CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER TEN

MELONIE'S POV

   In the halls of Seattle Grace Mercy West, there were surgeons running around everywhere, which wasn't unusual. I mean, everyone wants to get the job done.

   "Hostile uterus." Mer walked up to me. 

   "What?" I asked, giving her a confused look. 

   "I have a hostile uterus. That's why having children doesn't come easy for me. I don't think I'll ever have children," she sighed.

   "Oh no, Mer, I'm so sorry," I tried to comfort her.

   "It's fine. I mean, not everything is going to go my way," she shrugged, grabbing her charts and walking away.

   After I got my scrubs on, I felt someone tug my arm. I almost screamed until I saw Jackson pulling me toward trauma bay. I didn't question it. 

   Jackson tied my gown and I snapped gloves on, and we met Callie, April, and Lexie out in the loading area. 

   "What do we have?" I asked her. 

   "Car versus laundromat," April responded. 

   The ambulance showed up not long after and April and I ran toward it. The paramedic rolled a lady out of the ambulance.

   "Adelia Sullack, 56, was involved in a car crash into a laundromat, lacerated wrist, and a few broken bones."

   "Uh, Grey, you're with them!" Callie said, running toward the other ambulance as Owen joined her.

   Lexie ran over to us and we rolled Adelia into trauma room one. April started checking the vitals, I was cleaning up her wrist, and Lexie was writing stuff in her chart. 

   "Can you find out about my husband?" Adelia begged. "His name's Larry."

   "He was in the car with you?" I asked.

   "No, he was in the laundromat. I-I hit him," she answered. "I don't remember anything. I was in the car outside the laundromat, and the next thing I know, the car's inside the laundromat, and there was screaming."

   Lexie and I looked at each other, then I continued doing the wrist. 

   "Okay," April sighed. "Do you wanna order her labs or take her scans?" April asked Lexie.

   "You can take her. Take it all, taker," Lexie snapped.

   "Lexie." I gave her a stern look, and she just rolled her eyes.

   "What?" April asked.

   Suddenly, Owen came in with some paramedics. He was sitting on top of a stretcher with a defibrillator in a guy's mouth.

   "Lost vitals in the ambulance bay. Get me epi and charge the defibrillator now!" he demanded, starting to be rolled away.

   "Larry... that's him! That's-that's my husband," Adelia cried. "That's... is he gonna be okay?"

   Lexie walked away with an attitude and I just shrugged it off. She's probably just having an off day. 

   "Um, Mrs. Sullack, you're husband is in good hands," I reassured her. "We will update you as much as possible."

~

   After doing a check-up on Adelia, I walked up to Lexie, who was standing at the information desk, filling in charts. 

   "Mrs. Davis' scans are clean?" I asked.

   "Yeah, so is her ultrasound. I think we should do an E.E.G.," Lexie responded, looking down at her charts. 

   "Really? Do you think that's really-" April tried as she walked up to us. 

   Lexie looked at April with an annoyed expression. "She lost control of her parked car, has no memory of how, so I think that's necessary, but you outrank me, so... whatever."

   I gave Lexie a look and she shrugged, looking down at her charts again. 

   "Um... okay," April replied. "Fine. Let's do it." She pushed a piece of her hair out of her face. "Hey, how'd you feel if I started a chore wheel at the house? The boys are so messy, and I did one with Reed at our old apartment, and you'd be surprised how well it works."

   "Are you moving in, like, permanently?" Lexie asked.

   "Why? D-do you think that's not okay? Should I talk to Meredith about that?" April asked nervously.

   I looked down, not wanting to witness Lexie's bitchy attitude any longer, but I had to do some charting.

   "Well, that's up to you, but I wouldn't bring up the chore wheel," Lexie replied. "Meredith would hate that."

   Suddenly, Mer walked by and we all looked at her.

   "Hey, Mer," April started. "Lexie and I were just talking about the housing situation-"

   "If this is about Izzie's room..." Mer trailed off.

   "No, no, no, it's not about Izzie's room," Lexie interrupted with an evil smirk on her face. "It's about a chore wheel. April would like to start one."

   April gave Lexie a 'what the hell?' look, and Lexie just smiled. 

