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I had this hardcore professor in med school, and she seemed invincible. Then one day, she had to have her gallbladder removed, and the surgery killed her. Her platelets stopped clotting, which caused her to bleed out on the table. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. We surgeons call it, “ The perfect storm.” Funny. Never thought it would happen to me.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“Not used to it yet,” I ask Fray, watching her idly play with her new engagement ring.
“It just feels really weird on my finger,” she says while chuckling, “I just keep running it into stuff.”
“Just pin it to your scrub top.” I advise her.
“Oh cool,” she exclaims excitedly, “Thanks,” she says as she walks away from the desk.
A few minutes after Fray leaves, Jace comes out of one of the emergency rooms asking for help moving the babies in the NICU someplace else.
“I thought Alec was over seeing this,” I say worriedly, “Has anyone seen him?”
~~~~~~~~~~~
As the storm rages on outside, all of a sudden there is huge crash outside of the hospital doors. A bus has tipped over in the middle of the road, and begins to catch on fire. Stunned, I stood still for a moment. Then, along with the other doctors, I ran to the crash to help all of the wounded.
Getting out as many people as possible is my biggest priority but, I still can't help but wonder where Alec is. I’ve been paging him all night, and he won’t respond. Maybe he is caught up in the NICU, or maybe his prosthetic is bothering him again.
“Bane, how many more casualties do you see left,” yelled Aldertree.
“None but we have to go, this thing is about to explode,” I yell back heading inside.
Back inside, I begin assessing the wounds of my patients from the crash.
“Where is Jace and Aldertree, that fire out there is getting bigger by the minute,” I say in frustration.
After bandaging the patients’ lacerations, I head back outside to help Out Aldertree with the woman who was still trapped on the bus when I realize, Jace is nowhere in sight. Oh God. He is still at the bus.
“Do you see him,” I yell out to anyone who can hear over all the commotion. “Wait, is that him behind the bus?”
Suddenly, we’re all screaming at the top of our lungs tying to ensure that Jace will hear our cries, and come out in time. Then, with Jace nowhere in sight, the bus explodes in flames. All that can be heard is Fray’s cries when amazingly, Jace comes in sight with a little girl in his arms, both seeming to be unscathed.
~~~~~~~~~~~
After everything calmed down, and after Fray’s outburst, I decided to pay my husband a visit in the NICU. He was talking to the male pediatric surgeon, who decided to visit for a special case. Dr. Morgenstern, I believe his name is.
“Ugh babe, you will not believe what I have gone through tonight,” I say exasperated.
“Hey Magnus,” he says calmly.
“Hey,” I reply back.
I look around the room to see what could have possibly kept my husband MIA all night long, when I see it. Alec’s ring pinned to the scrub top Dr. Morgenstern was wearing.
“Hey, is that— Alec’s ring pinned to ... your scrub top,” I question Dr. Morgenstern.
“Yeah. Oh, I mean it must be from when we had a baby that projectile vomited all over me,” he answered.
“Alec was nice enough to let me borrow some of his scrubs,” he finished, handing Alec back his wedding ring.
Then it hit me, Alec cheated on me. He had sex with another man. He SLEPT with another man. He willingly laid down with someone else. I share a look with my husband and now see a stranger. My Alec would never do something like this to me. He would never betray my trust like that ... until now.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“I thought—I thought we were past all of the hard stuff,” I cry out to Alec, “I thought—I thought we were finally good.”
“We were. I mean we are,” he says in a steady voice.
“We’re married!”
“ I know.”
“We ... oh God, we have a child,” I yell back at him.
“I know!”
“How could you do this,” I cry out to him, “To me ... to us?”
“I don’t know ... except I did,” he stutters out.
“After all that has happened this year,” I scream, “Everything we’ve been through, everything we’ve survived!”
“The hospital’s bankruptcy, Catarina, the plane crash—“
“Oh you weren’t on the plane, Magnus,” he yells abruptly interrupting me, “You were not in the woods and you did not hear Izzy crying out for Simon, and Catarina moaning in pain, or hearing me scream in pain!”
“You weren’t there, and you keep acting like you were Magnus, “ And it wasn’t your experience!”
“I lost Catarina, you almost died, you—“
“I lost Catarina, you almost died,” Alec repeats, “You weren’t on the freaking plane Magnus!” He yells at me. “Do you want it, the street cred, the badge of honor, the warrior wounds?”
“Then great. Stick out your leg, and I will go grab a bone saw, and let’s even the score,” he finishes.
As the rain continues to pour outside, and the tears flow down my face, Alec begins to let out a hearty sob. I watch him as he stands there crying ... heartbroken.
“It always comes back to the leg,” I finally say.
“I trusted you more than anything, more than anyone in my life,” Alec cries to me, “ And you decided to cut it off.”
“To save your life!”
“You didn’t lose anything ... I did ... I did!”
“Apparently, I lost you Alec.”
There we stood in the attending’s lounge of the hospital, utterly heartbroken. What has happened to our family, how will this affect our son...? Can we ever come back from this?
~~~~~~~~~~~
There’s an end to every storm. Once all of the trees have been uprooted, once all of the houses have been ripped apart. The wind will hush, the clouds will part, the rain ... will stop. The skies will clear in an instant, and only then, in those quiet moments after the storm do we learn, who was strong enough to survive it.