Chapter 28
Season 4, Episode 15-17
The problem with being a surgical resident is that you feel crazy all the time. We go days without sleeping and spend those days around people going through a crisis. We lose our ability to judge what's normal in ourselves and the people around us. All the while, people are constantly asking how we're doing.
If we could give them an honest answer, chances are we would tell them that we're dying inside. We just want to go home and sleep but the fear of failure is preventing us from closing our eyes.
My judgement has been off the past few weeks. I've been taking as many shifts as I can and working myself down to the bone. I've been working hard to be a good teacher and a good surgeon all at once. I barely have a life outside the hospital anymore. Not that I ever did before.
The girl who Alex fell in love with is back in town. After she recovered, she went home to her husband and baby but for some reason, she keeps coming back. I've been ignoring the fact that they're hooking up because it's really not something I want to know.
The first problem is when she realizes she can't leave her family, it's going to break Alex and I don't want that to happen. The second problem is that she is pregnant and Alex is apparently the father.
He's been taking care of her for weeks like she's his wife and won't listen to me when I tell him it's messed up. Luckily, Izzie agrees with me but considering she's Alex's ex-girlfriend, there's not much she can do.
I wake up in an on-call room after a four-hour sleep. My head is pounding and I feel like crap but I get up anyway. I have time to change into new scrubs before making my way to the nurse's station to grab my patient's chart. As I walk down the main staircase I see a familiar figure standing in front of it.
"Rebecca?" I ask her as I walk up to the desk. She turns to face me with a smile but I don't return it.
"Hi, Audrey!" She greets me cheerfully and I frown, she's been treating me like I'm her sister-in-law these past couple of weeks and it's really starting to piss me off.
"What are you doing here?" I ask and I guess she recognizes my unwelcome demeanour because the smile falls off her face.
"I'm here to see Dr. Sloan." She says and before I can answer, I hear yelling from behind me.
"Rebecca!" Izzie's voice rings through the halls as she walks up to us. "Where have you been? I've left you, like, fifty messages!"
"You seem upset," Rebecca says to her as Izzie comes up beside me.
"First of all, you're not pregnant and Alex has been turning his life upside down to be your baby daddy and I can't tell him because of confidentiality. So, yeah, upset!" She yells at her before suddenly turning and looking at me. "Oh, crap."
"Very confidential, Izzie," I mutter, now bearing information I did not want.
"You can talk to Alex about anything. I want him involved and I am pregnant." Rebecca says calmly and I raise a brow at her.
"Okay, so if you're not trying to trap Alex with a fake pregnancy, you won't mind if I do another test, just to make sure," Izzie says, crossing her arms.
"Trap him? Are you out of your mind? I'm pregnant, and that's a good thing because I want this baby. I've always wanted a baby." Rebecca says and suddenly my head snaps toward her.
"You have a baby," I say and watch as she hesitates for a second.
"Of course I do. I mean I want another one." She corrects herself but I'm not convinced and I don't think Izzie is either when we make eye contact. "Do the stupid test again. It'll be fine. And I need Dr. Sloan."
After we got Rebecca a consult with Dr. Sloan, I left to find some work to do. Lucky for me, a famous surgeon named Walter Tapley is here for an operation. While I'm not actually on his case, Dr. Hahn asked me to send one of my interns to help her.
I've been trying really hard to teach them but they're still very clueless. They're much better than when they first got here but not at Walter Tapley level. I finally decide to send Lexie since she's the least senseless of them all.
Unfortunately, she's almost impossible to find. I've paged her twice and still nothing. Usually, my interns come running so for a couple of minutes, I'm genuinely worried about her. Eventually, I make it to the bathroom and when I walk inside, it seems empty until I hear a small sniff from one of the stalls. I walk up to it and pause for a moment before knocking.
"Uh...Grey?" I ask quietly, a little worried it's not her and I'm intruding on someone's privacy. I hear a louder sniff and shuffling before the door opens and I'm face to face with Lexie. Her cheeks are puffy and her eyes are glossy as if she's been crying.
