❤꧁ღ⊱♥ Maddie's POV ♥⊱ღ꧂❤

Derek appears smiling brightly, pressing the button to the elevator "Hey" he looks to me then to Demetri "Demetri. The chief has got me doing press all day with journalists, my face is hurting from smiling"

"Good for you" I act any other way and he's going to just think I'm being a bitter person "what journalists?"

"All kinds" he smiles

Derek pushes the button more times "We already pushed it" Demetri says

"It comes faster when I push it" he brags

"I'm taking the stairs" Demetri looks my way as Bailey appears "Maddie? Do you wanna follow me?"

"Sure" looking at the elevator "the elevator is taking too long, unless it's just doing it since Derek isn't here" My pager beeps along with Demetri's that our patient from the domino surgery needs us "Come on, Demetri"

"Madelyn!" Derek calls out "are you bothered by this?"

I show him mg pager that goes off again "I have to go Derek, some things like a patient's life trumps your ego. As a doctor I'd think you'd know that"

Demetri and I leave the area "What's with the silent brewing?" Briefly looking towards Demetri "I'm good at reading emotions and your angry, just wondering"

Stopping to look at him "It was my idea, the Shepherd Method? My idea. If I had known he was going to act like this, I would have gone to another attending but it would have been seen like I had a problem with him which at the time I didn't. Derek was off going on dates while I was curious about my research"

"Then why don't you" he stops me to buy me a chocolate chip cookie "try to sabotage him at the press conference?"

"Then I'd seem bitter and I'm above that" letting out a deep enraged breath "Derek wants to feed his ego, let him. He wants to appear as a god, let him"

"Doesn't seem right is all" he shrugs his shoulders grabbing a nearby magazine that has Derek's face on the cover "He doesn't even give you a bit of credit, claims it was all his idea" closing the magazine tossing it aside "the picture is clearly horrible too"

"I mean he doesn't even say thank you" feeling tears in my eyes as I look away "he wouldn't even be getting any of the credit or anything if it wasn't for my idea, but who cares right? It's clear he doesn't care"

Demetri rubs my arm wiping away a few tears before having us leave "If it was my uncle" Demetri tells me "he'd have given you credit and if he didn't which is a long shot since my Uncle Marcus"

"This is my Uncle Marcus" looking over to this very handsome man in his late twenties with short dark brown almost black hair, a bit of facial hair. Not too much but just enough, a small scruff. He has dark brown eyes and pale white skin.

"Hello" offering him a smile "I'm Edith"

"Woah" an arm wraps around my middle and my eyes blink trying to regain composure, looking around then to Demetri as he looks at me concerned "Are you alright?"

"Just this weird, I don't know what" shaking my head as I take a moment, I've been things like those lately. Since my trip home from Italy last summer, they normally come at night but now? Now in the day "felt so real..."

"Edith!" Snapping my head over seeing a little boy calling to his sister, right his sister. Not me.

Looking to Demetri "The patient?"

Demetri and I go into the room where our patient is, giving her excellent care since this is a rare domino procedure. Domino surgeries are basically surgeries, specifically kidney surgeries where multiple people gives and receives a kidney. It has to be done in one day at one time since if you don't then you'd risk a donor walking away from the pressure.

Leaving the patient and joining Meredith and Cristina, Meredith looks my way briefly before sighing "I wish I could keep a kidney in a jar"

Demetri lets out a laugh as I agree "Yeah, that would be nice. Having a diseased organ..."

"So you" Derek looks at us "want to be kind of like Dr. Frankenstein with all the weird body organs? Do you know how creepy that sounds?"

"Why is it creepy" the three of us ask in different ways.

"Don't you want an organ?" Cristina asks "it would be amazing, I'd have it on my coffee table as the main centerpiece—I mean that's only if I don't have a heart"

"You three are twisted" Demetri shook his head taking the notebook from Cristina and going through it "and don't keep an intern based on their fucking abilities"

"What is this?" Taking the notepad from Demetri at the names of her interns and all of our interns "What's this? What are you doing?"

She looks my way then to Demetri "we have to give up two of our interns since Demetri and George" Meredith explains to me "are here now, Cristina is trying to figure out which ones to give and keep"

Looking down at the interns that have pros and cons with them "If Bailey was reading or hearing this, she'd have had our heads"

"Why?" Cristina asks "she obviously chose the best with us or with me" motioning to me and Meredith "you both were okay"

"I skipped two grades" reminding Cristina about how smart I am "if it wasn't for my kids, I'd already be an attending by now"

"See!" Cristina waves her hand "Children are not a blessing. I bet you regret having them"

A gasp escapes me as I toss the notebook in her face "I do not ever regret it and don't ever insinuate I do" storming off really fucking upset, first with Derek and now with Cristina. Are people trying to piss me off today?

By lunch time, I'm with Demetri and Felix as we watch the interns minus my interns who are sitting down and eating stand with their trays. Watching the others as they pick and choose who to keep and get rid of then switch around.

"Last I checked" Felix points to the interns standing vs mine "you can't pick or choose your interns and do they even know how to do procedures?"

"No" one of my interns looks our way "they don't, the other residents don't teach"

"Only Dr. Grey here" another intern says

Demetri and Felix share a look while I shake my head "So Demetri? You're from Greece, which of the small islands. You mentioned not being from Greece that's connected to the mainland but one of the islands"

"Karpathos" Demetri looks at me confused "how did you know that? I don't think I or Felix ever told you where I'm originally from?"

I want to say something but I can't "Guess I'm a good guesser, with your accents"

"Pretty good guess" Felix sips his drink

🐦‍🔥

"I'm not going to do this with you" Derek sighs as he came in.

