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Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from ER. They
are the
property of Warner Bros., etc. I do take ownership of Sarah Browning
and Sam Wendall.
Author's Note: I apologize in advance if the medical information
presented is inaccurate or unrealistic. That is entirely my own
fault. The last episode seen was "Getting to Know You".
Previous Chapters: First Time For Everything, Across the Way
TITLE: All in a Day's Work
Part Three of a series
AUTHOR: Shirley Yoshinaka
yoshinaka@sprint.ca
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carter adjusted his boot laces and stood, closing the locker door.
He had a big day ahead of him, but most of the arrangements had been
made. After leaving Mr. Stein's office yesterday, he'd made the rounds
of some stores to find packing boxes. Kerry had some stashed away as
well, and he had made use of those too. He still had a little more
packing to do, but the majority of it was done. He had asked one of the
neighbours to help him move his furniture out of the basement and into
the new apartment. They would do that this afternoon, after he picked
up the U-haul truck. Luckily, he didn't have anything the two of them
couldn't handle; his bed, dresser, bookshelf, and desk. That was the
only furniture he had. He would have to look for a kitchen table,
chairs, and a couch later on. He would need plenty of other things too,
but he'd think about that later.
Everything had worked out much more quickly and smoothly than he'd
anticipated. He had assumed it would take at least a week to find a
suitable apartment, and with his shifts at the hospital, he thought he
might have trouble finding the time to pack. But he'd managed to get a
lot done before going into work yesterday, and he had plenty of time
today. His next shift didn't start until early tomorrow morning.
If all went well, he'd be sleeping in his new apartment tonight.
He'd related this news to Lucy earlier, and she'd expressed surprise that
he would be able to move in so soon. She had even apologized for her
behaviour yesterday. They hadn't bickered like that in a long time.
Their working relationship was now so smooth, one would never believe the
clashes they'd had in the beginning. He would never admit it to Lucy,
but a part of him had enjoyed their arguing match yesterday. She looked
so cute when she was angry. Her cheeks got all flushed and...
Whoa, where had that thought come from? Carter gave his head a little
shake. He was straying into dangerous waters. He couldn't start thinking
that way about Lucy again. They had separate lives now. She had a
boyfriend. And he even liked Brad. They'd talked a few times when Brad
had been waiting for Lucy to finish up her shift. He was a couple years
older than Brad, but it turned out they'd gone to the same college.
They'd chatted about the football team, and other college memories.
Carter suddenly realized that he'd been lost in thought for far too long.
He had a lot of things to do, and it was time to get out of here. As he
stepped out into the hallway, he was almost run over by a gurney.
"Watch out!" one of the paramedics snapped, as the team rushed forward
down the hall.
Carter noticed that Lucy was running along with them, her head bent down
in concentration, and focusing on the patient. He kept sight of her until
they disappeared into the trauma room. He finally headed for the exit.
***************
Lucy wandered down the surgical ward, her face grim. It seemed to be
taking too long. She wanted to find somebody and ask how things were
going. Or better yet, she could take a peek into the OR from the
observation room.
Peter Benton removed his surgical cap as he entered the hallway. He
immediately spotted Lucy, who came rushing up to him.
She took one look at his face and knew the outcome of the surgery.
"She didn't make it," she said flatly.
He shook his head. "No. She started hemorrhaging and flatlined.
By the time we located the bleeder, she'd lost too much blood. We
couldn't recusitate her." He stated this rather matter-of-factly,
though his dark eyes looked sad.
"But...she was fine before the surgery! I mean, she was talking and
she seemed stable..." She let her voice trail off. Those things were
meaningless, and she knew it. Anything could happen during surgery.
"Her body just gave up the fight," Peter said, almost gently. He paused
for a moment. "Have the parents been found yet?"
"Yeah, they're in the waiting room."
"I'll go talk to them."
He left her alone, and she remained where she was, staring down at the
floor. "I promised her she'd be ok," Lucy whispered. This little girl
had gotten to her. She thought she was getting better at maintaining a
professional distance from the patients. But not this time...
<><><><><><><><><><>
"Six year old girl, hit by a car. Apparently she darted out in front
of traffic. Head injury, and trauma to the chest. Possible broken
tib-fib. Unconscious at the scene. She woke up once on route but
lost consciousness again. Gave her 15 litres of O2 and started
two large bore IVs of saline. BP's 80 over 50, pulse is 54."
