Chapter Five: Shock To The Heart
Author's Note: Hello everyone! I just wanted to let everyone know that just like in the last chapter, there is a trigger warning in this chapter. It's a rape trigger warning and takes place towards the ending and, just like last time, skip over it if you need to. As always, I don't own Glee, The Night Shift or any of its themes and characters.
"There's my girl," Finn said to Rachel in the hallway towards the beginning of their shift.
"Hello," Rachel said with a smile, walking towards him. "How are you?" she asked, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek as he wrapped an arm around her waist.
"All right. Better now that you're here."
"I got you something," Rachel said, pulling a key out of her scrubs pocket.
"I finally get the key to your heart," Finn said, placing the key over her heart, making Rachel roll her eyes.
"No, to my apartment."
"Whoa. Big spender. Did it cost you a whole dollar?"
"It was a dollar and fifty cents. With tax. But you're worth it."
"See, now I don't have to use the one that's under the flower pot."
"That is the one from the flower pot. But it's yours now." She smiled at him before walking off.
Finn smiled back at her and walked towards the front when he heard sirens wailing. "43-year-old male, full arrest status post electrocution," Kurt called from the man's gurney where he was doing chest compressions. "PEA from the get-go."
"Trauma two, let's go!" Finn called, running towards the trauma room.
"The guy's a janitor and works in an office building at night. He had his wife and kids with him on the shift. When he plugged in a floor polishing machine, he got zapped pretty good."
"Prep an intubation tray with a MAC 4. I need an antecubital ASAP. One, two, three," Finn said as they lifted him off the gurney to transfer him to the hospital bed.
In another exam room, Sam and Chavez were trying to restrain a rowdy patient. "I have snakes in my throat! I've been here 12 times and no one will treat me."
"Talk to me. What's the problem?" Chavez asked.
"Do you see them writhing?" the man asked, ripping off his shirt to show them his chest as Mercedes walked in.
"I don't see anything at all," Sam said, looking closely.
"Open your mouth and let me take a look," Chavez said. He looked into the man's mouth. "Oh yeah, there are snakes in there. I see a copper head and a small garter. We have to do an immediate snake removal. I need brevital and ringed forceps," Chavez said.
"Brevital, 10 milligrams per milliliter," Mercedes said, handing him the syringe.
"Okay, settle down and we'll get the snakes out," Chavez said. Once the man was unconscious he turned to Mercedes and Sam. "We have about 20 seconds to do this."
"What exactly are we doing here?" Sam asked, completely unsure of what was going on.
"This man thinks he has snakes in his throat. If he thinks he's been treated, he won't come back. I've seen this a million times."
In the trauma room, Finn was performing chest compressions on the man. "His heart rate is stabilizing," one of the nurses said.
Puck pushed open the doors and walked in. "We have a couple of base jumpers at the Towers of the Americas. One parachute opened and the other one…didn't," Puck said, putting on surgical gloves. "Yeah, didn't exactly stick his landing. Finn, Santana is already out there and I need you to—"
"I'm in." Finn said, stepping aside so Puck could take his place.
"I need you to take Chavez. He's been bugging me to get out when surgery's slow." Puck said.
"Will do," Finn said, pushing open the doors to leave.
In one of the exam rooms, Rachel was looking at a patient's heart rate as she listed off her symptoms. "Muscle aches, chills, nausea…not a good night, is it sweetie?" Rachel asked, turning to look at her patient.
"I made her come in."
"For nothing. Seriously. I have an epic hangover. And maybe a touch of the flu. It was really nice of you to drive me down here, but you totally didn't have to."
"Well, how do you think I got RA of the Year?" he asked as they did a chant together. "Regents Hall!"
"She has a fever of 103 and her heart rate is 120," Artie said to Rachel.
"That sounds like more than a hangover. We're going to have to run some tests."
"No, no, no. The only test I have is a major chem exam which I haven't even studied for." Lorelai turned to her RA. "Can we go? I promise to come back in if I need to." She started to get up from the hospital bed . "I'll be fine. Really." She took a few steps before falling to the ground.
"Lorelai!" Kyle the RA said.
"Artie, get the ambu-bag." Rachel said.
Back in the trauma room, it wasn't looking so good for the janitor. "He's V-fib!" Kurt exclaimed.
"Paddles to Doctor Hummel please," Puck said.
"Clear!" Kurt called before shocking him.
The doctors waited a moment. "He's still V-fib. Charge again," Puck said.
It took Kurt two more shocks to get the man's heart to start again.
"Strong carotid. Welcome back, sir." Puck said. "Jesse, can you come speak to the family?"
Jesse nodded and walked to the main lobby. "Maria Hinojosa?"
"Doctor?"
"No, I'm not the doctor," Jesse said, trying to correct her.
She started speaking in rapid Spanish, which Jesse tried to listen to. He thought to the rudimentary Spanish he'd been learning and tried to respond to her. He turned to her kids.
"I speak English!" the daughter said.
"Good," Jesse said, feeling relieved.
"So do I." her son said. "So you can talk to us. We'll translate."
"Okay then," Jesse said. "Do you work with your parents?"
"Did you work with your parents too?" the daughter asked.
"We clean offices with them at night," the son added.
"Yeah, sort of. I used to work with my dad. I have an idea. Why don't you come with me?" Jesse said, leading the family out of the waiting room.
He led them into the break room and the daughter's eyes lit up. "Bumper pool? Can we play?" she asked excitedly.
"Of course." Jesse said, getting a cup of coffee. "That's what it's there for."
"I wanna be a doctor when I grow up," the son said as they walked towards the pool table.
