No Time | Grey's Anatomy // Book 1 // COMPLETED |

24 | I'm Not Crazy

The streetlights that lined the dark Seattle streets shone brightly as I drove through downtown, silently cursing every red light I came to as I switched back and forth between lanes, trying to reach my destination as soon as possible. My mind raced, the worst kinds of thoughts circling my mind, and I had to actively force myself to concentrate. 

When I finally pulled up to the intersection that Skylar had given me over the phone, the bright and familiar ambulance lights along with the sirens made it almost impossible to miss. I practically jumped out of my vehicle before it even stopped moving and immediately rushed over to the scene. 

"Excuse me, Ma'am." a paramedic stopped me. "There's been an accident. You can't proceed any further."

I looked left and right for Skylar, but I couldn't see her anywhere. "I-I'm a doctor at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital." I spat out, hoping that would get me past the police tape. "My, uh, sister called me. She was in the accident. Her name is Skylar. Skylar Forrest."

"You're Ellie." the paramedic waved for me to follow him back toward the ambulance. "Your sister is in critical condition. She was driving and another side-swiped her. Her car tipped and her arm was trapped under the weight of the vehicle for quite a while, almost severing it. Your sister must have really wanted you here because she called you before 911." 

I tried my best to think of this case as just any other MVC patient that came in through the hospital doors, but I couldn't, because this wasn't just any other patient, this was my little sister. Biting my tongue to keep from spewing out nonsense, I waited for the paramedic to let me into the back of the ambulance, and when he did, my hand flew over my mouth. 

"Skylar." I gasped, although for a second, I wasn't even sure the woman in front of me was my sister. The last time I had seen Skylar, she was just about to move out to California. She had had long brown hair and wide eyes. Now, however, her hair had been cut to her shoulders and dyed black. She had her nose pierced and looked much thinner than I remembered. Although, all of this was hidden behind the bruised, pale skin and blood-soaked clothes. 

"Ellie." Skylar's voice was weak and scratchy. "Is that you?"

Nodding, I climbed into the back of the ambulance and sat down next to the stretcher she was strapped to. "Yeah, it's me." I assured her. "Skylar, why did you call me before the paramedics?"

"I . . . I don't know." she admitted. "I was so scared, and I just . . . just called you."

As Skylar started to cry, I moved to hold her hand but had to stop myself when I noticed that the arm closest to me was the one that had been crushed. Even though it had been wrapped tightly to slow the bleeding, I could tell that it had been very badly injured. My gut told me it was probably going to be an amputation, but I kept that information to myself. There was no need to upset Skylar more than she already was. 

"I thought you still lived in California." I said, trying to keep Skylar's and my own mind off of the current situation. 

"I do," she replied, forced to look up at the roof due to the neck brace. "I came down to visit you. It was supposed to be a surprise." she paused for a moment. "Surprise."

Just then, the ambulance started moving and I sat quietly for the duration of the drive to Seattle Grace/Mercy West, which thankfully, was the nearest hospital. While Skylar closed her eyes and tried to focus on her breathing, I couldn't help but just stare at her. The two of us hadn't seen each other in years, and although we had always talked about getting together at some point, it just never happened. Well now, I guess it had, but this was not how I expected our reunion to go.

Once I got accepted to med school, we grew distant. Skylar was different than I was; while I always knew I wanted to go into medicine, she was always changing her mind and searching for the next thing that inspired her. When Skylar moved to California to attend an art school, we finally thought she had found her one true calling, but one short year later she dropped out. Ever since then she had been job-hopping and doing art on the side.