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The woman in pink PJs looked around her.
“They’ve done some changes indeed,” she mumbled. Then she saw some movement under the covers on the bed closer to the window.
“I must have fallen asleep,” the other woman on the bed at the window said.
“That’s what hospitals are there for, making people fall asleep,” the woman in pink said and smile a bit. “By the way, I’m Lorna.”
“Betty, nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, I guess we both can imagine better circumstances for a meeting but it will have to do,” Lorna said. “Will you stay here for long?”
“Just one more week. They did a valve surgery and doctors say everything is healing nicely so they’ll discharge me soon,” Betty said but it seemed impolite to her to rejoice too much about it when Lorna had been just admitted so she fell silent for a minute.
“And how long do you think you’ll be here?”
“Quite long, this time,” Lorna touched her chest. “The heart has had enough and the doctors finally got their wish and will do a bypass. And then I’ll move to the general surgery department. It will be quite a ride. Guts doctors don’t want to operate until my heart is ok. And the gallstones need to go so,” Lorna shared without hesitation as if she was talking to her best friend.
Cristina entered the room.
Shane recited: “Lorna Andrews, 65, admitted today for a scheduled bypass surgery. Here’s the lab work.”
Cristina glanced at the papers. “Oh, I remember. We did the percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty a few years ago.”
“Mrs. Andrews is also scheduled for the gallstones surgery afterwards,” Shane added.
“That’s her! Mer said something about it. Double surgery. But I forgot her name.”
Cristina approached the patient. “Someone from general surgery might stop by in advance, just to take a look.”
She left and didn’t see Lorna’s smirk. “Someone from general surgery, I bet it would be this Mer. She’s very nice, kinda messy hair if you ask me and a bit too skinny, but nice,” she whispered to Betty.
“I don’t think I’ve seen her,” Betty replied.
“That’s because she’s in another department. Though now I’m confused. She was in neurosurgery or not?”
“I’ve met your gallstones patient,” Cristina said in the office and proceeded to chew on the pen as she was doing some paperwork.
“You mean your bypass patient,” Meredith winked.
“Yup. Lab work looks good. Thought maybe you’d like to see her in advance.”
Meredith put her feet off the table and put on her shoes. She dragged Cristina along and they came in Lorna’s room holding hands.
Lorna winked at them.
“Aww, I knew that this someone from general surgery would be you. I’m so happy to see you again.”
Meredith looked at Cristina, confused.
“Ahh, don’t worry girls. You can’t remember, you meet so many patients. On the other hand patients meet only so many doctors so we remember more easily. Seven years ago,” Lorna pointed to her head. “Aneurysm.”
“Oh, I’m sure it’s all in the files. We’ve just looked at the more recent history,” Meredith assured her.
“I think I was one of your first aneurysms,” Lorna winked.
Meredith nodded. “Yeah. I remember now, though I was only an intern. I did everything the residents said and for the the actual surgery… Dr. Shepherd performed the surgery,” she smiled. “And everything went well and judging from the stats everything should be ok this time, too. But first we’ll let doctor Yang here treat your heart,” Meredith said and discreetly winked at Cristina.
The moment they turned the corner they again grabbed each other’s hand.
“So Lorna was my neurosurgical patient…”
“Nothing special. There’s gotta be some probability that you’ll run into the same patient repeatedly. Given that we are the best hospital in the region, doctors send their patients here, she has already been hospitalized here. Don’t have the exact numbers now to count it.”
Meredith lightly punched Cristina’s arm. “It was meant as a sentimental statement, oh, the time flies, not an invitation for you to calculate statistics.”
“You should have warned me about the incoming sentiment. I’d try harder to spot it,” Cristina deadpanned.
Lorna asked Betty in stage-whisper: “Have you seen it?”
“What?”
“The wink! The girls are onto something.”
“Wink? I don’t think so…”
“Oh, that was a wink. I can recognize a wink when I see one,” Lorna gestured wildly. “And they came in holding hands! My girls, they’ve come a long way,” she announced, satisfied.
Betty just shrugged.
“You haven’t seen them seven years ago. I was there. I was her aneurysm patient. I mean not only hers, there was also her superior, handsome doctor, fluffy hair. And the other girl, oh, she was grumpy, lips never turning upwards. It’s been a journey with them. But now that they are together…”
“But, but,” Betty interrupted her. “Just a minute ago you said that maybe they winked at each other. And yes, I grant you this, they came in holding hands, but if they’ve been co-workers and friends for at least seven years… And now you just say ‘they are together’. I’m not convinced.”
‘Oh boy, this will be difficult,’ Lorna thought and politely smiled. “That’s because you don’t know them. But I’ve been keeping an eye on my girls. I’ve been in this hospital more times than I care to remember.”
“Addison hates me,” Meredith sighed even before she stepped into the locker room. She was exhausted. Being an intern at Seattle Grace meant many sleepless nights.
“No wonder,” Cristina announced.
“You know some support would be appreciated…”
“Then ask George or Izzy.”
Meredith rolled her eyes.
“Ah, Mer. What do you want. First, you slept with her husband. Second, you were not just passing by, he can see you every day. You are a threat. Third, you are younger than her. Fourth, you are beautiful.”
“Beautiful?”
“That’s what I said. Some people, uhm, men, many men would think so.”
“Thanks,” Meredith winked. “Now that’s support. But no men for me.”
Cristina halted her steps. “What?”
