Survivor

Chapter Nine

Meredith swallowed nervously, shifting her weight between her good leg and her crutches. Cristina and Alex stand on either side of her, not saying a word. They're in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the main entrance to Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital.

The churning in Meredith's stomach hadn't stopped all day, as the preliminary hearing for the trail was tomorrow. She wanted to throw up every time she thought about it. In fact, oftentimes she did.  

"I can't do this," She says, her gaze never leaving the doors.

"Yes, you can, Mer. You've done it before."

"Once. And I went around the back, there's like no one around there."

"Do you want the cast off or not?" Alex asks, his tone more sarcastic than anything.

"Of course I do," She snaps. "But I...I can't go in there, I just, I can't."

"You want to go around the back again?" Cristina suggests.

"But that's twice as far from the ortho wing as going in the front," Meredith groans.

"So what do you want to do?"

Meredith sighs, internally battling herself. She's at the hospital to see Callie and get the cast on her leg removed, then see Dr. Wyatt. The first one of those things she wants, the second not so much. On one hand, it's a short walk from the main entrance to ortho, but it's the most crowded place in the building, which she doubts she can handle. On the other hand, the back entrance is quiet, but it's way further from ortho, and she would probably end up seeing her coworkers anyway. 

"Let's go," She decides, starting towards the main entrance. "Just...I don't know, hide me or something. I can't deal with a thousand people right now." 

Alex nods, stepping in front of her as Cristina stays by her side. They stick to the back halls, and whenever a nurse comes towards them Alex just shoots them a deadly look, and they backoff. That doesn't help with the stares though. It seems that every single pair of eyes in the entire hospital is on them as they enter the ortho wing. Callie is standing nearby, signing off on a chart when she looks up and smiles.

She gestures for the group to follow her and leads them off to an exam room. Alex stands outside, basically guarding the door.

"Get settled, I'll be right back," Callie says, closing the door, leaving Meredith and Cristina alone in the room together.

"Can you go?" Meredith requests softly. "I'm sorry, it's not that I-I don't want-"

"Mer, it's okay. Whatever you're comfortable with. I'll be right outside the door with Alex." Cristina cuts her off, then leaves the room.

Meredith hauls herself onto the table, rolling up her pant leg to expose the cast. It's plain white, now pretty dirty. She's running her fingers along the plaster when the door opens, causing her to jump.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Callie says, closing the door behind her.

"It's okay." 

"You ready to get rid of this cast?" She smiles, sitting down and snapping on a pair of gloves. Meredith just nods and observes as Callie gently runs her hands across her leg. Eventually, she turns and pulls out the cast saw. "You ready?"

Meredith nods again, clenching the sides of the table as the machine whirrs and hits the cast. Slowly, it breaks and the ortho surgeon pulls it off, discarding the plaster. 

"I want to get follow up x-rays, just to make sure Take it easy for this week, don't run or do anything heavy on this leg," Callie says, throwing the gloves away. Meredith nods again, slowly rolling her left ankle around, testing out the freshly healed bone.