Luka sniffed the bunch of flowers, smiling a little at the scent.
The garden at home had begun to blossom, and he'd just had
to
gather a few of them for Kerry. Hm... with luck, there wouldn't be
anybody in the lounge, and he could get them into Kerry's
locker before anyone saw him at it. He backed in, to try to avoid
squashing the flowers, so he didn't see that Carol was at her
locker until it was too late.
"Uh... good morning, Carol. Your 'new' car is working well?" He made
the mistake of moving the hand that was holding the
flowers, just enough for her to notice them.
Carol beamed when she spotted the flowers. "For me? They're
beautiful, Luka. How'd you know it was my birthday?" It was?
But she had already snatched the flowers out of his hand, and was
admiring them, sniffing at them, exclaiming over how pretty
they were. Damn. He couldn't tell her that the flowers weren't for her,
not without admitting who they really were for. And he
couldn't do that without admitting that he and Kerry had
had a relationship for the last four months... which Kerry wasn't ready
for him to do. He nibbled at his lower lip and opened his locker, then
hauled out his labcoat and stethoscope before shoving his
jacket in. Double damn. Triple damn. "Uh, well, happy
birthday," he told her lamely.
He liked Carol - most of the time, anyway - but she had a big mouth.
As it was, the entire hospital would undoubtedly hear about
those damned flowers within the hour... which meant that Kerry would
hear about it. Which meant that he would later hear about
it, from her. Fortunately, Conni came in to fetch him to work on a GSW
just then, and he hurried out of the lounge.
He spotted Kerry a little later, after he'd got the GSW admitted.
"Ignore the gossip," he told her quietly. "The flowers were meant
for you." She looked puzzled - the grapevine hadn't yet reached her? -
and he sighed in frustration as he saw Chuny heading towards
them before he could really say anything more. "Just... trust me,
okay?" He touched her shoulder quickly, and walked away.
* * *
Kerry, who was buzzing around the front desk trying to keep up with
assorted paperwork as she worked on her report for this
afternoon, saw Carter come in, wearing a suit. Dave noted his
appearance with incredulously raised eyebrows, and Chuny made
a show of checking him out. "Lookin' sharp, Carter, where've ya been?"
"I have been checking out condos in Lincoln Park,
Chuny. Figured it's about time to get out of my grandparents' house,
and get
into something of my own... something a little more permanent than an
apartment."
"That's a pretty trendy area," she observed.
"And expensive," Amira added, as she went for the
ringing phone. She didn't know exactly how much those
condos were, just
that they were well beyond what a hospital desk clerk would ever be
able to afford in a million years (her salary, she
thought,
wasn't just modest, it was downright self-effacing!).
"Lincoln Park?" Dave snorted. "Too many damned yuppies around there." Carter laughed.
"You're a yuppie, Dave." Dave looked at him as though Carter had just announced that Soylent Green was people.
"No way. Uh-uh." Chuny snickered at him.
"Young. Urban. Professional. Sorry, but that's you, Dr Malucci," she
informed him crisply, and swatted his rear with a chart as
she left the area. He appealed to Kerry as she headed for one of the
computers.
"Hey, Chief, I'm not a yuppie... am I?" She saw the pleading look in
his eyes, and nearly laughed - he should wear a sign that said
"Please yank my chain"!
"No, but you will be when you grow up." She pulled up a patient's
lab results quickly, and looked up from the screen. "I need
someone to pull a double, and take Dr Greene's shift this evening. Any
takers?" Dave hesitated, and Carter glared at him. Despite
the current resistance, everybody had been pretty good about picking up
the slack that Mark's frequent absences had left in the
schedule recently, she thought. Still... she hoped he could come back
soon - much more of these two bickering, and she was going
to have a fit.
"I'll take it, Dr Weaver. I'm the senior resident,
therefore it's my responsibility." He gave Dave a "nyah nyah, so there"
look, and
Dave responded with an "I know you are, but what am I"
look.
"Thank you, Carter. Nice to see that somebody around
here takes his job seriously. Be sure to get a nap at some point, so
you're nice
and fresh for this evening. Dr Malucci'll cover for you during that
time. Right, Dr Malucci?"
"Sure thing, Chief," Dave sighed. Amira hung up the phone, and hailed Kerry before she could escape.
"Dr Weaver! Your EMS meeting's been moved up to ten o'clock." Kerry
looked at her watch, and swore under her breath; seemed
like this kind of crap happened all the time lately.
"All right. Where's Carol?" Amira pointed, and Kerry followed the
path of the finger to Carol, who was hauling a cart of supplies
into Curtain Area Two. "Carol!" It was impossible to know whether Carol
just hadn't heard her, or was ignoring her (for Carol's
sake, Kerry hoped it was the former), so she went in pursuit. "Carol, I
need the paramedic compliance data on aspirin in chest pain."
