CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEENMELONIE'S POV

   I walked into the scan room the next day to see Lexie and Derek looking at x-rays with a brunette girl who I had never seen before.

   "Amy, I am telling you, it is unrescetable. Let it go," Derek said to the brunette girl.

   "I came all the way from LA to show you this," the brunette sighed. "Could you please spend more than thirty seconds?"

   "I'm looking right at it," Derek fought. "It's a gliosarcoma that has invaded the carotid artery. You try and remove it, she will stroke out."

   "Stop being a jackass," Amy, I think her name was, argued with Derek.

   Lexie looked back at me and gave me an 'oh, shit' look.

   "Wow," Lexie chuckled. Derek and Amy both looked at her. "Oh, um, she called you a jackass."

   "Amy, just go." Derek crossed his arms, and the brunette girl walked past me and exited the room. 

   "Who was that?" I asked.

   "His sister, Amy," Lexie answered.

   "She's pretty," I commented, and Derek just walked out of the room. "What's his problem?"

   "He doesn't like his sister very much," Lexie explained. "She was a drug addict or something."

   "Oh..." I gritted my teeth together. "Should I go apologize to him?"

   "No, he'll be fine," Lexie laughed as we walked out of the room and went our separate ways.

   I approached the boards to see what surgeries were being done today, and I saw Jackson and April studying notecards. 

   "Hey." Jackson pecked me on the lips.

   "Are you guys studying for the Oral Boards in the middle of the day?" I questioned as April filled out some surgeries on the board.

   "Just another benefit of having a study buddy. You should get one," April smiled at me, and I rolled my eyes. We still weren't on speaking terms.

   "I have one," I said. "Two, actually. It's just that one of my study buddies is too busy trying to save her stupid marriage to actually help me study, and my other study buddy has a child now, so she's busy."

   "Well, you know what's better than a study buddy?" Alex approached us. "A study lackey. Check it." He looked over at an intern. "Hey, you. Brown-haired girl, you're up."

   "Uh, trauma incident or a surgical situation?" She held out two stacks of index cards.

   "You made your interns come up with study questions?" I rolled my eyes at him. "You're pathetic."

   I walked away, not wanting to be around him or April. My pager went off from Callie, so I ran to find her, where she was walking in the hall, so I walked with her.

   "You paged?" 

   "Uh-huh, here's how this is gonna work; I talk and you listen," Callie replied. "You are here because you and your little pals are all freaked out about the Oral Boards, and Dr. Webber suggested that Callie Torres might have a special secret study method. Dr. Webber's correct. Callie Torres does have a study method, and excellent study method, but she's not about to just give it away. Callie Torres' study method has to be earned. Frankly, she doesn't think that Melonie Grey has what it takes."

   "What? I totally have what it takes!" I defended myself.

   "Prove it." She lead me into a patient's room, where a bunch of people were crowded around a bed so I couldn't see the patient.

   "His B.P. was low and his vessels are collapsed," a paramedic informed the people. "He could only get one good I.V. in. We're gonna have to get another one."

   "For her sake, Melonie Grey better  hope she has what it takes, because today is gonna be a grind. Literally," Callie laughed, and I gave her a confused, not getting her joke. "Excuse me. Coming through." She lead me through the crowd of people.

   I finally saw the patient and my eyes widened, looking at Callie, not fully believing what I was seeing.

   "He shoved his hand through a meat grinder?" I whispered to Callie.

   The guy's hand was inside of a meat grinder, pretty much in shreds, blood everywhere. I couldn't look away.

   "A grind? Really?" the paramedic commented on Callie's joke.

   "It's a meat grinder!" Callie smiled. The paramedic just looked at her. "Oh, come on. Like you weren't thinking the same thing."

   The patient's friends, who were wearing blood-covered aprons, were next to him as we started to work on him and the room cleared out, except for the two friends. 

   "Hang in there, Dom," one of his friends said, but then made a very grossed out noise.

   "Yeah, you're looking good, Bro, really good," the other friend added, but we could tell he was lying by his face.

   "You're lying, Tommy," Dominic, our patient groaned. "I look like Sopressata."

   "Don't worry, Dominic, we just gave you some drugs for the pain." I patted him on the shoulder. "You're gonna start to feel better real quick."

   "Okay," Dominic sighed.

   I walked over to Callie and whispered, "What do you think, Dr. Torres? Is this an amputation?"

   "I don't know. Is it?" she asked me.

   "What?" I looked at her.

   "No, you tell me, Dr. Grey," she said. "Does this look like an amputation to you?"

   I looked at Dominic's hand in the meat grinder, then back at Callie.

