Author's note: Howdy doody! How's it going? This part is shorter than the others, but I haven't had much time, so... Thanks to all who have reviewed! Please continue to do so... ;-) English isn't my first language and Word insisted that donor wasn't a real word, that's why it ended up as donator... I thought that sounded strange though. Thanks for informing me, from now on I'll teach Word a thing or two... :-) But if you notice any incorrect words please mention it, since I'm always hoping to improve my language! Oh, and btw, before I end my chatter and get on with the fic :-), actually I didn't mean to imply that Romano is Icelantic in my last chapter... However if you fly to the States from northern Europe you pass by Iceland on the way. I'm gonna keep Romano American, although include some European stuff anyhow!
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or other ER things...
~*~
"My patient's mother keeps taking the pills I prescribe for her daughter" Carted complained to Abby.
"What are you going to do about it?" Abby asked, not paying much attention.
"I have a plan."
"Reassuring" Abby said, and headed toward the doctor's lounge. She was in a bad mood today, and Carter's problems didn't concern her much at the moment. What she needed was a cup of coffee and a cigarette. Why had she had to stop smoking? Sure, it would save her life, but at the time being she really needed nicotine.
She entered the lounge and found Corday and Josh Hailey there. Hailey was giving Corday the cold shoulder to the best of his ability, but it was mostly in vain since Elizabeth didn't seem to notice. She was going through her locker in search of something.
"Wow" Abby said. "You could cut the tension in here with a knife."
Hailey took that as his cue to leave and with one last icy glare at Elizabeth left the room. Elizabeth sighed and finally found what she had been looking for. Abby turned to look at her, holding her cup of coffee in her hand.
"What's up with him?" she asked.
"Oh, Hailey is just having some trouble accepting that I'm not in love with him. He can't quite get over the fact that I'm seeing Romano. How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine" Abby said, in her usual denial. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, it is Luka's last day. From tomorrow on he'll be in Croatia."
"Yes I know that" Abby said, trying to sound as casual as possible.
"And you're fine with that? You used to love him."
"I'm fine."
"Are you sure? I know when Peter left I--"
"I'm fine, okay Elizabeth?" Abby said, trying hard to keep her casual act. "Luka and I broke up years ago. I'm fine."
"Well if you say so..." Elizabeth said, looking sceptic.
"It's going to be a bit empty here for a while, but that's how it always is when someone leaves!" Abby said, not wanting to sound too indifferent. "And then someone new comes and takes over, and things go back to normal."
"Looks like they've already hired a new doctor" Elizabeth told her. "I ran into Robert upstairs about a half hour ago and he told me Stone had hired someone."
"Already? Uh, good..."
Elizabeth doubted the sincerity of that, but didn't say anything. She had to get back upstairs and start doing some paperwork, she had been avoiding it all week. She said goodbye to Abby and headed for the elevators.
"Elizabeth!" Luka's voice stopped her just as she was about to step on to the elevator. "How did it go yesterday, with the gunshot wound?"
"He died" Elizabeth sighed.
"Oh..."
Not knowing what else to say, Luka turned and walked back to admin, letting Elizabeth get on the elevator. He checked the board for anything interesting but everything seemed to be covered. It was a slow day so far.
~*~
An hour later Elizabeth was in desperate need of a cup of coffee, and took her retreat to the surgeons' lounge. She had been called down three times in the past hour to do consults, and she was beginning to wonder where all the other surgeons were. There had to be someone else who could go down and do a consult.
She got her cup of coffee and sat down, taking a moment to relax. She loved being alone in the lounge, it was the only time during work when she could clear her head in absolute silence. If someone needed a consult down in the ER they would have to send someone else, she was not going to move out of this chair for a while.
She looked up when her peace was disturbed by someone entering, and nearly choked on her coffee when she recognised Robert's friend from the day before, dressed in her perfectly neat lab coat and with her perfect hair still in perfect order. What on earth was that woman doing here?
