Death, MD

by DancingStar01

Lindsay Donner loves her job at the hospital. But then she gets hit by a lightning and then she can hear the thoughts of other people. Lindsay notices, how one of her patients is planing an murder. ALL CHAPTERS ONLINE! Pairing: C/L

1. Chapter 1

Title: Death, MD
Author: Dancing Star
Crossover: PSI Factor / Sue Thomas FBEye
Pairing: Connor / Lindsay,
Rating: 16
Category: AU, Crime, Mystery, Romance (Warning: This story is VERY different!)
What happens: Lindsay Donner loves her job at the hospital. But then she gets hit by a lightning and since then she can read the thoughts of the people around her. Lindsay notices that one of her patients is planning a murder. She tries to prevent the murder.
Notes: The idea for this story is mine, but the characters aren´t. If this story sounds familiar to you: Congratulations. You have found me. :-)

Death, MD Chapter 1

The alarm clock beside her bed was playing an old song by the Stones, as Lindsay Donner opened her eyes on this sunny Friday morning.
Like every morning, she preferred to stay in bed. The night was as always much too short. At eight o´clock in the morning two days off ended and the sun shone already in her face.
Tired she put back the covers and got up, hoisted her legs off the bed. Still listless, she went into the small bathroom, which was located right next to her bedroom and put on a fluffy dressing gown over her short pajamas and went into the kitchen.
Like every morning, her six-year-old son Caleb already sat at the table, dressed for school and ate corn flakes with milk. "Good morning, my boy," Lindsay said, petting over his head. Then she went to the refrigerator and took out a bag of milk.
"Good morning, Mom," Caleb said and put the spoon in his mouth again.
Sometimes Lindsay wondered why she had deserved this intelligent boy: Caleb was very smart for his age. Lindsay was sure that his spiritual maturity was related that she and Caleb were always alone. Caleb's father had run away when Lindsay told him about the baby in the seventh week of pregnancy and since then she had never seen the boy's father again.
She thought it was admirable that Caleb never asked for his father. But what should she tell him? How could she explain to a six year old boy that his father, a singer in a college band, didn´t even know his name and had never called his mother again, after he had left her? In a way, Lindsay was relieved that her son didn´t envy the other kids in his school, because they had a father who picked them up every day.
"Hey you!", another voice cried and the door to the kitchen swung open. Lindsay and Caleb lived with Laura, Lindsay's younger twin sister.
"As always too late," Laura said when she placed a shopping bag made of paper on the work surface of the kitchen. Laura found her twin sister Lindsay was a chaotic: While she preferred sleeping as long as possible every morning, the six-year-old Caleb was ready for school and had breakfast.
"Don´t worry, I'll take Caleb to school like every day," Lindsay promised. Today was the last day before the summer holidays. Her son was an intelligent boy, as her father used to say, and so he had already been enrolled in school one year early.
"Then you should get dressed," Laura suggested, "Or do you want to say goodbye to your sun in robe at the playground?"
"Of course not," Lindsay replied, "Caleb, when do we have to leave?"
"The best five minutes ago, Mom," the boy suggested. The fact that his mother brought him too late to school was almost daily.
Lindsay dived into the bathroom, she combed her long hair in a hurry and slipped in a baggy trousers and a clean T-shirt. She scrubbed her teeth in passing. "Caleb?" , Lindsay cried, "Are you finished?"
"Yes, Mom," Caleb replied and a noise told Lindsay that her son was waiting for her at the door.
"Have you packed your lunch?", She asked when she put on pink flip flops.
"Aunt Laura has made a sandwich for me."
"Perfect", Lindsay pushed Caleb out of the apartment and together they made their way to the old Toyota, which was parked outside the house.
"Mom, you forgot your bag," Caleb said as he got into the car. Lindsay thanked for pointing out, hurried back to the house and met her twin sister, who already handed her the brown handbag on the doorstep. She was relieved when she sat down behind the steering wheel and the old vehicle drove down the road.
They lived in a settlement of multi-family homes in Paradise, a neighborhood in the southwest of Las Vegas. Laura had received the house after the divorce from her ex-husband and didn´t moved away. Although the house was located in the entry lane of McCarran Airport, Laura loved the house too much and Lindsay liked it as well. It was also only ten minutes away from Caleb's school.
Like every morning in the summer it was oppressively hot in Nevada and so Caleb rolled down the window on the passenger side.
"When does the school start?", Lindsay wanted to know.
"At nine o´clock," Caleb replied, "It starts every Friday at nine o´clock, Mom. Since one year."
"I know."
She stopped the Toyota in front of her son's school and let Caleb get out. Lindsay now rolled down the window on the driver's side of the old Toyota.
"When will you pick me up today?", Caleb asked, when he had slammed the car door behind him.
"I have to work until the evening, sweetheart," Lindsay apologized to her son, "But Peter will pick you up this afternoon from school. He´ll invite you for some ice cream, okay?", Lindsay was relieved, when Caleb nodded and finally entered his school. She drove off towards the highway.
Peter was her best friend and colleague, and they knew each other since they had studied together in Ohio. At the university, they shared an apartment and when it was clear that they both would go to Las Vegas, they decided to continue their shared apartment. Before Peter had started at the Diamond City hospital, he had once worked at Desert Springs Hospital and had been fired there after four weeks because he called a six-year-old boy, he should vaccinate as "little wretch". Lindsay was therefore very surprised he didn´t move out of their shared apartment, when she told him she was pregnant. Her best friend was only mad about Caleb´s father at that time, because he had left Lindsay after she told him about the pregnancy. Lindsay would never admit, but Peter was like a father figure for Caleb. When Caleb designated Peter in the age of eighteen months as "Daddy" Lindsay knew this was a special challenge: She had no idea how to explain to a baby boy that Peter wasn´t his father, but only his mother's roommate. The fact that Peter had moved out two years ago because he wanted to have his own apartment with his girlfriend Claire was pretty hard for Caleb. Even harder it was for Lindsay, because she couldn´t pay the expensive apartment alone, so she and Caleb finally had to move into Laura´s small, perfect house in Paradise, Las Vegas.
Laura also worked in the hospital as a nurse and sometimes she was annoyed because she hadn´t become a doctor. Her father had raised his two daughters alone and he only had money to allow one of them to study. Laura sometimes said she could have been the doctor in the family if the doctors back then had pulled her out of her mother just two minutes earlier. Then there were days in which Laura could ´t imagine a better job.
