DISCLAIMER:: not mine
A/N:: sorry this took so long. been super super busy at work
Take the very breath you gave me
Take the heart from my chest
I'll gladly take her place if you let me
Make this my last request
Take me out of this world
God, but please, don't take the girl
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Jason found no solace in the confines of the small waiting room. It was mid-day, so it was packed and he felt as if he were suffocating with all these strangers around him. Lexie Grey had tried several times to make idle conversation, but his answers were clipped and eventually she'd given up. They lapsed into a thick silence that suffocated far more than the crowd around them.
He had no idea why he cared at all, let alone so much. Elizabeth was just some girl, some stranger he'd met on a bus. He knew close to nothing about her. She hadn't even been the friendliest person in the beginning. A six hour bus ride next to a girl didn't make her your best friend. She was just a girl. But then, she wasn't, he knew. She was more than that. He cared if she came out of this, possibly more than he cared about anything in a very long time.
He thought back to when she'd first asked him that odd question about where the bus was heading. She hadn't seemed confused, just tired, as if she'd been doing the same thing for a long time. Her black hair, her dark blue eyes, her small frail body, it all looked a little worse for wear. He thought about how she'd pulled nervously on the hem of her worn blue Beatles t-shirt with her right hand. He thought of how the blue of that t-shirt had matched her eyes. He thought of her jeans with the holes ripped in the knees, of the way she tucked her hair behind her ear in the place of smiling. She didn't smile often, it was a luxury few experienced. But he had gotten to see it.
And then those thoughts became tainted as the image of her, bloody and doubled over filled his mind. He shook his head to get the image out of his mind. He bent over in his seat with his head in his hands as if that would keep the offending image out.
"She's gonna be okay."
Jason sat up and turned to face Lexie Grey, an amused smile on his face. "Is that protocol? The famous line you feed to all grieving family members?"
"No… we offer hope sparingly. We rattle off statistics and big medical probabilities because that's what we have to work with. That's what we're faced with everyday. We are detached and distant. We have to be, so we don't feel the losses. We feel them anyway, but that's not the point. We dedicate our emotions to finding a way not to feel them, because if we had to feel every loss… it would destroy us. Because sometimes… we lose. And now, Elizabeth is fighting for her life and I'm telling you I believe she's gonna pull through. I'm supposed to look at the odds, but I'm not, I'm looking past that because I feel she's gonna be okay."
"Are your feelings always right?"
"Sometimes."
Jason nodded. She wasn't giving him false hope, but she was giving him some hope. At that moment he concluded that he respected Dr. Grey. She knew better than to give him anything but the facts, however grim they may be, but she was giving him more than that. She was giving him possibility.
"Thanks, Dr. Grey."
"It's Lexie."
"Thanks, Lexie."
She nodded, glad she could finally offer some type of comfort.
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Callie was quick to scrub in. She had no idea if she would be needed. Sometimes too many hands were not a good thing. So she kept out of the way and just watched Arizona work. They had opened the girl up to a mess. It was obvious they were at a disadvantage going in. Her chest cavity was flooded.
"We need to find the source of this bleeding." Arizona sounded desperate. Desperation was not something Callie had ever heard from her and she became worried. If this didn't end well, she would have to do some serious damage control with her normally optimistic girlfriend. But finding the source of the bleeding seemed to be proving difficult.
"Check the main arteries first." Callie jumped into action, pushing her way into the group surrounding the girl. She met Arizona's eyes briefly and she saw relief in them. Together they covered the main arteries. It was the only thing Callie could think of that would cause so much blood.
"Her ribs are a mess." Callie would normally be delighted to see so many fractured and broken bones in one body, but this was a different story all together. This girl had been in pain before the bleed. Extreme pain. Every breath would have caused it.
And in an instant she saw what she was looking for. A small piece of one of the girl's left ribs had punctured an artery. It was a small but substantial hole. Any bigger and she would have been dead by the time she came through the ER doors. The bone had just nicked the surface. Callie was more concerned that it was alarmingly close to her heart.
Arizona saw it too. "We need to repair this now. Try not to jostle her; if that hole gets any bigger she'll bleed out before we can move."
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"Close up please, Dr. Yang." Arizona stepped back from the body, pulled off her gloves and headed for the scrub room.
Callie was waiting for her. She had left almost an hour earlier after she'd helped remove the offending piece of bone.
Arizona flipped on the water and dipped her arms under the steady stream of liquid. She had a look of frustration on her face. It was an expression Callie had not seen often.
"What's wrong?" Callie put a hand on her shoulder. "You saved that girl's life."
Arizona looked back into the OR where Yang was still working diligently. "For now."
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"Jason?"
Jason shot up out of his chair at the sound of his name. Callie stood at the entrance to the now deserted waiting room. His face fell. If Elizabeth had survived, wouldn't Arizona be here to deliver the news. A knot formed in his chest and his breath caught.
"She survived the surgery. We were able to successfully repair the tear in her artery. We've had her moved to recovery. It'll be a while before you can go and see her. Your aunt suggests you go home and rest."
The knot released itself. She was alive. Elizabeth was alive. He glanced at Lexie Grey and she gave him a knowing smile.
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Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
It was the first sounds of heaven Elizabeth heard. She had no idea where it was coming from, just that it was somewhere in the void of light beyond her eyelids. She forced them open. Jason was before her asleep, at his feet, her backpack. She hadn't expected him to be in heaven too. Had the bus blown up?
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
She looked over at the monitor emitting the sound. A beep for each beat. Beating. Her heart was still beating. She was still alive… she was still alive, in a hospital, in Seattle. Which meant she wasn't safe. She wasn't where she needed to be. She couldn't be here. She had to get out of this hospital. Now.