Chapter One: Grace Under Fire
"Listen up, Alamo people, into the waiting room. If you are not sick, please go home. The night shift hasn't even started yet and you are giving everyone a headache." Jesse said as tons of Alamo re-enactors entered the hospital.
Mercedes stared at all of them coming in. "How long does this go on?"
"All night." Finn said, walking behind her. "They just keep trickling in."
"Every year." Puck said, joining where the two of them were talking. "The Alamo re-enactors drink too much homemade beer and eat too much rabbit stew." Puck said as one of them started throwing up mere feet away from them. "Oh, look at that. Mop up on aisle three."
Outside of the hospital, Rachel was in the middle of an intense phone call with someone. "No, look, if you can't get here, you can't get here. It's fine, it's just, I was hoping that since it's my birthday tomorrow…I understand. Really. We'll celebrate next week." Rachel heard an ambulance pull up. "Brody, I gotta go." She hung up the phone and went over to meet the EMTs.
"Male in his thirties, single GSW to proximal thigh. BP is stable and we found him at the Alamo."
"Where am I?" he asked, looking around at his new surroundings.
"You've been shot, but we're going to take care of you." Rachel said. "Can you tell me your name?"
"I don't know."
"There's no ID. Guy's on another planet. We could barely get him in the ambulance."
"There's another problem." one of the EMTs whispered to Rachel. "He's a Christian Scientist." Rachel and the EMT looked down at his bracelet. "It says not to treat him. So we didn't in the ambulance. We need consent to treat or we'll get sued."
"Don't worry about it." Rachel said as they started wheeling him into the hospital. "This man looks like he was shot with a canon."
"Musket." one of the re-enactors corrected. "I bought it online."
"Hey, hey, hey. You have to put that thing down." Molly said.
"I didn't know it was loaded, I swear. Look, the dude lost it on me. He attacked me and grabbed me like we were in a real fight and the gun went off."
"You cannot be back here." Molly said, walking him towards the waiting room.
"Okay, but can someone check on my arm?"
"Where are you taking me?" the patient asked as they wheeled him into a trauma room.
"What do we have?" Finn asked, coming into the trauma room to assist on what was going on.
"Musket wound. 1830s Alamo special." Rachel said.
"This is one agitated patient." Sam said as they transferred him from the stretcher to the hospital bed.
"Calm down, we are trying to help you!" Finn said as the three of them, plus the two EMTs, tried to restrain him.
"Somebody page Doctor Rose." Rachel said. "And get me something to calm him down." One of the nurses handed Rachel a needle and she stuck it in his thigh.
"Somebody grab the hard restraints." Finn said as the patient started to calm down.
Elsewhere in San Antonio, Kurt was in the fields for reserves training. "I gotta be honest, I have no love for night infiltration exercises." one of the soldiers said.
"This is nothing, Harvey. Army Reserves is nothing compared to the sixty-one days a year of hell for training rangers. You still thinking of signing up, Kurt?"
"I don't know. I've got a buddy at the hospital I work at who's ex-Ranger. Says he can put in a good word for me, but right now I'm focused on medicine."
"I bet you're more focused on the nurses." another soldier said jokingly.
"There's a lack of hotties in the ER." He turned to another soldier. "So, Harvey, what's the deal? A fifteen K at the end too tough on the old bones?"
"Oh yeah, dude, that might have something to do with sitting on your ass in the patrol car all day."
"Yeah, well, my wife loves my lazy ass so it's all good."
"Well it matches her fat ass."
"Hey, that's the mother of my children. And I like them curvy."
"What about you, Kurt?" one of the soldiers asked.
"Oh, I love me the motorboat. You know, just go on right in there."
"Alright, let's get moving. We only have eight hours till the rendezvous point, then Kurt can get back to his nurses."
Back at the hospital, Marley had the unfortunate job of walking a basically naked man to a room. "Let's walk a little faster so we can get you a robe."
Jesse walked up next to her. "Do you have the paperwork for those involuntary holds from last week?"
"Yeah, they're in a folder on my desk." Marley said.
"Great." Jesse said. He walked into her office and started looking for the paperwork so they could be filed correctly. He had a massive migraine headache and noticed Marley had aspirin sitting on her desk. He took the bottle and shook a few out, swallowing them without water.
Back in the trauma room, Finn, Rachel, and Sam were working on finding the bullet pieces in the patient's leg.
"There has to be twenty fragments in here." Rachel said, noticing all of the bullet fragments in his leg.
"Blood flow is good. We need to get every one of those out before—" Finn started to say as the machines went crazy.
"Blood pressure and pulse X are dropping." Rachel said.
Finn started doing an ultra sound on his heart. "Massive right heart strain. A piece of the bullet must have traveled to his heart."
"BP is down to forty." Sam said.
"We need to get the bullet out of the lung now." Finn said.
Jesse entered the trauma room. "Rachel, I just talked to one of the paramedics. And he said this guy came in with a do not treat bracelet on his wrist and that you—"
"I need lydo and epi, one percent." Rachel said, ignoring Jesse completely. "Open up a chest tray."
"If you did do that, then you have opened yourself and this hospital up for a major lawsuit so please, please tell me you didn't do that."
"Look, the guy is lying. There's no bracelet." Sam said, holding up his wrist.
