I do not own Chicago Med or any of the characters. Please review!
Maggie's hands were still covering her mouth as Dr. Choi and Halstead set the paddles of the defibrillator away. Rhodes' heart went tachy-cardic again, the two ED doctors needing to shock Connor just as Maggie was in the room visiting.
"We'll keep monitoring him, Halstead volunteered to stay," stated Choi.
They moved around to re-evaluate Rhodes, his condition only worsening by the hour. His usual piercing blue eyes were dazed and barely open, awakening from his unconsciousness when his heart started giving out.
"Hey, he's waking up," Choi said in an alert tone, getting Will's attention.
"Rhodes," Will sternly addressed the pale patient, "Rhodes, can you hear me?"
Will saw Rhodes' eyes scale him, but no familiarity was evident in his unfocused eyes. The virus and medication were taking their toll, unable to even register where he was.
Rhodes made an incoherent noise as he fell into unconsciousness again, drifting in and out for almost two days now.
Will and Choi straightened back up and gave each other a silent look. If things got any worse, they would need to take more drastic measures.
Maggie was leaning on the back wall furthest from Rhodes' bed, as if not being able to bear the idea Connor was the one lying before her.
"Maggie, if you don't want to-" Will started.
"No," she responded firmly, taking a few small steps towards Rhodes' bed, "I'll monitor him now, give you all hourly reports and little time to rest."
After a moment of silence, Will softly responded, "Okay."
Choi and Will exited, leaving Maggie with the unconscious Dr. Rhodes.
…
Rhodes woke up with a jolt, unfamiliar with where he was and why he was in… a hospital gown?
Maggie jumped to her feet the minute she saw any sort of movement come from Rhodes' direction, shocked when she found him wide-eyed and trying to get out of the covers.
"Hey! Hey, Rhodes!" Maggie tried to calm the struggling Rhodes down, "It's me! It's Maggie."
He looked at her, a pause before saying in a hoarse voice, "Maggie?"
"In the flesh, sweet cakes," she responded, loosening her grip and coaxing him to lean back instead of sitting stick straight,
"W-what..?" so many questions ran through his mind.
Maggie noticed how awful he looked. His eyes were bloodshot, the blue of his irises standing out in a sickly-sweet kind of way. His face was as white as a vampire's and his voice was rough from not talking for a bit. He was shaky and a little jumpy, but most likely due to the fact that Rhodes was one of the toughest guys in the hospital and didn't approve of the fact he was in a hospital bed. The guy had done his residency in Guatemala. Hell, he grew up with Cornelius Rhodes as a father.
"Sweetie, you've taken a nice long nap these past two days!" she smiled, happy to see he was awake.
But Rhodes wasn't doing too well, as she could see, and his whole body was weak. He needed more rest, paging Will, Choi, and Goodwin.
"Two days?" he said slowly, as if his mind couldn't register it.
"Yup," Maggie responded, "Hey and guess what? Your heart went crazy and we shocked you a few times too, Will seemed happy to eletrocute you anyways."
Deep down, she knew Will and Rhodes, although they couldn't stand each other most of the times, were brothers at the hospital.
Connor coughed once or twice just as Will, Ethan, Sharon, and Dr. Charles entered the room.
"Rhodes," Halstead smiled, happy to see his friend awake, even if he looked like a zombie, "still with us pal?"
Rhodes cleared his throat and said, "How's Allison?" just as Will swooped in to evaluate him.
Will shook his head in silence. Classic Rhodes, feeling like he was untouchable.
"She's not well, Rhodes," is all Sharon would say, Allison Grace deep in another isolation chamber, dying.
Rhodes winced, his organs feeling as though they were on fire.
"Let's talk about you now," Sharon said, opening upon his chart, "Fever at 102.8, high BP, oh- kidneys shut down along the line there- and multiple de-fib episodes. You're on heavy antibiotics and medication for the meningitis and infection in your lungs"
"Peachy," he said with a low huff, head back on the pillow and exhaustion pulling him down.
"Don't forget the hallucinations," Will added, trying to lighten the mood, "You thought I was Tina Turner for a little while there."
"Yeah, and I was Bruce Lee," Maggie added.
Rhodes could barely smile back, coughing once before sleep pulled him back again.
….
When Connor woke up next his lungs were burning out of his chest. He couldn't stop the incessant coughing that racked through him and he felt as if he was choking up his organs.
Will ran into the room, nurses trailing after him, "Page Choi!"
