Home (Grey's Anatomy Series)

For Lauren...

WARNING: The topic of Sexual Assault and other various topics will be presented. 

A FEW DAYS LATER

Standing in the corner of the hospital elevator, I leaned my head back on the cold metal walls, staring up at the bright overhead light as the buzzer continued to ding as we passed each floor up to ICU at Brigham and Women's Hospital. With 12 hours of sleep under my belt and a cup of double espresso in my stomach, I was more focused than usual. 

It had been one of the longest nights in while ever since Medical school, with Caracic constantly wanting to video chat about what my part of the plan was. I had put aside my meetings with Annelise and the team for the last few days before the closing statements, dedicating every hour manipulating any incident and step that could happen in Catherine's surgery. 

'Floor 4, Intensive Care Unit.' The elevator announced.

Pushing myself off from the back of the elevator, I turned to the left and headed down the hallway through to the Nurses station for one of the Ipads charging in the corner. Calmer than usual, I waved to a few of the patients I had seen these last several days after being asked by the Chief of Surgery to offer a helping hand due to a shortage of Doctors.

"Good Morning, Dr. Shepherd...another day with Dr. Fox?" Anne, one of the older nurses asked.

"Yeah, today's the big day."

"Well, best of luck."

"Thank you." I smiled, taking the iPad with me as I crossed the hallway and down another private hall to Catherine's room where Caracic was sitting outside with this morning's scans.

"Hey..." I sighed.

"You're late."

"...I'm not going to start bickering with you, it's too early to bitch at you right now."

"And here I thought you were one 24/7?" He said sarcastically.

"And you're an ass 25/8-,"

"What did I say about the bickering?" I heard Catherine blurt out from inside her room.

"See, now you made her mad."

"Says the one with the wrinkles on his forehead," 

Brushing my shoulder past him as I headed into Catherine's room, Caracic followed in behind me beating me for the stool in the corner.

"A child...I swear-,"

"You're scans just came in." Caracic interrupted.

"How does it look?"

"Well, I've checked them twice and they are normal...ready for surgery."

"What's your approach?" I asked, sitting on the edge of Catherine's bed.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Tom."

"...I'll go in posteriorly with our stealth system and our newly pilfered ORBYE scope. The plan is to go in and remove it en bloc."

"And you think posteriorly is the way to go?" I asked.

"Oh, it is fun to have so many surgeons in one family. Remind me, Shepherd...how long has it been since you stepped into an O.R? Three weeks? A month? You should be worried about getting your hold lifted before stepping into the room."

"Is that really how you're gonna talk to your patient's family? Or did you forget?" I hissed.

"It is actually-,"