When the phone rings at two o'clock in the morning, it's rarely good.
Doctor Grace Holloway woke up to her bedside phone ringing, which seemed a lot louder now than it did during the day. She grabbed the phone.
"Hello?" She answered sleepily, already worrying about what could have happened to her family.
"Dr. Holloway, we need you to come in." It was Dr. Grey from the hospital. "Car hit a girl. EMT just brought her in. She's in A-fib."
"Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can," Grace replied, scrambling out of bed and into her scrubs and sneakers. The past two days had been relatively peaceful. Of course it couldn't last.
-
Grace soon was running into the prep room for the ER. Dr. Grey was waiting for her.
"Just got these from radiology. They're weird," he said, handing her the x-rays. Grace put them up on the light board.
"That's not possible." She stared at the films. "Two hearts."
"I think it's a double exposure. We took several, all like this. She's got six cracked ribs, a broken foot, and a broken wrist," Dr. Grey replied. "And her heart was going crazy. We have her hooked up to the monitor, and it's slowed down considerably."
"How so?" Grace was already forming an idea, one that would get her laughed out of the hospital.
"About ten per minute."
"Ten? Oh my God. Where is she?"
"Bed three-" Dr. Grey began, but Grace was already gone.
-
The patient was a blonde teenage girl, bruised badly and scaring the nurses with her low heart rate. Grace put her stethoscope on the girl's chest and listened. Something didn't sound right.
A scene flashed through her head- a man, holding her hand and gently laying it on his chest over his heart... and then moving it to the other side, where another heart beat. His skin had been cold- just like the girl's was now. Grace moved the stethoscope over to the other side, half wondering and half knowing. Another heart beat replied. Two hearts.
"Are we going to go in?" Asked one of the nurses.
"No. We just need to treat her for the broken bones. Don't let them touch her- heart," Grace said. "I'll stay with her and monitor her heart." She could barely contain her excitement. She'd found another one.
-
That morning was long and uncomfortable, spent in the bedside chair watching the girl's hearts readout on the EKG machine.
"Did the driver stop?" Grace asked.
The nurse on hand, Josh, nodded. "He called the EMT. Nice guy, really worried about her." Josh went back to writing in the paper work. "We didn't find any identification. No clue who she is. Hey, she's waking up."
The girl was just stirring, moaning.
"Take it easy, sweetheart," Josh said, gently. The girl was in traction and the last thing they wanted was for her to freak out.
"Doctor..."
"I'm here," Grace said, holding her hand.
"Doctor... I have to find the Doctor..."
Grace stared at her- a girl with two hearts, rambling about the Doctor. What the girl said next took Grace even farther aback.
"Dad..."