CHAPTER TWO
"So, what's the verdict?" Tori asked as she started walked next to Cat.
"Not pregnant," Cat said. "It's just a bug. Which means I probably got it from Callie because she said her stomach was hurting, which means the entire daycare has been contaminated and it's all my fault. The other parents are gonna hate me."
"If my kid gets sick, I'll hate you. I hate sick kids."
"Good thing you don't work in peds. All you have to worry about is weird looking moles that a paranoid mother is worried about."
"Dermatology is more than that! It's..."
"It's what? Scraping moles for biopsy and finding out that is just a mole? Yeah."
Tori sighed and nudged Cat. "You guys have fun stuff, all I do is play in a petri dish to see if a growth off a human's body is cancer or just tissue."
"Seeing children hurt isn't fun."
"What are we talking about?" Jade asked as she joined them after passing a chart to another doctor.
"How Tori's dermatology career is a fluke and she needs to get into something real."
"Skin care is important," Tori said.
"Yeah, but hospital worthy? Did the hospital really need an entire department dedicated to moles? No."
"Yeah, it wouldn't be such a bummer working here if I didn't have to run into you," Jade said.
"Shut up," Tori muttered. "I mean, you're in Ortho, that's not very important."
"Uh, yeah it is," Cat said. "Jade saves limbs. You save... nothing. You test freckles. I'm not saying dermatology isn't important at all, but it's definitely not as important as Ortho and Peds."
"Being Chief isn't that important either, but somehow Robbie's career tops all of us."
"He's a neurosurgeon. He has the most difficult career. One small move and he kills a person or ruins their lives. He's only lost three and he's only permanently damaged one. He's doing pretty damn good, plus being Chief on top of it all. That's stressful."
"I would have been a better Chief," Jade said with a shrug.
"Shut up. Oh, by the way - not pregnant. I have a bug. And Callie wasn't feeling very well earlier either, so... if Becky or Jaden end up sick, I apologize."
"Thanks a lot, Jaden's such a whine bag when he's sick."
"He's three."
"That's no excuse."
"How happy are you, Grumpy?" Cat asked as she picked a baby up from an incubator. "You get to go home today because you passed your car seat test this morning, and your mommy's gonna come and pick you up after work and you'll get to see your daddy and meet your brothers and sisters."
"What's the car seat test?" Dr. Harvey asked.
"It's where they sit in a car seat for an hour buckled up properly, and if they don't have any apneas or complications, then they're good to go."
"Oh. I didn't know about that."
"You've never had one of your patients have to do a car seat test. All the NICU babies have to do it and Grumpy here passed with flying colors, didn't you? Yes you did, you've grown so much since you were born, huh? Yeah," she said, kissing the baby's cheek.
"How big was he when he was born?"
"One pound, three ounces."
"Jesus..."
"He's been here longer than the other babies. His due date was just a few days ago, so he's come pretty far."
"Why do you call him Grumpy?"
"Cause he's never in a good mood. I got a half smile a minute ago, it's the happiest I've ever seen him."
"Dr. Shapiro," a nurse said. "There's an emergency with Calista, it's her heart."
"Shit," she whispered, laying the baby down in his incubator and running out of the NICU. She made her way down the hall and to the elevators, pressing the button several times before it opened and immediately pressing the button for the Cardiology floor. Once the doors were open, she ran out of the elevator and down another hall to the nurse's station. "Jamie, where's Callie? Where is she?"
"2014," Jamie said.
Cat ran to the room her daughter was in and she gasped when she heard the defibrillator shock her little girl. "Her heart stopped? It stopped?!" she asked.
"She's good, she's back," Trina said. "She's okay now, everything is normal."
"Mommy," Callie sobbed.
"I'm right here baby," Cat said as she walked to the bed and held her hand, kissing her head. "It's okay. Aunt Trina's gonna do what she can for you, okay?"
"I need to get her to an O.R., ultrasound shows there's a tear and her E.K.G. was abnormal, she's having a heart attack," Trina said softly.
Cat's eyes filled with tears, looking at Trina. "You'll fix it. You can fix it right?"
