Chapter 25
1.1.1 "When Angels Weep."
"That was delicious Luka.. I have to admit.. I'm not a huge fan of lamb.. But that was amaaaazing.." Kerry smiled, wiping her hands on her napkin. "The salad.. Everything was delicious. Where did you learn to cook like that!?"
Luka pushed himself back roughly from the table and cleared the dishes. "My wife taught me. She was a good cook. A good teacher." He said gruffly, staring at her plate. "Are you finished?" He said in a dead monotone, the cheery man who'd poured wine in her glass and laughed as he overflowed it during dinner, was gone. It was an empty shell.
Kerry stared at him as he scooped up the crockery and stumbled to the kitchen. It was odd.. There was a chill in the air. The same sort of chill her mother had always said happened, when an angel died.
**************
"We're losing him! We need more blood.. Dammit! Shirley, hang some more 0- neg.. Call the bank again!" Romano glared at Benton. "Can't keep your patients under control down there? Isn't this the second time we've had Malucci up here because of rampaging patients?" He snarled.
"Yes.. But, this is different, he was 4... It was an accident, his mother was dying." Benton murmured, the surgical site filling with blood again. "Suction." The cacophony-like sound of straws searching empty glasses of soda, filled the room, in beat with the screaming monitors. "Pack some more gauze in there.. The blood's obscuring my work site."
"Paddles.. Charge to 200.. Round of Epi.." Shirley handed him the paddles and stood back, watching Dave on the gurney, smothered in blood, the second time in two months. "CLEAR!" Romano barked, the surgeons, techs and nurses backing off.
"SHIT. Charge to 250.." Romano sighed looking at the man on the gurney, his mind wandering..
***************
"Sue?? Ms.Sobriki.. You can't necessarily mean you plan to sue County? Your husband is infirm. He's mentally incompetent. I assure you, if he was fit to stand trial, our lawyers, Malucci's Lawyers, AND.." Romano looked pointedly at Barb Knight. "Mrs.Knight's lawyers would be suing your husband for full damages, as well as him coming up on murder charges. I'm afraid as far as negligence you haven't a leg to stand on." He puffed his chest proudly and sneered at the woman.
"Oh.. So it's not true that one of your doctors said, and I quote. 'Why wasn't this man put into restraints!?' Even your own staff knows something was wrong. My husband was a danger to himself. That does demand action like restraints and sedation, correct?" Samantha Sobriki snarled back, tears stinging her eyes.
"We were waiting on a psych consult. We couldn't do that without a consult." Romano said feebly, making a mental note to seek out and kill the person who said this within earshot of the nutjob's wife.
"Are you saying you couldn't have restrained him or posted security guards or something?" She shot back angrily. "Your argument is weak, doctor. You will be hearing from my lawyers." Samantha stood shakily snapping up her purse and stomping from the room.
*******
Luka slammed the last plate into the dishwasher. Why was he so angry? She'd complimented him on the meal. Kerry hadn't done anything wrong. Kerry? He stepped out the doorway of the dining room. She was gone.
The front door wide open, he stumbled out into the snow, wrapping his strong, shivering arms around himself. "Kerry?"
"Luka." She dead panned, staring up at the sky. There had to be a star somewhere. "It's chilly out here.. An angel has died.."
"No..." Luka pulled the woman close, pulling the blanket around them that she had draped over her shoulders. The two sunk to the steps and they stared out into the night. "When a cold chill comes up in the air.. It's not a dying angel.. The angels are weeping."
Kerry looked over at him, his face taut with drying tears, slowly she nodded, nuzzling into his shoulder.
"The tears of the angels fell upon Abraham's knife, so that it could not cut Isaac's throat." Luka said hoarsely. "Why couldn't tears of the angels fall upon Paul's knife?" He hung his head, his thick frame shuddering with pent-up sobs. "The angels are weeping, but it's too late, Kerry.. It's too late for Lucy and Dave... Their knife wasn't dulled by angel's tears... It was sharp... and it cut deep."
*******
"Elizabeth.." Mark tread softly into the chapel. It was used for bereft parents, stricken with grief, people looking for forgiveness, for guidance. "Elizabeth?"
