Chapter Seven: Need To Know
Finn awoke with a jolt to his alarm going off the morning after he was at the bar with Annie. He turned his alarm off and rubbed a hand over his face. "Annie?" he called, hoping she hadn't gotten into any trouble yet. "Annie, you awake?" He grabbed his shirt from off the floor and got up, trying to find her. "Annie?" He got to the top of the stairs and saw her collapsed at the bottom of the stairs and she was bleeding. He felt for a pulse and pulled his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans. "I got you, Annie."
"911, what's your emergency?" the operator said on the other line.
"I need an ambulance to 742 Kenmar Drive. Female, 30, status post-fall with blunt head trauma. I'm a doctor and I need an ambulance here now," Finn said into the phone before hanging it up. "Hang on, Annie."
At the hospital, Rachel was in the bathroom looking at a timer on her phone. The alarm started ringing and she turned it off. She took a deep breath and picked up the pregnancy test on the bathroom countertop. She closed her eyes before looking at what it said and took another deep breath.
Pregnant.
She let out a surprised laugh and smiled but quickly found her smile fading.
"Oh my god," she muttered.
In the break room, Kurt's alarm was going off. He looked at his watch before taking the IV bag of fluids off the stand and walked out of the break room with it still in his arm.
"Damn, dude," Sam said, coming into the break room. "Did you get the license plate of the truck that ran over you?"
"I'm not having this conversation right now," Kurt said as he left the break room.
"Fine. But you better pound one of those energy things you drink. Or you, my friend, ain't making it through the shift."
Kurt shook his head and walked off in the opposite direction, hitting Rachel as he walked by. "Ow," she said, giving him a look. He muttered an apology and walked off. "What's his problem?" Rachel asked Sam.
"I think he's letting his buddies Jim Beam and Jack Daniels help him deal with the Blaine breakup."
"Poor guy," Rachel said, watching him walk off. "Have you seen Finn around?"
"I don't think he's here yet but check with Puck," Sam said before he walked off.
"Thanks," Rachel said, walking over to the nurses' station where Puck was. "Hey, Puck? Have you seen Finn?"
"I just got off the phone with paramedics," Molly said, coming over to talk to them. "Santana says they need a doctor out in the field. There's a boy with a bad neck injury and he's stuck in a well."
"Tell them to send Lassie," Puck said, trying to make a joke. Rachel and Molly just stared at him. "Oh, you were serious?"
"Yeah I was."
"Well, Finn's not in yet. Can you go?" Puck asked Rachel.
She bit down on her lip while she thought. "Okay. Yeah, I can go. Tell Santana I'm on my way," Rachel said, taking the search and rescue gear from Molly.
"Don't worry honey, it'll be okay," someone said as they walked into the ER.
Jesse recognized the voice. It was his ex-wife. "Hey sweetie. What are you doing here?" Jesse said, walking over to where his ex and his daughter were.
"She fell and hurt her wrist," his ex-wife said.
"What? Let me see it," Jesse said, taking his daughter's wrist gently in his hand.
"That really hurts," she said when he took the ice pack off.
"Sorry honey. What happened?"
"She was at a concert tonight and—"
"The Lil Wayne one?" Jesse asked, a look of annoyance crossing his face.
"People just started pushing and I fell and someone stepped on my hand."
"I thought we said that—"
"Mom said I could go. It's fine. Stephanie's mom went with us."
"Stephanie's mom? The crazy one?" Jesse asked, looking up at his ex-wife.
"She's not crazy; she's my friend. Now can you take care of your daughter's wrist please?"
"Yes. But I'm not done with this. Come on, come with me," Jesse said, leading his daughter towards the trauma rooms. "Artie, this is my daughter Naomi. Can we get her triaged and an x-ray on her wrist?"
"Sure thing. Follow me," Artie said, leading them all into the closest trauma room.
"Kurt, Puck! I need you!" Finn said, wheeling Annie into the ER. "Respiratory failure from head trauma."
"Annie? What's she doing in town?" Puck asked, noticing who the patient was.
"I'll explain later. We're going straight to CT."
"I saw her last night," Kurt said, watching them head towards a trauma room. "She looked like trouble."
"I found her at the bottom of the stairs. We had a few drinks last night and she must have fallen." Finn said.
"Why don't you step out and I'll take over the case," Puck said. "You shouldn't be working on family."
"I'm not leaving her," Finn said, getting the ultrasound machine set up.
"I think you should."
"I'm taking care of her, Puck. Gel," he said, holding out the wand for the machine. He put it against her stomach and looked for any internal injuries.
"There's something," Kurt said, pointing at something on the screen.
"She's bleeding. Blood's pooling at the bottom of her spleen. We need to get her to the OR. Come on, let's go."
Outside one of the ORs, Brody and Mercedes were coming out of a surgery. "Nice work," he commented.
"Thanks."
"I see Joey taught you well."
"He did. I still have a lot to learn from you. I'm just sad to see him go."
"Yeah, that's what I hear," Brody said as Mercedes made an uncomfortable face. "I'm just glad everybody up here's got something else to gossip about besides me."
"Which one of the ORs is free?" Finn asked as they got Annie up to the floor.
"What's going on?" Brody asked.
"Bleeding in her abdomen. It's a grade four splenic lac."
"We'll take her into OR two."
"I'm on it," Finn said, hitting the button to open the doors.
"For the hundredth time, Finn, you're not staffed as a surgeon at this hospital."
"Brody, it's his sister-in-law," Puck said, trying to explain the situation.
"Well, if you really care about her, you'll let a surgeon handle it. Let me take the lead. You're more than welcome to assist," Brody said.
"It's the right call," Puck agreed.
