Stitches of Survival

With You I'm Born Again

Chapter One: With You I'm Born Again

*~*~*~*

I just sat in the conference room of the hospital, just staring at the man that was sitting in front of me, not saying a word. I didn't know what to say, what he wanted me to say in order for him to sign me off as ready to go back to work, back to operating. After an entire month of being stuck at home, recovering from the surgery I'd undergone at Seattle Pres., I was just ready to get back to work.

"How are you feeling?" He asked me, shattering the silence that had fallen over us. "Any soreness from your surgery?"

"A little tenderness here and there, but that's to be expected." I was honest with him, in no mood to come up with a lie, no matter how simple it was. "It only really flares up when I push myself too far, just like my back injury from a few years ago. There's still some tenderness with that now and again, but nothing too bad."

"Right, you were in a car accident your intern year." He nodded, remembering the detail from my final. "Dr. Shepherd said that your recovery was quite impressive. You were back to work far sooner than anyone thought you'd be."

"I'm a fighter." I gave a small smile. "I don't give up on what I want, which is to keep this job and support my son."

"Can you talk to me about the shooting?" He asked, leaning forward in his seat slightly. "I've read over what you went through, Dr. Bailey's accounts for it all, but I'd rather hear it from you instead."

"I was here at work and I was shot." I gave a small shrug, pursing my lips together tightly. "I was just looking for my brother, trying to make sure he was safe, and I ended up getting shot alongside another resident. Dr. Bailey tried her best and I survived, the other guy didn't."

"Dr. Charles Percy." He read from his notebook. "Your brother, Jackson Avery's, best friend, correct?"

"Yes." I nodded.

"You watched him die right next to you as you waited to die yourself." He said as I glanced out the window at the cloudy sky, though some rays of sunshine were breaking through. Just sitting here, listening to all of this, it felt as though I were still bleeding out on the hospital floor, Percy's lifeless body laying next to me while my head was in Bailey's lap. I felt a dull throb in my side, though I knew it was nothing, just my imagination. Still, it was there. "All of that must have been difficult to go through."

"Difficult..." I repeated the word, feeling as though it were foreign to me. "It was difficult when I left early for work one morning to end up getting in a car accident. On that day, as you already pointed out, I learned that there was damage to my spine and I might not have ever been able to walk or perform surgery ever again. In all of that I though that I was going to be left without a way to support my son. All of that was difficult, but at the end of it all I was able to walk, I'm still performing surgery, and I still have a way to support my son. That day, the shooting, it was the worst day of my life."

*~*~*~*

"Hey," Jackson smiled as he joined me at the nurses' station, everyone waiting to welcome Derek back to work today, it being his first time back to the hospital since the shooting. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, just like every other time you've asked me." I assured him, a small smile playing on my lips. "How did Joel do this morning?"

"He was fine, not too thrilled about school, but he'll get over that." He shrugged. Since I had had to meet with the counselor this morning, Jackson had came over to my apartment to watch Joel and get him ready for school before Ashley picked him up. I had to admit, that was one thing I'd miss while being back at work, getting to spend the day with Joel, see him off to school myself. "Did you get cleared for surgery?"