This is based on the Sneak Peak for 'Rise' that was played at Comic Con and the first part comes directly from that. I hope you enjoy it. I had to watch a scene from ER so that I could get all the terminology down, so all you doctors out there have to forgive me for any inaccuracies, the stuff I wrote came from a stabbing scene, I couldn't find the GSW scene that I wanted. There was way too many to go through.
Disclaimer: Still not mine; I doubt it will ever be.
A Life Worth Living
"Accept the pain, cherish the joys, resolve the regrets; then come the best benedictions- 'If I had my life to live over again, I'd do it all the same.'"- Unkown
The EMTs ran the gurney carrying Detective Kate Beckett through the doors of the ER. Lanie was furiously pumping on her chest to keep her heart beating; pleading with her, "Stay with me. Stay with me. Come on!" Lanie refused to stop. "Don't die on me, Kate. Do not die. Come on!"
The doctor met them through the doors and the EMT gave him her stats, "Fatal GSW to the left chect. Initially unresponisve. Lost vitals on the way. Critical condition."
It was time for the emergency doctor to take over, "Trauma 1. Swich," he said to Lanie. "We've got this."
Lanie shook her head, defiantly continuing the CPR. "She's my friend. Do you understand that? She's my friend."
The doctor had seen it all before; "Then let us save her life," he told her firmly yet empathetically.
Lanie jumped off and stood still, watching the gurney go down the long hallway, slumping against Castle when he finally caught up with her, tears streaming down her face.
Trauma 1 was full of doctors and nurses working on Kate as they rushed her in and placed her on the bed.
"What's her BP?" Dr. Murray asked.
"90/50," replied the nurse monitoring he vitals, "Pulse-ox is low. 82."
"Get me some blood presure!"
"Right pupil is five milimetres and reactive and the left is the same.
"I need a number 8 ET-tube," another doctor, a Dr. Petersen stood beind her head and tilted it back, the nurse handed him what he asked for and he successfully intubated her.
"She's lost a lot of blood. I need four units of O-neg and hang two more on the rapid infuser. Send a trauma panel, type and cross and get a x-ray for the chest. We need to see what damage this damned bullet caused," Dr. Murray yelled out as he set to work on stablising Kate.
Castle and Lanie stood outside the trauma bay and peered into the windows, watching the doctors and nurses furiously work on saving Beckett's life.
"She's gonna be ok," Lanie said to Castle. "Tell me she's gonna be ok."
Castle wrapped his arm around the small woman's shoulders, "She's the strongest woman I know."
Dr. Murray took a look at the x-ray, "Looks like the bullet hit the aorta; we need to crack her open to stem some of this bleeding. Someone page Dr. Davidson down here. She needs to go to surgery as soon as we're done."
"Prep the chest. Betadine and a sterile drape," Dr. Petersen ordered the nurses. "10 blade."
Dr. Petersen carefully cut down the middle of Kate's chest, "Sternal saw." Once this was handed to him the only sound people could hear was that of the beeping heart-rate monitor and bones being cut through with a saw.
Castle heard it and pressed his face against the window and saw Dr. Petersen yank open Beckett's chest with the set rib spreaders. He could hear them suctioning out the overflow of blood from her body. He was caught off-guard when another doctor came flying into the room from behind him. Josh.
"What have we got?" he asked.
"Female, GSW to the left chest. We had to crack her open as the bullet nicked the aorta."
Josh snapped on his gloves, not realising "Give me a 4.0 prolene on a n RB-1 needle. I need to stop this hemorrhage." He dug around in her chest to find the main source of the bleeding and set to sewing it up.
The pulse-ox started to alarm, "She's in V-Fib," the nurse informed them.
"Start internal compressions," Josh told Dr. Murray, "I just need to cross-clamp this aorta."
Dr. Murray did as he was instructed and started massaging Beckett's heart to keep the blood pumping.
"Done. Autotransfuse from the cellsaver and charge the internal paddles. Give her another five of EPI."
Dr. Murray grabbed the defibrilator and shocked her heart.
"She's sinus tach," the nurse read out, "Pressure is up to 90."
"Ok, hang another unit and call the OR to let them know we have an open chest wound coming up," Josh draped a covering over Beckett's chest and started to wheel her out of the trauma room. He noticed Castle and Lanie outside the doors and looked at them in confusion. That confusion turned to shock when he realised who he was working on. Josh looked down and visibly paled. "Oh God!"
The nurse looked at him and asked, "What's the matter, Dr. Davidson?"
