Halloween Havoc

Halloween Havoc

Pt. I

“Hear me out: a Halloween party.”

“Vetoed.”

Richard huffed loudly and crossed his arms over his chest so he could scowl at Miranda Bailey.

“And why not?” Richard asked her. “It’s a good plan, we have enough time, and people love Halloween.”

Harry grinned in his cup of tea, perfectly willing to let his mum fight that battle on his behalf. Honestly, Harry didn’t have a strong opposition to a Halloween staff party. It could be fun, it would certainly be something new to do. But he knew Mum would disagree and he wouldn’t stand between her and a tirade.

“Because, Chief Webber,” Mum had a real knack for saying Richard’s title in a way that made it sound silly. “Did it occur to you that my son, the Chief of Healing for this hospital, might not want to have a party on October thirty-first?”

“What? Why not?” Richard asked, looking lost. “It was his idea!”

“I believe his idea was to host an inner-staff event to build the feeling of teamwork amongst the medical and magical staff,” Draco disagreed stiffly.

Poor bloke looked miserable, Harry wished he had taken the day off. With the moon coming up, Harry didn’t think Draco needed to be at work. Teddy had skipped school and Harry had hoped, stupidly apparently, that if Draco took the day off then he could stay with Teddy. It was to no avail, Harry had carefully suggested Draco stay home and nearly had his head bitten off.

“And that’s what a Halloween party would be,” Richard insisted, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “Harry! Back me up, son!”

“My son will not back you up because my son lost his biological parents on Halloween and it is not a fun day for him,” Mum snapped at Richard. Richard deflated at once and Harry let him, just for a second, before he spoke up.

“I love it,” Harry said, grinning when Mum turned her angry eyes on him. “Mum, I’m fine. If I could handle Draco sacrificing virgins on Halloween then a work party isn’t going to hurt me.”

“I was not sacrificing virgins!” Draco exclaimed loudly. “Potter, Merlin. It was one bloody candle!”

It was, but it was also some ridiculous pureblood tradition that Harry mocked Draco for ever since that night in their Healing course. What fun was there in sharing a room with Draco if Harry didn’t mock him mercilessly?

“Mhmm,” Harry hummed, winking at Richard across the board table. “Whatever you say, Draco. Richard,” Harry tried to focus on what was important so they could finish the meeting. Harry had been hoping to round on his patients, get through his surgeries on time, then get home before Teddy’s pain got too severe. Dad had Teddy and knew the routine as well as Harry did, but Harry felt better when he was there with Teddy.

“I like it,” Harry told him. “What do we need to do to get Joe’s to supply a bar?”

“We cannot spend hospital budget on liquor,” Richard said, folding his arms to lay on the table so they could work out the logistics. “Everything will need a receipt to submit to Lisa in finances.”

“What happens if someone paid for an open bar out of their own pocket?” Harry asked. Richard didn’t drink, Harry knew that and he respected that. But Richard had been around booze before, it didn’t seem to bother him as much as it might have early in his sobriety. Harry just thought that if they were going to make the two sides of the hospital spend an evening together that some drinks might help ease the way.

It wasn’t a huge deal, Harry probably didn’t need to set up an entire event, but it was startling to see that Harry’s staff and Richard’s weren’t really mixing together. Harry never noticed it until he went to Joe’s Bar where the hospital staff hung out at after hours. Then he noticed the lack of his own staff there and started noticing that there was a divide.

Some people, Derek Shepherd mostly, were exceptions. Everyone else seemed wary of the healers and if Harry ever wanted to be rid of the protestors on the lawns then it had to start in house.

“Harry James, you are not paying for an open bar in this hospital,” Mum told Harry sternly. “A Halloween party is already enough nonsense, we don’t need to add any drunken dramatics to the mix.”

“Mum.” Harry flashed his mother a perfectly charming and innocent smile. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Draco sighed, Harry made a note to talk to the owner of the pub, and Richard signed off on hosting a staff party on the thirty-first. Everyone was happy… except Mum.

“‘What’s the worst that can happen’,” Mum mimicked Harry after the meeting ending. She shook her head at him and rather aggressively pressed the button for the lift. “Foolish,” she scolded him. “You’re foolish, like your father.”

“Which one?” Harry teased her.

“Both of them,” Mum said. She huffed when the lifts opened for them and Harry let her and Draco go ahead of him. One of the doctors, Derek’s ex-wife, Addison Shepherd, was inside the lift. She was terribly attractive - terrible because Derek had been cheated on by her with his best mate.

