Season four, episode seventeen
Freedom: Part two

Max walked into the waiting area to find Andy's 'friends,' she watched as the kids laughed and messed around, as if there was someone in the trauma room that could've died.

"Lola, Andrew is asking for you. Could you come with me please?" Max's face reminded stoic as she looked at the kids.

"Ooh, yeah" Lola got up from the chair and laughter from the boys got a little louder, "Hey...um, is uh, is he okay?"

Max turned around and faces the girl, "No he's not 'okay'. He's stuck in a block of cement, actual hardening-by-the-second, concrete. How could he be anything close to okay?" Max looked at how her face turned into a scared one.

"Wow, you actually care about him"

Lola looked at Max for a split moment, she wasn't sure what to say, "He's my friend, I...Um, I know I told you he wasn't but he's my friend"

"I'm starting to think that it's more then that and I think you're too proud to admit it to your friends and maybe even to yourself" Max looked behind the girl and at the group of boy, they were still being absolutely horrible humans.

"Mommy, I have a boo-boo. Kiss it better. Mwah mwah"

"Knock it off, he is in pain and he is scared. He needs someone he knows to hold his hand" Max's voice hardens as she gave Lola a look.

"Lola. Oh, Lola. Hold my hand, please Lola"

Lola looked back at the group of boy who were taunting her, "Who gives a shit what they think, the only thing that matters is you and Andy" Max whispered.

"I can't help him"

"You'll regret this for the rest of your life, you'll think about what you could've done and you'll start to hate yourself" Max gave Lola one final looks before walking about to Andy. He was the only thing that mattered right now.

Max walked into the room and looked at the progress they had actually made, for Max it seemed like they kept going in circles like it wouldn't end but as she took a step back, she realized that she was wrong.

"Okay, Andy. We're ready to begin" Richard told him so that he would be prepared for the catheter.

"Wait, Uh is she... Lola?" Andy looked to Max and asked.

"I looked everywhere for her but she must've been in the bathroom or something" Max gave him a sad smile before grabbing his hand.

"We need to start the catheter" Miranda told the group.

"Okay, now you're gonna feel some pressure" Richard warned him.

"She didn't go to the bathroom, she just didn't want to come, right? Lola likes to hang out with me or she did- used too- before I did this. Once, she almost, there Uh, coulda been a kiss but I chickened out" Andy held the conversation as the catheter had entered his body.

"Well maybe she isn't the one you need to be kissing" Max said to him.

"Yes she is. She is and I do need to be kissing her. My whole life is about kissing her" Andy confessed.

"Okay, the catheter is in" Miranda informed them.

"They guys are on their last piece of cement" Mark mentioned.

"Thank god, the hard parts over. Right? The hard parts over?" Andy sighed in relief before he realized that there was a chance that there was more to come.

"Yang, get a crash cart ready" Max called over her shoulder.

"All right, I've got calcium, D50 and insulin. Ready" Hahn said from beside Max.

"That hard part is over?" Andy asked again, he looked over at Max but all she was giving him was a sad smile.

"Okay, um, there is a chance that when this man over here take off the final piece of cement there on your abdomen, all the toxins that have been building up underneath the concrete will rush to your heart and you'll crash, you're heart will stop and you will stop breathing. Okay but, there's not need to make that face because we are ready for this and we will restart your heart and we will put in a tube that's I'll breathe for you and we will rush you right to the O.R., okay? We are a good team of doctors and if you see that warm, welcoming light, do not go into it" Max stared into Andy's eyes, she was trying to be as gentle and efficient as possible.

Mark noticed the ready look that Max was giving him, "Let's go"

"Okay, we're gonna do this on three, okay, one"

"All right, watch the leads" Mark told the crew.

"Two, three" Richard said finishing the count down, and as soon as he did the men started to take off the last bit of cement.

"There he goes" Richard said looking at Andy crash.

"Clear his airway" Mark tells the group.

"All right" Richard comments when noticed the group doing as expected.

"It's in" Hahn informed them.

