Chapter 25

Sarah had never been this scared turning up to work. She rushed through the emergency doors and smiled at the nurse in the waiting room, and rushed on through. She glanced around the ED frantically and April caught sight of her as she left one of the treatment rooms.

"Hey, Sarah, are you alright?" The nurse asked as she approached.

"April! No, eh, is my Dad here, he should be here by now…" but the rest of her sentence was cut off by the sound of an ambulance rolling in.

"What do we got?" Maggie called from her station.

"Male, mid-fifties, history of heart disease, cardiac arrest, lost consciousness en-route." Gabby responded as Sarah watched as they wheeled her father in on a gurney.

"Dr Halstead, trauma four is free." Maggie called out.

"Got it, thanks Maggie." Will said, running over to escort the trolley into the treatment room. "April, we're going to need…" Will's voice ebbed away behind the glass door as Sarah watched on, frozen to the spot as they started to work on her father.

Everything went silent in her head, like the entire world had frozen. Everything was playing in slow motion.

But then all of a sudden the atmosphere of the ED seemed like it hit her like oncoming train. This is why she became a doctor. To not be helpless. To know how to help her father. And to know how to treat other patients.

All her years of studying and training and tears and hard work. All the self-doubts and heartache and late nights and dedication. If they were ever going to be worth something, she thought, then this moment was it.

She didn't care if she wasn't supposed to be working. She grabbed a pair of gloves, and let herself into the room.

Will was compressing her Dad's chest as April was setting up a line and Doris was trying to measure his frantic vitals.

"Reese?" Will's voice echoed in confusion.

"That's my Dad." She told him with a steely glare, practically urging him to fight her on this. Because she wasn't backing down, she was going to help her Dad.

"Okay." He nodded, "What's his history?"

So she relayed all the information she had gathered along the years, most vitally, the medication that he had been changed to in the last week by his doctors.

Something that she wasn't too happy about, she knew the side effects and the one in a million shot they might counteract his other medication. But he hadn't been too up for taking her opinion. He might not have said it out loud. But she knew that he was annoyed that she hadn't gotten his opinion on Connor before she moved in with him.

And while her father lay on the table, Sarah decided that it as the one on a million shot that had him there.

Sarah took over the compressions while Will sent for some back-up blood work.

"Damn it." Will cursed, as the vitals were worsening not building back up like they had hoped.

"Anything I can help with?" Ethan asked from the door. Sarah glanced up for a split second to see Ethan waiting and a glance at her mother and sisters being consoled by Maggie behind his shoulder.

"Page Dr Rhodes, we're going to need to a better look." Will responded.

His pulse strengthened and Sarah could stop the compressions but his vitals were bounding around the charts. She didn't need to be a doctor to know that it wasn't a good sign.

"Thoughts?" Will asked, asking for another bag of medication to be transferred.

"We need a better look." She confirmed, "A stint a best, eradicating the dead tissue from his left ventricle at worst." She had learnt a long time ago, that panicking in the ED was going to get her nowhere. So she breathed through the thoughts of the bleak odds facing her father, and relied solely on her medical knowledge, not her emotions.

Connor came around the corner and into the treatment room, nearly bumping into her, "Sarah?"

If Will had been confused before, then Connor was completely baffled, not that she could blame him. He had left her a while ago, in their apartment, on her day off, when she had been going back to sleep.

"It's my Dad." She informed him quickly as Will thrust the chart at him and she relayed what was happening. She watched it happen on his face, he took in the snippet of information of who is next patient was, but he turned straight to surgeon mode. Something she was grateful for, she needed to stay unattached as much as she could if they were going to let her stay involved.

"Okay." He said, and swapped a loaded look with Will, one that said this is important. "Let's get him to the OR. I'll get Dr Kingston to consult, we won't know what we'll be looking with until we open it up. We won't know the extent of the damage that medicine did."

And with that they were in motion. Connor, Will, April and Sarah following the trolley to the elevator. She could hear Maggie arguing on the phone to open up the damn operating theater, and caught her mother's eye. She gave her the best version of a reassuring smile she could muster.

Dr Kingston was already waiting for them when they reached the doors of the operating room.

"I'll update your family." Will said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder as soon as the trolley had been handed over.

"Dr Reese?" Dr Kingston was the next person that she confused with her presence on her day off.

"The patient is my father." The understanding flickered across his face.

"Do you want to scrub in?" he asked as they handed the trolley to the theater nurses and Connor headed around to scrub in.

She didn't know she had the choice, she thought she was going to have to fight for it. She had been told that she was too involved when she tried to assist in Dr Geraghty's emergency operation. She's assumed in the elevator that realistically, she had no chance of being let anywhere near the operating room when her father was involved.

She weighed his question up in a split second. Purely based on her medical experience versus the conflict of emotion. Would she let her emotions and attachments hinder her performance?