"Me too," Jesse said wistfully.
At the scene of the accident, the ambulance was just pulling up. "What's going on?" Finn asked, opening the doors and jumping out.
"Case of the malfunctioning parachute. From the looks of it, he may have a spinal cord injury. I didn't want to move him until you guys got here."
"Vitals?"
"Not sure. I haven't gotten to him yet," Santana said, leading them to the scene.
Finn and Joey looked up and saw someone being brought down from a cherry picker. "I can see why." Chavez commented.
"That's not him," Santana said, not bothering to turn around. "He's over here. This is him," Santana said, showing them a man who went through the front of a bus.
Finn climbed in and looked around. "Does he have a pulse?" Chavez asked.
"Barely. Let's get the chute off him."
"How's he look?" Santana asked.
"Worst landing ever," Finn said.
"Parachuting can bang you up pretty bad. Even when you do it right," Chavez said, climbing in to get the man on the stretcher. "I still feel some of my jumps."
"I didn't do as many jumps as you did with the PJs, but my ankles are still wonky," Finn said. "Is that why you do all that yoga crap? Therapy?"
"You could say that."
"You know, I was going to do some base jumping myself," Finn said as they got him on a stretcher. "Then I made the mistake of telling Rachel."
"That's what I like about being single. I get to do whatever I want," Chavez said as the paramedics started pulling him out from the bus. "He's ready to transport."
Back at the hospital, Rachel was coming back into Lorelai's exam room. "Hey Lorelai. How're you feeling?"
"Pretty good considering I took a header to the floor earlier," Lorelai said as Rachel started doing an exam on her.
"She has an elevated white count but her UA and electrolytes are normal," Artie said.
"Ouch!" Lorelai said when Rachel started pressing on her abdomen.
"Tender here too?" Rachel asked, moving to the other side.
"Double ouch. Please stop, it's making me nauseous."
Rachel sighed. "I'm concerned you have a gynecologic infection so Doctor Abrams is going to do a pelvic exam so we can find the source."
Lorelai chuckled uncomfortably. "Please tell me your name is Doctor Abrams and that you like to refer to yourself in the third person."
"I'm not. But you'll be fine. I'll check in on you later, okay?" Rachel turned towards Artie and gave him a look before leaving the room.
"Um…nurse?" he said.
In the trauma room, Puck was working on wheeling his patient out so he could get some tests done. "Let's get a CT, a chemistry and a total CK to make sure he doesn't go into rhapdo. Get someone to have Jesse tell the family what we're going to do."
At the nurses' station, Sam was on the phone as the man who thought he had snakes in his throat was being wheeled out. "Hey buddy. I'm cured now. No thanks to you."
Sam sighed and hung up the phone before turning to Puck. "Finn and Chavez are headed back. There's a possible spinal fracture," he read off the clipboard.
Puck gestured to the television that was on. "What do you expect?"
"So, what do you make of this Chavez cat?"
"Great surgeon. He's definitely grown on me."
"No, that's not what I'm talking about. I mean, the constant downward dogging, the kumbaya vibe. I don't know, he just rubs me the wrong way."
Puck started laughing and turned around to see Sam looking at Mercedes. "Think he might be down dogging Mercedes?"
"No way, man. He's not her type."
"What? Good looking, ex-military surgeon who makes bank? I'm pretty sure he's every girl's type."
"Trust me. They're not doing it."
"I don't know, Sam. People like to hide these things in the workplace."
"Puck!" one of the nurses said, coming up to the nurses' station. "The electrocuted man's wife is in the break room and she wants to speak to a doctor."
"I'll get Jesse in there to explain everything to them." Puck said, taking off to find him.
In the ambulance, Finn and Chavez were working on the injured parachuter. "He's got a rigid abdomen. We're going to need an ultra sound when we get to the hospital," Chavez said.
"BP is 90 over 60 and pulse is 130," Santana said.
"Second liter wide open," Finn said, hanging another bag of fluids on the IV.
"When we get to the hospital, we'll get a trauma panel and a type and cross for four," Chavez said.
"His best chance of survival is to fast-track him to the OR."
Chavez looked out the window and saw they were at the hospital. "Let's do this. Will, you're gonna hang in there."
In the break room, Jesse was talking to the kids. "Okay, you two. Line up," He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. "Boom and boom," he said, handing the kids five dollars each. "Now, this is not to gamble. It's for snacks. And don't spend it all in one place."
"Why not?"
"I don't know. It's what my dad used to tell me. It never really made sense."
Finn and Chavez got Will into the hospital and were working on getting him to the OR when they heard a rush of activity from behind them. They both turned around and saw a woman with a dog running towards them. "Will? Oh my god."
"This is Kim." Sam said, trying to get the two doctors up to speed. "She's Will's…"
"Girlfriend. I'm his girlfriend."
"You have a dog," Chavez said.
"Hey pooch," Finn said.
"Max is Will's dog, I took him out for a night hike and I came as fast as I could when I heard."
"I'll take the dog. Don't worry, he'll be right outside," Sam said.
"Is he going to be okay?" Kim asked.
Finn turned to Kim as Chavez kept going to the OR. "He's in bad shape. I don't mean to be brief, but he needs surgery and we need consent. Who makes his medical decisions?"
"Me. I do. Please, do whatever you have to do to save him."
Back in Lorelai's room, Artie was working on giving her the pelvic exam. "Could you…could you scoot down just a bit? Uh, there's…there's a tampon inside…there."
"What?" Lorelai asked.
"Yeah, it's – uh – it's wedged up there…quite a bit, actually. Any idea how long it's been up there?"
