Chapter Text
It was near the end of their shift when Princess’s voice called out.
“incoming!” a new trauma patient got wheeled into the ER. Santos and Whitaker -who somehow managed to get a full 3 minutes of charting- were called over by Robby, to help with their new guy.
The EMT quickly rushed in “Noah Jonns,14 year old male, called for penetration in the lower abdomen, 50\ 33 blood pressure, elevated heart rate and a nice 21 respiratory rate.”
“Were you shot?” Robby looked over Noah, to which he got a garbled no in return.
The kid was dressed in a long black t-shirt, with tight blue jeans. His palms seemed agitated and his eyes weren't focused.
“his friend called over, apparently they were messing around trying to build something from scarps they had lying around and a bunch of chemicals they ordered off of the internet. managed to shoot some small thing into him.”
“trauma 2 is open!” Dana instructed them.
“Noah, do you know where you are? Can you tell me what happened?” Robby asked the kid while they checked the vitals and covered the main penetration injury.
“Ho-hospital” Noah’s speech was slurred and his eyes unfocused, he seemed to try to say something else, when he stopped for a second and started rapidly shaking.
“he's seizing!” Whitaker called while he started to administer his oxygen. Meanwhile Santos started putting pressure on the wound so he won't bleed out while he seizes.
The seizure lasted for about 10 seconds before Noah stopped shaking and started breathing again. However, his eyes opened soon after, and he started thrashing his hands and trying to get up while displaying incoordination. That was not a seizure, it was a fit of panic.
“Noah! please calm down” Whitaker found himself yelling while trying to restrain the teen. Both he and Santos took his hands and secured them to his sides, but not before he managed to tangle his hand with one of the machines and pull a wire from it.
“Everything is alright kid! you're at Pittsburgh hospital, we're just trying to take care of you” Robby spoke to the kid again, then was called out for something else in ER, leaving with a “you got this” to the doctor and second year resident.
The two kept treating Noah, with Mel joining them soon after Robby’s leave. They went on to secure the harmed era and to try and get the penetrating object out of the kid. Next to them the machine that was harmed started glitching and emitting electrical sparks. It was far enough from the patient for the only reaction to be a low, annoyed comment from Santos -“goddamn machines”- whom had enough problems with medical equipment for an entire year.
They cut around the wound then carefully into the liver, with Santos pulling out a broken, leaking vial of glass. “shit” her murmur describing just how much the shard of glass complicated the situation. “any idea what could be in this?” she handed the vial to Mel, who inspected the remains of text on the vial. “the name of the substance was washed away by the blood..” she sniffed it “no smell either.”
She put the vial on a tray to her left, which was coincidentally next to the sparking machine.
Perhaps on a different day they would have been able to catch it early, if the present doctors were less tired, or paid just a bit more thought into what that vial truly contained. Maybe if they were a bit less focused on their patient, had they been worse doctors, nothing would have happened. Maybe if the vial had fallen to the floor.
but those maybes did not happen. The vial remained in its place, and the doctors treated their patient.
A single spark from the damned faulty machine sealed that particular patient’s fate.
The combustion of the vial painted the glass walls of trauma 2 red with blood. miraculously not shattering them completely.
and while many of the staff of the hospital dropped their work to help the injured, or look at what happened, inside the room the 2 doctors and second year resident had quickly turned into patients themselves, for the first time in a long while.
Air came to Mel through rapid shallow breaths and she could feel liquid filling her right lung as she struggled to open her eyes. Her glasses were thrown off by some miracle, instead of shuttering into her eyes.
She sat on the floor next to one of the walls of the room, her legs sprawled in front of her, as if she was pushed down. Her back ached, was she pushed down? Out in front of her she could see the blurry remains of a hospital cot and what must have been their patient.
Furthermore, beyond her line of blurry sight, she could hear the sound of gasping and struggling, then someone throwing up.
Santos and Whitaker were also in the room with her. They sounded like they needed help. She should go help them.
She leaned on her right arm to get up and as she fell back with agonizing pain shooting up her arm and through her entire right side, she realized just how unable she is to assist the two.
she started coughing up wet splattering coughs. She had to get up. she had to breathe. she had to go help them. she had to…she…
Mel’s eyes rolled back in her head, as she entirely collapsed to the floor, spattering blood from her mouth and jerking all over.
On the other side of the room, the doctor and second year resident were both pushed to the wall, covered in the burn marks the other doctor managed to dodge.
Santos looked at the bile that exited her, spilled all over her and the floor around her. She was not quick enough to move and throw up somewhere else.
She was trying to debate whether it was her head or abdomen that hurt more, when her roommate slid off the wall and onto her, then sliding off of her to her leg, as she didn't manage to catch him, once again being too slow.
she let out a shaky breath as a new pain hit her. Whatever happened to her leg, Whitaker landing on it worsened it. She pushed him off, managing to move him from her and laying him on his back.
“what the fuck” she said, doing her best to keep the shake she felt in her bones from her voice .
Her pained question was met with no response from the man next to her, and she gave him a second look, now more aware of her surroundings and the man himself, rather than the pain.
she wanted to curse herself for missing the scalpel bulging from his chest. “Holy shit Dennis” she moved to examine him, wincing when her lower abdomen sent what felt like lightning bolts up to her stomach. She felt as if she'd throw up again.
“Dennis, Dennis can you hear me?” She pressed two fingers to the groove of his neck that's next to his Adam's Apple, checking his pulse, feeling it palpitate.
Like before, she was granted no response.
Dana and Robby rushed into the room, with other doctors behind them Santos couldn't care enough to recognize at the moment.
she looked up to the two, meeting their worried gazes with a horrified one.