9x19
Explosions never happen at random, they have their exact laws. And sometimes they need very little to set them off. And when they do happen, you better pray that you're not anywhere around it. Because any kind of explosion, whether is natural or metaphorical, has its own aftermath.
"So you could be one of the owners of this hospital but you backed down? Are you for real?" Jo asked Aurora in the locker rooms. Aurora thought it would be good for her to share this with someone who was not involved in this hospital stuff. Only talking to Jackson and Derek about this was driving her crazy. "We could have one of us in there!"
"They have been working here for almost a decade, how do I exactly fit in there?"
"With 15 million dollars you fit just fine!" Jo argued.
"I wasn't even going to keep the money! It was a bad idea to talk to you about it! How is things going with this guy you're dating? What's his name?" She tried to change the subject.
"Jason!" Jo reminded her. "And things are going great! I'm going to find him right now actually! Do you want to go an double date one day?"
"Who will I exactly bring?" Aurora wondered.
"He'll bring one of his friends. You desperately need a date."
"Desperately?" Aurora raised her eyebrows at her. "I don't need to date anyone, I'm perfectly fine the way I am. I can get a dog or something."
"It's either a date or you stop pretending that you and Jackson are just friends." Aurora gave Jo a look making her explain herself more, "you obviously have feelings for him and we know for a fact that he shares the same feelings. I mean I've seen the way he looks at you sometimes and I want to go over there and give him a hug."
"Jackson and I have talked about this, this it's none of your business!" Aurora said defensively. "When I said that we could be friends I didn't expect this happening."
"That's what it's like to be friends with me! Suck it up!" Jo said a little louder as she walked over to Jason who was waiting for her just outside of the room.
×××
Everyone got paged as a tanker accident happened and multiple traumas were coming in the hospital. "I'm here. A tanker blew?" Aurora asked as she found the attendings putting on their yellow trauma gowns.
"It didn't blow." Hunt snapped as he had already said that to multiple people at the same time.
"Oh thank God!" Aurora sighed in relief as the other doctors gave her a look.
"See? That's a proper human being reaction to these news!" Hunt glanced at Bailey and Webber.
"She's just naturally too nice. She can't help it!" Derek said as they all walked at the ambulance bay. "Come on." He patted her back and they went to the first ambulance that had arrived.
"Cam Miller, restrained passenger in a vehicle T-boned on its side. Vital signs stable. G.C.S. is 14. He's been disoriented." The paramedic of the first ambulance opened the door as the smell of the gas hit the doctors and they all groaned. "The tanker's been leaking gas all over the road." He informed them as they all has started coughing and they put their hands up their noses to cover the smell as much as possible. "We did a primary decontamination on the scene, but we had to get him out of there."
"Okay, no open flames, no smokers, no use of cauteries . Be safe people." Chief Hunt yelled as Aurora and Dr Webber took the patient in the ER for examination.
×××
Aurora was trying to examine the patient but he kept resisting. "Hey, hey." He tried to pull away from the stethoscope which Aurora had on her ears trying to listen to his heartbeats. "Where's my sweatshirt? I want to step outside for a smoke."
"I'm sorry, sir, but you can't do that." Aurora tried to reason with him.
"Sweetie, you are a really pretty girl, but I don't need lectures from pretty girls." The patient snapped at her. Aurora was a beautiful woman, which sometimes caused her patients, especially males, to not take her serious. Sometimes some of them took it just a bit too far by flirting with her, so she always hated working with men.
"She means you're covered in gasoline, sweetie." Dr Webber stood up for her. "Now sit your butt back down." He ordered and Aurora smiled knowing that the patient didn't have much choice. She felt a little better that Webber had her back and she didn't need to be the rude one. She knew that sometimes she had to be, but she had so much patience and that didn't always work on her favour.
You know how people toughen up after a series of bad things in there lives? They have thicker skin and they don't care about anything that is happening, or they are at least good at pretending they don't care. Aurora was nothing like that. After what happened to her at Peru and after Mark's death, she felt more valuable than before. Even though she still smiled, every time something bad happened she cried more easily. She hadn't toughen up, not in the slightest.
When Aurora was done with the examination on the patient, she walked at the entrance of the entrance of the ER for a new incoming. In that moment, she saw her previous patient stepping outside. She knew that he was going to smoke and she needed to act fast before something bad could happen. She ran outside trying to catch up with him "Sir, stop!" She yelled as she saw him lighting up the cigarette that was between his mouth.
The next few seconds went by fast as a loud blast shook the whole ground. The tanker had exploded. "Oh God!" Aurora muttered as she tried to kept her cool at what was happening. She looked at the ground beneath her like it was going to open in half. But that lasted only a second. Because the real danger was right in front of her and she had no idea.
The man covered in gas that wanted to smoke so desperately was caught on fire. And he was running towards her.
When she looked up, she saw the man on fire. Running towards her as he wan't seeing where he was going. His whole body was on fire. And if she didn't move, the fire would get caught up with her.
"Get him on the ground!"
"Get out of the way!"
"Hey, move!"
People around her were yelling but she was frozen in place.
"Sloan move!" She heard a familiar voice coming from the ER. Dr Webber had ran outside when he saw her there and tried to snap out of the state she saw at.
But it was too late.
×××
"I got your page." Jackson caught up with Webber and Bailey just a few minutes later as they were bringing in the ER the man that was on fire. "Is this-"
"The human fireball." Bailey completed his sentence.
"Okay, let's get him to fire unit right away." Jackson said and then his eyes fell on the person behind Dr Webber.
