Hi there!
Once again, thanks for all of your reviews. I'm sorry I had to make you wait a week longer, but there was some birthday chaos at my house ;)
Now, on with the story. Have fun with reading!
Staying by her side
Major Owen Hunt was shocked when the doors of the ambulance opened and he recognized Carolyn Shepherd in it. But soon his thoughts were occupied by what the paramedic told him.
"Thirteen year old female with fever, abdominal pains. She's unconscious. Blood pressure is 160 to 98."
"Let's get her inside. How long has she been unconscious?" He took his place at the side of the gurney and started to push it in.
"Probably half an hour."
"She is falling in and out of consciousness for about 2 hours, but first I thought she was finally sleeping.", Carolyn told him and, ignoring the helping hand of the EMT, got out of the ambulance. Right then Marc was beside Owen and started talking.
"Page Dr. Robbins and Shepherd. And Dr. Grey. Owen, I think her kidneys are inflamed. She's holding water in, non working kidneys would be an explanation for the blood pressure and the infection for the other symptoms. She was awake shortly, but only for 2 minutes."
When they reached the doors to a trauma-room, he shook his head at Carolyn. "Please stay outside, Ma. And wait for Derek."
Carolyn stayed outside like she was told, feeling utterly helpless and lost. Minutes later, Dr. Robbins walked by and slipped into the trauma room, Dr. Bailey followed. Nurses rushed in and out of the room, through the window Carolyn could see every step the three doctors took. Soon, Marc came out.
"The kicked me out. Apparently I'm too attached."
She nodded briefly, still watching the doctors hovering over her newest grandchild. "A nurse told me that she told Derek's secretary to tell him that we are here before she went off to get Meredith out of the OR. Derek should be with us shortly."
She was just finishing her sentence when they both could her fast steps coming down the hallway.
"Mom? What is going on?" She could see the concern in Derek's face. He looked into her face, then he turned around and his eyes got big when he recognized the patient in the room. Without thinking he made steps toward the door, only to be stopped by Mark.
"No Derek, don't go in there. Let them do their work, Chloe is in good hands."
Derek struggled. It was like a déjà-vu, only without the wet clothes clinging to his body. But once again there was a person he loved with all his heart lying there and he could do nothing. This time it was even worse, because he could have prevented it- and he knew that his colleagues and friends would turn against him if he would enter the room.
In a sudden move of aggression, he got Marks collar and slumped him into a wall.
"Derek!", his mother shouted.
Mark held up his hands, to show him that he wouldn't do anything. With a loud huff, he let his best friend go and turned around, only to stare into the trauma room through the window.
Right in this moment, Meredith ran into the ER. Still in scrubs, she came directly out the OR after a nurse told her that Chloe was brought in.
"What happened?"
When her husband didn't react, she turned to her mother in law and after her helpless shrug they both turned to Mark.
He sighed. "Her kidneys may be inflamed, she is binning water in. Also, her fever was quite high. I can't tell you more, only that her respirations were as good as they could be under this circumstance."
Meredith turned to her husband and put her hand on his arm. Through the window she could see that Arizona was putting a Central line in the girl's chest. "Let's sit down, Derek. We have to wait."
To her own surprise, he obeyed and together they took a seat on the chairs a nurse had brought. No one of them said a word while they waited. During their wait, Mark was paged down to the ER and had to leave, as well as the door to the trauma room opened and Owen Hunt ran out. They all could hear his pager going crazy. But it took another long whileuntil the door opened and Miranda Bailey came out. Her expression was cautious, as she didn't have good news.
Derek jumped up and rushed to her, his family followed him.
"Miranda- what is it?"
Doctor Bailey looked him directly into the eyes when she started to talk. "First of all, it isn't only one thing. She has a bad case of bronchitis, close to pneumonia, but her fever is mainly caused by inflammation of the kidneys. Right now, the bit of urine she had in her bladder was more blood than anything, and it wasn't much. We are suspecting that her kidneys only work for about 10-20 percent right now, so while we are talking Arizona is getting her a bed on the peds ICU. We will get her on Dialysis, give her antibiotics and wait till her general condition has improved."
Merediths hold on Dereks arm tightened while he closed his eyes.
"Then?"
"We need an MRT. But I don't want to do this before she was conscious again. I know that she gets easily scared and finding oneself inside the machine would get her panicking. And, they have no space down in the radiology, there was a major car crash and we are getting swamped. But you two don't worry about the ER right now. I will leave to help there, Chloe is with Arizona in good hands. Page me as soon as she wakes up."
When her pager started to terrorize her again, she pulled it from her waist band and turned it off. "I have to go." With a curt nod, taking in the hanging shoulders of her colleague and the strong grip her former intern had on his arm, she turned around and hurried down to the ER.
