Chapter 37
Season 6, Episode 6
Present Time:
I feel like I'm about to drop dead. We've been sitting in these hard, uncomfortable chairs for over an hour; it's currently two in the morning and I haven't eaten or slept in over twenty-four hours. Today has been a literal day from hell and all I want to do is go home and sleep for the next ten years. Granted, if I'm fired, I really can go to sleep and never wake up.
The residents line the hallways, sitting in chairs like school children in detention. I look up from my hands at Cristina who's sitting to my right. Her hand is resting over her mouth, clearly in deep thought. The hallway is dead quiet as the attendings watch over us like hawks. We messed up badly, or at least, one of us did and I know it wasn't me. I just hope they believe me.
"Someone's getting fired." Reed, the pixie cut red-head, says with a sour look on her face. It's been a week since the Mercy West residents got here and I hate them just as much as day one, Reed especially.
"Stop it." April, her friend, the other red-head, says from beside her. She's been sweating like a pig ever since we got here, obviously not used to being in trouble. She sits up straight in her seat, unlike the rest of us who have slouched over, Lexie even has her legs crossed in front of her chest.
"She wasn't even my patient." Charles groans across from me. The Mercy West residents have conveniently sat on the opposite wall from us. Doesn't help the hateful stares we keep shooting at each other.
"What?" Cristina snaps at him, his statement pulling her out of whatever trance she was trapped in.
"Nothing." He brushes her off and surprisingly, she lets it go.
"How long is this going to take?" Alex asks no one in particular, voicing everyone's annoyance at this moment.
"Why? You need to make a phone call?" Jackson asks from across the room and I tense up. He should not have said that to Alex. It's been a week since anyone has seen Izzie and he's been calling everyone she knows to try and find out where she went.
Charles snickers at Jackson's comment. I look over at Alex, who's sitting on my left, but before I can do anything to stop him, he's lunged out of his chair and grabbed Jackson by the collar of his scrub top.
"Alex, no!" I yell as suddenly everyone stands up in surprise while the two men throw each other around the tiny hallway.
"Whoa! Whoa!" I hear Derek yelling at them as he and the other attendings run over but I'm too busy trying to pull Alex off Jackson to see him.
"Get off of him!" April screams in a nasal voice as everyone tries to pull them apart. The room is alive with yelling from everyone; residents, nurses, and attendings alike. I manage to wedge myself between the two men just as Derek and Mark separate them. Luckily neither one of them threw a punch, even though Jackson did start fighting back.
Even with them separated, the yelling doesn't subside as every Mercy West and Seattle resident has found their opponent to scream at. I try to keep Alex from looking at Jackson, not wanting him to be provoked again but he can't hear me yelling at him. The two men struggle against the attendings that are holding them back while yelling at them to stop.
"Why don't you control your brother?!" I hear Reed yell behind me and suddenly I forget about Alex. I turn around to face her, stepping closer so that we're toe to toe.
"What the hell did you just say to me?" I spit in her face and she cocks her brow, challenging me.
"Control your brother." She says again, and the deafening screams from around me are drowned out by my own anger.
"You bitch." I laugh evilly, seconds away from shoving her into the wall. Lucky for my reputation, I hear the door to the conference room slam open before I get the chance. I turn to see Chief Webber walk out into the chaotic hallway with an angry look on his face; I don't blame him.
"Enough!" He yells as the yelling starts to die down, Alex continuing to fight against the restraints of Mark's strong arms. "I said enough! What happened here tonight, what happened to that patient, was inexcusable! We're gonna be here until I find out who is responsible! Until then, you will sit down, shut up, and wait to be called!"
The volume drops out from under us at his words, all of us moving to sit back at our seats in silence. It's finally time to tell the story of tonight and find out what happened. Webber calls Hunt into the conference room first. I sit on my hands, trying to get them to stop shaking. This takes me back to what happened with Denny, there were only six of us then, and we were all guilty. This time, there are countless people who could be at fault.
