Title: Remember
Rating: PG-13 for swearing
Spoilers: Nah
Disclaimer: If I could own Dave Malucci a.k.a. Erik Palladino, you bet your behind I'd take him! But, alas, I do not have that option. Therefore, I do not own Dave Malucci or any other of the ER staff, but I do own Anna and Sam Malucci, as well as a couple other people in the story.
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Dave sighed for the millionth time that day. He was extremely tired after working on that MVA that had come in a couple hours ago. His patient hadn't made it and he was feeling horrible about it. He rubbed his eyes and wandered around, wondering if he could find an empty room to sleep in. He found that Exam 1 was empty so he crawled into a bed and closed his eyes with a blissful and thankful smile on his face.
Flashback:
"I told you to clean your room you little shit," Sam screamed.
"Dad, please, I know, I was doing my homework and..." the 15-year-old begged.
"How many times do I have to tell you: I tell you to do something, then you fucking do it!" his father raged.
Dave tried to keep back the tears. If he started to cry, his dad would get even more upset.
"I'm sorry, Dad, it's all my fault, I know, I..."
"You're damn right it's your fault! Lucky for you, Anna cleaned your room for you! Why can't you be more like your sister, damn it, she's four years younger than you and she still acts more mature than you," Sam snickered.
Dave knew it was true. But he wasn't mad about it. He took pride in knowing his baby sister was so mature and grown up. However, it didn't really help in this situation.
"I'm sorry, Dad, please, I'm sorry, I'll clean my room next time and I won't put it off..."
"Oh, really? `You'll clean your room next time,'" Sam mocked, "you bet your sorry ass you will!"
Dave felt a tear run down his cheek. He tried to brush it away before Sam saw it, but it was too late.
"Oh, is little Davey crying now? Are you, you little runt?" Sam said, starting to get worked up again.
Of course, Dave was no runt. He had muscles and if he wanted to, he could take his father out. But Dave wasn't stupid. He knew what his father could do and if he wanted to live, he'd control himself.
"No, Dad, I'm just..."
"Did you just tell me no? Did you just lie to me?" Sam yelled.
Dave's eyes widened as he saw the hand coming toward his face. The impact of the hand to face stung Dave and the noise it made was sickening. Dave put his hand to his face and dropped to the floor, backing away.
"Don't you run away from me, boy," Sam snarled. Sam stopped and a smile spread over his face, as if he had suddenly gotten an incredible idea. He walked out of the room, leaving Dave to think it was over for the afternoon. Dave sighed with relief. At least he wasn't bleeding this time. He looked at the stairs, but didn't see Anna. She was probably in her room, waiting for the right time to come out. Dave pushed himself up and when he was standing he looked up at the doorway, where his father was standing once again...with a baseball bat. With Dave's baseball bat. The same bat that had broken that window the previous year. Dave froze. He knew he should run, but the consequences he knew would come if he did kept him rooted to the spot. He bit his lip, contemplating whether or not he should do something. Before he could make a decision, he felt the whack of the bat hit him and pain shot across his left leg. He fell onto the floor again and held his injured leg. He couldn't tell
if it was broken or not, but before he could make an accurate thought, the bat hit him again, this time hitting the arm that was holding his leg. He swung his arm back and felt the bat hit him yet again. He felt the pain in his ribs and it worsened as Sam swung the bat at his stomach over and over again. Dave fought the urge to scream bloody murder as Sam continuously used the bat to assault the young boy. It felt like ages before Sam finally stopped. He tossed the bat to the side and walked out of the house as if nothing had happened. Dave gave a loud groan of pain and grabbed his stomach with his good hand. The warm tears ran down his face and he curled himself into a ball. A couple minutes later he felt a warm, comforting hand on his shoulder. He turned his head to see Anna...little Anna who was always there when he needed her. He smiled and gave her the thumbs up and she did the same. She helped him up, walked him to the couch, and called the ambulance.
