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

58 | Conflicted

"So you found a ring..." Arizona started as the two of us drove over to April's place. She had just signed the divorce papers with Jackson that day so we had offered to keep her company that night. I had never been divorced myself, since marriage was something that needed to happen first, but I assumed that it wasn't something you would want to face alone.

Staring out the window at the brightly lit signs and passing cars, I sighed. "I don't really want to talk about it."

The car slowed as we came to a red light and Arizona turned to me. "I mean, there isn't really much to talk about anyways. You found a ring...so what? Are we happy? Are we scared, sad, disappointed, confused? What are we?"

"We're sorry I ever said it out loud." I groaned. I had been telling Meredith about it when Arizona had walked by at just the right time.

"Listen, when Callie and I-" Arizona was just about to tell me another one of her 'life lesson' stories when the light changed.

Pointing to the cars that were moving in front of us, I sighed with relief. "Green light!"

Once we got to April's place, Arizona parked the car and we let ourselves into the apartment. "Hey!" Arizona held up the bag of stuff that we had brought, "I wasn't sure what you would be in the mood for, so I kind of got everything."

I nodded. "Champagne, tequila, Pinot Noir...pick your poison."

April, who was sitting on the couch, shook her head. "No, thanks."

"Huh? What's happening?" Arizona walked over to her, "Did you already start drinking? Are you are you drunk?"

April looked up at her, confusion on her face. "What? I'm...hungry, maybe. What?"

"You just signed divorce papers, and you don't want a drink? What are you what are you, pregnant?" Arizona chuckled, but when April's face stayed stone-cold, I knew something was wrong.

Taking a deep breath, April stared forward. "According to the test I took this morning, yeah, actually. I think I am."

══════════════════

Standing at the E.R. desk with April, I kept glancing at her stomach like it was supposed to magically become bigger now that she was pregnant. After hearing the news the night before, we hadn't really drank anything, which didn't make my situation any better.

Instead, April avoided talking about being pregnant by telling me how much marriage sucks, which was exactly what I didn't need to hear.

"Time of death eight twenty-two." Riggs walked out of one of the trauma rooms. "Keps, call the plumber, would you?"

April nodded as she picked up the phone. "Sure."

"Did he really just call the morgue 'the plumber'?" Meredith, who was sitting in a chair beside us, asked.

"Oh, yeah." April nodded, "That's something we say over there. They circle the drain, then they clog it. 'Call the plumber.'"

Meredith huffed as she watched Riggs walk away. "Hunt's right. We hate that guy."

"Hey, you got a minute?" Jackson walked over as Meredith stood up and took off.

Looking up, April smiled. "Hi, yeah. What's up?"

"Um, listen, I just got our last joint cellphone bill, and I'm pretty sure they still charged your card, so I just want to write you a cheque." Jackson told her.

April shrugged it off. "It's fine."

"No, no, no. You shouldn't have to-"

"No, seriously, Jackson. It's fine."

Jackson sighed, "If you're sure."

"This one's on me."

"Okay." Jackson agreed as he took off.

Wheeling over in her chair, Arizona looked up at April. "You have to tell him."

"Why?" April sat down and exhaled.

I scoffed. "'Why?'"

"So he'll come back to me?" April asked, "He doesn't want to be married. A baby wasn't gonna change that. It shouldn't change that."

"Because it's his baby." Arizona kept her voice low, "Because he-"

April stopped her. "I know. I know. But I am happy for the first time in a year. And as soon as I tell him, everything's gonna get all complicated. And for right now...obviously, obviously I'm going to tell him...when I'm ready."

When April took off, trying to get away from the constant questions, Arizona turned on me. "So...are you going to talk to Owen."

"Mm-mm." I shook my head and headed for a patient bed, "We're not doing this."

Taking a deep breath to get Owen off of my mind for a little while, I smiled at the woman with blonde hair and red lipstick. "Hi, a nurse told me you're requesting Dr. Shepherd?"

The woman nodded. "I was here before."

Just then, as if on cue, Amelia and Stephanie walked in and stopped beside me. "Hi. Katie." Amelia pulled the curtain back and looked down at her tablet.

Katie eyed Amelia. "Who are you? I asked for Dr. Shepherd."

Amelia nodded. "And here I am."

"No, you're not. Dr. Shepherd is a guy. Look, I was here before years ago."

