CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEENMELONIE'S POV

   I woke up next to Jackson the next morning. I looked down at myself and my eyes widened as I looked at the naked boy sleeping next to me.

   Memories from last night roamed through my head. The bad thing is, I liked it. I really like Jackson, but...

   "No, no, no, no," I whispered to myself. "What the hell did I just do?"

   I slowly got out of the bed and grabbed my clothes, running to my room to change. I slumped onto my bed and sighed. I have to get to work before Jackson wakes up.

   I grabbed my car keys and rushed down the stairs, where Lexie, Meredith, April, Alex, and Derek were.

   "Where are you going?" Derek asked me. 

   "To work," I responded, starting to open the front door.

   "Don't you want something to eat?" Lexie questioned.

   "Um..." I grabbed a banana. "Thanks."

   I ran out the door and into my car. I sat there for a little bit, banging my head against the steering wheel. Jackson's gonna hate me. He's gonna tell everyone how much of a slut I am. All of my friends are gonna hate me. EVERYONE is gonna hate me. 

   I got to work and Mark caught up to me.

   "Not now, Mark." I rolled my eyes as we entered the hospital.

   "Come on, what's going on with you lately?" Mark asked. 

   "Why do you even care? You never seemed to care before," I pointed out sassily. 

   "Because I care about you, Melonie. I was just hoping we could be friends for once," he shrugged. "But you don't trust me, so..." 

   Mark started to walk away, and I sighed, finally giving in. 

   "Mark, wait," I stopped him. He turned back around to face me. "I'm sorry. I want to be friends too. I just can't talk about it right now. When I'm ready to talk, you'll be the first one I come to, I promise."

   "Good," he smiled, and started walking away again.

   "Thank you."

   I walked into the residents' lounge and sighed. I was the only one in there since all of my friends weren't going to be here for another few minutes. I was supposed to come with them, but I couldn't drive in the same car as Jackson. 

   "Hey, you're need in the E.R.," Callie started when I walked out of the residents' lounge.

   Once she finished telling me where to go and why I was going there, I headed there with the patient's chart, reading through it. 

   I walked into the room, where a man was laying down on the gurney, talking on the phone, and a male nurse was getting him settled in.

   "E.K.G. results." The nurse handed me the papers.

   "Thank you."

   "The guys at work overreacted and insisted I come to the E.R.," the patient said into his phone as I looked over the results. "Sweetie, I had a big lunch. It hardly qualifies as chest pain. No, what I need are some antacids. I'll be there, I promise. Just tell Max to put on his jersey, okay? I'll be out of here soon." He hung up the phone.

   "Hi, I'm Dr. Grey. I'll be your doctor today," I introduced myself.

   "Oliver Richter. Sorry about the phone," he replied. "I'm supposed to be picking up my son for the Huskies game right now."

   "I'm sure he'll understand," I told him.

   "You don't know my son," Oliver chuckled. "There are very few things more important to him than basketball."

   "Big fan, huh?" I smiled. I took out my stethoscope. "I'm just gonna take a quick listen."

   "All right," he answered. I put my stethoscope to his chest. "The biggest nine-year-old fan you've ever seen."

   I finished listening to his heart and his breathing and I took the stethoscope out from my ears.

   "Okay. So, it says here that you've been experiencing some chest pain. When did that start?" I picked up his chart.

   "An hour ago, maybe two? But I'm already feeling much better," he said.

   "And you wouldn't just be saying that to get discharged faster?" I smirked.

   "Look, I got my son tickets to this game for his birthday. He's been marking off the days on his calendar for weeks. I can't be the reason he misses it," he persuaded.

   "Okay, well, your E.K.G. seems normal, and your heart sounds good, but if there's one thing we don't take lightly around here, it's chest pain," I explained.

   "Could we go back and just pretend I said heartburn?" he asked. "Would that get me out any faster?"

   "No, probably not," I chuckled. "But Tyler is going to do a portable chest x-ray, and we're gonna do a chest pain workup, and we will try to make it as quick as possible." I looked at Tyler, the male nurse.

   "Thanks, Dr. Grey," Oliver sighed.

~

   "Dr. Bailey." I started to run up to her as she was about to enter an on-call room. 

