Love Trap Chapter 2
April, Christina, Meredith and Mark were all tending to other people who had been unfortunate to be apart of the crash. Most of the injured had already been seen to and taken away to the nearest hospital. There was two people left, trapped inside their cars, unable to break free. The fire brigade and rescue team were working as fast as they could to free them both but it was difficult to even reach through the window of Arizona's vehicle. The opening was too small for Callie to crawl through and she knew that the blonde was in critical condition and needed to be treated at once.
"April!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, gettimg the red head's attention after a couple of tries. April was small built but strong. She might be able to get in somehow to assess Arizona's condition better.
The petite woman rushed to her side, flushed and out of breath. "What can I do?"
Callie was busy putting an IV in to the blonde's arm. It was the only thing she could do at the moment. "I need you to try and get in to the car somehow. You're small, you can do it. Get in there and tell me what you see." the Latina ordered.
April didn't hesitate for a second before she ran around the car, studying it's every angle to find an opening big enough for her to get through. The back window on the passenger side was totally smashed and the gap looked big enough. Careful, as to not cut herself on the sharp glass, she slid through the opening with ease. Instantly she reached over to Arizona's neck and felt her pulse. "It's steady but weak. Hand me a neck collar?"
Callie fished around in the bag and found what she was looking for. "Arizona, this is April she's just gonna place a support collar around your neck just to be on the safe side, okay."
The blonde had terror written on her face. She held on for dear life to Callie's hand as April carefully positioned the collar around her neck and throat. "I'm going to give you something for the pain, just to take the edge off. I can't give you a full dose because I need you to say awake. Alright?"
Arizona desperately grabbed her hand tighter. "It... it hurts." she rasped out between shaky breaths. "Please, please... get me out." she begged with tears now falling from pale blue eyes. She squeezed them shut as a wave of pain shot through her body.
Callie felt her words tugging at her heart. If she was super woman she would've ripped the car to pieces with her bare hands and freed the woman long ago but this was reality and not some supernatural tv show. She took a quick glance around her to see why they were taking so long. A fireman approached them with quick steps. Before he had the chance to say anything, Callie snapped.
"What the hell is taking so long?" her voice was a whisper to avoid Arizona from hearing her worried tone. The last thing the blonde needed was more worry. "If she doesn't get out of there within the next ten minutes she will not make it."
The man raised his hands and looked just as defeated and worried as Callie. "We're waiting for the right tool to arrive. It should be here in a few minutes. We didn't have it onboard since another truck needed it this morning. They're on their way."
Callie was boiling mad. A fire station should be more and better equipped than this, but there was nothing she could do about it. All they could do was to try and keep Arizona alive and as comfortable as possible until help arrived. The man, at least, handed her a blanket for Arizona, to keep the chill out.
She could see the blood oozing out from the deep cut on her stomach. There was no way anyone could reach it, the steering wheel was in the way. Callie covered her small frame to the best of her ability and once again took her hand. Physical contact was important for trauma patients as they felt more grounded and calm. "It won't be long, Arizona. We're gonna get you out of here, I promise." she just broke one of the rules she was taught in med school. Never promise anything because anything could happen. Good or bad. There was no guarantee that Arizona would make it out alive and she mentally cursed herself for promising something she had little control over.
"How did you end up with a name like Arizona?" Callie asked, trying to get her talking and to keep her mind on something else than just pain and fear. "It sounds bad ass. Is it after the state?"
The 'bad ass' comment caused a faint chuckle from the blonde. "Not the state." she truggled to speak, her body beginning to shake from the cold, shock and blood loss. "The battleship USS Arizona. My... my grand... grandfather was a soldier in the second... world war. He... he saved nineteen people before he... before he died. He was a... a hero." her breathing was getting more laboured and Callie knew that her lungs were filling up with fluids.
"Wow, that's quite a story. You're named after a hero, that's kind of cool." Callie offered a smile, hoping it would calm her down some. "I usually don't tell people this but, my full name is Calliope." she smiled and whispered, "I use to get bullied a lot in school for it."