Lindsay thought her father was a good-hearted man: He lived alone in Henderson, a suburb of the city and worked in an organic supermarket. Leo Donner used to live a rather unconventional lifestyle and although the drug laws in Nevada had banned it, Leo owned a small, private marijuana plantation in the garden behind his house. Lindsay remembered the day on which a police officer almost discovered the plantation when the police searched after a criminal in the area. Since then Leo had moved his beloved "ornamental plants" into a greenhouse.
On the way to the hospital she passed the big famous hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. Of course, the mighty buildings weren´t very spectacular illuminated during the day, but they weren´t less impressive. Lindsay loved her city. She had never left Las Vegas, except for her studies in Ohio and she couldn´t imagine a better place in the world.
Like every day Lindsay parked her car in the parking deck of the Diamond City Hospital and got out. She then took the elevator to the first basement floor and entered her station. In the common room she put on the blue standard surgical gowns.
When she stepped out of the common room, she was immediately intercepted by Sue. Sue was one of her assistants. Before she came to Las Vegas, she had worked in a hospital in Florida and had been fired there after she had sued her former boss, a famous senior physician, for sexual harassment. Sue was unemployed for nearly one year because no doctor on the east coast wanted to hire her. In Nevada, she ventured a fresh start and Lindsay had asked Sue on her first day, if the story was actually true. Sue was then very snapped because Lindsay obviously thought she was a liar. Later, Lindsay could apologize and Sue told her that the story wasn´t made up but very true.
"I have some bad news for you," Sue began and gave Lindsay a medical record, "Your colleagues Stone and Buchanan don´t feel good. So you're now alone in the emergency room. "
But Lindsay was not alone, because she still had her assistants around. Ciara was a chatterbox: If they were sitting at lunch, she always asked first if they already knew the latest.
And out of courtesy Lindsay said: "Well, you'll tell me, I guess." The rest of the team then always rolled with the eyes and Ciara really began to chatter. She reported who had died when and why, who had separated from whom and who had landed in the loony bin this week. Last week she had reported of a certain Mr. McCarthy, although no one of the emergency room staff knew him, but who stoutly maintained he had been abducted by aliens. Ciara reminded the team then about the fact that she, when she had come to Las Vegas, had taken a trip to Hoover Dam and the tour guide had shown them an edition of Science Today magazine. On the cover was a picture of an alien. Of course Ciara was confirmed in her belief that the little green men were out there.
Joyce took care of the paperwork and she responded almost allergic to clutter. "You're sick, Joyce!", Lindsay had once said to her and she had shrugged her shoulders.
Jenny was Lindsay's allies, because she was the only one in the team who also had a child. Actually, her real name was Jenadra. Her parents were Italian and had come to America, when "Jenadra" was about 11 years old. Lindsay could still remember when she had met her for the first time: "You can call me Lindsay. Everybody does. Please hold on to your shift schedule... Mostly, we all have lunch together... And by the way, Jenadra..."
"You can call me Jenny," she interrupted.
"I'll do that if you call me Lindsay."
"Sure thing, Lindsay," she had said. Lindsay also still remembered very well the day on which Jenny had got married. All colleagues were sitting in the church, admired her beautiful dress and the priest asked: "Do you, Jenadra Priverno, want to take the present Alan Keiper to your husband?" Lindsay believed that the entire congregation had winced at the mention of Jenny's real name.
Merril was fresh out of training. She accompanied Lindsay on her today´s visits. "Merril, what do we have?",Lindsay wanted to know.
"Today, it's pretty quiet," her assistant answered, "Probably all the tourists with heat sickness were hospitalized at Desert Springs Hospital," she said mockingly and Sue, who stood beside her, shook her head and rolled her eyes.
They had reached a curtain, behind which a hospital bed was located. Lindsay pulled the curtain aside and reached for the medical records of the man lying in the bed in front of her. "Hi, Mr. Dole," she said, "How are you today?"
"When can I go home?", the pot-bellied man asked.
"Are you serious?", Lindsay looked up from the medical record, "Mr. Dole, this record says, you fall down an escalator last night at Caesars Palace drunken. You broke three fingers, both arms, both legs and a rib and you have suffered a concussion. "She closed the file now. "Mr. Dole, you can´t even use the toilet alone. What do you think will you do at home?"
"I, uh ...", then Mr. Dole was lost for words.
"The nurse comes in half an hour and takes you to your room." Lindsay took a step back and closed the curtain behind her.
"What do we have?", Lindsay then wanted to know about Sue.
"We still have a three year old boy with a peanut allergy and a tourist with a sunburn," when she said this, she looked reproachfully at Merril, "Not all tourists were taken to Desert Springs Hospital."
They took care of the other two patients and after Mr. Dole had been picked up by a nurse and the boy with the peanut allergy went home with his mother, Lindsay was almost to death bored in the emergency room.
"Would you like some coffee?", Sue asked, Outside it was hot. Lindsay wondered how Sue could only think of a coffee.
"No thank you. How was your weekend?"
"Very well," Sue said, "My brother Brad, his family and I were at Lake Mead... What about you? Have you been out with someone?"
"I have a six year old son at home. How do you imagine that?"
Sue didn´t understand Lindsay. Once she had said to Lindsay she had become a couch potato, but she apologized later.
"I know someone with whom you could go out," Sue suggested triumphantly, "What about Connor from the radiology?", she asked, "Did you call him?
"No. How do you know him at all? Is he one of your exes?"
"No," the nurse honestly replied, "I've met him last week when there was this serious traffic accident at Flamingo Road."
Lindsay could remember very well: There was a chaos in the hospital and the emergency room wasn´t prepared for 40 patients who arrived at the same time. Connor had saved a man´s live who was hit by a splinter, when he stuck his finger in the wound in the carotid artery of the man. If he hadn´t done that, the man would certainly have bled to death and Sue knew Connor had even received an award from the hospital chief. Connor was modest: He said everyone would have done and he couldn´t understand the sudden attention.
"Sue, why are you trying constantly to set me up with any of these men?"
"I just want to help you..."
"Thank you… Without you I'd be lost in life and in the hospital."
"I´d be much more lost without you", Sue said and she didn´t doubt for a second her best friend was telling the truth, but then it dawned on her, "Are you serious?"
"Thanks for your help, but if I want to have a date, I know what to do," Lindsay said and then sat down behind her desk in an office at the end of the floor.

