ER: One Kind Act

Written by LockBox22

o0o

One hundred and thirteen... It should be around here somewhere. She had just come up here too.

One hundred and fourteen... This was starting to get ridiculous. He couldn't even find one room in this crazy place; and it was on the children's floor.

One hundred and fifteen...

Dr. John Carter just caught sight of the name plate beside the door before he continued on. He stopped and backed up a couple of steps, eyes fixed on the name. It was the right room. He took a moment to slip the white file from the holder on the wall. His name was written as the admitting doctor.

It hadn't been his first pedestrian hit by car, but he had hoped never to see one this young. Just ten years old, Kassidy Moore had been struck by the driver of a taxi just a few blocks away from the hospital. Thanks to an off duty nurse, Kassidy had been rushed to the ER.

He had worked with his team for thirty-five minutes to stabilize her. It hadn't been easy, but she was young and he hoped that she would bounce back quickly. Kids were resilient that way. The only thing he was worried about was that no one had shown up. The numbers that had been in her phone had brought up nothing but voicemail after voicemail.

John replaced the file and pushed open the door. A woman turned from the bed, long dark hair spinning around her face. The young woman was just as surprised as he was. They stared at each other for a few seconds. She didn't say anything and John realized she was waiting for him to speak first.

He walked forward and held out a hand. "John Carter. I'm Kassidy's doctor."

She didn't take his offered hand. "Jennifer Moore. Kassidy's my sister. What happened?"

"That's what we were hoping you could tell us." John replied. "We tried to get a hold of you, but we couldn't..."

"I was at work; couldn't hear my cell." Jennifer replied turning back to the bed where her younger sister rested. "What happened?"

John moved closer and then wished her didn't. Jennifer smelled of beer and other assorted alcoholic drinks. "Uh," He took a small step back. "She was hit by a car."

Jennifer's face went as white as his lab coat. John quickly filled her in on the broad-strokes of what he and this team had done for her along with the usual reassurances. Jennifer waited tensely until he finished.

"This is all my fault." She said turning back to the bed to look at her sister. "I usually pick her up from school. But I needed to take the extra shift."

"Where do you work?" John asked, hoping to get an answer for the smell of booze. He wasn't disappointed.

"A bar, uptown. It's new." Jennifer replied. She looked at him. "Is she going to be ok? Please, tell me she's going to be ok."

John stepped closer to the bed. He looked down at the sleeping child and thought back on all the procedures she had been put through over the last few hours. "I think so." He said softly. Though he usually didn't, he went in some detail about what happened.

Kassidy had been in bad shape when she had been brought in. The off-duty nurse had stabilized her the best that she could've out in the field. It had been up to John and his team to do the rest. She was unresponsive, with a concussion, a broken rib, collapsed lung, and several large patches of road rash.

She had almost crashed once, but bounced back at the last moment. He was quick to reassure Jennifer that her sister was indeed stable now and he expected her to continue to be stable. The look on her face could only be described as relief.

John didn't expect what happened next. Jennifer threw her arms around him and hugged him. "Thank you for saving her." She whispered in his ear as she held onto him tightly. "Thank you."

The End