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

71 | Donor

Here's what I learned my first day at medical school...think long and hard before choosing to become a surgeon. It takes 100% commitment. You have to be on your "A" game every single time you walk into that O.R. When patients are lying on your table completely at your mercy, they need to know that when you make that first cut...you know what you're doing. No other specialty requires the time, the focus, the complete dedication...except maybe being a mom.


I was starting to show. Not a lot, but I was at that awkward stage where it looked like I was just gaining weight. All pregnant women know this stage. The stage where baggie shirts are your best friends.

I had thought long and hard and decided to have the baby. Adoption was still being considered, but in about eight months this baby was going to come out of me. Trust me, as a surgeon, it's not as magical as it seems. It's messy and a lot of dads pass out. The miracle of life is scary and sometimes things go wrong.

The only thing left I had to do was tell my family...which I was not looking forward to. It wasn't the actual pregnancy part that I was scared to share; it was the whole 'I'm having a baby with a guy I slept with a few times who I'm not even dating, let alone married to' part.

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"Good morning." I greeted Owen as I walked into the lounge and took my jacket off.

"Morning." he looked up at me and smiled as I poured myself some coffee.

"Banana bread." Callie gasped as she sat down next to Owen and started to eat some, "I'm starving...mmm."

Owen took a bite, "Help yourself."

"I was too busy feeding my family breakfast and getting my sister wife's breast pump packed to feed myself this morning." Callie explained, "So..."

A confused look grew on Owen's face, "You have a sister wife?"

Callie nodded, "Derek and Meredith and I are in a relationship."

"Really?" I smiled as I sat down with my coffee.

"I used to dance in my underwear." Callie took another bite of banana bread, "And I thought I'd get back to that when I left Arizona. Instead, I walked right into 'big love.' I rebounded to the McDreamys."

Just then all three of our pagers went off. "Hmm, hang glider trauma?" Owen asked as we all checked our pagers.

"Yeah." Callie and I both nodded.

Callie looked back down at the baked treat, "Where did you get this? It's amazing."

Owen started to wrap up the bread in the tinfoil it was in, "It's good, right? Emma made it."

"Mmm." Callie hummed as we all stood up, "Fetal surgeon Emma from the gala?"

Owen nodded, "Mm-hmm."

"Oh, my God. You're rebounding, too." Callie told Owen as we exited the lounge.

Owen took another bite of food, "Yeah."

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"What have we got?" Owen asked April as we entered the E.R. and put our gloves on.

"Her name is Reese Woods, twenty-two." April answered, "Hang gliding over Tiger Mountain, B.P.'s one hundred over seventy, open tibia fracture, and complains of abdominal pain."

"Can I say, 'I told you so,' now, Reese?" a girl standing beside the bed asked.

I looked to April, "Who's this?"

"Oh, that's Donna." April told me, "She's the sister."

"Although she acts like she's my mother," Reese spoke up.

Donna looked down at her sister, an unimpressed look on her face, "I am not doing this again. I am not watching you try to kill yourself."

"It's just a little break." Reese explained to her obviously angry sibling, "Don't be so mad."

Callie looked down at Reese's leg, "Okay, this isn't bone. This is rod. When did you have this rod put in?"

"This March." Donna informed us, "She broke it heli-skiing in New Zealand. She's also broken, uh, both forearms, lost a kidney, dislocated her shoulder."

"Wow, you really do have a death wish, huh?" Callie looked to Reese.

"I guess I'm just making up for lost time." Reese smiled.

I looked at the ultrasound, "I'm seeing a lot of free fluid in Morrison's pouch. We're gonna need to get her up to C.T. stat."

Once we had gotten Reese in for all the scans and tests she needed, we went back down to the lobby to speak with her sister. "So she might lose the kidney?" Donna asked us.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not jump ahead." Callie held her hands up.

Donna shook her head, "No, please. Worst-case scenario. I like to be prepared."

"Well, the worst-case scenario is she needs a kidney." Owen told her, "So we start to look for a donor."

"Okay." Donna started to cry, "Well, that's me. I'm her donor."

"So you've been through this before?" I asked.

Donna nodded, "Oh, yeah. Yeah. Take your pick...bone marrow, blood, uh, liver, anything you can think of, I've given. What's mine is hers. Except I haven't given a kidney yet. So...yay!"

Callie sighed, "Sounds like she's extremely accident-prone even for a daredevil."

"No." Donna looked up at us, "All the parachuting and stuff...it started when she went into remission. My sister was diagnosed with aplastic anemia when she was two."

"Well, that must have been hard." Owen sympathized, "It was lucky that you were a match."

"Oh, it wasn't luck." Donna told us, "I'm a donor baby."

Callie nodded, "You're her younger sister."

"Yeah." Donna's eyes were all red and puffy from crying, "My parents only had me to save her."

Donna forced a small smile as we stared back at her, shocked.

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"This rod caused a lot of bleeding." Callie said once we got Reese into an O.R. and opened up, "We're gonna be here a while. I hope you don't have plans with your girlfriend, Hunt."

"She's not my girlfriend." Owen denied like a boy in middle school.

Callie chuckled, "She baked you banana bread and brought it to you at work. You're practically engaged."

"Matthew brought me breakfast burritos, and now we're getting married." April spoke up, "Just saying."

"No one ever brought me food and that's why I'm single and having a baby." I joined in, "Food equals love."

Owen sighed and turned his attention back down to our patient, "Damn it. The superior pole of this kidney is almost completely avulsed, and the pedicle is gonna need some repair. You think the sister's prepared to consider donation?"

"She can't seem to say no," Callie replied.

"Dr. Torres?" Shane entered to O.R. with a mask over his mouth.

Callie looked up, "Hmm?"

"Dr. Grey is going into surgery." Shane said, "She wants to know if you can pick up her kids at three. She said to mention promising Zola a princess tea party?"

Callie thought for a moment, "Tell her I'll be out of here by...six."

Shane nodded and took off. "So she can't say no." Owen mocked.

Callie's head bolted up, "Oh, my God. You're right. I need to get a life. You know what? Maybe I should kick Arizona out and move back into my place."

"But she needs the elevator." April reminded Callie, "And it's right across the street from the hospital, which is perfect for her. We drank three bottles of champagne and puked. It bonds you. Plus it's already been retrofitted to be handicap-accessible."

"Kepner," Owen warned.

"I'm shutting up," April assured us.

Owen shook his head, "No, no. Look at the kidneys. We're gonna need some laps and a vascular clamp. Forrest, get the 4-0 prolene stitch."