"Mark.. I.. I haven't really been in a church since I left England, you know." She replied with a faraway, small voice, her gaze centred on the figurine of Mary and baby Jesus.
"Beth.." He tried again, walking up to the pew, and sitting down beside her on the hard polished wood.
"He's up in surgery again.. Malucci.. Abdominal trauma.. I.." Elizabeth placed her feet on edge of the pew, bringing her knees to her chin, wrapping her arms around them as she clasped her shaking hands together.
"You're praying for him? Elizabeth.." Mark sighed.
"It's the least I can do Mark." She pleaded, falling to her knees in prayer.
"Why? You didn't stab him!" He squeaked in disbelief.
"NO.. But we haven't done much either. He KISSED me in hospital.. Have I gone
to talk to the man? Have I gotten stuff sorted? NO.. I haven't. I'm as guilty as Sobriki. Have I seen him since he'd gotten out of hospital? No." She said stubbornly, bowing her head and murmuring the Lord's Prayer.
"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." A finger went to her eyes as she dabbed away the tears.
Elizabeth raised her head to watch her husband stumble away. "Mark? The angels are weeping Mark.. Don't shut them out. Listen.. Listen to the angels!" She called out to him as the heavy doors shut, the slamming resonating through-out the church.
As Elizabeth bowed her head again, she didn't hear the quiet shuffling of somebody awakening from their nap in the back pew.
~~
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
~~
The voice shaky, it harmonized with Elizabeth's till they were almost side by
side. The surgeon looked up and breathed a startled gasp.
"Ms.Sobriki."
"I'm not a monster you know.." She said sadly. "My husband's not a monster. What he did. He.. He's not really like that. We.. We don't even have a cat.. Or.. Or a dog for that matter.. He's sick.. I didn't want to believe it. He was fine that day. He complained of a headache, but it was stressful you know.. School, exams... We were all stressed out. But.."
Samantha sniffled, a choked strangled sob, as her gloved hand covered her mouth. "He just wanted to be careful. Wanted to make sure he was alright, just in case it was something serious like a tumour or syphilis or something.." She stared at her shoes. "Not that I'd give him syphilis or anything.. We were just worried.."
*******
"Spleen's gone.." Romano snorted, tying it off. "This guy's getting more space in here.. Maybe he should rent it out. One kidney gone.. Spleen gone. Maybe just stick a revolving door in his abdomen.. Easier access when he's sent back up here again." he sighed raggedly, cauterizing the wound and finishing up his work, closing up his blunt trauma patient.
Slamming the instruments back into the tray, Romano backed away from the gurney. "I'm done. Ship him up to ICU.. Keep an eye on him. Run a course of fluids, 1000mg Augmentin by IV."
*******
Slowly Romano made his way to the chapel, standing in the doorway as the two women looked up. Elizabeth looked at the man pleadingly and Robert nodded. Samantha looked to Romano, as the surgeon in the illuminated church archway, whispered yes.
And the angels wept with joy.
Chapter 26 "Space Man"
Spaceman, oh spaceman!
come rescue me from this!
calling all aliens!
come rescue me!
- Spaceman: Bif Naked
The room was shrouded in a faded darkness like the coming of dusk, the hallway's fluorescent lights casting a faint glow in the hospital room as the man lay in his room and stared fixedly at the ceiling.
The room had belonged to an elderly woman with a bad hip. Edith Vasner's family had visited her every day and brought flowers, the room once smelling of wild roses and hopeful good cheer. Edith had gone home, her old hip replaced with plastic and metal, and her family taking her into their home and heart.
Now it smelled of antiseptic and iodine. It smelled of pain and exertion. It smelled of a lonely emptiness. The man that now lay in Edith's bed breathed slowly, counting each respiration and each prick and throb of pain. The nurses had come and gone, changing his dressing and his IV meds.
The man had a visitor, he'd sat beside the broken soul, waiting for him to wake. It had been the second time he'd been in hospital. The man that is, not the visitor. The visitor worked in the hospital, in fact; so did the man.
