It was a good day. She’d actually started managing her schedule right, so she’d gotten to do not one, not two, but three surgeries that morning, and she had already gotten the budgets done, so she might get to do more surgery that afternoon, if some traumas came in. She’s just gotten back to her office with some lunch, the cafeteria had her favorite today. For Miranda Bailey, it was a good, good day.
And then the phone rang. “Hello, this is Miranda Bailey,” She says, taking a bite of her Shepherd’s Pie. Dang, it was good.
“Dr. Bailey, this is Dr. Hannah Bliss from Mater Hospital in Sydney, Australia. Drs. Clay and Chris Cormier have been working here?” The woman on the other end says.
“Yes, Dr. Bliss!” Bailey says, remembering speaking with Clay at length about her. “What can I do for you?”
“Dr. Bailey, I’m afraid I’m calling under unfortunate circumstances. Clay and Chris didn’t give us emergency contact information besides Seattle Grace Hospital. As you may have known, they were going to the island of Morangando to consult with a doctor on two cases of OI,” she says.
“Yes, I spoke with Clay a few days ago...he said they were going to this island, and then they’d be back in Seattle within two weeks,” Bailey says. She remembers the call with both of them very well. She was looking forward to having them back, it would do well for the hospital.
“Dr. Bailey, the plane went down. It suffered catastrophic engine failure.”
Catastrophic engine failure. Catastrophic...engine...failure.
“Catastrophic engine failure...” Bailey murmurs, knowing that whatever comes next, it can’t be good.
“Yes. Dr. Bailey...the aircraft went up in flames and burned,” Dr. Bliss says. She’s calm, direct, just like you learned to be. “It burned so hot and so long that...they could not recover any remains. Both Drs. Cormier and the pilot have all been declared dead.”
“What...what... why are we just hearing about this?!” Bailey shrieks. “What do you mean they’re dead?!”
“I’m so sorry Dr. Bailey. I’m sorry this happened, and I’m sorry that you have to be the one to pass it on to next of kin.”
She doesn’t breathe much through the rest of the conversation, getting information from her, hearing her apologies. When she hangs up, she pushes away her lunch, suddenly disgusted by the thought of it.
Clay and Chris Cormier...they were dead.
Her head of pediatrics and her top resident were dead.
Two men, two uncles, two partners, two fathers were dead, and now she had to tell everyone. She moves, numb, to her filing cabinet, pulling out their personnel files. She could guess their emergency contacts, next of kin, but part of her hoped. This was crap.
As expected, Christopher’s is Amelia. That means she gets to go to Amelia Shepherd, with her daughter, going through cancer treatment, and tell her that her fiancee, the father of her child was dead. Great.
Clayton’s, she’s not surprised. As expected, with his brother gone, it’s Allison and Evan Bradford. Fresh out of a traumatic birth and long hospital stay...and she gets to tell them their family is dead.
