falling for you [m.s.]

thirty eight

gwen was in the hospital walking down the hall with meredith and george on each side of her.

"duncan paley, eight, recently diagnosed with aortic valve disease from infectious endocarditis, scheduled for a ross procedure." george presents gwen as he gave her the chart. "there's a note from his pediatrician.

"duncan!" someone suddenly yells. it was duncan's mom who runned after her son with her husband together.

gwen looked at her residents. "go!" she yelled at them.

"sure." they answered before they run after duncan and his parents.

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duncan unfortunately triggered the fire alarm out of fear of the operation, which caused anger by the chief.

"do we have this kid under control, or do i have to call social services?" richard asks gwen.

"he won't do anything like that again." gwen assures him.

"he better not. the damn ceiling fell last week. i don't need a series of false alarms. this place looks ridiculous enough." richard scoffs before he stormed off.

"keep the ankle-biter under control." gwen tells her residents.

"i'll sedate him if i have to." meredith tells her.

"good. bone up on your pulmonary autografts. i don't want to spend the day bathed in your ignorance and incompetence." gwen says and walks away as well.

then she saw arizona in a x-ray room.

"hey." arizona greets her. "i'm gonna be in the o.r until 7. is 8 too late for dinner?"

"no." gwen shoke her head. "but if you need to reschedule or cancel."

"come on, are you kidding?" arizona asks her while coming closer. "i made a reservation at canto. i even gamed out an outfit. we are doing this." arizona smiles before walking away.

the moment arizona was gone gwen stopped smiling and replaced it with a nervous expression.

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gwen stood at the nurses station when she heard bailey.

"move." she yells to some residents before walking over to gwen. "they have the nerve to be indignant about how they're not allowed to be on their specialties anymore. they don't have specialties. they should be grateful they're allowed in the..." but bailey stopped when she saw gwen looking at the floor clearly not listening. "are you listening to me?"

gwen sighs and leans forward. "i'm going on a date with arizona robbins and... that's awkward 'cause she's a colleague and because she's an attending, and because she's a she." gwen explaines while bailey looked at her shocked. "and there's been kissing, but... no touching, and what if i'm not into it? what if i'm horrible at all that stuff south of the border? 'cause i've never been south of the border... with a female. i mean, i've never been over the northern mountains, you know what i'm sayin'?"

but bailey looked at her still shocked. gwen kissed her teeth before she coughs.

"we're gonna pretend this didn't happen." gwen says before walking away.

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gwen was in an x-ray room with meredith and george explaining the surgery of duncan.

"we're gonna transect the great arteries at the sinotubular ridge, use the autograft to replace the aortic root, then attach a pulmonary homograft." gwen explains.

"are you going to use septal sparing technique for the pulmonary autograft?" meredith asks the attending.

"yes." gwen replied. "why do you ask?"

"because if we cut too much of the septal muscle we can't take the patients off the pump, right?" meredith asks.

"right." gwen agrees.

"i always wanted to see a septal sparing technique." meredith tells her.

"do you know how to reanastomose the coronary arteries back to the aorta?" gwen asks her.

"i do." meredith assures her.

"i'll let you sew a part of it in." gwen tells her. "you'll be in there, might as well get your hands dirty."

"great. thanks, dr.shepherd." meredith thanks her.

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gwen stood at a nurses station when bailey approached her.

"i don't talk about sex." bailey says.

"please, let's just pretend i never said even a single word." gwen begs her.

"i don't talk about sex with anyone ever, not any kind of sex." bailey continues.

"bailey, i am begging you..."

but bailey hushed her and thought for a moment. "the vajayjay is undiscovered country. it is motherland. you've never traveled there, you don't know its customs and ways. now me, i've always wanted to go to africa. but, if i go, i'm gonna have to learn a few things first. i'm going to have to prepare. i'll need shots. bring my own syringes in case something goes wrong. and i'll want to know how to get to the embassy..."

"okay, now you've lost me." gwen interjects her.

"just talk about it." bailey smiles at her. "not with me, with the other one. just talk about the rules, the expectations, figure out how to gracefully demur if you find out you don't like... the local cuisine." bailey smiles warmly at her. "in ethiopia, they eat stew off of spongy sour bread. that's not for everyone."

gwen nods and sighs before bailey walked away.

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"dr.grey are you ready?" gwen asks her in duncan's surgery. "have a good visualization and start suturing right here." gwen watched as grey sutured the patients arteries. "all right. keep going. very nice. beautiful. you can tell dr.yang she's a better teacher than i would've thought." gwen says more serious while looking at grey.

"sorry." meredith apologizes.

"save it." gwen says sternly. "your colleagues know more than you do, milk them for all they're worth. lie to me again about your experience, the next heart you see will be your own as i cut out it of your chest with a steak knife."

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gwen wore a thight black dress and black heels. her hair was curled and she wore some red lipstick.

arizona was already at their table when gwen entered the restaurant. gwen sat down and put her purse on the table. arizona was slightly confused about the stern look on gwen's face.

"i need to have rules." gwen states.

"what?" arizona asks confused.

"rules." gwen repeats. "i need rules about how i'm gonna deal with the motherland, because it's undiscovered country for me, and... maybe it'll be the best vacation i ever had, but it's mysterious and dark, and there should be rules." she said and grabbed the glass of wine that stood on the table. "oh, and an embassy. and a safe word."

"i'm sorry. what the hell are you talking about?" arizona chuckles at gwen's behavior.

"below the... below the mason-dixon line. of your pants." gwen whipsers but arizona still looked at her confused. "i'm not sure i'm ready to go there."

"that's okay." arizona assures her while taking her hands. "there's lots of undiscovered territory above the belt as well. we can take it slow. maybe... just first base."

gwen sighed with relievement. "okay. okay, thank you. sorry."

"finish my wine." arizona tells gwen as she hands her the glass. "i'm gonna look at the menu while you let your blood pressure drop back down to normal."

gwen drank the whole glass then she smirked at arizona. "arizona. maybe second base, too."