Chapter Nine: Parenthood
At the beginning of the shift, Rachel, Finn and Puck walked over to the nurses' station desk and stood in front of it, waiting for Sam to look up from what he was doing. "Sam, you got a minute?" Rachel asked, tired of waiting for him.
"Sure, what's up?" he asked, looking up to see not just Rachel, but Finn and Puck as well. "Is this a good talk or a bad talk?"
"Don't worry; you're not in trouble," Puck said as Finn and Rachel started laughing.
"We all know you've been asking for more responsibility and Puck could use some help running the shift so he could see more patients," Rachel started.
"You're a hard worker. And maybe you play too many practical jokes but you have the respect of the staff and everybody likes you—"
"Well, I don't know about everybody," Finn said jokingly.
"Except for him. Anyway, we have the budget for a charge nurse position, so if you want the gig…"
"Are you kidding me? Yeah I want it!" Sam said. "When would I start?"
Puck looked at the doors and saw someone coming into the hospital. "Looks like right now."
"Male, 50s, stab wound to the upper right arm," one of the paramedics said as he was bringing in a patient. "He's tachy in the 120s but vitals are overall stable. Second gurney behind me."
"What happened?" Finn asked.
"His daughter did this," the paramedic said.
"No, no she didn't. It was an accident. I fell."
"Hey, Jesse, go in with Finn," Sam said, pointing to the trauma room.
The second gurney was coming in with a screaming girl strapped into the gurney to keep her from moving too much. "What's going on?" Rachel asked.
"Female, 20-years-old, laceration to the left cheek. She's delusional with auditory hallucinations," a paramedic said.
Puck went to examine her eyes and make sure everything was okay when the patient bit him. "Hey, no biting," Puck said, pulling his hand back.
"I'm going to kill you!"
Puck called out what to give her as they wheeled her into a different trauma room than her father to try and suture up the cut on her cheek and figure out what was going on with her.
In her father's trauma room, Finn was working on getting the knife out of his arm. "Good news. The wound is superficial," he said, putting the knife on the table. "We'll suture you right up and you'll be good as new. Jesse, what do we do next?"
"Irrigate the wound."
"Exactly right," Finn said as he started doing that.
"Hey, doc? There was an officer that came in right behind us. You think you can tell him my daughter had nothing to do with this?"
"It's pretty hard to fall on a knife," Finn said.
"Come on."
"Don't worry. You can trust me."
"I don't know what happened. Amanda just spiraled all day until…she just snapped. I just wanted to calm her down so I grabbed her arm and she thought I was trying to kill her so she stabbed me. So I slapped her and she hit her head on the counter," he said, wincing when Finn stuck a needle into his arm. "I just can't believe I hit my daughter."
"Sounds like self-defense to me," Finn said.
"Doctor Hudson is right. If you wouldn't have stopped her, you would have come in her DOA. Don't be so hard on yourself," Jesse said.
"It's just…in six years, nothing's changed. We've been to every psychiatrist here in San Antonio and they say she's got bipolar disorder, delusional disorder…there's so many disorders that I don't even know how to keep track."
"I'll bet she's on a million different meds, too," Jesse said.
"You name it, she's been on it. Nothing works. Shrink says I should put her in an institution but she's my little girl. I can't do that. I'm not giving up on her."
In Amanda's trauma room, she was sedated and Puck and Rachel were working on stitching her up when the door opened. "Can I help you, officer?" Rachel asked.
"This girl attacked her dad. She's out of her mind. She kicked me in the head when I was with the medics," the officer said, pointing to a mark on his face.
"Okay, uh, Heather, can you get the officer an ice pack please?" Rachel said.
"Is she under arrest?" Puck asked.
"Dad doesn't want to press charges but that may not be his call. You think she's really nutso?"
"Well, I'm not aware of nutso as a technical diagnosis, but she does seem to be experiencing some type of psychosis," Rachel said.
"Well, a lot of people like to fake crazy so they go to the hospital instead of jail."
"Thanks for the hot tip, but she has legitimate injuries," Puck said. "We'll let you know when she's done."
"Fine by me. I got plenty of paperwork back at the station. But when I come back, I'm either taking her to jail or the nuthouse."
Across town, Kurt and Mercedes were at a military ceremony. "Attention, orders," someone said as everyone stood up. "The Secretary of the Army has reposed special trust and patriotism in the honor…"
Mercedes leaned in towards Kurt. "Thanks for taking me," she whispered. "I've never been to a promotion ceremony. It's so exciting."
"Army promotions are a lot tamer at home," Kurt said. "If we were deployed, my buddy Harvey would be running to the mud gate and getting punched by every NCO in his battalion."
"Please let me know when you get promoted because I got a great right hook," Mercedes said.
They both turned their attention back to the colonel. "Harvey Luis Castro, advance from Sergeant to Staff Sergeant."
After the ceremony, Kurt and Mercedes were talking to the colonel when Harvey and his wife came over. "Staff Sergeant, congratulations," he said. "I was just telling Captain Hummel and his lovely friend that you have a long career in the Army. I hope you enjoy your work as much as I do."
"Thanks for coming, man," Harvey said, giving Kurt a hug.