Josh picked up Kate's hand, "It's ok Kate. You're going to be fine." Josh looked over at Castle and Lanie, "We're going up to the OR, you can follow us in the next elevator."
Castle nodded and led Lanie to where Josh was heading. "Look after her, ok," Castle told him.
"I promise." With that the elevator doors closed behind Josh, the nurse and Kate who was lying motionless on the gurney beside them.
The OR waiting room was full of people waiting, hoping and praying for Kate Beckett to pull through her surgery. They all knew that Josh was the best in his field and that this was as personal for him as it was for the rest of them.
Alexis, Martha and Jim Beckett sat together while Esposito held onto Lanie for dear life. Ryan sat next to Jenny who was softly running her hand up and down her fiance's back in a soothing motion. Castle was agitated and couldn't sit still; he would be up and pacing one minute and sitting on a chair tapping his foot the next. It had been over three hours already and they had heard no news. Although, no news was good news, and everyone held their breaths as soon as they saw someone in scrubs walk into the room.
It was another two hours before Josh emerged from the operating theatre, his scrubs covered in blood. Kate's blood. He looked tired and he ran his fingers through his hair and rubbed his face. A small smile broke out onto his face when he saw Kate's 'family' all waiting for her.
"How is she?" Castle asked quietly.
"Stable. She's still in critical condition but we were able to stop the bleeding completely. She's lost a lot of blood and now only time will tell if she is strong enough to pull through."
"Can we see her?" Lanie questioned.
Josh shook his head, "No, I'm sorry. She's in complete isolation at the moment as she is quite susceptable to infections. Depending on how she goes through the night, tomorrow is the earliest anyone can see her." He looked at the forlorn faces of the group in front of him and felt sorry for them. He sighed and walked up to Jim, "Mr. Beckett, if it will help, I can take you to outside her door so that you can see her."
Jim nodded, "I'd like that, thank you."
Josh led Jim down the hall and everyone let out the collective breaths they were holding.
"At least she's alive," Esposito stated.
Everyone agreed before withdrawing back into silence; they needed to see Kate alive for themselves before they could come down off the ledge they had all perched themselves on.
After two days, Kate was still unconscious and everyone was physically, mentally and emotionally drained. Even Josh was feeling the effects of Kate's slow took it in shifts to watch over Kate but Castle refused to leave. He used his money and fame to get what he wanted; he wasn't proud of that, but he would do it all again. Josh had told them that Kate would wake up on her own and the fact that she was still asleep was a good sign that her body was healing herself.
Josh entered Kate's room to find Castle asleep with his head by her hip and holding her hand. Without warning, Castle found himself being hauled out of the room and slammed against a wall.
"What the hell?" Castle yelled. "What's your problem?"
"What's my problem?" Josh seethed. "I should be asking you that."
"Me? What did I do?"
"You just can't let her go can you?"
"She's my partner. I'm not going to leave her."
"Some partner you are," he spat. "You let her get shot!"
"Let her-are you on crack? How many times have you saved her life?" Castle paused for a second. "I'll tell you; one. And do you know how many times I have?"
Before he could answer his own question Castle saw a fist flying towards his face. He didn't have time to react and copped it straight on the jaw. Castle dropped to his knees, but recovered quickly enough to send a punch of his own directly into Josh's gut. Josh doubled over in pain and Castle stood up holding a hand to his jaw. Castle capitalised on Josh's slumped form and threw another punch into the left side of his face. Before the fight could escaate further, four burley looking security officers rushed over and pulled the two men away from each other.
"If you know what's best for you, Castle, you'll stay out of her life."
"Fuck you!" he retorted, "I'd like to see you stop me. I promised her I'd always be there for her; what have you ever done except leave?" Castle pulled away from the security officers and headed towards the exit. He needed to clear his head.
Josh looked at Castle's retreating form and collapsed against the wall; from there he could see inside Kate's room and her unmoving state. He buried his head in his hands and wept. Maybe Castle was right, he mused, Kate deserves everything and more.
When Kate woke up he knew what he had to do.
Castle stood by the ledge and overlooked the city from the roof of the hospital. He never knew why all the doctors in the medical shows used to always do that, until now. It was quiet and he could see the whole world pass him by from eight floors up. He figured he should take up smoking just to complete the whole experience. He knew that he could never leave Kate, and seeing the lights go out in her eyes shocked him enough to fight for her; and fight for her he did.
Ummm...so...yeah. What are your thoughts? I hope you all liked it. All mistakes are my own and like I stated up the top...I'm no doctor so I hope that scene made sense.
Bring on September 19th I say.