Song: "Amigone" by the Goo Goo Dolls



SUMMARY OF EVENTS SO FAR (for those who are having a tough time keeping track of everything):

8:00 - County's chopper arrives at Mercy; Cleo is shot

8:10 - Cleo is revived and County's chopper leaves Mercy

8:20 - Chopper arrives at County, Cleo is brought to ER

8:38 - Cleo's death is called

CURRENT TIME: 9:00

- Kerry is looking for the 5 missing doctors (Knight, Chen, Carter, Lockhart, Kovac)

- Doug and Carol are at home

- Mark and Elizabeth are on their way home from New York

- Romano is searching for a missing med student

- An unconscious man is lying in the morgue

----------------------------------------

Every time you point your finger

Three more point right back at you

I'm not sayin' that it's something wrong with life

'Cause that's a sad excuse

---------------------------------------

"Where the hell is my cane?" Kerry shrieked. She had just begun to search the third floor for the 5 missing doctors at about 9:30 when Randi had called her to the reception desk for a phone call. Dr. Anderson, The ER Chief at Mercy, had wanted to see how Cleo was doing and to give Kerry any details she needed. Unfortunately, Dr. Anderson did not know the identity of the other two doctors. He had been sorry to hear of Cleo's death, but he had also given Kerry some news that she had been seeking.

"No one inside Mercy had been hurt," Dr. Anderson had told her. "The sniper had been on the roof and was shooting people walking on the street. Your helicopter, thinking that the shootings were occurring inside the hospital, happened to land right in the line of fire. Evacuation of the hospital hadn't been a possibility, since there were bullets flying all over outside. Instead we had completely closed its doors, locking all medical personnel and patients inside. The original plan was to transport all the victims of the sniper to County, where it was much safer."

"Why hadn't that happened?" Kerry had inquired.

"The sniper changed his aim from the street to the chopper," Dr. Anderson had answered. "After Dr. Finch had been shot, the shooting abruptly stopped. A few of Mercy's doctors, including myself, rushed out of the hospital to care for victims, and once I reached your chopper I found that Dr. Finch had been shot twice, once in the lung and once in the shoulder, and was unconscious. The wounds were serious, but not life threatening. She regained consciousness after about 10 minutes. She kept demanding to be brought to County, despite numerous warnings that she would not survive the trip. But she wouldn't listen, and eventually we let her go on the chopper to County. The shootings never started up again after County left, and every victim had survived." *Except for Cleo, * Kerry had thought sadly.

However, Kerry had noticed that Dr. Anderson had failed to mention the wound in Cleo's spine that been responsible for her death. "Dr. Anderson, while I'm glad that I finally found out what was going on, but I couldn't help but notice that you didn't mention the wound in Cleo's back, specifically in her thoracic spine. When did that happen?"

"I worked on her," he had said, obviously confused. "She only had the two wounds. Once those had been temporarily stabilized I had wanted to bring her into our ER, because I knew the treatments we had given her were only temporary. But there was no wound in her spine. She woke up and was talking to us; she had even tried to stand up to attend to victims! She couldn't have done that if she had such a fatal wound."

Kerry had been silent for a moment. She then continued, "Could it have happened while she was being loaded into the helicopter? Maybe." she trailed off, not really knowing how to rationalize what she was saying. *Surely the doctors would have notice a bullet flying past their heads and striking Cleo; not to mention that if she had been lying down in the gurney there was no physical way that a bullet could have reached her back, * she had thought. This realization suddenly frightened Kerry. It meant that Cleo had been shot a third time after she had been loaded into the helicopter; a precision shot which was impossible to hit unless the gun was at close range. *The gunman might have gotten aboard the chopper and shot Cleo in the air, * she had thought. *So where is he now? *

A chill ran down Kerry's spine as she suddenly felt someone watching her. *I'm imagining things, * she told herself, shaking the eerie feeling off. *I'm jumping to conclusions, and now I'm imagining things. *

Kerry had ended the conversation abruptly after that; there was no need to upset Dr. Anderson and the entire Mercy staff over something she didn't know was even right. She had picked up the phone to call the police back to the hospital for an investigation of the hospital, but a quick thought of the ER breaking into hysterics at the thought of a killer on the loose was enough for her to put the phone back down.

