flatline [m.s]

xxxii.

- - -
we're trained to be vigilant, to chase down the problem, to ask all the right questions, to find the root cause until we know exactly what it is and we confront it. it takes an extreme amount of caution or we can't overstep ourselves. we can create problems that don't exist.
- - -

"this, um, patient..." jackson tries to admit to alex who's stood examining charts. "i can't find the heartbeat."

"so call the morgue, forty watt," alex shrugs.

"he's not dead," jackson informs him. "he's sitting up. he's talking."

"dude, you're lucky you have a famous last name," alex chuckles before letting jackson lead him to the patient's room where he then attempts to find his heartbeat. "take a deep breath, sir."

"i'm having... trouble doing that," the patient, todd, tells the pair of doctors.

"oh, grow up, todd," todd's girlfriend, molly, rolls her eyes. "when he was nine, they removed his right lung."

"and now the other one's crapping out on me," todd adds.

"or maybe you're having an anxiety attack," molly sarcastically suggests. "because i just asked you to move in with me."

"i can't find his heart," alex sighs, still attempting to find a heartbeat using his stethoscope.

"oh yeah?" molly raises her brow. "me, neither."

"no, i really can't," alex shakes his head, stepping away from todd.

"so who's the forty watt now?" jackson cockily challenges with a smirk, before taking a moment to think. "get a stat chest x-ray and page cardio."

■ ■ ■

"derek, you're back!" lia beams, wrapping her arms around the neurosurgeon when she spots him by the nurses station.

"i'm back!" he returns her smile and hug.

"and you're being nice to me?" she chuckles, slightly confused.

"and i'm being nice to you," he nods, then pauses. "look, i was out of line the other day. it's not you that i'm mad at."

"don't be mad at him," lia pleads referring to mark. "he's no more at fault than me."

"oh, he's very much at fault," derek mutters before walking away, earning an eye roll from lia.

■ ■ ■

"there she is..." lia says analysing todd's x-ray. "by your kidney."

"my heart is by my kidney?" todd asks in shock.

"that's why it was so hard to hear your heartbeat," jackson explains to him. "and without a second lung in your chest cavity, your heart sort of drifted."

"it's called post-pneumonectomy syndrome," lia informs todd and molly. "and the shifting caused some bronchial compression. that's why you weren't able to breathe."

"i'm the biggest bitch in the world," molly sighs. "can you put it back where it goes?"

"yes, we're gonna use saline implants in your chest," lia explains. "to keep it in place."