Zedler, M.D. // Daryl Dixon

Chapter Thirty-Six: Closing

•thirty-six•

Beatrix

"Did I do a good job?" Beth asks, looking up from his leg. I stand on my tippy toes, looking down at his leg.

"They look good from what I can see," I compliment her. "Very good for someone to just be starting out."

"Thanks," she mumbles.

"You can take your gown and gloves off," I say, untying the top part of my mask. "No need to be sterile anymore. Most of the time, they like us surgeons to scrub out after a surgery. Health precautions, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess," she agrees as she pulls the gown and gloves off.

"I'm not doing that anymore," I smile. "I used to hate it. I thought there wasn't any use for that, because we were sterile underneath all of the stuff we had to put on. I did it anyway, though."

"How long are you gonna' have to bag him?" She responds.

"I think he should be able to come off of it now," I mumble, stopping pumping the bag. After a few seconds, his chest begins to rise and fall on its own. "Do you want to extubate?"

"Yeah!" Beth exclaims. She's so excited to be helping with a real patient, and I know Carl would be too if he was still in here. I'm going to have to go check on him.

"Okay," I smile, unhooking the bag. I watch as Beth carefully pulls the tube out of his throat. No blood, which means she did a great job. "Good job, Beth. Perfect extubation skills."

"Really? Thanks!" She laughs, sitting the tube down on the table.

"You're welcome," I say, untying my gown and pulling my gloves off. I'll leave the gown on for just a little while longer. It makes everything feel normal. I pull all of the drapes off of Daryl and cover his body up with the blanket. "I'll clean this up later. Can you help me push him back to our room?"

"Sure," Beth shrugs and walks over to push the double doors open for me.

It's a bit of a struggle for me, but I manage to push the table out of the kitchen. This table is definitely not like a hospital bed. It's difficult to move, and it's super heavy with Daryl on it. I should have gotten one of the men to help me. I will as soon as I make it back to the lobby, which I'm guessing is where everyone is. It only takes Beth and I a couple of minutes to get there, and there's an angry Lori waiting on me. Big surprise.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" She questions, standing up, even though it seems to be difficult with her growing belly. "You brought my son into that room while you were chopping up someone's insides!"

"I was fixing Daryl's leg," I roll my eyes at her. I don't need this today.

"His heart stopped! You almost killed him," she yells, pointing her finger at me. "And you're covered in blood! Is that your own from wherever you were earlier? Or is that what came out of Daryl?"

"Little bit of both," I smile, letting my anger nearly get the best of me. "Do you remember after the farm? When we stayed out in the open that night?"

"Yes. What does that have to do with anything?" She yells again.

"Okay, I haven't had a good day today, so I'm not going to hold anything back," I say, rubbing my temples. "You told me back then to tell you when you're being a bitch. Lori, you're being a bitch. You always do this to me, and I'm getting really tired of it. I save people; it's what I do, and I'm good at it. I am so damn good at it. I was the most promising trauma surgeon in the country. I had thirty different hospitals begging for me to come and work for them after I finished my fellowship!