Riley's POV
On the bedside table sits my pager, which just so happens to star beeping at 2:00 AM. I let out a groan before grabbing it, turning it off, and rolling out of bed. The other four interns decided to go have a drink at Joes bar, but I was to tired.
Sleep is my favorite hobby.
Anyways, Meredith was waiting for Derek to show up. If he came to the bar, he chose Mer. If he didn't come, he's staying with Addison.
Hopefully he made the right decision. If not, he's gonna have five angry interns.
Once I'm dressed and ready, I run out the door and race to the hospital. My friends are walking in at the same time as I.
"Hey, what's going on?" I walk along side the others.
"Massive train wreck. It doesn't look good" Izzie sighs.
I widen my eyes, and walk next to George, who has a sad look on his face.
"What's wrong?" I ask, trying to think of any way his day could have possibly gone wrong. He performed a perfect open heart surgery.
"I don't have any clean underwear" George sighs. I laugh, but he just approaches his locker and starts getting changed into his scrubs.
Every intern is slowly changing into their scrubs, no one saying a word.
"Man, why is everyone in such a bad mood? We're about to save some lives" I try to cheer them all up.
"Derek didn't show" Cristina announces.
I gasp, looking to Meredith. She is too embarrassed to make eye contact with me.
"Let's go" Meredith says sullenly, being the first one to leave the room.
I shake my head, very angry with Derek. He'd better hope I'm not on his service tonight
I fast walk down the hallway with the other four by my side, all the way to the pit.
We all begin putting on our gowns, George hitting Cristina in the head with his arm when he puts it through the arm hole. Cristina mutters an "ow" before glaring at him.
George chuckles, but apologizes.
On my left, Alex and Izzie are talking about the elevator. How Alex didn't do anything but stand there.
"Please, O'Malley just plugged a hole with his finger" Alex rolls his eyes.
I ball my hand up into a fist, "Hey Alex, how did it feel to stand there and pump air into a mans lungs? You're a real hero"
Izzie widens her mouth from behind him, surprised with my sassy remark. George and Cristina chuckle behind me.
"Come on, people, enough standing around. We got work to do" Bailey shouts at us.
I turn to face her, and I'm taken aback. Bailey is wearing a beautiful green dress and high heels. All of us gasp at the sight.
"What are you all looking at?" Bailey furrows her brows.
We all pretend to look away, going back to tying our gowns. George ties mine for me.
Bailey tells Alex to go get her shoes, while Meredith informs Bailey that she is "A little bit drunk".
"Did any of you decide to down the bottle?" Bailey turns to us with disappointment.
We all shake our heads. George checks his breath when Bailey looks away, signifying that he did have a few sips.
"Grey, just stay out of the way. I'll deal with you later" Bailey rubs her forehead as if she's a mother scolding her child.
"The rest of you, stick with me and wait for your assignments."
And with that, we're off.
When we step foot into the emergency room, it's packed. Paramedics pushing people in on gurneys, families of the injured panicking, the whole situation is chaotic.
Every time one of the attendings asks for assistance, we all raise our hands. Izzie is the first to get picked. She's on a case with Addison.
The door opens from behind me, and in walks Dr.Mcdreamy, as Meredith calls him. I tense my jaw and watch him look to Meredith. He doesn't have a chance to go talk to her, however, because he is called over by a nurse.
"Does that mean he picked her?" George looks to Derek, speaking about Meredith.
"If it does, I just lost 50 bucks" Cristina mutters. I roll my eyes at Christina betting against her friend.
"I've got the leg!" A paramedic charges through the ER doors with a leg in his hand.
My eyes widen, and Cristina charges for the leg. She's got that case.
Now it's just me and George.
"Are we invisible?" George shrugs his shoulders.
I roll my eyes, "This makes two shifts in a row that I haven't gotten a case"
And finally, the case I've been waiting for walks through the door. Or, more specifically, rolled through the door.
A man and a women, who are sitting on the same gurney, connected by a pole that has impaled them. They are facing each other, and the pole is sticking out of either side of them.
"That ones mine" I mutter, walking into the room they've just been assigned.
"Isn't this just the craziest thing you've ever seen?" The blonde girl on the right side of the pole mumbles. She's obviously in shock.
"Uh, yeah." I answer, trying to be polite.
The girl chuckles, "Me too"
I glance to the black man who is on the other side of the pole. He just stares up at the ceiling.
"Hello, I'm Dr.Burke," Burke walks into the room with Bailey.
I take a step backwards, closer to George, Alex, and Mer. They must have joined me and I was too excited to notice. I know it's wrong of me to say I'm excited about to dying people, but I'm ecstatic.
"You shouldn't turn your head. You want to try and move as little as possible" Burke tells the young girl, who's head is tilted towards him.
"Oh, okay" She obeys.
"So are you gonna pull this pole out of us anytime soon?" She asks Burke.
"It's a touch uncomfortable" The man speaks for the first time.
Burke smiles, "I'm sorry. We can't do that until we get a better look at what's going on internally"
"But I assure you, we will work as quickly as possible"
"Well in that case, does anyone have a breath mint?" The girl questions.
We all glance at each other in confusion, the man looking at the girl defensively.
"For me, not you" She clarifies.
"O'Malley, Foster, get them to X-ray" Bailey orders us.
George and I both drop our jaws at the news.
"Move them extremely carefully." Bailey says.
George and I untie our gowns and throw them in the bin.
"This never would have happened before the elevator" George mumbles in my ear
"Well, let's make the most out of it then" I smile, taking my place on one side of the gurney. George pulls, I push.
We push extremely slow, and a few nurses come to assist us.