It would be as if Harry shagged Susan and broke Neville’s heart. A horrible thing that could make any beautiful woman much less attractive.

“Both of your fathers are fools and they made a fool child who wants to have a fool party.” Mum was really in a stride over the Halloween party. “Now I’m going to nag your father when I get home tonight and when I reach those pearly gates one day then I’m going to nag at James too, you can count on that.”

Draco looked positively horrified by Mum, Harry was used to it. When Harry did something excellent, it was sole credit to herself and Lily Potter. When Harry did something foolish it was all Dad and James Potter’s fault.

“You’re having a party?” Addison Montgomery hadn’t said two words to Harry since he started, but he had her attention then.

“The hospital is,” Harry told her. “It’s for the entire surgical staff, tell your mates, will you?”

“We will print fliers and send emails,” Draco said, sighing as if Harry was breaking an important protocol.

“We’ll send emails,” Harry told Addison cheerily, receiving a smile back.

“I’ll still tell my mates,” Addison told him. She smiled at Mum when the doors opened on her floor. “Have a good day, Miranda.”

“You too,” Mum said warmly. The second the doors closed, Mum turned on Harry and pointed at him. “Now why can’t you pull your oh so charming and sweet routine on Addison, hm?”

Mum was in a mood if she was harping on about Harry’s dating life. She had been horribly unimpressed with Harry for his brief thing with Lexie, but she had let the topic rest for a while. It seemed as if Harry’s break had ended.

“Mum.” Harry was embarrassed and wished Draco wasn’t there to witness the moment. “That’s Derek’s ex-wife,” Harry told her. How could she not know that? Everyone seemed to know about Derek, Addison, and Mark Sloan.

“And?” Mum put her hands on her hips and had a real talent for staring Harry down despite being shorter than him.

“And Derek is my friend,” Harry said. “Mum, can we talk about this later?”

“Sure, the whole hospital knows that my son, the Chief, had a liaison with an intern, but heavens forbid I mention an appropriate partner for him.” Mum huffed again and turned away from Harry. “Foolish.”

Harry could feel himself blushing at his mother’s antics. He was a grown man, Jesus.

Draco didn’t say anything, Harry could see him smirking though. When Mum left the lifts on the sixth floor with a goodbye and one last ‘foolish’, Draco burst in to mocking laughter.

“Your mother is trying to set you up, Potter,” Draco laughed rudely. “Merlin, you are a mama’s boy, aren’t you?”

“Careful, Draco, or I’ll tell your father,” Harry said, grinning good-naturedly. Any other time and Draco would have scoffed away Harry’s joke of an insult, a reminder of how close to his father Draco had always been.

On the day of the full moon it only caused Draco to instantly stop laughing and to stiffen coolly. Harry hadn’t meant to actually hurt him and he tried to apologize, but Draco wasn’t hearing it.

“I don’t want to hear it,” Draco said, his nearly friendly demeanor gone. “This is my stop.”

Harry sighed heavily when Draco left the lift at the third floor and he was left alone.

“You’re doing really great,” Harry muttered sarcastically to himself. “Honestly, why don’t you call up Teddy and remind him he’s an orphan, really see if you can piss everyone off.”

It was shaping up to be a rather rubbish day and five minutes later when Harry was pulled into emergency surgery for a toddler, it didn’t look like it would get much better.

Harry had been literally whistled at by the pediatric surgical resident, Alex Karev. He had a little girl on a gurney and Doctor Arizona Robbins and Doctor Mark Sloan with him.

“Hey! Chief!” Karev had whistled at Harry then, as if he were a dog. “Her parents signed the waiver, think you have time to save a life?”

‘The waiver’ being a patient’s consent to be treated by magical or medical staff, depending on their case. Not a lot of waivers were being signed by either side, so Harry was more than happy to jog from the lift he had just stepped off to the ones that would take them directly to the ORs.

Harry scanned the little girl quickly, noting her disfigured facial features and the stitches that were already in place. The cardiac monitor attached to her showed tachycardia, elevated respiratory rate, and an erratic rhythm. Her body was struggling to keep her alive and Harry pulled his wand at once.

“You have the waiver?” Harry asked Karev. In any other situation, Harry would check for himself. But that little girl was going quickly and Harry needed to act fast.

“Yeah, in her chart,” Karev said. “Can you save her or not?”

Of course Harry could. It was the only reason he went into medicine - to save lives.

