DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. All rights to The 100 creators.
Chapter 21
Hope For A Miracle
"Keep applying pressure. Officer Woods can you hear me? Lexa?" Medic Sterling called as his hand went to pull the cop's eyelids up in order to flash his light into each pupil.
"Not responding, and her pulse is dropping. Let's cut the shirt." A fellow medic took scissors to the pajama shirt that was once blue and was now a deep red. It was cut off and thrown onto the floor of the medical chopper that was taking them to the Ark medical center.
"Blood pressure dropped sir, she's 80/60."
"How's her heart holding up?" He asked back, attempting to examine the bullet wound only to have an aggressive blood burst to begin with a lack of pressure. "Hold that down again, Eileen. We can't let her bleed out. George, how's the head wound?"
"There's no exit wound, and it's just at her temple, may not cause any extreme brain damage."
"Heart rate is dropping 50 and down. We should prep a defibrillator."
"You do that, someone prep an IV and pump her with antibiotics. She's beginning to sweat."
"Sir, 30 and dropping."
"Start CPR." Sterling took over applying pressure to the wound on Lexa's upper stomach, allowing his fellow medic to start CPR. Her heart rate continued to plummet and soon Sterling took over once again.
"She's going into cardiac arrest." Eileen stated making Sterling stop his actions and move to attach the electrode pads onto Lexa's chest.
"Charge the defibrillator up to 200."
"Charged to 200."
"Ready." All doctors removed their hands, despite her bleeding and waited until the shock was completed.
"Clear." Sterling shocked Lexa's chest, looking to her heart monitor, which made little improvement.
"Up to 500."
"Charged to 500."
"Ready."
"Clear." The shock did some more improvement and a final one was administered before Sterling put the paddles aside. "Alright let's get pressure bandages over the bullet wounds, we are 20 minutes to landing."
The four medics worked to wrap Lexa's head and torso, keeping a watchful eye on her still low but seemingly appropriate heart patterns.
"Who's going to call her wife?" Eileen asked as the chopper got quiet.
"Someone at the hospital. Looks like she's got quiet a large family." George stated as he slipped the picture that was peeking out of Lexa's pocket.
It was blood stained and crumbled, but you could clearly see the happy family.
"Shit." Sterling sighed out, closing his eyes a moment. "You've got a family at home who needs you to pull through, Woods. Don't let them down."
~.~.~
"Can we get two bags of 500cc's of blood?"
"Gun shot wounds to the head and stomach?"
"Hit her right in the liver. The whole thing is ravished." The doctor who requested the blood said, moving her ultrasound machine around the area where the bullet was detected and the liver was hardly existent anymore.
"How about the head?"
"You can get started on it. She received a bullet to the temple, but it's undetermined if it came close to the brain or not."
The second doctor unwrapped the wound and evaluated the bruising face of his patient. "Might have actually missed her brain, Sandra. Most definitely crushed the upper tip of her cheekbone."
"Well extract the bullet if you can and close her up there. I'm going to call Donald down to help me with the removal of her liver and the bullet. We need to order a transplant immediately."
"We have no organ donors who have passed away lately."
"There has to be one. Oscar, don't bullshit me this is serious." Sandra froze her movement with the wand of the ultra sound machine to face her fellow doctor.
"Why would I shit you about something like this? This woman will have no liver until an organ donor passes away and we can take the liver from them."
"Well, can't we find a relative to donate half of their liver?"
"No, says here that Lexa Woods was a foster kid. No living relatives left." Oscar informed Sandra, glancing between the bullet wound and the chart beside him.
"How long can she go without a liver?"
"Well if you can't salvage anything of her original I'd say she's got five days, unless she takes well to life support, then we've got less than a month."
Sandra moved aside for some nurses to set up the blood transfusions along with a new IV bag.
"We better hope there's something in her that can be salvaged then."
~.~.~
"Boys stop throwing food." Clarke laughed as she caught a piece of toast that flew across the table.