Lucy ran along with the gurney and noticed the girl's eyelids fluttering.
"I think she's waking up!" she called out.
They had reached the trauma room now, and the girl was transferred to the
bed.
"We didn't get a name," the EMT named Laura said. "She was confused
and disoriented when she woke up before, although she did tell us her
age."
The girl's eyes were open now, and she was staring straight at Lucy.
Lucy smiled down at her, taking her hand. "Hi, sweetie. Do you know
your name?"
"My head hurts," the girl moaned. "My leg."
"I know it does. But we're going to help you. Don't worry. My name's
Dr. Knight, or you can call me Lucy."
"I like Lucy," she said in a small voice.
Mark was rattling off his instructions to the nurses, but he was keeping
an eye on the interaction between Lucy and the girl at the same time.
Usually, he would have insisted that Lucy work on the patient, and let
one of the nurses talk to her. But she seemed to have a good rapport
with the child and was keeping her calm, so he allowed it.
"Now, you know my name," she continued. "What's your name?"
The girl didn't answer right away, and Lucy thought the head trauma
must have caused some memory loss. How would they ever find her parents?
"Sarah... Browning."
Lucy smiled. "Hi Sarah. That's such a pretty name." She thought she
might be pushing her luck, but decided to try anyway. "Do you know your
phone number, Sarah?"
Sarah started crying softly. "It hurts!"
"I know, I know, sweetie," Lucy said soothingly. She looked up as
Dr. Benton burst in.
"What've we got?" he said shortly.
Mark looked at him with a puzzled expression. "What are you doing here?
I thought I had Foley paged."
Mitch Foley was the surgical resident assigned to the ER, and Peter was
the ER attending surgeon.
"He's caught up in surgery, so I'm taking this one. Give me the bullet."
Lucy kept one ear on what the doctors were saying, while she continued
to talk to Sarah. "You're going to have an operation soon," she told
the girl. "That'll help make you feel better."
"Will you come with me, Lucy?" The girl raised her huge blue eyes to
Lucy's face.
"Um, I'll definitely come upstairs with you," she replied.
"Ok, she's stabilized. Let's move her up to the OR," Peter said, as
they started pushing the bed forward. "Quickly, people!"
"Dr. Greene, can I go upstairs with her?" Lucy asked.
"Yeah, go on."
"Lucy!" Sarah cried out, and Lucy caught up to her side, reaching for
her hand again.
They entered the elevator and Lucy looked at Dr. Benton hopefully.
"Can I scrub in?"
He seemed to consider it for a brief moment, but then shook his head.
"No. But you can stay with her in pre-op until we're ready."
It was a compromise, but one she was willing to take.
While the surgeons scrubbed in, Lucy talked to Sarah. She found out
that Sarah had a dog, liked plain jelly sandwiches, and was afraid
of the dark. She had asked several times for her parents, and Lucy
assured her they were coming. She hoped that wasn't a lie.
"Am I going to die?"
Lucy's heart lurched in her chest. "No, Sarah. You're not going to
die."
Sarah regarded her solemnly. "You promise?"
"I promise," Lucy murmured. She smiled and stroked her hair.
The anesthesia finally started to take effect, and Sarah drifted
off to sleep.
Lucy watched from the observation room as Sarah was wheeled into the
OR. After a minute, she walked away and returned to the ER.
<><><><><><><><><><>
While they had thought it would be difficult to locate Sarah's parents,
it turned out they didn't have to search after all. The parents found
them. Sarah had been a little late in walking to school, and her
family was new to the area. None of the neighbours near the scene of
the accident had known who the little girl was. The school had called
Sarah's parents when she didn't arrive in the morning, and they'd
frantically called the police. The police had then suggested calling
area hospitals.
The parents had arrived in the ER and initially, were upset to learn
their daughter was being operated on without their consent. But Mark
had explained Sarah's critical condition, and that she would have had
no chance without immediate surgery.
Lucy had taken them up to the waiting area on the surgical floor and
sat with them for a while. For more than three hours, she'd run back
and forth between her duties in the ER, and checking in with Sarah's
parents. They had started growing concerned that no one was speaking
to them about how the surgery was going, so Lucy had volunteered to
try to find out. That's when she'd met Dr. Benton.
