flatline [m.s]

clxxvi.

- - -
if you're in an o.r and you feel like the sky is falling, that's because sometimes, unfortunately, it is. i was once doing a laparoscopic appendectomy, perfectly routine, when out of nowhere, my patient developed an air embolus.
- - -

due to a banging on her front door, maggie is slowly making her way down the stairs, but she stops when she receives a text.

from: richard

i heard you quit. come answer the door and talk to me.

she sighs before turning back around and beginning to head back up the stairs. but once again, she is stopped by an incoming text.

from: richard

i saw that.

maggie exhales deeply, then skulks back down the steps to open her front door.

"the door is frosted and the curtains were drawn," she tells him. "you can't see inside."

"was i wrong?" richard raises his brow, turning his phone around to display the texts.

"what are you doing here?" maggie sighs.

"um, well, i was gonna see if you wanted to go out for breakfast. but now that i see you..." richard gestures to her pyjamas and dressing gown. "um, i'm thinking eating in. how's pancakes sound?"

"i didn't know you could cook," maggie furrows her brow.

"please," richard scoffs, brushing past her to enter the house.

- - -
carbon dioxide that was filling his abdomen leached into his circulation. his blood pressure plummeted as the air bubble went to his heart, causing utter chaos. i started cpr, trying to keep blood flowing to his brain. we placed a central line as quickly as we could but before we knew it, his lungs were filling with fluid.
- - -

"all the places in the world to put food, and yet, no food," richard shakes his head as he opens and looks through all of maggie's kitchen cupboards. "how do you people eat? alivia's exactly the same."

"richard. you don't have to do this," maggie tells him.

"well, what am i doing?" richard asks, continuing to look through the kitchen.

"forgiving me. or- or putting me back together. whatever this is," maggie throws her hands up.

"this is called eating," richard nods, pulling a bag of flour out and placing it on the counter.

"and i don't deserve it," maggie argues. "especially not from you."

"we just hired an amazing psychologist," richard informs her. "she's excellent with su-"

"with surgeons who kill their cousins and get sued by their uncle?" maggie cuts him off, and richard exhales deeply. "i'm sorry. i'm- i shouldn't- i- i- i- i'm useless and mean and- and depressed and awful. this is why i just- i wanna be alone. so can we just go back to that? can we go back to you just not even being able to look at me?"

"maybe we start with coffee," richard smiles.

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