Chapter Two

Unexpected

"So, to use a pad - just peel the back label off, and stick it in the crotch of your underwear." Bella demonstrated how to use the pad to the 13-year old girl.

"And we've gone over how to use tampons." She sighed heavily, Bella remembered going through this herself.

It was the fist real day of the new Swedish Clinic. Dr. Mayer had been so excited for it to open - she had used the $8 million dollar check she received from one of her dead relatives to open up this Clinic—and so far no patients have even stepped foot in the clinic.

Well, except the single dad whose 13-year old had gotten her first period.

"Any questions?"

"If I had sex, like, before this whole period thing started, I couldn't be pregnant, could I? Because I did, and I thought he loved me, and now he won't look at me in school, or return my calls."

This was not happening. Bella thought. "Well…" She trailed off.

"And could you answer me, like, before my father gets here?" The girl eyed the window, where her father was talking to one of the nurses.

Too late. Her father walked into the room with a smile on his face, "Are we done?"

"Not exactly…" Bella said, wearily. "I would like to order a pregnancy test for your daughter." She bit her lip, waiting for the father to go off, thinking about how Charlie would react if that had been her in the situation, instead of the girl.

"What?" Her father erupted, his face was red - then purple. He looked furious.

"Dad, it's not what you think…" She argued, angrily looking at Bella.

"If you would just step outside…" Bella said, trying to get him out of the room.

She shut the door and looked at the girl. "Let's get you that test."

xXx

"The test came out negative." Bella told both the daughter and her father, who both sighed a sigh of relief. Bella wanted to sigh in relief too, but held it in.

"You are still in loads of trouble, Anna." Her father said, taking her up by the arm.

"Thanks, Dr. Cullen." Anna said bitterly as she let her father drag her out of the hospital. Bella weakly smiled at the girl - she was a doctor, she had done the right thing.

Right?

Bella ducked out of the clinic and went to the Peds ER, hopefully finding something better to do then standing around an empty clinic.

xXx

God, she was bored.

All her post-ops had been done, papers had been filled out, discharge papers signed and done. There were only ten kids in the Pit and they had minor things; like needing stitches. They were being attended to by the nurses and a few doctors - leaving Bella with a lot of free time, free time she did not want.

Edward was in a surgery, so there was no way they could meet in an on-call room until after the surgery.

What did it take for one little emergency to happen?

Then, finally - something happened.

Thank God.

Her pager went off and she sprinted to the trauma ambulance dispatch. She met her husband there, her attending, Dr. Robbins, Edward's attending, Dr. Hunt, along with a few other from the trauma team, a few of the cardiothoracic surgeons, and a few of Bella's pediatric co-workers. There they all stood in their yellow trauma gowns, waiting.

"There's more on the way," the EMT first said, after getting out of the ambulance, popping open the back.

"All part of a car accident." The second EMT said. "This one's a thirty-five year old male, nearly went through his windshield. Head is bleeding profusely; his left shoulder is shattered, bleeding from abdomen…" He rambled off his stats, as the man was wheeled out of the ambulance.

The man was covered in blood. His hair and head—still pumping blood from a spot near his crown—was caked in dried blood His neck was in a brace. The man was still conscious, screaming in pain. Dr. Hunt, Edward, and Dr. Altman and Dr. Yang went with him.

The next ambulance arrived minutes later.

"Seven-year-old female." The EMT stated, popping open the back. "When we arrived on the scene, she was nearly unconscious and not breathing very well. She has multiple lacerations on her chest and abdomen, and her left arm, and possibly her neck, are broken. Her BP is 70/40 and her pulse is thready." He continued rattling on her stats. She was unconscious, and blood seeped through her shirt, and into her silvery hair.

Poor thing.

"Cullen, Grey, Hale, Sinai," Dr. Robbins said, as she turned to head with the little girl into the hospital. "Wait here with Kepner, there's another kid on his way."

They nodded, and waited for the ambulance that held the little boy. There were a few more before him, each holding victims from the car accident, which one EMT told Bella, had been a three-car pileup. The men and women that came out of the ambulances so banged up and bloodied that they couldn't be recognized. The EMTs rattled off their stats, as each was taken out of the ambulance, and transported to the O.R. or to trauma.

Finally, the only doctors left standing were Bella's Peds coworkers—Dr. Annalise Grey, her sister in law, Dr. Alice Hale, Dr. Alex Sinai—and the Chief Resident, Dr. Anya Kepner.