"No. Honestly, I remember taking one out but I must have accidentally put a second one in. FML, I am never getting drunk again." She sat up in bed and extended her feet out so Artie could see the bottoms of her feet.
"Did you know you have a rash on the bottom of your feet?" Artie asked.
"Yeah, but I don't even know what that is. But you should see our dorm showers."
"Okay. I think this may be Toxic Shock Syndrome."
"Is that bad? It's really bad, right?"
"It would be if we hadn't found it early enough. The good news is, we did. So now we can treat it."
"That's a relief. I don't know how death by tampon would look on my headstone," Lorelai said, trying to make Artie laugh.
"Well, you can get dressed now. I'm going to send the tampon to the lab for a gram stain and culture and get you started on antibiotics. Let's start with 600 of clindamycin," Artie said to the nurse.
In the break room, the two kids were playing pool when the sister started breathing heavily. "What's wrong?" her brother asked.
Finn looked in as he was walking by and saw the girl grip onto the side of the table to keep from falling down.
"Start her on a five of nebulized albuterol," Finn said once they got her on a gurney to move into a trauma room.
"Her mother said she had asthma when she was little but she hasn't had an attack in years," Jesse said.
"Will you let her know that stress can cause a relapse in her symptoms?" Finn said. "You're doing great, Isabella. Deep slow breaths for me." Finn said, listening to her heart and lungs to make sure everything was working the way it was supposed to.
"Finn, out here!" one of the nurses called. He took his stethoscope out and ran into the lobby area, where the son was getting sick. "It's getting worse."
"What the hell is going on?" Finn muttered to himself. He looked around for someone to help. "Kurt?"
"I'm on it. Let's get him to trauma three. This is the girl's brother?"
"Yeah," Finn said, running a hand through his hair.
"This is getting weirder by the minute," Kurt said, picking the kid up to take him to the trauma room.
In the OR, Chavez was talking to Mercedes while doing surgery on the parachuter. "His buddy said that his chute didn't open. He's lucky he hit that tree first."
"Was there anyone in it?" Mercedes asked.
"No, they just park there overnight. All told, this could have been a lot worse."
"It's amazing there's no spinal cord damage," Mercedes said. "Wait, what's that?"
"Multiple masses. It's probably cancer. You see these clumps of tissue? That means it's metastasized."
"We can take it out, right?"
"Not without consent," Joey said. "I'm going to finish cleaning the spleen and call the oncologist. You should go talk to the girlfriend to get her consent."
Mercedes nodded and handed the surgical tools to the nurse before walking out.
At the nurses' station, Artie was coming up to Rachel with Lorelai's test results. "So the lab says the tampon was covered in semen."
"Well now we know how it got wedged up there," Rachel said before she started walking off.
"Listen, I'm not really comfortable talking to Lorelai about it."
"Artie, she's not your grandmother," Rachel said, stopping in the break room to get a cup of coffee. "It's your job. Just do it. Do you know how many infected penises I had to examine?" Rachel said as Artie started laughing. "It's not funny."
Sam came running into the break room. "I have a dog to feed. Oh boy oh boy," He went to the fridge and started looking around. "Dogs like cheese, right?"
"Dairy actually gives them gas," Artie said.
"Sorry, I probably should have brought snacks for him," Kim said from the doorway.
"Kim, can I talk to you for a second?" Mercedes said, reaching out to touch her arm gently as they walked off together.
"What about peanut butter?" Sam asked, pulling a tub of peanut butter from the fridge.
Rachel quirked an eyebrow. "You're not really a dog person, are you? Where's the dog anyway?"
"He's tied up outside, barking like crazy."
"I'd be barking like crazy too if somebody left me out there. Give him my sandwich. He should like it," Rachel said, taking her cup of coffee as she left the break room, Artie following right behind her.
"So, you aren't going to talk to Lorelai?"
"No, you're going to have to do it. I have a lumbar puncture," Rachel said. "Just remember, if you're feeling uncomfortable, imagine how uncomfortable she feels."
In another part of the hospital, Puck, Finn, Kurt and Jesse were trying to figure out what was going on with the family. "So we have two sick kids. What did your exam of the boy reveal?" Puck asked Kurt.
"Benign abdomen but persistent vomiting and diarrhea."
"It sounds like the stomach flu but with no fever. And it doesn't explain the girl's respiratory symptoms," Finn said.
"Maybe it's psychogenic? Two different emotional responses to seeing their father's trauma?" Kurt suggested.
"Within minutes of each other? Unlikely," Finn said.
"I thought it might be food poisoning so I asked the mom where they shopped, who did the cooking, if there's herbs in the garden..." Jesse said.
"Way to take initiative." Puck said. Jesse smiled and rocked back on his feet while the three men kept staring at him. "And?" Puck prompted.
"They eat the same thing every day. She did say they've been really tired lately."
"Probably from working at night as janitors," Finn said.
"Some people have to do what they gotta do to survive," Jesse said.
"I had a job at 12," Kurt said.
"If it helps, I can run point on this. Be the middle man for all the information on this."
"Alright, you've got the job. Let's solve this," Puck said. "I hate seeing sick kids."
"I'm gonna go check on them," Kurt said.
"Hey, Puck," Sam said, coming up to Finn and Puck. "There's a call for you on line three about the base jumper."
Puck sighed. "Let me guess, they want to sue the city for putting a bus in the way."
Back in Lorelai's room, Artie just finished telling her about what the test results said. "What? How is that even possible?"
"Right…well…it seems as though you accidentally had…intercourse with the tampon in which is…you know…how it got lodged up there."
