If Victor's pants suddenly combusted and the flames were searing his ever loving ass he still wouldn't run as fast then as he was now. "Derek, Angie!" he shouted as he practically kicked down the doors leading to the break room. Just seconds before, Derek had lifted his drink to his lips and Angie started flipping through a magazine someone left behind. Now, Derek's drink dropped from his hand as he accidentally inhaled his beverage and began to choke and Angie's magazine went flying into the air. "Stop fooling around! You two need to get down to the O.R.!"
"What's—" Derek gasped for air. "What's wrong, Victor?"
"Just hurry!"
Victor ran back through the halls again. "Victor, wait up!" Angie shouted as she leapt to her feet and was the first of the two to run after Victor. Derek was right behind her as they charged towards the O.R. "Can't you tell us what's wrong?"
"The damned kid has Paraskevi—if you don't operate ASAP she won't survive the next five minutes. The O.R. is already set up so we just need to get down there!"
Paraskevi; Derek remembered it well. Angie's father infected Cybil with Paraskevi when he broke into Caduceus three years ago. It was a nasty parasite that worked its way from the lower intestine to the heart. And when it reached the heart there was no hope left for the Paraskevi's host.
Derek and Angie washed up for the surgery faster than they ever had before—it took mere seconds for them to enter the O.R. and for Angie to hand Derek the antibiotic gel and a scalpel.
"Angie, are the blood bags hooked up and ready?"
"Yes Dr. Stiles. We're prepared for any blood loss that may occur."
"Will you two hurry up? If you keep dawdling the GUILT is going to make it to her heart!"
Derek nodded and spread antibiotic gel over the incision area. He pressed the scalpel to Kari's flesh and mouthed a silent prayer. Let her be okay.
"Opening the patient… now!"
Greg was about as calm as anyone could ever hope to get him. His abdomen hurt, he wanted to puke, and his daughter had GUILT. All the while this maniacal voice whispered to him, "Maybe your bad genes infected her with GUILT." Was it true? Was it his fault? All of this worrying was doing hell on his stomach.
Cybil wiped her eyes with the tissue Sidney gave her. She'd stopped crying and appeared to have a handle on her emotions now, but she could barely lift her eyes from her lap. "What's taking so long? The test results have to be in by now."
"Victor said he'd let me know when the test results came in. We just have to wait for him."
No one said anything after that for a long minute. Something had weighed on Sidney's mind since he got a good look at the pair, but he hadn't had the chance to ask them about it until now. "Are you two ill?"
"Hm?" Greg lifted his head and blinked rapidly—how much time had passed? He felt like he just sat down.
"I asked if you two were ill. Neither of you look well." Cybil scoffed.
"Bad sushi," Greg muttered. "We had some the night before and have had food poisoning since."
"But we're fine."
Sidney nodded. "Fair enough." Again the room was plunged into silence. Sidney didn't know what he could tell them, Cybil wanted to avoid cracking again, and Greg—Greg was tired of waiting. He was about to stand up and announce that he was going down to the lab to see why Victor didn't have the test results yet. He was about to, but Leslie barged in before he could stand.
"I apologize for not knocking, but the test results are back—Kari has Paraskevi. Derek is operating on her as we speak."
"What?! Kari's too young to have surgery!" Cybil jumped to her feet and rushed to the door, but Leslie grabbed her by the arms and restrained her.
"Cybil, you need to relax. Dr. Stiles is operating; she's in good hands with him."
"I don't care if Derek is operating, I only care that he's operating on my daughter!" Cybil swatted Leslie's hands away and looked back to Greg and Sidney. She gestured to the hall. "Are you two coming or what? I'm watching the operation." Operation. It sounded so detached and professional when Derek was carving up her gorgeous baby girl, but now wasn't the time to be so picky about words.
"I'm coming too." Greg walked to Cybil and rested his around her shoulders. Sidney was right behind him.
"Mrs. Sears, care to take us to the observation room?"
Leslie hesitated. She didn't think it was a good idea for them to watch the surgery, but she knew that any attempts to dissuade them from watching would be a waste of breath. "Follow me," she said, forcing herself to smile as she guided them down to the O.R.'s observation room.
The second Derek cut Kari open and got a look at her small intestine, he swore.
"Dr. Stiles! Aren't those abscesses from Tetarti?"
Derek nodded. "They definitely are. But isn't she supposed to have Paraskevi?"
"She does—Derek, the Paraskevi is coming into sight. Forget about the abscesses and laser that thing!"
"But what about the abscesses? He can't just leave them!"
"The Paraskevi is more of a threat right now than the Tetarti is. If he focuses on the abscesses and now the Paraskevi he'll just be wasting time."