The family stayed in silence for a few minutes, trying to process the diagnosis. Then Carolyn put her hand on her sons shoulder. "Derek, Chloe will need a few things. I'll go home and get another pajama and stuff."
He nodded, still absorbed in his own thoughts. His mind was giving him the full information overload on worst case scenarios, things only a doctor could have seen. Merediths grip onhim tightened for a second.
"I will go with her and get you some clothes. I know you want to stay with her. Mark, could you make sure that Dereks surgeries are cancelled? And mine, too?"
Mark nodded his okay. "Yes, but you two will wait with driving home. I will drive you. We don't need a car accident and both of you aren't really able to drive now."
He turned and went looking for a nurse.
While he was gone, the door to the exam room opened and Arizona and a nurse pushed the gurney out. She gave the Shepherds a tentative smile and stopped.
"We are bringing her upstairs, we have already a dialysis-station in her room. She will probably stay asleep for a while." She told them while they stepped closer.
Derek caressed her cheek before he turned to Arizona. "I'm coming with you." He pecked Meredith on her lips, then her took the place of the nurse.
While he and Arizona pushed the gurney towards the elevator, his mother and his wife stayed back, watching them go.
Carolyn reached for Merediths hand and gave her a squeeze. "She will be okay again, you know that?"
Mer nodded. She knew that if she opened her mouth to speak, she would not be able to keep her tears back. Instead she turned around to the exit when she was Mark was coming.
Derek and Arizona brought the girl upstairs to the pediatrics ICE, where two nurses were already waiting for them. They showed them a little private room in which they had already a bed ready, as well as a dialysis-machine and several IV-poles. He helped them to get Chloe from the gurney into the bed, but when they started to hook her up to the machines, he was told to stay back. They were quick, and soon he could take a seat at the bedsight.
He took the childs hand, and leaned back. He would wait for her to wake up without leaving. She wouldn't be alone, not even in sleep.
It seemed hours later when the beeping of the monitor changed. "Hm? Are you waking up?" Derek watched her face for any signs of waking. When her eyelids twitched, he put a hand on her cheek, got up and leaned himself over the bed, so that she would see his face as soon as she opened her eyes.
"Chloe? Sweetie, open your eyes. Try it."
The first thing she recognized was his voice. And after that, the brightness of the room.
With a quite whimper, she closed her eyes again and turned her head into the direction she heard his voice.
"Shhh! Everything is all right, Chloe. Take your time, don't rush."
Carefully and this time, slowly, she opened her eyes again and blinked a few times to get a clear sight.
"Hey sweetheart. How are you feeling?"
Attaching her eyes to the face of her uncle she opened her mouth to answer him, but instead of words only a little whimpering escaped her. A quick glance at the monitors told him that she was getting too worked up.
"Shhh, sweetheart, you are okay. Everything will be all right again, I promise." His right hand started to pat her hair while the left one took her hand in. "Can you take a deep breath for me? Yes, like that. Again please. Good job, go on like this. And listen to me: Do you remember what happened?"
She shook her head, there was still a hint of panic in her eyes. "Was… so tired!", she gasped.
"That's not bad, it's normal. You are very ill, sweetheart. Ma called Mark and he brought you into the hospital. We have the best doctors on your case and we all agreed to bring you up to the pediatric ICU. Here you can rest properly without being disturbed by other kids." He choose his words carefully and gave her another smile, then he checked the monitors again.
"What is it?", she whispered.
"We are not sure right now. Probably a bad case of bronchitis. Along with some general problems, things your body is working with for weeks. Right now your kidneys need a bit of help, that's why there are so many machines in here." While he told her that, he continued to stroke her hair.
"Where's Mere…" She couldn't finish her question because a coughing fit erupted out of her.
He helped her to sit up a bit with raising the bed.
"Meredith and Ma are home and packing some things for you. Any wishes? I can call them. Or we will bring you the things you want later today." He leaned over and pushed the button for the nurse.
"Yes Doctor Shepherd?" A voice sounded out of a speaker.
"Chloe is awake, would you page Doctor Bailey for me, please?"
"Of course. Do you need anything else?"
"No, thank you. Are you tired, baby?" He asked the child. She was looking around the room, taking in the wall with the door, which was made out of glass, but moved her head yes to his question. After that, she had to cough again, and tears shot into her eyes.
"Try to go back to sleep and get some rest.", he told her.
Nodding again, she leaned her head back into her cushion and closed her tired eyes. But despite her tiredness, the pains in her body didn't let her go to sleep that easy. She was just falling asleep when the door was opened and Dr. Bailey came in.
Derke watched her come near to the bed.
"Is she asleep again?" the female doctor whispered. Chloe, who heard this, opened her eyes slowly, and was rewarded with a smile.
