All Rick could do is watch as Kate and the doctor worked on his little girl. She looked so small and so weak lying there on the gurney. He watched as Kate took her vital signs and then had the idea to use the ultrasound machine to get a better look and see what was wrong.
"Kate look there do you see what I see?" Doctor Graff asks her as she moves the transducer around Alexis' abdomen.
"Is that what I think it is? Kate asks.
"Yes, it is. Her appendix has already ruptured. And now the infection is probably seeping into her other internal organs. We need to get her into surgery now!" Dr. Graff ordered.
As soon as she orders that command, Kate had moved the ultrasound machine to the side and was getting ready to grab the bottom of the gurney when she noticed Rick standing there with such a dismal look on his face. He looked like he was going to break down at any second.
"Rick everything's going to be fine. I promise. We're going to get her into surgery now and it will probably take about a good two to four hours to complete. I'm going to scrub in and assist doctor Graff. She knows what she's doing so there is nothing to worry about.
Xx
Sometimes discovering an issue by chance does not prepare you for what the real issue is. Its like when you get into a car accident. You are hit from behind and your car is damaged. You're fine, but your car, not so much. Your car is brought to the body shop and you are given an estimate. It's only after you get the initial estimate that the body shop manager calls you back and tells you that there is more damage after the car has been taken apart.
This is what they find after they cut open Alexis. Her appendix did indeed rupture, but it's what they find after they look deeper into her abdominal cavity. She has what they think is a benign cystic mesothelioma. They need to move fast and get a sample to the lab to confirm what it exactly is. In the meantime, they will remove the ruptured appendix and access if there will be a need to clean her internal organs of the infection that the appendix could have released into them.
"Nurse Beckett, what I need you to do is scrub out and head to the pathology lab with this sample and then wait until they have a definitive answer on what we're dealing with here. In the meantime, I'm going to use the time we have to clean her internal organs. No matter what the case it still has to be done even if the results show that this is an actual cyst."
Kate goes back to the scrub room removes her mask, gloves, and gown and deposits and in the proper receptacles. She's off to pathology with the sample and she stands persistently waiting for that lab tech to finish with Alexis' sample.
It doesn't take that much longer and she has the results in her hand. She heads back to the OR where doctor Graff is just finishing up cleaning her organs that were infected by the burst appendix.
"Doctor Graff" Kate called while holding a surgical mask over her mouth.
"The results the lab came back with was that it was not a cyst but a calcified fatty growth that caused the appendix to burst. So, it is not a benign cystic mesothelioma ."
"Excellent news Nurse Beckett. Now we can sew her up and get her back up to a room. I think it's time that you give her father some good news for a change, don't you?
"I agree with you doctor Graff. Thank you so much for being here when she needed it the most.
"Kate it's what we do."
Xx
Kate was exhausted and wired at the same time. But now is time to give Rick the good news about Alexis. For a brief moment, she wondered if there would be a strained moment between them when she gave him the news. When she left him, he looked like he was going to break down at any second. His elbows were resting on his knees and his head was cradled in the palms of his hands when she left him earlier. She hopes now that he is in a better state of mind after she explained to him what was going on with his daughter. In had been three and a half hours since she saw him last. She presses the elevator call button to take her to the ER floor. The second the doors open he is directly in front of her asking her all sorts of questions from everything to is she alright, to how the surgery went, to when he can see her. She gently takes his hand and pulls him over to the seats that line the back wall of the ER department. She sits him down and calmly pats his one hand with both of hers until she can see that he will understand the information that she will give him.
"Kate, how is she?" Rick asks.
"Rick, she's fine. The surgery went perfectly. She had a growth at the top of her appendix and that caused it to burst. Her appendix became inflamed and filled with pus, containing bacteria, tissue debris, and dead white blood cells. When it ruptured the contents of the appendix seeped into her spleen, stomach, reproductive organs, colon, gallbladder, and kidneys. Dr. Graff needed to wash them off for lack of a better word. While she was doing that, I had the growth tested in the lab to make sure it was not cancerous. It wasn't."
