It had been a long day in the ER for April Kepner. It had been brutally slow. She had counted on it being a busy day. A busy day meant she would be needed past the end of her shift. A busy day on a day when she didn't have her daughter meant she didn't have to go home until she was exhausted. But here she was, an hour from the end of her shift, bored out of her mind.

She was thinking about texting Arizona to see if she wanted to grab a drink when they got word that a trauma was coming in. "Thank you God," April said under her breath as she got on a gown and ran toward the ambulance bay.

"Give me the rundown" April told the paramedics as they began to unload the patient.

"Ben Smith, age 4 years old, hit and run. He was unconscious when we got there, hasn't woken up. Stats are stable, breathing on his own, best we can tell he has a few broken ribs and a head lac".

"On my count, 1,2,3," April said as they moved the little boy to the hospital gurney.

"Page neuro. We need a head CT and a chest X-ray to find those broken ribs. He has some bad bruises on his face. We will need a Plastic consult so he doesn't go through life with scars on his face."

Just as April finished her initial assessment, the monitors started going crazy.

"He is crashing! Get me a crash cart".

April checked for a heart beat and started CPR. As she started pumping the boy, she noticed his belly was distended.

"He is bleeding in to his belly. I need to drain the blood from his stomach. Get me 4 bags of O negative stat. He is losing a ton of blood." April hopped on top of the gurney to continue chest compressions as they headed to the OR for surgery.

"Come on buddy - hang with me. We are going to fix you up but I need you to be strong and fight."

Once in the OR, April got to work fixing all the hit and run driver had broken inside the little four year olds body. In all they had been in surgery for three hours and April figured they had another two hours, assuming everything kept going smoothly."

The door to the ER slid open. "Dr. Kepner. The boy's father is here. He was hoping to get an update on Ben," said the admitting nurse.

"Tell him we are going to be another couple of hours, but so far things are going well. I will come and talk to him when we finish up.".

"I will tell him," and with the that the nurse left.

April continued the surgery and was thankful everything went smoothly. It will be a long recovery for the little boy - but he should be good as new in a month or two. Assuming there were no infections.

Once the surgery was over, April scrubbed out and headed to look for the boy's dad. It was well past 10pm now and April realized she had gotten her wish to be needed late. However she instantly felt guilty as now a four a year was laying in the recovery room. Well, at least she had been there to save his life, she thought.

April walked into the surgery waiting area and found a lone man sitting in a corner chair, silently crying and praying.

"Mr. Smith?" April said quietly as she approached him.

The man looked up, "Yes. Are you the doctor who operated on my son?"

"I am. I am Dr. Kepner. We just finished. He had several internal injuries that the paramedics had no way of seeing in the field. We took him up to surgery to stop the internal bleeding. I am confident we found all of the bleeds. He is pretty banged up, but his prognosis is good. He should make a full recovery," April finished as she sat down next to him.

"Thank you, So much. Thank you seems inadequate. Are you sure he is going to be ok?"

"Barring any infections or post op complications, I am guessing he will have to stay here for three or four days so we can monitor his recovery. He hasn't been awake since he came in, so I will order a neuro consult just to rule out an head injuries."

"When can I see him?"

"He is in recovery. They will have him in a room within the next hour or two. I will stay with him until he is moved."

"Thanks. I need to go get my daughter. I dropped her off at a friend's house on the way here. Would it be ok if I go and come back?"

"Absolutely. I will have the staff bring in an extra bed in his room so you can sleep with him tonight."

"That would be terrific."

"Ok - I am going to go and check on Ben. I will see you later on when we get him settled in his room," April said as she started to stand up.

"Thank you again Dr. Kepner."

"You are more than welcome."

April check on Ben, and was updating his file when she saw it. Ben's birthday. December 1, 2012. Her breath got stuck in her throat. She couldn't breath. Tears started welling up in her eyes. That was the day that changed her life forever. It was the day she gave birth to her son who died that very same day. Looking at Ben laying in his bed, all of it hit her like a ton of bricks. There wasn't a day that went by when she didn't think about her little boy. What he would look like, what he would be learning now…. And looking at this little boy in his bed - she knew. His features would be different than Ben's of course, but he would be four years old.

As she tried to wipe the continuous stream of tears falling down her face, the door to Ben's room opened and in walked his dad.

"Is everything ok?," he asked, slightly panicked at the sight of his son's surgeon crying over his bed.

"Oh no - everything is fine," April said, trying to recover as quickly as she could. "Ben is doing great. No issues. Of course we will continue to monitor him through the night. They haven't brought a bed in for you yet, but I am told they are working on it. I will check on it before I leave."

"You are leaving? Shouldn't you be staying to keep an eye on Ben," the dad asked.

"I have a resident on my service who will be monitoring Ben throughout the night. She will page me if anything comes up. But he should be just fine. I am back here early tomorrow morning so I will check in on the both of you then." April started to head for the door.

"Dr. Kepner, are you ok?" Ben's dad asked.

"I am. Just a long day that ended with a surgery on a little boy. Its always hard when I see kids hurt." With that, April walked out of the room. She checked to make sure someone was delivering the bed to the room. Once she saw it being rolled down the hall, she packed up her stuff to leave the hospital. She was exhausted. It had proven to be a long night. But she didn't know how much sleep she would get. Her little girl was with her dad and her little boy…. Her little boy was with God. Someday she would see him again. And that would have to get her through.