Chapter 8

Present time

When Meredith, Cristina and Owen arrive to the pit it is swamped with patients. Most of them are under the age of 18, there are a couple of teacher with them as well. Some are hurt and bleeding. Some are there just to comfort the students. The trauma nurse is trying to get some kind of order but it is in vain. No one is listening to her. Owen sees his work cut out for him and gives a shout. He introduces himself and starts to organize patients, accompanied personal, parents that are starting to arrive, the police and journalists. In just a couple of minutes there is some kind of order and the medics can work easier doing triage. Cristina is trying to tamponade a bleeding chest and orders a OR stat. She is the first surgeon in the OR. Meredith hears head wound and runs over as well as Derek does. They arrive at the same time. Meredith starts to examine but Derek takes over. The patient needs a craniotomy as the bullet is still in the scull. Meredith leaves and he watches as she is examining a spinal injury. It looks like she knows what she is doing so he stays with his patient. They both go into the OR.

"Are you ready for this?" he asks.

"I did one last week." she answers while scrubbing in. She feels slightly annoyed that he is looking over her shoulder. No one has questioned her skill in many years. "I have done close to a hundred during the last year."

He looks at her a little embarrassed when he realizes she is not his intern any more.

"What? In war, people shot at each other. A lot of those bullets end up in the head or the spine."

He looks at her and shakes his head when she leaves for her OR. She is amazing.

Meredith looks up from her work as the door opens. It is Derek.

"Do you need any help?" he asks.

"No, I'm good. Thank you."

She continues her work and he stands there for a while looking at her. He is amazed by her work.

"Go, save some life. We'll finish up in here in an hour or so."

He leaves for the pit.

Meredith thinks it feels strange working with so much equipment and so much personal but it makes her work so much easier and she is happy. She does two more surgeries back to back. When she scrubs out from the last one she is in need of a break. She grabs a coffee and a muffin and goes looking for an empty bed. It doesn't take long for her to fall a sleep.

Cristina is down in the pit looking for another surgery. There are still victims arriving from the school. It is some kind of hostage situation and the shooter aims for anyone that moves. She sees Owen scrubbing out before the next ambulance arrives.

"ETA 3 minutes" the trauma nurse calls. Cristina catches up with him outside the doors. He looks at her smiling.

"Hi, have you had any rest, eaten anything?"

"Yeah, I've taken 15 minutes between every patient. I plan to sleep in a couple of hours."

"Good but remember death rate tends to rise when the surgeon is tired."

"I've done three surgeries and they are all in recovery. I'm not planning to kill anyone."

"I didn't mean to offend you. It is just that I am worried because of your condition." He leans into her and gives her a quick kiss. She stares at him and says.

"We need to talk later."

The ambulance arrives and Owen takes charge. It is a TV-reporter that is bleeding from multiple gunshots.

Derek has overheard the conversation as he is sitting on the bench outside having a break. He wonders about Cristina's condition. It is amazing to watch how well Dr Hunt and Dr Yang work together. Not much is said it is more like they can read each others mind. Meredith has done three spinal surgeries during the last 12 hours. He has been sneaking peaks as much as possible. It is amazing to see her work and she looks stunning in her navy scrubs, hot. He wants to pull her into any secluded area and pull the scrubs off. Kiss her collarbone and the spot on her neck that drives her crazy. He is leaning back daydreaming about sex with Meredith when he feels a hand on his shoulder.

"Chief, you need a cold shower."

"What" he says and looks up into Mark's laughing face.

"You need to straighten yourself up."

Derek leans forward trying to hide his crotch.

"Seen any hot, blonde neurosurgeons lately?" Sloan continues with a smirk "you have been watching many neurosurgeries in the last couple of hours."

"So what, I am a neurosurgeon."

"And there is this hot neurogirl in the OR. What will Rose say when she finds out?"

"We are taking a break. I told her that just before all this started."

"Good, good for you. You have to consider your options."

They sit there for a while just breathing the dawn in.

"Coffee?" Mark asks.

"Yeah, please."

They both walk back into the hospital. Derek stops in the ER and looks around. It is still crowded with patients waiting but everything seems under control. Dr Hunt is supervising residents and interns and everyone seems to know what they are doing. He has never seen the pit like this before. Mark brings him coffee and they move up to the surgical floor and takes a look at the surgical board. The OR is swamped for at least 24 more hours. Derek wonders where Meredith is. She is not in the OR right now and she is not in the pit. She is scheduled for later. Derek's pager goes off. It is the pit again.

It is Dr Hunt wondering about protocol. The wounded reporter wants the camera team to record when they work on him. Derek calls his assistant to deal with the hospital lawyer. He allows the camera as long as they promise not to broadcast anything before the lawyers agree. They also have to stay way out of the way for the medical staff. Dr Yang and Dr Bailey will perform the surgery together with Dr O'Malley.

Rose is mad. She is getting back to work after a six hour break. She has worked for nine hours and went home to rest. Derek has not even looked at her during those nine hours. In the apartment is she walking around throwing, smashing knick-knacks. How dare he ask for a break when everything is so close to setting a wedding date? The part that they are not engaged slips from her mind. In her mind they are engaged. They just haven't had the engagement party and therefore does she not have a ring. Yet. As she dresses for work she hopes to be in his OR this shift. Yesterday she worked in one of the smaller OR with a 5th year resident on minor cases.

The TV-reporter is taken to OR 1 so the camera team can take their pictures from the gallery.