"Oh hello!" she said to Elizabeth, and smiled one of those annoying smiles. "You look familiar, did we meet yesterday?"
"Briefly."
"Right... Out by the desk, right?"
"Right... May I ask, what are you doing in here, this is the surgeons' lounge."
"Oh! I apologise..." She walked over and extended her hand to the somewhat baffled Elizabeth. "Kristina Lindgren."
"Elizabeth Corday" Elizabeth said and shook her hand, not quite following.
"I was just hired to take over after some other European who is leaving."
Elizabeth's face showed exactly how shocked she was. Had Stone lost his mind completely? She had to be kidding!
"Luka hasn't even left yet" she stuttered.
"Well officially I don't start down in the ER until tomorrow" Kristina said and sat down in the chair next to Elizabeth's. "But I'm also filling in up here in the OR."
"What?"
"Well Robert's arm isn't well, and he said you could use an extra surgeon so he offered me a job. It's only temporary, of course, but I'm still quite excited! Not about his arm of course, what a horrible thing that is! I feel so sorry for him!"
Elizabeth had stopped listening after the bit about the job offer. This woman had to be kidding, or else Satan was wearing mittens and a winter coat down in hell. There was no way Robert would admit to not being as well in his arm as he'd like to be, and to offer someone his job because of it. This was all too much at one time.
"Are you all right?" Kristina asked.
"I'm fine" Elizabeth said, not being a bit more fine than Abby had been earlier when answering the same question.
"You don't look fine, if you don't mind me saying so" Kristina said, with a concerned frown, eyeing Elizabeth who was staring into space with a shocked look in her face. "Is there something wrong?"
"I, uh, I have to go..." Elizabeth said and got up, completely forgetting her cup of coffee which was only half finished. "I, uh, I'll see you later."
She hurried out of the lounge and wondered if today was April Fools Day. But that day rarely came in October, so unless this was someone's idea of a joke then it must be true. But she couldn't believe that it was, it sounded too incredible. Not to mention that she didn't like the thought of having to work with this woman, who felt like competition.
"Lizzie!" Robert's voice broke through her confused thoughts. "What's the matter with you, you look like someone just gave you a difficult math problem and stole your calculator."
He always seemed to have a way with words, which usually either annoyed her or amused her, depending on the situation, but at the moment gave no reaction. He gave her a slightly concerned frown, annoyingly much like the one Kristina had given her minutes before, and stopped by his office door.
"Come inside Lizzie, you look like you need to unwind. Haven't I told you not to drink too much coffee too early in the day?"
She followed him into his office and slumped in one of the chairs, suddenly missing the coffee she'd left behind in the lounge. Robert looked at her, still frowning, and hung off his lab coat before taking a seat behind his desk. He peered at her and leaned a bit over his desk.
"Ho, ho? Lizzie?"
"What?" she asked, suddenly snapping back to reality.
He looked at her with a mixture of a concerned frown and a smirk, and leaned back in his chair.
"You okay?"
"Yes I'm fine" she mumbled.
"Good. For a moment there I was worried you'd migrated over to your own little Lizzie-world." The frown left his face and was replaced by a smile.
"Robert, when you said you'd found someone to replace Dr. Kovac..." she began, but got unsure over how to finish. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, he finished for her.
"Yeah, like I said, hired someone today."
"How did you find someone so soon?"
"That's the beauty of it, all I had to do was to pressure Stone into doing me a favour and voila!"
"Voila?"
"As French fries would put it."
"Robert tell me you didn't talk Stone into hiring your friend from yesterday."
"What, you have a problem with Stina?"
"I thought her name was Kristina."
"Whatever. Yes, she's the lucky one. I think she's in the lounge, you should go say hello to your new colleague."
"Will she be working in the OR as well?"
"Yeah. We could use another pair of surgical hands, until mine are good as new again."
