The body was cold and still. Only the man's face could be seen as a white sheet covered the rest of the mutilated body.
Dave pulled his hand away. His head cocked to the side, his visage of pain and sorrow was subtle. He leaned on the IV pole for support. When he took a step forward he felt a sharp pain in his stomach where the glass shard had been. Abby had pulled it out for him so that it would be less painful to stand.
The quiet and peaceful silence of the room was broken by Dave's husky whisper. "You were my father. You weren't a good one, but you were my dad all the same." Looking down at the dead form of his father before him he felt a surprising amount of loss and regret. Luka and John conversed in low voices in the hallway as they waited for their friend. He touched his father's cold hand contemplatively in as much of a goodbye gesture as he could muster.
He turned to John and Luka and gave a slight nod that meant he was finished. However, as he took a step forward he felt another sharp pain in his abdomen where the glass had been that made him clutch his bandaged side in pain. If one later asked him to describe the pain he most likely couldn't, except that he was suddenly filled with a sick sense of dread and certainty of his own death that many a wounded soldier has experienced.
"You all right?" John was at his side in an instant, grabbing his arm to support him. Dave unscrunched his eyes; fighting nausea he breathed in shallowly. "I dunno," he grunted, his hand still pressing against the now red bandage. Luka noticed the crimson as it spread its tendrils across the white bandage which contrasted the dark bruised color of Dave's skin with surprise.
"Let's get him to the OR!" He moved hurriedly as he pulled in the awaiting gurney.
"What?" John's perplexed gaze followed Luka's movements.
"Someone pulled that damn piece of glass outta' him and nicked an artery!"
"Wha…?" John looked down as he helped Dave onto the gurney., noticing the blood for the first time. "Shit! Abby asked and I said it was okay!"
The morphine had taken its effect and combined with the growing sick feeling of dread inside him served to lull Dave into a state of trusting and dejected compliance.
The two young doctors clad in white lab coats rushed to the elevator.
"I thought you had a surgery internship!"
"Yeah, for a year."
"Didn't you learn anything?!" Luka was trying to control his anger just as John was the sudden cold fear that gripped him.
"You let a nurse do it! Why didn't you?"
"I…" John was trying to remember his reasoning at the time.
They entered the elevator and punched in the level of the OR.
"It was after you left, I thought it was fine!" The two men were shouting now. As the doors slid open the two doctors rushed down the hallway, almost hitting Dr. Romano.
"Well, if it isn't the impatient ER boys!"
"Romano, we need you!" Luka tried to keep the panic from his voice. The short bald man was trying to get a look at the patient from his vantage point behind the other two. Curious, and always eager for a chance to enforce himself he jogged along behind the two younger doctors.
John turned his soft brown eyes to Romano, his face serious. "It's Malucci."
Romano drew in his breath before giving out orders to clear the nearest OR.
Nurses hurriedly hooked up monitors as Romano hastily cut off the bandages. "Oh shit! What the hell happened?" He looked up to the nearest nurse. "We've got a bleeder here!"
Author's note:
Sorry guys! There'll be more soon! I leave for South Dakota from California Sat. morning but will be back Wed. night! I'll post as fast as possible! Thanks for all of the support you've all been giving me! It means so much!