Red…..his face was red. Luka stared at his reflection in the mirror and shook his head. A chimp in the ER. How had Clemente pulled it off so easily? And how had Abby gotten involved? And Neela? Where was their usual good sense? He'd sat there and listened to all of their excuses and the run down of how it had happened. Through it all, Abby hadn't said a word. Just sat there and looked at him. With the tiniest hint of a smile on her lips. Like she was trying to contain something. He'd wanted to shake her. Absolutely shake her. Instead, he shook his head again and turned the water faucet on. He filled his cupped hands with cold water and rubbed it over his face. He hated disciplinary meetings. As an attending he had to be a part of it. As much as he disliked Eve there was nothing he could do about this one. They HAD endangered the patients and the staff. They had contaminated equipment that would have been needed by a patient. He'd had to side with the nurse manager from hell and that had made him even angrier. Luka placed his wet hands on the edges of the sink and leaned close to the mirror to study his reflection again. A week of unpaid suspension. He had drawn the line at the letter in their files. In truth, he was very worried about Abby. It hadn't been that long ago since he'd found her at the Lava Lounge. She'd been doing so well. Would this be another set back for her? Damn. Being short two interns was going to mean more hours for all of them for a while. He wasn't going to be able to keep an eye on her.
Blue? Abby studied the bottle of nail polish and glanced toward Neela who was happily applying red polish to her toe nails. They'd spent the first day of their suspension cleaning the apartment. Really cleaning it. God knows it had needed it. The second day they had pampered themselves with a nice long day shopping. They hadn't spent any money but it had been fun to just be able to look as long as they wanted. For the last two days they had put their time off to good use by reading and catching up on journal articles and procedure manuals. They'd gotten the giggles impulsively practicing suturing on the chicken they'd planned to have for dinner. After that there was no going back to anything serious. Which is why they were giving themselves a pedicure in front of the television set tonight. It was tuned to some mindless melodrama and neither of them were really paying attention. Neela glanced up and saw her studying the bottle of blue polish.
"Go on, Abby," she chided. "Walk on the wild side…. Try something other than pink or red."
"But blue?" Abby grimaced. "Eeeewwww."
"It's on your toes," Neela shrugged and bent back to removing the old polish from her own toe nails. "Who is going to see it there?"
Abby thought for a moment and then opened the bottle. That was pathetically true. There had been no one in a while. Not since Jake. And that was okay. She had too many other things to be concerned about. Work. She loved the work. Loved it. She had even loved the disciplinary meeting. It wasn't like it was the first one she had ever been a part of. She had reluctantly had to sit in on a few when she was nurse manager. One of them had even been about Luka's crappy ass attitude toward the nurses on staff during one dismal period in his life. She had barely been able to contain herself as she'd eyed his face during this meeting. He was SO hating Eve….and Clemente. And he was mad at her. Especially when she didn't even try to defend herself. But how could she? They were guilty as charged. They HAD secretly treated a monkey. No, a chimp. A baby one. And it was funny because she wasn't really sure when it ceased being an animal and just became…..a baby. Powerless and dependent on them to feel better. How could she explain that feeling? Hell, she had never felt it herself before. No. It had been better to just sit there and listen. Abby snickered to herself as she carefully applied polish to the nails on her toes.
"What's so funny?" Neela asked. Abby just shrugged and grinned.
"I was just picturing Luka's face at the disciplinary meeting again," she said. "I don't know what he was angriest about….what we did…or forcing him to have to side with Eve." Neela's eyes sparkled as she chuckled.
"Think he will forgive us?"
"He wouldn't let her put a letter in our file so I think it's a safe bet that he will." They exchanged smiles again and then bent back to their toes….and blue nail polish.
In another, smaller, town near by, Sydney hesitated and then slowly opened the bag that he had tossed onto the motel room bed. A pair of jeans and a shirt. A yellow night gown and a toothbrush. And a box of crayons. He was watching her as she fingered each of the items she had pulled from the bag. Waiting for some kind of sign from her that she liked what he'd gotten for her. She could never do that. She didn't want new clothes…..or crayons. She just wanted her Mom and Dad. And home. Vincent was smiling as he pulled a pack of Uno playing cards out of his shirt pocket.
"Play a game with me, Mezoti," he said. "You like to play games with me, don't you?" She looked at him with eyes totally devoid of expression. Mezoti. The name he had given her after they'd watched 'Voyager' on the grainy television in the motel. He told her that she was just like the little girls on the show…..nameless beings with no one to watch over them. That no one cared about. Except that she had him. He took care of her. Like the Borg. He would never leave her. Sometimes she felt like Mezoti. She wasn't sure who she was any more.