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This had to be the day from hell. Y/n had stayed up the entire night before finishing last-minute details for a work project and didn’t get a wink of sleep until around 2 AM. She ended up completely sleeping in while her husband, Jack, kissed her sleeping form goodbye to go on a SWAT shift. She woke up to her latest possible alarm in a cold and empty bed.
To make things worse, this was the day of her big presentation. People were relying on her to lead the meeting on the said work project. She rushed to get ready. But there was a difficult balance between a full face of makeup and an impossible time crunch.
She ran out the door, but then forgot her keys. She ran back out… then realized she forgot her laptop charger. Then ran back out and growled in frustration upon realizing she forgot her wallet. Definitely not something she wanted to leave behind.
By the time she sat in the car, ready to pull out, she was sweating profusely. The heat outside was heavy and dry, and the running back and forth had caused stains to appear under her arms.
Naturally, she cranked the AC, turning the knob as she backed the car out…
Holy fuck- hot air blasted right at her face. Her brows scrunched. What? It was on the lowest possible setting it could be. That didn’t make sense.
She tried turning it on and off. Ensuring that it wasn’t on the heater by accident. Pressing buttons and turning the knob back and forth. All while trying to drive. But nothing worked. It just blasted hot air that made the car go from hot to sweltering. Sweat dripped down her face, and her lip began to quiver, knowing her makeup was going to be ruined.
With a deep breath, she turned the AC off and rolled down the window. Goodbye, fancy curled hair. But the whipping wind outside wasn’t that much better. The temperature was pretty much the same inside and out.
She turned on the radio to try to distract herself.
“This is radio KISS 44.6. And we’re in the middle of this huge heat wave-“
“YOU THINK?” She grumbled to herself as she stopped at a red light.
She had managed to stop at every red light on the way to the office. It was as if god was throwing every sign at her not to do this stupid presentation.
As she got closer to the office, her eyes started to get really dry. Her vision blurred. So she blinked hard to get the focus back. Damn contacts.
Her mouth was incredibly dry as well. Her tongue felt swollen against the roof of her mouth. A sudden sense of self-awareness overtook her. God, let’s hope she didn’t have bad breath before the meeting.
Her head started to pound. She took a wavering breath, feeling that something was wrong. But she shook it off. Now was not the time for health anxiety. Once she got to the office, she’d chug a water bottle and call it go time.
But by Murphy’s law, naturally, the only parking spot available was the furthest possible one. That’s what I get for being late. Her mind kept replaying that sentiment as she made the trek toward the building, body tingling. It felt like she couldn’t think or process anything going on around her.
Her eyes slowly became half-lidded as a wave of nausea overtook her. She gagged a cough, but fortunately, nothing came out. She didn’t really have time for breakfast that morning. The woman was set on her goal- making it to this goddamn work meeting.
She was so set in fact, that when she finally reached the front of the building, she didn’t realize that the world around her was blacking out. And she was fully collapsing to the ground with no one to catch her.
Dr. Robby had been having a pretty normal morning. With the heat wave, he had just about as many dehydration and heat stroke victims as he figured he would, and it wasn’t even noon. He was in the middle of convincing a woman that an IV does not inject microchips when Dr. Mohan knocked on the door frame.
“Dana said to tell you there’s an incoming trauma. ETA less than five minutes. Some friends from SWAT got very ambitious. GSW.”
Robby clapped his hands, “Great. I’ll finish up here and get to lecture Jack about him and all his adrenaline junkie friends.”
She nodded and walked away, leaving Robby to convince this woman for another four minutes.
A few minutes later, he walked out to see Jack pumping an AMBU bag on a man being rolled in on a stretcher. Both in full-camo uniform, they were surrounded by EMTs. Robby walked up, helping take the stretcher from the medics.
“Take him to the trauma bay,” Robby instructed the nurses who took over for the EMTs.
Jack looked to Robby, “This is Peter. GSW in the right shoulder. Has an entry and exit wound. Carotid’s a little tachy, and had to give him an AMBU bag after he started to hyperventilate.”
“Hi, Peter. You got lucky today, having Dr. Abbot by your side.”
