Chapter 24 You've got a friend in me
Finally the merger came. Time to work with Meredith and Burke.
Disclaimer: GA and all characters belong to Shonda and ABC.
Fiona's POV
5 days ago
"Cristina, we are over, this time we are really over. He's dating a nurse. He's with Rose and I've got no one. You're still my person even if I'm not yours anymore. I need my person back. I would be at Joe's after my shift ends at 5." Playing the message in my phone, I got Meredith's message. Funny, now she's thinking about me. She said she wants her person back. I used to think if I murder someone, she would be the one I call to drag the body across the hall. She was my person. Is she still my person? Can I forgive her for choosing Derek over me? I don't know. So I headed towards Joe's. At least I could hear what she has to say to me after a month. After all, I'm facing a merger in 5 days which means I would be working with her every day in 5 days' time.
At Joe's
"Fiona, you came!" Meredith squealed out with shaky voice. God, how much tequila did she drink?
"OK, that's enough, you're wasted. I'll call a cab and you'll go home." I tried to drag her out of the bar stool but she wouldn't move her butt.
"No, I don't want to go home. George is all weird with Izzie and Alex has a crazy girlfriend faking pregnant. His ear stud is still in the bathroom. I couldn't sleep on his side of the bed." She growled at me.
"What do you want? You obviously can't drink anymore. You don't want to go home. What do you want?" I was furious at her and I didn't want to stand the whining and continue with the small talk anymore.
"You know what, you're a hypocrite. You died on my watch and left me with I don't remember how much, billions? You broke my heart. You chose a man over your career so much so that you would be an intern and do scut all day for him. Derek is my Burke, he's my Mcdreamy. I chose not to tell you cause I want to salvage your fragile relationship. I had no idea that you would be kidnapped!" She spluttered under heavy breaths. These words must be hovering in her head for nearly a month. She finally let them out.
"I am anything but a hypocrite! I didn't do social graces and I'm arbitrarily hostile cause I'm honest and straight to the point. It's not my fault that I died. I didn't choose to die and break your heart. And it's not your call. It's not your call to withhold information from me and make some lame excuses about salvaging me relationship. You didn't have me back. You didn't do it to salvage my relationship but to salvage yours! So don't you dare put the blame on me." I snapped at her, drop the glass on the counter and set out to call a cab for her.
"I'm sorry. I made a mistake, okay? So what, people make mistakes. People withhold information, hell, the whole hospital is full of deep-rooted secrets. I hid a skeleton in my closet. So what? You didn't tell me anything about your earlier career either. You dumped me alone in the wild and tell me to find Lexie to take over for your place? Nobody could replace you, no one!" Meredith slung her arms across the counter in frustration.
"This is not about Lexie. This is about you, me and Derek. This is about you went behind my back." Why is she so stubborn? Why can't she just admit that she betrayed me?
"What do you want from me? You didn't give me a chance. You refused to meet me. You refused to take my call. You refused to text me back. You even moved from your old place. I had no way to reach you. And I apologized. You know what, just tell me what you want me to say and I'll say it." She put her hands up in the air to make her point.
"You just don't get it, do you? You said I'm your person so you should be on my side. I want you to tell me why you were not on my side!" I gulped my tequila and screeched out.
"I WAS on your side. I couldn't have known that you would be kept in the same room with her. You just rekindled the fire with Burke and got your happily ever after, I don't want to ruin that with the news that his ex was back. Sure Kim did want to get into Burke's pants but Burke didn't do anything cause you're the love of his life. He has been through hell and lost you once. He learnt his lessons. He would not cheat on you again so I figured telling you that would do you no good. That was why I didn't tell you, not because your assumption of choosing Derek over you. Derek is the love of my love but you're my soul mate. I would never do anything intentionally to hurt you and you know that." Meredith reached out for another shot. Her eyes glinted with tears.
"So you're buddy-buddy with Burke now? I didn't know you trust him even after he cheated on me?" It felt weird that my person was so friendly towards my guy. I never saw eye to eye with Derek.
"I wasn't. I was so mad at him for wrecking you that I went all my way to torture him. The four of us refused to work with him or scrub in his surgeries, even George was furious at him. Bailey shot him cold glances every chance she got. He lost the respect of surgical staff cause of what he did to you and to his tremors. I even gave him one page of your diary per day to constantly remind him of your absence." Meredith giggled, reminiscing the rough patches she's been through.
"Oh, you did? Burke didn't tell me that." I was astonished at their behavior. I thought George was Burke's guy even after he went to the chief.
"Of course he didn't. He was an arrogant ass. He would never admit that." Her eyes wandered over mine and stated matter-of-factly.
"So what brought you guys close? Babysitting him after the gastrorrhagia?"
"No. He was there mourning over your death with me when you weren't. As much as I hated to say it, he did what he did in a moment of weakness. I mean it has to take two to keep a relationship. You two made your fair share of mistakes. He thought you betrayed him and you never explained yourself. I mean I wouldn't have known where you come from if I hadn't read your diary. You two loved each other. It was a shame that you didn't work just cause you refused to open up to him." Meredith said huskily.
