No Time | Grey's Anatomy // Book 1 // COMPLETED |

28 | Who Else?

"He shot me." Charles moaned. "He shot me. I'm shot."

"You are going to be okay," Bailey assured him as she pressed her hands over the bullet wound in his stomach to slow the bleeding. "Mary, over there is some gauze and some surgical pads. Can you get them for me?"

Mary shook her head, her eyes wide as she stared down at Charles. "Nope. I- I gotta go. I gotta go home. I . . . we shouldn't be here. My husband . . . I have to find my husband, and that man, he could come back in here-"

Bailey stared back at Mary, and using every last ounce of emotional strength she had left, she set her straight. "Mary. Mary. You're not going anywhere. Okay?" she told her. "That man is not coming back. I need you to pull yourself together and bring me those supplies. Okay?"

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Mary reluctantly stood up and moved over to where Bailey had pointed out the supplies. In the meantime, I was trying to keep Charles calm, but unfortunately, I wasn't doing a very good job.  

"I was doing charts, and now I'm shot?" Charles gasped, his voice airy as he spoke through ragged breaths. 

Turning away for a split second, I regained my composure, trying my best to stay as calm as possible. "What should I do?" I felt an urge to help out more. 

"Just keep doing what you're doing," Bailey instructed. "He's in shock right now, but I need you to bring his heart rate down so we can slow the bleeding."

Nodding, I looked back down at Charles. "Hey, everything is going to be okay." I took his hand in mine and squeezed tight. "You saved my life, which makes you a hero, and heroes always make it out of tough situations."

Charles forced a weak smirk. "I did save your life, didn't I?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "You totally did."

With his heart rate down a little, Mary came back over to us with the supplies in hand. "Okay. Good. Very good." Bailey took the gauze and pads from her. 

It was then that I realized Mary was whimpering, showing just how truly scared she was. "All right, Mary. Uh, go over to the window, all right?" Bailey instructed, trying to keep her busy and preoccupied. "And look and see if there's anybody out there that can help us."

Mary just stared back at us, her jaw hung open. "Mary, come on, come on, come on." Bailey urged her. "Go over to the window now and just see if somebody can help us. Go on. Go on."

"Okay." Mary sobbed, and as she moved over to the window, Bailey pressed a surgical pad over Charles' wound. Charles cried out in pain and his hand clamped down around mine, nearly crushing the bones in my fingers. 

"Squeeze as hard as you want." I bit down on my lip to hide the throbbing pain in my hand. 

Moving the blinds away from the window, Mary took a look into the hallway. "Um, there's . . . there's a . . . a dead security guard. He's dead and there's no one else to help us. There's no one else."

"It's all right," Bailey said, both to herself and Mary. The fear was starting to really set in now. "It's all right. Uh, uh . . . that's fine." a tear started to slide down her face and she wiped it away, confused. "That's . . . where . . . where is that water coming from?"

"Dr. Bailey, you're crying," Mary told her. "You're crying."

It took Bailey a moment to understand that she was, in fact, crying. "Oh. Then, um, M-Mary . . . you need to c-come over here and wipe my face so that I can keep working."

"I got it." I let Mary focus on keeping herself calm and dried Bailey's face with the sleeve of my coat, which was one of the few areas not covered in blood. 

"We're all gonna be fine," Bailey assured us, maintaining the leadership role despite the fact that she was just as scared as the rest of us. 

After pulling ourselves together as best we could, Mary and I searched the room for as many supplies as we could find that would help Charles. Minutes later, we had a breathing mask on him and more bandages around his stomach. 

"I'm dying." Charles's voice was muffled under the mask.

"Shh," Bailey ordered. "No, you're not dying."

"Really?" Charles asked. "Don't lie to me. Don't tell me that lie we tell everybody . . . 'You're fine. You're doing great.' Don't lie to me. Please. You gotta promise to tell me the truth. Okay?"

Bailey nodded. "Okay. You are not dying. If you were, I would tell you, okay?"

"Okay." Charles looked up at us with pleading eyes. I could tell he was terrified, but hell, everyone in this hospital right now was terrified.