"Rachel!" Jesse said. Finn and Rachel shared a look.
"He had one. I cut it off."
Jesse sighed. "Rachel…"
"Even if she didn't, I would have." Finn said, coming to her defense. "He was dying and he needed to be treated."
"I agree with you, but we get him declared incompetent first and contact legal. We don't just cut things off. I'm sorry, but I'm going to need you to step back and let Finn finish this patient. You are officially suspended."
Rachel glared at Jesse as she handed the needle to one of the nurses. She looked at Finn, who gave her a disappointed look, then slowly took her gloves off.
Across town, Kurt's platoon was driving in the humvee. "Look, I could use a little eye candy right about now."
"What do you mean?" the platoon leader said. "This is one of the best looking team's in all of Texas."
"I think it's time for me to shoot something!" one of the members said, standing up in the humvee and started shooting at the trees.
"Charlie, look out!" Kurt said, pointing to a huge bull in the middle of the road. They swerved to avoid it and went off the road.
Back at the hospital, Finn was furious. "So she saves a life and gets canned?"
"Nobody is firing her. God, why is it so hot in here?" Jesse asked. "Like I said, nobody is firing her. She's on administrative duty. I'm taking this precaution to protect her from any further action. We'll get him declared incompetent and go from there."
"So what, I just sit around all night?" Rachel asked.
"You need to stay away from this patient. And you need to talk to legal and hope to hell Marley finds him incompetent. After that, whatever you do with any other patients, I don't want to know about. Now if you'll excuse me, I really need a glass of water."
"It'll be okay." Finn said.
"Yeah, well, you don't know that." Rachel said. "I don't have friends in high places like you do. Sorry I put you guys in this position." Rachel gave them a sad smile and walked out of the trauma room.
"What's going on?" Sam asked as he continued to pump oxygen for the patient. "I've never seen Rachel act like that before."
"It's a long story." Finn said. "Let's get the rest of this shrapnel."
Across town, Kurt was trying to help the rest of his platoon after the accident. "I need you to help me pull him out."
The guy Kurt was talking to grimaced. "I can't, my shoulder is killing me." Kurt nodded and helped him to the ground.
"I'm going to go try and find Harvey."
"No, Kurt, we need you." one of the soldiers said.
Kurt smiled to himself. It was nice to know that he was needed. "I'll be there soon. We have to find Harvey. I'm going as fast as I can."
Back in the hospital, Puck was looking at the arm of the guy who shot Rachel and Finn's patient. "Hey, is that crazy dude going to die?"
"Just hold still, sir." Puck said. "And I don't know."
"I can't go to jail. I'd never make it there. They'd eat guys like me alive."
"I think you'll be fine. It's pretty clear that guy is unstable."
"Whoa." Artie said, walking into the trauma room. "General, right? That's a sweet costume."
"Any news on the guy I shot?"
"Yeah, they've got him sedated in trauma one." Artie said.
"The waiting room is filling up again with re-enactors." Mercedes said. "And we hooked up more drunks to the ceiling packs."
"And I sent three food poisoning guys home too." Artie said, trying not to get one upped by Mercedes.
"That rabbit stew is nasty. That's why I fight on the Mexican's side. We have a food truck."
"Look, you two only have a couple more dozen patients to go. I'll join you as soon as I'm finished." Puck said. "And I'll let you do one of the EJ's, okay?"
Back in the ER, Sam was talking to a woman who was in a hospital gown. "I've been waiting for two hours to see a doctor."
"I know, ma'am, I am so sorry. Alamo re-enactors have us slammed with patients."
"My stomach is killing me."
"I will get you a doctor as soon as I can." Sam promised as the woman walked away. "Artie, you ordered a G-I on a patient and you haven't seen her yet and she's pissed."
"Oh yeah, it sounds like the stomach flu or something, and Puck is about to do an external jugular and I've never seen one, so…"
"Her results are already back."
"Great, I will see her after EJ. Just start some fluids, okay?"
Across the desk, Finn was on the phone. "Dispatch? Yeah, there was a paramedic Rodriquez, he came in with a GSW from the Alamo at seven thirty tonight. Um, can you tell him to come by the ER? I have some info that he may need."
Back at the accident scene, one of the soldiers was crying. "Kurt, is it broken?" he asked, looking down at his ankle.
"Broken and dislocated. I'm going to try and get your boot off, okay?" Kurt said, gently pulling the boot off. The soldier screamed in pain. "Alright, sorry, I just need to get in there. I can't feel a pulse, which means the dislocation is cutting off blood flow to your ankle. I have to reduce the fracture."
"What does that mean?"
"It means it's going to hurt like a son of a bitch. On the count of three, okay? One, two," Kurt, not getting to three, went to pop his ankle back in place.
"There's blood dripping down the back of your neck."
"Wait, what?" Kurt said, reaching behind to see if it was true. "That sucks. You're about to get even, Mikey. This is a skin stapler. It's pretty self explanatory. Push the edges of the wound together, apply pressure, and squeeze the trigger.
Back at the hospital, Marley was talking to the gunshot patient. "You were at the Alamo, and you were shot." She turned around to see Finn at the door. He motioned for her to meet him in the hall and she walked away from the patient.
