Chapter 3 :


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
By Morphea

Dave's glance scanned the ER, searching for a new victim. Who will be the next one who will have to put up with the little devil's new April fool?
Lucy? Mmh, no, later... When she'll have finished to take care of the patients he was supposed to take care of himself.
Weaver? The chief wasn't known for her great sense of humor, but it was so much fun to make her cross...
He rapidly located her. A satanic smile appeared on his face.


Mark hurried out of a trauma room to the reception desk:
"Randi, I told you we needed a surgeon for trauma 1, we're still waiting for him..."
"I've paged Dr Corday, but she didn't come, so I've paged Dr Benton, but he's not here yet, and I wonder whether he'll come or not... I guess I'll have to page another surgeon... Dr Romano probably..." she said with a pout.
Mark thought about it for a second, and then said:
"Romano mingling with the lower classes? I'm sure he'll love the idea..."


Carter was talking to Deb when Dave rushed between them, running toward the other side of the ER.
"What the hell..." he began, but stopped when he saw Dr Weaver limping fast, really fast, faster than ever. She yelled:
"Malucci!!! You'd better come back here RIGHT NOW!!!"
Carter and Deb both laughed.
"Hey, isn't that Benton that's laying on the ground outside?" asked Deb.
Carter looked in that direction, and ran out. He kneeled near Benton:
"Peter! Are you all right?"
"Mmh?" Benton muttered, half-conscious. "Oh yeah, I think I fell on something soft..."
"What happened?"
"Can't remember... Just a joke... Elisabeth..." Benton closed his eyes as he lapsed into a coma. Carter turned toward the ER:
"Bring me a gurney!"


Elisabeth was carefully watching over the little wall. She had heard some kind of "miaaaaooooow!!" when Peter had touched the ground. Something soft had probably broken his fall... Carter had then come over Peter and asked for a gurney. Of course, no one had looked up to the roof...
And now, Peter was unconscious and couldn't tell anyone he saw her here, the door was locked, and she was still stuck on this damn roof...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
By Neryl

Kerry was standing in the middle of trauma 2. She was staring at the scalpel she was holding in her right hand. It was covered with blood. A man was lying on the floor in a pool of blood, his blood. Kerry said, smiling:
"At least, you will never make other stupid jokes. You've spent your time laughing at me. You made my life a hell but now it's over. A made of rubber: it was your last joke!!!!!"
In her eyes, a strange gleam was glinting. She took a piece of tissue and cleaned the scalpel, taking care of wiping out any fingerprint. She put it on the floor, next to the body and went out of the room trying to do as if nothing had happened.


Carter was looking for Luka. He hadn't seen him for a long time now and he needed his opinion for a young boy with a nail driven into his head. He opened the door of trauma 2 and rushed to the body lying on the floor.


At the same moment, Kerry was entering the lounge. She remained rooted to the spot: Malucci was bent over the table, preparing his next bad joke, using tomatoes and pockets of blood.
When Dave looked up and saw Weaver watching him, he half-panicked. He thought he had got rid of her, but obviously she didn't give up easily. And now she had caught him preparing another joke...
"Um.... I can explain it to you chief..."
"Never mind Malucci, you can do what you want..." said Kerry, with a strange feeling of weariness in the voice.
"Are you sure you're alright?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
By Morphea
(why am I always the one who has to find explanations?)

Kerry looked hard at him: if HE was there, who had she left in trauma 2? Who had she mistook Malucci with? Right, she only saw him from the back, but the man was wearing a blue scrub top, and everyone knew Malucci was the only one in the hospital who used to wear blue scrub tops. But... Now she was thinking of it, the man she had "scalpelized" was taller than Malucci was...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
By Neryl

In trauma 2, Carter was trying to resuscitate the man he had found lying on the floor. He needed a surgeon and he was forced to admit that he had wished Romano had been there. While he was intubating him, he noticed that the man looked like Malucci.
With a closer look he realized it was Luka. How could he have mistaken him with Malucci? he wondered while beginning a CPR. Maybe it was because of the blue scrub top... But why was Luka wearing a blue scrub top, anyway?

In fact, even if Carter had tried to page Romano, he probably wouldn't have come. Because Romano was having a good time. And he was very far from the madness that reigned at the ER... He was merely dancing the Macarena in his living room, only dressed in white with little red hearts boxers, a bottle of whiskey nearly empty in one hand and a cigar in the other. His dog (remember Gretel?) was quite puzzled by his behaviour, wondering where so much joy could come from.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
By Morphea
(I've just realized there was something a bit surreal in what Neryl wrote at the beginning of the story (yeah, even MORE surreal than it usually is), so, as usual, I'm trying to fix things a bit...)

Elisabeth shivered once again. It would have been wise to take a coat, but when she came up there, she had thought it would be only for a few minutes. And how could she have guessed it would be snowing? In APRIL?? Ah, these Americans!! Always doing things in a big way! It suddenly reminded her of an ancient axiom: "snow in April, go dance a reel."


Randi waved at Mark, who was coming to the admit desk:
"Dr Greene... That surgeon you asked for... Dr Romano was supposed to be off today, so I called him at his house, but nobody answered."
Meanwhile, at Romano's...
"HEEEEEEYYYY MACARENA!!!"
Back to the ER, in front of the admit desk:
"I will call again in a few minutes." Randi added.
"It's too late. The patient's dead." said Mark, wiping off a line from the board.
(I've killed someone!!!!)(It's all Neryl's fault. Too much pressure.)
"Randi, have you got any idea where all the surgeons are, today?"
"Maybe there's a surgeon summit or something."
"No, Elisabeth didn't tell me anything about something like that."
Something on the board caught Mark's attention: there was a P. Benton in the "patient names" column...


Luka suddenly regained consciousness. His eyes widened when he saw Carter getting his mouth closer to his own, as if he was going to kiss him. He violently pushed him back:
"Hey!! What do you think you're doing, Carter!!"
"Hey, you're alive man!" Carter joyfully exclaimed.
"Of course I'm alive! What were you doing?"
"I was trying to save you! You had lost consciousness! Um... Luka... There's blood on the ground... Aren't you supposed to be wounded?"
"Wounded? Oh, yeah, maybe, I remember someone hit me in the back."
"Let me see..." Carter lifted up the scrub top to examine Luka's back, and discovered... "A bullet-proof vest??"
"I always wear one since what happened in Croatia."
(Ok, I know it's REALLY far-fetched, but how was I supposed to save him, huh?)
Carter helped Luka to take his bullet-proof vest off, and examined his back, expecting huge lacerations considering the amount of blood on the ground: "Only a few scratches...? Do you always bleed that much even for small wounds?"
"Usually, yes."
"But... Why did you collapse?"
"I can't stand the sight of my own blood."
(and yes, he's a doctor...)(hey, stop complaining, and blame Neryl instead of me! She's the one who's trying to kill everyone! I'm just trying to save everyone and to find "rational" explanations to all this...)
Carter began to clean Luka's wounds. "Why are you wearing a blue scrub top? I thought you were Malucci."
"Why am I..." Luka began, puzzled. "Oh yeah... A kid I took care of threw up on me, so I had to change my clothes... I had nothing else to put on, those blue scrubs were the only things available."
(and once again, Magic Morphea managed to explain everything! Tadaaa!)


End of Chapter 3...

Will Elisabeth stay stuck on the roof and die of hypothermia?
Will Weaver kill (or try to kill) someone else?
And, above all, will Romano's neighbors call the police because of noise pollution?

If you want to know, PLEASE REVIEW, and be sure more fun is coming...
And feel free to send suggestions!


You can also send feedback to :
morphea@ifrance.com