April 30, 2001

Jing-Mei walked into the lounge and saw John sitting on the couch. She couldn't help but to smile.

"Hey Stranger." She said. "You look like you haven't shaved."

"I haven't." John said. Jing-Mei sat down next to him.

"How was Oklahoma?" She asked.

"A regular joy ride." He managed to push out a smile.

"You know it was really nice of you to do that for Abby." Jing-Mei said taking his hand. He sighed.

"Rena broke up with me." John said.

"Because of me?"

"Because of Abby." Jing-Mei cocked her eyebrow. John smiled, "She thinks I have a crush on Abby and that whole trip thing was my way to woo her."

"Ahhh...Well don't woo Abby." Jing-Mei smiled.

"I wont. Did I miss anything while I was gone?" He asked.

"Dr. Greene and Dr. Corday had the baby." John smiled.

"Really? That's great. What did they have?"

"A Girl. They named her Ella." John chuckled.

"Ella? Were they afraid no one would know she's a girl?" Jing-Mei smiled.

"Ella is a cute name."

"Sounds like a name for an old lady." Jing-Mei smacked him playfully.

"Well, Ella will be an old lady someday." She said. John looked at her. His heart still beat rapidly when he looked at her.

"Are you off?" John asked. Jing-Mei nodded.

"Yeah." She said, "When do you have work?"

"Tomorrow afternoon." John smiled taking her hand. "Do you want to do anything?" Jing-Mei smiled at him. She couldn't believe it. She was actually with John. Rena was now out of the way. She knew it was horrible to think that but Rena was no good for John. John eyed her. "What are you thinking?" Jing-Mei blushed slightly.

"I'm thinking how foolish Rena was to break up with you but how lucky I am to have you all to myself." John smiled at her.

"You're not the other woman anymore." Jing-Mei let out a small laugh as Lily walked in. john quickly let go of her hand.

"Dr. Chen, we need you out here."

"I'm off."

"We're backed up out there. Just one case. A five month old, not responding to anything. There's not much hope, but the mother is out there." Lydia said. Jing-Mei sighed and stood up.

"All right. Care to help John?"

"Sure."

* * *

Jing-Mei stood above the blue baby. She glanced at John.

"We need to try something." John said, "Her mother is outside." Jing-Mei glanced out the door and saw a woman in tears watching every move they made.

"All right. Let's push an epi." Jing-Mei said with a sigh as she started chest compressions. "She came in like this?"

"Her mother said she found her in her crib like this." Lydia said. Jing-Mei glanced at John.

"SIDs?" He asked.

"Possibly." She said. "This is hopeless. We need an autopsy on her now."

"We need to tell her mother." John said. Jing-Mei sighed and took her gloves off. She walked out of the door.

"Miss Henson?" The woman jumped.

"Tonya? How is Tonya?" She asked. Jing-Mei sighed.

"I'm sorry, Miss Henson. We did everything we could do but She was already passed on."

"No...No." Miss Henson started to cry, "W-Why??"

"I don't know." Jing-Mei shifted uncomfortably, "We would like for you to authorize an autopsy so we can confirm my feelings that she died from SIDs."

"No." Miss Henson said quickly.

"What?"

"I-I'm not going to have Tonya cut open." She said. "I n-need to call her father." She ran to the chairs.

"Deb?" John opened up the door, "come look at this." He mentioned her to Tonya's body.

"What?" John turned the baby over and saw a small gash on the back of her head. Jing-Mei put her hand over the gash. "There's barely any skull there." She looked up at John.

"Looks like she was beaten." John said quietly.

"Shit." Jing-Mei cursed. She hated cases like these, "Lydia, call social services and security. Don't let Miss Henson leave."

"I called her father." Miss Henson sniffed as John and Jing-Mei walked out of the room. Jing-Mei glanced at John. He cleared his throat.

"Miss Henson, we would really like to perform an autopsy on Tonya." John insisted.

"I said No." She said.

"Ma'am are you aware that Tonya has a gash on her head?" John asked. Miss Henson Nodded.

"Yes. Her father told me." She said. John cocked his eyebrow.

"What did he tell you exactly?"

"That Tonya w-was pulling herself up onto the table and slipped." She said, "Why are you asking me these questions?"

"We have reason to believe Tonya's injuries were cause by physical abuse." John said. Jing-Mei watched Miss Henson's reactions carefully.

"W-What? I would never ever touch my daughter. I love her more than my own life." She said. "I can't believe you'd even suggest that I would." As if on cue, Tonya's father Hank, ran up to Felicia.

"Felicia, oh god!" He wrapped his arms around his crying wife, "Let's go home."

"Wait." Jing-Mei stopped them. "Don't you want to know about your daughter?" Hank turned to face Jing-Mei

"She's dead. There's nothing you can do." Hank said, "come on Felicia."

"We need to perform an autopsy on her." John said.

"God! I don't care what you do with her now She's dead/"

"No Hank! Don't let them cut her open!" Felicia begged.

"Licia, Tonya is dead and gone. Get over it." Hank spat. "We'll have another baby someday. Let's go home." Jing-Mei's jaw dropped. John took a step towards Hank.

"Did you touch your daughter?" He asked firmly.

"I'm going to touch you in a second." Hank said to John.

"Hank, please!" Felicia pulled him away, "Not today. Not now."

"Did you touch your daughter?" John repeated.

"It's none of your fucking business!!" Hank yelled. Jing-Mei ran to see what was taking security so long. John stared directly into Hank's eyes.

"When she comes into my ER, it is my business." John said in Hank's face. Jing-Mei pulled John away as the security guards came up behind Hank

"John. Let security and social services handles this." She said. Hank glared at John as Security was pulling him away.

"Just because I-"

"Just because you what? Killed your daughter?" John crossed his arms. Hank looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Felicia gasped.

"Oh Hank!" She cried stepping away from him.

"You'll be hearing from my lawyer, Dr Carter!" Hank cried as he was dragged outside.

"I can't wait! Bring it on!" John yelled. Jing-Mei rubbed his back.

"John, calm down." She said.

"Deb, he basically admitted to killing his daughter."

"I know. I was here." She said, "Let's go home, John."

"I can't I need to see that man go down." Jing-Mei sighed.

"John, the police will call you for a statement so you'll be kept up to date on it. Let's just go home..." She glanced around at the nurses staring at her, "To our separate places of course. Ha! Ha! And rest." John looked at her.

"All right." He said as he watch Tonya's body being wheeled away. "Why do people like that exist, Deb?"

"I don't know, but it's a shame." She said, "Let's go." As the went to Jing-Mei's apartment, all they could think about was Tonya. Was this family always abusive? Was Felicia next? They hated having days end like this. Having day's end with more questions.