Chapter 1
The Car Accident
-Hospital 3rd POV-
TC glanced up at the clock as he walked out of a trauma room, huffing as he noticed Kayla was still not at the hospital. Kayla was his teenage sister that he took in after their parents kicked her out when she got expelled from her private school for fighting. She had been staying with him in Texas ever since, taking classes online instead of during the day.
That was an agreement they had come to. She would take all the classes online so that she would be on the same time schedule as TC with him working the night shift at the hospital. When he didn't have to work, they would usually stay home and watch sports or MMA, eating take out and yelling at the TV.
Of course, part of their agreement of her living with him was that she was at the hospital by 8 pm every shift he worked. It was 10 and she was still not sitting around reading a book or helping Kenny prank Paul. He would chalk it up to her falling asleep, but he had a bad feeling in his gut. Like something was wrong. It was thunder storming out, and a lot of the people being brought in were from car accidents or flooding.
"Hey! Krista!" TC motioned the intern over to where he was tossing his gloves. "I need you to do me a favor."
"Uh, sure. What?" Krista asked.
"Can you call my sister? She's not here and I have a bad feeling about it," TC replied, pressing his palms together.
"Why can't you call your sister?" she countered.
"Because I have a patient coming in and can't. Please?" TC inquired.
"I'll call her right now and let you know," Krista replied, chuckling slightly.
"Thanks. I'll buy you a coffee tomorrow to make up for your time," he promised as he walked toward where his next patient was being rolled in on a gurney.
Krista made her way over to the nurse's station, grabbing the slip of paper with Kayla's number on it from the bulletin board. The phone rang eight times before sending itself to voicemail, which was almost unheard of with Kayla; seeing as she answered by the second ring and hardly let it go to voicemail. Especially if it was from the hospital. The young doctor frowned and dialed the number again, and again, and another three times before finally giving up and leaving a message.
She made her way to where TC was patching up a man in the second trauma room, leaning over to talk to him quietly so the man wouldn't hear.
"Kayla didn't pick up. I tried six times," Krista informed him. His jaw clenched and his hands tightened around the medical instruments he was holding.
"Can you finish this guy up? I'm gonna see if I can get ahold of her." TC passed the younger doctor the suture kit and went to stand outside the room, pulling his cell out of his pocket. As with Krista, the calls rang for a while before going to voicemail.
"Dammit," he muttered as he once again got the automated voice telling him to leave a message. At the beep, he started talking. "Kayla, by now it's probably too dangerous outside for you to come to the hospital, but I need you to call me or the nurses' station and let me know you're alright. Okay? Because if I find out that you're hanging with your friends at some party in this storm, you'll be in so much trouble so fast that you won't even be able to take a breath. Got it? Call me back."
The thing with Kayla was that after Thad's death, she had spiraled. Both of her brothers were overseas and she was stuck with a parent that was grieving and suddenly didn't have time for her. TC knew that she had become an addict, and was still one when she was kicked out. It took him a while to force her to quit, but he had known addicts before and how they could easily fall back into old habits. And that was what he was worried happened to her.
"TC! I need you!" Drew called out as another crash victim came in. TC nodded and ran over, quickly snapping out of his trance. The victim had a tree branch stuck through their left shoulder, dangerously close to their heart.
"Krista! Paul!" TC called the interns over and the four doctors got to work on the young man.
It was a while before TC stepped out of the room with Drew behind him. The man was lucky, as the branch had not hit any vital organs. There would be months of physical therapy to get him back to full strength in that shoulder, but he would live.
"Hey, good work guys," Drew told Paul and Krista before Paul was called away to one of his other patients. Krista continued walking with them as they conversed.
"How's your training going?" TC asked. Drew was a MMA fighter.
"It's going fine. Got a competition in a few days," Drew replied.
"That's cool." Krista smiled. Before TC could say anything, his phone rang. When he looked at the caller ID, it was Kayla. TC breathed out a sigh of relief and answered the phone.
"Where the hell have you been? I've been calling—," TC was cut off by his sister.
"TC? I-I need help," she told him softly, voice filled with pain.
"What's wrong?" he asked, clenching his jaw.
"C-car accident," Kayla's voice broke, teeth chattering. "I-I don't know where I am. I don't know how long w-we've been here!" TC could here her start to get hysterical.
"Kayla, Kayla! Calm down. I'll turn on the GPS tracking and come get you. You're going to be okay," TC assured her, heading to one of the computers at the nurses' station to access the phone company's website. "Can you tell me who's with you?"