   "Uh, I'm taking a nap," she said nervously, and she turned to look at me. "I'm sorry. What I-I meant to say is, I'm going to use this room to take a nap, because that's what people do in these rooms when they're tired, 'cause I-I have a child and a full-time job, and work long hours, so I'm just tired, just very... very tired." She was rambling, but I wasn't going to ask questions.

   "Um... okay," I replied. "I-I was just gonna ask you if you'd seen Dr. Altman."

   "N-no, I have not seen Dr. Altman, nor any other doctors or nurses, because I will be in this room, asleep, by myself," she continued rambling, and I furrowed my eyebrows at her, until I saw Teddy walk by. 

   "Actually, I see her now," I said, and ran off. "Dr. Altman!" I finally caught up to her. "Dr. Altman, do you have time for a quick consult?" 

   "I was supposed to be off by six, but-" She paused to think. "Uh, okay, sure. Okay. Just walk with me. What do you have?"

   "Okay, 42-year-old male, complaining of midsternal chest pain. No cardiac risk factors, no angina. Pain doesn't radiate. The E.K.G. looks clean." I took out some more papers. "These are his films, and they're mostly clear. But I don't know." Teddy took out the x-rays. "Does the mediastinum look a little wide to you? Because I know, sometimes that can happen with the portable x-ray."

   "You got cardiac enzymes?" she asked. 

   "Yes," I responded.

   "I'll check on Mr. Richter right now. Call Radiology," Teddy demanded. "Get him in for P.A. and lateral films, and tell them to rush it, because I'd really like to get out of here and go on my date." She closed the chart and walked away.

   I picked up the phone. "Radiology, please."

   I walked up the stairs, toward Oliver's floor, when I was stopped by Jackson. I couldn't look him in the eye.

   "Hey, about last night-" he started.

   "We're not talking about this right now, Jackson." I continued walking.

   "Melonie-"

   "Oliver." I saw him being rolled down the hall on his gurney, and I walked over to him, leaving Jackson behind. "Did you see Dr. Altman?"

   "Yeah, she's sending me off for another x-ray," he answered. "Look, I know you guys have to cover all your bases, but-"

   "No, I know. I'm sorry. But I put a rush on the x-ray, so hopefully it'll be quick," I reasoned.

   "Yeah."

   Oliver was wheeled away and I sighed, hoping that Jackson had gone away, but when I turned around, I was pulled into the nearest on-call room.

   "Jackson, I have to-"

   "What's going on with you? Did you not like what happened last night? Was it bad?" he asked.

   "No, I did," I sighed, and he started to get closer. "I really, really did. I just-" 

   He kept getting closer until I finally gave in and our lips smashed together. Jackson locked the door and started to grab the bottom of my scrub top, but I pulled away. 

   "I can't," I sighed, walking out of the on-call room.

   Suddenly, Teddy handed me Oliver's x-ray and I rushed into his room.

   "Good news?" Oliver asked, hope in his voice. I just looked at him. "Or not such good news?"

   "Oliver, your second x-ray is still concerning. Dr. Altman and I agree that you should have a C.T., just to rule out anything serious," I replied.

   "And how long will that take?" His phone started to ring. "Oh, that's my son calling. He's worried we'll miss top-off. What should I tell him? Do I need to tell him we're gonna miss the game?"

   "I wish I had an answer for you, but I think it's a safe bet you'll be late," I responded.

   "Max. Hey, buddy. How's my little man doing?" he answered the phone. "Oh, daddy will be fine. Don't you worry. You just worry about all that popcorn we're gonna be eating."

   I walked out of the room to give him some privacy so he could talk to his son.

~

   After I had finished with some patients and discharged one, my pager went off. It was a 911 for Oliver. 

   "Crap," I muttered.

   I ran as fast as I could down the stairs and down the hall toward Oliver's room. As I got closer, the monitor's rapid beeping got louder and louder.

   I ran into his room where nurses were doing C.P.R. on him.

   "Hold C.P.R.!" I demanded, and they listened, taking their hands away from him. I checked his pulse and looked at the monitor. "V-fib. Page Altman." I looked at one of the nurses. "Give me the paddles now. Charge to two hundred. Clear." I shocked him, but he was unresponsive. "Charge to three hundred. Clear." I shocked him again.

