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

49 | Evaluations

 "That is the biggest pheo I've ever seen." Chief Webber gawked at the scans.

"Is it infiltrating the kidney there?" Bailey asked as she pointed to a spot on the picture.

Fred stepped forwards slightly, "Is that...that...that's the spleen, right?"

"No, that's the liver." Cristina corrected him, an annoyed look on her face.

Fred nodded, "Oh. Okay, so is that the tumor?"

"That's the gall bladder." Cristina shot him a look.

"Wait. Really?"

Cristina sighed, "Cross my heart. Hope to die."

Chief Webber turned to Fred, "The image is reversed on an M.R.I. It's confusing at first. I'm sure Dr. Yang can remember seeing her first M.R.I. and empathize. Empathy is a good quality for a Chief Resident, don't you think, Dr. Bailey?"

Bailey nodded, "Oh, I do, Sir."

Cristina got the message and pointed to the M.R.I, "This is from the feet looking up," she told Fred, "so that's the kidney, that's the adrenal gland, and that is the tumor."

"That's the tumor?" Fred raised his eyebrows, "It...it's eating into the kidney."

Chief Webber sighed, "Right. I was hoping we'd only have to remove the adrenal gland. But it looks like I'm gonna have to take Henry's kidney as well."

"So how'd my tumor look?" Henry asked as Cristina, Fred, Lilly, and I pushed him through the halls.

Cristina thought for a moment, "We don't have, uh, the results from all the scans yet."

"I've had eleven operations in the past three years." Henry told us, "I have tumors removed as a hobby. I know how this works. You know the results, but you can't tell me. So give me a hint, I mean, look, are we talking marble, grapefruit, basketball?"

Henry stared at us intensely as we rolled him into his room and helped him get back into bed. "Dr. Webber will be up shortly to discuss the results of the scan," Cristina said as she folded up Henry's wheelchair.

Henry turned to Fred and Lilly, "Come on guys. What'd you see?"

"No, they're first-year med-students." I told Henry, "They can't even read a scan."

Henry pointed to Fred, "Then why does he look like he's gonna piss himself? Look at his face. He's sweating. What's going on? Am I gonna die?"

Fred's eyes widened, "No, I'm not...my face...it...don't let me...'cause I'm just like she said, pretend I'm..."

"Stop talking," Cristina ordered and Fred shut up right away.

"What'd you see, Fred?" Henry asked again.

"Nothing." Fred replied, "It's gonna be okay. Truly. My uncle had his kidney removed, and he's-"

Henry leaned closer, "What?"

"Oh, god. I'm sorry." Fred realized what he had said.

"Stop talking." Cristina hissed as Lilly took a few steps back, "Mr. Burton-"

Henry stared at us, "You have to remove my kidney? Do you? Do you take to take out my kidney?"

"The tumor on your adrenal gland has compromised your kidney." Chief Webber explained to Henry one we had all gathered again, excluding Fred and Lilly, "It's enough damage that we need to remove it."

"I know. It-It sounds like a lot, but it really is our best option." Bailey assured Henry.

"Could we ask Dr. Altman what she thinks?" Henry asked.

I turned to Henry, "Uh, Dr. Altman is a cardiothoracic surgeon. This isn't her area of expertise."

"I know," Henry said, "but she did this amazing thing for me. I trust her. I'd feel a whole lot better if I knew that she was on board."

Sighing, Chief Webber agreed to talk to Teddy as the rest of us headed to the cafeteria for lunch.

"No plus sign yet?" Cristina asked Meredith as we sat down at one of the tables.

Meredith took a sip of her water, "No, and I'm so tired of peeing on sticks. It's exhausting."

"Okay, you think peeing is exhausting?" Cristina looked up at Meredith, "Wait till you have a mewling, pooh-covered infant hanging off of your boobs 24/7."

"Why is my baby gonna be pooh-covered?" Meredith asked as Lexie, April, and Jackson sat down with us.

"Okay, what is that about?" Lexie pointed over to a table where Alex was teaching his med-student, Laurel, how to do stitches.

"Come on. You blame him?" Jackson asked, "She's hot."

I turned to him, "Again, I'm right here."

"Don't be a pig." April told him, "He's being gross, not to mention unprofessional."

"Well, the thong is unprofessional." Meredith chuckled as we all noticed that Laurel's black lace thong could be seen.

Jackson sat back in his chair, "Damn it!"

"Unprofessional." April said again, "Wh-what is wrong with them? I was never that dumb when I was in med school."

"They're weak and gutless," Cristina commented.

"Boy crazy," Meredith added.

Jackson nodded, "Oblivious."

"Ignorant." I joined in.

April sighed, "Slutty."

"Wow." Lexie picked up her drink, "You all sound really old."

We all shot her a look before continuing with our lunch.

Once lunch was over we had started Henry's surgery because Teddy had given the okay to remove the kidney. I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that Teddy had married a patient, but it wasn't exactly my place to be giving my opinion since my so-called 'boyfriend' kept talking about how pretty another girl was right in front of me.