Kerry had then been set to continue her search for the missing doctors, but became frustrated when her cane had gone missing. She had tried to look for it from her chair, but she couldn't find it without getting up. And she couldn't walk more than a few feet without falling when she didn't have her cane. *What a cruel prank, * Kerry thought. She didn't know if she should feel hurt, angry, or amused at the immaturity of her staff.

Realizing that she wouldn't be able to find it by herself, she began to holler. "Where is it? Where the HELL is my cane?" she cried.

The ER had livened up a bit in the 20 minutes since Cleo's death. While it was obvious that the grief and sadness was still very present, it seemed that the ER staff had decided to get down to business. A few patients had come in with minor complaints; while they were interruptions of the grieving process, they were welcome distractions as well. But still, no one seemed to hear Kerry's cries for her cane. Not only were five doctors missing, there might also be a gunman in the hospital. And Kerry was trapped, unable to walk, unable to help anyone.

---------------------------------------------

An age old game of rat and mouse

Chasin' us from house to house

I'm not sayin' that it's something wrong with you

It's wrong with me as well

---------------------------------------------

"HELP!" Lucy Knight screamed at the top of her lungs. She beat on the door with both fists and frantically kicked the base of the door with her feet. "SOMEBODY!!!"

"It's no use, Lucy," Abby said wearily. She was sitting on the floor in the back of the room, clutching her knees to her chest. "Nobody can hear us. I told you, this room is in the middle of nowhere."

Lucy stopped her screaming and turned to Abby. "What you didn't tell me was that we could lock ourselves in!" She walked away from the door and started pacing around the room. "Why did we have to come all the way up to OB? They have everything we need in the ER supply room!"

Abby sighed. "They restock the OB supply room more frequently than they do in the ER. I just figured." she trailed off, trying not to cry. "Never mind."

Lucy's angry face softened in sympathy. She sat next to Abby. "I'm sorry for yelling. It's just.when I haven't had my medication I tend to freak out about small stuff." She sighed. "We're such med students, aren't we?"

Abby looked at her tearfully. "What do you mean?" she asked, confused.

Lucy chuckled slightly. "Do you think anyone else in this hospital could manage to lock themselves INSIDE a supply room, on a floor where no one can hear us yelling?"

Abby smiled and wiped away her tears. "We ARE pretty pathetic," she agreed.

Lucy smiled back, the noticed her pager sitting on a shelf. "Well, they stopped paging us, at least," she said, picking the pager up and attaching it to her belt. "That must have been some trauma. They probably paged us 20 times each." She cringed. "I really don't want to face Kerry and have to explain why we missed it." Her eyes widened in shock. "And Carter too.oh God, I'm not going to hear the end of this for a very long time." She lay down on the floor and covered her eyes with her forearm. Remembering Abby, she quickly she turned and added, "But really, I'm not blaming you at all."

Abby groaned. "I don't know why not, it's totally my fault." She covered her face with her hands in an attempt to stop her oncoming tears. She didn't know which was worse: Lucy being angry with her for doing a stupid thing, or Lucy being overly nice to her for doing a stupid thing. "Hey Lucy, what time is it?" she asked, her words muffled by her hands.

Lucy removed her forearm from her eyes and checked her watch. "Nine," she answered, then returned her arm over her eyes. "We've been here for forty minutes."

Abby nodded, then removed her hands from her face. "Hey when you said that you didn't take your medication." she trailed off, not really knowing how to phrase her question. She paused, then asked, "What are you taking?" As a med student she was curious, but as a friend she was concerned.

Lucy contemplated for a moment, then decided to tell her. "I'm taking Ritalin," she said with a twinge of embarrassment.

Abby, surprised, simply said "Oh." She sensed that she had hit a nerve. *I've got to learn to mind my own business,* she thought as she silently cursed herself. She lost more friends by being overly concerned about that.

Lucy was quiet for a second, then started again. "I know I'm too old to still be taking it.it's just too hard to stop. I can't sleep, I'm awful with the patients, I snap at people." she closed her eyes. "It really makes Carter mad for some reason. He thinks I should just give it up cold turkey. Obviously he's never had a dependency for a drug or he'd know how hard it is to quit."

