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

74 | TAVI

"Chuck Cain." Alex groaned as he leaned against the doorway to the bloodwork lab, "I gave you his blood work five hours ago."

Rolling my eyes, I stood by Alex's side as we waiting for our patient's bloodwork. "Alex, I need you to cover the E.R. tonight." April came up behind us. 

"No." Alex told her before turning back to the lab attendee, "Look, before midnight would be nice."

"I'm still looking." the man replied.

April turned to me, a desperate look on her face, "Ellie?"

I shook my head, "Sorry, April. You know I would if I could, but this bloodwork is taking forever for Alex and I's patient and I still have a ton of post-op paperwork that needs to get done at some point."

"It's the E.R." April begged, "People will die if we're not there."

"Which will be your fault, not mine," Alex told her, attitude and slight annoyance in his tone.

"Got it. Here you go." the man handed the bloodwork to Alex.

Alex took it and faked a smile, "Finally!"

"Alex, please, can't you just be a person for a second?" April turned as we started to walk away.

Alex stopped in his track and faced her, "See? This is why you don't deserve this job. You're bad at it. You get all stressed out and frantic and nobody wants to listen to you. You have no authority, and your voice...it gets all high and nasally like this when you're nervous." Alex imitated April's voice, "It's annoying. You're annoying, so, no, I can't be a person for a second. Deal with your own crap!"

Alex huffed as he walked away. Feeling bad for April, I gave her a small smile, "Look, I can't promise anything but if our case slows down I'll try to leave Alex with the patient and finish my post-op paperwork in the E.R.; so I'm there if anyone needs me."

April sadly smiled back. "Thanks," she spoke softly as I turned to catch up with Alex.

Later that afternoon we gathered in Chuck's room so Alex could present the new procedure that he had read about. "This procedure is minimally invasive." Alex showed Chuck some pictures, "And the great news is, the scar will look like this." Alex showed Chuck another photo, "It's much smaller."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I want this instead." Chuck removed his glasses and turned his tablet around so we could see the screen.

"What the hell is that?" Alex asked as we looked at a picture of something I never wanted to see again.

"That's my friend Tony's groin." Chuck informed us, "I had him email me a picture last night. He had the same problem with his valve last year, and his doctor replaced it with a catheter through the groin. See? Barely any scar. It's called a T-A-V-I."

Alex nodded, "Yeah, a TAVI is an experimental procedure. There are tons of risks, uh, bleeding, stroke-"

"Look, I'm the one having this and paying for it, right?" Chuck interrupted Alex, "So if I say I want a TAVI, give me a TAVI."

"Look, there is a much safer solution to your problem." Alex almost snapped, "It's called a-a rash guard. You wear it at the pool. No one will see your scar."

Chuck shook his head, "Clearly you've never been to palm beach. Only fatties wear rash guards."

Alex sighed and turned to Teddy, "I can't get through to this guy."

"He wants a TAVI." Teddy told him, "Look into it and see if he's a good candidate."

Alex reluctantly turned back to Chuck, "I'll look into a TAVI."

Chuck smiled, "See? Now that's the answer I was looking for. I knew you had it in you, kid."

Alex flashed Chuck one of his fake smiles before we exited the room. "I know why you don't want to do a TAVI," I told Alex as we walked down the hall.

"Really?" he asked.

I nodded, "Because it's experimental and you don't want any more bad outcomes. But, Alex, you're never going to get anywhere if you always stay on the safe side and don't risk anything. Derek goes in on almost impossible tumors all the time, and that's why he is one of the countries leading brain surgeons."

"I already have five bad outcomes." Alex huffed, "I don't need six."

"Well, put it like this." I told him, "If Chuck dies, then that's also another bad outcome for me."

I threw down the article on TAVI's that I had been reading and groaned. I was researching the procedure that Chuck wanted in April's Chief Resident office; which I wasn't exactly supposed to be in. Meredith was also there, doing something with a mouse. Just then, Alex walked in and made his way towards the desk where Meredith was. "You're ditching O.B. to be a vet now?" he asked.

"Oh, April dumped Bailey's trial on me." Meredith corrected him, "I would be annoyed but it turns out I'm good with mice. And I found her secret snack drawer."

"Sweet." Alex reached into the drawer that Meredith opened to grab some food.

"Hey. Hey, that is not your food." April rushed in and smacked Alex's hand away, "Not your food. W-what have you done to my office?"

I looked around the office, which was indeed covered with Meredith's experiment stuff. "Get over it. I'm helping you." Meredith told April, "And go get me a healthy mouse."

"Bailey hasn't left the lab in forty-eight hours." April threw her arms up in the air to signify stress, "I-I can't steal another mouse."

"I can't steal another mouse." Alex imitated April's voice again as he sat down on the couch next to me and picked up one of the articles.

April gave him a look, "Fine. Fine, just keep going and good job."

Meredith chuckled slightly at the dirty look April gave Alex as she walked out. A loud huff followed seconds later as Cristina walked into the office. "Tell me what it feels like to get a bad outcome." Cristina sighed.

"Neck guy's paralyzed?" Alex asked, referring to Cristina's patient.

Cristina grabbed a snack from April's snack drawer, "Not yet. What would happen if I took my name off the case?"

"Do it." Alex grumbled, "You can take my place in this old guy's case. Altman's trying to make me do a TAVI on him."

"Oh, no way." Cristina sat down between Alex and me, "You're just asking for a bad outcome."

I chuckled as I leaned back on the couch, "You guys are way too scared of getting a bad outcome."

Cristina opened her package of peanuts, "Peanut?"

"No." Alex and I both said at the same time.

"Derek ran an M.R.A. and found out he can reach under the pericallosal vessels and reach the tumor on both sides," Lexie announced as she too entered the office.

"So he's operating?" Meredith asked.

Lexie shook her head, "No. Mary's afraid of the risks. Well, Clay really, but she listened to him."

"Okay, but did you tell them how good he is?" Meredith grew more and more excited about Lexie's case.

"Yeah." Lexie told her, "Kind of."

Meredith stood up and sighed, "Do I have to do everything myself?"

With that, Meredith left the room. "Hot." I heard Alex say and looked over to see him watching Cristina sext Owen. 

"Right?" Cristina raised her eyebrows.

"You two are unbelievable." I grabbed some of the TAVI articles and walked out.