Her Normal

Chapter 17

"I'm so sorry..." She put an arm around my shoulders. "I'm sure he'll pull through for you. Why would you need to do another surgery though?" She asked.

"There's a tiny bit of the bullet lodged in the side of his aorta where it got cut open." I said shakily. "It's going to be tricky, because as soon as I take that small bit out he's going to start losing blood. Fast."

"You got it. I can help you out if you want. For now, why don't you go give a report to his team out there and sit for a second." She nudged me out of the room and I looked at my reflection in a window for a second. I had blood all over my scrubs and operating gown and I looked like I hadn't slept in weeks. My makeup was everywhere from crying and my eyes were red. I got the makeup off as best I could and took off my bloody gown, leaving just a little bit of blood on my scrubs. I walked into the waiting room to find the whole team, and James, waiting.

Morgan shot up first. "Hey," he looked at me questioningly. "How's he doing?"

"He's okay." I nodded. "He's not quite stable, he needs to rest and he's still got more surgery to go, but I think he's got a good chance of pulling through."

"How are you?" He asked.

"I'm fine." I said, tired of people pitying me. "Just tired and a bit nervous." I could feel my fatigue affecting my emotions as tears pricked my eyes and I avoided any eye contact with anyone that could be listening.

"Hey, no." Morgan tilted my head up to look at him. "You aren't head surgeon for nothing, I'm sure you did everything perfect and he's going to be just fine. Just think, after this is done, you can tell him that you saved his life and he won't argue with you anymore." He chuckled and gave my a hug, in which I sank into and relaxed.

"Thanks Derek." I said into his shoulder.

"Come sit, you need to take a load off for a minute." He guided me to a chair next to Penelope.

"Hey there Doctor Sexy." She winked at me and I laughed, appreciating her sense of humor and supportive positivity.

"What's up Sugar Mama?" I gave her the same flirty tone and Rossi glanced over.

"Get a room you two." He said, before closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the wall.

"He's right, and Spencer might be upset that you stole his girl." James spoke up from across the room. I chuckled at him and he sent a friendly wink. About 30 minutes passed and I felt refreshed enough to go finish what I started. Our anesthesiologist jogged out of the room to find me.

"We need you, now." He motioned and I could hear the numerous monitors making awful sounds. I ran in with him and immediately got news.

"He's got internal bleeding, and lots of it."

"His lungs are going to flood."

"He's going into shock."

"His blood pressure is dropping by the minute."

"His pulse is weakening."

"He's crashing."

Those were the two words it took for me to step into action. I gave commands and explained what was going on. I told them it was the bullet fragment dislodging itself from his aorta. I got his stitches open and began working once more. I held back my tears this time, knowing I couldn't cry in front of the entire team in the room.

Everyone worked together like an assembly line. Spencer's final surgery went swimmingly despite the rough start. I patched everything up and cleaned up the blood, making 110% sure that his lungs would not flood. I stitched him up for good this time and took a deep breath. I hoped I could get him into a clean room soon, his blood littered the floor in here.