"You're joking right? I haven't even had sex in like eight months. Unless this was immaculate conception part two, this could not have happened. I didn't have sex so how the hell did sperm get inside me?"
In Isabella's trauma room, Finn was listening to her heart and lungs again, "She still has a bronchospasm," Finn said to Puck.
"Try adding atrovent," Puck said to the nurse.
"Do you guys mind if I talk to her?" Jesse asked, coming into the trauma room.
"Go ahead," Finn said, stepping back from the hospital bed.
"We're done in here for now. Later, gator," Puck said as they left.
Jesse took Finn's spot and handed Isabella his tablet. "There's a bunch of games on here that my daughter loves."
"Cool!" Isabella said. "How's my brother? Did he really puke all over a nurse?"
"Oh yeah. He got her good. But he's resting now. And so is your dad."
"Good. He works way too hard."
"It's time for you to rest now, too," Jesse said. "We'll have you all feeling better before you know it."
"Can you send my mom in? I want to show her these games."
"You betcha," Jesse said, tapping the bed railings before walking out of the room.
Back in the OR, Joey was still working on Will when Mercedes came back in. "So, the girlfriend said he had cancer a few years back but he's been in remission. She's pretty devastated."
"This is tough. It's pretty advanced."
"She still wants us to do everything we can," Mercedes said, putting surgical gloves back on.
"Okay. Let's start the debulking procedure. Have you ever done a liver lobectomy?" Joey asked Mercedes.
"No I haven't," Mercedes said, getting an excited look in her eyes.
"Well, you will today. We're going to do an ultrasound first. I want to map the biliary tree. We definitely don't want to leak any bile," Joey said as the doors to the OR opened and Puck came in. "Doctor Puckerman, what do we owe the pleasure?"
"You have to stop what you're doing right now. He can't have the surgery."
"What?" Mercedes asked.
In the lobby, Puck and Mercedes went to go talk to Kim. "You are not Will's health proxy. His brother is. I just spoke to him on the phone."
"No, Will's brother is lying."
"He's not lying, Kim," Joey said, coming out to join them.
"He faxed over proof," Puck said, handing a file folder to Kim. "That's the health proxy and a DNR signed by Will three months ago. He knew his cancer was back."
"Why wouldn't he have told me?"
"I know this is hard," Mercedes said.
"You have to operate on him," Kim said, looking at Puck and Joey with tears in her eyes. "I swear he would want you to."
"I would love to operate on him," Chavez said. "But I'm sorry. I can't. I have to respect his wishes."
"I'm not letting Will die. I'm going to get a lawyer and I'm going to fight this. This isn't over," Kim said as she started walking off.
Mercedes heard the elevator doors ding and turned around to see Blaine walk off. A smile formed on her face and she walked over to greet him. "Blaine! What are you doing here?" She saw him limping and stopped. "Did you hurt your leg?"
"I don't know. Maybe? It's probably nothing. Do you have a second?"
"Yeah. Just let me find Kurt."
"Actually, let's not. I'm serious."
Mercedes lead him into a trauma room and helped him get situated before she started looking at his ankle. "Are you fighting with Kurt or something?"
"No. I mean, I'm sure you know since he tells you everything."
"Trust me, I don't know about everything. I'm sure it's just an adjustment. And I don't mean your amputation, although it is. I just meant living together."
"It's all an adjustment. Is it broken?"
"No, but it's a pretty bad sprain. We're going to need to splint it," Mercedes said as Blaine started laughing. "What?" Mercedes asked, not seeing what was so funny.
"I sprained my ankle. Say it. I sprained my only ankle."
"Blaine…"
"Don't worry, I'm messing with you. I lost my leg, not my sense of humor."
"God, I'm sorry. I'm just in work mode. Let's get you splinted."
"Yeah, sure," Blaine said, adjusting how he was sitting in bed and winced at the pain in his leg.
"Do you mind if I take a look at your other leg?" Mercedes asked, noticing the gasp of pain from Blaine. "Just for a sec?"
"Uh, sure," Blaine said. He reached down and started pulling at the leg of his pants, pulling them up to show Mercedes the prosthetic he had. He pulled it off and set it to the side while Mercedes took off the cloth that was there to make it comfortable for Blaine to wear and stopped when she saw the stump.
"You know, I would love to get Doctor Chavez in here for a minute. He's taking over Brody's surgical cases and it would be good to get him up to speed," Mercedes said.
In the break room, Rachel was putting the harness on Max as Jocelyn helped her. "He's going to be our little secret. It is far too cold outside for this handsome fellow," Rachel said as she started to pet him on the back.
"He's so cute," Jocelyn said, holding her hand out for him to sniff.
"I know. He reminds me of my old dog Cooper. Don't you buddy? Don't you?" Max licked her face and she smiled before turning to Jocelyn. "Thank you so much."
"No worries."
"I'll see you later buddy," Rachel said, scratching him behind the ears before she stood up. She started walking out of the break room when Artie stopped her.
"So, um, I spoke to Lorelai. She swears she hasn't had sex in eight months."
"Well, she might be self-conscious because you're a male doctor and you're close in age. So it can be a little—" Rachel said as she started to trail off.
"Awkward? Yeah. She's getting really upset and I don't really know what to do."
"Well, I'll go talk to her with you. Come on."
"Oh, now you want to talk to her," Artie said as he followed Rachel. She stopped walking and glared at him. "I meant that in a good way."
Once they got to Lorelai's room, she was done with the questions. "Look, I told him and I'm telling you I haven't had sex recently. You think I'm lying but I'm not. I've been living like a nun, I swear."
