Chapter Six: Ghosts
Rachel had to be in a dream. For one, she was fairly certain she'd fallen asleep in her place, but she woke up at her old apartment in Baltimore.
She turned to her left and saw the face of a patient she hadn't seen in years, and she felt her spine stiffen.
"What are you doing here?" Rachel asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
This could not be happening right now.
Rachel awoke with a start, sitting up in bed and breathing heavily. She pushed her hair away from her face and was surprised that she was dripping in sweat. "It was just a dream," she muttered to herself. She looked over at Finn sleeping next to her and pressed her lips together.
She heard her phone start to vibrate from the bedside table and she reached over to grab it. Without looking to see who was calling, she pressed accept and put the phone up to her ear. "Rachel Berry," she said, sleep still evident in her voice. The voice that sounded from the other line made her blood run cold. Her dream she just had was starting to come true. "You need to stop calling me."
She hung up the phone and sat up further in bed. She took a few calming breaths and looked back over at Finn. He'd started to stir in his sleep and she hoped she didn't wake him up.
"Everything okay?" he muttered, rolling over to face her.
"Yeah. Everything's fine. Go back to sleep," Rachel said, kicking the comforter off the bed. "I – um – I think I'm gonna go watch some TV or something."
Finn squinted at Rachel and saw the panicked look on her face. "Are you feeling okay?"
She nodded quickly, not wanting him to know what was going on. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just had a weird dream. You should really go back to sleep. If I get tired again, I'll come back to bed." She tried to offer him a reassuring smile before walking to the living room and collapsing on the couch, burying her head in her hands.
She couldn't believe this was happening again.
Later that day, things were off to a frenzied start at the hospital. "Food poisoning at a zombie run?" Finn asked, watching one of the zombie runners being helped to an exam room for fluids.
"It's a 5K at night. Runners get chased by zombies in costume," Puck said as the two of them walked the halls of the hospital together.
"You know, I had a dream like that once," Finn said as he and Puck both let out small chuckles.
"And now it's our nightmare," Puck said, accidentally running into one of the patients. "Let me give you a hand there," Puck said, picking up the runner's fake hand.
Finn shook his head and kept walking. He heard his phone start to ring in the pocket of his jeans and pulled it out. He saw the name Annie flash on the screen and he quickly hit ignore.
"So, when does Finn move in?" Santana asked when she got back to the hospital after one of her runs.
"He's not, okay?" Rachel said, unable to stop the smile from growing on her face. "We're taking things slow."
"Right," Santana said, drawing out the word. "And the last time you said that, you jumped him in an elevator."
Rachel stopped filling out her paperwork and looked at her best friend. "Well…we were living in the moment. For a change." She rolled her eyes at the look on Santana's face and heard her phone start vibrating. She pulled it out and answered it. "Doctor Berry," Rachel said, leaning against the nurses' station. "Stop calling me," she said, her voice dropping so no one would hear her. She hung up the phone, started shaking and turned back towards Santana.
"Is that the prison creep again?"
"Yeah. Guy drinks a bottle of shampoo on the way to court and he blames me for pumping his stomach," Rachel said, going back to the paperwork to try and distract herself.
"Just let me call my friend in the department of corrections," Santana said. "He'll reach out and make him stop."
"No! That's exactly what he wants. Attention. He's not going to get it. He's got another 10 years in there. I'll just change my number. Again," Rachel said.
"Finn still doesn't know?"
"No. I'm not going to tell him and neither are you," Rachel said, pointing her pen at Santana. "There's no point in getting him worked up about this. You know how gets – just a tad overprotective. So ixnay."
"Oren? Oren Edwards?" Artie said, walking into the waiting room to get his next patient.
"That's me," a patient said from where he was sitting in the waiting room.
Artie smiled at him and walked over. "I'm Doctor Abrams. How can I help?"
"Hey, doc. I'm a welder at Ballard Refinery and I hurt my thigh at the end of a shift. I went home but it got worse," Oren said as Artie grabbed a chair and moved it closer to him so he could take a look.
"It might be a muscle pull." Artie said, reaching out to touch Oren's thigh so he could confirm what he thought was the cause of the pain. "Does that hurt?"
"It's pretty tender. I – uh – had a pipe burst on me and my leg just caught a chunk of metal. As you can see," Oren said, reaching into his pants pocket to pull something out, "I tried to stop the bleeding but…" He dropped the cloth on the floor. "Sorry."
"It's okay. Don't worry about it. We'll get someone to take care of it."
"You know, I'm not feeling so hot, as you can probably tell."
"Well, we'll get you fixed up and get you an x-ray," Artie said, patting Oren on the shoulder.
In an ambulance, Finn, Kurt and Santana were headed to the zombie run to help with an accident that happened. "Finn, some guy hit a bunch of people at the zombie run starting line," Puck said over the radio. "It's gonna be a bit messy."
Finn opened the ambulance door and started pushing through the crowd. "Let us through." He started walking to the accident and saw a guy splayed out on the ground. "His neck's snapped. Cord is gone. Kurt, take the guy over there. Santana and I got the driver."
"Somebody help me!" Kurt heard someone say from the front side of the car. He saw a girl sprawled on the sidewalk.
"I'm Doctor Hummel, what's your name?"
"Laura Davis."
Finn opened the door to the vehicle and climbed inside. "Pulse is thready."
Santana started unwrapping something. "This looks like heroin. Maybe he OD'ed?"
"I can't feel my arm," Laura said from outside the car.
"Laura, you're going to be fine but I need you to hold still, okay?" Kurt said. "You may have a spinal injury after getting hit by the truck.
