Unexpected Surprises
While Carol was in Seattle with Doug, the rest of the staff continued their hectic life in the ER. Without their head nurse everything went totally crazy but they managed it.
In Seattle Carol and Doug had a whole day alone before they went back to get the twins who were with Carol's mother.
"Hi", Carol just woke up while Doug had been awake a half hour.
"Hi, did you sleep well?" Carol nodded and smiled at the man she finally had realised was the one and only for her. "Yeah, like a baby". Doug slid his finger through Carol's hair. "God, I've missed you". He took his arms around her and kissed her gently.
A couple of hours later, when they finally got out of the shower, Carol made a picnic basket while Doug prepared the boat.
They drove to a little island that Doug had discovered when he was on sightseeing. He had spent hours thinking about Carol there, and he had also called the island "Carol" instead of it's original name "Little Louie".
Meanwhile in Chicago, a RTA came in. Abby and Kovac took it.
A family on three had been serious injured. "CBC, Chem-7, order a head CT and a chest film. Now!".
"Where's my daughter?"
"Lydia, find out where the daughter is", Luka said as he took a fast look at Abby who didn't look good.
"Ok". Lydia went out from the trauma room while Carter came in. "Need any help?".
"No, check with dr. Greene next door."
"She's not breathing!", Lily informs him.
"Ok, bag her!". Kovac looked at Abby. "Abby, start CPR. Abby!". Abby looked uncertain at Luka before she reacted.
"I think I have to throw up".
She ran out of the trauma room while Luka continued his work.
"Hi! Welcome ladies and gentlemen. We will take off in about five minutes. Please fasten your seatbelts and put bags and purses either under the seat in front of you or over you in the cabinet. Thanks for choosing "Air Chicago". We wish you a very nice flight."
"I can't wait to see my girls", Doug said. Carol smiled at him. "I'm glad we're all going to be together again. Unfortunately, my mother doesn't see it that way".
"Don't worry, honey. When we are at the plane on our way back with our beautiful daughters, your mother will love me. Just trust me".
"I think the "love" is a little strong word. Why don't you concentrate about how you're going to get her to talk to you. In spite that I have tried to tell her that you didn't abandon me when I was pregnant, she thinks you ran away as soon as the word "responsibility" hit your head.
"Well….It's a long flight, I've got a few hours to think out a plan". "Yeah, just make sure you don't loose more brain cells". Doug kissed her. "I promise".
A few hours later landed Doug and Carol at Chicago airport. They grabbed their bags and went out to get a taxi. "So, have you worked out how you're going to get my mum to love you?" Carol looked at Doug who grinned.
"Don't worry. I got the car ride home. Tell the taxi man to drive very slow". "Yeah, right". Carol laughed as they drove away from the airport.
Meanwhile at County, the RTAs were rushing in. Abby felt ok again and assisted on one of the victims with Kovac. An half hour later it still didn't look too good.
"Clear!". "Still v-fib", Lily informed him.
"Damn it! Give him 5mg adrenalin and 1 amp. with atropine".
"Should I set a central line?" "No! Of course not! Clear! Where's your head today, Abby?!" "I'm…I'm sorry". Abby stormed out of the trauma room and into the lounge.
"What's the time, Lily?"
"31 minutes".
"Ok, that's it. Time of death: 09. 02." Luka threw his glows on the floor and walked fast out of the room. "Hi, Jerry. Have you seen Abby?"
"Yeah, she ran into the lounge. She seemed very upset and sad, but if someone could comfort her, you're the man".
"I don't think so. I said something that must have hurt her feelings".
"Then get your head together and get your ass in there. She needs a man!", Haleh interrupted. "Alright, I'll go". Luka went to the lounge.
"Ok, that's it, Doug. Have you figured out how you're going to pleas my mum?"
"You know….the flight wasn't that long and..and..We bought chocolate, didn't we?"
"Her favourites".
"Thank God".
They paid the taxi chauffeur and went inside where Helen had laid the twins on the floor. "Hi, mum".