The visitor sighed, his attention drawn to the outside window, the sky thick with falling snow, when his friend spoke. In fact he'd spoken before, but Mark was too drawn to the outside world. "So you never EVER wished I was dead?"
Dave repeated again to Mark who sat by his bedside. "No.. Well.. You have to admit.. You are a pain in the ass sometimes... But no... I've never wished you dead. I never EVER said you should have been dead ages ago. I never said anything of the sort." Mark replied, reassuring the man. "Carter's right.. You must have been having nightmares.
"Well.. If you're sure.." Dave said quietly, staring at the IV pole beside him and sighing. "I don't like laying here... I don't want to be in here.. I was only out less than a month, Dr.Greene.. It's not fair. Couldn't you get me out at all?"
"No.. You know I can't. You just had major surgery... You'll have to stay for awhile till you heal up.. Till we can take that chest tube out.. Till we can take out the rest of the tubes draining your incisions.. I can't release you Dave. I'm sorry." Mark slowly exhaled, ducking his head and staring at his shoes. "I'm sorry Dave."
"You haven't phoned my Mom yet have you?" The man whispered sadly, changing the subject, his fingers trailing down the IV lines in his arm.
"No.. We haven't-" Mark started, almost plaintively. "Don't.. Don't phone her.. She won't remember anyway.. If my aunt phones.. Tell her I'm sleeping, or at the store or something.. Okay? I don't want to worry them." Dave Malucci said, determined to keep his family in the dark. He'd already put his family through enough, a little set back wasn't enough to worry them all over again.
"Dave, we have to contact somebody."
"No.. Don't tell anyone.. It's okay. I'll be fine."
"What about that girlfriend? Cheryl? Should we phone her at all?"
"Cindy.. We're not together anymore.. She.. We're not together anymore. She's found somebody without so much emotional baggage." Dave said with a tinge of bitterness in his voice.
"I'm sorry Dave."
"Hey.. Not your fault. I thought I was the one who couldn't take commitment. I guess I was wrong.. Even she couldn't handle it getting a little rocky.. She bailed out. It's her prerogative, I guess." Dave said honestly. "I just need a little sleep.. I'm gonna get some sleep. Okay Dr.Greene?"
Mark nodded, standing up and straightening the pleat in his pants. "No problem, Dave. You get some rest. The bed will still be there at my place when you get released. Don't worry."
*********
"You're suing the hospital? I thought this was settled?" Carter sighed, his fingers drumming on his leg cast, now signed by half the hospital. His fingers settled on a small crack in the plaster and his finger nail picked away at the fine dust, his gaze fixed on it as he refused to look her in the eye.
"It is.. Or it was.. Yes.. It's settled.. I don't know anymore Carter. You knew her. What do you think?" Barb Knight sighed, staring out the window at the falling snow, the bustling of ambulances and street cleaners marring the peaceful whiteness of the outside world.
"What do I think? I think it's bad enough we have Samantha Sobriki trying to sue. I thought you said it'd be too painful for everyone to deal with." He said honestly. "I think it'd be bad for everyone. That's what I think. But if you really want to, I can get one of our lawyers to talk to you. I'm sure Gamma would be happy to help you in anyway she can." He smiled hopefully. The hope that resided in his heart was a lot less that what he showed in his cheery smile, but the woman needed hope, he was glad to spare all he could. "It'll be okay, Ms.Knight.."
"Thank you Dr. Carter."
****************
"Ms. Sobriki.. I know you're hurting. I know you're looking out for the welfare of your child, but I don't think that suing the hospital.. Suing the Maluccis.. Suing the Knights.. It's not a way to make friends, and there's no guarantee you'd win in the first place..." Elizabeth sat beside the woman, rubbing her back as Samantha sobbed, shaking her head.
"I.. I'm sorry.. Dr. Romano.. He-" Samantha broke off weeping into her mittens and allowed Elizabeth to pull her into an embrace.
"Dr. Romano is an insensitive horrid old sod. Anything he said, I'm sorry... I'm sorry about your husband and I'll personally try to do anything I can to help you get settled. I know some real estate agents, I have some connections with social services. I'm promising you, Samantha. I'll help you and your baby any way I can." Stroking the woman's back, Elizabeth let her nuzzle into her curls, her hair now sodden with salty tears. Samantha was in so much pain, and there wasn't really anything anyone could do. Nothing that would make Paul Sobriki right again. Nothing that could ever turn back the clock and put everything right again.