"I'm sorry." She says quietly before walking over to the sink across the room. I'm unsure of how to approach the situation, so I clear my throat awkwardly.
"What happened?" I ask her as she washes her hands but she shakes her head.
"Nothing. It's nothing." She tries to brush it off but for some reason, I don't leave it alone.
"It's clearly not nothing," I mutter, walking over to her and looking at her through the mirror. She finally takes a deep breath and makes eye contact with me in the mirror.
"She hates me. My sister hates me and she doesn't even know me." She sobs slightly and I realize who she's talking about. From the start, I knew I didn't want to be in the middle of this. Meredith has been my friend for a long time and I don't want her to think I'm not on her side.
"I'm sure she doesn't hate you." I try to reassure her but she laughs.
"Well, Dr. Yang made it pretty clear earlier." She mutters, wiping her running nose. I grab a paper towel and hand it to her, which she takes gratefully.
"She's been through a lot." I start to explain, leaning on the counter so I'm facing her. "And now, suddenly, she has a sister. A sister whose father left her."
I can tell my words have an effect on her as her shoulders start to slump slightly. This is not an easy situation and both sides have a reason to be upset.
"You're saying to leave her alone?" She asks me and I shake my head.
"I'm saying to give her time. Let her come to you." I push myself away from the counter. "Now, you have a patient. Wipe those tears, straighten up. You're about to meet Walter Tapley."
I see a smile start to creep its way onto her face as she follows me out of the bathroom and into the hallway. Not to brag, but I'm a great mentor.
∞∞∞∞∞∞
After sending Lexie to her assignment, Izzie found me. I was making my way to my patient's room when she came running toward me in distress. I'm used to her being very bouncy and on edge but I can tell that this is different.
"You have to talk to your brother." She says once she's in front of me and I raise my brow.
"Excuse me?" I ask in confusion.
"Rebecca's not pregnant and I'm pretty sure she's crazy but he won't talk to me-" She starts to ramble so I put my hands up slightly to calm her down.
"I'll talk to him," I say and she nods in relief, handing me a file which I open. I quickly realize it's Rebecca's blood work and I close it and shove it back to her. "You can't show me this!"
"Why not? You're a doctor and consulting about my patient." She tries to defend herself but I shake my head.
"Which is it? Am I your friend going to talk to my brother or a doctor consulting on a patient?" I say and she sighs, taking back the file.
"They're in room 1294." She mutters and I nod before leaving her and taking off down the hall. I'm dreading talking to my brother the whole way there. I know it's not my place to tell him what to do but I can't let him do this to himself. He deserves better.
I finally make it to the exam room with the door closed. I knock on it lightly but there's no answer. After a moment I knock again and this time the door opens slightly and Alex pokes his head out, eyes instantly locking on me.
"Really? She sends you." He hisses before attempting to close the door. I'm quick to wedge my foot in the gap so it can't close all the way. He looks down and sighs in annoyance. "What do you want?"
"I want you to talk to me," I say lightly, there's no use yelling at him.
"And say what? She's not pregnant. Happy?" He says before trying to push the door closed again but I don't budge. "Move your damn foot."
"No, Alex," I mutter, trying to look past him into the room for a moment before looking back at him. "I just want to know if you're okay."
"No. I'm not okay and neither is Rebecca. She thinks she just lost a baby." He says, sounding mad at me but I'm quickly realizing that he's just mad at the world and I'm an easy target.
"I'm sorry," I say and he frowns before stepping forward, pushing me back into the hallway. He walks out of the room himself, closing the door behind him.
"Oh, please, you never liked her to begin with." He spits, obviously, he didn't want her to hear that.
"I never said that."
"Right, you just said that you thought this was all a big mistake." He argues and I cringe slightly, choosing my next words carefully.
"She's married, Alex," I say and I can see him tense up.
"She said she's going to leave him."
"But she's not pregnant anymore, she has no-" I hesitate and watch in horror as his features soften in realization.
