Chapter Text
And just like that it happens.
The adrenaline pumping through your veins, the sounds of others prepping rooms, doing charts, pages over the PA system, the sound of your rubber soles thumping against the white, sterile tile of the seemingly endless hallway...
You love the way everyone steers clear of you running through the wing, your destination downstairs five floors on the opposite side of where you are. Your pace quickens when you're near the double doors about a yard away from the elevator. You wait with a woman who looks distraught, her face laced with pure sadness and defeat. You glance over your shoulder once more and step into the elevator only filled with two other people.
"3rd floor, please"
You listen to the sad woman while you hit G and 3. You know it's urgent when you receive another page requesting your appearance. You repeatedly hit the button hoping that for once the elevator will humor you and descend faster to the lowest floor. You let out a huge sigh you didn't know you were keeping in and watch the sad woman step out onto the third floor. You briefly wonder if she received bad news not too long ago or if she was permanently upset with something in her life like that. You hit the close door button and refocus on where you're going and why.
The bell finally dings and you look ahead, head up, eyes sharp while you roll your neck and crack your fingers and stretch out your arms. You step out onto the floor and take in the chaotic scene playing out in front of you.
The ER isn't your forte, but with many years experience and the fact that you're an attending, you find yourself down here quite often helping whatever patient needs your expertise.
"Dr. Solo! Over here, Room 3. Major car crash, four were brought in, five still on site or en route to us. We need all hands on deck." The nurse hands you the chart with chicken scratch scribbled all over it, a site you're used to and have no trouble comprehending.
You quickly read it over, snap on some gloves and remove your stethoscope from around your neck as the nurses bring you up to speed on the extent of her injuries as you listen to her heart. The woman is in her 50s, unconscious and looking like she took the brunt of the accident. Her leg is being cut out of her pants and her left eye is swollen shut with multiple cuts on her face, blood in her hair and all over the pillow. Her collar bone and left arm look smashed up, drawing the conclusion that the car was hit from the left side and she must have been the driver driving the three other passengers who are now being tended to by her colleagues and ER nurses.
Her heartbeat is stable and you know you aren't needed here. You record her heart rate and blood pressure that are both being monitored on the machines she's hooked up to. The nurses are quickly cleaning, stitching and bandaging her facial lacerations, the charge nurse already calling ortho to come consult on the leg and upper extremity injury.
Your gloves are off and you walk back into the wing looking at the whiteboard seeing who needs help. You don't see any rooms that aren't in need of another person or a consult so you find the nurse who gave you the first patient.
"The patient needs ortho, so I'm no longer a help there. When are the other victims expected to com-"
"MAKE WAY. We have five victims, all female, all seem to be in their late 20s/early 30s. From the other car involved in the accident, not as banged up as the first round but still need our attention." The EMT interrupts your question and you spring back into action.
You see your colleagues each approaching a gurney and you get the last one. With one scope,the women seem to be cut up in one way or another, not too badly injured, but that's only on the surface and pre-testing for internal injuries.
You look down at the woman lying on the bed,the only patient with a neck brace on you notice. A nurse is on the other side of the new bed, pushing it into an empty exam room. The nurse quickly hooks her up to the machines, getting her heart rate, blood pressure and other vitals up and running. The woman's eyes are closed while you run through the check up looking for any open wounds, broken bones, damaged anything. You remove your stethoscope again to listen to her heart. You glance to your right checking her heart rate and BP noting that they are normal but the sound seems off to you. You haven't heard a heart beat quite like this before and you try to put your finger on it before you hear a voice mumble from underneath you.
"Hi, you're okay, you're safe. You're in the hospital after a car accident. I'm Dr. Solo, you're in good hands. Can you tell me your name?"
The woman's eyes were wide and panicked, her heart rate picking up sounding the machine she was hooked up to. She tried moving her neck but it was being stabilized by something. Her IV in her arm prevented her from lifting it up all the way to try and remove the brace from around her neck.
"Hey, it's okay. The EMTs put that on for repercussions, you're okay. Nothing more than some cuts and bruises. Maybe a broken arm. Can you tell me your name?" She asked again and looked down into the woman's eyes, noting how they looked outrageously bright even for reflecting the fluorescent lights above them.
"K-Kelley... Dr. Kelley O'Hara." She shut her eyes tightly, swallowing hard as she realized she was in the ER. Her heart began to calm as she breathed deeply, knowing she was alive and wasn't seriously injured.