"Hey, hey," Finn said, stopping Brody before he went in. "Any sign of trouble, you call me. Okay?"
"Of course. Let's go."
Across town, Rachel had just arrived on the scene and was being briefed by the firefighters on site. "Two patients. The mother went down to rescue the boy. The boy's still down with a paramedic. Said we needed a doctor. We got the mother out but the boy can't be moved."
"Hi, I'm Doctor Berry," Rachel said, bending down to look at the mom's leg.
"I'm fine. You have to get my son Malcolm out of there, okay? Please just go!"
"Okay, I need someone to get a dressing on this," Rachel said before going to the well. She peered over the edge and saw Santana and the boy down there. "I'm here."
"What took you so long? He has…" Santana tried to finished but passed out next to the boy.
"Santana? Santana! I need to get down there," Rachel said to the firefighters that were there. "Ready?" she asked when she was rigged up. "Go." Slowly they started lowering her down into the well. "Hold on, Santana, I'm almost there," Rachel said, her voice muffled from the oxygen mask. She unclipped herself and went over to check on her best friend and Malcolm. "Take deep breaths for me," she said, putting the oxygen mask over Santana's face. "There you go, San. You're gonna be okay."
Rachel turned her attention to the boy laying next to Santana. "Hi, Malcolm. I'm Doctor Berry and we're gonna get you out of here, okay?" She started looking in his eyes to make sure everything was okay. "What the hell were you thinking?" she hissed at Santana. "There are pockets of methane gas in wells like these."
"Thought I'd be out faster," Santana said, taking the mask off her face. "And he needed the mask more than I did. Where's yours?"
"That's the last one. We have to alternate."
"Where's my mom? Is she okay?" Malcolm asked.
"She's good. She's up there waiting for you," Rachel said.
"I didn't think he could be moved," Santana said, trying to regain her strength.
"It's a good thing you waited. I don't think his neck is fractured but it's probably a locked facet. He needs to see an orthopedist when we get to the ER to make sure there's no permanent spinal cord damage." Rachel got Malcolm rigged up so they could leave and turned to Santana. "You ready to leave?"
"Absolutely," Santana said, trying to get to her feet.
"We're all set, bring him up," Rachel said, tugging on the cords.
Back at the hospital, Artie was doing on exam on Naomi. "Okay, give me a thumbs up. Can you tell me when this happened?"
"When Drake and Lil Wayne did Love Me."
"I love that song. Wait, did they do…"
"Artie, can you please take care of the wrist," Jesse snapped. "I can't believe you let her go, Lydia. We talked about this."
"We did talk about it but all her friends were going and I decided it was okay."
"Yeah, and look what happened."
"Oh please. This could have happened anywhere. Look how happy she is. She had a great time."
"Maybe you two need to have this conversation someplace else," Molly said. "Out," she said, holding open the door.
"You're Molly right?" Naomi asked. "My dad told me you're a hard ass."
"You got that right," Molly said with a laugh.
At the nurses' station, Mercedes finally found the one person she was looking for. "Sam!" she called. "I just want to talk to you."
"I saw you kiss him."
"It's not what it looked like," Mercedes said, dropping her voice so everyone didn't hear what was going on.
"You didn't have your tongue down Joey's throat? Because that's what it looked like. I know we were just doing the casual thing and maybe I was making too much of it. But, regardless, you know me. I'd never disrespect you like that. You know it," Sam said, brushing past her to go to a patient's room.
Inside the ambulance, Rachel made sure Malcolm was stable. "Malcolm, your mom is in the car behind us and she'll meet us at the hospital. I just wanna check your eyes real quick. You're doing great, buddy." She looked over at Santana. "He's ready."
Santana rummaged through her bag and pulled out a needle to sedate him. "Morphine's in. He should be out for a little bit." She looked up at Rachel and smiled. "So, Mommy, you haven't told Finn yet?"
"No, I haven't told Finn. I mean, I just took the test. But when I get back to the hospital and I find a quiet moment to talk to him…I mean, it's not exactly something you just blurt out."
"So, is this a good thing?" Santana asked, putting her stethoscope around her neck.
"San, I am freaking out. I mean, I always knew I was gonna be a mother. I just didn't picture it happening like this. I mean, we didn't exactly plan it. But I'm also happy. Finn and I, we aren't perfect. But we love each other. So…" Rachel said, trailing off.
Santana smiled at her best friend. "Alright. Let's do this then."
In Annie's recovery room, Finn was sitting by her bedside waiting for her to wake up. "Hi," she tried to say.
"Don't. You were intubated so your throat is sore. And you were in surgery. You fell down the stairs and hurt your spleen. Gave me quite a scare. You're gonna be okay. Just go back to sleep. I'll be right by your side," Finn said.
Out in the lobby, Jesse and Lydia were still arguing. "Just because we're divorced doesn't mean you can undermine me, okay?" Jesse said. "We're still supposed to make decisions together."
"Yeah, like when you made the decision to quit your job."
"That's different."
"You're right, that's way worse. You cost our family a lot of money a year and now I have to carry a significant burden."
"What was I supposed to do? Be miserable?" Jesse asked.
"You were miserable for years," Lydia said, rolling her eyes.
"That's because I was so unhappy."
"When you have two kids, you make sacrifices. Speaking of, did you pay the hotel for Naomi's birthday?"
"Yes. I already told you that so please stop asking."
"Excuse me," Artie said, not wanting to get in between the two of them. "The x-ray shows no fractures. It's just a sprain."
"Oh thank god," Lydia said. The three of them walked into the exam room where she was getting a brace put on her wrist.
"Can I stay with Dad?" Naomi asked.
