Let It Go

21.

Meredith ran. She didn't walk. She didn't walk fast. She didn't jog. She ran. She ran because she'd been paged 911 to Harrison Moxley's room. Her intern had paged her 911 to Derek's nephew's room. There was nothing good about that. Nothing good at all. So many things could have happened. She listed off various complications that could have arose in her head as she ran up another flight of stairs, assuming she'd still be able to breathe when she reached Harrison's room.

Throwing the stairwell door open, Meredith appeared on the pediatric unit. Despite her rush to get to Harrison's room, she registered the calmness of the floor. Something didn't add up. 911 pages meant bad things. It meant people rushing around. It meant orders being shouted about. On the pediatric unit it also meant children crying in fear as a fellow patient fought for his life. It meant parents cowering in doorframes, trying to figure out what was going on. She had been paged a 911 and yet nothing was going on. People weren't rushing around. There was no shouting of orders or crying kids. Parents werent cowering in doorways. Except for a parent pulling their child around in a wagon and a couple of nurses standing around the nursing station, all was quiet.

"I was paged?" Meredith asked breathlessly, throwing the door to Harrison's room open and trying to gulp in enough air to catch her breath again. Her eyes met the tired, blue eyes of Harrison who gave her a very weak smile despite the tube still down his throat. Meredith felt her body relax as a smile broke out across her face.

"You're awake!" she stated, grinning widely. She had started to have her doubts about his condition. Too weak to do much else, Harrison merely blinked his eyes. Meredith looked around the room for answers.

"He came to just a few minutes ago," Ginny answered, patting her grandson's hand gently, beaming at him while holding back the tears in her eyes. "I know it wasn't a real 911 Dr. Grey, but I thought you'd like to know immediately..." Dr. Kern explained. Meredith looked over at her nervous intern and nodded. "Thank you," she said. "You're right - I wanted to know immediately when he woke up." She walked over to Harrison.

"Where's his father?" she asked Ginny. "Oh!" Ginny exclaimed. "I... Well, I got so excited about him waking up... I didn't... I didn't tell him or my daughter..." Meredith smiled. "Tell you what, how about I check him over and then I'll go give them the good news. I haven't been able to talk to his mother yet with all of the sedatives she's been on and I would love to be able to give her a good report..." Ginny nodded, still smiling broadly. "She would love that," she told Meredith. Meredith gave her one last smile before turning her attention to Harrison while Dr. Kern looked on.

"I bet that tube's a bit uncomfortable in your mouth, isn't it?" Meredith asked Harrison. The tired little boy nodded ever so slightly and Meredith nodded in agreement. "You know, I should be able to take that out, but I need to examine you first - can I do that?" Harrison tried to give her a weak smile to show that it was okay. Meredith smiled at him again to let him know he was in good hands before beginning her exam. He was attempting to smile and nodd, tube in his mouth and all. This looked good. Very good.

Meredith worked in silence for several minutes, Harrison too groggy to do anything but let her poke and prod him. Meredith made sure to give him reassuring smiles here and there. He was a child after all and probably scared out his mind. She didn't want him to be scared of her too.
"Well Harrison, I was right. What do you say we get that tube out of your mouth?" Harrison again managed a weak smile. Meredith couldn't help but smile back. He had such a sweet demeanor, even with a tube down his throat and IVs and monitors running here and there. It was too bad some of his sweet personality didn't rub off on his uncle.

"Alright, I need you to do exactly what I say. When I say so, I want you to take a deep breath and hold it. When I say 'go', I want you to blow it out really hard. You're going to cough a lot when I take this tube out, but that's normal. And I don't want you to try and talk much for a little why because your throat is going to be a little sore." Harrison watched Meredith with his eyes, listening to her every word. "We'll do on your mark, get set, go, okay? When I say go, you breath in and hold it." Harrison blinked his eyes at her to show he understood. Meredith put her hand on the tube, ready to pull it out. She saw Ginny tighten her hand around Harrison's smaller hand.