𝓛𝓘𝓛𝓘𝓐𝓝 - ᵃ ᵍʳᵉʸ'ˢ ᵃⁿᵃᵗᵒᵐʸ ᶠᵃⁿᶠⁱᶜᵗⁱᵒⁿ

iii

Lilian quickly got herself together and was by the nursery as soon as the first baby, a young girl, was born. She was quickly taken aback by how jaundice the baby was, but was secretly glad the problem didn't appear to be neuro. The only other neurosurgeon around there was Amelia, and neither of them would be able to operate on a newborn baby. Maybe they needed another neurosurgeon on the team.

Lilian tested the baby's reflexes. She pressed her gloved pinky against the roof of her mouth, and she sucked on it. She then pressed her finger in the middle of her palms and under her toes, and she grabbed her finger. She softly caressed the side of her mouth, and the baby's head leaned into her touch. She then carefully grabbed the baby's head and turned it slowly to one side, seeing her arms move in response. As a last test, she snapped her fingers next to one of her ears, and she watched as the baby turned her head towards the source of the sound. By the time she was done, Alex gave her the little boy. Unfourtunetly, the baby boy didn't pass every test.

"Alex," Lilian asked for her colleague as soon as she realised that some of the reflexes weren't present. If the baby hadn't moved, this would mean there was something wrong with his spinal cord, but the baby was moving, which meant the cause was either a natural dysfunction or pregnancy trauma.

"Busy, Sheppard," he answered, checking the baby girl's vitals.

"Dr. Karev," Lilian called more urgently. She wished she didn't have to do that, because that certainly alarmed the parents. She didn't even know their names, but she was going to have to tell these poor parents that their little boy had some kind of neuro deficiency. Alex picked up the panic in her tone and left the girl with Arizona to go check on the boy. "He has almost no reflexes. Was there any kind of pregnancy trauma? Did she mention falling, maybe bumping her stomach somewhere?"

"Nothing to me, you'll have to ask them," he told her, also testing the boy's motor reflexes, just to be sure. "You're right."

"If it's a spinal injury, it could justify the jaundice, maybe a blow to the liver. Babies are very fragile little things," she commented, stroking the little boy's hand as a sign of affection. Alex noticed something was wrong, but decided not to mention it right now. "But it wouldn't explain her. She passed every test beautifully."

"Can someone please explain why my two babies are yellow?" The mother asked desperately. At the same time, she got a page from Amelia. Come if you can, it said.

"Can you deal with this?" Lily asked Alex. "And ask them about the trauma, please." Alex was about to tell her no. He wanted to tell her that the neuro part was on her, but he saw the pleading look on her face and gave in.

"Take DeLuca with you," he almost begged her. Lilian locked eyes with DeLuca, smirking at him.

"Nope, he's all yours," she said, winking at the man and running out of there.