"That long?" it slipped out of Elizabeth before she realised what she was saying. She didn't like the thought of having to put up with Kristina for god knows how long. Robert didn't seem to react on her comment, he was in a very good mood and apparently intended to stay that way.
"She'll only be here temporarily" he said. "She didn't get that position at Mercy, we needed a new doctor, it was the perfect solution."
"Only she's never worked in an American hospital before, has she? If she's been trained in whatever country she's from she's probably not used to the way we talk, if English is her second language then--"
"She speaks English perfectly."
"Do we really need another surgeon?" she asked, changing direction. She hoped she could awaken his ego a bit to make him look less positively on having some new doctor take over most of his job.
"It can't hurt, can it?" Robert asked, his good mood seeming to fade somewhat. "You and I both know that as much as I want to, I can't perform surgery the way that I used to, or hardly at all."
"You're making wonderful progress!"
"Slow progress. I have full confidence that I'll be back in the OR standing on my own two... well, arms, within time. But until then, it certainly won't hurt to have another surgeon." He rose from his chair and went to open his door. "Kristina is an amazing woman, you'll like her. Now get out of here, I have boring paperwork to do and then places to go. I'll see you later."
~*~
Abby watched in the corner of her eye as Luka helped an old woman with a heart problem, not paying much attention to her own patient. She couldn't quite understand that this would be the last time she ever worked a shift with him. When she came to work tomorrow he would be on an airplane to Croatia, flying out of her life.
Elizabeth had been right, it was really hard to know he was leaving for good because she had loved him once, and she still cared a lot about him. Over the past year she had often thought she despised him now, since she despised the way he had acted, but now she realised that she never had. She knew why he had acted the way he had, and even though she didn't approve of his reaction she could understand it.
"I need my meds!" her patient angrily whined, turning her attention back to her job.
"Just a minute, Mr. Arlington..." she said and in the corner of her eye noted that Luka was finished with his patient for now. She finished with hers and went back to admin.
"Abby!" Luka said. "Big trauma coming in, go prep the trauma room."
She turned and went to the trauma room while he went outside to wait for the patients to arrive. There were three of them, who had been hurt when a statue at a museum had fallen over them. His day was going from slow to stressy, but he didn't mind. He never felt more useful than in a trauma room, and he wanted to feel useful on his last day.
The ambulances came, and soon everything was organised ER chaos. Luka, Lewis and Pratt were working in one trauma room while Carter, Gallant and Stone were in the other. Someone else was attending to the third victim, who had only broken an arm.
"Page surgery, tell them we need them down here!" Carter said, trying to intubate his patient. It wasn't very easy since there was a lot of blood, but he was determined to get it done. The woman was badly injured and he didn't have very high hopes that she would make it, but the least he could do was try. Her daughter in the other trauma room was not as badly hurt. Abby came in to grab something and he decided to ask for an update.
"Abby, how's your patient?"
"Pressure's stabile" Abby responded. "She's awake."
"Got it!" Carter declared, finally getting the tube in. "Bag her!"
One of the nurses bagged the woman and started squeezing the bag. Abby went back to the other trauma room, where the girl seemed to be stabile for now, but she had internal bleedings and needed surgery. Plus it seemed as if her back was broken, and they were worried she'd end up paralysed.
"Sweetheart, can you feel this?" Lewis asked the girl and gave her some painful stimuli in her toes.
"No" the girl sobbed, near hysteria. "What's happening? Am I paralysed?"
"We don't know for sure yet, sweetie, but we're going to do everything we can."
"You don't need me in here" Pratt decided and headed over to the other OR where things were much more critical. Stone had his hands in the patient's chest, giving internal compression, and nobody looked very optimistic.
"What's wrong with my mom?" the girl cried.
"You're mother's being treated by some of the best doctors in the hospital" Luka tried to comfort her. "They're doing everything they can."
The doors opened and Kristina stepped in, a bit unsure of whether or not she was in the right room.
