Russian Roulette

It was snowing hard the next morning but I was in the best mood. Even though Geno would be gone for the rest of the week he gave me a going away present that would hold me over till he got back. I do my rounds and sit in during office hours with Dr. Reid then headed to the cafeteria for lunch. I grab my tray and find Matt and Elias at a table.

“Hey boys, how are you?” I ask smiling.

“Are you okay?” Elias asks.

“Yeah what’s with the smile?” Matt asks.

“What am I not allowed to smile?”

“You finally caved huh?” Matt says smiling.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say innocently.

“You totally had sex,” Elias says excitedly.

“It’s really none of your business,” I tell them both.

“How was it? Should I be threatened?” Elias asks.

“Yes,” I reply. My phone buzzes and I have a missed text from Geno.

Geno:
Miss you

Me:
Miss you. How’s hockey?

Geno:
Practice good. Sid say hi

Me:
Tell him I said hey.

Geno:
Parents excited to meet

Me:
Your parents?

Geno:
Da. Come for Christmas

Me:
Oh great

I sigh exasperatedly and Matt and Elias give me a funny look.

“Geno’s parents are visiting for Christmas and they want to meet me,” I say frowning.

“Whoa getting serious,” Matt says.

“Why aren’t you excited?” Elias asks.

“Yes it is serious and I don’t know. I’ve never met a boyfriend’s family before. It’s a lot of pressure,” I reply.

“I was going to say just be yourself but then I remember you want them to like you,” Elias jokes.

“Don’t listen to him. Just smile and don’t be sarcastic and you should be fine,” Matt says smiling. Their pagers go off and they leave me alone with my thoughts.

The next few weeks fly by and soon I’m helping Geno decorate his tree.

“Zhenya I’m too short,” I say frowning. He picks me up and I put the star on the tree.

“Parents come tomorrow you excited?” he asks smiling.

“What if they don’t like me?” I say frowning.

“Impossible, they love everyone,” he reassures me. It doesn’t make me feel any better so I continue decorating the tree. I worked Christmas Eve and Christmas night shifts so I at least had an escape route if things went south. I finish putting tinsel everywhere and step back to admire our work. It looked pretty good considering we did it last minute.
“Это выглядит здорово. Отличная работа(It looks great. Good job)”

“да, потому ч работу то я сделал всю (Yeah because I did all the work),” I joke. We go upstairs and crawl into bed and I fall asleep with my limbs tangled with his.

It was Christmas Eve and it was snowing hard. I stood on Geno’s doorstep with the pie that Audrina made. He opens the door and he’s smiling from ear to ear.

“Hey handsome,” I say smiling.

“Come in quick!” he says excitedly. I walk in and he leads me to the kitchen where his parents are sitting.

“мама, папа это Куинн, моя подруга (mom, dad, this is Quinn, my girlfriend).” Geno says smiling.

“привет приятно встретиться с вами. сожалению Мой русский не велик(Hi, it’s nice to meet you. Sorry my Russian is not great)” I say apologetically.
Natalia and Vladimir both say something in Russian and shake my hand.

“They say very happy to meet you,” Geno translates.

“I brought pie,” I say smiling. Geno translates and I set it on the counter. We stand there awkwardly for a moment before Geno suggests we move to the living room. I sit down and draw my attention to the highlights that are playing on the TV. I had been studying Russian daily for a while and was able to have short conversation but I still felt embarrassed about it. I now finally realized what Geno must feel like all the time.

“Так говорит Yevgeni вы врач. Это прекрасно (So Yevgeni says you’re a doctor, that’s wonderful)” Natalia says smiling.

“Я счастлив, состоянии помочь людям. Его очень полезным (I’m happy I’m able to help people. It’s rewarding)” I reply. We spend the rest of afternoon getting to know each other and by the end of the day I was smitten. She reminded me so much of my own mother that I felt a pain in my heart. I look at my watch and realize I need to head to work. I say good-bye and make my to the hospital.

“You got E.R. duty too?” Matt says pulling up a chair next to me.

“Yeah. Apparently they’re really understaffed,” I tell him.

“It’s going to be a long night,” he sighs.

“So I googled Geno.”

“Did you find fanfiction?” he asks excitedly.

“No but I didn’t realize how big of a deal he is.”

“Are you kidding? He’s Evgeni Malkin! He’s not only one of the best in the league but he’s one of the best of all time,” he says dramatically. His words echo through my head and I suddenly had a weird feeling about the whole thing. He sounds like he could have anyone he wants, why was he slumming it with me? I push the thought out of my head and organize patient files.

I was doing stitches on a little girl when Matt enters the bay.

“Can I help you?” I ask him.

“Miller is letting me scrub in on a surgical ventricular restoration!” he says excitedly.

“Dr. Chase you’re supposed to be helping me in the E.R.”

“I know but Dr. Dixon is filling in me for me.”

“Okay well good luck.”

“Thanks!” he says excitedly.

“Are you guys friends?” The mom asks me smiling.

“Unfortunately yes,” I laugh. I finish suturing and discharge the little girl. I go to the desk and read the next patient file.