"You sure, h-honey? It's not gonna be that much fun," Jesse said. "I'm gonna be a little busy too."
"I think it's a great idea," Lydia said. "She should stay and find out what her father really does."
"Yeah, come on, Dad. I'm not even that tired." She heard a siren wailing and someone yelled incoming. "Cool, a patient. Can I watch you work?"
"Uh, no. That's not my patient. Maybe later, honey. I'll take you to the break room so you can hang out."
"Drop her off in the morning and make sure she eats something," Lydia said as they started walking out.
"I've been feeding her for 15 years. I think we'll be okay."
In the lobby, Rachel was bringing in her patient. "I have a bilateral locked facet from a deep fall in a well," she said.
"Never seen one of these before," Artie said.
"Well, here's your chance," Rachel said.
Santana started following her into the trauma room when she fell and gripped onto the nurses' station desk. "You okay?" Sam asked, noticing what happened.
"Yeah, just tweaked my ankle going down the well. I'll be fine, I just need to put some ice on it."
"Do not listen to her," Rachel said from where she was standing. "She passed out from methane. She needs fluids and a blood-gas."
"Rachel needs the same test."
"Yes, and I will get it." She started looking down the hallway for someone. "Hey, Kurt, can you take care of Mrs. Coury for me please?"
"I'm not leaving my son's side."
Rachel sighed. "Fine, but you have to let us do our work. Can you page ortho?" she asked Kurt as they entered the trauma room.
"No ortho tonight. I already called them on another case."
"On three. One, two, three," Rachel said as they lifted Malcolm to transfer him.
"Are you worried about cervical subluxation?" Kurt asked.
"What does that mean?" Malcolm's mom asked.
"It means we're gonna have to reduce his spine ourselves. Kurt, Artie, get me the Gardner-Wells tongs and some five pound weights. We're gonna have to snap his neck back into place."
"Are you gonna knock me out?" Malcolm asked.
"I'm sorry but we need you awake for this," Rachel said, massaging his forehead to see where they should place the tongs. "We are going to numb you so you won't feel a thing."
"Where's my mom?"
"She's right outside. We're not going to let anything bad happen to you, okay? It's gonna be alright, I promise," Rachel said, rubbing his hand to try and calm him down. "Ready, Kurt?"
In the lobby, Puck was looking at paperwork when Jesse came up. "Hey, Puck. My daughter's here tonight, I hope that's okay."
"Yeah, of course."
"Good. See, the thing is," Jesse said, clearing his throat, "You know…with the whole job change and all…I may have insinuated that I do a bit more than a physician's assistant."
"How much more?" Puck asked as Naomi walked up.
"Dad, I'm bored. When am I gonna see all the cool lifesaving stuff you do?"
"Anyway, Jesse, about your patient…" Puck said, hoping Jesse would catch on to what he was doing. "Radiology called. The CT shows a small pneumo. You think a Heimlich valve would do?"
"Yes. Yes, if it's small and non-traumatic, that should work," Jesse said. He leaned over the desk. "Naomi, stay out of people's hair. I'm gonna go check on my patient."
"Thanks, Jesse," Puck said, going back to his paperwork.
"Okay, seriously, what's the grossest thing you've pulled out of someone's butt?" Naomi asked Puck. He looked up at her like she was crazy.
"We hit the bone," Artie said in Malcolm's trauma room.
"Okay, Malcolm. We're all set here. You're going to feel a little pressure when we add weights but we'll take things slow, okay?" Rachel said.
"I start with 10, right?"
"Yeah," Rachel said, looking at the monitors to make sure everything was okay.
Artie added a weight and the monitors started beeping a little more. "Doctor Berry? I can't feel my legs."
"Can you move your toes for me?" Rachel asked.
"I can't!"
"He lost his reflexes," Kurt said, tapping his feet.
"Well, so much for slow. Kurt, help me pull." Kurt took the side Rachel wasn't on and Artie held down Malcolm's shoulders so he wouldn't move. "Okay, on three. One, two, three." They pulled and heard his neck snap back into place. "You okay, Malcolm?"
"Yeah. It feels a lot better. I can move my neck."
"And the numbness?" Kurt asked, handing Rachel his reflex sensor.
"It's still there but not as bad."
"Are we too late?" Artie asked as Rachel tested to see if his reflexes were back.
"I don't know. If we're lucky his spinal cord is just contused and he'll gain function when the swelling does down. But for now, we're just gonna have to wait. I need the two of you to get started on the halo and I'm gonna go get changed," Rachel said, taking off her gloves before she left the room.
A little later, the monitor in Annie's room started beeping faster and she was having trouble breathing. "What is it? What's going on? Brody, I need a crash cart!" Finn yelled. "She's not breathing."
"Is she bleeding again?" Brody asked, running into the room.
"She was talking, she was fine."
"I need to intubate her again."
Rachel was walking by and heard the machines beeping. She walked in and stopped when she saw who the patient was. "Is that Annie?"
"Yeah."
"What happened?" Rachel asked, taking her stethoscope from around her neck to listen to her heart.
"She fell down the stairs this morning."
"She was at your house?"
"Let's not do this right now," Finn said. "Brody, hand me the laryngoscope."
"Did you run a tox screen?" Rachel asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
"No."
"Give me a shot of Naloxone," Rachel said tiredly.
"Rach, we just had drinks last night, okay? She isn't on anything. She fell down the stairs and hurt her spleen."
"You wanna make a bet?" Rachel said, injecting Annie with the medicine. Annie started choking as soon as Finn tried to intubate her. "Anesthesia cross reacted with whatever narcotics she had in her system," Rachel said.
