Dr McHot

Talk to me

Three and a half months later.....

"Can I ask you something?" Hanna asked as her and Amelia Shepherd sat waiting for the scans of a fourteen year old boy.

"Sure what's up?" Amelia said turning away from the loading screen.

"Have you ever had a person that you see everyday and its just normal, they're just there, not really a friend or anything more cause you don't think about it they're just there," Hanna explained, "but then all of a sudden they're not. They're not just some person that you happen to see everyday, you look at them and there's something different. Nothings changed, nothings happened. But, it has. It's different."

"You falling for someone you don't know?" Amelia asked jokingly, "you got a high school crush on someone new?"

"This hasn't happened before," Hanna told her, "I don't know what this is."

"You're not freaking out on me again are you?" Amelia asked both concerned and trying to make a joke.

"No," Hanna laughed, "I'm chill, cleared for surgery and everything now so back to normal."

"What's happening with you and Jackson anyway?" Amelia asked turning back to the screens to click through the scans, "never mind. There it is."

"Shit," Hanna breathed as she stared at the tumor that sat in the right side of the kids brain, "he was such a nice kid too."

"And he still will be a great kid when we fix him," Amelia said reassuringly.

"When you fix him," Hanna corrected her, "he's got a some internal bleeding and ruptured spleen from when he came off his bike but other than that he doesn't even need a general surgeon. Karev can do it."

"Hey, you don't know that they're gonna say no," Amelia told her as Hanna stood to walk the kid into his room with Alex.

"They've all said no," Hanna said opening the door.

"you've been back two days," Amelia called after her.

"So what's the third day right?" Hanna smiled weakly, "another no can't really crush my soul anymore. Can it?"

"You don't know," Amelia told her firmly as they walked back to the kids room together.

#####

"Hi, Mr. Johnson," Hanna said as she saw the nervous looking father stand shaking beside his son's bed.

"Dr. O'Reilly is he okay?" Mr. Johnson asked, "Is he gonna be okay?"

"Well, that's what we're here to talk to you about," Dr. O'Reilly said as the boys father squeezed his son's hand, "the most pressing issue at the moment is the abdominal bleeding and his ruptured spleen, we're gonna need to perform a surgery to correct the bleeding and possibly remove the spleen."

"The most pressing issue?" the father asked obviously scared, "you found something else?"

"Yes," Amelia said cutting in, "we found a mass on your son's brain. I'm gonna want to do some more tests and scans to be sure but with what I've got and the way it's affecting him, I'm quite sure that it is a tumor."

"Cancer?" the man uttered as he slowly sat in the chair by the bed, "my son has brain cancer?"

"We won't know that until we do a biopsy to check," Amelia said calmly.

"Just one more thing, and its not about you son that's it for him," Hanna said taking a deep breath in, "I'm legally and morally obligated to tell you that I have bipolar disorder and that I have had an episode, a psychotic break within the last year. This is to explain why you'd need to sign a form saying you're happy for me to continue being your son's doctor if you choose to keep me as his doctor and there are plenty of other highly skilled doctors if you choose to say you don't want me as his doctor. Dr. Karev for example, he is an excellent doctor."

"How long? Between breaks last time," the father asked.

"Uh seven or eight years I think," Hanna told him nervously.

"So your treatment works," he said standing up from the chair and putting a hand on Hanna's shoulder, "and it's working now?"

"Yes sir," Hanna told him a little hopeful now.

"My sister has the same thing," the man explained, "one slip up in what I expect was quite the shitty situation, shouldn't end your career. It didn't end hers and it shouldn't end yours. Of course you can still be his doctor, you've already proven that you can save his life once. Go do it again."

"Yeah sir."