"One, two...three"

Max watched from the other side of the gurney as Mark lifted up the top half of Andy's body and bringing over to her, "Push the lidocaine, vec and versed"

"Bailey" Richard said urgently, looking at the team of doctors making sure that Andy would live.

"I got the intubation" She said bringing over the tube.

"Go" Richard called out to give her the go ahead and Max stepped out of the way so Miranda had room to do her job. She had just hoped that it would work.

Max didn't want to leave Andy's side, well window, her and Mark were given a break but she couldn't leave him.

"You're supposed to be sitting down Maxi, that's what break are for. We've been on our feet for over nine hours, go rest your legs" Mark walked into the room when he had noticed that Max didn't come back from getting snacks, he knew that she would be in here though.

"I work longer shifts then that while I was pregnant with Maeve, my legs are good" She briefly looked at his face so she could see his facial expression, he wasn't mad but he still looked concerned.

"Look at me" Mark sat on the sink in front of her and placed his hands on the side of her head, "What's going on?"

Max sighed as she leaned her head on his shoulder, "Are all teenagers going to be this stupid? I look at Andy and all I wonder is if I have to worry about Maeve going out and doing something like this to impress someone she liked"

"Maeve's a leader. She always will be, she's gonna be the person to lead a team full of people, she'll be the one that someone goes to for guidance. She's brilliant and kind, she's got a good head on her shoulders and that won't change, you wanna know why?" He had felt her head move from his shoulder, Max was nodding to him, "Because she has you. You are the most companionate, people loving, caring, hardheaded person I know. Maeve isn't going to grow up to seek that type of attention from anyone because you already taught her that she didn't need it to become someone"

Max lifted her head from his shoulders and pouted, "I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm crying" She later her head on his palm as he slid it under her eyes to wipe her tears.

"You don't have to apologize to me about being emotional. You're a people's people, you give love and understanding to everyone you meet and that's one of the many things that I love about you, that won't ever change" Mark leaned forward and gave her a kiss, she sank into his lips as if he had took all of her worries and made them his own so that she wouldn't have to deal with them.

"Thank you, I love you" She whispered into the kiss before laying her head back down on his shoulder so that she could feel the comfort of his arms around her body.

Andy was crashing and Max was about to scream.

She watched as Yang started to do chest compressions, looking back and forth between Andy and the monitor.

"He's gonna need an embolectomy, call Hahn back in here. A clot in the right pulmonary artery, it's pretty massive" Richard called out to one of the nurses.

"I could get to it with a thoracotomy" Yang told the chief.

"Uh, Hahn will assess him when she gets here" Miranda said shutting down her thought.

"I could get to it. The lung automatically retracts leaving the area for embolectomy clear, he's already severely compromised. We'd waste time setting up bypass, time his brain won't be perfusing, it'll take me seconds. I've done it before with Mallard" Yang looked at both Miranda and Richard, she knew she could do this and Max knew she could as well.

"Max promised this kid he would live and I won't let her break that promise" Miranda looked at Chief with certainty.

"Dr. Bailey, take over C.P.R. Yang... I'm right here if you need me" Richard gave her a nod, silently saying to go ahead.

"10 blade" She said as she reached her hand out for the tool and then making a cut so that she could begin to save this kids life.

Max watched as Hahn walked into the O.R. getting ready to do her job, "What happened?"

"He threw a P.E." Richard informed her but she stopped and gave Yang a look for doing the job that she was called down here for.

"So what, you decided Yang would be the best person to open him up?" Hahn asked bewildered.

"She's a bit of a cardiac savant, if you haven't noticed" Richard said harshly.

"Oh, really? Is that why she went through the fourth intercostal space instead of the fifth?" Hahn asked as she looked over Christina's shoulders.

"Couldn't her in through the fifth because there's a gauze pushing up the diaphragm from the abdominal surgery" Yang defended herself.

"This could be easier if you did it under fluoro" Hahn replies back.

"I already had the T.E.E. here, I'm doing just fine without it"

"But you could each of better if- all right, forget it. I'll do it myself, gown please" Hahn shouted at the nurses.

"No, If you had done it-"

"Will you just shut up and let me work" Christina snapped back which made Max very happy. Hahn looked at Bailey and then the Chief with big eyes, would they let Yang talk to her like that?

