Home (Grey's Anatomy Series)

After All These Years

"Thanks, Paul."

Grabbing my coffee, I pulled out my phone to check some of the messages from last night.

'Could we meet for lunch?' -Thomas.

"Hey, Shepherd. Could you check on a consult for me?" Karev said as he came down the stairs.

"Sure, where?"

"E.R., Jo's waiting for you."

"On it." 

Calling my father, it didn't take long for him to answer.

"Hey, Elena. Glad you saw my text."

"Yeah, sorry I couldn't have answered it earlier, I didn't go to sleep until 6 this morning."

"Long day?"

"Very. We have some legal issues to take care of here at work."

"Anything I can help with?" He asked as I took the stairs.

"No, nothing that serious. Bailey, our other chief, set up a panel to foresee the resident's actions today, so we'll know by the end of the day."

"At least that's better. Oh, I was wondering if you were craving Italian? I know this great place just across town, I can get us a reservation for lunch?"

"Yeah, that's sound great. I'll meet you there."

Pushing a door open that led to the glass walkway, I stopped in the middle of the pathway.

"Okay...bye, Elena."

"Bye."

~

Throwing away my coffee cup in the trash can, I grabbed one of the tablets on the counter, before heading off to bed 6.

"Reggie Dalton?" I said.

"Yes."

"Hi, I'm Elena Shepherd. What are you in for?" I asked.

"He has a hernia in his stomach," Jo added.

"Okay, well, let's take a look. Just lay back."

"I'm gonna lift up your shirt."

Pressing down on his stomach, I could feel small ball-like masses inside.

"Okay, how long has this been going on for?"

"Uh, I had surgery like, uh, six months ago. and after a while, this little guy just started popping out of there."

"Six months ago?" Jo questioned.

"Yeah. I had it looked at once before, and they said they could operate, but that it wasn't urgent, so I put it off and-, Oh, God."

"Reggie, are you okay?" I asked as his face made that sour look.

"Yes. Uh, this is the thing. It's allergy season and every time I sneeze-"

"The little guy pops out," Jo said.

"Yeah. I think maybe I waited a little too long to get surgery because-." Tilting back his bed against the pillow, Wilson and I took our hands off him.

"Okay, Reggia don't fight it. It's only gonna make it worse."

But he couldn't help himself and the little guy, wasn't so little anymore since he didn't describe that his stomach would explode from inside his body.

"Oh my, God."

"Worse than this?" He said.

"Post-Hernias are not actually all that uncommon, but given its size, we're gonna need to do a special procedure to close the gap without tension on the-, What are you doing?" I said to him.