Abby listened sympathetically until Lucy mentioned Carter. She decided to find out if there was any truth to the rumors that she kept hearing about the two of them. "Speaking of Carter-" Abby grinned, and Lucy groaned - "I've heard a lot of rumors about the two of you."

Lucy shot up from her position on the ground. "What have you heard?" she demanded.

Abby smiled - she loved gossip. "I've heard that you were together, I've heard that you're still together, I've heard that you were never together, I've heard that you have a child together -"

"What?!" shrieked Lucy. "Who said that one?!"

"Randi," answered Abby. "But I think she just told me that to get rid of me."

Lucy groaned, then lay back on the floor and covered her eyes with her arm again. "So what's going on with you two? How do you feel about him?" asked Abby.

Lucy thought for a minute lifted her arm, and said, "Have you ever had a really bad cramp? I mean, so bad that it made you want to keel over and die, or tear through your throat just so you could transfer the pain and release the pressure?"

"Yeah," Abby answered.

Lucy covered her eyes again. "That's Carter," she said angrily.

-------------------------------------

Are you alive

Amigone

(Miracles gone wrong)

Is it too late to call and tell you to be strong

Are you alive

Amigone

(Miracles gone wrong)

Was the poison in our love there all along

Amigone

------------------------------------

"John!" Jing-Mei cried. "You can't go to sleep. Come on, John. Wake up!" She frantically shook him by the shoulders, carefully holding his left leg still. There was a bullet wound - entrance and exit wounds, to be exact - through his left hamstring, about halfway from his ankle to his knee. "John, please, you have to stay with me!" Jing-Mei shouted through tears.

The wind on the roof chilled her to the bone, and she wiped the tears from her eyes as they only made her colder. Suddenly John's eyes fluttered open, and he gazed at Jing-Mei. "I'm cold," he said softly.

Overcome with joy, Jing-Mei put her hands on Carter's cheeks to warm them up. "I know," she said, "Me too. But I know that someone's going to be up here any minute to take you to ER. It's been -" she checked her watch - "a half hour or so. Someone should be here very soon." Jing-Mei tried to stay calm but she knew that he couldn't last too long on a rooftop in the freezing cold with a bullet wound. *Please,* she pleaded the door into the hospital with her eyes, *please burst open and have someone from the ER come and find us. Please.* she rubbed Carter's arms to keep them warm and kept praying.

She had found him at about 8:25, five minutes after Cleo had been brought in. Jing-Mei had made her way to the roof to assist in bringing the patient to the ER, and had heard that the patient was Cleo as she furiously ran to the top of County General. Once she got there, however, she found no sign of the trauma besides the landed helicopter (radio disabled). She turned around to leave the roof and hopefully join the others in the trauma, but had been shocked to see John Carter unconscious and bleeding, slumped on the wall. Jing-Mei had rushed to his side and, after getting him conscious, was doubly shocked to find the door to County was shut and locked from the inside.

That was a half-hour ago. Carter had been slipping in and out of consciousness during the time due to his blood loss, and when he wasn't out cold he was completely dazed. Jing-Mei had attempted several times to find out who had shot him and left him for dead, but Carter seemed to have no recollection of the incident. All he would say is "I'm cold," "It hurts," and "My pager;" he had struggled to sit up and check his pager throughout his twenty pages during Cleo's trauma.

"Deb." Carter's eyes were fully open now, and Jing-Mei didn't bother to correct him as she softened her worried face and looked down at him.

"Yes, John?" she asked.

"What.happened?" he pleaded, wincing in pain as he struggled to move to a more comfortable position. Jing-Mei quickly responded by easing the tense muscles in his leg.

"You were shot, John," she told him gently but matter-of-factly. Debating on whether or not to go into the specifics when he was in this dazed state, she finally decided to keep it simple. "We don't know who did it, but I came up to the roof and found you here. I think it happened a few minutes before I got here." She suddenly remembered that he, like all trauma patients, might need to be briefed on where exactly he was. "You're on the roof of County General Hospital, after returning from a on-call trauma -"

"I know where I am, Deb," Carter replied irritably, glaring at her slightly.

