Life and Death-1

Challenging Authority

Sorry for the long wait. Here is another chapter.

I guess no matter how crazy our lives may seem Meredith always comes out on top. Her absentee father comes to the hospital with his current wife and daughter who is pregnant. They all knew about her but she had no idea about him. The relationship between Meredith and George has been somewhat fixed for now. There is still some weirdness between them that may never go away but George is moving on with Callie the orthopedic doctor. She is intriguing and finally bringing a smile to his face. Meredith instead is staying celibate trying to keep herself from making further mistakes with men.

"Benoist." Montgomery-Shepherd calls out. I'm used to her bellowing voice. "You're on my service today."

"Actually Dr..."

"I don't care who said they wanted you. You're the best intern with a talent for fetal medicine. You're mine. Let's go." I do as she says and follow her to the patients' room.

"I want to play with the red one." The room is already filled with children as we enter.

"Hello, Wards."

"Hey." The mom answers.

"We're just waiting on your labs. How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling large. Large and cow-like."

"A cow?" One of the children asks.

"Mommy is a cow. Who needs a quiet talk with the doctors."

"Hey, guys. Who wants ice cream?"

"I want chocolate."

"Do they have strawberry?" The father takes the kids and leaves us to inform Mrs. Ward about her test results.

"C.B.C. and Chem-7 look fine." I inform her.

"Rose?" Addison asks her since she didn't say anything or even react.

"Sorry. I'm so tired."

"Oh, Rose, 6 kids. 38 weeks pregnant...a saint would be tired."

"Well...I'm no saint." Rose begins to cry. "This baby...Joseph...Dr. Shepherd, I need him to be my last. And I really seem to be the most fertile woman on the planet."

"Well if you're interested in alternative forms of birth control, I..."

"No." Rose cuts her off. "What I mean is...today during the C-section. I need you to tie my tubes. And I need you to do it without my husband ever knowing." Dr. Shepherd briefly looks to me and all I can think about she can't be seriously thinking about saying yes.

"Rose, you're an adult. He's your husband. Not your legal guardian. Telling him would be entirely up to you."

"Well, if you charged my insurance, he would see it. Any bill you sent, he would see it. I've been saving up for this, and I can pay you privately." Rose is insane to ask such a thing from her surgeon.

"So you're saying you want me to do the surgery and leave no record of it?"

"Mrs. Ward, if you're being abused, there are people you can talk to." I step in needing to understand why she wants to keep such a thing from her husband.

"Oh, Chris is...he's the opposite of abusive." She clarifies for us.

"So if we pull up your medical records, we're not gonna find a bunch of broken bones or..."

"If you pull up my medical records, you'll find three natural childbirths. Three C-sections, two hospital stays for exhaustion and one for dehydration." Addison helps Rose on the bed. "Because I was so busy chasing my kids around, I forgot to take a sip of water for three days. I think God understands what I'm going through. And I think God will forgive me." Well only if it's for God, I think to myself. "But Chris, for him. Religion isn't like a buffet table, where you get to chose what you want to take and leave the rest. And the Pope says no to birth control. So...I need your help."