"Five-year-old male," The EMT stated as soon as he hopped out of the driver's seat of the ambulance. "Unconscious at scene of accident, BP 70/45 and dropping. Pulse is thready. He has multiple lacerations across his chest, abdomen, legs, and arms, ranging from one half inch to three inches. He has a brain contusion located on his temporal lobe, and he may have level two internal bleeding in his liver and lungs. We started him up on 800 ml of Lorazepam, and 800 of HSD."

This little guy was in pretty bad shape.

The kid was covered in blood. He was conscious now, but his speech was slurred, and his eyes dull. He had a neck brace, to try to keep his head from moving. He wasn't very responsive, but Bella assumed it was because of the contusion and because Lorazepam has a strong sedative, usually used to treat seizures.

Those eyes…Bella thought, as they raced the stretcher into the Trauma room, to get a good look at the kid before sending him to the O.R.

While the other doctors were working furiously to get his bloody clothes off of the boy, so they could use the fast scan to assess any internal bleeding, and the rest of the damage, Bella tried to get his information.

"I'm going to need you to calm down for me, okay?" Bella sat at his head, placing her hands on his head, trying to get him to calm down.

"You are very hurt, but we're doctors, and we are going to fix you up, okay?" she explained. He instantly turned his face to hers, and looked at her.

"Can you tell me your name, honey?"

"I…wan…mom…" He struggled to say. Bella frowned.

"She's coming," Bella said, even though she didn't know where the hell she was.

"Mmmoomm…" He said again.

"I know, honey, I know." Bella said. "But right now, I need your name. What's your name?"

He shook his head. All of a sudden, he went still. The heart monitor was going erratic, and then came to a stop.

Beeeeeeeeeeeep.

"Shit!" Annalise shouted. "Someone get a crash cart in here, stat!"

"He's not breathing." Bella said. "His lungs are too full of blood. I need to get started on a chest tube, and someone intubate him, STAT!"

Bella grabbed the scalpel on the incoming crash cart, and cut open his side. She cracked his ribs, and blood splattered and squirted from his lung cavity, spilling onto the floor. She hooked up the tube, and blood started draining from his lungs and into the tube.

Alice started on the intubation, opening his mouth and sliding the laryngoscope down his throat. She grabbed the breathing tube from the nurse, and skillfully slid it down his throat, and hooked it up to the breathing machine.

"His heart's still not going," Kepner said. "Get the defibrillator, charge to two hundred."

Nothing.

"Damnit." Kepner said under her breath. "Again!"

Again, nothing.

"Again!" Kepner shouted, determined to keep this kid alive

.

His heart started again, slowly at first, then getting closer to the safe range. The doctors sighed a sigh of relief.

"We need to get this kid to the O.R." Dr. Kepner said. "Cullen, I need you to locate this kid's mom."

There goes my surgery. Bella sighed. "Sure."

Kepner, Alice, and Grey ran the stretcher down the hall and into the elevator. Bella took off the bloody trauma gown and shoes, washed off, and headed off in search of a mother looking for her little boy.

It would help if I knew the kid's name. Bella thought angrily, after two hours of looking for the boy's mother.

"Bella," Edward ran down the hall and into his wife.

"Edward, have you seen a mother who's missing her five year old son?" Bella asked.

"I think you want to come with me." Edward mumbled sadly, looking defeated

"Do you know where the mother is?"

"Just…follow me." Edward whispered nervously.

Bella sighed, but followed her husband down the hall, and into the ICU. He led her to room 105, and stopped.

"Edward…" Bella said, haphazardly.

"Just…Bella, look through the window."

Bella looked at her husband with a confused expression etched upon her face, but did as her husband told her. As soon as she saw who was in the bed, she let out a gasp.

"It can't be…"

"She's pretty bad." Edward said quietly. "She went headfirst through the windshield, and suffered major neurological and head trauma. During her surgery, she went into cardiac arrest, twice. She's in a coma right now, and we don't think that she's going to live past tomorrow."

"No…" Bella shook her head, fighting the tears. "That can't be Sarah."

"I called Billy. He and the twins are on their way. Jacob was with Sarah."

"Jacob…" Bella said quietly. "Damnit!"

"Was he the boy whose mother you were looking for?" Edward asked, his eyes were dull with grief.

"He's in surgery…I told him that his mom was on her way…" Tears slid down Bella's face, as she slid her back down the wall, and sat on the floor. She closed her eyes.

