Chapter 11

"Hey Mark…Marky…Mark Sloan." I hear Callie say as she approached Mark at the nurse's station. She grabbed a patient's chart, but before opening to look at it, she looked at Mark.

"Why do you look like you're dead?" Mark's elbow was against the counter and his chin was leaning against it.

"Mhm? Oh…it's nothing. I need coffee." Mark covered up the real reason.

"I'll have Murphy get you one." Mark groaned loudly as he began rubbing his temple. Callie looked at him suspiciously,

"Are you okay?" Callie reached out to place her hand on his shoulder, but he quickly swatted it away.

"I'm fine." He said in annoyed tone before walking away.

"Um…okay?" Callie said as she turned to look at the chart in her hand, but before she began reading it, her eyes glanced over at me.

"Oh! Lexie!" She closed the chart and headed towards me…crap!

"What's wrong with Mark? Is he okay?" I shrugged and shook my head, but then nodded.

"I-I-um…-I gotta go." I quickly said and turned around.

"No! Get back here!" Callie commanded. I jumped a bit startled and turned back around to face her.

"Tell me. What's wrong?"

"I-um…if he doesn't wanna tell you, then maybe you shouldn't try to snoop around." I swallow hard and look at her.

"Urg! Go poke at people's brains then!" She said angrily. I nodded quickly and took off.

"Mark!" I followed after Derek into a conference room.

"What?" Mark said a bit annoyed before he spotted me with him.

"Lex…" He smiled a bit, but let out a sigh. Derek began talking when suddenly I heard someone talking.

"Hey, I need a consult on a kid who says she can't feel her arm." I turn to the door and see Alex.

"You wanna take care of that, Dr. Grey?" Derek says to me in which I smile and nod.

"Of course." I say as I head out and follow Alex towards the patient's room.

"This is Maya Rodriguez." Alex introduced us as I began doing the daily check-up.

"Hi Maya, I'm Dr. Grey. Dr. Karev has informed me that you can't feel your arm?" I ask her.

"Y-Yeah…" She softly says.

"Which arm is it?"

"The left…" She points at her left arm. I take out a tool and begin running it over her arm.

"Can you feel this?" She nods softly.

"Okay." I say as I run it up her arm,

"How about here?" She shakes her head.

"Alright, let's get her an MRI."

"What's wrong with me?" Maya asks a bit scared.

"I'm gonna find out once we get that MRI, okay?" I turn to Alex,

"Where are her parents?" I ask him in a whisper,

"They went to get her food."

"Okay…" I softly say as I look back at Maya.

"Hey, I gotta get back to my other patient. Could you page me once you get the scans?" Alex nods his head and I start to head off.

"Lexie!" I hear my voice and spot Jackson.

"Oh, what now?" I groan softly.

"You tell your husband that I cannot work with him today." I sighed,

"Why not?"

"He's acting like a baby. I don't know what's going on with him, but I know for sure he isn't my boss today."

"What do you want me to do about it? You work with him, which means you see him more than I do. Maybe you should tell him you can't work with him if he's acting the way he is." Jackson looked at me in shock.

"I gotta go." I told him before heading back to my other patient.

After checking up on my other patient, I had decided to take a rest in the on-call room, but the moment I had sat down on the bed the door opens.

"Lexie, I got the scans." I hear Alex as barges into the room holding the scan.

"Oh great…" I say sarcastically as I get up and take them from him.

"It's a tumor." Alex informs me as I hold the scan up to the light and see it.

"Damn…okay, thank you." I place the scan back into the envelope and head back to Maya's room. When I enter I notice both her parents are sitting next to her.

"Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez, I'm Dr. Grey; neurosurgeon." I extended my hand and they shook their hands with mine.

"What's wrong with my baby?" Mrs. Rodriguez said with a scared voice as she placed a hand on Maya's.

"I ran an MRI and your daughter has a tumor."

"Oh god…A-A tumor?" Mrs. Rodriguez looked at her daughter.

"I'm gonna do a biopsy to see if it's spreading or not." Her parents nodded as I looked over at Maya.

"Do you have any questions Maya?" I ask her, but she just shook her head.

"How about you Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez?" They looked at me,

"Will this hurt her?"

"No, she'll be under general anesthesia." They nodded before looking at Maya again.

"Okay…a-and you're a trustworthy doctor I assume?" Mr. Rodriguez asked.

"Yes, I am sir." I smile at him hoping that reassures him.

"Okay…" He says as he holds his daughter's hand.

"Okay…" He whispers again.

"So what happens if it spreads?" Mrs. Rodriguez asks as she looks up at me.

"Well, she would have surgery and then she'd have to start radiation. Depending on how bad it is."

"Wait, I thought all cancers spread." Mr. Rodriguez jumped in.