Her eyes widened a bit as she sensed his sudden alertness. "Then do you remember what happened to you - who did this? When? Were you shot at the scene or when you got back?"

Carter closed his eyes, ran his fingers through his hair, and sighed deeply. "No, I don't," he responded, almost sadly. All of a sudden his muscles relaxed and his eyes began to flutter again. "I just need to go to sleep.just for a few minutes."

Jing-Mei held him by the shoulders again and shook gently. "No, John, you can't go to sleep," she told him. "Please.you've lost too much blood to go to sleep. Only a few more minutes. Come on, John!"

Carter opened his eyes weakly. "Deb, I need to ask you something," he said softly.

A chill suddenly caught Jing-Mei as she leaned closer down. "Shhh, John, you can tell me later, when we're in the warm hospital and you're completely healed. But you can't give up now, John, you have to fight!" Tears filled her eyes as her words grew more and more forceful.

Carter shook off her words and looked at her as intently as he could. "No, I need to tell you this," he insisted. "I need you.to tell Lucy.that I.that I." he closed his eyes.

*Love her?* Jing-Mei completed his sentence silently. While she felt deflated at his lack of effort to stay alive, she couldn't help but wonder why her heart had sank so quickly when her mind had finished Carter's thought. *So he loves Lucy, so what?* she told herself. *You knew there was something going on between them. So why do you feel like you've lost the love of your life? You haven't felt that way for John Carter for.well, years. So why are these feelings coming back now, of all times?*

Suddenly Carter's eyes opened again. "I need you to tell Lucy that I. I have a patient for her in Exam 3," he said faintly. His eyes drooped and his head dropped with his last word.

*He's delusional,* Jing-Mei thought, surprised at her sense of relief. Quickly she snapped out of her dreamy trance and began to frantically wake Carter up again. "John.come on, stay with me. Please, John, wake up. You can't sleep now. We only need to wait a few more minutes and somebody will be up to help us. Come on, John.John."

--------------------------------------------

Heavenly intoxication

Love's been marred by medication

Ain't it funny how a life can take a turn

When the end is near

-------------------------------------------

"Mr. Herrington!" Romano called though the halls, his remaining med students at his heels. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" He glanced into each exam room in the ER as he rushed past them, keeping his cool but becoming more and more frantic with each empty room. *Where in hell could that kid have gone?!* he wondered angrily. Quickly Romano made a turn around the reception desk and nearly ran into his students, who had been following him so closely that they had not seen his unprecedented turn.

"Why isn't he still in chairs?" Romano hollered, still pacing through the hallways and craning his neck to peer into each exam room. "What reason would he possibly have to wander off and make me look all around the damn hospital to find him?!"

The remaining students exchanged frightened glances as they followed their rapidly erupting leader. If Dr. Romano was scary when he was calm, he was terrifying when he was angry.

Suddenly Romano turned around and stared menacingly at the students. "If I don't find him in the next five minutes, I will be sure to tell your supervisor that you three had a major role in his disappearance. Understood?"

Petrified, the students nodded their heads in unison.

"Good," he snapped. He rapidly turned around and strode down the hall, the three students tagging along like timid ducklings.

"Benny, where are you?" the female student whispered, frantically craning her head down every twist and turn down the hall. The sooner she got away from this lunatic Romano, the safer she would be.

----------------------------------

Are you alive

Amigone

(Miracles gone wrong)

Is it too late to call and tell you to be strong

Are you alive

Amigone

(Miracles gone wrong)

Is it too late to face the truth that it was wrong

Amigone

--------------------------------

"Damn!" Elizabeth cried as she slammed the phone into its cradle. Exasperated, she ran her fingers through her tasseled curly hair and stepped out of the booth. She strode over to Mark, who was seated and looking over a flight schedule, and stood in front of him. "My credit card is maxed out," she told him angrily. So we're stuck here, and hell's breaking loose at County. I talked to Kerry. She told me that after Cleo."she reverently lowered her eyes, ".after they lost Cleo, everything's been falling apart. Kerry can't find half of the doctors who are on tonight, so not only is that a concern but it also means they're incredibly short-handed." She sighed deeply, then sat next to Mark and looked at the flight schedule he was reading. "When's the next flight to Chicago?"

