TITLE: Automatic Flowers. Chapter Seven
AUTHOR: Sadieclay
EMAIL: sadieclay@hotmail.com
CATEGORY: Angst/Cast
RATING: R- Filthy language, Death.. Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll
SPOILERS: References to Season 7-8, etc.
ARCHIVE: Sure, just ask
DISCLAIMER: ER and its characters is owned by John Wells, Jack Orman,
Michael Crichton, Constant C Productions and Amblin Television in
association with Warner Bros. Television.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This IS a spin off of an Elizabeth/Dave
pairing I have on an RPG. This season is basically used in reference.
However: Susan never came back to work at County. Doug and Carol are
happily married in Seattle, Peter quit to be with Reese and is engaged
to Cleo. Carter was stabbed, Lucy's dead.. etc.
SUMMARY: The tragedy of Mark's death sends Elizabeth to an unusual
source of comfort.
PREVIOUSLY ON ER: Dave and Elizabeth have a huge fight, doubting his
skills as a doctor and a competant human being. Rachel, Susan and
Carol bond over Mark's death, coming to terms with the fact that
they've grown apart. They talk about Carter and he overhears it and
stomps out. Meanwhile Dave's found himself on a bridge with a gun in
his hand and freezing his ass off.
***********
I dream about how it's going to end,
Approaching me quickly.
Leaving a life of fear,
I only want my mind to be clear.
***********
****Chapter Seven****
"Anybody seen Malucci?" Kerry barked, holding the charts out in front of her. He was probably sleeping in an exam room. He had charts to sign off on. He had patients to see. She sighed. Life had really turned upside down since Greene passed away. But at least something had stayed constant. "MALUCCI!" She bellowed.
The air had been full of tension after Greene had finally been let go. But he was still around. Showing up and filling his former colleagues with dread as he stumbled around the hospital cursing at them because they kept trying to explain. Trying to tell him. "You don't work here
anymore Mark."
But this was different now. It was empty.. A void sort of hung in the air like something was missing that they'd never get back. Kerry admitted, Greene never was one of her favourite people, but as she had watched him deteriorate so rapidly. Slurring his words like a common drunk, one side of his face slack from paralysis. He wasn't Mark Greene anymore. He had become the tumour that was eating him from the inside - out.
"Dammit!" Weaver yelled again, slamming the charts down. "Hasn't anyone seen Malucci!?" Granted. The man only had a half an hour left on his shift, and the place was veritably dead. He the only one with patients *still* on the board, she could let him off this once and give the patients to Chen. But... It wasn't right, skiving off like this.
Randi looked up from her Vogue and sighed. "He said he was going home. He felt sick." The clerk returned to her magazine as the Chief stormed over and ripped it from her hands.
"How long ago, Randi!?" She said evenly. Her fingers clenched around the glossy wad of paper in her fist.
"I dunno.. A few minutes ago.. Half-an-hour, tops." Randi said somewhat irritably, looking at Weaver rumpling her magazine. She hadn't paid for that, thank you very much. So what if the sign said BUY BEFORE YOU READ in the gift shop. It said nothing against borrowing it, reading it and putting it back afterwards, but if it came back looking like that... She sighed. She'd just leave it for Frank. He said he only looked at the bikini models, but she knew he was reading the articles.
"Tell Dr. Kovac that I'm going out for a minute." Kerry grunted, crutching to the lounge and getting her coat. "Did he take his bike?" She mused, returning as she buttoned it, standing at the admit desk.
Randi looked up out the doors of the ambulance bay, Dave's bike still leaning up against the bike rack. "Uhh no... Doesn't look like it. Maybe there's something wrong with it. Where are you going?"
Kerry limped hurriedly from the hospital, yelling back over her shoulder as she pulled her coat tighter. "To find Malucci."
****
"Carter, I'm sorry." Susan said in a hushed tone that was reserved for the elderly, infants, and old med students you accidentally hurt the feelings of. "I was just asking about you.. Asking how you were. That's all."
Carter hung onto the railing that snaked the perimeter of the roof. His breaths puffed in clouds as the night settled in, the world still damp from the rain shower that had wetted it earlier. "So you think you know everything do you?" He spat angrily, his sweet face contorted in pain and rage and betrayal. "Did they tell you about my vacation?"
"Vacation? Carter... I-" Susan said startled as the man whipped around and glared at her.
"Oh.. Left that little bit out did they? They sent me into detox. Sent me away. Cornered me in the lounge. Dragged me into Mark's van. I punched Dr. Benton." Carter mumbled sullenly.
