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The night shift was different from days, though it was not any less busy. Everyone in the trauma room moved with the same practiced rhythm, shouting orders, stats and updates. Javadi stared at the x-ray of the head one of the nurses had taken, Shen appeared beside her, the casualness still there, but he was firmer now, seemingly more focused.
“Someone page neuro now,” he ordered, stepping away again, everyone continued to move, doing their best to save the man’s life. Intracranial bleeding, the pressure through the roof probably at this point, first Walsh had arrived, hands moving steady as she decompressed the pneumothorax along with Whitaker.
Then the door swung open and in came someone Javadi or Whitaker had never seen before: green scrubs, a surgery cap with a brain printed on it, a pair of surgical loupes dangling around her neck.
“What have we got?” she asked, snapping on gloves as she stepped around the patient, moving towards the head.
“Intercranial bleed, pressure probably through the roof,” Shen said, pointing at the x-ray. She looked at it for a moment, then nodded.
“Okay,” she moved, “Fucking hell Shen you have to page me earlier for shit like this,” she cursed as she started ordering disinfectant and someone to sheer the head. Both Javadi and Whitaker stared at each other in horror as she slipped into a gown. “We’re doing a craniotomy,” she snapped, “Ellis glove up,” everyone moved quickly after that. Shen watched as everything was prepared and Ellis stood beside the neuro surgery consult.
After that it turned tense in the room, a heavy silence settling in over the sound of flesh being cut and moved, then with a sickening pop after what felt like endless drilling and sawing the piece of skull came loose.
“Alright, that gives us some time, but we have to stop the bleeding,” she said, her tone sounding more than strained as she moved backwards, “Pack him up and take him upstairs now,” she snapped off her gloves and then the gown. The nurses did as she said, moving quickly so that he could be taken to surgery as soon as possible.
The room began to empty out, Whitaker and Javadi following Ellis out of the trauma bay, both of them not quite sure what they had just witnessed.
“Who was that?” Javadi asked, glancing over her shoulder as she saw the woman standing by the red telephone in the trauma bay.
“That was the neuro dragon,” Ellis laughed, shaking her head, “She is an R5 in neuro surgery, one of the more talented people you will meet,” Ellis leaned against the nurses station, starting to type away on one of the computers.
As the hit and run victim was being rolled out of the ED and up towards surgery, a chance of recovery in sight for the man thanks to all of their efforts. Javadi and Whitaker stood beside Ellis while they watched something unfold that could be loosely described as nightmare inducing. It started once the R5 and Shen walked out of the trauma bay. Shen casually strutting through the ED while the neuro resident seemed to be on the verge of committing murder.
Neither of them had believed that anything they saw would be worse than the MCI, it had been horrifying and traumatic. But the ED proved them wrong many times before and it seemed that tonight was no different. This scene felt like some kind of psychological thriller despite it not being unusual to see angry people in the ED.
They watched it unfold like a scene out of a drama. The neuro resident was fuming. The anger practically rolled off of her in waves and through the ED and it felt like the only two people that really cared for the spectacle unfolding were Whitaker and Javadi. The rest of the ED personnel simply went on about their business. It was scary and both of the med students were concerned for Dr. Shen’s personal welfare as the woman looked like she was about to bite his head off.
„I swear to god Shen, when will you start listening to what I am saying!“ she snapped as they walked through the hub, the green scrubs she was wearing giving off an eery glow in the fluorescent light, standing out against the black scrubs of Shen. „You have to page earlier!“ she grabbed him by the arm, making the attending stop in his movements, though the ease with which he carried himself did not fade.
Whitaker and Javadi flinched slightly, both of them looking at each other before looking back at the two older doctors.
„We paged you when we had done the preliminary assessment, that is when we are supposed to page,“ he said in a relaxed, matter of fact tone, beginning to slurp on his coffee while looking at her directly. If it was any other person they would think that he was trying to taunt her, make her more angry than she already was.
She looked like she was about to slap the coffee out of his hand, grab him by the scrubs and shake him.
„You paged me almost ten minutes after the man came in! You page a heads up the moment an injury like that is called in by med command so that someone can go on stand by!“ she snapped, arms crossed over her chest.
„Med command did not make it clear that the head and spinal injury were that extensive,“ Shen simply answered as he leaned against the nurses station, giving her a small smile. It was like he was disarming her with every single word he said, slowly picking apart the anger with his calm.
„You are horrible,“ the woman seemed to deflate, shaking her head as she looked at him, arms still crossed over her chest. Brows pulled together in a frown.
„And yet you love me,“ he hummed, taking another sip from his coffee, shrugging as she shook her head. A huff escaped her lips, then an incredulous laugh came from her as she continued shaking her head.
“Sometimes,” she rolled her eyes, now a small smile tugging on the corners of her mouth. Shen grinned at her, shrugging slightly, as he leaned closer to her. It was unsettling, seeing her mood shift back to seemingly happy so quickly.
“Ew, you have horrible coffee breath,” she pulled away, looking at him with furrowed brows, disgust evident on her features. Shen rolled his eyes at that.
“It’s not that bad,” he grumbled before pecking her lips quickly. She laughed, shaking her head again, tilting her head to the side.
“Now, I gotta go upstairs and clean up your mess,” she grumbled, shaking her head “Can’t believe I don’t have to clean up after you at home, but at work I do,” she clicked her tongue, turning around and waving at him.
“Hey!” Shen called out, pouting playfully, “That's not nice!” he laughed slightly as she walked away.
“See you later,” she called out, laughing slightly as the doors of the elevator closed after her. Shen shook his head, a small smile on his lips as he joined Whitaker and Javadi where they were standing at the nurses station.
“That is your girlfriend?” Whitaker mumbled, mildly confused and impressed at the same time. At the question Shen laughed loudly, shaking his head no.
“No Whitaker, that is my wife, actually,” with that he was gone again, leaving Whitaker and Javadi gaping at each other in disbelief.