The man blinked hard as if to say, ‘Yes, that’s true.’ Robby looked to Jack, who was sweating much more than his usual, and the guy sweated a ton on the regular.
“You been drinking water?”
“Of course. How do you think I can sweat through this goddamn jacket?”
They chuckled and rolled the man into the bay.
Mid-bleed, Langdon was able to take over for Robby as he seemed to be pulled in every other direction. He peeled his bloody gloves off and threw them away as he rushed out to see a woman being rushed in from the ambulance bay. His attention immediately piqued. She looked… familiar.
He started to rush forward as he would any other patient. But as he got closer, his footsteps quickened because this wasn’t just any other patient. This was Jack’s wife, and she lay unconscious on a stretcher being pushed. Her hair was drenched, presumably from sweat and paramedics spraying cold water on her. Ice packs covered her neck, chest, and stomach.
“Shit.” He said, getting to her side.
One of the paramedics began to speak, “This is-”
“Y/n Abbot. 25-year-old female.”
McKay, who had taken over for one of the EMTs, looked at him, confused. She didn’t even register the last name at first.
“Do you know her?”
Robby’s brows raised, and he hissed a sigh, “This is Dr. Abbot’s wife.”
“Oh shit. Do you want me to grab him?”
He looked over and saw Jack in the middle of giving compressions to Peter. If he took him, they’d be left with no one but Langdon. While he was sure he could handle it… that was an all-hands-on-deck situation. And he knew that Jack would come sprinting if he learned.
“No. Don’t tell him yet. We don’t need more chaos and a husband working on his wife.”
The paramedic continued, “Her coworkers found her unconscious outside their office. No idea how long she had been out there. Heat stroke. She was at 105, and we got it down to 104 through ice bags, but she hasn’t budged since being admitted. Laceration on the right side of her scalp from the fall. Bad bleed, but the wound’s shallow. Surprisingly, no indentation.”
“Doesn’t stop the possible concussion. Was she conscious and speaking at all?”
The paramedic shook his head, “No. She’s been unconscious from arrival to here.”
“Shit. Perlah, Princess, get an ice bath ready in South 20,” Robby called out.
The women nodded and started prepping the room. They didn’t necessarily have ice baths at the ready, but they did have the ability to fill a body bag with ice. They set up the blue bag on the bed and rushed to grab ice from a freezer nearby.
They wheeled her in just as the two nurses were setting the bottom bed of ice.
“Perfect, okay. We’re gonna lift her and move on three, ready? One two three-”
Everyone moved her onto the ice, so Perlah and Princess could overlay ice on top of her. Robby stepped back and ran his hands down his face. He looked over to see Jack and Langdon directly across the pitt. They were focused on stopping the bleeding and seemingly starting to finish up. Shit.
“We need to hustle people. Start checking core temp again. We’ve only got around thirty minutes to get her to 102 before organ failure.”
Organ failure. He didn’t want to be the one to tell Jack this. He didn’t want to tell him at all, actually. But part of him knew that if he didn’t tell him, he’d hate him for a long time… and it’d be even worse if this went awry.
McKay took her hand out of the ice, “She’s at 104.4 right now.”
Robby barely registered it. He wrung his hands behind his neck.
She walked up to him with raised brows, “You know someone who could have her entire medical history? Someone who can answer for her? Abbot.”
“Yeah.” Robby looked down at his shoes and shook his head, “Yeah. I know.”
“We need to tell him.”
He looked over at Jack and Langdon doing some sort of insane procedure. Par for the course of those two. He shook his head, then looked back at Cass.
“I don’t think you understand how fragile this is, McKay.”
Her head bobbled as she stared at him in disbelief, her red ponytail swishing.
“I’m not saying he scrubs in. I’m saying we need to ask him questions because his wife can’t do so.”
Robby tried to hush his voice, but it came out in his upset growl, “Someone else’s life is in his hands, and if we tell him right now, he will let it slip through his fingers.”