"As long as I get to that O.R."
"Aunt Trina has to do surgery on your heart," she said, looking at Callie. "She's gonna take really good care of you, okay? Mommy will be in the gallery so I'll be with you, but I can't be in the room with you. I'll be watching."
"No!" Callie said. "I don't want her to open my heart, I don't want surgery!"
"You don't get a choice in this, Calista; you need it. Aunt Trina wouldn't do unnecessary surgery on you. You need it."
"No, please!" she said, trying to sit up.
Cat held her down and grabbed a restraint. "If you put up a fuss they're going to have to tie you down and Mommy doesn't want that, so I need you to stay as calm as possible and be a good girl for Aunt Trina."
"I don't wanna go! I wanna stay with you!"
"I'm going with you honey, we're going together."
Cat scooted Callie over a little and she climbed into the bed, pulling Callie towards her and running her fingers through her hair. "You guys get this bed down to the O.R. and do it now."
"You can't -" a nurse started.
"This is my daughter, and you're gonna do what I said. Get us down there now and stop wasting time, she is literally having a heart attack as we speak. Move!" she shouted.
"She's fine," Trina said as she walked out of the operating room to see Cat. "She's still asleep, but we'll wheel her up to her room and you can go with her."
"What?" A nurse asked. "No, she can't visit until she's awake."
"She's a doctor here, doctors get special privileges with their children, surgery exempt."
"I wasn't allowed to watch my nephew's appendectomy."
"That's your nephew. Not your child."
"Do you wanna get punched in the throat?" Cat asked. "Because that's what I'm about to do."
"Okay!" Trina said. "That's enough. Dr. Shapiro, you're welcome to wait here until we bring Callie out, and you," she said, pointing to the nurse. "Are off my service today, get out."
Cat sighed and ran her hand through her hair, hugging Trina. "Thank you," her voice cracked.
"I'd do it over and over again if I had to. She's fine now. If anything goes wrong we'll bring her back into surgery and she'll be on the top of the list for U.N.O.S."
"Thank you so much."
"Anytime."
Just a while later, Cat was laying in Callie's bed next to her, running her hand through her daughter's hair as the twelve-year-old cried softly.
"Mommy..." Callie whined.
"I'm right here baby," Cat said.
"It hurts."
"I know. It's gonna hurt for a couple weeks. Aunt Trina hooked you up to a morphine drip. There's this button right here that you can push and it'll give you medicine. You can push it every ten minutes."
"No, I'll overdose..." Callie whined again.
Cat laughed and kissed her head. "No you won't. There's a certain amount that will dispense and it's a safe amount for every ten minutes. You won't overdose."
"How's she doing?" Jade asked from the doorway.
"She hurts, Aunt Jade."
Jade walked over to the bed and kissed Callie's head. "Hi, baby. How's my girl?"
Callie whined and held her arms out to Jade, who hugged her.
"You'll feel better soon. I promise."
"I feel weird and foggy..."
"That's the anesthesia. That's normal."
"I wanna be normal..."
Cat and Jade laughed a little.
"You will be," Jade said. "I have to go check on some of my patients, but I'll be back later. I just wanted to see how you were doing."
"Shitty," Callie said.
"I'll let that slide for now, but you're gonna watch your mouth later on," Cat said.
"It's true."
"I know, babe."
"Will you bring me Jello when you come back, Aunt Jade?"
"I sure will," Jade said. "Blue, orange, red or green?"
"Blue."
"Got it. I'll see you later."
After Jade left, Cat let out a small breath. "Once your daddy gets here, Mommy has to leave. I have a stomach bug and I can't be around you any longer than necessary."
"No..." Callie said.
"I have to, honey. I'm sick."
"Is that why you're wearing a mask?"
"Yeah, so I don't get you sick. Daddy will be here though."
"But I want you."
"Maybe when Aunt Jade comes back, you can sucker her into staying with you."
"What about Aunt Tori? She doesn't do anything important."
Cat laughed and kissed Callie's head for the millionth time. "I'll see what I can do."