PART 11
Elizabeth, Malik and Connie wheeled Malucci up to the OR where Drs, Romano and Benton were waiting to start the transplant. Back down in the ER, no one could keep their minds on their work remembering the last time two of their co-workers were in adjoining ORS. Every time the patient load slowed down, the staff found themselves huddled at the admit desk thinking about what was going on upstairs. The police had finished questioning everyone about the shooting and had a somewhat description of him. Jing- Mei told them they had to find the son of bitch who did this. The cops said that they weren't making any promises but it wasn't likely to happen. Jerry said that it was so weird, only a few hours ago Dave was telling us about his evening plans with Cheryl and how he said he had missed the first 5 years of his daughter's life and didn't want to miss so much as one more day of it. Now Dave would never see his little girl grow up. They all admitted that none of them had ever seen Dave that happy before. He was finally starting to get his life together when it came to a drastic, tragic halt. Luka pointed that what happened to Dave, although tragic, was fate. No one could understand his logic. Luka explained, " Remember last night at Dave's house when Dave jokingly said he would give Carter his heart if he wasn't using it right now. I never thought much about that statement until now. It was like Dave knew subconsciously." Mark remarked, " Yeah, that's true. Think about it everyone. It's a billion to one that we would have one doctor in the ER with a rare small p blood factor and here it was we had two of them and both with the same blood type and approximately the same age." Jing- Mei added, "How many times has Malucci come into the hospital on his day off. NEVER. But of all days he just happened to be here today." Cleo said that Luca was right. It was fate. It was like Dave was meant to be Carter's heart donor ever since we found out about Carter's condition. Malik stated ," That the only problem with that logic was that Dave was on his way out of the hospital with Allison until...." he stopped there. Luka said what everyone else was thinking, "Until what, Malik?" Wanting to change the subject Malik just said, "Never mind, it doesn't matter now." Haleh spoke," Yeah Malik until what? We want to know what you meant." Giving up, Malik explained," Dave and Allison were on their way out of the hospital until Kerry stopped Malucci and called him back." Kerry's jaw dropped when she realized that what Malik said was the truth. She murmured," Oh my god, it's all my fault. If I would have waited to talk to Malucci about his charts , he and Allison would have been long gone off to the zoo before the gun-toting drug seeker re-entered the hospital and Dave would still be alive and Allison and the new baby would still have a daddy and Cheryl a fiance. How am I ever going to face them or live with myself again." Everyone told her that she wasn't to blame for Dave's death but deep down they felt she was ultimately but unintentially responsible.