"I'll get it for you, Kerry." She heard the "go away and leave me alone" undertone to Carol's voice, but persisted.
"I put a memo in your box last week - didn't you see it?" Carol didn't even pause in her shelf-stocking.
"I'm sorry. I must have forgotten." Kerry groaned: just what she didn't need to hear!
"The meeting is in less than two hours, Carol, and I need that information." Now Carol did pause, and turned to look at Kerry.
"I'll get it for you," Carol told her firmly, and Kerry hoped that wasn't a "just bug off, already" tone she heard now.
"And you'll do it."
"Yes, I will do it!" Now Carol sounded downright annoyed, and Kerry decided to leave it at that.
* * *
"Hey, Kerry." Kerry looked up from the report she was trying to
assemble in time for the meeting - though without Carol's data,
she couldn't really get very far - and saw that Kim had come down to
the ER. "Call for a page?"
"No, I didn't know Psych had been called. Um..." she turned and looked at the board. "Try Exam 4."
"Thanks. Hey, you want to go grab some coffee a little later?"
"Uh... I have a meeting in about 45 minutes, but maybe later." Kim
smiled and nodded, and headed for Exam 4. Kerry wondered - was
it just her imagination, or had Kim really been staring
at her breasts? It was hard to be sure, now that she knew that Kim was interested
in her. It was kind of weird, actually... it was like the way that
after Monica had come out, Kerry had been a little nervous around her,
too, for a while.
They'd eventually cleared up that misunderstanding
(Monica's tastes ran more towards tall blondes - Kim would be about
Monica's style,
in fact - than short, skinny redheads), and had gone back to their
usual sisterly bantering. That is, when Monica was even around
- usually
she was off somewhere, doing her own thing, god only knew where...
Kerry hadn't heard from her since Christmas, when a card had
arrived with a Denver postmark.
* * *
Zadro pushed the gurney in, and Luka looked at the guy lying on it - his head was all bloodied, and he looked a little wild-eyed.
"Martin Kaslik, 41. Multiple contusions and lacerations to the head,
caused by a hammer. No LOC, relatively alert and oriented,
BP's 150 over 96, pulse 94." Luka looked at all the blood - it probably
wasn't as bad as it looked, since the scalp had so many little
vessels that scalp lacs bled pretty profusely - and shook his head.
"Was he attacked?"
"Nope. Self-inflicted, according to his wife."
"Oooookay. Sir... sir! Can you tell me what happened?" Kaslik's eyes flickered around, finally settling on Luka's face.
"Had to make 'em shut up."
"Who?"
"Martians. They talk so loud sometimes, I have to make them stop somehow."
Luka exchanged a glance with Zadro, who shrugged
and waved as he headed back out.
"Okay... Mr Kaslik, we have doctors here who specialize in Martians - one of them can help you."
"Really? 'Cause that would be great... they're so noisy."
"Ah... Lily, could you call, uh, one of the 'Martian specialists'
for a consult, please?" She didn't react at all to his choice of words,
simply nodded, but he knew a psych consult would be downstairs - or at
least one would be called - soon.
"Sure thing, Dr Kovac."
Kerry came across them as they were heading for Exam 3. "Luka, have you seen Carol?"
"Um... not lately. Maybe some of the nurses took her out for a birthday lunch." She sighed, and rubbed her forehead.
"I hope not."
"If I see her, I'll tell her you're looking for her."
"Thanks. What've you got?"
"Hammer vs scalp. I've got it under control." Kaslik tried to lift
his head, to get a look at Kerry, but his head was still taped down -
Luka hadn't had a chance to clear his neck yet.
"Is she the specialist, doc?" Luka glanced at Kerry, then back at Kaslik.
"No, no, that's just one of the other doctors down here."
"Awful pretty, though."
"Yes. Yes, she is." He spoke softly enough that only Kerry heard, and winked at her quickly, and she smiled before she moved on.
* * *
"Yes. Yes, I'm still getting the data together. I'll
present next month, with three months' worth of figures.
Yes, I promise. Okay." Kerry
hung up and groaned softly, then spotted Carol standing by the chart
rack. Carol began to walk away, and Kerry hurried after her.
"Carol. Where've you been? I've been looking for you for the last half hour."
"I was up in day care, looking after the girls... Tess has been kinda pissy all morning." Like mother, like daughter, Kerry thought sourly.
"I had to postpone my meeting just now because I didn't have your report. What's going on?"
"Oh, I've been busy," Carol said dismissively. "I didn't get a chance to finish."
