Magic Smile

Chapter 11: OR, My Person, & I'm Sorry

Your POV

Over the next few days Arizona and I shared stolen kisses around corners and in on call rooms. There hasn't been any sex, but I'm happy with that. We both agreed it's not the right time. I know we're not exclusive or anything, but it feels nice to finally be on the same page with someone.

I hated when she was ignoring me as desperate as that sounds. There's just something so different about Arizona. I've had a few girlfriends over the years, but none of them gave me butterflies like Arizona does. Not to mention she always has me on my toes. There's never a dull moment when I see her ocean blues.

I finally get to scrub in on a surgery with her! I'd been mostly with Alex, but Arizona and I were going to do a scheduled splenectomy on a little girl named Jessie Kremic. The surgery isn't for a while so I just made my usual rounds before taking Jessie's file to my dad's room.

I'd been coming here a lot just to sit with him. As doctors we always say a patient can hear you when they're in a coma, but I'm not sure if I believe that. I like to believe in medicine because even though it's not perfect it's concrete. Well concrete adjacent anyway. 

"Hey dad, it's me." Still no movement.

"I have this patient named Jessie, she's really sweet. She's super polite and likes to pretend she can feel no pain even though her spleen is slowly eating away at itself. Her dad is like her best friend too. Seeing them makes me miss you dad. Please come back to me. I gotta go dad I'm being paged. I love you."

Alex was paging me. Probably just to run labs but of course I walked briskly.

"Gummy Bear bring Declan Howard to his room and go get his labs." As I figured, labs.

"You don't have to baby me I'm 13. I don't even need a babysitter anymore." I looked down at Declan and laughed. His mother just shook her head at her all too grown up son.

"Okay Mr. Howard you shall get only the most adult treatment available."

"Thank you doctor." Even though he was trying his best to be serious I could see the smile reaching his eyes.

"You know this is the second time I broke my leg! I'm getting the cast off today and it's definitely the best part. But Dr. Alex said I have to get blood work too. Dylan doesn't like blood work. The first time I was skateboarding, but this time I was pushed down the stairs."

"Who pushed you down the stairs Mr. Howard?"

"Dylan. He's standing right behind you." I quickly turned around and saw nobody behind me. "Honey, you know Dylan isn't here." His mother seemed to be trying to convince herself of that fact.

"Mr. Howard what does Dylan look like?"

"He's right there. Can't you see him?" I turned to the nurse and whispered "Page Karev and psych." I sat with Declan and he immediately began talking about Dylan much to his mother's dismay. The more he mentioned Dylan the more she frowned. The more I listened the more aware I became that Dylan was not a physical person.

"What is it y/n. Did you get his labs?" Alex called me out of the room.

"Alex, I think he has schizophrenia." Alex immediately tensed.

"You don't know that. He has a broken leg."

"Alex he told me a boy named Dylan pushed him down the stairs and that Dylan is in the room with us, but there's no one here. I paged Dr. Fallon from psych, but I wanted to wait for you to give the okay. The mother doesn't seem too keen though." All Alex did was nod before leaving in a hurry. What's up with him?