Saving Riley (James+Riley Jiley) [ONGOING]

The Accident

[James]

Having your heart raise above your chest is one of the best feelings ever. It's the feeling you get when the steep part of the roller coaster comes. As you fall, you're terrified, but you feel amazing as well.

That's how I would describe love. Except instead of having a quick sensation on a roller coaster, the feeling comes and goes, and it progresses much slower.

Riley and I's relationship is a lot like that. Except I have that feeling of your heart being above your chest constantly. It's amazing when you find the one person you know you'll be with forever.

Sometimes, when I picture our relationship, I swear it's like watching Greys Anatomy. Like the widely known love story of Derek and Meredith, but in our own way of course. It began when we first became doctors. Spending so much time together in the hospital brought us together, enjoying every single surgery we did together.

I remember the look on her face when I first saw her. I was doing paperwork, she was talking to her best friend next to the office counter. Big, bold brown eyes that had a timeless story behind them. Her smile resting on her face, I had never seen such a beautiful and light expression in my life. The scrubs fit perfectly on her, her body looking amazing in any outfit she wore. I saw her in the hospital hallways everyday, ready to save someone's life.

Now it was different. I looked at her.  Instead of a story in her eyes, there was fear. Instead of a smile on her face, there was blood dripping from the side of her cheekbone. A breathing mask was pressed up against her mouth. I could see her eyes slowly starting to close from a mile away.  I felt rushes go through my body, and the only word that repeated in my mind was no.

That's the moment I realized, your whole world can come to an end within seconds...

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"Unidentified young female, found inside her car after it was bit by a truck. Her head hit the windshield and broke it, causing multiple glass wounds to her body.  Dislocated shoulder and severe bleeding in her abdomen. Extremely severe trauma to the head." The paramedic explained, rushing through her words as multiple doctors came rushing outside, pushing the stretcher to the hospital doors.

I looked up from my clipboard and noticed the many surgeons rushing outside. The patient must have serious injuries.

I was busy with paperwork, but the amount of attention caught my eye. I placed my clipboard on the side of the counter and went to the trauma room, grabbing a body cover and putting it on top of my scrubs.  I rushed outside with the rest of the doctors to see the patient.

By the time I got out, she was already being rushed in.

That's when I saw her.

Her cold, brown eyes slowly closing. Her face was dripping with blood, but there wasn't a possible way I wouldn't have been able to recognize her face. That was the face woke up to every morning. It was her.

I thought of the words the paramedic said. Unidentified. They didn't know it was her. She's been working in this hospital for years and her own friends couldn't tell it was her. They just looked at the blood coming out of her.

"RILEY!" I yelled. The doctors slowed their rush to the emergency room, and looked straight at me.

"IT'S RILEY!" I grabbed my face mask and tied it around my head. I ran to the stretcher she was on and placed one hand on the side of it and one hand on hers. I felt panic rushing through my body.  I can't believe it.  I can't believe it's her. This can't be happening, not this fast, not to Riley.

"Riley, you're gonna be okay. You're staying with us, ok?" One of the doctors said. I wanted more words to come out of my mouth, but all I could think of doing was yelling.

We reached the emergency room.

I slowly lifted the gauze covering her wounds. Everything was bloody.  I thought of the pain she was in, considering she was still half awake. I couldn't stop the water that was filling up in my eyes. 

"Riley" I moaned under my breath, looking into her eyes.

She didn't say anything. Instead, she squeezed her tiny hand harder into mine.

She couldn't speak. Half her lower body was cut open, she could only feel pain.

I looked back at the wound near her liver. I needed to do something, fast.

"Suction. I need more suction here" I ordered. "Get an ER booked RIGHT NOW. She needs it after we stop the bleeding"

I quickly started stitching up her liver that was bleeding out, trying to avoid more bleeding at the same time. "Blood, I need more blood! Someone go get me more bags of O neg!"

Everyone slowly grew more in shock. They didn't realize that we need to work fast or  Riley is gonna die.

"Page Michelle, Jackson, and Thomas. We need another general and cardio surgeon here! Someone check her head trauma, now!"

I tried hard to keep my hands steady as I stitched her up. But I felt a pop just seconds after finishing.

"DAMMIT!" I yelled. Her liver started bleeding again. The blood squirted all over my scrubs. "I need some help over here!"

"James" I heard one of the doctors say.

I couldn't move my hands an inch. If I did, she would bleed out again. Her BP was rising.  Nothing was looking good.

"James, I think you wanna see this...." He repeated. "She has a piece of glass stuck in her head James!"

My heart starting beating out of my chest. 

I'm a neurosurgeon.

I'm a nearosurgeon. I can do this. I have nothing to worry about. I can fix her head, and I can stop the bleeding.

You're a doctor, James. You can do this.

I kept repeating the words in my head. But they didn't have any meaning anymore.

I feel the room go blurry. My breath started to quicken.  The tears that were locked in my eyes started to pour out.  All I could see was her face. All I could think about was her.

"James!" He called. "James, we need to do something quick or else she's gonna bleed out and she's gonna be brain dead. Call SOMETHING James!"

I turned my head to the girl beside me. "Rona, take over for me. Hold her liver still so she doesn't bleed and stitch her back up. Make sure she doesn't bleed internally or she'll die." I ordered. "And mark, page another neurosurgeon and a trauma surgeon to help get the glass out with doing any damage."

They looked at me in clear shock, probably thinking what the hell was wrong with me.

"I can't do this. I'm out."

{to be continued...}