--
Miranda was tied up for the next several hours in a bounce from the pit, but she came out of surgery to find Addison waiting for her.
"Hey, Miranda."
"Addison!"
She studied the redhead's face for signs of stress, trying not to be too obvious. Addison looked tired. Didn't they all, though?
"Can we talk for a sec?"
"Sure we can."
"Great. You coming to Joe's tonight? I don't know how your day's been, but I could really, really use a drink."
"Oh. Um, yeah."
"Good. So, look, you want in on the Scheir baby?"
"What? I mean, not that I don't, but do you really need me? Sounds like it's already a little bit crowded."
"What, the heart thing? Yeah, Mercy didn't catch that on the admit. Burke will do fine. And Derek…"
There was a slight tightening around her mouth. "Let's not talk about that. Medically? We probably don't need another doc in there. This is kind of a…a personal request. I guess I just kinda want a neutral party in there. It's feeling a little…a little charged, you know?"
"Because of Derek and Sloan?"
"No! Sloan's out of there, he was working on the mom. And Derek, we're adults, we're professionals. We generally handle it okay."
"But this time?"
She shrugged. "Little turf war, maybe. Neuro or not, he's a high-risk newborn, which makes him my patient. Derek…I don't know. It's not about…look, I just have a feeling about this one. I don't know. I want someone in there with me."
Under other circumstances, she would have refused. Get in the middle of the McMess with the McEx? Hell, no. But she did want in on this one. If Addison was asking…
Still, she felt that for appearances sake, she ought to offer up a token rejection. "That's why god invented interns, Addie."
"What, Yang? Come on. I want someone in there with ME, Miranda."
She sighed. "Okay. Let's go meet the folks."
--
They had brought in the mother. Addison clearly hadn't realized that had happened already, and she broke composure for a minute. But she recovered quickly and bent down to shake hands with the tiny brunette in the wheelchair.
"Mrs. Scheir. I'm Dr. Montgomery, and this is Dr. Bailey."
The woman had bandages on her face and right arm, which hung limply, but protectively over her abdomen. She squirmed in the wheelchair, winced, but returned the handshake.
"Hanna, please. So many doctors."
Addison ran a hand against the incubator, smiling at the baby. "I'm one of his, actually. How's he doing?"
"Nurses say he's a fighter. I…I don't know. I haven't seen him awake yet."
"You will."
"Noah---my husband---the baby was awake when Noah was here. The nurses let him change the diaper." Her eyes welled up. "He'll be okay, won't he? I mean, there's still things we can do?"
"There are," interrupted Derek Shepherd, coming up behind them. "Mrs. Scheir, I'm Dr. Shepherd, one of your baby's doctors."
The woman frowned. "But…I thought…"
"Mrs. Scheir, I'm what they call a neurologist," he said, subtly nudging Addison aside as he pulled up a stool beside the mother. "That means I specialize in difficulties related to the brain. Has your husband explained to you, about the shunt procedure?"
"Call me Hanna," she said.
"Excuse me," said Addison. "Derek…?"
"Just a second, Addison. Hanna, as I was explaining, your son has a condition in which the fluid in his brain is not draining properly. This is creating a build-up of pressure in his head which we need to relieve as soon as possible. Now, I know he seems very small and weak right now…"
"I don't understand," she said. "The other doctor told my husband we couldn't do that yet."
"Derek," said Addison again.
"I'm with a patient, Addie. Now, as I was saying…"
"Now, Derek!" said Addison. She hauled him to his feet and nearly yanked him bodily out of the room. Miranda directed her attention back to the incubator, and once she had the mother safely enraptured with the newborn again, she moved closer to the door, so she could hear what was happening.
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Addison demanded.
"He's my patient, Addie."
"He's MY patient, Derek. And I was in the middle of speaking with the family about him. You couldn't hold off on your testosterone pissing match until the mother was out of earshot? Did you see how confused that poor woman looked?"
"He is my patient, Addison. Baby or not, he's neuro, and your insistence on delaying the shunt procedure is endangering his life!"
"You forget how delicate preemie newborns are. That's why he stays MY patient, neuro or not. Yes, the Hydrocephalus is a concern. And trust me, I am keeping an eye on it. But he's still having arrhythmias, and he's got almost zero lung function. He wouldn't last five minutes on the table."
"I think he can handle it."
"I think he can't. And because he's a preemie newborn, it's my call. Stay out of this, Derek."
"Oh, come on. And you think I'm the one in the pissing match? What's going on here, Addison? Why aren't you letting me in on this one?"
"This is not about you."
"Like hell."
"I'll notify you when I think he's ready for the shunt. You can scrub in with me."
"How gracious."
"But in the meantime, stay out of my way. And if you EVER undermine me like that in front of a patient's family again, so help me…"
"Addison…"
"Stay out of my way, Derek. Stay. Out. Of. My. Way."
At that opportune moment, the baby coded.
--
Callie answered her page in record time.
"Everything okay?"
"Stay close. She's coming out in a second."
"What happened?"
"Pissing match with Shepherd, then the baby turned blue. We have him stabilized, but she's still in there calming down the mother."
