Double Drabble for Sponge w/b 16 Sept 2005 (200 words)
Summary: another busy day in the OR for Dr Fraiser
"Keeping count"
"That's it, close him up!"
"Yes ma'am!"
The anaesthetist gave her an 'okay' on his stable vitals. Reassuring steady beeps, not the up and down fight he'd given them earlier.
'How many more times do I have to keep patching you up, Jack?'
Bullets, arrows, wood and rock splinters- you name it - she'd removed it from SG teams.
" Ma'am?"
"Yes?"
It was the nurse counting up all the surgical swabs or sponges that had been used during the operation.
"I count 29 here, but 30 on the out tray."
Oh shit.
No! She couldn't have left one in him. Last thing she wanted to do was open him up again. But if she had to…she had to.
You count 'em all out and you count 'em all in.
Damn.
She'd just finished stitching the drain and packed it real well. Her back ached and her feet hurt. She lifted them up one at a time to ease the throbbing.
"Count again!" She dropped her last instrument into the bowl on the tray.
"Yes ma'am."
Dr Janet Fraiser waited.
"Doctor? You're standing on one- that makes 30. We're clear now."
Thank God for that.
"Get him to recovery, stat!"