“It always ends with a disaster. If I want to keep this job and I do want to keep this job, I can’t be sleeping with men because with my luck they’ll all turn to be doctors from this hospital and Bailey would kill me. Or Bailey and Addison together.”
“Nah, you just have to make sure you know the person is not working here. Or at least know from the beginning that the person is working here.”
“I’ll go with the first option,” Meredith said.
“I have no advice for you, I don’t know any people who are not working here.”
Meredith started to protest but Cristina silenced her.
“As if I should be giving you any advice. Look at me and Burke.”
“At least he’s not married.”
“Yup, he’s single.”
“Single as in single single?”
“I’m single, he’s single, you are single… Looks like Addison would be out of job soon. No couples, no kids,” Cristina declared.
“Finding someone who works in the hospital and I know it, hmm,” Meredith mumbled, thinking about Cristina’s second suggestion.
“That was seven years ago,” Lorna recounted with a satisfied smile.
“Ah, when you were here for the aneurysm surgery,” Betty said.
“Exactly! And see, Dr. Cristina called her beautiful. And I bet this was the moment they started thinking about dating someone from the hospital and who that someone could be,” Lorna said confidently.
“And naturally, I had to come for regular check-ups too. The fluffy-haired doctor had different assistants, so I didn’t see Dr. Mer so often but I started having some problems with my heart, so I was quite often at the cardiology department. And what would you think? There she was, Dr. Cristina!”
“Oh, so you hadn’t seen Dr. Grey anymore?”
“I did see her! She was there quite often,” Lorna chuckled. “I almost thought she was working on becoming a cardiothoracic surgeon!”
Meredith glanced at Cristina and continued alternating between filling in the chart and idly kicking the chair next to her with her foot.
Cristina was working on the computer and intently staring on the screen.
Meredith glanced at her again.
“What?” Cristina turned on the chair and faced Meredith.
“Nothing. Just looking. Thinking…”
“Hm.”
“You know the car crash today… That was tragic.”
“Yeah.”
“And the girl’s last thoughts were that she didn’t tell her colleague how much she loved him. Bailey prepared her for surgery but…”
“Yeah, the other one, the guy, stayed unconscious the whole time,” Cristina said, obviously concentrated only on the second part of Meredith’s speech and comparing the patients’ health status.”
“They were co-workers for five years and she never told him! She was smiling at him, leaving small gifts on his desk, asking him for advice; but he never got it.” Meredith said, eyes closed as she was replaying the dying patient’s words in her mind.
“Well, some people can’t figure out the hints. Just saying.”
When the silence was too long, Meredith sighed. “Ok! I know what you are talking about. And for the record I got the hint. I understood right back then. Finding someone you know who works in the hospital. Yeah. You. But I was afraid. I remembered it today because of the car crash and found out it was exactly a year ago. Soon before I switched neurosurgery for general surgery.”
Meredith took a deep breath. “I decided for a completely unscientific approach and will take today’s events as a sign that I should do something about it.”
“Something about it?” Cristina echoed.
“Yeah, like first asking you if you are free tomorrow evening, which I know you are because we are not on call, and second asking you if you’d like to go to Joe’s, which you’d like because it will be after work and there will be tequila and third telling you it’s a date.”
“Ok,” Cristina nodded and concentrated on the screen again. Without looking at Meredith she added: “For the record, I like the tequila part the most.”
“You heard that?” Betty asked, almost screaming aloud. “All of that? How!?”
“It was a night shift. Doctors do talk during night shifts. I cannot be blamed for being in the patient room closest to the doctor’s office or for them not closing the doors,” Lorna said innocently and rearranged her pillow.
Cristina finished another shot of tequila and laughed out loud. “Girls! She called us girls. No, seriously Mer, do I look like a girl?”
“Apparently yes, at least to Lorna. She’s what? Sixty-five? Could be our mother.”
“Yup. On the other hand, the age difference is not so big that we could say, she’s antient,” Cristina complained.
“I bet you thought that though when you first saw her.”
“And that was seven years ago. And I absolutely thought that. You know what? Reckless youth,” Cristina laughed.
Meredith winked. “So reckless that you asked me out, repeatedly, almost in public, in the hospital.”
“We were always in the hospital,” Cristina snorted.
“We are still always in the hospital,” Meredith said.
“At least you find the time to organize a decent date now and then. The Romeo and Juliet play was perfect for the cozy atmosphere,” Cristina announced.
Meredith chuckled, not entirely sure if Cristina was being sarcastic or if she really found Romeo and Juliet a cozy and fluffy work. There certainly were more optimistic love stories to see in theatres but this was the best choice on their day off, Meredith reasoned in her mind.
Jo recited the stats and handed the chart to Meredith. “Everything went well, Mrs. Andrews. We removed all the gallstones. You’ll spend here just one more night for observation and you’ll be discharged. I think you must be looking forward to going home, after the stay at the cardiothoracic department…”
“Your doctor Cristina was so thorough I thought she’d never be satisfied and I’d never leave.”
Jo coughed. Meredith smiled a bit nervously. “Yeah, ehm, very thorough.”
“Let’s… let’s get to another patient,” Jo said.
“Too bad, Betty is long at home,” Lorna said. “Mary, what do you think. Is it possible to hide a relationship between doctors in a hospital for a long time? This younger girl, Jo, is not entirely dumb, she must have been here for a while. Now I wonder has she just learnt about this pair or was she pretending it? I hope I haven’t said anything wrong. But I just love to chat and observe, Mary!” Lorna said to the other patient in the room.