“Hey, sweetheart.” Harry gave the girl a calm smile to reassure her as he held up his wand. “My magic wand is going to help you take a little nap, okay? When you wake up you’re going to feel all better.”

Harry touched his wand to the center of her chest and put the poor thing to sleep. He followed it with a second wave of his wand to replace the nonrebreather mask she had with an air bubble to keep continuous oxygen flowing. One more wave had a monitor flashing above her head, a touch more accurate than the cardiac monitor.

“What happened?” Harry asked while he cast a diagnostic charm. The girl had to have been admitted already, something had caused her to begin entering respiratory failure.

“Dog attack,” Arizona said briskly. She had a hand on the girl’s shoulder while she began removing the nonrebreather and tubing from the bed.

“We began facial reconstruction after she was admitted two days ago,” Mark said. “Bilateral zygomatic breaks compromised her airway and we had her on a vent until about four hours ago.”

“At which point her palatine bones went from fractured to crumpled,” Harry said, reading the report he charmed. “Okay, complete airway reconstruction followed by repair work.”

It wasn’t going to be pretty, or easy, but that little girl would live to see her parents again. The hardest part would be repairing the skin, it was long and tedious work that would be best if Harry had a magical assistant…

No, he needed to stop automatically calling for a healer. It wasn’t helping with the instinctual separation that Harry was trying to break down. After a healer, Harry’s next choice would be his mum or Lexie. Mum was a patient and practiced surgeon with steady hands and no startle reflex to magic, Lexie had operated with Harry enough times that they had gotten comfortable around each other.

“Who’s on your service?” Harry asked Mark. Karev would be on Arizona’s service, Mark looked to be internless. If he was, Harry would page Lexie as he was itching to do. If he wasn’t, Harry would deal with whoever he had in a show of unity.

“I’ve got Jackson Avery,” Mark told Harry. They reached the OR and the four of them began wheeling the girl toward an open operating room. Someone must have already paged the OR because there was a team of nurses and medi-healers inside the room preparing it.

“Page him,” Harry said, remaining professional despite his disappointment. Even if he and Lexie weren’t a good match romantically, Harry had a blatant preference for her assistance in the OR.

Mark did as Harry asked and Harry moved into position within the OR. Arizona and Mark had both worked with Harry on prior surgeries and had no problem falling in the positions Harry directed them previously. Karev had taken the patient’s hand and Harry spared him a single warning before he tying his Scrub-Witch to sterilize the room.

Karev grimaced at the stinging sensation of an abrupt sterilization and Harry bit back a smirk. Harry had never worked with Karev directly before, but he didn’t forget that Karev had been one of the residents who had tried to access Harry’s medical file in the hospital before it magically vanished.

“Let’s save a life,” Harry said, preparing himself mentally. Kids were the worst to work on, without exception. Every child on the table before Harry was Teddy - every parent waiting anxiously for updates was himself. It was never easy and Mum said it would never change.

It made Harry more careful though, more dedicated. Harry wouldn’t survive losing Teddy and he’d be damned if he made another human being go through what he wouldn’t.

Arizona talked Harry through the rebuilding of the patient’s palatine bones and airway. It was difficult to move as gently as he needed to if he had to consistently check that pieces were fitting together properly and that was where Arizona had been irreplaceable.

“Last one,” she said, her eyes on the reading Harry had displayed. She followed the final piece that Harry directly with his wand visually and held a hand up when Harry had it in place. “Alex, rotate her neck.”

Harry watched the vital monitor unblinkingly when Karev carefully turned the girl’s head left then right then settled back in a neutral position. Her numbers remained strong and Harry breathed easier.

The airway was the most pertinent part of the surgery, the rest of it was mostly tedious cosmetics and infection control.

“Karev, go update the parents,” Harry requested, shaking his wrist out before he began the facial bone repairs. “She’s breathing on her own again, we’re repairing the facial damage now.”

Karev didn’t argue, he didn’t question Harry. He nodded and Harry sighed when he squeezed the unconscious girl’s hand reassuringly before placing it on her chest and jogging briskly from the room.

“Why’d he do that?” Harry complained under his breath. “It’s hard to hate him if he’s good with kids.”

Mark laughed, which wasn’t exactly the point of Harry’s complaint.

“Hating Karev is a right of passage,” Mark told him. He winked at Harry above the mask that covered his face from the nose down. “The guy’s a tool.”

“A tool who is a kick ass pediatrician,” Arizona gushed. “Even Stark had to admit that Alex was made for peds.”