"Bentley, I-it h-hurts," Kayla whimpered, causing TC to worry more.
"Kayla, can you tell me what hurts?" TC asked calmly as he pulled up her location, sending it to Drew's phone and the helicopter's computer. Both Drew and Krista were following him with concerned looks on their face.
"M-my chest, my h-head, m-my a-arms, my back," Kayla replied and TC could hear her crying softly through the phone.
"Does it hurt anywhere else?" he inquired, staying calm for her sake.
"No, b-but I can't feel my legs," she answered with a scared tone in her voice. "Why can't I feel my legs?! TC!"
"Kayla! I need you to stay calm so that we can find you. You're going to be alright," TC reassured her. "I'm going to hand the phone over to Krista. I need you to stay on the line and keep talking to her until we get there, okay?" It took a few moments for his sister to respond.
"O-okay," Kayla replied shakily. TC handed the phone to Krista who sat down in a desk chair.
"Drew, I need you with me," TC said as he left the nurses' station to get a coat and trauma bag.
"Of course," Drew replied, grabbing the same items and running closely behind TC out the door.
"Where are they going?" Ragosa demanded. Krista pulled the cell away from her ear and covered the mouthpiece.
"Kayla got in an accident. In an area that's pretty hard to reach by ambulance. They're going to get her," she informed him. He immediately understood and nodded. Kayla had been hanging around the night shift since before Ragosa got here, and she was the only one who had acted towards him as if he wasn't someone getting in the way of saving lives. She reminded him of his kids, and like everyone else, cared for the teenager.
"Is that her on the phone?" Ragosa asked and Krista nodded. "If you need to keep talking to her, keep talking to her. I'll get someone to fill for you until TC and Drew get to her." She nodded and smiled when Ragosa was turned around. It wasn't often that he expressed emotion towards people, except for the time he was high, and it was a nice change to the normal cold hard-ass Ragosa.
-Kayla-
When Kayla woke up with her puppy licking her face and whimpering, she was lying against the driver's side door at the bottom of a ravine. The first person she called was her brother, TC. He was a trained army medic that now worked at a really good trauma center. He had patched up all her booboos as a child, and TC was the one she trusted with her life.
Of course, she had been told to wait and talk to Krista on the phone. Probably because it had something to do with staying awake. Judging by the massive pain in Kayla's head, she had more than just a concussion.
Her head wasn't the worst, though. Kayla knew the worst pain was in her chest, probably because she was being trapped by a huge tree branch that had broken through the window. But just because her chest hurt the most, didn't mean that her chest was the worst off. Pain was somewhat good in accidents. It let people know that those parts of your body were still functioning to a certain extent. No pain was bad. Not only did Kayla not have any pain; she couldn't feel anything in her legs. And because of all of the stories TC told, and first hand experience by bumming around the hospital, she knew it meant something bad.
"K-Krista. I'm really tired," Kayla told the young doctor through the phone.
"I know you are, Kayla, but I need you to stay awake. Drew and TC are almost there," Krista replied.
"It's s-so c-cold. I-I'm so cold," the teenager whimpered, rain continually spilling onto her through the broken windows. Bentley must have sensed her distress and licked at her nose from his curled up spot on top of the door underneath the steering wheel, where he was somewhat protected from the rain.
"Hey, once TC and Drew are there, they'll make sure you're warm," Krista assured. "And, I'll make you a deal. Once you're recovered, we'll go on a spa trip with Jordan and just sit in hot tubs the whole time. How does that sound?"
"T-that s-sounds great," Kayla stuttered, teeth chattered so hard she almost bit off her tongue.
"Good," Krista replied.
"H-hey. I-I see flashlights," Kayla told the doctor, who immediately brightened up.
"That's good. That's them," Krista informed her.
-TC & Drew-
TC, Drew, and a flight paramedic slowly made their way down the side of the ravine to where they could see Kayla's car turned on its side, the lights still on. It hadn't taken them very long to get to where she had crashed, as it was only a few miles from the hospital. They were lucky enough to get a landing spot next to where Kayla went off the road.
When they had landed, TC saw a dead deer lying in the middle of the road and knew that was probably why his sister had crashed. She loved animals.
They finally made it to the car and Drew shined the light through the busted front windshield. Kayla was lying against the passenger side door, but was trapped to the seat by a thick branch from a nearby tree. Bentley, a little Siberian husky golden retriever mix puppy, was loyally curled up in a ball next to her.
