*....* denotes internal thought or conflict
------ break in scene

Author's notes: okay, this fic is a bit stranger than my usual fare... it's DARK (capitalized for a reason ppl), and it deals with some rather... disturbing topics... mainly about the black market and illegal gathering of human organs... if this kind of thing squicks or disgusts you, please don't read it. Consider yourselves fairly warned. I'm in a weird mood right now. Oh, I'm not a doctor and I don't pretend to be one. My medical knowledge is so far based upon what I've read and what I've briefly researched. I have seen and read similar situations as the ones I will write about, and I have basically followed their procedures - as far as medical jargon and whatnot. Total AU, doesn't even come close to touching the real reality... basically just a borrowing of my fav bishounen and placing the into a reality of my own dark imagination. Also, I recently asked what the gw boys's blood types were and I appreciate the few people who actually emailed me with the info, it's gratefully appreciated. However, I only got info on the five gw boys, so for everyone else, I'm making it up. ^_^

Shukaku Part 1

The curt announcement over the hospital speaker system was preceeded by the simultaneous screeching of half a dozen pocket pagers.

Code Blue, MICU. Code Blue, MICU.

Dr. Heero Yuy joined the other surgical residents as they made a mad dash for the stairwells. As he jogged into the MICU, he noticed there was already a small crowd of medical personnel surrounding the area. A few of the residents who had arrived before he did were already drifting away, noticing that there was a sufficient amount of personnel clogging the MICU to deal with the Code Blue.

Heero was about to join them in leaving when he noticed that the code was in Bed 2, Mariemeia Khushrenada's cubicle.

He pushed through the know of white coats and scrubs, anxious to get to his patient. At the center of the throng of medical personnel lay Mariemeia Khushrenada. The fiery haired young girl lay on her bed, her frail body exposed to the glare of overhead lights.

Fellow intern, Trowa Barton, was administering chest compressions, his brown bangs whipping back and forth with every thrust. Another nurse was frantically rummaging through the crash cart drawers, pulling out drug vials and syringes and passing them to the medical residents.

Heero took a brief moment to glance up at the cardiac monitor screen. What he saw there was not pleasing to the young intern. Not pleasing at all.

Ventricular fibrillation. [1]

The basic pattern of a dying heart.

A voice near Heero's right yelled, "Seven and a half ET tube!"

It was then that Heero noticed Quatre Winner crouched behind Mariemeia's head. He already had the laryngoscope ready. [2] A crash cart nurse had already ripped the plastic cover off an ET tube and passed it on to the chief resident.

Quatre ordered in a voice tempered with steel, "Keep bagging him!" Quatre waited for a few moments while the respiratory tech continued to manually pump oxygen into the girl's lungs, while holding the anesthesia mask to her face.

"OK, let's intubate." Moving with an efficiency born from experience, Quatre had the ET tube in place in mere seconds, the oxygen connected.

Heero shook his head at Quatre in a negative even as he said, "Still in V. fib. We'll have to get the paddles. Two hundred joules."

The young intern was handed a pair of defibrillator paddles by another nurse. He slapped them onto the young chest in front of him, the placement already having been marked by the conductive gel pads. One smooth paddle was placed near the sternum, the other outside the nipple. Heero grunted and said, "Everyone back."

A burst of electricity shot through Mariemeia's body, jolting every muscle into a grotesque spasm. She gave one spasmodic jerk, then lay still.

As if led by some sick conductor, everyone's eyes jerked to the monitor screen and a collective groan was issued.

"Still in V. fib. Someone get bretylium, two-fifty." [3]

Trowa resumed his chest compressions, his lips held in a tight, grim line. Even though his face showed no outward signs of emotion, fear for this young patient's life was sparking in his green eyes. The young intern watched as Quatre taped the ET tube into place, already rushing onto the next task. He continued his mindless pumping on Mariemeia's chest, a part of the chaos surrounding him, but at the same time withdrawn from the scene before his very eyes. He barely heard as Heero, his fellow intern, yelled, "Everyone back again!"

Trowa jerked away as once again, a shock of electricity jerked the young girl's body. Trowa's eyes automatically flew to the cardiac monitor, the status of no change not surprising.

He knew very well what ventricular fibrillation meant. It was the signal from the heart that it couldn't continue the fight to live. Yet even in the face of hopelessness, they wouldn't give up so easily. They couldn't.

A new voice entered the bedlam, a calm and smooth tone that was steady where so many others were going frantic. "Let's try a bolus of calcium chloride. Try a hundred milligrams," said Wufei Chang.

Protests came from another resident nurse even as she began filling a syringe. "But she's already on digoxin."

Wufei shook his head, turning his dark gaze on the young girl. "At this point, we've got nothing to lose."

After the bolus was injected into the IV tube, everyone stood back from the table as Heero, once more, attempted to jolt Mariemeia back from the brink of death.

Nothing happened.

Wufei's eyes caught Heero's and he said, "Again."

