After The Storm (Sequel)

Operation Day

Liliana's pov

"Good morning," Jackson said walking into the conference room where I was sitting at reviewing my surgery plan for Amelia. I'm operating on her today and there's no room for mistakes. I needed to be prepared.

"Good morning," I said as I continued to focus on my laptop.

"Coffee." He said offering me one of the two cups that he had in his hands.

"Yeah. Thanks." I said looking up as I took it. "You look like hell." I chuckled noticing how exhausted he looked.

"Yeah. Isabella was cranky last night. She barely slept." He said. Last night was Isabella's first night staying over at Jackson's condo and I figured that she would be cranky because of the sudden change and because it was her first time staying in a new space.

"It was her first time over there. She just needs some time to get used to the change." I assured him.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"How was your grandfather's funeral yesterday?" I asked. Yesterday morning was Harper's funeral. I wasn't able to attend because I needed to stay here and prepare for Amelia's surgery and Jackson and I didn't get to discuss it when he picked up Isabella last night.

"It went as expected. A bunch of different hospital execs and people from different corporations sharing fake stories about what an amazing person he was." He scoffed.

"Sounds about right," I said.

"Yeah, I have to meet up with my mom tomorrow to discuss my inheritance." He said taking a seat beside me.

"Inheritance? Like you're not rich enough." I said making us both chuckle.

"Are you ready for Amelia's surgery?" He asked changing the subject.

"Yeah. A little nervous." I admitted.

"This tumor is going to be a walk in the park compared to your other surgeries."

"I know. It's just, this is Amelia. This is Derek's sister. If I mess up, it'll be like I'm letting him down." I sighed. I hoped that this surgery would be simple, but the constant thought of Derek and knowing that I would be operating on his sister was an unexplainable amount of stress.

"You can't think like that or you're going to psych yourself out." He said.

"I know, it's just hard." I shrugged.

"You're a more than capable surgeon Liliana. Everyone sees it and Derek saw it. That's why he chose to mentor you. Everybody believes that you can do this, now you just need to believe it." He said.

I had to admit that Jackson's reassurance made me feel a little better. His support meant a lot to me especially since it's something I felt had been missing.

- -

"I'll go in through a sub frontal craniotomy and make a small incision in the dura and then I'll be able to remove the tumor," I explained as everyone stood in Amelia's room and I got ready to prepare her for surgery. I was already nervous about operating on her and knowing that the whole hospital was hovering didn't make it any easier. Her room was pretty much full. Meredith, Maggie, Bailey, Kepner, Richard, Owen, and Alex were all in here by her side.

"I don't like the edema around the tumor, but I'll be able to handle it as I progress with the surgery," I explained. "Are there any questions?"

"Are you sure that you can do this? That you can operate on her?" Bailey asked out of concern.

"Yes." I nodded.

"What's the recovery time?" Richard asked.

"Every patient is different, but I took a 13 cm tumor out of of a cop a few weeks ago. It was located in roughly the same area of the brain and he was walking day one, talking day three, and back at work by the end of the week."