xciv. big news and a talk with grey
7.15

Simple is not a word Atlas uses very often, why would he? He's a doctor with a wide arrangement of words he could use, some like straightforward and unornamented. Now Atlas, he uses simple very rarely, but when he uses it, he uses it to describe how his daughter is simply simple.

Atlas loves Starlee with his whole heart. He'll always see her as the child gifted to him because of unfortunate circumstances, but he'll also always see her as his daughter, his little star.

"My baby, hi." Atlas spoke softly, kneeling down to pick a sleeping Starlee up off the floor. She must have fallen asleep well playing with her toys, it would make sense since there was a verity of toys around her.

Starlee let out a small groan, the little girl shifting in her sleep before she rested her head in the crock of her fathers neck. 

Atlas carried her towards her room, a small toddler bed with pretty blue blankets that Starlee had picked out was where he laid her down and tucked her in. He placed a kiss to her forehead before making sure she was snug and had her favourite teddy bear with her. "Goodnight, Star."

Derek was in the living room, papers scattered around him on the living room coffee table. He's working on things for his Alzheimers trial. Or at least that's what Atlas had seen him doing when he carried his daughter up the stairs, now he might be doing something different.

Atlas is right. His husband isn't in the living room anymore, but instead his husband is in the kitchen, a phone to his ear and hands inside the pantry as he try's to find something. Derek's looking for flour, and coco, and things that Atlas typically uses to bake with — he knows his husbands gonna wanna bake when he finds out who's on the phone.

"Der?" Atlas stepped into the kitchen, a hoodie halfway on his body. "I thought you were doing paperwork?"

"Wanna make cupcakes?" Derek whirled around, smiling brightly that Atlas was taken back.

"Cupcakes?" Atlas brushed it off, smiling back at his husband. "Der, if you didn't wanna do the paperwork we could have just gone in early tomorrow."

"The adoption agency called."

Atlas was pretty sure he stopped. Stopped breathing, stopped his beating heart, stopped blinking, stopped thinking, stopped it all.

"They said that we've been approved. Everything. We've been given the okay to adopt, we just have to wait a little while for paperwork to come through." Derek tearfully smiled. "I missed the phone call. But I keep listening to the message."

Derek pulled the phone away from his shoulder, still smiling as he pressed a few buttons and strolled forward closer to his still husband.

"The Shepherd Lee-Sunny family! I'm calling to say you've been approved. You'll be able to adopt as soon as the finishing touches on all the paperwork come through. Everyone at the agency here thought you'd be great, and it helps that you've got little miss Star." The voice was cheerful, happy, kind. "Of course as you go along, there'll still be some more bumps in the road, but you'll all be wonderful adoptive parents for your soon to be kids. I'm glad that I've been able to work with you this far. Congratulations Shepherd Lee-Sunny family."

Derek and Atlas embraced in a hug. More so Derek holding onto Atlas as he cried happy tears. This was a moment that would replay in their heads for a long time, until they died even.

"We get to have more kids." Derek whispered, placing a kiss to his husbands lips.

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"Grey!" Atlas stepped into the c.t room where Meredith Grey was leaning away from a patient that she had just gotten a heart beat from. "Talk to me."

"He was coding when I got here. I defibrillated hun three times, I gave him three rounds of epi, two of atropine. I loaded him with amiodarone, but he's tachycardic now. I mean, he's barley handing on." Meredith rambled, looking from Atlas to the scans on the computer screen.

Atlas nodded along. "He needs surgery." Atlas said to Meredith before he looked towards one of the nurses in the room. "Book an O.R please."

"Okay. I'll get a room prepped and ready." Meredith nodded, stepping away to go get things ready.

"There's no time. His aortas dissecting as we speak. He needs surgery right now." Atlas and Meredith made their way towards the operating room, stopping when someone on the phone leaned closer to them.

"They say all the operating rooms are booked."

Atlas shrugged. They guy would die without surgery. "Tell 'em go bump someone, we're coming up either way."

Meredith stoped and thought before she looked to the guy on the phone. "I have one. Tell them to bump mine and prep it for an emergency cardio."

"All right, here we go." Atlas said, moving along with the gurney and Meredith. He told her once they were in the elevator that they wouldn't have time to scrub, nor would they really have time to do anything else other than gown and start the surgery. "Just pour the betadine straight on his chest, it doesn't have to be pretty."

Atlas and Meredith started the surgery. It went quick in the begging and things weren't going great but not terrible. Shortly after Atlas and Meredith started to work, getting into the chest past the rib cage, he started to bleed out. When that happened, there was nothing else they could do.

"Call it Grey."

"Time of death — 18:52."

When the gowns were done, and the blood was washed away, Atlas and Meredith made their way towards the nursery where they looked at the baby's.

"It's okay, you know." Atlas said, hand near the glass as he waved towards the babies. "That you didn't catch it on time."

"Maybe there was something else..." Meredith trailed off sadly, she hates this part of being a surgeon, the losing part.

"They're so hard to catch. These patients are so hard to save." Atlas shook his head. "You did everything right."

"Thank you." The two say in silence before Meredith spoke up. "Callie asked Christina to be her baby's godmother."

Atlas laughed lightly. "I heard."

"I don't want her to though. I don't want to be selfish, but if she agrees than it's like her saying I'll never have a kid, you know?" Meredith whispered, eyes locked onto a smiling blabbering baby.

"That's not her intentions you know." Atlas whispered back. "Callie didn't want you to feel that way, and neither does Christina."

Meredith nodded. "I know."

"You and Olly can be mine and Derek's babies godparents." Atlas was trying to be subtle as he slipped that into the conversation.

"Olly and El are already Stars godparents."

"The adoption agency accepted us. And we all know that if anything happened, Olly would take in as many kids as he could."

"He's like a kindergartener."

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not including this chapter, there's four more to go before we hit act four, the last act! they should be up soon this week :)