You know, Peter Lenkov was right, when he said the promo pics for 2x16 would put a smile on everyone's face who likes Cath and Steve. I was grinning all day after seeing them.


Thank you all again so much for reading.

I updated my profile, you might like to check it out. If you like to know what's coming up next.

And now on with the story.


A/N: In December, the Hawaii Medical Center West and East were closed. The Medical Center West had the only Transplant Center of Hawaii, and it will take months before Queens Medical can provide that service. On the site of Hawaii News Now you can find all the information about this dire situation that affects many patients waiting for a transplant. Many of them need to move to the mainland to have the chance for a transplant and moving is something a lot of people simply can't do. There is a report on that issue also on their site that shows very clearly that it is not always a good thing to live on an island.


Chapter 7 – Taken care of

Hawaii Medical Center West

Saturday around four p.m.

"I need help here!" Katie Delgado yells from the entrance of the ER at Hawaii Medical Center West. She and a young man are trying to hold up a tall man who seems only semiconscious. The young man has one of the injured man's arms around his shoulder, and the woman is helping holding him up by his belt.

They look like they were caught in the rainstorm that was howling until a few moments ago, the woman and the young man are wet but don't seem to be hurt. The man, however, is not just wet but his clothes are also covered in blood and mud. They can see a head wound and bloody bandages on his ankle and wrists, and his right hand is tucked under his belt obviously to immobilize the arm.

"Mike, we need a gurney." Lucy approaches the trio not waiting for Mike to answer her; she knows that he will get what she needs for the patient. "What happened?"

"We don't know; we found him while we were hiking. All we know is that his name is Steve. I think he fell while climbing, he has a lot of bruises, and his ankle looks really bad like he caught the rope with it or something." Katie is glad to help the stranger lay down on the gurney that Mike just rolled in.

"Let's get him into. . . well, this isn't easy. We just got a lot of injured people from a bus accident," Lucy thinks for a minute, "okay let's get him into trauma two."

"But that one's closed because the exam-table broke." Mike is reminding his superior.

"We don't need the table; he's already on a gurney. We have nothing else free so let's move there and see that you can get a doctor, any doctor will do."

For the first-time Katie looks around the small ER and can see that the whole area is one busy zone. It looks like organized chaos, and it's clear that the ER has reached its limit. Dozens of people are sitting around waiting to be treated, but they all have to wait because of the injured people from the bus accident that were brought in.

"We received only the minor cases. The more severe ones were taken to Queens, but we still have our hands full," Lucy answers the unspoken question. "Mike, stay at the desk while I take a look at Steve, and please get me a doctor."

Mike watches Lucy and directs Katie and Tom to his desk at admissions. He will take their names and contact information in case anyone needs to talk to them again.

"We will give your information to Steve, so he can thank you for your help."

"If it's okay we like to wait for word on him. Mom is that okay?"

"You want to wait here?"

"Yeah. Mom, I know him from somewhere. I just don't know from where. Maybe if I wait here a little longer it will come to me. I really would like to stay."

"If you want to, we'll stay. If you need us, we'll be in the waiting area if that's okay."

"Yeah sure, Mrs. Delgardo. Vending machines are across from the waiting area. The coffee's not any good, but our cafeteria has some decent coffee and a good selection of tea."

"Thank you," the Delgardos make their way straight to the cafeteria. After being caught in the rain, a hot beverage sounds like a really good idea right about now.

H50 – H50 – H50

"Steve. Steve, can you hear me? Come on open your eyes for me," Lucy is looking down at the shivering patient and tries not only to get him to help her get his wet clothes off but also to answer her questions.

However, she only gets some mumbled gibberish, so she cuts his clothes off, starting with his shirt. Next his pants and underwear are gone. Covers him up with a warm blanket and marvels at the cuts and bruises all over his body. She can see that he's in top shape, and his whole body is well defined.

She's just finished when Dr. Dennis Brill enters. "What, you're the only one available?"

"Oh, come on Lucy, you're the one always telling me we men are just overgrown kids," her husband, who's also the pediatrician in the ER tells her with a grin. "So what do you have here?"

"His name is Steve but that is all I know about him. He was found on a hiking trail; he's in and out of consciousness, temp is 103, BP 100 over 50, pulse 130," Dennis frowns at the vitals, "bleeding head injury, his ankle injury is infected, his right elbow seems very painful, and he has contusions and abrasions all over his body."

While Lucy was listing her gathered information, her husband was checking the patient, but was unable to rouse him enough to talk to him. "Okay, I want X-Rays of his ankle and lower leg, that doesn't look good, his right hip and elbow, and I want a CT of his head. Can you call up and ask how long we have to wait?"