"Carol, you're the paramedic liaison nurse. It's your job to stay on
top of the data, rather than let it get so backed up that you can't
get it to me quickly."
"I've been very busy, Kerry," she said impatiently.
'Busy'. Yeah, and everybody else in the hospital was standing around
doing nothing...
sure. She tried to keep her cool, though, and avoid
raising her voice.
"If you're that busy, Carol, you should have had one of the other
nurses do it. It's called delegation." Carol made a frustrated little
hand-flapping motion.
"I can handle it!" Yeah, I can see how well you're "handling" it,
Kerry wanted to say, but kept a lid on those sentiments -
that was a
counter-productive way to deal with staff. At the same time, though,
she just wanted to shake some sense into the woman!
"Carol, if you need to cut back on your responsibilities in order to
take care of your babies, I can do that for you." For a moment,
Kerry was tempted to offer to cut Carol's responsibilities all the way
to zero, by just firing her, but resisted the impulse -
whoa,
Kerry! Besides, hiring and firing nurses wasn't within her range of
power anyway.
"No, I'm fine!"
"I hope so, Carol, because I can't have this sort of thing happening again."
"It won't. I promise." Kerry stared at her for a few moments -
hadn't Carol just told her something very similar earlier? - then shook
her head and crutched away. No, it just wasn't worth it to get into an
argument.
* * *
Psych had finally come for Mr Kaslik, and Luka followed the gurney
for a ways - despite the man's obvious lunacy (or because of it,
perhaps), he'd been entertaining company as Luka sutured his head lacs
- and finally called out a farewell as the intern rolled Mr
Kaslik aboard the elevator. Amazingly, the x-rays and head CT had all
come back normal... no skull fractures, or brain injury.
He heard Benton calling his name then, and sighed. He knew that tone
of voice - it was Benton's "I'm pissed off at you, but I'm not
gonna yell... yet." tone. "Do you remember seeing a Mr
Fulton? Came in with vascular insufficiency and an ulcerated toe, about
a
month ago."
"Uh... let me see his chart." Benton handed it over, and Luka
checked it over... oh, yes. The man had requested a different doctor,
a "real, American doctor!", but had been unwilling to
wait for another one to be available - Luka had been Hobson's choice.
"Anyway, he's back. And now his toe is gangrenous."
"Yes, I remember him. I debrided the wound, and gave him Trental.
I'm sorry to hear he's back." Really, really sorry...
Luka
could have done without the possibility of encountering Simon Fulton ever
again.
"Yeah, well, now his leg is ulcerated, and I'm gonna have to
amputate up to the knee. You know, this all could have been avoided
if he'd gone to the vascular clinic for a follow-up."
Luka ignored Benton's patronizing tone, and pointed to the chart. "As you can see, I made the referral," but Benton shook his head.
"He's a high-risk patient with no insurance - he lives alone. He needed follow-up."
"And he got that. I made the appointment for him with
Vascular myself - or didn't he mention that? I can't be responsible for
a
patient's medical care - for anything he does - once he
leaves the ER."
"Okay, but did you just put him on the nurses' callback list, or did
you take a minute out of your very busy schedule to call
him
yourself?" Benton didn't bother to hide his contempt for Luka - damn
foreign doctors, coming in here thinking they knew
everything! The irony, that he'd once been in a relationship with a
"damn foreign doctor", himself, completely escaped him.
"And you call back every patient you see down here?" Or do you just concentrate on the black ones, Luka wondered.
"When they're at high risk, I call them."
"Really."
"Older African-American men are at high risk for amputation because
they're not treated aggressively. You should know that."
Benton all but sneered at Luka; Dr High-and-Mighty, specializing in
self-righteous moralizing from atop his high horse!
"I do know that," he told Benton patiently. Don't you even try to treat me like a med student, he thought irritably.
"Then why didn't you call him?"
"Just what are you saying?" He was pretty sure he knew exactly
what Benton was saying - he just wanted the man to come right
out and say it.
Benton hesitated - he knew he was fairly naive when it came to
office politics, but even he knew a challenge when he saw one,
and he wasn't yet ready to openly start something with
Kovac. "What I'm saying," he finally said, after taking a few deep
breaths,
"is that there is a whole hell of a lot more to emergency
medicine than just 'treat 'em and street 'em'."
"Wow, one more thing you don't need to teach me!" Luka
snapped. The elevator door opened, and he got in. He didn't really need
to go anywhere, didn't care what direction it was going, but it seemed
like the best way to get out of there in a hurry, before he
completely lost what was left of his patience, and punched Benton.
