12.07

"Hey, Warren. You're joining us today?" Helena asked, as she checked her patient chart by DeLuca, at a pediatric floor nurses station. "Not plastics?"

"Dr. Webber's switching us up today." He explained, with a shrug.

"Well, you sound a little bit more enthusiastic..." The short girl scrunched up her nose, beginning to walk down the hall, the two men behind her. "Come on, today I'm on fetal, though I have a peds surgery later that just couldn't wait. In fetal, we do surgery on babies that aren't even yet. Don't you think that earns a little more enthusiasm?"

"Sure." Ben nodded.

"You don't sound convinced." Helena narrowed her eyes, looking over her shoulder. "DeLuca, tell Warren what we're about to round on?"

"Quadruplets." Andrew let out, with an exited raise of his brows.

As they entered the room, they found Bailey speaking to the patient. "Wait, so I'm on a whole other bracket?!"

"Well, yeah. Your income has jumped significantly since last year and your husband's hasn't." She replied, as Helena walked over to the small table by the bed.

"Are those our taxes?!" Ben let out.

"Bailey? Do you think you could maybe stop harassing my patient?" Helena suggested, with a hint of a smile.

"Hey, people ask us for free medical advice all the time." She shrugged.

"It's not harassment unless I don't want want to her. I've just had fetal surgery and I've been on bed rest for weeks... which is actually pretty great if you're an accountant in tax season. Nothing else to do but work." The pregnant woman shrugged. "No distractions. Except, well, for this." She pointed to her stomach.

"See, I normally do our taxes. It's sort of my thing." Ben let out, peaking over his wife's shoulder to look at their paperwork.

"But Courtney thinks that maybe we should-" Bailey started.

"Ok." Helena interrupted, closing the chart in her hands. "This is baby time, not taxes time. It's my time, and it's being wasted. You're wasting it, Bailey. So I'm kicking you out."

"You can't tell me what to do!" She argued. At that, Helena flashed her a soft smile, making her agree. "Fine."

"Ok, Warren. Present." Helena handed him the tablet.

"Ok, I don't even understand..." The man kept looking at the taxes.

"Ben?" The attending called out.

"Sorry." He shook his head. "Just give me a minute to..."

"DeLuca." Helena turned to the boy, giving up on the older resident.

"Ok, uh, Courtney Hall. 23 weeks pregnant." He started. "She's post op from a fetal laser photocoagulation to separate a shared blood vessel between two of her babies."

"Wow. Quadruplets..." Warren let out.

"Yeah. That's what I said when I found out." The husband entered the room, with a gift basket.

"Good, you got it! This is for you guys." Courtney let out.

"Oh, no, you did not need to do that." Helena told them, with a grateful smile.

"Yes, we did." The woman told her. "You are the reason all four of our little deductions are still alive right now."

"Babies. She means babies. You kept all four safe inside where they belong." The man explained.

"And I get to lie here for eight more weeks. Yay!" The mother let out, ironically.

"She means thank you." He translated once more.

"Ok, stop, now, or you'll make me blush." Helena warned, taking a hand to her cheeks.

"Fetal medicine has its perks." Warren let out, taking a bite of a gift basket apple.

——

"Oh, DeLuca." Helena smiled, as the boy joined her in walking down to the OR. "Hey, I've noticed you're been with me a lot recently. Aren't you done with the mandatory peds rotation yet?"

"Oh, I am." He nodded.

"And you're staying? I thought you didn't like peds?" The woman furrowed her brows, taking Mark's old scrub cap off of her lab pocket and beginning to put it on.

"Well, no. I didn't like seeing the suffer." He corrected. "But then... we saved a lot of kids, too, Dr. C. I'd never saved a kid before, . I'd only lost one. I knew how bad that could feel. I just didn't know..."

"How good saving them feels, too?" The brunette woman completed, making him nod. "Welcome to peds, DeLuca. The bad is bad, but the good is good, too. The feeling of knowing you saved a child, or a baby, o-or a fetus... well, I'd like to think that makes up for the losses."

With a nod, he asked. "Where do you need me today?"

"Uh, I need someone to keep an eye on my post ops. Can you do that for me?" Helena requested.

"Sure." The boy agreed, walking to the elevator.

Just then, Callie and Maggie joined Helena in walking to the OR, meeting her at a corner. "Hey!"

"Hey." Maggie greeted.

"So, I just got off the phone with Bauer Medical. They said that Carson's recovering well and his incision sites and flaps are doing great." The ortho surgeon told her, with a big smile.

"Oh, that's great! My little graft is thriving." Helena smiled back.

"Yeah, Dr. Vaughn thought so, too." She told her. "She also thought you might have given her the wrong number?"

At that, Helena shot Callie a look, almost reprimanding her for bringing the subject up, as she sat down of the OR floor entrance benches.

Sitting down on the bench behind the Portuguese girl, Maggie let out. "Vaughn? Who is Vaughn?"