"Hey, little sis," TC greeted as he knelt down in front of the window, giving her a reassuring smile while also assessing the damage. The half of her face that was facing the ground was covered in blood that was coming out of numerous gashes, including one on her head. Glass was imbedded in her arms, shoulders, and face, while it looked like one of her shoulders was dislocated. From what TC could see, there was a large part of a side branch buried in her hip, which was probably why she could not feel anything. It was most likely pressing against her spinal cord.
"Can I have the phone?" he asked gently, reaching out to take it from her hand when she nodded.
"Thanks Krista. Can you have a trauma room ready for when we get there? I'll need you and Topher, possibly Jordan, as well," TC said into the phone.
"Of course," Krista replied before TC clicked on the end button and turned back to face the car. Drew had managed to get all of the jagged pieces of glass from the windshield gone so they could go in through that way, although, TC was also probably going to have to go through the passenger window and to the backseat.
"Come here, Bentley," TC motioned through the window. That was all it took to get the puppy to jump into his arms and lick his face, causing Kayla to smile. TC placed the puppy a safe distance away from the wreck, near the bags, and wrapped a blanket around him to protect him from the rain before turning back to the wreckage once again. Drew had managed to get a cervical collar around Kayla's neck, even with her it at an odd angle.
"We need to get that smaller branch separated from the main one," TC told the other two. "We can worry about getting it out at the hospital, but the big branch is crushing her chest." TC had no idea how he was so calm about the entire situation, given that Thad had almost died. Maybe it was because he knew he had Drew and the other paramedic and an entire hospital of doctors to back him up. Or maybe it was because he couldn't loose Kayla as well as Thad.
-Kayla-
Kayla watched as TC told Drew and the other guy what to do, before he climbed on top of the car and lowered himself in through the passenger window, upside down.
"How's it going?" TC asked. Kayla knew he was making light of the situation in order to keep her calm, and she appreciated it, even if it wasn't working.
"Fine. T-thought I'd g-get in t-touch w-with nature," she responded, causing her brother to chuckle as he maneuvered into the backseat where he could help Drew from behind Kayla.
"So Kayla, we're going to have to cut through part of the branch and you're going to have to stay very still. Okay?" TC told her, calmly and slowly as if she were a 5 year old. Kayla was tempted to roll her eyes, but knew in that moment, TC was not her brother but a trauma doctor, and she didn't even have the energy to roll her eyes, so she gave the slightest nod.
TC moved his coat to cover her face from debris as Drew started up the saw. When the branch was completely cut through, Kayla's hip and legs slumped down as the branch supporting them was cut off.
"TC, 'm t-tired," Kayla said, eyes starting to flutter shut.
"Kayla, you can't fall asleep now. Not yet," he commanded and she weakly opened her eyes. "I need you to stay awake and talking. Tell me about what you're learning in school." TC motioned for Drew to grab the jack and lift the branch up as he set up an IV drip.
Kayla stuttered out facts from her online classes as the three others worked to rescue her from the car. She was half out of it, and only really became fully alert when they moved her straight to get her onto a stretcher basket.
She whimpered in pain, now feeling the branch in her hip. Kayla had to lie on her dislocated shoulder as well, so that they could avoid the branch paralyzing her, but it hurt nonetheless, and tears were making their way down her face.
All of a sudden it felt like she couldn't breathe, her breaths coming in short gasps. She could hear TC curse as he figured out she couldn't breathe.
"Collapsed lung, we need to re-inflate," she vaguely heard him say. She didn't know how long it was until she felt a something stab deep into her side and she could breathe again.
"There you go," TC soothed, before something fluffy was placed next to her and a warm wet tongue slid across her nose. Bentley. Kayla smiled slightly would have moved to pet him if not for the serious pain she was in.
"Okay, let's get out of here," someone said and she could feel herself being lifted off the ground.
"Stay awake, Kayla," TC ordered, causing her to force open her heavy eyelids.
-Hospital-
Krista was waiting by the ER doors for TC and Drew to return with Kayla, while Topher and Jordan were prepping a trauma room. Everyone seemed to know that Kayla was coming in and were doing his or her best to help out or stay out of the way.
The moment the doors slid open, Krista was spurred into action, taking the place of the lone paramedic. When she looked down at Kayla, she bit her lip at her condition.
Kayla was placed on her side, blankets under her head to keep her neck straight. Her head itself had been haphazardly wrapped with a bandage to stop the bleeding from a substantial head wound. A decent sized branch was sticking out of her hip next to the bone, which was most likely why she was placed on her side. The branch looked to be the main problem.
