Moments of Heartache
About ten charts flew out of Neela's arms. She groaned as she bent to pick them up. She had seen Luka Kovac look at her out of the corner of his eye and she utterly forgot what she was doing and where she was. Coming out of her confusion, her cheeks red, and her dignity lost she stood to see Luka going about his business and Ray laughing at her. She was still suffering from her anger from last night. She had got off work at about 10 when her roommate, Abby had gotten off at 7 that night. She wanted to go home, eat and watch a movie with her friend. Since Abby had gotten off work earlier than she had she figured she had beaten her home. She walked into her friend's bedroom to find an empty bed. She cried as she figured out that Abby was probably spending the night with Luka. She cried herself to sleep on the couch. She liked Luka, no she loved Luka and Abby always got what she wanted. Neela had the hard time at the hospital and Abby was the teacher's pet. She placed the charts back on the front desk. "Hey, so is something wrong? You seem a little out of it today." Ray asked trying to contain his laughter.
Neela glared at Ray. "No. I am fine. It isn't like I am upset or anything. Why? It doesn't look like I am upset or anything, does it?" Noticing she had started to ramble on she stopped. Ray gave her a sympathetic look and then smiled.
"No, you aren't upset, what was I thinking?" Leaning down to whisper in her ear, "But if I were you, I would look farther than Luka Novac. I am pretty sure he likes Abby. But maybe if you wouldn't mind lowering your standards, you could maybe have dinner with me tonight." He walked away not waiting for her answer. Neela stood at the front desk, stunned. She felt her cheek where his whisper had brushed across it, and smiled. She left; she needed to get a start on her rounds.
Luka looked down at his watch, where is she he wondered. Abby was now a half hour late. She was never late, it just wasn't her. He tried to throw his mind back into his work. He was trying to get a small boy to tell him where his head hurt. Neela walked in and started to read off his pressures. She continued on with her work as Luka looked at the ambulance bay doors, where Abby always walked in. "Late night last night? Must have been fun, especially since she isn't here yet."
Luka looked up from his patient, "What does that mean? I am sorry you'll have to explain."
"Well, Abby didn't' come home last night. She was with you wasn't she?"
"No, and she's not answering her pager or her phone, I think she's mad at me. If she didn't go home, where'd she stay?" Worry was etched into his features; he also began to get angry. "Did she say where she was going last night?"
Neela put the patient's chart down and walked out of the room to continue her rounds. Luka came out of the room after her, reaching for the desk telephone. He dialed Abby's phone for the fifth time that morning. It rang, until it went to voicemail. He slammed the phone back on the receiver. He needed to be alone; he walked to the locker room. He sat down on the couch and placed his head in his hands. He and Abby hadn't been dating a long time but they liked each other enough to at least be exclusive, or so he thought. His mind began to race, thinking up horrible images of Abby with other men. He stood up and walked over to the coffee maker. He poured himself a cup, he heard someone open their locker. He turned around to see who it was. It was Abby putting her stuff into her locker. The way she moved, the way she didn't look up from the floor, as if she was concentrating on something important. Luka could tell, something was wrong, she hadn't even noticed him, standing there, watching her. Her shoulder looked dislocated, she had bruises on her face, there was blood on her knees, and her outfit looked dirty, like she rolled around on the ground. The outfit she was wearing, a dark blue dress that hugged her curves just right, was the dress she had worn for her shift last night. She stiffly pulled nursing scrubs out of her locker. She tried to untie her dress in the back; she inhaled sharply as pain ran up her arm and back. Luka put his coffee down and walked closer, carefully he untied her dress. She spun around to look at him. He had tears in his eyes, and so did she. "Abby, what happened?" He quietly asked.
She looked at him, backing up being careful not to let him touch her. Calmly, "Nothing, I tripped down the subway stairs and hurt my shoulder." She walked over to the door and opened it, gesturing for him to leave. He didn't look at her as he passed by. She went back to her locker, she tried to lift the dress over her head, as she did, and her shoulder let out a crackle as it popped back into place. She inhaled sharply, not letting the tears fall. She looked at her dress, it was covered in blood, and she gasped at how much was there. She slowly pulled on her scrubs and put up her hair. She looked in a mirror; she saw the dried blood and bruises. She walked over to the sink and tried to wash her dirty swollen face.
John Carter walked in the room and walked to the fridge. He glanced over at Abby, "You're late." He looked at her now; he saw her trying to wash her face in pain. "Oh my gosh, Abby what happened to you?" He grabbed the towel out of her hands and tried to rinse off the dried blood. "Are you alright?" She looked on in a daze. "Do you need to go home early?" Seeing he had finished and put down the towel, she grabbed her stethoscope and walked out the door almost running over Archie Morris in the hallway.