"Okay," Rachel said, nodding her head.
"Sort of," Lorelai said.
"Sort of? It's okay. Whatever you say, it's between us."
Lorelai started playing with her hands. "The other night, I went to a frat party with one of my friends because she was really into one of the pledges. And we were drinking. Someone offered us a pill and said it was molly. I only took a little but after that the night's a blur. And that's never happened to me before."
"Well, molly doesn't cause memory loss, so I'd like to run a tox screen to see if we can identify what you may have taken. Hang in there," Rachel said, squeezing one of Lorelai's hands.
Rachel and Artie left the room and Artie sighed. "She was a little more forthcoming that time. What do you think is going on?"
"I'm not sure. Let's run the tox screen and see if it'll tell us anything that she won't."
In another trauma room, Mercedes came in with Joey. "Blaine, this is Doctor Chavez."
"Nice to meet you," Joey said, shaking Blaine's hand. "Mercedes caught me up. How's the post-op pain?"
"Some minor irritation, you know."
Joey put on his gloves and looked at Blaine's stump. "That's not minor. That's a seroma and they can be pretty painful."
"I can handle it," Blaine said.
"I'm sure you can. I'm going to have to aspirate though."
"Which is just a big word for sticking me with a big needle," Blaine said, gesturing to the needle that Joey pulled out.
"Basically," Joey said as he and Mercedes started laughing.
The door to the trauma room opened and Kurt came in. "Blaine? Jocelyn told me you're here. Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, it's fine."
"You hurt your ankle. Let me take a look at it," Kurt said, trying to help Blaine.
"No, it's okay. Mercedes took care of it."
Kurt looked over at his best friend. "She did?" he said flatly. "I didn't know that. How long have you been here?"
"He's got a seroma I need to aspirate, actually." Chavez said, sensing the tension in the room.
Jocelyn opened the door. "Doctor Chavez? Puck needs to speak to you about the jumper's health proxy and DNR."
"I'll be right there," Joey said.
"Go ahead, I can aspirate," Mercedes said, taking the needle from him.
"Great, thanks. Nice to meet you, Blaine," Joey said before he left.
"I can do it. You've done enough," Kurt said.
In the lobby, Puck was talking to Finn. "I tried. We can't operate on the base jumper. I talked to the brother's lawyer, the hospital's lawyers, and Kim's lawyer. I never want to talk to another lawyer again."
"Kim told me she thinks she can win," Finn said.
"Our lawyers say we don't have a case. If she were his wife, the law would see it differently."
"But they've been together for years," Finn said. "She knows him better than anyone and she says to remove the tumors. So we should remove them."
"I agree," Joey said, coming up to join the conversation. "This sucks but he signed the DNR without telling her. That's for a reason."
"Yeah, but how many times have we seen people sign DNRs and as soon as they go south, the family's screaming to revive them. If the brother was here, he might think differently."
"I don't know about that, Finn. Sometimes you see a family member in distress and it makes it easier."
"Not in my experience," Finn said. "How you fight until you can't fight anymore."
"Look, as much as I love a good debate, what we would or wouldn't do is irrelevant. So until we hear further, let's just keep him stable and comfortable, okay?" Puck said. "No heroic efforts."
"Doctors, we need you in trauma four!" one of the nurses said.
Puck and Finn ran down the hall to see the mom collapsed on the floor having a seizure, Jesse holding her head up. "Has there been tonic-clonic activity the whole time?" Puck asked.
"Yeah," Jesse responded.
"Okay, get me 10 of diazepam."
"Hand me an ambu-bag and place a line," Finn said.
"I can't get an IV on her. She's moving too much." Jesse said.
"Give it to me and I'll go IM," Finn said.
"What the hell is going on with this family?" Puck asked.
"All I wanted to do was read a book on the sofa and the light went out," Blaine said as Kurt was working on his leg. "I was trying to change a bulb."
"Wait, you got up on a ladder? Blaine, our ceilings are 12 feet high. Why didn't you just wait until I got home?"
"Because I'm your boyfriend, not your child. That's why I went to Mercedes. I don't want you to do every damn thing for me," Blaine said, wincing at the pain from the needle.
"Just relax," Kurt said. "It's a light bulb."
"Exactly. It's a light bulb. I was the guy who could practically build a house from the ground up."
"It's just going to take a little time to adapt."
"To what?" Blaine said. "No, really. Adapt to what? Forget that I'll never be able to lead my troops back into combat again. Forget that we'll never be able to climb Manchu Picchu like we talked about. Forget that I'll never be able to build a house from the ground up. I can't even change a damn light bulb. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?"
"I know it's hard," Kurt said, trying to comfort his boyfriend.
"No you don't. You can imagine but you don't understand what it's like. Every day I try to do something I used to and I'm reminded I'm not that guy anymore."
"But eventually you will be."
"Kurt, stop!" Blaine said, cutting him off. "Please. Stop trying to make everything better. You can't. I appreciate everything you've done for me. I really do. And I love you—"
"And I love you," Kurt said.
"Kurt, I don't know who I am anymore. I'm not the guy you fell in love with. I'm not even a guy I like anymore. I'm sorry. I can't do this."
"Do what?"
"I'm moving out."
Back in the main lobby of the hospital, Finn and Puck were moving Maria from her room. "It's okay, Maria. You just had a seizure. We're going to run you upstairs for some tests."
Artie and Rachel were at the nurses' station looking at Lorelai's test results. "Her tox screen came back negative," Artie said, reading the clipboard.
"It's been 48 hours so the drugs are probably out of her system by now," Rachel said with a sigh.