He clenched his fists, and paced around the elevator car. Damn it,
he felt like he just couldn't win around here, sometimes - when
he was too zealous about pursuing a patient after he or she left the
ER, he was interfering... he was treating the patient like a child,
but when he trusted a patient to take responsibility for keeping a
simple damn appointment, he was negligent. A racist, if
he
interpreted Benton's accusing tone correctly. Jerk.
* * *
Kerry wished plague and pestilence upon Romano as she returned
downstairs. She'd been paged upstairs to his office, even though
she'd already put off her data presentation until next month, just so
she could tell him in person exactly why she was putting
it off.
She'd tried to minimize Carol's involvement in the delay, so she'd
wound up looking bad, instead.
She heard an IV alarm go off as she walked past Curtain One, and
went in to see what was going on-- oh, geez! She went back out
and stopped Chuny, who was passing by at that moment, carrying a chart
and a handful of something. "Chuny? Is that your patient in
there?"
"Huh? No, it's Carol's."
"Can you change the IV bag?"
"Sorry, Dr Weaver, I wish I could help you... I got a guy puking all
over Exam 2, and I gotta hurry back and take care of him."
Those were Compazine suppositories Chuny was carrying, then, Kerry
decided.
"Okay." She spotted Carol then, and went after her. "Carol! You've got a patient with an empty IV bag in Curtain One."
"Huh? Oh... yeah. Got it." She headed for Curtain One, and Kerry followed, watching her with some concern.
"Carol, it's not like you to let a patient's IV bag run dry."
"Sorry," Carol mumbled, not very convincingly, as she unhooked the
empty bag and got a new one started. Not that the patient was
in any condition to notice much of anything, let alone the alarm, with
a GCS of seven - they were waiting on ICU to have a bed for
him - but it was a waste of time to let the IV pump run with an empty
bag, and there was some risk, however small, of an air
embolism developing.
"Is there something bothering you?" Kerry was trying to understand
why Carol seemed to be letting everything slide all of a sudden,
but wasn't having much success.
"No. Nothing," Carol insisted.
"Are you sure?" Carol threw the old bag in the trash, and turned to face Kerry.
"If you have a problem with me, why don't you just say
so, instead of hinting around at it!" Kerry stepped back, and held up
her hands
appeasingly.
"Don't get defensive. I'm just trying to find out what's going on here."
"I'm taking care of ten patients," Carol snapped. Not very well, was
Kerry's immediate thought, but she didn't interrupt. "I have two
babies up in day care, and I have you on my back all the
time!"
"Stay on top of your responsibilities, then, and I'll stay off your back," Kerry told her, and left the room.
* * *
She went into the lounge for a cup of coffee - it was wretched
stuff, but she needed a quick caffeine boost - and found Luka sitting
at the table, eating a sandwich as he read a paperback. He looked up
and saw her, and smiled. "Hey, cutie. Rough day so far?" He
stretched out his hand, and she took it, squeezing it gently as she
stood behind him and looked over his shoulder.
"Ohhh... a little of everything." She wasn't about to
mention her problems with Carol - she didn't want to get into it with
him about
that, since he tended to be a little protective of Carol.
She rubbed his shoulders - he was tight, as usual - and he groaned
appreciatively.
"Hard day for you, too?" He growled.
"Do not get me started. I have Benton questioning my competence,
Dave and Carter are going to drive me insane with their
bickering--" He gestured aimlessly. "I wouldn't," he told her, as she
headed for the coffee pot.
"You made coffee?"
"No, even worse... Dave made it." The two of them agreed on very
little, where coffee was concerned, but did agree that Dave
somehow managed to make the worst coffee that either
of them had ever tasted. It wasn't a matter of strength, there was just
something
really, really... off about the taste of it - they hadn't
been able to figure out what it was about the taste that was so
disturbing, because
neither of them could stand to put it in their mouths if they could
possibly help it. Kerry shuddered.
"I guess I'll skip it, then. Maybe I'll just go join Kim for a cup."
"Do you think that's a good idea?" She glanced at him curiously.
"Why not?"
"Why-- Kerry, I don't want you to give her the wrong idea! You know
how she feels about you - do you think it's right, to-- stay still,
will you?" She was pacing around the lounge, forcing him to move around
in order to keep her in view, and stopped suddenly and
glared at him.
"So you don't want me to have coffee with her?" He furrowed his brow a moment, puzzled by her tone.
"I don't want you to pick a fight with me when you're
upset about something else," he told her patiently... he spoke in a
quiet,
reasonable tone that unaccountably irritated her.
"I am not picking a fight!" He raised his eyebrows incredulously.
"You're not? You're acting angry at me, and I don't
understand why. Have I done something?" She glared at him for a moment,
then dropped her eyes.
"No," she admitted. "It's not you." She hadn't realized that he'd
been tensed up during the latter part of their conversation, until he
let out a tiny sigh of relief.
