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🕑 Added 2025-06-25 16:27:41 +0000 UTCChapter 384: Who Gave You That Courage?
Medical Center.
Green Clinic.
Leonard handed a patient file to Adam. “Adam, the Lesters are old friends of mine. Their daughter Claire slipped in the bathtub this morning and has a fever. Mrs. Lester thinks Claire’s been off lately—losing weight, not herself—and suspects it might be tied to a trip she took with friends to Mexico a few weeks back. Come with me to check it out.”
“Sure thing,” Adam said, taking the file and giving it a quick skim before following Leonard to the ward.
“Dr. Green,” a voice greeted as they entered.
“Mr. Lester, Mrs. Lester,” Leonard replied, nodding to a well-dressed couple who screamed upper-class British vibes.
Adam’s eyes, meanwhile, landed on Claire—the patient—sitting on the bed, biting her lip, her gaze flickering nervously. Something was definitely up with her.
“Claire, this is Dr. Duncan,” Leonard said after the pleasantries, turning to her. “How about letting him take a look at you?”
“I’m fine,” Claire shot back. “I don’t need a checkup. Just give me some antibiotics and let me go home.”
“You can’t just take whatever meds you want,” Adam said with a light chuckle. “Antibiotics included. We’ve got to check you out first before prescribing anything—unless you already know what’s wrong?”
Claire’s eyes widened in panic for a split second before she shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Then we’ll need to do a checkup,” Adam said, still smiling. “Relax, it’s just a quick one.”
“Do it, Claire!” her father snapped.
“God, I don’t want to spend all day here—hurry up and check her already,” her mother added, clearly exasperated.
“No!” Claire shouted. “This is insane! I’m totally fine! I don’t need a checkup!”
“Dr. Green,” Adam said, turning to Leonard. “Should we get Dr. Sherran instead?”
Leonard blinked, then caught the look in Adam’s eyes. Claire didn’t want her parents in the loop—whatever was going on was probably personal. Pregnancy, maybe? An abortion gone wrong? Something sensitive. And Adam, being a young, good-looking guy, wasn’t exactly the ideal doctor for this situation.
“Go grab Shawnee,” Leonard agreed with a nod.
“What’s going on?” Claire’s parents asked, their voices tight with concern.
“Nothing to worry about,” Leonard reassured them. “Dr. Duncan and I are here, but Claire might feel more comfortable with Dr. Sherran checking her out privately.”
Adam tracked down Shawnee and filled her in. She headed over right away. With nothing pressing for him to do, Adam figured he’d swing by the ER to see what was up. That’s when he spotted Meredith trailing behind a redheaded female doctor, her face blank as a slate.
And who else could it be but Dr. Shephard’s wife?
“What’s the deal?” Adam muttered, stunned.
A chatty little nurse sidled up to him immediately, eager to spill the tea. Adam listened, his mouth twitching into a grin.
Wow.
Talk about soap-opera-level drama!
Turns out Dr. Shephard’s wife was a renowned OB-GYN who’d followed her husband all the way from Boston—invited by the surgical chief, Richard, no less. She hadn’t even officially started yet, but she’d already swooped in, snatched Meredith (her husband’s mistress) from the Nazis—or rather, the hospital rumor mill—and made her an intern under her command. The combo of legit wife status and top-tier doctor aura was crushing Meredith psychologically.
This was a total beatdown.
The question was: Could Meredith pull off a comeback?
Beep beep.
Beep beep.
Adam’s pager went off after he’d been in the ER for a bit, helping with a patient. He glanced at it and bolted back to the Green Clinic.
“Claire had a gastric bypass done at some shady clinic in Mexico to lose weight,” Shawnee explained, catching him up.
“Complications?” Adam asked, piecing it together. A back-alley place like that? No sterile OR, no qualified docs—probably a disaster waiting to happen. Screwed-up surgery and side effects were par for the course.
“Yup,” Shawnee confirmed. “Subdiaphragmatic abscess, intestinal wall edema. Her parents have signed off on a gastric bypass reversal. Get ready—we’re heading into the OR together.”