"11:00, which is in an hour," Mark answered, his nose still buried in the schedule. "It arrives at 11:00 Chicago time. Then there's another one tomorrow morning at 9 am. And don't worry about your credit card; I'll pay for the flight." He looked at Elizabeth and studied her carefully. "Which flight do you want to take?"

"The one that leaves tonight, of course," Elizabeth said quickly. "I want to get back as soon as possible."

Mark's eyes dropped, and he folded the flight schedule and put it in his pocket. "I was actually hoping that you would want to take the one that leaves tomorrow." Seeing that Elizabeth was about to protest, he chose to continue. "We both have been looking forward to this vacation for so long, Elizabeth, and now we're going back after 2 days instead of the original 5. Why don't we just stay one more night in New York, so we can avoid getting back to reality for as long as possible?" He looked up at her. "There's nothing we can do there now. I feel just as guilty as you do about Cleo. I wish I could have helped with the trauma, too."

"They needed us there, Mark," Elizabeth said softly.

Mark shook his head. "They did everything they could. Nothing we could have done would have saved her. We both talked to Kerry. Cleo's wounds were too severe to be repaired. You know that." He tilted her face towards his. "Don't blame yourself."

Elizabeth's frustrated face softened. "I'm not, really. I just wish." she trailed off, not knowing exactly what she wished. "Peter's completely devastated."

"Yeah, I'd imagine so," Mark agreed. Suddenly, he became confused. "When did you talk to Peter?"

"He called me on my cell phone shortly after I'd called Kerry back," Elizabeth explained. "He just needed to talk to someone."

Still confused, Mark asked, "Why didn't he talk to Anspaugh or someone?"

Elizabeth looked at him. "The man's girlfriend just died under his own care! If I had just been killed and you hadn't been able to save me, would you want to talk to Anspaugh, of all people?" she inquired.

Mark turned away and faced forward. "No, I guess not," he answered. He paused for a moment, then turned back to her. "I would want to talk to you." His kind face melted into a joking smile. "So you'd better not get killed anytime soon, because then both Peter and I will be in trouble."

Smiling into his eyes, Elizabeth sank back into Mark's arms. "I'll do my best," she told him. Suddenly she closed her eyes painfully. "I know we should go back as soon as possible," she said softly, "but I don't know I can adjust to the change that's going to meet us when get there."

Mark kissed the top of her head, which was leaning on his shoulder. "We'll just head back tomorrow, then," he told her. "There's no reason why we need to head back tonight. They can deal without us for one more night."

Suddenly Elizabeth's call phone rang in her purse, and she unfolded herself from Mark's arms to answer it. "Hello, Elizabeth Corday," she said efficiently. "Oh, hello again, Kerry. Mark? Oh, ok." Elizabeth handed the phone to Mark.

"Hey," Mark said into the phone. "What's up." He listened for a few moments, and Elizabeth could hear Kerry's voice through the phone. "Yeah. Well, actually, we're going to be coming tomorrow morning. Mm hm." Elizabeth listened as Kerry's muffled voice grew louder and angrier. "Yes, I understand that, Kerry, but there's nothing we can do tonight anyway - what? Kerry, what's going on?" His face became concerned and his voice became more urgent, and Elizabeth leaned in to find out what Kerry was saying.

".Got to go.trauma." was all Elizabeth could decipher from the other side of the conversation. However, Mark had heard more. Quickly he said "All right," and turned the phone off. He handed the phone to Elizabeth and stood up quickly. "Get your suitcase," he instructed her as he slung his duffel bag over his shoulder. "We've got to get back tonight."

"But, Mark," Elizabeth protested as she picked up her suitcase and followed him through the rows of chairs "What did Kerry say? Why do we need to go back tonight, all of a sudden?"

Mark stopped and turned around to her. "They found Luka," he said slowly. He then turned around and continued rushing towards the ticket desk, leaving Elizabeth paralyzed in shock.

-----------------------------------------------

I'm not sayin' that its something

I'm not gonna play along

I'm not wishin' for a miracle

That miracle's gone wrong

And you're too strong

-----------------------------------------------

"What do we got?" Kerry cried, hobbling (thanks to a spare crutch in the ER supply room) over to the speeding gurney in the hallway.