*********************
"Mark.. Get back to work.." Kerry snapped, standing in the doorway, standing more straighter than usual, her arm linked with Luka's. She didn't avert her eyes or blush as Greene's eyes fixated on Luka, on the hand that was intertwined with hers.
She watched as the man slunk from the room and walked down the hall, his head twitching as if he ached for another look, to see if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but he dare not. With a suppressed sigh of fear she strode to Dave's bedside, her hand still held by Kovac.
"How are you feeling, Dave?" Luka said, with a small smile, his hand breaking free and his arm circling around Kerry's shoulders. Dave looked at the sight for a moment and shrugged.
"Fine I guess.. Fine as to be expected. So your dinner date went well?"
Kerry reddened slightly, and Luka exchanged a confused and fearful glance with her. "How did you-?"
"It's all over the ER now.. They were looking for you.. When that kid.. When I.." Dave groaned, staring out the window, taking a deep sigh in order to compose his thoughts. "They couldn't find either of you, and finally put two and two together.. That little stare-down with Greene can't have helped much. Did you two walk all the way up here like that?" Referring to the hands they gripped tightly, as if letting go would cause both to spiral out of control and out of existence completely.
He said it almost accusingly with an edge to his voice, but Dave was more curious about it than anything else. They hadn't really thought about it. As Luka and Kerry had headed back into her house, the phone rang. The news of Dave's emergency surgery was made evident and they rushed down to County, parking in the underground garage in his reserved spot. Luka of course had to help Kerry from the car. The cold weather stiffening her leg, and the slick ice in the garage making the goings dangerous.
"Yes.. I suppose so." Kerry said carefully. "We might have..." She said guiltily as if holding the attending's hand was a sinful thing.
"Well then it's out then. You guys are an item. Congratulations." Dave said some-what cheerfully.
1.1.1 "When Angels Weep."
"That was delicious Luka.. I have to admit.. I'm not a huge fan of lamb.. But that was amaaaazing.." Kerry smiled, wiping her hands on her napkin. "The salad.. Everything was delicious. Where did you learn to cook like that!?"
Luka pushed himself back roughly from the table and cleared the dishes. "My wife taught me. She was a good cook. A good teacher." He said gruffly, staring at her plate. "Are you finished?" He said in a dead monotone, the cheery man who'd poured wine in her glass and laughed as he overflowed it during dinner, was gone. It was an empty shell.
Kerry stared at him as he scooped up the crockery and stumbled to the kitchen. It was odd.. There was a chill in the air. The same sort of chill her mother had always said happened, when an angel died.
**************
"We're losing him! We need more blood.. Dammit! Shirley, hang some more 0- neg.. Call the bank again!" Romano glared at Benton. "Can't keep your patients under control down there? Isn't this the second time we've had Malucci up here because of rampaging patients?" He snarled.
"Yes.. But, this is different, he was 4... It was an accident, his mother was dying." Benton murmured, the surgical site filling with blood again. "Suction." The cacophony-like sound of straws searching empty glasses of soda, filled the room, in beat with the screaming monitors. "Pack some more gauze in there.. The blood's obscuring my work site."
"Paddles.. Charge to 200.. Round of Epi.." Shirley handed him the paddles and stood back, watching Dave on the gurney, smothered in blood, the second time in two months. "CLEAR!" Romano barked, the surgeons, techs and nurses backing off.
"SHIT. Charge to 250.." Romano sighed looking at the man on the gurney, his mind wandering..
***************
"Sue?? Ms.Sobriki.. You can't necessarily mean you plan to sue County? Your husband is infirm. He's mentally incompetent. I assure you, if he was fit to stand trial, our lawyers, Malucci's Lawyers, AND.." Romano looked pointedly at Barb Knight. "Mrs.Knight's lawyers would be suing your husband for full damages, as well as him coming up on murder charges. I'm afraid as far as negligence you haven't a leg to stand on." He puffed his chest proudly and sneered at the woman.
