Heart's A Mess - Prologue

PROLOGUE

"What do you mean the plane left?" she squealed in disbelief.

"The engines revved, it accelerated, lifted off the ground and went wooosh into the air." The ground crewman spelled out the exact mechanism by which the plane left; a sarcastic smile plastered on his face.

Khushi found herself loosing patience fast and took deep breaths to prevent herself from bashing the insufferable man's head in.

"You see this red box? It has a live beating heart in it. And that blue one over there? It has a pair of lungs. Organs, which I had to remove from a young man who died before his time. Organs, which I have to deliver so that another man won't have to die before his time. A man who has a wife and three very young children. So sir, I do not particularly care for your sarcasm'get me a GOD DAMNED PLANE!"

The man wrapped his thick jacket around him tightly, as the wind howled. It was two am in the morning and he was trying to reason with this crazy woman.

"And like I said to you before maam, the next plane is scheduled to leave in the morning in about'."He made a big deal of looking at his watch. "'five hours. The only way I can get you another plane is if I build one!"

"So then build one!" Khushi snapped.

The middle-aged man pulled down firmly on his beanie and resorted simply to walking away. Profanities filtered through the air and reached Khushi's ears. Not that she cared. She stomped her foot in frustration. A shrill ring tone pierced the air'

"Dr Gupta, tell me you're sitting in the comfort of a jet and on your way to Cleveland." A muffled voice teased through the handset.

"I'm sitting in the comfort of a jet and on my way to Cleveland." Her voice was deadpan.

A sigh could be heard from the other end of the line. Oliver Danes had known his resident long enough to know that something disastrous must have happened for her not be her chipper self; even if it was 2 am in the morning.

"How bad is it?"

"Don't get me started. I called ahead to let the ground staff know to hold the bloody plane. We were late by literally a few minutes but it was the last flight out and apparently they couldn't wait because of some FAA regulation'or some rubbish of the sort."

"Why the hell were you late? I sent you with plenty of time for the procurement." Khushi winced hearing her usually mild boss loose his cool.

"We got to the hospital on time. But there was an issue with the donor's side. The mother wasn't giving her consent. It took us longer than we hoped."

Dr Danes yanked the surgical mask off his mouth and degloved. "You do realize I have a man open on the table whose lungs are no longer in his chest. I was just about to remove his heart. How long will it take you to get here?"

Khushi squirmed under the questioning and in a mouse like voice said' "The next plane isn't for another 5 hours."

This time her boss wasn't so kind as he roared down the phone'"5 HOURS! Gupta that's too bloody late! I don't even have the time to send our chopper. We have an effective window of about one and half hours in which I need those organs."

She held the mobile receiver at a little distance away from her ear; the bellow of his voice almost perforating her eardrums. "I know'I know! I'm trying'" she paused. Khushi squinted her eyes to make sure she was actually seeing what she thought she was seeing. "Hang on a minute!" Keeping her hand over the mouthpiece she beckoned over the grounds man.

"You said there was no plane! What the hell is that!" she hissed as she nodded her head over in the direction of the sleek jet.

"That is a private jet maam. They required our airstrip for an emergency refuel. It is not in our purview to commandeer its services." He quipped frustrated by her incessant grilling.

"To hell with your purview." Removing her hand from the mouth piece' "Give me five minutes. I may have something!"

"You better have.." Oliver Danes was cut off rather abruptly by the sound of the dial tone.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

If anyone could get those organs on time it would be God or Dr. Khushi Gupta. Since one of them was already using all her resources' all that was left for him to do was pray.