Finn handed her a cup of coffee. "He's incompetent, right?"
"He's still too out of it from the anesthesia for me to make a diagnosis. I just thought I'd check since Rachel paged me three times. What's going on?"
Finn sighed. "He's a Christian Scientist. He came in with a do not treat bracelet and Rachel cut it off."
"What?" Marley asked, unable to believe that Rachel would do something like that.
"Yeah. So you declaring him incompetent will go a long way with getting her off the hook."
"Well, first of all I can't believe she did that. But I'm not going to label him without talking."
"He was screaming, he was yelling…"
"Which could be for a hundred of things. Look, I like Rachel, but I'm not going to risk my license or a malpractice suit for giving an unwarranted diagnosis. Especially when she does something that stupid."
"I would have done the same thing."
"What do you want me to say here, Finn? I don't agree with you on this, so let's just not talk about it. He wakes up, I'll make the diagnosis. But don't tell me how to do my job."
"You're right." Finn said, taking her hand. "I'm sorry." He gave it a squeeze and the two of them smiled at each other.
Rachel got back to the nurses' station desk and looked over to see the whole exchange take place. And she certainly didn't miss seeing the hand squeeze. She narrowed her eyes and scratched her forehead. She heard her phone beep and she took it out to see what it was. It was a birthday card email from Brody.
Sorry I can't be there this week. See you next week! Love, Brody
"Doctor Berry, please report to the legal department, Doctor Berry to the legal department." Rachel heard over the PA system. She sighed, put her phone back in her pocket, and started walking towards the legal department.
Back at the accident, Kurt was trying to save Charlie's life. "Everything is going to be okay." Kurt said.
"That doesn't look good." one of the soldiers said.
"He needs an OR. Call the med evac so we can get him out of here!" Kurt said, looking at the gaping wound on his leg.
"The radio is shot and there's no cell signal out here. We're on our own."
Kurt sighed. "I can try and pack the bleeder, but that's only a temporary fix. We need to get him to the extraction point."
"That's at least five miles."
"Then we have to get moving."
In the hospital waiting room, Jesse was looking at his reflection in the security cameras. He was absolutely captivated with it. Marley walked up to Sam and sent him a curious look. "Molly said he's been standing there for the past five minutes. I figure he's trying to find a way to save money on electricity." Sam explained.
Marley raised an eyebrow and walked over to him. "Jesse?" Marley asked. Jesse turned around with a comical look on his face.
"I took a couple of pills from your aspirin bottle but I'm pretty sure they weren't aspirin. You want to tell me what it was?"
Marley's eyes widened. "The bottle on my desk?"
"Yes."
Marley looked sheepish. "They were…MDMA."
"MDMA? As in, Ecstasy? Why do you have—"
"I'm so sorry. I swear there is a legitimate explanation."
"What's happening to me?" Jesse asked, touching his face.
"Well, your senses are heightening. You'll be more open and physical with people. And objects."
"No," Jesse said, rubbing his ears. "No, no, no, no, no. This is not happening. I can fight this."
"You don't really have control over it. Maybe you should just sit in your office until it passes." Marley said as Jesse started laughing at something.
"I am so angry with you right now. You women are really messing up my night. We're going to deal with this later." Jesse said as he started rubbing his shirt.
"Drink a lot of water." Marley said before she started walking back over to Sam.
"Jesse's on Ec—"
"Shhh!" Marley said, trying to shut him up. The whole hospital didn't need to know that their boss was high.
"How did this happen?"
"I was involved in an experimental study on the effects of MDMA and soldiers with PTSD. The drug, it releases serotonin and oxytocin, so soldiers can relive their trauma without feeling pain."
"Uh huh, okay." Sam said, not entirely believing her.
"Please keep this on the DL."
"Gotcha." Sam said as he walked away laughing.
Back at the scene of the accident, Kurt and one of the soldiers were carrying Charlie to the medical tent to try and get him help. "Look, I know your shoulder is in bad shape, but we have to keep moving."
"I'm trying, man." He paused for a few minutes. "You think he's going to make it?"
"I don't know."
"He can't die, he's a kid."
"That doesn't mean anything. I've seen a lot of kids die. Age doesn't mean a thing."
"I'll tell you what, Kurt, I want to quit this whole army thing. I joined the reserves to get some extra cash for my wife and kids. I don't want to get killed. Aren't you afraid of getting killed?"
"No one wants to die, but if I think about that out there, I won't be able to do my job as a medic." Kurt stopped as he heard helicopter sounds.
"Why are you stopping?"
"We're on the range." Kurt said, looking around. "The firing range."
"Oh shit, we've got to move!" Harvey said as they started getting shot at.
Back in the hospital, phones started ringing like crazy. "Hey, Molly, I need to see if anyone filled out a missing person's report on John Doe. Will you call SAPD?"
"I'm on it." Molly said with a smile.
Rachel watched them from across the desk and closed the folder she was writing in. She walked over to where Marley was. "Maybe we shouldn't call SAPD."
"We always call on John Doe's. We have no idea what his medical or psychiatric history is. His family could be looking for him." Marley said, looking over at Rachel.
"His family, more likely than not, are going to be the ones to let him die."
"You don't know that."