After a painfully long half an hour, Hunt opens the door and walks out through it. We all look up in anticipation, waiting to be called. This goes on for another hour and a half until finally, Webber walks out of the room and looks at me.
"Dr. Audrey Karev." He says simply, turning back to walk into the room. I look over at Cristina who gives me a slight nod of reassurance before I stand up and walk over to the open door. The room is dark, the back wall is completely window, the darkness of the night reflecting my own image back at me. I walk over to the long wooden table and sit across from Webber and two other people. My guess is that they're from the medical board, or from the legal department... or both.
"Dr. Karev, everything you say in this room is confidential, and we expect you to give us the full and honest truth." The man to the left of Webber says to me and I nod once, my hands settling in my lap.
"I need you to tell me everything, Audrey," Webber says and my eyes drift to look over at his. The other man had cold, deceitful eyes, while Webber's are full of trust and loyalty. I let myself breathe out slowly, just trying to focus on Webber.
"Okay, I will," I say, nodding once again and he returns it before looking down at the paperwork in front of him.
"Did you have any interactions with the patient Cathy Becker?" He asks simply and suddenly all fear leaves my body. If there is one thing I always know, it's the facts, and I am not going to let them get away from me tonight.
"Yes, but briefly. She was never my patient and I didn't even see her until she couldn't breathe." I say, my gaze shifting away from Webber as the woman beside him starts scribbling in her notebook furiously.
"When did she stop breathing?" The other man asks, but he's interrupted by Webber.
"Wait a minute, I want to hear it from the beginning, from the moment you stepped foot into the ER." He says, looking at me intently and I take a deep breath before starting.
"I was about to give blood..."
8 hours earlier:
I'm aching all over. If it weren't for these Mercy West residents, I wouldn't have signed up to be in the ER last night and all of today. They have been driving me crazy all week and I haven't had even a second of downtime to breathe. Even though my day has been tiring and I should just go home, the blood bank is open tonight and I give blood every four months.
I make my way to the clinic that they use for blood donation but as I approach the doors, I spot Jackson and Charles sitting in the small room through the window. I scrunch my nose in annoyance. They shouldn't be reason enough to not give blood but I really don't want to have to sit in there for a long period of time.
Suddenly, Alex catches my eye. He's sitting at the back of the clinic, waiting for his blood to be drawn. I guess he had the same idea as me. I probably should go give him company since I'm convinced the other two are making fun of him, but before I can step forward, the pager on my hip goes off. I look down to see the ER is paging me for a mass trauma. I forget about the blood bank entirely and take off at a run down the hall.
Present Time:
"So, you never actually gave blood?" Webber asks me while the woman continues to scribble in her notebook. I nod, trying to ignore her before continuing.
"No, I wouldn't have answered my page if I had. I'm not an idiot like Nosedive." I say, stopping myself from smirking at my last comment but Webber frowns.
"Nosedive?" He asks me, the other man looking just as confused as him. I realize they haven't heard this part of the story yet.
"Yeah, uh, sorry, I'm getting to that."
8 hours earlier:
The ER is already packed, people lining up the room walls and clogging the hallways. I run over to the nurse's station to see the TV behind it playing the news. There was a massive fire in a hotel just up the street. I turn to look around the room, noticing dozens of burn victims. This is not going to be a fun night.
Suddenly, the double doors to the ER burst open, revealing a gurney carrying a man with an axe sticking out of his chest. My eyes widen at the sight and I try to contain my excitement. Maybe this night won't be so bad after all. I run forward to try and claim the patient, but just as I'm about to grab the chart from the paramedic, Charles appears beside me.
"Hey!" I yell at him as he grabs the chart from the paramedic before I can.
"You snooze you lose." He mocks and I scowl at him in annoyance.
