"That explains so, so much."
"You mean why they fight like they want to shag? I wonder why they broke it off."
Kerry groaned from her hospital bed, even without opening her eyes she could tell by the smell and air flow that she was in the suture room. "None of your damn business Elizabeth. Mark." She slowly opened her eyes, "Don't we have two teams of walking wounded football players out there?"
"We have it under control Kerry, now could you..."
Kerry cut Mark off, "A concussion. All I have is a concussion. I'm fine. See to the rest of your patients. I am still your boss, correct?"
Mark stared at Kerry for a long moment, then with a snap of his gloves and a shake of his head he stalked out of the suture room.
Elizabeth shook her head as well, "That was uncalled for Kerry, he was just trying to help you."
Kerry sighed, "Oh, go itch something."
That cleanly got a now quite pissed off Elizabeth out of the room as well and Kerry was left alone. Unfortunately that state didn't last long as the curly haired blonde poked her head in the door. "Uh, hi..."
Kerry blinked, "Who the hell are you?"
The bad mood didn't seem to faze the blonde, "Oh, sorry. Doctor Kim Legaspi. I just wanted to stop in and tell you that I called Ryan's parents."
Kerry sighed and put a hand to her head. "I've been out that long?"
Kim nodded, "Twelve hours or so."
Kerry groaned, "I have to..."
Kim stepped closer to the bed and put a restraining hand on Kerry's left hip. "Uh..." She took the hand off, "I wouldn't say things are going perfectly out there, but they're fine. You need to stay at least for another few hours. Uh, I do too... you have a serious crutch swing. You went all Gabby on my head."
"You have a concussion as well?"
"Less of one than you do. I'm the new Psych attending by the way."
Kerry closed her eyes for a moment, then they popped open again, "The woman firefighter. Did she get her hand checked out?"
Kim smiled as she shook her head, "Nope. You're always the Chief huh?"
Kerry shrugged, "Who else should I be? My crutch?"
Kim winced, "Total loss."
Kerry pushed herself up in the bed. "I need to get back to work."
"Kerry... Doctor Weaver." Kim took a step back as Kerry limped out of the room, "Okay then..."
Kerry thanked her lucky stars that Mark and Elizabeth were no where to be found. She managed to get to the admit desk and sank into a chair. It was Randi who appeared a minute later, and silently handed Kerry an almost identical crutch to the one that had been smooshed in the accident, before returning to her work.
She looked up as a little blond haired boy rolled in on a gurney, his foot stuck in what looked like a large storm grate. Abby was the first one to the gurney as Doris spoke, "This is Sean Gattney."
Shawn's parents were right behind the stretcher as was the woman firefighter from Kerry's rescue. Kerry fell in with the motley crew as the firewoman spoke. "We tried extraction at the scene, but it's too swollen. Collins is on his way with a blow torch though."
The boy spoke up as he was wheeled into the trauma room, "My foot's stuck."
Kerry smiled and turned her head as the firewoman spoke, "Doctor Weaver, right? Sandy Lopez."
Kerry nodded, speaking still made her a bit nauseous. Though, in retrospect, nodding wasn't a great idea either. "Right."
Kerry jumped a little as Sandy put a hand on the small of her back. "Hey, you okay? You look a little pale."
"Fine, good..." They both jumped back as Mark and a gurney came barreling through, "What." She found herself with her back against the wall and face to face with Sandy. She blinked and was sure her heart had missed a beat.
Sandy just quirked a smile and took a step back, "This place is crazy." They continued down the hall and Sandy glanced up at the ceiling, "I'm surprised they're letting everyone stay here?"
"From the paperwork on the admit desk, they say it's still structurally sound I guess. There was nothing above chairs but ceiling. Enough ceiling to hurt like hell, but only ceiling."
"That's what saved your life."
Kerry stuttered a little, "No, that uh, that was you. Ah, thank you for ah..."
Sandy smirked, "Saving your life. It was no sweat."
