11.03

"Well?" Nicole asked Arizona and Helena, at the attending's lounge. "What did you decide?"

"I didn't. I was up all night." Arizona let out.

"Then you had ample time." The older woman teased.

"You can't drop a bomb like 'I have a brain tumor' and expect me to decide anything." The blond argued.

"I need more." Helena spoke up. "I-I don't have enough information to make a sound decision."

"You don't need to know anything you don't already know." She shrugged, opening a bottle of meds.

"Well, yeah, I do. Like, why the pills?"

"I'm getting a migraine. And you're not helping." Nicole raised a brow.

"S-see, look! How can we know if it's really just a migraine or if it's the tumor? I mean, what kind of tumor is it? I-I need to know what to expect. I need to know if you're gonna get tremors during surgery, o-or being to slur your speech as you talk me through a procedure... I need to know that this doesn't endanger the patients. I need to know more." Helena rambled.

"You don't get to!" Nicole cut her off. "Of course I'm not gonna do anything to endanger my patients. I am handling my situation responsibly, but it is situation, and you are not entitled to it. You are entitled to my knowledge, to my years of discoveries and mistakes, and dead ends, and blood, and sweat, and innovations that you won't have to go through. That's the deal. The chance to take my work into your future. Just the two of you. So, could you please make up your mind?" She asked, then getting up. "Surgeries are cancelled, round on my service, I have an appointment. And don't ask what it is, cause, of course, I'm not gonna tell you."

As she closed the door behind her, Helena let out a little exasperated breath. "God, this is frustrating."

——

Helena was doing an ultrasound on one of Herman's patients, the father's baby asking. "Where's Dr. Herman?"

"Did you call my mom?" The mother asked him.

"You said to wait until there's something to be worried about."

"Well, now I'm worried." She muttered. "Why isn't she moving?"

"Emily, Corey, I'm concerned that your baby might be bleeding into the tumor itself, which is causing her to be anemic." She let out, forcing her face to stay calm and her voice impassive, as she cleaned the gel off of the woman's bump.

"Oh my god. Will she be alright?" He asked.

"Where's Dr. Herman?" The mother wanted to know.

"Dr. Herman had a consult, with another patient." She smiled, reassuringly. It was best to lie, in this case.

"Well, she can do something, right?" Corey asked. "She said she'd do everything to get the baby to term. That was the whole point of planing fetal surgery."

"That's still the point, Corey. That's still the goal." The short girl nodded. "Dr. Herman will likely perform an intrauterine transfusion. I will get her up to speed, and we'll both come back and talk to you about how to move forward."

As Helena left the room, she took her phone out of her pocket, her face falling. As she approached Arizona, she asked. "Dr. Herman better pick up the phone. She better pick up the phone, or Emily Jensen's baby is going to die."

——

"Can you please try her again?" Helena insisted, at the central nurses station, hoping maybe that'd get Nicole to come in. "I know you've already paged her multiple times, but it's an emergency."

"Sure, Dr. C." Dave, the nurse, nodded.

From the other side of the nurses station, she caught a fragment of a conversation, between Amelia and a patient's relative.

"Amelia! You're... a doctor?" The woman asked, making Helena smile to herself. It was usually sweet finding old friends, who you'd lost touch with.

"I am, yeah." The woman nodded.

She tried Nicole's phone again, who simply rang, getting to the voice mail again. Impatiently tapping her foot, she sighed, turning to the nurse. "Thank you, Dave. I'll keep trying her cell."

Just then, she heard the redhead by Amelia begin to raise her tone. "Excuse me, I need a different doctor. She- she cannot touch my mother. I need a different doctor, right now!"

"Ok, calm down..." Amelia urged.

"No, I want another doctor!" She yelled.

"Hi, ma'am. What's the problem, here?" Helena stepped in, with a smile on her face.

"She cannot touch my mother!" The woman shrieked. "She's a drug addict! I cannot have her operate on my parents."

At that, the short girl's eyelids fluttered in confusion, as she let out. "I assure you, Dr. Shepherd is one of our best- "

"She is a junkie!" She yelled.

"Excuse me, I cannot have you speak to one of our doctors this way, ma'am. Please, calm down, and we can-" Helena urged, placing a comforting hand on the woman's forearm.

"I met her in narcotics anonymous! She's hooked on oxy. She overdosed with her boyfriend and woke up with him dead in bed with her! I want another doctor!" She yelled, making the whole ER stare, as Owen approached the woman, still in his yellow trauma gown.

"Please, come with me." He urged, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"You keep her away from them!" She yelled.

"Don't worry, I've got this." Derek announced, immediately taking her patient.

As the room calmed down, Helena was left with wide eyes, looking at a teary eyed Amelia.