"Do want?" I ask

"Have this silent fight" Was I being too obvious? "I'm gonna write the editors and have them print a correction, the Shepherd-Grey Method"

A snort escapes me "You don't wanna do that. Just by saying it you're upset and you're just doing it since you don't want to fight, you're trying to get an easy way out. If my name is on that paper it's because I deserve the credit or at the very least am mentioned since it was my idea"

"It may have been your idea and you may have done the research" he calmly but irritated "but you don't deserve any credit" I am trying very hard not to slap him across the face right now "your acting nothing more than a baby, you have the potential to be a good surgeon or maybe even a great one but you haven't even scratched the surface of how much you need to learn"

"I could have gone to any neuro attending with this idea" reminding him "but I didn't because I didn't want this to awkward or uncomfortable but clearly I was wrong, maybe I should have gone to another attending. At the very least I'd receive a thank you for this, you haven't even so much as done that" going to the door and looking his way "find somewhere else to sleep tonight, I don't want to see your face when I get home"

I'm going to my safe space, a place where only I go. In the basement hidden away in this room that I use to go to as a child when I was here, I cry to myself thinking about how I worked so hard on that project and I don't even get a thank you. What kind of self piece of shit does that? I spent hours of my free time researching when it could have been with my kids. Derek doesn't even seem to care.

When my phone goes off it's Dusty, one of my baby daddies "Hey Dusty"

"Maddie Cake" he calls me Maddie Cake since when I was pregnant with the twins all I wanted was cake, didn't matter what kind. I just wanted cake "uh oh, why are you crying?"

"My dumb boyfriend takes all the credit for my work and doesn't even say thank you" grabbing the nearby tissue box to blow my nose "he didn't even think of the idea, I did. He only is getting credit since I came to him and wanted to make things fair when picking a neurosurgeon to work with"

"Is this" he asks "the same neurosurgeon that got everyone to think you're a slut when you're not? Why are you back together with him Maddie? You can do so much better, I mean it"

"But who?" I ask "it seems any good guy I meet I end up ruining the relationship or find a bad guy and this happens and I'm not even sure what to label Derek"

"A bad boyfriend" hearing Zion's voice

"Zion?" Furrowing my brows confused "what are you doing with Dusty?"

"Mad Hatter"  He calls me Mad Hatter since he thinks I'm all dark and twisty as the mad hatter, it's so sweet "you deserve someone great"

"Zion and I ran into one another" Dusty tells me "figured we'd give you a call, see how things are with you and the kids"

"The kids miss you both" pulling my knees to my chest resting my head on the pillow "before you both ask, I'm keeping them far away from Derek until I know for certain that I can introduce the two but by the looks of it nope. I mean the bastard has the audacity to call me a baby, a baby for wanting just a bit of appreciation for helping him get to where he is now. But does he care? Nope. He just wants to fuck me and not be in a silent fight. My mom was right, men like Derek—I shouldn't have dated another surgeon. Romances make you weak"

"They also make you strong" Zion sighs "Maddie, things might not have worked out between us. With you or Dusty and you or I but that was because we were young and we didn't know what we wanted"

"Yeah" Dusty agrees "you were just out of high school and we got married since your last boyfriend"

"Not my boyfriend" I correct

"Your ex" he corrects himself "did a number on you, for whatever reason but that isn't the point. We got married since you didn't want the twins being bastards"

"And we were together" Zion reminds me "because I was thinking about my ex Georgia and I placed my unresolved feelings of her onto you, which led us to Elia"

We talk for a bit more before my pager goes off "I've got to go, there's this surgery I'm apart of and I'm excited about it"

"Okay" Zion says "call you later"

Hanging up the phone leaving the room, I run into Felix who looks from me to the room "Hey Felix"

"Were you hiding?" He asks

Looking from the space to him "Promise not to tell, it's my little hide away from when I want some me time and to relax and calm down"

"I won't tell" he promises.

After the domino procedure when I'm sitting on the counter cross legged watching as the others pick and choose who to give their interns to, Demetri is leaning beside me ready to catch me if I fall while George is next to Meredith.

The chief and Bailey came over and they all jump when the chief demands "What are you doing?"

"We're" Izzy tells them stuttering "just deciding which of our interns to give to Demetri and George"

"Uh huh" Cristina agrees

"Oh?" Bailey demands "you think I got to choose my interns and I picked you all since you're all such a surgical dream team? Half the time I thought I was being punished having you all as my interns" they are offended by it while Demetri and I are smiling "the only intern that didn't give me as bad of a headache was Maddie over there who should know better than to sit on the damn counter!" Demetri catches me when I fall backwards, he sets me upright "Alex your lazy, Izzy your whiny, butter fingers over there" she looks at Meredith "is downright depressing and Yang...you, your just so annoying. I wanted to smack you all on the behinds multiple times" she laughs "picking your own interns?"

She stops when the chief stormed over "Give me those damn cards" he picks some interns then hands them to Demetri and George "there, your interns" looking at me waving a resident over who is holding a kidney in a jar "for you Maddie"

"Really?!" Screeching in excitement "why?"

"Yeah" the others complain wanting one.

The chief gives them a silencing glare, he then looks at me "Earlier today a donation of two million dollars was given to this hospital, said that you helped them when they needed it the most and a kidney is a small thank you for the donation you got these people to make"

"Thank you sir" I say

He hands me a card "This is from the man in charge of the donation" Taking the card and reading it, a smile is on my face as I recognize the handwriting but I don't know where.

Sometimes even the words thank you go a long way, this is me saying thank you.

Looking to the kidney before jumping up and down "Is it from Derek?" Meredith asks

Shaking my head no "No..." before I can stop myself "Marcus"

"Who's Marcus?" Cristina asks

She's right? Who is Marcus?