"They're Christian Scientists, which means they're going to want to stop any treatment that you or I will want to do and that man will most likely suffer."
"Just let me do my job. Don't get all pissy with me because you screwed up and cut off his bracelet." Marley started walking away.
"He was dying." Rachel said, following after her.
"And that's what he wanted. That's why he wore the bracelet. That's his choice."
"To die? When he can easily be saved? And you're backing that?"
"I'm backing personal freedom. I'm backing nobody telling anybody what they can do with their bodies. Would I ever do that? No. But I believe in his right to believe that."
"He may not know what he believes."
"You didn't know that when you cut it off. You saw his religion, and you made a choice. Maybe that guy is incompetent, but what if he wasn't? What if he was a lawyer that had a different belief than yours? Would you still do it?"
Rachel crossed her arms. "Every single time he was brought in here."
"Then I guess we just see things differently."
"Yeah, on a lot of things." Rachel said, brushing past Marley.
"What does that mean?" Marley asked.
"Forget it."
"No. Say it."
Rachel stopped and turned around to face her. "Okay. It means that I know you're sleeping with Finn. And that's fine. It's not my business. But I can't believe after some of the conversations that you and I had about me, him, and our past, you never once thought that maybe you should mention it."
Rachel heard something crash and Sam poked his head out from a patient room. "I need a doctor in here."
Rachel took off running and saw the patient who was complaining of stomach pains from earlier. "My…chest."
"Her heart rate is in the thirties."
"Okay, I'm going to listen to your heart." Rachel said, putting her stethoscope on her heart. "This woman is having a heart attack. Why hasn't she been seen? Page cardiology and give me three hundred twenty five grams of aspirin and grab the pacer pads, we need to do an EKG now."
"She already had one." Sam said.
"Well who ordered it?" Rachel asked.
A few minutes later, Artie came into the room. "What happened?"
"Is this your patient?"
"Yeah, she had the stomach flu."
"And did you order an EKG on her?" Rachel asked.
"I did as part of a G-I work up."
"Well, look at it." Rachel said as they flipped the woman onto her back. "You have an African American woman in her late forties with diabetes complaining about stomach pains and you didn't look at her EKG? She should have been in a cath lab two hours ago."
"She wasn't complaining of chest pain."
"It doesn't matter. You order a test, you are responsible for the results. And if that test is an EKG, you look at it immediately."
Artie looked at the test results. "Inferior MLA."
"Artie, you're an ER doctor. Your job is to think of things that will kill your patient first and label it as benign later. It isn't all about the flashy procedures." Rachel said.
"I'm sorry." Artie said.
"Don't apologize to me. Learn. Do better." Rachel said as they were wheeling her out of her room.
Sam came up next to Artie. "I told you to look at the tests, man."
In another part of the hospital, Marley and Finn were walking around together. "I want to give you a heads up. Rachel knows about us."
"How?" Finn asked, stopping. He looked genuinely confused.
"I don't know." Marley said. "We were arguing about John Doe. Big deal. We see it differently. Then it just…came out."
"Right. You want me to talk to her?" Finn asked.
"No, I can fight my own battles. Aside from tonight, she has every right to be pissed at me. We were becoming friends and you're her ex. I should have told—"
"Finn, paramedic Rodriquez is here to see you." Molly said.
"Is John Doe ready?" Marley asked.
"Yeah, go on in." Finn said, turning his attention to the paramedic. "Hey buddy, thanks for coming by."
"My union rep said I should talk to you."
"Your union rep is a douche. Is he in the front lines like you and me? Nah. Let's talk about what you really saw, okay?" Finn said, patting his back as the two walked away together.
In John Doe's room, Marley started talking to him. "I have to determine your competency, so I need you to focus and think really hard. What's your name?"
"I don't know. I don't know who I am. Please help me."
"It's alright, I'm going to help you. I'm going to show you some pictures. It's a test to help you remember. Let me know if anything seems familiar. It can be the smallest thing." Marley held up a picture of a beach, then a puppy, a kid playing soccer, a soldier, then a picture of pancakes. She started to put it down when John Doe said to wait.
"Go back." he said, talking about the pancake picture.
Marley held it up again. "What does this make you think of?"
"A diner."
"Good." Marley smiled. "You like diners."
"Yeah, I think I ate there. At a diner."
"Anything else?"
"Chris…Christine."
"You remember someone named Christine?"
"Yeah, Christine. I just don't remember what she looks like or who she is. I don't remember anything else. Why is this happening to me? Who am I?"
"I know it's scary, but we're going to figure this out and we'll find whoever's looking for you. I promise."
Back at the accident, Kurt and his fellow soldier were caught in the middle of a shooting range. "On three we move." Kurt said.
"Wait, Charlie is bleeding again." Harvey said. "What's happening?"
Kurt pulled back the bandage. "Part of the bowel is ruptured. We have to suture that bleeder."
"This is why you're not going for ranger, right? It's not worth it. We could be killed, and for what? For taking down some damn dictator? This stupid kid is an idiot. He wouldn't be hurt if he wasn't being so damn stupid."
"Harvey, he can hear you so shut up. Now is not the time." Kurt said.
Back in the hospital, Marley was trying to figure out if the patient was incompetent or not. "Is Christine an Alamo actor like you?"