"Good. I'm glad. You should... you should deal with what's really bothering you, huh?"
"Yeah. I will. I'd better get back out there, before the ER goes entirely to pieces."
"Mm. I'll be out in a little bit, too." She glanced quickly at the
door, then rapidly crutched over to him for a moment and kissed him;
he looked startled and pleased.
"Volim te, Luka."
"Volim te, drage."
* * *
Kerry went into the supply room for a few packages of four-by-fours
- supplying the rooms was the job of the nurses, but she was
heading in that general direction anyway - and found Carol checking the
shelves and taking notes... seeing what needed to be
ordered, Kerry supposed. "How are you doing, Carol?"
"I'm doing fine," she replied, without looking up from her
clipboard, and Kerry half-smiled - if that was "fine", she'd hate to
see
Carol on a really bad day!
"Hey, I'm sorry I was so harsh earlier, but we all need you around here."
"No, no, you're right. I'm falling down on my job, I need to just... just pull up my socks and stay on top of everything."
"You're the best nurse around here, Carol, but it's obvious that
something's wrong. If I can do anything at all to help
you...."
Except let you have Luka, she thought... that's not open
to negotiation!
"I just need time to figure out some stuff. That's all."
"I've worked with you for five years. I know you." Carol hadn't
turned around at all, or looked at Kerry, in the entire time they'd
been talking... now she turned, and looked Kerry in the eye.
"I hate my life," Carol told her plaintively, her voice breaking.
"I-- I hate how it's turned out. I love what I do, and I love Tess and
Kate, but I'm raising two kids by myself, and I don't know what
happened!" Kerry assumed that Carol, as a healthcare professional,
was speaking metaphorically - surely by now, Carol knew
exactly where babies came from. As for the alone part... that would be
easy enough for Carol to fix - and the solution did not
involve having Luka come over once in a while to fix something around
her
house. Carol began to sob now, and put her hands over her face, with
the clipboard tucked under her elbows and against her chest,
as though she could hide her tears that way, and Kerry watched her
sadly.
"I think maybe you could use some time off, Carol. You have some sick days you can use, if I remember correctly?"
Carol snuffled, and rubbed at her nose, wishing she had some
Kleenex; using her sleeve would be pretty gross. "I used 'em all up,
Kerry," she whispered hoarsely. Kerry touched her shoulder, and gave it
a firm but kind squeeze.
"If you check, I think you'll find there are some extras, that you
can use whenever you like." Carol was startled by the gentleness in
Kerry's voice - the woman was so notorious for being harsh and abrupt
(how many times had Doug bitched about the latest thing
Kerry'd done?) that the rare gesture of kindness from her almost always
came as a complete surprise.
"I-- thank you." Kerry smiled, and left Carol to pull herself back
together... but first-- she grabbed the four-by-fours she'd been after
in the first place, and walked out of the room.
* * *
"Hey, Dr Weaver. A bunch of us are going to be ordering a big
delivery from Lucky Moon in a little bit - do you want in on it?"
Amira held up a clipboard that had a takeout menu and a sheet of paper
attached to it - there were already several orders on there
from a few of the nurses - and Kerry shrugged and took it.
"Sure, thanks. I was going to head across the street
for some dinner, but this is better." She looked through the menu
quickly and
made her selections - she was in the mood for the dim sum sampler
platter and a half order of lemon chicken... and she should get
a half order of mu shu pork too, because Luka would probably wind up
stealing some of her chicken when she wasn't paying
attention - then wrote them neatly on the order sheet on the clipboard
and handed it back to Amira, with a twenty for her order.
"You might see if Dr Carter wants anything, too." Amira bounced away,
in search of Carter, and Kerry sighed. Long day so far.
* * *
"What have you got?" Pickman was unloading an older gentleman from the ambulance, and Luka took one end of the gurney.
"Jeremiah Potter, 55 years old, complaining of chest pain, pressure
dropped in the rig. We got an IV started en route, but we
haven't tubed him."
"Okay." They wheeled the gurney into Trauma One, and Luka listened
to the man's chest quickly. "He's got wet lungs," he said,
throwing an acknowledging wave to Pickman as she left. "Start him on a
liter of saline, with eighty of Lasix and a heparin drip,
and then get a Foley started." Haleh quickly got the man's IV hooked
up, as Lily Foleyed him.
"You want me to call the cath lab?" Luka nodded.
"Yep. Tell 'em we have a hot MI," he instructed her.
"Sats are falling - down to 82," Lily reported.
"Okay, looks like I'm going to need to intubate him."
"Do you want cricoid pressure?" Carter asked.