Harry hummed noncomittally, Stark’s opinion wasn’t exactly a word Harry would die for. Stark had once said that Harry would make a great pediatrician even though sick and injured kids made Harry miserable.

The girl on the table made Harry miserable enough, he didn’t want to go out of his way to treat only children.

“I’m going to begin the facial reconstruction now,” Harry announced. He couldn’t charm up a map for the face as he had the patient’s airway, he needed to see through the skin.

“Nobody panic,” Harry ordered the surgeons. He was focused enough that he didn’t look up when the glass doors of the OR slid open, he assumed it was Karev returning.

“Ossa revelio facciali,” Harry murmured, weaving his wand in a complex pattern to charm the facial skin. The girl’s damaged and torn skin went translucent and there was more than one shocked inhale at what had been exposed.

It was a wreck… the poor baby’s bones weren’t fractured, they were destroyed. Harry’s heart was aching and he steeled himself for what was going to be a lengthy surgery.

“It’s so clear.”

The awed voice was soft with a mild lisp and not one that Harry had heard before. He glanced up from the patient’s shattered facial structure and saw the prettiest pair of eyes he had ever seen looking down at the exposed bone.

It made sense, suddenly, why people had always complimented Harry’s eyes: green eyes were devastating. Green eyes with long dark lashes, surrounded by light brown skin, with a bright light of interest in them were twice as devastating as regular green eyes were.

Harry pushed the thoughts aside. There was no time or room in an OR to be distracted.

“Chief Bailey.” Avery seemed to be smiling behind his mask, Harry would bet he was a friendly person. Attractive people were friendly, usually.

“Doctor Sloan said you needed a resident to assist you?” Avery raised his scrubbed and gloved hands. “I’d be happy to help.”

“Great,” Harry said, meaning it. “Help me piece together these bones then we’ll start repairing the skin.”

Avery wound up having twice the patience that Harry did. While Arizona started applying ointment to the patient’s other wounds and Mark monitored the tolerance level the patient had to magical anesthesia, Harry and Avery worked together seamlessly on the facial injuries.

Karev returned when Harry was about halfway finished and acted cagey about the parents.

“You did talk to them, right?” Harry asked. He scowled, not that anyone could see it. “They’re probably terrified, this is their whole world and they deserve to know that we’re doing all we can to return her to them in one piece.”

“Yeah, yeah, I told them,” Karev said quickly. “I’m back now, it’s all good. Where do you want me?”

Harry didn’t trust him or the shifty energy he brought in the OR. It wasn’t a time to be worrying about Karev or his personality quirks, Harry needed to focus on the skin he was going to start on.

“I think I have enough hands,” Harry said. “You can go.”

Karev nodded and then grabbed a rolling stool from near the wall and pulled it up so he could sit by the girl. The other doctors looked at Harry, but if Karev wanted to sit beside her and hold her hand, Harry wasn’t going to kick him out.

What if it were Teddy?

Harry instructed Avery how to move the skin so that Harry could trace the lines from the attack and heal them. It took Harry twice as long as it would any other healer, but it was worth it.

“Can I ask a question?” Avery asked while Harry traced the worst of the lacerations a third time. Harry hummed and lifted an eyebrow, a silent agreement.

“Is healing a standardized practice?” Avery asked. “It’s just that your technique is different from Healer Anderson.”

Harry considered that and made a sound to let Avery know he was thinking. It was a fair question, it was also somewhat personal. When Harry had his thoughts sorted, he explained slowly.

“I’ll use Anderson as the example since you mentioned him,” Harry said. “Anderson learned half of his skills in a muggle - sorry, in a non-magical war. When you’re in a war, time is more important than anything. It’s only the ABC’s: airway, breathing, circulation. Soldiers don’t care about scars, they care about returning home to their families that love them.”

Soldiers cared that they had a set of parents who didn’t understand what war was being fought but understood that their son could die. Soldiers cared that they had a little brother who only wanted to play catch and didn’t know why his big brother was never there to play with.

“And you?” Avery was watching Harry as closely as Harry was looking over nearly perfectly restored face of his patient.

“And me?” Harry traced the one faint scar that would never leave the girl, the silver line that would remind her of her experience for a lifetime. “I learned that a single scar can define a person.”

Harry lifted the magic keeping the girl under and sent Karev and Arizona to take her to recovery. She would wake up within the hour, Harry would round on her later. The only thing Harry felt was a pressing issue for him at that moment was to call his dad and check on his son.

