chapter eight:
save me S1 : E8
When Nadine woke up, she felt weird, weirder than usual. Pain behind her eyes, muscle spasms and cramping throughout her legs. It was two am as she groaned, moving to the bathroom and splashing water on her face.
Pain flooded through her arms as she realized what had happened the night before, she'd relapsed, the angry red cuts were proof of that, as they screamed at her.
Lights flashed in her vision as her legs went out from under her, pain exploding through her head as she landed in the door frame, her head on the floor with her eyes closing.
Hours passed with Nadine unconscious on the floor, no movement and no response. At seven am Cara woke up and padded to her mom's room to find the bed empty and practically unslept in.
Cara ran around the apartment and found her on the floor, in between the doorway, blood near her head. "Mommy, wake up!" She shouted as she poked her mom's cheek.
No response as the seven year old tapped her head and shook her mom's arm. "Mommy! Wake up!" Cara placed her hands on her hips, immitating her mother and used her stern grown up voice.
Nadine's phone rang from her room as Cara went to find it, she reached for the phone on the desk but was too short. Cara tried to climb on the bed, but fell off and couldn't reach the phone that way.
It was eleven in the morning and nobody had heard from her. The daycare had been calling her, wondering why Caroline wasn't in for her booked session, George and Izzie had called her.
Cara was crying at this point, her tears fell onto her mom as she tried to wake her up, to no avail. "I'm scared." She whispered, wracking her brain as to what her uncle had drilled in her head.
"Pillow, on her side." George's voice sounded in her head as she ran to her bedroom, getting her pillow and blankie for her mom. The tiny three year old tried to roll her mother onto her side, as Nadine's arm shot out and knocked her down. "Time it." Her uncle's voice told her.
Cara stood back up and found her mom seizing, coughing and groaning, her arm stretched out and her fingers cramped together.
"Get help. The special number for when someone needs help is 911, you only ring it for mommy when nobody else answers." Nadine's voice was in her ears now.
Cara ran to her mom's room and pulled herself up, crawling to the phone and saw missed call notifications. She rang her uncle but heard his voicemail, the same with her granny and grandpa and the same with her other uncles, everyone was busy.
Her tiny fingers pressed the buttons and waited for someone. "911 how can I help?" A man questioned as he heard sniffling on the other end.
"M-my mommy she won't wake up." Tears fell as she ran back to her mom. "My uncle told me to ring this number if mommy needed help and I couldn't find him." She recited what she had been told.
"What's your name?" He asked, fingers flying over keys as Cara rubbed her mom's hand.
Cara was wiping her tears away as she tapped her mom. "C-Caroline, but mommy calls me Cara." The man on the other end smiled and laughed softly.
"I'm Tom, how old are you, Cara?" The operator asked as he listened to grunting.
Nadine stilled before she started seizing again, blood running down her cheek and matting her hair, her arm bruising. "T-three years old and mommy, she's tw-twenty f-five, her name is n-nadi, I can't say it." Cara started crying as she panicked. "My mommy has ep-episelpsy." Cara tried to say the word her uncle drilled into her brain but stumbled.
"Epilepsy. It's okay, I understand. Where are you Cara?" Tom, the operator, questioned typing notes.
Cara remembered everything George, Nadine, Louise and Harold had told her to say, except the address. "Home. It-it's number 7 in an apartment building. I don't know." She cried as she tried to wake her mom up. "Mommy wake up!" She shouted as Tom tried to calm the girl down.
"Cara I need you to hear me, listen, where do you go with mommy that's close to home? A park? A toy shop?" He asked, trying to work out a local area.
Nadine grunted as the seizure stopped and she stilled. "We go to a cafe round the corner, rosebuds, and a park with a big dinosaur slide." Tom cheered slightly as he worked out an area.
He dispatched police and ambulance to the block with the park and cafe. "Cara I need you to listen for me, can you hear any sirens? See an ambulance or police car?" Tom asked as she looked out the window.
"I see one! Big yellow thing, mommy told me they help sick people to hospital. She works at a hospital with my uncle." Cara smiled slightly as Cara waved out the window at a blonde paramedic, looking up.
