Had I known How to Save a Life

Don't Give Up On Me

Chapter 62
*Meredith POV*

You can only push a person so far before they let go of you. Before they give up. But when you're a doctor, giving up isn't allowed. Not if you're the patient, the surgeon, the family. Cause when you give up, you can't turn back. In some cases, when a patient loses the will to live, no matter what the surgeon does, won't seem to work.

I have the night shift tonight. Its dark outside and there's a storm heading towards Seattle. I wait for something to happen. For their to be a page. Incoming trauma. Code blue. Something, anything that will keep me awake. Derek is at home with the kids sleeping.

I go to the Attending's Lounge and Amelia and Maggie are there too. With Alex and Arizona too.

"When was the last time all of us had a night shift on the same night?" Maggie asks.

"2, 3 months ago?" Alex says.

"I have a feeling." Amelia announces to us.

"Big storm heading toward Seattle, all of us are on call at the same time. I'm not big on God but, there's some reason we're all here tonight." She says.

"It's 1 AM, weather people told everyone it's smart to stay home tomorrow." Maggie says.

"That doesn't mean they'll listen" Arizona adds.

Owen is on call tonight too but he's probably down in the Pitt.

Hours begin to pass and the storm picks up. I've learned to love the sound of rain at 4 AM, not sure what it is but there's something about it that makes me feel all warm and cozy inside.

We're all in the lounge again and as soon as I begin to fall asleep, our pages go off like crazy.

Bus crash. At 4 AM. Who gets on a bus at 4 in the morning?

At the Pitt, Owen fills is in, "High school football team was going on their way home from a game last night, rain storm started, and the bus lost control."

Basically this is about to be a crazy night. About 40 or so high school age boys coming into the ER. There literally is not enough room. In the past when stuff like this has happened, usually only a few are badly injured. So now is time to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

We all wait in the Ambulance bay and minutes begin to feel longer than minutes. It's pouring rain and lighting flows through the sky and thunder cracks.

The first ambulance pulls up, "16 year old, Tyler Reed, evident head trauma with dizziness, broken nose, and separated shoulder." Callie was paged but she wasn't on call but she'll be here soon. They order a CT for him first.

The second ambulance pulls in, "18 year old, Alexander Ryan, shattered wrist, possible concussion, abdominal tenderness." I take this patient.

His hand that's not shattered shakes as he's sitting still and his heartbeat is rapid. "Alexander, I'm Dr. Grey, we're going to take some pictures of your head and then your stomach, but I'm going to need you to stay still."

"You can call me Alex. I'm sorry about the hand. I'm just really scared. And my other hand looks really bad but I can't feel it. This isn't the way I pictured my 18th birthday." He says with a shaky voice.

"Happy birthday, Alex. And don't worry, we're going to take good care of you. The reason you don't feel any pain right now is cause you've got a lot of adrenaline running through you."

With a nervous voice he says thank you. I begin to take him to CT and I ask, "What position do you play?"

"Oh, I'm the quarterback." He tells me.