"Funny that statement came from dark and twisty Meredith Grey." I gaped at her in owe. Meredith Grey talking about importance of opening up and communication in a relationship? She must be so intoxicated.
"Yeah I'm seeing a shrink. She asked me to repeat to myself 'He's with Rose.' and called me a coward." Meredith gurgled at her own statement like she just heard the joke of the day.
"Calling Meredith Grey a coward? She must be a hell of a shrink." I snickered in amusement.
"Yea whatever. He's with Rose."
"Ok, you dated a vet and he's dating a nurse. Quid pro quo, call it even. No more whining about Mcdreamy and Mclife. Let's get you to bed." I dragged Meredith out of the bar, called a cab and strapped her into the seat. I was content that I got my person back.
Timeline back to now- the first day of merger
The hallway was filled with doctors in yellow and blue scrubs. The colour of the scrubs clearly separated the doctors into two camps: Seattle Gracers and Mercy Westers. I perched myself into the scene of chaos and felt Burke's eyes fixed on my back, poking me in the stomach like swords. I stared at him with mingled feelings of love, hate, anger and sadness until I was greeted by my interns on the day.
"Hi, Dr. White, I'm Lexie and she's Stephanie. We really admired your work on metastatic cardio tumors, it's ground breaking. It's a great honour to work with you." Lexie reached out, intending to shake my hands. I ignored her attempt and gave her a slight nod.
"Okay I guess you all heard about the famous five rules so I won't repeat them again. Since most of you won't make it through residency, I won't waste my time remembering your names. You,1. You, 2." I pointed my finger to Lexie and Stephanie respectively and decided to call them by numbers. Burke beamed at me, taking in my usual grumpiness. I ignored him and went on with my rounds. Cristina, you're not set out for these mushy feelings. Besides, you're done with him. So don't satisfy him by looking back. Ignore him.
We swept our way into the patient's room.
"Ok, who's presenting?" I asked.
"I am. Amy Lewis, 6 years old with atrial septal defect (ASD) which is a defect in the septum between the atrials." Lexie presented confidently without looking at the chart.
"Best option?" I continued.
"Regarding Amy's age, interventing catheterization would be the best option for her as it was not surgical. We could insert an occlusion balloon into the defect site via vena cava." Lexie answered my question with lack of interest in her voice probably cause the case was not surgical.
"Ok. Who could tell me where to pay attention to when listening to her heart?" I questioned them further after listening to the little girl's heart sound with my stethoscope.
"Between the second and third rib distal to the sternum in left chest." Stephanie chimed in to impress me.
"Good. You try it." I handed her the stethoscope and gestured her to take over my spot. She listened intently and put down the stethoscope.
"What did you find?" I asked her hoping to hear the correct response.
"I didn't find anything in particular." She didn't seem so sure about her answer.
"Ok, switch. 1, you try." I commanded Stephanie to yield the spot to Lexie. She listened to her heart sound intently as well and frowned.
"What did you find?" I inquired in encouragement.
"I could hear the gurgling sound in the tricuspid valve." She replied.
"A gold star for 1. Needless to say, I assume all of you know what the gurgling sound means."
Both of them scowled in unison. Sure they knew what the gurgling sound meant. It meant the defect between the septum and atrials was relatively large, which indicated that the original treatment plan of transcatheter-closure would not work anymore. The girl needed surgery.
"The ultrasound cardiogram is still in progress, this could be an arbitrary diagnosis." Stephanie muttered. I ignored her and waited for the Debbie to hand over the results.
Debbie finally delivered the UCG result. The result was consistent with my diagnosis- the defect has reached 3.2 cm and catheterization was no longer an option. I glared at Stephanie and she fixed her eyes to the ground in shame.
"Bear in mind, stethoscope is a crucial tool for diagnostics in cardio. I've learnt to do things in a traditional way. This could save a life in extreme situations when you can't do a UCG. 1, scrub in with me. I already booked OR 3 to do this in the afternoon. You'll be the secondary assistant." I declared who got to scrub in and Lexie jumped with joy. Gosh, was I this hungry of surgery when I was an intern here? Unbelievable, I was one of them 3 months ago.
"Dr. White, I'm concerned about what I should do as a secondary assistant as this is the first time I got to scrub in?" Before the surgery, Lexie caught a hold of me in the lab.
"Did you even go to med school? This time I'll tell you straight away. Next time, do your research. Since you're only the secondary assistant, all you need to do is to fully expose the atrials and suction like your life depends on it." I was surprised that Lexipedia didn't know this. Was she just too nervous?
"Sorry, Dr. White, won't happen next time." She marched out of the lab in frustration. Wait, was she trying to make a small talk or something? Gosh, people never changed, she was as nervous as she was when we were in med school. Oh, the good old days when I was still the invincible Cristina Yang, not the girl head over heels in love with an arrogant and stubborn ass.