Not when it involved her Dad's well-being. She would do whatever she had to.

"Yes, if I'm allowed." She responded.

"You've the makings of a fine cardiologist Dr Reese, and I trust your judgement now. If you feel you can perform fine then you're welcome in my theater."

And that was that.

She scrubbed in alongside Dr Kingston and Connor and in a blur found herself at her father's side. It was worse than they had expected. They had gotten her mother's permission to do whatever was needed. And they had to do everything the team could think of. They tried a stint to unblock the passage but it broke down and they couldn't let anymore complications come because of it. It was removed swiftly and they went towards performing a removal of the tissue.

If it were possible, Sarah didn't think that she had ever seen Connor look so intense about his work before. It was like time had been warped as she stood there, aiding where she could, her gloved hands covered in her fathers blood. She wasn't sure how long they had spent, it could have been minutes, or it could have been hours.

But they had finally removed the final piece when her father's pulse plummeted.

The strangled cry got caught in her throat.

But Dr Kingston had the paddles ready and she stepped back with the others when he called 'clear'.

Two shocks. The longest seconds she had ever encountered in her life. And her Dad's pulse was steady again.

"We have a fighter on our hands." Dr Kingston commented. "Alright, let's stabilize him and wrap it up."

She did her job. And she did it well. She just hoped it was enough.

She was out of the theater and changing out of her scrubs in record time, itching to get to her family. Dr Kingston was filling out some paperwork and would be around to update her family as soon as he could. Connor had had given her a bone crushing hug, and promised her he would call around to see them all as soon as he could, after his pager had beeped.

She didn't remember trekking across the hospital to the canteen but before she knew it, she was standing in the doorway where she saw her Mom and sisters were seated. Natalie was keeping them company and Doris was getting a tray of drinks from the baristas for them.

"Oh Sarah." Her Mom called, tears in her already red eyes, getting up to envelope her in a hug. "Is he okay? What's going on?"

"It's okay, he's okay for now. The surgery went well. They're moving him to the ICU now." She breathed out, the tension draining from her shoulders, for the first time, believing the words she spoke.

Her mother just held onto her tighter than before and Sarah heard Emma, the youngest sob into Lauren's shoulder as Hannah sat there, with the haunted look in her eye seeping away.

"That's so good to hear." Natalie said, relaying the information to Doris who took her own turn to hug Sarah, after Nat.

"I've got to get back to work. I'll by as soon as I get a chance."

"Yeah of course, thank you Natalie." Sarah's mother said in earnest, before Sarah led her family over to the ICU.

Dr Kingston was there to meet them, while the team hooked her Dad up to more monitors. He relayed what had happened and what the plan of action was, reassuring them.

Before he left, he turned back, "Your daughter's got a bright future in medicine Mrs Reese."

Sarah wanted to take a picture of the beaming smile on her mother's face from his words, one that she could feel was reflected on her own.

Ethan called around soon after, double checking the files for Sarah's peace of mind and checking if her family needed anything. He had only left when a few of the residents and nurses on their break from cardiology came by to off their help if she needed it.

Will had come in, armed with more drinks for them all, when Lauren finally voiced what Sarah assumed they were all thinking.

"Wow. Seriously you mentioned you had friends but this is ridiculous."

"They're my family." Was the only way she could explain it. "We look out for each other."

Her Mom took the seat by her Dad's bedside while her sisters took the others, Sarah just stood there, her eyes never wandering from the monitors.

The team of ICU doctors came by on their rounds and the nurses checked in every time they passed.

When the first few critical hours had passed Sarah felt herself relaxing slightly, enough to sit on the arm rest of one of her sister's chairs.

She saw him before the others did, Connor coming across the hallway. With a nervous expression on his face, just like he had on their first date. Then she remembered it would actually be the first time he met her Mom.

He knocked on the edge of the door, and she shot him a reassuring smile.

"Hey" She said to him, before turning back to her Mom, "Mom, this is Connor."

"Hi Mrs Reece, it's nice to finally meet you, I'm sorry it wasn't under better circumstances." Connor said, crossing the space to shake her hand.

"Oh, call me Katherine, it's nice to meet you." Sarah watched on as her Mom by passed his hand and went straight in to hug him. She figured her poor Mom was in no state to start an interrogation of her boyfriend. And she might have happened to mention that Connor had assisted in the life-saving surgery.

She bit back a smile, because Connor had not been expecting such a warm welcome, no matter how cool he had acted about meeting them, she could see the tension in his shoulders. And then watched it ebb away when he got over the slight shock of being hugged and placed a reassuring hand on her Mom's back.

Her Mom finally released him from her hold and Sarah could introduce him to her sisters. Not that they needed any introduction, they had haunted her for the past few months for pictures of him.

"This is Lauren, Emma and you've met Hannah." Sarah said. He hit them with one of his charming smiles and she knew he was definitely eager to make a good first impression.

