I should stick with "The Bachelor"

I missed "Grey's Anatomy" during the regular television season, but have grown quite fond of it in its rerun form. It's become a fixture on the "To Be Tivo'ed" list, and I caught up with the latest last night, once it became clear that Boston was going to crush Texas at Fenway.

(Truth be told, I admit that last night, I simply wasn't in the mood to see whether my Sox were going to find a whole new creative way of blowing a lead.)

So I'm watching the episode with Beth, laughing at the quips and jabs as I usually do, and cooing appropriately at a cute little girl with long blonde curls and a history of seizures. I'm looking forward to Dr. McDreamy saving the day by operating on half of her brain.

Pretty standard stuff.

But then there is The Scene. One of the young interns has been booted from the OR because he dared to ask the anesthesiologist if he had been drinking. The "Sideways" woman was brought in to assist on the procedure, and Patrick Dempsey was operating brilliantly (as always). All of a sudden, McDreamy looks down at the little girl's face and realizes she's waking up while the procedure is underway.

I don't realize what I'm doing. I start saying, "No, oh no, no!" and jump up from my cozy corner place on the loveseat. As Beth looks at me in surprise, I bolt into the kitchen.

"What's going on?" she says.

"I CAN'T WATCH THIS!" My heart is in my throat, and I'm waiting to hear the faded sound of a little girl screaming as consciousness sets in. I don't want to hear it, I don't want to see it, I want the anesthesiologist (who has fallen asleep/passed out in the corner of the room, for those still curious) to put her back under. Now.

Beth walks out into the kitchen. "It's on commercial. It's OK."

She laughs at the horrified expression on my face.

"What was that all about?"

I'm still trying to figure it out. "Um, I think I just had my first real maternal instinct."

We burst into laughter. Me - the person who has said many, many times that I'm going to make the best damn aunt EVER - was just ready to kill a fictional character for potentially harming a fictional little girl on a fictional television show.

Ack.