"Damn it, if I'd have known that—" Brody said, glaring at Finn.
"I swear we just had drinks last night." He walked into Annie's line of vision. "You okay?"
"I'm fine." She looked to her right and saw Rachel standing there. "What's she doing here?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.
"What am I doing here? I just saved your life." Rachel started coughing and felt the queasiness back in her stomach. "Excuse me," she said, rushing out of the room.
"You're cute. What's your name?" Annie asked Brody.
"Doctor Weston. You should sit back and try to relax, okay? I'll give the two of you some privacy."
In the bathroom, Rachel coughed a few more times before flushing the toilet. She sniffed a few times and opened the stall door to wash her mouth out. She saw Mrs. Coury in the bathroom and bit her lip. "Sorry about that." She turned on the faucet and held her hair back with one hand so she could get some water.
"I just came in here so no one would see me cry. I'm just trying to be brave for him, you know?"
"Yeah, I do. You two seem very close."
"We are. It's just me and him. We were camping for the first time. I don't know what I was thinking. Is he going to be okay?"
"We're gonna take another look at him in an hour," Rachel said, trying to soothe the woman.
"Okay. Do you have any kids?"
Rachel couldn't help the smile that broke out on her face and she pressed her lips together.
"Oh my god. You're pregnant. The retching and the hesitation right now. It's the greatest. Not the pregnant part, that sucks. But being a mom…your heart really does triple in size like in The Grinch. And it starts sooner than you think. Those little buggers…they weasel their way right up there."
Rachel smiled again, feeling herself growing excited for her and Finn to have the baby.
"You have to stop calling me," Kurt said as he was walking the hallway. "It was one time, and you know what? I don't even remember his name. So let it go," he said as he hung up the phone.
Mercedes saw him walking and started walking next to him. "So, Sam's upset with me now, which really sucks. But I'm sure he's already told you about what happened, right?"
"About you shoving your tongue down Joey's throat in front of him? Nah, he failed to mention that."
"That's not fair. That's not actually how it happened."
"And yet it happened," Kurt said.
"Why are you being such a jerk? I just want to talk to you like you talk to me about Blaine."
"I'm done talking about Blaine. He left me. I've moved on."
"Moved on to what? You look like hell," Mercedes said.
Kurt took a deep breath. "Look, I'm sorry about you and Sam. I'm sorry that Joey left. But I've got work to do and I'm sure you do too."
Rachel stomped over to the nurses' station desk and started looking for something. "Hey," Puck said. "You okay?"
"My stomach's a little queasy. It's just…bad sushi. I think. Did you know Annie was in town?"
"First of all, you need some gum. At least two pieces. Second of all, I didn't know about Annie until Finn brought her in," Puck said, laying a hand on Rachel's shoulder. "He didn't tell you?" Puck asked, surprised when Rachel shook her head. "Well, I guess it's because he knows the two of you don't get along."
"It's because she's a terrible influence on him," Rachel muttered.
"No argument here. We've seen it before. It happens every time. But, she is his brother's widow so I'm just saying…the more you push—"
"Exactly. This is why I need to get you on my team. She knows how to manipulate him. Look, I'm not trying to be a bitch here, it's just…"
"I know, I know. It's just…he's a pit bull when it comes to family. Let's just try to lead him in the right direction," Puck said.
"Okay. You're right." Rachel thought to herself for a minute. "I should go brush my teeth."
"Good idea," Puck said when she walked off.
In Annie's hospital room, she was trying to explain herself. "I'm sorry. I just…it's been really rough since Thad died. It's been four years and I know I'm supposed to get over it by now, but…if only it were that easy. So I thought that if I came to see you—"
"You can always come and see me," Finn said.
"I know. But last night we started reminiscing about him and…I just started feeling things I didn't want to feel. So I took something. It was a onetime thing. I just had some old pills in my purse."
"Annie, if I hadn't found you when I did…you can't do that. Understand?"
"I won't. I swear. I threw the rest of them out after I took them. I'm really tired. Can we talk later?" Annie asked as her head started to droop.
"I'll check in with you later," Finn said.
"Are you crazy? You can't take a tight end in the first round of a fantasy draft!" Santana said to Sam as he was checking out her ankle in the break room.
"You do when it's Jimmy Graham."
"Over Brees? You're crazy," Santana said.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think only one of us actually played football," Sam said as he started wrapping her ankle.
"Players make the worst coaches."
"Oh, so you're a coach now too?"
"That feels good," Santana said, taking her hair out of her ponytail. "Wanna do this one too?" she said, gesturing down to her other ankle.
"Well aren't you the bossy one?" Sam said with a laugh.
"What's going on in here?" Rachel asked, opening the door.
"See you around," Sam said once he finished wrapping her ankle.
"Thank you," Santana called as he left the room,
"What was that all about?" Rachel asked, noticing something was going on between the two of them.
"Have you seen that man's biceps?"
"Really? That's all it takes for you?" Rachel said with a laugh, sitting down next to her best friend.
"I'm sure his abs are amazing too. I don't know, I've just been watching him this past month, and he's just so nice. Guys who look like that are usually dicks."
"He's a real sweetheart but I think he's seeing Mercedes."
"Oh please. I heard she made out with Chavez. It's open season, girl," Santana said. "Did you get your blood-gas and isotopes back yet?"
"I did. And me and my little friend are a-okay."
"Okay," Santana said nodding. "And did you tell Finn about the possibility of a little Finn in there?"
"Not yet. I want to tell him, but now is definitely not the best time considering Annie is here."
"Oh joy."
"I know. I just gave her a shot of Narcane."
"She should keep that stuff in her purse," Santana said.
"Tell me about it."
