Burn out ✔️

Part 7

She woke up in a hospital bed. She heard a steady beeping noise coming from the machine right next to her. She moved her head a little, seeing that she had been hooked up to a heart monitor. As she moved her head over to her left side she saw an infusion bag and looking down at her arm she saw that she had been attached to an IV as well. Opening her eyes a little further she looked outside of the room, seeing Bailey and Richard arguing about something. She really didn't want to see neither of them right now. No. What time was it. She was supposed to be in Minnesota at two pm, she had an appointment with Hamilton at three. Nick wanted to pick her up from the airport. She looked around, searching for a clock as she saw her phone laying next to her on the table. She quickly grabbed it, nearly having a heart attack at seeing that it was already one pm, the next day. Friday.

She quickly opened her chat with Nick, seeing that she had three missed calls this morning and a few text messages from him. She called him and he picked up pretty quickly. "Hey." She said tiredly, whishing that she was with him right now.

"Hey! Where are you? You didn't answer any of my calls." He said and the worry she could hear in his voice almost broke her heart. "I'm so so sorry." She said, close to starting to tear up again. "it's uhm- something happened." She started slowly, not sure how to explain this situation she was currently in. "What happened, are you okay? Are the kids okay?" he asked quickly and she almost smiled slightly as he asked about her kids.

"Uhm- I don't really know how to explain what happened but- I'm at the hospital. I- collapsed." She said, hoping not to worry him to much. "What? Are you hurt? I- I'm on the next flight to Seattle." He stuttered, obviously overwhelmed and concerned.

"I'm not hurt, you don't need to come. I'm fine really I just- don't know if they're going to let me out of here any time soon and if I can get another flight for this afternoon-" but she was cut off by Nick.

"No, you're not flying Mer, I'm coming to Seattle I'm already on my way. Please, I don't want anything to happen to you." He said, trying to convince her of staying right where she was. "Nick, you really don't need to come, I'm okay." She sighed, not wanting him to fly across the country and suddenly regretting having told him about this. "Meredith." He sighed.

"I'll be there in four hours." He added after a few seconds of silence. "Okay." Meredith sighed, trying to suppress the sudden affection building up inside of her while thinking about him literally jumping onto the next flight just because she fainted one single time. "Okay. Get some more rest, please, do not leave that hospital bed." He said warningly, making her chuckle. "Fine." She gave in, smiling tiredly. "Bye." He said and she could hear from his voice that although he was still concerned he was smiling. "Bye." She replied, before he hung up and she laid her phone back onto her bed.

Right in this moment Dr. Altman came through the door, a bright smile on her face. Right behind her Bailey and Richard entered the room, not smiling at all. "So, it looks like you had a small debilitating attack. Your pulse was at 147 and your blood pressure at 158/103. Also, your resting pulse is at 75 which isn't exactly healthy. We need to run an ECG to make sure your heart didn't take any damage from this and you'll need to stay for a few days." Teddy explained as she stood next to Meredith's bed while both Richard and Bailey were still hovering close to the door but she tried to ignore them.

"I can't stay here I need to go home." Meredith said, sitting up in bed only to be stopped by Teddy who guided her back down. "You're not going anywhere." She said, a stern expression on her face. Meredith sighed, giving in. "Can someone watch your kids for you?" Teddy asked.

"They're with Derek's mother for the whole week." She replied exhaustingly, sinking into the pillows.

"Okay that's good, we'll start with the ECG in a few minutes. Have you been under a lot of pressure lately or were you more stressed than usually?"

Meredith looked over to her two superiors still standing in the door who both had their heads down. "Yeah." She said softly, closing her eyes again. "Have you experienced dizziness, headaches or tachycardia?" Teddy asked, writing something down on the tablet.

"Maybe a little." Meredith admitted, just wanting to be left alone and sleep for the rest of the day until Nick would come to save her. "Okay, you know that an excessive amount of stress hormones can permanently damage your heart." Teddy asked, accusing her of not taking care of herself enough. "Yes I know that. I took a day off a few days ago but we're on a shortage, meaning that I'm needed here." She said, mumbling in a more quiet voice: "Just to be yelled at the whole day."

Teddy followed Meredith's gaze to Bailey and Richard. "Okay, no more yelling at her she needs rest." She said, making the two of them finally look up. Bailey opened her mouth to say something but Dr. Altman prevented that. "No, I don't care whatever you're arguing about. She. Needs. Rest."

Meredith moved her head to look outside, watching the bright blue sky, not wanting to accidently meet Bailey's or Richard's eyes.

_______

"Okay, I'm going to place the patches now. For the first five minutes I just want you to breath as calm as possible." Teddy announced as she started to tape the small patches and wires to Meredith's chest. Meredith didn't reply, just wanting this to be over as soon as possible. She had texted Hamilton earlier, telling him that she wouldn't make it to their appointment because of an emergency surgery so that they moved their meeting to next weeks Friday. When Teddy was done attaching everything to the measurement instruments Meredith pulled down her gown again and closed her eyes, trying to calm down and slow down her breathing.

She heard Teddy typing things into the computer and writing down things on a paper file as she watched the monitor with the results closely. Five minutes passed and Meredith almost fell asleep until she was ripped out of that daze by a loud beeping noise, signalling the end of the test. She slowly opened her eyes again, adjusting to the bright light in the room.

"That doesn't look good." Teddy mumbled, more to herself than to Meredith. "It looks like you're having cardiac arrhythmias. I'm going to do some more tests but I'll prescribe you some beta blockers to slow down your heart rate a little and you'll need to take some time off."

"We're in the middle of a shortage, the hospital is literally falling apart, I can't take a few days off." Meredith said, not wanting to leave the hospital right now during a historical physician shortage while the residency program is hanging by a thin thread.

"Oh, I'm not just talking about a few days Meredith. I mean at least three weeks." Dr. Altman corrected her, making Meredith's eyes go wide. "Not happening." She said after a few seconds of shock. "Yes it's happening. When you get a heart attack or your heart suffers permanent damage you won't be any use for anyone." Teddy argued back.

Now there was no reply from Meredith's side who just stared out of the window again. "Meredith, you are lucky that there isn't any permanent damage yet but if you continue to work under this conditions, when you stress yourself out and don't get enough rest you are going to have way more serious problems than taking a few weeks off." But Meredith stayed silent again. When would Nick finally be here?