"What, are we in the third grade?" I snap at him as he follows his patient into the ER, Bailey joining him on the way to the back. I walk back over to the nurse's station to ask where a surgeon is needed but before I can, April side steps in front of me.
"Hey, can you take my patient?" She asks me with a big peppy smile on her face and I can't help but clench my jaw at her bubbly demeanour.
"Not fun enough for you?" I ask her and her smile falters slightly.
"N-No, that's not-" She stammers before composing herself. "I've done her workup, I need someone to debride her burns."
"Fine," I mutter before holding out my hand for the chart, before she can hand it to me, we're startled by a loud crash. We turn to see Charles, unconscious on the ground, bleeding out of his head with an axe in his hand.
"WHAT DID I JUST SAY?!" Bailey yells at the top of her lungs as the axe patient starts bleeding out of his chest where the axe was just pulled out. I run forward to help her, forgetting all about April and her patient. The moment Bailey spots me, she tells me to put pressure on the man's chest. I grab some gauze and quickly try to stop the bleeding.
"What the hell happened?!" I ask Bailey and her eyes widen in complete shock at the stupidity of her residents. I look over at Charles who is still on the floor, he must've fainted because he just gave blood.
"Kepner, book an OR and scrub in!" Bailey yells at April and she nods excitedly before running away.
"Dr. Bailey?!" I exclaim in betrayal. I should be the one scrubbing in with her.
"Karev, don't start. Do you really think I'm going to trust these fools in the ER? I trust you not to be stupid." She says, raising her brow. I'm not sure if that was a compliment. "And while you're at it, fix Percy's face."
I look down at the idiot known as Charles Percy who is starting to become conscious again as a nurse helps him sit up. Bailey takes over from me as they wheel the patient to the OR. I walk over to Charles and hold out my hand for him to take.
"Get up," I say as his eyes blink hard, trying to regain an understanding of his environment. He grabs hold of my hand, and I try to help him up, but he must be a hundred pounds heavier than me. I struggle, the nurse also helping him stand. "Can you walk?"
"Yeah, I think I'm okay." He says once standing straight and I nod.
"Good, go find neuro to make sure you don't have a concussion and get a suture kit for your forehead," I say before brushing past him. I don't have time to deal with idiots.
Present Time:
"Nosedive! I get it." The man beside Webber says with a laugh at my story. "Damn, that's gonna stick."
"Did Kepner ever debride the patient's burns?" Webber asks me, ignoring his colleague's laugher for Charles' new nickname.
"I don't know," I answer honestly. "I don't even know if it was the patient."
"It was." Webber states and I go quiet, unsure how to reply to that. "When was the next time you heard about her?"
"Not long after Charles went to get a neuro check. Tyler said she was in pain and needed medication." I answer and Webber raises his brow in anticipation before asking me another question.
"Well? Did you order the meds?" He asks and I shake my head.
"No, Yang ordered them," I state as more furious scribbling can be heard from the woman. I clench my jaw in frustration before Webber continues.
"You didn't follow up?" He asks me and I frown in confusion.
"She wasn't my patient. I never even touched her chart."
6 hours earlier:
After checking with a patient who had minor burns on his arms, I make my way back to the nurse's station where I start filling out his chart to order pain medication. Everyone in this ER is in a lot of pain, so meds are probably going to be on backorder.
"Hey." I hear beside me and turn to see Jackson standing beside me with a chart of his own.
"Hi," I mutter, tight-lipped, before going back to my chart. I fill out the medication order, handing it to a nurse as he tries to talk to me again.
"You know, we had a four-hour surgery together yesterday and you didn't say more than three words to me." He says randomly and I can't help but turn to face him with a confused expression on my face.
"That's not true," I say and he raises his brow in amusement.
"Well, yeah, aside from surgery talk." He says with a smirk on his face but I don't return it.
"What do you want me to say? It's not like we're friends." I say, closing my chart and filing it behind the desk.
