The Accident

Part 9

About an hour after Meredith left, Teddy got paged because one of her chronic patients had been readmitted and wanted to see her. Carina was left alone with her thoughts for all of five minutes before there was a knock on the door, and Andy stepped in carrying a few things.

"Hey," the firefighter said, going over to Carina, "Here are some of Maya's sweatshirts from the station. I know you always steal them when you come in, and I...I don't know...I thought maybe you would like to wear them here or she could wear them when she wakes up or I can just take them back to the station with me."

"Grazie," Carina said, taking them, "I will keep them here."

"Is she...I mean how is...I mean what...?" Andy said, not totally sure what she was trying to ask as she looked at her best friend unconscious, on a ventilator, looking extremely sick, "Is she doing alright? I mean, yesterday, she seemed alright and now..."

"She went into septic shock yesterday," Carina said, taking a deep breath, "She is very sick right now, but things are slowly improving."

Andy nodded, wanting to ask more but remembering the text they had all gotten from Amelia that morning that Carina was not doing well with all of this and to direct all questions to the neurosurgeon.

"What happened to the thing sticking out of her head?" Andy asked, deciding that because it was gone, that was probably a good thing and Carina would be happy about it.

"Her ICP monitor got to be removed this morning," Carina said, smiling a little, "And the drain in her leg too because she was doing well in those areas. Also, the less tubes, the less the chance for infection."

"She is going to love that hair," Andy said, noticing that Maya had a large chunk of hair missing from her surgery.

"It will grow back," Carina said, smiling a little, "She will probably say it looks badass."

"How long will she be on the vent?" Andy asked, trying so hard not to push Carina too much but needing to know.

"They don't know yet," Carina said, tracing patterns on the back of Maya's hand, "Her body is very weak from the infection. If she does well, maybe she will get it out tomorrow, but it's impossible to know."

Andy saw the tears in Carina's eyes and decided to stop asking questions.

"Carina, is there anything I can do to help?" Andy asked, looking at her best friend's wife, "Do you want me to bring you anything or call anyone or do anything?"

"Just make sure the station is taken care of for her," Carina said, looking back at Maya, "She is going to be fighting tooth and hammer to get back there, but knowing it is being taken care of well by you or Jack will help her be more calm."

"Fighting tooth and nail," Andy chuckled, "Jack and I will take care of it. Though all of A shift was given a week off after everything so neither of us have been in to do any work, but once we go back, we will have it taken care of."

"How is the station functioning without the engine?" Carina asked, having not really thought about the logistics of that situation.

"We are getting a new engine," Andy said, "Fixing out old one was going to be more money than a new one. Maya is going to be so jealous. We are getting it in the next week so maybe if she's doing better, we can facetime with her when it comes."

"Is getting a new truck a big deal?" Carina asked, realizing she had never heard Maya talk about it.

"Yeah," Andy nodded, "It doesn't happen often because engines are made to last 20 years or more. Ours was 10 years old, I think. I remember when we got it. I was getting ready to apply for the academy, and my dad brought me to see it. It was the latest and greatest and so much better than the old one. We weren't due for an upgrade for a long time, but accident basically meant we would have had to have the entire cab and part of the engine rebuilt so the department decided 19 is getting a new engine. We spend so much time with taking care of all the vehicles, and we take a lot of pride in them so getting new ones is a big deal."