Disclaimer: Yo, you don't own me! I don't own nobody neitha. You know what I'm sayin? Yeah, whatevah, dude. Sorry, I was watching The Jamie Kennedy Experiment.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*





"Hey, Dave, ready to go?" Jing-Mei asked her fellow co-worker.

Dave looked up from his chart and looked at his watch. "Uh, yeah, just let me discharge this patient," he said, walking to the admit desk.

She nodded. "I'll wait for you outside," she called.



Dave stopped at the desk and wrote something on the chart while Randi looked at him with interest. He tried to ignore, but he finally put his pen down and looked at her.

"What?" he asked.

"So…you and Dr. Chen, huh? I thought she hated you," Randi said.

Dave rolled his eyes. "We're only having lunch. It's not a date or anything."

"Yeah, sure," Randi teased.

"Randi…" Dave started.

"Dave, come on…you have a big enough ego to admit that a sane woman wouldn't want to go out with you," she interrupted.

Dave raised his eyebrows. "Is that so?"

"Yes, sir," Randi replied, smirking.

"Okay, well, I'll talk to you about that later. Right now, I have to go meet Jing-Mei for lunch," he said, leaving Randi to roll her eyes and get back to reading her magazine.



"Hey," Dave said, suddenly, making Jing-Mei jump.

"Oh my God, Dave, you scared me!" she cried, smacking his arm.

Dave laughed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to. So, are we going to Doc Magoo's?"

"Is there anywhere else to go?"

"I guess not," Dave admitted.

They walked across the street, shivering, and entered the small, but warm, restaurant. They walked over to a booth and waited for the waitress.

"Hey, guys," a young woman said to them as she bounced up to their table.

"Hi, Stacey," Dave said to the familiar face.

"What are you guys having today?"

The two doctors made their orders and turned to each other when they were down. Dave smiled at her and she returned one. There was an awkward silence between them as they each tried to decide what to say.

"So…"

"Dave, I…"

They both laughed. "You go first," Dave said.

"No, that's okay. You go first," Jing-Mei replied.

"Well, I just wanted to know what your plans were for tonight. Do you have any hot dates?" he teased.

Jing-Mei chuckled. "Yeah, that's it. I have lines of men just waiting to ask me out on dates."

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were," Dave told her.

Jing-Mei looked at him in surprise. She didn't have a chance to reply because Stacey had come back to the table with their orders. Dave and Jing- Mei both gave her a word of thanks and began to eat their meals.

"Why did you want to know what I was doing tonight anyway?" she asked.

"I wanted to invite you over to my apartment for dinner," Dave replied.

Again, Jing-Mei looked at him in surprise. Dave looked back at her and saw the look on her face.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," he said, shrugging. "It was just a suggestion."

"No, I…I'm just a little surprised, that's all. How about we wait and see how lunch goes first, huh?" she replied.

"It's your choice," Dave said, simply. "Hey, what were you going to say to me before?"

Jing-Mei narrowed her eyes, trying to remember what she had wanted to say.

"Oh! Do you remember when you told me yesterday that you knew how it felt to lose parents?"

Dave closed his eyes for a moment, but then opened them again. He took a deep breath. "Yeah…and?"

"Well, you said you'd tell me what you meant later and…uh, it's later."

Dave bit his lip so hard Jing-Mei was afraid that he was going to bite right through it. He looked at his watch. "Uh, the lunch break is over. I think we should get back," he said, quickly.

Jing-Mei looked at him, confused. "But we didn't even finish our lunch."

"That's okay, I'll get the bill," he replied, standing up. He walked toward the cashier and Jing-Mei watched him pay the check. He came back to the table and picked up his coat. Jing-Mei stood up as well, putting on her coat. They walked out of the diner and made their way back to the ER. As they were walking, Jing-Mei thought about what could be so horrible that Dave didn't wanted to talk to her about it.

"Hey, Dave?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"Is that dinner offer still open?"

Dave looked at her, a trace of a smile on his face. "Of course it is."

"So you wouldn't mind if I…came over to your house tonight, right?"

"That'd be great," he replied.

Jing-Mei smiled. They approached their workplace and walked inside.







When Amanda heard the doors open, she looked toward the entrance.

"Dave!" she exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. "I'll be right back, Randi."

She ran to Dave, who was with Jing-Mei, and gave him a hug.

He laughed as he hugged her back. "What was that for?"

"I don't know…it was boring without you around," she explained.

Dave gave her a lopsided smile. Amanda looked at Jing-Mei.

"Hi," she offered.

Jing-Mei raised her eyebrows. "Hi, Amanda, Dave's told me a lot about you."

Amanda raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, Amanda, this is Dr. Jing-Mei Chen," Dave told her, filling her curiosity. "She's coming over for dinner tonight."

Amanda nodded, making a mental reminder to ask Dave about the dinner date later, and turned her attention back to him. "Did you talk to your boss about that job yet?"

Dave smacked his forehead. "Damn, I forgot. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Amanda replied, feeling a little disappointed.

"Hey, when I see her, I'll ask her about it, okay?"

"I can't argue with that."



