Adrift and at Peace - Recap

The interns living in the house together were talking about going on a fishing trip: who would like to go? The discussion grew to include Christina Yang. It was decided that Christina and Shepherd would go; that Shepherd would teach Christina to fish and possibly she could have some down time to relax and clear her head, perhaps even decide if she wanted to continue with the medical intern program. Yes, that would be a very good thing for Christina to do. It was all decided.
She and Shepherd began preparations while the other interns in the house got ready for work.

At the hospital, after the hustle and bustle of the morning had died down a bit, Doctor Grey stepped into one of the crowded elevators and turned round, staring at the sliding doors. Some of the people left the elevator at different floors and the crowd thinned out a bit. Doctor Grey surveyed the remaining passengers and saw a middle aged man sitting in a wheelchair in a corner, attended by a male nurse. The man, Ron Charkofski, smiled at Grey and said that he was planning to propose to his girlfriend that afternoon. He went on to say that he had a tumor on his renal gland and didn't have the insurance necessary to get surgery to right the problem. Grey congratulated him on his decision to propose and sympathized with him about his medical concerns. She followed him off the elevator at his stop and taking him aside, told him that she would go before the medical board later that week to see if there was a way that they could help him with his medical concerns. He thanked her profusely and said that that would be a load off his mind. They agreed to meet after the board had met later that week.

In the emergency room, a young couple in their twenties was brought in. The young pair had been hiking high in the mountains when they had stopped to have their picture taken by a hiker descending the mountain. They stood very near the cliff, backing up a bit too much and fell off it. The man, Jason, fell first, the woman falling after him. Her fall was broken by her husband who was not expected to live because of his injuries. They had fallen at least four hundred feet. Jason had a huge belly full of blood that threatened to explode if not taken care of. Owen had responsibility for this young man and had to cut his belly open, telling his residents to stand back because this one was going to be a gusher. They took all necessary precautions but there appeared to be a large tear in the vena cava, the major artery to the heart. It seemed almost impossible to stop or repair but Owen pressed ahead into the bloody mess as the crimson stuff spurted from his split chest. A special cloth material was used to try to mesh the edges of the shredded vena cava together but it was a nearly impossible task to stop the bleeding. Finally the bleeding was stopped and the edges drawn together enough to begin stitching it into repair once more. Jason was saved but it had been an extremely touch and go situation for some hours. The young wife had been pleading that her husband not die, to tell him to hang in there. Her heartfelt pleas touched the surgeons' hearts very much and after her husband was out of surgery and into the recovery room, she was given the good news. Her own injuries were not so serious and she faced a speedy recovery but her husband would be in the hospital for some time to come.

When the medical board met, Doctor Grey presented Ron's case and after much discussion, the doctors, Doctor Webber amongst them, decided that since Charkofski did not have any medical insurance, that the best avenue of action was to give him some needed medication and a medical bracelet stating his condition and send him home. If he were to need medical attention in the meantime, he could go to the emergency room via ambulance and receive needed treatment then. Doctor Grey did not like this decision, but had to be content with it. She met with Ron and told him what the board had decided. He was not happy with it either, but there it was. He went home to be cared for by his daughter and to wait for further developments.

A middle aged couple came to the emergency room to have a bone spur removed from the husband's hip. They were very anxious and kept reminding Doctor Torres that their daughter was a prominent orthopedist and that she did things a very certain way and would Torres be able to do it the same way? They stated the high expectations that they had of Torres and maybe she would not be able to follow through? They could get their daughter the doctor to come over and instruct Torres as to the way it should be done. Torres was taken aback and dithered about, not sure if she had time to do the operation that day. She had to check her schedule. She told the couple she would be back in a few hours and to meanwhile contact their daughter if that was what they wanted to do. Torres was incensed at their attitude and talked with Mark about it, then told the couple that she had no time to help them that day. But wait, she might just be able to work them in...she did the operation that afternoon and it turned out right.

At the lake high in the mountains, Christina took the attitude that she knew better than Shepherd and proceeded to nag him with questions about fishing, the lake, etc until she drove him crazy with her harping. She stood in the bow of the boat, waving her arms and making loud sounds until Shepherd, sitting quietly fishing, told her to calm down and sit down. She finally did so, and he handed her a fishing rod, telling her to take a worm from the can nearby and bait the hook and toss the line in the water and begin to fish. She did all that and shut her mouth in the process, preoccupied with the slippery slimy work. Tossing her line in the cold water, she began to cry as she sat there, finally thawing out inside, letting her grief and tension of the past weeks begin to melt within her. Shepherd watched her closely, seeing the process she was going through and smiled to himself, handing her a cloth handkerchief. In a few minutes, Christina got a tug on her line and reeled in a twenty eight pound trout. When they rowed to the dock, Shepherd hung the fish on a scale and the boat's owner took a picture of her and the large fish. Christina began to cry during that and the man asked her what was wrong. Shepherd told him to continue to take the photo. Later, Christina took the fish home to Owen and was very proud of herself. Owen saw the smile on his wife's face and knew the healing had begun for her.

Mark and Torres knew that their short affair with each other was not going to work and decided mutually to separate. Later that day, Mark ran into Lexie in the hospital and asked her to meet him for drinks. Reluctantly she agreed to and that night they met for drinks and exchanged a kiss. Lexie told him that they were not good for each other and walked off toward her car. Torres was having a quiet night in at her own apartment, sitting there thinking about Arizona when the door bell rang. Could it be? She trotted to the door and opened it. There stood Arizona with a big smile on her face and tears in her eyes. She began to tell Torres just how much she had missed her, that Africa had not been all that she had thought it would be, etc., when Torres took one look at her face and....slammed the door in her face.

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