"Hi Kelley, let me just go through the standard nerve test and I'll see what I can do about that brace, okay?"
Kelley blinked and tried to nod but couldn't so she settled on slightly raising her arm and giving a weak thumbs up.
Dr. Solo brought her little flashlight out and click it on and tested Kelley's reflexes and reactions.
"Pupils are responding, good. Follow my finger for me with your eyes."
Kelley looked left then right, up then down.
"No sign of brain injury, no sign of a cardiac event, just a cut up face and a broken wrist. You'll probably have tenderness in your neck and a light headache for a bit, but no concussions or neck injuries. I'll have the nurses patch you up and ortho fit your cast."
Kelley followed the doctor's words and checked off an emergency room check up list she often has to go through. She internally groaned about her broken wrist but was relieved to know that that was the worst of her injuries. She looked up to the doctor who she realized was expectantly looking at her, waiting for an answer to a question she must have missed.
"Did you hear me?"
"No, I'm sorry... What was the question?"
"Do you have a pre existing heart condition?"
"Yeah, I have LQTS, Long QT Syndrome"
Dr. Solo nodded knowingly and recorded that on her chart, and took her stethoscope off one more time to listen to Kelley's heart again. She heard the irregular beat and looked at the heart rate monitor seeing the spike and then the regularity of the electrical currents.
"Looks like the adrenaline from the accident gave you a shock. I'm going to have the nurse watch your heart rate, give you doses of beta blockers as needed. I'm sure you've been through this before. It looks like my work here is done but
I'll be back periodically to check up on your chart to ensure you won't turn on me and make me look stupid."
She smiled down at Kelley and noticed something changed in her demeanor.
"What's up? You're okay, I don't lie."
"No, no I believe you its just.. How are my friends? I forgot that they're here and were involved and I was driving and oh my god what if I killed them? What if I killed the people in the other car?" Kelley's heart rate picked up and her chest
started to rapidly rise and fall, her eyes widening and her hands grasping the railings.
"Kelley, KELLEY! Listen to my voice. They're okay. Your friends and the other passenger are okay. No fatalities, no threatening injuries. Just take a few deep breaths, okay? There you go..."
Kelley slowly released her grip on the sheets and breathed deeply to calm her heart rate. She closed her eyes and listened to the doctor instructing her on how to breathe and for how long. Once she felt calm again, she opened her eyes and noticed the blue eyes staring into her. She took sucked a breath in when she noticed how sharp and clear her eyes were. Dr. Solo smiled at her, patted her hand and recorded one last thing on her chart.
"Now, if you would excuse me, I am going to check on your friends and have a nurse come clean you up and give you a report on your friends' statuses. See you soon, try to stay calm so I don't need to bring out my inner zen again, okay?"
And with that Dr. Solo chuckled and left the room, turning to her right to step back into the wing.
She thought about the hazel eyes that shone under the harsh fluorescent lights and the way she seemed to calm her down in fear that she would cause major arrhythmias to occur while she began to panic. She was intrigued that she's another doctor, she looked so young, probably an intern fresh out of med school. She wondered what her specialty is or will be, where she's interning, what happened in the car accident... She made sure she wasn't needed in the ER anymore while all of the victims were stabilized, attended to and only one needed surgery, her first patient she saw that needed a shoulder surgery. She signed off on the couple of charts, found the charge nurse and told her about the patient in Room 6 that needed stitches and to keep an eye on her friends for her. The charge nurse agreed and quickly learned the statuses of the other women to give a brief summary on them for the patient in Room 6.
Dr. Solo walked back to the elevators to return to the attending's lounge before she checked on her patients admitted to the cardiac wing. She sat on the couch shared with her fellow attendings and thought about the accident. More specifically the young doctor in Room 6 who sparked her interest after an intense staring contest and small anxiety episode. She was definitely going to go back down after her rounds to check on her and make sure she was alright. It was out of character for her to check on a non-cardiac patient, but there was a pull towards this Dr. O'Hara and she wasn't going to ignore it. Dr. Hope Solo doesn't really do people or feelings, but the look in those hazel eyes drew her in.
Her pager beeps twice and she sits up after lounging on the couch getting lost in her thoughts looking down at the small, black cube in her hands. "ER Room 6. Non-emergency, asking for you"
A faint smile ghosted Hope's lips as she clipped the pager back onto her scrub bottoms and stood on her Nike clad feet. She left the attending's lounge and quickly made it to the elevators faster than she did before.