Let It Go

77.

"How did he get a chainsaw?" Izzie inquired as she, Bailey, and Meredith walked down the hall towards the foot patient's room. Bailey gave Izzie a hard look. "Why are you following us?" she asked. "I uh... I was going to...," Izzie stammered. "She's helping me," Meredith supplied. "With - being in charge stuff or whatever." "Being in charge stuff... Shepherd, you damn fool," Bailey muttered, obviously questioning Derek's choice of Meredith being in charge. Izzie and Meredith exchanged a glance. Izzie risked an eye roll behind Bailey's back.

"Seriously Dr. Bailey. How did he get a chainsaw?" Meredith asked. "The man in the room next to him came in with one. He fell and broke his shoulder trying to clear the roads. Our guy came in with broken ribs and a slight concussion but declared that his foot has a mind of it's own and need to be cut off. I examined his foot. There is nothing wrong with his foot. I've called for a pysch consult but he wanted to see my boss, which, seeing as Richard is somewhere warm and non-tornadic and Shepherd is out in the field saving lives, is you Dr. Grey," Bailey finished. Meredith sighed. "This should be fun," she grumbled as they reached the patients room. She went in first, grabbing his chart on her way through the door.

"Mr.... Jones?" she asked, checking the chart. "That's me. You this Dr. Bailey's boss?" Mr. Jones replied. "I am. Kind of," Meredith answered. "Kind of?" Mr. Jones asked. "Our Chief of Surgery is out of town and the acting Chief of Surgery is in the field right now. He put me in charge so yeah, I'm kind of Dr. Bailey's boss. Which is scary... But I'm the boss," Meredith rambled. Mr. Jones looked skeptical. Meredith hardly blamed him.

"Well Dr...?" "Grey," Meredith supplied. "Well Dr. Grey, boss or not, what can you do about having my foot cut off?" Mr. Jones asked. "Mr. Jones, there is nothing wrong with your foot. There is no medical reason to amputate it," Meredith said firmly. Bailey rolled her eyes. What did Meredith think she'd spent the last thirty minutes trying to explain to the man?

"You doctors don't want to do it, fine. I'll take care of it myself." Mr. Jones reached for the chainsaw sitting behind him on his bed. "No!" Meredith, Izzie, and Bailey all shrieked. "Iz, see where psych is?" Meredith asked. Izzie nodded and rushed out of the room.

"I don't need psych," Mr. Jones insisted. "I just need someone to cut my damn foot off!" "Mr. Jones, we cannot cut off your foot. There is a disaster going on. The ORs are needed for emergency surgeries. Whatever is going on with your foot is not an emergency," Meredith said firmly. "It'll be an emergency if I cut it off myself!" Mr. Jones proclaimed.

Before Bailey or Meredith could react, he grabbed the chainsaw and pulled the chain. The chainsaw roared to life "Mr. Jones!" Meredith shouted over the noise. "Mr. Jones! Stop!" Bailey called out. She tried to reach for the chainsaw but Mr. Jones moved it away. Bailey and Meredith exchanged glances, no idea what to do. Neither one of them were any match for a crazed man waving a chainsaw. Mr. Jones lowered the chainsaw to his ankle. Meredith closed her eyes. She really hated Derek.

****************

"Help us! Help us please!" Derek and Mark rounded the rubble pile and stopped in their tracks. A man was kneeling on the ground next to a woman who was partially buried under cinderblocks and wood. "Help my wife!" the man sobbed. Derek and Mark exchanged a quick look before hurrying towards the woman.

"What's her name?" Derek asked. "Arlene," the man whimpered. Derek nodded. "Okay Arlene. Can you hear me?" he asked. The woman whimpered in response, her eyes closed. "I need you to tell me what hurts," Derek ordered. The woman whimpered. "It's her back I think. She can't move. She can't move at all!" her husband cried. Derek nodded and careful not to move her, checked her pulse rate. Mark knelt beside the man.

"Are you okay?" he asked him. "Don't worry about me! It's Arlene you need to be worrying with!" the man stated. "Sir, your wife is in good hands. Dr. Shepherd is the best neurosurgeon on the east coast. He'll take care of her. Now, are you okay?" The man raised an eyebrow and looked from Mark to Derek and back again. "Are you a doctor to?" he asked Mark. "Dr. Mark Sloan, at you service. Now, are you hurt?" Mark asked again. The man shook his head.

"I'm fine," he said. "We were in the bathroom - didn't have any windows in there - and the whole house came down around us. We came out and Arlene stepped out onto what was left of our deck... It collapsed. She fell ten feet, maybe more. She was talking to me for a while but she couldn't move. Now she can't talk, can't move... Dr. Shepherd, what's wrong with her?" his voice broke. Derek didn't reply right away, continuing his examination.

"What's your name?" Mark asked the man. "James," the man answered absentmindedly, his soul focus on his wife. The wind picked up. Mark looked around, half expecting to see a tornado touching down in the distance. The sky was heavy and lightening flashed around them but there was no sign of a tornado. He took the sky's black color as a good sign. If it turned puke green he'd start worrying.

"How's it look Derek?" Mark asked. Derek glanced at Mark, a grim look on his face. Mark bit the inside of his cheek. He knew that look. The patient was critical and Derek was running out of time to save her.

"We need to get her to the hospital," Derek mumbled. "But we can't move her." "Can't move her? Why can't we move her? She's got to go to the hospital! You just said so!" James interjected. "She's got a severe back injury, a possible head injury. She has to be stabilized before we move her," Derek explained. He looked at Mark, trying to convey a message. Mark got it. "I'll be back," he said, taking off at a sprint.

******************

"Hold pressure on it!" Bailey yelled at the two interns she had pulled out of the hall the second Mr. Jones' foot fell off. "There's too much blood!" one of the interns yelled. Mr. Jones howled in pain. Meredith injected him with sedative to quite his howling and stop his thrashing so Bailey could administer morphine.

"We need to get him in an OR," Bailey announced. "OR 6 is open," Meredith answered. "Alright people, let's go!" Bailey ordered, already moving towards the door. Pagers started sounding. Meredith grabbed for hers. "Shit!" she exclaimed, reading the words 'Code Orange'. She looked at Dr. Bailey.

"I'm going to the OR, tornado or not. This man needs surgery right now. You go do that whole being in charge stuff. I've got this," Bailey ordered. Meredith nodded and bolted out of the room, blood splattered down her front.

"A tornado is coming! Make sure patients are in their rooms! Go to the nearest safe room!" Meredith barked as he hurried down the hall. Doors slammed all around her as nurses and doctors ushered patients into their rooms and then secured both themselves and their patients inside. She ran into the waiting room, realizing there were several people with less sever injuries waiting to be seen. There were several windows in the waiting room and like the rest of the hospital windows, she assumed these weren't supposed to break. But she wasn't going to risk it. She thought fast.

"All of you come with me!" she called. No one moved. "Now!" she ordered. "A tornado is coming. I need to move you somewhere safer!" The sound of a freight train coming could now be heard. She led the group of people to the nearest safe room she could fine, noticing the cringed looks people were giving her and her bloody scrubs. She thought they didn't know the half of it. She squeezed herself into the safe room once the last person had entered and shut the door, just as the building begin to shake.