Lost and Found

Chapter 40

A/N: Thank you, everyone, for your support! Did anyone suspect that Anna was Meredith's daughter?

Anyway,

Onward!

In the surgical waiting room, Jackson could only be patient for so long. But in the aftershock of the earthquake, his patience had flown out the window along with his pride apparently, as both he and his mother in law Karen were clutching each other under a table.

"Oh dear," Karen cried, "Oh dear Jesus!"

"It's okay," he replied automatically, patting her back. "It's going to be okay," he said even though his surgeon brain was already leaping through every possible scenario that could happen in the OR during an earthquake, and it terrified him. His wife and his unborn child were in danger, and there was absolutely nothing he could do.

"Yes, Jackson," Karen replied, pulling back to palm his cheeks in a gesture that was perhaps too motherly. "You are absolutely right. It is going to be okay," her intense gaze was almost frightening.

What could he say to that? "Uh..."

"You know what I do in situations like this?"

"Um..."

"Pray. Pray like hell."

She pulled his hand to her lap and began to pray.

Xxx

"Retractor please," Arizona called. "Pierce... do you see it?"

Maggie's position over Kepner's body gave her a good angle to peer around the retractor and Arizona's fingers. The light from her headlamp illuminated the soft tissue of the uterus as she began to look for the debris. "Yeah. I see it, hang on." Maggie maneuvered her tiny forceps to the piece of debris that fell in. "It's so small... okay, got it." She dumped it into the basin.

"Antibiotic flush," Arizona ordered, "Hurry." The scrub nurse used a mini hose to squirt inside while Arizona began prepping the baby to go back into the womb.

But... there was still time. She could still make the cut and remove the tumor.

"Robbins, I could still-,"

Beep-beep. Beep-beep. April's monitors beeped, indicating a rise in blood pressure.

"I'm sorry, Pierce, but with all the risks for April, I just can't take this chance," she replied intensely.

Maggie wanted to disagree. It felt like they'd done all of this for nothing then. But the numbers didn't lie, April's sats were dropping, as were her baby's. It wasn't worth the risk, "I understand," she sighed. Hopefully the tumor wouldn't grow. There was still a good chance that she could do the surgery after the baby was born. Carefully, they finished irrigating, then Arizona lowered the baby back into April's uterus.

"3-oh Prolene," Arizona called, as she began to close up the uterus. "This sucks," she said, voicing the same disappointment and frustration Maggie felt.

"Yeah," Maggie agreed.

"Dr. Herman? Are you still with us?"

Silence.

"Dr. Herman?" Arizona looked up, a flash of concern in her eyes.

"She's unconscious ma'am," came a scrub nurse's response.

"Dammit!" she swore as she continued stitching. "Okay, can someone call neuro? Let's get her on a gurney."

"Dr. Robbins, what's going on?" Maggie asked. Something was going on between these two that she was unaware of and she didn't like being on the outside looking in.