"Dr. Greene, there's a guy in 3, 82 years old, ordered a GGF, need you to take him. I'm off."
"Stay with your patient, Malucci. Don't dump him on me." Mark walked by the admit desk, where Allie sat doing her nails. "Has Susan Lewis been by?"
"The one you were making out with in the hall? Nope."
"Grow up, Allie. And don't talk about that again...ever." He began to walk away, but stopped. "And if she calls, or shows up, page me." He went to the board, but found no unclaimed patients.
"Light day, huh?" Carter remarked as he looked at the board.
"Yeah. Hey Carter. I might have to let Malucci dump a patient on me, otherwise I might not see any patients at all."
"Oh, Dr. Lewis called from Arizona this morning looking for you. She had to drop Suzie off with Chloe and Joe, and she said she'll be back late tonight or early tomorrow. She said she's got to look for an apartment or something...Is she moving back here?"
"Well Carter...the cancer's back. Guess she wants to stick around."
"Oh. Sorry, Dr. Greene."
"Not your fault, Carter." He said as he walked to Exam 3, hoping to take the patient.
"Hi Dr. Greene."
"Dr. Chen, what are you doing here?"
"Malucci had to go."
"So he dumped a patient on you?"
"Yeah, well, it's a slow day. I did charts all morning."
"So then you know why I'm here."
"You want to take it?"
"No, I'll get some coffee...maybe get some charts done myself."
"OK then, see you later."
"Bye." He walked away from the exam room as Chen headed in. When she introduced herself to the patient, Mark could hear his *pleasant* comments.
"Come on, doc, my fever's climbing Mount Everest!"
"So stick your head in the snow!" Mark laughed at Jing-Mei's cold reply, glad he hadn't taken the grumpy patient after all. He grabbed some charts from his box at the admit desk which he'd been meaning to finish. He took them to the lounge and poured himself a cup of coffee, sitting at the little table. Kerry loudly opened the door and limped her way to the coffee pot.
"Hi Mark, I hear Susan was around yesterday."
"Yeah, she should be back tomorrow." He really didn't want to talk about Susan Lewis at the moment.
"So...slow day, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Ummmm..."
"Kerry, can you just let me enjoy my tea?"
"Your what?" She asked, looking at the steaming mug of coffee he was holding.
"My coffee." He said, as if he hadn't said anything wrong.
"Did you say tea?"
"Don't think so, Kerry."
"Alright Mark, whatever you say...or didn't say." She looked at him sadly before spilling her coffee in the sink and banging her way out the door. She suddenly wasn't in the mood for a drink anymore.
She's right. Dammit, it's back.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Susan sat alone on the plane. It was fairly empty, and there was no one sitting in the seats beside her. She usually liked going on flights like this, the only flights she could stand to be on. She was still scared to death of flying, but she needed to get to Phoenix and back quickly. She had to fly for conferences a few times, but she always got nervous and tried to back out. And she took the train as much as possible.
She tapped the seat in front of her nervously, receiving an angry look from its occupant, a rather muscular man. She began to drum on her armrests, then reached into her bag and grabbed a book. Rather than reading, she held it open in front of her as she made a mental checklist of all the things she was supposed to do.
OK, Chloe's going to send those 2 extra boxes today...I called the landlady from my old building, I have to go drop my stuff off there...visit Mark at County...Call the hospital and tell them why I won't be at work...Get a position at County maybe?
She couldn't think of anything else to do, so she settled back and tried to sleep. All of her efforts failed, and she was never so happy to see the flight attendant bring the drink cart around.
"Can I get you something?"
"Anything with alcohol," she joked. "No, really. I hate flying."
~*~
Susan was finally drifting off to sleep while reviewing her mental checklist. Oh yeah...I forgot. Tell Mark I love him.