While Lucy is calling to see if they can bring him up, Dennis cleans the head wound and bandages it, stitches will be done by a surgeon, if necessary. He curses as he takes off the gauze Lucy put on the ankle after removing the old bandage. "This needs to be flushed out in the OR, it's really very deep and has a lot of dirt in it. It's already badly infected. What the hell happened to his ankle?"

Dr. Brill hangs a broad-band-antibiotic next to the saline solution Lucy already started on their patient.

"Danny."

They both almost jump when they hear their patient for the first time, "Steve, can you hear me?"

"Danny?"

"Who is Danny, do you want us to call him?" Dennis Brill is leaning closer down to his patient.

"NO! He. . .wants space. . .doesn't want me. . .," Steve is not really awake and they have to listen very closely to understand him.

"Steve, did Danny do this to you, was he with you? Did he hit you?"

"What? No. . .he wanted. . .to be alone. . .didn't want me. . ." Steve closes his eyes again, it's clear that he's exhausted and not able to keep it up any longer.

"Steve? – He's out again. You think we're talking about domestic abuse here?" Dr. Brill looks at his wife.

"Somehow he doesn't look like someone who would get beaten up by a spouse."

"Yeah, well but look at all these faded bruises, he was beaten and not just recently. You know as well as I do that with domestic violence, the physical strength of the victim is not the important factor. You have any idea how many men get beaten by wives half their size? If we're not looking at a case of a beating by a boyfriend, who do you think Danny is?"

"I don't know Dennis; you want to call the police and report an assault?"

"I'm not sure. I mean we don't know anything yet. Let's wait a few more hours and let's talk to him first before we call the cops. Are there any reports about missing persons?"

"Not in the last twenty-four hours and before that, nothing that would fit him."

"Does he have a phone with him?"

"Yeah, I already checked. Battery is dead. We could charge it but if it's password protected it won't do us much good."

"Charge it anyway, maybe he can use it. Lucy, when can we get him to radiology? I want to check his head as soon as possible?"

"Another twenty minutes. In the meantime, I will clean him up some more and clean his wrists."

"Okay, call me when he's back down. Are we still on for tonight, dinner at Tony's?"

"Of course. Can you check at the front desk on your way out to see if a report for this guy came in?"

"Yeah sure, see you later," Dr. Brill replies, leaving is wife and the unusual patient, for the time being.

H50 – H50 – H50

An hour later Lucy pages her husband while she is prepping her patient for his visit to the OR where is ankle wound will be cleaned and dressed. It's already infected and the OR is the best place to wash all the dirt and grime out of the bone deep gashes.

"Lucy, how does it look," Dennis greets his wife and takes a look at the X-Rays. "Huh."

"What?"

"Well, Robert already called me and said that they will set his elbow in the OR, it's dislocated but he should be fine without complications. The bone tissue at his ankle is slightly injured. Robert will take a closer look at that and hopes to avoid any inflammation of it. His hip bone is not injured, but the area is badly bruised; he was lucky. His CT is clear, no bleeding or swelling, but he has a severe concussion for sure. However, that's not what I'm worried about."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there are not just his almost faded bruises but there are a lot of old fractures. His tibia and femur have been broken, his forearm, some ribs and his pubic bone. And they only x-rayed his right side. I'm talking about twenty-five to thirty-year-old fractures. That means they happened at an early age, five to ten years old."

"What are you saying? That he was beaten as a child?"

"I don't know, but I have seen so many of these injuries in small children that they practically scream abuse. I know I know I'm biased because I'm a pediatrician, but because of that I can see the signs. You know that a lot of abused children never break the circle of violence and end up in an abusive relationship where they are the victim again. His recent injuries indicate abuse."

"But Dennis, most likely he was in a climbing accident, look at his shoes; they're for climbing. And his ankle looks like the rope caught it, and he was hanging from it. Maybe you just see what you want to see, what you're trained to see in children? But he's an adult, not a five-year-old that was rough handled by his overwhelmed parents," she just finished up with the general prep for the 'surgery'. "You want a Foley?"

"I sure don't but he needs one; we need to watch his kidneys. He's severely dehydrated."

"Okay. You're going to call the cops?"

"Not today, they can't talk to him anyway for at least another twenty-four hours. I checked the system as you asked but there was nothing in it."

"Yeah it's still lagging behind a day or so, no idea when they are going to fix it. But we get new alerts by fax, so far none for him."

"Okay good, I'm going to give Doug Heller a call and ask him to try to talk to Steve in the morning if he's awake by then. I mean we still only know his first name, hopefully we'll know more when he wakes up."

Lucy finishes up with Steve and looks after him until he's picked up by a colleague who will take him up to the OR.

Whatever his story might be, for now he's safe and well taken care of, and that is the most important thing at the moment.

H50 – H50 – H50