A few days had passed and Beca had not come to her senses. Chloe exited an operating room and headed straight for the locker room. She had been lost in work for the past few days trying to forget about her, presumably, ex-girlfriend. Beca wouldn't return her calls or even acknowledge her existence.
Aubrey entered the locker room as Chloe was peeling off her scrubs. The redhead had been upset the last few days and had been working nonstop. "Finally going home?"
"No, I'm going to take a shower and then catch some sleep in an on-call room." Chloe opened her locker and pulled out a fresh pair of scrubs.
"Have you tried going to her apartment?" Aubrey asked.
"I'm not running after her," Chloe said. "If she's going to ignore me, then fine. I can do the same. She knows where to find me." Chloe slammed her locker and headed for the showers.
Aubrey left the locker room and stopped Amy when she saw the blonde walking past her. "You..."
"Amy," the blonde said.
"I don't care what your name is. Just fine my intern and tell her to watch after my patients until I get back."
"Where are you going?" Amy asked.
"I need to go knock some sense into Chloe's stupid girlfriend," Aubrey sighed before walking off.
Jesse entered his apartment and saw Beca on the couch watching TV looking as miserable as ever. "Are you going to come back to work anytime soon? You can't just lay around all day."
"I don't feel like doing anything," Beca replied as she stared at the TV.
"You do realize this is your fault, right?" Jesse took the remote from the coffee table and turned off the TV. "You left her."
"I was just doing the right thing." Beca sat up, running a hand through her unkempt hair. "Why is everyone getting on my case for doing the right thing?"
"Because it so obviously wasn't the right thing. It was the stupid thing. You talk about everyone always running but she wasn't running, Beca. She stayed and you pushed her away. Now look at you."
"Shut up, Jesse." Beca didn't need her best friend's lectures right now. She stood up to leave but he stepped into her path.
"I don't understand it. You had someone who wasn't afraid of your heart condition. Why did you let her go? Because you're trying to be selfless? You don't want her hurting in the end? Well you're hurting her now, Beca."
"God, Jesse. Just mind your business."
"You're no different from your mother," Jesse spat. "You're both runners."
"Fuck you, Jesse! I'm nothing like my mother!" Beca snapped, angrily.
"No? Then why are you sitting here alone when you could be with a woman who cares about you?" Jesse stormed out of the apartment leaving Beca to think about his words.
Beca was furious. How dare he say she was like her mother. She wasn't done. She had a few choice words for her best friend. Slipping her shoes on, she grabbed her keys from the coffee table. As she headed for the door, she stopped instantly when she felt her chest tighten to a painful squeeze. Dropping her keys, she placed a hand to her chest and let out a slur of curse words as she dropped to her knees. She felt the first painful shock from her ICD before she blacked out.
Aubrey knocked on the door to Beca's apartment and rolled her eyes when there was no answer. She had just been by the club and was told that the brunette hadn't come into work. She wasn't in the mood to go on a wild goose chase for the woman. She knocked again and when she didn't get an answer, she tried the doorknob. She was surprised to find it unlocked. She pushed the door open slowly and stuck her head inside. "Shit!" She exclaimed when she saw Beca on the floor. She rushed over to the brunette and turned her onto her back. She placed two fingers to the pulse point on her neck and felt a very faint pulse. "Shit, shit, shit." An ambulance would be a waste of time. The hospital was about twenty minutes away. Well, ten with the way she was about to drive. Lifting the petite brunette into her arms, Aubrey rushed to her car.
Aubrey had called the hospital and was glad when she saw doctors waiting at the ambulance bay with a gurney. She jumped out of her car and watched as they pulled Beca from her backseat. She tossed her keys to her intern and followed the gurney inside as they attached things to the brunette.
"She's in V-fib!" One of the doctors announced.
Aubrey quickly climbed onto the gurney and began chest compressions as they rolled her towards the elevator. "Come on, Beca! Don't do this!" As she continued the compressions, she let the doctors know what she knew about Beca's health from what Chloe had told her. Once they reached the cardiac floor, it was only a matter of seconds before Chloe spotted Aubrey performing chest compressions to a very pale Beca.
Chloe left the nurse she had been talking to and rushed over to the gurney. "What happened?" She asked near hysteria.
"Heart failure." Aubrey hopped off the gurney and looked at one of the doctors. "We've got her back. Get her set up. I'll be the lead on this one."
"No. Me," Chloe insisted.
"You can't. You won't think straight." Aubrey rushed off to the locker room to change into her scrubs and Chloe followed her.
"I'm watching, then," Chloe said.
Aubrey finished pulling on her scrubs. "No, Chloe, you're not. You're going to make the calls you need to make to get her family here and then you're going to sit in the waiting room. I can't save her life with you breathing down my neck. Do you understand?"
Chloe nodded and Aubrey ran out of the room to go prepare for surgery.
Chloe was sitting in the waiting room when Mr. Mitchell rushed up to her. "Where is she? How is she?" Chloe had asked him not to bring a bunch of people. She knew Beca wouldn't want a crowd around her. It probably wasn't her place but she was glad the man had listened.
"She's in surgery." Chloe stood up to face the man. "Dr. Posen is one of the best. She'll make sure Beca comes out of this."
"How could she have heart failure? The ICD is supposed to ensure this doesn't happen, right?"
"The ICD saved her life. If she didn't have it..." Chloe sighed. "It can only do so much, though. She needs a new heart." Aubrey had sent someone out to update Chloe while she waited and from what she was told, Beca's heart wouldn't last more than a month at this rate. "They're putting in a different ICD. She has a dual-chamber one right now and they're changing it to a biventricular one. It'll be better for her." Chloe wiped the tear that escaped her eye. "It shouldn't be much longer."
Jesse ran up to them and looked from Mr. Mitchell to Chloe. "What happened?"
Chloe told him everything she had told Beca's father.
Jesse sunk into the nearest chair and shook his head. "I'm such an idiot. We fought and I was yelling at her. I told her she was like her mother... always running. I knew it would piss her off. She was just being so hardheaded. She's a mess over you, Chloe. She misses you but she refuses to do anything about it because she has it stuck in her head that you can do better than her. She doesn't want to die and leave you to pick up the pieces. I shouldn't have started an argument with her." Jesse placed his hands over his face and Mr. Mitchell went to sit by him. He patted the young man on his back.
"She'll be okay."
Cynthia Rose exited the operating room and approached the three. The intern looked nervous so Chloe urged her on.
"What's happening?" the redhead asked.
"She keeps crashing. It's not looking good. You need to prepare yourself for the worse." Mr. Mitchell and Jesse began to cry and Cynthia Rose pulled Chloe away from them. "The other doctors want to call it but Dr. Posen won't give up. She's in good hands, Dr. Beale. Dr. Posen will do everything she can."
Chloe couldn't stay here. She was starting to feel like she couldn't breathe. She wasn't good at being the one on this end. She needed to be in the operating room doing something. Not standing out here wondering if Aubrey was doing everything she would do. "I'll be right back." Chloe left the hospital and took in a breath of fresh air the second she was outside. As she went to exhale, a sob came out of her. She leaned against the nearest wall and allowed herself to cry.
"Chloe?" She heard minutes later.
Chloe looked up and saw Aubrey standing before her. Her heart began to race as she waited to hear Beca's fate.