After the end of her shift, Lindsay phoned Caleb. "Has Peter picked you up from school?", She wanted to know from her son and Caleb said yes, "Have you done your homework?"
"It was the last day of school, Mom. You don´t get homework anymore," Caleb didn´t sound too thrilled, "Aunt Laura made dinner. When are you coming home?"
"I'm on my way, sweetheart. I´m home in a few minutes. She hung up, grabbed her purse and then hurried to her car, which was still standing on the parking deck.
Tonight it rained, which was very unusual for the summer in Las Vegas. The summers in Nevada were hot and dry. Very few plants survived in this heat. The positive aspect of the sparse vegetation was there was never wildfire here. Lindsay decided she would push this fact to climate warming.
After leaving the parking garage, she had to turn left at the next street, but she noticed that the road was already blocked. Now she had to take a detour! She turned the car around upset. After nearly one mile on the Las Vegas Strip, she turned to the left again while it flashed once. It ushered in a heavy storm and soon the wipers no longer made it to push all the water out of her field of vision. Then she noticed that her feet were wet: The old Toyota had a hole in the footwell, which was temporarily covered with a mat. The road in front of her was flooded and the water also didn´t spare her car.
Suddenly there was a loud crash over her. The car was out of control and Lindsay raced directly towards a tree which stood on a street corner...

"My head!", Lindsay moaned as she looked into a bright light above her. Sue and Merril were beside her bed and looked at her anxiously. "Lindsay?", she asked and gently put her hand on her shoulder.
"What happened? And where am I?"
"You're back in the hospital... Lindsay, don´t you remember? Your car was hit by a lightning and then you were raging against a tree and were unconscious until now. We thought you were dead", Sue said.
"Yes, but weed doesn´t pass known," Merril interjected now and Sue told her she shouldn´t be so naughty. "It's really a miracle that you're alive."
Slowly, Lindsay sat up and looked down at herself. She was fine, only her head ached terribly. "I thought you are safe when you´re sitting in a car and it is struck by lightning," she murmured.
"Not in your case", Sue told, "The fire brigade and the ambulance confirm your car was flooded by the rain. And as you probably know, water diverts electricity."
"Yes, I know," Lindsay confirmed.
"...However, your car is now ready for the scrap heap," Merrill added.
"You aren´t hurt fortunately but the head doctor says you shall stay at home," Sue told now, "Professor Sawyer says, you have three days off."
"Staying at home? You're kidding, right?", Lindsay asked," It´s our annual team trip in a few days. And we have been looking forward to..."
"And if you fall over dead, because you were struck by a lightning today, that doesn´t help us."
"Besides," Merril began, "I have heard the trip last year must have been terribly boring."
Lindsay sighed and leaned back. She closed her eyes and thought about the last team trip...