"Say it." He challenges, but I don't speak. "She has no reason to stay? Cause I could never be a good enough reason." He scoffs before turning and walking back over to the door.
"You're putting words into my mouth," I say, reaching forward to grab his shoulder but he shrugs it away.
"Leave us alone." He mutters, walking back into the exam room. I let out a loud sigh in defeat. I'm going to kill Izzie.
∞∞∞∞∞∞
As I walk through the front door of my home, I feel awful. Everything has started crashing down on me all at once. I'm exhausted, hungry, and now have the added bonus of pissing off my brother. I make my way to the kitchen and grab a slice of leftover pizza before heading upstairs.
When I get to my room, the door is open and the light is on. I walk in the room cautiously to see Alex digging his way through my dresser drawers. I lean on the doorframe with my arms crossed as I watch him pull out one of my shirts.
"What are you doing?" I ask and his head snaps up to look at me. The moment he sees me, he looks back down again, continuing to shovel through my clothes. I watch him with my nose scrunched, cringing as all my clothes become unfolded and crinkled.
"I need some of your clothes." He says, grabbing a few more shirts. "She's staying with me for a couple of days. She didn't bring enough stuff."
"Alex," I mutter and he sighs, looking up at me.
"You gonna help me or not?" He asks with his brow raised and I finally push myself from the door and walk over. I grab one of the shirts he's holding and put it back in the drawer before grabbing a different one.
"That's a dress shirt, she'll be uncomfortable," I say, handing him the new one. "This one is soft."
He finally looks up at me with a gentle expression and I give him a slight half-smile, which he returns.
"Thanks." He says simply, as I open another drawer where I keep my pants.
"Have you called her husband?" I risk asking as I hand him a pair of sweatpants.
"She doesn't want to talk to him." He says, putting the pants over his arm as I hand him another pair.
"Did you get a psych consult like Izzie suggested?" I push and he sighs in annoyance.
"Addie." He warns but I turn to face him.
"She had a hysterical pregnancy," I say with my voice at barely a whisper. "A psych consult isn't a ticket to the nuthouse, it's just talking to someone who can help her through this-"
"She's fine, okay?" He cuts me off. "I can handle it. I'm gonna take care of her." He says before walking around me to my bedroom door, before he can leave, I speak.
"She's not Mom," I say quietly and he freezes in his tracks. At first, I don't think he's going to answer me, but without turning, he does.
"No, she's not." He says before continuing to leave my room. Without thinking, I follow him down the hall until he gets to his room, where I see Rebecca sitting on his bed. She looks awful, almost like she's in a trace.
"Put your arms up." He says to her softly. "There, that's better, right? There you go." He helps her put a new shirt on and the picture in front of me is all too familiar. I can't even bear to watch it, so I turn and walk back into my room.
∞∞∞∞∞∞
To my surprise, I can smell food cooking in the kitchen, I would've thought everyone would be at work already. I'm almost at my total hours for the month so I decided to sleep in, which is something I almost never do.
I make my way downstairs, still in my pyjamas to see Alex cooking eggs at the stovetop. I scrunch my brow in confusion before seeing Rebecca sitting at the table. Alex notices me in the doorway and does something I wasn't expecting. He smiles.
"Morning." He says before holding up his spatula. "Eggs?"
"Uh, sure," I mumble, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I walk over to the table. As I sit down, Alex walks over to the table with two plates of food. He puts one of them in front of me and the other in front of Rebecca. "You're not eating?"
"Nah, I'm fine." He says, sitting beside her and moving his chair forward. He grabs a fork and I watch in pity as he takes her hand and tries to get her to hold it. "Eat." He says to her gently.
"How'd you sleep?" I somehow manage to ask Rebecca, as I take a bite of my own meal. She doesn't even look at me, let alone answer. I watch as Alex's eyes drift up to my face, he knows what I'm thinking but I can tell he doesn't want me to say it.
"Can you take my cases this morning? Check-in on my post-ops?" He asks me, trying to change the subject.
"You're not going into work?" I ask him and he shakes his head.