End Flashback
Dave awoke. He bolted up, looked at his surroundings, and when he saw he in Exam 1 instead of his old home, he gave a huge sigh of relief. He ran his hands through his hair and left the room to work on some more patients. He looked at the clock. He was off in 3 hours, thank goodness. He couldn't wait to go home and just watch some TV. He flipped through the charts, looking for something good.
"MALUCCI!" he heard.
~Uh oh~
He looked up nervously to see Kerry standing on the other side of the desk, tapping her foot and giving him a glare.
"Hey, Chief," he said, trying to lighten her mood.
Kerry was not amused.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Uh, finding a patient, Chief," Dave replied.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to rift through the charts? All the patients need our help and if one doesn't appeal to you get over it." Kerry lectured.
Dave winced inwardly. He hated the Chief's lectures. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"Don't worry, Chief, I get it. See? I'll start right now," he said, demonstrating by closing his eyes and grabbing a chart out of the bunch. He opened his eyes and smiled. "See, Chief? It's all good."
"Mm hmm, well it better be `*all good*' later as well," she grunted.
"Sure thing, Chief," he smiled. He walked away before Kerry could reply. He looked down at his chart and saw that he had picked a good one.
~All right, headache, that's something I can handle~ Dave mused.
He walked into Exam 2 and saw a teenage boy sitting on the bed.
"Hey, man, how're you doing? I'm Dr. Malucci and I'll be taking care of you," Dave said, happily.
"I'm Jamie," the teen replied.
"Hey, Jamie, so how old are you?" Dave asked.
"I'm 15 now, 16 in two months," the kid said, proudly.
Dave smiled as he sat on the stool, thinking about how he had said the same thing when his 16^th birthday had neared.
"So, Jamie, where are your parents?" Dave asked the boy.
"My adopted parents are on the way...my real parents ditched me," he said, bitterly.
Dave averted his eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry, man," he offered.
"Whatever," Jamie replied.
Dave regretted the subject he had brought up, although he couldn't possibly have had any idea about the situation. He coughed to clear his throat and looked up at Jamie.
"Well, it says here that you have a headache, is that right?"
"Yeah, that's right," Jamie replied.
"Is this a regular headache, or did you bang it on something," Dave teased.
"I got hit with a baseball," Jamie replied, with a small smile.
Dave frowned. "Uh, so you're a baseball player?"
"Well, I'm not a team yet, but I'm going to try out for the school team," Jamie said, now fully smiling. He was obviously a baseball lover.
"Oh, that's cool," Dave said, remembering his last encounter with a baseball bat.
"Yeah, my dad got me this awesome baseball bat for part of my birthday present last year," Jamie said, happily.
"That's great, man. Your dad sounds really great," Dave replied, with a twinge of jealousy.
~Come on, Dave. You can't be jealous of this kid~ Dave thought.
"Are you OK, doc?"
Dave came back to reality. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine. So, let's get your head checked out, huh?" he said with a forced smile.
Jing-Mei watched Dave walk out of Exam 2. He looked very tired. Jing-Mei looked down at the chart she was holding, but she couldn't resist and looked back at Dave. He was talking to another patient in the hallway. She had never realized how handsome he really was. She had always been to busy avoiding him so she wasn't a victim of his catcalls. She felt so guilty. She had always wondered why he had taken abuse cases to heart all the time, of course, but she had never bothered to actually ask him. She never thought that he himself had actually been hit as a child. She figured that that was where his macho act came from. He needed to feel safe and the only way he could do that was act like the big man on campus.
"Dr. Chen?" she heard a voice say.
She bounced out of her train of thought and turned to look at the person.
"Yes, Dr. Greene?" she asked.
"Can you join me in the lounge, please," he inquired.
"Uh, sure," she said, trying to think if she had done anything wrong. She couldn't think of anything so she followed him through the lounge doors to see Dr. Weaver, Carter, and Abby seated around the table. She furrowed her brow. She had a big feeling of déjà vu. Except this wasn't about Carter.
"What's going on?" she asked.
Nobody spoke. "We're worried about Dave," Weaver spoke up.
