falling for you [m.s.]

thirty three

gwen and callie were walking to the hospital both with a cup of coffee in their hands.

"a couple? you and arizona? that's what she thought?" callie asks her confused.

"yeah. she asks if i'm in the vagina monologues now." gwen tells her.

"that is crazy." callie said while entering the hospital.

"yeah. crazy." gwen agrees.

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gwen was standing at the o.r board when webber approached her.

"shepherd." he calls her. "walter tapley's coming in. do we have anything he can scrub in on?"

"walter tapley is coming here?" gwen asks with disbelieve.

"the chief was his student." george, who stood next to webber, informed her.

"you studied at the right hand of god?" gwen asks. "wow."

"we need something impressive." richard informs her.

"i will stab someone in the chest if i have to." gwen assures him.

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"there she is. dr.shepherd, our chief of cardiothoracic surgery." webber introduced gwen to walter.

"it's an honor to meet you, dr.tapley." gwen smiles while shaking his hand. "i use your modified bypass procedure all the time."

"yeah, well, that was an afternoon well spent." walter tells her.

"you came up with that in an afternoon?" gwen asks with shock.

"it took him six years." webber corrects.

"you're a killjoy, webber." walter laughed. "i didn't really come here for a visit. i have aortic and mitral stenosis with tricuspid regurg. i need a double valve replacement and tricuspid repair."

"are you sure?" webber asks worried.

walter reached next to him. "charts, echeos, chest x-rays... everything you need. i may have invented the modified bypass, but i can't operate on myself. and my colleagues won't touch me because i have chronic a-fib, pulmonary hypertension and a clot in my left atrium. they think if they operate, they'll kill me."

"what makes you think we'll do it, if your colleagues won't?" gwen asks him.

"i didn't start their careers. they can say no to me. webber can't." walter says.

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"absolutely not." gwen tells richard as they were alone in his office.

"now, hold on..."

"have you read the file? his arterial pressure is through the roof." gwen reminds him.

"he's aware of the risk." richard assures her.

"well, in that case, fine." gwen says sarcastic. "i don't know what i was so worried about? i may go down in history as the surgeon who killed walter tapley, but hey at least writing about me." she adds still sarcastic.

"gwendolyn, sit down." webber says and she did what she was told. webber sighed loud. "let me tell you a story. thirty-eight years ago, when i was a..."

"i'm sorry. is this gonna be a story about how you were a struggling black med student who wanted to be a surgeon and no one would give you a chance and walter tapley did? he mentored you, and without him you wouldn't be in this hospital?" gwen asks.