Walking past, Meredith stopped in her tracks and looked at Katie. "Subarachnoid hemorrhage. You're Katie Bryce."

"Oh, my God." Katie gasped, "They still let you be a doctor here?"

Changing the topic, we did a quick workup on Katie before taking her up to her own room where Amelia did another checkup. "So, let me get this straight." Katie sighed as Amelia shone a light in her eyes, "I had a thing. You guys fixed it. Now the symptoms are back and worse. I mean, I'm not having seizures yet, but I keep going numb, and my head-"

"Well-" Amelia started.

"We're not exactly sure what we're dealing with, Katie," Meredith spoke up.

Amelia shot Meredith a look before turning back to Katie. "I was going to say your prelim neuro looks good. The symptoms are different from last time."

"For the record, I don't want to go through that again." Katie sat up and looked to Meredith, "You shaved my head. I was, like, an ug-mo troll for weeks until I could get extensions going. Did you guys screw this up last time?"

"Found it." Stephanie walked in with a large white binder, "It's so old it's not even in the computer. Webber had to show me the archive room."

Meredith snatched the binder from Stephanie and flipped it open. "You still doing pageants, Katie? What was it, rhythmic gymnastics?"

Katie shook her head, "Nope. Stopped those. Pageants got me a full ride to U. W., though. And now I coach gymnastics. Two of my girls are Olympic qualifiers."

"Wow. Impressive." I told her.

"No offense, but are you gonna be operating on me?" Katie asked Meredith.

Amelia took the binder and started going through it herself. "Dr. Grey is not a neurosurgeon."

"Good." Katie exhaled, "I mean, she was kind of a train wreck. She kept getting me lost."

"It was my first day," Meredith explained herself before we exited the room and stood by the nurse's station. Spotting Bailey, Meredith waved her down. "Hey, Katie Bryce is back."

Bailey cocked a brow. "Katie who?"

"Katie Bryce." Meredith repeated, "Day one of my internship...mystery seizures, Cristina and I solved it, Derek operated. It was my first surgery, Bailey. How do you not remember this?"

Bailey shrugged, "You were an intern, Grey. You weren't even a person to me yet."

"Okay." Meredith opened the binder again and slid it over to Amelia, "So, what do you think it is? A re-bleed or-"

"I don't know yet." Amelia answered, "It feels like a tumor. Could be a re-bleed or the clip slipped."

Meredith sighed. "Well, I watched Derek place the clip. The clip didn't slip."

"Meredith, clips slip."

"Yeah, I'll get her to C.T." Stephanie found a way to get out of the crossfire that was bound to happen between Meredith and Amelia.

"Order an angio, too, based on her history." Meredith requested.

Amelia groaned. "Meredith."

"What? She's my patient. She came back."

"She was Derek's patient. Now she's mine."

Bailey peaked over our shoulders and through the window at Katie. "Oh, Katie Bryce! Uh, when Derek had all of the interns chasing their tail for the answer."

Meredith nodded, a smile on her face. "Yes!"

"And he was chasing your tail?" Bailey added.

"Yes." Meredith smirked before turning back to Amelia, "I'm gonna stay with you on this."

Amelia huffed. "Mer, I have it."

"My name is on the chart. I need to make sure that we-"

"I will update you."

Meredith was silent for a moment. "I'm gonna go discharge a cancer patient. I will be back."

As Meredith left, I left with her. I had my own thing to do anyway, but I didn't exactly enjoy being around Amelia alone. She was nice when she first got here...but now she was comfortable, and comfortable people aren't afraid to put their feet up on your table and eat all of your food, if you know what I mean.

After spending another few hours down in the E.R., nothing really exciting happening, I made my way up to the cafeteria to grab some lunch. In line, I ran into Callie and April.

"I mean, are you doing all right?" Callie asked April, "'Cause after Arizona and I got divorced, it felt like my insides were ripped out of me."

April moved down the line and put some food onto her plate. "No. I-I-I mean uh, yeah, it was awful. It was amicable, I guess is the word. Civil and polite and awful. But, um, no. I, uh I feel good. I feel really good."

Callie watched as April picked up her tray and walked off. "You got divorced really different from how I did." she sort of whispered to herself, but it was still loud enough for me to hear.

