Chapter 4
Finally, Arizona's POV
Arizona stepped out of the residency exam feeling surprisingly good, the questions were hard, but nothing compared to what her mentor John McHale threw at her at Hopkins, dare she say it, but it had been easy. Skipping slightly, she couldn't help showing her joy, wishing she had her wheely shoes on so she could go for a celebratory spin. Instead, she planned to reward herself with a holiday coffee and a doughnut with extra sprinkles.
She switched her mobile on, to noticed 20 missed calls all from her dad. It sent shivers down her spine. The Colonel didn't call her ever, and he never called anyone that many times. Normally it was only mom that called, so why hadn't she?
Her hands shook as she dialed the number, there was only one reason he would have called her, someone was hurt or dead. Mom or Tim, her heart sunk as she thought of her brother serving in Iraq. He'd called only 3 days ago, wishing her good luck, he'd sounded happy, he was due to come home soon, in just 3 months' time. She'd been counting down the days.
"Dad" she said greeting him, trying to sound strong, trying to not vomit as she paced up and down the sidewalk.
"Sport, you need to get to the airport, we have a flight to Germany it leaves in 90 minutes from JFK, it's your brother he is hurt and its bad" Daniel told her.
Arizona hailed a taxi, going to the hotel room packing her case grateful she had her passport with her. One thing about being a military kid meant every time she packed, she popped it in just in case. It was a habit she had seen her mother do, knowing Daniel could get shipped out last minute. The same taxi was waiting for her outside the hotel as she sped to the airport, tipping him a bunch of notes top of the fee, it was probably over $50 but Arizona didn't care. Her parents met her outside escorting her to check in. They'd flown in from Boston and had arranged the international flight, knowing where she was sitting her boards and what time she had been due to finish.
"What did they say?" Arizona asked, as she hugged her parents,
"Not much, they said we needed to get to Germany ASAP and to prepare ourselves" Daniel offered showing no emotion, but standing extra straight, and extra tall. While Barbara kept hugging and touching her daughter, her eyes red rimmed. Arizona nodded, trying to contain her tears. That meant it was bad, really bad. But if he was dead, they'd have said, they wouldn't let them fly out if he was dead, a small voice reassured her, if he was dead, they'd get a coffin back in a few days draped in a flag, this was better than that. Anything was better than that.
Arizona sat silently on the plane staring out the window, she hated flying, and this was the worst flight ever, while normally she never felt closer to death than when in the air, this time she prayed for delays, prayed to be flying forever. Tim was alive while they were flying, Tim was alive until someone said otherwise, and nobody could contact them while flying, which meant Tim had to be alive. Life without Tim wasn't life. She couldn't go on without her older brother. She'd never done anything without Timmy in the world and that couldn't change now.
They landed in Germany. Two US Marines met them off the airplane escorting them through customs, and to the car where they were driven straight to the large hospital on the military base, the advantages of being a Colonel, Arizona thought allowing herself to be led through the hospital where they were shown into a relative's room. It had now been 12 hours since she had received the call from Daniel. 16 since that first missed call. There had to be news.
Arizona noticed the pale blue walls, and black seats, a sea picture on the wall designed to help calm the nerves. It reminded her of every other hospital relative's room she had ever been in, and she wasn't finding it calming. To try and ease her nerves she paced up and down the room. Not that it was working, they all jumped up as the doctor entered, wearing military cami's instead of the white coat or scrubs Arizona was accustomed to.
"He is alive" he revealed. At that news Barbara let out a sob collapsing on a chair.
"What were his injuries?" Arizona asked hating how much her voice shook.
"I'm not going to lie, they are severe, any longer getting him back to base and it would be a very different story. He has a fractured skull, there was severe bleeding in his frontal lobe. We had to remove the most damaged sections, of brain. It looks like he was struck in the head from flying shrapnel. We removed as much as it as we could be some is still there; we believe removing it will cause catastrophic damage. We managed to repair most the damage but until we wake him up, we have no idea just how the bleeding damaged his brain. There may be no difference, but it my opinion there is like to be a severe traumatic brain injury" the doctor finished.
Barbara was sobbing now, Daniel stood stoically, trying to absorb it, while Arizona closed her eyes, taking deep breaths as she tried to analyse what that meant.
"When do you plan to wake him?" she asked, wondering when they would know, how long would they have to wait in this limbo.
"Depends on the scans, I would think at least a week, maybe 2".
"Do you have the scans?" she asked, she needed to see it, to assess the damage for herself. This doctor appeared capable, but this was Tim, she needed to see it for herself. She needed to know. The doctor nodded,
"Are you a doctor?" he asked,
"Yeah, Peds surgery, at Hopkins" Arizona explained, the resident exam seeming like a lifetime again, she couldn't believe how important they had been, and now she couldn't care less, she'd give up everything as long as Tim was okay.
"Neuro, you can call me Matt, Matt Redman, come with me," he invited. Arizona followed as did Barbara and Daniel both eager to see the scans, they might not understand it, but they were determined to stay involved.
Matt pulled the scans up starting with the first CT. Arizona could see the fractured skull and the white fresh blood filling most of his left hemisphere the pressure causing a midline shift. With several fragments of shrapnel broken into small pieces around the front of his brain.
"His GCS was 3 throughout, they removed his skull in Iraq to relive the pressure, and flew him here, I tidied it up, but we haven't woken him yet" Matt explained, pulling up the after. Even Barbara and Daniel could see the difference, there was a lot less white, but part of his brain was removed replaced by black space, there was a lot less shrapnel too.
"What does this mean?" Daniel asked, his voice gravelly.
"The frontal lobe controls the personality, the problem solving, intelligence, but Brocca's area looks intact" Arizona checked with Matt,
"That was my belief" he confirmed,
"So, it's likely his speech won't be affected, but until he wakes up, we won't know how much of Tim is left." Arizona finished numbly. Unable to believe this was real, that the scan she was looking at was Tim's. This had to be a dream, without realizing it she started hitting her arm trying to wake up from this nightmare she was living.
"We have kept him medicated for now and will keep him in Germany for at least the next 2 weeks before sending him home, but you can see him if you want".
They did, following him to the ICU room, where Tim was buried under tubes and wires. In fact, if they didn't know it was him Arizona wouldn't have recognized him. Numbly she sat down by the side of the bed, Barbara on the other side each taking a hand, while Daniel stood at the end of the bed.
"Oh Timmy" Arizona cried, hoping he'd wake up and tell her his name was Tim, and that he was okay, and that this was all just a horrendous mistake. That the images on the wall weren't his CT, and that part of his skull wasn't currently in his abdomen.
"He'll be alright" Daniel said, trying to reassure them both, "Tim will be alright, he'll wake up himself, he has to, that's an order son" Daniel told them, as if he could just order Tim's brain to repair itself.
"No dad, I don't think he will be" a broken Arizona replied, knowing her life had just changed forever.
Thought that would be a start, good guesses from everyone, i've been impressed, any changes to guesses now?
