PART 2

Maggie Lin rushed through the hallways and reached the emergency room. She had just left thirty minutes before after things had calmed down and she was trying to settle down for a quick nap at the on-call room but of course it was just too much to ask for. She really needed a couple of hours sleep but it was not to be.

With a sigh she pushed the ER doors open and trudged in to join her pals at the trenches.

As she walked past the beds, she did a double take. "Alex?"

Her friend wore a disgruntled expression on her face and was resting on one of the ER beds. Highly irregular. Alex Reid would never miss a good trauma, especially when things were as bad as today.

"You OK?" Lin asked as she rushed by, but she had no time to hear Alex's answer as Dawn was yelling for her to move it or else.

Four men were brought in with crush injuries after a pylon fell on them at a construction site. All had life threatening injuries, ranging from broken limbs, crushed ribs, various cardio issues, a head injury and possible internal injuries. It was bedlam. Seconds counted and everybody had to be at their peak performance. Charlie was manning one bed, Dr. Hamza was attending to the head injury, Dawn was fussing over the suspected cardio issues and Maggie and Dr. Curtis was rushing in between all of them, giving as all had some form of internal injury.

"Where's Dr. Reid?!" Dawn Bell yelled at the top of her voice.

"Here!" Alex Reid replied from behind.

"Alex," Dr. Bell grunted, "We need you. This isn't the time to be shy."

Alex Reid gulped "No. Of course not. Where do you need me?"

At that Charlie Harris intervened "No! Alex! Seriously! You promised you'll rest."

Dawn Bell made a double take and stared at Alex "What's wrong?" she quickly resumed her work on the patient on the gurney.

"It's nothing, really." Alex protested.

"She was knocked down by a patient just before all hell broke loose" Charlie explained. "Got extremely winded and refused to let me examine her." He looked at her with reproach.

At that the monitors began beeping hysterically. There was no time to continue the discussion and Alex just dove right in and began to take care of things.

It was after all 'all hands on deck' and Alex had some of the more steady hands amongst them and they all knew it.

At some point Maggie Lin looked up from the bloody mangled body she was treating. Charlie Harris was working on the body with her. What caused her to look up was Charlie, staring further behind her, straight at Dr. Reid with disapproving, yet concerned, eyes.

Lin followed his gaze. Alex Reid was right in her element, working hard to save the patient lying on the gurney. She didn't seem tired, or winded, but Maggie knew how Adrenaline could mask an injury.

When Charlie was injured at the car crash that caused his coma, he seemed fine at first. He actually got out of the cab and saved the other driver's life by deflating a tension pneumo. Only after he had done that, did he collapse.

She could understand his concern, but for now Alex seemed fine.

Dawn had also caught Charlie staring at Alex. She gave her patient a quick glance, and Maggie noted she seemed content with her handiwork. Bell approached Harris and spoke to him in a low voice.

"She seems fine, Charlie."

He opened his mouth to disagree, but Dawn cut his retort short. "Once things are a little calmer, I will examine her, OK?"

Ho nodded with a sigh.

Dawn patted him on the back and gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze.

Charlie sighed again and got back to the patient he was treating.

Dawn's gaze remained on Charlie as the blond doctor returned his own gaze back to his patient. She sighed. She wished Charlie would care for her as much as he cared for Alex Reid. Alas, those days had long gone.

Reid was a good person, she admitted to herself. She was good for Charlie and if she cared for him, she should care for her, too, since she mattered so much to him and her well-being affected Charlie so much.

She sighed again and went over to Reid. The younger doctor was busy with her patient and things were not looking too good. The machines were beeping like crazy, blood pressure was falling. The patient was bleeding internally. All three gen. surgeons were yelling orders like crazy. The nurses were rushing back and forth, hanging plasma and platelets and rushing to get cross-matched blood from the blood bank.

She knew she had to check Reid. Charlie had a good point, but it was impossible right now. It would have to wait.

She looked up and caught Charlie's gaze. She gave him a shrug, and his face contorted with disapproval. She mouthed 'I know'. He mouthed back an 'I told you so'. Dawn sighed once more.

"We'gotta'get'im to the OR stat!" Alex Reid shouted.

The entire party of doctors and nurses disconnected the patient from the trauma systems and connected him to portable life support. Jackson was bagging him and Lin was closely monitoring for any sudden deterioration. They had to work quickly. He was barely stabilized.

"Seriously?!" Charlie Harris' cross voice echoed behind her.

"Charlie, I'm sorry. This man can't wait. I can." Reid responded to her angry ex-fiancé's admonition.

"Alex—" He was cut short as his cell began ringing. It was the babysitter's ringtone. He couldn't ignore it. "Dammit!" he spat out and took the call.

As Charlie answered the call, Alex and the entire medical party got into the elevator and headed to the OR.

Alex was busy scrubbing in when Charlie entered the scrub room with a huff.

"'sitter's gotta' go. Some personal emergency." Charlie was annoyed. "I'm gonna' grab Luke and bring him over here. One of the nurses said she'd take care of him."

Alex nodded agreement. She was feeling a bit off, but she didn't want to let Charlie in on it. She knew he'd catch on to it if she spoke. She felt somewhat breathless.

"I need to get back. My patient is stable for now, but he needs his hip re-aligned."

She nodded again. She wished he would go so she wouldn't need to pretend. She wasn't sure she could pretend that much longer. In her mind she was telling herself she was just gonna' patch things up so that the junior doctors could take over and then she was going straight to Dawn.

He gave her an odd look. "You OK?"

"Sure!" she managed.

He stared deep into her eyes.

"Go! Get Luke. I'll be out of here in no time. I just need to do a splenectomy before this guy bleeds to death. Hopefully the rest will be smooth sailing and the kiddies can handle it."

His stare was almost drilling into her. She knew he figured out she was not OK.

"I'll be right back. Alex, you get out of there as soon as you can. Don't think I haven't noticed you're having a hard time catching your breath. I'm gonna' go by Dawn. Maybe she can at least monitor you while you operate."

Once again she nodded.

Charlie turned around and left, striding with a quick steady pace out of the scrub room, probably off to Dawn's office.

Alex heaved a deep breath and trudged into the OR.

'Please make it be an easy one' she prayed in her mind.