tourniquet | a. karev

Sleeping Monster

Emma rubbed her forehead as she sat with the rest of the board memebers.

"We are throwing Bailey under the bus." Derek said. Emma looked over at Jackson as he made himself a cup of coffee. 

"Come on. That is not what we're doing." He defended 

"Yeah, it seems like that's exactly what we're doing." Callie argued. 

"Two of our patients are dead of the same post-op infection. A third one's barely hanging on. It was time. We get the CDC in here and figure this thing out." Jackson took a seat by Emma.

"By treating Bailey like a criminal?" She asked.

"She hasn't done anything." Meredith piped in. 

"I hope that you're right. The ruth is, we don't know that yet. CDC is simply asking us to temporarily freeze Bailey's files and that we not discuss this investigation with her. So today, just keep your distance."

"That is ridiculous." Cristina shook her head. 

"Also I think now's the time to put out a statement."

"Why? We don't know anything." Emma said.

"If one of ours is at fault and we just sit on this information we look like we're trying to cover something up. The only way to let the public know that we can be objective is by being transparent." 

"Vote?" Callie asked.

"I'm just saying, people should learn the news from us."

"There's no news." Derek said.

"Okay, vote? All in favor of no press release." Emma, as well as everyone else, raised their hands. "Okay. No press release. No statement. Clear?" 

Emma looked down at her pager and saw April's name pop up.

"Great. April needs me in the ER." Emma stood up and left the room. 

She sighed, taking the familiar route down. Passing CDC jackets along the way.

"Hey, what's up?" Emma asked, leaning agains the nurses station. 

"I need an ortho consult on bed three." 

"Awh, and you paged me? I'm touched." April didn't laugh. "What's wrong?" 

"Matthew dumped me."

"Wait, what?" April looked at her best friend. "When? Weren't you guys still together during Ellie's birthday?" 

"Yeah, but." She sighed. "I lied to him, about my virginity. I really, really hurt him." 

"You and Matthew are like, God's perfect couple.He has to come back around." 

"I hope so." April looked back down at the tablet. "Bed three."

"Right." Emma nodded, turning to walk over to one of the few patients in the ER. 

She noticed the nurse walking over with x-rays.

"Perfect timing." Emma joked. The nurse chuckled, handing her the x-rays. "Oof. That is one broken femur." 

"I could have told you that." The patient said.

"But scans say more. Send him to angio. I'll let Kepner know."

"Yes, Dr. Harlow." 

Emma walked back over to April, where Jackson now was standing her. She could see April sternly talking to him, and she wanted nothing more than to walk the other way.

"Okay, so bed three has a broken femur. Nurse is getting him up to angio." 

"Great. Thanks, Em." April sighed, she took one last glare at Jackson before walking away.