Rhekker || Never Let Go

Chapter 2: Tangled

[Resuming from 4×1]

[Chicago Med, Cardiothoracic On-Call Room, Connor's second last day before going to Mayo]

It's early in the morning, the shift's just started. Connor is emptying his locker, moving all his things into a box.

After hesitating a little at the door, Ava comes in and grabs a bottle of water: "Packing up?"

"Yeah, yeah. Our days of butting heads are almost over." Despite his words, he didn't sound much relieved. He is getting his dream career — but after all, he is leaving Ava.

"Oh thank god for that." Ava breaks into a naughty smile, seems to be cheerful that she'll never have to argue about a treatment plan again. However, she soon gave herself away: "By the way, did you know that Rochester, Minnesota is the 14th coldest city in the U.S.? And Chicago's 48, you know. It's much warmer." Opening the cap of her bottled water, she tried to make it seem unintentional.

"Why don't you just admit it?" Connor teases her. He's just made a rather new discovery: "You don't want me to go." He wasn't sure if Ava will miss him the way he'll miss her, but now he is. The Ava he knows would never say anything like that — unless she has something on her mind. And Connor's delighted that "something" is him.

"Oh please." Ava tries her best to deny it.

"Oh, you're going to miss me." The fact that Ava didn't want him to leave pleased Connor. Satisfied, the man finally lifts the corner of his lips as he turns back towards his locker.

Ava was not going to let him get away with it, "Miss the most egotistical, ambitious, and arrogant man I've ever met? Hardly." She raises her eyebrow, throwing him a mischievous glance.

Everything seems so "normal": The jokes, the sarcasm, just like any other day. But they knew in their minds that, this may be the last time.

"Here," Connor picks up a mug from the box, "Now that you are a big shot attending, I'm going to leave you with this." He holds up the mug, "'Cardiac surgeons fix broken hearts.'"

Ava chuckles and grabs the handle. She pulls the mug towards her — it didn't move. Connor didn't let go. Instead, he covers her hand with his own.

The room falls into a complete silence. Ava couldn't hold her smile anymore. She could feel Connor's eyes fixed on her. Ava gathers up her courage and stares back into his eyes, unsure of what's going to happen next.

"We could've had something." Connor couldn't keep it in any longer. Getting the job at Mayo, he thought he had nothing to lose — but he never knew he was going to miss Ava so much.

Ava's heart thumped. Realizing his words, she shakes her head: "You're the one who's leaving." Her eyes slowly filling with sadness and anger. How can he sound like I'm the one responsible for this? She knows she can't blame him for taking the job at Mayo, but if he'd done something earlier, if he'd been more serious about this, about her—

But to lose means to become lost. Yes, maybe they've met the right person, but it was the wrong time. And it's too late now to fix it. That time is up.

Suddenly, Nurse Belinda came in and broke the heavy atmosphere: "Dr. Bekker, Dr. Rhodes, they need you in the E.D. Suspected TRA coming in."

"Yeah." Connor answers, still not taking his eyes off Ava. Ava gives him a last disappointed glance and walks out of the room first. Sighing silently in frustration, Conner follows.

[Chicago Med, E.D.]

"Let's get a chest x-ray stat! Logroll." A high-speed collision victim, Trevor Keyes, has just been rolled in when Ava and Connor ran into the treatment room.

"Dr. Choi?"

"Dr. Bekker and Dr. Rhodes, they are cardiothoracic surgeons." Ethan briefly introduces them to his wife who was treated on the scene.

"Linda. Please, help my husband!" She begs them.

Ethan gives a short description of the situation: "There is weakness in Mr. Keyes' left hand and it's cold."

The x-ray came out, "Wide mediastinum." Ava and Conner's expressions turned serious, "There is a high probability of a contained rupture in his aorta. We need to get Mr. Keyes to the hybrid room right away."

Ava, Connor and Monique rush the patient towards the elevator while emptying the full cab as fast as they can: "Out of the way! Everybody out! Come on, let's go, let's go, let's go!"

The elevator ride that usually takes seconds now seems to take forever. "Linda... Linda... I love you—" Trevor Keyes tries his best to talk to his wife. "Trev, I love you too, but you're gonna be fine!" The woman reassures her husband. "I—" Suddenly, Trevor's head turns to his side. "Trev! Trevor!"

Connor rushes to check his pulse, "Nothing." He starts compressions. The elevator finally opens. "Let's go!"

"Wrong floor, this isn't surgery!" Monique reminds him. "Can't wait, got to open his chest now! Give me a scalpel!" There was still no pulse.

"What happened to him?" Linda Keyes is terrified.
"His aorta ruptured, I've got to get control." As soon as Connor cut him open blood gushes out from his chest, soaking the bed sheets and dripping onto the floor. "Help me spread his ribs!" Ava and Monique pull the ribs aside as Connor reaches inside him. "Can you feel the hole?"

"There's too much blood." Connor is not giving up. Finally, he paused, but soon shook his head, "His aorta is wide open." Ava looks down in pity.

"What do you mean?" Linda still has a glimmer of hope.

"I'm so sorry. There's nothing I can do." Conner hates these moments. The moments when he fails to take the patient's life from the hands of Death. He takes a deep breath, "Time of death, 8:23."

"He's dead? Trevor's dead? No!" The poor woman holds her husband's body in disbelief, pressing her face onto his still-warm cheek, "No, Trevor, no! No!"

Ava turns her eyes away, cannot bear to watch the desperate scene. Though as a CT surgeon, she has seen far too many deaths, some of these moments still strike her. She looks up and meets Connor's gaze. They can see it in each other's eyes — the feeling of powerlessness. These moments are the reason why they always push themselves to be better than the best. So that the next moment doesn't end like this one.

Thank you guys for waiting patiently and sorry I was slow on this chapter! This was meant to be a quick transition chapter but I was debating on whether I should include the emergency scene and ended up splitting this chapter in two. I decided to include more of their work with patients because I think it helps shape their characters which is one of my main focuses. Please comment on any thoughts or suggestions! I hope you guys liked this chapter!