"I wouldn't miss it," Kurt said. "So, where are the kids?"
"They're with Harvey's parents. We booked a hotel downtown for the night. A little romantic stay-cation," his wife said.
"I'll probably pass out in front of the TV," Harvey said.
"Wow, Sergeant Romance over here," his wife said, jokingly rolling her eyes.
"Anyway, this is Mercedes," Kurt said, introducing her. "This is Harvey and his fantastic wife that he does not deserve, Gina."
"Are you hungry?" Gina asked with a smile.
"Yes. Let's eat!" Mercedes said, allowing herself to get dragged off with Gina.
Kurt opened his mouth to say something to Harvey but was cut off when he heard a man angrily addressing the colonel. "Screw you, Lee," he said, pulling out a gun to shoot the colonel.
"Everybody down!" Kurt called as he rushed towards the gunman and knocked him over. Mercedes ran over to check on the colonel and make sure he was going to be okay.
"Gina!" Harvey called, seeing his wife sprawled on the ground. "Kurt, help me! You can't die on me."
"Somebody call an ambulance!" Kurt said.
"She's losing a lot of blood," Harvey said.
"It hit an artery. Mercedes, what do you have?"
"GSW to the chest and neck. So far only mild respiratory distress. I'm putting pressure on the neck wound but I need internal pressure or he's going to bleed out."
Kurt looked around and saw someone in a wheelchair. "Sir? Do you self-cathe?"
"Yeah."
"I'm going to need an unused catheter for the colonel."
"Hold on, I got one," he said, reaching behind him to get the catheter from his bag.
"Harvey, grab that and give it to Mercedes," Kurt said as he tried to stop Gina from bleeding out. "Mercedes, what you're going to do is…"
"Insert the tube into the colonel's neck and inflate the balloon to stop the bleeding. I know," Mercedes said.
"Kurt, what's happening to her?" Harvey asked.
"It's okay. I got my finger on the artery. I need you to go out and direct the paramedics back here when they arrive. How's it working, Mercedes?"
"It's working just fine," Mercedes said, watching the blood drain.
"We need to get these two to the hospital," Kurt said.
Back at the hospital, Artie was doing an exam on a young boy when Rachel came in. "Hi everyone, I'm Doctor Berry. So, I understand that Marcus has cystic fibrosis?"
"It's called 65 Roses. You know why?" Marcus asked.
"Because when it was first diagnosed, most kids couldn't pronounce it so the nickname took off," Artie said.
"He's the only doctor that's known that!" Marcus said. "Totally cool."
"As you can see, you are in excellent hands with Doctor Abrams," Rachel said, smiling at Marcus.
"So, it sounds like Marcus has—"
"Pneumonia," his mother finished for Artie. "It's the third time this year. We just moved here from Dallas. These are his records from the children's hospital there," she said, handing over a large binder full of papers. "All of his old treatments and medicines are in here, especially the ones that didn't work. His stomach is already a mess from the mucus build up so start him on cefacapene, one gram every eight hours until his culture comes back."
Rachel and Artie shared a look with each other. "My mom's not being rude," Marcus said. "She's just being efficient."
"No, it's impressive. And it's good that your mom knows her stuff. It makes our job a lot easier," Rachel said. "So, Doctor Abrams. What would you suggest?"
"Just what she said. I would also order a chest x-ray and set him up for breathing treatments."
"Excellent, I'll leave you to it. It was nice meeting you both," Rachel said as she left the exam room.
Finn and Puck went into Amanda's trauma room to see how she was feeling after getting sedated and sutured up. "Hi, I'm Doctor Puckerman and this is Doctor Hudson. How do you feel?"
"My head's still a little fuzzy," she said. She saw the bandage on her dad's arm. "Oh god. Did I do that?"
"It's okay, honey, don't worry about it."
"I'm so sorry. I don't know what's happening to me. I've been so much better lately. I enrolled in a couple of college classes and I thought my meds were starting to work."
"Can we remove these restraints? I think she's calm now," her father said.
"Yeah, we can do that," Puck said, nodding at Finn.
Amanda flexed her wrists and rolled them around after the restraints were off. "My back is really hurting."
"That's because the police tackled you to the ground, honey," her father said.
"No, it's that same pain. My back, my stomach…they're killing me."
"Same pain?" Finn asked.
"Yeah, she complains about it a lot. The doctors say it's psychosomatic."
"Why doesn't anyone believe me?" Amanda asked, getting impatient. "It really hurts all the time. I swear."
"By any chance, are you menstruating?" Puck asked.
"Yeah. But I know what cramps feel like. This is different." She finished speaking and hunched over from the pain.
"This happens a few times a week," her father said.
"Let's get her five of morphine," Puck said.
"Hey, Puck?" Finn said, thinking about the case. "She's still in pain, back pain, it could be appendicitis or pancreatitis. Maybe even kidney stones or an ovarian cyst," Finn said, going over to the ultra sound machine. "Let's do a pelvic ultra sound and abdominal CT."
"Do you think this pain is real?" Amanda's father asked them.
"It is real," Amanda said.
"We're going to find out," Finn said.