"I'm gonna hang with Rebecca." He says casually and I watch as my brother slowly falls back into the past he was trying so hard to stay away from. He's a boy again, trying to look after everyone in his life and I don't know how to stop him from spiralling.
"Okay, fine," I mutter, finishing my eggs and standing up with my plate. "Thanks."
∞∞∞∞∞∞
Once I got to work, I did as Alex asked and covered his post-ops before being paged down to the pit for an incoming trauma. On my way there, I notice Callie walking down the hall at a brisk pace. I pick my speed up to a slight jog to catch up with her.
"Hey, Callie!" I say and she turns to face me. "How are you?"
"Oh, just peachy." She mutters, obviously in a bad mood but luckily for me, I don't seem to be the cause since she slows down slightly to walk alongside me.
"That good?" I ask sarcastically and she chuckles as we push through the doors leading to the ER gowning room. She stops dead in her tracks and I look up to see Mark and Dr. Hahn standing there. I notice Callie's gaze fall on Erica Hahn but I don't question it as I grab a trauma gown.
"Hey, Callie." Hahn greets her.
"Hi, hello, Erica," Callie says awkwardly, grabbing a gown for herself.
"What's the matter with you?"
"Nothing. It's nothing." She says, trying to change the subject.
"You look all hot and bothered," Mark says with a smirk as Bailey walks into the room with us.
"What? No, there's a trauma, and it's really big. That's all. It's big. It's a big trauma." Callie stumbles on her words, clearly uncomfortable and I watch as Bailey gives her an odd look.
"You're acting weird. It's like you've never seen a really big trauma before." Bailey says, taking the lead and we all follow her towards the trauma room we were paged to.
The moment we enter the room, we all stop dead in our tracks and take in the sight before us. My brain can't even understand what I'm looking at for a moment and I feel my mouth drop open in shock.
"Oh, my," Hahn says slowly.
"Really big trauma..." I mutter to myself. Sitting in front of us is a ball of cement the size of a car with a boy's head sticking out of the top.
"So, how you wanna handle this?" A man says and I'm finally able to tear my eyes away from the boy to see that he's surrounded by emergency personal that must've cut him out of the cement. We all stand there, unable to speak as the conscious boy's lip quivers in fear.
"Help me. Please." He whimpers. I look toward Bailey for some sign of what to do next but she looks just as conflicted.
"Dr. Bailey?" I mutter and she doesn't even look over at me. She continues to scan the scene before her. She then turns to the emergency personnel.
"Did he come in with anyone?" She asks the man and he nods.
"They're in the waiting room." He says and she finally turns to me.
"I want you to go out there and find out why the hell this boy sat in a pile of wet cement." She hisses at me so the boy can't hear her and I give a quick nod before leaving the room. This is not what I thought my day was going to be like.
When I finally make it to the waiting room, I see a group of teenagers sitting in the corner hanging out. They seem about his age so I walk over. I hate teenagers. I hated them when I was one so the feeling has only gotten stronger.
"Are you here for the boy in the cement?" I ask when I approach them and they turn to face me. They look at me like I'm interrupting but eventually speak.
"Yeah." One of the boys says and I watch as another one attempts to suppress a grin.
"I need you to tell me exactly what happened out there."
"Look, we were just joking around." He defends himself and the others nod in agreement.
"Yeah, it was a dare."
"Wait, you dared him?" I ask in disbelief. "You dared him to lay in a vat of wet cement at a construction site?"
"Hey, we never thought he'd do it. It's Andy. He never does anything. He doesn't have the guts." They laugh and my hatred only intensifies.
"In the middle of the night, you snuck into a construction site and dared your friend-" I try to understand what is going on in their heads before the girl speaks up.
"He's not our friend. The four of us, we're friends. He's not really our friend." She says with a smirk as the boys grin in amusement. I don't understand how anyone could be this cruel.
"You dared him to lie down in concrete."
"Nobody made him do it. You're making it sound like we did something wrong." She defends herself and I can't help but scoff out loud.
"How long?"
"What?" She asks me in confusion.
