fifty-four

, out for drinks." Allison said, once she caught up to Jackson down the hallway. Jackson furrowed his brows looking at his wife, "I mean you, Owen and Matthew."

"Why?" Jackson asked, the both of them walking down the hallway. Allison's baby bumps is visible—small but visible.

Allison sighed, "Cristina left yesterday, he's working non-stop and I made a promise."

Cristina left the other day with Ross. Stephanie, Jo and Ben are the only residents out of their group.

Jackson looked at his wife's face and sighed, "Fine."

Allison smiled, standing on her tip-toes leaning to kiss him on the cheek, "Awesome, see you later, love you."

Allison entered the E.R. making her way to April, who was talking to a little boy and his mother. She smiled at the family before looking at the red-head, "Hey, I got a page."

"Can you guys wait over there? I'll see what I can give out." April pointed to the waiting room section of the E.R. as the woman nodded, pulling her son away from the doctor, April turned to face Allison, "Come with me."

April and Allison walked to one of the trauma rooms, just as April opened the curtains in front of them to see Derek working on a patient, "Good, you're here. There's too much blood to do the ventric, can you help?"

Allison nodded turning around to look for the mom and son from earlier as she whispered to April, "He belongs to them?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, damn it. B.P's 220 over 123. He's bradying down." Derek spoke looking at the monitor just as Allison put on her gloves, walking over to him.

Derek was supposed to be in Washington by now with Meredith, but she changed her mind about moving because she wants to stay in Seattle and Allison understood. Derek hasn't left but he was going to soon, and Allison didn't want to confront that but as long as he is happy doing what he is going to do, then who is she to stop him?

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

"Nothing good."

***

Once the patient was stable enough they were able to move him up to the O.R. Derek was drilling inside the brain, while Allison did the suction. Ben observed the surgery from beside Derek.

"Look at us, operating once again—the neuro dream team." Allison had a smile behind her surgical mask.

"We haven't done that in awhile." Derek agreed, shaking his head at the name Allison gave them, his eyes on the surgery in front of him.

"Probably our last before you move." Allison frowned, she felt her pregnancy hormones go all over the place.

"I haven't picked an exact date yet." Derek told her, "I'm trying to work things out with Meredith."

Allison squeezed the suction, "How is that going to work anyways? You and Meredith aren't separated but you're not going to live together."

"Meredith's staying behind?" Ben asked, frowning his eyebrows and looking at Derek.

"She is." Derek replied.

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

"You're together but living apart—live-a-partners!" She grinned looking beside her as Derek looked at her for a moment before looking back down, "You see that? I gave it a name."

"Yeah, I'm familiar with that thing." Ben nodded, he and Bailey tried to do it when he was in Los Angeles doing his internship before moving back to Seattle to be together with his wife and he continued his residency at Grey-Sloan, due to a spot being open. "I did it with Miranda."

"And it didn't work out." Allison stated, and Ben nodded.

"It's not crazy right? To go after this opportunity. I'm not a bad person for wanting this." Derek said, looking beside him at Allison and then at Ben.

"No, it's a great opportunity and I know why you're taking it, but Meredith isn't either—this is her home, you can't exactly blame her for wanting to stay." Allison told him, "We also can't blame you for wanting to chase this opportunity."

Derek sighed, knowing Allison made a valuable point. Seattle is where Meredith was born, where she had her memories with everyone at the hospital, this is where they got Zola, where Bailey was born, where they met.

"Removing the skull flap." Derek informed them, removing the skull flap and handed it to one of the scrub nurses.

The surgery continued for a couple more hours. The two working silently, occasionally Derek would ask questions about Allison's baby. On their last check-up appointment, Jackson and Allison heard their baby's heartbeat.

Derek's phone went off, the scrub nurse picked it up and noticed someone was paging him, she walked towards the surgeons, "They're calling for an emergency neuro consult downstairs. 17-year-old female, trauma to the head."

"I can handle things here." Allison told Derek.

"Okay." Derek handed the instruments to Allison. He walked over to the scrub nurse and looked behind him, "Warren, you coming?"

"Actually, would you mind if I stayed here? No offense, but you've already got one foot out the door and Dr. Avery is the new head of neuro." Ben responded, while Allison continued to work.

Allison's fellowship contract was over and while Derek was off to Washington, Owen gave her the head of neuro position since Derek recommended her for it and she was covering the service while Derek was away. Amelia was the co-chief of neuro, she would run it when Allison couldn't although the Avery doctor was the main chief of the department.

"So, you want to stay here and not come with me? Why not? Seems to be the trend these days." Derek muttered to himself, but it was loud enough for the both surgeons to hear him.

***

The surgery seemed to go well until the monitor began to go off as Allison and Ben tried to stabilize the patient. Ben looked at the pupils and let out a sigh, "Pupils are blown."

"He's herniating." Allison stated while she worked on stopping the bleeding, "Damn it!"

April walked inside the O.R., holding up a surgical mask to cover her face. "Hey, I just wanted to get an update on Mr. Peterson's for his wife."