"I didn't get hit. I didn't."
"He's lost a lot of blood, but I can't find the bleeder." Santana said as they were working on the driver of the truck.
Finn finished cutting open the driver's shirt and held up a badge. "Santana, he's not an addict. He's a cop."
Back at the hospital, Puck walked behind the nurses' station desk and saw Molly look at a set of x-rays. "Whose film is this?" he asked, noticing something abnormal in the picture.
"Artie's patient. Radiology messed up the x-ray, so he—"
"Artie took him to CT?" Puck asked, hoping that was the right answer. Once Molly confirmed it was, he took off to try and find Artie.
Mercedes and Joey stepped off the elevator. "You know, that was fun. I can't believe I've been back in Texas for a year and I haven't ridden a horse until today," Joey said.
"Yeah, I couldn't tell. Because you're a natural," Mercedes said with a slight chuckle.
"Yeah, and you're a bad liar," Joey scoffed. He heard his phone start to beep and he reached into his pocket to answer it. "Doctor Toussaint? I got it? Thanks! Au revoir," Joey said, hanging up the phone. "I got a field surgery gig with Doctors Without Borders."
"Wait, you're leaving?" Mercedes asked, feeling her heart sink. She'd gotten used to working with Joey almost every day. It was going to be weird not working on surgeries with him. "You just got here."
"I go to Haiti next week to start field training. Wild, isn't it?"
"Yeah, it's definitely wild."
"I just realized how much I missed being out in the field since I left the Air Force. It's just where I belong."
"I get it," Mercedes said, hoping he couldn't tell she was sad to be seeing him go.
Joey pulled out his pager and looked at it. "We have a spinal trauma coming in."
In the radiology suite, Puck was showing Artie the x-ray films. "Wait, so the x-ray is accurate?"
"I've seen films like this in Iraq – civilians hit by depleted uranium. He's wearing a radiation badge," Puck said, gesturing to Oren's bagged items. "Refineries use x-rays to fight pipe leaks. Maybe…has he puked?"
"Not…not that I know of," Artie said as he turned to look in the radiology suite. Oren grabbed a silver bowl and started throwing up.
"What does that mean?" Oren asked once he was set up in an exam room. He pointed to the device in Puck's hand that Puck was pointing towards his body.
"You've been exposed to a radioactive isotope, Mr. Edwards."
"Radioactive? You mean like Spider-man?"
"Not exactly," Puck said, pulling Artie off to the side. "Did you touch him without gloves?" Puck whispered.
"I palpated his thigh."
"And did you eat or drink anything after that?"
"A donut," Artie said, realizing what might have happened.
"If he contaminated you with nuclear material, he might have exposed other people too," Puck said. "How long was he in the waiting room?"
"Maybe two hours? He dropped a bloody bandage. I told housekeeping about it."
"Fantastic," Puck muttered. "Stay here." He walked out of the room and went to the nurses' station. He stopped when he saw a bloody footprint on the floor and stopped to measure the amount of radioactivity in the blood. The clicking on the device went crazy. "Son of a bitch." He ran to the nurses' station and picked up the phone connected to the PA system. "This is Doctor Puckerman, ER Chief. We have a lockdown in the ER. Repeat, the ER is on lockdown."
"No, we're shut to traumas," Rachel said on the phone after Puck made his announcement. "We have an isotope contamination."
"No. No ER patients in the OR," Joey said on another one of the phones. "We have to decontaminate."
"We're all hands on deck," Puck said to Jesse. "We need to make sure we contain this contamination. Gear up, mop the bloody footprints from the waiting room so no one else gets exposed."
"Got it. I'll get lead aprons for people too," Jesse said.
"We need haz-mat bags. Anything exposed to radioactive blood is live!" Puck called after him.
"Incoming!" Finn called as him and one of the paramedics came into the ER.
"No, we're closed to traumas," Puck said, trying to stop them from coming in.
"Radiation exposure. We heard. But we have two critical patients. This one's a cop and he won't make it in time if we have to transport him to County."
Puck sighed. "Rachel, go to trauma one with Finn."
Kurt came in with his patient. "Laura Davis. Possible trauma to the upper extremities, possible CVA. She needs a head CT stat."
"Joey, Mercedes, take this patient to trauma two and avoid quarantine areas," Puck said, directing his teams where to go.
"But that's my patient," Kurt said, watching them wheel her off.
"I know, but I need a resident out in the parking lot. We're code green. No one comes in or out," Puck said as he started walking off.
"CT is 86'ed because of the contamination," Joey said to Mercedes. "Laura, I'm Doctor Chavez. How are you feeling?"
"I'm scared. I'm really scared."
"That's understandable. We're going to figure this out. So, you're a runner?"
"I r-ran tr-track since middle school," she said, slurring her words. "My dad coached. He died at 40 and that's young."
"You're right this is young," Joey said. "Do you know what the cause of death was?"
"A berry an—"
"A berry aneurysm? Is that it?" he asked as Laura lost consciousness.
"No response and her BP is spiking," Mercedes said.
"I want a nitro-drip when we land."
"I think we should do IV TPA," Mercedes said when they got to the trauma room. "If it's a clot, TPA will dissolve it and stop her paralysis."
"No. If it's a brain bleed, that'll kill her," Joey said. "Her father died of a sub-arachnoid hemorrhage."
"How can we tell without a head CT?" Mercedes asked as they lifted her off the gurney onto a hospital bed.
"Look at the body. The body will tell you what you need to know if you look in the right place."