Out in the hallway, Jesse was on the phone with someone. "You can't do this to my daughter. Her birthday is in two days. I'll – uh – I'll pay it off in installments. Please, I'm begging you." Jesse waited to hear a response from the other end. He frowned and punched the wall, causing Rachel, who was walking by, to jump. "Sorry."
"It's fine. I was just…passing through."
Jesse started laughing. "I was just…um…I just lost the venue for my daughter's sweet sixteen. With the divorce and the pay cut, it all adds up. And I just maxed out all my credit cards. Her birthday is in two days. If I don't find a place for her to have this party, my daughter will be crushed and my ex-wife will kill me."
"Jesse, I'm sorry. That's awful. Is there anything I can do?"
"No. Thank you. I got myself into this. I'll get myself out."
Out in the lobby, Sam was on the phone when Kurt ran into the hospital. "Incoming!" he called.
Sam rushed over the gurney. "What the hell happened?"
"Shooter at the ceremony. This is my friend, Gina."
"Let's take her to trauma two."
"GSW to the parietal scalp, massive blood loss, and I have my finger on a pumping scalp artery. GCS is 4-5-3. Make sure you get Finn," Kurt said as they brought her into the trauma room.
"Will do," Sam said, holding the door open for them.
"Sam, I need you to keep him calm," Kurt said, talking about Harvey.
"That's my wife, I'm not going to calm down!"
"Sir, focus on me," Sam said. "I know this is a terrible situation but you're not helping your wife. We need to let Doctor Hummel work. It's the best thing you can do."
"Save her, Kurt!" Harvey yelled.
"I've got the colonel!" Mercedes yelled as she was coming into the hospital. Sam took off running to guide them into the hospital.
"What's going on?" Sam asked.
"GSW to the chest with a complete heart block. The bullet must have injured his atrial-ventricular node. He needs a pacemaker. I need Brody."
"He's not working tonight. Go up to surgery and I'll page the on call surgeon."
In Gina's trauma room, Kurt was working on stopping the bleeding. "Get me another 2-0 prolene."
"BP is down to 76 systolic," Nurse Jocelyn said.
Finn opened the door to the trauma room. "What's going on?" he asked, looking at her monitor.
"GSW to the scalp. Just grazed her, but nicked an artery."
"You know the trick, right?"
"Yeah, I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything."
"Kurt, you got this. Just keep doing what you're doing. I'm across the hall if you need me."
"I need to cross and type for four and get two units on the rapid infuser," Kurt said.
"Got it right here," Sam said, coming into the room and handed the blood to Jocelyn.
Gina started breathing quickly and Kurt could tell she was starting to freak out. "Hey, Sam?"
He looked down at Gina and saw exactly what Kurt wanted him to do. "Hey, Gina? I'm Sam."
"I got shot in the head. Oh god, I got shot in the head!"
"It's okay, Gina. I'm fixing you up," Kurt said.
"Gina, I need you to keep your eyes on me and take some deep breaths. Hey, let's take a fun little quiz. Which do you think is bigger: Russia or Pluto?"
"I don't know. Pluto?"
"See, that's the thing you'd think, right? But it's Russia. Everyone knows Pluto's not a planet anymore and got it's puny little ass kicked out of the solar system. We only want real planets up in here," Sam said, making Gina laugh a little.
Out at the nurses' station, Finn and Puck were working on paperwork when they heard Amanda start screaming from her trauma room. "They're trying to kill me!" she yelled, grabbing the tray that was by her bed as she started swinging it around. "Stay back!" she yelled as Finn wrapped his arms around her to try and get her to stop. She ducked her head then slammed it back, hitting Finn right above his right eyebrow.
"Wait, what's happening to her? She stopped breathing!" her father said as Amanda crashed to the ground.
"Someone get me a crash cart!" Puck yelled.
A little bit later, they were working on getting her intubated so she could breathe again. "Wait, hold the intubation. She's breathing again."
"What happened to her?" her father asked.
"We don't know," Finn said. "Heather, since she's still out, keep her on high flow oxygen."
"She hit you good," Puck said, pointing at the spot on Finn's forehead. "Let me clean that up for you."
"I'm really sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it," Finn said. "Happens all the time."
"I feel like my daughter is dying right in front of me and no one can do anything for her—"
"Frank!" Finn said, trying to get him to listen. "The more physical symptoms we have means more pieces of the puzzle. If we can pinpoint the cause, we can cure her."
Amanda's monitors started beeping and she started shaking. "She's seizing!" Puck said, rolling her to her side.
"She's seizing? What do you mean she's seizing?"
"Sam, I need you to take Frank to the waiting room," Finn said.
"What are you talking about? I'm not going anywhere. Let me stay with her."
"Finn, what the hell is going on?" Puck asked.
"I don't know and I don't like it."
In Marcus' exam room, the breathing treatments didn't seem to be working as well as Artie was hoping they would. "His temp and respiratory rates are going up."
"It's because it's not working. He's not responding to cefacapene. It happens sometimes."
"Mom?" Marcus said weakly. "Did you quit the chess game because I'm kicking your butt?"
"One second, honey."
"Has he ever had a nebulizing antibiotic? The medicine would go directly to his lungs."
