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

80 | Ambulance

The ambulance ride was not a short one, so Meredith took this time to fill Alex in on the Zola news. It broke my heart to hear her talk about it again, but she was being very brave about the whole situation.

"It's probably a mistake." Alex spoke up, "You know, courts...they screw up all the time. You call 'em in the morning-"

"It's over, Alex." Meredith sighed, "It's been over for a while. Everyone knew it. No one wants to say it."

Alex was quiet for a while before speaking again, "So get-get a surrogate or whatever. You can't just write off having a family like that. Get Yang to carry a kid for you. She gets knocked up at the drop of a-"

"If you don't shut up in the next three seconds, I'm gonna shove you out the back of the rig." Meredith threatened.

With that, Alex finally got the hint and shut up until we arrived at the hospital. Once there, the sirens alerted the staff that we had arrived as we lowered the incubator out of the ambulance and made our way inside the hospital. "Hey, we're here to pick up a newborn, take her to Seattle Grace," Alex said as we approached the front desk.

"You're, uh, you're looking for me." a man stepped towards us, "I'm Jordan Wagner. I am really glad to see you guys."

Alex nodded, "Yeah, I'm Alex Karev. Meredith Grey, and Ellie Forrest."

"Okay," the doctor started to walk with us, "Li- uh, listen, she was born six hours ago, right away, trouble breathing. Stomach looked distended, so we put down an N.G. tube. But the X-Ray showed that it was just coiling in her chest. We've done everything we can to keep her breathing, but it's been a struggle."

"You don't have a neonatal mask?" Alex asked as we entered the baby's room.

"We're not set up for neonatal or O.B." he replied, "She was an emergency delivery, otherwise, we would have sent her to the hospital in Leavenworth."

"Pulse ox is seventy-nine." I announced, "Respiratory rate is eighty."

"She's got retractions," Meredith added.

Alex turned to Dr. Wagner, "How come she's not intubated?"

"The smallest tube we had didn't fit." he told us, "Please tell me that you brought a neonatal tube."

Alex sorted through the things that we had brought, "We're gonna need X-Ray in here for a post-intubation film."

"This I.V.'s no good," Meredith informed us.

Alex took a look at the I.V., "Yeah, you don't even have a neonatal central line kit."

"No." Dr. Wagner shook his head

"I.O. needle?" I asked.

"No."

I sighed as Meredith opened up the large red kit. This hospital literally had nothing we needed. It was a miracle the baby lasted this long in this place. Alex, Meredith, and I all shared a look, just praying we could save this baby.

As soon as we had the baby hooked up to the I.V.'s, Alex stepped aside to call Arizona. "The kid's septic." Alex spoke into the phone, "She's got pneumonia. Yeah, well, they don't have any neonatal stuff here at all. We intubated, we started an umbilical line to hang D10 normal saline and antibiotics. But her SATs aren't coming up, and all the oxygen's going into her stomach."

There was a pause as Arizona spoke. "They don't have a 3-0 E.T. tube." Alex said, "You think they're gonna have an amplatz?" Alex turned to us, "All right. Get her head up."

Meredith and I carefully placed another cloth under the baby's head. "A fogarty catheter?" Alex turned to Dr. Wagner, "Yeah, what else?"

Dr. Wagner motioned for one of the nurses to grab the catheter. "Uh, how about an eight-inch suction catheter?" Alex asked Arizona over the phone as he started to look through the things we had. "Got it. All right." Alex grabbed the thing he needed, "We're gonna call you when we get to the rig. Yeah, I know that."

As soon as Alex hung up the phone he explained the plan to us and we got right to work. Once we had the little girl ready for transport and inside the incubator, we headed back out to the ambulance. Just as we were leaving, a woman getting pushed down the hall in a wheelchair stopped us. "Wait." she called, "I'm coming with you."

"Dana?" Dr. Wagner turned to the woman, "Why is she out here?"

"She said if I didn't take her, she'd walk." the nurse replied, "I was afraid she'd try it."

The woman, Dana, looked up at Dr. Wagner, "Please let me come with her."

Dr. Wagner got onto one knee, "Dana...you just had surgery, and you've lost a lot of blood."

"I'll be fine." she insisted, "Please."

"I need you to take care of yourself." Dr. Wagner told her, "These guys, they're the best. She is in great hands."

Dana looked at the three of us pleadingly, "Please. She's my baby. We're supposed to be together. I can't leave her. She's so little. Please."

As rain poured down outside and thunder crashed, Meredith walked over to Dana. "I have to be with her. Please let me go with her." Dana begged.

"I'm Dr. Grey." Meredith introduced herself, "And that's Dr. Karev and Dr. Forrest. And we're gonna take your daughter to the best baby surgeon there is."

"She doesn't even have a name yet." Dana sobbed.

"Well, you're gonna give her one when you come to Seattle and hold her in your arms," Meredith assured Dana,

"And until that time, I'm gonna take care of her. You hear me? I have her. Okay?"

Dana slowly nodded before Meredith joined us and we headed out to the ambulance to take the baby back to Seattle Grace.

The ambulance sirens wailed as we drove through the thunderstorm. "You know, why not try adoption again?" Alex spoke up.

"Social services just took our kid away." Meredith reminded him, "What do you think, if we wait a week, they'll forget and give us another try with a new kid?"

"All right. So get a surrogate." Alex suggested again.

Meredith sighed, "Alex."

"Why not?" Alex inquired.

"Because I don't want a surrogate." Meredith stated, "Okay? Just drop it."

Alex shook his head, "No. You just don't give up like that."

"It's nice that you care, but it really isn't any of your business," Meredith told him.

"It is. It's my fault." Alex admitted, "I can't handle being responsible for you not having kids. It's too much."

Meredith was silent for a moment, "I-it's not your fault."

"Yeah, it is," Alex grumbled.

"No, it's my fault." Meredith said, "I got the ball rolling. I messed with the trial. What you did was turdy, but what I did was illegal."

Alex looked to her, "Who cares? You just don't give up. It's lame. You're not a quitter. That's not who you are."

Just then, the ambulance started to slow down and the sound of the engine sputtering could be heard over the rain. The rig came to a squealing halt as we stopped in the middle of the road. "Dude, what's the problem?" Alex asked the driver.

Without answering, the driver got out of the front and came around the back, opening up the large doors. "What happened to the engine?" Alex asked again.

"I don't know what the crap it is." he responded as he grabbed cones to put around the ambulance, "I called for another unit, but we're in the middle of nowhere and it's gonna take forever. I'm putting these out and I'm gonna run back. It looked like there was a store or something about half a mile back. Maybe they got a truck. You gotta get out of the rig."

"It's pouring rain and freezing." Meredith complained, "We can't go out there with the baby."

"There's no shoulder. It's not like we can just take the incubator out." Alex huffed, "I mean, there's not even anywhere to stand."

The driver looked at us, "This thing is full of oxygen tanks. We get hit, it'll go up like a Roman candle. You gotta get out."

"And leave the baby?" Alex asked.

"She'll die," I told him.

"You wanna all die?" the driver asked us as he held up the cones, "I'm putting these out. You better hope people can see 'em. You're on a hill and you're on a curve. I'm telling you, get out the damn rig."

With that, the driver closed the door and took off. I turned to Meredith and Alex, "What are we going to do?"