Running in Circles - Lexie Grey x OC

The Ghost in the Hallway

PRESENT - 2011 - Morning
Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital - ER Wing

Blood. Screams. Alarms. EMTs shouted vitals as doctors and nurses rushed past, gurneys speeding through the entrance. The ER was in full-blown trauma mode, every corner buzzing with chaos.

With Owen tied up in another trauma room, April took charge as the next ambulance rolled in through the breezeway. She burst through the entrance with Meredith. April pushed the blood-soaked gurney, blood gushing out of the patient's cranium, while Meredith performed chest compressions, sitting over the unconscious patient.

Arjay and Russ at the other side of the bay hovered over a second patient on one of the trauma beds, an older woman, pale and gasping, a blood-soaked gauzes pressed to her side. The monitor beeped faster and faster.

Russ, clearly on edge, scanned the hallway for any available senior resident or attending. Fidgeting with the chart, he raised a hand at every passing resident.

"Uhm, here! We..." He paused, gaze trailing after April. "We need..." He stopped mid-sentence as the two senior residents disappeared into the trauma room, nurses trailing behind them as the sliding doors slammed shut.

Arjay groaned, frustration bubbling over. He tugged his gown tighter and stepped closer to the patient. "She's got a tension pneumo. We don't have time." He held his hand out to the nurse beside him. "Give me the kit."

Russ raised a brow. "What? No." He put up his index finger. "No way. We're not cleared to do this without supervision."

"We're not gonna learn if we don't do." Arjay shot him a look. "What? You want to just stand here while she die?"

He turned to the nurse holding the kit and held his hand up to get it. The nurse stood there skeptic.

"You sure you can do this?"

"Yes, of course," Arjay answered, snatching the kit from the nurse. He opened the tray, found the scalpel, and prepped the chest.

"She's hypoxic. Trachea's deviated. This is textbook tension pneumo." He looked sharply at Russ as his hesitation filling in the space between them. He won't admit but he, too, started to feel the same. "We wait, she dies." He uttered. "You wanna watch her code?"

"I, uh, okay." Russ stammered. "But if she crashes—"

"Second intercostal space, midclavicular line..." Arjay murmured, ignoring Russ. He ran his gloved fingers across the patient's chest. "Just like the sim lab."

He raised the scalpel, hands trembling slightly. Russ hovered near the vitals monitor, casting anxious glances toward the trauma bay doors, silently praying for someone to intervene.

The blade hovered just inches from the patient's skin and as soon as Arjay was about to make his incision, someone spoke behind him.

"Unless you want to collapse her lung, I'd drop that scalpel."

Eric stood behind them, calm but visibly unimpressed. Arjay froze, lowering the scalpel. Russ exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"What the hell."

Bailey arrived next, breaking the silence, eyebrows drawn together in pure disbelief.

"I know I'm not watching an intern about to perform a thoracostomy without a senior resident present?!"

Eric exhaled deeply as he backed away. "You got this, Dr. Bailey?"

"Oh, I got these two morons," she muttered.

"He said we didn't have time," Russ chimed in, voice small.

Bailey turned on him, sharp. "And you said nothing? What were you planning to do? Let your partner kill someone quietly?"