"Lolita Mariana Rodriguez, put on your shoes!" Hope demanded, for what had seemed like the forth time. "No! I don't wanna go to school!" Lola called back in protest as she ran around the apartment to avoid her Aunt.

Hope, in her scrubs, was chasing her small niece around the apartment as her patience was definitely thinning.

Caroline sat on the couch, eating her bowl of yogurt with granola as she continued to speak as though Hope was present and listening— which she was not.

"So after everybody left it was just Mark and I. We were talking and flirting for a while and then I got his number." Cara rambled on before she crammed a spoonful of yoghurt into her mouth.

"Hope, are you listening?"

"No i'm chasing my sister's child!" Hope hissed back bitterly, visibly impatient. Lola let out a squeal as she continued to run, and went to run past the sofa where Cara had been sitting.

Caroline placed her bowl down and got off the couch, quickly scooping the child into her arms as Lola flailed about.

"Hey, hey stop that— ow." Cara spoke, as Lola's small fist hit her straight in the forehead. "Stop hitting me!" The blonde suddenly demanded as Lola reluctantly stopped.

Hope approached the pair, as Cara carefully placed the smaller Rodriguez back on the floor. "Why don't you want to go to school?" Caroline asked as Lola stayed quiet, keeping her lips tightly shut.

"Lolita, please. I'm going to be late." Hope insisted as Lola reluctantly spoke, "Isaac is being mean to me!"

"I thought Isaac was your best friend?" Hope asked, as Lola constantly spoke about this boy in her class. Lola shook his head, "He started hanging out with the mean boys and now he is picking on me."

Now this... this made Hope really angry. "Okay, we're going to go to school right now and I'm going to—"

"No, no." Caroline piped up, "You're already late. Let Lola stay home with me today and you can take it to the school tonight." She suggested, as Lola seemed to like the idea of staying home.

Hope seemed reluctant, but figured a day off to relax and forgot about these kids harassing her was probably for the better.

"I can paint your nails, and you can even help me draw some new clothes." Cara suggested to Lola, speaking in a tone to make it all seem extra exciting.

"Yay!" Lola called out, before she rushed towards Hope's room to find her own crayons and drawing pad.

Hope looked to Cara, seeming relieved but unsure. "Are you sure you can look after her all day?" She asked as Caroline shrugged. "I'm sure I can handle it Dr Rodriguez. Now go to work, before you're late." The Robbins demanded.

⋆⋅🩺⋅⋆

After having a short lived conversation with Meredith— who was back, Hope parted ways and met up with Percy, as they'd been assigned to a patient named Dr Singer.

What they hadn't expected was to run into Izzie Stevens.

Percy seemed interested in prying on why she left behind her job, Alex and genuinely her whole life... but Hope wasn't interested. She just wanted to help the patient, and avoid the gossip.

The Rodriguez ran tests on Dr Singer as Percy kept pestering Izzie. "Did you think if you made some great neuro save, Shepherd would give you your job back?" He asked as Izzie frowned at him.

"I'm not here to get my job back." She responded quickly before Percy said, "Good. Because it's not gonna happen."

Feeling as though she was dealing with bickering children, Hope quickly turned around to address Izzie. "Blood work and CT are normal." The ravenette spoke up.

"We need to do a spinal tap. He could have a subarachnoid haemorrhage." Izzie urged Hope, as the ravenette nodded.

Suddenly, Dr Singer began to panic as he'd awoken to realise that he was in an unfamiliar environment.

"Hi there Dr Singer. Please take some deep breaths for me." Hope began as Izzie stood by his side. "You're okay, You're at Seattle Grace Mercy West and are in safe hands."

This only panicked Dr Singer more as he got to his feet. Izzie tried to bring him back onto his bed but had been pushed aside by him, before he fell onto the floor.

Quickly, Hope rushed over and helped Dr Singer to his feet. "Percy, I need you to help with a spinal tap." The Rodriguez demanded, as she helped Dr Singer onto his bed.

⋆⋅🩺⋅⋆

When the spinal taps returned normal, Hope was as surprised as Izzie was. "I honestly wasn't expecting that." Hope confessed, leading Izzie back to the pit to find their patient.

