S2 EP25
[CW: gunshot]
"WHY ARE THEY ALL IN the hallway?" Meredith questioned as she tied up her hair.
"Overflow from the ER."
"A bloke went rogue and shot up a restaurant," Norah shook her head at the mention of it.
"I heard he got away," George added.
The ER was flooded with patients; even the hallways were full with gurneys lined up against the walls. Interns and residents were busy tending to patients in need; nurses were running around getting medications and tools. The place was in complete chaos.
Norah had just finished suturing a little girl's arm, where the girl chewed on her bottom lip and did not let out a cry throughout the whole process. The intern rewarded her with some candies, and the girl's parents thanked her while they themselves were getting treated in a trauma room.
When Burke passed through the trauma room, the cooler box in his hand caught her eye. She recognised it at once-transplant. She immediately ripped off her gloves and caught up to him, eagerly wanting to join in on a transplant case then getting stuck in the ER.
"Forget it, Karev. I've already asked," Cristina groaned as Alex, too, had noticed Burke, who was on his way out of the ER. She saw Norah, who trailed behind him, excusing herself through the many ER staff. "Wait, sweetheart, not you too-"
Alex did not hesitate to run after Burke, and Cristina followed suit. She groaned at her two friends, who were desperate to join in on the cardiothoracic attending's surgery. "It's not gonna happen!"
The three interns made their way up to the rooftop, where Burke had just stepped onto the helicopter.
"Dr Burke!" Norah shouted, walking up to the helicopter under the strong wind.
"I heard you were getting a heart," Alex noted. "Can I..." he trailed off and glanced over at Norah, "Can we go with you?"
"I asked first!" Cristina scoffed.
"You two didn't get assigned any gunshot cases?" Burke questioned.
"Well, yeah, but if you had put me on this when I asked, I would've been free."
"I didn't," Norah raised her hand, "I'm not assigned anything. I'm free."
"No, she does wonderful sutures," Cristina interjected unamusingly. "And he's on the gynie squad!"
"Not if you put me on this transplant," Alex stated firmly. "Please."
The attending gave in with a sigh. "Lawrence, Karev, let's go."
"You can't be serious," Cristina stared at him in disbelief. The two other interns' faces beamed up as they quickly climbed onto the helicopter.
"Whoo! See you later, Yang. Whoo!"
"Sorry, Cristina-have fun!"
The door closed after them, and the two interns buckled up on their seats. Soon, the helicopter began to depart from the hospital's rooftop. Norah looked through the window to see Cristina glaring at them as they took off.
"So, who's the lucky patient?" Alex queried.
"Denny Duquette."
Norah's eyes widened slightly before she glanced at her fellow intern-Alex looked sick.
❦ ❦ ❦
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED to my donor?" Burke demanded the surgeons just as the three of them had rushed into the OR.
"He went into v-fib."
"I can see that. Give me the paddles. Lawrence, take over compressions!" Burke instructed, and Norah immediately jumped into action. "You gave epi?"
"Three rounds and shocked him twice."
"I'm going to hit him again at 360," he announced, "Clear!" Norah removed her hands from the man's chest, and everyone took a step back. Burke shocked him, but the heart monitor went into a continuous beep. "He's asystolic."
"I don't get it," Alex frowned. "I mean, if the guy's already dead..."
"And now his heart has joined the rest of him," Burke confirmed.
"We can't use it..." Norah shook her head.
"No, we can't. The muscle is dead. The heart is useless." Burke stood for a moment, staring at the heart monitor... before he sprinted out of the OR.
"Dr Burke!" Alex called out, but the attending was already gone. He looked at Norah, who was just as confused as he was, and the both of them ran out following the attending.
❦ ❦ ❦
THE GROUP OF SURGEONS sat around in the conference room, waiting anxiously for UNOS's answer regarding the transplant list. "Your guy's on an LVAD? He's probably up and walking around," Erica Hahn scoffed. "My guy still needs his dobutamine drip."
"That's the best you can do?" Burke argued back, "He can climb Mount Shasta on a dobutamine drip."
"As of this morning," the man on the phone spoke, grabbing the surgeons' attention. "Dr Hahn's patient was 22 hundredths of a point ahead."
"That's basically a tie," Burke noted with his brows furrowed.
"Except that Dr Hahn's patient was admitted into the transplant program before Mr Duquette."
The surgeons in the conference room were quiet, and several triumphant grins were coming from the staff from Mercy West Hospital. "How long before?" Burke asked.
"17 seconds."
❦ ❦ ❦
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING about, Izzie?" Denny questioned, confused at the blonde's words.
"In order for you to get the heart, you would have to get worse. Much worse," Izzie tried explaining. "And you would have to do it very quickly."
"Well, I don't see that happening," he furrowed his brows at her, "You see that happening?"
"I am going to make it happen."
As Izzie went to shut the blinds in the room, Denny felt a surge of panic rising in his chest. He tried to convince Izzie not to do something stupid that might ruin her medical career, but she was not listening. They were quarrelling, bickering; shouts were exchanged and tears were shed.
"I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve this heart. I'm sure he does. But so do you. So do you!" Izzie panted. "And if you tell me any more crap about heading towards the light or looking down on me from heaven, I swear I will kill you myself, right now."