About one year ago, on a gray Friday in July, the team of doctors and the nurses of the emergency room left for a conference in the Californian city of San Diego.
They had condemned some interns to represent them in the emergency room so they could perceive the trip. It was the first trip since Lindsay´s former boss Jonathan Heathrow had died and actually the team had planned to visit the Universal Studios in Los Angeles, but the weather had made them a spanner in the works.
In a good mood, Lindsay climbed behind the wheel of the minibus, which they had rented from a travel company and turned around. "Well, is everybody there?",she asked.
"We aren´t on a school trip. If you like, you can count whether everybody is REALLY there!", Sue complained.
"Where are we going?", Jim Davenport had asked. He was one of the junior doctors, who was also a part of their team.
"San Diego. Stay calm: For the hundredth time", Lindsay was annoyed and Sue tried to award her some soothing words. "Davenport is a fool. He´s so stupid that he doesn´t even know exactly where California is at all."
While they were on their way to San Diego, it began to rain like cats and dogs and of course no one had thought to bring a rain jacket. Lindsay parked the bus at the congress grounds and as soon as everybody had left the bus they rushed over to the convention hall. On the way there the first mishap happened: Sue slipped and landed face down in a puddle. "I don´t go in there in this stat! My T-shirt is now see- thourgh, "she swore to herself but in the end they had still managed to persuade her. Sue spent most time hidden in the ladies room and tried to dry her shirt by using a hand drying devices.
In small groups, they strolled through the hall until Lindsay discovered a concession stand. She ordered a sandwich there and her assistants joined her.
"Today the weather is really bad," Jenny said and Lindsay shrugged.
"What did you expect? Professor Doctor Milton has set the date and I'll bet that Congress will take place today, because next weekend one of his stupid, snobby polo tournaments is taking place. He is so selfish...", Lindsay said. She didn´t like him because he had repeatedly tried to close Heathrow Jonathan department. Meanwhile, Milton belonged to the supervisory committee of the hospital and in his opinion the hospital didn´t need an emergency room because there were three other hospitals with emergency rooms in the immediate area. Until his death, Jonathan Heathrow had fought for its emergency room. He was Lindsay's teacher and role model. He was loved by all and one of the most dedicated people Lindsay ever knew. One day she wanted to be like him. Since his death, the Diamond City Hospital was no longer the same.
"Lindsay...!", Jenny had started and waving with her arms like crazy. So she wanted to point out that Professor Milton was right behind them and sipped a cup of coffee.
"When you put Milton in a sack and slap it with a baseball bat, you would hit exactly the right one!", Lindsay said.
Jenny was even louder, her face was still horrified: "Lindsay...!"
"What? Why do you move your arms so funny? Do you have a stroke?"
"Oh God, no!"
Meanwhile, all the other colleagues watched and Lindsay could see in their faces something was not right. As Jenny had recommended she turned around and looked in the very angry eyes of Professor Milton. For a brief moment she thought she could recognize anger in them, but she hoped to have been wrong.
On this day came Lindsay and Professor Milton had a huge fight. Milton swore solemnly he would make her life a living hell and make sure she never would get to see a hospital from the inside. Lindsay had laughed and responded with a wave of the hand.
In the evening they were driven back to Las Vegas. This time Lindsay let Joyce behind the wheel of the bus. She wondered what they should do next year. Maybe Lindsay would sign in the team of the emergency room for a "confidence Camp". Just as she had seen in a commercial for a cereal bar. Jenny could have told her that Milton was right behind her and had heard every word.
The final end of their trip was, when Lindsay was asked to the hospital boss a few days later and she had to explain her comments about Professor Milton. Milton insisted that she was fired, the hospital boss saw no necessity in it. He even laughed greatly at what had happened at the congress.