Susan's eyes grew as round as saucers. "You punched Peter and you still have all your teeth?!" She fought the grin back and sighed. "Carter, I'm sorry."
"Hey, it's not *your* fault. I just don't like people talking about me behind my back. That's all." He muttered, his tension easing, his muscles loosening. Relaxing. Susan wasn't the enemy here.
"That's understandable." Susan agreed. "Do you know anything about that fight between Elizabeth and Dr. Malucci?" She said curiously, changing the subject.
"Fight? You mean the screaming match they had in the hall? Or when she punched him, or when they were making out in the alley?" Carter said with a slight bitter smirk. "I don't know what's going on there. I prefer not to think about it."
"Elizabeth KISSED Malucci!?" Susan squeaked in disbelief, before regaining her composure. Sure the guy was good-looking and all but, the woman was a widow! "I-I mean.. She punched Malucci? Any idea why?" From what the gossip was around the County, it looked like just
about everybody wanted to smack Dave upside the head. The two of them pulled up wet milk crates and straddled them like jockeys at a horse race as Carter shrugged.
"I only can tell you what the nurses told me. He had some basket of flowers to put on Greene's grave and when Haleh asked him about it, he went a little nuts and started planting dandelions in the earth ontop. The guy hasn't been right since Mark died. I don't know what's up."
"He found out first, didn't he? I mean, that's what I heard. Him and Kovac had to phone everyone." Susan said quietly, staring down at her hands, chapped and red from the cold. Her fingers picking idly at a hangnail as Carter stared off out into the darkness.
"Yeah. That night was pretty crazy. He just sort of-" He grunted, shaking his head. "Malucci has always been a bit of a pain in the ass. He nearly got himself fired a few months ago. But he did take charge that night. It hit him hard, the news. It hit all of us hard. It wasn't right, him running off like that. We didn't need that. Not that night, not when we were dealing with everything else. Somebody had died that night and he's off feeling sorry for himself." Carter said bitterly.
"Carter!" Susan whispered, startled. "He's a colleague. I thought he was your friend." The silence between the two had grown, a vast expanse of dead air as Carter slowly let the air leak out between his front teeth like the air out of a balloon.
"He is. But.. Just… We had too much other shit to deal with. It just made things worse, him running off like that. I tried talking to him, but he wouldn't talk. I tried to be a friend with him,
he's not the easiest person to be friends with, you know." Carter sighed as he caught Susan gazing at him sadly. "What?"
"From what I heard, you didn't exactly make it easy for people to be friends with you lately either." Susan scolded kindly. "In fact you made it pretty damned hard. I'd give him a chance if I were you."
***
"Elizabeth?" Peter stared at the woman on his doorstep, Reese in his arms and Cleo yelling at him from the kitchen.
"Peter who is it!?"
Elizabeth stared her gloved hands. Her feet hurt, she'd walked here from County. Well no.. That wasn't entirely true, she walked around most of downtown Chicago, then came here. Her feet really hurt, and she was cold. "Peter," she mumbled in a small, tear-filled voice. "Can I come in?"
Peter looked back over his shoulder, putting Reese down, and grabbing his coat off the back of the door. "No, it's not a good time. Here, we'll go for a walk." He muttered quietly, shooing the child off the step and tucking his head in the door as he shut it. "I'm going out for a bit, Cleo. I'll be back." Peter yelled into the house, as he shut the door and took Elizabeth's arm.
He looked down at the sodden mess that was Elizabeth Corday, her face streaked with tears, her hair a frizzy, wet mess from the rain, and her clothes dripping. "We're taking my car, don't be offended if I lay down newspaper first," he said with a slight smile, wrapping a comforting arm around her as they walked to the vehicle.
*****
"Malucci, what are you doing?" Kerry said, slightly out of breath. Her voice filled with concern and a tinge of irritability. How dare he skip off work to go stargazing. Except… Her eyes took in his
stance, the huddled appearance, the loping gait as he'd shuffled down the bridge and turned to look at her. His eyes vacant and full of hate. Something was wrong. "Dave? Is everything alright?"
His eyes narrowed, wiping the tears away roughly as he pulled the gun from his pocket by a shaking hand. "Does it look like everything's okay? Would I be holding this if things were okay?"
Kerry stared at the piece. A semi-automatic. The gun Dave had gotten from a gang banger. A simple transaction: 50 dollars for the gun. Money that Dave had gotten back when the guy had coded on the table, and a free gun in his coat pocket beside the wilting flower basket from Mark's funeral, in his locker. Elizabeth's words still echoing in his head. "Dave, give me the gun." She said evenly as she could manage, staring at the thing in his hand, gleaming in the streetlights.
