Looking down, I squirted saline to help clean the wounds of one of the women who was missing fingers. "Well, the good news is these wounds look salvageable," April said as she worked on the patient next to me.
April's patient sighed in relief, "I wasn't even gonna play, but my brother Al insisted. And then we were losing, and Al was all...'Wrap your hands with the rope.'... and I...did. What are you doing?" she looked up at Jackson as he walked over with the trays of fingers.
Jackson looked to her, "Uh, I just need to identify whose fingers are whose. That looks like a pretty good match."
"Yeah, except for the red nail polish," April told him.
Jackson took another look, "Yes."
"That's my sister-in-law's." the woman said and looked over to my patient, "Jane, good news. Your manicure's intact."
Jackson walked over to my patient, "Hi, Jane. I'm Dr. Avery. You mind if I take a look here?"
"How's my daughter...Frances?" Jane asked him, "Tony, how's Frankie?"
A man looked over from the teen girl's bed, "It's bad, honey. The bone's still sticking out."
"This is all gigantor's fault." another man from one of the beds huffed, "What's he doing at our reunion anyway? He's not even related. He's uncle Tony's weird friend."
"I didn't mean to pull so hard." another man started to cry a little.
Tony glanced over, "Lay off Gunnar, cash. It's not his fault. He didn't suggest to play tug-of-war with a clothesline. You want to blame somebody, blame your uncle Al."
"Okay, Kellers, I'm back and I'm armed with french fries." Al walked back into the E.R., "Huh? Any takers?"
Jane grumbled, "We can't eat, Al. We're just about to get our fingers reattached."
"Okay, uh...anybody cold?" Al asked, "I-I can find blankets."
"Stop, Al! Just stop!" April's patient yelled, "Nobody's hungry or thirsty or wants to run a relay race! Reunion's over."
Between the sight of the severed fingers and the smell of the french fries, my stomach started to turn. And not just a little upset. No; like I was about to hurl. As I backed away, Jackson looked up at me. "You okay?" he asked, "You look a little pale."
I swallowed hard, "Yeah. I'll just...be-be right back." I said before turning on my heel and running off. After entering the bathroom, I fell to my knees in front of the toilet and started to throw up. A few seconds later I leaned back against the tile wall and took a deep breath. Hopefully, I wasn't getting sick.
The sound of the bathroom door opening made me look up, even though I had locked myself in a stall. "Ellie?" I heard Meredith's voice, "You in here?"
"Yeah," I called to her.
I watched her feet as she walked closer and stood outside my stall, "Are you okay? Jackson told me you rushed off in the E.R."
"Ugh, yeah. I think so." I replied, "I just felt nauseous all of a sudden. I might be getting the flu or something."
Standing up, I exited the stall and walked past Meredith. Turning on the sink, I cupped my hands and brought some water to my mouth to wash the foul taste away. I then washed my hands before Meredith and I walked out of the bathroom.
"Hey. Is your interview over?" Meredith asked as the two of us sat down at the table Bailey was sitting at in the cafeteria.
Bailey shook her head, "We're...on a break. Wait. Wait. Aren't you supposed to be avoiding me like the plague?"
"I have the plague." I sat back in my chair and tried not to throw up again.
Meredith sighed, "Come on. What can I do to help? Anything?"
Bailey wrapped her hands around her coffee cup, "I just want to know how Seth Lepik is. I'd like to see his chart, but they locked me out of the system."
Meredith picked up the tablet that she had with her and started to turn it on. "Dr. Grey," Jackson called from a few feet away. Getting up, Meredith and I walked over to him. "She wants to check on her patients." Meredith explained, "What do you think she's gonna do, alter their charts?"
"That's what the C.D.C. is gonna think, yes." Jackson nodded.
Meredith smiled, "Well, maybe you called them too soon."
"I am thinking of the bigger picture here," Jackson argued.
"She's part of that picture." Meredith reminded him, "We need to stand by our doctors."
"Even if she's at fault?" Jackson asked, "We stand by her then?"
"She's not." Meredith refused to take that option into consideration, "But we should cross that bridge when we get to it."
Jackson shifted his weight, "We're kind of at that bridge."
"Uh, excuse me, uh, Dr. Avery." Al approached us.