"Looks like her RA's back to pick her up," Artie said, looking at the window in the main lobby.
Rachel was half listening as she saw Jocelyn come back to the ER with Max. "I think we should talk to her again," Rachel smiled when Max barked. "I'll be right in," She started walking towards Max as her smile grew.
"I walked him around the block and he did his business," Jocelyn said, handing her the dog's leash.
"Of course he did because he's a good boy," Rachel said, taking his leash. "Thanks so much, I appreciate it." She looked around, trying to find someone to keep an eye on Max for the remainder of the shift. "Kurt! You wanna meet Max?"
"No," Kurt said, walking out from where he was with Blaine.
Mercedes saw Kurt come out from Blaine's exam room and started walking towards him. "Do you have a second?"
"Nope," Kurt said, walking faster to get away from here.
"Come on, Kurt," She caught up to him and stopped walking when she got in front of him. "I'm sorry I didn't come to get you but Blaine asked me not to. I didn't know what to do and I don't want to be in the middle."
"Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore."
"What does that mean?" Mercedes asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Hey, Kurt, I have a dislocated shoulder. Can you take it?" Santana asked, wheeling a guy into the hospital.
"Can you get somebody else?"
"They said everybody's busy," Santana said, stopping the gurney next to Kurt and Mercedes.
"Okay, I got it," He turned back to Mercedes. "I'll talk to you later."
"Chavez, is the jumper's girlfriend still around? His buddy gave me some of his things." Santana said, taking his wallet out of her jacket pocket.
"Oh really? He's not doing too well and it's getting complicated. I'll buy you a cup of coffee and we'll talk about it."
Santana shrugged. "Sounds good to me."
Back in Lorelai's exam room, Artie and the RA were talking to her as she was getting ready to leave. "I never thought I'd be so happy for my crappy dorm mattress," Lorelai said. She started walking towards the chair where her purse was.
"Wait, let me get that for you," Kyle said, grabbing her bag and holding it out for her.
Lorelai reached out to take her bag and froze, seeing something on Kyle's wrist. She started walking and felt her knees wobble.
"Are you okay?" Kyle asked, reaching out to keep her from falling.
"I-I feel a little shaky. Maybe I should sit down."
"Definitely," Artie said, reaching out to take her other hand to lead her back to the bed as Rachel opened the door.
"I thought you said you were fine," Kyle said.
"Sorry. Maybe it's just…I haven't eaten lately," Lorelai said, not looking Kyle in the eyes.
Rachel could sense something was going on. "I'd like to do another examination so if you could step out, please," Rachel said to the RA. She turned back to Lorelai and walked over to the bed. "I'm going to check your pulse, okay?" Rachel said, rolling back the sleeves of her jacket.
"There's nothing wrong with my pulse." Lorelai said as tears started to form. "I just had a flashback of the other night. It's still a little fuzzy, but…I remember being at the party and being a little out of it. Kyle was there. He walked me back to my dorm. He pushed his way inside. And I was too weak to fight him off. He…he raped me."
"Oh honey," Rachel said. "I am so sorry."
In Will's room, his machine's were beeping like crazy. "Please, you have to do something," Kim said from where she was standing. "Just do something!"
"He's crashing," Puck whispered. "Tachy and oxygen stats are dropping."
"Diffuse rhonchi. He must have aspirated," Finn said, taking off his stethoscope. "Get me an intubation tray."
"Finn, he has a DNR. You know that."
"Please. You have to help him," Kim said.
"Okay," Finn said, taking the intubation tube from the nurse.
"Finn, are you hearing me? He has a DNR."
"So? His brother can sue me. I'm on Kim's side."
"You just can't disregard what I say. I'm running this shift."
"It's nothing personal. I disregard what everybody says."
"But I'm not everybody. I hate this part of the job—"
"Then don't do it," Finn said, cutting him off. "Do it your way, not the way you think it's supposed to be done. So leave and I'll say you were never here or step in and help."
Puck listened to the monitors beeping and looked over at Kim. He looked back and Finn and took the oxygen bag from the nurse.
In the break room, Jesse was looking at something on the internet to try and figure out what was going on with the family and what was causing all of them to have such bad reactions to everything.
Back in Lorelai's room, Rachel was listening to what she said. "I shouldn't have drank so much. I shouldn't have flirted with him."
"Lorelai, this is not your fault. It doesn't matter how much you drank, what you wore, what you said, what you did. If you didn't consent, he had no right," Rachel said.
"That guy is right outside. We can do an ARV kit and get that son of a bitch arrested," Artie said. "Look, you don't have to decide right away if you want to press chargers but the sooner we collect—"
"Artie, stop," Rachel said, cutting him off. She sighed. "At this point, nothing we collect would be admissible. The chain of evidence was broken when you examined her," She turned back to Lorelai. "I'm so sorry."
"He's just going to get away with this?" Lorelai said, tears coming back to her eyes.
"Evidence wise, it is a setback. But we had no way of knowing. But we are going to do everything that we can. I need to speak with Artie and I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?"
They walked out of her room and stopped at the nurses' station desk. "You need to calm down," Rachel said. "This isn't your fault. Any one of us would have done the same thing. It's completely terrible but we have no way of knowing for sure."
"But we do know. She was assaulted."
"I know she was too. But we aren't the police."
"We can call them, right?"
"That's not up to us. Lorelai may not want to. Ultimately, it's her decision. And some people, they just need to take the baby steps. Okay?"
"Yeah, okay. I hear you," Artie said dejectedly. "I just…I don't like it."
"I don't either." Rachel said.