“Man it’s dead in here,” Elias says from behind. I turn around and hit him with the file I’m holding.

“Ow what was that for?” he cries.

“You never say that E.R is dead,” I say irritably. Just as he’s about to ask why the phone rings and I make him answer it.
“Hello? Yeah. Yeah. 5 min? Okay.” He hangs up the phone and just stares at me. “Car accident, four teenagers, all coming here.”
I shake my head and page the trauma surgeon that’s on call. We get our gowns on and wait outside in the cold December air. The ambulance pulls up a few minutes later and a paramedic opens the back door.

“Female, sixteen years old, both tibias and ankle fracture and femur fracture that severed the femoral artery we put a tourniquet on it in the field. Blood pressure 80/20,” the paramedic tells me.
“Okay we’ll get her into surgery,” I tell the paramedic. I’m about to go find Dr. Tuner when I feel someone grasp my wrist.

“What’s happening?” the girl says weakly.

“You were in a car accident. You severed an artery and you’re losing a lot of blood, we’re going to get you into surgery,” I tell her calmly.

“Please don’t leave.”

“I’ll be right back I promise. What’s your name?”

“Lyla.”

“Lyla, I’m Dr. Eriksson. I’m going to take care of you okay?”
I find Dr. Turner at the desk and she turns her attention to me.

“What’s the status on your girl?” she asks. “Broken ankle, both tibias, and femur. Her femoral artery is severed and her blood pressure keeps dropping,” I tell Dr. Turner.

“Okay she’s our priority, let’s get her into surgery. You’re scrubbing in,” she tells me.

“Yes mam.” I go back to the trauma bay and I can tell the girl she’s in pain. “We’re taking you to surgery now.” I wheel her bed into the O.R and scrub in.
After the surgery I found Elias and he looked upset.

“What’s wrong?” I ask him.

“My patient, the driver didn’t make it. He had too many internal injuries,” he says evenly.

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. The other guy is still unconscious and the other one is in surgery. How’s the girl?”

“She needed two transfusions and she won’t be able to walk anytime soon but she’s going to make it.” My pager goes off and I head down to the E.R. Just as I get there I find Dr. Reid and Dr. Turner staring down at the patient and the monitor show’s he’s flat lined. I turn around and head upstairs towards post-op and find the girl’s room. She’s still asleep so I sit in the chair in the corner. I don’t know why but I felt some weird connection to this girl. I sit there for a few hours before she finally wakes up. She pulls the blanket and reveals the casts she had on both legs.

“Oh my god,” she whispers.

“You broke your ankle, your femur and both your shinbones,” I tell her gently.

“My feet were up. I had my feet up on Jason’s seat. Oh my god Jason and Derek and Ethan, are they okay?” she asks, her voice filled with panic.

“Who was the one with brown curly hair?” I ask tentatively.

“That was Ethan. And Derek had the blonde hair and Jason had the straight brown hair.

“I’m really sorry but Ethan and Jason didn’t make it.” I see the words hit her and she breaks down immediately. I’m not sure how long we sat there but eventually she calmed down and asked about Derek.

“The last time I checked he was still in surgery.”

“He’s my boyfriend. We were in the back seat together. We were speeding and Ethan kept driving in the passing lane until there was semi. He tried to pass the one car but he wasn’t able to get back into the lane and we hit the semi head on,” she says quietly.

“I’m really sorry that happened. Are you’re parents coming?” I ask.

“My parents died when I was younger. I live with my aunt now,” she replies. I tell her I’ll be back and I head to the nurse’s station.

“Can you get me an update on the boy who was in O.R. 1?” I ask the nurse. She nods and picks up the phone. She talks briefly before hanging up.

“He’s out of surgery but he’s in a coma,” she notifies me. Deep down I was hoping for good news and now I didn’t know how to tell the girl. I walk back into the room and she’s wiping away tears.

“Derek is out of surgery but he’s in a coma. I’m sorry.” I expected her to start crying again but she just looked empty.

“Can I see him?” she asks evenly. It was after visiting hours but I knew this might be the last time she gets to see him. We enter his room and he lay there with a tube down his throat. I wheel her closer to the bed and tears stream down her cheeks. She reaches up and grasps his hand.

“Hi Derek, it’s me. You have to make it because I can’t do this without you. You’re all I have left,” she whispers. My throat tightens and I leave the room.

“You okay?” Matt asks as he walks up to me.

“The guy in the coma is her boyfriend. Her two friends are dead and now her boyfriend’s going to die.” His stats had been dropping and everyone knew he wasn’t going to make it through the night. Matt doesn’t say anything and we stand there watching silently. An hour later Derek flat lined and I had to pull his screaming girlfriend off of him. I took Lyla to her room where she completely fell apart. I sat on the bed with her and rocked her gently while her body was racked with sobs. Eventually she fell asleep and I was done my shift. I dragged my tired body out into the cold and drove to the only place I knew would give me any sort of comfort.

I use the emergency key he got me and head to his room. I strip off my scrubs and crawl into bed with him and buried my face against his chest. Tears silently fall onto him and he pulls me closer. He didn’t say anything and I didn’t want him to. All I knew was I was totally and completely in love with him.

Notes