They stopped in front of a cart full of supplies. Kerry need something to do with her hands. "I... it's a pretty crazy job. Haven't met too many female firefighters."
Sandy leaned against the wall, watching as Kerry rearranged the cart. "Only one in Company B. Engine 17." She was pulling out her big stuff.
Kerry took a couple of gauze packages from the cart. "That must be challenging."
Sandy shrugged, "Nah, not really, I'm just one of the guys."
Kerry looked over at Sandy and was happy when the world didn't swim. Her head was doing better. She started to speak, but Sandy beat her to it as the slightly shorter woman made her exit. "Anyway, I'll see you around."
Kerry, always the doctor, wasn't done though, "Did you get a wound check?" Sandy stopped a bit down the hall and turned. Kerry gestured with her head towards Sandy's arms. "Your hand."
Sandy looked a bit like a deer caught in headlights. "Oh, ah, I don't like doctors."
She flashed the smile that had to have been used very often over the years to get her out of jams.
"You should let someone look at it. Let me take a look at it before you go."
Sandy seemed to consider it, but then the smile was back, "Maybe some other time." And with that she seemed to own the hallway as she walked down it.
Kerry shook her head and started back towards the admit desk, but looked up as Randi met her halfway. "I don't need a babysitter Randi."
Randi gave Kerry an 'as if' look before she spoke, "Wouldn't think of it Doctor Weaver. No, there's a man on the phone who, well, threatened to cause my children sterility and the city a bad harvest if I didn't get you on the phone?"
"Mlungisi."
This made Randi pause, "The fine black guy from a couple of years ago? You definitely need to talk to him."
Kerry let a little smile out and picked up the phone, "Mlungisi."
"Doctor Weaver."
Kerry signed a chart, filed it, and met taller blue eyes. "Doctor Legaspi."
Kim crossed her arms over her clipboard, "You need to go home."
Kerry went back to her charts, "I'm fine and there wouldn't be anyone to cover for me anyway."
"Hey..." Kim put her clipboard down on the admit desk with a bit too much force and Kerry jerked her head up. "I'm not doing this because I want to be your bosom buddy. You had a serious concussion. You were knocked out for twelve hours. You can't just go back to work."
"And yet, here I am. Who else will be? Luka's resting, Mark's home with Elizabeth or whoever. I'm th e attending."
Kim put a hand on Kerry's arm. Kerry stared down at it until the blonde removed it. "What is it with people touching me all of a sudden? Do I exude warm and fuzzy, or am I just so pathetic that people feel sorry for me?"
Kim's arm went back across her chest, "Sorry, but my point is still valid. You at least need to take a break, the Malanoche guy and Doctor Chen can keep the ER going until you get back."
Kerry studied Kim for a moment, "Doctor Malucci, David."
"Okay. Just over at Doc Magoos. My treat, or not. I can grill you on past presidents or something."
Silence descended over the admit desk and after a long pause Kerry put down her pen and threaded her arm through her crutch. "Has to be quick."
"Got it."
"The Niners huh? Don't say that too loudly around here, pretty sure that most people bleed for the Bears. You know, you haven't actually asked me anything about past presidents."
Kim took a sip of her coffee. "Yes, well, your cognitive function seems fine, you seem to have both your long and short term memory intact, and you're a lot less surly than you were earlier so..."
Kerry narrowed her eyes at Kim, "You think you're funny?"
Kim shrugged, "Other people do. So, how are you doing with..."
"Ryan's death?"
Kim nodded, "Ryan's death."
Kerry put down her cup of herbal tea. "I don't need a psychiatrist Kim."
"How about a friend then?"
Kerry shrugged, "Sure, but for right now I should get back to work." She held up three fingers in the Girl Scout salute. "I promise I won't hit my head again and totally scramble my brains."
They left money on the table and both walked back towards the hospital. They were in the ambulance bay when Sandy stepped out of a red emergency vehicle with a 9 on the side. "I'll see you around Kim."
Kim nodded and kept going while Kerry came to a stop next to the truck. "Sandy."
