Chapter 37

I started the morning off early studying for the boards with Callie, by the time we finished it was time to for me to join Derek and Lexie for surgery.

"And there we are" Lexie smiles as she removes the brain flap.

"That's a perfect craniotomy, right Dr. Garcia?" He asks me.

"You dragged me in here to stand on my feet for hours after I've been up since 3:30 in the morning, to watch Lexie do a basic craniotomy." I frown side eyeing him.

"Hey, it is not basic." She defends.

"It's her first solo cyst, be a good friend and a good teacher. Cheer her on." He says.

"Shepherd, I've got a motorcycle cop open on the table with a C-7 fracture. I need your eyes on the cord, can you?" Callie asks walking into the OR.

"Alright, I'll be right there." He says.

"Okay." She nods before walking out of the OR.

"When you marsupialize that you.." He directs.

"Tack the edges, yes I know." Lexie says.

"She knows what she's doing, just observe. I'll be right back, if you need anything." He says.

"We won't. Go." I reassure him before he exits the OR. Lexie continues to operate as I watch.

"The cyst is draining really well." Lexie says.

"Really well, great job." I say before the patients brain begins to bleed.

"Whoa, where is that blood coming from?" Lexie asks.

"It's alright, it's just a little bleeding. We just have to find the source, let's extend the craniotomy a little." I say.

"Open her up more?" Lexie asks me.

"Yeah, it's okay. Just a little." I say before Lexie begins to open the patient up a little more.

"Like that?" She asks as she finally removes another piece of bone flap.

"Yep, there it is. Little bleeder, just cauterize." I say.

"Okay, bipolar." Lexie says before the scrub nurse hands her the instrument and she resumes operating

"Look at that, that's her tumor." I say as we see the tumor.

"Oh my god, there it is. Do we take it out" She asks me.

"Let's call OR two and find out how long Dr. Shepherds gonna be." I say to a nurse.

"I mean he said it would be easy, that I could do it." Lexie says.

"I know and it's right there." I sigh.

"They said he's just finishing, he'll be here any minute." The nurse says.

"Okay, alright let's just wait and see what he says." I tell Lexie, we continue to wait but we find out Derek's going to be a little while longer, so I decide to let Lexie go through with removing the tumor. She finishes operating while I watch to make sure she doesn't make any mistakes, then I go find Derek so I can tell him that we've finished.

"There you are." I say walking into the OR where Derek is operating with Alex and Arizona.

"What are you doing here?" He asks.

"We're finished, the cyst is draining. She did great and get this Lexie resected the meningioma. Perfect margins, she was perfect." I smile.

"You did what?" He frowns. I could instantly tell from his voice that he was upset.

"Took the tumor out." I repeat.

"Why the hell would you do that. The plan was to remove the cyst. She did not consent to that surgery." He says sternly.

"The tumor was right there. Were we supposed to just close her up and put her through another brain surgery." I frown.

"You should've paged me." He says.

"I did twice. Derek, Lori is fine. Lexie took her to recovery. Her vitals are great." I say.

"We won't know how she is until she wakes up. I should've known better, you should've known better. Give me the scans, I want to know everything you did in there." He says making me roll my eyes before walking out of the OR. I order the scans before going to Kepner's office to eat my lunch.

"You're husbands an ass." I tell Meredith as I eat.

"What did he do?" She asks me.

"I let Lexie remove a tumor from a woman today. It was a baby tumor and now he's all scared that we gorked her." I say.

"Well did you?"

"No." I shake my head.

"Freakin jambalaya day. It's like a hearty bowl of salmonella." Alex says walking to the refrigerator.

"Hey, how long have you been screwing the intern with the premie?" Cristina asks him.

"What?" He frowns.

"Morgan?" Meredith asks.

"I am not." Alex replies.

"Well you both were in the on-call room this morning before dawn." Cristina says.

"Yeah, studying."

"You're feeding her." Cristina says.

"Alex, really." I frown

"No, bad dog." Meredith jokes.

"Shut up, I mean she's my intern and she's my patient." He defends.

"This is gonna turn out like Rebecca." Meredith says and I nod my head in agreement.

"Oh yeah, smashed up face. That was bad." Cristina says.

"Yeah, she's going to fall for you and then she's gonna go crazy and then she's gonna pee on my couch." Meredith says.

"Gross." I frown.

"Go to hell, all three of you."

"Okay, just keep her off my couch please." Meredith laughs as Alex walks out of the office.

"Is that my turkey casserole?" April asks Cristina when she walks in.

"Oh, yeah. How do you keep the crunchy onion things so crunchy?" Cristina asks as April snatches it away.

"I put them in last, come on I've been looking forward to this all day." April sighs.

"Delicious." Cristina says.

"My mom is here trying to hook me up with some junior urologist." Jackson says grabbing food out of the refrigerator.

"Hey, hey those are mine they have electrolytes." April says.

"Wait a minute, your mom is trying to do what?" I frown.

"She's had me showing her protege around half the damn hospital before I realized I was pretty much on a blind date."

"Does she not remember that you have a girlfriend?"

"I'm looking for Dr. Avery." A beautiful foreign lady with an accent says walking into the office causing Jackson to hide behind the refrigerator.