Three's a Fantasy
Our Meredith
Meredith caught the terrible gunshot victim in the Pit that morning. Dr. Burke rattled off a dozen orders and finished with 'stat'! What made this a rather unique problem was that there was a young paramedic attached to her patient. Her hand was buried in the wound and every time she tried to remove it the patient started to bleed out. They'd have to take her into surgery with them and be prepared to stop the bleeding as soon as she moved.
Meredith and a half a dozen others pushed the gurney down the hall to the huge back elevator. They passed Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Webber on the way. For an instant Meredith caught Derek's eye, then he frowned and turned away. Meredith's mouth turned down as her heart ached, but she made herself think again of her patient, running through all the protocols they'd need to follow. She pictured what she'd do if she were Burke and faced with this problem. Meredith always tried to figure it out herself first, before she watched the attending work. It caused her to learn more easily and retain more.
The screams from the Pit had not let up. This man's poor wife had been hysterically screaming since they'd brought her off the ambulance. Meredith helped push her patient into the elevator and, along with everyone with her, sighed in relief when the elevator doors clanged shut, leaving them in relative peace. She certainly didn't envy Alex his job of calming that woman down.
Meredith focused on her job as intently as she could. She reassured Hannah, the paramedic, that everything was going to be okay and she helped the scrub nurses drape the patient and Hannah, after scrubbing in herself. When everything was ready, with Dr. Milton as anesthesiologist, Dr. Burke arrived. His team gowned and gloved him with remarkable efficiency. He stood poised ready for the first incision, when Dr. Karev burst through the doors. Meredith looked up, surprised at Karev's abrupt entry. Burke tried to dismiss him but Karev insisted on talking to him. Meredith shivered at the furious look on Burke's face. She fully expected to see Karev slink away with his tail between his legs after Burke ripped him to shreds.
But he didn't. Dr. Burke signaled her and she curiously crossed the room to join Burke and Karev.
"Dr. Burke?"
"Dr. Grey, go now, walk – walk, don't run to find the head surgical tech and tell him I said we have a code black. Tell him I'm sure. Tell him to call the bomb squad."
Meredith's breath whooshed out of her body and she stared at him in utter shock. A bomb? She glanced at Hannah still stuck with her hand in a body cavity. Then she stared back at Burke.
"Go now!" he said in a fierce undertone.
The next thing she knew she was in the hallway walking as fast as she could for the head tech's administrative office. It was at the end of the surgical suite's hallway. Nurse Heinrich was in charge of the ORs. He actually controlled the technical aspects of the floor, not Webber. Everyone knew that Heinrich controlled scheduling the board too, not Webber, as much as Webber liked to think he did. The man was immensely powerful in Meredith's world and she'd never once had occasion to speak with him. Reporting a bomb in a body cavity was going to be the first time. Meredith speed picked up until she was almost running. She reached Nurse Heinrich's office and entered without knocking, her heart hammering in her chest and her mind a whirl with scared thoughts.
A slight blond man looked up from his paperwork in surprise at Dr. Grey. Interns were usually quite cautious around him, rightfully so. He narrowed his eyes in annoyance.
"Well?" he barked, displeased with the interruption.
"Dr. Burke said to tell you he's sure he has a code black in OR 3. Please call the bomb squad," Meredith panted.
Heinrich's already pale complexion turned pasty white. He picked up his phone and pressed three numbers.
"This is Heinrich. Code black, OR 3. Implement evacuation plan alpha. Yes."
He ended the in house call and dialed for an outside line.
"This is Nurse Heinrich at Seattle Grace Hospital. We have a code black in OR 3. Yes, we're sure. Send the bomb squad. Evacuation procedure alpha in underway. No, I have no more details. Please hold. I'm putting someone on who knows more," Heinrich held the phone out to Meredith.
Meredith really didn't think she could say more, but she took the phone anyway.
"Hello, this is Dr. Grey... Yes, we have a patient in the OR that was shot somehow in his right side. The shell did not pass through his body and we were just told the shell is unexploded. A paramedic has her hand in the wound stopping the patient from bleeding out. We think she's touching the shell... Yes, Dr. Burke, the attending, already ordered the oxygen supply stopped and the patient is on manual ventilation. All personnel have been evacuated from that OR except Dr. Burke and Dr. Milton, the anesthesiologist... Yes, we'll wait for the bomb squad... I'm giving the phone back to Nurse Heinrich."
Meredith handed the phone over and stood for a moment undecided what to do. All she could think of was Hannah's frightened face. She made it down the hall the second time as quickly as the first, in spite of all the personnel flooding the floor on their way out. Meredith made it back to the OR and reported mission accomplished to Dr. Burke. He ordered everyone from his OR still milling around the hall to leave.
"But, Dr. Burke, you'll need help when the bomb squad gets here and you continue the surgery," Meredith said looking earnestly up at the tall surgeon.
"No, Dr. Milton and I can do it. I don't need any help."
Meredith and two nurses stood their ground when everyone else left. She folded her arms across her chest and looked straight at Burke, defying him.
Burke abruptly nodded, "Alright! But, until the bomb squad gets here, wait at the end of the hall."
"Yes sir."
The corridor was already empty. The three of them were all that was left of Burke's OR staff. Meredith decided to go ahead and leave Mark a message on his cell even though she knew he'd been in surgery and was still probably trying to deal with evacuating his patient and personnel.
When his voice mail answered Meredith said, "Hi sweetie, I was in OR 3... you know, the OR with the unexploded shell. I'm waiting on the OR floor in case Burke needs me again in there. I just wanted to tell you I love you, and I think your plan of staying in bed all day may have had some merit after all. Talk to you later."
Meredith paced at the end of the hallway while they all waited for the bomb squad. She couldn't imagine what they could actually do. Poor Hannah was so terrified and the patient was probably going to end up dying after all. Poor man. The elevator door finally clanged open and official looking men in black uniforms and badges emerged. Meredith jumped, startled, and then drew a deep breath.
Here we go, she thought.
