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jobrookekarev · 8 months

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The Beating of Two Hearts: Chapter Five

Chapter: Five of Nine

Words: 2,318

Summary: Jo's heart fails and she's rushed into surgery as Alex's entire world falls apart.

Fandom: Grey’s Anatomy.

Relationship: Alex Karev/Jo Wilson.

Characters: Alex Karev, Jo Wilson, Atticus Lincoln, Meredith Grey, Carina DeLuca, Cristina Yang.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences.

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Pure Angst, Medical, Illness.

Read at AO3

Read at FFN

AN: So 2 weeks ago I started moving. I was like, it's not going to interfere with my updating, it did. Anyway, here it is!

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It happened when he was getting Jo, her favorite take out. Things were good, Jo was doing well and joking with him as she made him go get it. They had just put the girls back in daycare after spending the morning with them. It was the start of a good day. He almost forgot they were planning on doing the surgery that evening. Cristina had flown in that night and met with them to discuss the surgery. She was sleeping now, but Alex felt at ease that she was here.

Then his pager went off. As he read the page for an emergency in O.B., he didn't think much of it. Alex got paged to O.B. for newborns all the time. Until a nurse ran up to him. Before she even opened her mouth, he knew it was about Jo.

“Dr Karev, it's your wife. She fainted and her heart….”

His own heart was in his throat. Alex didn’t hear anything else from the nurse. He had already taken off, running down the hall and abandoning the chinese food on the nearest surface. He raced up to Jo's room as fast as he could. He didn't bother taking the elevator, but just ran up the stairs two at a time. He went so fast that he nearly tripped. Finally, he got to the Maternity ward and saw a flurry of motion in Jo's room. He just stood there watching, not even seeing Jo from outside the room admits all the chaos. Until Meredith saw him and grabbed him as she pulled him into the room.

“We were talking and she got up to use the bathroom and fainted, but unlike before I couldn't rouse her, she wouldn't fully wake up. Her heart rate is lower and we're preparing an OR. Cristina says she can put in the new stent in ten minutes.”

Meredith pulled him into the room and one of the nurse's ran out, leaving a space for him to see her. Alex just stared at his pregnant wife, pale and lifeless on the bed, hooked up to a thousand monitors. Her sleep shirt was cut off and the blankets were thrown back to her feet, but she still had her favorite black sweatpants on. Alex came up to her and saw Carina at her bedside, working out of her specialty as she tried to help Jo’s heart. Alex quickly ran up to her, taking a hold of her hand.

“Jo,” Alex said to her, but she barely heard his voice.

Then she saw him and her hazy eyes locked onto his. “Alex, I don't feel good. Can you hold me, please?”

He kissed her hand and held it close, despite everything, her talking to him was a good sign. “I’ll do anything you want, Jo, just please stay.”

She looked up at him still hazy and he knew she was trying to hold his gaze. Time stood still as they locked eyes and Jo even gave him a small smile. For a moment it was all going to be okay. But it was gone too soon and Meredith was pulling him back.

“Alex, Alex, we gotta go, they have to take Jo now,” Meredith said as she pulled him away, but he couldn't let Jo go.

The room was abuzz with work as Carina shouted orders at everybody. She grabbed the rails of the bed as they started to move. They ran down the hallway and Alex held her hand as she tried to hold his gaze.

“It shouldn't take Cristina very long to know if her heart can work on its own after the stent placement again or if she needs a pacemaker,” Meredith said, glancing over at him as they ran down the hall. He wasn't surprised that she knew Cristina's surgery plan.

“What about the baby? She's only 28 weeks if you deliver now…” Alex trailed off as he looked down at her small bump, holding the even smaller baby inside her.

“We're hoping to avoid that,” Carina said, glancing at him. “But if we can't, your baby has a good chance in the NICU.”

“Hayes is going to meet us up there and be ready just in case,” Meredith said, seeing the look in his eyes and putting hand on his arm.

It was an 80% chance of survival. Alex knew the numbers and he knew how those numbers could change. Especially with a sick mother and low blood flow. Alex didn't say anything else as they boarded the elevator. Jo closed her eyes as they boarded the elevator and he rubbed her cheek with his thumb as he tried To get her to open them again but she remained asleep. Alex put a hand on her bump as he felt a good kick from her belly. He took the little bit of reassurance that he got, but jumped as the alarms went off.

Her heart rate was still low causing the alarms to beep, as this was his new nightmare. Each beep, and alarm made him jump and get antsy in a way he never was before. Meredith saw him react to each beep and reached over to turn off the alarm. The monitor still flashed and displayed the alarm, but he no longer jumped at each minute. Carina and tied on her scrub cap and the nurses around him double checked the IVs and monitors as they talked to each other in numbers and milligrams talking about the medications they would need for surgery.

“Jo, Jo,” Alex said, trying to rouse her and her heart back to life, but she was completely out of it. Her eyes closed and she couldn't wake up. Suddenly he was plagued by the thought of never seeing her brown eyes again. He could feel the tears fill his eyes. “Please be okay, please pull through this.”

Alex whispered to her in a plea of desperation, but she didn't respond. The elevator doors opened up and the moment was over and the rush began again. Hayes greeted them in the hallway and grabbed the end of the bed and started pushing it forward.

“The cath lab is prepped and ready. Cristina's already in there ready to operate,” Hayes said as he looked at Jo before his eyes glanced at Alex, but he didn’t say anything when he saw Alex’s tears. Cormac of all people knew Alex’s pain and fear now, having lived through his own wife’s death.