“That was amazing!” Avery removed his mask once the girl left the room on the gurney and - damn - he was just as handsome beneath the mask as Harry worried he would be.

“Why can’t you be a wizard?” Mark complained with a slap to Avery’s back. “We’d be unstoppable, Avery.”

Harry grinned and made to excuse himself, only to be blocked in the doorway by Draco.

“You are a moron,” Draco said, apropos of absolutely nothing. Draco was glowering at Harry and had his arms crossed, quite serious really. It wasn’t the type of reaction that Harry expected when he had just saved the life and looks of a little girl.

“I am a hero,” Harry said, refusing to let Draco’s unhappiness bring him down. If Draco didn’t want to talk about the moon or ask for some company to make the transformation easier, Harry wasn’t going to offer.

Stubborn git.

“You’re a bloody lawsuit on legs, Potter!”

Harry stilled at the dreaded word and tried to think of any recent case he had that had a poor outcome. There was the witch who Harry had removed her charmbeat regulator, but she had undergone the counseling for it and was nearly 200 years old.

“Who’s suing me?” Harry asked, anxiety beginning to bubble in his gut. Draco didn’t say the hospital was being sued, he said Harry was. Harry did something wrong.

Did he hurt someone? Did someone leave his hospital in worse shape than they had arrived?

“The parents of the girl you just operated on,” Draco said. “Potter, what on earth would cause you to operate on a patient without their consent?!”

Without… consent?

Harry turned around and sought out Mark, who was already stepping forward to stand with Harry.

“Her parents signed the waiver!” Harry exclaimed, waving his hand toward Mark.

“That’s what Karev said,” Mark agreed firmly; a relief. Harry didn’t think he imagined that, but it wouldn’t be the first time he had acted impulsively.

“And you took the word of an immature resident?” Draco demanded. “His name is Alex, for Merlin’s sake, Potter!”

That seemed… irrelevant and irritating.

Harry ran a hand through his hair, his anxiety turning to frustrating.

“I didn’t have much of a choice,” Harry said reasonably, working to remain calm. It was not the end of the world… not the end of his hospital. It could be the end of his career though…

“She was dying,” Mark said.

“Chief Bailey saved her life,” Avery added.

Draco was unmoved by their defense. His eyes narrowed and Harry could see that it was going to be a major headache, a massive issue for the hospital already under so much scrutiny.

“You should have checked for yourself,” Draco told Harry. “I am going to go try and minimize the screaming happening in Webber’s office right now. You will go find Doctor Karev and this alleged waiver.”

Draco turned and stormed away and Harry’s body deflated. Draco was right to be furious, Harry had screwed up. There were so many muggles against magic, so many witches and wizards against exposing their world to muggles. The waivers were there to build trust with both communities, to assure them that nobody would be treated in any way they weren’t comfortable with.

And Harry operated without seeing the waiver with his own eyes.

Mark put a hand on Harry’s shoulder, something Harry shied away from immediately. Harry screwed up, massively, he didn’t need someone trying to console him.

“This could all be a big misunderstanding,” Mark told him. “Maybe Mom signed it and didn’t tell Dad. Ten bucks says Karev has that waiver in his pocket and we’ll get this all cleared up.”

“Twenty says the girl couldn’t be saved without magic and Karev lied to save her life and didn’t give a damn about Bailey’s career,” Avery countered, depressing Harry further.

Harry sighed and brushed away Mark’s offer to join him to go find Karev. It was Harry’s mistake, Harry needed to figure it out himself.

Recovery was on the sixth floor, just a floor below where Harry was. It was tempting to stop at his office, make a cup of tea, hide away until he didn’t feel so small and stupid… but Harry was a grown man, he had a hospital to run. Harry couldn’t even call his mum and ask her to take care of it, though she probably would…

Harry had his hands in his pockets while he took the stairs down to the sixth floor. The staircase was less used than the lifts, less of a chance for Harry to be confronted or stopped.

If Karev had lied… Harry might lose his license to heal. If Karev didn’t lie, if there was a signed waiver somewhere, then Harry might still make it home before Teddy transformed that evening.

Harry wasn’t overly religious… Harry wanted to believe there was a God, the one his parents had prayed to every night of Harry’s life… Harry was a skeptic though, he didn’t know if he could accept that there was an almighty father watching over his children that let them all suffer and die.

