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CAMILLA WAS STANDING IN THE OBSERVATION ROOM, WATCHING MR. WHITMAN GET HIS CT AS OWEN STOOD BESIDE HER,
"It's not what you think." He said to her in a low voice, "I can guarantee I'm not as much of an ass as you think I am."
"Does your mother know you're back?" Camilla asked, her arms crossed over her chest. She looked up at him, waiting for an answer. When he stayed quiet, well, that pretty much gave her an answer. She nodded and turned to the technician, "Can you page me when this is done?" He nodded and she walked out of the room,
She went to get a coffee, to calm herself down. Once she was paged, she brought Mr. Whitman back to his room and took Beth outside to explain what a CT does and what it could show them.
"Dr. Nieves!" She tuned to see Owen holding a bedpan to Mr. Whitman's mouth, where he was spitting up blood,
"What's going on?" Beth asked as both the women entered the room,
"Ruth, call the Chief and reserve an OR." Owen ordered the nurse,
"Right away, doctor."
"Owen-"
"It's a..." Camilla watched as he tried to explain to her, "It's a complication. He needs surgery."
She moved to stand and the head of the bed and unlocked the wheels, preparing to move him to the OR,
"A complication from what?" Beth questioned,
She watched Owen struggle not to reveal the truth. If the patient wants to be discreet about their condition, the needed to follow that.
"He's gonna be okay. I'll keep you updated" Owen stated before looking over at Camilla, "Let's go."
Once they were in the OR, Camilla was quick to scrub in with Dr. Hunt and Dr. Webber. They opened up Mr. Whitman's abdomen and began exploratory surgery to find the cause of the abdominal bleeding,
"Is that a tumor?" Camilla asked, seeing a growth,
"He's gonna need more aggressive treatment." Dr. Webber stated, "He'll have to tell his daughter now."
"He won't." Owen said and they all looked up at him, "Her mother died when she was little. He feels that's enough sadness for anyone, so... he sheltered her. She always had a nice car, nice clothes, anything she wanted."
Camilla shook her head, "She'll find out eventually."
"She used to call me in tears when there was a spider in her apartment. It became a joke between Michael and I. Neither of us could be out of town at the same time in case Beth found a bug." Owen smiled underneath his mask and Camilla's heart cracked,
She cleared her throat, "Well, he needs to go through chemo or gets so sick he he needs hospice care, she'll find out when it's already over. She deserves more than that."
Owen stared at her sadly before nodding. They quickly repaired what they could to prevent any more bleeding and closed Mr. Whitman up.
They stayed silent while scrubbing out. Camilla could feel Owen's stare on her, but she ignored it. As she dried her hands and walked towards the door, she called out to him, "You should update Beth."
Camilla found Cristina and Meredith leaning against the railing above the lobby, watching Derek. He was standing with a group of people, Addison included.
"I heard Dr. Montgomery was back in the building." Camilla commented,
"And I heard Owen's ex is in the building too." Cristina replied,
Camilla nodded, "Ex-fiancé."
Meredith and Cristina raised their eyebrows, "Fiancé?"
"Yep." She popped the 'p', "Her father has cancer and no one told her. I assume Owen is telling her now." Camilla looked over at Meredith, "At least you got a cool surgery from it."
"You got a surgery." Cristina said,
"Yeah, not as cool as worms in the brain." She sighed, "Didn't realise Derek had so many friends."
"Yeah. Guess I don't really know him." Meredith stated,
"No. I guess we don't." Camilla replied before walking away.
She wasn't far down the corridor before there was a hand on her arm, leading her towards an on-call room,
"I call her, alright?" Camilla turned towards Owen, "I call my mother once a week. I haven't told her that I'm back. She thinks I'm calling from..." He sighed, "I keep the conversations short because I can't bear for her to know that the son she sent off to war is gone. He's gone. And if I just got in my car and drove the six miles to see her, she'd be so sad, and she would look at me the same way that Beth does now... like I'm not there."
Camilla's heart kept cracking at the look on his face. He was defeated. Broken. Lost.
Owen stepped closer to her and she could feel his breath on her cheeks, "The only time I don't feel like a ghost is when you look at me because you look at me and you see me. You see me. This is me. Please, Camilla, see me." He whispered. "See me."
Camilla sighed and reached up, running her fingers through his hair before stroking his cheek lightly, "I do see you, Owen." She whispered, "I see you."