“Well, her life is in our hands for the next twenty-five minutes, and if she turns out to be allergic to a medication we push-“
“Fuck, McKay! Let him finish up on that patient, and then we’ll tell him!” He exclaimed, rubbing his eyes.
Perlah and Princess sent each other a wide-eyed look. They’d be talking about this in Tagalog later for sure.
McKay put her hands in the air. “Okay. Fine.”
Robby ran his hands down his face.
“Keep monitoring her. Every few minutes. If she’s not lowering in ten, we need to prep for the worst. Keep the fans going and fresh ice and ice packs added.” He instructed McKay before heading out.
“Got it.” She said, knowing at the very least, he was right about the treatment.
Robby stormed out a bit more abruptly than he meant to. He had to check on other patients and needed to get his mind off Y/n and Jack until the time passed.
Ten minutes later, Robby came back around to her room. McKay, Javadi, Princess, and Perlah were all doting on her. Perla was switching out an IV bag.
“Update?” Robby crossed his arms.
“She’s still 103.8. Far from 102.” Javadi said, “We’ve given fluids, but she started seizing and had to push Keppra.”
“Fuck. Okay. Her brain overheated, but hopefully, we may get some meaningful movement here soon. At least she’s cooling down, that’s what? .6 degrees in ten minutes? If we keep on this track, we should be okay.”
McKay stood up from her bedside. “Update on Abbot and his patient?”
“I uh- I haven’t checked.”
“Are you kidding me?” Her eyes went wide at him.
“Not my patient, not my monkeys. I will ask Langdon for a status once we get her temperature under control.”
McKay scoffed in complete disbelief. Just then, Mohan peeked her head through the door.
“Dr. McKay, we need you back in West 14.” She said, then looked around, sensing the tense atmosphere. “Do you have a moment-”
“Yes. Yes. Dr. Robby, care to take over?”
He nodded, “Of course.”
She slipped out past Robby and started speed walking away, leaving Mohan to catch up with her. Her sneakers squeaked against the linoleum.
“What’s going on?” Dr. Mohan held her clipboard to her chest.
“That heat stroke victim? That’s Abbot’s wife.”
They both immediately turned to see Abbot watching their trauma patient get wheeled away to the ICU, then turned back to each other.
Dr. Mohan’s eyes widened. “Have you told him?”
McKay’s jaw ticked. She raised her hands in innocent defeat.
“I’m about to.”
Jack Abbot had just finished a miraculous pull-through. Peter had started to lose too much blood due to damage to an artery, but he and Langdon managed to use a balloon to pressurize it. He took a moment to catch his breath and throw off his camo zip-up, leaving him in just his black T-Shirt. He’d have to get back to HQ and report that Peter was alright. A full write-up and a nap were waiting for him at home before he’d have to come back to the pitt for the night shift.
Just then, Dr. Mohan walked up to him. He brightened a little at the familiar face, but her face was incredibly stoic. Did something happen to her?
“Dr. Abbot. I need you to talk to Dr. McKay.”
His brows furrowed, “Can she not come up to me herself?”
“Just come with me and don’t talk to Robby.”
He followed her fast footsteps as she led him to the side of the nurses' station that couldn’t be seen from the South wing. He tried to look around for Robby, but was shielded by the walls and columns. For the most part, he figured it was just Mohan dealing with Robby breathing down her neck again. The guy was way too hard on her. So sometimes Jack lent an ear to listen.
“What’s going on?” He asked as they approached Dr. McKay. That’s when he slowly started to realize that maybe this wasn’t just about Robby’s teaching techniques.
The red-headed woman clapped her hands gently. “Dr. Abbot, I need to tell you that your wife is in this ED right now.”
His heart completely dropped into his stomach. His mouth completely dried up as he blinked, surely not hearing her right. This couldn’t be true. He had to be hearing things after the adrenaline rush of being shot at. She wasn’t supposed to be there. It couldn’t be her usual dropping by to give him food mid shift because, well, he wasn’t supposed to be there at all.
“What?”
“She’s in South 20, right now. Her co-workers found her outside unconscious. Heat stroke. We’ve got her in an ice bath and her temperatures coming down, but it’s slow.” McKay explained.