A puppy was sitting on the gurney next to Kayla, shivering in the damp blanket. TC handed the puppy off to a nurse before they wheeled Kayla into the trauma room.
The teenager was quickly hooked up to machines to monitor her heart rate and vitals. Everything was holding steady as the five doctors prepared to remove the branch, except for Kayla.
"Kayla, I need you to stay still, okay? Can you do that?" Jordan asked, laying a hand lightly on Kayla's shoulder for a moment.
"I-it hurts. It h-hurts so much," she whispered, body shaking as she held back cries. Jordan looked over at TC with a meaningful look and he nodded, pulling a syringe and a bottle of sedative out of a drawer. He handed it to Topher who injected it into her neck.
Kayla's eyes fluttered closed and her body relaxed as she fell into a deep sleep. Out in the field, they couldn't sedate her in the field in case something went wrong and they weren't alerted. But when they were at the hospital, it was somewhat okay.
"Okay guys, we're gonna do this in 3, 2, 1…" Jordan announced, counting down with her fingers. Krista and Topher were holding Kayla still while Drew waited with a suction tube, pile of gauze, and a suture kit. Jordan and TC were placed to slowly pull the branch out, not wanting to move it sideways at all for fear of paralyzing Kayla.
Once the branch cleared out, the wound started spilling crimson blood over her clothes. Before Drew could even get the suction tube to the wound, Kayla started seizing. TC held her steady on her side so she wouldn't flail and barked out an order.
"Push 100 cc's of diazepam!" Krista hurried to grab it and handed it to Jordan who ended up stabbing the needle into her arm.
Kayla stopped seizing slowly, just as Topher was called away to another patient. He gave TC a nod as he left. A nod that said he knew Kayla would be okay. TC returned the nod before turning back to his younger sister.
"We need to stop the bleeding," Drew told the others. TC nodded and let Jordan take the reigns.
It was a blur as the four doctors worked on the unconscious teenager. After Jordan and Krista had fully fixed up the wound from the branch, Kayla could be rolled onto her back.
The damage was more substantial than what they had been able to see from when she was lying on her side. Drew and TC had been able to somewhat see the damage in the field, but not all of it. Her shoulder was severely dislocated, and it would be painful when she woke up. Especially since TC knew they couldn't give her any strong painkillers. Glass was embedded all up and down her face and arm. Bruises were already forming.
A little under an hour later, all the little pieces of glass had been pulled out, Kayla's head was fixed up, and Krista helped a nurse change Kayla into a pair of hospital shorts and a thin shirt. A sling held her arm to her chest to help set the dislocated shoulder. Bandages were wrapped around her hips, arms, and head.
"Drew, can you run a CT scan?" TC asked when they left Kayla with Krista and the nurse.
"Sure," Drew agreed before the two split ways.
An hour later, Drew was pulling TC to the side and handing him the results of Kayla's CT scan.
"There's no bleeding or swelling, but she's got a severe concussion," Drew informed the other, who let out a sigh of relief.
"That's better than I expected. She always was thick-headed," TC joked, shutting the file and heading into Kayla's room. She was still sleeping off the sedative.
"Now we just have to wait for her to wake up and see if she can feel her legs or not," TC added, smile faltering a little as the pair went up to check on her vitals.
"Hey, T, look at this," Drew said, pointing to a large bruise peeking out of her top.
"That wasn't there earlier," TC told Drew, concern etched on both their faces. "Get Jordan."
The female doctor came in not much later, wondering why she was taken out of a surgery and torn away from a patient.
"You see this bruising. It wasn't there an hour ago," TC pointed out. Jordan pulled the shirt down just enough to see the entirety of it.
"She was complaining of chest pain last night," Drew said.
"Okay, I'm going to run a chest x-ray and we'll see what's going on," Jordan announced, right before Kayla flat lined.
-Kayla-
When Kayla woke up, all she could remember was getting in the car accident and falling asleep. But where she was, it was unfamiliar.
Everything was so white, almost blinding as Kayla looked around. She felt great, so much better than the pain she had felt before passing out. Kayla was dressed differently, too. Instead of leggings and a t-shirt, she was wearing skinny jeans and a dressy tank top, as if she was going to a party.
"Hey, baby sister," she heard from behind her. When she turned, someone Kayla hadn't seen in a long time was standing there smiling.
