The Lieutenant's Love

Elevator Love Letter

I woke up to my phone ringing. Callie was calling me to her and Cristina's apartment. I walked into their apartment. Owen was staring into space. Callie and Robbins were in the kitchen.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I don't know. I heard yelling and when I got to Cristina's room he was on top of her choking her," Callie said. I walked over.

"Owen," I said.

"What are you doing here?" Owen asked.

"Torres called. Figured you'd need someone," I said.

"I don't know what happened," Owen said.

"I think I do. Come on. Let's go. You can crash on my couch tonight," I said.

"You've got kids," Owen said.

"Who are in bed with my wife," I said.

"I need to see Cristina," Owen said.

"Not tonight you don't. I'll go tell her," I said. I knocked on the bathroom door before walking in. Cristina was with Meredith.

"Is Owen alright?" Cristina asked.

"He's gonna crash at mine tonight," I said.

Timeskip

I walked into Izzie's room which was filled with doctors and stood beside Alex. Addison was one of the doctors in the room.

"As you know, you have stage iv metastatic melanoma. We have a lot of surgeries and a lot of procedures lined up for you over the next few weeks," Bailey told Izzie.

"We've seen evidence of METS on your liver. So one of those surgeries Dr Bailey and I will respect them," Dr Webber said. Addison stepped forward.

"I'm going to harvest as many healthy eggs as I can before you undergo any radiation," Addison said. "If you'd prefer a different doctor Dr Parker is on standby,"

"Right. Babies," Izzie said. Alex had a weird look on his face.

"Just leaving the option open for you in the future if you want to," Dr Bailey said.

"But our priority today is to address the temporal lobe METS on your brain. I'm surprised we didn't catch it sooner. This kind of thing can cause headaches and seizures. And intense hallucinations. But hopefully, the legion has left clear margins so that I can remove it all," Derek said.

"Are you people done?" An oncologist Dr Swender asked stepping forward. "Over the next four weeks, you're slated for three major surgeries. Seven out-Patient procedures.
That's just for the METS we've already found and in all likelihood we will find more which means we may have to cut into you more you may as well get used to the idea now. I'll be administering all your radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy. The treatment will be aggressive.It will be harsh. You should prepare yourself. I will be overseeing all your procedures, including today with Dr Shepherd. Which means every surgeon in this room now answers to me. Welcome to the cancer wing, folks," Dr Swender walked out.

"See you in the OR," Derek walked out along with the rest of the doctors. The rest of us walked out.

Timeskip

I sat with Meredith and Cristina. Cristina was talking about Swender. Meredith was trying to get her to talk about Hunt last night.

"Swender has no vision," Cristina said.

"He grabbed his hands on your throat this morning. And you're pretending like nothing happened," Meredith said.

"Just focus on Izzie," Cristina said.

"Hunt literally tried to kill you. He's barely back from Iraq. It's obvious he has issues. That doesn't mean you have to stand by-" Meredith was cut off by Cristina.

"So like if he had a heart attack or stroke or lost a leg would, would you walk away? So how is it any more acceptable that I walk away from this? He's wounded. He has war wounds. Meredith. It's not cut and dry. And it is not as bad as you think it is," Cristina said before walking out.

"He didn't mean to hurt her. It's a trauma response. I still have nightmares and I've been out for 5 years. If I think I'm going to have a nightmare I won't share a bed with Addison because the idea of hurting her freaking terrifies me. Maybe Addison could provide some advice from the other side of it," I said. "I'm gonna go check on Alex. You coming?" I asked. We found Alex in an on-call room with a dixie cup in front of him.

"You left the door unlocked. That's bold," Meredith said.

"The chief send you in here?" Alex asked.

"Nope. We offered to come in, in case you needed to talk," I said sitting down.

"You think talking will help? You think a dixie cup full of my swimmers will make everything okay? It's crap. This is crap. You just can't go messing with people's heads like that. I mean, even if she freezes the embryos, You think ... You think we'll get a chance to use them? You think she'll still be here? You think she'll survive all this? Do you think ... I think ... She t-Told me ... She told me she was seeing a ghost, okay? And I'm so used to all the crazy chicks in my life that I didn't even ... I'm a doctor. A doctor! And I didn't even think to ... And now she's ... This is ... This is wrong. This isn't how it's supposed to happen," Alex said.

"I know," Meredith and I said.

"It's crap," Alex said.

"I know," Meredith and I said again.

"I hate this," Alex said.

"I know," Meredith and I said.

"This isn't ... This isn't how we ... how we were supp ... This isn't how I wanted to do this. This isn't how Izzie and I were supposed to make a baby," Alex said.

Timeskip

I was standing with Meredith by the OR board while Izzie was in surgery. Alex walked over.

"Surgery started," Meredith said to Alex.

"Hey, have they started the surgery?" Cristina asked walking over.

"Yeah," Alex said. A group of interns walked over.

"Dr Grey, we were wondering, Did Dr Stevens' surgery start yet or ..." Steve was cut off.

"Keep it moving. No loitering in the OR hallway. That's the rule," Meredith said.

"If they want to stay, let 'em stay. People are better than no people," Alex said. A group of us had started to gather. Addison had gone to get the boys from daycare and we stood holding them. Addison, George, Callie and I were leaning against the nurses' station. Dr Webber walked out.

"What are you all doing out here?" Dr Webber asked.

"Waiting for Izzie, sir. We're waiting," Alex said.

"You're scared. I'm scared, too," Dr Webber said.

Timeskip

After waiting a while Dr Bailey walked out. We bombarded her with questions.

"Shepherd was able to resect all of the tumor. She'll be in the pacu for about an hour. She's fine," Dr Bailey said. The interns cleared out. "Your friend is just fine, no thanks to any of you. Tomorrow, do better," Bailey walked away.

Timeskip

Addison and I were laying in bed.

"Derek was planning to propose to Meredith tonight," Addison said.

"Good on them," I said.

"I was thinking how about we do a trip to LA between your second and third year of residency. Just us, Ace and the boys," Addison said.

"That sounds good," I said. Addison and I cuddled together.