Stitches of Life

Fight or Flight

Chapter Twenty-Six: Fight or Flight

"This is it." I glanced around the apartment that Lucas had found for us, in a building right across the from the hospital. I ran my hand over the cool granite countertop in the kitchen, looking into the living room and dining room area before glancing at the doors that led to the two bedrooms and one of the bathrooms, the other being connected to the master bedroom.

"This is it." Lucas nodded as he watched, seeming to be waiting for me to going running, and I didn't blame him, not after last night. "What do you think?"

"It's nice." I told him. "Plenty of space."

"You don't really know what you're looking at, do you?" He chuckled.

"Not really." I admitted. "In college I just lived at home, I used the money that my mom had left me to keep her apartment, but put my name on the lease. I lived there until med school, where I lived in an apartment that my advisor helped me get, for students with families. Then I came out here and lived in a motel until Meredith took me in. I've never really done the house hunting myself."

"Well, as someone who has experience with this, it's a good deal." He assured me. "For the space they're asking for a decent rent and, like I said, it's close to both our works and Joel's school. The only downside is that there'll likely be some noise problems with it being right across from the hospital, that it shouldn't be too bad because of the windows that they installed here, they'll block out most of the noise. It's a good apartment."

"It's a good apartment." I nodded.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*

"Why are they all in the hallway?" Meredith asked as she joined the rest of us just outside the ER later that morning.

"Overflow from the ER." Cristina informed her as we all pulled on trauma gowns.

"Paramedic told us an employee went postal, shot up a restaurant." Izzie added.

"I heard he got away." George said.

"Really?" Meredith's eyes widened as we all headed into the ER to help. I went with George to one of the trauma rooms where he was looking over a woman.

"What can we do?" George asked Derek as we began to push her out of the room.

"Let's get her up to CT. Get a hold of her parents and get 'em down here as soon as possible." Derek told us. "What's her name, by the way?"

"Kendra." I read it off her chart as we moved her. "Kendra Thomas."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Can you imagine?" Derek shook his head once we'd gotten Kendra set up in CT, waiting for the images to come up. "You're at work, you're doing your job, and somebody comes in and shoots you, just puts a bullet in your head. Nineteen years old."

"I called her parents." George told him. "They're one their way, also-"

"Good, 'cause we need to get her into the OR immediately." Derek cut him off as the scans came up. "I mean, the bullet's gone right through the midline."

"Also, uh..." George stuttered.

"Look at the size of the hematoma." Derek pointed out before looking back at George. "Also?"

"What?" George was focused on the scan.

"You said also twice." Derek reminded him.

"Yeah, also, she's pregnant." George informed us. I looked through the window and into the other room, my eyes widening as I looked at the young unconscious woman, a bullet stuck in her head.