   "I mean, yeah."

   "Amputate?" Dominic started to worry. "No, you can't. I need my hand." He looked at his friend. "Tommy, don't let them take my..." He stopped talking and got tired really quickly. 

   "Woah, is he...?" the friend, who's name we still didn't know, panicked.

   "No, those are the drugs," Callie reassured him. "They work quickly, just like we have to."

   "But you're just gonna cut off his arm? I mean, I-" he worried again.

   "No, this is a teaching hospital, Mike, okay? I'm doing a thing," Callie smirked, then turned to me. "Grey, here's how it's gonna work if you want my help on the Boards. You're gonna run this. You're gonna decide our course of action. You're gonna be the person that stands between Dominic and a hook for a hand. You in or you out?"

   "I already said amputation is our best option," I replied.

   "Oh. Best?" Callie asked.

   "Yeah, best."

   "Okay, so book an O.R. and fire up the bone saw." She stood straight up. "Let's move him out, people. Grey wants to amputate."

   I looked at the grinded hand and saw something that caught my eye. I couldn't believe it.

   "Dr. Torres, wait," I stopped her. "I have a finger here." I gently touched it.

   "I knew that already, Grey." Callie rolled her eyes.

   "No, a viable finger," I corrected myself. "Look at the cap refill."

   "I-is that bad or good?" Tommy asked Callie.

   "Dr. Grey, is that bad or good?" Callie looked at me.

   "That's good," I nodded.

   "All right. So what do you want to do?" she questioned me.

   "I think we should take this thing off and see what's left." I gestured toward the meat grinder.

   "Alright, time's a factor here, Grey." She picked up his chart and started writing. 

   "Why is time a factor?" Tommy asked.

   "Because the longer his hand stays in there, the more we compromise his circulation," I answered.

   "Tick tock, Dr. Grey," Callie said.

   "So let's call up to maintenance and get a Sawzall," I told a nearby nurse.

   "Mm." Callie looked up at me. "You really want to wait that long?"

   "Uh..." I thought for a second. "Fire and rescue has tools!"

   "Better," Callie smiled.

   I started to walk toward fire and rescue, but Tommy stopped me.

   "Hey, t-these tools, what are they gonna do? Rip apart the grinder?" he asked me.

   "To save his hand," I answered.

   "Yeah, we dropped a couple grand on that thing," he scoffed. "You can't trash it."

   "To save his hand?" I was starting to get frustrated with this guy.

   "Mike, how long is it gonna take you to get that thing apart?" Tommy yelled over to his friend. Mike. Got it.

   "I take it apart and clean it every night," Mike answered. "We can get him out. Quick."

   "Dr. Torres?" I looked at her.

   "Can you do it in under forty-five minutes?" Callie looked at Mike.

   "Give or take?" Mike responded.

   "Grey?" Callie stared me down.

   "Dr. Grey what?" I asked, still frustrated. "Do I think it's okay to let a couple of civilians take apart the machine that's grinding their friend's hand?"

   "Yeah," she smirked.

   I looked down to think.

   "Fine," I shrugged. "Let's do it."

   "Okay, I'm gonna need a set of Allen wrenches and a Phillips head screwdriver," Mike requested, walking over to the meat grinder.

   "Make that two!" Tommy added.

   Mike looked at me. "Stat!"

   My pager went off. 'L. GREY, SCAN ROOM'. Lexie. I looked at Callie, and she nodded. 

   "Go, but don't take too long," she demanded, and I ran to the scan room.

   I saw Lexie and Amy looking at the same scans from this morning. They both turned to look at me as I entered the room.

   "You paged me?" I questioned. 

   "Yeah, I have to go help Mark with a patient. Can you help Amelia for me?" Lexie asked with pleading eyes.

   "Um... I'm kind of busy," I replied.

   "With what?" she sighed.

   "Guy with a hand in a meat grinder," I answered.

   "Ooh, ouch," Amelia remarked. 

   "Yeah, no kidding."

   "It's fine, I'll get April to deal with it," Lexie suggested. 

   "I love you!" I threw my arms around her. "Thank you."

   "Um... you're welcome?" She gave me a confused look.

   "It's a long story," I groaned. "Well, you should go. I can help Amy... or Amelia. What's your name?"

   "Either one," Amy laughed.

   "Okay, bye. Have fun." Lexie left the room in a hurry.

   "Before we get started; hi, I'm Amy, Derek's brother." Amy held out her hand, which I shook.

   "I'm Melonie, Lexie and Meredith's sister," I smiled.