"But we could be, isn't hating each other getting kind of exhausting?" He asks me and while my mouth opens to answer with a witty comeback, nothing but air leaves my lips. He raises his brow, waiting for an answer when I finally groan.
"Fine," I mutter, turning away from him and he stutters, obviously shocked.
"Fine? Fine, what?" He asks me and I sigh.
"Fine, you can take me out for a drink. One! That's it." I say, facing him again, only to see his winning smile. I try to stop myself from returning it, but the corner of my mouth twitches accidentally, and he sees it. "Platonically."
"You got it." He says, his grin apparent before Cristina walks over and the smile drops from both of our faces. Jackson lets out a little awkward cough as we go back to work nonchalantly. I don't want my friends thinking I turned over to the dark side and I'm guessing he feels the same way.
"Whose patient is bed one, Cathy Becker?" Tyler, a nurse, asks from behind us and without looking up, all three of us answer at the same time.
"Not mine." We say, but Tyler pushes the chart in front of us.
"She's complaining of pain." He says before walking off and leaving the chart sitting in front of us. I don't react as Cristina picks up the chart and looks at it.
"Audrey, it's your patient." She says while trying to hand it to me but I frown.
"No, it's not," I say, brushing her off but she continues to push.
"It's your initials on the chart. Look, AK." She says and I roll my eyes.
"You know who else has those initials? Alex Karev. Try asking him." I say before turning and walking away from the desk. As I turn, I almost bump into Alex who's on the phone. "Hey, Cristina has a-"
"Busy." He says, continuing to walk away and I scoff in annoyance. I understand why he's been so distant; he's worried about Izzie, but that doesn't mean he has to be an ass. I turn to walk away again and this time I actually bump into someone. I look up to see Charles' tall frame looking down at me.
"You gonna suture my face now, or what?" He asks me and I groan, this night just keeps getting worse. I grab the suture kit from his hand and turn to walk out of the busy ER, Charles following close behind like a puppy. He sits down on one of the empty gurneys in the calm hallway, a very different environment from the chaotic ER.
"Hold still," I say, pulling out the suture.
"I already numbed it." He says and I nod before pulling on a latex glove and starting to work on the cut on his forehead.
"Shit, Nosedive. This is deep." I say as I work and he frowns, only one of his eyebrows scrunching since his other is numbed.
"What did you just call me?" He asks, he doesn't sound mad, just slightly alarmed. I can't help but give him a genuine laugh at the nickname I created.
"Nosedive," I say and after a moment he chuckles.
"That's awful, please don't spread that around. I'll never live it down." He says, but the humour in his voice tells me he already knows he's never going to live it down. As I work, he flinches at my touch, obviously the slight numbing not getting rid of all the pain.
"Hold still," I mutter. "Big baby."
"Excuse me, you try suturing your face without a little pain." He says and I laugh again, finishing up the final suture. I cut it off with a tiny pair of scissors before sticking a large bandaid over the cut. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it," I mutter, turning to walk away and join the chaos of the ER once again. The moment I walk through the doors, Tyler starts waving me over.
"Doctor! She's not breathing!"
Present Time:
"And this is the first time you saw the patient, correct?" Webber interrupts my story and I nod quickly, my nerves starting to pick up again as I prepare to tell my part of the bigger story. This is the bit that I'm not very proud of.
"Yes, sir. I hadn't even seen what the patient looked like until then." I explain and he nods, obviously agreeing with my statement.
"What happened?" He asks, leaning back in his chair and I take another deep breath before diving into the story.
"She wasn't breathing, so, I did what any doctor would do... I tried to intubate her." I explain but he cuts me off again.
"Tried?"
"Yeah, her throat was completely closed off. There was no way to get a tube down there." I explain and he nods, leaning back again, signalling for me to continue speaking.
4 hours earlier:
"Doctor! She's not breathing!" Tyler yells from across the ER after spotting me. I run over to see they've already lowered her bed to prepare for intubation.