"Did you ever tell Finn about all the stuff she did?"
"No. I mean, when Finn came back from the war, she was the least of his problems."
"That's true."
The door to the break room opened and Artie rushed in. "Rachel! Malcolm's pressure is dropping."
"Alright, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later, Santana," Rachel said, pushing herself up off the couch.
"Blood pressure and heart rate are both dropping," Artie said when they got into his room. "I don't get it."
"That means he's going into neurogenic shock from his spinal injury."
"What does that mean?" his mom asked.
"It means his spinal cord is more injured than we thought."
"So now what?"
"Janine, we are going to do everything that we can for Malcolm, okay? Let's place a central line and start a dopamine drip."
In the lobby, Kurt was filling out some paperwork. "Here you go, Jocelyn. Just make sure you check his vitals every two hours, okay?" He turned around and was greeted with a punch in the face.
"Stay away from him, you hear me?" Sam said, coming to his friend's defense. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Let him go," Kurt said, feeling blood coming from his nose.
"You sure you don't want to take him out back and kick his ass?" Sam said.
"Anytime, pal. Anytime."
"Let him go!" Kurt yelled, attracting the attention of Puck.
"Hey, Kurt, let me take a look at that," Puck said.
"I got it. Just leave me alone."
"You take a break!" Puck called after him. "Until you get your head straight."
Rachel met up with Finn outside of Malcolm's trauma room. "So, you didn't want to tell me that Annie was here because you didn't want me to bitch about her. Am I right?"
"Yeah, pretty much. The two of you have some alpha female drama going on so I figured that she could come and go and then I'd tell you."
"But she didn't come and go, did she? Finn, you need to set some boundaries or she'll take advantage of you."
"Rach, she's family. I'm not just gonna push her away."
"That's not what I said."
"We were reminiscing last night. It was nice. She got carried away. It's not gonna happen again."
"I don't want to fight with you about this. There's just so many other things I would rather talk to you about."
"Like what?"
Rachel opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Nurse Heather. "Doctor Berry, we need you in trauma one."
Rachel gave Finn another look and sighed before rushing off. "Malcolm's fine, it's his mom," Artie said.
"Help my mom. Please."
"It's burning and it hurts," Janine said about the dressing on her leg. "Can you just get this thing off me?" Artie came up with scissors and started cutting the bandaging, revealing redness on her leg.
"We need to move her. Get her to trauma two now," Rachel said as they lifted her up.
"What's going on with my mom?" Malcolm asked as he watched the doctors work on fixing his mom.
"I need you to stay calm," Rachel said. "Don't move or you'll hurt yourself." Rachel swabbed the wound. "Okay, give her a dose of Zozane and send this off for a wound culture, please."
"There's necrotic tissue here. It's infected," Finn said.
"It needs to be debrided."
"I can do it," Artie said.
"Are you guys okay working on this?" Finn asked.
"Yeah, thanks, Finn," Rachel said.
"Hey, we'll talk later." Finn took off his gloves and left the trauma room.
Finn walked the hallways with a dejected look on his face. It definitely wasn't his best shift.
"Hey!" Santana said, hobbling over to him on her crutches. "I heard Annie's in town."
Finn groaned and tried not to roll his eyes. "Am I gonna get this from you too? You and Rachel don't like her; I get it. I'm tired of all this girl drama," he said, trying to walk past her.
"Girl drama? This isn't girl drama, you jerk," Santana said, reaching a hand out to stop him. "Rachel has legitimate reasons."
"Well, I've never heard any."
"Yeah, because she never wanted to burden you. But I don't have that problem."
"What are you talking about?" Finn asked.
"I'm talking about how you have no idea about all of Annie's crap that Rachel had to put up with while you were gone. Annie was, and from the sounds of it, still is a mess. She is an addict, Finn," Santana said, trying to get Finn to realize what was going on.
"That can't be true."
"Annie stole money from Rachel, she wrecked her car…all kinds of lying. But Rachel helped her because she loves you. Rach even got her into rehab but it never stuck."
"So why didn't she ever tell me?"
"She was trying to protect you. You had enough on your plate. But now is the time for you to deal with it and take the stress off of Rachel. Especially now," Santana said, softening her glare at Finn.
"Especially now?" Finn asked, completely confused.
"Just because…this is your chance to be together," Santana said, not wanting to spill the beans on the baby. "Don't screw it up." Santana stared at him for a few minutes before she started hobbling down the hospital hallway.
Across the hospital, Naomi was looking for her dad and saw him in an exam room. "There you are, I…is that pee?" she asked, seeing Jesse trying to get someone's sample into a cup. He jumped when he heard her voice and spilled a little on his scrubs. "That's gross. What are you doing with pee?"
"You know what, honey? There's something I need to tell you. And there's probably not a better time than when I'm soaked in a homeless man's urine," Jesse said, taking off his gloves and disinfecting his hands. "I need to tell you about my job."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm technically not even a PA. I exaggerated what I do. Yes, I have helped save a man's life, I do work on patients, but for the most part, I do paperwork, draw blood and…sort urine samples."
"So you quit your job to do this?"
"I quit to become a doctor."
"But I thought after the test you will be a doctor. Right?" Naomi asked.
"Well…sort of," Jesse said, sitting down on one of the chairs. "I'll have my degree, but I'll still have my internship and residency. It'll be about four years before I become an actual doctor."
"Four years?" Naomi said. "So until then, you just clean up pee?"
"That'll be all done after the test. But, listen to me, I have been humbled by this job. Even humiliated. But I wouldn't trade it for one second. Besides you and your brother, this is the best thing that has ever happened to me. And I hope you learn from me that you should always follow your dreams."