"We have to look for spinal fluid. Because it passes through the brain," Mercedes said. "Even if there's a few drops of blood in the cerebrospinal fluid, it's a bleed."
"That's my girl," Joey said, giving her a high five.
"Doctor Chavez," Rachel said, poking her head into the trauma room. "We have a stab wound and need a surgical consult."
"Alright, I'll be there in a second. Mercedes, prep her for the spinal tap."
In the trauma room with the cop, Finn was calling out orders. "Let's get a portable chest and two units of O-neg."
"There's bullet wounds," Joey said when they started to get his shirt off. "Is he a vet?"
"Undercover cop. He got stabbed in a drug deal and crashed driving in," Finn explained. "He has a deep wound by his shoulder blade. I dressed it in the field."
"He has a punctured lung," Joey said. "We need to get the chest tube started now."
"Fluid's are kicking in. He's starting to wake up," Rachel said.
"Detective, I'm Doctor Hudson. You're in San Antonio Memorial Hospital and you've been stabbed."
"I don't want to go Mikey. Please, Mikey."
"Who's Mikey?" Finn mouthed to Rachel.
"BP's crashing."
"No breath sounds on the right. Where's the x-ray? He needs a chest tube now!"
"He might be seeing a ghost," Joey said, walking around the bed.
"He has lost a lot of blood. It can make the brain hallucinate," Rachel said as she started pumping oxygen into him.
"I'm going to make the intercostal incision," Joey said.
"You believe in ghosts, Doctor Chavez?" Rachel asked.
"I believe we all have a soul that leaves our bodies when we die."
"This cop isn't dying tonight," Finn said.
"Where is everyone?" Oren asked as he looked out of his exam room, seeing there wasn't anyone in the waiting room.
"At a safe distance. The isotope is still in our systems which means we can affect other people with radiation through our saliva, sweat or urine," Artie said, trying to tell Oren the truth while keeping him calm at the same time.
"Sorry about this, Doc."
"You can call me Artie. You know, invisible things are really dangerous in a hospital, like bacteria and viruses. Why didn't you report your injury at work?"
"My old man worked there for 20 years. He got me a part time to pay for this trip we're taking next month. I guess I didn't want to cause any trouble for him."
"Where are you going?" Artie asked, drawing blood for a blood sample.
"We're gonna do some salmon fishing up in Alaska. Get this great view of Mount McKinley. There's moose and eagles…it's badass. My dad got emphysema from welding gases all those years have just burned up his lungs. We've been talking about this trip since I was a kid. And now we're finally doing it."
"Good for you."
"Hey, Artie? I'm gonna be okay, right?"
"We're both going to be just fine."
In the trauma room, Joey was observing the stats of the cop. "His BP is coming up. Nice work."
"This guy's got so many lives. Somebody must be looking out for him," Finn said.
"Speaking of looking out, I'm gonna go check on Mercedes," Joey said, taking off his trauma gown as the doors open.
"Oh my god! Pete!"
"Officer, you can't be in here," Finn said.
"He's my husband. Pete Moreno. Is…is he?"
"He's fading in and out of consciousness," Rachel said. "He was stabbed and he lost a lot of blood. We've placed a chest tube in so he could breathe better."
"He lied to me. He said he was going to the gym then went out on a bust without backup. Next thing I know, I get a call he's here."
"He's been talking to someone named Mikey," Finn said.
"Mike Bennett. His partner. But, we lost him a few years ago in a shootout. They were like brothers." Her voice cracked. "Can I stay with him?" she whispered.
"Of course," Rachel said, leading her over to her husband.
"I'm gonna go update Puck," Finn said, giving the two of them a small smile as he left the room.
Rachel felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket and pulled it out. She had a new text from an unknown number.
YOU CAN'T HIDE. I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE.
She quickly started scrolling through her contacts and called someone. "Hey, Santana. That guy you know…call him," she said.
Outside of the hospital a little bit later, Santana was getting out of her ambulance. "His name is Cam Pollock? Alright, I'm on it."
"Well, the hospital is locked down but it doesn't require stitches anyway," Kurt said, looking at someone's hand. "Just go home, ice it and wash it." He turned to face Santana, who was working on getting a patient out. "Didn't you get the memo? No one in or out."
"It's another OD. I ran out of narcan. He's a lumber salesman. I found him out in the lumber yard with this," Santana said, pulling something out of her pocket. "It's bad H." She sat down next to the guy and started doing an exam on him. "He's got agonal breathing."
"Blue lips, clammy skin, pupils are pinpoint," Kurt said. He reached into his pocket and pulled something out. "And here comes the narcan," he said, injecting it into the man's arm.
"Where am I?"
"Welcome to San Antonio Memorial. You, sir, just had a heroin overdose," Kurt said.
"I slipped a disk last year…"
"I don't care why you took it. Do not take any more. This dope is tainted. It will kill you. Do you need a number to a rehab facility?"
"I just messed up. It won't happen again."
"Well, just stay here. We'll keep an eye on you and make sure you're okay. We'll get you inside when it's safe; you've been unconscious for awhile."
"No, I'm good," the man said, starting to collect his stuff. "Thanks, man."
Santana watched him get out of the ambulance. "You're not going to call SAPD?"
"I'm not a doctor. Not a cop. Everybody deals with pain their own way. Some just not as well as others."
"I hear that," Santana sighed. "So, what about Sam? What's his deal? He banging the intern with the legs?"
"Well, aren't you the delicate little flower. Yeah, they're involved."
