2.09

Helena Campos had been struggling with social anxiety since she could remember. Usually, her meds and the experience she had collected over the years were enough to keep it in check, it had never been extreme. However, there were always days in which she felt too anxious. This was one of them.

As she was getting ready, after a panic attack, Izzie and George entered her room. "Lena, something's wrong with Meredith, we need your help." The blond intern said and left. After a good morning kiss, the couple followed her to Meredith's room.

"I'm just not going." The owner of the house was telling Izzie as they entered.

"You have to go to work. You're an intern, saving lives is not optional." The taller blond argued.

"Yes it is, I'm staying home." Helena tilted her head at the girl's answer.

"Hum, Mer, maybe there'll be a horrible accident nearby the hospital and you can cut a bunch of people open. Sternotomies, craniotomies... that'd be fun, right?" The boy encouraged, Helena elbowing him.

"Georgie!"

"I don't care about surgeries..." Meredith buried her head in a pillow.

"Ok, Mer, what is it?" At the girl's lack of a response, Helena sat by her and stroked her hair lightly. "Honestly, I woke up with a feeling today... like something bad might happen. It's probably just me being really anxious, though." She explained.

"That's it! I have a ." Meredith managed to put her emotions into words.

After Cristina was called, she entered the room, shooting Helena, who was still holding the blond, a questioning glare.

At that, the smaller girl shrugged. "She says she has a feeling."

"You have a... feeling?" Cristina asked, trying to empathise.

"Yes." Meredith answered.

"Ok, what kind of feeling?" The curly haired woman insisted.

"Like I might die..." The blond whispered.

"Today, tomorrow, in fifty years? We're all gonna die eventually! Now we're late." Cristina complained, still standing up, as the shorter girl kept running her fingers through blond locks.

"I mean, I feel like I might die too, but I'm still going to work. Come on, Mer, we're interns, we don't get to stay home." Lena nudged her friend, as if urging her to get up. "What is it?"

Meredith sat up in her bed and started explaining. "Ok, the man I love has a wife. And then he chooses her, over me. And that wife takes my dog!" At the Portuguese girl's judging look, she corrected. "Ok, she didn't take the dog, I gave it to her, but I didn't mean to give it to her, I meant to give it to him." She turned to look at her small friend. "But that doesn't change the fact that she's got my McDreamy. my McDog. She's got my Mclife. And what have I got...? Do you know I can't remember the last time we kissed? Cause you never think the last time is the last time, you think there'll be more. You think you have forever, but you don't." She flopped her head back into her pillow. "Plus my conditioner decided to stop working, I think I have brittled bones... I just, I just need something to happen. I need a sign things are gonna change. I need a reason to go on, I need some hope. And in the absence of hope, I need to stay in bed and feel like I might die today." She finished off.

"And here I though you actually felt you might die today, like me..." Helena whispered, hiding a giggle.

Just then, Cristina pulled the cover away from Meredith and stood up on the bed, Helena getting up with a squeal at the unexpected movements. "Whatever, everyone has problems. Now get your ass out of bed and get to work. Now!" She kicked the blond out of the bed as well.

As the three girl left the room, Cristina informed the others. "We're good to go."

Helena turned to Georgie. "Georgie, hug, please." She asked with a slight pout and he hugged her as she buried her face in his chest. "I actually feel like I'm gonna die today. Gosh, I don't remember my anxiety being this bad lately..."

Her boyfriend shushed her and hugged her tight. "It's ok, Lena. You'll be ok."

——

As the interns waited in the pit, Alex asked Izzie. "So you wanna do charts later?"

"Never gonna happen." The blond asked and Helena looked back over her shoulder, hand intertwined with George's. "Alex, I gave you your chance, you had your chance and you slept with someone else." The other interns giggled. "I forgave you in the spirit of being a bigger person, of rising above, but these legs are closed to you now. Patines are staying on." Helena shot her boyfriend a slightly mocking look as she tried to hold in her laughter. "So you and me, never gonna happen."

"Can we get back to the point?" Cristina asked.

"You had a point?" George seemed confused.

"Yeah, which resident we're getting today." Helena explained.

"That would be me." The interns heard a voice behind them, making them turn around quickly.

"Dr. Bailey?" The Asian woman asked.

"I've been gone two weeks, two weeks, and you ran off two residents? I've got people phoning me at home screaming, telling me my interns are like the Rosemary babies. Nobody wants you!" Helena looked at Georgie with widened eyes as the woman went on. "Do you think I have time for this? I'm am pregnant! I am supposed to be on bed rest, I am supposed to be growing a human being, I'm supposed to be calm. Do I look calm you?! Did I raise you fools to be pariahs?"

At the short girl's hurt face, who had always hated being reprimanded by superiors, the woman's voice softened. "Not you, Lena, they liked you." Said intern perked up again, a smile on her lips.

George took his hand off of his girlfriend's waist, where it had been resting, as walked to the resident, giving her a hug. "You're back!" He said, excitedly.

"I'm not back." The woman looked slightly uncomfortable.

"You're not?" His voice fell a little.

"Get off me!" The shorter woman hit him on the back and he stopped hugging her. As the ambulance's sirens began to be heard, she instructed. "Yang, Karev, Grey, Campos, stay here and wait for the incoming case. O'Malley, page Addison shepherd and Stevens get a wheelchair."

Helena nodded and the interns left, George questioned. "Dr. Bailey, what do you want me to tell Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd when she answers her page."

Suddenly, a splash was heard. "Tell her my contractions are ten minutes apart and my waters just broke all over your shoes."