"Is there anyone you would like me to call?" George asks the two.
"No, they called my wife from the ambulance" The man announces.
"And my fiancée, they're flying down from Vancouver together." The girl smiles through the pain.
"Normally Amanda would be upset to find me pressed up against another woman" The man jokes.
"I'm sure you'll get a pass for today" I go along with the joke. Both the patients laugh, and I'm glad I could make their pain a little more tolerable.
"You two weren't traveling together?" George is confused.
"No, we just met." She informs us.
"Bit of an awkward introduction" The man nods. The girl goes on to compliment the man on his pores, and he laughs.
George glances at the long line in front of the X-ray room. He taps each intern gently to let them know he needs to go in front of them, and when they agree, he gives a sarcastic "Thanks"
Not before long, we are wheeling the patients into the X-ray room. Very gently, we get them onto the machine and send them in.
~~
"I-is the pole going straight through her spine?" George points to the scans on the screen.
"It is," Bailey huffs,"T8's completely crushed"
I place a hand over my mouth, unaware of our next step. If her spine is completely crushed, we can't pull her out.
The door opens from behind us, and in walks Derek. Meredith, who is connected to an IV to help her sober up, stares at him.
"What happened?" Derek looks at the IV connected to her arm.
"Uh, Tequila" Meredith shrugs. I want to tell him that he's the cause of this, but I figure silence is the better option at the moment.
He then looks to me, and looks taken aback when he sees my scowl. I roll my eyes and avert my attention back to the computer screen.
"I'm keeping an eye on her" Bailey assures him.
Derek nods, then looks at the scans behind us.
"These people are still alive?" He is shocked.
"They're still making small talk." George sighs.
Bailey points to the picture, "Poles tamponading the wound as far as we can see"
"It's hitting the aorta." Derek's eyes grow wide.
"Look at him," Burke speaks up, "It's right in line with his inferior vena cava"
"Is there any way we could operate without separating them?" I ask, hoping for a small chance to save both of them.
Burke and Derek both answer No.
"If we move the pole then..."
"They'll both bleed out" Bailey finished for George.
I study the scans, crossing my arms and squinting my eyes.
"What if we don't move the pole?" I try, earning looks from all in the room.
"What if we move one of the patients off of the pole to get the saw in there? Then we can hold the pole steady in the other one. Move it very slowly, and repair the damage as we go." I inform them. They think for a moment, then Derek replies.
"That makes a high risk of one of our patients dying" He places his hands on his hips.
"Oh, nevermind then" I look down, embarrassed.
"No, no, this could be our only option here" Burke defends my case.
"Well, then, who? Which would you move?" George questions.
"With her aortic injuries, her chances of survival are extremely slim no matter what we do. But if we move her, we have a real shot at saving him" Burke says
I hang my head, happy I came up with a plan, but sad my plan involves killing one patient.
"Well, I could argue since her injuries are more extensive, we should move him. Giving her the best shot we can" Derek argues. I nod in agreement, hoping we can figure out how to save them both.
"So basically, whoever you move doesn't stand a chance?" Meredith asks, her arms crossed in the corner.
No one answers, giving her the dreadful answer.
"So how do we chose?" I rub my tired eyes.
"How do we decide who gets to live?"
~~
Meredith sits in a chair, complaining every time George pokes her with a needle. She needs blood drawn to prove she is no longer drunk, but George can't find the vein.
"You'd think you could draw a little blood after performing a heart surgery" Meredith mutters, watching him fiddle with the needle and her arm. He pokes her again, but still no blood.
"I rocked that heart" George defends himself.
"Yeah you did" I chuckle, giving him a huge smile.
"I think I'm strung out on that scalpel." George admits.
"Nothing wrong with that" Meredith chuckles.
George breathes heavily, "Any news about...."
"No, I can't read him" Meredith assumes he's talking about Derek.
"I think it's pretty amazing you even gave him the choice. And I think, for what it's worth, I think he's crazy if he doesn't pick you" George announces.
I sit up straight in my chair, feeling uneasy about the smile George gives Meredith. I try to tell myself he's just being a good friend, but something about the way he said that made me skeptical.
Cristina comes running up behind us, pulling me from my thoughts, "Please tell me you've seen a leg, a right severed leg"
We all shake our heads no, and she huffs away.
"How weird is this job?" Meredith says.
"Weird" We both agree.
~~
Derek moves his finger along the foot of the girl patient, who I've learned her name is Bonnie. She couldn't feel it, which is a bad sign.
George comes through the door and gives Derek the labs. Derek thanks him,and looks at the results with raised eyebrows.
"Could you try to wiggle your toes, Mr.Maynard?" Derek asks politely.
He successfully moves them, but he couldn't feel it. Mr.Maynard still cheers in excitement.
"What about me, are mine moving?" Bonnie asks lazily.
We all glance to her toes, which are as still as a statue.
"Yes, they are" Derek lies.
She cheers as well, letting out a relieved sigh. There's no need in making her worry, she's already in intense pain.
"Dr.Shepherd, Bonnie and I... Are we gonna live through this?" Mr.Maynard questions.
Derek rubs Bonnie's shoulder, but before he can answer, Bonnie interrupts.
"That's just morose, Tom." Bonnie mumbles.
"I'm sorry dear. Doctor?" Tom still asks.
"We're going to do everything we can, Mr.Maynard." Derek tells him the truth.
Mr.Maynard looks very aware and alert, but Bonnie, however, looks weak and tired. I sigh, exiting the room after Derek and George.
~~
Part one of two for this episode. I'm so so sorry this took so long to upload, and I promise the next one will be better!