oix. syphilis, secret surgery's,
and surprises
1.09

Atlas had a feeling. The cardio surgeon got them often. Sometimes it was feeling that he got when he knew it would be a good day. Or the feeling he got when him and Derek became a couple, or boyfriend and boyfriend. But this feeling was different. It made his stomach roll and his mind drift to anything that could happen. It was a feeling that practically screamed run away! and bad! Bad! over and over again. And oh how it was starting to drive him crazy.

Atlas thought the yelling from the two interns was just his imagination.

"Hey, what did you get, something good? Syphilis? That's not surgical. Who has syphilis?" Izzie grabs George's results that he held in his hand.

Atlas just watches as George pulls into the nurse's station. Atlas rounds the corner once more, shaking everything off as his bad feeling.

"You have syphilis?!" Izzie shouts, causing Atlas who had been walking by to stop and turn.

"Shh!" George yells, catching the cardio attendings eye.

Maybe it wasn't his imagination after all.

╚═ ☆ ═╝

As much as Atlas liked Derek, the neurosurgeon could be a little extra sometimes. Like for example, Derek had decided to drag his boyfriend along with him to confront the chief.

Derek had told his boyfriend all about what he saw when Richard Webber was operating.

Derek knocks, enters and closes the door office door, Atlas right beside him.

"You dropped a retractor." Derek points out as he stands in-front of the chiefs desk.

Atlas was a little confused at first, he had dropped many retractors in his life. Maybe too many. But Derek explained that he believed something was wrong. Atlas didn't pry anymore and let himself be dragged along.

Richard looks between both surgeons, "Fine. A few weeks ago, I was operating, and the vision in my right eye became blurry. After a few hours, it was fine. It's come back again."

"Did you have it checked out?" Atlas asks softly, not wanting to pry but to know if the doctor had gotten it checked out.

"The examination was normal. My ophthalmologist tells me I'm just getting older. But you know what a decline in my visual acuity can mean." Richard addresses, all three sharing a look.

"I'll set up some tests." Derek says, not leaving much room for an argument.

"Shep, I know how the rumor mill runs around here. Let's just keep this to ourselves." Once again, Richard is more talking to Derek than Atlas.

"Absolutely. Yeah." Derek agrees who looks over to his boyfriend.

"Agreed, I'll keep my lips shut." Atlas says before he makes a lock and key motion above his lips.

╚═ ☆ ═╝

Atlas is standing in a room full of doctors and interns with Patricia seated near the chief.

"Three interns, four residents and six nurses on this surgical floor have been diagnosed with...syphilis." Richard starts, his voice full of disappointment.

The room makes oohing noises. For doctors, Atlas finds them immature.

"There are over 70,000 new cases every year. Undiagnosed, syphilis can lead to blindness, insanity and death." Patricia, a administrative assistant says, her voice much more relaxed than the chiefs.

"If you are having unprotected sex with another member of the staff, get tested." Richard Webber practically demands.

Atlas can see people looking at each other from different parts of the room.

"This is not a request. Patricia will now give you a safe-sex demonstration." Richards adds before moving to the side of the room, closer to the door.

Everyone laughs. Patricia stands up holding a condom and a banana. Atlas brings a hand to his mouth as he tries to stop himself from laughing. He spots his brother whose doing the same thing. Eliza has a steady face, but Atlas can tell she's almost ready to burst.

"Don't you dare laugh." Atlas mouths at his siblings, who nod back.

Oliver opens his mouth, "don't you dare laugh either, bitch." He mouths.

"When the time is right, and, gentlemen, you'll all know when that time is, carefully open the condom packet and roll it onto the banana." Patricia says as she starts to demonstrate what she's saying.

Atlas watches his boyfriend enter the room, who goes and talks to Webber. Derek catches his boyfriends eye before sending him a smile.

"Open communication is essential to a healthy relationship. In a responsible relationship..."

Atlas sees both his siblings laugh, he laughs too.

╚═ ☆ ═╝

Atlas exits the elevator, his siblings by his side. He was being an asshole and making them get tested. It was all in kindness of his heart Atlas told his siblings. But it was a lie — Atlas knew that his mother would beat his ass with a dishcloth if she found out that he didn't force the twins to get tested, or get himself tested aswell, that's why he stood in line too. He had reason to believe that Derek was sleeping with anyone else. But he knew that his mother would find out about the outbreak, and to say she wouldn't freak out would be a lie.