Santana shrugged. "For now. I mean, female doctor with a male nurse? Ever seen that one work?"
"As a friend of them both, I'm surprised it's lasted this long."
"Good to know."
"I didn't say anything," Kurt said, winking at Santana.
"Yes you did."
Kurt started pacing the front entrance and saw someone walk up and try to get into the hospital. "You can't go in. ER's on lockdown."
"But my brother-in-law's in there."
"I can get a message to his doctor."
"He is a doctor. Finn Hudson. I need to see him right now."
Inside the hospital, Puck and Finn were walking around talking about their patients. "We still have to remove the foreign body in patient zero."
"Yeah, cesium's gnarly stuff," Finn said, running a hand through his hair. "NRC hotline give you an antidote?"
"Prussian blue. It's rare, our pharmacy doesn't stock it and everybody's closed for the night."
"Try Fort Hood. They might have it."
"Good idea. How's the undercover cop?"
"He's hanging in there. He lost his partner a couple of years back. His wife's a cop so Rach is with her."
"It's a little too close to home, Finn. Do you want to trade?"
"No, I can get them through it," Finn said as he reached into his pocket to get his phone. "It's Kurt, I should take this." He hit the accept button on his phone. "What's going on, Kurt?"
"There's a woman out here and tells me she's your sister-in-law, Annie. She says you've been ignoring her phone calls."
Finn groaned. "Yeah. Put her on."
Kurt shrugged and handed Annie the phone. "Hey baby."
"Annie. So, you're here in my parking lot?"
"Atlanta sucks. I got a nursing job in San Diego. Can I crash at your place? We can hang out, catch up."
"Thanks for the heads-up on that one, Annie."
"I tried. You didn't answer. I thought you were dodging my calls."
"Why would I do that? And, sure. You can, um, crash at my place. There's a key—"
"Above the porch light. Some things never change."
"I'll see you later," Finn said, hanging up the phone as quickly as possible.
"It's my job, Artie," Puck said outside of Oren's trauma room. "That little piece of cesium can kill everyone in this hospital."
"Look, you've trained me, Puck. You know I can remove it. Besides, you have a wife and three kids. I just have me. I'm already exposed. Why put you at risk too?"
"Because 60 percent of Oren's bone marrow is in his pelvis. If you don't remove all the contamination, his T-cells will die. And then he will die an extremely painful death from infection in two weeks. Not to mention if you mishandle the cesium, you'll turn this hospital into a nuclear wasteland. So you better be sure," Puck said, handing Artie the nuclear container.
Outside of the cop's trauma room, Rachel was leaning against the door as his wife spent time with him. "How's she doing?" Finn asked, coming up to stand next to her.
"She's holding up. You were gone for awhile. Everything okay?" Rachel asked, turning around to face Finn.
"Yeah, just had to talk to Puck about the radioactive guy," Finn said as Rachel's phone started vibrating. "You gonna answer that?" Finn asked when she made no move to get her phone.
"No. It's just my mother," she lied.
"Are you okay? You just seem a little distracted."
Rachel opened her mouth to tell him the truth but stopped at the last second. "Yeah. I just feel badly for her," she said as the monitors started beeping like crazy. "His BP's dropping."
"What's happening?"
"There's no new blood in the thora-seal," Rachel said, putting on gloves.
"Distended neck veins. It's not his lungs," Finn said, changing the recline on the hospital bed.
"What does that mean?" his wife asked.
"Muffled heart sounds and a rub," Finn said, listening to his heart.
"There's blood pooling around the heart and we need to drain it," Rachel explained to his wife. "I need you to step out, please."
"Prep for a bedside ultrasound. Hand me a spinal needle."
Rachel got the ultrasound set up as Finn started injecting him with the needle. "Slowly." She studied the ultrasound screen. "You're in."
"Damn it. His blood's clotted. It's too thick for a needle."
"Pressure's dropping."
"Scalpel," Finn said to Rachel.
She turned to face him as her eyes widened. "You're gonna do a pericardial window?"
"We have to remove the clot. And we can't go upstairs, so we have to do it here or he dies."
In the girl's trauma room, Joey was instructing Mercedes on what to do. "You want to feel for the L4-L5 intervertebral space. Go slowly until you feel a pop. You're doing great, Mercedes, you just have to trust it."
Mercedes let out a loud gasp. "I think I got it."
"Okay. Cool. Now, remove the stylet and let the tube fill with clear fluid." Joey watched to make sure she was doing it right. "Whoa…" he said when he saw blood coming out instead.
"Did I hit an artery?"
"No, she ruptured a cerebral aneurysm. Tell radiology we're on the way," Joey said to one of the nurses. "I need a coil embolization stat. We need to stop this bleeding in her brain."
In Oren's trauma room, Artie was working on him as Puck directed him from outside the room. "Remove in cesium intact or you'll increase his exposure."
Artie pulled it out and held it in his forceps. "Got it out."
"That's it? That's all it is? That's my kryptonite?"
"That is it," Artie said, putting it into the nuclear container. "I will be right back," Artie said, taping the lid shut. He held the container at arm's length and started walking it out to where Puck and three guys dressed in suits were standing.
"These guys are from the nuclear regulatory committee," Puck said, gesturing to them. "They'll take it from here."
Artie handed them the container and let out a sigh. "Piece of cake. What's next?"
"Next is the hard part. We have to cut away the exposed tissue in Oren's thigh. It's messy, so watch for further contamination from blood or needle sticks. One mistake and you could end up as sick as he is."
