Dear God, Izzie thought, if anyone up there can hear me…
They were in the trauma room, and the buzzing in Izzie head had increased again.
"Pressure is 70/30, heart rate 99 and rising. 100. 101," the nurse called out.
Izzie did her job, trying to see Callie as another patient, not as someone she knew…not George's wife. "Page Dr. Shepherd," she barked.
"Yes, Dr. Stevens," the nurse responded.
Derek was there almost in an instant. "Was already on my way," he said, peeling back Callie's eyelid to shine a light into her eyes. "Pupils are unequal and unresponsive to light. Stats?"
"Pressure 70/30, heart rate 104," the nurse said again.
"Her abdomen is hard, Dr. Shepherd," Izzie stated, "she's bleeding internally. We have to get her to surgery."
"We have to get her stabilized, Stevens," he snapped, "I know it's hard, but we need to distance ourselves for Callie's sake, to give her our best."
Izzie nodded, standing by as he continued his hurried examination.
"Obvious signs of head trauma, a small amount of mucus leaking from the nose," Derek said to the room. He got closer, practically inches from Callie's prone body. "Slight halo around the mucus, I would say cerebral spinal fluid definitely leaking."
"Heart rate 115," Izzie said, her eye trained on the monitor. "She's going into v.tach!"
The nurse had already rushed the crash cart to the bed, and Derek charged the paddles, pushing them to Callie's chest to shock her heart into a normal rhythm. "Clear!" he called.
The shock had no positive effect. In the aftermath, Callie was in v.fib. The line on the heart monitor was totally flat, and Izzie prayed again to God that time would just slow down. It couldn't be too late. Not this, not to Callie, not to George.
Derek charged again, and again, with no effect. He set the paddles aside, studying the monitors. "It's been too long," he whispered, "she was just too hurt."
"Dr. Shepherd," Izzie said, "you…"
"We did everything we could, Stevens. I have to call it. She has too many injuries, she's not coming back from this." He looked at the large digital clock on the back wall of the room. "Time of death…4:04PM," he whispered.
"Dr. Shepherd, there has to be something else we can do, there has to be something, anything," Izzie pleaded.
He shook his head. "You have no idea how much I wish there was, Stevens, no idea." He steered her by the arm, trying to turn her away so the nurses could finish up. "We should step out of here."
"No," Izzie argued, "we shouldn't leave her. We can't leave her alone."
"I'm going to talk to Chief Webber," Derek answered.
Izzie stared him straight in the face. "Well I'm staying here. I'm waiting with her."
"I respect that." Derek put a hand on Izzie's shoulder as he stood in the doorway. "But you have to understand one thing, okay? Promise?"
Izzie nodded slowly, still taking it all in.
"You have to know that we did everything we could…and there just wasn't a lot we could do Izzie. You have to know that."
He disappeared, and Izzie pulled a chair up to the bedside, staring into Callie's lifeless face. Everything we could…she repeated in her head. But George…will never understand.