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

60 | Backflip

Standing at the operating table, I sighed as I pulled my hands out of the body cavity and stretched my neck. Callie, Bailey, Meredith, Thorpe and I were in here while Jackson and Jo were in a different O.R. doing the bone graft thing. I had never really been all that into plastics, personally, so what they were doing was fifty percent a mystery to me.

"Okay, Callie, we are good to go up here," Meredith said as she put down the instrument she was using.

Callie glanced up, "All right. Okay, I just need to inspect the S.I. joint, make sure we're ready to amputate the left leg with the hemipelvis. Okay...okay. Margins are adequate, and the stasis is achieved. Landmarks are looking...good."

We all looked to Callie. The fact that she paused before the word 'good' didn't exactly make me, or anyone else, feel super confident. "Torres?" Bailey took a peek for herself, "Looking good?"

Callie nodded. "Yep, yep, yep. Just want to be sure. 'Cause once it's off, it's off. Bailey? This looks good, right? Right there."

Bailey leaned in closer again. "It's gonna have to come off one way or the other."

"Yes, I know that. It's just, after this, there's really no turning back. I mean, none, so-"

"Torres...be a squirrel."

Callie took a deep breath before holding her hand out. "Okay. Oscillating saw, please."

As Callie started up the saw and began the first cut, I felt as though I had to hold my breath. I knew that we needed to be thinking positive, but there really was no turning back now.

"I'll take these Debakey's," Meredith announced after Callie had finished the cuts and moved lower down on Brian's body.

Bailey exhaled. "Dr. Thorpe, are you ready with the ileal conduit?"

"Almost there." he nodded.

"Great. Right on time. Good."

Just then, Callie let out a frustrated huff. "Damn it. This bone's friable."

"Well, I must say, your work is impeccable." Thorpe looked over to Meredith.

Meredith's face wrinkled slightly, showing she was smirking under her mask. "Oh, yeah? You think so?"

"Beautiful lembert, Dr. Grey," he spoke again.

"Watch out. You almost sound glad we're here."

Picking up a towel, Callie began to wipe her hands as she glanced up at Meredith and I. "Dr. Grey, Dr. Forrest, can you come with me for a sec?"

"You want us to step away from the table?" I asked.

"Mm-hmm." Callie nodded, her eyes wide, "I need you on this."

"Go ahead." Thorpe told us as he took over, "I'm good."

Sharing a glance with Meredith, we both shrugged in confusion as we stepped out into the hallway just outside of the O.R.

"Callie, what?" Meredith questioned.

Turning to us, I could see the pure fear on Callie's face. "I don't think I can do this."

After explaining to us the problems, Callie requested that we get Jackson as well so we could fill him in. So, I went on a small manhunt throughout the hospital before finally locating Jackson.

"Why are you not in the O.R.?" Jackson asked as we re-joined Callie and Meredith.

Looking to Callie, I folded my arms over my chest. "Tell him what you told us."

"What's going on?" Bailey marched out of the O.R.

"I can't do the reconstruction." Callie finally answered.

Bailey glared at Callie. "Torres, what the hell?"

Callie took another deep breath; probably her tenth one in thirty seconds. "I had to resect the wider margins to get to healthy bone, okay? The fibular grafts will be too small to hold everything in place. I've got no way to dock the leg."

"We don't have a fallback plan here." Jackson reminded her.

"Okay, I need you to hear me. This is not a matter of confidence, okay? It's not me. It is the bone. I am saying that, with the pelvis that I have left, I literally cannot do it."

Meredith shifted her weight. "Well, you better do something."

"She's right." Bailey agreed, "Look, if we stop now, we're leaving him worse off than when we got him."

"He's not gonna survive the night," I added, the probable outcomes floating around in my head.

Holding her hands up, Callie huffed. "Ok...stop. Stop it. Okay? You guys aren't telling me anything I don't already know. Just, I-I need a minute. I need some space to think. Okay? You all just go back in there and...irrigate. I don't know. Just buy me some time, okay?"

"Okay, you heard her. Let's just give her some space." Bailey told us.

Callie nodded. "I will think of something."

Heading back into the O.R., we ignored the looks that Thorpe was giving us and started irrigating. This was the 'now or never' moment in the surgery that we all knew was going to come. Either we were going to figure something out, or this man was going to die.

"She's coming back, right?" Thorpe asked.

Jackson, who was standing just beside the table, sighed. "She's coming back."

"Good. Because he's been under for a long time.

Meredith looked to him, "Listen, I know you've had your reservations, but when we're done-"

"I still have my reservations." he cut in, "I've known Carson ever since the Medical Corps. He's a one-night stand for you."

Meredith cocked a brow. "I'm sorry?"

"Look, you fly in, do a flashy surgery that'll make all the journals, and you're gone in the morning. And I'm still here to help him make sense of what you did. You're leaving him with one leg in the middle of his body. You say he'll walk again? How? How's that even gonna work? Not to mention how you're compromising his gastrointestinal system, his nervous system. He thinks you're giving him his life back, but what's that life gonna look like?"

"We'll follow up. Of course, we will." Bailey assured him, "Dr. Torres will be available."

Thorpe scoffed as we looked to Callie who was still pacing in the hallway. "Will she? When's that?"

We waited a while longer for Callie, but eventually, Meredith motioned for me to follow her back into the hall. "Callie." I sighed as we spotted her down the hall.

