DISCLAIMER: I do not own Chicago Med or any of the characters. Hey everyone! I got so many requests for a Rhodes sick fanfic, I couldn't resist ;) Enjoy! Not as long as my other fics, but still a few chapters. Please review and enjoy!
"Sheesh, the wind is blowing today, isn't it?" Halstead glanced at the shaking, sliding glass doors of the Gaffney ER, noticing the surplus of noise they added to the already busy scene due to the wind thudding against them.
"Well, it is called the Windy City for a reason," April cleverly answered back as she picked up a stack of towels and marched into a patient's room.
Natalie, standing beside Will, was too wrapped up in her patient's chart to register Will's comment, just mumbled under her breath before defeatedly looking up from her papers and asking, "A patient came in earlier with a herniated abdominal wall, a dilated ascending aorta, and joint hypermobility. I've ordered a cardiogram, an EKG, and even a chest x-ray, but I'm still have trouble diagnosing his condition."
"Hmph," Will though for a second, equally confused, glancing at the chart she was holding, "His x-rays didn't show any signs of an aortic aneurysm?"
"No, and I already ruled out Connective Tissue Disease," she responded, now fully engaged in trying to pinpoint the precise diagnosis. This was one of her favorite parts of the job, where she was able to play a sleuth and deduce just what a patient's problem was.
Something caught Will's eye and he turned around, a mixed expression, pride tinged with respect, upon his face, "Why don't you ask Super Surgeon?" he pointed out, Halstead's eyes fixed in his colleague's direction.
Natalie rolled her eyes at Will's childish nickname, yet didn't hesitate to present her patient's case as she walked up to "Super Surgeon".
"Hey, Rhodes," she approached her friend who, although looking tough on the outside, had a big heart buried within, "I have a question on a patient."
"Trauma?" Connor asked, immersed in his task of removing a small knife lodged inside an unconscious man's thigh.
"No, cardiac," Manning clarified, continuing to watch as Rhodes pondered over the most efficient way to remove the foreign object from his patient's leg, "the patient presented with a herniated abdominal wall, hypermobility in his joints, and a dilated ascending aorta."
"Let's see," he mumbled, Manning unsure whether Connor meant the method in which to remove the knife or if he was addressing her question, "Did you run a chest x-ray?" He gripped the hilt of the weapon.
"Yes, no sign of an aortic aneurysm. His blood work was also clear, so no…." Natalie started.
"…No sign of CTD," Rhodes finished, he glanced up, the gears visibly turning in his head as he delicately placed the patient's leg x-rays next to him.
"Well-" Rhodes began just as the knife deep within this poor guy's thigh ripped free, blood spilling everywhere before a diligent nurse quickly applied pressure to it.
"Keep pressure then pack the wound," Rhodes instructed the nurse pressing against the spot where the knife was not 30 seconds before, "then call me to close when he's ready and awake, I'm going to teach this man not to run with knives," he held up the bloody weapon in emphasis.
The nurse nodded and Rhodes continued his sentence outside of the patient's room, walking to the trauma bay with Natalie, explaining to her his diagnosis, "It's called Arterial Tortuosity Syndrome, a degenerative disease. 90% of patients present with a herniated abdominal wall and a dilated ascending aorta, while only 50% have joint hypermobility. It's hard to catch."
Manning was all smiles as she reveled in the fact her patient's, whom she grew to like in the short time she had seen him, mystery condition was going to be treated. But her happiness ended all to quickly as she saw Rhodes turn away from her and cough in his sleeve, then continue on as if nothing happened.
"Connor?" she asked, slightly worried, as they came up to where Will was standing, "Are you feeling okay?"
Before Rhodes could answer, Halstead perked up when he heard Natalie's question and demanded, "Why? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, nothing," he responded, trying to turn the attention away from him, "Manning's seeing things."
"Yeah, well I'm sure not imagining how pale you look right now," she said back, looking Rhodes up and down, "You don't look too well."
Halstead also did a thorough check of his friend, running through a trauma checklist in his head. Connor quickly realized what Will was doing, treating him as he would a patient, and put a stop to it quickly.
"Stop diagnosing me," he stepped away from his colleagues and, thankfully, from Will's gaze. He reassured his friends once more, stressing, "I'm fine, didn't get much sleep last night after a late shift. Trust me, nothing to worry about."
Before anyone else could add anything, the nurse looking after the knife patient's leg reappeared, informing Rhodes that the man had woken up, and that he wasn't having a good day.
"Well, it's not going to get much better, I can assure you," Rhodes responded before motioning for her to lead the way.
Halstead continued to look after Rhodes' disappearing form, unconvinced by Connor's efforts to get Will and Natalie off his case. He glanced at Natalie, who too looked as if she didn't believe Rhodes' story.
He wasn't going to get off so easy.
….
Will and Natalie were right to question Connor's condition because as he walked into the knife-guy's room, he was suddenly hit by a wave of dizziness. And to make it worse, the guy was screaming at the top of his lungs. Thankfully the patient rooms' doors were soundproof.