"Please." Luka got the tube into place, and hooked Potter up to an ambu-bag; and Lily began bagging him.
Chuny entered the room just then. "Hey, Dr Kovac. That kid who came
in with the bee stings, in eight, he's crashing. Your
patient, right?" He looked up from listening to the man's lungs.
"Hm? Yeah, I'll be right there."
"You want me to take the MI?" Carter looked hopeful, but Luka shook his head.
"No. Just get his pressure up, and send him to the cath lab." He
followed Chuny. Sure enough, little Todd Whitman was
reacting to the bee venom very badly, but a little epi was enough to
bring him back around.
* * *
"Dr Weaver..." She turned away from the computer, at the sound of
Amira's voice. "It's Dr Greene on the line, he wants to
talk to you."
"Okay." She took the phone. "Mark? Is..."
"Yeah." Mark sounded like he was putting all of his effort into not
letting his voice crack, so instead he sounded almost drugged.
"He- he... quietly. In his sleep. It, um... is Elizabeth around?"
"She's not down here right now, but I can have her come by as soon as possible."
"Uh, thanks. Thanks, Kerry. I'll be back to work as soon as I can--"
"Don't push yourself, Mark," she told him gently. "Take as long as
you need to deal with everything." She thought she heard a
soft snuffle from Mark's end, but pretended she hadn't - the man had
his pride.
"Okay... um... thanks, Kerry. I'll see you later, then. Bye."
"Bye." She pressed the disconnect button, then dialed Elizabeth's pager number. Elizabeth showed up a few minutes later.
"You paged me, Kerry?"
"Yes. I just got a call from Mark - his father just died. Can you go--"
"Yes, yes... of course I'll go. I just need to finish up a couple of things first. Can you ask Peter to cover for me?"
"Of course I will. You need to be with Mark right now." She watched
Elizabeth walk away, and sighed. Poor Mark... he'd lost
both his parents within the space of about seven months; she remembered
how hard it had been for her. She still occasionally
forgot, and picked up the phone to call them... getting out the area
code and part of the prefix before remembering that the number
wasn't even in service anymore. At least the last time she'd seen them,
spoken with them, they'd all had a good time and parted with
nothing left unsaid - even by then, she'd seen so many people
unexpectedly die with unresolved issues with their loved ones, that she
could never leave them without making sure they knew just how much she
loved them.
And then a drunk driver had t-boned their little compact, as they
were on their way to church for Christmas services, and she'd been
away on holiday with Ellis at the time... she'd returned home to find a
distraught message from Monica on the answering machine,
and all that tropical relaxation had instantly vanished. She supposed
that was probably a lot of why she'd pushed him away, in
addition to her belief - at the time - that he'd been using her: on
some level, she'd probably blamed him for taking her away from
Chicago when her parents had needed her. Never mind that
the medical examiner had determined that Joe and Louise Weaver had
died on impact, and that there was absolutely nothing
that could have been changed by her presence in Chicago, she still
should
have been there for them, and she hadn't been.
* * *
Luka had just got Todd stabilized - though the boy would probably
have to stay overnight for observation - when Haleh burst into
the room. He gave Chuny a few more instructions, then turned his
attention to Haleh. "What's up?"
"Carter's doing a Swan on that guy who was supposed to go to the cath lab - I thought I should come get you."
"Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks." Day just keeps getting better and
better, he thought grouchily, and discarded his gloves on the way
out. The two of them entered the trauma room, where Carter and Lily
were bent over the patient and working on something. "What
are you still doing in here? Why didn't you send the patient up to the
cath lab, like I told you to do?"
"I was just doing a Swan to sample some blood from the right ventricle."
"We don't do those down here," Luka told him firmly.
"I already told him that," Haleh muttered, but she was ignored by both doctors.
"He should be upstairs, getting an angioplasty."
"Well, he would have died in the cath lab. See? Bright red." He
handed Luka a syringe that was full of oxygenated blood that
he'd drawn from the catheter. "Guy has a hole in his heart - he's
leaking blood back into his right ventricle." Luka sighed - sure
enough, Carter was right about that.
"What about his MI?"
"They can bypass him in surgery, when they fix the rupture. No
problem." That was true. But what was also true was that Carter
had - even though his hunch had been proven correct - disregarded
policy when he'd decided to float a Swan-Ganz catheter in
order to sample the man's blood, down in the ER.
"We're all supposed to be working together down here -
next time something like this happens, you need to let me know what's
going on before you do it," he told Carter, not terribly
surprised when Carter dismissed his comment with a disdainful little
snort. "I'm the attending on duty," he reminded Carter. "I'm
responsible for what happens down here." And if only he'd had that
more in mind, back in February, he thought, Lucy might not
be dead, and Carter might not be dealing with the painful aftermath
of having been stabbed.
