning tone. Which Tuck was totally ignoring, but he gave her a quick nod.
Addie nodded to the intern and said, "Come on we need to take her up to the NICU."
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Addie and the intern positioned the isolette in the NICU and she looked up at tall redheaded the intern, "I don't believe we have met yet."
The intern took in Dr. Sanders. She looked completely different from yesterday. She didn't look like she had planned on working today. She was dressed in casual clothing, hardly any make up with her hair pulled back. "I'm Dr. Riley Stiles," she replied.
"It's good to meet you Dr. Stiles," she said with a smile. Her attention was then brought back to her new charge. She reached in and gently caressed her cheek with her index finger. "I'm going to need a full work up on her, blood work, x-rays and an ultrasound." Addie turned her attention back to the intern and asked, "Do you know what the preliminary diagnosis is?"
Riley bit her lower lip, nodded then responded, "Judging by the sunken stomach and distended chest, I would diagnose a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia."
Addie gave the young woman a nod, "Exactly right, very good observation. See to the tests, you are in charge of her for the time being, she is stable now. Have them page me if there is any change in her condition." Riley nodded a look of pride appeared on her face, it felt good having the doctor compliment her.
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"So I hear you picked up another patient," Miranda said as she fell in step with Addie walking down the hall.
Addie gave her a sidelong glance, "Isn't it funny how that keeps happening." She shook her head at Miranda. "You know you can tell Richard it doesn't matter how many patients he manages to hook me up with. I am not moving back to Seattle," she said very sure of herself.
"Uh huh, I'll be sure to tell him," she managed to keep the smile off her face. She knew her friend pretty well. She could see she was already starting to get attached to the new group of interns. No matter how loudly she was complaining about it. Half of their conversation last night revolved around how impressed she was with the two interns she had already worked with.
So they had that going for them, plus the boys absolutely loved being in Seattle their family lived here and they loved them. The only member of Addie's family that didn't live here was her mother and she had it on good authority unbeknownst to her friend that was soon going to change. She could no longer keep the smile off her face. Sully and Addie didn't have a pray, they were moving back to Seattle whether they like it or not.
"Hey Miranda, are you on for much longer?" she asked raising her eyebrows.
"Well, I free for the next couple of hours, why?" she said with a nod.
"Richie is still here and I need to get him back to Beck's," she said hoping her friend would offer to drive Richie back home.
"Say no more I'll take him over," she said with a smile.
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"You know your wife, my sister is going to kick my ass for leaving her alone with five kids," Sully joked with Tuck.
"Actually seven," he grinned at him. "Miranda just left to bring Richie home and was leaving William and Vanessa there too. Anyway she won't, you know she loves having them all around," he chuckled at his brother-in-law. "Besides it's for a good cause."
"Good cause?" Sully questioned him.
"Yeah, you know saving a brand new baby's life." Of course that was a good cause, but he really meant getting his brother-in-law to work at the hospital.
"Let me introduce you to the interns. This is one case they are definitely going to want to follow through to the end. Of course it will be up to Addie and you to choose who actually gets to help operate."
Tuck entered the conference room immediately followed by Sully. Four of the five interns were waiting patiently for them, and they were all pretty excited to be in on this case. "I'd like to introduce the pediatric surgeon who will be in charge of this case, along with Dr. Sanders. This is Dr. Evil," said Tuck maintaining a completely serious look on his face as he introduce Sully as Dr. Evil. While Sully's eyes widened ever so slightly, he hoped his sister didn't mind becoming a widow, because he was going to kill him. This was Tuck's idea of a joke. They had been making fun of Addie last night because the interns had nicknamed her Mistress of Evil, so he thought it was funny to start calling him Dr. Evil.
Sully leaned over and whispered in his brother-in-law's ear, "I am going to kill you, you that know right?" Tuck just gave him a small smile and nodded.
You could tell the interns were a little stunned by the introduction, but they tried to hide what they were thinking. "I need one volunteer to get Dr. Sanders and let her know the pediatric surgical consult is here and another to pick up the lab results on baby Swift," Tuck said. Dr. Phillips volunteered to get Dr. Sanders and Dr. Martin volunteered to get the lab reports.
"If you will excuse us for one moment, Dr. Tucker and I need to discuss a few things," Sully said curtly and walked out the door. Tuck grinned and followed him out the door.
The two remaining interns sat at the conference table exchanged looks. "Dr. Evil, he was kidding right?" asked Lucy Lee, one of the interns who had yet to work with Dr. Sanders.
"I don't know man. He looked pretty serious to me," replied Davis Washington, the other remaining intern who had yet to work with Dr. Sanders.
Sully reentered the conference room and they clammed up. He leaned against the wall waiting for Addie to join them.
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Molly found Addie and Riley up in neonatal going over a chart. She walked over to them and said, "Dr. Sanders, the pediatric surgical consult is here. He is waiting in conference room two for you."
