Chapter 5
He sprints through smoke and debris not even noticing pieces of flaming bus falling all around him. He is numb to physical pain but his heart and mind both rend with agony. His life keeps flashing before his eyes – April, his slight of frame, petite April, being lifted as if by a giant unseen hand and flung into the night sky, yeah April is his life.
His training as a physician must surely have subconsciously kicked in, he cradled little Evie in the crook of his right arm, shielding her from the wreckage all around, while his left arm, which when it happened felt wrenched from its socket, now hung uselessly at his side. His eyes water and he knows it's not entirely fire and smoke related. Barely seconds passed since he witnessed April running towards the exploding bus and his subsequent mad dash to reach her, but as he looked around for her the altered landscape indicates a slow-motioned march to an unbearable eternity without her.
Since the deafening sounds of the detonation had receded, hospital personnel start emerging from the Trauma Centre like a colony of ants foraging for food. Jackson handed the little girl over to the first person he spotted – he kept his promise to the mother but now necessity required that he keep his promise to himself. Loving April as he does, not only his happiness but his very survival was contingent upon hers, he had to keep her safe. He was filled with terror as he searched for her. Yes, she was in the vicinity of the bus as it exploded but the propulsion of the blast clearly thrust her away and not towards the inferno. He spun around, eyes peeled, searching, trying to spot the beckoning beacon that was her red hair.
In a trembling voice he shouts out for her, "April!…April?" followed by a louder roar, "April, NO…NO!" when in the adjoining brush he spots, just as he did with little Evie, a white sneaker resembling the one April was wearing. Only this time the athletic shoe is attached to a foot and almost completely covered by a pair of navy blue scrub pants.
He rushes to her side but he is not the only one that has been hunting for her and both Matthew and him skid to a halt on either side of her crumpled, unconscious form. His quivering right hand searches for a pulse and he breathes a sigh of relief, it's faint and thready but there. Matthew is in the meantime examining her for injuries and they both note the big slash on her forehead gushing blood, running down the side of her face and onto her neck and chest. She looks like she's been in a war-zone, covered as she is in scrapes and gashes and on her arms there's some very definite shrapnel-like wounds which have shards of bus still embedded into her skin. Added to that her arms and legs have vicious red blotches which could only have been caused by the extreme heat of the fire, but thankfully the burns appear to be only superficial. The most worrying aspect to Jackson though is that she has not regained consciousness yet.
Still pumped up on adrenaline from not only the explosive incident but also the anxiousness of April's condition, Jackson painfully lifts her into his arms and attempts to carry her to the Emergency Room, but Matthew is having none of it.
"Look man, let me have her, we'll take her inside and get her checked out by Chief Hunt. You should get yourself seen to as well, that arm doesn't look good," Matthew softly tries to convince him, but Jackson has decided that April will not be leaving his arms ever again.
"Get out of my way Taylor, I need to have her seen to immediately!" he angrily exclaims. "Page Dr. Shepherd straightaway, he is required in the ER stat!" he yells to a nurse in the immediate vicinity, while trying to shift past Matthew with his precious burden lying ever so still in his arms. "Do you feel like you have to be the big man, Taylor, you feel threatened by me?" he accuses when Matthew stonewalls him, refusing to budge from his path.
"No, I don't feel threatened by you. I'm trying to save April's life!" hisses Matthew.
"Great, so am I," acknowledges Jackson.
"Okay look Avery, I don't have a problem with you man, but she is my responsibility now," utters Matthew coolly and calmly, pointedly glancing at April's right hand where her ring finger unmistakably sports a bauble that was not there previously.
Even though his heart stutters in shock, with adrenaline still coursing through his system, Jackson pushes past Matthew and strides swiftly towards the ER, gently easing April down onto the first available gurney he finds. Unable to critically analyze her injuries without breaking down and bawling like a bitch-baby he just gazes down at her, tenderly cupping her cheek with his uninjured right hand. Her wound, he notices, continues to seep and extremely pale as she normally is, now she appears paler still.
He suddenly hisses in pain as he feels a hand land on his wounded shoulder and he swiftly pivots on the ball of one foot ready to pummel Matthew Taylor into the ground, even if only with one undamaged fist.
"Check yourself before you wreck yourself, Avery!" scolds Callie, stopping his momentum by catching hold of his fist in the palms of her hands.
"Sorry, I thought you were…" he starts only to be rudely interrupted by her once again.
"Let's go…next cubicle….chop, chop. Come on Jackson, I don't have all day here," she focuses her attention on his shoulder and collar bones, which while extremely painful are thankfully not broken.
Jackson pulls away from her grasp and returns to April's bedside. He gently lifts her hand to his lips and places a soft kiss on her palm, observing that her ring finger on that hand is occupied but choosing to ignore that tit bit until she regains consciousness.
"I appreciate your concern, Torres," he replies to Callie with his total focus on April. "But I'm not going anywhere – I need someone to check up on April. Where the hell is Shepherd, he needs to do a CAT scan at once!" he gruffly commands. "Why isn't she waking up yet, Torres?" he follows up with a whisper, brokenly, not really expecting a response from her or anyone so he's surprised when someone answers.
"Meredith's in surgery, she had the baby – a boy, healthy – but she started haemorrhaging. Bailey's operating and for obvious reasons I've pulled Derek and Cristina from working," replies Hunt to his first question – where the hell did he appear from? He instantaneously answers himself when he notices the Paramedic, April's apparent fiancé and his rival for her affections, hovering behind the Chief – so that's where the brown-noser disappeared to, he realizes.
Owen continues speaking while at the same time examining April, trying to diagnose the severity of her blackout. "What was she thinking running towards a burning bus on the verge of exploding?" he supposes. "And what about you Avery, crazy stunt – but you saved that little girl," he acknowledges. "Go with Torres, let her fix that arm of yours. I am already down two people, electricity is out, the generator is barely functioning, a bus just exploded in front of this hospital, this storm is causing havoc all over Seattle and I'm expecting an over capacity ER. So please just go get checked out, I could really use you," he implores.
"But Chief, April…I need to…" Jackson begins.
At the same time Matthew pipes up, "What about my fiancée Chief Hunt?"
"She's not your fiancée!" exclaims Jackson.
Simultaneously Matthew interjects, "Why hasn't April woken up yet Dr. Hunt?" Taking a page out of the Plastic Surgeons playbook, Matthew completely ignores him, concentrating solely on his Trauma Surgeon fiancée.
Owen's brows lift so high that they almost seem to disappear beneath his hairline and like spectators at a tennis match he and Callie glance between the two men as they serve and volley, both participants glaring daggers at each other.
It appears that a stalemate has been reached; deuce, score tied – April is engaged to one but ran towards an exploding bus, literally, for the other. To the victor go the spoils but the sleeping beauty must first awaken before her champion can lay claim to her.