Arizona wanted to smile at the sound of her full name but she was too tired and weak. "Kids can be... cruel." her voice was barely a whisper at this point and Callie looked around her again to see if there was any update on the situation. April was still sitting in the back of the car, holding Arizona's head steady against the head rest for extra support. Suddenly sirens came in to ear shot and Callie breathed a sigh of relief.
About thirty seconds later, a swarm of firemen, rescue members and paramedics crowded the scene, all trying to free the trapped and pinned woman. The hydraulic tool, also known as "Jaws of life", came in to view. It was a huge cutter that was designed to cut through almost anything. Callie squeezed her hand in a comforting motion. "They're gonna get you out now, okay? Just try and stay calm." she began to pull her hand back, to free some space for the firemen, but was startled when she felt Arizona tighten the grip.
"I'm scared." she said in a low, almost inaudible voice, her eyes dull from exhaustion but Callie could see the fear that was so evidently written in them.
"I know, honey. But we're gonna get you out and this will all be over soon. I have to let go of your hand, okay? It's just for a couple of minutes until you're out. I promise I'll be right here." the brunette didn't know why she felt the need to stay by her side or even promise such a thing but the urge to stay was stronger than she'd felt with any patient before. She moved away and let the men do their work while her eyes were completely focused on the blonde.
April wormed herself back out again and stood next to Callie, ready to assist in any way possible. As they began cutting at the thick metal, Arizona let out a whimper and Callie had a hard time not to give the men a slap in the face for hurting her further, but she knew that this had to be done, she just wished that there was a less painful way to do it. Just as Callie promised, it only took a couple of minutes before the dashboard was pulled away, freeing her legs with a loud squeaking sound as metal scraped against metal.
Arizona screamed out in pain as the flow of blood kicked back in to her legs and suddenly she could feel everything. Every little cell, every nerve and every atom in her body came alive and sent signals to her brain of what pain really felt like. Callie couldn't help but to cringe at the horrible, almost animalistic, sound that escaped from the poor woman. She had seen and heard her fair share of pain and misery, during her years as a surgeon, but this was different somehow. She couldn't put her finger on it but hearing this woman scream out in agony made her whole body stiff and cold.
Then, everything happened so fast even Callie had a hard time keeping up. A stretcher had been placed behind Arizona's back and she was now being carefully lifted onto it and finally she was freed. As promised, Callie was instantly by her side and grabbed her hand. "You're gonna be okay, Arizona. We're taking you to the hospital." inside the ambulance Callie went into full doctor mode. She checked her pupils, her heart, her pulse, her blood pressure and her eye movement. Her legs were quickly wrapped in temporary bandages to stop the bleeding and gauze was placed over the cut on her stomach and pressed down by Callie's firm but gentle hands.
The latina couldn't see the full extent of her injuries because of the blood that pulsated out in a steady flow. There was nothing else she could do but to hold her ice cold hand and wait until they got to the hospital.
Almost eight minutes later they pulled into the emergency bay and Arizona was quickly seen to by a crew that was waiting for them to arrive. She saw dr, Bailey, dr Hunt, Chief Webber and dr Karev. All good surgeons and Callie felt a wave of relief and calm wash over her. They were a good team and the brunette felt that the blonde was going to be okay. In what physical shape or form she didn't know, but she would hopefully make it with the team that Callie almost considered her family.
Both of Arizona's legs were badly crushed and Callie could see straight away that she would require surgery to fix them, but Callie was determined to make sure the blonde would be able to walk normally again and live a normal life. It would take time and a lot of physiotherapy to get to that point but she wasn't going to give up. The cut on her stomach was deep and would also require surgery to stop any internal bleeding. X rays were done to see the severity of the breaks and other tests were done and bags of blood was quickly administered.
The team spent eight hours to fix the damage that was done and another hour to stitch her back up and wrap and cast her legs. She would ask Mark later to have a look at her incisions to minimise scaring, since he was the best plastic surgeon in the country. Callie demanded to put Arizona in a medical induced coma for a week due to the pain she would inevitably be in if she was awake.
Exhausted, she threw the bloodied gown and gloves into the garbage can and headed home, determined to check on her first thing in the morning.