“Got it,” Adam said with a nod.
Leonard, as the attending, came in to oversee things personally. The surgery went off without a hitch.
Lunchtime. Cafeteria.
“Heard you guys did a gastric bypass reversal this morning?” Bianca tossed out casually.
“Yeah,” Adam said, digging into his food. “This college girl—Claire—got swamped with schoolwork, didn’t have time to exercise, and wasn’t seeing the weight-loss results she wanted. Her mom kept nagging her about it, so she got fed up and took a shortcut. Found some sketchy clinic in Mexico online, went with friends, and got the gastric bypass. Ended up with complications.”
“That’s so dumb,” Bianca said with a sigh.
“No kidding,” Adam agreed. “She wasn’t even fat to begin with. And honestly, putting on a few pounds isn’t the end of the world—plenty of guys out there like a little meat on the bones. But going to a shady clinic for surgery like that? One wrong move and you’re dead—or worse, they could harvest your organs and sell them.”
Bianca shivered involuntarily. She knew Adam wasn’t exaggerating. One organ could save a life, and people desperate to survive would pay insane amounts. The black market for that stuff was ruthless—stories of people getting lured in and dissected for parts weren’t rare.
Just then, George plopped down at their table, looking like a sulky kid who wouldn’t say why.
Adam ignored him. Bianca frowned. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it!” George snapped.
“Then don’t,” Adam said with a grin. “Whoever spills first is a puppy.”
“…” George’s face turned red, caught off guard. If he didn’t want to talk, he could’ve sulked off somewhere alone. Instead, he’d plunked himself down, making a scene to get their attention. Obviously, he did want to vent.
“Haha!” Bianca cracked up. “Come on, George, what’s up?”
“I’m moving out of Meredith’s place tonight,” he grumbled.
“Why?” Bianca asked, leaning in. “What’d she do?”
“She—she’s too much!” George fumed. “I mean, sure, I’m no Derek Shephard yet, but I’ll get there someday. I’m just as good as him—better, even! And I’ve been nothing but loyal to her.”
“And then?” Bianca pressed.
“Last night, I thought it over and decided to go back and be with her,” George said. “I remembered what Adam said about drunk Meredith—”
“I didn’t say anything! Don’t make stuff up!” Adam cut in, his mouth twitching in panic. Oh, hell no. If that rumor got out, everyone would want a piece of the action, and Shephard’s Hulk-sized fists would come for him.
“…Anyway, I figured alcohol brings out the truth, so I went back,” George continued. “At first, she was all over me. We even found an empty room—”
“You hooked up?” Bianca asked, eyes wide with gossip-fueled glee.
George’s voice rose in outrage. “Everything was perfect—until I looked up and saw her crying her eyes out, like she was in pain or something!”
Adam couldn’t hold back anymore. “Dude, your logic is wild! Normally, tears in that situation are happy ones—like, a big thumbs-up to your charm. And even if they weren’t, so what? She just got hit with a massive blow—never hooked up with you before, just acted on a drunken impulse, then snapped out of it and cried. Totally normal! You’re just the guy who happened to be there. How do you jump from that to ‘she loves someone else’ and throw a tantrum over it? Who gave you that kind of courage?”
George froze. “…”
Chapter 385: Whose Tears Are Falling? Medical Center
Cafeteria
When Adam asked the question, George froze on the spot.
Crying during that moment—whether from joy or pain—neither seemed like a reason for him to be this mad.
“I’m not just some tool!”
After a brief daze, George snapped back, “Meredith and I have a real connection. Her choosing me proves it. Otherwise, why didn’t she pick you?”
“Pfft!”
Bianca burst out laughing.
Adam’s lip twitched.
Talk about selective blindness.
If I hadn’t ignored her and dodged that whole mess, you wouldn’t be stuck wondering which kind of tears they were! It’d be the full package—complicated, layered, dramatic, everything!
After lunch, Adam passed by a patient room and couldn’t help but pause.
