5 January, Wednesday, 2348 GMT
He hit the ground running as he rushed out of the alley behind the ER. He held Hermione tighter to his chest leaving a blood trail into the ER waiting area.
"Somebody help me!" he yelled.
Nurse Rodriguez was the first to come to the tall blonde man's aid. Then she recognized the new patient.
"Dr. Granger?" she said as members of the trauma team rolled a gurney near the ER visitors. The team began taking her vitals immediately after Draco placed her onto the gurney.
The tall grey haired female doctor went quickly to her subordinate's side. She supervised the other doctors of the trauma team.
"Is she going to be all right?" Draco asked, concerned.
"You must be Draco," Dr. Masterson said calmly. "I would have recognized you anywhere from Hermione's description."
Draco couldn't say anything for a moment. He clenched and unclenched his fists. "What's going on?" he asked as he watched the doctors start to cut her garments as they rolled her towards double doors.
Dr. Maureen Alistaire was glad she had taken a short break instead of going straight home after delivering the baby boy upstairs. She was already downstairs in the ER waiting room when Hermione was being wheeled into one of the OR's. She stepped into the room, watching her colleague address the distraught gentleman. 'Was this Hermione's significant other?' she wondered as she began to prep for delivery.
"Looks like she's having problems with the delivery, Draco. Our team will do everything we can to save both of them," she said as she stopped in her tracks, allowing the team to close the OR doors behind them, halting Draco's progress. "I'm going to need you to stay in the waiting room, though."
"She'll be all right," Draco said, trying to convince himself as he looked into the older woman's face.
She just nodded at him before leaving. Draco's knees wobbled. Nurse Rodriguez kept him on his feet, lending a forearm for him to grab on to. She nodded toward one of the couches in the waiting room.
He sat with his head in his hands, not knowing what had just happened. He ran his fingers through his hair, frustrated that he couldn't do anything to help. Nurse Rodriguez returned with a stack of brown paper napkins.
"There's a restroom just around the corner, Sir," she said as she handed him the paper towels.
He nodded back at her as he stood up unsteadily. He finally noticed his sopping wet appearance. He had been dripping wet from the short down pour between the shelter and the hospital.
He locked himself in the single user bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror. He saw his platinum blonde hair tinged with the red blood that stained his palms. He gulped as he ran his hands under the faucet. The basin turned red as the blood rinsed from his hands. He ran his head under the water, rinsing off the blood in his hair. He looked at himself in the mirror again, drenched.
"What have you done, Draco?" he asked himself. He ran his palm over his face, clearing the excess water. He gulped. He used his wand and cast several drying spells. His hair and clothing were less wet than before. He sighed. He walked out with the rest of the paper towels and dried himself as much as he could as he headed back to wait in the empty waiting room.
o-o-o
5 January, Wednesday, 2354 GMT
"We've got massive hemorrhaging here," the veteran Emergency Room doctor said calmly. "I need some irrigation."
The trauma team worked fluidly, trying to save one of their own. Each one of them knew the severity of the situation. If they couldn't stop the bleeding soon, both the baby and Hermione wouldn't make it.
"She's only at five centimeters," Dr. Stacey Pazcer, one of the ER doctors called out. "We have to stop the bleeding, now."
"We're going to have to do C-section," Dr. Alistaire said, calling for some iodine solution to be splashed onto Hermione's abdomen. "We have to go, go, go!"
o-o-o
5 January, Wednesday, 2358 GMT
"All right, take Drew," Dr. Masterson instructed after Dr. Alistaire delivered the premature baby through Caesarian. She handed the baby girl to one of the nurses while the team quickly worked to find the cause of the hemorrhage.
It was ten minutes after the 1.82 kilogram, 29.21 centimeter premature baby girl was born that the trauma team was able to close up the last bleeder. Then the complications occurred.
"How's her vitals," Dr. Masterson asked as she finished the last stitch. She took a step back placing the needle and line back on the instrument tray.
"Blood pressure is low," Dr. Christopher Baguio, another lead ER doctor, answered. "Better than before, anyway."
"Good work team," the head of the trauma unit said.
"Liz," Dr. Pazcer called. "She's crashing."
The EKG went flat. The alarm beeped. The room was again buzzing with activity. Dr. Baguio had his hands on the crash box. He turned on the juice.
Dr. Elizabeth Masterson stepped back to let the younger doctors handle the medical crisis. As supervisor, she knew she had to keep the calm in the room. She spoke evenly, "How's her vitals."
"Pressure's droppin' fast," a male nurse said watching the monitor.
"Charge," Dr. Masterson said as Dr. Baguio finished placing both of the pads on the patient.
"Clear," he called as he zapped Hermione with 250 joules. The trauma team waited; nothing.
"Up it to 300," Dr. Masterson said.
The male doctor waited for the defibrillator to finish charging. He zapped her again; still nothing.
With a sense of urgency now, Dr. Masterson nodded to the other lead OR surgeon. They knew they would have to perform C.P.R.
"Come on, Hermione," Dr. Masterson said as she slowly compressed the young patient's chest to find out how far she would have to go to try to get her heart pumping again. When she found that point, she began to pump furiously. "Come on."
"Breathe," she nodded to the other doctor who had a manual breathing pump. Doctor Baguio pumped the bag two times.
"Come on, Hermione!" the female doctor yelled, knowing she couldn't kill a dead person, she pumped a bit harder. "Don't go, Hermione."
"She's still flat," the male doctor said giving her five more artificial breaths.
"Come on, Hermione. Come on! Hermione, don't you dare leave!"
o-o-o
"We got her," Dr. Pazcer said almost too loud. The EKG was now registering a wave
There was a collective sigh of relief. Dr. Masterson stopped pumping the patient's chest. Dr. Baguio lifted the breathing pump from her face. The whole room watched the monitor for at least two minutes, worried that at any moment she would crash again.
"That was a close one," the male doctor said, clutching at the front of his scrubs.
Dr. Masterson looked at her watch; twenty after midnight. "How's her vitals, Stacey?"
"Blood pressure's normal. Heart rate normal, too."
The doctors and nurses cleaned up the room, picking up bloodied gauze pads and mopping up blood spills. Dr. Pazcer kept one eye on the EKG.
In the prep room, Dr. Masterson removed her soiled operation scrubs, her face mask and eye shield. She scrubbed, closing her eyes while letting the water flow over her forearms. She almost lost one of her best doctors that evening. She turned off the faucet and exited the OR, heading straight for the lockers to change into the slacks and denim shirt she had come to work in earlier that morning before addressing the concerned young man in the waiting room.
7