"Yeah, good luck with that. You have to submit paperwork to Medicaid for that. Other hospitals have tried and it didn't work."
"Well, we do things a little differently around here. Oh, and Marcus, watch out for her knight. She's baiting you," Artie said.
"Dude, I'm beating her. Don't give up my strategy."
Jesse was coming out of a patient's room when he saw Lydia and Naomi come into the hospital. "Dad! Is it true that we're not having my birthday party?"
"This is unbelievable, Jesse," Lydia said. "You said you took care of it."
"Can we talk about this in private please?" Jesse asked, leading them into the break room.
"Poor Jesse," Jocelyn said to Rachel at the nurses' station desk. "He's in deep."
"Yeah," Rachel said with a sigh. "I heard that her sweet sixteen got cancelled. I just wish there was something we could do." She looked around the desk, trying to look into the break room to see or hear what was going on.
"Really, Lydia? You just had to come down here, didn't you?"
"Because you didn't answer your phone."
"Because I'm working!" Jesse said, feeling his anger rise.
"The hotel manager called and said that we had to pick up all the decorations," Naomi said, trying to hold back her tears. "I just wish you would have told me."
"I'm sorry, bug," Jesse said softly. "I was trying to fix it first. I'm gonna make it up to you. We'll have the party in a few months once I can afford it and I've saved up a little."
"If you knew you couldn't afford it, why would you say you could do it?" Lydia asked.
"Because I underestimated expenses, okay?" Jesse snapped. "Listen, Naomi, money's a little tight right now and I screwed up. I know and I'm so sorry."
"Then you can call everyone and tell them the party is cancelled and why. I'm not taking crap on this one," Lydia said. "This is on you."
"I can't believe this!" Naomi called, running out of the break room.
In Gina's trauma room, Kurt was talking to her to gauge her pain. "So, how are you feeling?"
"I have an epic headache."
"Well, I should think so. You just had a bullet bounce off your head."
"Actually, I've been having these headaches for a few weeks," Gina said.
"For a few weeks?"
"I've just been stressed out way too much over whether or not Harvey was going to get promoted. I just thought that was the reason."
"Okay. I'll keep an eye on it."
"Baby," Harvey said, coming into the trauma room. "How do you feel?"
"I'm just a little shaken up. Did you check on the kids?"
"Talked to my dad and he said the kids are asleep and fine. Do you need anything?"
"No, I just have a headache."
Harvey nodded and walked over to where Kurt was standing. "Sorry for yelling at you."
"Yeah, well, it hurt my feelings," Kurt said with a laugh.
"And that's why I'm apologizing."
"Don't worry about it," Kurt said with a wave of his hand.
"So, I heard the shooter was the colonel's brother-in-law. Apparently he was pissed the colonel wouldn't sign off on a co-loan for a company."
"I don't get it. The guy does four tours and the first time he gets shot is by his brother-in-law over a business loan? What the hell is wrong with people?"
Mercedes pushed open the doors and came in to stand next to Kurt. "So I just finished with the colonel and he's in recovery and wants to see you. I have to show you something first." She started typing something on the computer keyboard and pulled up Gina's scans.
"Damn it."
"What?" Harvey asked, coming back over to see what they were looking at. "Is that Gina's x-ray?"
"It's her CT," Kurt said softly.
"Don't use that tone," Harvey said.
"Come here," Kurt said. "So, Gina, you have something called an arterial-venous malformation in your brain. It's an AVM, it's a huge spider web of tangled veins and arteries. It's what's causing your headaches. Mercedes, did you already call a neurosurgeon?"
"Yes, I let them know. I'll go make sure the OR's prepped."
"I don't understand what happened," Harvey said.
"She may have had the AVM since birth but the force of the bullet hitting her skull caused it bleed."
"Her brain is bleeding?"
"Yes and we have to get it out now," Kurt said, unlocking the brakes on the bed to move Gina up to an OR.
In one of the hallways, Jesse was walking around and Rachel ran up to him. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"No. My kid's completely destroyed and it's all my fault."
"Well, I don't know what it's like to be a parent, but I know what it's like to be a daughter," Rachel said, trying to help. "And she's angry with you now but it's just a blip in the big picture."
"Rachel," Jesse said, turning to face her. "I'm gonna give you a little head's up about being a parent. Your child's well being and happiness is all you think about. No matter what you're doing or what's happening during the day, you think about them and if they ate right, what's happening at school…it's like a continuous soundtrack running through your head."
"So…all the time?"
"All the time. This party meant everything to Naomi and I let her down. She'll forgive me but she'll never forget. And neither will I."
"Rachel, Marcus isn't responding to cefacapene and he needs nebulized antibiotics. Is there any way he can get them before it's submitted to Medicaid?"
"The medicine is pretty expense. Medicaid probably won't reimburse and there's no way the administration will approve of them."
"Then I'll pay for them," Artie said, causing Rachel to look at him with wide eyes.
"If you pay for every drug that's not covered by insurance, you'll be broke in a week."
"Then I'll worry about that next week," Artie said as Rachel sighed.
"Artie, come on. You have a big heart and I love that about you. But we need to be realistic about what we can and cannot do. I will try and fast track the paperwork on the medication, but it can still take a month. So now, just add an IV of this," Rachel said, taking something off one of the tables. "It might work," she said before she walked off.