Outside of the cop's trauma room, Rachel was talking with his wife. "We've had our ups and downs, you know, since Mikey died. Pete still blames himself. It's why he has to save people. Always puts himself last."
"Yeah, I know someone like that," Rachel said, not taking her eyes off of Finn.
"Everybody warned me, but I thought he changed. I guess I was kidding myself."
"Not that it's any part of my business, but the hardest part is realizing that their recovery is about them, not about you."
"I really do love him."
Rachel sighed. "Yeah. I get it."
"I can't look," Oren said in his trauma room as Artie was working on cutting away the tissue. "It makes me dizzy."
"You're doing great, Oren."
"Nice work, Artie," Puck said, giving him an encouraging smile. "Excellent touch. Your dad would be proud."
"Your dad's some big-shot Doc?" Oren asked.
"Just one of the top neurosurgeons in the country. But, you know, no pressure. Just like being Superman's kid."
"That must suck. If you don't mind me asking, why did you become a doctor then?"
"I don't know. It's just what we do in my family. Me, my brothers, my sister…"
"Maybe you can be Superman somewhere else. Like the ocean."
"Well, that would make me Aquaman," Artie said, smiling at him.
"That's right. Well, Aquaman still gets to fight bad guys. And he gets to, like, talk to whales and dolphins and stuff like that."
"Good point. What about you?"
"I partied a lot. I partied my way out of college," Oren said with a slight chuckle. "But my dad was okay. He said, you know, you got to screw up to know what you want to do. I took that advice and now I'm thinking about going to a culinary arts institute, you know?"
"Your dad sounds like a cool guy."
"My mom split when I was four and now I tell everybody that I feel like I won the dad lottery. And it's true, I did. I wouldn't trade my life with anybody else."
Outside, Jesse and Sam were throwing out the trash bags that were possibly contaminated. "You know about me and Mercedes?" Sam asked.
"What? Hooking up? Come on, this is a hospital. You can't hide that."
"I like her. I do. We started out just having fun but now it seems like she doesn't want to take things to the next level."
"Well, maybe she doesn't want anything serious. Wants to focus on her career. Careers are important. Let me tell you something, my dad worked in construction and I promised him and myself that I would never work with my hands," Jesse said as he threw away more trash bags.
Sam started laughing. "And now your broke ass is mopping floors, slinging trash…"
"You're right, Sam. But one day, I am gonna be a doc. What about you? Are you going to be the good time Charlie of the ER or are you really gonna make something of your life?"
"I thought we were talking about Mercedes?"
"Yeah. It's all tied in. If you're this frustrated with your life at 30, you're really going to be this pissed off at 40. Anyway, good luck with Mercedes," he said, shutting the lid to the trash. "Oh, if she ever needs a replacement, I'm the guy."
"She'd crush you like a damn bug."
"But what a way to go out, though."
"Will Laura recover?" Mercedes asked Joey when they got out of surgery.
"We won't know until she wakes up. But she's lucky. Usually a bleed-out like that is found on autopsy. Thanks to your excellent diagnosis, we got her in time."
"I wouldn't have made it without you," Mercedes said as she started to take off her trauma gown.
"Unless you'd have field experience. You know, Finn, Puck, Kurt, myself…we don't need machines to be good doctors. We trust our instincts."
"I'm not exactly Army material."
"You should do Doctors Without Borders when you're done with your residency," Joey said. "It'd be the best thing for your career."
"I'm not sure they'd take me."
"Why do you think that? You need to stop judging yourself so much. I see someone that can be a brilliant doctor. You just have to get out of your own way."
"It's hard. I was that kid who would get a 98 on a test and I'd be so pissed I didn't get a 100. I'm still that kid."
"And that makes you happy?"
"Not at all."
"So then change."
"It's not that easy," Mercedes said, clenching her teeth.
"See, there you go. Getting in your own way. I need to get up to personnel and tell them I'm out of here."
"You know Brody's gonna be pissed."
"Well he's not the one I care about disappointing," Joey said as he started walking off.
Back at the nurses' station, Puck was fielding calls from paramedics in the field. "We are still contaminated so I will let you know as soon as I know." Puck slammed the phone down. "EMS is on my ass to reopen," he said to the computer screen where Kurt was. They had set up Skype so the doctors would be able to communicate with each other since they all couldn't be in the hospital. "The rest of the county is overloaded, thanks to us."
"Well, I talked to my boys at Fort Hood. They can overnight the Prussian blue."
"Oren's exposure is in his pelvis. He'll be dead by morning. If you make the poison, make the fucking antidote too, right?" Puck said, feeling frustrated.
"Well, exposure to cesium-137 is pretty rare. So is the antidote."
"Actually it's not," Jesse said, coming up the nurses' station. "Prussian blue is an ink. It's the same compound used to print blueprints. I've been brushing up on my toxicology for my medical boards."
Rachel pushed open the door's to Pete's trauma room and walked in. "Hey," she said, walking over to the computers where Finn was.
"How's Denise?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the screens.
"She's holding up. Her husband lied to her."
"Yeah. To protect her."
"Maybe she doesn't need protection," Rachel said, starting to grow defensive.
"Where have I heard that one before, huh?" Finn asked, looking over at Rachel as he smiled. He felt his phone start to vibrate and pulled it out to see who's calling. He saw it was Annie and put the phone back in his pocket.
"Midnight caller?"
"Just my bookie. He wants me to start betting again. He misses the income."
"Yeah, I bet he does." The monitors started beeping again.
"He's throwing PVCs."
"Or maybe the chest tube is irritating his heart," Rachel said as they both rushed over to the bed. "Did his x-rays come back yet?"