   "Okay, so, I can remove the tumor and the diseased carotid together." Amy looked back at the scans. "All I have to do is run balloon catheters in through the femoral, place them in precise position, inflate them to stop the blood flow, do two arteriotomies, then feed a heparinized shunt into place, and reestablish blood flow."

   "That's all?" I teased.

   "Oh, and I have to do it in ninety seconds," she added. "Any more than that and she strokes out."

   "Is that even possible?" I asked.

   "Not sure." She turned around to face me. "I would love to test it out."

   "We should set up a simulator," I suggested.

   "Uh, don't we need to get Derek's approval?" Amy questioned.

   "Yeah, but that shouldn't be a big problem-"

   "He loves to say no to me," she sighed. "That is his favorite thing to do."

   "Maybe you should refrain from calling him a jackass," I joked.

   "I can't help it, 'cause he is one," she laughed.

   "Maybe I should ask him," I smirked.

   "Would you?" she asked.

   "Yeah."

   "He's in surgery. O.R. two," she told me.

   "You and Lexie just called me down here so that I would go to Derek for you, and made me feel like it was my idea," I realized.

   "Aren't I good?" Amy smiled.

   "Too good." I walked out of the room and up to O.R. two.

~

   "We've operate on worse," I tried convincing Derek.

   "Melonie, she showed Lexie and I a picture of a little boy," Derek replied. 

   "I know. It's clear that she is passionate-"

   "My sister is too emotionally wrapped up in this patient to clearly see that she can't help this woman," he said.

   "You know, it tells me that she's passionate enough to try harder," I pushed.  

   "Yeah, well, all the passion in the world is not gonna make her plan doable in ninety seconds," Derek argued. "You need to see that for yourself." He looked at me. "Fine. Set it up."

   "Only you're gonna be the one who sees something," I muttered, and he looked at me. "I mean, thank you."

   I walked out of the O.R. and threw my facemask into the trash bin, and ran down to Amy. We set up for testing out Amy's plan, to see if she could do it in ninety seconds, and I timed her.

   "Boom!" She stood up as she finished for the eighth time.

   "Ninety-seven seconds," I sighed.

   Amy snatched the stopwatch from my hand and threw it at the wall, and it broke into pieces.

   "Bite me!" she yelled in frustration.

   "Wow." I looked at her in surprise. 

   "Sorry," she said. "Sorry, I just... I've been at ninety-seven seconds for eight freakin' tries now."

   "Maybe not the ninth," I encouraged her. "If I can find another stopwatch."

   "I mean, Derek's probably right," she sighs. "I'm gonna let her down. He should know. I've let him down enough times."

   I gave her a sympathetic look, and I looked down at her work.

   "Let's take a break," I suggested. "Let's go, uh... you want to get something to eat?"

   "I want something," she exhaled. "It's not food."

   I looked at her again and sighed. 

   "There's a guy who got his hand stuck in a meat grinder," I smiled.

   "I wouldn't mind seeing that," she replied.

   We both raced up to O.R. three, where Dominic was getting the meat grinder taken off of his arm. When we got there, Jackson and Alex were sitting there, so I sat next to Jackson and Amy sat on my other side. 

   "Hey, where's your study lackey?" Jackson asked Alex.

   "Of course the one competent intern in the whole program just so happens to be pregnant and needs surgery for a coronary artery dissection," Alex sighed.

   "Morgan needs surgery?" I looked at him.

   "Oh, so you're talking to me now?" he asked.

   "I just asked a simple question," I said.

   "How do you know about Morgan anyway?" He looked back down at his book.

   "Everybody knows about the pregnant intern, Karev," Jackson told him. His phone rang. "There's my ride. Here we go." He got up and left.

   "Is Morgan needs surgery, then why are you here?" I asked Alex, a little sassier than intended.

   "My attending gave me a job - call the boyfriend," he replied back. "I left, like, six messages."

   "Chris is a fourth year at the Cleveland Clinic," I pointed out. "I mean, you know how busy it gets."

   "How do you know his name?" Alex asked.

   "You're making her ask you questions for your Board and you don't know anything about her?" I asked. He just stared at me. "You're such an ass."

   I got up and walked out of the room. I wish I could forgive him, I really do. But, I haven't even forgiven April yet. Is it possible that I'm not over him?

   "What was that?" Amy stood next to me. 

   "We have a past," I sighed.

   "A very, very messed up past," I said. 

   "Well, do you want to talk about it?" she asked. "I know we just met, but I'm a very good listener."

   I looked at her. "He cheated on me with my best friend at the time. I thought he cared about me more than that." I looked down. "I'm sick of talking about, let's just go back to working on your surgery."

~

Word Count: 2557