"Dividing and ligating the renal artery and vein," Cristina announced.

"Beautiful. Nice work, Dr. Yang." Chief Webber smiled under his mask.

Cristina paused for a moment before turning to Fred, "Mr. Wilson, would you like to take a look at the tumor up close?"

Fred nodded, "Oh. Sure. I-I mean, yes."

"Can I look too?" Lilly whispered.

I nodded and moved aside as she and Fred stepped closer to the table. "Okay, so these are the hilar vessels." Cristina pointed as she spoke, but stopped when she noticed Fred looking a little wobbly. "Our med student's gonna faint." she sighed.

"Catch him, people." Chief Webber ordered as the scrub nurses held their arms out, catching Fred as he toppled backward, "Thank you."

Lilly, however, was still staring intently. "Sorry about that, Sir." Cristina apologized for her light-headed apprentice.

"Ah, it's fine." Chief Webber sighed, "That's exactly why I like seeing first-year med students here once a year. Reminds me where I started. Humility...that's another good quality for a Chief Resident, wouldn't you say, Dr. Bailey?"

Just like before, Bailey nodded, "It was always one of my best qualities."

"Also, it's funny when they fall down." Chief Webber added.

"Sir, you want to take a look at this," said Cristina as I moved Lilly aside and stepped forward. As I looked closer, my eyes widened, "What the-"

"You paged me, Chief?" Teddy asked as she stepped into the O.R.

"We found a cyst on Henry's pancreas that's in danger of rupturing." Chief Webber explained, "Removing it means removing a large portion of his pancreas, which would make Henry a diabetic. We didn't discuss that possibility with him."

Teddy nodded, "Okay."

"Well, do you think that's something he could live with?" Chief Webber asked.

Teddy shrugged, "I don't know."

"Well, I hate to ask you on the spot, Dr. Altman, but technically, you are the wife." Chief Webber told her, "And you're also his emergency contact person, so I am asking you, do you think he has the support system to manage a very tricky disease?"

Teddy was silent for a while. "I don't know." she finally spoke.

The Chief rose his voice slightly, "Is there someone we could call? A next of kin? Anyone?"

"I-I don't know," Teddy said again.

"You signed a marriage license, and you haven't asked him the most basic questions on how he wants to live or die?"

Teddy was silent again, her eyes searching the room.

"Do I have your permission to act as I see fit?" Chief Webber asked.

Teddy nodded, "Yes."

"That's all, Dr. Altman." Chief Webber excused Teddy as we went back to surgery.

Once Henry's surgery was over, most of the med students went home. "Today was amazing!" Lilly smiled.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." I smiled back as I walked her to the front doors, "Today was just a small taste of what being an actual surgeon was like, but if you liked today, then you will love working in a hospital."

Lilly smiled as she headed towards the doors, "Thank you, for being so nice to me today."

"No problem." I waved as Lilly exited the hospital.

"Oh, you're kidding. They were evaluating us?" Jackson asked as we all gathered in the resident's lounge to head home.

Meredith sighed, "Don't worry. No one will read them. They'll just get filed away in a room next to the morgue."

Just then, Chief Webber entered the room. We all looked up at him as he cleared his throat. "Dr. Yang..." he began, "lacked patience and basic compassion. Dr. Kepner...unwilling to delegate. Dr. Avery placed his own learning opportunities before my own. And Dr. Grey...seemed to have a lot going on personally today. The only two of you who seemed to actually teach today was Dr. Karev and Dr. Forrest. The rest of you failed...big-time."

Alex and I smiled as Chief Webber exited the room. "And that's how it's done!" I cheered as Alex and I high-fived. Alex let out a chuckle as he headed for the door.

"I hate that guy." Jackson groaned.

"Maybe if you actually taught instead of gawking at Laurel all day, you would have gotten a good review." I too headed for the door, "I heard your student saved someone. Sounds like he did a great job without you anyway."

After exiting the hospital and driving home, I entered my dark and lonely house. Well...like Sam had pointed out, it wasn't even my house. As I flipped on the kitchen light, I pulled out my phone to see two missed calls. Going to my inbox, I saw that I also had two messages. Pressing play on the first one, I set the phone down on the table and took a seat.

"Ellie, Hello! It's Allen, your realtor. Just wanted to call and let you know that the offer you put on that house has been denied, sorry. However, I do have a few more places for you to check out that I think you'll love! Give me a call as soon as you can. Talk to you later."

Groaning, I deleted that message and played the other one.

"Hey, Ellie, it's uh...it's me, Sam. I hate to do this but I found someone who is interested in buying the house. They got a tour of the place while you were at work and they loved it. If all goes well, they want to move in within a month or so. You should probably start looking for somewhere else as soon as possible. Even if things don't go as planned, I'd still like you out of there in a couple of weeks. Bye."

As the message ended, I had to fight the urge to throw my phone through the kitchen window. There was no way I could find someplace else to live within a month, let alone a couple of weeks. Groaning, I placed my arms on the table and rested my head on them. This was going to be impossible.