   "That's a great idea," Mer smiled.

   "What?" Lexie gave her a shocked look.

   "Great. I'll set it up tonight," April smiled back at Mer. "Hey, um... how'd this morning go?"

   "Eh," Mer shrugged, and I patted her on the shoulder to try to comfort her.

   "What happened this morning?" Lexie asked.

   "But you're okay, right?" April asked, ignoring Lexie's question.

   "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Mer lied. 

   "It'll be okay," I reassured her.

   "Why wouldn't you be fine?" Lexie questioned.

   "Nothing," April, Mer, and I said in unison. 

   "I have to go." Mer hurried off.

   Meredith and April both walked off with their charts and I was left with a bitchy Lexie.

   "What was this morning?" she asked.

   "You should talk to Meredith," I sighed, walking off to the pediatric wing, where Alex had asked me to go before work.

   I walked into a hospital room, where Alex was standing talking to a boy, while his parents were talking to Callie in the hall.

   "Hey, what do we have?" I asked him. 

   "14-year-old boy, Ethan Baldwin, cancer patient. He has cancer in his leg," he responded. 

   "What are they saying?" Ethan asked, looking at his parents in the hall. "Are they saying the chemo didn't work?"

   "We should wait for your parents, okay?" I replied, giving him a friendly smile. 

   "Who are you?" Ethan asked. 

   "I'm Dr. Grey. I'm just helping out Dr. Karev," I told him, and he just nodded.

   "Oh my God. You want to cut off my leg?" he asked. Alex and I looked at each other, then back at Ethan. "Oh my God."

   "Look, there's a sprinter with prosthetics that runs faster than guys with real legs," Alex informed him.

   "There's got to be another way," Ethan panicked. "More-more chemo or-"

   "Yeah, but with prosthetics today, it's amazing," I smiled.

   "You don't get it! I need my leg!" Ethan shouted.

   "I get it," I shrugged. 

   "No, you don't." Ethan shook his head. "I can't explain it." His voice started to crack. "I, um... I'll show you. L-let me show you."

   "What?" Alex asked him. 

   "Let me show you," he begged. "Isn't there a room we could use or something?"

   "Ethan, I-" I started.

   "Of course," Alex interrupted me. 

   I pulled Alex to the side. 

   "What are you doing?" I asked him. 

   "I wanna see what he wants to show us," Alex replied, turning back and starting to roll Ethan's bed. "Help me roll the bed."

   I sighed and helped him roll Ethan down the hall to an empty room, where other doctors joined us and Ethan's parents.

   Ethan stood in the middle of the room as we watched him. He started to dance to music that was playing on the boombox.

   "If he gets injured, this is on you, Alex," I said, crossing my arms.

   Ethan really was a good dancer. The way he moved his body to the music told the story so well and gave more emotion.

   "You see that? That's my boy," Ethan's dad proudly said once he had stopped dancing.

   Arizona and I smiled at each other, then turned our attention back to Ethan.

   "It's that... right there," Ethan said. "Build me a leg that'll let me do that."

   I looked at Alex, then left the room, as it was my lunch break. 

   I grabbed my lunch and went down to the tunnel with the gurneys, where Meredith, Cristina, and April were. I plopped down beside April.

   "And she called it hostile?" April asked Meredith.

   "Well, at least it's nothing too serious," I added to the conversation, knowing exactly what they were talking about.

   "I'll do some research on treatment options," April offered.

   "Her uterus is friendly," Cristina teased, pointing at April.

   "It's sunshiny," Mer added to the joke.

   "It's untouched by scourge of man," I said, biting into my sandwich.

   "Peppy ovaries too," April chuckled.

   "Hey, the vending machine's working again." Lexie walked up, holding a bag of chips. We all quieted down and ate. "What?"

   "Nothing," Meredith replied as Lexie sat next to me. 

   "Is this the same nothing that has to do with where you were this morning?" Lexie asked.

   "I was at the dentist this morning. I have bad teeth," Meredith joked. April and I laughed.

   "Okay, so "teeth" is code for what?" Lexie questioned.