"Alright, Mr. Lahey," Rhodes addressed the patient, blinking hard as if to make the page he was reading stop spinning, "That was a real nasty knife wound, but I managed to remove it with minimal damage to your leg, you-"
He was cut off by another of Mr. Lahey's cries of agony. Rhodes just closed his eyes in exhaustion and waited for the patient's screams to subside before he could speak again. After 15 seconds he continued, "you're one lucky man, Mr. Lahey, one inch anywhere else and it could've punctured your femoral artery, lodged into your bone, or-"
Again, Rhodes was cut off by Mr. Lahey's painful yelp. Turning to the nurse, he asked her, "What dosage of morphine did you give him?"
The nurse responded, confused, "He's maxed out, he shouldn't even be feeling anything."
Rhodes just sighed and nodded understandingly. Mr. Lahey was just looking for a fun time, and Rhodes was neither in the position nor the mood to satisfy his desire.
"I'll be right back," he announced, heading towards the door, "Excuse me."
….
By the time Rhodes reentered Mr. Lahey's room, his subtle headache had upped two notches and turned into the first indication of a major migraine. Yet, he continued to shrug off his worsening condition and trudged on-namely to teach Mr. Knife in the Leg not to stab yourself in order to score a free morphine drip trip.
"Excuse my absence, Mr. Lahey," Connor hated apologizing to this guy, but it was all a part of the plan, "But I just went to the front desk and brought this back for you."
Rhodes tauntingly held up a single, plastic evidence bag, the ones hospitals carry to deposit weapons or foreign objects of any kind, and inside sat a red tinged blade.
Mr. Lahey, seeming to have gone from screaming his head off to unnaturally calm in the course of the 5 minutes Connor had disappeared, shifted uncomfortably on the seat.
"Oh, yeah," Lahey piped up, nervously, "that old thing, so glad you found it. You don't mind if I take it back home with me, right? I mean, it was in my leg and all."
"See, that's exactly what I was wondering," Rhodes began, holding the plastic bag up so that all eyes could see it, "How this knife could have been so perfectly lodged in your leg that it caused almost minimal damage. Almost like it knew where it was going."
Lahey chuckled nervously, unsure of what to do.
"You know," Rhodes went in for the kill, "A knife like this could have seriously hurt you. Fatally hurt you."
Lahey gulped.
"I just pulled a few x-rays from another patient that came in a few days before with a knife wound on his upper leg was well," Rhodes held up the x-ray of a patient with only one extremity.
"B-but," Lahey stuttered, "there's only one leg on the x-ray…"
"Oh, that's right," Rhodes played, pretending dumb "I must have grabbed the x-ray from after the surgery."
"Surgery?" Lahey's eyes almost jumped out of his head.
"Yeah, had to chop the guy's right leg off. The knife nicked a few veins on the way in, blood gushing everywhere. Barely got him under in time."
Lahey was visibly sweating, and Rhodes began to as well, though not in fear of losing a limb.
Who turned up the thermostat? he thought, his dizziness only making matters worse.
"Well," Rhodes finished up his ploy, pretty positive now that Lahey wouldn't be pulling a stunt like this anytime soon, "I'll just leave it in the bag, is that okay?"
Rhodes walked over, ready to place the bag on the table, when Lahey immediately tensed as walked over, "No! No! Uhhh, you can keep it."
Rhodes smiled and nodded, excusing himself partly to celebrate in his success and partly because he was sure the room was tilting.
Shutting the door behind him, Rhodes heard the all too familiar voice of Choi say, "I'm not sure if you scarred the kid or made him pee his pants."
Rhodes smiled and turned to face his friend, but his response died short as his dizziness took on a new meaning.
He stumbled, holding on to the wall for support as Choi jumped into action.
"Hey, Rhodes, are you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah," Connor waved Ethan off as he got his bearings, "It was just extremely warm in there."
Choi's eyebrows were still knitted in question, but Connor wasn't sticking around to hear the rest. Right as he began to walk away, Mrs. Goodwin appeared through the swinging doors, looking flustered.
She walked up to Rhodes, sighing, prompting him to ask, "Mrs. Goodwin, are you alright?"
"Frankly, no," she responded, Choi catching up to the two, "I was just informed my trauma surgeon on call for tonight cancelled due to a family emergency."
"Oh no, especially on a day like this," he paused, motioning towards the heavy winds outside, "there's bound to be some traumas incoming."
"I'll fill in for him," Rhodes responded, jumping in to the rescue.
"Would you?" it was clear in Sharon's eyes that she hated asking Rhodes, but she had no other choice.
"Yeah, no problem," Connor smiled, seeing the relief on Mrs. Goodwin's face, "I'm a night owl anyways."
He failed to mention his growing migraine, just stood all smiles to relieve some of the weight from Mrs. Goodwin's shoulders.
Choi glanced at Connor, suspicious about his fib that the room was "just warm".
"I'll stay tonight too," Ethan piped up, turning to Connor, "I'm sure you could use the extra set of hands."
Rhodes looked back at Choi, an unreadable expression on his face, but knew Choi was only sticking around to watch over him.
"Thank you, Dr. Choi," Mrs. Goodwin was pleased, "Like you said, tonight's going to be brutal."
As she walked back towards the direction of her office, clearing out for the night, she called back to the two doctors, "And I better not see you boys here tomorrow morning when I get back! My doctors need to be well rested!"
….