"Doctor Rose," Marley whispered from the door. "SAPD doesn't have a missing person fitting John Doe's description and I've left messages at the Christian Scientist churches."
"Good. He just mentioned a diner and a girl named Christine. Either he took her on a date there once or she works there. I'm hoping it's the latter. Can you…"
"Call all the twenty four hour diners in the area?"
Marley gave her a sheepish smile. "I'll help. How many can there be?" The machines John Doe was hooked up to started beeping like crazy. "Get Finn." Marley went over to the bed and made it recline completely as Finn and Sam came running into the room.
"What happened?"
"He was fine then all of a sudden his vitals started going crazy."
"Maybe it's another embolism to the lung." Sam said.
"It can't be, I got rid of all the shrapnel." Finn said. "It must be something else. Push a hundred and fifty milligrams of almuterol. Wait, it's too late." Finn said, pointing to something on the monitor. "Look at his pressure." Finn took the panels to his chest. "Clear." He watched the monitor and breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay good. Back in a good rhythm."
"What the hell was that?" Marley asked.
"I have no idea."
In another hospital room, Artie was sitting with the patient who had the heart attack earlier. "She's probably not going to wake up for another hour or so, doctor." one of the nurses said.
"Then I'll just sit with her until she does." Artie said, feeling incredibly guilty for what he caused. He rolled his chair forward and took her hand. Rachel, who was walking by to check on the patient, saw Artie was in there, smiled to herself and started to walk away.
Back in John Doe's room, Finn was listening to his heart. "Okay, he needs a stat chest CT and a tox panel."
"Right away." the nurse said, leaving the room.
"Well, that was close." Finn said, smiling at Marley. "So, what did you learn before he started to code?"
"It looks like a mania infused state. Based on the retrograde amnesia and the aggressive behavior towards the re-enactors…"
"So his case is even more complicated." Finn said, his head drooping. He didn't want anything bad to happen to Rachel because of this.
"For now. It's a tricky condition and it can be caused by any number of things. It could last for hours or even months. We need to find out who he is. And I know that doesn't help Rachel, but if he does have family that can help…"
"Trust me, Rachel cares more about this guy living than any trouble that she's in. And if they try and count her for it, I'll quit. That'll get the board's attention."
"You'd really quit? That's very loyal."
"I'm going to go check on labs. Let me know if there's anything I missed."
Back up at The Oasis, Puck was walking around and walked up to one of the trucks. "Yo, yo, what's up Tony?"
"Hey, Doctor Puck. We've got a great special tonight. Check it out." Tony gestured to the blackboard with the special on it, declaring it the "Puck Special: MeatBALLless Sub."
"I see what you did there."
"You want my advice on your vasectomy?"
"Yeah, I was just too shy to ask." Puck said sarcastically. "Just a burger and fries, Tony, let's go."
"Hey Puck." Rachel said, coming up behind him.
"Hey. I hear you're having a crappy night. Still going crappy?"
"Man, you sure know what to say to a girl to cheer her up."
Puck put a hand on Rachel's shoulder. "It's a gift. Now, when the lawyers ask you if you'd do it again, the answer is no. Right?"
"Yeah. I probably could have handled that better." Rachel said as Puck rubbed her back.
"Doctor Rose!" Tony said, seeing Marley as he handed Puck his food.
"Can I get a coffee?" Rachel said, a little curt, handing over her money.
Marley stepped up behind Rachel. "I thought you might want to know I declared John Doe incompetent."
"Well, it wasn't rocket science." Rachel said, taking her coffee.
"I needed to examine him, Rachel."
"Yeah, okay." Rachel said as she started walking away.
"You wouldn't rubber stamp any diagnosis I gave you without checking." Marley said, following after her. "Look, I know I didn't handle this thing with Finn well. I should have said something to you."
Rachel nodded as she poured sugar into her coffee. "Yeah, you probably should have. Especially since you had a myriad of chances to tell me you were sleeping with my ex. And you could have told me before I set you up on the blind date, which, in retrospect, is totally bizarre that you went."
"I wanted to get to know you better. That's why I went. Anyway, Finn and I aren't that serious."
"Marley, what you and Finn do or don't do is not my concern." Rachel said, wiping up a spot where she spilled creamer.
"Now you're being dishonest." Marley said. Puck overheard this and turned his attention to the two of them.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh come on, you work in a hospital with your ex-boyfriend. You actively pursued to manage his shift all while your boyfriend lives in Dallas."
"Yeah, that's where Brody works."
"Rachel, this is Psych 101. You have no interest in really committing to Brody because you still have feelings for ex-boyfriend Finn."
"Finn isn't just an ex-boyfriend. He isn't some guy I dated for a little while and it just didn't work out."
"And I understand you have history…"
"You have no idea what we have. Finn was a wreck when he came home, he wasn't the man that you see today. I left my job, my friends, everything so that I could come here and help him out. I sat by him through hell. So yeah, we have a history. And yes, I have feelings for him." Rachel said, glaring at Marley before she walked away.
Marley looked over at Puck, who tried to make it look like he wasn't eavesdropping on the conversation. "Fries?" he asked innocently as Marley's phone started to ring.
"No." She started walking away as she answered her phone. "Molly? Did you find John Doe's Christine?"
