"You have a really nice carpet." Meredith muttered.
He chuckled. "Thank you. Mark ripped out a completely fine, new carpet because he found an extra soft one and he thought it would be good in case of falls."
"Really?"
He smiled. "Really. Not that I do fall, but he didn't know what it would be like at the time."
"But he wasn't thinking about how good it would be to have sex on at the time?"
"Well, I wasn't supposed to be having sex again. But-" He smiled. He'd propped himself up on the side of sofa, while she was still lying on the floor. Neither of them were wearing a single item of clothing. "Here we are."
"I know I joked that this was essential to our relationship, but you know I'd still love you if we couldn't have sex, right?"
"Are you sure? Sex is...a pretty significant foundation in all relationships."
She didn't speak for a long moment, thinking about her reply before asking, "Can I tell you a secret?"
"If you want to."
"When I started falling in love with you, I read a lot of articles, and books, and...literally anything I could find on spinal cord injuries. An ungodly amount of words. And I found something called...asexuality. I thought that might be what you were. Obviously not-" She smiled as her cheeks blushed a little. Jesus Christ, he was so the complete opposite of someone not interested in sex. "But...you know, I decided that day that if that was what you were, that I would love you anyway."
He beamed, "You're so crazy, I love it."
"Crazy because I'd be in a sexless relationship?" She asked with a raised brow, although she supposed she shouldn't have been overly surprised; her friends constantly questioned her about their relationship, or rather their lack of relationship in their eyes, pre-prom-sex, because they didn't believe in sexless relationships. "I don't think it would be crazy."
He smiled. She didn't agree with the rest of the world, and he loved that. "Well- societally crazy, even if we have our own views. But, either way, we're still crazy for being in a relationship where we don't talk about the serious life events that have happened to us, so sex or no sex-."
"We're lunatics?"
He grinned and kissed her. "I...think so."
"Dennis Dean, six. He was admitted last night due to a complication with his spina bifida that we have now identified as hydrocephalus. Surgery will be in an hour." Meredith announced to her two attendings.
Arizona nodded. "This procedure carries fairly minimal risk, which is great as the shunt placement is required for Dennis to be okay; this isn't an optional surgery."
The boy's father nodded. "I know. Just do what you have to."
"Do you have any questions, Dennis?" Arizona asked softly.
He shook his head. He looked so totally and utterly terrified of everything.
"Are you okay, sweetie?"
"I'm scared." He muttered quietly.
"I know. I know it's super scary, but it's just a little sleep and then all that pain will be gone." She reassured him.
He shook his head as he curled in on himself.
"Oh- Dennis, buddy-" He sighed as the boy started sobbing. He clambered onto the bed to hold his son, stroking his hair. "Oh, it's okay. It's okay, buddy."
The boy didn't stop at that. If anything, he just cried harder.
"I'm sorry-" The man sighed as he looked up from his son, although he was still holding him. "Can we have a moment?"
"Of course." Arizona agreed with a short sympathetic smile before leaving, being trailed by her two fellow doctors.
"Poor kid." Derek sighed. "He's really distressed."
Arizona sighed. "I really don't want to put him under like that. I know he needs this surgery, but it's going to put him under so much stress and it doesn't seem like a good idea."
"I...um- can I make a suggestion?" Meredith requested.
"Of course."
"Stegosauruses."
"Stegosauruses?" Arizona repeated.
She smiled. "You'll see. Just give me and Derek a bit of time, push his surgery by an hour."
"Right...okay. I'm trusting you here, Grey. Impress me."
Dennis' dad did his best to smile when his son's three doctors returned, but it was hard. He was still led next to his son, brushing his hand over him reassuringly, and had been for quite a while now.
Luckily, he looked calm now.
That was until his eyes found the doctors.
"Daddy- no. No, I scared. Daddy, please-" He begged.
"It's okay Dennis, we're not here to take you to surgery right now."
He didn't reply, but his expression changed.
Derek paused by the boy. "I heard a little rumour that you love dinosaurs."
The boy smiled as his eyes widened and he exclaimed, "Dinosaurs!"
Derek smiled. One mention of dinosaurs and his demeanor shifted on its head; Meredith was right that the answer to their problem could be using the boy's interests. "My favourite is the triceratops. How about you? Which one is your favorite?"
"Steggesaurus."
