Stitches of Survival

The Me Nobody Knows

Chapter Fifty-Six: The Me Nobody Knows

*~*~*~*

I found myself sitting in the passenger's seat of Meredith's car the Monday morning following the disaster of the dinner party. The tension between Mark and I had yet to settle over the past few days, resulting in me choosing to hang back at the house to see Joel off to school before carpooling to work with Meredith, Maggie, and Amelia. However, I found myself regretting the decision as I sat in the silent car, the tension between Meredith and Amelia thick.

"So, uh... DeLuca and I are basically not talking." Maggie attempted to break the silence. She glanced between her sister and friend from her seat behind Meredith. "Just like you two. Only different. Obviously. Yeah, I mean, we say 'hi,' but, uh... there's no talking. I mean, even after the amazing sex. Once you've had that, you would think it would be easier to have a conversation."

"Tell that to Mark," I scoffed. I still couldn't wrap my head around how he had treated Callie the other night, and how he was still avoiding her as if she were the plague. He would only communicate to her about Sofia through Arizona, putting the blonde in an awkward position. I understood that he was still upset about Derek, I was too, but that gave him no right to treat his best friend so poorly.

"How're things going between you two?" Maggie asked me, clearly relieved to not be the only one talking anymore. "Is it any better?"

"Well, its been four days now and he's still sleeping on the couch." I informed them, my lips pressed into a thin line. "The only time he'll talk to me is if it has to do with the kids' schedules."

"That woman starts today-- the resident from Dillard," Maggie pointed out as she glanced between the other women. "Do you want to talk about that? 'Cause you should."

"She's right," I backed her up. "It's not healthy to keep everything bottled up like this."

"It doesn't burn when I pee anymore," Maggie randomly added when Amelia and Meredith remained silent.

*~*~*~*

"Did this case a year ago," Jackson pulled the before and after photos of one of his previous patients up on the monitor as I joined him and Ben in radiology later that morning.

"Looks amazing," Ben shook his head at the differences in the images. Before the patient's hand had been malformed, huge tumors inside some of their fingers. But in the after photo, the patient's hand looked normal, save a few scars. "And we're doing something like this again today?"

"That's the plan," I nodded, making both of the men look at me.

"April's bringing in a kid from Jordan with Ollier's Disease. You can see, these are the enchondromas," Jackson pointed out on the picture.

"Cartilaginous tumors," Ben said. "They-- They grow from the growth plates, right?"

"Exactly," Jackson nodded. "Which is why you're gonna want to do a wide local excision, expose the bone so I can get in there and reconstruct the hand--"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. I will?" Ben questioned his words. "I'll dissect the tumors?"

"I thought so," Jackson confirmed. "If you're up for it."

"If you're not then I'm here to step in," I volunteered.

"Hell yes, I am," Ben chuckled.

"Are you ready?" We all looked back towards the door to find April standing there. "They're on their way up."