" Dust to dust, ashes to ashes," the minister said, and Jen could no longer control herself. Collapsing in tears, she kissed the coffin and whispered, "I love you baby, don't you ever forget that."
After the service, Elizabeth and Jen started back to the car, as Mark stayed behind to say good bye to his daughter one last time. As he knelt beside the coffin, a familiar voice rang out behind him, and he turned around to greet the familiar stranger. Before he could get a word out Doug cut him off, " I'm so sorry Mark, I came as soon as I heard." Mark could hear the emotion in Doug's voice as he quickly embraced his long time friend.
" How are you holding up Mark?" Another familiar voice rang out behind him as he turned around to great a teary Carol Hathaway with a strong embrace.
" I'll be okay," he said trying ever so hard to control his emotions. "Where are your girls? They should be getting pretty big," Mark said as a tear rolled down his check. Suddenly the memories of when Rachel was that small came flooding back.
"I left them with my mother for a few days, Carol replied. Mark, if there is anything at all we can do, please give me a shout, we'll be at the Days Inn for a few days."
" Like hell you will, Jen is leaving later on today, you and Carol are welcome to our guest room."
" Mark, we don't want you going out of your way for us, we are fine at the hotel," Carol protested. "You and Elizabeth should have some time to yourselves."
" Elizabeth and I have all the time we need, now come on and I'll give the tour of our house. I need a break from all of these people anyway. You guys head on and I'll be right there to give you directions." Mark said, leaving no room for protests as he ushered them off in the direction of the parking lot. With them on their way he turned to his daughter's coffin one last time. He kissed his hand and laid it on the coffin, " I love you kiddo, more than you ever knew, I love you." He turned away from the coffin and started walking to the parking lot as he began to recite the lords prayer in his head.
After stopping at a local bar for an hour to catch up on old times, they head to Mark's house. When they entered they could tell that Elizabeth was already working on dinner. The delicious aroma of home made spaghetti filled the house. " Elizabeth, we have some guests I'd like you to meet," Mark called out from the entrance.
"I'll be right there Mark," Elizabeth called back. As she entered the living room and saw their guest she was surprised to say the least. " Carol, Doug, how are you guys doing? Its been a long time hasn't it?" Elizabeth remarked. They exchanged greetings and walked into the kitchen, they chatted for a few minutes as Elizabeth put the finishing touches on dinner.
" Its a good thing you always cook way too much Elizabeth," Mark joked as the crowded around the table and sat down to dinner. Well into the night they could be seen sitting around the kitchen table, talking, crying, laughing, and catching up on old times, something Mark really need.
About 3 am they finally headed up to their respective bedrooms to call it a night, or rather a morning. Shortly after drifting off to sleep the phone rang, violently awaking Mark from a well needed sleep. " Hello," Mark mumbled inaudibly into the phone.
" Mark, I'm so sorry to bother you but you and Elizabeth are our last hopes here. Almost all of the staff is out sick, and the patients are pilling up. Normally we could handle the load, but like I said, there is almost no staff here. I know this is hard time for you, and you are given these next three days off, but I'll pay you double time, hell double time and a half, if you and Elizabeth would come and bail us out," Keri pleaded.
" I'll be there, but Doug Ross and Carol Hathaway are staying with us right now, I could talk to them, see if they would help out." Mark suggested.
" That would be great, talk to them and Elizabeth, then give me a call back as soon as possible. We're drowning here, and just can't manage. Thank you so much again Mark, and please extend my condolences to Jen, I am truly sorry about Rachel." With that Keri hung up and Mark groaned as he rolled over and tried to figure out how he was going to convince Elizabeth, Carol and Doug to go into work.
As it turns out, it wasn't such a hard sell, they were all willing to pitch in when they heard what condition county hospital was in. Soon enough they walked into county to a severely overcrowded waiting room, patients everywhere, angry and upset over not being seen after five hours of waiting. They all realized that they were in for one hell of a day. Mark and Elizabeth suited up and got ready for an incoming multi-victim MVA as Keri informed them that the only other doctors on were Dave, and Lucca. She was going home because she was throwing up and risked exposing patients to the virus. Mark and Elizabeth took trauma while Doug, Carol and Lucca, and Dave took a hand full of charts and began treating patients.
Just as Keri left the ER the first of a steady stream of trauma patients came in. " We've got a twenty-five year old male involved in an MVA. Blunt abdominal trauma, pressure 50 palp," the paramedic yelled as they ran to the trauma room. Mark took a deep breath to calm his nerves and started after him, they were in the same room Rachel had dies in just a few days earlier.
Eventually the incoming traumas slowed to a stop and Mark and Elizabeth went to join the other doctors in treating less critical patients. Looking at the board and the waiting room they discovered that Doug, Carol, Dave and Lucca had done an amazing job of reducing the patient load. There were only about 15 people in chairs waiting, compared to the about 45 that were there when they arrived. So Mark and Elizabeth split up to treat the last remaining patients waiting to be seen. Just as Mark was finishing suturing a patients hand, his pager went off, paging him to a major trauma. He quickly apologized to his patient as he took off in the direction of trauma room 1.
When he arrived there the scene that meet his eyes caused him to collapse. It was a young girl, with a gun shoot wound to the abdomen, the memories were just too strong for Mark to handle. He managed to mumble " Get Doug Ross in here now," as he turned and left for the lounge. Once there he collapsed on the couch and could no longer control himself. He had tried to hold it in and be strong, but he couldn't do that anymore. He let his emotions flow as he sat crying, mourning the loss of his daughter. Unsuccessfully trying to convince himself there was nothing he could have done to prevent his daughter's death, that he couldn't have tried any harder.
After about an hour, Mark was able to collect himself and was about to leave the lounge when Doug and Carol entered. " Mark, are you okay?" Carol asked with compassion as she sat down beside him and took his hand.
" I'll be fine, that trauma just brought back some bad memories," Mark said as he took a deep breath to steady this emotions.
" Doug and I are heading home, I've left the girls with my mother long enough, she'll be going insane," Carol said.
" Please give us a call and let us know what's going on, we should keep in touch. I enjoyed today, being back at county and all. There are some other doctors coming on to relive all of us, they are only subs because everyone else is still sick, but I think we need deserve the break after today. I'll see ya Mark," Doug said as he offered his hand. Mark took it strongly and pulled him in for a quick hug. He said goodbye to Carol and gave her a long hug. With that they all walked out of the ER and headed on with their own lives once again.