"Kate I don't know how to thank you. I lost it. I didn't know what to do and who could help me that's when I called you."
"Rick, can I ask you one thing?"
"Sure, Kate. Anything."
"Where is Eli?"
Rick turned his head to his left where Eli should have been curled up in a little ball and then remembers that he met Kenzie about an hour ago and she put him in an on-call room across from the nurse's station.
"Kate your friend Kenzie took him to that on-call room so he could sleep for a little while," Rick says as he pointed to the room across from them.
"She's good like that, always looking out for him. Rick, why don't you go back home and get some sleep? I'll sit with Alexis until my shift is over and when I get home, I can wake you up to come back and stay with her. On the brighter side, she will be asleep for the next eight hours or until the anesthetic wears off."
"Kate I can't ask you to do that. I'll be okay with her by myself."
"Rick I'm not asking you to go, I'm telling you to go. Get some rest. Us professionals have it covered. I'll call you if she comes out of it before I leave."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Now go, you look like crap."
He gave her a slight smile and thought that maybe a nap might help.
"Okay, you win. But you do promise to wake me up when you get home?"
"I will. Not go." Kate said a little more sternly.
Rick turns and walks through the emergency room sliding doors and out into the pre-dawn Dallas morning. Kate left for the elevator to go to Alexis' floor. On her way, she was stopped by Kim.
"He's easy on the eyes, isn't he?" Kim says.
Kate who is thinking about Alexis at the time startled a little at Kim's sudden comment pulling her out of her thoughts.
"Yes, yes he is. So what about it?"
"Come on Kate do I have to spell it out for you? He's a hunk, He seems like he has a decent personality and he cares about his kid what's not to like?"
"Kim, how long have you know me?"
"I'd say for about eleven years. Why?"
"Well since you do know me so well you know that he is off limits to me so to speak."
"Why is that?"
"Come on Kim seriously ?"
"Kate I am being serious. You two would make beautiful babies together. But hey who am I to have an opinion like that. What I mean is the man is available and so are you. You also both have one thing in common. You both have children. So, why not take a chance, Kate?" Kim said finishing her outburst.
"Kim, do you realize what that would do if we actually started a romantic relationship? Things are just getting along perfectly right now. He does his thing during the day and I do my thing during the night. It's actually quite convenient. I see him for about an hour to when I get home in the morning and then I don't see him until I go to work at night."
"Look, Kate, you know what I think? I think that you're happier now than you were before the two of you moved in together because it seems to me that he is supporting you in everything you do. You might not see it but it shows in your behavior and appearance."
Realizing that this conversation was something she didn't need have at this moment she was saved by the elevator doors sliding open.
"Kim we'll talk later. Right now, I have something very important to attend to. Cover with Doctor Graff for me until the end of my shift because I'll be upstairs with Alexis."
"You got it, Kate. I'll make sure she knows that you'll be upstairs."
Xx
The elevator ride was over before it began and she steps out onto the Pediatric ICU floor. It's an open floor with curtains dividing each individual room. She walks up to where Alexis is lying in her bed and she sees the innocence on her face as she gets closer. Standing at the foot of the bed she pulls up the chart tablet and reads her progress since the surgery.
"I thought I'd find you here eventually."
"Dr. Graf thank you so much for well saving her life. She means a lot to me."
Fran Graff just smiles an award-winning smile. "It's no problem it's what we do here. And I know there's a story between you and her father but that's for another time."
"Yes, another time."
"Well, that would be fine. As you can see, she's doing very well. I'm going to head home get some sleep and be back by ten. If anything pops up just give me a call."
"I will and thank you."
Kate place the tablet back in the holder at the foot of the bed and makes her way to Alexis's right side. She pulls the chair over and sits down and starts brushing her hair out of her eyes. As she does this, she takes her right hand into her left, mindful of the IV that's in her arm and holds on to her tightly. Her thoughts drift back to what Kim said earlier. There's no way that they could be romantically involved, is there?