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

42 | Night Shift

 *BEEP!* *BEEP!*

My eyes shot open and I sat up in my bed. As soon as I moved, my head began to pound. Looking around my room, my eyes stopped on a tall figure standing by the door. As the memories of the night before flooded back, I made eye contact with Jackson. "Morning," I mumbled, rubbing my eyes. "Morning," he replied as he pulled on his shirt and pants.

Getting out of bed, I too pulled on a shirt and some shorts. "So, I'm gonna head out and get some sleep before tonight," Jackson told me as we walked to the front door.

"Nightshift, right." I nodded, "Sure, see you tonight."

Before I knew it, Jackson had left and I was left alone in the house. The first thing I wanted to do was tell Sam, but when I remembered that that wasn't an option, I instead headed to the kitchen to make some coffee.

═══ Evening ═══

All day I had slept and watched movies before I left, but right now I was currently walking into the hospital. As I headed for the elevator, I ran into Meredith, Lexi, April, Alex, and Jackson.

"Hey." I waved.

"Hey." Meredith sleepily smiled as we piled onto the elevator.

Once we got to the floor that we wanted and the doors slid open, we rushed off and met up with the Attendings that were heading out from their day shift. As we approached the others, April let out a yawn.

"Did you just yawn?" Mark asked, "Was that a yawn?"

"Don't tell us you're tired after getting to sleep all day." Teddy turned to us.

"It's not as easy as it sounds," April told them.

Bailey walked towards us, "Not easy? When I was a resident, I actually worked for a living. I did every other night call for five years."

The new Peds attending, Dr. Stark, nodded, "There were days that I didn't go home for seventy-two hours. I loved it."

"As you trudged through the snow while you whittled your own scalpels." Alex mocked, obviously still sour about an incident from the day before.

"Sorry. I didn't quite catch that, Karev." Stark said as a few of us chuckled.

Before anyone could respond, Bailey stepped in. "Uh, Karev, I need you to follow up on my post-ops." Bailey said as she handed Alex a stack of charts, "And here. Take this research. Divide out all the fistula cases."

"Avery and little Grey, Hunt is waiting for you in the pit," Teddy announced as the attendings started to file out.

"All right." Callie smiled, "Try not to screw up our patients. Goodnight and good luck."

Mark turned back to us before he got on the elevator, "Gonna be over at the bar. Try not to need us."

Just then, Stark walked over to Meredith and I. "Dr. Grey? Shepherd's wife and Dr. Forrest?" he asked and we nodded, "You two are with me tonight."

"Yes," Meredith told him.

"Good." he sighed, "I heard you're both good. Listen, I'm late for dinner, so, um, I made a list of my patients, their protocols. Basically everybody's stable. Just try and keep 'em that way."

"And if we need to get in touch with you, sir?" I asked as Stark headed for the elevator.

"You won't." he called back as the doors slid open, " 'Cause you're good."

Meredith looked confused, and I couldn't say that I didn't as well. "Nice to meet you," Meredith called.

As we headed down the hall to the first patient, Meredith turned to me, "So, did I tell you about Derek's Alzheimer's trial?"

"Nope." I shook my head.

"Well," she started, "Derek applied for a grant for an Alzheimer's trial. He wants to cure it. He found out that he got the grant today."

I smiled, "Oh, wow! That's awesome! You're mother, she had Alzheimer's, correct?"

Meredith nodded as we entered the first room. "Mrs. McNeil." Meredith greeted a small boy and his mother, "I'm Dr. Grey and this is Dr. Forrest. We'll be taking over for Dr. Stark tonight."

"Drew's in a lot of pain." the mother told us.

Meredith stepped over to the boy, Drew, and started to examine him. "Okay, well, that's not unusual for this type of chest surgery," she explained.

"Abdominal pain is not normal after pectus excavatum surgery," the mother responded, "and it's been going on for two hours. I'm a nurse at Seattle Pres. It's okay, Drew, honey. Mommy's right here."

"His abdomen does seem a little tender," I commented after doing a quick examination.

The mother nodded, "I'm concerned about his vitals. And I know my son. He's not a complainer. Something is wrong. Can you please call Dr. Stark?"

"I will." Meredith said, "I'll call him right away."

Drew let out a small moaning sound as Meredith and I exited the room to locate Dr. Stark. Since he didn't leave us with a phone number or anything, we had to get one of the nurses at the main desk to give him a call. Then, in about 10 short minutes, Dr. Stark arrived back at the hospital and gave Drew an examination.

Once the exam was over, Stark gave Drew a thumbs up. As Meredith and I waited by the doorway, Stark gave the mother a reassuring nod before walking towards us. Carrying Drew's chart, Stark led us into the hall before turning to us. "Have you ever had the tiramisu at Gino's Trattoria?" he asked us.

"Excuse me?" Meredith raised her eyebrows.

"Tiramisu, Gino's Trattoria, uh, ladyfingers soaked in rum?" he said again.

Both Meredith and I shook out heads, "No, I haven't"

"Neither have I, because you felt the need to drag me away from my dinner to examine a kid with gas." Stark gave us a disappointed look.

"Gas? I thought...oh, when we called you, he was in a lot of pain and his vitals were borderline." I explained, "They're better now because we gave him a liter bolus of I.V. fluids at 20 cc's per kilo. But his pain-"

"Yet, what you should've given him was an antiflatulance." Stark cut me off, "Abdominal pain after chest wall surgery in a patient on narcotic painkillers is gas or constipation until proven otherwise."

Meredith thought for a moment as Stark signed the chart and handed it back to her, "But, Dr. Stark, what if his pain is-"

"Tiramisu," Stark called back as he walked away.

