“Crash cart!” Jade yelled across the room. A group of residents and nurses grabbed the cart and started to push it toward them as Jade cut open Hannah’s blouse. When she looked up again, Lillian was there assisting with the code. The world almost felt as though it coalesced around her. Lillian’s bright eyes read the situation without error, and she jumped into action without thought. The machines around her were screaming, the nurses rushing around with needles and bags. Within seconds, an IV had been started and a bag of saline hung to work medication through the patient.
“Push the epi,” Jade said and pulled the syringe out and injected it straight into the IV line.
“She’s in V-fib,” someone shouted.
Lillian grabbed the paddles for the defibrillator as one of the residents fit a ventilation bag over Hannah’s mouth and started pushing air into her lungs.
“You don’t get to die today,” Jade said to the woman lying unconscious on the bed. “Stephanie needs you, and so does Jasmine. You fight, Hannah.” She looked up at Lillian and nodded quickly.
“Charge to 200,” Lillian ordered and placed the paddles against Hannah’s chest. “Clear!”
Hannah’s body convulsed as the electricity shot through her, the machine beeped twice, but the pulse fell away quickly.
“250!” Lillian shouted. Jade could see that she was just as determined as Jade to make sure this little girl had both of her mothers by the end of the night. “Clear!”
Hannah’s body convulsed again, but the pulse didn’t hold. Jade watched the lines on the monitor as they danced around.
“Again!” Lillian shouted.
“Wait!” Jade shouted as people moved all around Hannah’s inert body.
“No!” Lillian said, “Charge to 250!”
“Wait!” Jade shouted and stood up to push the paddles away from Hannah’s chest. Her heartbeat jolted, then pulsed again, then again until it established a regular rhythm. The room slowed down and took a collective breath. Lillian rounded on Jade with a look of pure vehemence, but Jade didn’t care at the moment. Hannah was stable again, and she needed to make sure she stayed that way.
Lillian put the paddles back in their tray and left the room without a word to Jade, but for some reason this only intrigued Jade more. She watched her cross the room, her footsteps heavy and her hips flowing with each determined stride. Heat flared through her again, but she tried to shake it off and turned her attention back to Hannah.
She watched Hannah’s vital signs and made sure that everything was being done to keep her stable. After, she ordered some tests to try and determine what had caused it in the first place, but she was sure that the stress of Stephanie’s accident was the tipping point.
Still, she was alive and little Jasmine was still going to have both of her mothers by the time this damned storm ended. “We need to find her a room, and somewhere for Jasmine to sleep for a while,” Jade said to the room. The lead nurse looked at her and nodded.
“Should we call social services?” she asked.
Jade shook her head. “Not yet,” she said. “See if Alicia can step in until one of her parents are able to be brought back around.”
“Okay,” the nurse answered. Alicia was a social worker that stayed on the hospital staff, and Jade was comfortable with her being willing to bend the rules just a bit for tonight, but she would make sure the child was looked after, and she would push the envelope if it became necessary to call in help.
Jade left the room and headed to her office. The intensity of that battle had taken more out of her than she realized. She sat behind her desk for a moment, watching her computer monitor for updates, but she allowed herself a moment to relax. The corners of her lips curled into a slight smile as she thought about Lillian. She was probably very angry with her. It wasveryunprofessional to physically stop another doctor, Jade was sure, but she also knew that another shock was as likely to kill Hannah as not. Lillian struggled with Jade’s intuition, but Jade always trusted it; so far it had not led her wrong.
Though it wasn’t just dumb luck. Jade quickly assessed everything around her, processing it and making decisions that others seemed to feel was rash. Jade’s intuition was a combination of many years of training and experience, but when someone couldn’t see her thought processes, she could see how it would appear that she was just lucky. If she was really honest with herself, medicine was half luck anyway. Even in this case, there could be some undiagnosed issue with Hannah that would not have been diagnosed otherwise. If Jade was a gambler, she would place a bet on a hidden blockage somewhere in her heart, and if that infarction had happened anywhere but this hospital, she wouldn’t have made it. Luck? Coincidence? Divine Intervention? Jade couldn’t put a name on it, but the bottom line was, she trusted her intuition.
Maybe she should explain herself to Lillian, that would probably help her to understand. Jade’s face broke into a grin. It was so much fun to watch her twist, though. That was awful of her, and she knew it, but Lillian was so damn hot when she was angry. It was a childish way to get attention, but she just couldn’t help herself.
She wondered if Lillian felt the same way about her. Lillian was always so closed off, but the chemistry between them was undeniable. She definitely had not backed away from their almost kiss. Jade shook her head. She shouldn’t be thinking about Lillian that way. They were professionals, colleagues, if she pursued this it could create a very uncomfortable environment for both of them, and that was not fair to either of them. Still, if Lillian did feel the same way, they would make a truly unstoppable team.
Jade smiled, amused by her own fantasies. She wanted Lillian, that was obvious if only to her. The rest of this was nothing more than a pipe dream. Jade knew all too well the demands of their respective jobs, and how impossible it made any sort of relationships outside of those hospital doors. She should apologize to Lillian, but the best bet would be to leave it at that.
Her phone chimed again, another page to the ER, but this one was to the nurses’ station. She gave a quick glance to the intake, the patients coming into the hospital had slowed down to a trickle, and Jade hoped that it would last.
Jade headed down to the ER, yet again, knowing that it was going to be where she spent most of her time, to find a woman berating one of the nurses.
“What seems to be the problem?” Jade asked as she walked up to see a middle- aged woman with a perfectly fitting haircut shouting at one of the nurses.
“They took Justice into surgery over an hour ago! No one will tell me what’s going on!” the woman shouted. Jade narrowed her eyes; this wasn’t the usual heightened concern for a loved one, this was something else.
“Are you family?” Jade asked, apparently that was the wrong question.
“I’m the closest thing to family he’s got!” the woman shouted, her face turning red with rage.
