pretty please ✵ derek shepherd.

chapter five.

But as that started to happen, the monitors went berserk, and the nurse asked, "Are the grafts...?"

"They're open." Burke nodded in confirmation, finishing the female's sentence before asking, "Temperature?"

"She's at ninety-six and rising," The anesthesiologist answered.

The attending sighed, shaking his head as the flatline buzzer could be heard. "She should be doing this on her own." Nudging the heart a little with his finger and muttering, "Come on, Mrs. Patterson." Burke soon decided to shock her when it was taking too long. "Paddles,"

"Stats are below ninety,"

"Charge,"

"Ten joules." Burke demanded before shocking the patient's heart, "Clear." But the flatline just continued.

"Come on, Mrs. Patterson," Florence whispered to herself, looking at the stats monitor, when nothing changed.

"Give me twenty," Burke demanded again. "Clear," And that was all it took for the heart to start beating on its own again, Florence let out a breath of release. "There, we have rhythm. Reluctant heart, huh, Ledger?" The attending nudged the intern who looked pale as a ghost.

"Yeah," She forced a smile while taking a big deep breath, releasing it slowly, already feeling her heart rate picking up.

"Alright, let's close. Keep an eye on her. Good work, everyone."

As Burke left, Florence was a step behind him, looking down at her glove, seeing the popped material and her heart fell to her stomach. Shaking it off, realizing that they did in fact get the patient's heart beating again, Florence determined she had nothing to worry about. But that feeling in her gut did not go away.

Scrubbing out and removing all bloody and contaminated items from her body before leaving the OR floor, she ran into Derek who was eating a salad and she asked, "Ooh, can I have a bite?" She questioned, quite hungry since all she had for breakfast was avocado toast.

"Sure," He offered, sticking the utensil with food in her mouth, smiling brightly at her. "Hey, I heard you did a CABG with Burke. How'd that go? Did you get to hold the heart?"

"Yeah," Florence answered, that uneasy feeling coming back to her stomach. Maybe it was the salad, she thought.

"It's an amazing feeling. You will never forget the first time."

"It was pretty great just to watch," Alec came up behind the two, almost scaring the crap out of Florence. "Vicarious thrills, you know?"

"Yeah," Florence merely answered once more, the two of them, minus Derek, stepping into the elevator.

"I'll see you later," The attending looked suspiciously between the two, continuing to eat his salad as if nothing was going on.

"Bye," The girl waved lightly back, the door closing in front of her.

"Wow," Alec commented, slightly jealous. "It's like you two were eye-fucking right in front of me."

Slapping his shoulder to get the male to stop talking, Florence rolled her eyes, saying, "Shut the hell up before I cut your tongue off."

"Wow," He repeated his words. "What's up your panties this morning?"

"I think maybe I did something to Mrs. Patterson's heart when I was holding it." Florence admitted to the male, crossing her arms over her chest, staring straight forward and trying not to cry. "I nodded off a little and squeezed it."

"Oh, please. The heart's a tough muscle. It can take a squeeze or two, Flo."

"My fingernail popped through the glove - cut straight through." She stressed to her friend. "Alec, what if I punctured Mrs. Patterson's heart? Burke will never wanna work with me again. I'll be a failure. Not to mention I will have killed someone."