"Thank you for everything you've done." Her Mom said, indicating to Sarah's Dad.

"I was just doing my job, I'm glad I could help."

"Hey, how are we all doing?" Maggie asked as she appeared in the doorway.

"Good thanks Maggie." Sarah smiled.

"Any sign of movement?" She asked gently, and Sarah didn't know if she did it consciously or not, but her hand found Connor's.

"Not yet, he should be waking up soon though." Sarah replied, and hated the worried looks her words caused on her little sisters' faces.

She could feel the looks they shot her when her and Connor ran through the vitals and medication, debating if there was any other course of action, but ultimately agreeing that what her Dad was on now was for the best.

Connor's pager beeped again, "That's Ethan, I better go, I'll be back later." He promised, placing a kiss on her forehead before saying goodbye to the rest of the Reese women.

"He's even prettier in person." Emma, her youngest sister, breathed out, as Connor walked away, just out of earshot.

"Believe me Sweetie, we all know." Maggie said with a mischievous smile while Sarah was just happy to see ghosts of smiles on her Mom and sisters' faces.

The rest of the day went by with no complications. Everyone came by to check in on them a couple of more times, Natalie and Will getting everyone something to eat once their shift ended. And Connor popped his head in a few times again, unable to get much of a break from the onslaught of emergency operations that had flooded in that day.

It quickly turned dark outside, the curtains were closed in the room, and the staff in the ICU all changed shift. It didn't matter to Sarah, she still knew them all from the time Connor had been there. Connor offered to bring everyone back to their apartment so they could get some rest and proper food, but not one of them wanted to move a muscle.

Her Dad's recovery was going well, his stats were stable and his heart beat and blood pressure were finally normalizing. But he still hadn't woken up, and it niggled in the back of Sarah's mind.

She wasn't sure what time it was when Connor finally came in, his own clothes on instead of his work ones, but everyone else was asleep.

She had got her own chair sometime during the day and he slipped into the room quietly, so not to wake the others and he hunkered down beside her.

"Hey." Connor's voice whispered before she felt him kiss her shoulder.

"Hi." She whispered back.

"Sarah, are you okay?"

And just like that, the dam broke. All the emotions that she had been holding in for the sake of her family came flooding out. She finally didn't have to be the alert Dr Reese for a few moments, she could just be Sarah

She wasn't sure he could understand what she was saying through her quiet sobs but it didn't really matter. He was there. And that was what mattered.

"I was so scared." She said as her head rested on his shoulder and his arm was around her waist.

"I know. I'm so sorry." He replied, holding her closer.

"I didn't know if I could do it…be in the operating room…I didn't know if I could…"

"You did. You were great. I've been telling you that since day one…"

That drew half a laugh, half a sob from her throat.

"He'll wake up soon." He told her firmly.

"I hope so."

She rubbed at her wet and tired eyes.

"I love your family." He stated, "Any chance me helping to save your Dad's life will get me some brownie points?"

"I would think so."

"I'm jealous." He admitted. "You've got a great family."

"Yeah I'm quite fond of them."

"I always wanted one like that."

"Well you've got me now, and they kind of come with me, so you're stuck with them too."

"I'd like that." He admitted, "We should visit them soon."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, its sounds great, especially when your Dad gets better…"

"I'd love that."

"I love you." He told her and it never failed to make her heart flutter ever so slightly.

"I love you too."

"Do you want to get some rest, I'll stay awake in case he wakes up, you should sleep if you can."

"No," She shook her head, "I'll stay up. Will you stay with me?" She hated to ask, especially when he was tired from working.

"I'd stay with you forever." He promised.

He stood up quietly, "I'll go get us some coffee." He offered.

"Thanks, that'd be great." The tiredness was really beginning to take hold.

He double checked the monitors before slipping out of the room again. The quietness settled around her again.

"I like him." Her Dad's voice echoed quietly in the darkened room. "Didn't think I would, but I do."

His throat was dry, but she didn't think she had ever been so happy to hear her Dad's voice. She was at his side in an instant, pressing the button for the ICU staff to come and check on him, and giving him a sip of water.

"I'm so glad you're awake Dad, you gave us all a fright." She told him, taking hold of his hand.

"I'm sorry, I'm just stubborn is all."

"It runs in the family." She reminded him with a smile.

"You look good, you look happy." He said, when he had opened his eyes.

"I am Dad. I'm really happy."

A/N: Hope you liked it! I'd love to know what you thought!

I'll be away from my computer for a week so the next update should be up on Wednesday the 16th.

I'm afraid to say that the next update for this story will be the last chapter. I can't thank you enough if you've read this far in the story. But I've written all the things that I set out to when I first started this story back in April. I think my version of Rheese in this story has finally worked out for the best and I'm so happy to where I've got them to. I hope you are too.

So, I can't wait to see what you think of the finale of this story. Until next time.