"Thad!" Kayla broke into a grin and ran at him. He caught her in a hug, laughing as she clung onto him like an ape, legs wrapped around his waist. It was a few minutes before she unwound her legs, lowering herself to stand on the ground, but still keeping a hold around his torso.
He was no different than she remembered, except maybe a little shorter. But that could have been because Kayla herself was taller. His blonde hair was still short and spikey, and he was wearing plain jeans and a t-shirt from a motorcycle rally they had been too with TC.
"I thought you were dead," Kayla murmured into his chest.
"I hate to break it to you, sis, but I am," Thad replied with a sad tone in his voice, causing Kayla to pull away.
"No you're not, you're standing right in front of me," she told him like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Kayla, I'm here because you're letting yourself die," Thad said, sitting down on a bench that had randomly appeared.
"What do you mean I'm letting myself die? I'm right here," Kayla protested.
Thad sighed and suddenly they disappeared from the white landscape and reappeared in a hospital room. TC, Drew, Jordan, Kenny, and Nurse Diaz were working on a patient that had coded. As Thad and Kayla walked closer, Kayla could see that it was herself.
"What? B-but—," she stuttered. Thad placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her around, heading out into the hallway of the emergency room.
"See, your heart and breathing stopped. And that means you have to decide whether or not to let TC save you, or to come with me," he explained.
"Go with you? Where?"
Thad shrugged. "I don't know. I'm just a figment of your subconscious."
"But if I let myself die, I'll see you again?" Kayla inquired.
"Maybe. But you have to make the choice of letting yourself die or continuing to live. Not many people get that choice," Thad told her.
"I've missed you. I don't want you to go again," Kayla protested, looking at the ground. Thad placed his hands on her shoulders and made her look at him.
"Don't think about me. Think about TC," he said. "If you die, and he can't save you. What will that do to him?" Kayla stared back at the ground stubbornly. Thad had a point. TC hadn't been able to save their older brother when they were overseas, and she knew it still haunted him.
"He'd loose it, Kayla. You can't let yourself die," Thad told her. Kayla cursed him inwardly for always being so wise.
"I love you, Thad," she replied, wrapping her arms around his torso tightly. He looked surprised for a moment before hugging her back.
"I take it you're staying," he murmured. She nodded and suddenly he disappeared, taking the hospital with it.
"Thad?!" she cried out before everything went black.
-Hospital-
"She's coding!" TC yelled. Drew lowered the bed while Kenny and Nurse Diaz rolled in a crash cart. TC ripped open the front of the hospital shirt to allow access for the paddles.
"TC, she's not breathing," Jordan told him.
"Dammit, Kayla," TC cursed, starting chest compressions.
"I can't get a tube in!" Jordan exclaimed.
"Do a tracheotomy," TC ordered. Drew grabbed a kit and he and Jordan got to work while Kenny and Nurse Diaz started prepping the chest paddles. Drew made an incision in Kayla's larynx and inserted a tube then Jordan attached it to an oxygen bag.
"Okay, paddles," TC commanded and Kenny handed them to him. "Clear?"
"Clear."
The first shock ended with Kayla still at flat line.
"Charging…clear?" "Clear."
The next shock she was still at flat line.
"Come on, Kayla," Jordan muttered. TC charged again and shocked her again. Six more shocks and fifteen minutes later, her heart finally started beating again.
"Let's get her to an OR, see what's really happening," TC ordered. The rest nodded and put the bars on the side of her bed up, rolling Kayla out into the hallway and to the elevator.
-Kayla-
Black and nothingness turned into a light blue ceiling and an annoying beeping. Kayla woke up in pain, groaning as the lights from the hospital irritated her headache.
"Hey there, Kayla," a feminine voice greeted, and Kayla knew it was Jordan. When she finally opened her eyes, Jordan and TC were standing there, looking down at her.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again," TC ordered with a stern face before smiling and leaning down to give her a kiss on the forehead.
"No promises, big brother," Kayla replied cheekily, chuckling before groaning in pain.
"You'll be in pain for a while. We can only give you minor pain medication with your past," TC explained.
"When can I go home?" Kayla asked. TC and Jordan shared a look.
"In a couple of days, most likely. You'll have to stay here during the day," Jordan replied.
"Oh great," Kayla muttered sarcastically.
Please please please fav/follow/review so I can make it better! I'm obsessed with this show and it sucks that there's not a lot of Fanfiction out there. So I decided to write one. :) Please review! xoxo -L