Sandy was as stiff as a board and her trademark smile wasn't in evidence, "Still got time for a wound check?"
They both looked down at her bandaged left hand. "I thought you left AMA?"
She picked at the gauze a little, as if it was the gauze that was causing her pain. "Eh, it wasn't bothering me until I jammed it rolling some hose."
"Still bleeding?"
The smile was back, though only at half wattage, more of a 'yes, I know I'm busted' look. "Don't think so."
Kerry was used to hard patients, but had always had a knack for cracking the hard nuts. "Okay. Let's take a look."
They went into the ER and then the suture room. Kerry let Sandy sit down, pulled a table over to them and sat down across from the firefighter. She switched on the light, undid the gauze and started working on the wound. "You were supposed to be on light duty."
"I was movin' some gear."
Kerry made a noise in the back of her throat. "Yeah, you went on a run."
Sandy chuckled, "I get a little stir crazy."
Kerry changed the subject, "Okay. Looks pretty good, no sign of infections."
"That's it?" Surprise colored Sandy's voice as Kerry looked up from Sandy's hand.
With mock seriousness Kerry spoke, "You need a new bandage."
Their eyes met and they both fell silent, only Kerry's movements making noise. Kerry surprisingly, to herself and Sandy, broke the silence, "So, uh, does... is a Captain Devlin still at the 7-5?"
Sandy nodded, "I know that name."
"Those guys used to hang out at a place called, uh, Moose and Squirrel."
The smile was back with a laugh, "Yeah, every Friday night."
Kerry couldn't look up. She'd never asked someone out. That was one of the advantages she liked about being female, the men did all the putting themselves out there. Kerry was also pretty sure that some sort of mental health intervention was needed. Because the fact was that Sandy was short for Sandra, and Sandy Lopez was most definitely a woman. Kerry had missed that part of college, hell, she hadn't seriously dated anyone until Med School.
Her mouth seemed to be working independently of her brain, she had no idea what she was doing, or why. In the last twenty-four hours not one but two women had made her heart beat, and not in a friendly way. One's eyes and the other's smile had ignited something that had been dormant since Mlungisi, since her ex.
She had no idea why she was asking the smile, Sandy Lopez, out on a date, but her vocal cords seemed to have started the process without her. "Uh, you should have someone remove the stitches in four days."
Finally Kerry looked up and into the deep gaze from Sandy. "I know where to find you."
Kerry held the gaze as long as she could, then looked back down to the safety of Sandy's hand. "Listen Sandy." Sandy sucked in a breath of pain as Kerry hit a sensitive spot. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry. I bunched it up."
"S'all right. What were you saying?"
Kerry made eye contact again, "You want to do something?"
Sandy decided the way to go was play halfway innocent, "Excuse me?"
"Uh, sometime..." Kerry was wavering, and she couldn't decide if she should totally embarrass herself to Sandy's face or while staring at her hand. "You know something?"
Sandy couldn't keep a straight face as even her eyes twinkled, "Something?"
Kerry knew when she was being teased and let a smile of her own come to her lips, "Lunch or a Movie, or..." she could make fun of herself too, "ice fishing?"
Sandy laughed at that. "Like, go out?"
Now that the opening salvo was over and it wasn't as if Kerry could embarrass herself anymore she met Sandy's gaze and kept it. "Yeah, I mean, unless I'm totally off base here."
"No, no, you're on base."
They both smiled. Kerry jerked a little as Haleh stuck her head in the door. "Oh, Doctor Weaver I was expecting... doesn't matter. You're still here."
Kerry turned in the chair, letting go of Sandy's hand. "I am." She turned back to Sandy, all business, "Four days Lieutenant Lopez."
Sandy gave a faux salute, "Yes ma'am, Doctor Weaver." She stood and left the room.
Haleh opened the door a bit more as Kerry started to clean up, "I can do that Doctor Weaver." Haleh paused, "I'm sorry if I interrupt..."
"No, it's okay. A patient?"
Haleh nodded and both women walked towards the exam rooms.