"Get me a 7 ET tube," I demand as I'm handed a scope. I stand behind the table and try to find her cords but her airway is completely closed off. "Shit, I can't see her cords."
"What's going on?" I hear Charles beside me and I answer him without looking up.
"She's completely closed off," I state and he takes the scope from me, trying to get a visualization. "Let's try a 6-0."
The nurse hands me the smaller tube and I try again but there is way too much swelling to get anything through. She's going to suffocate if we can't get air to her lungs soon.
"Move! She needs a crike!" Alex's voice can be heard from the other side of the gurney and I look up to see him grab a scalpel. He looks awful, as if his mind is somewhere else entirely. I can see sweat soaking through his scrub top and part of me wants to stop him from criking her but he's already started.
"You're going in blind?" I ask him in disbelief as he rubs iodine on her throat. He only gives me one look before he starts to cut.
"Don't hit the carotid. Don't hit the carotid." He starts muttering to himself as he works and I frown, exchanging a worried glance with Charles. I don't know what's wrong with him.
Present Time:
"Oh. my god." I mutter to myself in realization, cutting myself off from telling my own story.
"What?" Webber asks and I look up with wide eyes, realizing that if I say it out loud, it could put my brother in a bad position. "Dr. Karev, I'll remind you, everything you say in this room is confidential."
"H-He...gave blood. He was pale and shaky because he gave blood, just like Nosedive." I stutter while Webber and the other man exchange worried looks. The woman scribbles something even louder and I snap my head to look at her. She gives me a look before continuing her writing.
"So, he recklessly endangered a patient?" Webber asks me and I'm quick to shake my head.
"No! I mean, yes, technically... but the crike was successful. He got air into her lungs." I try to reason with them, not wanting this to fall onto my brother's shoulders. "I could be wrong, though. I only saw him in the clinic, I don't know if he actually gave blood."
"You just explained him as pale and shaky. I'd say it's likely." The man beside Webber points out and I have to sit on my hands to stop them from shaking. When I don't answer, the men exchange another look before Webber sighs.
"What next?"
"She was stable. I left to go check on another patient of mine." I explain and he nods.
"And when you got back she was dying?" He asks me and I shift uncomfortably in my seat.
"Yes."
2 hours earlier:
The past hour was spent on post-OPs and discharging patients to make room for the new trauma patients who couldn't fit into the burn unit. The whole hospital is on stand-by, we filled up to capacity an hour ago and still have traumas to be dealt with. When I finally thought I was done for the day, I got a page down to the pit for the same patient Alex criked earlier.
I'm currently running through the ER trying to find the patient. I run into trauma room one only to see her coding on the table.
"What the hell?!" I yell at the surrounding residents who are yelling over each other, each trying to save her life with no regard for anyone else in the room. I run over to the left side of the gurney, stepping up on the ledge to get better access before starting chest compressions. "Someone get the paddles!"
"Starting manual ventilation!" Cristina announces from the other side of her as I continue the compressions. Alex grabs the paddles and puts them to her chest. I continue compressions until he says the word.
"Clear!" He yells and I pull my hands back as he shocks her. We all watch the monitor desperately but there's no change. "Again! 300! Clear!"
"Wait! There's blood!" Reed yells from behind me and we all look down to see her bleeding into her crike tube. They start to change out the tube while I continue compressions. I'm not sure how long it's been. I'm so focused on the compressions that I don't even feel the hand on my shoulder trying to pull me off.
"Hey, switch out, you're tired." I hear Jackson behind me and agree to step back, letting him take my place and continue compressions. Now that I have a moment to breathe, I look down at the woman and can't help the gasp that escapes my throat. She has blood running from her nose, mouth, and eyes. I look up at the room, unable to hear a single voice out of the gnarly sea of screaming. No one can agree on anything as the patient dies before our eyes.
