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

76 | One Against a Billion

Glioma...fibroma...blastoma. Whatever the tumor, people assume you approach it the same way. You find its hiding place in the body, then open the patient up...and you cut it the hell out. But you're not just fighting the one tumor...you're actually at war with over a billion cells.


Walking into the lab, I had to push past a crowd of people who had all gathered to see Meredith's 3-D printing. About a week ago Meredith had started to do research on printing portal veins and today we were able to see the very first thing she printed.

"Good morning, everyone." Owen walked into the room and stood at the front with Meredith, "Grey-Sloan Memorial has always valued innovation as a top priority. And today, the leader of this charge is Dr. Grey. We should all follow her in pushing the boundaries, moving medicine forward, finding new ways to innovate. Dr. Grey?"

Meredith stepped up, "3-D printing will allow us to customize treatment for an individual's specific needs. Instead of ordering and waiting for an implant, we are going to be able to print, in-house, on-demand, right here. Eventually, even using a patient's own cells to prevent rejection. Welcome to the age of personalized medicine."

Meredith reached down into the printer and pulled out a... fork. "A fork?" someone asked, obviously disappointed. I couldn't lie, I was expecting more as well.

"Oh, no." someone mumbled as everyone started to leave. "Well, at least it isn't a spork." a man said.

Meredith's face fell as the room became almost empty, "You guys, we just got the printer yesterday. We're testing it out. Forks today...tomorrow, portal veins for actual people. You guys!"

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"Did you hear Mer just revolutionized the world of cutlery?" Alex asked Cristina as she joined us on the elevator.

The doors closed as Cristina stared at the fork Meredith was holding, "No, I...did not."

"Working on a liver model." Meredith sighed, "It's-it's printing up now."

"That's great." Cristina forced a smile. The two of them hadn't really spoken since the argument they had had.

Meredith nodded, "It is great."

Alex looked between Meredith and Cristina in confusion, taking in the awkward silence. As the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Cristina stepped off without a word. "What the hell's the matter with you two?" Alex asked.

"Stay out of it." Meredith instantly told him.

Alex looked to her, "Okay."

Getting off the elevator and onto the Peds floor, we walked into our patient's room. "I've been trying to wake him." our patient's mother huffed.

"Come on, buddy." Alex walked over to the teen, Will's, bedside, "We've let you sleep in long enough."

Will pulled the pillow off of his head and sat up. "Good morning, Will." I smiled.

"My big day started out as a nightmare when a clown came in at dawn, asking me if I wanted a balloon animal." Will groaned.

Meredith chuckled, "Clowns are a Peds floor hazard."

"Are you still going to try to remove all of the tumors today?" Will's mother asked, "It just seems like it's a lot to do all at once."

"Will's cancer is a very aggressive sarcoma." Meredith explained, "It's an all-or-nothing approach."

Alex nodded, "We've come up with a plan to remove all of them, starting with number one." Alex pointed to the screen that showed all of Will's tumors, "Some will be a snap, but there are a few tricky ones, like tumor number eight. It's deep in the liver, but we'll do our best to get it."

"We'll get it." Meredith tried to stay optimistic.

"We'll try." Alex corrected, "Um, it's sort of like trying to get past level six. You know, there are some, uh, fighters, but we need to be really precise."

"We will eat all those little dots and kill all those little ghosts." Meredith made a Pacman reference.

Alex cringed, "She doesn't play video games."

I looked down at Will, "We'll see you in the O.R."

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"Ready with tumor number one," Alex said, about twenty minutes into Will's surgery.

"Okay, you see that?" Meredith tapped the screen on her tablet and a small red x appeared over the first tumor, "Already going great. One down..."

"Fourteen to go." I finished.

Alex nodded, "I wish we had gotten to him sooner. He was diagnosed already with stage IV. Typical teenager. Ignored his symptoms, didn't want to ask for help from anyone...and now he's got an abdomen completely covered with tumors."

Meredith looked up, "Well, you're right. He is a typical teenager, which means he can beat this. He's strong, able to fight. And what's better?"

"What?" I asked.

"He's in my O.R." Meredith answered, "In the O.R. of someone standing on the forefront of medicine."

"You should print a spoon next." Alex joked, "That way we'll be able to reach tumor number two."

I chuckled, "No, print a knife and then you can use it with the fork to eat dinner."

"There she is." Alex breathed out, "Number eight."

"Right smack in the middle of the liver." I looked up at the scans.

Meredith glanced up, "Let's skip it."

"Skip it?" Alex questioned, "Why would we do that?"

"We'll come back to it," Meredith said.

"No, we planned this surgery in an order." Alex disagreed, "We should stick to it."

Meredith sighed, just wanting to go with her way, "Alex, if we remove the other ones first, we'll have better exposure. Let's just come back to it."

"It's the hardest one." Alex reminded her, "If it turns out we can't remove it, what's the point of even going for the easy ones? Look, we should try-"

Meredith nodded, "I hear what you're saying. But I'm the lead surgeon on this, and I'm making the call. Let's go to number nine."

"Number nine it is," I announced, not really having a problem with Meredith's approach at the time.

"We'll isolate the vessels, then take the tumor out under direct vision." Meredith explained to us, "I can do it."

"I don't know if you can, Mer." Alex doubted her, "It might be better just to close him."