The family was getting better. They were happy and preparing for some fun Christmas plans with Octavia and Lincoln since the kids would be getting out of school this coming up Friday.
On Friday Rowen has a swim meet before her season break, and Willow has the large state wide meet on Saturday that the whole family was attending before they would drive down to Anaheim where Disney was the promise for Christmas.
Everything was falling into order again and the prospect of being close to half way through the time that Lexa would have to be away didn't hurt either.
"Raven's here!" Willow cried, having answered the door a minute ago.
"Sorry about coming by so early, Clarke." The coach said as she entered behind her athlete, her hands behind her back and she walked.
"That's perfectly fine, Raven." Clarke smiled at the woman. "Would you like something to eat?"
"That's fine, I just wanted to give something to Willow, and I thought you might want to see it as well." The family looked expectantly at Raven who finally pulled her hands around and revealed the black hoodie. She held its shoulders and allowed it to fall revealing the new "team name" and symbol. "I'm proud to announce that Willow is the first member of the Grounders."
"Yay, Will!" Sophie cheered along with her siblings.
"I'm so proud, baby." Clarke placed a kiss on her daughter's temple as she admired the hoodie. "Why Grounders?"
"That was all Will's work." Raven said, nodding to the girl.
"I feel grounded when I run, and so I want other people to understand that as well. I want us to be the grounders."
"That's great. You are one talented, ladybug." Clarke gushed, peppering her daughter's face in kisses before returning to lunch prep. "So are you expanding the team, Raven?"
"I want to close up this season, possibly start promoting the program by spring and have new runners ready to train in the summer. If Willow kicks ass on Saturday we are sure to have parents begging us to take their kids in. But Will's my number one priority. I'm taking her to the Olympics." Raven shot a smile in her star athlete's way before the phone rang, pulling Clarke away from the conversation.
"You can grab a mug from that shelf if you want coffee, Raven." Clarke said, enjoying the pleasant atmosphere of her home before she picked up the phone and answered it.
"Hello?" She asked, not checking the caller ID previously.
"Is this Clarke Woods, speaking?" A man on the other end asked, the tension as thick as ever through the phone.
"Yes, sir. May I ask who's calling?"
"This Sterling Drew, ma'am. I am a chopper medic for the Ark hospital. We just brought your wife in. I'm sorry to inform you that your wife, Lexa, has sustained injuries involving a gunshot wound to the head and stomach. She is in emergency surgery as we speak." Clarke instantly couldn't breathe. Her throat shut as tight as ever and her eyes filled with tears while her stomach churned with the threat of bringing her breakfast back up. "It's undetermined how she is currently doing but we've got Sandra McNally and Oscar Quinn caring for her wounds. They are our best trauma surgeons. Mrs. Woods… are you still there?"
"Please tell me she isn't going to die." Clarke managed to ask, her teenagers grasping onto her words and looking at her in fear.
"That can't be determined yet, but she is in the best care possible. You are needed to come down to the hospital to speak with her attending surgeons and answer some crucial questions to proceed with certain parts of the procedure. Is that possible for you?"
"I'm coming. Oh god. I- I- Please Sterling. Don't let her go."
"I will go back in to be with your wife and ensure her safety if that brings you some comfort."
"Please."
"I apologize again for this. She had a family picture in her pocket. I can guarantee that she will fight for you all."
"Is everything all right, Clarke?" Raven asked as the kids looked to their crying mother with pale faces.
"Your mama's hurt guys. I need to go." Clarke stressed out loud, not entirely thinking about how her kids would respond. Her only concern was getting to Lexa. "Where are my keys. Oh god, I have to take you guys to school!" She recognized now that she had children.
"Go, I've got a car large enough to take the kids to school and I'm sure we can reach Octavia and Lincoln before we leave so the little ones can be here with them."
"What's wrong with mama?" Rowen cried, her lip quivering as she spoke.
