flatline [m.s]

xcviii.

- - -
every day, a surgeon makes decisions that can go one of two ways: either very good or very, very, very bad. the problem is the epically great decisions and the epically bad ones look exactly the same when you're making them.
- - -

it had been a further two weeks since lia had revealed her pregnancy to mark, and in this time she had also told everyone else important in her life. all except one. she had told her parents, derek and meredith. even maggie. but she still hadn't told jackson, and it was beginning difficult to hide her slowly growing bump behind her scrub top.

now, she was lying beside callie on one of the on call room beds. arizona had gone to africa without callie, and since her return, callie had been moping around the hospital.

"how about we go to joe's tonight? i'm telling jackson and herman today, and i'm going to need a drink," lia suggests, and callie turns to look at her with her eyes wide. "not an alcoholic drink, obviously. like a fun smoothie or some stupid crap i can have. plus, you could really use a real drink."

"is mark going to be there?" callie asks.

"um... yes?" lia says with uncertainty, and callie groans in response. "no? it can be just us? or i could invite my sisters? i- i thought you liked mark?"

"i do," callie assures her, and lia raises her brow at her. "look, alone people don't like to see the together people, okay? even if the alone are happy for the together people, it's sort of mean. it's sort of like bringing a six pack to an a.a meeting."

"we're still your friends even though we're a couple. like you and arizona were mine when i was sad and alone," lia chuckles and callie raises her brow at her, making her realise mentioning arizona probably wasn't the best idea. "fine. no mark."

■ ■ ■

"this is waldo pfeiffer, gestational age twenty three weeks," dr. herman tells lia as they are stood in one of the exam rooms, looking at a set of scans. "in addition to an incredibly unfortunate first name, waldo's dealing with a particularly nasty c-cam. tell me what c-cam stands for."

"congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation," lia answers. "the mass is pressing on his heart and lungs."

"waldo's c-cam has been unresponsive to steroid treatment," nicole nods. "now he's developing hydrops. this is what fetal surgery was created for. first, we're gonna open up the mother, then incise the uterus, then we're gonna remove the c-cam and put him right back where we found him, and hopefully he'll be carried to term. you have a consultation in twenty minutes. make it fast, get back here, and we're going to go over this procedure step by step."

"terrific," lia smiles. "thank you."

"well, don't thank me," nicole dismisses. "i decided it was necessary when it took you two months to wrap your head around a fetal valvuloplasty. you ready for this?"

"yes," lia assures her. "yes, absolutely."

■ ■ ■

"hey, sorry, the consultation went off without a hitch, but then the mom got nervous, so i just wanted to make sure she was okay," lia explains to dr. herman when she enters one of the conference rooms and takes a seat beside her. nicole raises her brow whilst looking at the file in front of her as she clears her throat. "c-cam. um, i'm ready whenever you are."