chapter twelve

into you like a train.season two, episode six.

Even though all she wanted to do was take a nap, her and the other interns were waiting to see if Derek would choose Addison or Meredith. "When you tell someone , how long exactly does that mean you're supposed to wait?" Cristina wondered aloud as the group watched Meredith drink away her worries at the bar.

"Do you think he's really not coming?" George asked.

"It is getting a little hard to watch," Izzie added, tilting her head to the side.

Cristina shook her head. "It was hard to watch an hour ago. Now it's just pathetic."

"You know she can hear you, right?" Cassie laughed tiredly.

"Who's pathetic?" Meredith questioned, turning around in her seat.

"Told you."

"You, who pretend to be my friends, are calling me pathetic, behind my back, in front of my face," Meredith slurred, glaring at the four. "Why don't you just dump the pigs blood on me now and get it over with?"

"Pigs blood?" George murmured to himself.

The door bell jingled as someone walked into the bar. They looked for the millionth time that night, just to see Tyler the scrub nurse.

"He's really not coming," Meredith said to herself.

Suddenly, everyone's pager went off all at once. "Joe, turn up the TV!" someone shouted as the news reporter spoke urgently. ""

Cristina looked at her pager. "911."

"We just worked a 30 hour shift," Izzie complained.

"I don't have any clean underwear," George added.

"I just performed fucking heart surgery," Cassie groaned, rolling her shoulders back and heading for the door. "You guys do realize there will be multiple traumas, right? As in, surgeries?"

They perked up at her words, standing and quickly making their way to the hospital.

☆

"Dr. Bailey, you paged— ," Cassie cut herself off as she entered the trauma room, shocked at the sight before her. In the middle of the room on an extra large gurney, was two people with a thick pole impaled through the middle of them. "Well that doesn't look comfortable."

"His BP is looking steady at 90 over pal. She's had 2 hypotensive episodes to the low seventies," the paramedic informed her, Burke, and Bailey.

"You couldn't get a saw in there?" Burke wondered.

"Not without moving them."

"Which would have been a very bad idea," Bailey agreed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"They're never going to fit into the CT machine," Cassie observed, sending the patients a soft smile when they made eye contact.

Burke sighed in agreement. "We're gonna be flying blind. Harper, get x-rays and labs, and page me the minute you're done."

"You got it, boss," she nodded, giving him a thumbs up.

"Excuse me?" one of the patients called out, a small blonde girl who couldn't have been more than a few years older than Cassie.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Burke," the attending greeted quickly. "You shouldn't turn your head. You want to try and move as little as possible."

"Oh, okay," she said slowly. "So, are you gonna pull this pole out of us anytime soon?"

"It's a touch uncomfortable," the second patient added, a larger man in his fifties.

Cassie raised her eyebrows at their predicament. "I can imagine."

"I'm sorry, we can't until we get a better look on what's going on internally. But I assure you we will work as quickly as possible."

"Well, in that case, does anybody have a breath mint?" the girl asked, awkwardly grinning at the man connected to her. "For me. Not for you."

"Harper, get them an x-ray," Bailey ordered impatiently, even as Cassie was already beginning to move them.

"What are your names?" the intern smiled kindly.

"Bonnie."

"Tom."

She briefly froze at the girl's answer, but quickly brushed it off.

"I'm Dr. Harper," she introduced herself, doing her best to distract them, "But since you're VIP, you get to call me Cassie."

Bonnie laughed, "VIP, huh? I feel honored."

"Oh, definitely," Cassie laughed, setting up the portable monitor. "I'm just going to bring you guys up for a quick scan, okay?"

Tom shrugged as much as was possible, realizing that the doctor was trying to keep them calm. "Lead the way."

"Move them extremely carefully," Bailey warned, earning a salute from her intern.

☆

As she wheeled Bonnie and Tom through the halls,Cassie was desperately trying to find a way to cure their anxiety. "Is there anyone you'd like me to call?" she wondered.

"No," Tom shook his head, "They called my wife from the ambulance."

"And my fiancé," Bonnie added. "They're flying down from Vancouver together."