"20-or-30-something year old, hit in the back of the head with a blunt object," Romano called out. He was on one side of the gurney, pulling it through the hall with his med students pulling the other side. "Lost a lot of blood. No ID.""

"Robert, we don't need ID! It's Luka Kovac!" yelled Kerry. "Can't you recognize him?"

"Who the hell is Luka Kovac?" Romano asked, searching the patient's face for any recognition.

"ER attending.started here about a year ago," explained Kerry. "You're telling me you've never seen him, in a year?"

"Oh, yes, foreign guy, I remember him." Romano answered. He chuckled. "Looks like somebody's got it in for you ER docs today."

Kerry glared at him as she shouted, "What's the BP?"

"BP's 90 over 50, pulse is 40," Haleh told her.

"Pupils are.responsive," added Malucci, shining a light into Luka's eyes. "Looks like a fractured occipital bone, most likely a concussion."

"First Cleo, now Luka," Chuny said through tears, putting everyone's first thoughts into words. "What the hell is going on?"

Kerry said nothing, but rushed to the reception desk. "Get the police back over here," she hissed to Randi. She then rushed back over to the gurney and expertly rolled it into Trauma 2. "Somebody call X-ray and tell them to set up for a catscan!" Kerry ordered. "We need 4 pints of O neg in here!" Haleh ran out of the room to retrieve the blood. "Malucci, get a suture kit!"

"But chief -" Malucci protested.

"Malucci!" Kerry shot him a look of fire, and Malucci duly stepped out of the room. "Lydia, call X-ray!" Kerry yelled as she rushed to the head of the gurney. Lydia scrambled to the phone.

"4 pints of O neg," Haleh called out as she attached the bags to a cart.

"Pulse is up to 50," Chuny yelled.

Suddenly the trauma doors burst open, and Anspaugh stormed in. "What's happened NOW?" he cried.

"Romano found Luka unconscious in the morgue, with a blunt object injury in the back of the head," Kerry told him as she inspected Luka's wound. "Occipital fracture, probable concussion, and we are taking him to X-ray right now." She looked up from Luka's head and faced Anspaugh. "The wound isn't as deep as it looks. Obviously it's a considerable head trauma, but he might actually be ok." She turned around and yelled, "Malucci! Where are you with the suture kit?!"

Malucci poked his head though the door. "There aren't any down here!" he yelled. "We finished them off in the pile-up trauma!"

"Dammit!" Kerry cursed outwardly. "Where is Carol when I need her?!"

"I can go see if they have any suture kits in the other ER supply room," Haleh offered.

Kerry sighed, then turned to Haleh. "Hurry," she said weakly. "And Chuny, you go with her." Haleh and Chuny whirled around and ran out of the room.

*I won't lose another one,* Kerry vowed. "Lydia, go up to OB and see if there's any suture kits up there."

"All right," Lydia obliged as she dashed out of the room and down the hall.

Malucci burst in, carrying a suture kit. "Found one," he said breathlessly.

Kerry let out a sigh of relief. "Try to catch Lydia and tell her we've got a suture kit, so she doesn't have to go all the way up to OB," she told him.

Malucci ran to the door, but caught himself in the doorway. "She's already in the elevator," he told Kerry. "She's pretty fast for an old chick- er, middle aged woman," he said sheepishly.

"Damn. She'll have made the trip for nothing," Kerry commented as she reached for the suture kit and moved a chair close to the gurney. "Get me a local anesthetic," she instructed Malucci.

"It's ok, Dr. Weaver, I'll do the sutures," Malucci told her.

Kerry's shoulders visibly sank as she searched for a reason to do the sutures herself. Unable to find one, she handed the suture kit to Malucci and got up from her chair. "Thanks," she said simply. She walked out of the trauma room, only to find Anspaugh and Romano engrossed in conversation.

"Don, Robert, I've already called the police to find out who did this," Kerry informed them.

"There's no need, Kerry," Romano said sharply. "We already know who did it."

Her eyes widening, Kerry asked, "You mean, you've found the killer?" she asked incredulously.

