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

47 | A Good Lie

Heading up to the peds floor, I was excited to be apart of a case that April and Jackson were working on today. While overseas, April met a little boy that had tumors growing on his hands. He had been brought to our hospital to have them removed, which for me, would be pretty amazing to witness.

It wasn't technically trauma, but I didn't think the head of trauma would exactly mind.

Walking into the kid's room, I saw Ben, Jackson, and April. "I rode on a bus, a train, a plane, three cars, and a helicopter." the little boy smiled wide.

"That's amazing!" April told him before looking to Jackson, "Um, Kamal, I want you to meet Dr. Avery. He's gonna perform your operation.

Jackson looked down at Kamal. "Hi."

"You are the guy?" Kamal asked.

"'The guy'?" Jackson shoved his hands in his pockets, "Um-"

"There she is!" a guy I had never met before walked in, "The machine!"

April jumped up and hugged him. "Nathan! Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing him here."

Nathan smiled. "Hey, come on. Of course."

"Nathan and I worked together on my last tour." April explained to us, "Dr. Riggs, this is Jackson...Dr. Avery and Dr. Forrest."

"Yeah, Nathan Riggs." Nathan shook our hands.

"Trauma surgeon?" I asked him.

He shook his head, "Cardiothoracic, but over there, it's pretty much all trauma, you know?"

"Yeah."

"Dr. Riggs!" Kamal chirped, happy as could be, "He is the guy!"

Jackson looked to April and Nathan, completely confused. "What is 'the guy'?"

"The first time we met Kamal, Keps said, 'I know the guy who can fix your hands,' so ever since, he's been talking about meeting 'the guy.'" Nathan answered.

"Well, Kamal, let's take a look, huh?" Jackson pulled the covers back from the boy to reveal huge tumors on his hands. Like, massive. Way bigger than I ever imagined.

Kamal looked up at Jackson. "You can fix them?"

"That's the plan," Jackson told him.

Leaving Kamal in the room, the five of us doctors went out into the hall. "You never told me it was this advanced." Jackson turned on April, "The tumors are massive."

"Okay, maybe I downplayed it a little," April admitted.

"You downplayed it?! This looks impossible!" Jackson grumbled.

Nathan held his hands up to stop them from fighting. "I don't understand. You sent him the scans, right? Didn't you see the scans?"

Jackson shook his head. "She told me the scans were lost in Jordan."

April rubbed the back of her neck nervously. "I didn't want him to see the scans."

"What?!" I asked, a little mad about it as well. It was never okay to lie about a patient's condition.

"Keps, what the hell?!" Nathan looked at her.

"If you had seen the scans, you might have said no, and I wanted you to meet that little boy." April told us, "And he's here now. So how do we help him?"

══════════════════

After our little setback, Jackson got some scans taken of Kamal's hands while I took a short break. Meeting up with Meredith, she told me about how it was Penny's first day and how Penny was on her service. I wanted to ask her more about that, but she changed the subject to the pastor she was treating who accidentally sent his sex tape to the whole church.

The two of us had a good laugh about that for a little bit before Jackson paged me back up to the scan room so we could all have a look.

"I didn't lie," April said as we took a look at the scans.

"You bent the truth a bit." Nathan

Jackson scoffed. "Until it broke."

"It was a good lie." April shrugged, "Okay, it was a bad lie, but for a good reason. You know, you haven't been saying yes to anything lately, not when it comes from me."

"Look at the scans, April." Jackson pulled up the scans, " Okay, these areas are pure cartilage, right? They probably destroyed any bone that was in their path. Guys, we don't even know there's anything resembling hands underneath these things."

"Can you even repair the tendons and the neurovascular bundles?" Ben asked, him being on Jackson's service.

Jackson huffed, "That's doubtful."

"Well, Hopkins and Case Western did similar cases. They they reconstructed using bone grafts." I sighed, trying to make something seem doable.

"So have I, and those cases are nothing compared to Kamal's," Jackson said.

"April, he's saying no." Nathan was disappointed, "Look, we'll just keep looking until we find someone."

Jackson scratched his chin, "And they will all say the exact same thing."

Nathan held his hand out. "Thanks. Thanks for taking the time."

"Look, I'm not saying no." Jackson sighed, "I'm saying I will do some biopsies so that we can all get a full picture of what it is we're dealing with here."

The four of us waited around while Jackson did some biopsies on Kamal. We re-grouped about an hour or so later, but the news wasn't much better.

"As I feared, the biopsy showed precancerous cells in the tumor. Both sides." Jackson told us.

April nodded. "Okay. Then we need to get in there A.S.A.P."

"April, listen, there is no clear way to excise all the tumor." Jackson explained, "So I have to recommend amputation. Of both hands."

"No."

"It is his best shot before it progresses to cancer."

"No." April refused, "I brought him to you to save his hands."

"This is how we save his life."

Nathan sighed, "Well, I don't know. I don't see how he survives over there with no hands and no one to take care of him."

Jackson looked at Nathan. "I understand. I'm sorry. I could have told you sooner if I had all the information."

"You mean you could have given up sooner." April blamed Jackson for something he had no control over.

"Yes, you're right because there's nothing to be done."

April scoffed. "You could try! You could make an effort instead of just giving up and walking away!"

"And you don't think I want to?" Jackson asked.

"All right, we're not doing this." Nathan stopped them.

Jackson groaned, "Could you leave us alone for a second, please?"

"Oh, absolutely, I'm gonna leave, and I'm gonna take Kamal with me, all right?" Nathan put his hands on his hips, " "'Cause this isn't about you two! Okay? This is about a little boy who had to see his family murdered, who saw his home burnt to the ground, who would've been taken as a child soldier if it wasn't for his deformed hands. All right, he doesn't have the time for you guys to be working out your crap! He deserves the best care he can get, and I'm gonna make sure he finds it."

Pulling out his phone, Nathan exited the room and I left with him. I didn't want to be around for another second of April and Jackson fighting. Walking outside with Nathan, I stood by as he made some more phone calls. I too made some, but there was no luck yet.

"Okay, thank you." I hung up the phone after another rejection. Just then, Owen walked passed. "Hey!" I called to him.

Turning around, Owen's smile faded when he spotted Nathan. "Riggs?" he cocked a brow.

"Hunt." Nathan returned the greeting; the two obviously knowing each other.

Owen took a few steps closer. "What are you doing here?"

"April Kepner and I met in Jordan." Nathan answered, "I've been working with the relief effort in Afghanistan-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Owen cut him off, "What are you doing here?"

"We have a patient with Ollier's disease." Nathan told him, "Brought him in to your hand guy."

Owen nodded, "And then you're leaving."

"Yeah, well, maybe a little sooner than I-"

"I'm not asking you, Riggs." Owen snapped, "I'm telling you."

With that, Owen turned around and stormed off. "Nice catching up!" Nathan called after him.

Confused, I ran after Owen. "What the hell was that?" I asked, "You two know each other?"

"Yes." was all he said in response.

"Well...how? Why were you so rude to him?"

Owen helped unload a patient from the ambulance and started to take them in. "Don't worry about it," he told me.