She replaced the chart turned to Molly and said, "Thank you Phillips, let's go." She turned to Riley with a nod and headed down the hall to conference room two with Molly and Riley following closely on her heels.
She paused a moment at the door before entering and said, "And the doctor's name?"
"Dr. Evil, you ever hear of him?" she said it with a perfectly straight face. Riley burst into laughter, but quickly restrained it when she saw Molly was completely serious.
"Yeah I've heard of him," she said wryly as she shook her head and rolled her eyes. This had to be Tuck's idea of a joke. She opened the door to enter the room and stopped so abruptly that Molly and Riley barely managed to stop before running into her. She took one look at Sully and said, "What the hell are you doing here?" A surprised Molly and Riley slid past Addie then quietly took their seats at the conference table.
He grinned at his wife who was obvious upset at his being called in. She had warned him they would figure out a way for him to be called in on a case, and sure enough she was right. "I was called in on a consult," he said with a shrug.
The interns watched the exchange with interest it was obvious the two doctors knew one and other. "So Dr. Evil?" she said with a raised eyebrow and smirk.
He gave her a sheepish grin, "Blame Tuck."
"Yeah I figured as much," she said with a laugh and crossed the room to give him a hug and kissed him softly on the lips. He placed a hand on either side of her hips and pulled her close. Both seemed to forget the interns were in the room.
Dr. Martin cleared his throat as he entered the room. "I . . . I have the lab results and x-rays," he announced.
Sully and Addie pulled apart then she took the reports and x-rays from Bill. Dr. Phillips piped up and asked, "So his name isn't Dr. Evil?"
Sully and Addie exchanged looks and laughed. "No Dr. Phillips, this is Dr. Sullivan Sanders."
They exchanged looks in surprise. "Sanders?" they all said in unison.
She nodded. "He's my husband," she replied as she pulled the x-rays from the envelope.
"Your husband? Then why did Dr. Tucker call him Dr. Evil?" Molly wanted to know.
"My brother-in-law has an odd sense of humor. He seems to find the Mistress of Evil name quite amusing, so he started calling Sully Dr. Evil last night," she said with a laugh placing the x-rays on the lighted panel.
"Your brother-in-law?" The interns questioned.
"Dr. Tucker is married to my sister," Sully answered.
He turned to the x-rays and started studying them over Addie's shoulder they both pursed their lips. "Okay I'll forgive Tuck for calling you in," she said quietly.
He put his hands on her shoulders gave them a squeeze as he studied the x-rays. "Yeah," he agreed.
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Derek wanted to thank Addison for allowing him to spend time with Richie. He knew she had been called up to the NICU so he went in search of her. As he walked past the windows he caught sight of her standing before an isolette. There was a very tall dark haired man standing beside her. He stayed outside standing in front of the window, watching their interaction. They seemed to be intimate, his brow furrowed as he watched the scene in front of him. That's when it began to dawn on him that she didn't marry Mark.
He was beginning to feel voyeuristic watching them. Even from a distance he could feel the love emanating between them. They were simply having a conversation but the way they touched one and other and how they looked at each other. . .
Richard walked up behind him quietly watching Derek observing his ex-wife and her current husband. It startled Derek when Richard spoke, "He's a good man Derek. They are very much in love and he's a wonderful father to your son."
Derek continued to be transfixed by the couple before him. "How long have they been married?"
Richard paused a moment, he wasn't sure how Derek would take this bit of information. "Just over five years."
His eyes snapped to the man standing next to him with that bit of information. "Five years?" he said in shock. He turned and quickly left the area.
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Addie and Sully stood in front of the isolette in the NICU, each reaching in making a connection with their young patient. The little girl had a grip on Sully's index finger, while Addie gently caressed her cheek with her index finger. Sully could tell something other then their young patient was on her mind. He wrapped his free arm around her shoulder and asked softly, "So what's going on?"
She knew exactly what that question meant. "Derek met Richie today," she said keeping her gaze on the little girl before them.
"And how did that go?" he asked gently.
"You were right," she shook her head and let out a sigh. The funny thing of it, Sully had tried to warn her that once Derek had met Richie she was probably going to have a change of heart. She didn't believe him but once again her husband was right. He knew her so well inside out, and so it seemed, she had to laugh to herself, better then she knew herself.
He turned her toward him and pulled her into a light embrace, she buried her face in his shoulder and he stroked her hair and whispered in her ear, "You know whatever decision you make I'll support you." He kissed her lightly on the lips.
"It still scares me to let him in," she said quietly.
"I know, but just remember this," he pulled back so he could look into her eyes. Their eyes connected with such deep understanding. "Richie can never have too many people in his life who unconditionally love him," he said with a small smile.
She nodded in agreement and smiled up at him. Sully always managed to help her put things into perspective, god she loved this man.
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I hope you all enjoyed the update, please review and let me know what you think!