"YOOHOO!" Jesse said, appearing at The Oasis. He looked over at Puck. "Puck, this is my jam! This is my jam!"
Back at the accident, Kurt and Harvey finally made it out of the danger zone. "Doc?"
"I'm here Charlie." Kurt said.
"I-I c-c-can't go anymore. Hurts too much. Put me down."
"Alright Harvey, let's put him down for a little bit." They put his stretcher down and Kurt looked at the wound. "Hey, you're looking great, man. You look spectacular."
"You…serious? I give up."
"I need you to keep fighting. You understand me? You keep fighting Charlie." Kurt and Harvey went to pick the stretcher back up, but Harvey dropped his and clutched at his shoulder.
Kurt went over to him. "Are you okay?"
"I think I will be."
"Good." Kurt leaned into him and whispered. "If we don't get him there in an hour, he's not going to make it. We have to keep him talking and keep him distracted." Kurt walked back to the front of the stretcher. "Up on three. One, two, three." Kurt said as they lifted the stretcher.
Back in John Doe's room, Finn was watching his heart monitor to make sure he wouldn't crash again like he did earlier. He heard the door open and saw Rachel sneak in. "Hey. You know I'm not supposed to be treating him, right?" Rachel asked.
"I need your brain. His vitals are wonky and I can't figure it out. The chest CT came back with nothing and now he's spiking a fever and not responding to antibiotics. I think the leg must be getting septic, but he's already on two antibiotics. I've added a third, I've resent the blood cultures…" Finn said, getting cut off by the machines beeping again.
"His fever is rising." Rachel said.
"And now look at his mouth. He's twitching. What the hell is going on?" Finn said.
Rachel thought for a second. "It could be meningitis. Or tetanus from the bullet."
"Maybe. Distonic reaction?"
"Yes." Rachel said.
Marley came into the room. "I just got off the phone with the woman who knows him. She says that he was fine three weeks ago so I think that his fugues state has to be connected to his worsening condition."
"In what way?"
"I'm not sure."
"Well, Marley, this is a medical issue. When you have some way you can really help us, let us know. Thanks." Rachel said, going back to the patient.
"Rachel, push a hundred and fifty milligrams of almuterol." Finn said.
"Charlie, if you could snap your fingers and be anywhere, where would you be, buddy?" Harvey asked as him and Kurt carried him to the medical tent. They were still in the midst of trying to distract him.
"I don't know."
"Yeah you do." Kurt said, encouraging him. "For you, I'm thinking Vegas with all the chickies, and a little booze."
"I'd be at the Gulf, catching marlins."
"Perfect." Kurt said. "Where would you be, Harvey?"
"That's easy. Miami Beach. Drinking margaritas with my wife by the pool, have my parents take the kids for a week, that'd be a vacation. What about you?"
"I love the old cities. Paris, Rome…just the history of them. Learning about them. Me and Blaine, we usually end up in Hawaii though."
"Blaine?"
"My brother." Kurt said quickly, trying to cover his tracks. "I usually vacation with my brother a lot. We're close."
Back at the hospital, Jesse was being called over the PA system. "Mr. St. James, report to records. Mr. St. James to records.
Jesse was not having any part of that, though. "This positivity." He walked around, talking to the Alamo actors. "Oh man, this is where it's at!" Jesse said, walking around the waiting room with his shirt untucked as he was still experiencing a high from the ecstasy tablets he took by accident from Marley's office. "I just feel really, really, really, really good." He got into one of the patient's faces.
"Sam told me that Jesse accidentally took some E." Mercedes said, filming the whole exchange on her phone. "He's just been rolling all night."
Puck let out a slight chuckle. "You should…you should really get back to work."
Mercedes' eyes widened slightly and she put her phone away. "Yeah. Right."
"I really see you." Jesse said, looking at one of the patients up close. "I see you!"
Puck chuckled to himself again as he pulled out his phone to tape what Jesse was doing. Just because he was an attending didn't mean he couldn't have a little fun. Especially since his normally uptight boss was definitely not himself.
"REMEMBER THE ALAMO!" Jesse said at the top of his lungs, causing Puck to burst out laughing.
Back in the room, Rachel and Finn were trying to figure out what was wrong with their patient. "John Doe's lumbar puncture and tendistider are negative."
"But his fever keeps going up." Finn said, looking at the iPad that had the patient information on it.
"And he keeps spasming." Rachel said, talking aloud to try and figure out what exactly was wrong with the guy. "What are we missing?"
"I've been asking myself for hours." He paused. "Maybe you shouldn't have jumped all over Marley."
"Is now really the time to talk about that?" Rachel asked with a slightly icy tone to her voice. She turned to look at Finn.
"I'm talking about saving John Doe. Look, we have no idea what's wrong with him. She was just trying to help."
"By throwing out theories?"
"Well, that is what we're doing." Finn said, reminding her. "Look, I know this has been a rough night for you. If you want to talk, I know you're with Brody and all, but you can come to me anytime. You know that right?"
"I'm fine." Rachel said, putting on a smile. "But you're right. It's just been a really tough night." She rolled her eyes slightly and started walking away. "I'm going to recheck his labs."
"How many times did you stick this guy?" Puck asked across the hospital where he was talking to Mercedes and Artie.