Heero bit his lip as another nurse upped the voltage to 300 joules and he placed the paddles back onto the young body. With this new electric shock, the tracing on the monitor shot straight up, settling back to baseline, but with a new, single blip. The jagged peak of a QRS complex, the symbolic blip of life. However, it all too soon deteriorated back to V. fib.

Wufei said forcefully, "One more time!"

The voltage was increased to 400 joules and the paddles replaced. As the body settled back down, everyone's eyes were drawn to the monitor.

A QRS blipped across the line. Then another. And another. And another.

Wufei smiled and said, "We're in sinus."

"BP seventy over forty... up to ninety over fifty..."

A collective sigh, eerily like the collective groan, rushed through the room.

Wufei picked up the chart hanging on the end of Mariemeia's bed, pen poised over the latest bit of paperwork, preparing to sign the code sheet. Almost absentmindedly, he commented, "Good work, people."

Smiles of relief were evident on the faces of all the attending residents and nurses, even as they busily cleaned up the area, disposing of used syringes and vials, all the little bits of plastic and glass evidence left in the Code Blue aftermath. Heero's own face contained a small relieved smile as he continue to wipe at Mariemeia's sticky chest with a washcloth, washing away the traces of the electrode paste.

However, amongst all the relieved faces, one was not happy. Not happy at all.

The frowning countenence belonged to one Dr. Quatre R. Winner, Mariemeia's personal attending physician and chief resident of SMH, or Sank Medical Hospital.

Underneath his breath, the blond man muttered, "It's not enough, Wufei. We only prolonged the inevitable if she doesn't receive a donor heart transplant soon."

Wufei finished scribbling his nearly illegible scrawls on the code sheet as he murmured, "Hearts don't exactly grow on trees, Quatre. Especially AB matches."

The blond haired resident shook his head even as he ran an impatient hand over his sweaty forehead. His voice, normally kept at a pleasant and tranquil tone, was curt with a tinge of bitterness. "Don't I know it."

The blond man's brooding was interrupted when one of the desk nurses popped her head into the MICU unit and said, "Dr. Winner, Mr. Khushrenada and his wife are out here waiting to talk with you."

Quatre sighed and ran one hand through his unusually messy hair. He said, "Tell them I'll be out shortly, Silvia."

The pretty nurse smiled nervously and said, "Uh, they also wanted to talk with Dr. Chang."

Wufei looked up from where he was putting away the code sheet chart and nodded his head once. "I will be right out, Ms. Noventa."

Silvia gave another nervous grin and said, "Yes, doctor."

Wufei sighed as the blond nurse disappeared, a silent suffering look on his face. The rest of the interns and nurses in the room gave him sympathetic grins. Although most of them were aware of the serious of Mariemeia's situation, they were also aware of how much of a nuisance her father, Treize Khushrenada had been making of himself around the hospital.

That and the fact that for some reason Dr. Chang had trouble making it through one discussion with the ginger haired aristocrat without having to quell the urge to strangle him.

Heero smiled at the Chinese man, his own expression sympathetic and understanding. He gently laid his hand on Wufei's shoulder, the gesture meant to silently support the other man. Wufei reached up with his free hand and tenderly squeezed Heero's, showing his gratefulness at the attempt.

"Don't worry, Wufei. Don't let Mr. Khushrenada's money get shoved into your face again and keep your cool this time."

The noble looking doctor averted his eyes for a minute as he mumbled, "Sometimes money makes the world go round, Heero."

"What did you say?" asked Heero who hadn't caught wind of exactly what Wufei had said.

"Nevermind," the other said quickly. He lightly left a kiss on Heero's hand and gently eased it off his shoulder. Hoping to distract Heero from the inquisitive look he was giving him, Wufei asked, "What are your plans for this evening?"

Heero eyed the taller man for a moment before shrugging and giving him a small smile. "I'm supposed to meet up with Catherine and Sally later to discuss the plans for our wedding reception, but I'll be home by the time you get off work."

Wufei smiled and said, "Good. I'll be looking foward to seeing you at home then." Wufei then leaned forward to give Heero a thorough kiss that was deep enough to leave the slightly shorter man in a daze. Pleased with the results of his shower of affection, Wufei smirked and gently ran his finger over Heero's slightly bruised lips. It was only a distinct cough from Quatre that managed to ruin the mood.

With a slightly dark expression, Wufei lifted his head to gaze coolly at the blond haired resident. The blond merely raised one eyebrow and jerked his shoulder back in the direction of the waiting room.

"I'm not going out there alone, Wufei. So if the two of you are finished?"

Wufei scowled at Quatre but there was no menace in his glare. He nodded his head once and then turned back to Heero. With a last squeeze on Heero's shoulder, he said, "I'll see you later." With that, he left the MICU and headed out with Quatre to speak to Mr. Khushrenada and his wife, Une.

TBC...

[1] ventricular fibrillation - very rapid uncoordinated fluttering contractions of the ventricles of the heart resulting in loss of synchronization between heartbeats and pulse beat

[2] laryngoscope - an instrument for examining the interior of the larynx

[3] bretylium - I read this in many books concerning V fib and it is an antiarrhythmic drug that is administered in the treatment of ventricular fibrillation

 

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