In the break room, Finn was pouring himself a cup of coffee as Chavez walked into the room. "So you intubated Will?"
"Yeah, I did."
"You shouldn't have. He didn't want to suffer, okay? He signed the DNR. That was his choice."
"Yeah, three months ago. Who knows what he would have wanted today."
"Actually, I do. Santana gave me his things and I found this in his wallet." He held out a folded piece of paper.
Finn took it and read it. "You're my everything, Kim. I love you. In time, I hope you come to understand my decision. I didn't want to burden you, and I need my life to end the way I lived it. On my terms."
"You were wrong, Finn," Chavez said. "He didn't open his parachute on purpose. He wanted to die."
Chavez walked out of the break room, holding the door open for Rachel. She walked over to where he standing and looked up at him. "Rough shift?" she asked.
"Yeah. How's yours going?"
Rachel shook her head. "Not well." She bent down and opened one of the cupboards. She fished around in it and pulled out a bag of Doritos. "Come on. Let's take a little break."
Finn smiled, took one of her hands and followed her to the couch. "I get to share the Doritos with you?" he asked, watching her open the bag.
"Yep. But if you tell anyone about this bag, I will kill you in your sleep. Especially since I know where you sleep half the time."
"I think it's a little more like most of the time," Finn said, wrapping one of his arms around Rachel so she could lean against him. "Besides, I wouldn't dare tell someone about the secret Doritos stash."
"Good man," Rachel said, stuffing a chip in her mouth. "I love you."
"Love you too, Rach," Finn said, kissing the top of her head.
Back in the lobby, Artie threw open the door to the waiting room and stood in front of Kyle. "We know what you did, prick," Artie spat.
"What?"
"You're an RA. You're responsible for the safety of these kids and instead you go and sexually assault her?" Artie said, pushing him. "What's wrong with you?"
"Assault? Dude, get off me," Kyle said, pushing back.
"She told us, okay? You walked her to her dorm and then—"
"And then we hooked up. So what? She was all over me that night. I was just giving her what she wanted."
"Lorelai couldn't even tell you what she wanted because she was drugged. But you decided what she wanted and you forcibly took it."
"That's not how it went down."
"Was she even awake when you did it?"
"I don't have to answer to you," Kyle said, trying to step around Artie.
"You're not going anywhere."
"Get out of my way." He pushed Artie out of the way and started walking to the door. Artie charged after him and threw him against the wall and punched him in the face. He gripped onto Kyle's shirt and pushed him towards the chairs.
The doors to the waiting room opened and Sam and Kurt rushed in and pulled Artie off of Kyle. Rachel ran in behind them and looked around to see what happened. "Oh my god."
"You're a son of a bitch!" Artie yelled.
In another part of the hospital, Finn and Mercedes were walking the halls after he showed her the note. "God, after everything Kim's been through, now we have to give her the note."
"No. She's in enough pain already. Why make it worse?"
"What do you mean? You're not going to…she deserves to know," Mercedes said, trying to get the note out of Finn's hands.
"No because she'll be wracked with guilt because she didn't see the signs. So she can blame herself for something that wasn't her fault?"
Mercedes got the note out of Finn's hands. "I know that. But these are his last words to her."
"And sometimes the last words hurt the most." Finn said. He took the paper back and walked into one of the rooms.
In a different part of the hospital, Jesse sighed, trying to figure out what was wrong with the family. He walked into Isabella's room and leaned against her bed railings. "Hey sweetie. I know you've been asking about your mom. That was really scary, what you saw. But don't worry. The doctors are going to take really good care of her. She's going to be okay," He saw Isabella grip the blankets and saw a weird look on her face. "Isabella?"
"I can't hear you! Why can't I hear anything?"
"I'll be right back. Give me a second," Jesse said, running out of her room. "Finn, Puck! The girl just lost her hearing."
"We're on it," Puck said as the two of them ran into Isabella's room.
"Can you talk to the mother? She's screaming about somebody named Rosario but we can't find him," one of the nurses said.
"I don't think Rosario is a person. I think she's asking for her rosary beads. Check her purse. I'll get her keys and check the truck."
"Tough guy, come with me," Kurt said, opening the door to the waiting room as Kyle shuffled out.
"I'm bleeding. I'm going to sue this entire hospital."
"For what? I didn't see anything," Rachel said following them out.
"What a coincidence. I didn't either," Kurt said, glaring at him.
Rachel handed Artie an ice pack. "Put this on your elbow. I'm going to see Lorelai."
Sam walked over to stand next to Artie. "First of all, you were like a junkyard dog in there. I mean, you really gave it to him. But we have to work on your left, okay? What started that?"
"He raped my patient," Artie said.
"Really?" Sam said, his mood changing. "Good fight man. Way to step up. I'm proud of you." Sam said as he walked off.
Out in the lot, Jesse walked over to the family's truck and noticed a pair of muddy shoes in the bed of the truck. He threw the shoe back into the truck and ran inside.
"BP's dropping," one of the nurses said in Isabella's room.
"Her lungs are filled with secretions. We have to intubate," Puck said.
"Push the ketamine now," Finn said.
"Stats are down to 70 percent."
"I think I figured out what's wrong!" Jesse said, running into Isabella's room. "I found farming tools in the trunk and the kids' boots caked in mud. I think it's pesticides, probably from a second job in the fields."
"Pesticides, vomiting, pulmonary edema, hearing loss.." Finn said, ticking off the symptoms of the family. "It all points to organophosphate poisoning."
"Organophosphate is supposed to be banned," Puck said.
"Her stats aren't coming up." Jocelyn said.