Regardless, Harry still crossed his fingers in his pocket and prayed silently when he entered the recovery unit and searched for Doctor Karev. If there was a God, Harry hoped that He knew that Harry only wanted to ease suffering, save lives… Harry’s career couldn’t be over already.

Karev stood at the nurses station, his hip propped against the counter and a relaxed smile spread across his face. He was chatting with Derek Shepherd and Doctor Meredith Grey. Derek turned when he saw Harry walking toward them and greeted him cheerfully.

“Hey,” Derek called, “I didn’t get a chance to catch you before your surgery. Congratulations, I heard the girl is going to live a long and beautiful life.”

“Yeah,” Harry said distractedly, focusing on Karev. The smile Karev had slipped some and it made Harry’s stomach turn. “You have the waiver, right?” Harry asked him. “The one you said her parents signed?”

Karev shifted to the side, straightening himself up, and his eyes darted to Meredith then back to Harry.

“Man, listen…” Karev hesitated and that told Harry everything he needed to know.

“Oh, Alex…” Meredith sighed. “You didn’t.”

“You lied?” Derek demanded, pulling himself up tall and glaring at Karev unflinchingly. “Was there a signed waiver or not?” he asked.

Karev looked down and Harry knew what he was going to say.

“Not.”

That was it.

All the years Harry put in his education, in surviving a war, in fighting for the merging of magic and medicine… it was over.

Harry’s chest tightened and it felt as if the walls were beginning to creep in on him. Harry had devoted everything to his career, to the hospital, to the idea that wizards and muggles didn’t need to be separated. Every knut Harry had went to the hospital, to help fund it, to convince the board to give him a place amongst them.

Derek’s voice became loud and sharp while Alex’s retorts were sharp, defensive. The words blurred in Harry’s ears, hidden behind the loud beating of his heart that he could practically feel in his throat.

What would Harry tell Teddy? How would Harry support him in a county where he would no longer be allowed to practice healing? Mum was going to be so disappointed in him, in the vision they both had that Harry ruined with a single reckless moment.

“Come on.” There was a hand on Harry’s shoulder, one he let stay in place as far away as his mind was. “Derek, I’m taking Bailey to his office. Will you find the other Bailey and - for God’s sake - quit screaming.”

Meredith Grey was bossy, Harry didn’t know that. Harry let himself be guided like a child out of recovery - away from the girl who Harry saved at the risk of everything.

“This is not a big deal,” Meredith told Harry quietly while she seemed to know the best route to avoid others. “Lawsuits happen every day in this hospital, like, every day.”

“You don’t understand.” Harry’s feet refused to keep moving, he stopped in a hall and leaned against the wall while he rubbed his chest, trying to force himself into a regular rhythm. It would be a nightmare to be sued, lose his license, and have a heart attack of some sort.

“There’s a mob of protestors on the lawns, there’s howlers sent to my office every day. They’re going to use this as proof that I shouldn’t have opened the hospital…” Harry curled his fingers in his chest and groaned. “Why would he do this…? What - did I do something to him? Is he a secret death eater? Has he always hated me?!”

Harry had never had a single conversation with Alex Karev before then, he was sure of it. Karev had been snooping in Harry’s medical records when the hospital had been three days old, Harry had avoided him purposefully ever since. He was going to ruin Harry’s life, ruin the lives of all the people that could have been helped in the hospital… for what?

“Listen, Alex messed up, he did.” Meredith moved so that she was directly in front of Harry. She grabbed both of his hands and forced them away from his chest, squeezing them hard in hers while she stared up in Harry’s eyes. She was sort of formidable enough that Harry’s stress induced panic had no choice but to recede some…

Much different from Lexie, not so different from Harry’s mum.

“Alex is a doctor, he saw a dying girl and did what he thought he needed to do to save her life,” Meredith said. “You, Harry Bailey, are the freaking Chief of Healing, alright? You are the youngest Chief in history, a total badass, and you are not going to lose your career or your hospital for saving a life. That mob can kiss your ass and so can those stupid parents who are sooo pissed off about you saving their kid.”

Harry sucked in a sharp breath, forcing himself to get a grip as he did. Meredith was right about one thing - Harry was the Chief of Healing. Harry wasn’t a little kid, he couldn’t hide away in the corridor and avoid dealing with it.

Harry worked his arse off to get where he was, to get magic where it was. If Harry was going to be attacked, he was going to fight.

“You’re right,” Harry said, trying and failing to sound confident. Meredith probably wouldn’t tell anyone, she seemed halfway decent. “Thank you,” he said, meaning that.

