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

63 | Smoking Kills

Callie was awake now, and recovering quickly and very well. She said yes to marrying Arizona, and they now had a beautiful daughter, Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres, who was one week old, 1lb, and 1 oz.

"Mrs. Pulcher, you're gonna have to stop smoking," Owen told our patient that we had been seeing for about three weeks or so.

"Your infections are getting worse," Alex added.

Mrs. Pulcher pointed her finger towards us, "Your infections, you mean. I didn't have them before you three idiots operated. You didn't even do that right."

Owen sighed, "Again, I am sorry, but your lung cancer had spread to the point that we couldn't-"

"Please. Useless." Mrs. Pulcher interrupted, "I can afford any hospital in the world, and I come to this third-rate crap factory. When am I getting outta here? I've been here for three weeks. This is not Guantanamo."

"Discharge her, please." Alex whispered, "I'll pay you."

Owen ignored him, "There is not much more that we can do unless you are willing to help yourself. Now the smoking-"

Mrs. Pulcher scoffed, "Oh, if I wanted a lecture on smoking, I'd dig up my dead husband. Now get me outta here before I sue your balls off. Or," she pointed to me, "in your case, tits off."

Putting on a fake smile, I looked down at the chart, "Well, we'll run some tests and if your white blood cell count is up to an acceptable level-"

"How high does it have to be?" she asked, "Give me a number."

Owen sighed, "Well, it's at a .8 now and I'd like it to be above a 2."

"1" Mrs. Pulcher bargained like she was buying some jewelry from a garage sale.

"This is not a negotiation," Owen told her, chuckling a little.

"Everything is." she retorted, "1.5. 1.5 and you let me outta here. Now get me a wheelchair, 'cause if I have to wait around this hellhole, I'm gonna smoke."

Owen, Alex, and I all looked to each other. "Okay." Owen agreed, just ready to get rid of her.

As Alex and I went to a computer to get some test results, we ran into Arizona looking at some scans. "Wow. That kid looks screwed." Alex commented.

"He is." Arizona told us as we stepped closer, "He has five different cardiac and abdominal defects. I'm supposed to operate on him next week."

"That's awesome. Can I scrub in?" Alex asked.

Arizona sighed, "Yeah, if you can get us to Africa. I was supposed to go back there next week, but now I have a very sick little girl of my own and a fiancée in the I.C.U."

"Fly him out here," I suggested.

Arizona nodded, "Yeah, I've tried, but you can't imagine the red tape and the money. And there's a dozen more like him that I'd want to do the same thing for. I'm trying to find someone to help 'em out over there. I just...I made a promise, that's all."

Throughout the rest of the day, things seemed to just keep getting worse. Callie was still trying to see her baby, but she wasn't healed properly yet and it was too dangerous for the baby to move. Meredith and Derek's trial patient had died, and I found out that Teddy had refused to teach Christina anymore.

As Alex and I entered the room to check on Mrs. Pulcher for the night, we caught her just as she was lighting a cigarette. "No!" Alex yelled as he rushed in, "Give me that."

Picking up her glass of water, he held it out and Mrs. Pulcher dropped the cigarette into the liquid. Alex then took the lighter from her as I closed the room door behind me. "So am I leaving?" Mrs. Pulcher asked, "What's my number?"

"It's not good," I told her.

"Not your opinion, stupid." she retorted, "Number."

".6" Alex almost yelled at her, "It's gone down."

Mrs. Pulcher started to cough. "I'm sorry the results weren't better." Alex apologized.

"You should be, you worthless bastard." she insulted him for about the tenth time that day, "It's all your fault. Get outta my sight, both of you. I can't stand looking at your stupid faces. Go!"

With that, Alex picked up the clipboard from the table, grabbed my arm, and dragged me out of the room. "Bitch," I mumbled and Alex nodded.

"How'd she take it?" Owen asked us as we exited the room.

"Bitchy." Alex replied, "'Cause she's a bitch."

Owen sighed, "She's also dying and she's alone. She hasn't had any family or visitors since she got here."

Alex scoffed, "Well, maybe that's 'cause she's a-"

"Let's keep our assessments to ourselves," Owen warned as he went back to filling out a chart. Before he walked away, he turned to us, "Karev, what's your plan for Chief Resident?"

Alex raised an eyebrow, "My plan?"

Owen nodded, "Mm-hmm, besides badmouthing patients. All your colleagues are showing some kind of leadership potential. Grey, Avery, and sometimes Forrest are on clinical trials, Kepner is overhauling the surgical checklist. They have a plan, I was just wondering if you had a-"

"African kids," Alex answered.

"Sorry?" Owen cocked his head.

Alex nodded, "Yeah, I'm gonna bring over about a dozen kids from Africa and, uh, get them surgeries...badly needed surgeries."

Owen's eyes widened, "Huh. Sounds pretty ambitious."

"Well, I'm an ambitious guy." Alex smiled.

"Also sounds like you just pulled that outta your butt," Owen added.

Alex panicked a little, "Oh, no, Sir, it's a...it's a plan that I've, uh, been plan-planning."

Owen nodded, "Okay. Well, good. Let me know if I can help."

"Right outta your butt." I chuckled.

Alex shot me a look, "Shut up."

"You guys ready?" Cristina asked as she walked past, "Let's do this."

Following her, we knew exactly what she meant. After getting to Callie's room, Christina bent down near her bed, "Wake up!"

Callie's eyes shot open, "What?"

Cristina waved for us to come in and we started to carry all of the things that we needed inside. "Just stay still and relax." Cristina told Callie, "Let us do everything. Can you do that?"

Callie nodded as we began to hook her up to the portable machines. Before long, we were ready and we started to push Callie's bed out of the room and down the hall, towards the NICU. A few meters down the hall, an alarm from one of the machines started to beep, but Lexie shut it off before it could alert anybody. "Tell him that Cole moved to eight-thirty tomorrow." we heard Bailey's voice and stopped.

"Back, back, back," Jackson whispered.

Jackson, thinking fast, turned the corner towards Bailey. "Dr. Bailey." we heard him say, "Can I...can I ask you something?"

Taking this chance of distraction, we pushed the bed through the hall and past Bailey. A few moments later, Alex, Meredith, Cristina, Lexie, and I all wheeled Callie up to the window of the NICU. April and Alex, who had gone inside, opened the blinds and pushed Sofia's little incubator closer to the window as Jackson joined us.

Callie instantly smiled, followed by tears. "We'll give you some privacy," Meredith said as we all stepped back a few feet. Callie laughed lightly as we stood close by. "Hi." we heard Callie whisper, "Hi, baby. Don't worry. See, I'm...I'm a little messed up, too. But we're gonna be fine, okay? We're gonna be just fine."