*Dr. Brennan's POV*

I know exactly how the waiting room works. Here; stress, anxiety, uncertainty and fear serve to make even the shortest of waits seem unbearable. Families sit crouched forward in their uncomfortable chairs watching the door in hopes of seeing the smiling face of their surgeon with every turn of the doorknob. Here the wait may be rewarded by preservation of a life or, unfortunately, sometimes by a less desirable outcome.
In Krystal's case... I think she is going to be fine. It came pretty close. She went into cardiac arrest while in the operating room, but we brought her back and finished up the operation, successfully stopping the internal bleeding. She needs good rest, but her friends and boyfriend are out there waiting for her. I took a deep breath and pushed through the doors.

"Krystal Cassidy?" I stated her name and 3 young lads stood up, frantically asking about her causing a young woman who had fallen asleep to awaken. 4 other men dressed in tight jeans, dark and ripped tshirts and wearing makeup stood also, and one young man who had his face buried in his hands, dressed very similarly to the 4 older men, looked up at me, teary eyed. I went and sat next to him. "Hello my name is Dr Brennan." I put my hand out towards him and he shook it.

"Ashley."

"Ashley, your girlfriend is perfectly fine now and is being transferred into recovery. She was in a critical condition. She wen-"

"She's not his girlfriend." One of the younger 3 lads had announced innocently.

I turned my attention back to Ashley. "Sorry, sir. I was under the wrong impression. I do apologise." he didn't seem annoyed that I had misinterpretted his relationship with the girl; he asked me to continue and sat very still, listening intently. "Krystal went into cardiac arrest as we started to operate." I felt a sense of panic and he had pain in his eyes. One of the heavily dressed men came over and put his hand on Ashley's shoulder. I continued.
"With an internal bleed, the blood can compress organs and cause their dysfunction. Krystal was bleeding from the lining tissue of the heart and she had bleeding around the lungs. We believe this was caused by blunt force trauma. This kind of trauma happens when a body part collides with something else, usually at high speed; most often in car accidents, but it has been recorded to happen in physical assault cases like Krystal's. Blood vessels inside the body are torn or crushed either by shear forces or a blunt object, this causes the internal bleed, in this case around her lungs and heart. The blood flow to the muscle of the heart is impaired, which is what caused her to go into cardiac arrest." Ashley was just sat there close to tears and nodded.

"But she's okay?"

"She is going to be more than okay with friends like you around Ashley. You can go through to see her soon." He smiled and I finally saw that look. The look I was waiting for. He looked relieved. "Perhaps one of you should call her parents and let them know what's happened."

And with that, I wished them all well and left. Another life saved. All round a successful day.