One {Mark Sloan}

Death Wish

Mark was sitting in the gallery viewing the OR where Harold O'Malley was currently being operated, Richard, Bailey and Meredith were already scrubbed in, they were waiting on Renee to scrub in. The gallery was almost empty, no one seemed to be interested in finding out how much of Mr O'Malley's body was consumed by cancer.

"I am sorry I was late, Cheif, Mrs O'Malley offered to iron my clothes," Renee said as she came through the door putting her hand in the gloves which were prepared by the scrub nurse.

"Iron clothes?" Richard asked.

"Yeah, she also offered to make me breakfast, said I needed to eat," Everyone chuckled, it was true there were times when Mark had to force her to sit down and eat.

"Let's begin," Renee looked at the now sedated Mr O'Malley before looking at the gallery where she found Mark sitting looking at them.

"Good luck," He mouthed before giving a small smile to which she nodded.

"Okay, 10 Blade,"

"See Grey? Good exposure to the esophageal hiatus."

"Yes sir," Meredith said as she looked over at the Chief.

"Now we will inspect and palpate the abdominal cavity," Bailey said.

"Those are the mets right?" Meredith questioned.

"Throughout the stomach, celiac lymph nodes, the liver,"

"It's much worse than we initially anticipated," Renee said as they continued.

"It's everywhere," Bailey said

"So that's it? We're closing him back up?" Meredith questioned as Renee and Richard exchanged a glance.

"No. We will proceed," Bailey said.

"But I thought..."

"The patient asked us to proceed," Richard said.

"What does that mean exactly?"

"This man asked for a chance to fight. That means that he's going to have to fight like hell." Renee said as she looked over at Meredith who looked back at her. George was Meredith closest friend and it was difficult to see your friend's father lying on the operating table with little to no chance of survival.

"But he can recover? There's a chance?" Meredith asked desperately.

"There's a chance. Dr Grey, the request from the patient..." Bailey said.

"Was private."

"Yes."

"OK."

Harold O'Malley's surgery had gone for a long time, by the end of it everybody was tired ready to go to bed, they had tried to remove every tumour they could see but the surgery was extensive and it was a lot to handle for Mr O'Malley's body, the only thing they could do over the next few days was to observe him and make sure he doesn't go in multi-organ failure

Renee was sleeping in the on-call room when Callie barged in and slammed the door behind her causing Renee to wake up and groan and glare the Ortho resident who didn't seem to notice as she was in her happy place.

"What is your problem?" Renee said as she buried herself back in the sheets.

"God, you're not pleasant when woken up,"

"I had a long surgery, I would love to have some sleep,"

"Move over," Callie said as she pushed Ren before getting under the sheets.

"Uh, god, what is it?"

"George kissed me," Callie announced, the smile on her face bigger than ever.

"That's great and all, I am happy for you," Ren whispered as she went back to sleep.

"No, don't sleep," Callie said as she tried to shake Ren to wake her up.

"Do you have a death wish?" Callie looked over to Derek who was standing by the door.

"Why?"

"There's a beast inside her when you wake her, the scar on Mark's neck was when he tried to wake her up, it was ugly,"

"Derek, get out,"

"A beast," Derek yelled when a pillow was thrown in his direction.

"He can be very annoying. Why did George kiss you?" Renee asked as she sat up straight and rubbed the sleep from the eyes.

"Mr O'Malley's urine came out yellow and clear, one minute he's holding the urine bag the next minute he's kissing me,"

"That's.....romantic??"

"It's not but the kiss felt right you know like we are meant to be,"

"Yeah, I know,"

Bailey and Renee looked over at the O'Malley family to whom they had told right now to prepare themselves, they were looking down when suddenly Ronny started to sniff and grunt which caused everybody to look up.

"What is that?" Mrs O'Malley asked.

"It's Jerry."

"I'm sorry. I'm nervous." Jerry said as he passed gas which caused everyone to laugh. George who was beyond embarrassed leaned into Callie for support.

Soon everybody with the exception of Bailey and Renee had left, they sat there just staring at the wall, it was the most difficult part of the job telling a family to prepare themselves to let their loved one go, to let them die. 

"What are you thinking?" Renee asked Bailey.

"About O'Malley, they are such a happy family, it hurts to see them go through this,"

"I know, they are the last family I would expect something to happen to,"

"My family always forced me to concentrate on having my own family, taking care of them and giving up my surgical career," Bailey sighed.

"You have parents who loved you,"

"Where did you grow up?"

"San Diego. My parents died in a car crash when I was about three and thrown into the foster care, ended in juvie,"

"Juvie?!" 

"Trashed my foster parent's room,"

"Why?"

"They refused to let me out of the house after school was done,"

"Refused to let you out of the house, why?"

"I don't know but it made me so angry, you know,"

"What happened after that?" Bailey asked.

"I came out when I was 16, got transferred into another family, they were the one you know, they had taken in a few other foster kids previously, they were ready to adopt me, made me feel welcome and loved,"

"That's great, so did you get adopted?"

"No, they died, they were on their way to the court for signing the adoption papers when a drunk driver crashed into them,"

"I am so sorry,"

"I never found another family like them, there were families who were great but it never worked out. They left some money for me, I was so grateful, you know, it paid for half of my med school, being the foster kid isn't exactly glamourous,"