He dropped his hand at his side, the gun now a part of him, an extension. "I thought there was something... I thought... She doesn't like me.. After all this... All this shit. She still hates my guts.
Dr. Corday blames me for Dr. Greene's death," Dave muttered, spitting over the side.
Squeezing the crutch tightly for support, trying to keep her voice steady. Slowly Kerry reached out with her free hand, attempting to keep her tone stern, but kind.. "Please give me the gun, Dave. It's OK. It'll be fine. Just hand it over."
"It won't Chief.. It won't be fine.. It won't be okay... We kissed.. Did you know that? More than once.. and it was nice. It was really nice. She even agreed, she said it was nice. Then she started in on me.. In front of everyone. Everybody, Chief.. Right there." Dave backed away from her, the abrupt movement causing the cold metal railing of the bridge bite painfully into his spine. As the woman reached for the gun, he shook his head. "I don't want to hurt you. You shouldn't be here. Get out of here. Get away." He said his voice rising in pitch, panicked and tremulous as he started to shake. "Get out of here, Chief. This doesn't have anything to do with you."
"It doesn't, eh? Then why did you show me? Why did you choose to do it on the bridge here, in public." Kerry said, her voice soft, her eyes fixed on the gun that vibrated slightly in his grip.
"J-just g-get away, Chief.." Dave murmured, "I'm telling you.. You should have fired me.. You should have gotten rid of me. You would have been better off. You all would have been better off."
She watched his hand twitch on the grip, his shoulders slumped in defeat, this was more than Mark Greene, this was everything. The boy had the world on his back and it was crushing him. "What if I told you, Romano wanted me to fire you. Romano wanted a scape goat for the
Marfan's case. But I wouldn't do it, I couldn't. I'm the one who forgot my pager in Magoo's. I'm the one who fucked up, Malucci.. Not you," Kerry admitted, staring at the gun.
The panicked look in his eyes hardened. "Then you admit it. You're not infallible. You make mistakes like the rest of us. You admit it, I fucked up. You all think I'm a fuck up." Dave said, meeting her gaze.
"Yes... I mean no... I'm sorry. I'm sorry about all of this Dave," she murmured sadly, reaching for the gun again. Her leg was starting to stiffen up in the damp air and her body counted on every last ounce of her strength as she launched herself at the resident, grabbing at the gun. "Please, Dave.. Give me the gun."
"NO! Let go! Le-" Dave screamed angrily, caught off-guard as the two tumbled to the street, the bodies meshing as one, both hands on the gun as it went off.
***
"I'm sorry about Mark, I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the funeral, Elizabeth.." Peter said quietly as they drove, the only sound was the soft swish of the windshield wipers that were smearing the rain in wet streaks. He cursed. "Dammit.. I need new wipers."
Elizabeth chuckled sadly. "You were never much for maintenance. Want to stop into a hardware store?" The rain was coming down harder, making the world into a blurred mess. Peter cursed and nodded as they turned down another street. "It's okay. I know you've been busy," she
replied softly as she stared out the window.
"Yeah, but I'm sorry I haven't been there for you. We're still friends. Right?" Peter queried, pulling into the parking lot. "I could have helped you with Ella, with Rachel, given you a place to stay when he was hospitalized after the second surgery."
She shook her head adamantly. "No, Peter. You couldn't have. You have your own family to deal with. You have Cleo, Reese. You don't have time for me. I'm not your girlfriend anymore, I'm not your responsibility or your priority. I thank you for your concern though." Elizabeth said as she got out of the car.
****
"What would you know about it?! You've been gone for over five years Susan. A lot can happen in five years. Things can change. People can change. I'm not the same person I was five years ago." Carter said with a tinge of anger.
"I'm sorry for that Carter." Susan remarked sadly, "I'm sorry what happened to you changed you for the worst. I'm sorry that his hospital has gotten the best of you. I didn't think that'd happen. You've let it eat you alive. That's why I left. It was eating me alive. I had to get away, be with my sister, with Suzie. I had to get away from County. Change is sometimes good, Carter. You just have to make the changes for the good."
"Do you know what it's like to lay on the floor, bleeding to death, and wondering if you're going to die? Things like that change a person. I'm sorry. But it does. A maniac cut me open and killed my med student. A kid, a woman I was responsible for. It's my fault that she's dead. So I'm sorry I'm not the eager-to-please, cute kid I was when you left. I've grown up. I've had to." Carter said bitterly. "I killed a woman because I was too busy chasing a nice piece of ass."