"Was it here you called for a surgical consult?" she asked.
"Yes, are you the surgeon?" Lewis asked.
"Yes" Kristina said and began to do a quick exam of the patient.
"No reaction to painful stimuli below her waist" Lewis informed her.
"I'm paralysed, aren't I?" the girl sobbed.
"We don't know that yet" Kristina said. "I think you've broken your back, but we need to stop the bleeding first. Come on, let's get you up to the OR."
"But what about my mom?" the girl cried.
Kristina took a glance at the patient in the next room and didn't know what to say. The mother probably wouldn't make it, but she didn't want to upset the girl even more.
"Your mother is getting better" she said and started rolling the girl's bed toward the elevators. "Let's worry about fixing you now."
"Do you think they need any help in there?" Lewis asked Kovac, looking into the other trauma room.
"I think they've got it."
"Looks like she's dying."
"There are four doctors in there already, too many cooks..."
"Is that woman new?" Lewis asked, referring to Kristina, as they left the trauma room together. "I didn't recognise her."
"Neither did I" Luka said.
"I hope she's good. That poor girl..."
~*~
"Hey Abby!" Carter said, catching up with her on her way out of the trauma room.
Their patient had died after an hour, her bleeding had been too severe, and Abby felt like this day couldn't get any worse. She just wanted to go home, have a drink and forget about everything else. Whatever John had to say, it could wait.
"Abby!"
"What?"
"Guess what, I think my plan might work!"
"What plan?"
"You know, that patient I told you about, whose mother keeps taking her pills?"
"Right..."
"Well I've given her only as many pills as the daughter needs a week, and told her to come back once a week to get more. That way she won't be able to take her daughter's meds."
"Yeah, good for you" Abby said and walked outside, leaving a confused Carter behind.
"Did I say something?" he asked Lewis who was standing nearby.
"Not that I heard" Lewis replied. "Carter have you seen my asthma patient? He keeps wandering off! Actually Chen's patient, she stuck me with him earlier..."
"No, no I haven't seen him..."
Lewis sighed and continued her search. Out in the ambulance bay Abby rubbed her arms to keep them warm, wishing she had gotten her jacket on the way out. It was freezing, winter was in the air. She hated winter. She had always told herself that when she was an adult she would live someplace warm. Cold and windy had definitely not been on her list.
The doors opened behind her and she heard Luka's voice behind her. She turned to look at him and wondered if his shift was over. She felt a knot in her stomach. Would this be goodbye? The last time she saw him?
"Hey" she replied, not knowing what else to say.
"My shift is over, I uh, wanted to find you before I left. Do you want to borrow my jacket, you look like you're freezing!"
"No that's okay" she said, pretending like she always shivered like a maniac. "So you're leaving?"
"Yeah..."
She nodded and looked away, not knowing what to say. She had dreaded this confrontation for weeks, she hated saying goodbye. And things hadn't been very good at all between her and Luka for a long time, making this moment so much harder.
"Abby, I know things haven't been the best..." he said, apparently thinking along the same lines as herself. "And I know it's mostly just my fault. But I just wanted to know that we're not parting as foes."
"No! Of course not! Who needs foes, right?" she said, trying to sound cheerful, although knowing that he could see straight through her.
"Right..." he said, stepping closer to her. "You will always have a special place in my heart, Abby. Hopefully you won't remember me as the jerk I've been lately, but maybe with a smile on your face."
She didn't know what to say and looked away again. He pulled her into a hug and wrapped his coat around her, warming her shivering body. She rested her head against his familiar chest and tried to fight back the tears. She truly hated saying goodbye. She could feel it starting to rain, and when her face started getting wet from the raindrops she let her tears fall down her cheeks as well.
"I'll miss you, Abby..." he whispered in her hair.
