Code Blue | Grey's Anatomy // Book 2 // COMPLETED

14 | You're Free

"You found a 7.5 triple-A on your eighty-five-year-old patient. Go." Callie said as Meredith and I walked through the park with her as she pushed Sofia in her stroller.

"Get an angio, asses his pulmonary and cardiac function, and see if he's a candidate for an endovascular repair," Meredith answered as it was her turn.

"Nope," Callie said.

Meredith turned to her, "Why not?"

"Because the patient's dead. You killed him." Callie told her, "He's dead."

I thought about it, "She didn't kill him She did a stent graft and now he's living without the threat of a rupture, which is not dead."

Callie hummed, "Mm. I think you should buy him flowers, 'cause he dead."

"He is not dead." Meredith argued, "I saved him the complications of an open procedure with a minimally invasive technique. He's...not dead."

Callie smiled, stopped walking, and turned to us. "Why are we stopping?" I asked.

"Because we're done," Callie replied.

Meredith sighed, "Because I killed him? I told you, I did not kill him."

"I know, and so do you, even when I try to psych you out of it." Callie nodded with a smile still present on her face, "Which means...You both are ready for the boards. The Torres method is inside you. So I'm gonna go home to my wife because I am sick of pushing this baby around this park...every morning at the butt crack of dawn."

"And us?" I asked as Callie started to walk away.

"Uh, you're free." she answered, "Go do whatever it is you do."

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I can't even begin to explain how good it felt to enter the hospital and be confident that I would pass the boards. "I've got some good news for you, Neil." Webber looked down at our patient who had yellow skin due to his organ failure.

"You've changed your mind about euthanasia?" Neil asked in a joking manner.

"We found you a donor." Webber smiled.

Neil seemed skeptical, "For the whole thing?"

"The whole thing." Webber nodded.

"Dr. Webber, you know I love you, but I believe you stood me up at this dance before," Neil said.

Webber raised his hand slightly and shook it slowly, "A couple of times, but I am here with a new corsage. Dr. Grey."

Meredith smiled, "Neil Sheridan, sixty-two, presents with short gut syndrome caused by a resection of the small intestine. Years of T.P.N. has caused the liver to fail, resulting in the need for a multi-organ transplant of the small intestine, large intestine, stomach, pancreas, and liver."

"All from one guy." Neil added, "Try to find that on Craigslist."

"And we've scheduled you for surgery today," Webber told Neil.

Neil sighed, "I'll believe that when I see it."

"We'll see you in there." Webber laughed as he and Bailey exited the room.

"Neil, do you want me to call your family?" I asked, "I'm sure they'd love to visit."

"Oh, don't worry about me, sunshine." Neil insisted, "My family came to say their good-byes the first two times. 'We love you. We'll miss you.' It-it was sweet, but I've heard it. I told 'em not to bother this time around."

"Okay." I understood, "Well, if you change your mind, you let me know."

Neil nodded, "I will. But I won't."

Laughing, Meredith and I too left the room.

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"Oh. Where have you been?" April asked Jackson as we stood at one of the main desks, "We're halfway through the new batch of flashcards."

"Yeah, Hunt and Yang are out sick today, so Sloan is the Chief, and I am the Chief's bitch. Lucky me." Jackson faked a smile.

Alex sighed, "No distractions. Kepner, hit me again."

"Okay, a-a woman with dysuria, incomplete voiding, and a palpable suburethral mass." April read off of one of the cards.

"Urethral carcinoma." Alex answered, "Damn it. I had one of those last year. Um, uh, we did, uh, radiation and surgical excision."

Just then, Meredith walked up next to me and we both shared a smile; slightly enjoying the others struggle because we both knew the answer. "No! Would it be, uh, chemo?" Alex turned to Jackson.

"An ectopic ureter," Jackson suggested, "or it could be. I mean, I scrubbed in on one of those, but I don't remember the technique the urologist used. Damn it."