"Hey Chloe! How are you feeling?"
"Tired. Achy. Not so good." The child answered. Derek squeezed her hand gently while Dr. Bailey nodded.
"I can imagine that. Did…" she started to ask her patient some questions while taking in the stats, but Chloe interrupted her.
"How bad is it?"
"It's nothing that we can't make better in time." Answered Dr. Bailey and Derek nodded. He wanted to give his niece a cheerful face, he didn't want her to know how serious the illness really was.
"I think your uncle told you a bit about why we have you up here. But we still have to do some tests during the next days to get a proper knowledge of your illness. First of all, we will get you down to make some scans of your body."
"A CT-Scan?" Chloe asked.
"An MRT. I see, you know something about hospital life." Miranda Bailey winked at her. She was concerned by the bad physical sight Chloe gave and by the still high temperature the child was spiking. "And tomorrow, we will perform a biopsy of your kidneys. You don't have to be scared of those tests, we will make sure that they won't hurt."
The child nodded before erupting into a new coughing fit. The doctor waited for her to calm down, and after taking in the tired blinking of the child's eyes, she sat down on the bedside. "I've already called MRT, we will wait till this round of dialysis is over, then we will bring you down. Till then, you can sleep a bit more. We can see that you are very tired."
Chloe turned her head to her uncle. "Will you stay?"
"Of course. I will even spend the night here. You won't be alone, Chloe." He raised his free hand up and brushed away some tears that leaked from her eyes.
She swallowed hard, then she whispered: "I'm scared."
Derek laid his hand on her hot cheek. "Don't be. Everything will be okay in a few days. Is that why you can't sleep?"
When he got a timid nod for an answer, he looked up to Miranda, who was already on her way out to get something. When she reentered the room, Derek was still telling Chloe that there was no need in being scared.
"I'll give you something that will help you relax, dear."; said Dr. Bailey when she connected a syringe with the IV on the child's hand. Before Chloe could react in any way, the plunger was pushed down and the medication made its way through the little sick body.
"You'll probably feel even more tired than before, and groggy, but it will help you go to sleep.", explained Derek. He was watching her face closely until the medicine took effect and the girl closed her eyes.
"I will be back in about half an hour. Get some rest, dear.", said Dr. Bailey and left the room. Derek kept his promise and stayed at her side. The sedative was still working when he took her up in his arms, recognizing by her little weight how much weight she lost over the last week, and got her on another gurney. Later on, she couldn't remember the minutes in which she was rolled down to radiology and had to lay still in the MRT.
She didn't remember the sobs that took over her body; that they had to stop the scans for some time so that her uncle and Lexie, who was the intern assigned at her case, could console her. Only when she was brought back to her room, where Meredith and her new grandmother were waiting for her, the medication started to wear off completely, leaving her a bit more awake so that she could spend some minutes talking to them.
Soon, Arizona came in, saying hello and writing down some things in her chart. She took the side of Carolyn and Meredith who wanted Derek to change out of the scrubs into something comfortable for the night. When Derek came back after his shower, a recliner was waiting in the room for him.
Chloe ways glad that he really intended to spend the night, and when it was getting dark outside and her fever, which went down after her nap, spiked high again, leaving her restless, she was more than grateful for him at her side. The nursed had talked her into eating a few spoons of soup- only to come right out of her body again. Derek was almost glued to the bedside of the child, washing her hot face again and again with a cool washcloth to appease the fever.
Chloe wanted to sleep, as she was told, but once again she couldn't. A little before 8 pm, she started to cry again.
"Turn out the lights. Please. Can't sleep with lights on.", she asked him. His heart hurt with her broken voice and the tears on her face.
"Baby, I can't turn the lights off. The nurses need to see you and your stats clearly as long as you are that ill." He tried to reason with her.
"But I want to sleep. Turn it off!" More tears rolled down her cheeks.
With a sigh, he caressed her forehead.
"No, Chloe. If I could, I would, but I can't. Try to relax. Close your eyes, relax your muscles and think about something nice…"
She tried to relax, but her thoughts were circling around one thought. So after a few minutes she opened her eyes again.
"Uncle Derek- I don't want to die!" Derek was shocked by her words, it took him a few seconds to process that his niece was concerned about her life ending.
"You won't Chloe. I know I should have taken some time to explain it to you. But even if your kidneys are not working properly, you won't die. And no one at this hospital will just stand there and watch- so you won't get worse. Trust me. I will do everything I can to get you healthy as soon as possible."
He smiled at her and caressed her cheek again.
"And now sleep. Your body needs a lot of strength to fight your infection. You'll feel better tomorrow. Just sleep. I'm staying by your side." And after a long time, Chloe could close her eyes and let sleep take over.
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