"Will the two of you stop arguing? Angie, hand me the laser and have the forceps and scalpel ready. I'll also need some synthetic membranes for when I excise the abscesses."
Angie handed Derek the laser. Now that the Paraskevi was out he hit the parasite's tail with the laser, stunning it. Then he took the scalpel and sliced the parasite in half, which resulted in the GUILT forming two lacerations across the small intestine. "Sutures!"
"Here you go, Dr. Stiles."
"Thank you, Angie."
The process repeated itself several times—Derek would laser the Paraskevi, slice it, and then suture the lacerations it caused. He focused on one half of the parasite and managed to extract two of its sixteen parts before it escaped to the stomach. At this point, the abscesses were seconds from releasing poisonous gas. "Derek, you're going to have a damn problem soon if you don't get rid of the abscesses."
"Crap!" I didn't realize they got so big… Damn it Stiles, pay attention!
He excised one abscess before the others released poisonous gas and the vitals plummeted. "Victor, inject the stabilizer! Angie, get me those membranes! Let's not waste any time we have."
As they worked to stabilize Kari and extract the Paraskevi, Leslie led Sidney, Greg, and Cybil into the observation room. "Thank you Leslie." Cybil embraced Leslie, who happily returned the gesture.
"I have to return to my rounds, but as soon as I can I'll visit you guys and Kari!"
"I'd like that."
The two girls parted and Leslie left after bidding the Greg and Sidney goodbye. Now that they were alone Sidney asked, "Are you two sure you want to watch this?"
"Yes Sidney, we're sure," Greg answered. "You know if we could we would be the ones performing the surgery, but we can't so…"
"…this is as close as we can get," Cybil finished, walking up to Greg and latching onto his arm. Sidney nodded, understanding perfectly, and turned to watch the operation. Cybil and Greg did the same, watching as the surgery progressed.
… Finally, they reached the liver.
Derek had removed twelve out of sixteen parts of the Paraskevi, and could excise all of the remaining parts after he cut the two Paraskevi sections that were still conjoined. It'd only take a few more minutes and they'd be done and he could suture Kari up. However, there were more abscesses on the liver but no Tetarti to be found.
He separated the conjoined Paraskevi with the scalpel, but instead of the Paraskevi causing lacerations and staying within sight three sections of the GUILT dived into the liver while the fourth section continued swimming around the surface of the organ.
"Shit! Derek, remove the last section and search for the others with the ultrasound. Hurry—I think I know what they're doing."
Derek stunned the remaining section and plucked it out of Kari with the forceps. "Angie, the ultrasound please."
Angie handed him the ultrasound. "Please hurry Doctor. I don't know how much longer the patient can tolerate the procedure."
"Trust me; I don't plan on operating on her for much longer."
Derek used the ultrasound on the organ and saw a familiar shape underneath the flesh. "Damn, damn, damn! It's Tetarti!"
"…It's just as I expected. Angie, check the chiral reaction."
Angie looked at the machines hooked up to Kari, her eyes quickly drawn to where the chiral reaction was stated. She couldn't believe her eyes. "The chiral reaction—it's increasing! Dr. Stiles, hurry and deal with the abscesses so you can continue the extraction of the GUILT."
Derek switched out the ultrasound for the Tetarti serum. As soon as Derek applied the synthetic membrane to the final abscess the Tetarti made its way to the top of the organ and released more poison gas, causing more abscesses to form. As soon as Derek would treat one another would pop up before he even applied the membrane.
In the observation room Greg, Cybil, and Sidney watched as Derek removed pieces of the GUILT from Kari. However, it wasn't until shortly after they started watching that Derek removed something else from Kari and applied a synthetic membrane. "What the hell did he just remove?" Greg tightened his grip on Cybil's waist, but she didn't flinch; her eyes were trained on the operating room, watching for the slightest change that indicated something went wrong.
"I'm sure it's—" Sidney almost finished with 'nothing', but that's when Angie and Victor began yelling at Derek as he kept excising more things from Kari. Angie rushed to get more synthetic membranes laid out for Derek while Victor took over handing out the supplies Derek needed.
Her vitals crashed.
"Dr. Stiles, she's gone into cardiac arrest!"
"No shit Angie! Derek, forget the vitals. Take care of the Tetarti!"
"But if he does that we might not be able to restart her heart again."
Focus Derek, focus!
A star flittered across Derek's vision, taking all of one second to take shape. Angie and Victor watched as his hands moved like lightning, excising one abscess after the other until they were all gone, but the Tetarti were still there. He grabbed the ultrasound and immediately a shadow appeared, but for the first time he noticed that the Tetarti's shadow looked slightly different.
"Dr. Stiles, you need to massage her heart—Dr. Stiles!"