"Yeah, they're on the computer."
Rachel pulled them up and looked. "Finn, it's a foreign body."
"Damn it. That's a knife blade."
"It probably broke off when he was stabbed," Rachel said, grabbing gloves for both her and Finn. "It's right next to his heart."
"He's in V-Fib. Paddles at 200," Finn said, turning around to set the charge. He set them on Pete's chest and they thumped. "Still V-Fib. Charging to 300."
"Finn, wait," Rachel said, holding out her hand. "The shock is moving the blade tip. If you shock him again, it's gonna tear his heart into ribbons."
"We need to get it out without cutting the heart. Hand a rib spreader and a 10 blade," Finn said, getting a trauma gown on.
In Oren's room, he was watching Artie extract the ink from a bottle. "That's my medicine. It looks like it's in a soda bottle."
"It's actually printer's ink. A paramedic picked it up from the newspaper plant. It's going to bond with the cesium in your intestines and you will evacuate the contaminants."
"Will it hurt?" Oren asked.
"Not at all. Your poop will be bright blue though."
"What if it doesn't work?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, okay?"
"Sorry, but you've been saying that a lot."
"This is going to help you. It's going to help," Artie said.
"Okay."
"Now, you're going to feel a gag in your throat." Artie could tell Oren was getting a little nervous about everything. "Hey, do me a favor and close your eyes. Close your eyes and imagine you're on Crescent Lake with your dad."
Puck watched Artie from the lobby with a content smile on his face. Jesse walked up next to him. "Okay. I got everything geigered. The CT, waiting room, bathrooms. It's all done."
"If the doctor thing doesn't work out, you have a bright future in housekeeping," Sam said with a smile.
"Okay, let's reopen to trauma. Tell Kurt and take down all of the caution tape except for this side of the floor. Oren stays quarantined until we know how he responds to the antidote."
Outside the hospital, Kurt was flipping through pictures of him and Blaine on his phone, remembering all the good times that they had. He looked up when he heard the ambulance sirens go off and saw Santana get out of the ambulance. "Back again?" he asked, standing up from where he was sitting on the bench.
"And I'm not the only one. It's the same guy who said he learned his lesson," Santana said, opening the back of the ambulance.
"What happened?" Kurt asked, climbing into the back of the ambulance.
"I got called to the Alamo Plaza with a report of a man down. He was dead when I arrived."
"What a waste."
"He refused care. What else could you do? Would you be able to let me into the hospital? I have to fax some paperwork before I transfer him to the morgue."
Kurt started climbing out of the ambulance. "Yeah."
"Thanks," Santana said, following him to the doors.
"Damn. How long's it gonna be?" a guy asked, noticing the caution tape. Kurt ignored him as he started typing in the code to open the sliding doors. "We'll tell you when we're ready."
"Thanks, Kurt," Santana said, walking into the hospital.
"You're letting that bitch in there?" the guy said.
"What did you call me?"
"A bitch, bitch."
"You need to back up—" Santana started. She would have finished if Kurt hadn't stepped in and started punching the guy in the face.
"Kurt, what the hell?" Sam said, seeing what happened. "What are you doing?"
"He was trying to come in."
"That's fine. We're open again."
Kurt stared at the guy on the ground. "I'll get a gurney."
Back in Oren's room, Artie was drawing his blood again. "Your white blood cell count was lower, but that was expected. The next test will tell us how the antidote did," Artie said, taking the tourniquet off Oren's arm.
"It's a bummer we never got superpowers, Artie."
"Well, if we did, what would yours be?"
"I'd go back in time. Like, fly super fast, but in reverse."
"What era would you go to? Would you meet Lincoln or da Vinci?"
"I'd go to this morning before I got hurt. I'd blow off work today like Ferris Bueller. You ever seen that movie?"
"Hasn't everyone?" Artie said with a slight laugh.
Oren leaned his head back and rubbed his nose. When he pulled his hand away, it was covered in blood. "Artie, what's going on?"
"Um, it's okay. Platelets are down. Here, hold this up there," Artie said, handing him a bunch of tissues.
"I kind of can't breathe, Artie."
"You're fine. You're fine. Don't panic. Let's get you laying down and your legs up," Artie said, helping him move positions. He ran to the door. "I need help in here! Someone get Puck!"
"Seriously, Kurt?" Sam said as they wheeled the guy into the hospital. "All these cops out here and you knock the guy out?
"He started it. I was just—"
"Protecting me," Santana said, finishing Kurt's though.
"Okay. I'm on your team, but you need to get your story straight. This isn't just going away," Sam said.
"Crazy night, right?" Santana said, letting Kurt take the guy to a trauma room.
"Yeah, they're all crazy."
Sam started to walk away but Santana held her hand out to stop him. "You talking about doctors now?" She took his badge in her hands and looked at it.
"Where's Puck? Artie's guy is crashing," Jesse said, running over to where they were.
Kurt made sure someone was able to take the guy and he ran towards Artie's room, where he started listing off what was wrong. "Artie, do you know what to do?" Kurt asked.
"I got this. Don't leave me, Oren. I've got you." He shocked him once and it was enough to bring him back.
"What happened Artie?"
"You went away. But I got you back."
In Pete's trauma room, things weren't looking so well. "Blade's not anterior. Must be behind the heart," Finn said.
"Careful, Finn. One slip…"
"He's come this far. I'm not letting him down now. I got it. I'm worried about cutting the vena cava."
Rachel thought for a second. "Curved Kelly."
"Yeah."
