Code Blue | Grey's Anatomy // Book 2 // COMPLETED

33 | We Can't Take It

"Sorry." Derek apologized as he walked into the settlement meeting late.

"So, we've all agreed and we-" Meredith began.

Derek cut her off, "No. Wait. We can't do this. I saw the plane. I went to the hanger and I saw the...pieces of our plane laid out on the floor like a jigsaw puzzle. If we agree to settle, they do the investigation, and we can't do anything with the results."

"Bayview Aeronautics will take the results and act accordingly." the male lawyer told us.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll be very thorough." Derek said, "Big companies are always very good at self-policing."

Callie sighed, "Mistakes happen, Derek. Accidents happen. We make mistakes that can cost lives, too."

"Yes, we do." Derek nodded, "But when we do, we have m&ms, we pore over the files, we make sure it never happens again. And we try to make sure future patients never have to go through that grief. They don't have to sleep with the lights on every night because the darkness is too much. We just can't stand by and let this happen to other people's...Lexies and Marks. We have to do something about it. We have to make this right."

"If I could interject for a moment-" the woman tried to step in.

"Be quiet," Meredith told her.

"Your decision does have to be unanimous." she reminded us.

Owen sighed, "She said, be quiet."

"Callie..." Derek turned to her, "What are you thinking?"

The woman cleared her throat, "My advice at this time-"

"Shut up." Meredith, Owen, and I told her.

"You're not one of us." Callie turned to the woman and started to cry, "You don't know. You have no idea what we've been..." Callie paused to compose herself, "Derek's right. We shouldn't take the money. We can't take it."

Callie pushed the stack of papers in front of her away. " I agree." I nodded as we all did the same without papers.

══════════════════

The clothes a surgeon wears help to present an image. The lab coats and badges and scrubs all work together to indicate a person of authority someone you can trust. When the clothes come off, that's a different story. We're sensitive, vulnerable human and just as prone to questionable judgment as anybody else.

I practically ran into the hospital that morning when I heard that there might be a rare tumor. It was something that I might not see again in my entire career, so I had to be there.

"I work out all the time." the patient told us as Meredith, Heather, Meredith's intern for the day, and I all listened, "I read Men's Health. And I don't eat anything I actually want. And you're telling me I'm gonna die?"

"This tumor is difficult to resect. It's not impossible." Meredith explained as the large, bodyguard, started to cry, "Rob, you're in private security, right?"

Rob nodded, "Yeah, I'm a bodyguard."

"All right. Well, that's my job, too." Meredith told him, "I have your back."

Heather stepped closer, "Yeah, you know what? This tumor is just a little punk."

Rob started to calm down, "Can I have some tissue, please?"

Picking up the box of tissues, Heather handed it to him before we went to. The surgery was scheduled for the next day, so I was pretty much free for the rest of the current day. Like normal when I didn't have a case to work on, I went to the pit, did post-ops, a few pre-ops, and pretty much just the work that other people didn't have time for.

Once I came in for the surgery, Meredith actually had something to show me and the guys first. "Okay, ladies, this isn't a sideshow." Meredith told the female interns as they gawked at the patient through the window, "Gentlemen, step right up."

"That's it?" Alex asked, but once he got a better view, both him and Jackson winced. The patient's testicles had grown so large...like beach ball size large.

"Okay." Jackson cringed.

"That's not okay." Alex looked pained.

"Oh, great. Karev's here." April sighed as she walked out of the room, "Here to make us all laugh with funny jokes about my hands on a man's parts."

"This isn't funny." Alex shook his head, "That poor guy."

"I know." April looked to them, "Can you imagine becoming so swollen that a surgeon needs to use a scalpel to dig out all that access tissue until the testicles and cords hit the open air? I mean, who even knows what happened to his penis in all that mess?"

"That's not okay," Alex told April as she chuckled.

"Nice." I laughed as Alex walked away.

April walked towards Jackson and lowered her voice, "You're mother won't stop asking me why I look so tired."

"Why do you look so tired?" Meredith sarcastically asked.

April didn't answer, but instead walked away. "They look so cute together," Meredith commented at the sight of Webber and Jackson's mother laughing inside the room. 

"Shut up." Jackson told her.

"Think they look tired?" I joked.

"Go to hell." Jackson seethed before leaving as well.

══════════════════

"It's a good trade, Grey." Bailey begged to have Meredith's rare tumor case, "My two leisurely abdominal surgeries for just one retrocrural tumor."

"This is getting a little sad." Meredith shook her head as we walked down the hall.

"No, I'll tell you what's sad." Bailey responded, "Meredith Grey flaming out 'cause she doesn't know a good bargain when she sees one."

"Stop, Mr. Mays." Heather yelled as she chased Rob down the hall, "Mr. Mays! Mr. Mays, stop!"

"Should've made the trade," Bailey told us as Meredith and I took off to catch Rob.

"He's right over there." Heather pointed behind an ambulance as we ran out to the ambulance bay, "I mean, do I call for backup? Do I get a net or what?"

"Forget it," Meredith told her as we jogged over to Rob.

"I would operate out here, but I don't think it's particularly sterile," Meredith told Rob as he sat on the edge of the back of the ambulance.

Rob panted for breath, "You lied to me."

"We didn't," I told him.

"That intern was in the hallway bragging to all her little friends about my once in a career tumor." Rob said, "She said you didn't even know where you were gonna start."

Meredith sat down beside him, "With a tumor like this, no surgeon would until you're open and on the table and I can get a look at the thing."

"Yeah, well that's terrifying." Rob panicked.

"I know. That's why I didn't tell you." Meredith nodded, "You're an emotional guy."

Rob took a deep breath, "Not usually. I mean, at work, I'm in dangerous situations all the time. But then, you know, it's all about the client. So I'm not allowed to freak out. But right now, I'm freaking out."

Meredith understood, "Okay. Well, today you're allowed, because I won't."

"Th-that intern's got a big mouth," Rob said.

Meredith and I both nodded. "Yeah. Tell me about it." Meredith sighed.

Rob took a few more deep breaths before he followed us back into the hospital. A few hours later we had Rob in the O.R. and we were trying to wrap our brains around his tumor.

"Suction," I ordered.

"I'm sorry." Heather apologized about earlier, "You're just such a badass. And I shouldn't have been bragging, but I-I liked feeling like one, too. If I was a real badass, I would've just kept my mouth shut, been stoic, silent."

Meredith nodded, "Yeah. Why don't you try that? More suction, please. I can't get visualization."

After a few more minutes of digging, we finally found it. "Here it is," Meredith announced.

"Where do we start?" Heather asked.

Taking a look at the tumor myself, I sighed, "I have no clue. Meredith?"

Meredith stood staring at the thing for a while, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. "What about a mattox maneuver?" I suggested, "It's a trauma move, but I think it could work for this situation."

"That could actually work." Meredith nodded. In the end, the maneuver ended up working and Rob's surgery was a success. Weren't we lucky I was a trauma surgeon?