Inside, a patient was openly mocking Meredith.
“So, what’s it like stealing someone else’s husband?”
“What did you say?”
Meredith couldn’t believe a patient was joining the pile-on.
“I didn’t say you…” the woman replied, but her tone and expression screamed, “I’m totally talking about you husband-stealing tramps!”
“Jeff moved in with some long-legged chick who answered his phone. I was three weeks pregnant! I was carrying his twins, and he ditched me—ditched our kids—for that slut!”
Meredith stayed silent, quietly spreading ultrasound gel on the woman’s belly.
“It’s too cold!” the pregnant woman yelped.
“Sorry,” Meredith mumbled. After a beat, she added, “I’m sorry about your husband, too.”
“Are you sorry about Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd’s husband as well?”
The patient didn’t let up, jabbing right at Meredith’s sore spot.
Dr. Shepherd’s wife was Addison Montgomery-Shepherd—originally just Montgomery, she’d tacked on her husband’s name after marriage. Both were top docs in their fields, but Addison insisted on being called Dr. Montgomery to stand apart, showcasing her independence and skill.
“…I’ll run a few more tests,” Meredith said after a long pause, swallowing her frustration and anger, her face blank.
“I bet Dr. Montgomery’s the one making you work with her,” the patient sneered, not letting Meredith off the hook. She was treating her like the poster child for homewreckers. “If it were me, I’d do the same!”
“I’ll grab your test results!”
Meredith stood abruptly, threw out the line, and bolted. She wasn’t sure she could keep it together much longer.
Hallway
“Don’t overthink it. At least in this case, it’s not your fault,” Adam said, trying to comfort her.
“It is my fault!” Meredith shot back, her face still a mask. “If I weren’t so blind, I’d have seen what a scumbag he was ages ago. So yeah, it’s all on me!”
She turned and stormed off.
Adam shook his head, checked in at the Green Clinic—nothing major going on there—and headed to the ER.
With Snowy and Leonard looking out for him, plus his skills earning nods from attending docs like Leonard, Burke, and Shepherd, he had a ton of freedom. He was starting to feel more like a resident than an intern.
Afternoon
Near Clock-Out Time
ER
“What’s the situation?”
“Multiple gunshot wounds. Pulse 150, irregular. BP’s 50. We’ve got two IV lines running, but his pressure’s still dropping!”
“Page Dr. Green! OR 4, now!”
Adam rushed the gurney toward the operating room. “Prep six units of O-neg!”
OR 4
“No blood pressure reading,” a nurse warned. “Capillary refill’s abnormal.”
“He’s bleeding out. Set up a pressure transfusion,” Adam directed calmly. “Get me bilateral chest tubes. Prep to roll him!”
Once they flipped the patient over and Adam saw the gunshot wounds on his back, his pupils shrank. “Page Dr. Green again!”
“Yes, Doctor!” The nurse darted off.
“What’s going on?” Leonard asked, rushing in moments later, scrubbed up.
“Young guy, multiple shots to the back, no exit wounds. Bilateral hemothorax. We’ve drained a liter from the left chest already. Breath sounds weak on both sides. I’m suturing the airway now,” Adam reported, hands steady as he worked.
“Oh, God!” Leonard glanced at the wounds and winced. “Did someone hit him with a cannon?”
He grabbed the X-ray from a nurse and scanned it. “Bullet in the right ventricle.”
“Cardiac tamponade, Dr. Green!” Adam said.
“Open him up, now!” Leonard ordered. “Thoracotomy kit!”
The surgical nurse handed it over.
Leonard sliced into the chest with precision.
“No heartbeat. Tachycardia at 140. Pulse is faint, no BP,” the nurse called out.
“Retractor,” Leonard said.
Adam took it from the nurse and expertly held the incision open, giving Leonard a clear field.
“Prep 10 more units of O-neg!” Leonard instructed, mid-procedure. “Adam, get the cardiopulmonary bypass ready.”
“Yes, Doctor!” Adam jumped into action, swift and decisive as ever.
But a strange feeling stirred in his chest.
