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

51 | Take Me to the Carnival

After finishing up the surgery for the A.T.V. accident girl, I headed back to the E.R. which was still slower than I would have liked; but it was the first day so slow was to be expected. Spotting Owen and Jackson standing around Meredith and her patient, I walked over to see if I was missing anything good.

Meredith stared back at Owen and Jackson as I joined them. "Can I help you?" she asked.

"Well, I noticed your patient has acute abdominal pain." Jackson smiled at the patient, an older woman, "Any chest pains?"

The woman shook her head. Owen looked to Meredith, "Because if you wanted to put her through the Lodox for a full body scan, you could. If you wanted, you know, to...use the Lodox."

I chuckled and looked to them, "Are you two seriously roaming the E.R. to find a patient to put through the Lodox? I mean, sure it's cool, but is it really that cool?"

Owen looked to me, "It's that cool."

"Do I need a full-body scan?" the patient asked; sounding a little worried.

"It only takes thirteen seconds," Jackson assured her.

Meredith sighed and turned to her patient, "No, you don't. No Lodox. Thank you."

Jackson and Owen's smiles instantly faded as they took off in the direction of one of the other patients. "So recently, the pain has been getting worse?" Meredith started an ultrasound as I watched.

The woman nodded, "I thought I had the stomach flu. I drown myself in that sanitizer stuff, but when you're teaching kids, oh, they're just little germ bags. Ah, I've been out for a week."

I looked up at her, "Oh, I'm sorry."

"Oh, it's been great for me." she said, "I haven't taken a day off in twenty-eight years. You know how many, um, cooking shows they have now?"

Meredith shook her head as she continued the exam, "I don't."

"It turns out, I love watching people cook things." she told us, "And then this morning, the pain was so bad, I couldn't move, so I-I called the ambulance."

Meredith nodded, "Okay, Madeline, so from what I'm seeing here, it looks like gallstones."

The woman, Madeline, winced, "Oh, God. Does that mean surgery?"

"It does." Meredith told her, "But the good news is, we can do it laparoscopically, which means no big incisions and very little recovery time. And I'll take them out, and you'll be on your way."

I looked to Meredith, "Need an extra hand? I literally have nothing to do."

"Sure." she nodded.

Madeline sighed with relief, "Well, I get to watch some more people cook stuff."

"Okay, so I'm gonna get them started on admitting you." Meredith wiped the ultrasound gel off of Madeline's abdomen, "You just sit tight."

"Great. Thank you." Madeline smiled as Meredith and I walked over to the desk. "Did you just update your patient file?" April ran over.

"Mm-hmm." Meredith looked down at the small tablet that we used now.

April turned to the large screen by the desk, "Watch this."

As Meredith pressed a button on her tablet, her patient file on the screen flashed green. "So cool!" April gushed.

"You do get excited about things." Meredith went back to the file.

April nodded, "Yes, I do. Hey, how's that baby?"

"Oh, it probably has three arms and a tail." Meredith sighed, "How's your paramedic boyfriend?"

"Terrible." April huffed, "I mean, um, great. Perfect. Just not...I probably have to break up with him."

I glanced at her, "Why?"

April leaned forward, "Okay, are-are you really asking? Because I really need to talk about this."

"Well, now I'm not so sure," I admitted.

"Okay." April exhaled, "Uh, Matthew's never...been to the carnival. And he thinks that I haven't either because that's what I told him, but I have."

Meredith gave her a look, "I'm sorry. And you want to go to the carnival together?"

"Because I've been already and I...rode the rides." April tried to be subtle.

"Oh." Meredith caught on, "You went to the carnival with Jackson."

April sighed, "I have ridden the rides...and they are good...the tilt-a-whirl and then that one that spins around when your back is up against the wall and then the floor falls out from underneath your feet. And I want Matthew to go with me, but he wants to wait, which is...why he's perfect, because that's what I want. I always wanted to wait, but I didn't wait. And now I just...every night push him closer and closer. And I feel like I'm just gonna slip and buy him a ticket and shove him on the tilt-a-whirl, and then he's gonna love it, and I will have corrupted him. And I-I'm not a corrupter."

Meredith and I just stared at her with grins on our faces. "Well, I don't know why you're talking to me about this." Meredith told her, "I am a big fan of the carnival and I go every chance I get."

"Me, too." I agreed.

"Yes, I know, but-" April started.

"Okay, so your whole thing is, uh, God has a plan, right?" Meredith asked.

April nodded, "Yeah."

"Well, there must be a reason why God let you go to the carnival already." Meredith explained, "Maybe you're supposed to take Matthew."

April just backed away, "You're right, I should not be talking to you about this."

With that, she took off. "Well, I don't really know what she wanted us to say." I chuckled.

Meredith nodded, "All right, let's go take some gallstones out."

Meredith and I headed up to the O.R. about half an hour later and started our surgery on Madeline. Meredith, of course. was the lead, since she was the General surgeon. I assisted, but it was better than nothing.

"Uh, Meredith Grey, Ellie Forrest, I want to talk to you about human genome mapping." Bailey walked into the O.R. and put a mask on.

Meredith continued to work, "Right now?"

"Yes, right now," Bailey confirmed.

"We're operating." I reminded her.

"Exactly." Bailey stepped closer, "I have you cornered. You can't walk away or start talking about the sexual antics you're going to engage in tonight. But you can listen."

"Bailey." Meredith exhaled deeply.

"Now!" Bailey ignored her, "Genetic mapping can lead us to developing targeted therapies for diseases."

Meredith and I continued to stare up at the screen as we did our laparoscopic surgery. "Oh, no." Meredith breathed out as I spotted what had her worried.

"Oh, yes, precision medicine, where we treat illness at its molecular source instead of just dealing with the consequences." Bailey continued, thinking we were talking to her.

"What's this?" I asked Meredith as I tried to get a closer look at the object on the screen.

Bailey sighed, "What it is is the future of medicine. It's a way that we-"

"No, Bailey." Meredith held her hand up to stop her, "Shut up."

Bailey scoffed, "Please. You're removing a gallstone. You can do that in your sleep."

"No, it's not gallstones," Meredith told her.

Bailey stepped up to the table and looked at the screen, "Oh, it's calcified. Okay, well, you'll need to do a biopsy and maybe open her up. But don't think the worst."

"This is a hard mass." Meredith shook her head, "This is cancer."

Before I knew it, Bailey had scrubbed in and we had opened Madeline up. "Oh, crap." Meredith exhaled, "It's spread to the liver."

"Oh, if she was teaching until last week, it can't be that bad." Bailey tried to think the best, "All right, if we resect part of the liver maybe we can get it all."

"It's worth a try." Meredith agreed and we started to resect the liver. "Oh, look at that." Meredith spoke, "It's encasing the hepatic artery and the bile duct."

"We could continue, but we can't take the artery." I said as we paused to think of a game plan, "It's unresectable."

Meredith sighed in frustration and disappointment, "Well, let's finish up and close."