Neither of them said anything else. It was as if they both understood each other, and that nothing else needed to be said now between them. From inside the ER, Carter watched them say goodbye and felt bad seeing Abby hurt. He saw their tender embrace but didn't mind, he knew she had loved Luka once and didn't deny her the right to still care about him and be sad that he was leaving.
~*~
Please leave a review! Sorry that this part wasn't very long! I hope the next part will be up soon, but I'm currently swamped, so I might not be able to write for a few weeks... :-)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or other ER things...
~*~
"My patient's mother keeps taking the pills I prescribe for her daughter" Carted complained to Abby.
"What are you going to do about it?" Abby asked, not paying much attention.
"I have a plan."
"Reassuring" Abby said, and headed toward the doctor's lounge. She was in a bad mood today, and Carter's problems didn't concern her much at the moment. What she needed was a cup of coffee and a cigarette. Why had she had to stop smoking? Sure, it would save her life, but at the time being she really needed nicotine.
She entered the lounge and found Corday and Josh Hailey there. Hailey was giving Corday the cold shoulder to the best of his ability, but it was mostly in vain since Elizabeth didn't seem to notice. She was going through her locker in search of something.
"Wow" Abby said. "You could cut the tension in here with a knife."
Hailey took that as his cue to leave and with one last icy glare at Elizabeth left the room. Elizabeth sighed and finally found what she had been looking for. Abby turned to look at her, holding her cup of coffee in her hand.
"What's up with him?" she asked.
"Oh, Hailey is just having some trouble accepting that I'm not in love with him. He can't quite get over the fact that I'm seeing Romano. How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine" Abby said, in her usual denial. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, it is Luka's last day. From tomorrow on he'll be in Croatia."
"Yes I know that" Abby said, trying to sound as casual as possible.
"And you're fine with that? You used to love him."
"I'm fine."
"Are you sure? I know when Peter left I--"
"I'm fine, okay Elizabeth?" Abby said, trying hard to keep her casual act. "Luka and I broke up years ago. I'm fine."
"Well if you say so..." Elizabeth said, looking sceptic.
"It's going to be a bit empty here for a while, but that's how it always is when someone leaves!" Abby said, not wanting to sound too indifferent. "And then someone new comes and takes over, and things go back to normal."
"Looks like they've already hired a new doctor" Elizabeth told her. "I ran into Robert upstairs about a half hour ago and he told me Stone had hired someone."
"Already? Uh, good..."
Elizabeth doubted the sincerity of that, but didn't say anything. She had to get back upstairs and start doing some paperwork, she had been avoiding it all week. She said goodbye to Abby and headed for the elevators.
"Elizabeth!" Luka's voice stopped her just as she was about to step on to the elevator. "How did it go yesterday, with the gunshot wound?"
"He died" Elizabeth sighed.
"Oh..."
Not knowing what else to say, Luka turned and walked back to admin, letting Elizabeth get on the elevator. He checked the board for anything interesting but everything seemed to be covered. It was a slow day so far.
~*~
An hour later Elizabeth was in desperate need of a cup of coffee, and took her retreat to the surgeons' lounge. She had been called down three times in the past hour to do consults, and she was beginning to wonder where all the other surgeons were. There had to be someone else who could go down and do a consult.
She got her cup of coffee and sat down, taking a moment to relax. She loved being alone in the lounge, it was the only time during work when she could clear her head in absolute silence. If someone needed a consult down in the ER they would have to send someone else, she was not going to move out of this chair for a while.
She looked up when her peace was disturbed by someone entering, and nearly choked on her coffee when she recognised Robert's friend from the day before, dressed in her perfectly neat lab coat and with her perfect hair still in perfect order. What on earth was that woman doing here?
"Oh hello!" she said to Elizabeth, and smiled one of those annoying smiles. "You look familiar, did we meet yesterday?"
"Briefly."
"Right... Out by the desk, right?"
"Right... May I ask, what are you doing in here, this is the surgeons' lounge."
