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

30 | Cops and Robbers

"God, I mean, how did this happen?" Meredith asked as a few of us sat around one of the nurse's stations, "This day started out so great."

I sighed as I sat back in my chair. "'Blessed,' I think you said."

"Now I have to go ask the mom for her son's organs." Meredith groaned.

Alex looked to her, "That sucks."

"Is this how it has to be? If I'm that happy, someone else has to be that unhappy? I mean, this poor cops' mom lost two sons today." Meredith grumbled.

"What?" Callie asked as she walked by, "Two sons?"

Maggie nodded. "Stroke. On the table."

"Oh, God." Callie ran her fingers through her hair, "Uh, ugh. Okay, you have to tell their Commanding Officer. He's been asking for good news all day."

"Sure, I'll go talk to him as soon as I'm done asking the mom if we can cut up her hero sons for body parts." Meredith smirked sarcastically, "Which, what time is it? Those organs will be dead soon, too."

Callie sighed, "Also, the Commanding Officer keeps asking about the kid they brought in. I think it's 'cause he just wants to hear that he's dead."

"Can you blame him?" Maggie questioned.

"I showed a bunch of school kids that X-ray of a coffee can stuck up some guy's butt," Alex said out of nowhere, probably trying to lighten the mood.

Callie gave him a look. "Riveting."

"Read the room, man," Maggie told him.

"I was just trying to cheer you up." Alex got up as Bailey walked over.

"Oh, Grey, um, is your patient an organ donor?" Bailey asked.

Meredith looked up at her from the chair she was sitting in, "I'm about to go ask her now."

"Oh, when? Now? 'Cause, you know, there's a window."

"I know, Bailey. I know."

"And I have a fifteen-year-old boy open in the O.R. who needs a liver, and UNOS is coming up empty."

Meredith cocked a brow. "Fifteen year old? You're not talking about-"

Bailey nodded, "I checked your patient, and he's a perfect match. And we can do it today if the mother would consider a directed donation."

"Are you serious?" Meredith asked.

Bailey shrugged, "Okay, all I'm asking is that you bring it up with her. Just ask."

"No!" Meredith refused.

"He will not survive without a new liver."

"Bailey, asking for her sons' organs is hard enough. Now you want me to ask her for organs to give to the kid that killed her sons?"

I folded my arms across my chest, "You can't...you can't do that to her."

"Okay, take away the story." Bailey said, "Right, take away the good guys and bad guys. It's a child who needs an organ and a patient with one to give."

Meredith eyed her, "Bailey, that woman lost everything today."

"I know! Okay, you don't think I know that? But ethically, you have to."

"Ethically, I'm looking out for the best interest of my patient and his family." With that, Meredith stood up and walked off.

After approaching the mother, who had said no to giving her son's liver to the boy, I went with Meredith to tell the Commanding Officer, Dan, the recent updates. "Is there any hope?" Dan asked after hearing the news about Brett and Pete.

Meredith shook her head, "I'm afraid not. We'll observe them for the next six hours, but there's no brain activity at all."

Brett nodded, "How's their mom?"

"She is going to need all the support you can give her," I told him

"Thank you." Dan sighed, keeping it together pretty well after such devastating news, "What about the kid? Jared?"

Callie looked up from Dan's leg, which she had been treating, "Listen, Dan, I know you're angry, and I know that you need to know, but we can't talk about a suspect's condition, not legally."

"I'm not looking to settle a score, okay?" Dan said, "I knew this kid. Brett knew this kid. We put him in juvie. We got him into the foster system. We tried. Jared's one of those kids, you know. He's smart. He's funny. He's just susceptible to bad things, bad choices, bad kids. Brett would have called this his moment."

I raised my eyebrows. "What's his moment?"

Dan looked to me, "He called it...he called it the moment...when a kid would back themselves into a corner, when it would hit the fan so bad, that there's no other choice but to turn it around, wind up in lockup, or dead. Brett would say, "that's when you can get them, Dan. That's when you can turn them around." And this would have been it for Jared. And Brett would have been here to help."

As the day went on, Pete and Brett's mother, Mrs. Gibson, finally agreed to the liver transplant. She felt as though it was what her sons would want, and so that fifteen-year-old boy got another chance at life.

"That boy's alive?" Mrs. Gibson asked as we exited his room after the surgery.

Meredith nodded, "He is."

"Because of my son?"

"That boy and the thirty-seven others that were in the bank today...thirty-seven people got to go home to their families today because of your sons." Bailey informed her, "Now, I would have called that a pretty good day's work. But, Grey-"

Meredith handed over a small stack of papers. "This is a list of one-hundred people who all got second chances today because of your sons."

Bailey smiled, "Now, they won't know who to thank, so I would like to say thank you."

"They were good boys." Mrs. Gibson's voice started to break.

Open your eyes. Take a good look around you. How's the view? Do you like what you see? Think back again to when you were little. Are you living the life you pictured for yourself? Or are you still dreaming of something even bigger?