Romano chuckled. "Hardly." He gestured towards Chairs, where a young man was sitting with his arms hugging his knees and his head resting on top of them. "Have you been acquainted with Dr. Herrington?" Romano inquired.

Kerry nodded. "Isn't he one of the students I gave you this afternoon?" she asked Romano.

"Yup," Romano answered, giving Kerry a slight glare for giving him the students in the first place. "The kid wandered off during Dr. Finch's trauma, so I've been looking for him for about a half hour now. I finally found him sitting outside the morgue, crying like a baby. He had blood all over his lab coat, and there was blood coming from the door of the morgue. So me, being naturally inquisitive, went inside and found the guy - Dr. Kovac, I guess? - out cold with a bashed in head. So I grabbed a gurney and brought him up here."

"I still don't know what's going on," Kerry stammered. "What happened exactly?"

"Apparently, young Mr. Herrington sat out during Cleo's trauma, then wandered down to the morgue and found Dr. Kovac, and then struck him on the back of the head," answered Anspaugh. "The police will be questioning him shortly."

Kerry shook her head. "That doesn't make sense," she said. "Why was Luka in the morgue during Cleo's trauma? And why would the student go down to the morgue at all? And why would he hit Luka for no reason?"

Romano shrugged. "My guess? Nutcase." He then headed towards the student.

Kerry sighed and turned to Anspaugh. "I don't think the kid did it. I have a feeling that the gunman from the Mercy shootings is in the hospital, and that he's the one responsible for Luka's injury."

Anspaugh looked concerned. "Why would you possibly think the gunman is here?"

Kerry was set to explain, but was interrupted by Malucci. "Sutures are done, chief," he said efficiently. "We should take him to X-ray now. The sutures won't last too long. Once he gets the catscan I can put some more permanent sutures in."

"Thanks, Malucci," Kerry said as she walked into the room. "Let's get him to X-ray!"

---------------------------------------

Are you alive

Amigone

(Miracles gone wrong)

Is it too late to call and tell you to be strong

Are you alive

Amigone

(Miracles gone wrong)

Is it too late to face the truth that it was wrong

Amigone

---------------------------------------

Lydia raced through the hall to the OB supply room, her heart beating rapidly. She knew she was taking too long - what if Luka was bleeding out right now? Or if he had irreparable brain damage, and no one could know yet because he needed the sutures before he went to X-ray? A thousand questions flooded Lydia's mind as she tore down the hall and finally reached the supply room.

She reached for the handle - to find that it was locked. "Damn!" she cursed.

Suddenly she heard something - voices? - in the room. "Is someone in there?" she called.

Squeals of delight echoed inside the room as two female voices cried, "Yes! Help us! Let us out!"

"It's locked," Lydia yelled.

"Then get the key!" cried a voice, which Lydia placed as Lucy Knight's.

"I don't have the key!" Lydia yelled back. "I don't know who has the key to the OB supply room!"

"The janitor will," another, calmer voice, which Lydia could only place as Abby's, explained. "If he doesn't then it might be in the OB reception desk."

Lydia sighed. "All right, but first tell me - are there any suture kits in there?" she yelled into the door. She could hear some rummaging around, and then, "Yeah, there's 6 or 7 in here," from Lucy.

Lydia began to sprint down the hall again to find the key, but curiosity stopped her. "How exactly did you guys get locked in there?" she asked.

Lydia could hear Lucy's familiar exasperated sigh, and Abby said, "I'm not exactly sure. We didn't have the key. This room never locks without the key."

"Do you think someone locked you in?" Lydia asked suspiciously. "This sounds like one of Carter's lame practical jokes."

"No, Carter was away at the trauma when we.er.got trapped in here," Lucy answered, sounding embarrassed.

Lydia's ears suddenly perked up. "Carter went to the trauma? Are you sure?" she asked quickly.

"Yeah," Lucy answered. "He wouldn't let me go, so Abby was going to show me this procedure while he was gone because the ER was dead, and the ER supply room didn't have the stuff we needed, so we came up here-"

"Lucy, who else went to the trauma? And when?" Lydia asked anxiously. So far, three of the five missing doctors had been found; perhaps the last two could be found before they met the same fate as Luka, or - Lydia shuddered - Cleo's.