"Let her work, Hahn" Richard told her forcefully.

Hahn stares back at him but made no moves to push Christina out of the way, Max on the other hand was this close to body slam her.

Andy's surgery was done and he was in the healing processes, so Max decided to walk around the hospital to keep her busy.

Plus she had heard about Derek's day and she just wanted to talk to him but it seemed like it wasn't easy these day. With him doing the trail and then with Max trying to get Maeve set up with school and then everything with her Dad, it just didn't seem like either of them had time. But that was going to change since she had spotted Derek across the hallway.

"Shep, you are just the person I wanted to see" Max glided next to him with a smile, wrapping her arms around him for a tight hug.

"Maxi, what's wrong?" Derek said grabbing her shoulders and pulling her off of him so he could get a better look at her face.

"Nothings wrong, Derek. I can't hug my best friend anymore? Thats kind of mean" Max furrowed her eye brows together.

"No the hugging, last time you were this touchy feely was when you first came to Seattle" Derek looked at her pointedly.

"What are you talking about? I love giving hugs" Max argued.

"Max, you love punching people's arms or ruffling up someone's hair to show affection, hugging? Not so much" Derek pointed out, "And being drunk doesn't count"

"I came to you because I missed you and I love you but I'm beginning to feel like that was a mistake, so I'm gonna retreat back to the food" Max said clapping her hands together.

"No, no! You want to hug? Let's hug" Derek said pulling her closer.

"It's to late for my love, Derek. You sent it away without so much as a goodbye" Max joked.

"Shut up. Anyway what's up, really?" Derek asked her.

"I heard about the trial and I just wanted to talk to you" Max admitted.

"Oh yeah, that. Well I don't want to talk about that" Derek said turning away from her.

"Okay, Fine. Want to hear about what me and Maeve made for breakfast?" Max asked him stepping along side of him as he walked.

"If it's going to make me feel incompetent then the answer is no" He told her with a smile.

"A full English Breakfast! And it was all Maeve's idea too" Max chuckled.

"Yeah, that feeling I didn't want, is starting to rise" Derek told her.

"It was pretty good too. Oh! You'll never guess what Maeve said to me earlier" Max rushed out, she was excited and sometimes her words kind of mushed together.

"What did she say this time?" Derek wondered.

"I woke her up and I told her how Mark had left to hang out with you guys and she say, 'Finally I thought he'd never leave' isn't that horrible?" She shook her head and sighed.

"Kind of funny though" Derek laughed.

"It's not! I feel so bad because I know Mark is really trying but I also know that Maeve is still in the process of learning how to live with a Dad and it's so weird because they will have days where they are just as thick and thieves and then the next day she want absolutely nothing to do with him. Mark and I have been trying to come up with way to build there bond but as much as Mark is a pretty smart guy, he just doesn't understand the things that she's interested in, like who wants to become an aerospace engineer at her age?" Max ranted.

"Do you understand it?" Derek asked.

"Understand what?" Max asked confused.

"Her interest, like do you sit down and listen to her talk about Math and building stuff. Do you try and understand her passions and thoughts?" Derek explained further.

"Well yeah, I might not understand the words that come out of her mouth but I do try" Max said giving Derek a weird look.

"Does Mark?"

Max was stunned, she was usually really good at this whole understanding feelings thing but this one went right over her head, "You're right! Maeve probably feels that Mark doesn't care about her enough to want to grow there relationship further. Seriously thank you so much, but I've got to go check on Andy"

She gave him a big kiss on the cheek before walking toward the room that Andy was at, as she was getting closer she noticed Lola standing in the hallway, it looked like she was waiting for her.

"Wow, you're still here. Must've been hard sleeping in the waiting room" Max said shaking her head slightly at the teenage girl, before walking away from her.

"Look, I like him. All right, I do but he doesn't need to know that, nobody needs to know that" Lola stopped Max in her tracks, making her turn around to face the girl.

"Except for that he needs you and you're too worried about what your friends would think" Max felt mixed emotions and neither of them were the good kind.