"Oh.. So it's not true that one of your doctors said, and I quote. 'Why wasn't this man put into restraints!?' Even your own staff knows something was wrong. My husband was a danger to himself. That does demand action like restraints and sedation, correct?" Samantha Sobriki snarled back, tears stinging her eyes.
"We were waiting on a psych consult. We couldn't do that without a consult." Romano said feebly, making a mental note to seek out and kill the person who said this within earshot of the nutjob's wife.
"Are you saying you couldn't have restrained him or posted security guards or something?" She shot back angrily. "Your argument is weak, doctor. You will be hearing from my lawyers." Samantha stood shakily snapping up her purse and stomping from the room.
*******
Luka slammed the last plate into the dishwasher. Why was he so angry? She'd complimented him on the meal. Kerry hadn't done anything wrong. Kerry? He stepped out the doorway of the dining room. She was gone.
The front door wide open, he stumbled out into the snow, wrapping his strong, shivering arms around himself. "Kerry?"
"Luka." She dead panned, staring up at the sky. There had to be a star somewhere. "It's chilly out here.. An angel has died.."
"No..." Luka pulled the woman close, pulling the blanket around them that she had draped over her shoulders. The two sunk to the steps and they stared out into the night. "When a cold chill comes up in the air.. It's not a dying angel.. The angels are weeping."
Kerry looked over at him, his face taut with drying tears, slowly she nodded, nuzzling into his shoulder.
"The tears of the angels fell upon Abraham's knife, so that it could not cut Isaac's throat." Luka said hoarsely. "Why couldn't tears of the angels fall upon Paul's knife?" He hung his head, his thick frame shuddering with pent-up sobs. "The angels are weeping, but it's too late, Kerry.. It's too late for Lucy and Dave... Their knife wasn't dulled by angel's tears... It was sharp... and it cut deep."
*******
"Elizabeth.." Mark tread softly into the chapel. It was used for bereft parents, stricken with grief, people looking for forgiveness, for guidance. "Elizabeth?"
"Mark.. I.. I haven't really been in a church since I left England, you know." She replied with a faraway, small voice, her gaze centred on the figurine of Mary and baby Jesus.
"Beth.." He tried again, walking up to the pew, and sitting down beside her on the hard polished wood.
"He's up in surgery again.. Malucci.. Abdominal trauma.. I.." Elizabeth placed her feet on edge of the pew, bringing her knees to her chin, wrapping her arms around them as she clasped her shaking hands together.
"You're praying for him? Elizabeth.." Mark sighed.
"It's the least I can do Mark." She pleaded, falling to her knees in prayer.
"Why? You didn't stab him!" He squeaked in disbelief.
"NO.. But we haven't done much either. He KISSED me in hospital.. Have I gone
to talk to the man? Have I gotten stuff sorted? NO.. I haven't. I'm as guilty as Sobriki. Have I seen him since he'd gotten out of hospital? No." She said stubbornly, bowing her head and murmuring the Lord's Prayer.
"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." A finger went to her eyes as she dabbed away the tears.
Elizabeth raised her head to watch her husband stumble away. "Mark? The angels are weeping Mark.. Don't shut them out. Listen.. Listen to the angels!" She called out to him as the heavy doors shut, the slamming resonating through-out the church.
As Elizabeth bowed her head again, she didn't hear the quiet shuffling of somebody awakening from their nap in the back pew.
~~
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
~~
The voice shaky, it harmonized with Elizabeth's till they were almost side by
side. The surgeon looked up and breathed a startled gasp.
"Ms.Sobriki."
"I'm not a monster you know.." She said sadly. "My husband's not a monster. What he did. He.. He's not really like that. We.. We don't even have a cat.. Or.. Or a dog for that matter.. He's sick.. I didn't want to believe it. He was fine that day. He complained of a headache, but it was stressful you know.. School, exams... We were all stressed out. But.."
Samantha sniffled, a choked strangled sob, as her gloved hand covered her mouth. "He just wanted to be careful. Wanted to make sure he was alright, just in case it was something serious like a tumour or syphilis or something.." She stared at her shoes. "Not that I'd give him syphilis or anything.. We were just worried.."