"Carol! You're back!" She hugged Carol but when she saw Doug behind her daughter, she didn't look overjoyed.
"And….Doug..". "Hi, Helen. Nice to see you again". Helen smiled a false smile and shook his hand.
"So, how are the girls, mum?"
"They've been both perfect little angels".
Carol went over to the blanket where Tess and Kate were laying. "Hello, little ones. Have you had a great time with Grandma, yeah". She lifted them up and went over to Doug. "I've got a surprise for you two. Say "hi" to daddy. Dad, say "hi" to your daughters". Doug said "hi" with a shaky voice. He hadn't imagined that it'd be so emotional to see his girls.
"Hi, who are you?"
"You are suppose to be their father, and you don't even know who's who!!!"
"Mum! Doug haven't seen them before in live. The only chance he's got was to see them at some pictures I've sent to him! You got Kate and this is Tess".
Doug chose to ignore Helen's comment and looked at Kate. He couldn't believe he was finally holding one of his little girls.
An hour later, Carol, Doug and the twins left the house. Before they were flying back to Seattle Doug and Carol wanted to say hello to their friends in the ER.
"Busy day, Jerry?" Carol asked.
"Tell me about it. Carol! Hey, welcome back. Please say you're staying. Hey, Doug! And the little Rosses. This is my lucky day!
"She's not staying and neither are we. We're going back to Seattle in a couple of hours. "Too bad, I was hoping to hang out with my best friends".
Both Carol and Doug, with Tess and Kate in each arm, turned around seeing Mark walking towards them.
"Mark!", Carol said. Doug hugged him and Mark tickled Tess who sat on her father's arm. "How're doing, buddy?"
"I'm ok".
"I'm so sorry about your dad. Carol told me. I was going to call you but I wanted to wait a couple of weeks. I have little problems with emotional conversations on the phone and…. everywhere else when I think about it. I'm just not that kind of a guy".
Then Carter came.
"Hi Carol, hi Doug".
"Hi, Carter. How have you been?" Carter stopped and then he remembered that Carol had left for Seattle before he went to rehab.
"Well, you know…ok". Then without saying anything he kept walking like he hadn't seen anyone. Doug stirred at Carter.
"What the hell have happened to him?"
"He's been tasting some drugs. It's a long story, I'll tell you later", Mark said.
When Haleh went into the lounge she saw a couple of the staff on the couch.
"Oh! Sorry. I'm out of here, and don't forget to close the windows when you're done. It's not as hot in here as you guys think".
Haleh left with a smile on her face. "Hey, Chuny! Want to hear some gossip?". Chuny left Paulie, a big, dirty guy who was back for cleaning.
"Always".
"Guess who I surprised in the lounge?"
"I don't know. I think I saw Doug and Carol a little while ago".
"Yeah, they're back for an hour or so but it's not them although they also used to hide. Especially hidden by curtains and stuff".
"How do you know?"
"I always found them. No, you see, the couple on the couch was Abby and Luka".
"You're kidding!"
"Oh no! They were all over each other".
"Well, then we have to take a secret picture of them to the yearbook". Without noticing, Kerry had been standing behind them and heard every word.
"That's great. Don't you have some patients to take care of? A Paulie is still dirty". Weaver limped to the lounge where Luka and Abby were talking.
"What are you doing here? Abby! Malucci has a couple of patients for you. Kovac, even though it's a slow day there's always an ear infection on this time a year!"
Kovac went out of the lounge. By the desk he ran in to Jerry.
"Hey, dr. Kovac. How did it go with Miss Lockhart?"
"We made out…obs…up. Everything is alright again".
"Oh, believe me…, I know", Jerry said and smiled when he left to answer the phone.
Meanwhile Carol and Doug had had a great time, however short, with their friends, especially Mark and Elizabeth.
"Doug, we have to go soon so I'll go and change the girls' nappies".
"I'll help you", Elizabeth said. They took the twins to the lounge while Doug wanted to talk to Mark before they left.
"This has been a great day. So, man to man, when is the big day?"
"We've not decided yet. I want this Christmas but Elizabeth thinks it's too soon. You know women, they want to have a lot of time to plan".