   "I went to the O.B. today. I have massive, baby-squishing fibroids in my uterus." Mer bit into her carrot. 

   "Oh, that's terrible," Lexie frowned. 

   "Eh, get over it," Mer shrugged.

   "But you knew?" Lexie asked April.

   "Knew what?" Jackson walked over.

   "Nothing," Mer said.

   "The vending machine's working again," I replied.

   "My patient eats worms," Cristina said.

   Suddenly, Alex walked over and sat down in a nearby wheelchair as Jackson sat next to Cristina. 

   "Dude, Altman fire you yet?" Alex asked Jackson.

   "She's not gonna fire me," Jackson responded.

   "What'd you do?" I asked.

   "She thinks he's a hot piece of brainless ass," Alex laughed.

   "Oh, you're totally gonna be fired," Cristina told him.

   "The situation is under control, thank you." Jackson ate his salad.

   "You got a line on any weird bone cancer treatments so I don't have to cut off my ballerina kid's leg?" Alex asked Lexie.

   "He's actually a very good dancer, Alex," I defended Ethan.

   "Right, 'cause my memory is all I'm good for?" Lexie scoffed.

   "There was a story in the news recently where they used a cadaver bone to replace a cancerous one," April informed him. Lexie rolled her eyes, biting into an apple.

   "You get my fries." Alex got up and gave April his fries. 

   Suddenly, Alex and my pagers went off. It was from Arizona, so we knew where to go. 

   We both got off of the gurney and went toward Ethan's room. Alex held my hand and I smiled at him. 

   We reached Ethan's room and Arizona was talking to him and his parents. Arizona was at the monitor.

   "Okay, so, we'll take out the bone, and then treat it with high doses of radiation to kill the cancer. 30 minutes later, we reinsert the bone back into Jake's leg," Arizona informed them. "Usually the procedure is done using a cadaver bone, so there's no risk of putting cancer back in the body, but we couldn't find a match for Jake on such short notice."

   "So there's a chance the cancer might come back?" Ethan's mom asked.

   "Well, that's why amputation's less risky," I replied.

   "But, if we do this, if you agree, we will monitor Jake closely, scans every few months, and if the cancer returns, we'll do the amputation," Arizona added.

   "But this is done a lot?" Ethan's mom questioned.

   "Uh, it's only been done a few times in the world," Alex answered.

   "So if we do this, I mean, if we say yes, there's a chance he'd keep his leg forever?" Ethan's dad asked.

   "We hope," Arizona nodded.

   We all looked at Ethan, who looked very indecisive. Mr. Baldwin held Ethan's hand.

   "This is a big risk, buddy," he pointed out. "God knows, I love to watch you dance, but..."

   "What would you do?" Ethan looked at me.

   Arizona and Alex looked at me and I looked down, then back up at Ethan. 

   "That's between you and your folks, Ethan," I sighed.

   "No, I want to know," Ethan pushed. "What would you do?"

   I thought for a second and looked at Arizona. She nodded at me, telling me to answer.

   "If it was my arm and I couldn't operate anymore, I'd do everything that I could to keep it," I hesitantly answered.

   Before anyone could say anything, my pager went off. It was April. 

   "I have to go," I said. I went up to Ethan and gently touched his arm. "I hope everything goes well, Ethan."

   I walked out of the room and down to Adelia's room, where April and Lexie. I could see why April paged me. Lexie was doing nothing to help. She was just writing stuff down.

   "Fortunately, they've come back normal," April continued talking to Adelia.

   "You mean unfortunately," Adelia replied. She pointed out to the hallway and we all turned around to see the police. "They're waiting to take my statement."

   "Well, it was just an accident, Mrs. Sullack. You probably just pressed the wrong pedal," I reasoned.

   "Oh, tell that to them," she replied, tears filling her swollen eyes. "They throw people in jail all the time for this sort of thing."

   We were all quiet for a second, until Lexie finally spoke up.

   "There is another test we could run."

   "What?" April asked.

   "It's called a tilt test. It can tell us if you fainted before the accident," Lexie said. "We'll schedule it right away."

   April, Lexie, and I walked out of the room.

   "Did you get approval for a tilt test?" April asked her.