"Don't-" she turned to us, "Get back in there. It's fine, it's fine. I'm-I'm...I'm thinking. Okay, I just need to think."

Meredith exhaled. "You want space."

"Yes!"

"I get it." Meredith rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, "I keep asking for space. People keep not giving it to me, bugging me about hot doctors asking for my number. And I keep shutting them down because-"

Callie spun around and glared at us. "Why? Why are we talking about this?"

"Because it's not always the worst thing when people push you." Meredith answered, "When people push you, they're trying to help you. We're trying to help you. Let's figure this out, please."

Callie shook her head. "You can't. It's my specialty. It's on me. And I am trying. I just, I don't know how to make-"

"So if we had another practice run and we were in the cadaver lab and you had all the time in the world, where would you start?" I questioned, trying to get her mind working because right now she was probably panicking more than she was thinking.

"We don't have time! That's the problem."

I looked her right in the eyes. "Okay. So what's the first thing you would do?"

"I don't know!"

"Yes, you do. I know you do."

Falling silent, Callie thought for a moment before speaking again. "I would review the biomechanics, and then I would recalculate the angles."

Meredith smiled, happy we were getting progress. "Okay. And then?"

A few minutes later, Meredith and I went back into the O.R. Callie had said that she just needed a little more time to think things over...but it was time that we were running out of.

"She told you she'd be in soon?" Thorpe asked.

Both Meredith and I nodded. "Yes."

As one of the monitors started beeping, Bailey looked to it. "B.P.'s dropping."

"Hang a dopamine drip," Meredith instructed.

Looking out at Callie again, who was on the phone, Thorpe grumbled. "Hey, what, is she on the phone?"

"Why don't you give her a minute?" Jackson hung the drip that Meredith requested.

Thorpe crumpled up the paper towel in his hand. "We don't have any more minutes. His B.P. is dropping, and he's fluid overloaded."

"I think we have a couple more minutes." Bailey retorted.

"You know what I think? You people don't know what you're doing." Thorpe accused, "You didn't have the plan. You weren't ready to move, and you moved anyway. And I think you knew that when you came through that door. And I think he's gonna suffer as a result of it."

Glaring up at him, Meredith swallowed hard. "Listen, here's the thing-"

"I'm gonna do a backflip!" Callie burst through the doors.

"What the hell-" Thorpe watched as Callie rushed over.

"For the sacrum!" Callie explained, "I cut off the proximal end of the femur, I flip it around backward, and I make it into a sacrum."

I eyed her. "Can you do that?"

"Mayo's done it a few times. We'll see." Callie whispered to me before looking up at Thorpe, "Hell, yes, I can do it! Avery, let's go see a leg about a femur."

As Callie and Jackson left the O.R., Meredith looked back at Thorpe. "We have a plan."

"We're the Dream Team." Bailey finished.

══════════════════

Looking to the door, I smiled slightly as Callie and Jackson returned with the femur bone that they needed. The bone fit perfectly and from there we finished the procedure without so much as a hesitation. It was one smooth process, that in the end, turned out pretty great, if I do say so myself.

"Damn." Thorpe gawked at the single leg in the middle of Brian's body as we all stood back to admire our work.

Callie exhaled loudly. "Told you. It's a miracle."

Stepping out into the hall, removing our gowns and leaving Thorpe in the O.R., Meredith turned to us. "Whew, we almost just killed that guy."

"Oh my God. Right?" Callie smiled.

"Skin of our teeth," Jackson added as Bailey's phone went off.

"Thank you, Jesus." Bailey answered looked at the text on her phone, "Oh, my phone's been blowing up. I got to go now."

Taking off, Bailey left right away, but the rest of us stayed for a while longer just to make sure that Brian was going to be okay.

Walking out of the hospital with Jackson, Meredith, and Thorpe, we headed for the van that would take us back to Grey-Sloan Memorial. "Oh, I was wrong. I can admit that." Thorpe said to Meredith, "It's great what you did in there. I'm just glad I saw it."

"Well, it was nice working with you," Meredith replied.

Thorpe smirked. "See? You fly in, you fly out."

"Well, we said we'll follow up, and we will."

"Well, I'd like that...to...follow up with you."

Pulling out a card, Meredith handed it over. "Okay. So, here is my service, and the hospital number's on there, as well, if you want to follow up with Torres."

Thorpe took the card as we walked off. "Great. I'll-I'll do that."

"Yep, that guy definitely just asked for your number." Jackson chuckled at Meredith, "Like, asked for your number."

Meredith nodded, "Yeah, to follow up about the patient."

"No." I shook my head, "I know when someone's flirting. Okay? That's what flirting looks like."

Callie looked to Meredith, who was just standing outside of the van as the rest of us got buckled up. "Meredith, let's go. What, did you forget something?"

Turning around, Meredith jogged back over to Thorpe, pulled out her phone, and exchanged numbers with the hot doctor before finally getting into the van and sliding the door closed. "Shut up." she told us, even though we hadn't said anything...yet, "It was nothing."

"Mm-hmm-hmm." Callie smirked as we took off.


There's a reason we like to keep things to ourselves. When you have an audience, even the smallest moments end up feeling huge. It makes the really big moments seem positively earth-shattering. The trick is not letting the pressure keep you from taking big chances. You just go out there, naked and afraid...and pretend no one's looking.