"Okay. But this sucks."
Rachel stopped and turned around. "Yeah. It does."
A little while later, Rachel and Puck were in Amanda's room when Finn walked in. "Hey. She really did get you," Rachel said, looking at the cut above Finn's eyebrow. "You're lucky she didn't break your nose."
"I miss a good punch to the face," Finn said sarcastically, making Rachel roll her eyes.
"You're looking at Amanda's new labs?" Puck asked.
"Yes. Give me a list of symptoms," Rachel said.
"Seizures, stomach pains, back pains, skin lesions, paranoia, hallucinations…" Finn started to list.
"Could it be auto-immune hepatitis?"
"We did a full immunity work up. There weren't any antibodies."
"This is so frustrating. Her father must feel so helpless," Rachel said, running a hand through her hair. "I'm not looking forward to this part of parenthood, by the way."
"We're doctors. We'll be more in control of medical emergencies," Finn said.
"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that," Puck said. "You have no control. Beth sneezes and I get a chill up my spine."
"That's because you're weird," Finn said, making Puck start laughing.
"Hey guys," Sam said, coming into the trauma room. "The arresting officer just called and he wants to take her into custody. I tried stalling him but he's heading over."
"Well, this sucks," Puck said. "We can keep him out for a little bit but if she wakes up and starts flipping out again, she's off to the psych ward."
"You know what, when the cop gets here, let me deal with him," Rachel said.
"And how do you plan on doing that?" Finn asked.
"Don't worry about me. I got this," Rachel said, winking at him before walking out of the room. Puck and Finn shared a look and went back to trying to figure out what was going on.
In the colonel's room, he was waking up from surgery. "How's Staff Sergeant's wife doing?" he asked as Mercedes was making sure he was okay.
"She's still in surgery. We'll know more in a couple of hours."
The door opened and Kurt walked in. "Colonel, how do you feel?"
"Tell me you beat the crap out of that son of a bitch brother-in-law of mine."
"I did what I needed to do, sir," Kurt said, taking over for Mercedes to finish the exam.
"There were a lot of people there but you were the only one who acted."
"Thanks, sir. But we're here to talk about you. Doctor Jones assisted on your surgery," Kurt said, gesturing to Mercedes.
"Colonel, the bullet ruptured your heart valve so we replaced it. But the damage to your heart's electrical system couldn't be repaired so we had to put in a pacemaker."
"That's a disability discharge from the Army."
"I'm so sorry, sir," Kurt said. "I can talk to the medical evaluator board and get something else done but this doesn't have to mean the end of your career."
The colonel sighed. "Could you not do that?"
"Sir?"
"I love the Army, Captain. But I gave up everything for it. My marriage fell apart, I wasn't there as much as I should have been for my sons…it's time to make up for lost time. Getting shot kind of puts things into perspective for me," he said as he started coughing.
"Kurt, look at his face. It's swelling," Mercedes said.
"He's got hives. Get me a crash cart!" he yelled. "I need Benadryl. He's going into anaphylactic shock."
"He doesn't have any allergies!" Mercedes said, putting an oxygen mask on him. She started taking the bandages off from the surgery and saw how red his chest was.
"It's the pacemaker," Kurt said. "He has to be allergic to the cables."
"I'll call cardiology."
"No time. We're gonna have to take the pacemaker out."
"Now?" Mercedes asked incredulously. Kurt gave her look and she went to stand on the other side of colonel as he started calling out directions to her.
He pulled out the pacemaker and the wires and looked at it.
In Marcus's exam room, things weren't go so well. "He can't breathe! Help!" his mom called.
Artie ran into the room. "His oxygen level's dropping. I need to put him on a vent. Get me a nurse!"
"It's gonna be okay, baby," his mom said, trying to comfort him.
"Grab a vent and set up for intubation," Artie said when the nurse got into the room.
Rachel looked around the corner into the lobby and saw the police officer had just arrived. She fluffed her hair a little, put on a perky smile and started walking towards him. "Hey, officer. "
"Is my perp ready to go?" he asked.
"I'll check but I think she's getting more tests." She smiled at him and stepped closer. "You know, I am so happy you came back. I couldn't get you out of my mind."
"Doc, I'm flattered but I'm taken," he said, trying to step around her.
"Wait! I'm concerned about the kick to the head," Rachel said, trying to stop him. "I think you should get a CT scan."
"Seems kind of extreme," he said as he started walking towards Amanda's trauma room.
"Well," Rachel said, linking arms with him to lead him towards radiology. "Wouldn't it be extreme if you didn't get the scan and you dropped dead from a brain bleed?" Rachel asked, batting her eyelashes up at him.
"Yeah, okay. But how much is this gonna run me?"
Rachel let out a little laugh. "Oh stop. It's on the house for our boys in blue. Come on, let's go," Rachel said, leading the way towards radiology.
At the nurses' station, Sam came back from a patient's room and started looking for something when Artie came up. "Hey, bud. How's Marcus doing?" Sam asked.
"Terrible. I had to put him on a vent."
"Damn. Sorry you had to do that," Sam said.