"Put the IV bags up on the stand; we need to get this guy up to the OR." Luka did so, but bristled at Carter's peremptory tone.
* * *
Luka finally made it back downstairs. He and Carter had taken Potter
to the OR, which went quickly enough, but then he'd had
to call the cath lab, and tell them that the hot MI had gone to
surgery, instead. That had led to furious squawks from the other end,
amounting to the same thing he'd told Carter: Swans aren't done in the
ER! So he'd had to explain to them what had happened, that
an over-zealous resident had had a hunch, and that that same resident
had carried out that procedure on his own, instead of waiting
for Luka to return. After he'd explained that to the techs, there'd
been a pause... and then he'd had to explain the very same thing to
their supervisor, who'd come on the line. In the meantime, Carter was
long gone, had returned to the ER while Luka was still
explaining Carter's actions.
Now he was going to have to fill out an incident report, so that
future generations could read all about what had happened in that
trauma room; it somehow didn't seem fair, that Carter had broken the
rules, and he got stuck with the resulting paperwork
fallout.
He really should tell Kerry about this - Haleh had probably already
told her, but he was the attending on the scene... or
would have
been, if that kid hadn't crashed in the other room.
He spotted Carol in the hallway, heading toward one of the exam
rooms, and stopped her for a moment. "Carol, have you seen
Kerry?" She shook her head, and Luka sighed. "Okay. If you see her,
could you tell her I'm looking for her, please?" He walked
away without waiting for an answer, and Carol shot him a curious
glance. Well!
"You're looking for Dr Weaver?" Haleh had overheard his brief exchange with Carol, and followed him.
"Yes, I am. Have you seen her?"
"I thought I heard that she was going up to the roof to get some fresh air. You might try up there."
"Thank you, I'll go up and have a look." He headed for the elevator.
* * *
He couldn't understand why so many of the people here gravitated
toward the rooftop. He couldn't remember a time that rooftops
hadn't represented danger: danger from snipers, from bomb shrapnel...
even Carter had tried to throw himself from this one. But
Haleh had been right - there was Kerry, staring out over the city,
leaning against the wall... her crutch propped up near her right
hand, and the rest of her weight shifted to her right leg. Well, he
supposed Chicago was a beautiful sight... whether viewed from
the lake shore or from this roof. And there was an
equally beautiful sight right there in front of him.
"There you are," he told her, and went to her side. "I was looking
for you. Are you all right?" She turned, a little awkwardly, to
face him.
"I've been up here thinking. It's been... quite a year."
"Yeah, for me too. I'm looking forward to the next one." He reached
out and tugged gently at the lapel of her lab coat - she went
willingly into his arms, and responded eagerly as he bent to kiss her.
At some point, he picked her up and set her up on the wall
so that he didn't have to bend quite so much - there was no way she
could fall, the way they were holding on to each other, but he'd
put her safely against the railing anyway.
He noticed that she was suddenly shivering, and... crying.
"Hey... hey. What's wrong, beba?" He began rubbing her back, trying
to comfort her as she clung to him, her fingers digging convulsively
into his shoulders.
"A guy and his daughter, a little girl, came in earlier, after an
MVA. He, uh, it turns out that, uh, he'd... he'd raped his daughter."
Luka went absolutely still and tense, and held Kerry against him
tightly, in an unconsciously protective move; she didn't struggle
against his grip, but instead clutched at him just as desperately.
"Really." His voice was cold, and Kerry knew that the man would have
been in real trouble if it had been Luka in that exam
room instead of Dave.
"He's gone to jail. Dave had a go at him, though."
"Oh? Go Dave." The words were flippant, but they came out deadly serious.
"Yeah. Apparently, according to Carter and Malik, he went straight
from the room where Cleo was examining the girl, to the room
where her father was being treated, and tried to attack the guy. Later
he was suturing the man's wounds without adequate anesthesia,
so I had to take over." Luka smiled grimly.
"If it had been me, there wouldn't have been any 'try' about it," he told her, echoing her own words of nearly two weeks ago.
"I know. That's why I was glad you weren't available then. It won't
look good for Dave, though, having attacked two patients in as
many months." He sighed.
"True." He thought for a moment. "I would recommend that he go
through a good anger-management program. And I'm usually the
last one to push for medication, but perhaps he might benefit from
something like Ritalin. It certainly seemed to help, uh, Lucy. It
might help him concentrate on what he's doing." She nodded, and put her
head down on his shoulder for a moment, but looked up
at him again suddenly.
"Hey, what's this I hear about flowers and Carol?"
"She took them away from me this morning," he told her indignantly.