"Here, you have to sign this," a nurse from the night shift said to Lindsay and handed her a block full of forms. She felt fit and that's why she left the hospital at own risk. Next week, the trip took place and not even a lightning would prevent it. They would travel to Los Angeles in one week, as they had planned. Jenny would bring her son Kyle and Lindsay would invite Caleb.
"I don´t like that you put at risk your health!", Sue said, carrying Lindsay's pocket. When they reached the elevator, Lindsay took the bag. "All right, then please stay at home tomorrow and rest a little," Sue suggested and Lindsay decided she would listen to her. Sue left and the doors of the elevator opened.
A man used the elevator for getting to the parking deck. Lindsay greeted him and also got inside.
"You are Connor from radiology, right?", she asked and he nodded.
"Seems my reputation precedes me," he grinned, "And with whom do I have the honor?"
"I'm Lindsay. I work at the emergency room."
"So you're the famous Lindsay Donner . Your assistant Sue has told me about you."
"Why am I not surprised?... What did she tell you about me?"
He seemed to think for a while. "There were quite a few things... All in one it sounded a bit like a sales pitch."
She was horrified and vowed that she would have to talk to Sue when she saw her the next time. "No, really. What did she tell you?"
"She said you would like to go out with me, but don´t dare to ask me personally."
"That's what she said?", she asked, "That's not true. I'm not a bit shy..." Her voice grew louder and he began to laugh. "What's so funny?... You don´t believe me. "
"I believe you," he promised, "To be honest it was hard for me to believe Sue. She also said you would be a good doctor and a lovely person and getting to know you is worth every second... "
Lindsay's jaw dropped when he said that and she understands the meaning of his words.
"But as already mentioned, it sounded like a sales pitch."
Lindsay decided she was going to keep her mouth shut otherwise she probably took another reason why she could lynch Sue.
"Hard to believe I have been working here for five years and she never noticed me," he said, Lindsay turned to face him.
"What?"
"What?", he asked now.
"Well, what you just said."
"I didn´t say anything," he looked confused and Lindsay nodded knowingly.
The elevator reached the parking deck and they both got out. Connor went directly to a black pick-up while Lindsay was looking a little hesitant after her car. Then it occurred to her: Her Toyota had hit a tree and probably the car was now in the factory town and at worst in the junkyard. Sue had told her that an ambulance had brought her here, so she now had to take a taxi home.
Connor noticed something was wrong: "Is everything okay?"
"Yes, I... I forgot that my car is broken..."
"Can I take you home?"
Damn, Lindsay thought, Sue hadn´t told her he wasn´t just a hero but a very polite person. She accepted his offer and she steered him to the Las Vegas Strip, which they drove along in a southerly direction, down the Tropicana Avenue at the MGM Hotel, where a gigantic golden lion was. So they reached Laura's house in Paradise.
She thanked him and got out. They said goodbye to each other, then Connor drove away and Lindsay entered the house of her twin sister.
"Is Caleb already in bed?", She wanted to know from Laura, while she got out of her jacket.
"He's in his room... Where have you been so long?", Laura noticed the dirty face of her sister.
"I had an accident on the way home... A colleague took me home."
"What kind of accident was it?", Laura asked skeptically.
"A lightning hit me... The car window was open." She had heard that it was usually safe in the car during a storm. Whether this was true even when the window was open, she didn´t know.
Lindsay hurried up the stairs. Her son lived in a beautiful and large room in the attic of the house.
She was lucky: Caleb still lay in his bed and played with his flashlight. Then he switched the flashlight off and on again.
"Hey, my boy. How was your day?", Lindsay asked, leaning her arms on his bed, "My day was pretty boring. I signed letters all day long and when there were no more letters, I played Angry Birds on my computer. "
She knew something was wrong when Caleb didn´t respond. "Caleb, you're mad because today I have taken longer in the hospital?"
"No."
"Would you like to visit me at work again?"
"No," he answered now. His mother was surprised because normally Caleb was always happy to visit her in the emergency room because he was the star and the nurses and doctors then showered him with candy.
"What's going on?"
"Mom," he got up and turned to her with a seriousness that scarred her, "I don´t want to go to school."
"It's summer vacation..."
"You don´t understand," Caleb's voice was urgent, "I will never ever go to school. "
"Why not?", she stretched and reached across the bed to hold his hand, "Is it about the bad grade, you've got the other day?"
"No."
"Then what is it?"
"I can´t say it," Caleb murmured.
"Of course, you can tell me anything. You know that."
"What are you talking about, Mom?", Caleb asked now, "Why would I want to tell you something?"
"But you..."
"No," he shook his head.
"Is everything okay?"
"Mom, I think something´s wrong with YÒU." Caleb crawled over his bed and crawled under the covers. They said goodbye for today. Lindsay left her son's room. But before she left, she turned once more to Caleb.
"I don´t want the other kids at school tease me," he confessed. The only problem was that his mouth wasn´t moving when he said this.