"She's hurt, Row. I have to go." Clarke restated, finally finding her keys and running for the door.
"What the fuck mom!" Sophie screamed after the blonde. "What's wrong with mama?!"
"Hey, sweetie. Calm down." Raven said gently to the teenager.
"No! She can't just leave like that and pretend that we won't worry about anything." Sophie said, her face filled with pure anger.
"She has to go and take of your mama. That's her only concern right now. I promise that we can call your aunt and uncle and find a solution." Raven reasoned, hands on Sophie's shoulders.
"I want my mama!" Rowen cried, tears flooding from her eyes.
"Stop yelling, Rowen." Jude demanded as his own tears fell. He was frustrated with the situation as well.
"Everyone take a deep breath. Who has Octavia or Lincoln's number?" Jude handed over his unlocked phone and the coach got to work, having already known they two pretty well making the conversation straight forward and quick so she could return to defusing the anger the siblings had against one another.
"Come here, sweetie." Raven motioned for Rowen to come to her and wrapped the little girl in a hug. She's been around this family and found Rowen to always act older than her age, but now she was seemed so torn up. They all did. "Your mama will be fine. It's only scary right now because you don't know what's happening. I promise it will be easier once your mom calls later on." Rowen sobbed harder as she was held, the other kids silently glancing around the room as tears trickled down their faces and fell.
~.~.~
"Please be okay, please be okay." Clarke mumbled to herself as she entered the ER and approached the front desk.
"Dr. Woods, you aren't supposed to be in today." Jackie, the receptionist said, noticing the distressed look on Clarke's face.
"Lexa, she's here. Who can I talk to?"
"Mrs. Woods. Thank you for coming." A doctor approached, realizing the woman he was waiting for had arrived.
"Oscar, I thought you were working on Lexa?" Clarke said, furrowing her eyebrows.
"I completed my task. Dr. Reed is taking over with Dr. McNally to have Lexa's liver removed."
"Oh god," Clarke began to feel faint, moving to grab the counter of the receptionist desk.
"Jackie, some water would be nice." Oscar said calmly as he took Clarke by the elbows and led her to a semi-private section of the waiting room. Jackie approached with a cup of water and handed it over, squeezing Clarke's arm before she returned to work.
"So Lexa sustained a bullet wound to the face and stomach. Thankfully the head wound was shallow and narrowly missed her brain, however there may be some damage to her skull that we can get a plastic surgeon to correct. As for the bullet wound in her stomach, it shattered two ribs and caused her liver to rupture. Sandra tried to salvage what she could but there was no use especially with the bullet leaking a certain chemical that was successfully drained but killed the liver too quickly."
"Are there any donors available?" Clarke asked, accepting a tissue to wipe her eyes.
"That's the hard part. We have no donors currently and so we're going to get her started on some pretty intense drugs to keep her blood clotting properly. Since the trauma wasn't major I can assume that she will wake up in a day or two, however she will likely be significantly drained due to her inability to process fat into energy."
"She won't make it long without a liver, what's the plan?"
"Our hope is that her body does not reject the drugs so we can keep her system running for a few months while we find a donor that can give her half a liver, or an entire one."
"How about me? What if you take part of my liver?" Clarke asked, knowing that the liver was capable of growing itself back so long as it had a small part to do some major fat processing and blood clotting.
"She will most likely reject it. Lexa's medical history is a bit of a blank page considering how she was apart of the foster system, but the sooner we get a liver and we can chemically enhance it so her body is forced to accept it, the better." Oscar handed over the clipboard he held and gave Clarke a sympathetic look.
"Should something happen to your wife, you are required to sign these forms out. I'm sure you know how it goes." Clarke nodded. She's given her fair share of the 50/50 chance of living news, and each one was as terrible as the last.
"Oscar, what if she rejects the drugs?"
"Then we will make her as comfortable as possible and hope for a miracle."
Gotta hope for that miracle I guess.
-Valentina