CHAPTER 6: Kerry

I had just left Sam and Pratt in the lounge when I saw Gates coming out of Curtain Three. "Hey, Dr. Weaver," he said. "I was just on my way to the cafeteria for a bite to eat. Can I get you anything?"

"Just a V8 for me," I answered. "How is she?"

"Abby's still sleeping it off, and her temperature's almost back to normal, so for the most part, she's out of the woods."

"That's good. I'm going to go see her for a couple of minutes."

I stepped into the room and sat down beside the bed as Abby was starting to wake up. "Hey," she said groggily. "Did I miss anything?"

"Well, just a couple of overzealous colleagues, but other than that, not much," I told her.

"Pratt, right?" she guessed.

"Who else? How are you feeling?"

"Right now, I feel like a large strawberry shake," she answered. "Where the hell is Doc Magoo's when you need them?"

"Those were the good old days, huh?" I laughed. "Luka tells me you were a little out of it when you came around the first time. As you probably know, that's one of the symptoms of heat exhaustion."

"What did I say?"

"Oh, first you were going on about your mother, then you were asking for Carter, then you asked about Joe."

"You scared me. For a minute, I thought you were going to tell me I was singing 'Kung Fu Fighting'."

We both got a good laugh. "Well, I see your sense of humor's still intact," I commented. "But seriously, though, we want to keep you here for the next couple of days, then I'd like you to take next week off."

"Oh, thanks, but who's going to cover for me?" she asked.

"Well, since Pratt almost screwed up big-time today, this should give him a chance to rethink a few things," I said. "Remember that girl you and Luka found this morning?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Pratt got the brilliant idea to let Sam put in the chest tube."

Abby thought a minute. "I'm just guessing, but nurses aren't trained for that, are they?"

"Nope," I said quickly. "And they can thank their lucky stars that she made it up to the OR and is recovering right now."

"I think we all can," Abby agreed. "I'm not even going to ask you to go into the details."

"Well, I'll see what I can do about your strawberry shake," I said. "In the meantime, get some more rest."

"Right," Abby said. And with that, I got up and left the room.

I met up with Luka on my way to Admit. "How's Abby?" he asked.

"She's fine. Just asked me for a strawberry shake."

"Yeah, she usually wants one when she's been under the weather," Luka commented. "By the way, Sam and I just had a little talk a minute ago."

"You did?"

He nodded. "She's really upset over what happened in Trauma One today. And she also says that Morris was the one who ordered that chest tube."

I groaned. I felt like such an idiot. "Then it wasn't completely Pratt's fault," I said. I'd even forgotten about how I'd told them not to discuss it with anyone.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Pratt wasn't the one who ordered it, but he still didn't call someone in to assist."

Luka shook his head. "It was an honest mistake, Kerry," he said.

"Yeah, mine or his?"

Luka was about to answer when I heard Frank shout, "Mass casualty coming in! ETA, five minutes!"

Luka and I sprang into action. "What happened?" he asked.

"A mail truck crashed through the window at that Deadhead convention. They're sending us ten majors and ten minors! I told them we could take three of each, but they said--"

"Never mind that now!" I frantically cut him off. "Call up to the OR and tell them to be on standby. All nurses get as much large-bore IVs, blood, and saline you can get your hands on! And tell all other units out there that we won't be able to take any more cases right now! Everybody in this department gown and glove up, it's going to be one hell of a ride! Luka, Barnett, you're with me! Let's move it!"

I was so wrapped up in whipping everybody into shape that I didn't notice we were short a doctor and nurse. But right now, I had more important things to worry about.