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

61 | The Ring

Walking through the hall with Callie, Meredith, and Maggie, I looked up from the tablet I was holding just in time to see Jo approaching us. "Dr. Grey, I was told to report to-" she started.

"Did you see the scans?" Meredith ignored Jo and turned to Callie.

Callie nodded, "Yeah, I'm sorry I'm late. I just got off the phone with Bauer Medical. They said that Carson's recovering well and his incision sites and flaps are doing great."

"That is great news." Meredith smiled.

"Yeah, Dr. Thorpe thought so, too." Callie smirked, "He also thought you might have given him the wrong number."

Sitting down to put on shoe covers before her surgery, Meredith shrugged. "Thorpe?" Maggie cocked a brow, "Who is Thorpe?"

"He has the right number," Meredith said.

Callie chuckled, "Oh, okay, so you're just gonna what, ignore his calls?"

"Wait." Maggie looked around as we all grabbed shoe covers, "Will someone please tell me what is going on and who 'he' is?"

"Meredith exchanged numbers with a hot military surgeon over at Bauer." I filled Maggie in.

Callie nodded, "He says he called but radio silence."

Maggie gasped, "What?"

"It's nothing." Meredith groaned

Maggie chuckled as she started putting the small plastic covers over her sneakers. "Why wouldn't you tell me this?"

"Because it's nothing." Meredith eyed Jo as she sat beside her, "Wilson, are you following me?"

Jo looked up, "I'm with you today. I'm on your service."

"Blake is with me," Meredith said, clearly assuming there had been some sort of mix up.

"No, actually, all of the residents were switched," Jo explained.

Meredith huffed, "You need to go talk to Blake, then, because I don't have the time to get you up to speed."

Grumbling quietly, Jo stood up, trying not to show her frustration as she stormed off to located Penny. "So, how hot is hot?" Maggie questioned.

Slapping her hands down on her thighs, Meredith stood up as well before heading for the doors. "We have surgery."

"Hot," I whispered, a smirk no doubt appearing on my lips as they took off.

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The rest of my day was spent pretty much in the E.R., which because it was a somewhat slow day wasn't exactly the best situation for me. When there were no patients I wasn't working, and when I wasn't working my mind was wandering, and when my mind was wandering the thing it liked to gravitate towards these days was that damn ring.

It was like Lord Of the Rings up in my head every second of every day. Everything was about the damn ring.

So, as soon as I spotted April busy cleaning up a currently empty E.R. room, I rushed in to help. I was desperate to think about anything else at that moment.

Seconds after I had arrived and started helping out, Arizona walked in, a huge smile on her face. "Hey."

"Hey." April and I replied at the same time.

Looking to April, or more her stomach, Arizona sighed. "How you feeling?"

"Uh, good." April glanced up as she threw out some waste, "How are you?"

Glancing back at the sliding door, Arizona waited for them to close completely before asking again. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine." April assured her, sensing the worry in her tone, "Twelve weeks and fine."

"Did you tell Jackson? I'm worried that you're doing this alone when you don't have to."

Shaking her head, April grabbed for her tablet. "I'm not. I'm not alone. I told you and Ellie knows, too."

"Okay." Arizona thought for a moment, and I could tell that the conversation wasn't over yet, "Okay, okay. So, then, let's do this right. Let's get out in front of it. I think I'd like to start with booking a 3D ultrasound, and then, um, I'd like to run a genetic test to see if the fetus has osteogenesis imperfecta."

"No." April flat out refused.

Arizona drew in a breath as she glanced towards her secretly pregnant friend. "April, I get it. With what you went through last time, you don't want a bunch of needles being stuck in your belly-"

"Arizona, I don't-"

"But I can do a CVS, and then if it's there, we'll see it and then we'll just we'll know."

"The baby's not getting tested."

"What? Why?"

"Because my baby will be fine."

With that, April turned and left the room. I could tell that it made Arizona mad, knowing that she could do something but wasn't allowed to. That was probably one of the worst parts about being a doctor sometimes. Being able to do something, wanting to do it, but in the end not having the legal right to.

