No Time | Grey's Anatomy // Book 1 // COMPLETED |

35 | Huntington's Disease

 *RING* *RING*

Groaning, I rolled over to my other side and threw my arm onto my bedside table, searching for the source of the noise. Refusing to open my eyes, I kept flailing my arm around, but eventually, the ringing stopped and I didn't bother to find out who had called. Letting out a sigh, I dragged my arm back under the covers and attempted to fall asleep again.

*RING* *RING*

My eyes shot open angrily as I sat up in bed. Glancing at the clock, I took note of the time, which was about 2 a.m., so I could tell it to whoever was calling me when I wasn't on call and actually had a night to sleep for over 3 hours.

Reaching for my loud cell phone, I pressed answer and drew it up to my ear. "Whoever this is better have a damn good reason for calling me at 2 a.m." I demanded into the device.

"Remind me to never wake you up, like ever." I heard Jackson's voice and relaxed, "I just wanted to know if you wanted to go out for drinks with me after work tomorrow?"

I let out a small groan, "You called me at 2 in the morning to ask me this?"

"Honestly, I didn't even look at the clock before I called," Jackson confessed.

"If I say yes, do I get to go back to sleep?" I asked.

I heard Jackson chuckle, "Sure."

"Then yes." I smiled slightly before hanging up on him and crawling back under the covers.

The next morning was a slow one as I dragged myself out of bed. About an hour later, I was walking into the hospital with my coffee and probably some large bags under my eyes. After changing into my scrubs, I found Jackson and Alex standing by a nurse's station and stopped to say hello. "Morning." I faked a smile.

"Hello." Alex greeted me as Jackson gave me a subtle nod. You would never know that we were even friends by the way we acted towards each other.

"It's like I'm dating Mark against my will." We heard Arizona whine as she stopped to talk to Teddy a few feet away, "Come on. Twice a week. That's all I'm asking."

Teddy shook her head, "I am not babysitting Mark for you. Besides, I am too tired for sex with anyone right now. I was up all night dictating charts again."

"Well, you know, there's a thing called a resident that can do that for you." Arizona reminded her.

"Yeah, and my resident is Avery." Teddy groaned.

Arizona shifted her weight, "He still knocking over trays in the O.R.?"

Teddy nodded, "Yes, and scribbling patient orders in his third-grade scrawl and paging me in the middle of the night for patients who are nowhere near dead."

"At least he's nice to look at." Arizona smiled.

"True. Thank you." Teddy agreed as the two of them took off again.

Turning to Jackson, Alex and I both let out a chuckle. "You just got called a dumb blonde." Alex laughed before picking up his charts for the day and leaving. Trying to hide my smile, I placed a kiss on Jackson's cheek.

"She's right. You are nice to look at." I giggled before heading off to find a patient.

Making my way to the pit, I walked over to Meredith's patient to give her a hand. "I can not go out this way." the patient, a woman, sighed, "I-I can't die in a freak Laundromat accident. Ow!" she complained as Meredith used the ultrasound on her stomach.

"Sorry," Meredith told the woman as I did a quick once over on her charts.

The woman stared up at Meredith, "You cannot find anything wrong. I'm supposed to go to Brazil next week. Rio. And I just perfected my accent. Voce tem uma camisinha?"

Meredith put the ultrasound down and picked up her stethoscope, "I'm...fine. How are you?" she guessed what the patient had said.

The woman shook her head, "Nope. I just asked you if you had a condom. 'Cause that's the one sentence I learn before traveling someplace now. Yeah. Now you totally think I'm a slut."

Meredith chuckled, "Oh, I don't. Um...take a breath for me, please."

The woman took a deep breath, "It totally makes you think I'm a slut until I tell you I have Huntington's disease."

Both Meredith and my faces fell, no longer inclined to laugh at our patient's bold question. "Yeah, you're not gonna find it on the chart." the woman said as Meredith reached for those very papers, "The paramedic was so cute, so I just didn't mention anything, because, you know, the whole fatal genetic condition, it just doesn't scream 'sexy'."

"Have you started showing symptoms?" I asked.

Shaking her head, she answered, "No. My, uh, my mother died, so I got tested for the gene. She was forty-five, so I have about ten years left. Or five if you count the ones I can actually enjoy."

"Well, the accident shouldn't affect your Huntington's," Meredith told her.

"I know that." the woman looked up at us, "I'm just telling you so that you get that you have to work really hard to fix me, because I can live with the fact that I'm gonna die, but to die doing laundry? No. I want to accidentally fall off the Eiffel Tower because the three men and multiple orgasms were too much."