"How long did your not friend lay in that vat of cement unable to move before you four geniuses, you band of brothers, how long did he lay in that quick-drying cement yelling that he couldn't move before you called the police?!" With every word I speak, my volume increases until I finish at a yell and the teenagers look up at me in fear. "That's what I thought," I mutter when they don't answer me.
I turn and walk down the hall, getting as far away from them as possible. I'm not going to get any useful information from them anyway. When I finally get back to the room, I notice everyone in an empty exam room yelling at the top of their lungs. The moment I walk in they turn to me.
"Karev! Perfect!" Bailey says when she sees me. "What did they say?"
"Nothing useful. He was probably in there a long time before anyone got to him." I explain and all of a sudden they turn to each other and start yelling again. I'm there for a few minutes, just standing in the background, trying to figure out what everyone wants.
"We work from the outside in! This is what we have to do!" Mark exclaims as people shout over him.
"Mark, you know that I'm right, his arms-" Callie starts to argue when all of a sudden, the door opens and Chief Webber walk in looking furious.
"Why is the patient in there and all of you are in here?!" He yells at us, cutting all arguments short. We all turn to him quickly and I take a step forward.
"Torres is worried about limbs. Bailey is worried about abdominal crush injuries. Mark-uh, Dr. Sloan feels the burns should take the first look," I stumble on my words for a minute but luckily the Chief doesn't seem to notice. "Hahn feels the heart and lung issues are going to kill him before we get to any of this."
"In other words..." Webber starts but I'm already finishing the sentence for him.
"No one can agree on where to start." The moment the words leave my mouth, they all start arguing again, saying they know exactly where to start.
"The cement's contracting. If I don't get in, he could lose both of his legs and his right arm." Callie urges but Bailey shakes her head.
"He can live without a leg. I'd like to see him live without a liver." Bailey rebuttals before Mark finally speaks up.
"We're saying that we'd prefer him to suffer a long, slow, painful death as the alkaline continues to burn through his skin?" He says calmly, everyone trying to earn the approval of Webber.
"You can't just start chipping away. Once his circulation opens up, the built-up toxins will stop his heart, not to mention rhabdomyolysis." Hahn explains and I put my hand up slightly.
"Can't you just treat that with dialysis?" I suggest and Hahn's head snaps to me.
"Karev, let us work." She snaps, obviously not liking the fact that my suggestion could overrule her complaints. Before they can continue, George walks into the room with a stack full of papers. He's been calling himself the Chief's intern because he's been running all these errands for Webber, but in reality, he's more like a personal assistant.
"Chief, I found an article, people are encased in cement usually at the bottom of a river..." He explains but it becomes harder for me to hear him as everyone starts yelling again. It's overwhelming for a moment until Webber yells at us.
"Everybody stand down! We are fighting the clock. It took one hour for the kids to call 911. Three hours for search and rescue to get this guy cut out of the cement. That gives us less than four to six hours to get him out of the cement and into the OR before he is dead. We are fighting one hell of a clock. Every minute counts. We work as a team, or that man dies. Let's go save his life."
∞∞∞∞∞∞
It's been a race against the clock. We're all trying to get him out of the cement as quickly as possible so we can get him to an OR. The moment the pressure is released on his body, he's only going to have minutes before things start shutting down and we don't have a second to waste. Hahn brought Cristina on her service since she's apparently the only resident around here they give the cardio cases too. I'm not complaining I guess, I still have lots to do.
"It's at 20 centimetres. Inflate the balloon, Yang." Dr. Hahn instructs as I help the other move pieces of cement off of the boy's body as search and recuse chip pieces away.
"I am." Cristina answers but Hahn scoffs, obviously not liking her very much.
"So then inflate it more." She instructs before Callie speaks from beside me.
"Every time they loosen another piece of concrete this leg swells even more," Callie informs everyone else worriedly and I look down at the large swollen leg.
"His pressure is 18," I comment and she nods in my direction.