"Carter..." Susan stared at him, the pieces falling into place. "Abby? Were you with Abby when this happened? Carter, it's not your fault."
"It is dammit. How can I not feel responsible!? I was hanging around Abby... Looking after her instead of watching Lucy. You don't know you weren't t-" Carter's pager rang out into the night and he pulled it off his belt. "It's the ER.. A double trauma's coming in.." He muttered, standing and blowing on his hands.
Susan nodded. "Okay. Look, Carter. If you ever want to talk, I'm here for you. I'll give you my number, my address, my emai-" He brushed past her and down the stairs, a slight limp in his quick gait.
"I gotta go Susan." He muttered, stomping down the stairs and to the ER.
****
As the rain fell, the officer bent over the two bodies as the woman stirred, a blanket wrapped around them, the maroon puddle that had formed being washed away by the downpour. Trickling in reddish streams of water that flowed down the streets and into the storm drains, as if to wash away the sins and pain that had occurred there only moments before. "Miss.. Don't move, Miss. We've called the paramedics. It's okay. Everything's going to be okay." Eyeing the gun that lay inches from them, he kicked it away towards his partner.
Kerry looked blearily at the police, her makeshift embrace around Malucci's body intensifying as she held his limp body against hers, brushing the hair from his eyes with a free hand. Her eyes slipping closed as she saw Doris and Zadro racing towards them, sirens blaring. "He's a doctor.. We're doctors at County... It was an accident.. Don't.." Kerry broke off, her chest tightening, it was hard to breathe.. She gasped, biting her lip as a wave of pain shuddered through her body.
"Ma'm. Dr..." The officer looked helplessly at Weaver. "Dr.Ma'm... Please.. Lay still. Help's coming. Help's here." He placed a calming hand on her shoulder as the rigs pulled up.
"Don't let him die.. He needs help. Help him.." Kerry murmured weakly, her voice rasping as her lungs filled with blood and the darkness overcame her.
***
"Two GSWs coming in." Randi muttered, as Luka walked past the admit desk. "I already paged Carter. Dr. Weaver's around somewhere. She's not answering her pages, she probably forgot it at Magoo's again." She said dryly as he glared at her.
"That's not funny, Randi." Luka said gruffly. "Have you paged Corday?" He muttered as Carter jogged around the corner with Susan in tow.
"Corday's on bereavement leave." Randi said quietly, hanging up the phone. "Remember?" The doctors that had congregated, stared at each other.
"Page her anyway. We're short staffed, we need all the hands we can get." Luka said hurriedly. "Page Weaver again as well." He looked at Susan who stood uncomfortably at the desk, "You have a license to practice medicine in the state of Illinois?"
"No... But I do." Doug announced as he emerged from the lounge, sipping at a Coke. Luka's eyes narrowed and he sighed defeatedly
"Fine.. Get some scrubs on, we need you." Kovac muttered, walking to the trauma room to scrub in as he heard the ambulances pull up.
***
"It's okay. I understand that you had a meeting to go to Peter. It's okay." Elizabeth sighed as they carried the shopping basket down the aisles looking for replacement windshield wipers. "Here they are, windscreen wipers." She smiled faintly and plopped them in the basket, as her pager went off again.
"Maybe you should look at it." Peter muttered, coming around the corner from another aisle. "It's been going off, the whole time we've been in here."
"I don't want to deal with that right now Peter, I don't want to have to go back into that hospital." Elizabeth whispered sadly, remembering the look on Dave's face and wincing.
"Malucci was a pain in the ass.. You were right to tell him off, Elizabeth." Peter retorted. "You can't stay away from there forever."
"It wasn't right, Peter. Doing it there, in the hallway in front of everyone." Sighing, Elizabeth pulled the beeper out of her coat and looked at it, dropping it back into her pocket, she shoved the basket of items into Peter's arms and jogged to the cash register. "Do you have a telephone I can borrow? I need to make a phone call. I'm a doctor."
The colour dropped from Elizabeth's face as she heard Randi. "Are you sure? You're certain. It's.." Elizabeth closed her eyes, swallowing as she rubbed at her eyes. "Peter... It's Kerry..."
Peter walked up to her, the woman looking like she was in a state of collapsing. "Whoa.. Here..." He put the basket on the conveyor belt and lead her to a bench by the front doors of the store. "Here.. Sit down.. What's wrong?" He said softly, bent over, his face etched with concern.
"I have to go in. Weaver, Malucci.. They've been shot." Elizabeth said quietly, her lips pursed with pain and sorrow. "Malucci shot Weaver..."