"Well, that's one of the biggest differences between men and women, and…of course….you know".
In the lounge Elizabeth and Carol are busy changing dirty nappies and chatting. Suddenly Malik popped his head in.
"Dr. Corday, Benton needs you in trauma room 1".
"Ok, I'll be right there. Let me know when you leave, Carol. Bye, girls".
Elizabeth left for trauma room 1 where Benton was trying to convince a young girl that surgery wasn't dangerous.
"Alright, Peter. I'll take it from here".
"Make her accept an appendectomy. I'll go upstairs and fix an OR. I'm counting on you, Elizabeth, so don't disappoint me".
As Benton left the trauma room Elizabeth sat down next to the patient.
"Someone have had a bad morning. He's usually not that grumpy although he's never laughing either. He told me that you don't want to have surgery. You know that we hadn't said you needed surgery if you didn't. Appendicitis is very serious if it's not treated and I'm not just saying this to get someone to cut in".
"I…I know but isn't there any other way to fix me, antibiotics or something?"
"I'm afraid not. Why don't you want the surgery, Melissa?" Melissa took a long look around in the room before she said something.
"It's a long story".
"I got time".
"2 years ago my mother got a brain tumour, and since the tumour was so little, the doctors was 100 % sure that my mum would be okay again".
"But something happened, right…?"
"Yeah, something went wrong and she died. They said she'd be okay and she died. I've never trusted a doctor since then".
"I know you'd not believe me but nothing will happen to you. If you don't have the surgery, you'll be very sick and you could also end up dead. You can, if you want though, be awake during the entire surgery. Just please, think twice before you do something drastic".
"Hey, Elizabeth! We have to go now. The plane leaves in two hours". Carol said from the door.
"Oh, yeah. I'll be there in a minute. Can you please think about it?" Melissa nodded and Elizabeth went out to say goodbye to Doug, Carol and the twins.
When they had left, she went in to see Melissa again. She has changed her mind and thanks to Elizabeth she was on her way up to the OR.
After finishing a patient Luka went to the desk where Abby was standing. "Hi, Abby. How are you holding up?"
"I don't know. I think I'm coming down with something. I've had a terrible headache the past few days".
"It's probably just the flu. I'm sure there's no problem if you go home". Abby shook her head.
"No, I'm fine". She grabbed a chart and left. Luka stayed by the desk and suddenly an old man started to talk to him.
"Hey, doc! You've got to help me". "Sure, what's the problem?" "I think my water broke". Kovac took an other look at the patient to be sure that he wasn't hallucinating. Yeah, it was an old man.
"Excuse me?" he said.
"I'm having my second contraction. Ouch!"
"Don't worry, I'll find you a bed and everything will be okay".
The old man smiled. "You're a nice doctor. Are you married?"
"No, unfortunately not, but I'm still looking. You can lay down here".
"Thank you. What a coincidence, so am I! You know, single…Are you free on Saturday?"
"No, I'm working".
"That's okay. I'll bring a picnic basket, and we'll have lunch".
"I'll be right back". Kovac found Lydia. "Can you call psych? I have an old man who claims he's pregnant and having contractions".
"Now I've seen everything", Lydia said and dialled the number to the fifth floor.
"Hey, Luka. Seen Abby lately?" Malucci said.
"Yes, a little while ago before an old pregnant man asked me on a date on Saturday".
"Okay Dokey". Malucci decided to grab a cup of coffee before he continued looking for Abby. When he opened the door to the lounge he saw someone lay on the floor. He took an extra look when he saw who it was. "Oh my God!" He ran out of the lounge yelling.
"Help! I need some help in here! Malik, bring a gurney! Hurry up!"
Malik didn't understand what Dave was screaming about but he did as he was told. In the lounge Malucci tried to wash away some of the blood but it continued coming out. Carter heard the noise and wanted to check it out.
"What's up?"
"Carter, help me! Malucci shouted.
When Carter saw what was happening he screamed and suddenly he got a flashback from the stabbing. "Oh my God!"