"It wouldn't have happened, you know, if you'd let me tell
people about us. I could have told her, 'No, the flowers aren't for
you, I didn't even know it was your birthday, they're for Kerry.
Who, by the way, is an incredibly sexy woman and doesn't even realize
it most of the time, despite my best efforts to convince
her'," he added, loving the way she blushed at the last part. "God, I
thought for a moment she was even going to kiss me," he
added with a little annoyance.
"What a hardship, Luka," Kerry teased him, and hopped down from the
wall, carefully landing on her right leg. He smiled
lazily, and smoothed her hair.
"Right. It's just that lately I have a very strong desire for short,
smart-mouthed redheads. You wouldn't happen to know any,
would you?" He grinned as she playfully swatted him, and leaned in for
another kiss. She reached in, under his labcoat, and
wrapped her arms around his waist... then let her hands wander
downwards until she'd taken custody of his butt. "Oh!" She
laughed at his startled exclamation, and he kissed her again. "Sure,
laugh," he muttered, and pulled her close to him, sighing
as he rested his cheek on the top of her head for a moment.
"Coming back down with me?" she asked mischievously, perfectly aware
from that hug that he was a little 'inconvenienced'
at the moment. It wasn't really a matter of his labcoat hiding the
evidence, just ease of motion... that is, that he was having a
little trouble.
"Um, I think I'd better stay up here a few more minutes," he told
her, his voice now slightly strained. "Unless you'd like to
help me with this?"
"Weeelll..." she pretended to consider. "It's not very professional
behavior to be doing this up here, is it?" He glared at
her, then pointed at the door; his glare evaporated at the last minute
and gave way to a smile.
"Go. I'll be right down. I just need to think about...
oh... diseased gallbladders or something." He patted her rear, his hand
lingering slightly, then gave her a gentle push in that direction. "But
just you wait until you get home." She turned around just
before she reached the doorway, and offered him a pouty smile and a
flirtatious little hip-wiggle.
"Planning to tie me up and have your way with me?" He tried to glare at her again, but just couldn't.
"Oh, that is not helping, and you know it. Go back
downstairs, now, and I'll go down when I, uh, go down."
She laughed
and disappeared inside, and he shook his head as he leaned back against
the railing and closed his eyes. Okay, okay... um...
concentrate, Kovac. Pompholyx? Disgusting, but that wasn't doing the
job. Um... candidiasis on the buttocks of a diabetic
patient. Chancres. Romano wearing a bikini. Ew... that
did it.
* * *
His phone rang while he was at a red light, on his way home; he
sighed and pressed the "Talk" button, then prepared to
get out of traffic once the light turned, so he could talk to...
whoever it was. "Kovac. Oh, yes. I was starting to wonder
what had happened to you. You did? That's great. All right. Uh... yeah,
I can be there in..." he checked his watch. "About
twenty minutes. Right. Uh-huh." He hung up, seconds before the light
changed, and changed lanes as soon as he'd gone through
the intersection; nineteen minutes later, he was at a coffee shop
downtown, talking to Sam Broder.
"What did you find?"
"You're direct. I like that. I found the mother - the real thing
this time. I have a picture now - I got it from a guy who was
working at the Prairie Maternity Home at the time."
"So how'd you find her?"
"Dumb luck," Broder admitted sheepishly. "I was up there in
Michigan, in Grand Rapids, for something else, and took a
chance when I found out how long the guy had been working there. Turned
out he remembered the woman very well."
"Tell me what he told you about her."
"She was a foreign woman."
"Foreign?"
"Well, the guy said she was an older woman, with an accent - he
couldn't be more specific than that, unfortunately - and
she had kind of an unusual name: Ludmilla Vozar."
"Vozar? You're sure about that name?"
"He was very sure. Said it wasn't the kind of name he was likely to forget."
"Hm. You said you had a picture, too."
"Yep. It's not very good," Broder warned as he handed it over. "He
said he had to sneak it, he said she was very cautious
about that sort of thing. I think maybe he had a crush on her, and
wanted something to remember her by."
Luka eyed it closely, taking a good look at the woman with long dark
hair and piercing eyes. Broder was right, it wasn't a
very good picture. But it had a clear view of her face, and she really
hadn't changed that much over the last few decades.
"It's good enough."
"You know her?
"No, not very well... I've met her, but only in passing - I work with, uh, one of her relatives."
"Are you planning to tell Dr Weaver about this yet?"
"I want to make absolutely sure this is the right woman, first. And
if it is the right woman, I want to make sure that she
doesn't get the wrong idea about why I've had you track her down." And
then, he thought, nibbling at his lower lip, I have
to figure out how to tell Kerry about this.
POST-OPERATIVE NOTES: