flatline [m.s]

clxxviii.

- - -
the big day is here. the day you're gonna hear the news, the test result. is the biopsy malignant or benign? am i gonna live or die?
- - -

"alex," lia approaches him with a overly sweet smile.

"what?" alex asks.

"i have a favour to ask," she tells him. "i'm on call this weekend. can you take it?"

"why?" alex furrows his brow. "what do you need to do?"

"i want to go see mark," lia explains.

"no, i can't," alex shakes his head. "it's the first weekend in months that jo and i aren't both working, and have the weekend to ourselves."

"which is exactly why i'm asking-" lia points out.

"then you know exactly why i'm saying no," alex shrugs.

"huh!" lia scoffs before walking away.

- - -
you just want to know even if the news is scary because then you can move on. whatever that means.
- - -

"shoulder dislocation, the acromion's fractured. i'm gonna need to do a reduction under anaesthesia," callie tells meredith, as the two of them, and ben examine their patient, brenda, in trauma room one.

"might as well wait," meredith argues. "she's got a zone two injury. wounds from the cricoid to the mandible. she's got to go straight to the o.r."

"oh, god," her husband, howard, sighs. "brenda, i'm sorry."

"howard, sure up," brenda winces.

"and, uh... why were we pointing a shotgun at our wife today?" ben asks as he looks out of the trauma room and to the police officers that are questioning one of the nurses.

"i was putting it away, and it-" howard begins to explain.

"we had just come back from duck hunting," brenda cuts him off. "duck hunting- his big idea of an adventure."

"it was fun!" howard protests. "you had-"

"i wanted to go to belize," brenda reminds him.

"well, it rains in belize, too," ben points out.

"i don't get shot in belize!" brenda argues before groaning in pain.  

"brenda, what's hurting?" callie asks.

"everything hurts!" brenda cries.

"doctor, here's the x-ray," one of the nurses hands callie the scans.

"okay," callie examines the image. "okay, yeah, it's this pellet. it's close to the major blood vessels."

"and we'll know for sure once we open her up," meredith nods. "come on, let's go."

"alright, we got to go. sir, could you move, please?" callie turns to howard as he holds his wife's hand. "warren, follow up on her labs."

"and have them rushes quick," meredith orders as she and callie wheel brenda's bed out of the trauma room. "i need them upstairs."