Make Time For Me

This was an emergency surgery. She needed a consent form signed.

“You are nineteen, aren’t you?”

She nodded.

“Graduating high school in a few months?”

She nodded again, tears running down her cheeks.

“Don’t cry, honey. We’ll handle this. I promise, we’ll handle this. You’ll be fine. You’re going to be just fine. Now, look, this is going to be a little complicated, but there’s paperwork. I need you to sign the consent forms and then I need to get you into surgery. This is what has happened.”

Olivia explained, as simply as possible, trying to reassure herself, too. She hadn’t done this before. She had only assisted. But there was nobody else, and this needed to be done. She was losing blood – she was losing too much blood. It had to be done as soon as possible.

Olivia hoped against hope, even as Nikki was getting prepped and being rolled into the OR, that Dr. Heart would come. But she didn’t.

“Liza went into shock. They’re working on her,” the anesthesiologist told her.

She had to put it out of her mind. She had to have faith and put it out of her mind.

“All right. Then I have to do this.”

Nikki was told to count backwards from ten, and soon, it was time.

“All right. Making the incision.”

She trusted her training and worked as quickly and as steadily as she could. She was right, of course. The diagnosis had been straightforward.

The damage was too bad to try to save the fallopian tube. But the bleeding was controlled quickly, Olivia felt herself find that steady place that was almost like a Zen-like state as she worked. She was focused, aware of everything, and completely under control.

“Stitching up,” she said, finally, and she did that, too. Vitals were steady. Her blood pressure was normal again. She was no longer pale. She hadn’t needed a transfusion, thank heavens for that.

She had done it.

She had saved her first life.

It was done.

“Move her to recovery. Monitor her. Let me know if there’s any change.”

“Good work, Dr. Leggett.”

She smiled, finally.

“Nikki is going to be fine. She will need a few days of rest, but I’m glad we could do it without opening her up. It’s just three small incisions to worry about. She won’t have any trouble hiding that from her parents.”

“I know her parents. They would probably kill her if they found out,” said the nurse.

“Then it’s a good thing nothing went wrong and we don’t have to tell them anything. I’ll make sure she has access to counseling, too. She needs to dump that loser boyfriend of hers – Mike, she said.”

“He is just like her parents. Nikki has applied for scholarships. She wants to get out of here. My sister is one of Nikki’s friends. She’ll have support.”

Olivia nodded. But she was only half listening now, because Liza – how was Liza?

“Rose is in neonatal. Jason took her about two hours ago. She’s fine. She’s in the incubator, but she’s fine. Her lungs and heart are both healthy. She will need care, of course. She will have to stay here for a few weeks.”

“Liza?”

“She went into shock during surgery. Dr. Heart pulled her back. She’s getting sewn up now. She’s going to be fine.”

“Oh, thank heavens. Thank heavens for that. She’s going to be fine. They’re both going to be fine.”

“You were in there for a few hours. You should get some rest, Dr. Leggett. You did great.”

Olivia smiled, thanked the nurse, and she tried to take her advice, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t rest. She was too full of energy.

She had done it! It had been her first time flying solo, and she had done it. She had done a great job. She had done the diagnosis quickly, she had made the decisions that needed to be made, and she had done everything that she had to do.

It was a rush. It was a huge rush.

She needed to talk to somebody who knew. Everybody would be in emergency, of course, dealing with whatever came in.

Olivia tried calling Cara, but there was no answer. Busy, she supposed.

But she couldn’t rest. She couldn’t relax.

She needed…

Where was Jason? She needed to talk to him. She needed him.

She tried calling him, but there was no answer, either.

Olivia considered going down to emergency and working a while longer, but if they needed her, they would page her. She considered going to neonatal and seeing how Rose was doing, but that wasn’t what she needed to do, either. She needed to share this feeling, this triumph.

Adrenaline was still pumping through her. She needed to calm down. No, she needed to ride the wave.

The wind had picked up outside. It was clearly audible as she finally headed towards the break room. It got louder and louder as she got closer to it. Obviously, the building was not as well insulated in the staff areas. That was fine.

She was riding a high, she realized. She would crash soon, but for the moment, she was riding a high, and she needed…

She needed Jason. She needed his hands on her. She needed to have him show her how much he wanted her, because she had saved a life, and she had done it on her own.

With some help, of course.

She opened the door to the break room and heard thunder crashing, so loud it was all around her. There was somebody already there.

Jason.

Well.

That was handy.