"Why?" she asked. He hadn't been acting very abnormal, except for the fact that he wasn't joking around. But that was probably an effect of the fatigue he was showing, which was understandable, considering the long shift he had that day.
"He's not acting like...well, Dave," Abby said.
Jing-Mei rolled her eyes. They didn't even know the real Dave. None of them did. They didn't even know what his middle name was. They didn't even know if he had a middle name.
"Look, he just admitted he was abused. Of course he's not going to be acting like himself. Nobody wants their friends to know that," Jing-Mei retorted, with an undetectable wince at the word "friend". Greene sighed.
"Dr. Chen's right, we called this meeting for nothing," he said.
Carter had remained silent, but at Mark's comment he looked up.
"Maybe it's not nothing," he said, quietly.
They looked at him. At that moment, Dave walked into the lounge. Seeing his co-workers in an apparent meeting, he wondered what was going on.
"Sorry if I was interrupting anything...I was just taking a coffee break," he said.
Kerry gave him a smile. "It's fine, Dave."
~Why's Festus being so nice? Under normal circumstances, she'd be pissed~ he thought.
Dave shrugged. "So, what's going on?" he asked, subtly.
"Oh, nothing," Abby tried to cover.
"Uh huh. And I suppose certain members of the staff, me not included, gathering for a secret meeting is just a coincidence?" he challenged. He drank his coffee, burning his tongue.
His co-workers looked at each other nervously.
"You know what? Forget about it," Dave said, finishing his coffee. He through the Styrofoam cup into the trash can and walked out the door.
Kerry sighed. "Well, at least his sarcasm's back," she offered.
Jing-Mei shook her head.
"OK, everyone, let's get back to work," Mark said.
They filed out of the lounge, going their separate directions. Jing-Mei stopped to watch Dave and Randi chatting up a storm at the front desk. She smiled. They looked adorable together.
"Malucci, get to work, there are patients to see," Kerry ordered.
Jing-Mei laughed. Some things never changed.
Rating: PG-13 for swearing
Spoilers: Nah
Disclaimer: If I could own Dave Malucci a.k.a. Erik Palladino, you bet your behind I'd take him! But, alas, I do not have that option. Therefore, I do not own Dave Malucci or any other of the ER staff, but I do own Anna and Sam Malucci, as well as a couple other people in the story.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Dave sighed for the millionth time that day. He was extremely tired after working on that MVA that had come in a couple hours ago. His patient hadn't made it and he was feeling horrible about it. He rubbed his eyes and wandered around, wondering if he could find an empty room to sleep in. He found that Exam 1 was empty so he crawled into a bed and closed his eyes with a blissful and thankful smile on his face.
Flashback:
"I told you to clean your room you little shit," Sam screamed.
"Dad, please, I know, I was doing my homework and..." the 15-year-old begged.
"How many times do I have to tell you: I tell you to do something, then you fucking do it!" his father raged.
Dave tried to keep back the tears. If he started to cry, his dad would get even more upset.
"I'm sorry, Dad, it's all my fault, I know, I..."
"You're damn right it's your fault! Lucky for you, Anna cleaned your room for you! Why can't you be more like your sister, damn it, she's four years younger than you and she still acts more mature than you," Sam snickered.
Dave knew it was true. But he wasn't mad about it. He took pride in knowing his baby sister was so mature and grown up. However, it didn't really help in this situation.
"I'm sorry, Dad, please, I'm sorry, I'll clean my room next time and I won't put it off..."
"Oh, really? `You'll clean your room next time,'" Sam mocked, "you bet your sorry ass you will!"
Dave felt a tear run down his cheek. He tried to brush it away before Sam saw it, but it was too late.
"Oh, is little Davey crying now? Are you, you little runt?" Sam said, starting to get worked up again.
Of course, Dave was no runt. He had muscles and if he wanted to, he could take his father out. But Dave wasn't stupid. He knew what his father could do and if he wanted to live, he'd control himself.
