Stitches of Survival

Going, Going, Gone

Chapter Twenty-Four: Going, Going, Gone

*~*~*~*

"Mom! Where's my helmet?" Joel yelled from his bedroom as I finished getting ready for work, having woken up late.

"I'm not sure." I called back as I finished tying my sneaker. "Maybe Ashley can help when she gets here. Did you brush your teeth?"

"Yeah," he said as I headed out of my bedroom and down the short hall, into the nursery where I found my one month old baby laying in her crib, making gurgling noises.

"Good morning, beautiful." I smiled widely as I picked her up, pressing kisses to her cheeks. "Did you get some sleep, Mellie? Are you ready to spend the day with Aunt Ashley?"

"I'm here!" Ashley called out from the living room as I headed out of Melinda's small nursery, finding Ashley putting her bag down on the counter, talking to Joel.

"Mommy will see you later." I kissed Melinda one more time before handing him over to Ashley.

"Do you know what time you'll be home?" She asked.

"I'm not sure," I was honest with her. "I just depends on how things go, I guess."

"I could bring them by the hospital?" She offered.

"That would- Uh, that would be great." I nodded. "Around two?"

"Two." She nodded.

*~*~*~*

"Hey, how's Melinda doing?" Meredith asked as she, Bailey, and I stood together, working on some charts. "Joel?"

"Melinda is still keeping me up most of the night while Joel's still asking when Dad's coming home." I informed her. "So, not too great."

"What's the problem?" Bailey asked, looking past us at someone behind us.

"I have these labs for Dr. Grey." A woman spoke up.

"I have some for Dr. Watley." Another woman said.

"Well, then give them to them." Bailey told them.

"I've been waiting for those for over an hour." Meredith told her intern as we both turned to take our patients' scans.

"I had to do an admission-" Meredith's intern, Wilson, tried to explain the wait.

"Stop making excuses." Meredith shook her head.

"Sorry." Wilson apologized.

"Stop apologizing." Meredith said as I tried to focus on the scans of a sixteen year old that had been brought in this morning with sever abdominal pains. "Stop talking. His lactic acid is normal. What does that tell us? You can talk now."

"That he's probably not septic, so he's gonna be fine." Wilson answered. "Although his white cell count is elevated so I should probably keep an eye on that. In fact, I will keep an eye on that so that he doesn't go-"

"Go to the pit and try not to kill anybody." Meredith cut her short.

"What do you see with these scans?" I asked my intern, Brooks, handing the CT scan of the patient's abdomen to her.

"Uh, his appendix appears to be swollen." Brooks' voice shook slightly as she spoke, a sign of how nervous she was.

"Meaning?" I raised a brow at her.

"It could be the beginning of appendicitis, but we can't know for sure right now." She told me. "The swelling and pain could be caused by a reaction to something he ate-"