Elizabeth walked into Lucy's room. It was late, and she'd brought Ella to the hospital as soon as she was paged. Mark was on, and she had no idea why her pager was even on, let alone why she answered it. She left Ella with daycare, which she'd never wanted to have to do, but knew she would eventually. She sat in Carter's usual post. He'd been paged down to the ER to deal with an overcrowded department.
******
"This is NOT over, no! Give the last epi time to circulate...charge to 30! Dammit Lizzie!"
"Robert..."
"Atropine and epi. Just one more try."
"Robert..."
"I am the chief of surgery, and I say we're trying it again!" He said this as one small heartbeat appeared on the monitor. "I mean, look."
"Robert, you know that doesn't mean anything, it's only one."
"Epi and atropine."
******
He'd been right, for the most part. They'd gotten her back.
"Lucy?"
"Elizabeth." She whispered back.
"How are you feeling?"
"As good as you could expect...rested." She added sarcastically.
"Now Lucy..."
"I know, I know. Did they pull you out of surgery?"
"No, I was at home, actually."
"Woke you up?"
"No, no. I'm on maternity leave."
"You are?"
"I just had a little girl...but she's over a month old, so I figured I could stash her in daycare when they paged me about you."
"What's her name?"
"Ella...Ella Greene."
Lucy looked up and smiled, noticing the ring on Elizabeth's finger shining faintly in the light. "Congratulations."
"Well thank you."
"What happened, Elizabeth? I mean...when..."
"It was a pulmonary embolism...we put in a filter, then another clot...and you arrested...and...if you believe this...Robert refused to call the time of death, and he got your heart beating again."
"Romano?" Elizabeth nodded, and Lucy let out a little laugh. "You mean he has a heart after all?"
"Where you're concerned, he's quite caring, actually. He did do the surgery for that girl...Valerie...when she needed an L-VAD, didn't he?"
"I guess so...Thought that was just to shut me up."
"Ah, so maybe it was. Has he been to see you?"
"No, Dr. Benton stopped by for a few minutes, said he was going back to assist Romano. He'll probably come when their surgery's over. I heard it's pretty jammed up downstairs, Carter had to go."
"He's been here a lot, or so I hear from Mark."
"Well, one of my nurses told me he practically lived here, so I'd say 'a lot' is an understatement."
"Well he was worried about you...we all were, but he...he really cares about you. More than he'd admit."
Lucy nodded, and Elizabeth could see her eyes fluttering closed. She tried to stay awake, but Elizabeth just smiled and shook her head. "Lucy, go to sleep. I've got to get Ella anyway. I'll come back another day. It's late."
"Alright. Goodnight Elizabeth."
"Sleep well, Lucy," she replied as she walked out, closing the door behind her. Lucy turned over and looked out the window at the El rumbling by and the lights of the ambulances pulling up. She sighed and closed her eyes, wishing Carter didn't have to work so she'd have company. The nights seemed longer when she was alone.