The Call

5

"Oh Zola, it's okay sweetie, Mommy's here, I'm here."

Bailey held up his hand, showing a bright red sticker of a red car on the back of his hand "ticker!"

Meredith bent down and clutched his hand "Ohh a race car, that's nice," she smiled, glad that her children had been oblivious to everything going on. Glad that to them, this was just another day. "Come on Bailey, we're going back to the car."

She headed into the parking lot and found her car. She loaded Zola and Bailey into their car seats and got into the drivers seat. For a long time she just sat in her car and just breathed... in and out, in and out. "I'm sorry, Derek. I thought I could handle it. I thought I could... but when I saw those bandages..." A pain started again in her heart... "Why? Why Derek? Why did you have to leave?"

"Mommy?" Zola asked.

Meredith suddenly realized she had been talking out loud. "It's ok Zo," she sniffed. She took another breath, started the car and began to back out. But a car was blocking her exit.

"Come on," She muttered. She waited a minute, but the car didn't move, when she looked into the rearview mirror she noticed that the driver was slumped over the steering wheel.

"Shit," Meredith parked her car and jumped out. She walked up to the car that blocked her and banged on the window. No response. The door was locked. Now she was operating on pure adrenaline. Meredith popped open her trunk and was relieved to find a tire iron, She grabbed it and with all her strength, she smashed open the window of the other woman's car. With her long fingers she gingerly reached through what was left of the glass and unlocked the door.

"Are you okay?" Meredith shook the woman but there was no response. She felt for a pulse on her neck and it was there but faint. Meredith noticed that the woman had a hospital wristband. She pulled up the woman's shirt and noticed the stiches of a recent surgery on her abdomen. As she probed the woman's belly she knew that there was internal bleeding. This patient was bleeding out.

"Dr. Grey?" Someone called. She turned her head to see a blonde woman in hospital scrubs.

"She needs surgery, now! We have to get her back into the hospital." She put the car into park. "What's your name?"

"Dr. Lorenson,"

"Okay Dr. Lorenson, I'm going to pull her over to the passenger side and then you have to drive the car to the ambulance doors. Got it?" They didn't have time to run back for a gurney.

"Yeah."

Meredith was pleased that Dr. Lorenson kept her calm and deferred to her. They had to work as a team. Meredith piled into the other side of the car and pulled the patient over to the passenger side. Dr. Lorenson jumped into the drivers seat and they sped ahead.

Meredith looked over at the blonde doctor. "Then you're going to get someone to get my kids."

"I need help!" Dr. Lorenson yelled as soon as they entered the ambulance bay. In an instant a gurney and two nurses appeared. They loaded the patient on it and took her in.

Meredith was right there beside them, palpating the patients abdomen- it was rigid, not a good sign. "She needs sugery now!" She shouted. "It's her spleen- she's bleeding out." And then she looked around, the hospital was full. People everywhere and they were all working on emergency patients. She looked at Dr. Lorenson. "How long have you been a resident?"

"Its my first year."

Dammit. If she even had another year of experience, she might be able to walk the doctor through the procedure. But this was her first year and Dr. Lorenson wasn't a surgical resident. "Where's you're attending?"

Christa looked around and nodded her head to Dr. Rorish who was busy performing a thoracotomy while talking her residents through a procedure on another patient.

Meredith down at the patient in front of her. There was no time to wait. "Okay, We're going to need platelets, laps, and a laparotomy kit."

"You're going to cut her open now?" Dr. Lorenson asked incredulously.

"There's no time. She's got ten minutes tops before she bleeds out."

The staff around her hesitated.

"Christa!" Rorish shouted. "What's going on?"

"The patient is bleeding out, Dr. Grey wants to go in and stop the bleed."

"Dr. Grey- I assume you know what you're doing."

"I do."

"You'll have to talk Christa through it."

"There's no time and she's not a surgeon. Get me a kit and some suction and I can stabilise her."

The two doctors sized each other up. Meredith was not going to give up on this woman. She looked back down at the patients wristband. "Someone discharged her from this hospital and she never made it out of the parking lot."

Rorish looked at the patient, and a flicker of recognition appeared on her face. She nodded to Meredith, "Okay, Dr. Grey. Someone get her whatever she needs!"

Meredith looked at Dr. Lorenson. "Lets do this. And someone take care of my kids!"

xxx

Christa worked hard to keep up to Dr. Grey. She had never participated in a surgery like this before. But Dr. Grey appeared to be in another world as she focused on the patient. Dressed in yellow trauma scrubs and wearing safety glasses, Dr. Grey cut into the patient.

"Clamp."

Christa handed her the clamp and watched as she clamped a vein. She thought Dr. Grey looked familiar as she watched her work. Where had she seen her before?

"Hang another unit of blood please. laps, I need laps."

Christa stole a glance around the ER and realized that most of the staff were now watching. Including Rorish.

"Damn" Dr. Grey muttered.

"What is it?" Christa asked. Her fingers hovered over the surgical tray.

"I need more retraction."

Christa pulled back some more on the retractor. Wow, she had never seen do much blood before except in documentaries at med school.

"Suction, Dr. Lorenson." Grey's hands moved quickly and effortlessly through the patient's insides. "There, found it. Clamp."

Christa complied and watched as Dr. Grey picked up the sutures. That's when she realized where she had seen her before. She couldn't believe it. Dr. Grey, from Seattle Mercy Grace. The hospital that had the shooting.

Christa shook her head. She had to keep her cool.

With a few deft stiches Dr. Grey sewed the tear in the spleen. "Ok, that should hold for now," She said. "Somebody find out if there's an OR."

Christa breathed a sigh of relief, but her relief was short lived when she saw Dr. Grey's hands tremble as she was closing.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm... okay." Dr. Grey said, but her face was pale. She finished her last suture, and looked Christa in the eye. "You need to make sure that this patient gets into the OR in the next hour."

"Don't worry, I will."

"Pretty good for a first year..." She trailed off and then her eyes rolled back and she collapsed.

xxx

A/N I will get those two together, I just have to get them to the point where they will actually listen to each other, and the code black doctors will have a part to play in that instance. Thanks for reading!