Derek sliced the skin over the Tetarti. Immediately it emerged, but as it did so it lashed out at the liver and left a large laceration. The other two Tetarti did the same; they emerged and lashed out, leaving two more large lacerations.
Victor swore loudly. "Damn, I was right."
"Right about what?" Angie asked, her eyes glued to the monitors, all of which told her that Kari's heart was still not beating.
"She has a mutated strain of GUILT; a nasty combo of Paraskevi and Tetarti. When the Paraskevi dived into the organ it must have taken on the form of Tetarti. And look—the Tetarti have a sharp point on their heads and you can see where the Paraskevi is inside of it!"
"How do you suggest treating it?" Derek asked. The star was slowly fading away and Angie took the sutures from him now that he'd treated the lacerations.
"Never mind that! Dr. Stiles, if you want to continue operating she needs to have a pulse. We've waited too long already. Forget the GUILT and just get her heart going again!"
Her vitals crashed—"No!"—and Derek did nothing to stop it. He continued treatment and, as doctors, had they known the situation Greg and Cybil would have understood. But as parents they could not understand how anyone could let their daughter enter cardiac arrest and do nothing. They tore their eyes away from the window and walked the short distance to the other side of the room. Sidney turned his back to the window and watched Greg lean against the wall, his shoulders trembling as he tried to hide his tears. For the first time in a very long time, Sidney watched his brother cry.
Cybil kept shaking her head as she furiously wiped her tears away. "She's okay, she—she has to be okay. She can't…" Sidney walked over to Cybil and pulled her into a tight hug. Cybil buried her face into his shoulder and shut her eyes. She couldn't bear to keep her eyes open and risk catching a glimpse of the O.R.
Greg couldn't move from the wall. He kept himself angled so that his back was to his wife and his brother; he couldn't let them see that he was crying. He was the husband, the older brother—he wasn't supposed to cry. He was supposed to be strong whenever something went wrong. That was his job, but now he had to trust Derek. He had to trust that Derek would succeed where he would not. "Just don't let her die, please," Greg whispered, "I'm trusting you."
"Come on!" Derek yelled as he massaged Kari's heart. "Angie, inject her with some epinephrine!"
Angie's hands shook as she filled the syringe with the epinephrine. She hastily injected it into Kari while Derek continued massaging Kari's heart. Still, it refused to beat but Derek wouldn't give up. Victor sighed and shook his head.
"That's enough Derek; you need to stop."
"Don't say that! I can save her if I keep trying."
Angie reached out and touched Derek's arm. "Dr. Stiles… it's no use. Victor's right, we couldn't—"
"Yes, we can!" Tears welled up in Derek's eyes and he blinked to restore his vision. "They're counting on us to save her. I won't let her die!"
"You're a fucking idiot. Have either of you noticed that they're in the observation room? You're only dragging this on for them."
Angie's head snapped up and she looked at the window. She saw Sidney hugging Cybil and Greg with his back to the glass. "How long have they been watching?"
"They've been there since a little after we started. That's why you can't keep this up, Derek. We know the kid isn't going to survive so why do you want to drag this on?"
"Because what doctor am I if I don't keep trying? Angie, one more shot of epinephrine—please!"
"Dr. Stiles—"
"Just one more shot and her heart will start again, I promise."
Angie wanted him to stop. She hated looking at the body of a child lying motionless on the operating table. But Derek wasn't going to stop until he completely exhausted himself trying. She grabbed another syringe and filled it with more epinephrine and injected it into Kari. Derek continued massaging her heart for another ten seconds before pulling his hands away.
One second ticked by. Then two. Three. Four…
'Beep… beep… beep… beep…'
Underneath his surgical mask, Derek smiled. "Angie, how are her vitals?"
"They've stabilized!"
Victor's brows arched as he stared at the heart monitor. "I'll be damned…"
"Then I'll continue the operation."
"Dr. Stiles, wait! Kari's vitals are stabilized for the moment, but we can't risk her going into cardiac arrest again. We really should close her up and continue the operation once she's had a chance to recover from this one."
"Victor, what do you think?"
"I'm with Angie. It's too dangerous to continue the surgery and I can devise a treatment plan to hold off the Tetarti from getting too much worse, without causing damage to the kid."
"You can do that?"
"Of course I can. Now hurry and close her up already."
Derek nodded and went on to closing Kari up. He hoped that she would recover enough for them to operate again soon. The longer they waited the more damage there would be, but Derek was confident that Kari would pull through. Sometimes, the littlest hearts were the strongest.
A/N: A mutated combo strain of GUILT—how lovely. And it's more aggressive than the Tetarti strain Greg had in UTK.
I have another UTK fic I'll have up before the next chapter of this. It's more Sidney-centric. I swear, one day, I'll make a fic that's about someone other than the Kasal brothers. They're just so fun. T.T