I stretched out my neck a little, "Well, if we don't resect it, the cancer will only spread, and it'll eliminate his chances of beating this thing."

"How do you get it without taking the entire liver?" Alex asked.

"Dr. Grey, I just wanted to show you the latest on the liver model." Stephanie walked in and held up her phone.

Alex huffed, "Not now."

"Edwards, scrub in." Meredith told her, "We're gonna need your help retracting."

Stephanie took off as Meredith looked back at Alex, "Alex, he's fifteen. I think we need to be as aggressive as we can. Clamp."

Meredith went for it, but it wasn't turning out how we'd hoped. "Mer, you have to stop now," Alex warned.

"I'm about to do the trisegmentectomy-" Meredith started.

"Any further, you're gonna move into segments two and three." Alex cut in.

Meredith just tried to ignore him, "It will be fine!"

"There won't be enough functioning liver to support this kid," Alex argued.

Meredith looked up and stared daggers at Alex, "I think it will, and I will stop before I'm too deep."

"You print one damn fork, now you think you're Moses or something," Alex muttered.

"Alex, I'm in the middle of dividing this kid's liver." Meredith snapped, "And I need this conversation to be over!"

Stephanie and I just stood silently and watched as Alex and Meredith yelled at each other. "Oh, you gonna pull rank on me again?" Alex mocked, "Is that how the decision's made?"

"You could two-challenge rule," Stephanie spoke up.

Alex looked to her, "What?"

"Dr. Webber told us about the two-challenge rule where two surgeons who agree can force a third surgeon to stand down from a course of action," Stephanie explained.

"Okay, fine." Meredith sighed and looked to me, "So, Dr. Forrest, you and I challenge Dr. Karev to relax and let me finish."

Alex shook his head, "No, I'm challenging you, Mer. I'm asking you to stop what you're doing. Ellie?"

I held my hands up, "I'm not deciding."

"Fine." Alex huffed, "Edwards?"

Stephanie looked to Meredith, "Dr. Grey...I think you're amazing. And you made a beautiful fork, and I am so grateful to have been a part of that. But right now I do think you're pushing it. And I have to second Dr. Karev's challenge."

Meredith stepped back from the table and put her instruments down, "Dr. Karev, you can close."

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"So...what does that mean?" Will's mom was on the bridge of tears, "Another surgery? More chemo and radiation?"

"It means more time on the Peds floor." Will groaned, disappointed.

I nodded and looked to Alex, "Yeah, it-it sucks."

"Um, but, you know, while you're here, uh, we'll get some things from home." Alex suggested as he started to remove all the childish things from the room, "You know, extend visiting hours so, uh, your friends can hang out. And, uh, look, I'll-I'll make sure...that, uh, no one rounds on you before eleven. No more Peds stuff. Deal?"

Will nodded, a small smile on his face, "Deal."

Meredith waited for us outside, listening in. "Sorry about what happened in the O.R. but we made the right decision," Alex told her as we exited the room.

"I could've gotten that tumor." Meredith followed us as we walked down the hall.

Alex scoffed, "Nobody could have gotten that tumor."

"I could have." Meredith huffed.

"Mer, I need to talk to you." Cristina ran to catch up with us.

"I need a minute," Meredith told her.

Cristina persisted, "It's about a patient of mine."

"Well, I'm talking about a patient of mine right now, so I need a minute." Meredith held her hand up.

"I-I need the printer." Cristina spat out.

Meredith shook her head, "It's my printer, Cristina."

"No, it's not." Cristina replied, "It's the hospital's printer, and-"

"Which I got for them for my research, for my grant." Meredith stopped walking.

Cristina looked her right in the eyes, "Which is important research, but at this point, it's research, Meredith. And what I'm talking about could save a life."

"I can't stop it in the middle." Meredith declared, "It will completely destroy the model. Just because I printed a fork does not mean my research is a joke."

"No one said it was a joke." I could tell Cristina felt accused, "But see, I could print a scaffolding and make a biological conduit for a baby's heart."

Meredith waved her arms around, "They're not even doing that yet."

"They are in Japan." Cristina informed her, "So if I get a compassionate release-"

"I don't have time to argue." Meredith stopped her, "Submit a proposal to the board if you wanna use the printer."

Cristina sighed, "It's time-sensitive, Meredith."

"Well, then you better get to work," Meredith told her.

Cristina just shook her head and left, obviously done arguing since she wasn't going to win. "So that's what it was about in there." Alex said, "You and Yang? She calls you a lousy doctor, and suddenly you have something to prove?"

"That is not what this is about." Meredith snapped.

Alex blew some air out, "Oh, so you take it out on my patient."

"I did not take it out on your patient." Meredith denied.

"Look, you need to be told you're good? Fine, Mer. You're good." Alex barked, "But Yang was right. You're a lousy doctor today."

Alex took off and I followed closely behind, giving Meredith some space. On my way out I walked past Webber, who was doing his laps as part of his recovery. He was looking good and I was glad to see that. He had always been our leader...and right now, we needed one.

So how do you beat the odds when it's one against a billion? You stand strong, keep pushing yourself past all rational limits...and never let yourself give up. But the truth of the matter is, despite how hard you try...and fight to stay in control...when it's all said and done, sometimes you're just outnumbered.