Jackson turned around, "Yes."
"Sorry to bug you, but I was just kind of wondering, is there, uh, any update on my family...or their fingers?" Al questioned.
"Mom?" a boy that a recognized yelled from a table across the cafeteria; his mom slouched over and unresponsive in her wheelchair, "Mom! Somebody help my mom!"
Bailey jumped up and ran over, "Uh, Ma'am? Hey, what's your mom's name?"
"Rachel." the boy answered.
"Dr. Bailey, step away from the patient, now." Jackson took over, "Okay, let's clear the wheelchair and the tables. Okay, lay her down. All right. All right. Call a code. Page Dr. Shepherd, stat."
"Mom!" the boy called as they rushed the woman out of the cafeteria on a stretcher. Before I knew it, I was back in the bathroom throwing up again. Meredith had offered to keep a watch on my patients as I went down to get a quick blood test to make sure I wasn't dying or anything. After that, I made my way up to the conference room for another meeting. It seemed that we met every night, but that was to be expected when running a hospital.
"Our investigation has determined the presence of methicilliin-resistant staphylococcus aureus USA600." the head of the C.D.C. told us. The sound of the doorknob turning made us look up. Bailey walked into the room and looked at us all. "Bailey-" Arizona said.
Jackson looked to the door, "Oh, Dr. Bailey, you should not be here right now."
"This is about me." Bailey replied, "I'd like to hear it."
"That's your call." the man looked to Jackson.
Jackson took a deep breath, "We have a protocol for a reason."
"Okay, we vote." Meredith suggested and everyone but Jackson and the C.D.C. man raised their hands, "She stays."
Bailey stepped in and closed the door behind her. "Staph aureus USA600 is an antibiotic-resistant infection with a range of symptoms from simple skin rashes to fatal sepsis." the man continued, "We have traced the source of the infection to one doctor. Dr. Miranda Bailey is a carrier of MRSA USA600. But the real culprit here is the gloves. Records show the surgical gloves in use of the time of outbreak, March fifteenth, shipped from the manufacturer Hemming Synthetics, incorporated."
Two other C.D.C. members grabbed one of the gloves and poured water into it. "We switched to Hemming's gloves when Pegasus was here," Owen spoke up.
"Our testing reveals manufacturing defects." he went on, "Microscopic tears in the gloves, which facilitated the transmission of Staph USA600 to Dr. Bailey's patients."
The one C.D.C. member squeezed the glove and small bits of water started to leak out. "It is the C.D.C.'s determination, were it not for the defective gloves, the patients in question would not have been infected. As For Dr. Bailey, we recommend eradication measures before she can go back to any kind of patient care."
"All right." Derek nodded.
Callie exhaled, "Thank God."
"Best possible outcome." Cristina agreed.
Bailey, with tears in her eyes, just turned around and left the room. The man turned back to us, "Here are copies of our report. The C.D.C. thanks you for your time and cooperation. And please feel free to call my office if you have any questions."
"Thank you." we all nodded.
As I headed out of the hospital and towards my car for the night, Meredith caught up with me. "Ellie, wait." she stopped me and held out a paper bag.
I looked at the bag in confusion, "What's this?"
"You're blood tests came back negative. You don't have any serious disease," she told me.
Taking the bag, I looked inside to see a few pregnancy tests. "Meredith...what?" I looked up at her, "Is this some sort of joke?"
Meredith shook her head and shoved the small bag into my purse, "Just trust me."
"Why should I trust you?" I asked, "It's probably just the flu or a bug."
"I'm pregnant right now." she gestured to her large stomach, "I think I know a few things about being pregnant. Look, just take them so that you can rub it in my face tomorrow that they are negative."
With that, she turned and headed back into the hospital.
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I crossed my arms and tapped my foot against the bathroom floor as I stared at the stick on the counter. After getting home I had thrown the bag into my bathroom and forgotten about it for the rest of the night. But as I brushed my teeth, my eyes kept going to the bag. So just to humor Meredith, I took one.
The timer that I had set on my phone went off and I picked up the stick. I took a deep breath before I looked down.
Two solid lines.
My body stopped as I dropped the stick to the floor. The test was positive. I was pregnant.