Chapter Thirty-Three: Six Days
"How's Burke doing?" Izzie asked as we all trailed behind Bailey as we walked through the hospital's halls.
"I don't know." Cristina told her.
"He just had surgery yesterday, and you don't know how he's doing?" Alex frowned at her.
"They're not speaking." Meredith informed the rest of us. I only nodded, not surprised since Cristina had ratted him out to the chief for having a tremor in his hand.
"I thought they made up?" Izzie's brows furrowed together in confusion.
"They did, sort of." Meredith nodded.
"But she's still not speaking to him?" Izzie pressed.
"He's not speaking to me." Cristina corrected her.
"They're not speaking to each other." I supplied.
"Okay." Izzie nodded.
"Did you ask Derek about Burke's hand?" Cristina asked Meredith.
"I don't want to get in the middle of it." Meredith shook her head. "Derek and I are happy. Could we just keep it that way for a while?"
"You know, you could aways swallow your pride and just ask him yourself." Izzie suggested.
"Her gut's not big enough for that." Alex said, causing the rest of us to laugh.
"Oh, Alex, you hurt me." Cristina scoffed as Bailey led us into Harold O'Malley's room to find it filled with people in party hats.
"Quiet down! Everyone, quiet down!" Harold told them.
"Morning, everybody." George's mom, Louise, smile widely at us.
"Good morning." Webber nodded as he joined us. "Uh, who's presenting?"
"Oh, can Georgie do it?" Harold asked. "He's real good."
"Um... Harold O'Malley, sixty-three, status- post-aortic valve replacement." George began to present his father's case. "Morning chest X-ray showed no atelectasis after aggressive CPT for the last two days. Um, scheduled for a transmittal esophagectomy tomorrow morning at nine. That's it."
"Um, for the next few minutes, I think it would be best if the extended family could wait out in the waiting area." Bailey suggested over all the cheers that followed George's presentation. At her suggestion there were groans.
"Just a few minutes, guys. And then you can come back." Harold assured everyone as they began to exit the room, just leaving Louise and George's brothers.
"How are you feeling, Mr. O'Malley?" Bailey asked the older man.
"He's feeling great." Louise told her. ""Better than ever," he said. Which is why we had everybody come out today, because we figured after today, he maybe won't be feeling so great for a while."
"Uh, after the surgery, uh, then when do we start chemo and stuff?" Harold asked.
"That protocol depends on what we find when we open you up, Harold." Webber told him.
"What do you mean, what you find?" Harold frowned.
"Uh, Grey." Bailey nodded to Meredith to explain.
"There's only so much they can tell from labs and scans, so they really need to get a good look inside to see if the cancer has spread." Meredith explained.
YOU ARE READING
Stitches of Life
Fanfiction"I don't get it." He shook his head at me, his frustration clear in his eyes. "Why can't you just let yourself be happy, for once?" "What makes you think I'm not happy?" I crossed my arms over my chest, my eyes narrowing into slits as I met his gaze...