Honestly, all of this divorce talk was mixing in with the marriage thoughts in my head and it was not creating a good mixture. The divorce reminded me of just how terribly wrong that marriage could go...and it gave me cold feet, even though no one really wanted to marry me...yet.

Walking through the cafeteria with my tray, I felt someone grab my arm and start pulling me away. Placing my tray safely down on a nearby table, I turned around to see Owen leading me towards the exit. I stayed silent as he kept walking, and finally, when we were alone in a stairwell, he turned to me.

"You've gotta tell me what's wrong." Owen looked down at me.

I folded my arms across my chest. "Nothing's wrong. W-why would you think something's wrong."

Owen scoffed. "You've been avoiding me like the plague ever since I took you out to dinner and I need to know why...so, why? What's going on?"

"I've just been busy." I lied, "There's a lot of stuff going on with other people and-"

"Why are you lying to me?"

"I'm not!"

Owen turned and grabbed onto the door handle. "You are, I know it. So...when you're ready, come find me."

Just like that, Owen opened the door and stormed off. Just like that...in ten seconds something that was in the back of my mind was now front and center. I didn't know how I was supposed to deal with this. I mean, what if I was overreacting? What if the ring wasn't even an engagement ring? What if the ring wasn't for me?

On the other hand, what if it was? I couldn't just tell him that I found the ring and ruin everything...that would crush him, but not saying anything would also crush him because he knew something was bugging me. He was good at that...too good.

══════════════════

I was just about to head back home for the night when I ran into Meredith and Riggs. "Hey, how's Katie?" I asked.

"She...she's good," Meredith answered, sadness in her tone.

"Then why do you look so depressed?"

Meredith took a deep breath. "I lost my patient...a patient that had just beaten cancer."

I placed my hand on her shoulder, knowing how hard it was to lose a patient after just crossing the finish line. "I told the morgue she's coming." Penny handed Riggs, who was sitting on a nearby bench, a tablet before heading off.

Meredith exhaled loudly. "You called the morgue 'the plumber.'"

"It's habit." Riggs replied, the two of them not even making eye contact, "It's different over there. You work on people who it's part of their job to get hurt and die. You never have to call the families. Someone else does that. It makes you...yeah, I'm trying to break that habit."

Meredith walked over and stood in front of Riggs, me following. "Why did you come here? What happened with Owen's sister?"

Riggs looked up at us. "You guys are friends of Owen Hunt's. I figured he would have told you."

"He said you put her in a helicopter, and it crashed." I crossed her arms, repeating part of the story that Owen had told me.

Riggs took a deep breath. "All right, Meg and I were working in a field unit. We needed to transport a patient. There was only room on the chopper for one of us. It was gonna be an ugly ride, unprotected airspace. So I said I was gonna go. Meg said it was her patient. I told her no. And we fought, and finally, I mean, it was her patient. I would have done the same thing if it was mine. So I couldn't tell her no. And the helicopter never got there. No one knows what happened. Just disappeared. No trace."

"So he thinks you should have been on that helicopter," Meredith spoke.

"I don't go asking about your dead husband, do I?" Riggs turned and walked off.

After that, the only thing I wanted to do was go home and sleep. Needless to say, it had been a rough day and I just needed to wake up tomorrow and start fresh.

Walking to the parking lot, I got in my car and drove home. I sat in my driveway for a few minutes, just trying to calm down a little. Owen would be inside, I knew it. He had finished earlier than I did and this was him home, despite the fact that we weren't exactly talking.

Walking inside, I did my best to stay quiet as I removed my shoes and let Bear outside. Once I had done all of the things I needed to do, I slowly pushed the bedroom door open.

Owen was there, just like I had predicted, sleeping in the bed. Tiptoeing over, I stood next to him and just watched him for a few seconds. He looked happy...but then again, looks could be deceiving.

Looking over at the chair in the corner of the room, I spotted Owen's jacket, the one the ring had been in, and walked over to it. Picking the coat up, I sat down in the chair and reached into one of the pockets.

My hand clasped around the small box again before lifting it out. Making sure that Owen was still sleeping, I opened the box and took a quick look at the ring again.

Somehow, that one little piece of jewelry made me feel that everything was going to be okay; that as long as I was wearing it, nothing bad could ever happen again.

But the feeling was false, as I knew it couldn't protect me from anything. I mean, all I had to do was look at the people around me. Divorces and death in every direction; and once again, I was conflicted.