Chapter 8
Callie quickly scooped the rest of her into her arms, running to the couch dialing 9-11. Luckily, they answered straight away.
"Please it's my ex-wife she has just had brain surgery and she has collapsed, she has a pulse" Callie told them her hands shaking, as she kept her fingers on Arizona's pulse point reassuring herself, she was there, she was alive.
They took the address promising a truck was on its way. Callie hung up calling Bailey. Her hand not leaving Arizona's neck,
"I have her, she is here, she's in a bad way, I need Amelia here" Callie begged not giving Bailey a chance to talk, "She's unconscious, she just collapsed, and she was slurring her words".
"Okay, Callie calm down, she's alive" Bailey confirmed, Callie could hear her having a chat with someone,
"Tom Karassik, Amelia says he is the best in New York, she is going to call him, he is based as Presbyterian, go there" Bailey told her. Even though Bailey couldn't see her Callie nodded.
"How is her pulse?" Bailey asked, Callie found her voice echoing and guessed she was on speaker, she could hear Amelia on the phone and guessed she was talking to Tom.
"Strong, steady" Callie replied,
"And her breathing?"
"Resps are deep, 16" Callie counted,
"Okay, any response to pain?" This time it was Amelia talking, Callie pinched her trapizeium muscle, getting a slight groan,
"I heard that" Amelia confirmed relaying the information to Tom. "Okay Callie its likely she is bleeding into her skull again, she removed the drain, it's been 4 days so it's likely a slow bleed, can you see the wound, does it look infected?"
Callie removed the dressing, it looked red, but not angry, there was ooze striking through the bandage but nothing more than expected. While good news it meant the problem was likely inside her brain.
"No it looks okay" Callie said amazed.
The EMT's turned up, Callie hung up the phone entrusting Arizona to them while she went and woke Sofia up, bundling the sleepy girl into blankets before following the EMT's to the ambulance and rushing to hospital.
Tom was waiting outside, "Trauma 2" he ordered, checking her pupils, "Both equal, okay on my count 1, 2, 3" Arizona was slid straight onto their trolley, "CT" he ordered, "You two wait here" he directed Callie and Sofia to some chairs, "I'll update you as soon as I can" he promised,
With nothing more to do Callie sat on the uncomfortable hard plastic chairs, Sofia clinging to her,
"Is mommy going to be, okay?" Sofia asked hugging Callie tighter,
"I hope so baby" Callie replied kissing her hair,
"Can you fix her?" Sofia asked, she knew momma was a doctor and helped sick people and mommy was sick,
"No, Doctor Tom has to fix mommy, mommy's brain is the broken bit and momma fixes bones," Callie explained, "Doctor Tom fixes people's brains".
"Mommy fixes tiny humans in their mommies tummies" Sofia said proudly,
"That's right" Callie replied,
"Mommy will be okay" Sofia reassured her, "She promised she'd take me to the zoo, and she never breaks promises, cus she is a good mom in a storm".
Callie gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile, "I know she will try but sometimes you can't keep promises".
"Mommy does" Sofia said resolutely, Callie squeezed her shoulder praying Arizona wouldn't disappoint her daughter.
"Torres" Tom came closer, a nurse with him,
"Hey, its Sofia right, can I show you our coloring pictures?" the nurse asked, "maybe you can pick one to color for your mom" she suggested, after a nod from Callie Sofia took her hand and walked to the desk.
"The CT shows a re-bleed, we need to operate to stop it, it's difficult because of the location luckily, I am the best" Tom bragged, "We are prepping her now, it's going to be a few hours" he warned. Callie nodded.
"I'm waiting, I can use the on-call room on 3, can you update me" she begged, while she wanted to wait as near as possible Sofia would be more comfortable in a bed for a few hours, otherwise tomorrow she would be unbearable.
"I'll find you as soon as I'm done" Tom promised.
"Look Momma Princess coloring" Sofia showed her, "Is mommy, okay?" she asked Doctor Tom recognizing him as the doctor who was going to fix her mommy.
"Your mommy has a poorly brain and I'm going to do everything I can do make it better again" he promised her. Sofia nodded solemnly; Tom excused himself rushing to the OR. Callie took Sofia's hand.
