On Call | Grey's Anatomy // Book 3 // COMPLETED

5 | The Bubble

"What's so wrong with wanting to help somebody?" April asked, "It's our profession, for God's sake."

Bailey sighed and tried to stay focused on what she was doing as we stood around the O.R. table, "Well, if the man doesn't want help."

"He's not a goat!" April argued as Bailey looked at the monitor that was connected to the camera we had down Braden's throat.

"No, he is not." Bailey agreed as we talked about Jackson, or at least I thought we were, "Boy, is he not."

"He doesn't need to separate from the flock and crawl to the back of the barn to tough it out by himself." April explained to us, as we were clearly not getting the goat reference, "I want to help."

"Then welcome to your next thirty years," Bailey said.

April looked to her, "What do you mean?"

"You're gonna want to help him." Bailey started, "He's going to want to help himself. Neither of you is going to change. Get used to this argument."

April exhaled loudly, "Might as well just let him suffer?"

Bailey nodded, "If that's what he wants, go get a pedicure and count your blessings. Look, there's two kinds of man sick...the Jackson kind and the Ben Warren kind. Now, when I get home tonight, Dr. Ben Warren will call out "Miranda" from his fetal position on the couch and beg me for saltines and a wet washcloth for his head. Jackson's crawl-away-like-a-goat kind is the good one."

"Oh, God, look." I stopped smiling from Bailey's story.

Bailey looked to the monitor, "It's cerebral spinal fluid. Ohh, the abscess has penetrated into his brain since the C.T."

"We're gonna have to call Dr. Shepherd." I sighed.

Bailey agreed, "Yeah."

══════════════════

The three of us stood silently for about ten minutes before Derek finally arrived. Although, we could tell he was sick before he even stepped into the O.R.

"Oh, dear lord in heaven, no!" Bailey shouted as Derek walked in, "You're not-"

"No, no, no, no, no!" I held my hands up.

Bailey shook her head at him, "Dr. Shepherd, don't come in here!"

"What?" Derek asked, "But you...you paged me."

"This child has S.C.I.D." I told him, "If you're sick at all, you cannot be in here."

Bailey nodded in agreement with me, "Close that door."

"Oh, my God." Derek sighed, "Well, see, I'm the only one available. You got a better idea?"

Bailey thought for a moment, "Yeah, I think I do."

"What?" he questioned as he held a mask over his mouth.

"You look really cool," April told Derek, who was wearing a scrub-like paper helmet so that he wouldn't contaminate the room.

Bailey nodded as Derek got ready, "You don't look ridiculous at all. How do you feel?"

"I'm fine." Derek took a deep breath, his voice raspy and his skin pale, "Let's keep working."

"Roger, major Tom." Bailey joked, "Commencing countdown."

Derek paused for a moment before he started, "Okay, I'm gonna...take this slow."

══════════════════

"How are you doing, Dr. Shepherd?" I checked in on him as he operated.

"I'm good." he replied, "Just...taking it slowly."

Bailey looked to him, concern on her face, "Almost...imperceptibly slow. At this rate, you're not even gonna make your big conference."

"Okay, Forrest, step in here." Derek told me and I did, "Denude the sinus of mucosa. As a Trauma surgeon, you need to learn this."

"Especially since he's about to ralph in his spacesuit." Bailey laughed.

Derek shot her a look, "Bailey, shut up. Okay, Forrest, take the...periosteal elevator."

"Yes, sir." I followed his directions.

Once the surgery was over, we put Braden into what we called 'the bubble.' It's for patients who are very infectious or need to be protected. It's basically like a hospital room with a bubble around it.

"How long will he have to be like this?" David asked.

"Well, at least until the immediate infection is over." Bailey answered, "After that is hard to say."

Teresa took deep breaths so she wouldn't freak out, "How is he gonna heal if he's stressed out, if he can't even be comfortable?"

"We'll have to trust that the multitude of antibiotics will do their job," I told them.

April nodded, "If his immunity doesn't come back up, it's very possible that he'll need to be in some sort of isolation for the rest of his life."

"The rest of his life?" Teresa's eyes grew wide.

Looking over, we noticed that Braden had woken up. "Baby!" Teresa smiled.

"Mom! Dad!" Braden called through the see-through wall.

"Hey. We love you, champ." David rose his voice so Braden could hear him.

Teresa started to cry, "We're right here for you, buddy. Don't be scared."

"We're not going anywhere." David added, "We're right here."

Braden reached his hand out for his parents and it made my heartbreak. "Mom," he called softly.

"We're right here, Braden." Teresa told him, "We're never gonna leave you, okay?"

"We love you." David smiled.

It's a known fact that doctors make the worst patients. We ignore our symptoms until we're face down on the ground. We like to think we're a different species from our patients. But none of us are invincible. Eventually, we have to face the fact that we're human...and that sometimes...even the mightiest of us need help.