"Not necessarily. There are two types of tumors. Benign, which is non-cancerous and doesn't spread through the body and the other, is malignant which is cancerous and will spread." I inform them.

"And this biopsy will determine which one it is?" He asks in which I nod and answer yes.

"Do you have any other questions?" They look at each other, then at Maya, before looking at me and shaking their heads.

"Alright, then I'll be back." I tell them as I leave the room.

During lunch I had headed to the attending lounge to grab my lunch, but as I stood by the door I heard some talking.

"Lexie is driving me CRAZY!" Mark complained.

"Is that why you look like you've been head by a bus?" Callie chuckled softly.

"One minute she's telling me she wants a certain food and the next she's craving something else." Callie laughed again,

"That's the baby hormones for ya."

"Then one minute we're all happy and kissing and the next she's angry at me for absolutely nothing!" He lets out a loud sigh before biting into his apple.

"I'm getting like NO sleep here, Cal."

"Hey, imagine having a kid. You won't be sleeping for the first few weeks." Mark let out a loud groan,

"I can't complain though, right? This is what I wanted…I wanted a kid with her."

"Yep." Callie agreed.

"But it's making me…" Mark stopped as he spotted me by the door.

"Lex…" he said my name as he got up to head over to me. I stood there watching him head my way, but I quickly dashed off before he could talk to me.

"Lex!" He yelled out,

"Hold up!" I kept walking and finally stopped in the middle of the hall. Mark grabbed my arm, which startled me, and he pulled me into an on-call me. I looked at him a bit before looking away.

"What I said in there, Lex…" He began, but I interrupted him,

"Whatever. I don't need your apology. It's how you feel…" I said as I reached for the door knob and opened the door.

"It is how I feel, but you shouldn't have heard that."

"Yeah, I bet you talk about how annoying I am with her ALL the time." I storm out the room and this time, when I turned around, Mark wasn't following me; thank GOD!

A few hours later, I had done the biopsy and turns out the tumor was malignant; bummer for Maya.

"So, what you're saying is…its spreading?" Mr. Rodriguez asked.

"Yes. I could go in and take out as much as possible before it gets worse. Then the radiation will have to do the rest."

"And radiation…will it make me sick?" Maya suddenly asked,

"Unfortunately yes, it can make you sick. But the good thing about radiation is it will only attack the bad cells not the healthy ones." Maya closed her eyes and let out a sigh,

"Radiation affects people differently. Some of them get really sick and some of them are fine."

"Then I don't want radiation. Couldn't you just…take the tumor out?"

"I can, but there is still a risk I'd be leaving some in there and it could grow and spread again."

"Please Maya. Once you do this, you'll be cancer free." Mrs. Rodriguez told her, hoping it would get her to change her mind.

"Mom, I don't wanna be some…girl in a bed barfing everywhere." Mrs. Rodriguez stroked Maya's hand,

"Don't you wanna beat this cancer? Please…"

"Dr. Grey, just do the surgery, please." Maya looked at me,

"And if you don't get it all, then I guess I'll live with what I have." I took a deep breath,

"Unfortunately, you need parent's consent for a decision like that because you're under the age of 18."

"I'll sign any form, where are they Dr. Grey?" Mrs. Rodriguez asked eagerly.

"No! Mom!"

"Listen to me Maya…" I began,

"If you don't kill all the cancer cells, you're looking at being paralyzed throughout your body." That got Maya to think.

"Wouldn't you rather have a few months of radiation than a life time of being paralyzed? Or even worse, you could die from this. And you know what? You're a strong girl and for some people who do radiation, they only have one side effect; nausea." Maya laid there and just looked at me.

"Fine." She whispered which caused her mom to smile.

"Thank you Dr. Grey!" Mrs. Rodriguez said as she kissed Maya's forehead.

"Book me an OR for tomorrow." I tell a nurse as I leave the Rodriguez's so they can have privacy.

After a long day, work was FINALLY over. I could go home and relax.

"Hey, Lex. Can we talk?" I hear Mark as we meet up by the doors and walk through the parking lot together.

"About what?" He opens his car door and helps me in before he shuts the door and gets in on the driver's side.

"About earlier today."

"I told you, you don't need to apologize." I look out the window as Mark begins driving.

"I know you said that, but you don't annoy me, Lex. Sometimes you drive me crazy, but I mean that in the loving way possible. You know? Like that Britney Spears song." I looked at him and laughed a bit,

"Wow, way to bring Britney into the conversation."

"But you know what I mean, right?"

"I know, I would be going crazy too if I had to deal with a pregnant woman's hormones." I smiled softly,

"I'll try not to get angry at you over nothing…but the cravings that I probably can't help."

"That's fine; I'll just make sure to buy everything on the shelves." Mark teases me, which makes me laugh a bit.