He immediately started trying to look over her shoulder, trying to get a better vantage point of South 20. He couldn’t get a view, so he started walking past McKay. His walk at first was slow, but then he started to nearly sprint. The women ran after him as he
“How long has she been here? How come nobody fucking told me?”
He burst into the room and immediately covered his mouth at the sight. His beautiful wife lay unconscious in the ice, most of her clothes off. Her skin pale and her face covered in dried blood. He choked. And after everything that man has seen, it was hard to get him to react this strongly.
Javadi immediately stood up with wide eyes as if she had just been caught. Robby pinched the bridge of his nose.
Abbot crossed his arms, his horrified eyes morphed into anger. He slowly shook his head. His jaw clenched.
“I need patient status right now.”
Robby reached out, putting his hands on Abbot’s shoulders, “Jack, the best thing for you to do right now is to sit by her side and not-”
“Just tell me the fucking status of my goddamn wife!”
Javadi spoke up in a shaky voice, “She’s down to 103.2 from 104.8. She started seizing, but we gave her Keppra, and she responded positively. Her pupils reacted, and we’re waiting for meaningful-” She saw the disapproving look from Robby, so her voice trailed off, “Movement…”
Jack didn’t even look at Robby as he shrugged him off. He pointed to Javadi. “I want 2,000 milliliters of saline delivered. Her seizure could be from losing electrolytes from sweating.”
“You’re not even on shift, Jack!” Robby exclaimed.
“Scrub me in. I’m not just gonna sit around while my wife’s kidneys fail and her brain swells.”
Princess stood on the sidelines getting a surgery gown for Abbot ready, but Robby pointed to her.
“Princess, do not get that dressing gown. Jack, sit down. If something happens, you do not want that responsibility to be on you.”
Jack got slightly in his face.
“So you want it to be on you? My best friend, who didn’t tell me that my wife has been here the entire time? When I had to learn from fucking Dr. McKay and Dr. Mohan?” He said through gritted teeth.
His chest heaved like he would cry any second. His heart was held together by the tiniest string, and at any moment it was ready to snap. Robby shook his head.
“I’ll give the order for the saline, but you can go sit down. I’m not budging on this.”
Just then, Javadi looked down and noticed her hand starting to twitch and move. Reaching out. Reaching to grip the blue medical bag.
“We have movement!”
Jack glared at Robby, but shook his head in defeat. “Give the order.”
Robby sighed and gave out the order for the saline. Perlah was already on it.
Jack rushed over to her side as McKay ran in and gave him a chair to sit in next to her. He noticed her pointer and middle fingers twitching. Her wrist struggled to pull up. He reached down to hold it.
“Hey. Hey, hey, hey, sweetheart. I’m right here.” He didn’t take his eyes off her, “Lighten the sedative. I wanna see if she can squeeze my hand. Give a neurotest.”
At first, Robby didn’t say anything. With crossed arms, he had a look in his eyes as if he were thinking it over. Perlah looked to him for approval, and after a moment of consideration, he nodded.
“Yeah. Do it.”
Perlah shot an activator into the IV, and after a few minutes, her eyes began to waver. Her head began to shake side to side. Slurring words stumbled out of her mouth.
Javadi shot up excited, “102! We can move her.”
“Perfect.” Robby called out, moving over to her side, “Let’s get a fresh bedside and dry her off.”
Jack squeezed her hand, “Good job, baby. Coming back to us.”
She made a half-conscious noise before her eyes grew completely heavy again. He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it, thankful to whatever god out there that her temperature had made it down in time.
An hour later, she woke up in a proper ICU bed. Her entire body ached like she had been hit by a truck. All her muscles felt wrung out to the point where even breathing felt like a challenging task. Her eyes fluttered open and then closed again at the bright hospital lights. She grumbled before forcing herself to look around.
“Hi, sweetheart,” Jack said in the gentlest voice he could muster.
She looked over at him and blinked, confused. Last she remembered… she was heading to work. How did she get here? And why did her husband look so… fragile? The bags under his eyes looked heavier than usual, and he sat hunched over as if his bones were too heavy for him to bear.