Meredith nodded and they pushed the bed to the cath lab. As they got to the door Meredith grabbed him, forcing him to let go of Jo's hand as they pushed through the doors without him. He fought it, trying to follow them and be with Jo as he pushed against Meredith, but Link grabbed him too and held him back.

“No let me go, let me in there,” Alex yelled as he begged her, but Meredith and Link stood firm and pulled him back to the hallway.

“Trust me Alex, the last thing you want to do is see Jo on the table,” Meredith said looking into his eyes and he knew she was right, but he still fought her.

“Please Mer,” Alex's voice breaking as his tears took over and his vision blurred with the sat water in his eyes. “If it was Zola or anyone else, you'd be in there!”

“You forget that I've done this with Zola, Alex. You don't want to see what happens in there, you don’t want to see your wife cut open. Let Cristina work, she can save Jo and the baby.”

“She's right, Alex. Cristina, Carina, and Hayes are going to take good care of Jo and the baby. We have to trust them and as much as it sucks, we have to go sit in the waiting room,” Link said, letting go of him a little, as Alex stopped struggling.

“Okay, we have two options. We can go to the waiting room and sit there or we can go down to the daycare and you can play with girls for a bit,” Meredith offered to him, but he didn’t want either of those.

He knew he should go see the girls. They were struggling with Jo being in the hospital and going home with Link and Meredith instead of him. They were rowdy and unsettled and their behaviors were increasing. Helena had started biting and Luna had withdrawn into herself. The only time she would sign or talk was when she was snuggled with Jo or him. Therefore, last night they asked Link to take the girls to their home. Then Alex would join them for bedtime and the morning routine. However it didn’t go as planned.

The second he walked into the house, he smelled Jo's perfume and saw the coffee mug she left on the counter the morning before she fainted. Alex didn't know what to do. He couldn't breathe. He ran out of the house and hid in the car until he could breathe again. Thankfully the girls didn't see him and Link pretended he didn’t. He double checked that they were okay and then left them with Link for the night. He agreed to help him out further and bring them to daycare tomorrow, while Alex went back to the hospital.

Jo was having a hard time too. Her hormones made it worse and she was struggling with her mental health. She cried when they left although she had tried to put on a brave face. When he came back, he had seen the tear streaks on her cheeks. One of the nurses had told them that she hadn't stopped crying after he left that night. Although she had quickly wiped them away and put a smile on. Her anxiety was high the whole night until she fell asleep in his arms. It was rough all around. With everybody doing their best to try and help them out. But the only thing they all needed was for Jo to come home safe and sound.

“Alex we have to go to the waiting room,” Meredith said, grabbing onto his arms but he wouldn't let her move him.

He watched as nurses Ginger and Anna ran into the Cath lab. Alex considered sneaking in with the nurses, although he wasn’t sure if they would allow him in there. For him they wouldn't, but for Jo they would.

Then he saw his chance. No one was in the hall and Link turned to walk towards the waiting room. Alex ran for it. He rushed into the scrub room barely stopping to grab a mask before he ran into the OR. There he saw Jo on the table. She was laying there as Cristina stood over her with a scalpel in her hand. He ran over to Jo and grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze as he watched over her.

“Alex? Get out!” Cristina yelled at him.

“No, I’m not leaving!” Alex insisted, planting his feet as he stared at Jo.

“And I’m not cutting your wife in front of you,” Cristina said as she put the scalpel down. “Somebody get him out of here!”

“Alex you can't be here, we have to go,” Meredith said, grabbing his arm and trying to drag him away.

“No no,” Alex said, desperate to stay, but before he knew it, Link had grabbed him and all but dragged him out. “Jo, no.”

He was forced to let go of Jo’s hand and his eyes stayed fixed on her as they took him away. Alex fought the arms around him that pulled him back trying to dig in his heels and stay in the OR, but it was a useless battle. They quickly pulled him out of the OR. Cristina went right back to where she was, grabbing the scalpel again. The last thing he saw as he watched through the window of the scrub room was Cristina cutting into Jo's thigh. There was a little bit of blood that came from the cut and it made him sick to see her cut his wife.

Suddenly the doors were in front of him and he was pushed out into the long hallway. He felt like he couldn't breathe. He had to get back in there. He had to be with Jo. He couldn’t let anything bad happen to her. There was a tightness in his chest that seemed to hold his heart in a choke hold.

“No, Jo, Jo!” Alex called out for her as Meredith held him back as she wrapped her arms around him, but he didn't want to hug her. “Meredith please, I need to be with her!”

“Alex, breathe,” Meredith said gently as she rubbed his back. “You have to trust Cristina. I know it's hard, but you have to stay here.”

His chest was tight as he struggled to breathe as his mind swirled with thoughts of Jo. He was consumed by thoughts of her dying, Jo was dying. Her heart was failing right now and he wasn't there with her. He couldn't comfort her and hold her hand. All he could think of was, what if she died there, alone? What if their baby was born alone without its mother or father there? What if he never saw her smile again, never heard her laugh, never felt the glare of her eyes as she scolded him, never felt her lips melt into his? What if he never held her in his arms again?

“Alex, Alex, take a deep breath,” Meredith said steadily as she held him. “You're having a panic attack.”

He didn't fully register what she said and even then, he didn't believe her. everything overwhelmed him and the tightness in his chest spilled over into tears onto his cheeks. Alex cried as his whole world came crashing down around him.

#jo wilson #alex karev #jolex #grey's anatomy #otp: home and heart #meredith grey #jo karev #grey's anatomy fanfic #addison montgomery #cristina yang #atticus lincoln #my work #my writing #my fanfiction

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