   "No," Lexie replied carelessly.

   "Okay, well, I hate to pull rank here, but I am a year ahead of you-" April started.

   "We're at work, April," Lexie interrupted. "There's no chore wheel. If I want to run a tilt test, I'm gonna run a tilt test."

   April walked away and I stared at Lexie. 

   "What is wrong with you today?" I asked, but instead of waiting for an answer, I walked off.

~

   We brought Adelia into her husband's room after his surgery. He was still asleep.

   "So we had to remove his spleen and a kidney, but I expect a full recovery," Owen told Adelia.

   "And the girl that was inside?" Adelia asked.

   "Uh, she's out of surgery now. She's doing great," April smiled.

   "Oh, thank God," Adelia sighed in relief.

   "And as for your tests, you're in tip-top shape, Mrs. Sullack," Owen told her.

   "I'll talk to the police, and tell them to come back tomorrow so you can have some time alone with your husband," I offered.

   "He's not my husband anymore," Adelia said.

   "What?" I asked.

   "Larry left me three months ago," she responded. "He said he needed time to himself to think. A week later, I find out he's living with someone else. Her name's Kimmy," she scoffed. "She sings in the choir at our church. Kimmy. It's a ridiculous name, right?" Lexie and I looked at each other, then I looked at April. "This morning, I'm on my way to the post office, when I see his car outside the laundromat. 38 years of marriage, and not once did he pick up a bottle of detergent. So I pulled over. He was inside folding a pair of hot pink panties... doing her laundry." She suddenly got angry. "She wasn't even there! The next thing I know, my car's inside the laundromat." She looked down and at Larry. "I feel badly for that poor innocent girl I hit. I'm glad she's okay, but... I know why they call it the green-eyed monster."

   "Mrs. Sullack, I think that, um..." I started. April and Lexie were speechless.

   "No, it's awful to unload on you. I know, I know," Adelia continued. "But I figured you're used to it. People must tell you their secrets all the time because of the doctor-patient confidentiality law, right?"

   "That only applies to medicine," I told her, taking a step back.

   "No, no! You are required to keep my secrets!" Adelia got angry again. 

   "I'm scared," Lexie whispered in my ear. 

   April got closer to me, as if I was going to be able to save her if this lady was going to go psycho.

   "Um, no, ma'am," April finally spoke. "That's lawyers."

   Once we finally got Adelia calm enough to be able to touch her without her going crazy, we took her out to the police so she could tell them what she told us. Lexie, April, and I stood at the desk to observe the situation without them knowing.

   "So, reckless driver turned out to be a psycho killer?" Callie asked, walking up to us.

   "Failed psycho killer, thank God," April answered.

   "She was heartbroken, okay?" Lexie snapped. "Her husband left her for a younger version of herself. She's just-"

   "Lexie-" I tried.

   "No, you know what? I have been a total bitch to April all day because of you, you know that?" Lexie said to me.

   "What?" I asked.

   "I'm j- I'm gonna go," April said awkwardly.

   "April, just stay," Lexie scolded. "You worry about April, and you talk to her about everything. And I went crazy, Alex ditched me in a psych ward, Mark slept with Derek's sister, and now I find myself relating to the crazy, jealous lady who drives into laundromats."

   "April and Callie, you should go," I said, and they hurried off. "Lexie... Meredith had a miscarriage. And April was there. That's why Mer and I could talk to her about the appointments. And, I did know Mark slept with Amy, but I didn't think you cared. I can never tell what the hell is going on with you two. And as far as the psych ward goes, you were not alone. Mer sat by your bedside for 36 hours while you slept. I would have, but I was recovering from falling off of a building. You're not crazy, Lexie."

   Lexie looked at me and smiled a little bit. 

   "I'm sorry," she sighed, wiping tears from her face.

   "Don't be," I shrugged. "I get it. I felt the same way when I first came here. I mean, you and Mer were so close and I didn't know how to fit in with you two."

   Suddenly, Lexie wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tight. I smiled and hugged back until Lexie's pager went off. 

   "Oh, I'm sorry-"

   "Go," I smiled. "Go kick some ass in that surgery."

~

Word Count: 3040