"Five…and a half." Artie said sheepishly.
"His vein keeps moving, it's…it's literally like trying to stick Jabba the Hutt." Mercedes said.
"Maybe after two tries, you come find me next time." Puck said, taking off his surgical gloves. "Especially after the night you've had, Artie. Let's hope he doesn't have a heart attack too." Puck walked into the patient's room. "Hello, sir, I'm Doctor Puckerman. Let's see if I can help you."
"These kids don't know they're doing." the patient said from his hospital bed.
"Well, your veins do present a challenge. Will you look over to the left and hold your breath, please?" Puck asked as he started to pull away the surgical towel resting on the guy's neck.
He started looking at something when the patient asked, "Are you the doctor getting his huevos snipped?" Puck gave Artie and Mercedes an annoyed look.
"I-I didn't say anything, I swear." Artie said.
"He didn't he blushes whenever anyone mentions balls." Mercedes said.
"Never get a vasectomy." the patient said. "I got snipped. Damn doctor said it would only hurt for a couple of days. Liar! Felt like someone put a blowtorch on my man parts. I could barely walk. And things were never the same in the bedroom, if you know what I mean."
"Um, that could have been caused by any number of things…" Puck started to say.
"Nope. I used to wake up every morning with a flag pole. Until I got the big V. Now I'm taking ED pills by the truckload, just to get a little movement. Ow."
"Sorry," Puck said as he stuck the guy with a needle.
"Over here!" Kurt yelled when they finally made it to the medical tent. "There was an accident. He needs a med evac; get the chopper here now." Kurt and Harvey put the stretcher on the ground and went over to talk to Charlie. "Charlie, you made it! You're going to be in the hospital in no time and I'll come and check on you."
"Thanks, doc. You should go for rangers, man." he said weakly. "They'd be lucky to have a guy like you."
Kurt gave him one nod. "Alright. Get him out of here."
Harvey came up behind Kurt. "I spoke to operations about Mike. They already got him. He had it easy."
"No doubt." Kurt said. "Get your shoulder looked at. You might need surgery."
"You know, Charlie can be an idiot. He's right about one thing though. You'd make a hell of a ranger. Pleasure serving with you, lieutenant."
Back at the hospital, Marley was leading someone down the hallways. "Doctor Berry." she said, stopping in front of Rachel. "This is Christine. She was John Doe – George's – girlfriend. He has bipolar disorder."
"Yeah, that's actually why we broke up. It just got really hard to deal with."
"I'm sorry, you said bipolar. Christine, was he on any kind of medication?"
"Well, he was, but he hated the side effects of it. So that's why he came to our church. To try a more holistic approach."
"Do you remember what kind the medicine was?" Rachel asked, the wheels in her brain spinning.
Christine turned and looked at Marley. "It was lithium."
"When did he go off it?"
"Maybe around a month ago?"
"I think I know what's wrong with George. Excuse me." Rachel said, running off to the trauma room. "Molly, get the pharmacy. Now."
"He's having a seizure." Finn said. "Grab the dilanta, now. And he's going into V-tech too."
"His pulse is dropping." Sam said, reading the heart rate machine.
Rachel came into the room with IV fluids. "He's bipolar. He stop taking lithium abruptly two weeks ago. When you don't slowly wean yourself off of mood stabilizers…"
"This is exactly what happens. Nice catch." Finn said.
"It wasn't me." Rachel said quietly.
"So his fugue state was connected to his condition." Marley said a little smugly. "I guess you did need a psychiatrist after all."
Rachel sighed as Marley walked out of the room. "I missed something juicy, didn't I?" Sam asked. Finn and Rachel both gave him a death glare.
Rachel walked towards Christine. "Look, I know you don't believe in medical treatment, but…"
"Actually, I do believe in it. I go to doctors if I need them, I just prefer to treat myself with prayer first. Thanks for saving George." Christine said. Rachel gave her a smile and left the room.
"Marley, wait, hold on a second. I'm sorry for jumping on you earlier. It was uncalled for. You helped save George and I couldn't have done it without you."
"Anything else?"
"Look, uh, this case really pushed my buttons. When I was fifteen, my dad contracted severe pneumonia. He needed antibiotics and eventually surgery. You know, it's very treatable. But he wouldn't do it. He just wanted to pray. And my mother agreed. So, I watched my dad die."
"I had no idea." Marley said. "And then you decided to be a doctor."
"Something like that. I am really, truly sorry for being such a bitch to you. And this isn't an excuse for my behavior, it's just an explanation."
"Well it's a damn good one." Marley said, a smile growing on her face. "You should have just told me that because it would have helped. I'm sorry too. About everything. I don't know that we'll ever be best friends, but I'd at least try and be work friends."
Rachel nodded and smiled. "Okay. I can live with that." She watched Marley walk off and sighed.
"Everything okay?" Finn asked, coming up to her. He started to file some paperwork.
Rachel looked up at him and smiled. "Yeah. Everything's fine. I just have a lot on my mind."
Finn looked at her. "Are you sure? I mean, I know this had to bring back some bad memories for you."
Rachel shrugged her shoulders. "I did what I had to do. I kind of wished it ended up differently. Or at least done it to where I didn't get caught."