"Does he have a pulse with that?" Erica asks walking over to us and reaching across in front of us. I try to move slightly, but the room is at max capacity and it's hard to move anywhere. The room is small enough with the giant ball of cement in the middle but we have all kinds of people running through here. I almost trip as I take a step back but a hand on my back stops me from falling.
"Oh, thanks," I mutter, not looking at who was behind me.
"I always did like a good game of twister." I hear Mark smirking from behind me and turn to meet him straight on. I roll my eyes and turn back around, moving towards the table.
After another hour of hydrating him and making sure he was stable, some of us left the room to let search and rescue remove more cement from the clump. We're waiting out in the hallway having some water when I notice Bailey looking into the trauma room with a frown.
"Dr. Bailey? Are you okay?" I ask her but she doesn't look at me. Instead, she continues to look into the room with a vacant expression.
"Something... we're missing." She mumbles. "We're forgetting something. Gangrene, compartment syndrome, compression, fluid balance, electrolytes. What is it?" She pauses, staring into the room in confusion before she drops her cup of water and splashes to the ground as her face drops in realization. "His bladder."
"Oh, my god," I mutter to myself, looking through the window, realizing what she means.
"We've been hydrating him for over four hours now." Bailey marvels in shock, realizing everyone's mistake.
"If we don't get a catheter in him quick..." Hahn starts but Bailey has already finished her sentence.
"His bladder's gonna explode." She exclaims before we all jump to our feet. I'm about to follow when my phone rings from inside my white coat pocket. I pull it out and look at the name to see it's Alex calling.
"You coming?" Mark asks and I look up at him unsure how to answer professionally. I then remember that Rebecca was his patient. I hold up my ringing phone while answering.
"It's my brother. He's looking after Rebecca and-" I start to explain and to my relief, he nods.
"Take it. We'll be fine." He says with a reassuring nod and I sigh.
"Thank you," I say and he nods before entering the trauma room. I snap my phone open and put it to my ear.
"Alex?" I ask, unsure what I'm answering to. Last time we really talked, he was upset with me. I'm worried this morning was a fluke.
"Hey, Addie." I hear his calm voice through the phone and my tensed shoulders relax slightly.
"Is everything okay? How's Rebecca?" I ask and I can hear him sigh through the phone.
"She's... fine. She has an appetite which is a good sign." He says and I wait patiently for his point. "Look, I just wanted to apologize for being an ass the past couple of days."
"Well, you did make me eggs this morning, that was nice," I say with a slight smirk, trying to make him feel better.
"I guess, well... wait, hold on." He pauses for a moment. "Rebecca? Rebecca!"
"What? Alex, what's happening? Alex?" I almost yell into the phone as I listen to his voice yelling in the background. All of a sudden the line goes dead and I can't hear him anymore.
In my panicked state, I debate going home to find out what's wrong. I eventually decided that while my job is important, my brother beats it by a long shot. I've been trying to find Webber to ask to leave when all of a sudden, I hear a commotion in the main trauma room. I run out to see Alex walking in, holding Rebecca who is covered in blood.
"What the hell happened?" I ask, running over to help.
"I need betadine, saline, and a suture kit." He yells, carrying her over to a bed while I run around him to check her injuries.
"What happened?" I repeat looking to see the source of her bleeding at her wrists which are wrapped with kitchen towels from our kitchen.
"She cut herself. It was an accident. I've got this." He tries to convince me but I push him back. He cannot be her doctor anymore.
"How much blood has she lost?" I ask, moving one of the towels away from her wrist to see a severely deep gash. "Alex..." I breathe out in disbelief.
"She's fine. I've got this." He says trying to push me out of the way but I sidestep so he can't.
"No, Alex. You are too emotionally attached for her to be your patient." I say and he rolls his eyes pissed, trying to move around me again but I put both my hands on his shoulders and force him to look at me. "I will take care of her. I promise."
After a moment he finally nods and steps back which gives me room to assess her. She looks awful, blood is covering my shirt which she was borrowing and she looks to be slipping in and out of consciousness. I look up and notice one of my interns standing by the nurse's station.
