the directions we take

4

Derek just finished a consult with a 27-year-old woman who had yet again, a mild concussion just like many of his patients before. Why couldn't he get just one brain bleed while Amelia was in surgery? He knew it was bad to wish brain bleeds upon people, but he'd give anything for it. He hadn't done a single surgery for two whole months. He'd give anything to do another surgery. It pained him to supervise residents doing the surgeries he knew he could do with far more precision and accuracy, but there was no way that was even a possibility at that point in time, especially considering his sister was the head of Neuro, and her grudge against him.

Derek went over a few charts in the quiet ER. Most of the patients had either been admitted, left or were being treated by other doctors. Derek turned to the nurse in front of him who was making phone calls and said, "Quiet day." The nurse gawked at him and whispered something to the person on the other line as she glared at him. "This damn attending just said 'quiet day' in the ER."

Derek's eyebrows furrowed, wondering what he did wrong. He just said the truth.

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Cristina finally made it around the corner and slipped in just before the next ambulance was able to pull in.

"Iz, how is she?"

"Her pulse is still low, but she's breathing. We need to get her in, now. Page Shepherd as soon as you get to the doors. Make sure it's a 911." Izzie rushed as Cristina pulled up abruptly. Izzie flung the door open, Cristina also opening her own, and ran into the ER looking for the nearest attending in her sight.

"Okay, we need an attending and a gurney right freaking now." She panted.

Derek turned to the frantic woman beside him and spoke, "Ma'am you need to sit down. The paramedics will help whoever it is in here and we will check them out." He offered an arm to the woman, who scoffed and rushed to where they kept the gurneys, pulling it outside. She turned to him and demanded he come outside. Derek carefully followed her, unsure of what he was dealing with.

Izzie finally saw Cristina and the two worked together to pull Meredith onto the gurney. Derek watched in a haze, still confused as to what was going on. The two women muttered medical things to each other in hushed conversation. Suddenly, a paramedic came out from the ambulance behind them and shrills of a small child came from the confined vehicle.

"What the hell are you two doing? The public isn't allowed to pull into here, you need to leave." The man spoke sternly.

"Dr Cristina Yang and Isobel Stevens, we don't exactly have much time here, so you need to get out of the way. Someone will come to take care of whatever broken arm you have got in the big old wee-woo wagon while we go and make sure this woman," Cristina gestured to Meredith who lay in the gurney, "Doesn't die. Is that okay with you?" She sarcastically spoke, before returning her full attention back to Meredith. The paramedic nodded his head and quickly rushed away, embarrassed he spoke and returned to the small child who did in fact, have a broken arm.

Derek finally snapped out of his haze and rushed into help when the two doctors began rushing what seemed to be their patient to trauma room one. "Who's the patient?"

"Meredith Grey, 26. She has had dizziness, nausea and extremely painful headaches that all arose this morning-" Izzie informed him.

"And let's not forget the brain tumour. We need Dr Shepherd." Cristina requested.

"Well, Dr Shepherd's right here." Derek said.

"Not you, ass hat. I know who you are. We need Amelia Shepherd." Derek was left completely stunned at the response. Just when he thought he could get an interesting surgery, the world bit back at him once again. Derek nodded and went out to get a nurse, leaving Yang and Stevens to work on Meredith.

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"What happened?" Amelia puffed as she walked into the trauma room scared out of her mind. When she got the 911, she was scared out of her mind. She couldn't make it out of her surgery for at least thirty minutes and every second she stood in the OR was a second too much. She was worried for her patient, and more so, her friend. Once she was saw Meredith's stats were mostly stable, she let out a sigh of relief.

"We thought she fell asleep in the car, but when we got here, her pulse was extremely low. We had to shock her; she went into pulseless v-tach." Izzie's voice croaked as tears filled her eyes. Amelia gave her a hug and told her to go the waiting room, before sitting next to Cristina, who sat on the floor of the trauma room staring at her person.

"I should've known. That she wasn't going to sleep. Mer never sleeps in cars, she hates to." Cristina fiddled with her fingers in her lap as laced and unlaced them.

"You couldn't have known. You weren't focused on her, you were sitting in the front of the car, focused on what was in front of you." Amelia replied.

"That's my point. I should've been focused on her. I knew- We knew it was getting worse, it wasn't just today. It's been progressing for a few weeks, but she wouldn't let us say anything to her or anyone about it. You could see it was getting worse. And then when she said she was going out last night-"

"You can't blame yourself; you know how Mer is." Amelia sighed.

"Yes, I can." Cristina looked at Amelia, her brown eyes wide as they filled with tears. She rarely showed her emotions, but it was Amelia. It was okay if it was Amelia. Cristina finally let her emotions go, and cried leaning into Amelia's arm. Amelia's own eyes were fuelled with tears that finally slid down her cheeks. She wished that it hadn't gotten this far, and that Meredith would just do the surgery.

Meredith was both Cristina and Amelia's person. They were this little trio. The twisted sisters, as Izzie had dubbed them. Cristina and Amelia wouldn't survive this if Meredith didn't survive. As the pair continued to cry silently in each other's arms, still sat on the floor, Amelia began to wonder if her brother was right about her being too close to the case.

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this is definitely not 100% medically accurate and im not sure if there actually is a medical reason that this would happen but pls go w it lmao 😭 i apologise if it's not and one day in the distant future i will fix it so it makes sense but we are just gonna go w it for now

i hope y'all are doing well :) :) thank you for reading <3