"Maybe you should have chosen a smaller dream, Dad," Naomi whispered.
Back in Annie's room, she was sleeping and Brody was watching to make sure everything was okay after the surgery. He heard the door open and looked up to see Finn coming into the room. "I just came to change her dressing, but she's still asleep," Brody said to fill him in.
"Thanks," Finn said, walking into the room.
"So, Rachel was really freaked out last night about the stalker guy. Is there any news on him yet?" Brody asked, trying to make conversation while Annie was still asleep.
"What?" Finn asked, noticing he was missing out on something. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh sorry. I thought she'd told you. That stalker guy from a few years ago. He's out. He slashed her tires—" Brody was cut off by the sounds of the machine beeping like crazy.
"She's getting tachy again," Finn said.
"She's jaundiced," Brody said, pulling back the blanket.
"Annie," Finn said, trying to get her to wake up. "Annie. Can you hear me?"
"She's definitely jaundiced," Brody said, looking at her eyes. "Her liver's shutting down."
"Annie, what else did you take?" Finn asked, feeling his patience get tested.
"Nothing."
"Did you take any other pills? Painkillers? Look at me, I need to know. What you took could kill you."
"Vicodin. I've been taking Vicodin the past few days."
"Vicodin, that's got Tylenol in it," Finn said to Brody. "Too much of that will kill your liver," he directed towards Annie.
"Give her 150 milligrams per kilogram of acetolsystene. Let's hope we're not too late," Brody said.
"Damn it, Annie," Finn said. "You lied to me."
In the lobby, Kurt was walking around, trying to cool off when Puck saw him. "Kurt, slow down. I just got chewed out by HR over your little incident earlier. Between that and going all Jon Jones on that guy last night, you're really racking up some negative points."
"That guy was messing with Santana, all right?"
"I don't want to hear anymore about it. I defended you so get it together. And for the rest of the shift you're on cold and flu only," Puck said as he walked off.
"Molly, are the results back from Mrs. Coury's wound culture?" Rachel asked as she was filling out paperwork at the nurses' station desk.
"Not yet."
"Okay, just let me know when they get in, okay?" She finished the paperwork and handed it to Molly.
"Hey, Rachel," Brody said, coming over to the nurses' station. "You got a second?"
"Uh, sure." She followed Brody into the hallway a little more so they could try to be out of earshot from any gossping co-workers. "What's up?"
"Just wanna give you a heads up. I didn't realize you hadn't told Finn about the stalker."
"So you told him?" Rachel asked, feeling her heart speed up. This was definitely not a good thing.
"Well, I didn't know you hadn't. It just came up."
"I haven't exactly had the time. Did he say anything?"
"He didn't seem happy about it. Anyway, I'm sorry. I really didn't know."
"Okay," Rachel sighed.
Artie ran up to where the two of them were talking. "Rachel, we need you!" She started running after Artie and they went into Janine's trauma room. "It's already spreading and her pressure's dropping," Artie said.
Rachel looked at the bubbling of her skin where the wound was. She pulled one of the machines closer and did a reading of the amount of oxygen getting to the leg. "Her subcutaneous tissue isn't oxygenating. It's why she's getting septic," Rachel said.
"There's gas underneath the skin, there's blistering. This is necrotizing fasciitis."
"Flesh eating bacteria," Artie said.
"She needs to get up to surgery," Brody said. "Let's wrap this leg and get her moving."
They started running her up to the OR floor and Mercedes met them up there. "Let's get her prepped in OR two and get scrubbed in," Brody said.
"You got this?" Rachel asked, stopping outside the OR doors.
"I'll keep you updated."
"Thanks," Rachel said as she started walking off.
"Rachel," Finn said from behind her. She stopped taking off her gloves and turned around to face him. "Did the infection spread?"
"Yeah. Nec-fasc. I hope we got it in time. Listen, Finn, about this whole stalker thing—"
"Yeah, I know. Brody told me all about it. That was a lot of fun."
"I'm sorry. They caught the guy, though. And I called you last night to tell you about him, but you didn't answer your phone. Brody ended up taking me home."
"Brody took you home? This just gets better and better."
"He was doing me a favor!"
"Yeah, of course he was."
"You know what, maybe if you weren't out drinking all night with Annie—"
"Right, Annie. You know, Santana had some really interesting things to tell me about you and her. How come you never told me about you and Annie?"
"Because you and Thad were over there, risking your lives, and the last thing either one of you needed was to be worrying about her. But when you got home from that war, you were in no place to deal with that, or – or anything for that matter."
"And any time over the last four years or even tonight."
"Finn!" Rachel said, feeling herself getting upset. "It was never the right time, okay? I wanted to protect you," Rachel said, feeling tears come to her eyes.
"And you don't think that I'd want to know that my brother's wife was an addict?"
"Of course. I didn't know she was back in our lives. And had you told me that she was here, I would have told you."
"Well, she's here now. And you don't turn your back on family," Finn said before he started walking off.
Rachel watched him walk off as one hand dropped to her stomach.
Finn walked to Annie's trauma room and shut the curtains. "Are you mad at me?" she asked.
"No. I'm not mad at you," Finn said, crossing the room to sit on her bed. "I was worried because you could've died."
"I bet Rachel would have loved that."
"From what I hear, she's helped you quite a bit over the years."
"She told you that?"
"No, actually, she didn't. She knows how to keep a secret. So I think you should rethink how you feel about her. You need help. So I want you to go to rehab."
"Been there, done that. It's just a bunch of pathetic people talking about their problems. I don't have a problem, Finn. Believe me."
"Sure. But I want you to go. For me. So that I know you're okay," Finn said.