Derek was the first to emerge from the NICU. "Bailey. Nice work in there."
"Shepherd. You still think he's ready for surgery?"
He looked back at Addison, then at Miranda, then at Callie. "You too?"
"Let's not get into that. If I may offer you a piece of constructive advice, Dr. Shepherd? I'd do what she told you. I'd stay out of her way."
"It really isn't your business, Dr. Bailey. But I'll just let you know that in spite of how it may seem to you, it's been hard on me too. There are things I'm not proud of. I'm trying to deal with them. And I may be…in a relationship again…but Addison is still a part of my life, and I care about her."
"Uh huh."
"I've done my best to keep my job separate. We work together, Addison and I. We have to keep the personal stuff separate."
"Sure you do."
"So, yeah. I'm doing my part. And I will not just hand over a neuro case because Addison doesn't feel like doing hers."
He walked away, and Callie sighed. "He so doesn't get it, does he?"
"Actually, he kind of does. He just goes about it wrong. What he did in there is not the way to set healthy boundaries."
"She must have been pissed."
"I could hear her teeth grinding from all the way outside the room. We take her out tonight, she'll be a live one."
Callie peeked into the NICU. "Looks like they're settling."
Noah Scheir had arrived a few minutes ago, and Addison was nudging them both toward the incubator. Callie and Miranda tiptoed in.
"He's sleeping," Addison said, smiling fondly at the baby. "Quite a scare you gave us, Tiger."
The parents traded amused glances. "Tiger?"
"We like to give 'em fighting names."
Hanna smiled. "I like that."
"He doesn't really look like a tiger though," Noah said.
"No? How about…Killer?"
Both of them laughed this time.
"Cougar? Panther? Ace?"
"He looks like a lamb to me," Hanna said. "See that soft little tuft of hair he has?"
"No, not a lamb," said Noah. "A lion. He needs a fighting name."
"So, Leo? Like a lion?" asked Addison.
"Ari. It's lion, in Hebrew."
She smiled at the baby again. "Ari it is. Shall I get you three tucked in for the night?"
--
It wasn't until they got to the parking lot that they noticed how tired she looked.
"I don't know, Addison," Callie said. "You sure you're up for drinks?"
Her eyes were bloodshot, and her hands were jittery. "I need to go somewhere. I need to do something."
"Yeah, we get that. Just…god, Addison, you look like shit."
She laughed. "Thanks for that. You're supposed to be my friend, you know."
"And it's because I'm your friend that I can tell you that. Look, do you want to talk about it?"
"No. I'm fine."
"Heard Shepherd pissed you off."
"I'm fine. I'm fine. Just take me somewhere. Please."
"Not Joe's," said Callie. "I want you to closer to home."
"Just drive, will you?"
Then her pager went off. Addison rooted into her bag, pulled it out, looked at the display. Then she promptly burst into tears. "I can't…I can't…"
Miranda climbed into the backseat with her, folded her into her arms. "Shhh, Addie. Breathe. Breathe."
She was shaking, so overwhelmed, she could barely speak. "I can't…I can't…"
Without a word, Callie picked up her cell, dialed a number. "Yang. It's Torres. You paged Dr. Montgomery? Yeah, she's here. Look, what's…okay…so you don't need her to…okay, okay, one sec…"
Callie covered the phone with her hand. "She wants to know if you want her to dose the baby with steroids one more time before she clocks out for the night."
"That's it?" Miranda asked. "We don't need to go in again?"
"Nope."
"Addison?"
Addison nodded assent, the sobs finally tapering off.
"Yang, that sounds good. Yeah, no, you did the right thing. Look, Bailey's on it too. Any further questions, you can page her. No, it's fine, she needs a…yeah, right. She's been on for awhile. Right, okay. So, Bailey's on it, you clear?"
She hung up the phone. "We don't have to go back in."
"I just need a break," Addison said. "I need a break. I need to go somewhere."
Callie grinned. "I know just the place."
--
The hotel had a bar, and a good one. Miranda nudged Callie with a smirk. "Clever girl."
"Yeah. That wasn't my only reason, though. It's Thursday."
"And?"
"Well, I kind of…look, this is girl-secret territory, this one. You spill, you die. Both of you."
That finally got a grin out of Addison. "Oh?"
"Well, I kind of…I have an act, okay? And they comp me my room if I play every Thursday. It's Thursday."
"You sing?" Addison clarified.
"Yeah. You guys want a shout-out? I can do a shout-out…"
As 'friends of the band,' they got the royal treatment: free drinks, a platter of wings and another platter of fried things.
"She's good," Addison said, watching Callie work her way through a jazz standard.
"She is," Miranda agreed. "Now, this? This feels like girl time."
"Yeah."
"You ready to talk now?"
"Miranda? Don't nag."
"All right. All right."
"I mean, I appreciate the gesture. I do. I just…it's been a long day. I'm fine. I'm fine."
Miranda knew what that meant now. And frankly? She thought even Sydney's interpretation of 'fine' was a bit of an understatement.
--