#traumaevent

It was only Lucia’s first day at the Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital and she was already completely overwhelmed. The ER had been full with trauma all day, meaning Lucia had spent her entire first day in the ER and the OR, partly running between the two. On top of that, the staff had been talking all day about some doctors on a plane that had disappeared. The whole situation brought her back to when her fiancé died in a hit and run. She remembered when she worried about him and wondered where he was the many hours he was just gone, before someone found him dead in the street the next day. 

The second her first shift was over she ran down to the hospital’s daycare. She had no idea what to do, or what she was going to do, all she knew was that she needed to be with her daughter. The staff and everyone else at the daycare was a blur for Lucia until the second she saw her daughter. Grabbing the small child Lucia wrapped Camila in her arms and hugged her tightly. “Never leave, mommy. Never ever leave, mommy.” Lucia whispered into the beautiful black strands of hair on her daughter’s small head. “Mamá, mamá” her daughter giggled in her ear. “Sí, mi amor” Lucia sat down on the floor, with her daughter still in her arms and pulled away enough so that they could see each other’s faces. “Te amo” Camila said smiling with her adorable high pitched toddler voice. At those words a few tears rolled down Lucia’s cheek. “Te amo" Lucia whispered back, looking into her daughter’s eyes. She had her father’s eyes. 

Taking a deep breath and wiping away the tears from her face Lucia looked at her daughter. She was so beautiful. Truly the best thing that had ever happened to her. Camila’s beaming happiness made a smile appear on Lucia’s lips and slowly she could feel herself becoming calm. Suddenly, she noticed someone else in scrubs. Lucia dabbed her face somewhat more dry with her fingers before turning to the person. “Sorry, it’s been quite a day. Is it okay to come down here during work like this?”

“look, i get it. it’s awful and could be a tragedy. but the truth is, we don’t know. and life does go on. there are still patients who need us to be on our best game, who deserve the best medical care we can provide so if you need to take a break, i can hold on the fort. but if not, i need you to snap out of it.”

As the long Seattle Winter begins to give way to Spring, the rain clouds have begun to clear and the temperatures have started to climb. With last year’s power cut fresh in everybody’s minds, Lachlan Covington has triple checked the backup generator and briefed the staff one too many times on the protocol for an unexpected electricity shortage. With the sun shining, the staff of Seattle Grace Mercy West are taking every opportunity to migrate outside and enjoy the rare sunshine, but there’s no time busier than lunch hours. It was during one of these outdoor lunches that the mutterings of a beach day began. It started off as a casual comment from one of the nurses after a patient declared that the following weekend was predicted to be Washington’s warmest of the year. Wouldn’t it be fun if they all celebrated together? No serious plans were made, the conversation went on, and yet by the end of the day talks of a staff day at the beach were flying through the corridors. By Thursday the halfhearted suggestion was a fully formed agenda. For those lucky enough to have gotten the weekend off, they’re more than welcome to join their colleagues down at Alki Beach for a barbeque and some games, or perhaps they’d prefer to take advantage of the sun or maybe cool off with a dip in the water. Regardless of what they choose to do, it’s hard to beat a sunny Saturday at the beach.

Her due date being in just a few short weeks, Graciella felt more pregnant than human. Having pushed her big belly into a, supposed to be loose sitting, dress, Graciella’s patient had already ran thin and she had found some comfortable sneakers for her feet. Whenever she caught a glance of herself in a mirror, she felt like a whale. Pregnancy made her nauseated, sweaty, have cramps and needing to run pee for what felt like every five seconds. Making her way to the crowded hotel bar, Graciella tried to avoid any reflective surface to spot herself in, but still felt like a pissed off whale. However, tonight she would try to be ‘happy mom to be’-pregnant and less ‘kill me now’-pregnant. 

Making her way to the bar, Graciella ordered a glass of soda with a lot of ice and lime in it. Honestly, mostly happy to find a seat. As the young mother noticed someone approaching her she tried to find some niceness inside of her angry pregnant brain and forced a smile on her lips. “Hi, there.” She greeted the person approaching her. 

character death tw, heart attack tw