"BP's at 65. She's crashing!"
"We need to go with this. She needs atropine," Finn said once she was intubated.
"Her IV is infiltrated," Puck said.
"Get me a spinal needle," Finn said to Jesse.
"Jesse, betadine. Go," Puck said.
"Come on, sweetie. Stay with us," Finn said. They waited a few seconds after Puck injected her with the atropine and saw her stats start to come back. "There we go."
"That was…intense," Jesse said.
"Great job," Puck said. "Glad you've been studying. Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I just…I just…"
"You got rattled. It's okay. If you want to be a doctor, get used to it. Not something you can study for."
Kim was sitting with her boyfriend when Chavez came in. "Hey Kim."
She looked up from where she was holding his hand. "We had so many plans. White water rafting in the Chattooga. Tandem paraglide in Cape Town. We were finally going to run with the bulls this summer. I thought we'd get to all of it eventually."
"Comes out of nowhere, doesn't it? My son…he spent the last part of his life in the hospital. Nine years old. Nothing I could do for him. Turns out, he was just ready to let go. But I wasn't. It's the hardest thing. You realize at some point…they're not hanging on for them. They're hanging on for you."
"How do you know when to?"
"I've never seen anyone do it too soon. Only too late."
Finn opened the door to the recovery room and walked over to where Kim was. "Um, we found this. It won't make it any easier but it may help you to understand." He held out the note and Kim reached out to take it. "Maybe Will wanted his brother to be his proxy because he didn't want you to make the decision. He wanted to take care of it for you."
Kim kissed Will's hand that she was holding and held it up to her face. "That sounds like Will."
In another recovery room, the family was all together in one room. Jesse turned to talk to Puck. "He says they all moved into a storage trailer on a farm where they keep the pesticides. But they didn't know it was dangerous."
"So the farmer has been using illegal pesticides and this whole family and any person that eats those vegetables are being exposed. That's…he has to move his family out of there," Puck said.
Jesse nodded and walked off. He felt someone clap him on the back and was surprised when he turned around to see Finn standing behind him. "Thanks for the help tonight," Finn said.
"No problem. Like I said before, that could have been my family."
"Yeah, mine too. My dad was an immigrant who worked two jobs and still couldn't afford the basics." Finn said.
"Well, well, well. What do you know? We actually do have something in common. My dad worked construction. We moved 15 times in 12 years. Had to go where the work was. Sure made it difficult to fit in," Jesse said.
"So that's why you're such a dick," Finn said, trying to lighten the mood.
"Must be. So what's your excuse?" Jesse laughed and walked in the opposite direction of Finn.
Rachel and Mercedes stood outside the recovery room of Kyle. Max was curled up on the bed next to Will and Kim was sitting by his side.
"Who said that animals don't have emotion?" Rachel asked as Finn walked up beside them. "I mean…"
"I saw dozens of K9 teams in Afghanistan sniffing out explosives alongside their handlers. They feel emotion as much as anyone," Finn said.
"And Kim lives in a small apartment with an allergic son, so she can't keep Max," Mercedes said.
"You mean, after all that, Max is gonna go to the shelter?" Finn said.
"She said she found someone to take care of him," Mercedes said.
"I hope it's a good home," Rachel said.
In the lobby, Lorelai and Artie were talking with each other. "Thank you. I heard what you did earlier. It's nice to know there's still a few good guys left in the world."
"There better be," Artie said. "I have a sister."
Rachel came up behind Artie. "Honey, have you thought about filing a complaint?"
"This happens to so many women at school, and nobody takes them seriously. You just…never think it's going to happen to you."
"It's your call, but I will go with you to the dean, to the police, whatever you want," Rachel said.
"And so will I."
"Thank you." Lorelai said.
"And I know this doesn't make things right, but I called a friend of mine at the local rape crisis center. They have all the resources – both medical and legal – if you choose to move forward. If you're not ready, it's okay. But if you are, I'm free this afternoon. I can take you, if you want me to," Rachel said.
"Thank you. Both of you." Lorelai said as she started walking off.
In the break room, the doctors and nurses were getting ready to head home for the end of their shift. "Double stack of pancakes, a couple of grits, side of bacon and a gallon of coffee. Who's in?" Sam asked, coming in.
"I'm out," Joey said, putting his backpack on his back. "I am going to yoga. You guys want to join?" he asked Sam and Mercedes.
"I like my workouts to be a little more aggressive," Sam said.
"Your loss." Joey said. "Yoga?" he asked Santana when she came into the break room.
"Oh hell no."
"I'm in." Mercedes said, turning to face Joey. "I'll call you," she said to Sam as she walked out of the break room.
Outside of the hospital, Rachel was walking to her car and started digging through her purse to find her keys. "Hey, Rach!" Finn said. She turned around and smiled. "Call him. He's all yours."
Rachel's smile grew wider and she bent down to Max's level. "I thought you said Kim said she found a home for him. Hi buddy!" Rachel said, rubbing at his ears.
"Well, she did. With me. Kim gets visitation rights."
"Of course she does. You really milked that. You said that after all this, he's going to a shelter."
"Well, am I good or am I good?" Finn said, scratching Max's head. "You know, I can help you walk him and feed him now that I have a key."
Rachel rolled her eyes. "And they say most couples should start with a plant."
"We're way past plants." Finn said, leaning in to kiss her.
Across town, Kurt was sitting by himself at the bar, drinking a shot a whiskey. "Another round." he said, pushing the four shot glasses towards the bartender.
"Go home, Kurt." the bartender said after pouring him another shot. He knocked it back and slammed the glass on the bar top.