Tumor on the Wall

Ivy groans as her phone rings, "Ugh, what's going on?"

"Mer, it's 3:30 in the morning. I don't get much sleep, so when I can, I would like to enjoy it. You're making that really hard right now."

"

When she hangs up, Ivy looks at her screen before groaning. She starts to get out of bed when Jackson pulls her back to him, "Where are you going?"

Ivy sighs, "My shift starts in an hour, so I was going to go shower. I'm guessing you have other plans?"

He nods, kissing the back of her neck, "You're going to stay here. And cuddle."

○○○○

Entering a trauma room, Ivy asks, "What do we have, DeLuca?"

"This is Holly Harner. Complaining of generalized chest and abdominal pain after a fall. She's also got a pretty obvious forearm fracture. Just waiting for her x-rays to come up," DeLuca tells her.

"Hi, Holly. I'm Dr. Shepherd-Avery. Can you tell me how you fell?" Ivy start palpating her stomach.

"So, I was having the best sex of my life. No, third-best," Holly tells then.

Ivy and DeLuca share a laugh, "Sex injuries are almost my favorite thing."

Holly laughs, "No, no. So, then I had to pee. And it was dark, and I'm trying to find the bathroom. I found the front door instead, walked right out in the stairwell and-"

Ivy winces, "Oo."

"Yeah, two flights. He slept right through it. His neighbor found me. Ah, ah!" Holly grimances.

"Does that hurt?" Ivy asks.

She nods. Ivy preps for an ultrasound when DeLuca questions, "And the guy you were with?"

Holly adds, "Ah, well, it was one of those one-night things. So he'll just think I ducked out in the middle of the night. Which is fine. It's good, actually. Oh, my God."

Ivy asks, "What? What is it?"

She turns to Ivy, "My pants- they're on his floor. He's gonna have to figure that one out."

DeLuca looks at the x-rays, "Oh, I'm sorry, Holly, but it looks like you've broken your arm in two places."

"Oh, come on."

"Yeah. And there's free fluid in the left upper quadrant. We're gonna need to get her up for a pan scan and page general," Ivy directs DeLuca.

As he leaves, Holly asks Ivy, "Is he single?" That causes both of them to laugh.

○○○○

Ivy joins Maggie and Meredith to see if Holly's scans are through, "Are Holly's scans up yet?"

"Uh, not yet. Are you getting the tumor tonight?" Meredith looks to her sister in law.

"Yes, actually. I wanna hang it in my house cause that was a cool ass tumor," Ivy nods.

Maggie goes back to the previous conversation, "Its a little weird, but it's fine."

Meredith nods, "Okay. Forget it. Forget I said anything."

"Okay."

"Okay."

"Okay."

As Maggie leaves, Holly's voice comes in, "Hello?"

Ivy turns the intercom on, "Hey, Holly. How's it going in there?"

"Yeah, um, you know, it just occurred to me, uh, when you do the scan, you might see something weird. And I don't want you to freak out," she tells them.

"Don't worry. Between Dr. Grey and myself, we've seen just about everything," Ivy assures her.

Meredith hits her shoulder to look at the scan as Holly says, "Uh, well, I've got a giant inoperable heart tumor. And, uh, you can just ignore that. It's just something I have."

Ivy nods, "Speaking of cool ass tumors."

○○○○

In Holly's room, Meredith tells her, "So, you have some bleeding from a spleen laceration. We'd like to try and do something called a splenic embolization so that we can repair it without doing surgery."

Holly nods, smiling, "All right. I'm in. Surgery would only slow me down."

Maggie starts, "Well, as for your heart tumor-"

"Oh, yeah. Left atrial sarcoma. It's inoperable. I've got less than a year left. It's okay," Holly breezes through.

"Inoperable means different things to different surgeons."

"I've seen six surgeons. So I know the stages. You guys are in stage one. You see it, your eyes light up, you're the only ones who can tame it. Stage two- you make a plan, a plan unlike any who have come before you. You get my consent. Stage three- you realize it doesn't work and you feel weird and you get all sad, and then you feel you disappointed me and then make it my job to convince you that I'm okay so that you feel better. Can we just skip it?"

"Hmm. Sounds like my relationship with my mother," Ivy muses.

Maggie smiles before continuing, "I know it's complicated, but I really think-"

Holly stops her, "Yeah, uh, how long am I laid up till my spleen heals? How long till I can, you know, get back in the saddle?"

Ivy answers, "Depends upon the type of saddle."

"Uh, well, I'd like to have sex with as many men as I care to, until my tumor tells me I can't."

"Impressive," "Goals," "Nice," the three surgeons nod.

"This fall really put a kink in my plans  and, um, not in a good way," she laughs.

Ivy smiles, "Provided that your spleen heals without complications, you should be back in that saddle in a few days, maybe a week."