Rachel got it from the supplies in the room and stepped closer to Pete. "Get it closer," Finn said, watching where she was going. "You're almost there."
"Got it," Rachel said.
"Heart's fibrillating."
"I need some room," Rachel said, squinting to try and get a closer look. "I got it." She made sure her grip was steady before she started pulling the blade out from the heart.
"Nice job," Finn whispered.
"Heart's back in sinuous."
"We did it. I couldn't have gotten through this without you. Let's close him up."
"Let's do it," Rachel said with a smile on his face.
"I checked Laura's medical records," Joey said outside of her recovery room. "She never got screened, knowing that she could have a ticking time bomb in her brain just like her dad."
"It doesn't mean it's inevitable," Mercedes said, shaking her head.
"Your mom's cancer? You take the BRCA test that we talked about to see if you have the gene?"
"I did. I'm just…waiting for the results."
"That took guts. It's scary to face our future."
"But if you can keep yourself from regretting something, then you should do it. Right?" Mercedes asked.
"Most definitely," Joey said nodding.
At the nurses' station, Santana caught up with Rachel. "So I talked to my guy. Your stalker got paroled last week."
"What?" Rachel asked, feeling her heart speed up. "He had eight more years."
"Apparently, he made a deal. But the DOC wants your help. They can revoke his parole for harassing you and lock him up."
Rachel sighed. "I have to tell Finn."
"Wait, I thought he was a new man."
"And he is. And we are. Look, it's just…there's some things he's still working through and if I tell him about this…"
"I don't understand, Rach. What are you so afraid?"
"Nothing. Santana, this isn't like what happened to you." Santana looked like she'd been slapped in the face. "Wait, San, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way."
"Figure it out and let me know," Santana said, walking away from Rachel.
Rachel smacked her hand against the wall. "Damn it," she muttered under her breath.
In Pete's room, his wife opened the door. "Thank you," she said to Finn.
Finn nodded as he left the trauma room. "Hey, Annie," Finn said, the exhaustion evident in his voice. "I thought you wanted to crash. You're where?" he said, listening to her on the other line of the phone. "Okay," he said, hanging up the phone.
Finn looked around and saw Kurt. He walked over to him with a sheepish look on his face. "I need your help with Annie."
"Ah, the sister-in-law," Kurt said.
"She's Thad's wife," Finn said, trying to explain what was going on.
"She seems like a hot mess."
"Yeah, well, she hasn't been the same since he died," Finn said, the two of them stopping when they saw Rachel hunched over the nurses' station desk.
"I can tell her and Rachel aren't exactly kindred spirits," Kurt said.
"You could say they have a history," Finn said, trying to figure out exactly what to tell Kurt. "But that's a cat fight I don't want a part of."
"Good luck with that," Kurt said as he walked off.
Finn took a deep breath and walked towards Rachel. He cleared his throat and touched her back. "Hey," he said, stopping when she turned to look at him. "I'm gonna head out."
"You're leaving?" Rachel asked, her eyes growing wide.
"Yeah, I feel like crap. I just wanna crash at my place."
"You want me to come by later with some soup?" Rachel asked, trying to think of a way she could bring up what was going on with the stalker.
"No, I just need to sleep. I'll check in with you later," Finn said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear as he leaned in to kiss her. She opened her mouth to say something as he started to walk away. "Did you wanna talk to me about something?"
Rachel pressed her lips together. "It can wait. Get some rest," Rachel said, trying to hide her shaking hands from him.
After she finished her paperwork, she got changed quickly and walked out to her car, ready to put the shift behind her and curl up in bed to hopefully get more sleep than she'd been having the last few nights. She kept looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching her. When she got to her car, she stopped and jumped a little when she saw the driver's side door was ajar and the glass from the window was all over her seat. She walked closer and saw her tires were slashed. Her phone vibrated and she reached into her purse to see she had a new text message.
I WARNED YOU
She quickly deleted it and jumped when she heard a car horn from behind her. She turned around to see Brody pulling into the lot. He stopped in front of her car and got out. "Rachel, what happened? Are you okay?"
"I…I have a patient and he's been stalking me. I don't know…" Rachel said, looking around, trying to figure out where he was watching her from.
"Come on, get in the car," Brody said, gently pulling her towards his Porsche. "We'll call the police. Let me cancel my meeting." He dialed a number and waited for someone to answer on the other line. "This is Doctor Brody Weston from San Antonio Memorial Hospital. I need to speak with someone right away."
Finn walked up to Annie sitting at the bar. "I thought you needed to crash."
She got up, smiled and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. "I needed a nightcap. And there's no booze at your house. Barkeep, two of your finest Irish whiskeys."
The bartender set two shot glasses down and Finn immediately turned his upside down. "I'm okay. Thanks."
"Finn Hudson, refusing Irish whiskey. It must be the end of days."
"Why are you here Annie?"
"I couldn't stay in your place anymore, Finn. Thad's everywhere and it got me so damn depressed."
"Yeah, I get that. I've been there."
"I'm starting over," Annie said. "But I wanted to finally say goodbye first. Just you and me. Just give him a proper send off. One last wake."
"I don't need to get wasted anymore to celebrate my brother."
"No, but it'd be a lot more fun."
Back at the hospital, Sam, Jesse and Artie were joking around at the nurses' station. "Big man on campus," Jesse said as Puck was walking up, looking completely worn out from the shift.
"Puck, you should have seen our boy flying solo on the code," Sam said.