"Izzie, I'm gonna be alright," Denny stared into her eyes, "Alright? You don't have to worry."
Izzie shook her head and let out a dry laugh. "What about me?" she bellowed, "What about me when you go to the light?"
"Izzie..."
"No! I get it, okay? I get it," she shouted as tears ran down her cheeks, "You'll be okay, you'll be fine, but what about me? So don't do it for yourself. Do it for me!" the blonde's voice cracked, "Please! Please, Denny! Please do this for me! Because if you die-Oh, god, you have to do this. You have to do this for me, or I'll never be able to forgive you!"
Denny stared at her blankly. "For... dying?"
"No! For making me love you!" the intern screamed through her sobs. "Please! Please do this for me..."
"Come here," Denny muttered as he pulled Izzie on his bed. She was still crying hysterically, pleading-begging-the man to take the donor heart for himself. She rested her head on his shoulder, still pleading and crying while he hugged her tightly.
"Okay... Okay, I'll do it."
❦ ❦ ❦
"ACCORDING TO MY INTERN, Denny Duquette is in pulmonary edema," Burke notified as he entered the OR after being on the phone with Izzie. "He has been intubated and placed on multiple IV drips."
Norah and Alex shared a questioning look. They had just seen the guy in the morning during rounds, and they could have sworn he looked fine, not someone who might develop pulmonary edema within hours.
"So, Preston gets the heart. Great, let's open this guy."
"However," Burke interjected curtly, "Given this unusual situation and out of respect to Dr Hahn, I'd like to confirm those results."
"You just did," Alex stated, unsure of what was happening.
"In person," Burke specified. Norah noticed the odd look on his face, one that gave her the feeling that something was very, very wrong. "I want to confirm them in person."
"Are you kidding? By the time you get there, it'll be another hour," Hahn scoffed, glaring at the other attending. "What are you up to, Burke? Why don't you just talk to your chief? Confirm the results with him."
"There was a shooting today, a-at a restaurant," Norah spoke up, and Hahn turned to look at her. "Our ER and hallways are flooded. All available attendings, on-call or not, were called in for surgery."
Did she exaggerate the situation? Maybe a little.
"Exactly," Burked nodded. "Now, if you'd prefer, I can just call UNOS and have them give me the heart. Or I can go and make sure that it really belongs to me."
Hahn looked down at the man on the table before sighing, "Go."
Burke, Norah and Alex had just stepped out of the OR when the attending stopped and turned to the both of them, whispering in a low tone so that nobody else could hear them. "I'm going back to Seattle Grace," he informed, "Karev, stay here and protect my heart. If that woman so much as looks at a scalpel, tackle her."
"Lawrence is the kickboxer here," Alex stated, but Burke was not amused.
"Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir," he nodded.
"Lawrence, I want you to follow me back to the hospital."
A prick of chills ran down her spine-one that was familiar but unimportant at that very moment.
"Alright."
❦ ❦ ❦
GUNSHOTS RANG IN everyone's ears as they startled and immediately ducked down out of instinct. Fear filled in their eyes and chest, once again. The patients in the ER had barely caught their breath from the morning's incident, and now, the haunting sound returned.
People were shouting, people were screaming, people were yelling. The strain and suspense were sky-high.
"W-What was that? Were those gunshots?" Bailey questioned in disbelief. Without wasting another second, she ran towards the source of the sound, which came from outside the ER, with a few other medical personnel following behind her.
The resident found two men fallen on the floor. But when she checked their necks for a pulse, there was none-they were dead.
"Dr Burke!" she heard a familiar voice yell from a small distance away. She turned to the sound and saw Norah crouching beside another body-this one in navy scrubs.
"Lawrence!" she yelled out, but the intern did not seem to hear her. Chills ran up the resident's neck as she urgently approached the two, realising that Burke had fallen on the ground with blood flowing out of his upper shoulder, and Norah was still in shock.
Bailey kneeled opposite the intern and pressed her hands onto Burke's wound. "I need some help!" she yelled urgently.
The wait for a gurney to reach them seemed like forever. With the help of a few nurses, they managed to carry the attending on top of it, wheeling him into the ER without wasting any more time.
She was shouting out any status she could provide about Burke as they entered the ER. She came to realise that the space next to her was empty; Norah was not there.
Bailey turned her head in various directions to look for her intern, silently praying that she had gone to get herself checked up. But when her eyes met the intern's, her face grew concerned.
Norah was standing right behind the ER doors, her chest rising and falling at an uneven pace. Her face had gone white, as though she had seen a ghost; beads of sweat dripped down from her forehead.
Bailey ran over to her as she tried calming the intern down. "Lawrence, breathe," she spoke, "Just-" Her words got cut off as her eyes met the intern's scrub top. Another set of chills ran up her spine while goosebumps raised on her skin.
"Norah..." the resident started shakily, "You were shot."
"Wh... What...?"
"I need a gurney here!" Bailey screamed as she held onto the brunette. "Stat! Now! Immediately! An intern's been shot!"
Norah grasped onto the resident's arm as the former slowly slid down to the floor. Bailey could feel the grip on her arm slowly loosening as the intern drifted in and out of consciousness-her words were enough to haunt her for a long while.
"Dr... Bailey...?"