"Oh! I apologise..." She walked over and extended her hand to the somewhat baffled Elizabeth. "Kristina Lindgren."
"Elizabeth Corday" Elizabeth said and shook her hand, not quite following.
"I was just hired to take over after some other European who is leaving."
Elizabeth's face showed exactly how shocked she was. Had Stone lost his mind completely? She had to be kidding!
"Luka hasn't even left yet" she stuttered.
"Well officially I don't start down in the ER until tomorrow" Kristina said and sat down in the chair next to Elizabeth's. "But I'm also filling in up here in the OR."
"What?"
"Well Robert's arm isn't well, and he said you could use an extra surgeon so he offered me a job. It's only temporary, of course, but I'm still quite excited! Not about his arm of course, what a horrible thing that is! I feel so sorry for him!"
Elizabeth had stopped listening after the bit about the job offer. This woman had to be kidding, or else Satan was wearing mittens and a winter coat down in hell. There was no way Robert would admit to not being as well in his arm as he'd like to be, and to offer someone his job because of it. This was all too much at one time.
"Are you all right?" Kristina asked.
"I'm fine" Elizabeth said, not being a bit more fine than Abby had been earlier when answering the same question.
"You don't look fine, if you don't mind me saying so" Kristina said, with a concerned frown, eyeing Elizabeth who was staring into space with a shocked look in her face. "Is there something wrong?"
"I, uh, I have to go..." Elizabeth said and got up, completely forgetting her cup of coffee which was only half finished. "I, uh, I'll see you later."
She hurried out of the lounge and wondered if today was April Fools Day. But that day rarely came in October, so unless this was someone's idea of a joke then it must be true. But she couldn't believe that it was, it sounded too incredible. Not to mention that she didn't like the thought of having to work with this woman, who felt like competition.
"Lizzie!" Robert's voice broke through her confused thoughts. "What's the matter with you, you look like someone just gave you a difficult math problem and stole your calculator."
He always seemed to have a way with words, which usually either annoyed her or amused her, depending on the situation, but at the moment gave no reaction. He gave her a slightly concerned frown, annoyingly much like the one Kristina had given her minutes before, and stopped by his office door.
"Come inside Lizzie, you look like you need to unwind. Haven't I told you not to drink too much coffee too early in the day?"
She followed him into his office and slumped in one of the chairs, suddenly missing the coffee she'd left behind in the lounge. Robert looked at her, still frowning, and hung off his lab coat before taking a seat behind his desk. He peered at her and leaned a bit over his desk.
"Ho, ho? Lizzie?"
"What?" she asked, suddenly snapping back to reality.
He looked at her with a mixture of a concerned frown and a smirk, and leaned back in his chair.
"You okay?"
"Yes I'm fine" she mumbled.
"Good. For a moment there I was worried you'd migrated over to your own little Lizzie-world." The frown left his face and was replaced by a smile.
"Robert, when you said you'd found someone to replace Dr. Kovac..." she began, but got unsure over how to finish. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, he finished for her.
"Yeah, like I said, hired someone today."
"How did you find someone so soon?"
"That's the beauty of it, all I had to do was to pressure Stone into doing me a favour and voila!"
"Voila?"
"As French fries would put it."
"Robert tell me you didn't talk Stone into hiring your friend from yesterday."
"What, you have a problem with Stina?"
"I thought her name was Kristina."
"Whatever. Yes, she's the lucky one. I think she's in the lounge, you should go say hello to your new colleague."
"Will she be working in the OR as well?"
"Yeah. We could use another pair of surgical hands, until mine are good as new again."
"That long?" it slipped out of Elizabeth before she realised what she was saying. She didn't like the thought of having to put up with Kristina for god knows how long. Robert didn't seem to react on her comment, he was in a very good mood and apparently intended to stay that way.
"She'll only be here temporarily" he said. "She didn't get that position at Mercy, we needed a new doctor, it was the perfect solution."
