fifty-eight

head when Stephanie finally told him the truth about his child but the first thing that came up was, how does he tell his wife about their baby—their child who doesn't have a chance in the world. Walking inside the storage room where Allison paged him, his eyes found her's and he looked down at her features, she had a smile on her face as she greeted him with a kiss. The two of them having news for one another—life changing news.

Allison couldn't wait to have a little Jackson running around their apartment. Her arms were wrapped around his neck. She grinned, "Our baby—"

"—has no brain." Jackson said, interrupting her. Allison quickly pulled away, her smile was now long gone. She looked into his eyes that held the truth, and she knew he wasn't lying but she didn't want to believe him and she shook her head. There are five stages of grief and Allison is feeling the first one—denial.

The events unfolded quickly, one minute she's there right in front of him ready to tell him that they were going to have a baby boy and the next she quickly left wanting to be anywhere but there. Jackson called out for her but she just ignored him.

Jackson was on the second stage of grief--anger. He punched the table and shoved the things on top of the surface that quickly landed on the floor.

***

Work was the only thing distracting her, she spent the night at the hospital in an on-call room as she and Amelia looked at Dr. Herman's scans with Arizona in the room. Allison held her phone in her ear as she talked to Derek over the phone waiting by the Nurse's station for Amelia and Arizona.

"What do you mean you left?" Allison semi-yelled at him. Apparently, he made a rash decision and left for D.C. to take the position. "What about Meredith and the kids?"

"." Derek said over the phone, remembering the events that happened the other night.

"A rash decision, Derek. You made a rash decision." Allison stated, she noticed Arizona and Amelia walking down the stairs, "I have to go. I'll text you later."

Allison walked towards the two doctors and heard Amelia tell Arizona about needing more scans for Dr. Hermans to get to know the tumor better and to draw the measurements and trajectories.

Allison looked over at the blonde surgeon, "When can we talk about her previous doctors?"

Arizona looked at the two neurosurgeons beside her, "Um, well, as soon as I talk to Dr. Herman."

"Great. When are you going to do that?" Allison could see the panic look on Arizona's face, causing her to hold onto her, while Amelia did the same on Arizona's other side.

"It's a big cliff. You just got to leap." Amelia nodded at Arizona, as the three continued to walk.

"I stole medical records. I racked up about a thousand HIPAA violations. It's not a cliff. That's prison." Arizona explained, "I'm too pretty for prison."

"Arizona, you are saving her life." Amelia assured her before shrugging, "Well, me and Allie are saving her life, but you made it possible."

"Once you tell her, once she understands, she—she will be okay with it. She'll be happy, and alive." Allison explained, but the terrified look on Arizona's face never left. "You want us to tell her?"

"No." Arizona immediately said, "I have to do it. I have to do it. I just need to figure out how and when."

Amelia opened the door the C.T. lab room, when they noticed a familiar doctor staring at the scans. Once Dr. Herman heard the door open she turned around and faced the three doctors, "That's my tumor. That's tumor. Where did you get it, and why do you have it?!"

"Dr. Herman—" Allison began to speak only for her to be interrupted.

"You showed my tumor to other doctors, without my consent—" Dr. Herman spoke to Arizona, ignoring Allison and Amelia.

"I needed to understand—"

"You have no right. You stole them." Dr. Herman said, walking towards Arizona as she pointed to the scans.

"I had to." Arizona defended herself, meeting Dr. Herman halfway.

"Do you know how many laws, you're breaking right now?"

"You weren't telling me anything!" Arizona exclaimed.

"We can remove the tumor!" Amelia shouted, causing the surgeons to look at her, "I don't know who you've been seeing for this. I'm sure they're great. I'm sure they are the best in their field but I can only tell you, they lack imagination. They lack scope."

Allison nodded, before she walked towards the scans, "You tumor is smart. It's brilliant and so are we. We can beat it."

"We beat it." Amelia confirmed. Dr. Herman only stared at them before she walked away from Arizona and grabbed the files that she placed on the table.

"I have surgery." Dr. Herman announced, walking away from the room.

***

Jackson walked inside the E.R. hoping to talk to Owen. His eyes scanned the room as they landed on the man he was looking for, he stopped in front of him, "Chief, I don't think Avery's gonna make it in today. We had some news, um—"

"Allison's here." Owen informed her, seeing as he saw her name on the O.R. board, since she was scheduled for surgery.

Jackson raised his eyebrows, before he furrowed them quickly, "Wait. What?"

"Yeah. She's been here all morning, she is scheduled for surgery." Owen looked down at his watch, "Right now. Everything okay?"

"Uh, yeah, yeah. Thank you." Jackson dismissed, walking away but stopped before leaving the E.R., he turned around, "You know what? No." Jackson walked back to Owen, "Actually, I need you to pull her out of surgery right now."

Owen shook his head, "Avery, I can't—"

"No, look. She shouldn't operate." Jackson dismissed, "She shouldn't even be at work today at all, so she's definitely not operating. I need you to trust me when I say that."

***

"Dr. Avery." Owen stopped Allison from going into surgery to repair a blown aneurysm, as she tied her scrub cap. "Dr. Shepherd has this surgery, you shouldn't be able to operate."