"Yeah. You should have seen the look on his face when I had to intubate. The kid's only nine-years-old and he's been through enough pain to last a lifetime. It's not fair."
"I hear that. Sick kids always mess me up too. I'll keep good thoughts," Sam said as he got paged.
Artie watched him leave and noticed something Sam left laying out on the desk. He walked over and move some stuff around and saw his ID badge. Artie unclipped it from the clipboard and walked to the storage room with the medications in it.
Once he got in, he swiped Sam's badge into the computer and typed in the prescription code for the medicine that Marcus would need. The door that held the medicine opened and Artie took the drug out and left.
He walked into Marcus' exam room and started adding the medicine to Marcus' central line. "You got the meds?" his mom asked with a hopeful smile.
"Yeah. I got it worked out."
"With Medicaid?"
"No, one of the pharmacists owned me a favor. So he gave me samples from the drug company. They were free to the hospital so they're free to you."
"That's unbelievable," she said, pushing some of the hair back from Marcus' forehead.
"Are you okay?" Artie asked, sensing something was going on.
"I'm just…I'm not used to people helping me. It's nice to have someone care for a change. His father…sorry, I shouldn't…"
"It's fine."
"He bailed when he saw how hard it was to take care of Marcus. He always treated Marcus like he was some kind of cripple. And my kid doesn't need pity or tears. He needs love."
"Sounds like he gets plenty of that," Artie said with smile.
"And he does. Anyway, thank you."
In the Colonel's room, Kurt and Mercedes were working on figuring out what he was allergic to. "This one is cobalt," Kurt said, marking something on a Post-It note that was on his arm.
"And this one is silicone," Mercedes said.
"You holding up okay?" Kurt asked, looking at his friend. "We haven't had a chance to talk about the shooting."
"Honestly, tonight was a lot. Life is just so out of our control. An accident, a moment…"
"That's why I'm trying to live life in the moment. Especially after Blaine's accident and the break up. I'm just trying to hit all the blips and the bumps and go for a ride. All for the best. Because like you said, it's out of our control."
Mercedes nodded and looked at something on the Colonel's arm. "Kurt, look at that patch," she said, pointing to the cobalt one. It was red and splotchy.
"He's allergic to cobalt. So now we just to find a manufacturer who makes a pacemaker without cobalt. Can you start making some phone calls? I should go check on Gina."
"Of course. I'll get Jesse to help out."
In radiology, Rachel was getting the police officer ready for his CT scan. "So, look, I know I said I'm taken, but my girlfriend and I have been talking about having one of those open relationships. You know, where you can have sex with other people?"
Rachel stopped what she was doing, looked away and rolled her eyes. "You don't say," she said flatly.
"I mean, let's be honest, after awhile it gets boring doing the same old, same old," he said as he started going into the scan.
"You need to be quiet or the scan won't work." Rachel shook her head and walked into the control room. "Don't run the scan and don't tell anyone about this and I can get you the next three weekends off," she said to the radiologist.
"Deal."
"Awesome. Catch you later," Rachel said, leaving the room.
In Amanda's room, Puck and Finn were still trying to figure out what was going on. "Maybe this is mental illness. Maybe we're trying to find something that isn't there."
"Puck, both of our guts told us it wasn't psychiatric," Finn said.
"Sometimes our guts are wrong. Sometimes it's just us trying to fix something that we can't."
"No, that's not it."
"Her father said she's been to every psychiatrist in town. What do we know that they don't?"
"What did we learn in the war?" Finn asked. "Learn to follow your gut. And what happened when we didn't?" Finn looked around and noticed something. "Puck, look at the bag."
"Purple pee?"
"Purple pee. GI and neuro systems with diaphragmatic paralysis…" Finn said.
"Seizures and skin blisters and menstrual cycle…"
"Purple pee!" they said at the same time, high fiving each other.
In the hallway, Rachel and Sam were talking. "You think you can pull it off with this much short notice?" he asked.
"We don't know if we don't try, right? Just spread the word," she said, grabbing a patient's file.
"Roger that."
Kurt was walking around, trying to find Harvey and finally found him in the break room. "Hey, I was just looking for you. I have an update from the OR. Gina's gonna be in there for another hour, but so far so good."
Harvey let out a sigh of relief. "The surgeon told me if you hadn't ordered the brain scan…"
"It's my job," Kurt said. "It's gonna be okay."
Harvey nodded and sat down. "Sorry about trying to hook you up with my cousin. I should have asked what kind of guys you were into but I just wanted to help and saw you were hurting."
"I know. And I'm still not over Blaine and I'm not ready to meet someone else and pretend I care about what school they went to and the names of their sister's kids. I'm still in the 'this all really sucks' stage."
"That's the same relationship crap men and women go through."
"Yes. It's called being in love. Don't be such a moron."
At the nurses' station, Sam sat down at one of the computers and looked over at Mercedes. "How you doing?" he asked.
She turned around from the computer screen. "Hey. Just super hard to find a pacemaker that doesn't have cobalt," she said, going back to typing something.
"No, I mean how are you doing? With…you had a crazy scary night."
"Yeah, I just haven't had much time to process it yet. I've just been running around."
