Anatomy Of Love (Camren Fanfiction)

Chapter 14

"Come on, people," Daniel Reynolds, the senior emergency physician, yelled out to the group of interns. "Let's move!"

The Emergency Room had been especially busy today leaving no time for teaching. Today the interns had more freedom to apply their skills and put them into practice.

Dinah and Ally were busy in Room Eight with an emergency code blue while Lauren, Camila, and another intern rushed out to the ambulance bay to receive yet another patient. By the time their small entourage had reached the ambulance bay, two paramedics were already tugging a stretcher out of the back of their vehicle.

A feeling of dread swamped Camila as she saw the amount of blood spilling from the stretcher. She swallowed hard and forced herself to fall back into her objective professional mode.
"MVA," one medic reported, using the shorthand Camila recalled so vividly. Motor-vehicle accident. "Eighteen year old female, Erica Michaels with blunt trauma to the chest and abdomen and a dislocated shoulder."

A male intern shoved Camila aside and started barking out orders for labs, chest scans, and an MRI. Camila noted the vital signs as she gazed down at the teenage girl lying on the gurney, strapped to a backboard and wearing a cervical collar. Her thick, dark hair matted to the side of her face. Bruises were already forming on her visible extremities and lacerations from broken glass crisscrossed her pretty face. 

"Let's go," Lauren demanded, and off they scurried to the nearest available trauma room. A few seconds later, they'd pushed the gurney against the awaiting stretcher in the trauma room. Lauren locked the wheels in place with the toe of one pump. "Lift on three," the green eyed one ordered. "One, two, three." Everyone complied in one smooth, well-rehearsed motion to move their patient to her new bed.

Another nurse rushed in. "Lauren, we need you at the Bay. We have another one coming in and Dr. Bailey wants you to scrub in."

Lauren huffed to stop her sweaty hair from sticking to her forehead. Her fingers touched Camila's arm. "Is that okay, Camz?" Concern, worry. That was what swam in her green eyes. And Lauren had every right to be concerned. Although Camila excelled leaps and bounds in the classroom, the clinical setting had been her weakest area. 

Worse yet, the patient began writhing in pain – the initial medications given by the paramedics were wearing off. The combination of the poor girl wrestling with the pain, covered in all that blood, was just too much to handle.

Camila's hands began to tremble as she felt a familiar dread take over. Between the apprehension of dealing with this critical patient and the worry about doing it all on her own, Camila seemed to have kicked herself back into a state of anxious alertness. 

Lauren immediately noticed the change in her demeanor and swiftly held her trembling hands still. "You've got this. Just breath for me, baby," she leaned in and whispered in the younger one's ear.
Camila managed a smile despite her jaw being clenched with anxiety. "I'm fine," she muttered out. Lauren squeezed her hand before letting go. She ran out of the room while Camila turned back to the young patient. 

"Can you... hear me, Erica?" Camila stammered to the young girl. She looked into the young girl's hazel eyes. "You're in the hospital and I'm going to take care of you. I just need you to relax, okay?"
Unable to nod because her head and neck were immobilized, Erica simply blinked and mouthed, "Okay." Tears welled up in Erica's eyes and she had a look of pure panic across face. An oxygen mask covered her nose and mouth, but her nose was swollen and clearly broken.
Do something Camila! Don't just stand here. Be a doctor, damn it. Camila screamed to herself. I've got this. Just breathe. Just breathe.