Bernie carefully closes the large door to the ITU located behind the nurse's station, knowing it was just she and her husband within the room, waiting for their daughter. This was the last thing she wanted, to be alone with this man. They were married for over twenty-five years and suffered a brutal divorce, which Bernie knew was based mostly on the hurt of betrayal for the man. He always wore his heart on his sleeve.
Marcus leans back in the plastic chair, arms folded across his chest, legs spread wide for comfort. He noticed the redness of her cheeks from the woman wiping her tears away, "I was just thinking about...the time we decided we weren't going on holiday. I reckon Charlie was about four." He watches the woman take a seat in the chair at the other corner of the room, "We couldn't find her..."
"She decided to take her own vacation." Bernie finds herself smirking slightly, "We phoned the police...drove all around, and she managed to, somehow, get herself to the bus station."
"I'm still not sure how she got there."
"She packed six pairs of underpants, a single pair of pajama bottoms, and a cotton shirt that was two sizes too small for a weekend getaway in the south of France." She huffs a soft laugh, remembering the very determined young girl sitting in a seat, swinging her legs. She was happy they had gone over what her telephone number and address were only the week prior. "She had no money to buy tickets for her trip, but she claimed she was so adorable that people would apparently just shower her with the things she wanted and needed, whenever she required them."
Marcus nods slowly, "That's when I knew she would be a handful." He watches over toward his ex-wife as the room falls quiet again, "Serena seems to be doing better."
"Serena's fine." Her reply simple, feeling the need to protect the woman from this man even though there was nothing she needed to protect her over, "Spending time with her in France was what we both needed...I do wish we could go back someday, everything just...was really great there."
He respected Serena Campbell immensely and knew that his ex-wife was in good hands with her. The only thing that kept his spirits up, kept him positive during the divorce was at least she didn't sleep with another man . Marcus was angry at the time, angry with the woman for not just coming and explaining things to him at the time, but two years...he's had plenty of time to settle. "How are you?"
Bernie clears her throat, surprised he is even asking. "I'm..." Sitting up a little, realizing she's fidgeting, "I didn't realize how different this feels when it's someone you love." She thinks back to turning off her emotions when Jason was on the table and managing to hold it together when she needed to tell Serena about Elinor. Hell, it's all she could think of.
Marcus nods a little, "Yeah...yeah, it is." He remembers when this woman was tap dancing between parilization and death. "I vented to one of the doctors when you were in that time...March?"
"Zosia March, yes, she was lovely. Doesn't work here anymore though. Sadly." She swallows, "I just did that with my CEO. I always thought I wouldn't do that if I was in the same shoes, but...I did. Right there outside of theater." Anxiously clearing her throat, she pushes a hand through her hair, "and she waited with me. Standing in heels and all for...hours. Didn't feel like it, but...I realize now that it was hours. I owe her a drink."
"I heard Hansen stepped down. Couldn't believe it." He shakes his head slowly, picking his head up once the door opens again, their daughter carefully rolled into the space. Ventilator, blood pressure meter, multiple intravenous lines. Marcus expected something possibly terrible, but he never expected this. Marcus stands immediately, moving closer to the bed. He swallows, "Oh, Charlie...what did you get yourself mixed up in?"
Serena stands just outside the door, motioning to the room as she speaks to a nurse, "I want the patient to be monitored with fifteen minute obvs. If there is anything, anything , odd about any of the numbers, come and get me. Do not say anything to her parents, even though one is Ms. Wolfe." She turns away, only to be met by Xavier Duval, rushing in another patient.
"Male, twenty-nine. Visible broken femur." Zav calls out, having walked with paramedics, "BAC is point one-thirty-nine. BP one-fifteen over seventy. Temperature thirty-six. Sats at ninety-two." He pushes him near an open bed, letting the paramedics transfer him before they leave.
"I am Silver." The intoxicated patient calls out, caucasian with light brunette-blonde dreadlocks, shirtless, "I am your answer to the world."
Serena raises an eyebrow, taking the folder of preliminary findings. "Okay, Silver. Do you have a surname?"
The young man shakes his head slowly, arms in the air as if he's preaching to the room, "No one needs a Surname. Surnames are a construct of the government to contain us like cattle into-"
"Okay, My name is Serena Campbell and I'm the Consultant of this ward. Let's get Mister Silver-"
"Just Silver!"
Serena gives an unimpressed look to her nurses, "X-ray on the leg, CT on the head. CBC. Silver, how did you break the strongest bone in the body?" She pumps some antibacterial into her hands, rubbing them together. She gently presses against the man's exposed stomach.
"I was born unto the creator." Silver opens his arms widely, leaning back as she pushes on various portions of his abdomen, "My children need me-"
"Do you have a partner you'd like for us to give a call?" She picks her head up, noticing his silence, "Unsurprisingly, the patient also has an enlarged liver so let's get an ultrasound on that as well as ALT, AST, ALP, albumin, and bilirubin bloods. Make sure there's no fresh damage to the organ."
Xavier stands over the bed, letting his superior continue, "How did you break your leg?" He thinks they'll get an actual answer if a younger person, like himself, were to ask these types of questions.
"I was at this wild party. Baptising people into the true way of life. Beautiful, breathtaking women at this party, mate. There were some dancing girls and birds who just wanted to worship the ground I walk on." Silver begins to broadly chuckle to himself, "Blood to blood. Water to water. We are born of blood and must atone for our sins. Those who do not want to attone...sometimes need a little push."
Serena snaps her head to look to the doctor's face, "Mister Duval, could I speak to you for a moment? Excuse me, Mister Silver."
"Something the matter, Ms. Campbell?" Xavier moves away from the patient, looking down toward the woman.
"No, absolutely not. However, I need you to develop a better patient history. Actual name, for starters. Also, figure out how he fractured that leg without all this zealot BS mixed in. We need to know in order to better treat it." She nods, glancing over her shoulder toward the patient, something was gnawing at the back of her head about this man and she couldn't quite pinpoint it just yet. "We'll hold off on a psych evaluation until he sobers up a bit." She pats the registrar's arm, "I'm going to go and check in on ITU. Come and grab me if anything changes."