A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews and follows! I'm glad you guys are enjoying the story. Here's the next chapter, set after the quake again.
It came to the point where she had to tune out Owen's shouting. He had only started a few minutes ago, but to Stephanie it felt like an eternity with no end in sight. No one would come in to save her, it was too dangerous. She'd die in that supply closet, pumping April Avery's chest until her body gave out.
"You bitch," Stephanie snarled, surprising herself. She hadn't felt angry until that moment, but the floodgates had opened and she found herself furious.
"You don't get to die," she spat at April's prone figure, "I am saving your fucking life, you don't get to die."
Stephanie resisted the urge to push harder on April's chest, to feel the crack of her already injured rib cage beneath her hands. The fact that the thought was even there disgusted her. She was a doctor, and like it or not April was her patient. Every compression already risked causing more damage to her chest, too much pressure and she'd break. Literally break, by Stephanie's hands.
It could happen even by accident. Every compression was more difficult than the last, her shoulders sore and her own chest tight. At any moment she could slip, fall forward, end it all.
"Goddamit," Stephanie cried, her words a small but fierce whisper, "I am going to save your life. You are not going to die. If you die in here people will think I didn't try to save you, that I let you die because I have some kind of grudge against you. So you are not going to die, do you understand me?"
She leaned back, bracing one arm on the floor as she prepared to give another rescue breath. Though she wasn't expecting much, she moved the other to April's neck, feeling for a pulse.
For a single moment the world seemed to stop. Stephanie felt nothing, no more pain, no more anger, nothing. Her breath caught in her chest and tears she had forgotten she was holding back spilled out.
Then the world came crashing back, and the sounds of Owen's shouts filled her ears.
"Dr. Edwards, if you won't come out of there we're going to have to leave you, I'm sorry. It doesn't have to be like this. You can't help-"
"I have a pulse," Stephanie screamed back, cutting him off. "I have ROSC. I have her."
April didn't stir, but Stephanie kept her fingers glued to the spot in her neck where she could feel the pulse, clinging to it like a lifeline.
"What about pupillary response?" Owen called back after a short silence.
With her free hand Stephanie felt in the pocket of her lab coat for her penlight, remembering when she couldn't find it that she had changed out of her other lab coat after getting puked on and forgotten to empty the pockets.
"I don't have any way to check."
"Pain stimulus?"
Taking a deep breath, Stephanie brushed the hair out of April's face and pressed her thumb into the indentation between April's eye and nose. When she got no response she pressed harder, finally feeling her facial muscles react.
"I have a response!"
The tears came faster now as her own muscles began to unclench. As her adrenaline rush died out the pain returned, and she couldn't even keep herself upright. Carefully she lay next to April, never moving her fingers from her neck. April had arrested twice now, and the possibility that she would arrest again was too high to ignore.
"Alright," Owen called out finally. She had almost forgotten about him in her overwhelming pain and relief, "Stay with her. I'm going to find someone to help me get you both out of there."
"Okay," Stephanie's voice was so quiet she was sure he hadn't heard, but it made her feel better to respond anyways. As Owen left she could hear his feet pounding against the ground. He was running, good.
When the sounds of running drifted away the only thing left separating Stephanie from an all encompassing silence was April's gasping breath sounds. Her lungs were injured, that much was obvious, but to what extent Stephanie was unsure. Trapped behind fallen shelves and boxes she had no way to get what she needed to properly asses the injuries. All she could do was hope that April could hold on until Owen made it back.
"I swear to God," Stephanie whispered, "If you die now I am going to follow you into the afterlife and kick your ass back to Earth."
April did not respond.
"You don't get to run away with my boyfriend, marry him, and then die. Do you understand me? Life does not work like that. I did not go through all of this for you to die. Studies have shown that prolonged CPR can be effective for up to 38 minutes and that was not 38 minutes. You do not get to die. You do not get to be brain dead. I have done everything I can. You are going to live. You-"
Before Stephanie could finish her thought she felt the Earth begin to quiver below her.
Aftershocks.
Without thinking she rolled onto her hands and knees and placed her body gingerly over April's, protecting her from further harm as the quiver turned into a shake, and the fallen shelves began to rattle a loud metallic scream.
"You do not," Stephanie repeated, bracing herself as best she could, "get to die."