"Shepherd what are you doing?!" He had said.
"It's so much easier that way." She had answered.
"You're exposing yourself to direct radiation!" Meredith had said. As if she hadn't known. It was the only way.
"You need to put the glove back on, right now!" He had pressed.
"Amelia…" Meredith had tried to stop her.
"I got this!" She'd cut her off. She had got it. She had been brilliant in there.
"Grey, stop her! She needs to put that glove back on right now!" He'd pressed again over the intercom.
"Almost done!" Meredith had supported her. She had her back. She'd known how brilliant it was.
"Without the glove she's cutting her exposure time in half! She's over her limit!" Owen had tried to reason. "Shepherd you're gonna make yourself sick!" He'd said. As if she didn't know. As if she wasn't aware how dangerous, hell, how reckless this was.
"Amelia, he's right." Meredith urged. She wasn't on her side after all.
"Shepherd put on the glove!" Owen had yelled over the intercom but she almost hadn't heard it, she'd been so focused on what she was doing. She had done it. She succeeded. She'd been a superhero in there. A freaking superhero.
Right now she didn't feel like a superhero. At all.
After Herman's surgery Amelia had felt so tired she went to lay down in on of the on-call-rooms. Nothing out of the ordinary. It had been a long surgery. A stressful surgery. A relentless surgery. She had slept for a few hours, hoping she would feel better afterwards. It wasn't the case. The stiffness, tiredness and general soreness she had felt after the surgery had been replaced by a strong headache, nausea, dizziness and an even stronger urge to sleep. Could she have caught some kind of a stomach bug? Unlikely. The only thing that spread faster at Grey-Sloan Memorial than ilness was the gossip about said thing. If there had been an outbreak she would have heard. Could it have been bad food? Highly unlikey. She hadn't eaten much for the past few days because of all the stress of the surgery.
Amelia tried to prop herself up on one arm in the bed, but as soon as she began to lift her head the dizziness increased so much that she almost fell back into her pillow, one hand at her head, almost as if she tried to steady it. This couldn't be happening. She needed to check on Herman. She needed to… what did she need to do? She couldn't even think straight.
At this moment she heard the on-call room door open.
"Shepherd are you in here?" A familiar voice asked.
She wanted to answer but all that came out was a tired groan. She was so, so tired.
"Amelia?" He asked "Are you okay?" He sounded a little concerned now. She knew the tone. Owen's typical concerned tone.
"I'm just… so… tired…" she mumbled way more slurry and down than she wanted to.
He walked over to the bed, just taking one look at her to know she wasn't okay. "You don't look so good." He stated, the lines on his forehead deepening, the concern in his voice growing. Before she could try and argue, he sat down on the side of the bed next to her, carefully placing a hand on her forehead. "Oh woa! I think you might have a bit of a temp!" He stated, trying to take a closer look at her. "What's going on?" He asked in a soft voice.
"My head…" was the only thing she could say, before lurching forward over the side of the bed, throwing up on the floor. He rushed to steady her, trying to keep her hair out of her face, gently placing one hand on her back. As he watched her it slowly dawned on him. No, this couldn't be, right? This couldn't be happening to her.
"Amelia?" He asked, trying to get a response out of her. She didn't answer as he helped her lay back down on the bed. She seemed increasingly out of it. "We need to get you admitted." He stated "You really don't look well."
" 'm so tired…" she mumbled but her weak protests didn't stop Owen from gently sitting her up and trying to pull her up to a standing position. The sudden movement send her dizziness into overdrive. She tried to grab hold of him but her legs just buckled beneath her. He instantly was by her side, trying to catch her on her way down, pulling both of them to the ground. He stabilised himself on one knee, one arm around her torso on her chest, the other on her back as she threw up again. She was almost limp in his arms. This was getting really serious.
"I need some help in here!" He yelled out to the hall. Just moments later two nurses rushed into the room.
"I need a gurney in here now!" He ordered, one nurse heading out, while the other one helped him steady Amelia. They lifted her onto the gurny, carefully placing her on her side so she wouldn't aspirate if she threw up again.
"We need to get an IV in and push fluids!" He ordered as they pushed her down the hall. As they where half way to one of the trauma rooms, they ran into Meredith.
"Oh god! What happened?" She asked, the obvious shock on her face as she saw Amelia.
"I think it was the seeds Meredith." Owen answered, deep concern showing on his face.
"Wait, you think she's suffering from accute radiation symdrom?" Meredith asked, her eyes widening as she realised what this could mean. "When did the symptoms start?" She asked as they wheeled Amelia into the trauma room.
"I don't know." Owen answered between clenched teeth. "After the surgery she went to lay down. She must have slept for four hours or so, so I went to check for her and I found her like this."
"So the symptoms could have started anywhere between one to four hours after the exposure?" Meredith asked. Owen nodded. They both knew that this was bad. Really bad.
"Yes." He answered, the uncertainty scaring him more and more. "She can't die!" Owen said, panic creeping into his voice.
"She's not gonna die! Right Amelia?" Meredith said as she checked her vitals. "I need a CBC and we need to get her on blood transfusions and antibiotics stat! This makes her extremly susceptible to infection and sepsis." She said as she placed an oxygen mask on Amelia's face to ensure she was getting enough oxygen. At this point she was basically asleep, just laying limply in the bed infront of them. "Okay so she has a bit of a temp, but not too high of a fever so that's a good sign." Meredith stated after taking Amelia's temperatur. "Since we don't know exactly how strongly she's been exposed, I want her to be checked twice every hour. Page me immediately if anything changes." Meredith ordered as they pushed Amelia towards the ICU. Even though her condition wasn't as critical, both Meredith and Owen knew how dangerous acute radiation syndrom could be. They knew the percentages. They knew how fatal it could be.
"I should have pushed harder for her to stop…!" Owen pressed between clenched teeth as they left Amelia's room.
"Owen stop it!" Meredith said. "If at all, I should have stopped her as I was standing next to her in that OR, but shifting blame isn't gonna make this better. It's not gonna make her better." Meredith stated as she looked directly at him. She knew that this was what he did. He blamed himself. He felt guilty for not protecting her, but this wasn't his fault.
The next morning Meredith got a page from one of the ICU nurses. She had spend the night in the hospital to make sure she'd be there if anything happened with Amelia. Meredith quickly gathered her things before heading to the ICU to check on Amelia.
"How is she doing?" Meredith asked as she walked up the the ICU nurses station.
"She's doing better." One of the nurses stated with a smile. "The fever has gone down to 100.7F and she's getting a bit clearer. She's still pretty tired and the nausea is still not doing well, but that's to be expected so we administered 6mg of IV Zofran to try and get the vomiting under control."
After the check in with the nurses, Meredith headed towards Amelia's room. When she entered, Owen was already sitting by her side. From the looks of it he had spend the night in the hospital as well.
"Looks like she's gonna make a full recovery." Meredith stated with a smile. "We're still gonna keep her here for at least two days, continue the antibiotics and monitor her closely but she seems to be getting better."
Owen didn't lift his eyes from Amelia's sleeping body, but he smiles thankfully. She was going to be okay. Amelia was going to be okay. His Amelia.
Editors Note: Okay so I have complete writers block on my other story but I still wanted to write, so I wrote this oneshot on 11x14 and what could have happened if Amelia had gotten acute radiation syndrom from prolonged exposure during Herman's surgery. While researching for this story I discovered that another author had published a fanfiction on the same topic. I did not take the idea from her, but I would still very much encourage you to check ot out :)
Did you like this oneshot? And if not why? Do you want to read more oneshots? I would greatly appreciate your reviews :)