"I want you to know I'm really glad nothing bad happened to you. And I hope nothing bad does happen to you. Look, I'm your friend. If you ever want to talk or grab a beer or whatever, I'm around."
Mercedes smiled at him. "Thanks, Sam. And congrats on your promotion. You're gonna be so great!"
"Mercedes, I found it!" Jesse said, hanging up the phone. "Gold coated pacemaker. It's a Danish manufacturer with a 24-hour warehouse right here in San Antonio. I will be right back," he said.
"Hey, Artie," Rachel said, coming up to the nurses' station. "How's Marcus doing?"
"A lot better actually," he said. "But I'm gonna make sure he keeps getting treatments."
"So the medicine I gave you worked?"
"Y-yeah. It did."
"Good. Sometimes it works," Rachel said, smiling at him before she left.
Artie waited until she left before putting Sam's ID badge back on the clipboard.
A little while later, Kurt went to Gina's recovery room to see how she was going. "I heard surgery went great," he said, walking into the room.
"I've had better days but the kids are gonna love this look. They're gonna call me Mummy."
"Oh good we're making puns," Kurt said.
"I've been getting a lot of texts," Harvey said. "You're gonna get accommodation for what you did tonight."
"And you're a star. You're all over the Internet," Gina said. "Show him the video."
"What video?" Kurt asked.
"You're 15 minutes of fame have started," Harvey said, showing Kurt the video of him taking down the gunman. "It already has 350,000 views."
In Amanda's trauma room, Puck was injecting something into her as Finn explained what was going on. "So, she has protheria. It's a disorder that results from buildup of molecules in the red blood cells."
"So, you're saying this thing is what's causing the mental disorders?" her father asked she started to wake up.
"Yes, and it's easily treatable by high glucose IV and a medication called hematine which should work," Finn said.
The doors to the trauma room burst open and the officer came inside with Rachel trying to stop him. "Wait, I have to check your neuro exam," Rachel said, trying to buy Finn and Puck more time.
"You said I was fine. I'm not doing any more tests. I need to bring her in now. Miss, I need to read you your rights."
"Just wait," Finn said. "It's not a mental illness, she's not dangerous, she doesn't have to go to jail."
"You're sure about this diagnosis, right?" Amanda's father asked.
"Yeah," Finn said.
"No, I'm not a guinea pig!" Amanda said as Puck tried to give her the medication.
"She pulled out her IV," Puck said, injecting a sedative into her neck to calm her down.
A little bit later, everything was under control. "Meds are in," Puck said.
"Okay, Amanda," Finn said. "How's your pain?"
"Better," she said with a smile. "A lot better. Daddy, the pain's going away."
"She's like the exorcist," the officer said from where he was standing. Rachel turned to glare at him. "So, is this for real?"
"Very. And she's only going to get better," Puck said.
"Well, I won't take her in but I will have to give her a summons to appear in court."
"What if we testify for her?" Finn asked.
"Case might be dismissed."
"Then count us in," Puck said.
"Okay," he said, turning around to leave. "Oh, doc, think about what I was saying back there. The, uh…"
"Good night, officer," Rachel said, cutting him off.
"Copy that," he said as he left.
"Sounds like you took one for the team there, Rachel," Puck said.
"Not in the way he wanted to," Rachel said, turning to Amanda. "I'm Doctor Berry, I'm glad to see you're doing better."
"So, we're going to prescribe you some medication to keep the disorder in check and you're going to have to continue to IV treatments for a few days," Puck said.
"And no going into the sun, no smoking, no alcohol. Got it?" Finn asked.
"Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it," Amanda said. She leaned forward and gave her dad a hug, leaving Finn room to give Puck a fist pump. He turned towards Rachel and gave her one too.
In the hallway, Marcus was being moved to the pediatrics floor. "So, you're only going to be in the hospital for a day or two but I will come and check on you and visit and maybe kick your butt in some chess."
"Bring it on," Marcus said.
"And if you ever need anything while you're here or after you're discharged, just ask for me and you will go to the front of the line."
"VIP treatment," Marcus' mom said with smile.
"What's VIP?" he asked.
"That would be Very Important Person. Which you are," Artie said as Marcus was put in the elevator.
"I like that!"
"See you later, bud," Artie said as Marcus' mom slipped something into Artie's scrubs pocket. "That's my number. I don't usually go for doctors with their twisted God-complexes. But you are the cutest," she said as she got in the elevator.
"Here it is!" Jesse said, walking into the hospital with new pacemaker.
"Thank you, Jesse," Mercedes said, taking the pacemaker from him. "The colonel's already upstairs getting prepped so I'll run this up."
Rachel stepped out of the break room and saw Mercedes running up and Jesse standing there. "Way to go on the pacemaker."
"At least I got one thing right tonight."
"Okay, enough with this pity party out of you," Rachel said. "We're all going to dinner later and I think you should come. I'm buying."
"Well, if you're buying, I am in. But I am going home to get some rest. It's been a long night. Text me the details later."
Rachel nodded and watched him leave the hospital. "Okay, everyone! Gather around. Okay, we don't have a lot of time. I know you heard about this from either Sam or me and you all have your assignments and we really need to pull together to make this happen. Are you all with me?" she asked her co-workers that were standing around.
