Royal Blood ▪︎ Grey's Anatomy

episode seventy one

"I want CBCs, a BMP, WBC and Platelets. Have me an ultrasound bought down, I want a look at her kidneys." Enora orders, the interns nodding. She grabs the tablet and updates the chart. She's just about to head out when Hunt runs in.

"Incoming RTC, we got 3 kids, 4 adults. Enora, Jax, you take the kids. Schmitt and I have the others." He orders.

Enora looks over at Jax, both frozen for a moment before the ER gets chaotic. They leap into action, working rather well together. Anytime she goes to ask for something, he's already handing it to her. Anytime she goes to ask something, he gets right to it. And for a split second, Nor forgets everything that happened. And everything feels right in the world.

"Grey's got PT before you pick him up tonight, I had to move his appointment." Jax says when the room has settled and he's doing obs.

Enora looks over from the computer. "Thanks..." she smiles small.

"For what?" He raises an eyebrow.

Enora shrugs small. "Always taking care of things... makes me confident that you'd manage if I wasn't here."

"I most definitely wouldn't." He smiles a little. "You okay?" He wonders.

She shrugs and forces a smile. "Always am." She swiftly exits.

He watches her go, trying to gauge how she is. It's breaking his heart to be like this but he has to. It's what's best for both of them; the separation, the distance. Best for them and their kids.

Meredith heads over to Enora, handing her a parcel, a small box wrapped in brown paper. "Yang sent this, said something about it being notes?"

"Oh yeah, from the case we shared." She shrugs, taking it. "Thanks."

"Are you okay?" She frowns.

"You're the second person to ask me that in the last 5 minutes, is something wrong with my face? Coz I can't change it." She snaps.

"Ouch..." Meredith mutters as she watches her daughter storm off.

Jax cautiously approaches. "How is she..?"

Meredith gives him a hard stare, jaw tense and lips tight. "Her husband left her and now she has to lose her kids every other week, how do you think? Take a wild guess."

He sighs and looks at her with pain-filled eyes. "I have my reasons, Mer. It's best for-"

"Best for who? No one. You're destroying your kids lives for what exactly? Coward. Selfish." She snaps and walks away.

Meanwhile, Enora has locked herself away in one of the conference rooms and closed all the blinds. She tears the box open and pulls the files out - her files. She went for some updated scans and from them, Yang has given her a more accurate time. The ticking down to her death will for sure be within 2 years.

24 months.

104 weeks.

730 days.

Less than 18 thousand hours.

Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But in reality, it is far from it. Half of that goes to Jax. Half of the 52 weeks she has goes to work. She's got maybe 20 weeks left with her kids, altogether. Plus with school and clubs and everything else in life, it whittles down to nothing.

Dear God, she knows she can get a transplant but let's be realistic here. She'd be luckier winning the lottery than getting a match with a donor. And then someone has to die for her to live and how is that fair? Her organs are good, minus the heart, so her death would serve more good than her survival. And until that comes, she's going to make the most of the time she has with her kids and her family. Take all the pictures she can and make all the memories possible for them. Because they're what matters at the end of it all. They are who is left behind.