Outside of Fear

Chapter Thirty-Three

Meredith freezes to her spot. Only when the elevator dings and the doors roll open does her brain begin to process what Callie just said.

The gurney rolls into the OR, and Meredith jumps off to let the nurses prep Agent Prenton as she goes and scrubs in with Callie. 

The Scarlet Killer case she's been following for months has been cracked. And the woman she's about to operate on is the one who cracked it. Olivia Prenton saved an untellable amount of lives, and now it's up to Meredith to save hers.

Of course she couldn't just have an easy, low-risk surgery on her first day. 

Controlling her breathing, she pushes away all other thoughts and focuses on her surgical plan. Meredith has been in high-pressure and intense surgeries countless times before, and this isn't any different. 

The door to the scrub room swings open, and Teddy walks in. 

"I heard you have a case that may be cardio?" She asks eagerly, straining to see through the glass window at the patient.

"What did you do, bribe one of my trauma nurses to update you with the stats of my patients?" Meredith teases.

"I'll never reveal my secrets. Can I scrub in?"

Callie gives her approval, saying that they'll probably need an extra pair of experienced hands anyway. The three women quickly scrub and enter the OR, where the anesthesiologist is already standing, shouting orders at the scrub nurses and techs around the patient.

"Her BP bottomed out, pulse is way too high. You need to get in there and stop that bleeding now." The anesthesiologist yells to the surgeons, who rush to the table.

Without hesitation, Callie slices open Agent Prenton's leg, and as soon as she does, blood pours out like a waterfall. It splatters all over their legs and shoes, soaking the OR floor. Monitors beep rapidly in the background.

The skin on Prenton's leg is a mix of purples and blues, signaling that not only is there internal bleeding, but the lack of blood to the furthest extremities is causing it to die.

Before she can think twice, Meredith and Teddy have heavy suctioning in the leg, yelling for more and more blood to be hung up. Meredith's hands are deep in the leg, searching for the femoral. In a matter of seconds, she finds the artery, even without any visibility.

"Do we have a DeBakey Vessel Clamp anywhere?" Meredith demands, instantly realizing that the femoral is sliced completely in half. She pinches the end in her hand, trying to slow the bleeding.

She glances up again, and a pristine, exact size and type of clamp she needs is being held in front of her. Before she can dwell on her shock at the fact that not only do they have it, but she got it so quickly, she takes it and clamps off the artery. 

"Okay, bleeding should stop now, but I need to find the other side so Teddy can repair it before we lose the entire leg," Meredith announces, moving to try and find the rest of the femoral.

"This bone is shattered. I'm going to need a few plates and at least four screws. Get me a supporting rod as well." Callie orders after examining the area for a few moments.

In mere minutes, all three surgeons are working diligently to fix the extensive damage done to this poor woman's leg by three bullets. 

Mark pulls up a rolling seat and takes one of the agent's hands in his own gloved ones, slowly examining it. "We get any scans of these? Looks pretty bad to me."

"I didn't even get a chance to look at them, this leg was our first priority," Callie replies. 

Without even needing to ask, a nurse pulls out x-rays of Agent Prenton's hands and arms and hangs them on the lightbox on the wall of the OR. Callie stops what she's doing momentarily to study them.