While Carol was in Seattle with Doug, the rest of the staff continued their hectic life in the ER. Without their head nurse everything went totally crazy but they managed it.
In Seattle Carol and Doug had a whole day alone before they went back to get the twins who were with Carol's mother.
"Hi", Carol just woke up while Doug had been awake a half hour.
"Hi, did you sleep well?" Carol nodded and smiled at the man she finally had realised was the one and only for her. "Yeah, like a baby". Doug slid his finger through Carol's hair. "God, I've missed you". He took his arms around her and kissed her gently.
A couple of hours later, when they finally got out of the shower, Carol made a picnic basket while Doug prepared the boat.
They drove to a little island that Doug had discovered when he was on sightseeing. He had spent hours thinking about Carol there, and he had also called the island "Carol" instead of it's original name "Little Louie".
Meanwhile in Chicago, a RTA came in. Abby and Kovac took it.
A family on three had been serious injured. "CBC, Chem-7, order a head CT and a chest film. Now!".
"Where's my daughter?"
"Lydia, find out where the daughter is", Luka said as he took a fast look at Abby who didn't look good.
"Ok". Lydia went out from the trauma room while Carter came in. "Need any help?".
"No, check with dr. Greene next door."
"She's not breathing!", Lily informs him.
"Ok, bag her!". Kovac looked at Abby. "Abby, start CPR. Abby!". Abby looked uncertain at Luka before she reacted.
"I think I have to throw up".
She ran out of the trauma room while Luka continued his work.
"Hi! Welcome ladies and gentlemen. We will take off in about five minutes. Please fasten your seatbelts and put bags and purses either under the seat in front of you or over you in the cabinet. Thanks for choosing "Air Chicago". We wish you a very nice flight."
"I can't wait to see my girls", Doug said. Carol smiled at him. "I'm glad we're all going to be together again. Unfortunately, my mother doesn't see it that way".
"Don't worry, honey. When we are at the plane on our way back with our beautiful daughters, your mother will love me. Just trust me".
"I think the "love" is a little strong word. Why don't you concentrate about how you're going to get her to talk to you. In spite that I have tried to tell her that you didn't abandon me when I was pregnant, she thinks you ran away as soon as the word "responsibility" hit your head.
"Well….It's a long flight, I've got a few hours to think out a plan". "Yeah, just make sure you don't loose more brain cells". Doug kissed her. "I promise".
A few hours later landed Doug and Carol at Chicago airport. They grabbed their bags and went out to get a taxi. "So, have you worked out how you're going to get my mum to love you?" Carol looked at Doug who grinned.
"Don't worry. I got the car ride home. Tell the taxi man to drive very slow". "Yeah, right". Carol laughed as they drove away from the airport.
Meanwhile at County, the RTAs were rushing in. Abby felt ok again and assisted on one of the victims with Kovac. An half hour later it still didn't look too good.
"Clear!". "Still v-fib", Lily informed him.
"Damn it! Give him 5mg adrenalin and 1 amp. with atropine".
"Should I set a central line?" "No! Of course not! Clear! Where's your head today, Abby?!" "I'm…I'm sorry". Abby stormed out of the trauma room and into the lounge.
"What's the time, Lily?"
"31 minutes".
"Ok, that's it. Time of death: 09. 02." Luka threw his glows on the floor and walked fast out of the room. "Hi, Jerry. Have you seen Abby?"
"Yeah, she ran into the lounge. She seemed very upset and sad, but if someone could comfort her, you're the man".
"I don't think so. I said something that must have hurt her feelings".
"Then get your head together and get your ass in there. She needs a man!", Haleh interrupted. "Alright, I'll go". Luka went to the lounge.
"Ok, that's it, Doug. Have you figured out how you're going to pleas my mum?"
"You know….the flight wasn't that long and..and..We bought chocolate, didn't we?"
"Her favourites".
"Thank God".
They paid the taxi chauffeur and went inside where Helen had laid the twins on the floor. "Hi, mum".
"Carol! You're back!" She hugged Carol but when she saw Doug behind her daughter, she didn't look overjoyed.