Cara ran to the door and opened it slightly, she got her mom's bag, her teddy and her blankey. Two paramedics and a police officer entered the room. "Hi sweetheart, I'm Blake, I'm a paramedic, these two are Nora and Andy. We're going to help your mommy." She smiled as she rolled Nadine onto her side.
"Hey, I'm Andy, you want to come with me, help me get some of your moms things?" The police officer suggested, letting the three year old lead her to her mom's room.
Cara pointed to Nadine's box labelled medications as Andy picked it up, Cara got her mom's phone charger and her tablet. "Mommy told me to call you." Cara mumbled as Andy picked her up.
"You did good." Andy told her, taking the stuff out to Nadine and the paramedics. Nadine had started seizing again and Andy was shielding Cara's eyes. "What's your mommy's full name?" She asked, as Cara whimpered.
"Na-nadine something, I don't know our last name. I know her age, work and her brother's name, but not last name, it begins with O but that's it." Cara whimpered. "Mommy works at Seattle Grace Hopsitspal." She cried.
Andy carried her down the stairs as Blake and Nora carried the stretcher down the stairs, Cara holding her mom's phone.
Ten minutes later and they were in the ambulance, sirens blaring, arriving at the hospital. "Twenty-five year old female, found seizing by her daughter, known epileptic, full name unsure. Nadine, something, her three year old daughter is Cara, she said her mom and uncle worked here." Blake handed over to Izzie and Bailey.
Izzie looked inside at Nora squeezing the ambu bag for Nadine, the bruising and blood over her body. "Oh my god." She muttered as Cara peaked out. "Cara." Izzie smiled, putting on a brave face as she saw the three year old.
"Izzie! Mommy hurt." She cried as Izzie helped her down, Andy held her hand as they walked into the hospital.
Nadine's portable monitor blared as she started seizing again, blood seeped down her cheek as they pushed diazepam and she stilled. "Somebody page Derek Shepherd, Liam Parks, George O'Malley and Meredith Grey, now!" Bailey demanded, wheeling her into a trauma room. Alex following.
Izzie shone a penlight in her eyes, both pupils equal and reactive, no showing signs of a brain bleed. Alex took over the bag as the paramedics left, Andy staying with Cara. "Can I stay, at least until her uncle gets here, I just need to make sure she's safe." Bailey nodded.
The door slammed open as Liam and Derek ran inside. "What happened?" They asked, Derek took over from Izzie doing neuro checks as Izzie explained.
"Cara found her unconscious around seven this morning, she said she thought she was asleep, around eleven she called 911 and they arrived around half past twelve. On and off seizures, obvious fractures and dislocation to her left arm." Izzie told the two attendings as Meredith entered.
Nadine was sent for a head CT, Alex and Izzie going with her, Meredith staying with Cara and Andy. Bailey went to find George, who hadn't answered his page.
An hour later and her scans were clear, her blood work had high white blood cell counts and she had a fever of 102.7 degrees farenheit, (39.3 degrees celsius).
Bailey and Liam were resetting her left wrist as Izzie and Alex took more blood, Alex pausing as he rolled up her sleeves.
Izzie was carefully taking away the clothing from her legs, blood stains apparent. "Oh, Nadine." Alex sighed, as Bailey looked at the sight.
Up and down her thighs and right arm there were red, hot and puffy cuts across them, clearly infected and self inflicted. "Page psych." Liam muttered as Izzie sewed the cuts together and George rushed in.
"What on earth happened?" He shouted as Alex pushed him away. "That's my sister!" He shouted as the door flung open, Meredith running in after Cara.
George picked up his niece and took her outside with Meredith. "I did what you told me to, I rang the number, I showed them her medicines and I waited with mommy. I couldn't remember her full name, or the address but we worked it out, they found us." Cara whispered as they sat outside the room.
Liam wrapped a bandage around her left wrist, up to her elbow and then casted over the bandages on her arm. Izzie bandaged her cuts on the right arm and thighs. "Take her to psych." Bailey whispered to Alex and Izzie.