AUTHOR: Sadieclay
EMAIL: sadieclay@hotmail.com
CATEGORY: Angst/Cast
RATING: R- Filthy language, Death.. Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll
SPOILERS: References to Season 7-8, etc.
ARCHIVE: Sure, just ask
DISCLAIMER: ER and its characters is owned by John Wells, Jack Orman,
Michael Crichton, Constant C Productions and Amblin Television in
association with Warner Bros. Television.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This IS a spin off of an Elizabeth/Dave
pairing I have on an RPG. This season is basically used in reference.
However: Susan never came back to work at County. Doug and Carol are
happily married in Seattle, Peter quit to be with Reese and is engaged
to Cleo. Carter was stabbed, Lucy's dead.. etc.
SUMMARY: The tragedy of Mark's death sends Elizabeth to an unusual
source of comfort.
PREVIOUSLY ON ER: Dave and Elizabeth have a huge fight, doubting his
skills as a doctor and a competant human being. Rachel, Susan and
Carol bond over Mark's death, coming to terms with the fact that
they've grown apart. They talk about Carter and he overhears it and
stomps out. Meanwhile Dave's found himself on a bridge with a gun in
his hand and freezing his ass off.
***********
I dream about how it's going to end,
Approaching me quickly.
Leaving a life of fear,
I only want my mind to be clear.
***********
****Chapter Seven****
"Anybody seen Malucci?" Kerry barked, holding the charts out in front of her. He was probably sleeping in an exam room. He had charts to sign off on. He had patients to see. She sighed. Life had really turned upside down since Greene passed away. But at least something had stayed constant. "MALUCCI!" She bellowed.
The air had been full of tension after Greene had finally been let go. But he was still around. Showing up and filling his former colleagues with dread as he stumbled around the hospital cursing at them because they kept trying to explain. Trying to tell him. "You don't work here
anymore Mark."
But this was different now. It was empty.. A void sort of hung in the air like something was missing that they'd never get back. Kerry admitted, Greene never was one of her favourite people, but as she had watched him deteriorate so rapidly. Slurring his words like a common drunk, one side of his face slack from paralysis. He wasn't Mark Greene anymore. He had become the tumour that was eating him from the inside - out.
"Dammit!" Weaver yelled again, slamming the charts down. "Hasn't anyone seen Malucci!?" Granted. The man only had a half an hour left on his shift, and the place was veritably dead. He the only one with patients *still* on the board, she could let him off this once and give the patients to Chen. But... It wasn't right, skiving off like this.
Randi looked up from her Vogue and sighed. "He said he was going home. He felt sick." The clerk returned to her magazine as the Chief stormed over and ripped it from her hands.
"How long ago, Randi!?" She said evenly. Her fingers clenched around the glossy wad of paper in her fist.
"I dunno.. A few minutes ago.. Half-an-hour, tops." Randi said somewhat irritably, looking at Weaver rumpling her magazine. She hadn't paid for that, thank you very much. So what if the sign said BUY BEFORE YOU READ in the gift shop. It said nothing against borrowing it, reading it and putting it back afterwards, but if it came back looking like that... She sighed. She'd just leave it for Frank. He said he only looked at the bikini models, but she knew he was reading the articles.
"Tell Dr. Kovac that I'm going out for a minute." Kerry grunted, crutching to the lounge and getting her coat. "Did he take his bike?" She mused, returning as she buttoned it, standing at the admit desk.
Randi looked up out the doors of the ambulance bay, Dave's bike still leaning up against the bike rack. "Uhh no... Doesn't look like it. Maybe there's something wrong with it. Where are you going?"
Kerry limped hurriedly from the hospital, yelling back over her shoulder as she pulled her coat tighter. "To find Malucci."
****
"Carter, I'm sorry." Susan said in a hushed tone that was reserved for the elderly, infants, and old med students you accidentally hurt the feelings of. "I was just asking about you.. Asking how you were. That's all."
Carter hung onto the railing that snaked the perimeter of the roof. His breaths puffed in clouds as the night settled in, the world still damp from the rain shower that had wetted it earlier. "So you think you know everything do you?" He spat angrily, his sweet face contorted in pain and rage and betrayal. "Did they tell you about my vacation?"
"Vacation? Carter... I-" Susan said startled as the man whipped around and glared at her.
"Oh.. Left that little bit out did they? They sent me into detox. Sent me away. Cornered me in the lounge. Dragged me into Mark's van. I punched Dr. Benton." Carter mumbled sullenly.