"Stop fighting me, you need to get checked out." Leah hissed at Aurora. The man eventually fell on her side making the upper half of the right arm to get caught on fire. The pain was unbearable but she managed to play it cool. She kept thinking about all those people that were in pain because of the explosion. She could survive this.
"Look, I am fine." Aurora tried to get away from Leah's grip. She was helping her get inside and get her cleaned up. The fire managed to burn her right upper arm. She insisted that it was nothing, but she was in pain. "The fire barely got me, see?" She turned her arm on her direction and flinched at the movement.
"What the hell happened?" Jackson asked as he stopped moving the gurney with their patient. He turned his whole attention to Aurora, as he looked at her up and down trying to have a first idea about her injuries, trying to make sure that what happened to her wasn't serious.
"She thought that she could stop this man from lighting up the cigarette." Dr Webber shook his head.
"I was just there and I tried to warn him one last time. So I guess, wrong place at the wrong time?" Aurora tried to brush it off but Jackson was furious at her. "I am fine, I swear, I just need to get this cleaned, nothing more."
"Okay, Murphy keep an eye on her until I get this patient to the fire unit, got it?" Leah nodded her head. "I'll be right back!"
"Are you kidding? He was on fire, all of him. I just got like a scratch. I can wait." Aurora waved him off and Jackson walked away but not without a last glance on her.
He had just seen the woman he cared about being hurt. And he just wanted to be the one to make her feel better. Like he always did since the very first time he saw her.
×××
It is so difficult to watch someone you love suffer. You would give anything to help take their pain away, yet there is only so much you can do. But then you are hit with this reality that as hard as you are trying to make them more comfortable they are still in pain. And when you look in their eyes you can literally see how much pain they are in and it hurts to see... it rips your heart out to the point you'd literally rather take their pain on yourself than watch them suffer.
That's exactly how Jackson was feeling as he was in an empty room with Aurora cleaning the dead skin from the fire. Aurora bit her lip as she tried not to hiss in pain. Jackson kept glancing up at her every two seconds. He was losing his focus thinking about how serious injured she could have been. He let out a frustrated sigh before Aurora decided to break the silence. "Are you mad? You seem mad."
"You think?" Jackson snapped.
"You wanna talk about why you're mad?" Aurora asked softly as she tried to forget the pain she was in.
"Why do you think?" He said with the same tone as before. Aurora gave him a second, thinking that he would let it all out. And she was right. "You could have gotten seriously injured. What were you thinking?" Jackson stopped cleaning her wound.
"I just got frozen for a second and I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you. I didn't know that you cared so much..." She said the last part so quietly, but Jackson heard and he wasn't happy at all.
"Of course I care, I have been showing you how much since the very first time we met. I came at your house so you wouldn't be alone. I have been doing everything you needed since that night. Because I fucking care, I care too much!" His voice was surprisingly calm as he was saying all that. "Despite what you think or what you feel. I care!"
"Jac-"
"Don't. Don't say my name please." Jackson closed his eyes as he tried to keep himself calm. "Because every single time my name comes out of your mouth I want to grab you and kiss you and don't stop there. So don't say my name." When he opened his eyes again he didn't look at her but at the wound in her arm. He returned back at his previous work as Aurora closed her eyes this time wishing she would stop making everything so complicated.
"Let's just get your cleaned with no further talking, okay?"
×××
Aurora was sitting alone in the room waiting for Derek to bring her some clean clothes. He immediately visited her when he was done with his surgery. He was going to yell at her but he stopped himself once he saw the look on her face. Instead he hugged her and told her that he was glad that she was okay.
"Hey that's what you had on your locker." Derek walked inside holding a sweatshirt he found in her locker.
"It's fine." Aurora replied and grabbed it out of his grip. Derek turned in the side to give her some space to change, but she didn't move not even an inch.
"Are you feeling okay? Are you upset about the accident?" Derek asked as he sat beside her.
"No. It was an accident as you said. And I am fine." She said as she looked at him. "I just hate the person I have turned into. I am scared all the time. I am scared that everyone that comes near me will hurt me like he did..." Mark wasn't around anymore and she had to share her thoughts with someone. She didn't want to continuing feeling alone.
"Who hurt you Ari?" Derek asked softly. "You can talk to me."
And Aurora talked and she cried and she talked some more. And Derek listened to her. And he swore that if he saw that man in front of him he would ruin his life and his face for what he did to the person that he thought as a little sister.
"I just keep thinking that if I do this again the same thing will happen. And I don't think I can handle something bad happening again. People are calling me ms sunshine and I don't think any of them realises what's going on in my head." She said as she finished explaining what had happened in Peru.
"I am really sorry that happened to you. I am extra sorry that men can be like that. But what are the chances that the next man you let in ends up doing the same thing he did? And if we're talking with names here. Avery... because I know you're worried about him... Avery would never do something like that to you. That man is too kind with everyone. And especially you. Don't be afraid to give him a chance. Give yourself a chance. Because after everything that happened you deserve to be happy. And when he is around, you smile and I know that you mean it."
"Oh Derek..." She sniffed and placed her head on his shoulder as Derek wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "I just think I need some more time." She whispered.
"Take all the time you need. But if you hate what you're turning into, change it before it's too late."
"I will." She agreed.
"And whatever you ever need, I am right here. Always. I promise." He smiled at her. And that smile just helped her miss her brother just a tiny less. Because Derek Shepherd was her brother too.
But feel down, a small part of her wished that Derek hadn't made that promise. Because the last person that promised her that would always be there for her was gone...