Had I known How to Save a Life

The Waiting

Chapter 24
*Zola POV*

Mommy is scared. Daddy is trying to keep her calm. Bailey in surgery. I'm a little scared. But Ms. Callie and Uncle Alex are doing surgery on his leg.

I hope he's okay.

Mommy is crying, I think she is scared. She told daddy she can't watch it anymore. So Daddy and I are going with her.

We go to the place where people sit down and wait.

*Meredith POV*

I can't sit in the gallery anymore. I know Bailey isn't going to die. But hundreds of things can go wrong during surgery.

Zola and Derek follow me to the waiting room. The worst part about surgery is the waiting. The waiting. Not knowing if the person you love is okay, or how they're doing at all.

Derek holds my hand. "It's going to be okay. I promise. Callie is one of the best orthopedic surgeons in the world. She can fix his leg." He tells me.

"Mommy, Bailey will be okay. Uncle Alex says this is the best place in the world." She smiles and tells me.

I love her so much. She is perfect. I hope Ellis will be as perfect as her.

"Meredith, you need to eat something. If not for you, then for Ellis." Derek says.

He's right. I'm starving. But all I can think about is Bailey.

I don't know how to eat when my son is having surgery on his leg. But it's not me who needs to eat, it's the tiny human inside me.

"I'll go grab something. Zola, stay with mommy okay?" Derek says.

"Okay daddy." She tells him.

A few minutes later Jo walks up with an update. My heart begins to race out of my chest. What is she going to tell me.

"Dr. Grey... Dr. Torres is still in surgery but she wants you to know its going great and shouldn't be much longer." She says. A weight is lifted off my chest but I'm still worried.

She can see that. Jo sits next to me. "Meredith, it's going great. You and I both know Callie is the best person to do this." She tells me.

"I-I know that. It's just that, he got hurt here. In a hospital. A hospital that Derek and I own. H-how the hell does that happen?" I say.

"It's life. No matter what preventative steps we take, we can't prevent everything. But we can try to fix what we can't prevent." She says.

I smile to thank her.

"I'm going to head back." She says as she heads back to the O.R.

Derek walks back with a pizza. Oh thank God.

"Any update?" He asks.

"Yeah, you just missed Jo. She said it's going great and it won't be much longer." I say.

The 3 of us..well 4 counting my tiny human eat the pizza.

"Do you want to rest? Take a nap. I'll wake you when there's an update." Derek says.

I rest my head on Derek's shoulder. And I begin to drift off.

I can see the entire surgical team walking up. Something is wrong. Something is definitely wrong. Callie and Alex look like they're about to break down.

Oh my God. He's dead. My son is dead. Derek Bailey Shepherd. Is dead.

Callie sits in front of me. "M-Meredith. Th-there were complications-"

I cut her off. "You're telling me my son is dead? My baby boy. My child. My son who I will never see again. Is dead?" I ask.

"I- we..we did everything we could, I am so sorry Meredith."

Then I wake up screaming.

"Meredith! Mer-Meredith. It's okay. Everything is okay. It was a nightmare, okay? You had a nightmare. He's still in surgery." Derek tells.

Oh my God. Thank God. It was just a dream.

He puts his hand on my stomach to feel Ellis. "Everyone is okay, I promise."

That makes me smile. I kiss him and Zola laughs.

"Zo-Zo it's way past your bedtime. Come sit on my lap and you can sleep on me." Derek tells her.

Zola is latched onto Derek so that's pretty cute.

It's not very much longer till Callie and Alex come out. The surgery is done.

"It couldn't have gone better. He should be waking up soon." Callie says.

"Can we go see him?" I ask

"Of course." She says.

When I get up I pull Callie in for a hug, "Thank you Callie." I tell her.

*1 day later*

I don't have surgery till a few hours and I've done my rounds. I have my interns running my labs. So I go to Bailey's room.

"Hey buddy" I say.

"Mama" he says. I love my little guy so much.

"How are you feeling Bailey?" I ask him.

"Gwood" he tells me.

Callie, Alex, and some residents walk in for rounds.

"Bailey Shepherd, 2 years old, post op day 1 from tibia fracture." Edwards says.

"He will be able to go home in a few days." Callie says.

"Oh that's great." I say and smile.

Derek walks in later. "You can take Zola home tonight. I will stay here with him. You go home with her okay?"

"Okay. Just text me if anything happens okay?" I say.

"Nothing will happen. I'll monitor his concussion and everything will be okay." Derek says.

I take Zola home and I let her sleep in mine and Derek's bed because I don't like sleeping alone.

I let her stay up a little later because her and I are watching cartoons. I look over and she's passed out asleep.

I kiss her on the head. "Night night Zo-Zo." And I turn out the lights.

Author Note:

I was hoping to get this posted earlier, but unfortunately I, stupidly, deleted it. So I kinda had to rewrite 900 words of it. Yeah I kind of suck at life. Anyway, I hope y'all like it. I know nothing like this happened on the show but what the hell you know, anything could've happened had this incompetent quacks had been able to save Derek (yeah I'm still not over his death). Oh yeah, I felt like adding in the Zola POV because why not, she probably had thoughts on what was going on. Love you guys so much ❤️❤️!!

~Erin :)