The line to the blood lab seemed to be very long, Atlas and his siblings at the back of it. The elevator nearby dings open and a lab tech gets out. Atlas sees Burke in the elevator not planning on exiting until he sees Cristina and then he hurries out of the elevator. He gets in the blood lab line beside her. Atlas can't help but wonder back to when he had worked with Christina on the case, where the patient had told Christina (and Atlas) that she was pregnant.

"You two better not have syphilis." Atlas mutters.

"You better not have syphilis." Oliver bickers back, but shuts up the second his older brother sends him a glare.

╚═ ☆ ═╝

Derek, Richard and Atlas (who had been dragged to along with Derek) were examining the chiefs MRI scans.

"You see that right there?" Derek asked, pointing to something on the scan.

"Mm-hmm." Richard hums.

"It's a tumor, and it's pressing against your optic nerve." Atlas softly tells the chief, not wanting him to freak out, because he knew Derek, and Derek would most likely not have been as soft as Atlas.

"Is it operable?"

"Oh, definitely. It does have its risks."

"You mean I could lose my sight? Just what I need, a syphilis outbreak and a tumor." Richard complains, his head tilting towards the roof.

Atlas could see the emotion on his face, and he felt bad. And he felt out of place, he didn't really wanna be here. But! He wanted to support his boyfriend in whatever he was doing, so, Atlas compromised.

"It's probably unrelated." Atlas chuckles.

"All right, Derek, lets see how good you really are."

"All right. I'll put a team together." Derek smiles at his boyfriend, feeling accomplished. Atlas send him two thumbs up.

"All my people only. And I still want this kept under wraps. The vultures will be circling soon enough."

"Aren't we one of the vultures?" Derek points between himself and the cardio surgeon.

"Why do you think I want to keep an eye on you, Derek? Get going. We're doing this tonight.And Atlas here isn't a vulture, have you meet him?"

"Right." Derek nods before letting the chief leave.

Meredith and Oliver come running up just as Richard is leaving. "You paged?" The two interns simultaneously say, which sent shivers down Atlas's spine.

"Yeah, I need you to help me out on something for the chief. Can you keep a secret?"

"Better than you think."

"Sometimes, definitely not if Atlas is around. God he can be scary sometimes Der!" Oliver cries and throws his arms into the air as everyone else around laughs.

╚═ ☆ ═╝

"Bails!" Atlas ran up the the short resident.

"Yes?" She questions but keeps moving.

"Bailsssss." Atlas drags out and the resident turns to face him, her glare hardening.

"Oh Bailey! How's the husband?" Atlas stuffs his hands into the pocket as he walks along side the resident who had just moved into a fast paced walk once again.

"He's good. How the boyfriend?" Miranda bit back just as fast.

"You know we're dating?!" Atlas whips his head down towards the shorter person.

"Of course I know, I'm Miranda freaking Bailey... and your brother likes to talk."

"That little fucker."

"Hey! Don't swear!" Miranda scolds, her tiny—yet really strong, fist hitting in the shoulder.

Derek runs up to Bailey and Atlas in the hall. "How goes out special super secret silent sunset surgery? I've been practicing that."

Atlas smiles brightly, having told Derek to say that.

"You have too much time on your hands. Uh, tell the chief I'll be there. Just let me know when and where. I'm in."

"Bails! I told Derek to say that."

"Shepherd, your dating an idiot, who's brother is also an idiot."

Bailey walks off, leaving the two alone. "Are you nervous?"

"It's a complicated surgery. I make one mistake, I end a fellow surgeon's career, my mentor's career. Oh, no, I'm not nervous." Derek pauses, "I heard you got tested."

"Did Oliver tell you?" Atlas guessed, knowing that most likely his brother would have said something.

"The rumour mills fast though, because who doesn't want the drama on which attending is screwing someone else?"

"Don't lie."

"It was Oliver..."

"I swear I won't hurt him until after the surgery." Atlas says before walking off, his mind drifting ti different ways he could accidentally poison a batch of cupcakes. Not that atlas would ever do such a thing. He would just threaten his younger brother a tad.

╚═ ☆ ═╝

Derek is finishing up Richard's surgery, he's done, the only things that's left is for his head to be wrapped.

"Ok, I've sutured the drain in place. The staples look fine. All right, we're done here. Doctor. Bailey, you want to wrap him?" He steps away from the table.