If he was right, this patient would be the first he’d lose—despite all the effort, despite the surgery, dying right there in his hands.
The injuries were just too severe.
Leonard knew it too—why else would he blurt out that cannon comment? They were doing all they could and leaving the rest to fate.
And fate didn’t pull through.
After 30 minutes of fighting, the patient succumbed to his wounds on the table.
“Doctors aren’t gods,” Adam sighed inwardly.
He stitched up the incision and stepped out of the OR.
The police were already there, asking basic questions. Adam learned the story from them.
The guy was an innocent bystander.
Walking past a little Eastern European-owned hotel, he got caught in a shootout between a Black robber and the store owner. The owner took out the robber on the spot. But the robber’s bullets? Nearly all of them slammed into the poor guy’s back.
Adam hated this kind of thing.
Amateurs who barely practiced, grabbed a gun, and hit the streets were way more dangerous than trained shooters. If Adam had been that bystander, he might’ve gotten hit too.
Who’d expect a guy spraying bullets at the owner to somehow send them flying the opposite way? Adam could practically picture it: the robber spinning, arm flailing, firing wildly.
Impossible to dodge. Terrifying.
Nurse’s Station
“What’s this?” Adam asked, eyeing a blood-stained gift box. “The patient’s stuff?”
“Yeah,” the nurse nodded.
“Have we reached his family?”
“We just found his emergency contact in the system. Calling now,” she said, dialing.
Adam picked up a note attached to the box. It read: “So you’ll have some music to go with your breakfast singing. Love, Max.”
Ugh. Another kind, innocent soul.
In just over two months, this was the third one Adam had come across.
Whose tears were falling this time?
The call connected, and the nurse slipped into her professional tone. “Hello, this is New York Medical Center. Am I speaking to Tracy McConnell…?”
Chapter 386: La Vie en Rose
Medical Center.
Hallway.
Meredith and Liz leaned against the wall, slumped on a gurney, staring blankly ahead. Both of them looked drained, their moods in the gutter.
Adam walked up.
“Meredith, you worked on a TTTS case this afternoon?”
TTTS—twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. A rare condition where twins sharing a placenta are connected by blood vessels, but the balance is off: one gets too much blood, the other too little. It’s dangerous for both.
Sheldon often joked about how he should’ve taken out his twin sister, Missy, back in the womb, but that was a flawed flex. For one, he probably couldn’t have beaten her—Missy would’ve laid him out with a swift kick to the jewels. And two, if something like TTTS had hit, trying to hog more nutrients might’ve ended with both of them toast.
Separating the twins’ blood vessels is insanely tricky, so TTTS is usually untreatable—unless you’ve got a top-tier OB-GYN. Enter Dr. Montgomery, Shephard’s wife. Surgical Chief Richard had invited her for two reasons. First, he knew Shephard was messing around with intern Grey—Meredith—and as the boss, he hated seeing hospital rules broken. Plus, Montgomery was his friend, and he didn’t want their marriage to tank, so he figured she could reel Shephard in. Second, they’d just admitted a pregnant patient with TTTS, and Montgomery was the best in the game.
Bringing in elite doctors to boost the hospital’s rep? That was Richard’s job. When Shephard confronted him, he had a rock-solid excuse. Business is business!
“Yeah, I did,” Meredith said, her voice flat. No trace of the excitement you’d expect from assisting on a surgery that big.
What a waste! Adam thought. If it were him—cluelessly getting cozy with a hotshot doctor’s wife, only for her to slap him with a rare, high-level procedure and demand he scrub in—he’d be over the moon. Sign me up for a dozen of those!
“So, how’d it go?” Adam asked, swallowing his inner commentary. “Give me the surgery details.”
“You only care about the surgery details!” Liz cut in, glaring at him. “Don’t you get Meredith’s situation? Don’t you care how she’s feeling?”
“Alright, my bad,” Adam said, raising his hands in surrender. Then he pivoted, all concern: “Meredith, how’d you feel during the surgery? What did Dr. Montgomery do—every move—what ran through your head?”