"Stop! Everybody stop!" I hear Derek yell from the door of the trauma room. He just walked into the biggest mess of the century. This woman is dead and we failed her. "It's over, she's gone. Somebody call it."
The room suddenly goes quiet. No one speaking up to claim the patient as their own. I don't either because I know for a fact she is not my patient. Derek looks around the room in shock at our negligence.
"Well, whose patient is she? Whose patient is this?" He snaps at us and after a long pause, he sighs. "Time of death is 12:45 am."
Present Time:
"And then Dr. Shepard called time of death." I finish telling my side of the story as Webber watches me with an unreadable expression on his face. They all write down some last-minute notes while I wipe the sweat off my palms on my scrub pants.
"Thank you, Dr. Karev," Webber says and I give him a nod before standing up and walking over to the door. "Please call in Reed Adamson."
I open the door and the moment I walk through, all heads turn to look at me in anticipation. Instead of sitting in my chair, I walk over to Reed.
"You're up, Tinkerbell," I mutter and she rolls her eyes at me before walking over to the conference room. I don't think I could manage sitting in that chair any longer, so instead, I walk straight through the hallway and out the other side.
"Hey, where are you going?" Mark asks me like a bouncer, not wanting any of us to get away.
"I need some air. I'll be right back, promise." I say and he seems to be easily convinced because he nods, letting me pass by. I continue down the hall until I make it to an empty corridor with a vending machine and a garbage bin. As if the entire day just suddenly slapped me in the face, I lean over the bin, feeling as if I'm about to puke.
"Oh, shit, are you okay?" I hear a familiar voice behind me and groan into the bin, holding my hair back with one hand. I don't understand how this guy is everywhere.
"Go away," I mumble, before dry heaving into the bin, no food in my stomach to let out. I suddenly feel a firm hand on my back, rubbing in a slow circle before holding my hair back. I quickly step back from the bin pushing Jackson away. He holds his hands up in surrender when he sees me upset.
"I'm just trying to help." He says softly and I laugh, humorlessly.
"There is nothing you can do to help! One of us is about to be fired!" I exclaim and he nods in understanding.
"You're right, I'm sorry." He says, backing away slightly but I can still feel his eyes on me. I hate when people pity me, even for the small things. "You want some water?"
"Actually... yeah," I mutter, even room temperature water sounding like heaven right now. He steps towards the vending machine and pulls some bills out of his pocket. "Oh, no, you don't have to-"
"Don't worry about it. I owe you a drink remember?" He smirks and I can't help but smile so I look at the floor instead of meeting his eyes. As he finishes up with the machine, the bottle falls to the bottom of the tin box and he crouches, pulling it out. A bag of chips also falls and he pulls that out as well, handing both to me.
"Hey, man, I agreed to drinks, not dinner." I chuckle and he raises his brow in amusement.
"Was that a joke? Are you joking with me?" He laughs at my sudden lightness and I shove his shoulder away playfully.
"Shut up," I mutter, trying to hide my smile.
"See? You do like me." He laughs and I shrug, looking up finally to see a friendly twinkle in his blue eyes.
"I don't dislike you," I say and he smiles down at me.
"I'll take that." He says as I open the water bottle and take a sip. His eyes don't leave mine until I finally snap out of whatever spell he had over me.
"Okay, go now. We can't walk back at the same time." I say to him, shoving his arm slightly and he chuckles.
"Are we high schoolers, what is this?" He asks me in amusement and I roll my eyes.
"Just go!" I push and he finally agrees, walking back down the same hallway. I wait a couple of minutes, finishing off my chips; the first food I've had in what feels like forever. I throw out the bag before walking back toward the hallway. Mark gives me a nod of approval when I get back and take my seat. I can feel Jackson's eyes on me from across the room but I don't lookup.
Eventually, the conference room door opens again and Reed walks out looking pale in the face. Like they did with me, everyone turns to face her, eyes settling on her worried expression. Her friend April is quick to run to her side, asking her what happened.
