On Call | Grey's Anatomy // Book 3 // COMPLETED

18 | Mistakes and Successes

All day I had avoided thinking about what had happened between Owen and me, especially since I had gone out and had drinks with Noah afterward. Usually, after you kiss someone who you never really thought you had feelings for, you can't get it out of your mind. But not this time.

Maybe it was because it had happened before. A few months ago, standing on my doorstep, we had kissed. But I was positive that it meant nothing then. However, what if it had meant something this time?

Walking down the hall, I met up with Meredith at the ambulance bay doors. "Hey." I smiled, "How are you?"

"Still freaking that I have a sister." Meredith answered, "Did you get the email from Maggie."

I nodded, "Yeah, she's quitting. I'm assuming Webber told her he was her dad."

"Help!" a woman rushed up to us, "Can you help, please? Come with me."

"What happened?" Meredith asked as we followed her outside.

"I was just dropping my friend off when I saw her here." the woman pointed to a little girl all alone on a bench, "She was lying...she was all alone."

Meredith and I rushed over. "Run inside and tell someone we need a gurney!" Meredith told the woman as we knelt down near the girl, "Honey, I'm a doctor. What's your name?"

"Nadia." the girl whimpered in pain.

"Nadia, tell me where it hurts," I told her.

"Everywhere." she cried as she unfolded her arms from her stomach, revealing a rather distended belly. It looked like this young girl was pregnant.

After getting a gurney and getting her inside, Stephanie and Alex came down to the E.R. to help. "This is insane." Alex checked Nadia's heart rate.

"Is she laboring?" Stephanie asked.

"Blood pressure's really low." Meredith announced, "Seventy-eight over forty-five. Let's get her a six-hundred cc fluid bolus."

Stephanie bent down a little. "Nadia, Nadia, how far along are you?"

"Ten." the girl answered.

"Ten months?" Stephanie raised a brow.

Alex scoffed, "She's saying she's ten years old. She doesn't know what you're talking about."

"Rigid abdomen with generalized tenderness." I sighed, "Edwards, let's get the ultrasound. Nadia, where are your parents?"

"If she has a mother, where the hell's her mother?" Alex grumbled.

"Well, she should be in prison," Stephanie stated her opinion.

As Alex squirted the gel onto Nadia's stomach, he looked to the ultrasound machine as it turned on. "Nadia, I need you to sit still. I know. I know. I just need to see if...just needed to see...okay. Okay."

"What?" I asked.

"She's not pregnant. It's not a baby." Alex sighed in relief.

Meredith looked to the monitor, "Looks like a mass, and there's free fluid."

"Oh, thank God." Stephanie exhaled, "That was getting dark."

"A mass the size of a soccer ball is still pretty dark," Alex said.

Meredith felt Nadia's stomach. "Okay, forget the C.T. She's hypotensive with peritonitis. This mass may have ruptured. We really should get her up to the O.R."

"I'll call up." Stephanie offered.

"And then let's call the police and child protective services." Meredith removed her gloves, "Letting your kid get this sick and then abandoning her is still child abuse."

Alex, Meredith, and Stephanie took Nadia up for surgery where they removed a seven-pound tumor from her stomach. Turns out, however, she wasn't abandoned. The woman who had 'found' her that morning was her mother. They were living here illegally and she had been scared of being deported. When we found Nadia, I thought that there was no explanation that could give the situation justice; but that one was pretty damn close.

Discharging a few patients from the E.R., I tried to keep busy. Occupying my mind with little tasks was how I avoided dealing with things. But the fact that Owen would pass by every few seconds was not helping.

"Ellie." April walked up to me, "There's a man here to see you. He said his name was Noah."

Looking over to the desk, I saw the familiar man standing there. "Thanks." I smiled at April before walking over. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

Noah smirked, "I came to see if you wanted to grab some drinks."

"We just went last night." I laughed.

"So?"

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"So what happened in your life after you left the clinic?" Noah asked as we sat in Joe's drinking some beer.

I huffed, "Not good things."

"Like what?"

"A plane crash." I just came out and said it, "But before that, my mother died. Yeah, my mother passed away from heart failure a day before I took my boards. Then there was a plane crash where two of my friends died. I co-own Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. I got pregnant, got into a car accident, and lost the baby. And right now I'm just trying to keep my feet on solid ground for a while."

Noah stared back at me, eyes wide. "E-Ellie..." he gasped, "I'm sorry I asked."

"Yeah, um...Seattle has kind of been kicking my butt ever since I moved back here." I took another sip of my drink, "But I have a good job and this is where my family and friends are, so I can't exactly leave."

He nodded. "Are-are you seeing anyone?"

"Not exactly." I answered at first, "Actually, no. Not at all."

They say we can repress our memories. I wonder if we're just keeping them save somewhere...because no matter how painful they are, they are our most valuable possessions. Our lives are built on our mistakes, as much as our successes. They made us who we are.