Counting To Fifteen [Grey's Anatomy]

chapter nineteen - aftermaths

Daisy and Calypso were the only thing on Mark's mind as two gurneys were rolled through the ER, both carrying two small girls.

The older of the two had Daisy's darker hair while the younger one had much lighter hair that resembled Calypso, something that majorly freaked Mark out.

Mark winced, seeing how badly burned both girls were. The little one had burns covering her entire body, and Mark couldn't fathom how much pain they were likely in.

He tried not to pay much attention to them though, wanting to give the patient in front of him his undivided attention.

"You're hurting me." The woman hollered out in pain, Mark sighing as he debrided the large burn on her forearm. He knew she wasn't trying to be unbearable, she was just hurt and scared. But Mrs. Adams was being incredibly unbearable.

"I promise it'll feel all better once I'm done." Mark spoke, telling her a half-lie. She would still be in excruciating pain, but not compared to the excruciating pain she'd be in if Mark didn't debride her burns.

"I want more morphine." Mrs. Adams protested. "Can you give me more of that?"

"We just administered morphine thirty seconds ago, you don't need anymore right now."

Mrs. Adams grunted. "I want more. I can feel you pulling at my skin, it hurts like hell. Can't you be more gentle?"

Mark chose to ignore the woman, focusing on his task at hand. That was much easier than trying to explain to her that no, Mark could not give her copious amounts of morphine or he would kill her. Mrs. Adams appeared to be in so much pain though, she seemed like she thought dying wasn't the worst option, as long as the pain was gone.

"Dr. Sloan?" Mrs. Adams spoke up quietly, looking sheepish when Mark looked up at her. "Um...could I please have some more morphine?"

Mark's entirety of his debriding session with Mrs. Adams went that way the whole time: Mrs. Adams would ask for highly dangerous doses of morphine, Mark would tell her no because she was asking for highly dangerous doses of morphine, Mark would debride her burn a little more, and she would ask again for highly dangerous doses of morphine.

"Dress her wound." Mark instructed one of the interns. It was the little one with blonde hair. He forgot her name, and he honestly didn't care to learn it. "Don't give her anymore morphine no matter how badly she guilt-trips you. She's had her dosages consistently for the past hour."

Heather frowned as Mark turned to walk away. She had her own patient to deal with too. "But...but what about..."

Mark was gone though, already moving onto his next patient. He wanted to get as much done as he could, letting the interns finish up on things like bandaging.

He made his way over to a younger-looking girl, looking down at her chart as he put on new gloves. "Dana?"

The girl nodded slowly, looking kind of nervous as she scanned the emergency room. Her chart said that she was seventeen, so Mark wasn't sure why there wasn't an adult with her.

"Are your parents here?" Mark asked, surveying the girl's face. She had a nasty cut on her forehead that definitely needed to be sutured.

Dana nodded. "They're with my sister. Er...they're waiting for my sister in the waiting room. She's in surgery right now. My mom already checked me in, though."