"I know, he's really stepping up," Puck said with a smile. "But I need to talk to Artie." Sam and Jesse walked off and Puck stopped in front of Artie and dropped his voice. "I got Oren's last test." Puck handed the clipboard to Artie and he looked at it, feeling his face fall.
"Are you serious?" Oren asked when Artie told him the news.
"I'm sorry. You have two weeks – maybe three. There's the possibility of a bone marrow transplant but it's a Hail Mary."
"What about Alaska? Can I still go to Alaska?"
"You'll be too weak," Artie said, feeling his heart break for his patient. "But we can make you comfortable here."
"No, I wanna go to my dad's house. I can't stay here."
"Oren, you're still, um, contaminated. You'll expose your dad to radiation, poison his house by brushing your teeth or using the toilet. It's better if you stay here. I'm sorry, Oren. I really am."
"I got that job so I could go on the trip. And now I can't even go on the trip because of the job. I feel like somebody stole my life. Will…will you still take care of me?"
"Every day. If you'll let me."
"Yeah. I just don't want…I just don't want to do it alone.
At the bar, Finn and Annie clinked their glasses together and drank the shot. "Does what's-her-name know you're here?" Annie asked.
"What's-her-name does not."
"I can't believe you're still with her," Annie sneered.
"Why does Rachel bug you so much?"
"She thinks she's better than me."
"I don't think she thinks that at all."
"You're blind when it comes to her. She's not family," Annie said, pursing her lips. "Oh, I almost forgot. I wanted to show you something. I got your mom's videos transferred to digital." Annie rummaged around in her purse and pulled out a tablet.
"Oh god, pony football. Thad hit three touchdowns that game. Your brother was on our team. Thad and I had a bet about who would talk to you first. And then he hid my bike. Beat me to it that day."
"What if you won the bet?" Annie asked.
Back at Rachel's she was pacing in her living room trying to get ahold of Finn. "It went straight to voicemail," she said, hanging up the phone. "He must be asleep."
"Then I'm staying," Brody said.
"No. Brody, I'm fine. You can go, it's okay."
"Rachel, I saw your face. You were terrified. You don't have to put on a front for me. I'm not Finn."
"What does that mean?" Rachel asked, her eyebrows knitting together.
"You know what that means. You're scared. That's normal."
Rachel sat down on her couch. "I still can't believe they let him out."
"Well, now they'll put him right back in. For good this time," Brody said, offering Rachel a smile.
"Thanks for being here, Brody," Rachel said quietly.
"Any time you have an insane stalker, I'm your guy. You should get some rest."
At the hospital, Puck handed Artie a bottle of pills. "You have the exposure of 30 x-rays so take the Prussian blue pills for a month to be safe. Take a few days off, too."
"I'm…I'm okay, actually. I'll see you tomorrow," Artie said as he started to walk out of the break room.
"You did good, Artie. You didn't think. You acted. That's the first step to being a real doctor," Puck said, smiling at Artie.
In Joey's office, Mercedes was in there, writing something down on a Post-It note. She heard the door open and looked up to see Joey walk in. "Hey! I was about to leave you a note."
"Well, that's perfect timing," Joey said with a smile. "I was looking for you. I wanted to give you my going away gift."
"Thanks," Mercedes said, taking off the bow and the tissues paper. She pulled out an oversized pair of sunglasses with palm trees and coconut drinks on the rims. "Very stylish," she said as she put them on.
"Absolutely. I figured if I got stationed somewhere tropical and you wanted to visit, you'd be set."
Mercedes nodded slowly. "So that's an invitation."
"Yes. It is. You know, the shift is over and I'm not your boss anymore. So I can say what I want."
"Which is?"
Joey closed the distance between the two of them and started kissing her, which Mercedes full heartedly reciprocated.
In the hallway, Sam was looking for Mercedes to see if she wanted to grab breakfast after the long and grueling shift. He stopped when he looked in the office and saw the two of them together and felt his heart slow down.
Jesse walked up next to him and saw what was going on. "Come on, Sam." He patted him on the back and walked off.
Kurt stepped outside the hospital and walked past one of the ambulances. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw an ice pack fly towards him and he caught it. He looked up to see Santana standing there. He nodded in appreciation and walked off.
Back in the hospital, Puck stopped outside of Oren's room to see how he was doing. He saw Oren on the phone and backed up slightly, listening to what he was saying. "Do you have a minute to talk? It doesn't look good."
In Artie's car, he felt tears slide down his face and he started punching his steering wheel.
Back at the bar, Annie was showing Finn more pictures on the tablet. "The string ray. I loved that bike. I had a three-speed shifter on the frame. He'd never let me ride it."
"I bet he'd let you ride it now," Annie said. "Let's go back to your place. I'll make my famous Bloody Marys."
"I'll get the tab," Finn said, signaling to the bartender. He reached to his right and grabbed his phone. "Rachel called."
"Of course she did," Annie said bitterly.
"I'm gonna call her back."
"Whatever. I'm gonna hit the ladies' room. Watch my purse."
Finn finished the whiskey that was in his glass as he called Rachel.
Back at Rachel's, she'd finally fallen asleep on the couch and Brody pulled the blanket over her to keep her warm. When he heard he phone go off, he walked towards where she'd set it when she walked in and saw it was Finn calling. He furrowed his brow and hit ignore before setting back down on the table.
"Hey," Finn started when her phone went to voicemail. "I saw you called. You must be asleep now, so sleep well." He hung up and got up from the bar. "Can you take care of Annie's purse?" Finn asked. "I need some air."
Unbeknownst to Finn, the same batch that one the man from the shift overdosed from was sitting at the top of her purse.