"Only she's never worked in an American hospital before, has she? If she's been trained in whatever country she's from she's probably not used to the way we talk, if English is her second language then--"
"She speaks English perfectly."
"Do we really need another surgeon?" she asked, changing direction. She hoped she could awaken his ego a bit to make him look less positively on having some new doctor take over most of his job.
"It can't hurt, can it?" Robert asked, his good mood seeming to fade somewhat. "You and I both know that as much as I want to, I can't perform surgery the way that I used to, or hardly at all."
"You're making wonderful progress!"
"Slow progress. I have full confidence that I'll be back in the OR standing on my own two... well, arms, within time. But until then, it certainly won't hurt to have another surgeon." He rose from his chair and went to open his door. "Kristina is an amazing woman, you'll like her. Now get out of here, I have boring paperwork to do and then places to go. I'll see you later."
~*~
Abby watched in the corner of her eye as Luka helped an old woman with a heart problem, not paying much attention to her own patient. She couldn't quite understand that this would be the last time she ever worked a shift with him. When she came to work tomorrow he would be on an airplane to Croatia, flying out of her life.
Elizabeth had been right, it was really hard to know he was leaving for good because she had loved him once, and she still cared a lot about him. Over the past year she had often thought she despised him now, since she despised the way he had acted, but now she realised that she never had. She knew why he had acted the way he had, and even though she didn't approve of his reaction she could understand it.
"I need my meds!" her patient angrily whined, turning her attention back to her job.
"Just a minute, Mr. Arlington..." she said and in the corner of her eye noted that Luka was finished with his patient for now. She finished with hers and went back to admin.
"Abby!" Luka said. "Big trauma coming in, go prep the trauma room."
She turned and went to the trauma room while he went outside to wait for the patients to arrive. There were three of them, who had been hurt when a statue at a museum had fallen over them. His day was going from slow to stressy, but he didn't mind. He never felt more useful than in a trauma room, and he wanted to feel useful on his last day.
The ambulances came, and soon everything was organised ER chaos. Luka, Lewis and Pratt were working in one trauma room while Carter, Gallant and Stone were in the other. Someone else was attending to the third victim, who had only broken an arm.
"Page surgery, tell them we need them down here!" Carter said, trying to intubate his patient. It wasn't very easy since there was a lot of blood, but he was determined to get it done. The woman was badly injured and he didn't have very high hopes that she would make it, but the least he could do was try. Her daughter in the other trauma room was not as badly hurt. Abby came in to grab something and he decided to ask for an update.
"Abby, how's your patient?"
"Pressure's stabile" Abby responded. "She's awake."
"Got it!" Carter declared, finally getting the tube in. "Bag her!"
One of the nurses bagged the woman and started squeezing the bag. Abby went back to the other trauma room, where the girl seemed to be stabile for now, but she had internal bleedings and needed surgery. Plus it seemed as if her back was broken, and they were worried she'd end up paralysed.
"Sweetheart, can you feel this?" Lewis asked the girl and gave her some painful stimuli in her toes.
"No" the girl sobbed, near hysteria. "What's happening? Am I paralysed?"
"We don't know for sure yet, sweetie, but we're going to do everything we can."
"You don't need me in here" Pratt decided and headed over to the other OR where things were much more critical. Stone had his hands in the patient's chest, giving internal compression, and nobody looked very optimistic.
"What's wrong with my mom?" the girl cried.
"You're mother's being treated by some of the best doctors in the hospital" Luka tried to comfort her. "They're doing everything they can."
The doors opened and Kristina stepped in, a bit unsure of whether or not she was in the right room.
"Was it here you called for a surgical consult?" she asked.
"Yes, are you the surgeon?" Lewis asked.
"Yes" Kristina said and began to do a quick exam of the patient.
"No reaction to painful stimuli below her waist" Lewis informed her.
"I'm paralysed, aren't I?" the girl sobbed.