As it turned out after a telephone conversation with the police the next morning, they had parked her Toyota in a junkyard, because the car hadn´t survived the collision with the tree. Lindsay had to ask her sister to take care of Caleb and to drive her to their father after breakfast. Because Laura had to work, she dropped off Lindsay in front of the house of her dad.
"Hey, Dad," Lindsay cried, as she stepped through the door, "Can I borrow your car?"
"Good morning, Lindsay," Leo Donner corrected and his daughter looked up from the newspaper. Lindsay sat down with him and send him greetings from Laura and Caleb.
"What are you doing?" he asked, "Don´t you have an own car?"
Lindsay rolled her eyes when her father mentioned the old Toyota. "Yes, but your gold Trans Am is much better."
Her father had seen through her immediately, "Is your car broken again."
"Total loss," she informed him, " I had an accident yesterday," She watched as her dad got up from his chair and she assured him that nothing happened to her. Except for...
"Dad, I need to go to the hospital," she said, "Can you lend me your car?"
"No." Leo stretched out to reach one of the dishes that were in the cupboard. "My car is no longer insured."
"What?", Lindsay asked, "Since when is the insurance for your Trans Am expired?"
Leo turned to face her now astonished, "How do you know? I didn´t tell anybody yet."
"Are you driving around with an uninsured car?"
"How do you know that?", Leo repeated. Lindsay decided to be honest, because she knew what had happened. "This is a relic of my accident... I can read minds."
Her father sat down on a chair opposite her. "Nice try," he grinned, "You probably do everything to borrow my car..."
"Come on, test me," Lindsay demanded, "Think about a number between zero and 1000." She looked at her father challenging and finally she said, "598.54... That's unfair," Lindsay watched as her father was staring at her in disbelief, "And now you think that you believe you were Lunatic... And you ask yourself if you shouldn´t have smoked marijuana this morning."
Leo Donner felt caught.
"Dad!", Lindsay cried in horror, "We had discussed this! You´re not allowed to smoke marijuana! "
"My doctor has prescribed me...", Leo defended and grumbled like a little child.
"Dad, I AM your doctor!"
"I need that!", he got up from his chair , "I have terrible pain again." He was clean since Caleb's birth. But Lindsay now had to find out it was a lie. Without her new ability she would never know her father still secretly smoked drugs. Lindsay returned now to the reason, why she had actually visited her father: "You borrow me your car now?"
"I have to work today..."
"In your state you won´t drive today...", she leaned towards him and recognized the dilated pupils in the eyes of her father, "Give me the telephone number of your insurance. I call there and pay the fee for you... In return you borrow me your car."
"But I have to work ...!"
Lindsay left the kitchen and grabbed the keys of the Trans Am. "You can ride a bike!... And Dad: Not a word to Laura or Caleb", she called to him and went to the front door.
"What?," Leo asked back, "About my marijuana or your new ability?"
Lindsay shook her head in disbelief. She had to think again about whether she allowed her father to see Caleb.

She drove the golden Trans Am of her father to Peter's apartment and noticed while driving many people looked at the car. Lindsay had always believed that a Trans Am in Las Vegas wasn´t an unusual car, but she found out she had been mistaken. She parked her car onto the sidewalk and went to the house where Peter lived with his girlfriend Claire. She knocked on the door and waited for Claire who let her in. "So you're here," Claire said when she let Lindsay enter the apartment, "But you're late. As long as Pete's car is broken, we must be able to rely on you."
"Yes," Lindsay confirmed and rolled her eyes. She then saw Peter having breakfast, so she sat down beside him. "Hey Pete, how are you?", she asked him, "You should hurry. Your fiancé thinks it´s my fault if you're late... It's not my bad you still having breakfast."
"I thought you have the day off", Pete replied," Sue told me you were hit by lightning yesterday. "
"You know about it?"
"Sure. And to be exact, the whole hospital knows. Are you okay?", he wanted to know and Lindsay nodded.
"We thought, you wouldn´t pick up Pete to work today," Claire turned now into their conversation.
"Yes," Peter confirmed, "I asked Joe Collins from the Urology to pick me up."
"Is this a joke?" Lindsay asked incredulously, "Then you could have called me!"
"I'm sorry," the bad conscience gnawed at Peter, "I thought you feel so bad that you can´t call."
Internally, Lindsay thanked for so little empathy and she was sure Laura and Caleb would have informed him.
"...Collins also has a parking space right in front of the clinic," Peter added to.
"I can´t believe you doing this for a parking lot in front of the hospital," Lindsay complained, "In addition, Collins is a party pooper."
"This parking space means I can sleep 15 minutes longer in the morning because the stupid hunt for parking is eliminated and..." They were interrupted by a honking car.
"This must be Collins", Lindsay groused, crossing her arms defiantly in front of her chest. Peter had spent his 15 minutes to tell her as gently as possible, that they wouldn´t set out for work together.
"All right," he complained and stuffed a pancake in his mouth, "I have to move." With these words he got up and went to the bathroom.

Luckily, Peter didn´t wonder why she drove the Trans Am of her father today. But Lindsay terribly wanted to tell him about her new gift. She felt so overwhelmed and even a bit let alone. Peter was her best friend and she was sure he knew a good advice for her.
She entered her car alone and drove to work without Peter: He preferred the listless Doctor Collins from the urology. Angrily, Lindsay drove off and her car passed over Collins´SUV with screeching tires. Only when she was on the highway, she had calmed down a bit and when she finally turned off to on a main road and onto a side road, she discovered Connor Doyle. He had taken her home yesterday and now he was alone on the way to the hospital. She slowed the speed of her car and let down the window on the passenger side.
"Good morning," Connor had discovered her.
"Good morning to you," she smiled when her car drove slowly next to him, "Are you on the way to the hospital?"
He nodded.
"Where's your car?", she asked then.
"At home. Someone has attached a wheel clamp to it because I have parked on the parking lot of my neighbors." Connor grinned.
"You mean you are walking?", Lindsay asked now and Connor nodded again.
"Is this your car? A golden Trans Am. This is pretty slanted..."
"It´s my father´s car." She rolled her eyes and she suddenly braked. "Get in," Lindsay told him, "The hospital is three miles away."
"That's not far."
"But it's hot and you know what they say about deserts..."
She saw that Connor thought for a moment, but then he got into her car. He thanked her, because he preferred not to end dehydrated in the desert.
"Let´s make a new start, okay?" ,He suggested, "There were some things I shouldn´t have said yesterday," his apology sounded sincere, "Actually, Sue wasn´t having a sales pitch with me: She told how great you are."
"And she's not a bit exaggerated," he thought. Lindsay smiled as she heard this. Her gift was useful.
"Let me guess: This is the reason why you haven´t contacted me. You thought I was a superman."
Again, Connor thought for a second. "This is the short version," he finally said, "I'm Connor."
"I'm Lindsay. Nice to meet you", she drove off," And how long have you been working in the Diamond City hospital?"
"For five years," he replied, "I can´t believe you've never crossed my path." She had explained to him that she worked in the emergency room and apparently the people down there never met their colleagues from the other departments.