Dr Singer was grabbing his coat when they arrived, getting ready to go home.

"Excuse me, sir." Hope piped up, hoping to grab his attention. Dr Singer's head snapped in their direction and he seemed surprised to see Izzie.

"Isobel? Isobel Stevens?" He asked, completely forgetting that he'd been with her all morning. "You're all grown up!" He added with a bright smile.

"I am?" Izzie blurted confusedly as Singer asked Izzie and Hope, "What am I doing here? Why am I in my pyjamas? Is something wrong with me, Isobel?"

Izzie quickly looked to Hope. "He's lucid. Page Shepherd." She demanded before she approached her former teacher.

⋆⋅🩺⋅⋆

Once Singer had been placed down, Derek arrived and stood by Hope.

"You have a condition called N.P. H... normal pressure hydrocephalus. It's a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in your brain." Derek began, "Very hard to, uh, diagnose, but thanks to Dr. Percy and Rodriguez here... The spinal tap removed some of the fluid, Relieving the pressure in your brain, resolving your symptoms, which is how we came to your diagnosis."

Dr. Singer gave a nod of understanding before Izzie explained to him, "Dr. Shepherd wants to put in a permanent shunt. It'll drain the excess fluid to your abdomen, so..."

"Oh, that ... that sounds like major surgery." The patient declared before Derek replied, "No. It's 45 minutes. It's a very common procedure. I do it all the time."

Dr. Singer sighed, "Mm-hmm. Well, I don't think I could afford it. My savings, my retirement, uh, it all went to my late wife's medical care. So, uh ... What do I do?" He asked, unsure.

Hope looked at him sympathetically. She absolutely despised the medical system in this country. It left so many people ill because they couldn't afford a potential cure.

Izzie watched as Derek slipped out of the room, deciding to ask if they could do the surgery pro bono.

⋆⋅🩺⋅⋆

Hope hadn't really expected Derek to ask her to accompany him in the theatre with Dr Singer's surgery, but she was completely over the moon about it.

The surgery went smoothly, as Hope was completely ecstatic to have helped and to learn a lot along the way.

She currently sat in a chair beside her sister's bed, as she told Angie's unconscious body all about her day, with a smile on her face.

If Angelina were awake, she would have been on the edge of her seat and excitedly hyping up her older sister. 

"It was awesome... working with Derek was really great." Hope concluded, her hands falling back into her lap.

"You know... I always wonder what you'll do when you wake up." Hope began, not daring to say if you wake up because she was telling herself that it would definitely happen.

"You've always put Lolita first, which is expected because you are her mother but... you have no dreams of your own. I just... wonder what career choice you may take now that Lolita is older." Hope trailed off, staying silent for a moment.

Sometimes she wanted to just approach Angie's body and shake her. She wanted to demand that the Rodriguez would wake up from her coma and go back to living her life.

After talking some more, Hope decided to say goodbye and got up to leave. What she hadn't expected was to see Lexie passing in the hallway, doing a double take as she saw a casual looking Hope leaving the coma patient's room.

"Hey, I didn't expect to see you still here." Lexie piped up, as she had changed into a hoodie and jeans. "I was visiting..." Hope explained as the pair walked together now.

Putting two and two together Lexie looked at the Rodriguez. "You're related to the coma patient.." She suddenly blurted out as Hope nodded.

"Angie Rodriguez is my younger sister. She's been in a coma for weeks now." Hope answered, as Lexi nodded remembering when Angie first came to Seattle Grace in the ER.

"I should have known... you both look so similar and obviously have the same surname." Lexie rambled on before she sympathetically looked to Hope. "I'm sorry, this all must be really hard."

Hope didn't dare to say more than what she needed too, because if she spoke more about it she may just cry.

"It's been a challenge." Hope spoke, trying to give the hint that she didn't want to delve into it. Luckily, Lexie got the hint and figured Hope would open up about it if she was comfortable to do so.

With that, they left the hospital in a comfortable silence, before parting ways as Hope went to collect her niece and go to primary school to talk to the teachers.