Chapter 12

I ended up staying at Meredith's for the first time in a while last night after Derek and I made up. I love staying with Jackson, but I missed my own bed and having all my friends in one house plus it's hard to get rest at Jackson's place because he's always trying to have sex. I woke up and did my hygiene then I got dressed for work. When I walk downstairs I see Derek and Lexie in the kitchen with some other guy I don't recognize.

"Hey Liliana, this is Alex's brother." Lexie says.

"Oh hey." I smile kind of noticing the resemblance.

"Hey, nice to meet you. I'm Aaron." He smiles.

"Are you sure you're Alex's brother? You seem so polite." I frown.

"Once people know that Alex and I are related I get that a lot." He chuckled.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Alex asks walking into the kitchen with Meredith behind him.

"Oh man, you got old." His brother jokes hugging him.

"Dude, what are you doing here?" Alex asks again.

"I had to drive to Portland on a job and since I was in the neighborhood." He says.

"Portland's not in the neighborhood." Alex says.

"It's three hours. I do three hours in my sleep." Aaron shrugs.

"Alex he's your brother, he's allowed to come say hi." Lexie says.

"If you're riding with me you need to go get your jacket before we're late." I say to Lexie so she'll stop prying into the conversation. Alex obviously wasn't exactly thrilled that his brother was there and I know that he has a complicated relationship with his family, so it was best for everyone not to overstep.

"Well it was very nice to meet you. I'm Lexie by the way." She says before going to get her stuff,

"I'm overdue for a visit. It's been 7 years." Aaron says.

"No, it has not." Alex shakes his head.

"Since you've been home, seven years." Aaron nods.

"You haven't been home in seven years?" Derek asks.

"Derek, how about you ride with me and Lexie to work." I say.

"Thank you." Alex mouths to me as Derek follows me out of the door. We get to work and I go get dressed in my scrubs before going to meet Webber. I'm on his service since Nelsons out today. April's also on his service today and I am not looking forward to spending the day with her at all. I find her extremely irritating.

I meet Webber and April in the patients room where she starts telling us her symptoms.

"So then a couple of days ago, we're at the grocery store, Gary and I. The next thing I know, I'm flat on my back in the frozen food section." The patient tells us.

"She fainted." Her husband says.

"And I have never fainted, I've never even seen anybody faint, I don't believe in fainting." She shakes her head.

"Did you hit your head?" Richard asks.

"I would've of if this one hadn't caught me." She smiles looking at her husband.

"Mrs. Clark is anemic and guaiac positive, so there's internal bleeding, which looks like its coming..." I say.

"From a friable tumor near the ampulla." April interrupts.

"Yes, thank you for that Dr. Kepner." I say sarcastically rolling my eyes.

"Dr. Swender told us the biopsy showed the cancer was back, but she said you might be able to take it out." Mr. Clark says.

"There's a chance I won't be able to go in as deeply as I need to, but I promise to do everything I can." Dr. Webber says.

"Anything you can do." Mr. Clark says.

"We appreciate it, Dr. Webber. Thank you." His wife Allison says. We get her prepped for surgery then we take her to OR and get scrubbed in.

"Dr. Webber did you consider doing a whipple on Mrs. Clark?" I ask him.

"I did, but since the cancer came back, I think I can do a local resection and get the entire visible tumor." He says.

"Dr. Kepner are we boring you?" Richard asks April who's staring up at the gallery where Derek is at watching the surgery.

"No sir. I just, I wasn't expecting Chief Shepherd to be in the gallery during a general surgery. I guess that's the Chief's job, right? Evaluating, observing."

"Dr. Kepner, you're in my OR and the only one observing and evaluating you right now, is me."  Webber says.

"Yes sir, I'm sorry sir." She says still glancing at Derek. We finish the surgery successfully and bring the patient back to her room and I go to the waiting area to notify Mr. Clark.

"Mr. Clark." I say getting his attention.

"How is she?" He asks standing up.

"She did great in there. She was a total trooper. The surgery went great, we got the tumor, all of it with good margins." I smile.

"Oh, thank God. Dr. Garcia thank you, thank you so much. My wife keeps telling me I need to be more manly about all of this, after all she's the one with cancer. She's afraid I won't make it." He shakes his head.

"I think you're doing just fine, you both are. Would you like to see her?" I ask him.

"Can I?"

"She should be waking up any minute." I say as he follows me to her room. He immediately goes to her side, but she's still unconscious and I see a worried look on Webber's face.

"What's wrong?" I ask him as we walk out of the room.

"We think she had stroke because she's still not breathing on her own, so we're having Derek run some scans to see if she has any brain activity. I'll page you once we find out." He says before walking away. I go to an on call room to take a nap, until I get paged by Richard meaning the results are in.

Dr. Webber's fears are right, the patients had a massive stroke and there's nothing we can do, so we have no choice but to go into the room to tell Mr. Clark who doesn't take it well at all.

"She could wake up, right? I mean, people wake up from comas all the time" Mr. Clark says.

"I'm sorry, your wife's coma is irreversible. Dr. Garcia, would you explain it please?" Webber asks.

"Mrs. Clark's scans showed a massive hemorrhage in her brain, and the EEG showed minimal brain activity." I tell him.

"But that means there's hope, right? Because at least there's activity and her heart's still beating?" Her husband asks.

"Only because the mechanical ventilator is breathing for her. When we turn the machine off, the heart won't get the oxygen it needs and it will stop." April tells him.

"Why would you turn it off? People can live for years on these machines." Mr. Clark friend.

"Mr. Clark, the advanced directive your wife signed specifically requested no mechanical ventilation." Dr. Webber says.

"She filled that form out three years ago when the cancer was first diagnosed. The doctor told her she had six months to live, and she held on for another three years. She'll come back from this, too, you'll see, you can't unplug her." Mr. Clark pleads.