A couple hours later found Callie in the pit helping out with victims of a ten car pile-up. Her current patient was a man with a broken leg who wouldn't stop yelling every time she touched him. This was getting old… fast.
"Somebody sedate him before I lose it!" She shouted at the nearest nurse. The man already had morphine flowing through his system, but at the sound of sedation he relaxed a little and his yelling was reduced to more of a strangled moan.
It took no time at all for Callie to fix the man's leg, and she was up and ready to move on to the next patient.
"I need some help here!"
Callie looked towards an EMT supporting a young woman in her arms.
"Another accident victim?" Callie asked as she rushed over.
The EMT looked overwhelmed by the simple question. "I don't know. She didn't come in by ambulance like the others. She… walked in. And then she collapsed. "
Callie stared at her and then the woman. "Walked in?"
"Hahn… Erica Hahn…" The mumbled words came from the woman before she crumpled in the EMT's arms. It was only then that Callie noticed the piece of twisted metal jutting from the woman's lower abdomen.
"We need a little help here! Someone page Dr. Hahn!"
Callie kicked into doctor mode and she would stay that way until Dr. Hahn finally showed up fifteen minutes later.
"Mrs. Hansen, I assure you we are trying to do everything we can to find Haley a heart." Erica was itching for a surgery. Her morning however had been spent with patients.
It wasn't that she didn't care about her patients, but if it was you having to explain why there was still no heart available for her nineteen year old daughter twenty times, you'd be frustrated too.
She could be in on the countless surgeries that car accident had caused, but instead she was here dealing with a disgruntled mother.
Her pager went off just as she was about to explain for the twenty first time.
She barely glanced at it, happy for any excuse to escape. "Mrs. Hansen I have to go, but I'll be back to check on Haley as soon as I can."
She couldn't move fast enough towards the pit, where she had been paged.
The pit was a flurry of activity, blurs of different colored scrubs flying this way and that. Still, Erica had learned long ago how to quickly process where she was needed, to sort through the mess.
Her eyes caught Callie's at the same time that Callie's caught hers, and she rushed to join her.
"Female. Mid to late twenties. Piece of metal straight through her stomach. We stopped the bleeding. As soon as it's assessed whether the metal has pierced any major organs, she'll go to OR 2 so it can be removed and any damage can be repaired." Callie blocked her entrance into the room with the patient as she rambled off the woman's condition.
"And her heart?"
"Not compromised so far…" Callie suddenly couldn't meet her eyes.
"Torres…" That got her nowhere. "…Callie!"
Callie looked up, apology written across her face. "She knows you, Erica. She asked for you."
Erica pushed past Callie and into the room, and for a moment her own heart stopped.
She did indeed know the young woman on the table before her.
She was vaguely aware of Callie's hand on her shoulder. "Dr. Hahn… do you know her? Who is she?" Though Callie's tone was gentle, Erica flinched. The answer came easily to her mind but she couldn't seem to push the name out. Brenna Donovan. She hadn't thought about that name for over eight years, and it hurt to think of it now.
"Dr. Hahn?" Callie's growing concern was becoming more evident in her voice now. Of course, anyone looking at Erica's expression would be concerned. She looked as if she had just seen a ghost, for lack of a better comparison. Her eyes were wide and unbelieving, and she neither smiled nor frowned.
Callie shook her. "Erica?" She was really worried now. Callie leaned in close. "Erica, honey, tell me who she is." Callie glanced around, checking to see if anyone had caught her small term of endearment, but no one had seemed to notice.
That, at least, finally snapped Erica out of her stupor. She looked at Callie, and put on her poker face. She was a world renowned cardiothoracic surgeon now. She could face this.
"Brenna Donovan…" She hesitated briefly. Thinking a name was different than actually hearing it aloud, especially from her own mouth.
Callie's brows furrowed. "Who is she, Dr. Hahn?"
"She was my first successful heart transplant patient."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: ooh, the suspense! who is brenna donovan really?? a relative? a love interest? we might never know… more chapters in a couple days, when i finally get a break from work…