Later on in the night, Amelia had to head into the hospital so she could perform the surgery.

Athena joins everyone else in the waiting room, anxiety running through hers—and everyone else's—veins.

Cooper returns with a bunch of water bottles.

"Here," Sheldon throws his hands up, motioning for a water.

He tosses one to Sheldon and one to Pete.

Pete offers it to Violet, but she declines.

Athena sits in the chair beside Dell.

"I'll take one," Dell leans forward and takes Pete's.

"Yeah, me too," Athena puts her hands up and caught one from Cooper.

Cooper hands another water to Pete and he stares at Violet.

Athena subtly looks over at her, but Violet sees it.

"Are we all just waiting for me to have a PTSD freak out?" Violet looks from Athena to Sheldon.

Sheldon chuckles, "No."

"What? Of course not," Cooper says sarcastically.

"Why would.." Pete asks, still staring.

"Uh uh," Athena shakes her head.

"Oh, who am I kidding?" Violet sighs. "I am freaking out. We should all be freaking out. I mean, a year ago.. a year ago, I was dying. And we got through that. We got another year under our belts. And..once again, here we are in the same place..with somebody else..I just want to scream to whoever keeps doing this to just stop..stop bringing us here with another one of our own dying."

"She's not dying," Athena interrupts. "She's not. So stop saying that. She's going to be fine. Amelia is going to do her best, and Maya and her baby will be fine." Athena sighs and everyone looks at her. "I'm sorry. I'm just— stressed."

Athena rests her arms on her thighs and leans down, rubbing her eyes.

"Almost worse being the ones out here waiting for the news, right?" Cooper nods his head with everyone else. Although Athena had always been the one to be in the waiting room.

Always.

"You know, I— I— I got be honest. It's actually worse being the one sliced open and bleeding on the table. It's—" Violet starts laughing as Pete breaks out into laughter. Everyone joins along, minus Naomi and Sam, no matter how much they want to find light in the situation, they can't. "I'm sorry. I know it was a bad day for you, too. It was a really bad day." Violet looks over at Pete. "Anyway, uh..let's not talk about anything so morbid. Okay? I— I have something." Violet starts digging through her purse. "This was supposed to be..for, uh..Lucas' birthday, because I wanted to do something.." She looks to Pete for permission.

"Of course, yeah," Pete nods.

"Okay, well, this might be blowing the surprise, but, um..I wanted to get a picture of you and Lucas. So I swiped your camera because I was gonna download one. but you're a single dad, so all the pictures are just of Lucas. There's none of you two together. So I looked at all your phones," Everyone throws their hands up in disagreement, as to how and why Violet got and hold, and onto their phones. "and everybody has at least one picture of Pete and Lucas. But..if this isn't the crappiest collection of out-of-focus cell phone pictures. I mean, look." Violet hands photos out.

"Yeah, that's bad," Pete hands Naomi the picture.

"I mean, I can't put any of these in a frame. It just embarrassing," Violet laughs.

"Oh, wow," Sam smiles at the photo. "You're good-looking but you do not photograph well."

"Oh, I took this one," Sheldon turns the photo around for everyone to see. In the photo Lucas and Pete are looking down at the camera. "It's not bad."

"It's Lucas and my nostrils."

"Yeah, well, it's in focus," Sheldon shakes his head.

"Mine isn't bad," Athena smiles at it. She turns it around.

In the photo Lucas and Pete are looking at each other. Athena and the father and son were at the park and they were looking at each other the way a father and son would. Lucas was smiling from ear to ear. And Pete was sticking his tongue out.

"It looks like he pooped himself," Pete points at the photo.

"Pete!" Athena smiles. "It's cute!"

"I kinda like this one," Violet shows Pete the photo as Athena shows hers to Dell. "It looks like he's gonna eat your face."

"Or swab me," He holds the photo. "That kid can drool. I'm telling you. Look at that."

Addison walks into the room, putting an end the the laughter and the moment that distracted everyone.

"What's happening?" Naomi notices Addison first.

"So far, so good," Addison blinks. "Maya's temp is down. Her pressure is holding. Baby looks good on the monitor. Amelia's about to get started, so, uh..I'll keep you posted."

"Thank you," Sam says.

