Chapter Text
Chapter One: The Glow of the refrigerator
It’s an archaic device, but it serves its purpose. That doesn’t stop Michelle from jolting like a spooked cat when the pager beeps and rumbles from where the team kept it clipped to a stationary tray on the labs central bench. Portia watches her take a deep breath and emerge from the small partition of the issuing work station, brows lifted in ammusement. Michelles eyes locked on to the small device like it was challenging her before it beeped again and she finally retrieved the device.
*Blood Bank - Call extension trauma two*
Smashing at the buttons to quiet the small device, michellle reaches for one of the internal phones mounted to the desk.
“ED, Abbott Speaking?” Jack Abbott answers, the phone barely ringing before he collected it from the wall of the trauma room. Michelle scrambles for pen and paper.
“This is blood bank, returning a page?” Michelle prompts, her university jobs in retail and the short stint she moonlighted as a personal secretary holding all of her phone etiquette hostage as she prepares for a debrief.
“ Oh, great we are having an issue with the emergency fridge down here and we need blood products for this patient” Jack explains, watching as surgical resident Dr. Garcia breezes in to the room. She glances over the team and listens to the primary assessment of the young woman at the centre of the room.
“Uh, sure, i can bring stuff down and check the fridge.” Michelle offers, “Do you have any patient details?”
Michelle doesn’t have the agility to jump down the stairs like she Would have if she was 5 years younger, hell if she was six months younger. Before the car accident. She swipes her id over the electronic lock separating the stair case from the Ed and waits as it unlocks with a soft whine. The room is overrun with nurses and doctors doing hand over, the scent of disinfectant hanging in the air like an old perfume. Somewhere a monitor is beeping loudly and she follows the noise to the door way of the trauma room. For lack of a better descriptor, it’s a bloody mess. The woman’s leg is in shreds and small shards of bone glint in the over head light as Michelle pushes into the room. Jack looks up at the appearance of a colour that isn’t scrubs, A red plastic transport bag is held in front of the young scientist as her eyes flit around the room, taking in the chaos, her glasses doing nothing to hide her curiosity.
“Thanks!” He calls as Kim breezes past and collects the red bag, tearing it open and hanging the units to be transfused into the patient. A flash of dark green and brown catches his eye and he watches as she departs, slowly pulling himself back into the room where is team is, there’s an emblem of a bow and arrow in white across her back, as she departs to the blood fridge between the two trauma rooms, and jack can’t help but remember the small detail as he reaches to apply pressure to the patients hip. Ellis lets out a loud sigh in triumph.
“I got the major bleeder” She exclaims triumphantly. Jack nods in approval as he steps back and watches the monitor start to change from red numbers to yellow. Javadi steps into the procedure field and jack more than happily steps away to let her assist. He had been impressed by her on her recent night shift rotations, leaps and bounds made in her confidence even more so than she already had.
Kicking the fridge is Michelles final option, however she isn’t quite there yet, as she wrestles with the stuck door. It refuses to budge and with a huff she steps back, instead of putting her foot straight through the glass. She’s caught short when someone walks into her, winding her with the force of their body moving towards her with intention.
“Ow, fucker!” She exclaims, turning sharply ready to confront the person. Jack holds up his hands to stop her from toppling over, he hadn’t expected her to step back so quickly. His eyes are focussed with concern as he takes in her bewildered expression. Michelle can’t tell if they are green, or brown. Maybe hazel? The shock of the situation drops away suddenly as he releases her arms he had wrapped his hands around in concern.
“Sorry” He manages gruffly as she steps back, sure on her own feet.
“Any luck?” He asks once he realises he has been staring for what feels like too long. Attention shifting to the fridge, still closed. Michelle stomps down on her internal annoyance at the intrusion as she turns back to the equipment.
“Well… no one is going to try and steal the blood” she offers, tone attempting to joke, Jack watches her step up to it and look over the sides of the fridge.
“That’s unless, they want to try and walk out of here with the whole….” Her comment trails off as she puts a hand over a small cover on the side that had been left open.
“Where’s the key?” She asks, turning on jack suddenly. Her eyes scan over him like an X-ray machine as if he had it on him.
“It has a Key?” Robby asks, having hunted down jack tucked away in the small side room. A silent and almost frustrated laugh shakes Michelle’s shoulders and Jack watches as she turns the intense scan of her blue eyes to the ground, as if someone had knocked it out on accident.
“Who was the last person in here before the last trauma?” She asks, realising it wasn’t on the practically spotless floor.
“Ogilvie, student, tall curly hair”Robby gestures vaguely towards central where the students have gathered, ready for another week. Jack watches her eyebrow raise as she steps out of the prep area to look for the culprit. As she passes he notices the dark black ring around her iris as it swallows the glint from the over head lamps.
“I’ll talk!” Robby insists quickly, “You scare the students.” Michelle glances back to the two attendings, confusion pinching her brows together, like she’s staring at a picture she can’t understand.
“Ogilvie!” Robby calls, beckoning the student to the three people in the trauma bay, the lanky kid turns from where he had been talking to Samira and then crosses the distance quickly.
“Check your pockets please” Robby requests once the med student is close enough not to have to raise his voice. James pulls a note book and several pens out of his scrubs before a small metallic object falls from his pocket and clatters softly on the ground. Michelle bends over and collects the key from where it now sat on the floor in front of the confused boy and then turns abruptly back to the fridge, sliding the key in and turning it she can hear the relieving click of the lock opening. A moment passes before she turns back to Ogilvie, her face unreadable before settling on annoyed.
“Dude?” She moans in a grumble, as if the single word can convey how much of a fuck up he had made. Like the tone can convey how dumb it was that he decided to lock the fridge and walk away with the key, suggesting to Michelle that common sense is obviously something that needs to be taught in the Medical school curriculum. Jack chuckles and starts to leave the space, over hearing Robby explaining that the key needs to stay in the fridge, his own concerns for the students melting away. After several rushed apologies, heavy with remorse Robby dismisses Ogilvie back to the group. Jack looks back to notice that the scientist has slipped away as quietly as she arrived, and when he passes a quick glance around the ED he notices a flash of green briskly moving towards the back door to the stair case.
The lab door thunks closed behind Michelle as she collects her lab coat from the clean area pegs. As she buttons it up in the front she makes a quick pass by the works stations of the Transfusion science lab, nodding good mornings to people who had drifted in while she was downstairs. She stops by Laura, the newest member of the team, she had done her internship here and was now keeping pace with scientists 10 years her senior. But Laura hesitates as the phone rings, and Michelle nudges her gently with her hand. Lauras brown puppy like eyes settle on Michelle.
“I rejected a sample, and the nurse said the doctor was going to call back.” She explains, nerves evident in her quiet voice. She reaches for the phone on the third ring and cringes as she lifts it to her ear.
“HEY!” Michelle can hear the frustration melting into anger from the caller on the other end of the line, voice a poorly with held yell. Michelle takes in a steadying breath and holds her hand out for the phone, which Laura passes over quickly, glancing at Lauras work screen she can see the patient file and form.
“This patient doesn’t need another sample, just use the one we sent.” The agitated doctor instructs, even on the handset speaker the voice is clear and loud.
“Sir?” Michelle tries to interject, ready to justify the reject.
“No, use the sample. Everything on there is correct!”