Chapter 81

"Edwards, why are you standing here socializing, instead of getting my patient prepped for surgery?" I ask walking to the front desk where Stephanie stood talking to Shane.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Garcia. I just thought that since we just finished the aneurysm clip, and you were here since early this morning lecturing, that maybe you needed a break to pace yourself." She says. I'm officially out of my first trimester of pregnancy, so Jackson and I told everyone that I'm pregnant and ever since I announced it to everyone they've been trying to make sure I don't overwork myself, which is actually quite frustrating since it's slowing down the work process.

"No, I do not need a break. What I need is for you to get my patient prepped for surgery, right now." I say sternly.

"Yes ma'am." She nods before leaving as I begin to tap on my iPad.

"So Dr. Garcia, how does it feel to be the Chief of Neuro now?" Shane smiles. Derek is taking the job and Washington and him and Meredith are leaving soon, so he's appointed me the Chief of Neuro. I was honestly surprised when he picked me to take over the neuro department, since it's still so early in my career as an attending and also because I thought he was going to give the position to Amelia since she's also a great surgeon and she's been a surgeon longer than me, but he says he feels that I'm the right person for this job and I've proved that I deserve it, so now I'm the head of the department.

"It feels great. It's keeping me busy, but I'm enjoying every minute of it." I smile. Being chief of neuro takes a lot more work than just being an attending. I was not only responsible for just my surgeries now, but also in charge of scheduling all of the surgeries in the neuro department, scheduling and teaching lectures, and I have to keep a watch on every neuro patient in this hospital even the ones who I don't operate on because it's my job to make sure that no mistakes in my department have been made, but at the end of the day I can handle it. It's what I've been working towards since I made the decision to become a neurosurgeon.

"Well I'm happy for you Dr. Garcia. You deserve this position." He says sincerely.

"Thanks Shane." I smile before turning my attention to the T.V. when I see that there's breaking news on the screen.

"If you're just joining us, we have breaking news of an enormous explosion. It happened only minutes ago at Seattle's Mall of the Woods. We are getting reports of massive fatalities and scores of people injured..." The news anchor says covering the stories as pictures of the now destroyed mall flash across the screen. The lobby begins to fill with chatter of shock as people see what has just happened.

"Crap." I sigh. "Okay, page all available surgeons, discharge all patients who can be discharged, and cancel all of the elective surgeries for the neuro department." I direct the nurses at the front desk, because I know that the hospital is about to fill with patients. I leave to help discharge all of the neuro patients that can be released and as soon as I finish discharging the patient's and make it to the E.R. it's already packed with patients so I take my first patient from the explosion to the O.R. and operate. As soon as I finish operating on her I have to get ready for another surgery immediately.

"Okay, get her to I.C.U., and get this room prepped for my next surgery. Let's go." I direct the nurses in the O.R.

"Right away, doctor." The nurse answers as I leave the room to immediately prepare for my next surgery.

"Next patient please." I say walking into the scrub room to get scrubbed in. "When did you get here? Aren't you supposed to be packing up your house to move to Washington?" I frown seeing Derek walk into the room.

"I came as soon as I saw the news. I know today's going to be hectic. You want to switch out?" He asks.

"No, Derek. You put me in charge of your service. It's my job to handle situations like this. I got it. Next patient please." I say waiting for Derek to read the chart with the details for my next patient.

"Left frontoparietal subdural hematoma. Burr holes not gonna do this, so what you're gonna need to do..." He begins to say.

"Derek, I know what to do. You trained me for surgeries like these, remember? Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I need to be walked through this." I assure him, before drying my hands and walking into the O.R. to begin operating. I know Derek just wants to make sure I'm not overworking myself, but while I'm at this hospital I need to be treated solely as a surgeon, not as his pregnant friend that needs others to pace me. Between being the youngest chief of any of the departments at this hospital and also being a woman, I know that some people might not take me seriously yet, so I have to show that I can handle being in charge.

This surgery is way more complex than the one before, so it takes a while to finish but I eventually finish it successfully. By the time it's completed, all of the other neuro patient's from the explosion have already been operated on or are in surgery right now, so I take my patient to recovery and check in on all of the neuro patient's who are in recovery before going to the front desk and beginning to work on the schedule for the neuro department, since I need to do it over because so many of my surgeries were pushed after the explosion today.