He unzipped the bag on his lap. "A...stegosaurus, huh?"
"With the spikes." He said with a nod.
"Something like-" He pulled a small toy out of his bag. "-this?"
"Yes! That's the steggesaurus!"
He held the toy out to the boy. "He's going to look after you while you have surgery."
"Mine? My steggesaurus?"
"Yeah. Your steggesaurus forever now."
"Oh my god! Dad! Look! Look! I have steggesaurus! I got presented steggesaurus! Steggie. I name him Steggie."
He smiled. "Oh, Dennis, Steggie is lovely."
"How you know my favourite?"
"I have my ways." He said, briefly looking to Meredith. She'd somehow figured out that he was a stegosaurus fan, and requested he quickly made a small character for the boy.
"The problem is...Steggie is sick too."
His eyes brimmed with tears. "Oh no! Steggie!"
"And he's like you, he's super scared of surgery."
"No...Steggie. Poor Steggie."
"But he's super happy because he's found a friend that is having surgery too. He's not feeling so lonely any more. He's thinking that if he can see surgery isn't so scary, he'll have it too."
"I go first. Then Steggie go, with no worries. Cause I okay."
He smiled. Oh, Meredith, you beautiful genius. "Yeah. I think Steggie would like that lots. So...you ready for surgery?"
He smiled and nodded. "I do it for Steggie."
"Oh my god, he's just the cutest thing ever." Derek sighed as he exited the room, and greeted Meredith by the nurses' station.
"I know." She agreed with a grin. "By the way, wrapping Steggie's head with some gauze for when he came to was a genius move."
"Thanks. But I'd like to talk about you, and your genius idea."
"I'm not sure it was that revelational. Not like your surgeries."
"My surgeries save lives, and your idea got a boy into the OR so we could save his life. I'm sticking with 'genius' here, Mer."
She smiled. "Well, I guess I'll take that."
"But...I've got to ask-"
"Mmm?" She prompted.
"How did you know his favourite was the stegosaurus?"
"He's got a bag of those little plastic dinosaurs. There was a pile of stegosauruses, and then all the other ones dumped together. I assumed that if that was the only type he played with, then that was his favourite."
"But how do you even know what a stegosaurus is?"
"Because I passed 3rd grade. Why? Do you think I have a secret love for dinosaurs?"
He faltered for a moment at that question before moving on, "I'm impressed."
She smiled. "Thank you. Now-" She sighed. "Let's find an on-call room. I'm...tired."
He chuckled. "Mmm. Yes, so tired."
"You know...I always think that Derek circa 2004 would loose his mind if he knew that you existed."
She smiled, blushing a little.
"But I think even arrogant, I-could-have-any-girl-I-want Derek at thirteen-years-old would loose his mind. Because he found a girl-" He kissed her. "-who knows what a stegosaurus is."
She smiled, just a little.
"Believe it or not, I was more passionate about dinosaurs than that little kid at his age. And no one wanted to be friends with the little yo-yoing, dinosaur-loving nerd." He kissed her. "Except you. You love me. Now...we came here to do something and I'm talking far too much."
"It's okay."
"It's not-" He pulled off his t-shirt.
"No- I mean...I...It's okay because I'd like to do the thing."
He paused. "The thing?"
"The consent thing. I-" She swallowed. "I'd like to say no. Is...is that okay?"
"Oh." He smiled. "Of course. The point of...'the consent thing' is that it's always okay to say no, and change your mind."
"Right." She agreed shortly.
"You want to talk about why?"
"Do I have to? Is that part of it?" She asked with a creased brow.
"No. Part of consent actually involves not having to give a reason. This is just me checking in, asking whether you want to talk about how you're feeling and how you're doing." He explained, holding her hand in his. "So...are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?"
"I...think I might run off to the pit. Think I need some gore. Is that okay?" She said, pulling his hand out of hers.
He smiled. "Yes, of course. I've got charts to do anyway so I don't mind. Oh- And stop asking me if things are okay, I don't own you."
"Right." She breathed with a short nod, before disappearing out of the on-call room.
He sighed as she left. He didn't mind; she'd been the one that had requested to have sex in the first place, and he was really happy to see her drawing boundries instead of suffering. But she didn't answer the question of whether she was okay, and he couldn't help but feel that the answer was no.