"Sounds like urethral diverticulum." Meredith finally piped up.

I nodded in agreement, "And if it's proximal, I would do a partial ablation because it's much less likely to result in a fistula."

Alex scoffed, "You don't even need to know advanced urology for the boards."

"But we do, because the Torres method is in us." Meredith smiled.

"Total crap." Alex huffed, "You get to study with Torres while the rest of us get to sink like rocks. I hope you two are happy with each other when you're alone in the O.R. together and the rest of us are all working the free clinic at the mall."

"My whole brain is crammed with so many hypotheticals, I can't even remember what real cases I was actually there for." Jackson complained, "I am screwed."

"I'll tell you who's screwed...Yang." Alex interjected, "The boards are around the corner and no one's seen her study, she's out sick. She's gonna get creamed."

"Yang is fine," Meredith told him.

April looked up, "You can't just pass the boards on raw talent, okay? It is an artificial environment which requires massive amounts-"

"Cristina is fine." Meredith interrupted, "Okay?" 

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"Hey, I got the donor scans." Bailey joined us as she put the scans up for us to take a look at.

"Oh, great." Webber moved other scans out of the way, "Let's see what you got."

We took a step back and looked at the X-Rays that belonged to the man who's organs were going to Neil. "Bowel looks good, small intestines, large intestines, and that's a good looking pancreas," Webber commented.

"Look at that on the liver right there." Meredith pointed to a spot on the scan.

Bailey stared at it, "Looks like a tumor."

"Well, that makes him an unsuitable organ donor," Mark said.

"Not necessarily." Webber disagreed, "Could be a benign adenoma. My patient's been in for two other transplants, and they both fell through. He's not gonna live much longer without a new liver."

"We could resect it." Bailey suggested, "It's a little unconventional to operate on a donor, but there's no reason why it wouldn't work."

"That's a great idea, Bailey." Webber agreed.

Mark looked to them, "Great idea? You want to put compromised organs into a transplant recipient and give your guy cancer on top of everything else?"

Webber nodded, "I think we owe it to my guy to at least excise the tumor and test it."

"I don't agree." Mark was using the fact that he was temporarily Chief against us.

"Dr. Sloan, are you arguing surgical protocol with Dr. Webber?" Bailey asked.

"Dr. Bailey...are you arguing with the decision of the Chief of Surgery?" Mark tested, "Call U.N.O.S. tell them this donor's unsuitable. Put Mr. Sheridan back on the list."

As Mark left, Webber, Bailey, Meredith, and I all stood still. "Why would Owen put Mark in charge?" I huffed, "Worst decision ever."

Sighing, we all headed for Neil's room to give him the bad news. I really thought that Bailey's idea could have worked. "We've put you back on the transplant list." Webber explained to Neil, "And a new set of organs can come in at any time."

"Cut the crap, Dr. Webber." Neil sighed, "You and I both know I'm not gonna make it to see the sunrise tomorrow let alone to stick around for...for some other poor sad sack to kick it."

"Mr. Sheridan, is there anyone we can call for you...you're family, your sisters, your friends?" I asked.

"Are you kidding?" Neil grumbled, "Thank God my family's not around for this. It's like Lucy with a football, except it's my life. It would kill them worse than the first two times to come in here and say goodbye to me. We're all alone in the world, sunshine. Anybody who tells you any different is lying or trying to s-sell you something. Now you..." he looked to Webber,"You are the best doctor I ever had. So don't beat yourself up about this. It's done. It's over. You did everything you could."

"No." Webber shook his head, "No, I didn't."

"Sir," Bailey spoke up.

Webber sighed, "Bailey, you're tumor resection idea was sound and there was no reason why those organs wouldn't work."

"Well, the donor is still on life support." Bailey informed us, "The organ recovery for the heart and lungs isn't scheduled till this afternoon."

Meredith mumbled, "But Dr. Sloan s-"

"You let me deal with Chief Sloan," Webber said.