Now she found herself standing in the middle of the hallway, holding
back tears. She shouldn't have made that promise.
Mr. and Mrs. Browning slowly walked down the hall, their arms around
each other. They both seemed unnaturally calm.
"Dr. Knight," Mr. Browning called out softly, as they approached her.
Lucy brushed quickly at her eyes and tried to compose herself. She
turned to look at them and was impressed by their quiet strength.
"I'm so, so sorry," was all she could think of to say.
"Thank you. Thank you for all you've done."
Mrs. Browning reached out to touch Lucy's arm, giving her a trembling
smile. "I'm glad you were here for Sarah, when we couldn't be.
I'm glad..." Her voice broke off for a moment, but she managed to
go on. "I'm glad she wasn't alone."
Lucy watched them continue down the hallway, each one supporting
the other, their steps slow and shuffling. Considering how awful
she felt, she couldn't even imagine the pain they must be suffering
right now.
Lucy checked her watch. She had less than an hour to go now, thank
goodness. This had been a really bad shift. Most days, she could go
home and relax; forget about work. She had a feeling this wasn't
going to be one of those days. She still hadn't shaken off her
lingering feelings of guilt over Michael Travis' death, either.
The past few days at work had seemed tougher than usual. She really
needed to stop getting so emotionally involved with her patients.
She knew this intellectually, but sometimes her heart didn't listen
to her head.
And tonight she had a date with Brad. A part of her honestly didn't
feel like going out at all. She felt like crawling into bed and
pulling the sheets over her head. But, the other part of her reasoned,
maybe it would do her some good to go out and have a bit of fun.
She certainly could use it.
So that was the plan. She was determined to have a good time tonight.
***************
"This is the last one!" Carter hefted the heavy box onto the back
of the truck. "Whew!" He leaned against the truck for a moment,
grinning at Sam Wendall. "And now we get to do it all again at
the apartment, but in reverse."
Sam chuckled good naturedly. "You're just lucky I'm in between jobs
right now. Otherwise, who'd be availble in the middle of the day?"
"Yeah. Listen, let me give you some money for doing this..."
But Sam was already shaking his head. "Nah, I told you I wouldn't
feel right about that. You've been good to me. Like looking in on
my sister when she was sick."
"At least let me buy you dinner, then."
Sam perked up at the mention of food. "Ok, you're on! Hey, I need to
make a quick phone call before we go. Do you mind?"
Carter waved him on. "Yeah, that's fine. I need to say goodbye to
Kerry anyway."
Carter locked the back door of the truck and went back up the stairs.
He found Kerry sitting at the kitchen table, her hands folded around
a coffee mug. She regarded him warmly.
"So, you're all set?" she asked.
"Yup. Thanks again for the TV and the dishes."
Carter had been using an old TV of hers after his own broke, and she
now insisted that he take it with him. She also gave him a set
of dishes she never used anymore.
"You're welcome. I've got something else for you." She reached for
her crutch, and stepped over to the counter. "Sorry I didn't have time
to wrap it." She handed the box to him.
"A coffeemaker!" he exclaimed, very pleased.
She grinned. "Yeah, I figured there were some things you could live
without until you get settled, but coffee isn't one of them."
He returned her smile, placing the box on the table. "Thanks, Kerry."
He gave her a hug and she patted him on the back, a little awkwardly.
She was really going to miss him. And damnit, she was getting a lump
in her throat.
She coughed and pulled away. "So, is Lucy still upset about you
moving in there?"
"No, she doesn't seem to be. She even apologized to me this morning
for acting so, uh, unreasonable about it."
"That's good. Tell her I said living near you isn't as bad as one
would expect."
He laughed. "Sure, I'll let her know you said that." He picked up
the coffeemaker and placed it under one arm. "I better get going.
Sam's probably waiting for me." He gave Kerry a kiss on the cheek.
"Bye, Kerry. Thanks for everything."
"Bye, Carter."
She heard the front door close and hurried over to the window.
Drawing the curtain back, she watched Sam and Carter climb into the
moving truck and pull away from the curb. She turned away from the
window. The house already seemed too quiet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Feedback is welcomed and appreciated!
Shirley
yoshinaka@sprint.ca
Thanks :)
