A Love So Absolutely Clear {Crowen} ✔️

21: never alone

it was the weekend, and owen and cristina were walking around in the grocery store shopping while novella stayed at home with helen. both of her parents thought it would've been better if novella stayed at the hospital, however she begged to come back home after weeks of being confine to a bed, and they gave in.

"right, so our insurance covers all of this right?" cristina asked, reading papers that were related to a bone marrow transplant. owen, pushing a shopping cart and grabbing items from various shelves, responded.

"it should." he grabbed a box of organic granola bars and threw it in the cart.

she flipped through the papers and read them quickly. "here's novella's HLA. i've pulled a couple hundred people from this website that are willing to donate their bone marrow and could be a match." she held the papers up to him and he studied them intently.

"what is this? you're not her oncologist." she took the paper away from him and sighed, flipping through them again and marking a few off with the pen in her hand.

"but i have an m.d from stanford and a ph.d from berkeley. i checked with her doctor yesterday and she said it's so difficult because she's, and let me quote, hybrid." owen turned his head toward cristina and stopped the cart.

"wait, a hybrid? he really described her as a hybrid?" he said, a little offended. he'd never heard anyone call a biracial child by that term before.

"yep. and i took him off her case right away and found another doctor. not that i have authority to do that, but you know, since you're chief again you can totally do something about it." she continued looking at the papers and circled a few people who could be potential candidates. "ooh, look at this lady. she could work, right?"

"hold on, he called her a hybrid!" he continued, ignoring the papers that were being shoved into his face.

she sighed. "yes, we've established this, owen." cristina said.

"do you know how rude that is? oh my—wow." he started pushing the cart again, this time grabbing a few more items on some shelves.

cristina followed suit. "i know. so i found another doctor. remember what i said to you five seconds ago?" she put the papers back into his face and shook them rapidly. "so? what do you think of her?"

"you're acting like she's a sperm donor or a woman on tinder. does she match with nov?"

she groaned. "yes, but she's already giving it away to an old man in vancouver. geez, he's like a hundred, anyway. can't he spare a few years?" owen grabbed the papers and squinted his eyes.

"he's fifty. he's still got fifty more years ahead of him." he stared at her while she took the papers back and flipped through the stack in her hands.

"not when he's fifty and needs someone else's bone marrow." she countered.

she had been looking for donors every single chance she got, though it was a lot harder than anticipated. most of the options weren't compatible with novella, some were already taken, and then others were taken off the list."

"what crap is this? i can't find anybody." she complained, putting the papers back into her purse and crossed her arms together in front of her chest.

without looking away from the shelves, he held her closer for a second. "just leave it alone. it's not our job to look for a match, anyway." owen told her.

she blew some air out of her mouth and spoke in a monotone voice. "i guess."

...

"mom!" novella called. she was lying down in her bed closing her eyes, until she felt blood running down her nose. it happened pretty frequently, now.