The Doctor and the Girl
Chapter 1
It was a regular Friday in Seattle Grace Hospitel. Many surgeries, crowded floors, exhausted staff and lots of people waiting for medical care or informations about their loved ones.Chaos. Maybe not so regular after all.
Miranda Bailey, chief resident, was in her element and yet so busy she had hardly time to take a breath. There had been a huge accident on a freeway just outside Seattle. A truck with a sleepy driver had crushed in a bus full of commuters and some smaller vehicles were also affected. An accident so widespread it was a guarantee for a packed up day. Probably non-acute and follow-up surgeries would keep everyone swamped with work for the weekend and possibly next week..
But not enough, now one of the nurses told Bailey, Dr Webber,the chief of surgery, requested her to take care of a delicate patient matter. That was the last thing any surgeon could use when needed in the OR. Bailey´s initiate feeling of resentment to that assignment proved to be acurate. The patient matter was very delicate indeed and possibly very time consuming. It was about an 8 year old girl, who was one of the many victims of the accident. She and her mother had been in one of the smaller vehicles. Their car had been hit frontal by a severed car part. The mother at the wheel was afflicted with severe head trauma and several hematomas and cuts to the rest of the body. She lost too much blood too quickly and died before the paramedics even arrived at the scene. Her daughter in the backseat was however very much alive and wouldn´t stop screaming until the paramedics finally got her and her mother out of the car, but she wouldn´t let anyone go near her, let alone examine her for injuries.Actually she only stopped extensive screaming when she and her dead mother were put in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. As she seemed fine except for a little bruising where the seatbelt had hit, nobody tried to get in contact with her being busy with many other victims anyway. As soon as they got to the hospital, they obviously had to get the mother to the morgue which lead to another tantrum from the girl which eventually led her to flee into the hospital where she hid in an out-of-use patient room.
Bailey listened attentively until the nurse had finished. She felt instant sympathy for that scared little girl that just had to watch her mother die right in front of her. Bailey knew that girl deserved help and the best care she could get, but she also knew it couldn´t be her. She had three surgeries coming up, lifes were at stake and noone could cover for her. They already had too few surgeons as it was. She would nevertheless make sure that girl was in good hands.
First she ordered the nurse to contact the father or any other family member available plus a child psychiatrist who would hopefully take over at some point.
But until then, something else needed to be done. Bailey knew that the only one with the girl was a paramedic from the scene who was probably annoyed and clueless. As Bailey talked to the nurse, she found out it was even worse then that. The girl was in the patient room all by herself for 15 minutes now, as the paramedic couldn´t stand the screaming that started whenever he tried to talk her. So who was qualified best to deal with this unusual situation? However,it was hardly a question of qualification how it was normally measured in the surgical program. Bailey thought of all her former interns, most of whom were residents now. One of them would have to do this.
Izzie came to mind first as she was the one most likely to get emotionally invested with patients which was what the girl needed. Someone who cared. But on the other hand a nice smile and kind words wouldn´t do the deal here. Someone had to push through to the girl and as much as Bailey appreciated Izzie´s empathy she was too honest, too straightforward to understand the dark place in which the girl´s mind was in right now. No, Izzie´s brightness wouldn´t help here.
George similiar to Izzie tended to care about patients as well and even often managed to build up a connection to them but he also had a habit of talking too much and that girl had already chosen not to communicate, not by talking anyway. His many words would probably shut her up even more. So no to George as well.
There was Alex who certainly had things in common with the girl. He knew anger, loss and pain. That much she knew about Alex Karev but she was also aware of his frequent insensitivity and impatience which would do no good here.
Cristina was possibly the one she could rule out most easily. Bailey did not refuse to acknowledge that Cristina had a heart, a good heart even, but she was least of all others a kids person as she had experienced herself when she once forced her to babysit her son. And frankly Cristina didn´t care for much else than exciting surgeries.
That only left Meredith. Meredith Grey was from all of Baileys proteges the most withdrawn and quiet. Yet she somehow managed to get the most attention regarding both her professional and personal life. Everybody always gossiped about her controverse relationship with her boss,neuro surgeon Derek Shepherd and those who weren´t interested in her love life, were intrigued by the fact that she was the daughter of Ellis Grey, a woman famous for her surgical skills. Meredith however continued to have a close relationship with Derek and proved to be able to step in her mother´s enormous foot steps actually seeming to be just as talented.
Meredith had indeed a very strong personality, but she had issues, maybe more than her colleagues did and she didn´t like to discuss them with other people,maybe sometimes with Cristina. After all she recently almost died trying to save a man´s life in the horrible ferry accident that had shaken up Seattle. That same day her mother had died of a heart attack and she still kept it together no matter how hard it was. Plus she not only knew what it was like to shut people out, but how also how to put up with her demons and most importantly knew how to pull through hard times and keep going. Significant was also, that Meredith just experienced the loss of her mother and could hopefully relate to the girls´s agony. Besides Meredith knew dark places. Bailey thought that was hard to miss just by looking at her. After all she wouldn´t talk too much, be insensitive, disturbingly light or indifferent. She would be calm and patient if Bailey estimated her correctly. That was decided then. Meredith it was.