*******
"Spleen's gone.." Romano snorted, tying it off. "This guy's getting more space in here.. Maybe he should rent it out. One kidney gone.. Spleen gone. Maybe just stick a revolving door in his abdomen.. Easier access when he's sent back up here again." he sighed raggedly, cauterizing the wound and finishing up his work, closing up his blunt trauma patient.
Slamming the instruments back into the tray, Romano backed away from the gurney. "I'm done. Ship him up to ICU.. Keep an eye on him. Run a course of fluids, 1000mg Augmentin by IV."
*******
Slowly Romano made his way to the chapel, standing in the doorway as the two women looked up. Elizabeth looked at the man pleadingly and Robert nodded. Samantha looked to Romano, as the surgeon in the illuminated church archway, whispered yes.
And the angels wept with joy.
Chapter 26 "Space Man"
Spaceman, oh spaceman!
come rescue me from this!
calling all aliens!
come rescue me!
- Spaceman: Bif Naked
The room was shrouded in a faded darkness like the coming of dusk, the hallway's fluorescent lights casting a faint glow in the hospital room as the man lay in his room and stared fixedly at the ceiling.
The room had belonged to an elderly woman with a bad hip. Edith Vasner's family had visited her every day and brought flowers, the room once smelling of wild roses and hopeful good cheer. Edith had gone home, her old hip replaced with plastic and metal, and her family taking her into their home and heart.
Now it smelled of antiseptic and iodine. It smelled of pain and exertion. It smelled of a lonely emptiness. The man that now lay in Edith's bed breathed slowly, counting each respiration and each prick and throb of pain. The nurses had come and gone, changing his dressing and his IV meds.
The man had a visitor, he'd sat beside the broken soul, waiting for him to wake. It had been the second time he'd been in hospital. The man that is, not the visitor. The visitor worked in the hospital, in fact; so did the man.
The visitor sighed, his attention drawn to the outside window, the sky thick with falling snow, when his friend spoke. In fact he'd spoken before, but Mark was too drawn to the outside world. "So you never EVER wished I was dead?"
Dave repeated again to Mark who sat by his bedside. "No.. Well.. You have to admit.. You are a pain in the ass sometimes... But no... I've never wished you dead. I never EVER said you should have been dead ages ago. I never said anything of the sort." Mark replied, reassuring the man. "Carter's right.. You must have been having nightmares.
"Well.. If you're sure.." Dave said quietly, staring at the IV pole beside him and sighing. "I don't like laying here... I don't want to be in here.. I was only out less than a month, Dr.Greene.. It's not fair. Couldn't you get me out at all?"
"No.. You know I can't. You just had major surgery... You'll have to stay for awhile till you heal up.. Till we can take that chest tube out.. Till we can take out the rest of the tubes draining your incisions.. I can't release you Dave. I'm sorry." Mark slowly exhaled, ducking his head and staring at his shoes. "I'm sorry Dave."
"You haven't phoned my Mom yet have you?" The man whispered sadly, changing the subject, his fingers trailing down the IV lines in his arm.
"No.. We haven't-" Mark started, almost plaintively. "Don't.. Don't phone her.. She won't remember anyway.. If my aunt phones.. Tell her I'm sleeping, or at the store or something.. Okay? I don't want to worry them." Dave Malucci said, determined to keep his family in the dark. He'd already put his family through enough, a little set back wasn't enough to worry them all over again.
"Dave, we have to contact somebody."
"No.. Don't tell anyone.. It's okay. I'll be fine."
"What about that girlfriend? Cheryl? Should we phone her at all?"
"Cindy.. We're not together anymore.. She.. We're not together anymore. She's found somebody without so much emotional baggage." Dave said with a tinge of bitterness in his voice.
"I'm sorry Dave."
"Hey.. Not your fault. I thought I was the one who couldn't take commitment. I guess I was wrong.. Even she couldn't handle it getting a little rocky.. She bailed out. It's her prerogative, I guess." Dave said honestly. "I just need a little sleep.. I'm gonna get some sleep. Okay Dr.Greene?"