"Where is she?" Billy came down the hall, in frantic search of his wife. "Where's Sarah?"

He stopped dead when he was in front of her room.

"No…" He shook his head, closing his eyes. "That isn't Sarah." Pain etched into his handsome face.

"Billy, I think that we should go somewhere more private, to discuss…" Edward said calmly, Billy cut him off bitterly

"No." Billy said, looking at his comatose wife through the window. "Fix her." He looked at Edward, his expression was hard; determined.

"You're a good doctor. You've saved lives. Save hers." Billy pleaded, running his hands nervously through his long hair.

"Billy, I can't…" Edward trailed off, regret showing evidently on his face.

"Save my wife!" Billy shouted, his hands were shaking before her balled them into a fist. Bella closed her eyes, trying to imagine the pain he must be going through.

It was probably the same - or maybe even more then the grief Bella felt. She was loosing her best friend.

"Bella, can you…?" Edward looked at Bella, he didn't even need to finish what he was saying before Bella stood up, wobbling a bit.

"Yeah." She nodded wearily

Get Rebecca and Rachael and take them somewhere else.

Bella took the hands of the two girls and led them away from Billy and Edward, hoping they could get their mind off of this.

"Are you girls hungry?" She asked.

Please say yes. She begged silently as she took them to the cafeteria.

"Where's Mom?" Rebecca asked, as she took a seat in the plastic chair next to a table in the cafeteria.

"She's going to be okay, right?" Rachael asked quickly,

"And what about Jake?" Rebecca followed right after her sister's question.

"We don't know for sure…" Bella said cautiously.

"They're going to die?" They asked at the same time.

Definitely not something she wanted to answer.

"No…no…" Bella shook her head as she stuttered an answer. She twisted her ring nervously and played with her fingers as she looked at the ground.

"So…they'll be ok, right?" Rachel asked, she seemed to not believe the doctor.

"Your brother has internal bleeding in his liver and lungs, large cuts scattered across his body, and a brain contusion. Right now, he's in surgery, and we don't know if he'll suffer brain damage. We are focusing on stabilizing his body, so we can save his life." Bella explained slowly, hoping the young girls would understand.

"And Mom…?" Rebecca asked, her voice trailed off. Tears shinned in her eyes.

Bella sighed, and ran a hand through her hair. This was going to be tough.

"You're Mom is in a coma. She put her head through the windshield, and suffered major head and neurological damage."

"But…she's going to live, right? You're a doctor. You can save her, right?" Rebecca asked this time. Bella closed her eyes, a tear hit her leg.

"I work with kids," Bella started. "Not adults. From what I've heard, we're not sure if she will." She tried to stay calm and collected, like a doctor should be. She was finding it harder to do.

This was her best friend they were talking about!

"She's going to die, isn't she?" Rachel said blankly, Bella looked up to see her looking off into the distance, tears welling up and spilling down her cheek.

Bella just looked down at the table. That's all it took for the twins to burst out into a fit of sobs. Bella had tears streaming down her face as well, she was losing her best friend.

They were losing their mother.

And Billy was loosing his wife.

"Jake will be okay, right?" Rebecca asked, after a few minutes' silence.

"Like I said, we don't know if he'll suffer any brain damage, and after his surgery we need to do some CT scans to check on his bleeding, to make sure he's ok."

"But, he'll live?" Rachel followed suit with the questioning again. Bella watched as she picked at her dress and swung her feet that hovered right above the floor.

"He's in good hands." Bella said quietly.

Rebecca and Rachael nodded.

Bella's pager went off. It was from Edward. They were about to unplug Sarah.

"Would you girls like to see her?" Bella asked softly, "Too say goodbye?"

They nodded, and the three of them left, and headed back to the ICU.

xXx

"G - g - g - good - b - b - bye, M - m - mom." Rebecca said, trying to hold back her sobs. "I l - l - l - lo - love yo - you." Rebecca clung to her mother's cold, lifeless body, crying into her gown. Billy was behind her, rubbing her shoulders and silently crying as well.

Rachael didn't even go near her mother's bed. She sat in the corner, sulking.

Bella said her goodbye to her friend. Billy had already said his, and then left silently, moving like a ghost. Edward unplugged the machine Sarah was on.

Slowly, her heart rate and BP went down. Soon, there was no sound in the room but the tear-filled sobs of her daughters and friends.

"Time of death," Edward said quietly. "13:58, June 1, 2001."