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

26 | Leaving

"Forrest, you wanna help take a parasitic worm out of a man's spine?" Bailey asked as she passed me in the hall.

"Is that even a question?" I smirked, "I have nothing else to do, so sure."

Bailey nodded, "Great. O.R. two in ten minutes."

══════════════════

"C-3 and c-4 are just a mess." Derek commented as we started the surgery, "I'm gonna have to go further in here than I expected."

"You might as well go all the way to c-5." Bailey said from her spot by the monitor, "I mean, from the look of this lesion, that's where the bastard set up his hive."

Derek shook his head as I helped retract, "I don't want it to be any more invasive than it has to be."

"Don't argue with her." Ben, Bailey's anesthesiologist boyfriend warned, "She's starting her own sci-fi movie. You mess with her, she'll pull out her ray gun and atomize your ass."

"And he's still pouting." Bailey huffed, "You're a physician. Is this really the first time you missed a lunch and the crossword because of a surgery?"

"Here we go." Meredith sighed.

"It was important to me," Ben told her.

Bailey looked to him, "Well, this parasite's important to me."

"Yeah, I can see that." Ben retorted.

"You know what? Fine. Let's do it right now." Bailey argued, "Give me the damn crossword."

"Just forget it." Ben refused.

Bailey got up to get it herself, "Oh, no. Nobody's ever gonna forget it. Where is Dr. Warren's bag?"

"Miranda..." Ben sighed.

"Oh, there it is." Bailey returned back to her spot.

Derek continued to work, "And this is why you don't work with your girlfriend."

"I warned them." Meredith chuckled.

"Oh, dear God." I retracted some more.

"Here we go." Bailey started, "Oh, this is gonna be so great. It's way better than a once in a lifetime, bone-eating parasite. Let's see. One down."

"Dr. Bailey." Ben tried to stop her.

Bailey shook her head as she stared at the crossword, "Oh, no, no, no. No help from you. I'm too excited. This is what I live for. Let's see 'Peruvian mountain range.' Oh, Andes. Five, uh-huh. Uh...'planet with water, four letters.' Oh, Mars. Duh. Uh, 'fancy sauce'? Fancy...ohh. Remoulade."

"Stop," Ben told her.

Bailey looked up, "What? No, no. I'm on a roll. Come on. Hey, this can't be the Sunday, 'cause this is way too easy. What's..oh, hey, this one. Twenty-one across. 'my question to you.' Hmm."

"I'm asking you to put it away," Ben begged.

"He's asking you nicely, Dr. Bailey," Derek added.

Bailey shook her head, "Oh, no, no, no. When he doesn't get his way, he holds onto it in his cheeks like a squirrel with a nut. We are doing the crossword. What is 'my question to you'? It's a bunch of letters. Um...oh, maybe it's a phrase. 'My question to you,' anybody?"

"How many letters?" Meredith asked.

"Uh...two...nine...thirteen." Bailey counted.

Derek joined in, "There's thirteen letters?"

"Fourteen." Ben corrected.

"No, I'm looking at it." Bailey said, "It's thirteen."

Ben sighed, "No, it's fourteen. Count again."

"I just counted." Bailey argued, "What, do you have X-Ray vision from across the room?"

"Will you marry me." Ben spat out, "Is my question to you. And the reason why it's so easy is because I made the crossword. Took me two damn months not to mention getting a mock-up made of 'The New York Times.' The phrase has fourteen letters. 'Will,' four, 'you,' seven, 'marry,' twelve, 'me'...fourteen."

"Got it." Derek announced as Bailey stared at Ben, "It was in c-4."

══════════════════

"They're conjoined at the sternum and the diaphragm." Meredith noted as we looked at pictures of the twins that we were flying out to save, "It's tricky."

"I can handle it," Cristina said.

"So Seattle's still in the mix. That's a surprise." Meredith turned to Cristina, "Because of Owen? Cristina, he should be with someone who wants a baby. And you should be with someone who wants you."

"You know what?" Cristina sighed, "You and everyone else needs to just...shut up about it."

"It's a huge decision." Meredith reminded her, "And I don't want you doing the wrong thing."

Cristina put her head in her hands, "It is not your decision to make."

I sat back as the two of them hashed this out. "I am your person." Meredith continued.

"We're not married." Cristina snapped, "You're not my...he's my person."

With that, Cristina got up and left. An hour or so later, we were in the lobby, wearing the hospital's giant winter coats, and getting ready to leave. "You son of a bitch. I had to hear it from hunt?" we saw Arizona start to yell at Alex, "What, you couldn't even be man enough to tell me yourself?"

"Sweetie." Callie tried to stop her, "She's having a horrible day. I'm so so-"

"No, you ungrateful crap dog!" Arizona screamed.

Alex had been backed up to a wall, "It's Hopkins. You went there. You of all people should know that."

"You're a miserable, miserable bastard." Arizona snapped.

"Robbins, they want me." Alex explained, "All right? They really want me."

Arizona lowered her voice, "Oh, well, you...you're actually going?"

"Can we talk about this when I get back?" Alex asked since he was coming with us.

"No." Arizona grabbed the files from his hands.

Alex scoffed, "What are you doing?"

"No, you are not going to Boise, because you no longer represent this hospital!" Arizona asserted.

"Oh, give me a break..." Alex started.

"Look at Alex, showing us all up by going to Hopkins." Meredith smiled.

Cristina chuckled, "If Robbins lets him live that long."

"I'm going to Boston." Meredith told us, "I told Hunt."

"I'm going to Mayo." Cristina smiled.

"I'm staying here." I felt slightly alone at that moment.

Arizona ended up taking Alex's place on the trip. So, once we all boarded the plane at the airport, it took off. I sat by myself as I stared out the window, finally having a chance to think about things. I was dating someone who I never spoke to, I slept with one of my friends, and now my two best friends were leaving. I hadn't officially told Owen that I was staying, but he knew. Cleveland still wanted me, but I knew that Owen would need the surgeons. I looked around the plane at everyone; Meredith, Derek, Cristina, Mark, Lexie, and Arizona. These were all my friends...no, my family. The question was, do I stay back and continue to do what I know with the people I love, or leave and test the waters?

I remember my eyes closing right before it happened. A loud noise and then I felt the plane drop. But it wasn't one of those little scares where the plane jolts and then continues on as if nothing happened. No, we kept dropping. Everything was so loud between the screaming and sound of the engines.

Everything was happening so fast, until it all just stopped. We hit the ground...people screamed...and then blackness.