"Um, I don't really know," called Lucy. "Oh! I know Cleo did!"

"Yes, Lucy, I know Cleo went to the trauma.but who else? Was it Jing-Mei?" Lydia asked desperately.

"No, Jing-Mei was here," Lucy answered. "I think it was Luka."

"Yeah, it was Luka," Abby agreed.

Lydia sighed. "It couldn't have been Luka," she told them. "The officer said that a man and a woman brought Cleo to the ER!"

"What??" cried Lucy. "Why did Cleo have to go to the ER?"

Lydia stopped as she realized that Lucy and Abby must have been locked in the supply room from the point even before Cleo was brought in. However, she didn't have time to explain now. "There was an accident," she said simply.

Lydia could hear Lucy's voice becoming shaky. "She was shot at the sniper trauma, wasn't she?" Lucy asked tearfully. "What happened to Luka and Carter?"

"You're sure Luka and Carter were the other two doctors who went?" Lydia asked hurriedly, not answering Lucy's question. She really had to find that suture kit.

"Yes," Lucy yelled. "Now please get us out of here! I need to know what's going on!"

"Lucy, I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait for a bit while I find that key!" Lydia yelled as she headed down the hall. She could hear a very distinct, "Shit!" and a furious pounding on the door by the time she was down the hall.

As she rounded the corner, she was nearly run into by a speeding gurney, headed by none other than Jing-Mei, Haleh, and Chuny. "Lydia!" Haleh gasped. "We found Carter and Jing-Mei!"

-----------------------------------

Are you alive

Amigone

(Miracles gone wrong)

Is it too late to call and tell you to be strong

Are you alive

Amigone

(Miracles gone wrong)

Is it too late to face the truth that it was wrong

Amigone

---------------------------------

"As far as I can see, there's no long-term brain damage," the X-ray technician told Kerry. "He's got a major concussion but he should be waking up soon. I'd recommend him staying off his feet for a while as his balance might be impaired for a while." He watched Luka slowly coming out of the catscan area. "He's a lucky guy."

*Luck might actually be on our side this time,* Kerry thought. She thanked the X-ray technician and walked into the X-ray room with Malucci. "Let's get him to Exam 4 and put in some better sutures," Kerry instructed Malucci as they wheeled Luka through the X-ray door and to the elevator.

The elevator opened, and Kerry was met with four pairs of frightened eyes around a gurney. "Kerry!" Lydia cried. "Look!"

Kerry looked down at the gurney, and her stomach turned for the third time that day as she immediately recognized the patient in the gurney. "Not again," she mused painfully.

"We found him on the roof with a GSW to the lower left leg and possible hypothermia," Haleh barked. The elevator began to close, and she stuck her hand through it to make the doors open again.

"I found him about an hour ago," explained Jing-Mei. "He had just been shot by the time I got up there, and when I tried to open the door again it was locked. He's been out for about 10 minutes now after lapsing in and out of consciousness for 50 minutes."

Kerry rubbed her eyes tiredly as she said, "Take him to Trauma 2." She turned to Malucci. "I'm going to go with them, can you handle Luka's sutures?" she asked wearily.

"No prob," Malucci acknowledged as she stepped aside for Kerry to step into the elevator. She did so, and mumbled a "Thank you. as she hobbled past him.

"Sutures?" Lydia asked worriedly. "Did you find a suture kit?"

Kerry nodded as she got into the elevator. As soon as she got into the elevator she began to speak to Carter. "Carter! Can you hear me?" she yelled as the elevator doors closed.

"He's been unresponsive since he went unconscious about 10 minutes ago," Jing-Mei told them emotionally. "Every time he woke up, he could never remember what happened to him." She looked at Kerry with tears in her eyes. "What's going on?"

Kerry looked straight back at her. "The gunman's here," she said, and for the first time, she was absolutely sure.

-----------------------------------

Are you alive

Amigone

(Miracles gone wrong)

Is it too late to call and tell you to be strong

Are you alive

Amigone

(Miracles gone wrong)

Is it too late to face the truth that it was wrong

Amigone

-----------------------------------