That night before their next shift, Rachel was putting the final touches on the party decorations for Naomi's birthday party. "So, what do you think? Is she going to like it?" Rachel asked Finn, looking back at him.
"I think she's going to love it," Finn said, wrapping his arms around Rachel. "God, my sweet sixteen was crazy. Thad thought it would be a great idea to have the party while our parents weren't home. It was more like a sweet sixteen rager than a party," Finn said as he started laughing. "What was yours like?"
"I wouldn't know. I didn't have one."
"What?" Finn asked, raising an eyebrow. "How did you not have a sweet sixteen party?"
Rachel shrugged. "I turned sixteen a few months after my dad died and my mom wasn't in the mood to entertain a bunch of teenaged girls. So she gave me a bunch of money and told me to go to the movies and treat my friends to dinner instead." She smiled up at Finn. "So I want this party for Naomi to be perfect. That way I'll know I can throw an amazing sweet sixteen party." Rachel looked at her watch. "You should go. It's time for you to get the birthday girl."
Finn gave Rachel a kiss. "For your next birthday, you're getting a double celebration. To make up for the lack of a sweet sixteen."
"Nothing too out there, please. We are going to have a baby to take care of."
Finn winked at her. "That's why we send the kid off to Uncle Puck and Aunt Quinn's for the night."
Rachel rolled her eyes and watched him walk off.
A short while later, she heard the sound of motorcycles pull up and knew that the party was about to start. She walked out to the front of the restaurant and saw her co-workers standing there and Finn arriving with Naomi on the back of his bike.
"Wow!" Jesse said when he got there. "Who did this?"
"It was all Rachel," Puck said.
"Jesse, you've always been there for me and now we're all here for you. You're part of the family."
"Thank you," Jesse said, giving her a small nod. Naomi and Finn walked over to them and she wrapped her arms around her dad. "Happy birthday, sweetheart."
"This isn't what I planned but it's still pretty cool. I got to ride on the back of a motorcycle!"
"I saw that," Jesse said, glaring at Finn. "I hope you enjoyed it because it's the last time you will."
Lydia walked over to where Jesse was. "I'm not going to say I'm not mad anymore, because I am, but you have some amazing friends."
"Okay, everyone, why don't we all head inside and get this party started!" Rachel said. "Jesse and Naomi, you both have wardrobe changes waiting for you inside."
Once the two of them were dressed, Jesse offered her a hand to dance. "Um, Dad, it smells like beer in here," she whispered.
"Yes it does."
"No fighting with Mom tonight, okay?" she asked.
"I promise. And I promise I won't make any more promises that I can't keep."
Off to the side, Finn held Rachel in his arms as they watched the father and daughter dance. "What you did for Jesse is pretty fantastic."
"He's had a tough year. He needed a win."
"Parenthood is gonna be pretty complicated," Finn said.
"We're gonna make some mistakes, but it's part of the adventure, right?" Rachel asked.
Kurt needed some air, so he grabbed two cups of Coke and went outside to where Mercedes was standing. "Hey. I thought you and I were gonna try and make some money betting on darts."
Mercedes looked up at him and swallowed. "Yeah. Um, there's a lot of happiness in there."
Kurt looked at the envelop she was holding in her hands. "What's that?"
"The results of my breast cancer gene test."
"What's it say?"
"I haven't opened it yet. Just been too scared."
"I can imagine. Look, what we talked about earlier? You can't control what's in that envelop. But you can control what you do when you find out."
"You'll be there for me, right? Every step of the way?"
"Every single one of them."
Mercedes nodded and ripped open the envelop with shaking hands. She pulled out the test results and started sobbing. She handed them to Kurt and kept crying.
"That's negative. Oh thank god it's negative," Kurt said, pulling her into his arms for a hug.
"I love you so much," Mercedes said into his shoulder.
"I love you too," Kurt whispered back.
Artie grabbed a beer from one of the coolers and walked over to where Sam was at the sound station. "Great tunes, man. I brought you a beer," he said, handing it to him. "Congratulations on your new job."
"Thank you. Hey, did you know part of my new job is to do an end-of-the-shift checklist? And one of the things I check is the new pharmacy tracking records?"
Artie felt his spine stiffen. "O-oh really?"
"Yeah. And according to those records, I took out nebulizing antibiotics at five this morning. Except I didn't."
"Sam…"
"Wow. You really did that? You stole my badge?"
"I didn't steal it. I borrowed it. I'm sorry. I didn't think about the tracking. I was just trying to help Marcus and he couldn't get the medication because of some stupid rule."
"Hey, I'm all for Marcus, you know that. But you didn't even ask! You put my job at risk – my new job. Of one day. Now, I'm gonna take the heat and say I put the wrong order in or something. But that's the first and last time I do that."
"Sorry. Never again. I promise."
"Watch out, man, I gotta get to work," Sam said, rubbing his hands together to pick the next song. "Let's change the mood up in here." The song changed and Sam got on the microphone. "Okay, party people. One more time, give it up for the night shift!"
Everyone went out to the dance floor and started dancing to have a good time before their next shift would start.