"Liliana, hi dear. How are you and my grandbaby doing?" Catherine smiles walking over to me as I sit at the front desk working on my schedule. Jackson and I already told her I'm pregnant a couple of days ago and our discussion went great, but I'm sure as my pregnancy progresses and once the baby is actually here she'll start trying to control everything like she always does.

"We're both great." I smile.

"Are you sure? You look tired." She says.

"I am tired. I've been here since early this morning lecturing and I've had back to back surgeries all day."

"Yes, I'm sure you're workload has increased with you not only being a board member, but running a whole department now. You're a busy girl nowadays." She says.

"Yes, I am." I agree "I still can't believe what happened today at the mall. I mean it was a shopping mall. People were just there picking out outfits and hanging out with friends and now they're dead. This world is so terrible. It's scary to think I'll be raising a child in a world like this." I sigh.

"Sweetheart, don't let this world scare you. The moment you do, you give it power. There's always gonna be accidents and this world is always going to be unpredictable, but do you know how the world changes?" She asks.

"How?"

"By good people raising their babies right, which I know you and Jackson are going to do. You two are going to be great parents." She assures me.

"Thank you." I smile.

"Dr. Garcia, I'm sorry to bother you, but we need you for a quick consult." Stephanie says walking over to the front desk.

"Okay." I sigh getting up and following her to the room. I do a quick consultation and after I finish I go to the computer in the hall that shows what surgeries are taking place so I can keep track of what's going on.

"Cristina, what are you doing here? I thought you'd be half way to Zurich by now." I say when I see Cristina in the hallway. Today is the day Cristina's leaving for Zurich and it's such a long flight I expected that she'd leave early this morning.

"Um yeah I'm about leave now." She says before walking over to me and hugging me. "You're an extraordinary surgeon and you're going to continue to achieve so much as time goes on. I've enjoyed working with you and we're going to keep in contact, and you're going to text me, and send me pictures of your baby as soon as you have it, okay?" She says.

"Okay. Cristina I'm really going to miss you." I say honestly.

"I'm going to miss you too." She smiles.

"Good luck. I hope you find everything you're looking for in Zurich."

"Thank you. Goodbye, Liliana." She says.

"Goodbye." I say as she walks away. Of course I'm sad that Cristina's leaving. We started out at this hospital together. In the beginning it was me, her, Meredith, Alex, George, and Izzie and now it's just me, Meredith, and Alex left, but I know this is the right thing for Cristina so I'm proud of her. After saying my goodbyes to Cristina, I finish looking over the surgery schedule then I leave to check in on all the neuro patient's again to make sure that they've been cared for properly. Once I finish it's finally time for me to go home, so I go to the locker room to change and a short while later Jackson comes in to change out his scrubs then we leave to go home. As I lay in bed that night, I can't help but think about all the changes happening at the hospital. I don't think I've ever experienced so much change at once and the more I think about everything going on the more I feel myself getting emotional and the next thing you know I start crying. Ever since I've been pregnant I can't keep myself from crying when I get emotional, which I hate because I don't like crying at all.

"Did I tell you I delivered a baby today and the good news if the O.B. doesn't show up for ours, then I get..." Jackson begins to say as he walks into the room, but stops when he sees me crying. "Hey, sweetheart. What's wrong?" He asks as he gets into bed and wraps me in his arms.

"Nothing, nothing's wrong at all. Everything's actually great. I'm chief of neuro and we're having a baby, Cristina is moving to Zurich to run her own facility, Alex is working for a private practice, and Meredith and Derek are moving to D.C. We're all progressing in our career and getting to follow our dreams and I'm happy about it. It's just overwhelming that it's all happening at once." I sigh wiping away my tears.

"There is a lot going on." He agrees.

"Yeah, it's scary." I say.

"I know it is, but do you know one thing that's not going to change?" He asks me.

"What's that?" I ask.

"No matter where life takes everyone we'll always have each other and before we know it we'll also have our baby. We're going to have our own little family." He smiles.

"Yes, we will." I smile. Even though things are changing rapidly in my life, Jackson's right I have him and soon we'll have our baby and as long as I have them I'll be okay.