February 11th, 2003

Week 38

Dave slid the chart into its slot and stretched. He was tired, but he still had three hours left until he could get home to his family. John took a chart from the desk and looked at Dave.

"So how's Randi doing?" He asked, "Her presence is missed here. Too much frank." Dave chuckled.

"She's fine. She's ready to pop in two weeks." He said.

"Oh yeah. I keep forgetting she's pregnant." John said, "Didn't you just have a baby?"

"A year ago." Dave said with some coldness in his voice.

"Ah right. Well, keep up the work." John chuckled as he walked off. What did John know? He wasn't a father. He didn't know how wonderful it was. Dave grabbed another chart and went to chairs.

"Henry Harold." He said. An elderly woman stood up.

"This is Henry." She said indicating an elderly make that looked horrible. Dave walked over to the man with a wheelchair.

"Who are you?" He asked helping Henry into the wheelchair.

"Ruth Harold. I'm his wife." She said, "He was having chest pains and he started to pee blood."

"I see he's hooked up to a bag." Dave said going to an exam room.

"He had a stroke three years ago and never really returned to normal. I've been his wife for sixty-three years and I wasn't going to put him in a home." Ruth said, "I cleaned up for him, I bathed him, and I fed him. I'm just so tired." Dave nodded.

"I understand." He said helping Henry to the bed. He was so frail and weak. "Hello Henry. How are you feeling today?" Henry groaned slightly.

"I don't want him to be in any pain." Ruth said.

"He won't be." Dave said checking his pulse. It was very weak. "Is he on any medication?"

"I gave him his heart medicine this morning." She said. Dave nodded.

"All right. I'm going to draw some blood and run a few tests." Dave said. Ruth nodded slowly.

"No pain anymore, Henry." She whispered.

* * *

"Say Ahhh." Dave put the tongue depressor on the child's tongue.

"Is Kayla okay?" Her mother asked. Dave nodded.

"Just a case of strep." He smiled pulling out his prescription pad. "Give her these every six hours on a full stomach and she should be fine in a week. If she's not, take her to her to her normal doctor. If it gets any worse, we may need to remove her tonsils but I doubt it'll get that drastic."

"Thank you Dr. Malucci." She smiled Abby knocked on the door.

"Mr. Harold is crashing." She said. Dave bolted up. He ran into Henry's room.

"Get the crash cart." He yelled, "Henry, don't die on my now." Dave grabbed the paddles. "Clear." He shocked his body, but nothing happened. Dave charged the paddles some more and worked on him for the next twenty minutes. "When was his last epi?"

"Five minutes." Abby said. Dave looked back at Ruth.

"Keep going." Dave started compressions. He couldn't let him die. He just couldn't. Dave phased everyone out as he worked on Henry. Time elapsed without him noticing.

"Dave." Abby said. "Dave!" Dave looked at her, "It's been fifty minutes. I think he's gone."

"Shit." Dave cursed ripping his gloves off. "Time of death; 3:22 am." He looked back at Ruth as Lily came back in.

"The lab results came back on him." She said.
"Too late." Dave muttered.

"No. You should look at the results." Lily said. Dave looked at the results. He gritted his teeth and looked at Ruth.

"What were you thinking?" Dave asked the old woman.

"I didn't want him to be in pain."

"You induced an overdose!" Dave yelled. Ruth started to cry.

"I just couldn't handle it anymore." She sobbed, "He was so much work."

"So you killed your husband!" Dave growled. Abby grabbed his arm.

"Dave, don't/" Abby whispered.

"'Till death do us part." Dave muttered, "It wasn't a mercy kill for him, Mrs. Harold. It was a mercy kill for yourself. You should be disgusted with yourself."

"I'm sorry." Ruth whispered, "I couldn't do it for another day. I'm sorry."

February 25th 2003

Week 40

Randi sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the clock. It was nine o'clock in the evening. Her lip started to tremble. Tears started to well in her eyes. Randi burst into tears.

"Oh god." She sobbed into her hands. Dave walked into the room with a look of concern on his face.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"L-Lyric isn't here yet!" Randi wailed.

"I know. She'll come soon." He said, "Not every baby is born on their due date."

"Today is my due date and I want her here now!!" Randi sobbed

"Your water could break at any moment. You never know. Your contractions could get more regular and close." He said.

"They are regular. They happen every god damn ninety minutes." Randi whined.

"Well, just look at it this way. Ireland is at your grandmother's house and if you pop tonight we won't need to wait for Patty to come to get Ireland." Dave said. Randi glared at him.

"That doesn't help me any, Ass." She said hauling herself up, "I'm going for a walk."

"Last time you id that you had Ireland." Dave said, "I'm coming with you."

"What ever floats your boat." Randi muttered. She waddled downstairs and started putting her jacket, gloves, and scarf on. It was freezing outside. Randi walked outside and Dave followed her. He took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "How did we wind up here, Dave?"

"Where?" He asked.

"Here in the perfect life." Randi said, "We're married. We're going to have our second daughter any second. We have a well-behaved dog. We live in a gorgeous house. You're a great doctor. I'm a great fashion designer. Why did we get this life? We were despicable people in are old life before all of this." Dave shrugged.

"I don't know." Dave said, "I guess, god gives everyone a chance for the perfect life. Our chance came a little later in our lives, but we got it. Do you want to change any of it?" Randi shook her head.

"No. I love my life." She said, "My parents said I'd never amount to anything, but now look at me. It's shocking really. I'm not even counting Randi wear or anything. Just look at Ireland. I did…We did an amazing job there. Being a mother and a wife has been my best accomplishment and its only going to get better." Dave smiled.

"We're only on baby number two. We have a few left to have." He chuckled. Randi smiled resting her head on his shoulder.

"How many kids do you think we're having?" She asked.

"Six." Dave said, "Three boys and three girls."

"Five." Randi corrected him, "We're going to have five and that's it."

"Five. I may settle on five." He smiled giving her a hug. "It doesn't matter to me. God can bless us with as many little ones as he sees fit." Randi ran her hand over her stomach.
"I wish he would just hurry up and give us this one." She said, "Maybe some Mexican food and some sex."

"How about some sex with a Mexican?" Dave smiled, "That has to be better." Randi laughed.

"I think, I'll settle for a little Italian." She said.

"Big Italian." Dave winked. Randi laughed.

"I stand corrected.' She said, "We should head back. My nipples are freezing off."

"Lord. We need those nipples." He said leading Randi back to the house, "Speaking of nipples, Ireland is really going to need to be weaned from them. We can't have her and Lyric fighting over them."

"I know." Randi sighed, "I'm going to see how she does with grandma and the bottle while we're here waiting for Lyric. I think she'll be fine though. She's so independent and ready to grow up."

"She'll never grow up." He said, "She's going to stay one forever."

"Only in photos and memories." Randi said softly. Dave kissed her softly. Hopefully, their family would b growing again in any second……..