Susan's eyes grew as round as saucers. "You punched Peter and you still have all your teeth?!" She fought the grin back and sighed. "Carter, I'm sorry."
"Hey, it's not *your* fault. I just don't like people talking about me behind my back. That's all." He muttered, his tension easing, his muscles loosening. Relaxing. Susan wasn't the enemy here.
"That's understandable." Susan agreed. "Do you know anything about that fight between Elizabeth and Dr. Malucci?" She said curiously, changing the subject.
"Fight? You mean the screaming match they had in the hall? Or when she punched him, or when they were making out in the alley?" Carter said with a slight bitter smirk. "I don't know what's going on there. I prefer not to think about it."
"Elizabeth KISSED Malucci!?" Susan squeaked in disbelief, before regaining her composure. Sure the guy was good-looking and all but, the woman was a widow! "I-I mean.. She punched Malucci? Any idea why?" From what the gossip was around the County, it looked like just
about everybody wanted to smack Dave upside the head. The two of them pulled up wet milk crates and straddled them like jockeys at a horse race as Carter shrugged.
"I only can tell you what the nurses told me. He had some basket of flowers to put on Greene's grave and when Haleh asked him about it, he went a little nuts and started planting dandelions in the earth ontop. The guy hasn't been right since Mark died. I don't know what's up."
"He found out first, didn't he? I mean, that's what I heard. Him and Kovac had to phone everyone." Susan said quietly, staring down at her hands, chapped and red from the cold. Her fingers picking idly at a hangnail as Carter stared off out into the darkness.
"Yeah. That night was pretty crazy. He just sort of-" He grunted, shaking his head. "Malucci has always been a bit of a pain in the ass. He nearly got himself fired a few months ago. But he did take charge that night. It hit him hard, the news. It hit all of us hard. It wasn't right, him running off like that. We didn't need that. Not that night, not when we were dealing with everything else. Somebody had died that night and he's off feeling sorry for himself." Carter said bitterly.
"Carter!" Susan whispered, startled. "He's a colleague. I thought he was your friend." The silence between the two had grown, a vast expanse of dead air as Carter slowly let the air leak out between his front teeth like the air out of a balloon.
"He is. But.. Just… We had too much other shit to deal with. It just made things worse, him running off like that. I tried talking to him, but he wouldn't talk. I tried to be a friend with him,
he's not the easiest person to be friends with, you know." Carter sighed as he caught Susan gazing at him sadly. "What?"
"From what I heard, you didn't exactly make it easy for people to be friends with you lately either." Susan scolded kindly. "In fact you made it pretty damned hard. I'd give him a chance if I were you."
***
"Elizabeth?" Peter stared at the woman on his doorstep, Reese in his arms and Cleo yelling at him from the kitchen.
"Peter who is it!?"
Elizabeth stared her gloved hands. Her feet hurt, she'd walked here from County. Well no.. That wasn't entirely true, she walked around most of downtown Chicago, then came here. Her feet really hurt, and she was cold. "Peter," she mumbled in a small, tear-filled voice. "Can I come in?"
Peter looked back over his shoulder, putting Reese down, and grabbing his coat off the back of the door. "No, it's not a good time. Here, we'll go for a walk." He muttered quietly, shooing the child off the step and tucking his head in the door as he shut it. "I'm going out for a bit, Cleo. I'll be back." Peter yelled into the house, as he shut the door and took Elizabeth's arm.
He looked down at the sodden mess that was Elizabeth Corday, her face streaked with tears, her hair a frizzy, wet mess from the rain, and her clothes dripping. "We're taking my car, don't be offended if I lay down newspaper first," he said with a slight smile, wrapping a comforting arm around her as they walked to the vehicle.
*****
"Malucci, what are you doing?" Kerry said, slightly out of breath. Her voice filled with concern and a tinge of irritability. How dare he skip off work to go stargazing. Except… Her eyes took in his
stance, the huddled appearance, the loping gait as he'd shuffled down the bridge and turned to look at her. His eyes vacant and full of hate. Something was wrong. "Dave? Is everything alright?"
His eyes narrowed, wiping the tears away roughly as he pulled the gun from his pocket by a shaking hand. "Does it look like everything's okay? Would I be holding this if things were okay?"
Kerry stared at the piece. A semi-automatic. The gun Dave had gotten from a gang banger. A simple transaction: 50 dollars for the gun. Money that Dave had gotten back when the guy had coded on the table, and a free gun in his coat pocket beside the wilting flower basket from Mark's funeral, in his locker. Elizabeth's words still echoing in his head. "Dave, give me the gun." She said evenly as she could manage, staring at the thing in his hand, gleaming in the streetlights.