Finn smiled at her and walked over to her. "Well, like I said earlier, if you need anything, I'm here if you want to talk."
Rachel sniffed and looked up at him. "Thanks, Finn." She closed the distance between the two of them and wrapped her arms around his midsection. "It was just a really rough night."
Finn looked uncomfortable for a second, then started smoothing down her hair, an action that Marley caught from around the corner where she was at. Marley watched the two of them and bit her lip. Something was still going on between the two of them.
After the shift ended, Mercedes smiled when she saw Kurt come into the hospital. "Hey handsome. How was drill?"
"Uneventful. Have you seen Finn? I wanted to talk to him about that ranger recommendation."
"Wait, I thought you were leaning against becoming a ranger."
"I was." Kurt said. "I just think they need me." He started to walk away when Mercedes saw the staples on the back of his head.
"Hold up." She pulled his arm and yanked off his hat. "Uneventful, huh? I want to hear every detail, Lieutenant Badass."
"Whoa, that's nasty." Sam said, seeing the staples on Kurt's neck.
"Yeah, I figured I'd let Mercedes and Artie stitch it up, get some practice in. Nice and neat." he said, turning to Mercedes. "Speaking of, where is he? Artie?"
"Probably sulking. He got yelled at by Rachel tonight."
"That's how you know it alls learn." Sam said. "Come on, there's something we have to do." Sam said, making Mercedes gasp.
"Hey, Rachel!" Mercedes said, running up to her as Rachel was texting on her phone. "Better hurry up."
"Why?"
"It involve cake. That's all I'm saying." Mercedes said before she started to fast walk away.
A smile broke out on Rachel's face. They got a cake for her birthday. She turned the corner and bit her lip. "Guys, I can't believe you…" Her eyes landed on the cake. It was in the shape of two soccer balls. "Soccer balls?"
"Yeah. For Puck. It's in symbolic of his operation." Kurt said.
Rachel let out a little laugh and felt her heart sink. Of course this wasn't for her.
"Surprise!" All of the night shift doctors and nurses smiled as Puck walked down the hallway with Finn behind him.
"It's like a nightmare come true." Puck said, looking at the cake and the sign next to it that read Adios, baby makers. "Thank you, I think."
"Those are actual size, right?" Kurt asked jokingly.
"Puck, they're ready for you." Molly said to him.
"You sure you want to do this, buddy?" Finn asked.
"Yeah, yeah I am." Puck handed Finn his stethoscope.
"Dead man walking!" Sam called out to the whole hospital. Sam held his phone in the air as Amazing Grace started playing from the speakers. The staff lined up against the walls and saluted him as he walked down the hallway to the hospital room.
"That's nice. Thank you. So glad everybody's here. And nobody is with the patients. Fantastic. Back to work everyone."
"Rachel, I just got a call from legal. They wanted me to tell you the paramedic has changed his story. He says he can't swear that it was a do not treat bracelet and it could have been a fuel band or something like that."
"Why would he do that?" Rachel asked, completely confused.
"I could make a guess." Molly said, turning her attention to Finn, who was talking to Kurt. She turned back to Rachel, gave her a knowing look, and left the waiting room.
Rachel's phone started ringing and she went to answer it.
Marley was walking down the hallway when she saw Jesse leaning up against a wall. "How are you feeling?"
"Actually, I'm fine. It was enlightening."
"It can be." Marley said.
"You know, I never told anybody this, but I have some degenerative issues with my left eye."
"You do know how to keep a secret. How bad is it?"
"Partial blindness. The headaches are getting worse because of the blurred vision. I've been delaying getting corrective surgery."
"Why?"
"Fear. Now I think it's time I take care of it. I'm getting a divorce. I worked it out with my ex so that I can see my kids. It's a new chapter. I'm starting over."
"Well that's a healthy attitude." Marley said with a smile. "You're making progess."
"You care to talk about it over breakfast?"
"Ummm,"
"I'm not asking you out." Jesse said with a laugh. "Consider it punishment for not labeling your meds properly."
Marley smiled at him. "Alright. Let's do it."
Rachel walked out of the hospital. "Brody, it's so good to hear your voice. I just had the worst night ever. This guy came in and it was just…wait, what?" Rachel said. "What do you mean you want me to hang up?"
"Because the world's best boyfriend is standing right over here." Rachel heard Brody say. Only it wasn't over the phone.
Rachel's mouth dropped in shock and she let out a laugh when she turned around to see him. "You planned this whole thing, didn't you?" She ran over to him and threw her arms around him.
"Yes I did." Brody picked her up and kissed her.
"I missed you." Rachel said.
Brody smiled and handed her a cupcake with a candle in it. "Happy birthday, baby. Make a wish." Rachel smirked at him, swiped a pinkie across the cupcake and licked it before kissing him again.
Of course this was the moment Finn chose to walk out of the hospital to give Rachel a gift. He'd wrapped it himself, and while it wasn't the best wrapping job in the world, he knew Rachel would appreciate the sheer fact he managed to remember her birthday and get her something she'd really want.
"I knew someone would remember my birthday." Rachel said, linking hands with Brody.
Finn looked down at the present in his hand and walked the other way.
Author's Note: Yeah, this scene broke my heart. Next up is my favorite episode from the show! Thanks for reading!