#parameredith

“Is something wrong?”  She’s sitting between them on the couch. Dinner is done, it’s past her bedtime, her siblings are asleep. They had to tell her this huge information, this life altering thing, and neither one of them really knew how. “No, Zo. Nothing’s wrong,” Derek says firmly, because he doesn’t want to freak her out, doesn’t want her to be scared. “Everyone and everything is ok.”

“Yea yea, that’s fine. I’ll just take her back afterwards,” Derek shrugs, grinning. “I’m going to the bathroom, anyone need anything on my way back?” She asks, shaking her head. All the older kids were back in the playroom, watching a movie and playing. 

“So yea, Kate now is treating the bathtub like the pool and enjoys splashing, and she continues to shout cannonball like Liam did every time he jumped in the pool, about every five minutes,” Spencer says as he sits at the ER desk with Meredith, laughing. “I’ll have to try and get it on video, because she just keeps doing it at random,” He shakes his head. The ER phone rings, and Spencer grabs it. “Seattle Grace ER.” He takes in the information the dispatcher conveys to him, nodding. “Ok, thank you,” he says, hanging up. “Page for a cardio consult,” He tells a nurse. “Let’s go, incoming,” He tells Meredith, getting up and heading for the gowns. “Sixty year old man started vomiting up blood at a hotel, then passed out and fell down the stairs, hit his head. He’s having episodes of VFIB on the ambulance, two minutes out.” 

Lena glances at her watch again, sighing when only twenty minutes had passed since the last time she’d looked. It was nice to have a slow night shift again, things with COVID-19 under control. But, it was also a tad boring, lending to the night dragging on. Kicking her sneakers off, she pulls her legs up onto the couch she’d taken up residence on in the lounge, reaching for her coffee to take a sip, flipping through some paperwork. 

He felt like they were preparing for the boards again, as though this was some kind of test. But they had already passed the test, they had gotten approved to adopt...almost ten years ago. He didn’t know why he was so worried. This woman could not take Zola away (they had verified that about ten times over). If anything, she was proving something to them. But here they are, sitting in his office waiting for Janet to bring this woman to meet them, trying to smooth nonexistent wrinkles out of his scrubs. 

After leaving Amelia’s, he’s not sure where to go. It’s all overwhelming, the thought of everything that’s happening all at once. Mark, Zola’s birth mom, Allison, Amelia. What were the damn chances that his sister, his sister in law, and the closest thing he had to a brother once upon a time were all in danger all at once? It was like the trifecta from hell, and he wasn’t sure what to do about any of them. Figuring Meredith’s still at the hospital he goes in that direction. There’s still hours before the kids will start arriving home, and they need to figure this out. He stops at the coffee cart when he gets there, because the one he’s had today is nowhere near enough for all of this, and then sends her a text, asking whereabouts in the hospital she is. 

“You go make sure Nora gets settled in the PACU, and I’m going to go update the family. Do pupillary response checks every twenty minutes until she wakes, and page me as soon as she does,” Spencer tells the intern as they leave the OR after a successful tumor removal on a 45 year old woman. It was a big tumor, a risky procedure, but he’d managed to get it all out with clean margins, and he would need her to wake up to be sure, but he was confident there would be no neural deficits. Heading out to the waiting room where he expected her husband, two children, and son in law to be Spencer catches eyes with Meredith speaking to some family members, and he nods at her, raising a hand in a wave as he spots Nora Parks’s family. “Doctor Hill!” Her younger daughter exclaims, catching sight of him first. Her sister, brother in law, and father fall silent immediately, all eyes on him. “How’s my Nora?” Logan Parks asks, standing up as Spencer reaches them. “Nora is being brought to the post anesthesia care unit as we speak. She got through surgery well, there was only one instance when her heart rate dropped, but we were able to bring it back up with no issues,” He begins. 

His mom manages to keep the kids at bay for a few hours before they come piling in and he puts on a smile and gets up. He goes through the motions, ignoring his mother’s concerned looks, playing with them, making them dinner, and then reading books and putting them to bed. He shakes his head at his mom apologetically before retiring back to the bedroom to wait for Meredith, not sure how the hell he was supposed to tell her this.