I sat in the waiting room this time. All of Meredith's pseudo-family sat with me. Occasionally someone on duty would get a page and they would take off but always wander back, sometimes with food or beverages, or Mark or Owen would got peek their heads in the scrub room to get an update. Conversation was minimal, aside from the updates. I stared at the set of double doors I knew Richard and Nelson would be coming through, either to tell me my wife was dead or up in the SICU. I really hoped for the latter. Even if their was a good chance she wouldn't wake up, I crossed my fingers that she'd listen and pull through. The minutes dragged on like hours. I dozed off a few times but never for long. It felt like eons later when Nelson and the Chief came through those double doors. I was immediately on my feet, trying to find any hint of hope. Both their expressions were solemn but not hopeless, and the Chief didn't look upset, which were good signs. I barely noticed the pack of people behind me wanting the same information.
"Is she?..." I couldn't bear to finish the thought. Richard nodded his head ever so slightly.
"She's alive, it's miraculous, but there's brain activity and her heart is beating on it's own." Nelson said getting right to the point. "If there's any damage it's unknown but she would at the very least be able to be conscious."
"She better not have damage." I heard Alex growl behind me. I nodded my head in agreement. If she woke up with brain damage in any way, shape or form, I would never forgive myself. And Dr. Nelson would probably be out of a job.
"There's one more thing." The Chief spoke up. "Her kidney is really floundering. We've put her on dialysis, but there's a chance she will need a transplant. I just wanted to warn you all and suggest you get tested should it come down to her needing a transplant." I felt numb. Without a transplant she could die, and that couldn't happen. I took a deep breath before speaking again.
"Can I see her?" Richard nodded.
"She's in the SICU, same room." I would get tested later, but right now I needed to see her for myself.
Meredith looked the same as before, with the exception of the new bandage around her head. Her right eye was swollen shut and the purplish blue bruises extended all the way to her forehead. Her cheek was bright red with road rash and the sight broke my heart. I often heard families of patients saying it looked like comatose patients were sleeping if you simply looked past the tubes. I couldn't do that though, because behind the tubes there wasn't an inch of skin that wasn't damaged. I flopped into the visitors chair, and grabbed Meredith's cold, limp, bandaged hand. I looked up at the clock on the wall across the room. It read 5:28 A.M. I was on duty which meant I had to be upstairs, dressed and presentable by 6 for morning rounds. I leaned int towards Meredith.
"Hey I have to be upstairs soon so I'll make this quick." I whispered pretending she could hear and would wake up and reply. "I'm glad you listened and fought. but you can't stop yet. You have to wake up. Zola needs her mommy and I need my wife. I know I've done a shitty job showing you that as of late, but I promise I'll make it up to you. And when you wake up I'll listen this time. But that means you have to be able to talk okay? So I'll work on my being an ass issue and you work on waking up totally fine okay? I love you no matter what though, but you have to wake up." I felt like I was a child begging for a cookie, but she had to wake up. I sighed glancing at the clock. My time was up. I stood, gently kissing her on the forehead. I turned to leave and was met with Bailey leaning up against the door frame watching me with a neutral expression. I jumped back in surprise and saw a small semblance of a smirk cross her face.
"Relax I'm not going to hurt you." She said pushing herself off the door frame. "However I am going to warn you." She took a few steps forward and looked me right in the eye. "You love her. I respect that, it took me a long time to believe it, but I respect that you love my intern. That is until you get pissed, lash out at her and run off into the woods. And then she gets hit by a car. Well okay that's only happened once, but one more time than it should have." Bailey paused, organizing her thoughts. "Look all I'm saying is your actions speak louder than words, and right now your actions are showing you don't give a damn about her. And on top of that you got pissed about what she did. You didn't ask her why and she did it and you didn't tell her why you were mad. Instead you called her a bad mother and ran off to the woods, leaving her with a child she thought she was a bad parent to and was worried about you because you were too damn proud to answer your phone."
"I uh..." I stammered. Everything she said was true and there was no arguing with it, but I felt the need to defend myself.
"Look I know you love her, but truth be told, the way she's been moping around here, I don't think she knows it." Before I had a chance to reply Bailey turned on her heel and left the room. I sighed looking back at Meredith's tiny mangled form lying in the bed next to me.
"I love you." I whispered in her ear. I could've sworn I saw an increase on the heart monitor but as soon as it was their it was gone. I stood up and headed to my office to change for rounds.
It was a few hours later. I'd had two large cups of coffee and was scrubbing in on a shunt repair. Karev was my resident, and scrubbing in beside me. He'd been unusually quiet until he turned off the water.
"Look I'm sorry. If I hadn't tattled because of professional insecurity, none of this would've happened. And before you say I did the right thing, I did for the wrong reasons. And Mer did the wrong thing for the right reasons. But you did everything wrong, so this isn't entirely our faults. I know you love her, so I'm about gonna force you away from her, but you better have one hell of an apology man." With that he left the room and I kept scrubbing, dumbfounded by Alex's integrity.
It was maybe fifteen minutes later when Alex and I stood side by side in surgery. I barely registered the sound of the phone ringing, I was in surgery mode.
"What is it Kelly?" I asked the nurse when she hung up the phone, looking uncertain.
"It's Dr. Grey Sir. She's awake.
A/N Ahh I'm a terrible person I know. You can tell me all about it in the reviews. Also you can complain about how this is late and for that I'm sorry too. I don't have an excuse I just wasn't motivated. Also I'm going on vacation so updates will be minimal, if at all. I'm sorry. But leave a review. Thanks