"Hey! You!" I call out but he doesn't turn. "Uh... Sprawl... no, uh, Spalding?!" He finally turns to look and me and once realizing it's me calling him, he runs over to my aid. "I need a suture kit, betadine, and saline. Be quick."
"Okay." He nods before running off to the ER storage room. I turn to look at Rebecca, I put my hand on the side of her face, taking my flashlight pen from my pocket and shining the light in her eyes.
"Rebecca? Can you hear me? It's Audrey. Alex's sister." I try to get her attention but she's lost too much blood to respond. "Hey, I need a gurney over here!"
Alex is quick to act and runs away to grab a gurney and with the help of a nurse, he rolls it over to the bed and we all help her onto it. We roll her to a private exam room, the chaos of the ER not helping her condition.
"Don't you have other patients?" Alex asks me when we're finally in a quiet space where I can attend to her wounds. My intern brought what I needed and I start to work on her wrists after giving her some medicine to ease the pain. It also went as far as to make her fall into a calm sleep.
"Someone will cover for me," I mutter as I finish one of her wrists. "You can bandage that," I say and he moves to trade places with me.
"Thank you." He says simply and I nod once. After another minute of suturing her other wrist, I finally speak.
"I'm going to call for a psych consult," I say without looking up but I can hear him shift in his seat.
"She doesn't need a psych consult." He says as I work. I know he's glaring at me.
"If she were anyone else, you would already have that phone in your hand. She hurt herself." I say and he breathes out in frustration.
"She's fine!" He yells suddenly, making me look up at him in alarm. He realizes he shouldn't have raised his voice so he quiets his tone. "She's fine, okay? I just took my eyes off her for a minute."
"You shouldn't have to be watching over her every second of the day," I say and I feel his glaring eyes again.
"Just stay out of it."
"Right now, I am her doctor," I say and he sighs.
"Just shut up. We'll be home and out of your hair the moment we finish." He hisses and I shake my head.
"I'm not letting you take her home. Not like this." I say and he slams his fists down on the mattress.
"I said, stay out of it!" He yells and I slam my tools down on the instrument tray before standing up and grabbing his arm. I pull him to the other side of the room, leaning in to talk to him.
"Okay, this stops right now." I scold him as he glares at me. "She is not mom. You are not fifteen. She is a grown woman who is depressed and having delusions. I know it's hard. I know you care about her, but this-" I move my finger back and forth between our chests to gesture his behaviour towards me. "Stops now."
"Get the stupid psych consult. She's fine." He mutters before turning and walking back over to her bedside. I roll my eyes in frustration before leaving the room and spotting my intern again.
"Spalding. Finish stitching my patient's wrist lac." I say and he smiles, excited to do a small procedure on his own. I almost forget what it was like to be in my first month of internship. Thrilled to do anything resembling medicine.
After paging psych for a consult, I went to find out that our boy trapped in cement made it to surgery and is currently pulling through. I guess that's one good thing to come out of the day. Problem is, even with that one good thing, all of the bad stuff clouds it, leaving behind a grey sky.
The doctor they sent for the consult found me and told me she was too far gone to be sent back home without someone to care for her around the clock. All that's left to do is to send her to a facility. I told Alex, and after a long heated discussion, he finally decided to call her husband only to find out that he left her months ago and took the baby with him.
I'm waiting outside of her private room as Alex goes in to talk to her. After a while, the door finally opens and he walks through with tears in his eyes.
"Alex," I mutter, seeming to be the only thing I can say.
"Whatever." He shrugs, trying to brush it off but the moment the words leave his lips, something in him breaks and he lets out a sob. It triggers something in me and I reach forward, putting my arms around him and pulling him in for a hug.
"I'm so sorry," I whisper to him as I feel a wetness on my shoulder from his tears. I can hear him sobbing quietly as I hold him. I know better than anyone that this is hitting hard for him, a little too close to home. Some could say that it comes with the job, the hardship and the losses, but I don't think they realize what's actually going on in our heads. No one does.