Mark nodded, standing up and straightening the pleat in his pants. "No problem, Dave. You get some rest. The bed will still be there at my place when you get released. Don't worry."
*********
"You're suing the hospital? I thought this was settled?" Carter sighed, his fingers drumming on his leg cast, now signed by half the hospital. His fingers settled on a small crack in the plaster and his finger nail picked away at the fine dust, his gaze fixed on it as he refused to look her in the eye.
"It is.. Or it was.. Yes.. It's settled.. I don't know anymore Carter. You knew her. What do you think?" Barb Knight sighed, staring out the window at the falling snow, the bustling of ambulances and street cleaners marring the peaceful whiteness of the outside world.
"What do I think? I think it's bad enough we have Samantha Sobriki trying to sue. I thought you said it'd be too painful for everyone to deal with." He said honestly. "I think it'd be bad for everyone. That's what I think. But if you really want to, I can get one of our lawyers to talk to you. I'm sure Gamma would be happy to help you in anyway she can." He smiled hopefully. The hope that resided in his heart was a lot less that what he showed in his cheery smile, but the woman needed hope, he was glad to spare all he could. "It'll be okay, Ms.Knight.."
"Thank you Dr. Carter."
****************
"Ms. Sobriki.. I know you're hurting. I know you're looking out for the welfare of your child, but I don't think that suing the hospital.. Suing the Maluccis.. Suing the Knights.. It's not a way to make friends, and there's no guarantee you'd win in the first place..." Elizabeth sat beside the woman, rubbing her back as Samantha sobbed, shaking her head.
"I.. I'm sorry.. Dr. Romano.. He-" Samantha broke off weeping into her mittens and allowed Elizabeth to pull her into an embrace.
"Dr. Romano is an insensitive horrid old sod. Anything he said, I'm sorry... I'm sorry about your husband and I'll personally try to do anything I can to help you get settled. I know some real estate agents, I have some connections with social services. I'm promising you, Samantha. I'll help you and your baby any way I can." Stroking the woman's back, Elizabeth let her nuzzle into her curls, her hair now sodden with salty tears. Samantha was in so much pain, and there wasn't really anything anyone could do. Nothing that would make Paul Sobriki right again. Nothing that could ever turn back the clock and put everything right again.
*********************
"Mark.. Get back to work.." Kerry snapped, standing in the doorway, standing more straighter than usual, her arm linked with Luka's. She didn't avert her eyes or blush as Greene's eyes fixated on Luka, on the hand that was intertwined with hers.
She watched as the man slunk from the room and walked down the hall, his head twitching as if he ached for another look, to see if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but he dare not. With a suppressed sigh of fear she strode to Dave's bedside, her hand still held by Kovac.
"How are you feeling, Dave?" Luka said, with a small smile, his hand breaking free and his arm circling around Kerry's shoulders. Dave looked at the sight for a moment and shrugged.
"Fine I guess.. Fine as to be expected. So your dinner date went well?"
Kerry reddened slightly, and Luka exchanged a confused and fearful glance with her. "How did you-?"
"It's all over the ER now.. They were looking for you.. When that kid.. When I.." Dave groaned, staring out the window, taking a deep sigh in order to compose his thoughts. "They couldn't find either of you, and finally put two and two together.. That little stare-down with Greene can't have helped much. Did you two walk all the way up here like that?" Referring to the hands they gripped tightly, as if letting go would cause both to spiral out of control and out of existence completely.
He said it almost accusingly with an edge to his voice, but Dave was more curious about it than anything else. They hadn't really thought about it. As Luka and Kerry had headed back into her house, the phone rang. The news of Dave's emergency surgery was made evident and they rushed down to County, parking in the underground garage in his reserved spot. Luka of course had to help Kerry from the car. The cold weather stiffening her leg, and the slick ice in the garage making the goings dangerous.
"Yes.. I suppose so." Kerry said carefully. "We might have..." She said guiltily as if holding the attending's hand was a sinful thing.
"Well then it's out then. You guys are an item. Congratulations." Dave said some-what cheerfully.