"I'm just gonna go." I spun on my heel and headed out of the room, almost wanting to deal with my own problems more than getting wrapped up in April's baby drama. If she wanted to tell Jackson, fine. If not, fine. I personally had bigger things to deal with, like Owen.

He still wasn't talking to me and I needed to fix that whether I had made up my mind about how I felt or not. I loved him and that was all that really mattered.

So once work had finished I headed home to where Owen would hopefully be. So far he had been coming back to the house every night, but only to sleep, eat and shower. Other than that he was at the hospital, but then again, so was I. It was all part of the job.

Pacing back and forth in the kitchen I fiddled with my hands, trying to think of what to say. I knew that I wanted to tell Owen the truth, but then again, did I really want to tell him that I had found the ring? I knew that I couldn't keep it a secret for long.

Finally, after what seemed like years, the front door opened. A cool breeze of wind came in at the same time Owen did and I wrapped my arms around myself in a useless attempt to stay warm.

After kicking his shoes off and throwing his coat to the side, Owen finally looked up and made eye contact with me. "Ellie...you're up?"

"Yeah, I've been waiting for you." I nodded, trying to think of the best way to do this, "We need to talk."

Owen nodded, a knowing and slightly tired look on his face. "Yes, we do. But right now I'm exhausted. Can we do this tomorrow morning?"

I stayed silent as Owen headed for the hallway, ready to let him leave, but I also knew that if I didn't do this now, it would never get done. "Wait." I stopped him, still standing in the middle of the kitchen as he turned to look at me, "No, we-we need to talk now."

"Okay." Owen stepped closer, noticing the seriousness in my tone, "Let's talk."

Drawing in a deep breath, I tried to organize my thoughts but failed miserably and ended up blurting everything out at once. "You're right, okay? You're always right when it comes to me and yes, something is wrong. It started the night you took me out to dinner and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. It's been eating away at me and I just need to tell you."

Owen's eyes fell, a sort of sadness taking over. "Ellie, are you breaking up with me?"

"No!" I almost yelled, causing Bear to look up from his spot on the floor where he had been watching us. "God, no. Owen-" I walked closer to him, wrapping my arms around his body and finding joy in the small gesture that I had missed so much. "It's not that. It's the furthest thing from that, and I want to tell you, I really do, but..."

"But what?" Owen asked, gently pushing me back a bit so he could stare into my eyes.

"I'm afraid it might ruin everything."

Owen exhaled, his hands running up and down my arms. "Ellie, whatever it is, you can tell me. I promise."

I looked up at him, biting the inside of my cheek subconsciously. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Okay." I stepped back, hiding my hands inside my long sleeves and mentally doing a countdown in my head, "I-I found the ring."

Owen's eyes widened instantly and he became still, just staring at me. "The ring," he repeated, his left hand moving to the pocket of the jacket he was wearing. The pocket with the ring inside.

"Oh, God." I covered my face with my hands and turned away, "I knew it would...I just knew it. It's not what I think it is, is it? It's probably not even for me."

"No." Owen walked over, wrapping his arms around me from behind, "It is exactly what you think it is. I wouldn't be buying a ring for anyone else but you, I just...I didn't want you to find out about it. Not yet. You were in the accident and...I wanted to wait."

Spinning around to face him again, I lowered my hands. "So, it is an engagement ring?"

"Yes, it is."

"And are you...gonna...?"

Pulling out the little black box from his pocket, Owen bent down on one knee in the middle of our kitchen, a huge smile on his face and Bear trying to licking his face. "Ellie Forrest, I can still remember the day you arrived at the hospital. Wide-eyed and full of life, and that hasn't changed a bit. I've had the great pleasure of being able to watch you grow as not only a surgeon, but as a person as well, and I love you as both. You're smart, funny, intelligent, caring, beautiful, and somehow, you're mine. So I would be crazy to pass up someone as amazing as you and not ask you the question you're waiting to hear. So, Ellie Forrest, will you marry me?"