"Dave, I could use your help in here!" Abby yelled, sticking her head out of one of the exam rooms.

"I'll be right back," Dave told Jing-Mei and Amanda and ran to the room Abby was in. "What's going on?"

He stopped at the site before and him and raised his eyebrows. All around the room were flocks and flocks of pigeons while a seemingly homeless man stood in the middle of the room.

"I asked the guy to take his coat off and all these birds came flying out."

Dave stifled a laugh. "Sir, are you okay?" he asked the man.

"Of course I am, these little guys are my best friends," the man replied, happily.

"Well, Abby, it doesn't look like anybody's in immediate danger…I'm going to go now," Dave told Abby as he walked toward the door.

"Dave, wait, what am I supposed to…do," she called to him, but he already walked out the door.



Dave saw that Amanda was back to talking with Randi because Jing-Mei had gone to take care of a patient. He started to go in the direction of the admit desk…

"Malucci, I need you for a trauma!" Kerry called to him, making her way to the ambulance bay.

"Oh no," he groaned. He was usually happy to be working on traumas, but he had seen more than enough that day. He followed his boss to the bay and waited for the ambulances to come.

"What is it, Chief?" he asked.

"A GSW to the abdomen," she replied.

"Only one guy?"

"Yep, the other one was taken to Mercy."



The ambulance pulled up at that moment and the paramedics unloaded the patient.

"What's up?" Dave questioned.

"Forty-six year old white male, gun shot wound to the abdomen and possible head trauma," one of the paramedics told him.

He nodded and helped Kerry push the man into Trauma 1.



"Dr. Weaver, he's seizing!" Dave exclaimed.

"Okay, get a central line going, Dave," she told him, while she gave orders to Chuny.

Dave nodded. He took the necessary supplies needed from Haleh and tried to insert the line. Suddenly, the man woke up and began to thrash his arms in every which direction. He shot his arm straight up and caught Dave's left eye.

"Crap!" Dave yelled, instinctively jumping away and putting his hand over his eye.

"Dave, are you all right?" Dr. Weaver asked, concerned.

Dave poked at his eye and looked at her. He nodded. "I'm fine…can we please get this guy 5 of Haldol?"

Haleh grabbed a syringe, put in the Haldol, and injected the man with it. His thrashing slowly stopped until he was pretty much motionless.

"Okay, let's try that central line again, shall we?" Dave said, walking back to the table. He inserted the line without a hitch this time, and nodded to Dr. Weaver.

"Alright, we need to send him up to the OR right away. Dave, get that eye checked out and I'll go up with him," Kerry ordered, not waiting for a reply from the young resident. She and Haleh rolled the gurney out of the room and went to the elevators.

Dave sighed and walked out as well.



"Oh my God, Dave, what happened to your eye?" Randi asked, her eyes becoming wide when she saw him. Amanda turned to look at him and her face formed into the same expression as Randi's.

"Patient got a little violent," he replied.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah, I'll be fine," he assured. "It's nothing to worry about."

"Are you sure?" Amanda asked, sounding doubtful.

"I'm positive. I'm just going to go the restroom and check this out. I'll be back," he said, excusing himself. He walked to the men's room and walked to the sinks. He looked into the mirror and saw that his eye had very much swelled. He shook his head at his reflection, as if he was disappointed with himself.

"Get over it, Dave. You've had worse," he told the reflection.

"What would worse be?" a voice asked.

Dave turned immediately, startled at the sudden sound of another person.

"Carter," he said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I didn't hear you come in."

"Sorry I freaked you out," Carter apologized.

"It's okay," Dave replied.

There was an awkward silence between the men for a moment.

"So, uh, you didn't answer my question."

"Huh?"

"What's worse? Wait…what happened to your eye, anyway?"

"One of the patients started throwing punches. I can't really blame him, though. I'd want to throw punches too, if someone shot me."

"I'm sure you would. Are you okay?"

"You know, I'm getting a little tired of that question," Dave joked. "But yeah, I'm fine."

"You still haven't answered my original question. What's worse?"

"Oh, uh…worse is…get…getting hit with, uh…a hockey puck in the crotch?" he half asked, half said.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're a horrible liar?" Carter asked.

"I've been told that, yeah," Dave replied with a small smile.

"Well, if you ever want to tell me the truth about it, you can always come and talk to me."

Dave raised his eyebrows. "What makes you think I'm telling you a lie in the first place?"

"I can just tell. After telling so many lies myself, it's hard not to notice when other people tell them," Carter told him.

Dave bit his lip and averted his eye from Carter. Another awkward silence filled the air.

"Uh…Dave?" Carter asked, breaking the ice.

"Yeah?" Dave replied, looking back up at him.

"If you'll excuse me now, I've got to take a piss."

"Oh! Yeah, okay, sorry," he said, making his way to the door.

"Dave?"

"Yeah, Carter?"

"You should ice that eye."

"That's probably a good idea….thanks."

"Anytime."



Dave walked out of the men's room, pondering Carter's words. Should he gather up his guts and spill his tragic story? Or should he keep it quiet and go on masquerading as the staff clown?