"I'm sorry." Reed chokes out to her friend and we all exchange confused glances as Webber walks out into the hallway behind her.
"Dr. Kepner," Webber says sternly, calling her toward the room for the second time tonight. April turns back to her friend, looking away from Webber.
"What did you tell them?" She asks her desperately but Reed only chokes back a sob before turning and running away down the hall. With nowhere to go, April Kepner follows Webber into the conference room, leaving the hall in a sickening silence.
"Well, I guess we know who's fired." Charles breaths out before Jackson nudges his arm, telling him to shut up.
We were eventually told that we could leave, that the issue had been dealt with and we were not the cause of her untimely death. Turns out, April forgot to check the woman's airway when she came in, which was the cause of her throat swelling up. It was full of soot from the fire and that simple forgotten step caused her death. She was a mother to a young son. I'm sure I would be more sad about her death if I wasn't so damn tired. Cristina and I trudge through the hall to grab our stuff when we spot Reed.
"Hey, is she gone?" Cristina asks her nonchalantly about April being fired, but she looks like she's been crying. I guess being the one that ratted out her best friend and getting her fired is hitting her. She looks like she's about to walk away from us when she suddenly turns.
"You know what? She was good! She was a better doctor than I am! Just, shut up!" She exclaims, the exhaustion, anger, and sadness moulding together to make her a mess before our eyes. She turns to walk away but Jackson turns the corner and tries talking to her. She actually stops for him, probably because they don't hate each other like all of us are supposed to.
"Damn," I mutter to Cristina as we walk over to the nurse's station on the floor. I look up to see Alex walking over to us looking upset. He leans on the desk, seemingly out of it when he notices Jackson staring at him.
"What?" He snaps but Jackson doesn't change his expression.
"Just waiting to see if you're gonna try to hit me again." He says nonchalantly and surprisingly Alex nods his head.
"Look, I'm sorry about that, I-"
"Forget it. Rough night, right?" Jackson cuts off his apology with a sincere truce. His eyes flick in my direction and I give him a slight nod of appreciation. I notice the corner of his mouth twitch into a smile but he quickly looks away.
"So, April missed an airway, huh?" Charles says with a smirk as he walks over to the group. "That's so stupid."
"Airway first," I mutter, not understanding how she could have forgotten that step. Especially since the trauma was a literal fire. Soot should have been the first thing on her mind.
"It's like med school 101, right?" Jackson adds with an amused chuckle.
"It's pretty basic," Alex mutters before Reed loses it again.
"It was one second! She got distracted and she made a mistake!" She tries to defend her friend but we don't buy it.
"Yeah, that we all nearly got fired for." Charles points out and I nod in agreement.
"Nosedive has a point," I say with a smirk and he looks over at me in betrayal.
"Hey!" He exclaims and I hold back a laugh before Alex continues our collective thought.
"We nearly got fired for trying to fix what she screwed up in the first place." He says but before Reed can rebuttal, Cristina speaks up for the first time.
"Yeah, because that's our job." She snaps and we all go quiet, surprised she's defending April. "What, you didn't make any mistakes today? You've been distracted this entire week." She shoots at Alex before turning to Jackson. "And who knows what you screwed up?"
"Wha-" Jackson starts, confused as to why he was singled out but Cristina continues.
"But our patients didn't die, and that's why we didn't get caught. It could've happened to any one of us." She finishes and we're quiet for a moment until Jackson coughs purposefully.
"Here she comes." He mumbles under his breath and we turn to see April walking down the hall in her regular clothes, carrying a bag of things from her locker that she had to cleanout. She looks mortified to see us all watching her as she pushes through the group to get to the doors. Reed tries calling out after her but she doesn't turn around. This hospital has thrown me many curveballs, some similar to this even, but I don't think this is a day I'll soon forget.