Of course Sue scolded Lindsay, because she had come to work, although she had three days off. "I'm fine," Lindsay promised. She saw how Peter ran past her. His assistant called out to him he should take care of a man with a head injury.
"Where should I go first?", Lindsay asked.
"Room one", Sue complained and then followed her.
In the treatment room one a certain Mister Weaver was waiting for them, who had a cut on his leg, which had to be sewn. A little later, during the treatment Sue noticed they don´t had enough bandages: The last "user" of the box hadn´t replenished.
"Let's get you a new bandage," Lindsay told her, Sue asked through a walkie talkie for bandage material. No one seemed to have heard and Sue got up. "Where is everyone?", she wondered, "Surely they drink a cup of coffee again."
"Certainly not. The coffee machine in the kitchen is broken, "Lindsay told her. Sue didn´t understand. She hadn´t said anything. She had only thought that the others might ...
Lindsay stocked her instruments and was looking for a scissor. She pushed a box across the table and it landed on the patient. Lindsay apologized, but she heard how Mr. Weaver called her an idiot.
"That you drop something happens. In addition, error is human and nobody's perfect, "she defended herself and it Mister Weaver said nothing more.
Sue came back now with a new bandage box. "Let´s get ready," she said and sat down on Mr. Weaver right side. "We are almost finished, Mr. Weaver," Sue encouraged the patient.
"It's about time," Lindsay heard him say, "I have lots of things to do today. I can´t miss the appointment in Margaritaville!"
"They have great cocktails," Lindsay said, looking at Mr. Weaver. He put a frown. On his face is a big question mark loomed. He had said nothing at all!
"I mean, we´re having a trip soon, Sue?", Lindsay looked at her assistant and she nodded. "Yes, a team trip."
They finished sewing and now attached a bandage. Then she pulled off her gloves and tossed them on the table with the used instruments. "We are ready, Mr. Weaver," Lindsay said now, "I'll give you some tablets. Please take the antibiotic until the pack is empty. "
The man nodded, while Sue was preparing the tablets, Lindsay could hear something that made her worry: Although Mr. Weaver didn´t move his mouth, she could hear how he was planning a murder. He had thought of everything: He had rubber gloves for avoiding leaving finger prints on the victim, obviously a woman. He would shoot her with a gun and then he would file off to the weapon's serial number. Then he would throw the gun into a lake and bury the corpse far out in the desert. He would put her into a plastic bag and then place the woman in the trunk of his car.
A thick lump formed in Lindsay's throat. She hoped it wasn´t the seriousness of her patient, but she had the impression that it was not fun.
Lindsay just had to do something.

During the lunch break they sat together in the kitchen of emergency room and had lunch.
"Hey, Doctor Alban," Lindsay cried and reached for the volume knob on the radio.
"Doctor Who?"
"Doctor Alban! The Singing dentist! "
"Oh, I've heard the song. The lyrics are like this... "
"No, please don´t sing," Lindsay cried, because she knew that her assistant Ciara wasn´t the best singer. Ciara had even offered to sing at Jenny´s wedding and Jenny had then declined with thanks.
"This Mr. Weaver, we've sewn today was pretty scary," Sue explained to them, "Have you also noticed the weird snake tattoo on his forearm? And on its other arm he had tattooed a black coffin with a cross."
"Very life affirming," Jenny agreed.
Lindsay nodded to Jenny. "That's true."
"What?", Jenny asked, "What are you talking about?" Everyone stopped to eat.
"You just said that Mr. Weaver is a life-affirming human being."
"I didn´t say that... That's what I thought."
They looked at each other. "Are you all right?", Sue wanted to know.
At the moment, Lindsay had the feeling that nothing was all right. This morning, she read the thoughts of Mr. Weaver and now Jenny´s . She didn´t like that.
"You can read minds! Like the guy from the last episode of The Twilight Zone", Merril marveled and got up.
"Can you guess what I'm thinking now?", Sue challenged her.
"You wonder just whether you should return this green dress, because you believe, you don´t look good in green and Jenny said the dress looks like a Madonna- Costume... Besides, it was too expensive."
Sue applauded. She had really thought. "You are a super hero, Lindsay", Sue then said, "What do you want to do with your new superpowers?"
"I haven´t thought about this, so far", she confessed, "This is Mr. Weaver creeps me. I think he has planned a murder, during he was with us today. Apparently, he plans to kill a woman. But I don´t know her name..."
"Usually people don´t run around and talk about their plans for murder," Sue said and bit in her sandwich.
"But he hasn´t told me. He has thought of it."
"I don´t believe it. Lindsay is making fun of us", Joyce said. She wasn´t receptive for supernatural things. She didn´t believe in ghosts and certainly not little green men from Mars.
"Hey, is that the face of a woman who´s joking?... But all this must remain a secret. Do you understand? I don´t want to occur in a freak show one day."
"What are you doing now?", Sue asked.
Lindsay shrugged. "I don´t know, to be honest." She folded her arms behind her head, "I have the feeling I must do something. But what?"
"You have to go to the police!", Merril suggested, "If you could prevent a crime, you have to tell the police. Medical confidentiality doesn´t count."
"You're right," Lindsay said. But she had no idea how she should explain to the police.