"And….Doug..". "Hi, Helen. Nice to see you again". Helen smiled a false smile and shook his hand.
"So, how are the girls, mum?"
"They've been both perfect little angels".
Carol went over to the blanket where Tess and Kate were laying. "Hello, little ones. Have you had a great time with Grandma, yeah". She lifted them up and went over to Doug. "I've got a surprise for you two. Say "hi" to daddy. Dad, say "hi" to your daughters". Doug said "hi" with a shaky voice. He hadn't imagined that it'd be so emotional to see his girls.
"Hi, who are you?"
"You are suppose to be their father, and you don't even know who's who!!!"
"Mum! Doug haven't seen them before in live. The only chance he's got was to see them at some pictures I've sent to him! You got Kate and this is Tess".
Doug chose to ignore Helen's comment and looked at Kate. He couldn't believe he was finally holding one of his little girls.
An hour later, Carol, Doug and the twins left the house. Before they were flying back to Seattle Doug and Carol wanted to say hello to their friends in the ER.
"Busy day, Jerry?" Carol asked.
"Tell me about it. Carol! Hey, welcome back. Please say you're staying. Hey, Doug! And the little Rosses. This is my lucky day!
"She's not staying and neither are we. We're going back to Seattle in a couple of hours. "Too bad, I was hoping to hang out with my best friends".
Both Carol and Doug, with Tess and Kate in each arm, turned around seeing Mark walking towards them.
"Mark!", Carol said. Doug hugged him and Mark tickled Tess who sat on her father's arm. "How're doing, buddy?"
"I'm ok".
"I'm so sorry about your dad. Carol told me. I was going to call you but I wanted to wait a couple of weeks. I have little problems with emotional conversations on the phone and…. everywhere else when I think about it. I'm just not that kind of a guy".
Then Carter came.
"Hi Carol, hi Doug".
"Hi, Carter. How have you been?" Carter stopped and then he remembered that Carol had left for Seattle before he went to rehab.
"Well, you know…ok". Then without saying anything he kept walking like he hadn't seen anyone. Doug stirred at Carter.
"What the hell have happened to him?"
"He's been tasting some drugs. It's a long story, I'll tell you later", Mark said.
When Haleh went into the lounge she saw a couple of the staff on the couch.
"Oh! Sorry. I'm out of here, and don't forget to close the windows when you're done. It's not as hot in here as you guys think".
Haleh left with a smile on her face. "Hey, Chuny! Want to hear some gossip?". Chuny left Paulie, a big, dirty guy who was back for cleaning.
"Always".
"Guess who I surprised in the lounge?"
"I don't know. I think I saw Doug and Carol a little while ago".
"Yeah, they're back for an hour or so but it's not them although they also used to hide. Especially hidden by curtains and stuff".
"How do you know?"
"I always found them. No, you see, the couple on the couch was Abby and Luka".
"You're kidding!"
"Oh no! They were all over each other".
"Well, then we have to take a secret picture of them to the yearbook". Without noticing, Kerry had been standing behind them and heard every word.
"That's great. Don't you have some patients to take care of? A Paulie is still dirty". Weaver limped to the lounge where Luka and Abby were talking.
"What are you doing here? Abby! Malucci has a couple of patients for you. Kovac, even though it's a slow day there's always an ear infection on this time a year!"
Kovac went out of the lounge. By the desk he ran in to Jerry.
"Hey, dr. Kovac. How did it go with Miss Lockhart?"
"We made out…obs…up. Everything is alright again".
"Oh, believe me…, I know", Jerry said and smiled when he left to answer the phone.
Meanwhile Carol and Doug had had a great time, however short, with their friends, especially Mark and Elizabeth.
"Doug, we have to go soon so I'll go and change the girls' nappies".
"I'll help you", Elizabeth said. They took the twins to the lounge while Doug wanted to talk to Mark before they left.
"This has been a great day. So, man to man, when is the big day?"
"We've not decided yet. I want this Christmas but Elizabeth thinks it's too soon. You know women, they want to have a lot of time to plan".