Carter walked out of the locker room, as a trauma patient was wheeled into trauma 1. Abby was already in the room with Dr. Pratt, Neela, and Sam. Neela sent a darting look over to Abby. Pratt tried not to stare at Abby's still swollen face, obviously wondering what had happened. The paramedic was naming off what he gave her and how many compressions. "She already coded on the way over. She was raped, beaten and stabbed numerous times." He left the room to load his rig back up. Doctors were doing everything they could, yelling out orders to nurses and thinking up ways to save the patient. The patient flat-lined, Pratt took the paddles, he charged her, nothing. He turned them up a little, charged, still nothing. Sam was doing chest compressions, and he charged again. Still, no change and she had been down too long, she was dead Pratt called it, "Time of death 8:22." Abby stripped off her trauma gown and her gloves, and threw them on the floor and walked out. She had told herself to be strong, not all rape cases ended in death. She needed air; she started to walk out of the ambulance bay doors as another trauma was being wheeled in the door. It was a kid who had been caught dealing drugs, when the cops found him; he swallowed all the stash he had including all the pills. She walked with the gurney into trauma 2. Dr. Carter was in charge of this one. Sam had come over when she heard the commotion; Dr. Kovac came in shortly thereafter, unable to make eye contact with her. They tried to strap the kid down so they could pump his stomach and get an airway open. The kid would not settle down, he wanted to be let loose.
When the doctors thought he had finally calmed down, the nurses let up. Without any hesitation, he grabbed the sharpest thing he could which was a scalpel next to him and jammed it into the person closest to him, which happened to be Abby. She dropped the tubes she was holding as the instrument was pushed into her. She gasped, looked around and saw Luka's pale and shocked stricken face. She groaned, "Wow, can this day get any worse?" She fell off the step stool she was standing on as her world went black.
They transferred Abby to a gurney and then onto a table in trauma 1. Dr. Carter and Dr. Pratt were working on her as Neela and Ray stood at the door and watched, scared for their friend. Luka was at the head of the table whispering soothing words to Abby as he caressed her hair and forehead careful not to disturb her bruises and cuts along her face. Dr. Lewis and Haleh were working on getting her scrubs off for better access to her wounds. Dr. Lewis's face paled as she saw bruises and cuts along her abdomen, which led down to her legs and pelvis. She looked up at Luka and motioned for him to come near. She looked him in the eye and showed him the bruises, and asked if he wanted her to have a rape kit. He nodded, and as he shook his head yes, tears came spilling down his cheeks. He sat on a stool near Abby's head away from Sam who was trying to wipe all the blood away from the stab wound, the scalpel still dislodged in her abdomen. Luka took Abbey's hand in his and prayed in Croatian. Neela still not able to comprehend what exactly was happening was in a weakened state, when Ray grabbed her hand, and she let him. She turned to him and let him hold her as she cried. They had a hard time trying to stop the bleeding. After about five minutes of work, she coded. They tried to shock her heart into a normal heart rhythm again. Luka looked up in horror at the women he loved; he was trying not to blame himself for not being there when this happened. He tried to think back to this morning and figure out why he hadn't pressed harder for an explanation, he couldn't remember the excuse he had given himself to leave the room, when she had needed him and neither one knew it.
They were about to give up when they got her back, they stopped the bleeding and she was stable. She was sent on her way to the elevator to the OR as Luka trailed beside her. Dr. Carter sighed in relief as he tore his gloves off and collapsed on the floor. Dr. Lewis had the results of the rape kit in her hand in bags. "Well, she fought back at least, she got part of the bastard that did this, I am going to go and report it." She gently squeezed Carter's shoulder as a sign of comfort. Neela was still crying in Ray's arms which he had gently moved her out of the way of oncoming traffic in the busy hallway. She was rambling on about how she had been so mad at Abby because of Luka. Weaver walked over to Ray and mouthed take her home. He hailed a cab holding Neela's hand. They arrived at Ray's apartment, still holding hands. They sat on the couch utterly exhausted and fell asleep in each other's arms.
Dr. Carter stood and shrugged off his trauma garb. Everyone was in shock. Sam was still standing by the IV racks, stunned at what had just happened. Haleh finally broke the silence when she sadly said, "At least we know she's alive."
Sam tore off her gloves and threw them in the basket as she replied, "Yeah, so far." She walked out of the room.
Carter looked down at the floor beside him, he saw the pools of blood on the floor and he thought of his own blood on the floor on one Valentine's Day he would never forget. He stood up, took off his garb and left the room, praying all the way that Abby would live.