He dropped his hand at his side, the gun now a part of him, an extension. "I thought there was something... I thought... She doesn't like me.. After all this... All this shit. She still hates my guts.
Dr. Corday blames me for Dr. Greene's death," Dave muttered, spitting over the side.
Squeezing the crutch tightly for support, trying to keep her voice steady. Slowly Kerry reached out with her free hand, attempting to keep her tone stern, but kind.. "Please give me the gun, Dave. It's OK. It'll be fine. Just hand it over."
"It won't Chief.. It won't be fine.. It won't be okay... We kissed.. Did you know that? More than once.. and it was nice. It was really nice. She even agreed, she said it was nice. Then she started in on me.. In front of everyone. Everybody, Chief.. Right there." Dave backed away from her, the abrupt movement causing the cold metal railing of the bridge bite painfully into his spine. As the woman reached for the gun, he shook his head. "I don't want to hurt you. You shouldn't be here. Get out of here. Get away." He said his voice rising in pitch, panicked and tremulous as he started to shake. "Get out of here, Chief. This doesn't have anything to do with you."
"It doesn't, eh? Then why did you show me? Why did you choose to do it on the bridge here, in public." Kerry said, her voice soft, her eyes fixed on the gun that vibrated slightly in his grip.
"J-just g-get away, Chief.." Dave murmured, "I'm telling you.. You should have fired me.. You should have gotten rid of me. You would have been better off. You all would have been better off."
She watched his hand twitch on the grip, his shoulders slumped in defeat, this was more than Mark Greene, this was everything. The boy had the world on his back and it was crushing him. "What if I told you, Romano wanted me to fire you. Romano wanted a scape goat for the
Marfan's case. But I wouldn't do it, I couldn't. I'm the one who forgot my pager in Magoo's. I'm the one who fucked up, Malucci.. Not you," Kerry admitted, staring at the gun.
The panicked look in his eyes hardened. "Then you admit it. You're not infallible. You make mistakes like the rest of us. You admit it, I fucked up. You all think I'm a fuck up." Dave said, meeting her gaze.
"Yes... I mean no... I'm sorry. I'm sorry about all of this Dave," she murmured sadly, reaching for the gun again. Her leg was starting to stiffen up in the damp air and her body counted on every last ounce of her strength as she launched herself at the resident, grabbing at the gun. "Please, Dave.. Give me the gun."
"NO! Let go! Le-" Dave screamed angrily, caught off-guard as the two tumbled to the street, the bodies meshing as one, both hands on the gun as it went off.
***
"I'm sorry about Mark, I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the funeral, Elizabeth.." Peter said quietly as they drove, the only sound was the soft swish of the windshield wipers that were smearing the rain in wet streaks. He cursed. "Dammit.. I need new wipers."
Elizabeth chuckled sadly. "You were never much for maintenance. Want to stop into a hardware store?" The rain was coming down harder, making the world into a blurred mess. Peter cursed and nodded as they turned down another street. "It's okay. I know you've been busy," she
replied softly as she stared out the window.
"Yeah, but I'm sorry I haven't been there for you. We're still friends. Right?" Peter queried, pulling into the parking lot. "I could have helped you with Ella, with Rachel, given you a place to stay when he was hospitalized after the second surgery."
She shook her head adamantly. "No, Peter. You couldn't have. You have your own family to deal with. You have Cleo, Reese. You don't have time for me. I'm not your girlfriend anymore, I'm not your responsibility or your priority. I thank you for your concern though." Elizabeth said as she got out of the car.
****
"What would you know about it?! You've been gone for over five years Susan. A lot can happen in five years. Things can change. People can change. I'm not the same person I was five years ago." Carter said with a tinge of anger.
"I'm sorry for that Carter." Susan remarked sadly, "I'm sorry what happened to you changed you for the worst. I'm sorry that his hospital has gotten the best of you. I didn't think that'd happen. You've let it eat you alive. That's why I left. It was eating me alive. I had to get away, be with my sister, with Suzie. I had to get away from County. Change is sometimes good, Carter. You just have to make the changes for the good."
"Do you know what it's like to lay on the floor, bleeding to death, and wondering if you're going to die? Things like that change a person. I'm sorry. But it does. A maniac cut me open and killed my med student. A kid, a woman I was responsible for. It's my fault that she's dead. So I'm sorry I'm not the eager-to-please, cute kid I was when you left. I've grown up. I've had to." Carter said bitterly. "I killed a woman because I was too busy chasing a nice piece of ass."