"Let's go find somewhere to sleep" Callie ordered. She led her daughter to the Ortho on-call room, glad it was empty.
"Look momma, bunks, can I go on the top one please" Sofia begged excitedly.
"Sure, but be careful" Callie ordered helping Sofia climb up. She sat on the bottom bunk, texting her friends in Seattle letting them know what Tom had said. Bailey replied letting her know that Amelia and Richard were flying over. Apparently, there had been a fight between the attendings over who got to come. Amelia was the obvious choice, and Callie knew Arizona and Richard had become close since the divorce going to trivia nights together.
Next, she updated her dad and Arizona's mom both asking her to keep them updated. Arizona's parents had been planning to fly out to Seattle but now she was in New York they were going to change their flight. Fly out to New York but the first flight would be tomorrow now.
Inside the on-call room Callie paced, her daughter was fast asleep but there was no way she could close her eyes for even a moment. Not until she knew Arizona was going to be okay. The first hour passed, then the second, Callie was sure there was going to be a deep grove in the floor where she was pacing, luckily Sofia took after her and was a deep sleeper.
The third hour came and went, with still no news. Callie poked her head out of the door catching a nurse asking her to ring and find out what was going on, neurosurgery took a long time but Callie needed to know everything was going okay.
Instead of the nurse returning it was Tom. His face was set in neutral giving nothing away.
"Well?" Callie demanded stepping out of the on-call room, so she didn't wake Sofia.
"Well," Tom repeated, "It wasn't easy, in fact most lesser surgeons would have struggled but I of course am brilliant. I stopped the bleeding, she is in ICU we are going to keep her sedated tonight, and hopefully wake her tomorrow" he explained, Callie hugged him, holding him tightly,
"Thank you"
"Unfortunately, we won't know about any memory or speech problems until she wakes" Tom explained. "It's highly likely there is some, based on her state before she collapsed".
Callie nodded she had been expecting that. The main thing was she was alive, everything else they could work on.
"Can I see her?" she begged; Tom nodded. Callie entered the on-call room carefully lifting her sleeping daughter up, Sofia didn't stir instead wrapping her legs around her mom and cuddling into her shoulder.
They headed to the lifts going up the 2 floors to the ICU.
"Children aren't allowed in," Tom explained sympathetically,
"I'll stay with her" a voice from the waiting room drew their attention. Carlos sat reading a magazine.
"I came as soon as I could Mija" he explained. He'd been making plans to leave Miami as soon as Callie had called 4 days ago, it had just taken that long to sort out his affairs so he could be away for a period of time.
"Daddy" Callie cried, passing him Sofia, again she didn't wake,
"Go see your girl. I'll be here when you come out" Carlos promised. Callie nodded taking a deep breath, before going in.
"Oh Arizona" she gasped. Arizona was on a ventilator, her hair shaven on the left side of her head on the bit she could see the rest was covered with a bandage, with a drain sticking out, with bruising was on her right cheek.
Callie sat in the chair, holding Arizona's hand watching she didn't knock the canula in her hand or the monitoring on her finger.
"You made your way across the whole country for me, now I just need you to hold on. Can you do that, can you live for me?" she begged kissing her hand. The only response she got from Arizona was the beating of the cardiac monitor.
She left her briefly, long enough to hand her house keys to her dad.
"I'm going to stay here" she explained, "Can you take Sofia home?" She begged.
"Of course, let me just say hi" he ordered, handing Sofia over. Callie took her hugging her closely, she needed the comfort even if Sofia was asleep.
Entering the ICU Carlos approached his ex-daughter in law.
"Don't die, Calliope and Sofia, they need you. When we first met you told me you'd protect them, well they need protecting, they wouldn't survive losing you, so I need you to fight, fight for Calliope like you did when we first met" Carlos whispered, gently stroking her hair out her eyes.
He left the room taking Sofia back, he'd stay at Callie's tonight, and return to the hospital tomorrow. Callie returned to Arizona's room, sitting in the chair, holding her hand she quickly drifted off to sleep praying Arizona would wake up, praying she would be okay.
So Arizona is in ICU but will she wakes up and in what condition will she be in?
Let me know, i have an idea of how i want it to go but your ideas might spark a different ending