Addison walks away and everyone speaks indistinctly. Naomi and Sam sit back down.

Cooper inhales, "Well, if we're looking for a cheerier topic of conversation.."

"Yes. Yes, we are," Violet smiles up at her best friend.

"I'm, um..getting married," Cooper holds back his smile.

"What?" Violet tilts her head.

"To who?" Athena asks.

"To Charlotte," Cooper admits.

"You are shitting me!" Athena smiles, making a
mental note to nag Charlotte for all the details later.

"What?" Violet repeats.

"Are you serious?" Sheldon asks, not believing him.

"Yeah, got a ring, popped the question," Cooper nods his head.

"You got a ring?" Violet rest her arms on the arm rest.

"Yeah, you said, 'Go get your girl.' I went ring shopping."

"You said 'Go get your girl'?" Sheldon scolds Violet.

"Well, I— I meant take her out to dinner, not marry her," Violet looks from Sheldon to Cooper.

"I was taking her to dinner," Sheldon tells her.

"Well, I— I— I'm sorry, Sheldon. But they are sort of made for each other in a twisted kind of way, but— but for dating—"

Sheldon stands up, "You are not marrying her." He points at Cooper.

"I kind of am," Cooper looks at the ground.

"Cooper—"

"I think what we need to say in congratulations," Athena laughs. "Congratulations?"

"It's fantastic, Cooper," Naomi smiles at him.

"Congratulations," Sam says.

"Congratulations, Cooper," Pete nods. "Dell. Sheldon. Even you, man. Come on. Sorry. Just.."

They all look to Sheldon, but he walks out of the room.

"Okay. Maybe that was a little too much to ask," Pete mutters. "Dell, come on. Give the man a hug. He's getting hitched to a..difficult woman."

"Hey," Cooper whines.

"Dell," Naomi says. "Dell? Dell, wake up, sweetie. Wake up."

Everyone starts saying his name.

"Guys, he's unresponsive," Athena says, checking his pulse.

Cooper turns towards the phone in the waiting room, "We have a patient down in the O.R. waiting room. Send a crash cart."   

🪷

Amelia and Addison save Maya and her baby.

And although they do everything they can, they don't save Dell.

Everyone is hoping and praying for the best and begging and pleading it not to be bad news as Addison and Amelia walk into the waiting room.

Addison walks in first, "Maya's fine. Her B.P.'s up. Her vitals are good. She's out now. But she's doing great."

"And what about the—" Naomi asks.

"She's strong and screaming. You have a beautiful baby girl," Everyone smiles and hugs each other.

"Oh," Naomi hugs Addison.

"That's what I'm talking about! Addison Montgomery, ladies and gentlemen!" Pete claps.

"Nice work," Sheldon nods, smiling.

Everyone looks to Amelia, she's standing back, clenching her jaw.

"Amelia?" Violet asks.

Amelia walks forward and breaks the news to everyone.

They all stand there, not sure what to do. Some of them sit down, some just stay standing up.

Pete walks over to Dell's daughter. She starts to hit Pete, but he hugs her into his warmth. Everyone feels bad for her.

Athena walks past everyone and walks right until she walks outside.

Hands on her hips, she leans her head back, looking up into the sky.

Why? Why do they always take the good ones?

Tears stream down her face.

"Athena," Amelia puts her hand on her shoulder.

Athena hugs Amelia, crying into her shoulder. After a while she lifts her head and backs up.

"I'll— um, see you tomorrow. I need to breathe. Okay? I'm not mad at you. I promise," She leans in and kisses Amelia. "I'll call you, okay? Goodnight."

Amelia lets her go and watches as Athena climbs into her car and drives away.

When Athena drives away from the hospital, she speeds up—not even strapping the seatbelt on. The tears stream down her face. Not only did Dell die, but it was the anniversary of her mothers death. She continues speeding, letting her tears stream down her face.

She doesn't see that she's in the middle of the road. She doesn't see the bright headlights blaring at her. She doesn't hear the honking of the horn, and runs right into that truck.

the cliffhanger tho

this episode and the
episode where charlotte
gets r@p3d makes me
bawl every time. i am
not prepared to write the
episode with charlotte

anyways. end of act one ❤️

there will be a fireflies chapter coming before tuesday!!