"No, Dad, I'm just..."
"Did you just tell me no? Did you just lie to me?" Sam yelled.
Dave's eyes widened as he saw the hand coming toward his face. The impact of the hand to face stung Dave and the noise it made was sickening. Dave put his hand to his face and dropped to the floor, backing away.
"Don't you run away from me, boy," Sam snarled. Sam stopped and a smile spread over his face, as if he had suddenly gotten an incredible idea. He walked out of the room, leaving Dave to think it was over for the afternoon. Dave sighed with relief. At least he wasn't bleeding this time. He looked at the stairs, but didn't see Anna. She was probably in her room, waiting for the right time to come out. Dave pushed himself up and when he was standing he looked up at the doorway, where his father was standing once again...with a baseball bat. With Dave's baseball bat. The same bat that had broken that window the previous year. Dave froze. He knew he should run, but the consequences he knew would come if he did kept him rooted to the spot. He bit his lip, contemplating whether or not he should do something. Before he could make a decision, he felt the whack of the bat hit him and pain shot across his left leg. He fell onto the floor again and held his injured leg. He couldn't tell
if it was broken or not, but before he could make an accurate thought, the bat hit him again, this time hitting the arm that was holding his leg. He swung his arm back and felt the bat hit him yet again. He felt the pain in his ribs and it worsened as Sam swung the bat at his stomach over and over again. Dave fought the urge to scream bloody murder as Sam continuously used the bat to assault the young boy. It felt like ages before Sam finally stopped. He tossed the bat to the side and walked out of the house as if nothing had happened. Dave gave a loud groan of pain and grabbed his stomach with his good hand. The warm tears ran down his face and he curled himself into a ball. A couple minutes later he felt a warm, comforting hand on his shoulder. He turned his head to see Anna...little Anna who was always there when he needed her. He smiled and gave her the thumbs up and she did the same. She helped him up, walked him to the couch, and called the ambulance.
End Flashback
Dave awoke. He bolted up, looked at his surroundings, and when he saw he in Exam 1 instead of his old home, he gave a huge sigh of relief. He ran his hands through his hair and left the room to work on some more patients. He looked at the clock. He was off in 3 hours, thank goodness. He couldn't wait to go home and just watch some TV. He flipped through the charts, looking for something good.
"MALUCCI!" he heard.
~Uh oh~
He looked up nervously to see Kerry standing on the other side of the desk, tapping her foot and giving him a glare.
"Hey, Chief," he said, trying to lighten her mood.
Kerry was not amused.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Uh, finding a patient, Chief," Dave replied.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to rift through the charts? All the patients need our help and if one doesn't appeal to you get over it." Kerry lectured.
Dave winced inwardly. He hated the Chief's lectures. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"Don't worry, Chief, I get it. See? I'll start right now," he said, demonstrating by closing his eyes and grabbing a chart out of the bunch. He opened his eyes and smiled. "See, Chief? It's all good."
"Mm hmm, well it better be `*all good*' later as well," she grunted.
"Sure thing, Chief," he smiled. He walked away before Kerry could reply. He looked down at his chart and saw that he had picked a good one.
~All right, headache, that's something I can handle~ Dave mused.
He walked into Exam 2 and saw a teenage boy sitting on the bed.
"Hey, man, how're you doing? I'm Dr. Malucci and I'll be taking care of you," Dave said, happily.
"I'm Jamie," the teen replied.
"Hey, Jamie, so how old are you?" Dave asked.
"I'm 15 now, 16 in two months," the kid said, proudly.
Dave smiled as he sat on the stool, thinking about how he had said the same thing when his 16^th birthday had neared.
"So, Jamie, where are your parents?" Dave asked the boy.
"My adopted parents are on the way...my real parents ditched me," he said, bitterly.
Dave averted his eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry, man," he offered.
"Whatever," Jamie replied.
Dave regretted the subject he had brought up, although he couldn't possibly have had any idea about the situation. He coughed to clear his throat and looked up at Jamie.