Once Stark was out of sight, I turned to Meredith. "We should keep a close eye on Drew," I suggested.

"Yeah." Meredith agreed.

Halfway through checking on the other patients, both Meredith and I got a page to Drew's room. Once we got there, the mother looked to us, a worried expression on her face. "His pain is getting worse." she told us, "His colour looks bad. His vitals haven't stabilized. I've seen gas. This isn't gas."

"We have to give the medicine a little time to work," Meredith explained as I put my stethoscope to Drew's chest.

"We gave it time to work." the mother panicked, "It didn't work...which means this is not gas. I've worked the night shift. I know what goes on. I've lived through horror stories of patients falling through the cracks because residents are running around half asleep, and their attendings are nowhere to be found. I will not let that happen to my son."

Meredith nodded, "I won't either. I promise. And we agree that it's not gas. So let's run some tests and find out what's going on. Okay?"

"Thank you." the mother seemed a little calmer now.

Drew started to moan once again as Meredith and I rushed off to schedule some tests. Once the tests were scheduled, we had some time to kill, so we headed to the attendings' lounge to find Alex there with a box of pizza. Grabbing a slice each, we sat down just as April walked in. "What are you doing in the attendings' lounge?" she asked, "We could get in trouble."

"Pizza?" Alex offered her a slice.

April shook her head, "I have stupid teenage patients who super-glued themselves together so their parents can't tear them apart."

"Mm. That sounds romantic." Meredith said.

"Yeah. More like moronic." April disagreed, "I have no idea how to get them apart without taking off half their skin."

Alex took a bite of his pizza, "Try acetone."

"Try going away." April snapped, still mad at Alex because apparently he tried to sleep with her or something along those lines. Letting out a sigh, April turned to us, "Any ideas?" she asked.

Meredith thought for a moment, "Mm... Acetone?"

"Thank you." April smiled before exiting the room.

"So what's the deal with Stark?" Meredith asked Alex.

"He's a lazy, backstabbing weasel. Why?" Alex replied.

I took a bite of my pizza, "Because we called him in to examine this patient-"

"You called him in? Ha!" Alex laughed, "Wish I coulda seen that. You don't call Stark."

"Well, our kid just had pectus excavatum surgery, and he was in serious pain." I continued.

Alex sat back in his chair, "Yesterday my fundoplication patient was vomiting. You don't call Stark."

"Well, this kid's mother is a nurse at Seattle Pres," Meredith told him.

Alex took another bite and sighed, "Let's play a game. There's one rule. You don't call Stark."

"Alex, we're serious." Meredith told him, "Normally we would handle this ourselves. But neither Ellie or I have been on Peds in a while, and you know the complications with these kids."

"Did you order blood work and a C.T.?" Alex asked.

"Mm-hmm." Meredith nodded.

Alex sighed, "I'd add an L.D.H., a C.R.P, and a Sed Rate. I mean, with Stark, you have to cover all you're bases so if you do end up calling him, he has no excuse but to get off his ass and come in."

After Alex was done, we all took another bite of pizza. "Nightshift sucks," I said with a mouthful as Alex and Meredith nodded in agreement.

As Meredith and I waited by one of the desks on the floor we were on, the hallways had never looked so empty. The only sound was the floor waxer that the janitor was using and the only other people in sight was a nurse that would walk by every once in a while. "What's wrong with you guys?" we heard Alex ask as he dropped off an armful of charts at the desk, "You didn't call Stark again, did you?"

"No. We're not calling him until we get our C.T. results," I told him, "and there's only one C.T. tech down there, and he's really backed up, so..."

"Have I mentioned that I hate the night shift and I hate Stark?" Meredith groaned.

Alex and I nodded as Chief Webber came around the corner. "Hey, Chief. What are you doing here?" Alex asked, "It's late."

"Well, when a screaming mother calls me at home to tell me my residents are about to kill her son, time becomes irrelevant, wouldn't you say?" the Chief told us angrily, "Dr. Grey and Dr. Forrest, are you familiar with Mrs. McNeil?"

"She called you?" Meredith's eyes widened, "We did not give her your number."

"She's a nurse. She worked the system." Chief Webber almost yelled, "But what concerns me is not how she got my number. It's why she felt the need to call me in the first place. Now, what the hell is going on?!"

"We have a plan in place." Meredith explained, "We're just waiting for a C.T., and the guy down there is very backed up."

"How long have you been waiting?" the Chief asked.

"Two hours," Meredith answered.

Sighing, Chief Webber motioned for us to follow him. Doing as he asked, we accompanied him down to the C.T. floor. "Get up." Chief Webber told the C.T. tech.

"Excuse me?" the tech asked.

"Get on your feet." Chief Webber ordered, "Now I understand you're a little behind schedule."

The tech nodded, "Yeah. It's just me tonight, so we're backed up."

"Well, why didn't you call the on-call tech?" Chief Webber asked.

"Well, he wasn't feeling so hot." the Tech replied, "I thought I'd cut him a break. He does the same for me."

The Chief sighed, "Listen...Hawk. We're in the business of saving lives. Now I don't care if your friend is lying in a ditch bleeding, he will come in tonight. Now get him on the phone. Now."

The tech nodded and quickly reached for the phone. Once he had dialed the numbers, Chief Webber took the phone from him. "Hello." Chief Webber said a few seconds later, "No, this is not your dude. This is Chief Webber." there was a pause as the tech spoke to the chief, "What do I need? I need you to get yourself into this hospital in the next five minutes, or you and your dude can kiss your jobs goodbye!" the Chief warned him.

With that, Chief Webber hung up the phone and turned back to Meredith, Alex, and I. "Now that's how you get things done at night." he told us before pushing past and heading for the elevator.