“I’d say anytime, but I actually don’t like you much,” Meredith said with a bluntness that almost made Harry overlook her rudeness.

“Oh. Er…” Harry scratched his head after carefully pulling his hands out of hers. “Sorry?” he offered.

“You should be.” Meredith smiled in an unfriendly way. “You made my little sister cry and that’s my job.”

Meredith Grey was a crazy person, but Harry couldn’t help like her just a bit.

By the time Harry reached his office, after stopping at a restroom and washing his face… twice… his mum, Draco, and Richard Webber were all inside of it.

“Deja vu,” Harry said, a poor joke.

“Harry, this is a serious matter,” Richard said, as if Harry didn’t know that. Richard had his arms crossed over his chest and the lines on his forehead were creased with the same concern shining in his dark eyes. “The parents are furious, they’re screaming about suing the whole hospital.”

“They’re making a fuss over my son saving their baby’s life.” Mum crossed the room to Harry and even if her eyes shined with sympathy, Harry was relieved she didn’t hug him. A mild panic attack in the corridor was bad enough, Harry couldn’t be coddled and be the Chief of Healing for Seattle Hospital.

“I made a mistake,” Harry told Richard directly, looking straight in his eyes and owning what he did. “I was told by a resident that the parents had signed one of our waivers, I should have confirmed before operating. It was a mistake. What,” Harry’s voice shook a mild amount, “what do I do now?”

“Now… we settle.” Richard turned to Draco, gesturing for him to take the floor. “Healer Malfoy?”

Draco stepped forward and had a yellow legal notepad in his hands that he began reading from.

“Mister Jeff and Beth Green allege that on the tenth of October Healer Harry Potter-Bailey operated on their daughter, Lisa, with magical methods without their consent. The Greens further allege that their medical team had been made aware of their devout Catholicism and disagreement with any form of magic. They are requesting that Healer Potter-Bailey and all magical staff who operated on their daughter be removed from the hospital and their licenses to practice healing be revoked.”

Harry thought of his staff of medi-witches and wizards who had prepped his OR, remained in the room for support. There had been four of them, most of them Harry had gotten to know in small bits and pieces since the hospital opened. They didn’t deserve to lose their license or their job, they had only been following Harry’s lead.

“That’s ridiculous!” Mum spat immediately, shaking her head - actually, no… Mum herself was shaking, trembling with indignant anger. “Harry saved that poor girl’s life! Chief! You saw the report! That girl was going to die without him!”

“Nobody’s questioning that, ma’am,” Draco said. There were dark bags under his eyes and Harry felt a wave of guilt for the stress he was adding to Draco’s day. It wasn’t just Harry’s career, his livelihood, all of the money his biological parents left him on the line. Draco had given up job offers to join Seattle’s hospital, he had worked harder than anyone to get the hospital staffed and opened.

“The facts of the matter are that Potter operated without consent, the parents are wretched whack-jobs, and they’re seeing a big pay day.” Draco looked at Harry and he grimaced as he raised a shoulder. “The second we offer a settlement, they’ll disappear.”

“Settle? I say we take this to court,” Mum said, obstinately on Harry’s side, even though they both knew he had made a major mistake. “The girl wasn’t breathing when Harry said he’d operate, it was implied consent.”

“Implied consent doesn’t supersede prior refusal,” Richard disagreed, not unkindly. Harry felt just as badly for disappointing him as he did his mother, Richard had been a mentor for Harry for years… and he was going to be as dragged down by Harry’s mistake as anyone.

“Draco?” Harry trusted Draco more than some people - Susan Bones - thought was smart. Draco was a smart man though, cunning, and he knew the ins and outs of all the hospital policies by heart. Draco also wasn’t related to Harry, and so he had some degree of separation from Harry as a person and Harry as the healer. If Harry was going to follow anyone’s advice on the matter, it would be Draco.

“If we offer a settlement, it’ll be taken from our insurance and it might soothe their ignorant selves,” Draco told Harry, not bothering to sugarcoat anything. “They return home rich and content, you return to work tomorrow.”

Harry didn’t like it, but he didn’t see that he had much of a choice. He looked at his mum and saw she was just as unhappy as he was, though she looked up at him with the same steady gaze that had supported his decisions for years.

“What do you want to do, baby?” Mum asked. It didn’t bother Harry that she called him such a sentimental name in front of their colleagues. It was comforting.