“…” Liz’s face darkened.
“I’m fine,” Meredith said, forcing a tough front. “I’m good.”
“Glad to hear it,” Adam nodded, then got serious again. “So, what was Dr. Montgomery doing when you felt that? Oh, I bet it was when she made the incision, right?”
“…” Meredith’s fake smile cracked. Sure, the patient had ripped into her with snide remarks and public humiliation, but she wasn’t petty enough to feel glee over Montgomery cutting into someone.
“Okay, enough about my feelings—let me just tell you the surgery details!” Meredith blurted, cutting Adam off before he could ask another nerve-jangling question. She launched into it: “We started with a laparoscopy, using a thin blade for a three-millimeter incision… The surgery went perfectly. You know what I felt then? Watching her, so focused, I forgot she was Shephard’s wife—my rival. Forgot the hostility. I just stared, totally caught up in it. It hit me—my aunt used to say all the time: ‘It’s always the men and their brothers’ fault, never us women. Never!’”
“Heh,” Adam chuckled, satisfied with the detailed rundown. Then her last bit sank in, and he couldn’t hold back a laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Meredith snapped. “You don’t think it’s the men and their brothers’ fault?”
“Nah, not that,” Adam grinned. “I’m just thinking—you were so mesmerized by her focus, saying it’s all the men’s fault, never the women’s, ever? Sounds like you might’ve awakened your inner lesbian. If that’s the case, you two could ditch Shephard and live your own legendary love story.”
“I’m here for it!” Liz chimed in. “Men are unreliable anyway—that’s why so many women are going full-on lace-curtain these days.”
Adam shot her a sideways glance, wondering: Is this solidarity with Meredith, or is Alex about to transition, and Liz is laying the groundwork for her own lace-curtain era…?
“I just admire her skill and authority,” Meredith said, shaking her head. “And her courage.”
“Courage?” Adam raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
“After the surgery, Mrs. Phillips—the patient—lost it,” Meredith said, her expression tangled. “She didn’t want me anywhere near her. Montgomery could’ve piled on, but instead, she shut her down. Said it wasn’t my fault, that she wouldn’t have had my grace or patience. Said it wasn’t me or her husband cheating—it was her who cheated first. Told Mrs. Phillips she owed me an apology.”
“She actually said that?” Liz’s jaw dropped.
“Yeah,” Meredith nodded.
Whoa. This redheaded doctor had some serious guts. Adam was impressed.
“So, are they divorced or what?” Liz asked, still confused.
“No idea,” Meredith said, lost.
“Definitely not,” Adam said, breaking it down. “If they were, this whole scene wouldn’t be happening. From what we know, it sounds like Shephard found out Montgomery cheated, stormed off in a rage, and she showed up two months later—probably after he’d cooled off—to patch things up.”
“Then what’s Meredith in all this?” Liz asked, indignant.
“Probably a tool to smooth things over with Shephard,” Adam said matter-of-factly. “Otherwise, no woman—well, most women—would treat their husband’s mistress like this…” He didn’t say the rest out loud: Meredith should know—she’s the queen of using tools herself.
Meredith froze.
A tool? Me?
Just then, a sweet melody floated in through the window—someone strumming a guitar.
“Hold me close and hold me tight,
Whisper softly by my side,
Life blooms sweet like roses bright.
Kisses deep, the heavens sigh,
Eyes shut tight, my heart’s alive,
Life blooms sweet like roses high.
When you stormed into my soul,
Joy flowed free like rivers roll,
Roses blossom, full and whole.
Soft words hum, angels take flight,
Daily chatter turns to rhyme,
Stay with me, body and mind,
Life will bloom like roses, time after time.”
The song—“La Vie en Rose”—was sung with a aching, tearful beauty. Everyone who heard it stopped in their tracks, mouths shut, ears tuned in. The woman’s voice carried a sadness so raw it hit straight to the core.
Adam just zoned out a bit, lost in it.
Meredith and Liz, though? They were already sobbing…