"Well, that's one of the biggest differences between men and women, and…of course….you know".
In the lounge Elizabeth and Carol are busy changing dirty nappies and chatting. Suddenly Malik popped his head in.
"Dr. Corday, Benton needs you in trauma room 1".
"Ok, I'll be right there. Let me know when you leave, Carol. Bye, girls".
Elizabeth left for trauma room 1 where Benton was trying to convince a young girl that surgery wasn't dangerous.
"Alright, Peter. I'll take it from here".
"Make her accept an appendectomy. I'll go upstairs and fix an OR. I'm counting on you, Elizabeth, so don't disappoint me".
As Benton left the trauma room Elizabeth sat down next to the patient.
"Someone have had a bad morning. He's usually not that grumpy although he's never laughing either. He told me that you don't want to have surgery. You know that we hadn't said you needed surgery if you didn't. Appendicitis is very serious if it's not treated and I'm not just saying this to get someone to cut in".
"I…I know but isn't there any other way to fix me, antibiotics or something?"
"I'm afraid not. Why don't you want the surgery, Melissa?" Melissa took a long look around in the room before she said something.
"It's a long story".
"I got time".
"2 years ago my mother got a brain tumour, and since the tumour was so little, the doctors was 100 % sure that my mum would be okay again".
"But something happened, right…?"
"Yeah, something went wrong and she died. They said she'd be okay and she died. I've never trusted a doctor since then".
"I know you'd not believe me but nothing will happen to you. If you don't have the surgery, you'll be very sick and you could also end up dead. You can, if you want though, be awake during the entire surgery. Just please, think twice before you do something drastic".
"Hey, Elizabeth! We have to go now. The plane leaves in two hours". Carol said from the door.
"Oh, yeah. I'll be there in a minute. Can you please think about it?" Melissa nodded and Elizabeth went out to say goodbye to Doug, Carol and the twins.
When they had left, she went in to see Melissa again. She has changed her mind and thanks to Elizabeth she was on her way up to the OR.
After finishing a patient Luka went to the desk where Abby was standing. "Hi, Abby. How are you holding up?"
"I don't know. I think I'm coming down with something. I've had a terrible headache the past few days".
"It's probably just the flu. I'm sure there's no problem if you go home". Abby shook her head.
"No, I'm fine". She grabbed a chart and left. Luka stayed by the desk and suddenly an old man started to talk to him.
"Hey, doc! You've got to help me". "Sure, what's the problem?" "I think my water broke". Kovac took an other look at the patient to be sure that he wasn't hallucinating. Yeah, it was an old man.
"Excuse me?" he said.
"I'm having my second contraction. Ouch!"
"Don't worry, I'll find you a bed and everything will be okay".
The old man smiled. "You're a nice doctor. Are you married?"
"No, unfortunately not, but I'm still looking. You can lay down here".
"Thank you. What a coincidence, so am I! You know, single…Are you free on Saturday?"
"No, I'm working".
"That's okay. I'll bring a picnic basket, and we'll have lunch".
"I'll be right back". Kovac found Lydia. "Can you call psych? I have an old man who claims he's pregnant and having contractions".
"Now I've seen everything", Lydia said and dialled the number to the fifth floor.
"Hey, Luka. Seen Abby lately?" Malucci said.
"Yes, a little while ago before an old pregnant man asked me on a date on Saturday".
"Okay Dokey". Malucci decided to grab a cup of coffee before he continued looking for Abby. When he opened the door to the lounge he saw someone lay on the floor. He took an extra look when he saw who it was. "Oh my God!" He ran out of the lounge yelling.
"Help! I need some help in here! Malik, bring a gurney! Hurry up!"
Malik didn't understand what Dave was screaming about but he did as he was told. In the lounge Malucci tried to wash away some of the blood but it continued coming out. Carter heard the noise and wanted to check it out.
"What's up?"
"Carter, help me! Malucci shouted.
When Carter saw what was happening he screamed and suddenly he got a flashback from the stabbing. "Oh my God!"