Lindsay decided she would go home and get Caleb after her shift. Then she would go to the police and tell what she had found out today. But someone made her a spanner in the works: When she left the parking garage with her car, Lindsay noticed that Connor was on foot again. She stopped her car and opened the window.
"May I take you home?" ,she asked, but Connor shook his head.
"Thanks, but I'm meeting with colleagues at Margaritaville."
Lindsay was surprised and she knew a person that had an appointment there, too. This was her opportunity to find out something about her mystery patient so she decided to join Connor: "This is not a problem... Really", she said, " Then I take a little detour."
Connor gave in and finally entered the car. He flopped down on the passenger seat.
"Do you do this often?", she asked.
"What?"
"Well, do you often have meetings at Margaritaville?"
Now Connor understood. "No, this is a kind of team meeting... The Diamond City hospital radiologists play American football against the radiologists at the Desert Springs Hospital once a year."
Lindsay looked at him in surprise. She hadn´t known that.
"Do you remember when the head of the radiology had broken his nose last August?"
She nodded and Connor told her this had happened in the game. Then he told her they had won last year's game but the radiologist from the Desert Springs Hospital previously were able to win more games than his team.
They reached the Las Vegas Strip and at Margaritaville she let Connor get out. "There is a car park at the back of the block," he advised her, while he was leaning against the car.
"Oh, I can´t come. I have...", she had to get rid of him because she wanted to spy on Mister Weaver alone.
"I'll wait for you," Connor decided.
"But I can´t ...!"
"Oh come on!"
"No, it... I have to go to the bank. I only have small change with me."
"That's okay..."
"No, I hate small change. It contains lots of germs from other people and... The sanitizer in my purse is empty... Now that you know I am afraid of change, you certainly don´t want to have something to do with me...", she was curious to see how this scene would continue.
And Connor actually thought for a while. "Why did you decide to become a doctor, if you are afraid of bacteria?", he asked and Lindsay was visibly surprised.
"I... um ..." She was a do-gooder. Lindsay pushed this fact secretly to her mother. Lindsay and Laura had never met her and both had the feeling that they had to compensate her father for what had happened. But beeinf afraid of money wasn´t her only problem: She didn´t bear the imagination to wash more than one garment in the same washing machine at the same time so Laura had to do her laundry. In addition she didn´t make it to eat outside: In Lindsays opinion, food intake was something people should do only indoor.
"So go ahead, Monk," Connor said and Lindsay hated he called her like this, "I invite you," he then said and saw how Lindsay now rolled her eyes. She drove off and parked the car in the parking garage behind Margaritaville. When she returned, she found out that Connor had actually been waiting for her. They entered the bar at the same time and Connor had already discovered the table at which his colleagues were sitting but Lindsay couldn´t see Mister Weaver. "Guys, this is Lindsay from the emergency room," Connor told his friends, "She was so friendly and has shuttled me."
Lindsay had to avoid a laughing when the group unanimously answered "Hi Lindsay," and thus almost sounded like Anonymous. Alcoholics
They sat down and Connor ordered a drink for her. "The quarterback of the Desert Springs Tigers is down this year," one of the men reported.
"Wait!", Lindsay interrupted them, "The Desert Springs Tigers?... My goodness, you take this game really seriously. What is your team´s name?"
"That depends upon the season," one of the men replied. Lindsay knew him: She had seen him a few times in the cafeteria. "Last year we were the Diamond City Bees. The year before, we were the Diamond City Gorillas."
"I would have more fear because of gorillas than a horde of bees," Lindsay said.
"Exactly what I said!", mow another team member chimed in, "But no one listens to me."
"That's not true!", Connor disagreed now and turned to Lindsay, "We have found out there is already a baseball team, which is called Diamond City Gorillas. So we needed a new name and chose bees."
"Can we focus on the game plan now?", a tall man suggested, apparently he was the leader of the team. They discussed their strategy for the game, while Lindsay listened attentively to them and drank a cocktail. Every now and then she also had a suggestion for improvement and she had to explain to the men she knew so much about football, because her father had been in a team once. However, this was a long time ago. Lindsay and her sister Laura were children back then.
At the end of the meeting the men even invited Lindsay to the game and she promised she would certainly come.