"We don't know that yet" Kristina said. "I think you've broken your back, but we need to stop the bleeding first. Come on, let's get you up to the OR."
"But what about my mom?" the girl cried.
Kristina took a glance at the patient in the next room and didn't know what to say. The mother probably wouldn't make it, but she didn't want to upset the girl even more.
"Your mother is getting better" she said and started rolling the girl's bed toward the elevators. "Let's worry about fixing you now."
"Do you think they need any help in there?" Lewis asked Kovac, looking into the other trauma room.
"I think they've got it."
"Looks like she's dying."
"There are four doctors in there already, too many cooks..."
"Is that woman new?" Lewis asked, referring to Kristina, as they left the trauma room together. "I didn't recognise her."
"Neither did I" Luka said.
"I hope she's good. That poor girl..."
~*~
"Hey Abby!" Carter said, catching up with her on her way out of the trauma room.
Their patient had died after an hour, her bleeding had been too severe, and Abby felt like this day couldn't get any worse. She just wanted to go home, have a drink and forget about everything else. Whatever John had to say, it could wait.
"Abby!"
"What?"
"Guess what, I think my plan might work!"
"What plan?"
"You know, that patient I told you about, whose mother keeps taking her pills?"
"Right..."
"Well I've given her only as many pills as the daughter needs a week, and told her to come back once a week to get more. That way she won't be able to take her daughter's meds."
"Yeah, good for you" Abby said and walked outside, leaving a confused Carter behind.
"Did I say something?" he asked Lewis who was standing nearby.
"Not that I heard" Lewis replied. "Carter have you seen my asthma patient? He keeps wandering off! Actually Chen's patient, she stuck me with him earlier..."
"No, no I haven't seen him..."
Lewis sighed and continued her search. Out in the ambulance bay Abby rubbed her arms to keep them warm, wishing she had gotten her jacket on the way out. It was freezing, winter was in the air. She hated winter. She had always told herself that when she was an adult she would live someplace warm. Cold and windy had definitely not been on her list.
The doors opened behind her and she heard Luka's voice behind her. She turned to look at him and wondered if his shift was over. She felt a knot in her stomach. Would this be goodbye? The last time she saw him?
"Hey" she replied, not knowing what else to say.
"My shift is over, I uh, wanted to find you before I left. Do you want to borrow my jacket, you look like you're freezing!"
"No that's okay" she said, pretending like she always shivered like a maniac. "So you're leaving?"
"Yeah..."
She nodded and looked away, not knowing what to say. She had dreaded this confrontation for weeks, she hated saying goodbye. And things hadn't been very good at all between her and Luka for a long time, making this moment so much harder.
"Abby, I know things haven't been the best..." he said, apparently thinking along the same lines as herself. "And I know it's mostly just my fault. But I just wanted to know that we're not parting as foes."
"No! Of course not! Who needs foes, right?" she said, trying to sound cheerful, although knowing that he could see straight through her.
"Right..." he said, stepping closer to her. "You will always have a special place in my heart, Abby. Hopefully you won't remember me as the jerk I've been lately, but maybe with a smile on your face."
She didn't know what to say and looked away again. He pulled her into a hug and wrapped his coat around her, warming her shivering body. She rested her head against his familiar chest and tried to fight back the tears. She truly hated saying goodbye. She could feel it starting to rain, and when her face started getting wet from the raindrops she let her tears fall down her cheeks as well.
"I'll miss you, Abby..." he whispered in her hair.
Neither of them said anything else. It was as if they both understood each other, and that nothing else needed to be said now between them. From inside the ER, Carter watched them say goodbye and felt bad seeing Abby hurt. He saw their tender embrace but didn't mind, he knew she had loved Luka once and didn't deny her the right to still care about him and be sad that he was leaving.
~*~
Please leave a review! Sorry that this part wasn't very long! I hope the next part will be up soon, but I'm currently swamped, so I might not be able to write for a few weeks... :-)