Chasing Cars | A Grey's Anatomy Fanfiction

.- S E V E N -.

Shepherd •

"Dr. Howard, are we ready to go?" I prod at the anesthesiologist. "All good, SATs are in the green," he replies. "Start the clock. It is a beautiful day to save lives," I mention, as I pick up a scalpel to cut a larger incision."Grey, make the incision bigger so I can drill a hole to relieve the intercrainial pressure. Be there with suction." She works with me just like an extra set of hands. I know I am a little biased because she is my wife, but she is a damn good surgeon. I remove the smaller glass shards and cut a C shape into the skin. I peel that back, and cut into the skull to relieve the intercrainial pressure. Blood sputters out. I then piece apart the skull, and remove it. I tell Grey to remove the medium sized shard of metal on the left and to stop the bleeders. She swiftly does so, with her delicate hands. We both remove the pepper of glass sandwiched between the metal shards and rods supporting what I think was the bus window, and then I cut away the dura carefully. I think only of the brain. Just one thing to focus on, and it becomes less complex.

I remove the jelly like clot, and it slides into a pan. I cauterize the bleeders from smaller shards of glass and metal, and I am left with the long rectangle of metal which separated the panes of glass from each other on the bus. I feel like I am in a fairy tale. I am Arthur, and that bus part in that brain is my sword in the stone. Us neurosurgeons pull things out of brains all the time, knives, scissors, and much more, but I still feel the same rush from the first time I did that. I slowly yank it out, and the inch indent fills with blood. "Suction," I voice. I lift the cautery towards the brain. I seal the bleeders quickly.
I look at the rapid infuser. It is low. "Get me another unit of O neg," I say. "Damn, she shouldn't be bleeding this much, she has only lost what, like 175 ml of blood from suction?" I think. "Grey. Look at her leg." I vocalize. "Someone page Torres!" Grey says to the scrub nurse. "I am going to have to get the bullet out before she goes into septic shock," she says. "I have to debrid the wound. It is already necrotizing."

Grey •

I look at the wound. I slice in more, creating good margins. "Put her on 100 mg of Ceploaxin," I prompt the nurse, as I fish out the bullet as I look at the tendon. Going to have to wait. I slice out the necrosis. "What happened?" Torres says, as she enters the ER. "Her wound is necrotizing," I respond. "Damnit. I put her on IV antibiotics, and this?" Torres answers. The kid's SATs drop. "She is crashing!" I yell. I push the OR table flat."Get me a crash cart!" I push on her chest. "Paddles! Charge to 200!" I push the the paddles on her chest. "Clear!" The shock hits her. I wait, staring at the heart monitor. "Don't crap out on me kid," I think. I see a sinus rhythm. I breath out. "Okay." I say.
Torres finishes debriding the wound and attaching the severed tendon. She stitches it, including a drain at the end. "Page the intern that was working with me," she says as she is thumbing through the chart. Once she arrives, she drags the intern into the scrub room.

Torres •

"Look in that OR. That is a kid. A kid that saved a life of another kid as she pulled that kid out of a burning bus. She did CPR. The kid she saved coded. You know who else coded?! That damn kid in the OR. Because you gave that kid saline instead of the IV antibiotics the kid needed. You can't screw up. Because that means I screwed up. Just look at the damn chart to make sure you are giving the correct meds. My lord." I storm out.

Shepherd •

I start to close the dura. I seal it, and replace the skull flap. I make the decision to close the skin fully later. If the dura expands if it gets infected, I will need some give somewhere. I loosely sew it up. I look at her arm. Her arteries and veins are already strained from the burns and cuts she has. No central line. I guess I am going to have to be on infection death watch and miss my anniversary dinner. I knew infection was a probability, but not to where this kid is almost septic in 6 hours. I tell grey to finish closing. I scrub out, and scribble in OR notes. I plop into an on-call room bed for 15 minutes. I am going to be here all night, might as well sleep real quick. I hear the door crack open. I see Meredith. She plants a kiss on my forehead, and crawls into the small twin bed with me. "If you're here, I'm here," she whispers. "I swear, if I didn't have you, I don't know how I would survive," I reply.

Sorry for the late chapter! I couldn't figure out how I wanted to write it, especially with the surgery and povs and all. I had to be Doctor Internet lol -Penmanshipped
I also hit 100 reads! <3 you all!