Meredith chuckled as I cracked a smile. Once we had given the patient, Lila, a C.T., a few more tests, and a room; Teddy and Jackson came in to talk to her. "Lila, your C.T. shows that you have a ruptured diaphragm, so you're gonna need surgery." Teddy told Lila, "So how will we proceed, Dr. Avery?"

Jackson thought for a moment, "Part of your stomach's gone into your chest. So we'll place your stomach back and repair the diaphragm with mesh."

"Dr. Grey, Dr. Forrest, do you agree?" Teddy asked us.

Meredith and I gave each other a look, and even though I didn't want to disagree with Jackson's idea, there was a better way to handle it. I shook my head, "No, I would do a direct repair with suture instead of mesh because the defect is so small."

Teddy nodded, "That's right. All right, Dr. Grey, Dr. Forrest, draw pre-op labs. You're both scrubbing in. Lila, do you need us to call anyone for you?"

"No. It's just me." Lila shook her head before turning to Jackson, "But I would like it if he would wait by my bedside."

"Yeah, you and every other woman in this hospital." Teddy smiled, "All right, I'll see you in the O.R."

Lila smiled back as Jackson and Teddy exited the room, "Thank you."

"Oh, please tell me you've gotten to make out with that," Lila said once the door had been closed.

Meredith shook her head, "No. Married, so no. But he's Dr. Forrest's boyfriend, so talk to her."

Lila's eyes widened as she turned to me, "No way! Spill it. How good is he in bed? He looks like he knows what he's doing down there if you know what I mean."

Trying to hide my beet-red face, I chuckled, "I'm sorry, but I don't kiss and tell."

"Yes, you do." Meredith chuckled, "We all do."

Lila got the hint and changed the subject. "Any babies?" she asked Meredith.

"Uh, no, but thinking about it," Meredith replied.

After exiting Lila's room, I found Jackson in the hallway. "Hello." I smiled "Sorry I, uh.., disagreed with your plan in there."

"Don't worry about it." he flashed me one of his heart-melting smiles.

Smiling back, I shook my head, "What did you do?"

"Nothing." he chuckled, "I just used my good looks to get into that surgery."

"Is this a first step to prostitution?" I asked.

Jackson and I started to walk. "No." he replied.

After splitting ways, I headed to the tunnel with my lunch where I found Meredith, Cristina, and April. "She called it hostile?" April asked.

"What's hostile?" I questioned as I sat down with them.

"Mer's uterus," Christina told me.

Unwrapping my sandwich, I sighed, "That's harsh. This is what that fertility doctor said this morning?"

Meredith nodded, "Yep."

"That's...well, at least it's nothing too serious." April continued, "I'll do some research on treatment options."

"Her uterus is friendly," Cristina said about April.

Meredith nodded, "It's sunshiny."

"Untouched by scourge of man." Cristina took a bite of her sandwich.

April smiled, "Peppy ovaries, too."

"Hey, the vending machine's working again." Lexi joined us as she shook a pack of Cheetos. We all stared up at her. "What?" Lexie asked.

"Nothing," Meredith told her.

"Is this the same nothing that has to do with where you were this morning?" Lexie asked.

Meredith turned to her, "I was at the dentist this morning. I have bad teeth."

Cristina, April, and I all chuckled. "Oh, okay, so 'teeth' are code for what?" Lexie sighed.

"I went to the OB today." Meredith gave in, "I have massive, baby-squashing, fibroids in my uterus."

"Oh, that's terrible." Lexie was sympathetic.

Meredith took a bite of her carrots and shrugged, "Eh, get over it."

Lexie nodded and turned to April, "But you knew?"

"Knew what?" Jackson asked as the turned the corner and joined us.

"Nothing." We replied.

April nodded, "The vending machine's working again."

"My patient eats worms," Christina told him.

"Dude, Altman fire you yet?" Alex came and sat down in one of the wheelchairs.

Jackson moved some medical tubs and sat down, "She is not gonna fire me."

"What'd you do?" Cristina asked.

"She thinks he's a hot piece of brainless ass," Alex replied.

Cristina turned back to Jackson, "Oh, you're totally gonna be fired."

"The situation is under control. Thank you." Jackson took a bite of his salad.

"You got a line on any weird bone cancer treatments so I don't have to cut off my ballerina kids leg?" Alex asked, changing the subject completely.

"Right, 'cause my memory is all I'm good for." Lexie sighed.

April turned to Alex, "There was a story in the news recently where they used a cadaver bone to replace a cancerous one."

"You get my fries." Alex handed his food to April before taking off. Smiling, I sat back and continued to enjoy my lunch.