"Well, it says here that you have a headache, is that right?"
"Yeah, that's right," Jamie replied.
"Is this a regular headache, or did you bang it on something," Dave teased.
"I got hit with a baseball," Jamie replied, with a small smile.
Dave frowned. "Uh, so you're a baseball player?"
"Well, I'm not a team yet, but I'm going to try out for the school team," Jamie said, now fully smiling. He was obviously a baseball lover.
"Oh, that's cool," Dave said, remembering his last encounter with a baseball bat.
"Yeah, my dad got me this awesome baseball bat for part of my birthday present last year," Jamie said, happily.
"That's great, man. Your dad sounds really great," Dave replied, with a twinge of jealousy.
~Come on, Dave. You can't be jealous of this kid~ Dave thought.
"Are you OK, doc?"
Dave came back to reality. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine. So, let's get your head checked out, huh?" he said with a forced smile.
Jing-Mei watched Dave walk out of Exam 2. He looked very tired. Jing-Mei looked down at the chart she was holding, but she couldn't resist and looked back at Dave. He was talking to another patient in the hallway. She had never realized how handsome he really was. She had always been to busy avoiding him so she wasn't a victim of his catcalls. She felt so guilty. She had always wondered why he had taken abuse cases to heart all the time, of course, but she had never bothered to actually ask him. She never thought that he himself had actually been hit as a child. She figured that that was where his macho act came from. He needed to feel safe and the only way he could do that was act like the big man on campus.
"Dr. Chen?" she heard a voice say.
She bounced out of her train of thought and turned to look at the person.
"Yes, Dr. Greene?" she asked.
"Can you join me in the lounge, please," he inquired.
"Uh, sure," she said, trying to think if she had done anything wrong. She couldn't think of anything so she followed him through the lounge doors to see Dr. Weaver, Carter, and Abby seated around the table. She furrowed her brow. She had a big feeling of déjà vu. Except this wasn't about Carter.
"What's going on?" she asked.
Nobody spoke. "We're worried about Dave," Weaver spoke up.
"Why?" she asked. He hadn't been acting very abnormal, except for the fact that he wasn't joking around. But that was probably an effect of the fatigue he was showing, which was understandable, considering the long shift he had that day.
"He's not acting like...well, Dave," Abby said.
Jing-Mei rolled her eyes. They didn't even know the real Dave. None of them did. They didn't even know what his middle name was. They didn't even know if he had a middle name.
"Look, he just admitted he was abused. Of course he's not going to be acting like himself. Nobody wants their friends to know that," Jing-Mei retorted, with an undetectable wince at the word "friend". Greene sighed.
"Dr. Chen's right, we called this meeting for nothing," he said.
Carter had remained silent, but at Mark's comment he looked up.
"Maybe it's not nothing," he said, quietly.
They looked at him. At that moment, Dave walked into the lounge. Seeing his co-workers in an apparent meeting, he wondered what was going on.
"Sorry if I was interrupting anything...I was just taking a coffee break," he said.
Kerry gave him a smile. "It's fine, Dave."
~Why's Festus being so nice? Under normal circumstances, she'd be pissed~ he thought.
Dave shrugged. "So, what's going on?" he asked, subtly.
"Oh, nothing," Abby tried to cover.
"Uh huh. And I suppose certain members of the staff, me not included, gathering for a secret meeting is just a coincidence?" he challenged. He drank his coffee, burning his tongue.
His co-workers looked at each other nervously.
"You know what? Forget about it," Dave said, finishing his coffee. He through the Styrofoam cup into the trash can and walked out the door.
Kerry sighed. "Well, at least his sarcasm's back," she offered.
Jing-Mei shook her head.
"OK, everyone, let's get back to work," Mark said.
They filed out of the lounge, going their separate directions. Jing-Mei stopped to watch Dave and Randi chatting up a storm at the front desk. She smiled. They looked adorable together.
"Malucci, get to work, there are patients to see," Kerry ordered.
Jing-Mei laughed. Some things never changed.