Author's Note: SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE. I'm not very good at updating stuff. Seriously, I am the worst at this. But, stick around for my chapters I suppose. Also, apologies for anyone being OOC but this is an AU fic so...
"I don't know, Lanie. It was pretty strange. Its like he'd known me all his life."
"He coded. No point worrying about it now." said Lanie, not sounding anywhere near as concerned as she should have.
Kate yawned, stretching her limbs out like a cat. It had been a long day. She had been an attending for a whole 24 hours and now she was beat, ready to go home and sleep away the fear and fatigue that the day had brought her. If she could sleep that is.
Rick Rogers had been on her mind all day. She didn't know who he was, really. She looked over his charts. A regular guy, in his 20s. Had been in a coma for 2 weeks after a tragic car accident, killing his daughter as they were on the way to the airport. She was only small. Thrown through the wind shield as a speeding Chevy that didn't brake soon enough, rammed into the back of their car. Okay, so maybe she'd looked a little further past his charts. Kate had spent her lunch break in the on-call room, on her laptop, trying to figure this guy out. What connected them? How did he know her? Nothing, apparently.
Kate rose from the couch she had sprawled herself upon and grabbed her bag, ready to leave.
"I guess I'm off then. Let me know when his family come in. I couldn't get a hold of his mom earlier." she called as she bumped the door open with her hip, picking up some papers from the desk as she did so.
"I said forget about it, K-Bex!" laughed Lanie. She always called her 'K-Bex' when she was worried about her.
Kate shoved the papers into her bag and pulled out her cellphone, looking through articles on Rick's accident. Articles she had read through four times over already.
"Who are you?" she mumbled to herself as walked the hospital halls towards the exit.
"Who's who?" rumbled a deep voice, startling her.
A young, clean shaven man sidled up next her, looking over her shoulder at the now locked cellphone screen.
"Shit, Kev. You scared me." she said, sounding rather flustered.
"You? Scared? I don't think so, Kate." chirped Kevin Ryan, another new attending surgeon.
"Beckett? Scared? Ha! Yeah right! She's tough as nails." boomed another voice from the other side of Kate.
"Shit! Damn it, Espo." laughed Kate, startled again.
"Where you rushing off to anyway? Hot date?" laughed Kevin, flashing a knowing smile at Esposito.
Kate sighed. Hot date? Yeah right. She hadn't dated anyone in months.
"You guys are so hilarious.," said Kate, her voice thick with sarcasm, "I'm just heading home. I need some sleep."
"That's not all she needs." giggled Espo, nudging Kate, winking as he did so.
Kate rolled her eyes and called goodbye to the boys as she left the hospital. She pulled her keys from her pockets and unlocked her car. She looked back at the hospital, her hand hovering over the car door handle. Sighing, she opened to car door and threw her jacket and bag inside. She shut the door, locked the car and turned around.
Just one last look at him, just to clear things up. He's dead. I don't know him.
The morgue was at the back of the hospital so Kate didn't go back in the way she came out. She walked swiftly round to the back of hospital, trying to avoid seeing any of her fellow surgeons. The air turned cold, chilling her bones, eerily creeping up her back and over her body as she neared the morgue. She wrapped her arms around her torso and bumped the door open with her hip. The smell of embalming fluid and disinfectant hit her.
At least it doesn't smell like dead people.
She looked around, surrounded by empty metal slabs and and stainless steel cabinets that held those that no longer lived. There was one black body bag lying on a slab near the front of the morgue.
That must be him.
As she got closer, creeping towards she could hear a rustling as if someone was alive in the bag. It got louder, sounding more like a voice. She reached out slowing, cautiously, her hands trembling ever so slightly as she did. Was that because it was cold or because she was afraid of what she would find? She unzipped the bag, revealing a very alive body inside of it. Kate jumped back, falling onto a trolley of, thankfully, empty tool trays.
"Kate?"
"Mr Rogers?"