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

76 | I'm An Artist Myself

I wiped the sweat from my brow as I stared up at the sun. I was in the middle of a bloody baseball field, playing ball with the rest of my co-workers. Why? I had no idea, but I went along with it since Owen told us to and he was my boss. We had some big game or something the next day, but there was no way we were going to be remotely ready in time.

"Hey!" Meredith and Cristina both yell as the ball landed inches away from their heads. Those two were instead lying in the grass and not playing ball, which might have been the better idea now that I think about it.

Alex and I both ran over to the ball, but he ended up grabbing it first. "That coulda hit us!" Meredith complained.

"Nice hustle." Alex scoffed.

Cristina turned to Meredith, "You know, I think it's just more avoiding thinking about Zola."

"Did you hear something?" Alex asked.

"No." Meredith shook her head, "I...we've bugged Janet till she's sick of us, and she doesn't really know anything, so we just have to wait for the court to give us a hearing date, and we're just..."

"Keeping the faith." Cristina finished her sentence.

"Keeping the faith," Meredith repeated.

"Karev, throw the ball!" we heard Owen yell from the baseball diamond. Alex chucked the ball to Owen, who then threw it to Arizona at home, but she didn't come close to catching it. A few people yelled at her, others yelling at Mark as he made out with his new "girlfriend" from the opposing team, Seattle Presbyterian. Sighing, I stood and watched and Lexie stood up to bat. Derek threw the ball, and she hit it like it was nothing.

"Drop the bat." Owen instructed, "Go, go. Run to third. Don't stop. All right. Come on, everyone. Look alive. Yang, Grey, you-you could at least stand up!"

"Hi, honey!" Cristina waved.

Owen looked to me, "Forrest, come on! You said you played sports!"

I nodded, "Yeah! Basketball, Volleyball, and Rugby. Baseball is not on that list!"

Owen groaned as the coach from the other team approached him. After a while, people started to pack up. "Is that it?" Cristina stood up, "Are we done?!"

"Everyone." Owen tried to stop the people from leaving, "No, no. Wait."

Never the less, we packed up and went back to the hospital. We were surgeons, not professional baseball players. As soon as I got dressed into my scrubs, I was paged to the E.R. for a guy who fell off of a garbage truck or something like that. I always liked trauma, so I knew that today would be a good day.

I entered the trauma room just as Owen and April did. "One, two, three." someone counted as they lifted the victim onto the bed. "Okay, what do we have?" Owen asked.

"Carl Shatler." the paramedic began to give us his details, "Sanitation worker, mid-thirties. Fell off the back of a garbage truck, then hit by a car backing out of a driveway."

Callie picked up the chart, "Okay, vitals are stable but he has multiple contusions, scalp lac, and obvious hand injuries."

Owen nodded we stepped up to the patient, "Okay, Carl? Carl, I'm Dr. Hunt and this is Dr. Forrest. Do you know where you are? Can you hear me?" Carl only groaned in response to the questions he was asked before Owen continued, " G.C.S. ten, and pupils are equal and reactive. I'm gonna need the portable X-Ray and ultrasound."

"Right away." April nodded as she took off.

"Oh, this hand's hamburger." I heard Callie sigh, "He's gonna lose some of this."

Just then, Carl woke up fully. "Oh, God." he started to move, "No!"

"Calm down." Owen stood over Carl's head, "Kepner, where is that ultrasound? Give us some room here, Torres."

Callie nodded, "Okay, I just need to stabilize the hand, and then I will-"

"I said, give us some room." Owen ordered, "The hand is not the priority right now."

Callie took her gloves off, "Fine. Page me when you need me."

"Mm-hmm." Owen nodded as Callie left the room.

Once April had gotten the C.T., her and I went to go find Callie and tell her that she could work on Carl's hand now. "Uh, so C.T.'s negative for any internal bleeding, so Chief Hunt says Mr. Shatler is all yours," April said as we caught up to Callie in the hall.

"Oh, that's super." Callie said in a high voice as she took the file from April, "Hey, tell Chief Hunt I'm so grateful he gave me the go-ahead."

April gave her a look, "Okay. W-was that sarcastic? Um, hey, is there any chance you need an assist on that hand? I need more O.R. time."

"I've already got Forrest, but sure." Callie agreed, "Go schedule an O.R. Oh, and, uh, wish me luck. I'm about to tell a guy his crappy day just got crappier."

April smiled as she took off to book an O.R. and I went with Callie to have a quick discussion with Carl. "Considering all you went through, you were lucky, really," Callie explained as Carl looked up at us from his bed.

"That sounds like a set up for bad news." Carl sighed.

Callie went to the computer and pulled up an X-Ray of Carl's hand. "Uh..." she thought for a second, "Some of the bones in your hand were pulverized. There was extensive nerve and tissue damage. I'll know more once we get in the O.R. and clean it up, but there's a chance you could lose these two fingers." Callie pointed to the pointer and middle finger on the X-Ray.

Carl angrily reached for his bag. "Look, I know it's a shock...but you survived a terrible accident..." Callie told him.

"Damn it." Carl pulled something sharp looking out his bag, "Son of a-"

"Whoa. Holy crap." Callie panicked, "What are you...uh, wh-what are you doing?"

I jumped back, "What the heck is that?!"

Carl instantly dropped the object, "Oh, no, no, that's not a weapon. That-that's a...a spitsticker. I-I do...I do woodcarving, um, wood prints. I, uh, carry this stuff with me 'cause I have a lot of downtime on my job. I..."

"Okay." Callie nodded as I took a gulp, glad things didn't turn out the way I thought they were for a second. "Um, I'm sorry." Callie apologized, "It's just, you kinda...and that scared the hell outta me."

Carl nodded, "Yeah. I was just looking for my phone to-to call my wife."

"Okay." Callie chuckled as we moved back towards the computer and Carl's bed.

"Are you gonna freak out if I stick my hand in here again?" Carl asked.

"No." Callie and I laughed at how stupid we just were.

As Carl rummaged through his bag, he pulled out some of his woodcarvings. "Wow. This...this is gorgeous." I told him and Callie nodded, "Can I..."

"Yeah." Carl nodded as Callie and I each picked one up.

"Wow. Do you...do you sell this stuff?" Callie asked.

Carl shook his head, "No, no. Collecting garbage pays the bills. This...this-this keeps me sane. Or it did...till today. You might want to leave the room." Carl picked up his phone, "She's gonna be pretty upset."

Callie put the carving down, "Make sure you, uh, tell her that I'm...I'm something of an artist myself."

Carl nodded as we exited the room, a new game plan in mind. No matter what, we had to keep every single one of Carl's fingers...or at least try to.