He reached out and squeezed her hand.
“Can you say something for me?”
“What happened?”
He put her hand to his forehead and shut his eyes tight, grateful to hear her voice. He brought it to his mouth to kiss it again, then looked to her.
“You had a bad case of heat stroke.” His voice cracked, “I don’t even know how you managed to get such a bad case.”
She swallowed, slowly putting the pieces together.
“I was running late… And I kept running back and forth to the car cause I kept forgetting stuff. Then- then my car AC broke. Just blasting hot air.”
His eyes widened in horror, “Did you roll the window down?”
“Mmhm.” She nodded, then winced. It felt like her brain was weighing down her skull with a pounding headache. She sniffled, “Then I had to park in the far lot today… And I felt a little weird… Now I’m here.”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” He reached out and brushed her messy hair back out of her face. He tucked a few strands behind her ear. “It’s been… It’s been a rough day, huh?”
Her eyes suddenly popped open, and she tried to sit up.
“THE PRESENTATION. I don’t know if my boss got the files to-”
Jack immediately stood up and pressed a calloused palm against her shoulder, gently guiding her back to lie back down.
“I don’t think your boss is worried about that. They’re probably more worried about a personal injury suit.” He reassured, “You can contact them after you get better, and if they don’t understand, you shouldn’t be working for them anyway.”
She slowly nodded with a pathetic, “Ow.”
There was a moment of silence. The hospital beeps and the whir of the air conditioning were the only noise filling the air. Jack took a shaky breath, trying to exhale all his worries away, but failing.
“You gave us quite the scare.” His voice cracked, “I-I was in the ED because of a SWAT shift. I didn’t even know you were here until McKay told me. And it was… a close call, sweetheart. A real close call.”
She melted at his words. It was a rare sight to see Jack choked up. She’d only seen it a handful of times before. Even in his darkest moments, he preferred to cry to himself, not in front of her. She squeezed his hand.
“W-why were you in the ED? Are you okay?”
He let out a gruff laugh, “You’re seriously worrying about me when you’re the one who passed out?”
She nodded, and he sighed with a small resting smile now. His love apparent in his softened eyes.
“I’m okay. There was a hostage situation, and my buddy Peter was sent in to negotiate. Came out with a bullet through the shoulder.” He explained, “I was out of the line of fire. So nothing scary for me.”
“And Peter?”
“Peter’s okay too.” He reassured, “You hungry? The doctors are gonna give you a bunch of tests soon for your blood and kidneys, and you’ll need to eat after.”
She shrugged, “I’m really thirsty… And exhausted.”
“I bet, sweetheart.” He stood up and leaned down to kiss her forehead, “I’ll go grab you some water.”
Suddenly, she tugged at his hand, “Don’t leave.”
He froze, looking down at her nervous expression. The quiver in her lip and the way her brows slanted down. There was no way he was gonna leave his girl like this.
“Okay.” He sat down at her bedside again, “I’ll just text Robby to send a nurse, okay?”
“Okay…”
He sent the quick text on his phone, then pocketed it in his cargo pants.
“Rest. I’ll be here the whole time… Quite literally, I have a shift here in six hours.”
She huffed, crossing her arms, “Then you should sleep too.”
“Fine. Fine, we’ll take a nap together. How’s that?”
And when she nodded with a small smile, he scoffed playfully and shook his head.
“Always worrying about everyone else.” He murmured under his breath, making her giggle.
Shifting her back down against the stiff hospital bed, she did her best to get comfy. And once she found a decent spot, she looked over at Jack with half-lidded eyes. He was in the middle of trying to configure some sort of sleeping position in an armchair that looked practically plastic.
He eventually leaned back and crossed his arms against his chest. Shutting his eyes, he tilted his head back. She was glad to see him somewhat comfortable.
“I love you, Jack.”
One eye opened in a comedic fashion, making her giggle before his head lulled to face her. He looked at her with exhausted eyes.
“I love you too, sweetheart.”
Satisfied, she finally closed her eyes again and let herself succumb to sleep, knowing she was always safe under Jack’s watch.