Chapter 82

"Hey, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with Lebackes' at his clinic?" I ask Alex when I see him in the hallway.

"Yeah, but I have a surgery here today." He says as we walk through the hallway.

"Well it's nice to have you around today evil spawn." I smile making him laugh.

"I texted you earlier." Meredith says joining Alex and I as we walk through the hallway.

"Yeah, I know I was busy." He says.

"Well Cristina would've responded. That's not how it works." Meredith says. Since Cristina left for Zurich, Alex is supposed to be Meredith's person, so that she won't get lonely without her around.

"Not if she was doing what I was doing." He smirks.

"You pause that's the rule." She says.

"What?" He frowns.

"If the text is urgent, Cristina would say to Owen, pause and I would say to Derek pause and we'd text each other back." She explains.

"In the middle of sex?"

"Yeah, if the text is urgent." She shrugs.

"That's not normal." Alex says.

"Yes it is. Derek and Lily follow the same rule." Meredith says.

"Really!" Alex asks looking over at me,

"Yeah. We have a special ringtone for emergency situations and if that ringtone goes off in the middle of sex, you have to pause and text back. It's the rule." I say.

"There's no way I'm doing that." Alex says making me laugh.

"Well I really would love to listen to the rest of this conversation, but I need to go save a life." I smirk as my pager goes off and I leave to meet April in the E.R.

"I got a page." I say walking over to April who's talking to a little boy and his mother.

"Can you guys wait over there? I'll see what I can give out." She says to them. "Come with me." She says before I follow her to an examination room where Derek is working on the patient.

"Good, you're here. There's to much blood to do the ventric. Can you help?" He asks me.

"Geez, he belongs to them?" I ask April looking at the patient's family in the waiting area. The patient has a deep head gash and an obvious skull fracture.

"Yep." April says.

"Oh, damn it. B.P.'s 220 over 123. He's bradying down." Derek says as I walk over to him and begin helping. Derek was really supposed to be in Washington D.C. by now, but Meredith changed her mind about moving because she wants to advance her career as a surgeon in Seattle and she doesn't want to uproot the kids from their home, so Derek hasn't left yet but he's still supposed to leave soon. Even though I'll be sad when he moves, I'm happy he's getting this opportunity.

"The family's asking for an update. Is there anything I could tell them now?" April asks us.

"Nothing good." I say as Derek and I continue working on the patient. We get him stable enough to move and we take him to the O.R.

"This is nice. Getting to work together again." I say as Derek and I operate.

"Yeah, it is. We haven't gotten to operate together in a while." He says.

"I know. This is probably the last time we're going to get to do this, since you're leaving soon. When are you leaving for D.C. anyway?" I ask.

"I haven't picked an exact date yet, but I'll be leaving soon."

"How is that going to work anyways? You and Meredith aren't separated, but you're not going to be living together." I say.

"Meredith's staying behind?" Ben asks as he observes Derek and I operating.

"She is." Derek answers.

"And you're cool with that?" Ben asks.

"You're together, but living apart. Liv-a-partners. See that I gave it a cute name, now it's a thing." I smirk.

"Yeah, I'm familiar with that thing. I did it with Miranda." Ben says.

"And how did that work out?" I ask.

"Well, seeing as I'm not living in L.A. anymore I'd say it didn't." Ben says.

"It's not crazy right? To go after this opportunity. I'm not a bad person for wanting this!" Derek says.

"No, this is a great opportunity and I understand why you're taking it, but Meredith's not a bad person for wanting to remain in Seattle either. I mean it's her home, the kids home." I say. "Hey, how are you going to get laid when the person you get laid with is here and you're in D.C.?" I ask causing Derek to glare at me. "Don't look at me like that. It's a very valid and important question."

"Okay, removing the skull flap." Derek says as he removes the skull flap and we continue operating.

"They're calling for an emergency neuro consult downstairs. 17 year old female trauma to the head." A nurse says walking over to us.

"Go. I can handle things here." I say.

"Okay." Derek sighs handing me the instruments. "Warren, you coming?" Derek asks Ben.

"Actually, would you mind if I stayed here? No offense, but you've already got one foot out the door and Dr. Garcia is the new head of neuro." Ben says.

"So you want to stay here and not come with me? Why not? Seems to be the trend these days." He says before leaving. I continue operating, until the monitors start going off and we begin to try stabilize the patient.

"Pupils blown." Ben says examining the patient.

"He's herniating." I say as I try to stop the bleeding.

"Hey, just wanted to get an update on Mr. Peterson for his wife." April says walking into the O.R.

"Push 100 grams of 20% mannitol." I say still focusing on surgery.

"I.C.P.'s still elevated." Ben says as he does compressions.

"More mannitol! His brain injuries to far gone. We've been trying to salvage things." I sigh.

"How long has he been down?" April asks.

"37 minutes." Ben says.

"I'm gonna call it. Time of death, 18:32." I sigh. I scrub out, before leaving to tell his family the news.

"How's Mr. Peterson?" Derek asks when he sees me in the hallway.

"He didn't make it. I'm going to tell the family the news now. Should be super fun. I love telling little kids their dad is never coming home. Hopefully I can get through it without crying. I cry easily nowadays." I sigh.

"If you want I can come with you." He says.

"Please, I'd actually appreciate it." I say.

"Yeah, somebody should be there in case you start crying and to make sure you don't say things like super fun."

"Good note." I laugh "Hey, Luca. What a cool spaceship." I say walking over to the little boy as he sits in the waiting area

"Where's your mom?" Derek asks.

"Dr. Garcia. Dr. Shepherd." His mom says walking over to us.

"Luca, we just need to talk to your mom over here for a second. You cool to hang out, work on that spaceship?" I ask the little boy as he nods his head yes, before Derek and I walk over to his mother.

"No. Oh, no. What happened?" She cries looking at the expression on me and Derek's face.

"Mom." The little boy says running over to her.

"I'll take him." Derek says walking away with the little boy before I sit with the mom and explain what happened during surgery. After I finish speaking with her I go to the locker room to change and I meet Jackson so we can go home. I honestly can't wait to get home after losing my patient today. I mean he was just trying to get a frisbee off the roof for his son and now he's dead. As soon as I get home, Jackson and I eat dinner, before I take a shower and lay down in bed.

"And ageusia is the impaired sense of taste." I say as I read medical terms from my old journal from medical school.

"Sweetheart, you do know that the baby can't hear you yet right?" Jackson smirks as he lays down in bed.

"Let me read to my baby in peace, Avery." I smirk as he rubs my stomach. I don't have a huge baby bump yet, but I am definitely starting to show and Jackson is obsessed with touching my stomach now.

"I think our baby's going to be a boy." He says

"Why is that?"

"Because you're always tired and they say that it's normal to be more exhausted when you're pregnant with a boy."

"Do you want a boy or a girl?" I ask him.

"It doesn't really matter to me, I just want a healthy baby. What about you?" He asks as he wraps me in his arms.

"I feel the same way. All I want is a healthy happy baby." I agree.

"I still can't believe we're actually going to be parents." He says.

"Me either. A lot of times I think back to the merger, when we first met and I can't believe how far we've came. We're actually a married couple about to have a baby now." I smile.

"I know, we've came a long way." He smiles.

"Yes we have, Avery." I say. Even though Jackson and I have had many bumps in the road through our relationship, we've overcame them all and I can't wait to see what our future holds as we continue our journey.