"Fine," Annie huffed. "I'll look into it when I get to San Diego."
"I want you to do it here so I can help. There's a place in San Antonio and when you've recovered, I'm gonna take you."
"Fine. I'll go."
Finn smiled. "You know I love you, right?"
"You're like the only family I have left."
In an exam room, Kurt was looking at a patient. "Let's take a look," Kurt said, holding the tongue depressor to the guy's mouth. He looked in the back of his throat to see what was going on. His patient started coughing, so Kurt took his stethoscope off from around the back of his neck and listened to his heart and lungs. "It doesn't seem like anything serious. It's probably just a virus," Kurt said, standing up.
"How's the other guy look?"
"I'll write you a prescription for a strong cough medicine," Kurt said, ignoring what the older man said.
"That's it? Thanks, doc," he said sarcastically.
Rachel grabbed a cup of coffee and started walking around trying to find Finn. "For me?" Santana said, laying on a spare hospital bed while she waited for news on her ankle.
"Sorry, hon, it's for Finn," Rachel said, stopping to talk to her friend.
"You still haven't told him?"
"Nope. Still trying. But he knows about the stalker and that's one less thing I have to tell him about."
"That's definitely something."
"Okay," Sam said, coming up to join them. "Here's a week's worth of antibiotics, just to be safe. And x-ray's open now if you want to double check that ankle."
"You might have to carry me," Santana said.
"Not a problem."
Rachel rolled her eyes. "I'm outta here."
Santana smiled at Sam when he walked closer to the bed and wrapped an arm around her waist. "You've been working out."
"You feel that tricep? I'm working on that right tri, you know?"
"Looking good to me," Santana said as they started walking.
In the OR room, Brody and Mercedes were explaining what was going to happen to Janine. "So I have no choice?"
"We did everything we could in surgery but the infection is just spreading up your leg," Mercedes explained.
"We need to amputate or you could lose more than just your leg," Brody said.
"But it was just a cut. This is crazy. It was just a cut."
"I'm sorry. I know this is a lot to process in a short period of time," Mercedes said.
"What about Malcolm? Will Malcolm have it? He was down there with me."
"He's okay. We checked him out. It's just bad luck on your part," Brody said.
"Better me than him. I'm really scared. I'm just a single mom. I'll never be able to take care of him with one leg."
Brody moved to her bedside to try and comfort her. "I know it feels like that right now, but that's not true. My little sister was a figure skater. She was amazing and loved being on the ice. But she lost her foot in a car accident when she was 16-years-old. Thought she'd never be able to skate again. But guess where she is today? She's a princess in a Disney on Ice show. It is amazing what they can do with prosthetics. Your life is hardly over because of this."
"Thank you," Janine said, trying to stop crying.
"We're gonna bring you back in and put you under. You ready?"
"Like you said, I have no choice, right?"
The nurses started to wheel her off and Mercedes and Brody stayed behind. "I'm so sorry about your sister," Mercedes said.
Brody chuckled. "My sister lives in Duluth. She's divorced with two kids. She's a blood-sucking attorney. Never skated a day in her life. It's important to try and put patients at ease before a major surgery. It's a nice story and it always works."
Rachel found Finn in the break room, looking up something on the laptops. "I brought you coffee. I figured you'd probably need it." She hesitantly set it down in front of him. "I'm so sorry, Finn. I thought—"
"You're fine, Rach. I should have been there. I wasn't thinking." He shut the top of the laptop screen and looked at her. "You okay?"
"Me? Yeah, I'm fine. Just didn't sleep well last night. For obvious reasons." She pulled out the chair next to him and took one of his hands. "You think we could talk after the shift?"
"Yeah, definitely. We can meet back at my place." Finn's phone started ringing. "I should take this. Thanks for the coffee, Rach." He kissed the top of her head and answered the phone before leaving the room.
Rachel took a deep breath and laid her hand on her stomach again. "Just a little longer, baby," she whispered.
Finn started walking towards Annie's room when he left the break room. "I can put down the first month's rent. She won't be moving in for at least another month, but I just wanted to check if there was availability nearby. Great. Call me back," Finn said, hanging up the phone. He opened the curtain to Annie's room. "Good news, Annie!" He looked up and saw that the hospital bed was empty.
"You have one job here," Finn said a few minutes later when security got to Annie's room. "How can a patient walk right out the front door of the ER?"
"I'm sorry Doctor Hudson. I'll check the video footage immediately."
"I'll call the police and see if they can keep an eye out," Rachel said.
"No, no she can't have gotten very far," Finn said as the elevators opened. "I'm gonna go look for her myself."
"Do you want me to go with you?"
"Can you stay here? In case she comes back?"
"Yeah," Rachel said, giving him a soft smile.
"Hey, Rach? Thank you for trying to take care of her back then. It means a lot," Finn said as the elevator doors shut.
"How much longer until the shift is over?" Naomi asked Jesse when she was sitting behind the nurses' station.
"In about an hour," Jesse said, looking for a patient's test results on the computer. "We can go get some breakfast afterwards."
"You go to breakfast. I'm going to bed."
Kurt's patient from earlier walked up to the desk, still coughing. He felt himself starting to fall and tried to grip onto something on the desk. He couldn't grab anything and fell to the ground. "I need some help here!" Jesse yelled, rushing towards the man. He turned him onto his back and got a stethoscope from one of the nurses.
"I – can't – breathe," the man wheezed.
"I can't hear any breaths on the right side. He has a collapsed lung. Go find a doctor. He needs a chest tube. I'm losing pulse here!"
"Oh my god!" Naomi said from where she was watching.
Jesse jumped over the guy and ran to find something he could use to get the air moving again. Over the PA system, Rachel and Puck were paged.