"What do you know about it? Do you know what it would be like for me, for him, if they knew? You think it's easy?" Lola asked her with a condescending tone.

"And what you think it isn't? I'm adopted by black parents, I grew up with black parents, I had to go every single day hearing kids talk crap about my Mom and Dad 'Oh they must've stolen them from a nice white family' or ' I feel so bad for those kids for having black parents.' I got bullied for being adopted and then when people found out that they happened to be black, then all hell broke lose and it didn't even matter that they were both Doctors, all they saw was there skin color. I tried really hard to hide where I came from and who I was, but in reality if I wasn't adopted by my parents then I probably would've died, my biological Mom probably blew up the house by making meth and she probably got a little too high to carry me and my brother out of that house. That's hard, but sometimes it helps being honest with yourself, you find that you don't need those people to define who you are, you are loved and cared for and that's all that should matter, everything else is just background noise" Max scoffed when she saw that Lola had nothing to say back, her big grand speech had not effect of her whatsoever, so she began to walk away. "He's alive, barley but he is alive"

Max finally made it to Andy's room, she had been checking every monitor that he was plugged into and even his catheter to make sure that he was all clear. When she looked up to check his face, he had already been looking at her.

"Hey, buddy, do I or do I not keep my promises" Max said to him with a wink.

"Uh-huh. You do" He responded groggily.

"Remember when we talking about the bigger picture?" Max smiled down at him, cleaning any drool from his mouth.

"Yeah"

"Hey" Lola said walking closer to him, she put her hand on his and the other went straight to his hair, but it was when Lola leaned down to kiss him that made Max shocked. She heard Andy gasp as soon as Lola lifted up, she couldn't help but smile at that.

"He's been waiting is whole like for that, huh?" Callie said from behind Max, even she was holding a smile.

"Yeah, he has" Max said lightly.

Max was not feeling too hot, she had walking around the hospital to get some movement in hopes that it'll stop her hot flashes and that acid feeling in her throat, she looked around the hospital and saw Derek looking at her.

"Still not feeling good?" He asked her concerned.

"No, not really. I think I might have a stomach bug or something" Max shrugged her shoulders as if it was not big deal.

"You never get sick, I doubt that's what it is" Derek said as if he knew something she didn't.

"Well what else could it be, I mean I- Holy Shit" She gasped, looking at her friend with wide eyes.

"Maybe you'd want to find someone to help you with that" Derek laughed before walking away from her and out of the hospital.

Oh shit, she thought. She turned herself right back around, she was looking for Miranda Bailey and she really needed to find her.

She had checked in the on-call room, she checked in the break room, she even checked the janitors closet.
She made it to the trauma wing that Andy was in, she heard little noises and she knew it was Miranda talking too Tuck.

"Miranda Bailey, I need a pregnancy test" Max rushes into the room, maybe startling both Miranda and Tuck but that wasn't important right now.

Miranda motioned for Max to follow her, she lead her to the nearest exam room, "Pee in that and I'll test it" Miranda said hanging her a cup.

Max took the cup from Miranda and went to the bathroom, luckily she actually did have to pee. She came right back out after washing her hands and any pee that was on the outside of the cup.

"Perfect, I'll text this and be right back" Miranda said taking the cup with her gloved hand and walking out of the room, leaving Tuck in Max's arms.

Max waited thirty minutes before her friend came back into the room, "I feel like this is déjà vu" Max joked.

"Congratulations, you're pregnant" Miranda told her with a neutral expression, she didn't want to be excited if Max wasn't excited so she opted for the best solution, as there natural.

"Oh yeah, definitely déjà vu" Max said slumping down the chair in shock, what was she going to tell Mark? Did he even want another kid? What about Maeve, she's just now getting used to her Dad and bringing another child into the mix was not going to help that.

Unknowingly to Max, life was just about to get so much harder.

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WE REACHED 100K READS!!! Thank you guys so much, this chapter is dedicated to you guys<3

EEEEEE

How do you think Mark and Maeve will react? Do you think it's going to be a boy or a girl?

This is going to be the last chapter for part Two, what do you think will happen in part three?

I think of Home - Snow Patrol