“If you want to take them to court, we’ll fight it tooth and nail,” she swore. “If you want to settle, the hospital settles. It’s your choice.”

“We’ve all been in your shoes, son,” Richard added calmly. “You weren’t acting maliciously and that girl would have died if it weren’t for you. Nobody’s unhappy here except a couple of asses.”

They were arses, and ignorant, as Draco said. They were harping about something they didn’t understand and afraid of the unknown that had saved their whole world. But they had said no magic and Harry used magic.

“Offer them a settlement,” Harry told Draco.

Harry could go to sleep easily knowing that he gave a young girl a life and her parents could sleep in whatever fancy bed they wanted to purchase with the hospital’s money.

“The first rational thing you’ve done today,” Draco said, sniffing haughtily. “If you’ll all excuse me, I’ll grab one of the suits from legal and see if I can’t make this disappear. Webber, Bailey.”

Draco nodded to the others before stepping around Harry and leaving the office, closing the door behind him gently. Harry knew that Draco was furious, it made him feel that much more like rubbish.

“I’m sorry,” Harry said, a broken record. He addressed his words to both Richard and Mum, both of them had believed in him and supported him. Richard with the board and the blending of hospitals, Mum in every other aspect of Harry’s life and career.

“Harry, this isn’t a loss as far as I’m concerned,” Richard told him. “Who cares if our insurance rates go up a little bit? You saved that girl’s life, that is something to be proud of.”

Harry knew he was being let off lightly. If he were anyone else, Richard would be furious and not afraid to show it. It wasn’t that Harry wanted shouted at and belittled, it was that he deserved it. He made a mistake - an honest one, but one that was going to hurt the hospital as a whole.

Richard excused himself and patted Harry’s shoulder on his way out the door. When the door shut behind him, it was only Harry and his suspiciously quiet mum left alone. Harry’s office had never felt so small before as he waited to hear judgement from the one person he respected above anyone else.

“You ridiculous boy.” Mum huffed and Harry couldn’t blink before she had turned and grabbed Harry in a fierce hug. All of the tension that had built up in Harry’s body since the second Draco stepped in the OR doorway.

“I should have checked,” Harry said in a rush. “I saw the patient and I didn’t check for the waiver and I should have.”

“You were in doctor mode,” Mum said, rubbing Harry’s back while she hugged him. “You were told they had the waiver and you weren’t thinking like a Chief.”

Harry had been told that, he was sure of it. Alex Karev had only wanted to save his patient though, Harry could see that as well.

“I still should have checked,” Harry said. Mum always knew right when a hug started to become suffocating and she pulled away before Harry’s stomach started to itch.

“Your damn right you should have,” Mum agreed. “It was foolish to take the word of Alex Karev when that boy isn’t the one who put all his eggs in this basket of crazy.”

No, that had been Harry.

“Am I grounded?” Harry joked, forcing a crooked grin in hopes that Mum would let it pass for the moment. Harry had been wrong, the hospital was going to lose money, there was nothing more to do just then.

“You are grounded,” Mum said. Her face softened and she rubbed Harry’s arm with her hand. “You go straight home and get my grandson, then you stay with that baby until morning. And,” Mum raised a finger to point at Harry, “you two will be home in the morning to have breakfast with your family. Am I understood, mister?”

Harry did understand. He understood that he had the best mother on the earth.

Harry made it home with Teddy before the moon had fully shown itself. Dad asked for them both to stay, but Harry turned him down. There was no danger with Teddy while he was transformed, Draco had bloody revolutionized the Wolfsbane Potion. But Teddy would still be sore and achy afterwards, it always made him feel better to take a warm bath with the pain relieving bubbly soap Harry ordered for him.

Teddy was exhausted by the time the moon began to fall and he slowly shifted back to himself. Teddy’s hair always reverted to his natural color when he first changed back and the sandy hair never failed to jolt Harry.

Harry ran Teddy’s bath and then tucked him in bed, smoothing a hand over his face and staring at the most important person in the world.

“I’d always do anything to protect you,” Harry whispered, knowing Teddy was asleep and wouldn’t hear him. Harry pressed a kiss to Teddy’s cheek, right where the little girl’s singular scar would be, and decided then that even if it was a lawsuit, Harry had done the right thing. Alex Karev shouldn’t have lied to him, but that girl very likely would have died if he didn’t.

One day those parents were going to kiss their daughter’s scar and the money they received would sit like a weight in their stomachs.

There was no price any parent could put on the life of their child.