Jesse felt around on the guy's chest and felt where he needed to insert the needle. He unwrapped it from the covering it was in and stabbed the guy in the chest. He removed the needle and left the cap, making the guy start to breathe again.
"What happened?" Puck asked when he got there.
"He had a pneumo. I released the air."
"Let's get him in a room," Puck said as Rachel got there.
Once they were in a trauma room, she started working on him to reinflate the lung. "Set the pleurovac to 20, please," she said.
"We've got good air movement. Nice catch, Jesse," Puck said.
"Thanks."
"What happened?" Kurt asked, coming into the room.
"Wasn't this your patient?" Puck asked.
"He had a cough."
"Yeah, from a collapsed lung," Rachel said. "Did you get an x-ray or even listen to him?"
"Rachel, you got this?" Puck asked, noticing the look on Kurt's face. She nodded and Puck left the trauma room with Kurt following him. "You see that? Your dad is a total badass," Puck said to Naomi as they passed her.
Puck led Kurt into the break room. "What the hell is going on?"
"Sorry, I missed it."
"It's easy to miss. But you usually catch these things."
"It won't happen again."
"Kurt, I'm talking to you as your friend, not your boss. You can tell me."
"Just having trouble with the Blaine stuff. Burning the candle pretty hard at both ends just trying to forget about it. The guy that was here…I slept with his boyfriend last night. So he was pissed."
"You don't have to tell me the details. But that cannot happen here. This isn't who you are. I mean, not just tonight, but going out and this getting crazy stuff. You're a homebody."
"I know."
"One day, you're going to find a guy. It probably won't be in a bar at four in the morning."
"I just did everything right with Blaine. I cared for him. I was patient. There was nothing else I could have done to make that work, and he still left me. He's gone. He doesn't return my phone calls or my e-mails. It's not fair. This isn't the way this was supposed to work out."
"I'm sorry, man," Puck said. "Now, I can't offer you the love of a good man, but why don't you come over for dinner tonight? Quinn can cook, we can watch the game, you can see the twins. It's been awhile since we've hung out."
"All right. Sounds good," Kurt said.
"Oh, you might want to stop at Whataburger and pick us up some food. Quinn is a really bad cook. But you didn't hear that from me," Puck said as he left the break room.
In the recovery room, Brody was talking to Janine. "You're post-op imaging looks good. Looks like we stopped the infection. Sorry we couldn't save your leg."
"I'm just thankful I'm alive."
Mercedes and Rachel entered the recovery room with Malcolm in his hospital bed. "We thought you might like a roommate," Mercedes said with a smile.
"My baby! He hates when I call him that. How do you feel?" she asked when his bed was next to hers.
"I'm fine. I just…I never want to go camping again," Malcolm said as he started laughing.
"That's a deal."
"Well, you'll be glad to know that he is going to make a full recovery," Rachel said.
"It's the answer to my prayers. Thank you."
In the break room, Jesse and Naomi were sitting down to talk. "You saved that guy's life, didn't you?" Naomi asked her father.
"Right place at the right time, I guess."
"Totally get it now."
"Get what?"
"Why you want to do what you want to do. Seeing you jump in to help that guy, it must make you feel like you can do anything. I'm happy you're not miserable anymore, Dad. You're gonna make a great doctor."
"You think?" Jesse asked.
"Definitely. Totally worth getting peed on."
"I was not peed on," Jesse said. "I spilled a pee sample."
"Have you ever been peed on?"
"Yes. About a million times. By you as a baby," Jesse said, reaching out to poke his daughter's shoulder.
As the shift was winding down, Sam saw Santana as he was leaving the hospital. "Tough break. Looks like a displaced and angulated ankle fracture," Sam said.
"Are you serious?"
"Nah, I'm just messing with you. You're looking good."
"Let me know if you ever need help picking your fantasy team."
"How about now?" Sam asked. "Shift's over, I'm not doing anything. And apparently, I can use some fantasy football tips."
"That is not a lie," Santana said, scooting off the bed. "I am going to teach you about this game."
"Oh really? You know what you're talking about?"
"Where do you wanna eat?" Santana asked as the two of them walked out of the hospital together.
"I want some pancakes. And some grits too."
"Oh dear Lord. What did I sign up for?" Santana asked.
Mercedes walked out to the nurses' station desk and saw the two of them leaving. She frowned slightly and pulled out her phone. She saw she had a new text and smiled when she saw it was from Joey.
I miss you, it said.
Her smile grew wider as she said she missed him too.
She felt someone's arms wrap around her and she looked up to see Kurt. "So, can an asshole buy you breakfast to make up for being a jerk earlier?"
"It better be a pretty good breakfast."
"It is. It's this great little place, 99 cents, all you can eat."
Mercedes wrapped her arms around Kurt. "You had me at asshole."
After the shift, Finn was sitting on the desk at his house that used to hold his computer and his flat screen TV used to be above it. Now they both were gone, along with a lot of Finn's stuff. He heard the door open and looked up to see Rachel coming in. "Well, she took everything," Finn said as Rachel started looking around. "Sorry, Rach. Guess you were right. She cleaned me out."
Rachel dropped her purse on the chair and walked over to where Finn was sitting. "Don't apologize."
"I didn't see it coming, you know? Try to do your best for someone."
Rachel looked down at her feet and took a deep breath. Now or never, Rach she thought to herself. She smiled and kept looking forward. "I'm pregnant." Finn looked over at her and Rachel turned towards him. She saw he had a surprised look on his face and she smiled slightly. "I'm…pregnant." The two of them started laughing and he pulled her closer so he could kiss her.