Rhodes' eyes were getting watery and he could barely see, his somewhat peaceful sleep long forgotten.
Choi ran into the room as Halstead was trying to check Rhodes' airway, "What the hell happened?!" he yelled.
Rhodes was the calm, cool, composed surgeon everyone looked up to. That was out the window now. He was panicking as he couldn't control his heavy coughs, feeling as though his throat was bleeding. His breaths were coming in rapid gasps and he knew something bad was about to happen. And it did.
Rhodes spotted the basin sitting on top of the stand next to his bed, stretching past Halstead and yanked it towards his mouth. In an instance, he heaved into the basin, blood staining the vomit.
"Get me an intubation kit!" Halstead practically screamed.
A nurse took over holding the basin as he continued to heave, blood spilling with it. The retching quickly diminished to dry heaves as he had barely eaten in the last two days, blood the only continuously flowing.
His bed started to lean back and he knew what was coming. He felt weak and unfeeling, numb after the vomiting. He was delirious, unable to make out the instructions Will was saying to him, Halstead's eyes wild. Choi stood a few feet away, pumping some drugs into his IV. Red was everywhere, on his clothes and hands. His eyes felt unbelievably heavy as he couldn't keep them from opening. Any sign of Connor Rhodes was gone, replaced by a practically unresponsive patient. He was out in seconds.
…..
Will's mind went from serious to panic in a matter of seconds. One minute he's reading Connor's chart, trying to find a new course of treatment, the next he's coughing, then vomiting blood.
It seemed like the blood kept coming, filling the basin as Rhodes was uncontrollably coughing it up. He didn't even remember ordering the nurses what to do, his only thought was, Please don't die. Please don't die.
When Choi shouted, "Drugs are in!" Will knew it was time for what they had been avoiding throughout treatment.
Rhodes would have to be manually stabilized, by a ventilator and drugs. He no longer could risk the chance of trying to fight the disease off by himself. As the nurse handed Halstead the tube and Rhodes' bed was leaned back, Halstead knew he didn't have much time.
"Connor, you know I have to do this, alright?," he told Rhodes, although he seemed to be saying it not feel as guilty about intubating his friend, "We're going to put you in a medically induced coma and I'm going to slip in an intubation tube to help you breath."
Rhodes gave no sign of acknowledgment, his blue eyes wild and lazy, eyelids closing. When they shut, Will said, "Here we go," and tried to locate a clear pathway for the tube. He slipped it in and said, "I'm in."
The nurse attached a bag valve mask and said, "Stats improving, oxygen 97."
"Temp's 105," Choi whispered to Will, who came to stand next to him, hands rubbing his tired eyes.
"White blood cell count low," Will said, looking exhausted, "skin clammy and pale, lets do an infection work up."
Choi solemnly nodded as he stared at Rhodes, Will with his back to Connor, and saw how ghostly white and pitiful Rhodes looked. Not the one they were used to.
"Page Goodwin," Will said as he exited.
….
"Infection workup showed a stomach infection, the meningitis causing his immune system to weaken," Will said pacing through the doctor's lounge.
Dr. Charles, Natalie, Maggie, April, Ethan, and Reese were all seated, looking grave.
"We need a new course of treatment," Ethan reiterated, "this one's obviously not working."
"I can go do a little more research on it," Maggie suggested, "See what I come up with, Reese you hit the library and let me know about anything you find."
Reese nodded and hurried out of the room.
"I'll help," said April as Maggie was getting up to leave and they both headed out the door.
"His temps 105.1," Manning said, worried, "We've got to get that down or we're wasting our time with the research."
Dr. Charles jumped in, "Well, the infection could be a contributing factor to the high temp, right? I'm just suggesting maybe we address that first and hold off with the new treatment."
"But the meningitis is what's causing the infections to happen," Will turned on Dr. Charles.
He only calmly replied, "All I'm saying is that the drugs were working, right? He didn't get any better or worse so we should keep him on that until we clear up the infection."
"I agree with Dr. Charles," Manning declared, "He's going to need heavy antibiotics to treat it and he's already been through so much. We don't want it to progress any further."
Will hesitated and then nodded, "Okay, we keep him on the current meningitis medication and clear up the infection, clear?"
Before anyone could answer, Sharon grimly walked in, closing the door behind her. Her face was sad and she didn't have the authoritative aura she usually did.
"Sharon, what's wrong?" said Natalie, worriedly.
"I just got the news from the CDC," she replied, depressed, "Allison Grace is dead."
….