"Carter..." Susan stared at him, the pieces falling into place. "Abby? Were you with Abby when this happened? Carter, it's not your fault."
"It is dammit. How can I not feel responsible!? I was hanging around Abby... Looking after her instead of watching Lucy. You don't know you weren't t-" Carter's pager rang out into the night and he pulled it off his belt. "It's the ER.. A double trauma's coming in.." He muttered, standing and blowing on his hands.
Susan nodded. "Okay. Look, Carter. If you ever want to talk, I'm here for you. I'll give you my number, my address, my emai-" He brushed past her and down the stairs, a slight limp in his quick gait.
"I gotta go Susan." He muttered, stomping down the stairs and to the ER.
****
As the rain fell, the officer bent over the two bodies as the woman stirred, a blanket wrapped around them, the maroon puddle that had formed being washed away by the downpour. Trickling in reddish streams of water that flowed down the streets and into the storm drains, as if to wash away the sins and pain that had occurred there only moments before. "Miss.. Don't move, Miss. We've called the paramedics. It's okay. Everything's going to be okay." Eyeing the gun that lay inches from them, he kicked it away towards his partner.
Kerry looked blearily at the police, her makeshift embrace around Malucci's body intensifying as she held his limp body against hers, brushing the hair from his eyes with a free hand. Her eyes slipping closed as she saw Doris and Zadro racing towards them, sirens blaring. "He's a doctor.. We're doctors at County... It was an accident.. Don't.." Kerry broke off, her chest tightening, it was hard to breathe.. She gasped, biting her lip as a wave of pain shuddered through her body.
"Ma'm. Dr..." The officer looked helplessly at Weaver. "Dr.Ma'm... Please.. Lay still. Help's coming. Help's here." He placed a calming hand on her shoulder as the rigs pulled up.
"Don't let him die.. He needs help. Help him.." Kerry murmured weakly, her voice rasping as her lungs filled with blood and the darkness overcame her.
***
"Two GSWs coming in." Randi muttered, as Luka walked past the admit desk. "I already paged Carter. Dr. Weaver's around somewhere. She's not answering her pages, she probably forgot it at Magoo's again." She said dryly as he glared at her.
"That's not funny, Randi." Luka said gruffly. "Have you paged Corday?" He muttered as Carter jogged around the corner with Susan in tow.
"Corday's on bereavement leave." Randi said quietly, hanging up the phone. "Remember?" The doctors that had congregated, stared at each other.
"Page her anyway. We're short staffed, we need all the hands we can get." Luka said hurriedly. "Page Weaver again as well." He looked at Susan who stood uncomfortably at the desk, "You have a license to practice medicine in the state of Illinois?"
"No... But I do." Doug announced as he emerged from the lounge, sipping at a Coke. Luka's eyes narrowed and he sighed defeatedly
"Fine.. Get some scrubs on, we need you." Kovac muttered, walking to the trauma room to scrub in as he heard the ambulances pull up.
***
"It's okay. I understand that you had a meeting to go to Peter. It's okay." Elizabeth sighed as they carried the shopping basket down the aisles looking for replacement windshield wipers. "Here they are, windscreen wipers." She smiled faintly and plopped them in the basket, as her pager went off again.
"Maybe you should look at it." Peter muttered, coming around the corner from another aisle. "It's been going off, the whole time we've been in here."
"I don't want to deal with that right now Peter, I don't want to have to go back into that hospital." Elizabeth whispered sadly, remembering the look on Dave's face and wincing.
"Malucci was a pain in the ass.. You were right to tell him off, Elizabeth." Peter retorted. "You can't stay away from there forever."
"It wasn't right, Peter. Doing it there, in the hallway in front of everyone." Sighing, Elizabeth pulled the beeper out of her coat and looked at it, dropping it back into her pocket, she shoved the basket of items into Peter's arms and jogged to the cash register. "Do you have a telephone I can borrow? I need to make a phone call. I'm a doctor."
The colour dropped from Elizabeth's face as she heard Randi. "Are you sure? You're certain. It's.." Elizabeth closed her eyes, swallowing as she rubbed at her eyes. "Peter... It's Kerry..."
Peter walked up to her, the woman looking like she was in a state of collapsing. "Whoa.. Here..." He put the basket on the conveyor belt and lead her to a bench by the front doors of the store. "Here.. Sit down.. What's wrong?" He said softly, bent over, his face etched with concern.
"I have to go in. Weaver, Malucci.. They've been shot." Elizabeth said quietly, her lips pursed with pain and sorrow. "Malucci shot Weaver..."
