Chapter Forty-Five

"So, when are you and Avery going to go out on a real date?" Meredith asked me as we both headed down towards the ER.

"Excuse me?" I furrowed my brows, surprised by her random question. 

"You and Jackson, when are you guys going on a real date?" She repeated her question. "I mean, from what Callie's said you two are getting pretty close, but you haven't asked any of us to watch Mark for weeks, which means that you two haven't gone out together. So, when are going to?"

"What makes you think I'm going to talk to you about this?" I shook my head at her. 

"Because you like me more than you like Cristina." She smirked as we reached the others just as they were heading out of the ER to meet the ambulances, everyone already dressed in trauma gowns, like us. 

"I heard a tanker blew?" I asked Hunt as everyone started going to different ambulances, Hunt and I heading towards one together.

"It didn't blow." He shook his head as the paramedics opened the back of the ambulance, pulling out a little boy that was strapped to a stretcher. 

"Ethan Dawson, ten years old. Restrained in the backseat." The paramedic informed us. "No obvious injuries except for a minor wrist lac. He was walking around at the scene."

"Ethan, my name is Dr. Hunt and this is my friend Dr. Howards." Hunt introduced himself and then me to the young boy. 

"Are my mom and dad dead?" He asked us, tears spilling from his eyes.

"No, no." I shook my head, glancing back towards the hospital doors where the others had already rushed their patients inside. "They're right inside."

"You'll see them soon." Hunt promised him. "We got you. Okay?"

"Okay." He nodded the best he could with this head restrained to prevent too much movement.

"Okay, let's go." Hunt told the paramedics as we all began to push Ethan inside the hectic emergency room. "Murphy, I want you to check Ethan here out!"

"Okay." The blonde intern nodded as she replaced Hunt at my side, going to see if the others needed any help. With the help of the paramedics we quickly got Ethan off of the stretcher and into a bed.

"Ethan, can you tell me if anything hurts?" I asked the young boy as I shined a light in his eyes to check his reflexes, them seemed normal. 

"My wrist." He said.

"Murphy." I nodded to the intern to take care of the laceration on Ethan's wrist as I had him sit forward, letting me get a listen to his heartbeat. As I went about checking everything I could on the young boy I also kept a close eye on Murphy as she cleaned and bandaged his wrist. "So, Ethan, how old are you?"

"Ten." He answered the same as the paramedic.

"Ten, that's  good age." I gave him a small smile as I worked. "You know, I have a little boy. He's only a baby, but I can't wait until he's older, like you. That's when all to the fun stuff happens, isn't it?"

"I guess." He shrugged.

"This little guy checks out okay." Murphy told Hunt when he came back over to check on us after a while.

"Okay. Um, finish bandaging his wrist, and then have somebody wait with him-" Hunt started to tell us.

"But...I thought you said I could see my parents." Ethan frowned as he looked between Hunt and I. 

"Ethan," Hunt sighed, looking at me as he tried to figure out what to say.

"You know what?" I jumped in. "It'll have to be quick, but I'm pretty sure we can make that work Ethan. You just have to listen to what the other doctors say, okay?"

"Okay." He nodded as Murphy finished with his wrist. From there I helped him down from the bed and Hunt let us towards the back of the emergency room where Yang was treating Ethan's father. 

"I'm a little concerned, so we're gonna take you up to CT." Yang told the older man before she turned and walked over to us. "Widened mediastinum. I'm betting his aorta is shredded beef."

"This is the patient's son." Hunt told her before she could say anything else. 

"Oh, sorry." She apologized. "Uh, we gotta take him up to CT."

"Dad!" Ethan grinned at his dad as they began to wheel him away.

"Ethan." The man smiled at his son as he was wheeled past us. "Hey, I'm okay. I-I'm gonna be fine. Stay with Mom. Stay with Mom, all right?"

"Where is my mom?" Ethan looked back at Hunt and I. 

"Let's go find out, okay?" I smiled at him before looking back at Hunt. "I got this."

"It's fine." He shook his head as he continued to walk through the crowded ER with us in search of Ethan's mother. He led the way over the nurses' station where Murphy was now working. "Now look right there. RD. See? That's your mom. Now it says that they are taking her up to get some pictures taken. And Dr. Murphy here will let you know when you can see her, okay?" He then lowered his voice as he spoke to Murphy. "Call Social Services."

"Ethan, stay with me." I wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders as Hunt walked over to where April was treating a patient of her own. "Murphy, I want to be kept updated on Mrs. Dawson's case. Whenever something changes or she so much as sneezes I want you to tell me, got it?"

"Yes." She nodded just as the entire ER shook, following the sound of an explosion. At the sound I pulled Ethan closer to me, at the same time he cried out and wrapped his arms around my waist, burrowing his head into my stomach. Murphy's eyes widened as she looked at me. "What was that?"

"The tanker may have just blown." I shook my head, not knowing myself. I pulled away from Ethan and knelt down so he and I were at eye level with one another. "Ethan, hey, it was just an explosion, but it was really far away, and everybody's fine, okay? Everybody is safe, all right?"

"Fire!" Someone yelled from outside and my eyes flew to the door instantly. Outside I could see a man running around, engulfed in flames as he screamed in pain, falling to the ground. 

"Ethan, why don't we go sit down?" I suggested as I led him towards the waiting room so we would be out of everyone's way, knowing more patients were going to be brought in. I sat him down in one of the chairs before I took a seat in the one next to him.

"Hey, are you okay?" Hunt asked when he came over to check on Ethan.

"Yeah," Ethan nodded.

"Howards, we're going to need you with more people coming in." Hunt looked back at me, though I could see his eyes glancing back towards Ethan every few seconds.

"I know." I nodded. "Can you get a nurse or someone to stay with Ethan?"

"Of course," he assured me before walking off to find someone. 

"Ethan, I'm going to have to go, okay?" I looked down at the young boy. "But if you need anything then just tell one of the nurses to page me, have them page Dr. Howards. Okay?"