   "Got a pulse," a nurse said.

   "Yes!" I sighed of relief.

   "Grey, talk to me." Teddy came into the room.

   "He was coding when I got here," I told her. "I defibrillated him three times. I gave him three pounds of epi, two of atropine. I loaded him up with amiodarone, but he's tachycardiac now. I mean, he's barely hanging on."

   "He needs surgery. Book an O.R.," Teddy said, looking at the scans.

   "Okay, I'll get a room prepped and ready."

   "No time. His aorta's dissecting as we speak. He needs surgery right now," Teddy demanded.

   "They're saying all the O.R.s are booked," a nurse said with the phone up to his ear.

   "Well, tell them to bump someone, because we're coming up either way."

   In the O.R., we didn't have time to scrub, so I just let Teddy use some of my hand sanitizer that I kept in my lab coat.

   "Just pour the betadine straight onto the chest," Teddy demanded as a nurse was getting her gown onto her. "It doesn't need to be pretty. We need to get in there."

   Once we were ready to go, we got to work.

   "Scalpel," Teddy requested, and a nurse handed it to her. 

   "Cautery," I said, and I was handed one.

   Teddy cut into his chest.

   "Cauterizing now," I informed.

   "Get in there quickly, Grey. Time is myocardium," Teddy warned me. "All right. Saw." A nurse gave her the saw. "Get that retractor ready."

   "This guy thought he had a bad case of heartburn." I shook my head. "He went from that to this in less than forty-five minutes."

   "That's how these work," Teddy sighed. "How's his pressure?"

   "Seventies and dropping," I replied.

   "Retractor," Teddy requested. "Every beat of his heart rips this tear a little bit wider." She used the retractor. "All right."

   "How many of these ruptured dissections have you caught in time to operate?" I asked.

   "Forty. Maybe fifty."

   "How many have you been able to save?"

   "Three."

   I looked at her with worried eyes as she went back to work. We can't lose him. Not now. 

   "All right, I'm in," Teddy said.

   The monitor started beeping rapidly. I looked down to see blood pouring out of his aorta.

   "Oh, no. No, no, no," I panicked.

   "Damn it. He's bleeding out," Teddy worried with me. "His aorta is wide open. Clamp. Come on!" She was handed the clamp. "All right, Grey. Let's try sucker bypass." I helped her. "Cannulas."

   "It's not working. There's too much blood," I said.

   "All right. Well, once we get him on bypass, it'll be easier to control."

   "Heart's fibrillating!" I shouted out.

   After trying to get him back for a while, he was bleeding out of his nose and ears. The paddles weren't working either. He was gone, but I wouldn't accept it.

   "What can we do?" I panicked. "Just tell me what to do."

   "There's nothing. His aorta is in shreds," Teddy sighed.

   "Well, what about-"

   "There is nothing left to do. Call it," Teddy instructed. I just stared at her with sad eyes. "Call it, Grey."

   "No, we-"

   "Grey, we got here too late. These are almost impossible to catch," Teddy told me. "There's nothing we can do, I'm sorry. We need to call it."

   It took me a while. I looked at Teddy, then at Oliver's deceased body. I took a few deep breaths before looking up at the surgical clock.

   "Time of death- 18:52," I sighed.

   I walked out of the O.R. and over to the informational desk, where Oliver's stuff was held in a bag. 

   "Let's get Oliver Richter's chart," I requested to a nearby nurse, who nodded and walked away.

   I heard the sound of a scoreboard buzzer and I looked over to see Oliver's phone ringing. I sighed before reaching into the bag and pulling it out. The contact said 'Max.'

   "Hello," I answered, trying to hold back my cries. "Hi, Max." My voice broke. "This is your daddy's doctor. Is your mom around?"

~

   I just told a little boy and a wife that the boy's father wasn't coming home. That they would never see him again.

   I walked up the stairs of Mark's apartment complex. Callie and Arizona lived across the hall from him. 

   I knocked on his door and he answered almost instantly.

   "Melonie?" he said. "Why are you crying?"

   "I'm ready to talk."

~

Word Count: 2369