"I got it." She replies as she moves closer to the chiefs head.

"Nice work, everybody. Nicely done."

"Thanks." Atlas, Oliver and Bailey reply at the same time.

Atlas doesn't pay much more attention to the others speaking as he watches the chief. Maybe he was just hoping the man would shoot you and yell at him, for whatever he had ever done."

"Oh, you are lying. I know you're lying. You know how I know? Cause you're a bad liar! I hate a bad liar." Miranda Bailey exclaims, her voice loud, which snaps Atlas attention to the shirt female.

"Take over for me. I know exactly where they are. Here. Take over for me." She tells Atlas, who takes the thing if gauze.

╚═ ☆ ═╝

Derek walks up to Meredith who's on the phone.

"Hey." She says hanging up the phone.

"A lot of secret phone calls today." Derek says, he shouldn't be able to talk much, Meredith had seen him looking at his own phone a few times today.

There's a long pause.

"Yeah, it's my mother. She isn't traveling. She isn't writing a book. She isn't anything. I've been lying to everyone." Meredith admits.

"Why?" Derek questions wanting to know why she had been lying.

Meredith sighs, "She has Alzheimer's."

"How advanced?"

"Very. She's in a home and I'm the only one who even knows she's sick. I just don't know what to do anymore, you know? And why have you been ignoring all these calls, and texts?" Meredith changes the subject.

Derek pauses, which alerts Meredith that she had caught Derek in a sticky spot.

Derek let's out a deep sigh. "All the phone calls, and the texts. Are from my wife."

"Your wife?!" She whisper shouted at the attending.

"It's fine, I've, um, got it handled." Derek says before walking away, not even letting Meredith say anything else.

Meredith enters Richard's room to check on him, Oliver is sitting in the chair beside the bed.

"Meredith? He's an attending. You're an intern." Richards voice is scratchy and sounds like he hadn't had any water in months.

"You saw that? You can see."

"I'm gonna tell you what your mother would say if she were here. You're making a mistake, a big one." Richard tries.

"And I would tell my mother it's not him I'm dating. I-I'm with an intern."

"Me!"

"Oh god." Richard painfully raises a hand to pinch the bridge of nose,

╚═ ☆ ═╝

Three interns enters the lobby where Derek is waiting for Atlas. Their (Oliver's and Eliza's) plan was to give Derek the don't hurt him talk. But knowing Oliver he would start the topic and then ramble on and on.

"Derek." Oliver greats, trying to sound manly.

"Olie." Derek greats back.

"I'm not Olie right now. I'm Oliver. And we're gonna have a talking with you."

Derek can't help but let out a small laugh. He spluttered out an apology as soon as he saw the look he was getting from the three interns.

"W-what's up?"

"If you ever hurt Atlas, I swear you'll be crying for you momma. I won't even do anything but tell momma Lilla."

Dereks eyes widen, momma Lilla, he wasn't sure what would be worse, him crying for his own mom or Lilla going crazy in him.

"I-um-okay?"

Meredith gives Derek a knowing look. This wouldn't end well for him.

Atlas comes strolling over, his bag swing over his shoulder. He has a smile on his face that made Dereks knees weak. The three interns send Derek one last look before heading to the bar across the street.

"Somewhere out there is a steak with your name on it and maybe a bottle of alcohol." Derek takes Atlas bag, swinging it over his own shoulder.

Atlas hums happily at the mention of food.

"Did you even kick Oliver's ass for telling me you got tested for syphilis?"

"No, I forgot. I figured it would do it maybe when he wasn't expecting it." Atlas chuckles along with Derek who starts to help fix the strings of Atlas's hoodie, they turn to leave. A red headed woman is standing there and Derek is wide eyed, and afraid.

Derek turns to Atlas, "Atls, I am so sorry."

The woman walks over, closer to the pair.

"Addison." Derek scowls, "What are you doing here?"

"Well, you'd know if you'd bothered to return any one of my phone calls." The red head says before turning towards Atlas.

"Hi. I'm Addison Shepherd." She holds out her hand and smiles a fake smile.

The wife and boyfriend shake hands.

"Shepherd?" Atlas repeats confused, not sure if she's a sister or...

Addison points at Atlas. "And are you the guy who's been screwing my husband?"

Atlas's terrible feeling was right.