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

53 | Sewn Shut

Over the next few days, Meredith drifted in and out of consciousness; only staying awake for a few minutes at a time before falling back asleep.

Her injuries were extensive, requiring many follow up surgeries...surgeries that Owen would not let me be a part of no matter how much I begged. However, it was hard picking people to do the surgeries because family wasn't allowed to operate on family...but practically everyone in the whole hospital was Meredith's family.

When it came down to it, Meredith's main surgeons were Callie, Jackson, and Bailey; while Alex and I had to stay far away from the O.R.s.

I sat in Meredith's room for hours on end each day. Every time she woke up I would say the same things to her, just hoping that she could hear me. "How are you?", "Can you hear me?", and "It's going to be okay."

But so far...she was still temporarily deaf.

Walking down the hall one night with Alex, we walked past Meredith's room to check on her when we saw her lying in bed crying.

"Is she okay?" I looked at Alex as we rushed in and checked her monitors.

When we found out that she wasn't dying or in any extreme pain, Alex laid down next to her on the side of her non-broken arm and hugged her tightly.

Pulling up a chair, I sat down beside the bed and sighed. Seeing Meredith like this was killing me.

As Penny walked by for her regular checks, she noticed Alex and I and closed the I.C.U. room door before leaving.

"Just get it out. Get it all out." Alex told Meredith as she continued to sob, "The tears, all the...God, you've got a lot of snot. I'm serious. I'm for real. I mean, you might have a serious condition. Come on, woman. Blow your damn nose."

Meredith started to laugh as Alex grabbed her a tissue. "Hang on." I sat up straight in the chair, "Mer. Can you hear us?"

Meredith only nodded since she couldn't open her mouth. The metal wires were still holding her jaw shut so it could heal properly.

Alex started to laugh as he hugged Meredith tighter and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Things were finally looking up.

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"It is important that you continue the voice rest, okay?" Jackson told Meredith the next day, now that she could hear and all, "Your tracheal injury is not fully healed, and your latest audiometry shows that the hearing in your right ear has almost completely returned. On your left, you're looking at about fifty-five percent, which is good. It's only been a few weeks, you know, so I'm not concerned about it. It's gonna come back, Meredith, okay?"

Callie nodded, "I want you to continue to move your fingers while in the cast, and you will remain non-weight-bearing on your leg until we take the cast off."

"Yeah, there's a little swelling in that left leg." Bailey added, "It's probably local edema, but I've ordered a doppler just to be safe. Anything else?"

Tapping my arm, Meredith made sure we didn't leave yet as she wrote something down on the whiteboard we gave her. Turing it around, it just said Lou.

"Lou?" Jackson asked, "What's...who's Lou?"

"The patient who attacked Meredith." Callie told him, "I've been calling him something else."

Maggie sighed. "Look, we don't have to go into that right now."

Meredith looked to Alex and me. "She wants to know." I said, "Tell her."

"Okay." Bailey agreed, "Lou suffered a severe epidural hematoma in the accident. It's what caused the seizure. We think he was in a postictal state when he attacked. After a few minutes, he woke up and had no idea what he had done. He had surgery and was discharged. He's doing fine. Lou has reached out. He has made a couple of requests to see you."

Meredith shook her head "Mnh-mnh."

"I think he would just like to apologize."

Holding her hand up, Meredith stopped Bailey before glaring at us. "She's kicking us out. Let's go."

Walking out of the room, Callie turned to us. "Apologize? Are you serious?"

Bailey nodded, "Of course I'm serious."

"Yeah, I don't see why," Maggie stated her opinion.

Bailey huffed. "Because the last time that woman got hurt working for this hospital, she purchased this hospital. That is why."

"And what do you think will happen if she sees him again?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Nothing good," Jackson replied.

As night fell, Alex and I spent the night in Meredith's room again. We had both pulled up chairs and fallen asleep in those same chairs. It wasn't comfortable at all, but the thought of being close to Meredith in case something went wrong and just my overall exhaustion put me to sleep pretty fast. 

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Applying some makeup to Meredith's face, Arizona smiled. "Okay, this isn't exactly the right shade, but it's doing a pretty good job of covering the bruising. All right. So...don't try and get up, okay? Just let them come to you. And smile. But try not to open your mouth because it's still pretty swollen in there and the wires...the metal wires...they're a little scary. You ready? Okay, all right."

Wrapping a blanket around Meredith as she sat in the chair, Meredith smiled as wide as she could. It was going to be her first time seeing her kids since the attack.

"Hey, hey, hey! Look who's here, guys!" Alex laughed as he held Ellis and led Zola and Bailey into the room.

"Your mommy is so excited to see you!" Arizona told them.

Meredith smiled as she held her hands out for Zola and Bailey. "Go ahead." I urged them on, "Go tell her. Tell her what we talked about, okay?"

"I don't want to." Zola looked up at Alex and me.

"Oh, come on, Zola." Alex chuckled, "You ask me every day, 'when can we go see Mommy?' Look. She's right over there. Go give her a big hug!"

Zola, however, wouldn't let go of Alex's hand. "No." she refused.

"Zo-Zo, come see Mommy." Meredith managed to mumble out through the wires as Arizona handed Ellis to her. "Zo-zo, come see Mommy, honey. Come on! Zo-Zo! Come see Mommy, honey! Come on, honey! Come on, Zo! Come on, honey. Please. Zola, come on."

As little Ellis started to cry, Arizona took a deep breath. "You know...you know what? Let's do this later. It's not-"

"No, no." Meredith shook her head.

"Let's do this later." Arizona took the crying baby back, "It's not okay. Let's do this later. We're gonna do it later, okay? We're gonna do it later."

I could see the hurt in Meredith's face as Alex and Arizona took the kids to get something to eat from the cafeteria. As soon as the door closed, Meredith threw the blanket and pillow onto the floor as her breathing became ragged.

"Meredith." I walked over to her, "Meredith, calm down, okay?"

Just then, Penny walked in. Upon seeing Meredith struggling, she rushed over. "I can't breathe!" Meredith choked out.

"Okay, you're okay." I encouraged her, "Hang on, hang on. Deep breath. I need you to breathe for me."

Thinking quick, Penny grabbed a pair of wire cutters and came back over. "Breathe for me, Dr. Grey. Breathe. Stay still. Stay still. I'm gonna get you some air. Just stay still. I'm gonna open you up, okay?"

Meredith grabbed at her throat as Penny started to cut the wires. As soon as the wires were cut, Meredith opened her mouth and started gasping for air.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?!" Jackson asked as he walked in.

"She was having a panic attack." Penny explained as I hugged Meredith, "She couldn't breathe."

Jackson glared at Penny. "Do you not realize how delicate the jaw actually is? You could jeopardize the entire healing process here."

"She couldn't breathe!" Penny defended herself, "Look at her! She's been stuck in this room in that bed for weeks. She can't move. She can't talk."

"But I'm her surgeon now, right?" Jackson asked, "You can't come in here and just take out her wires."

"Jackson-" I started.

Penny shook her head. "She is my patient. I know what I am doing! You can rewire her jaw tomorrow morning, but right now, she needed some air, so I got her some damn air!

Jackson was silent after that and Meredith just continued to breathe heavily. "Thank you." I thanked Penny on behalf of myself and Meredith.

When I first met Penny, there was no denying that I hated her; but right now she wasn't that bad.