Disclaimer: I don't own ER or any characters from Third Watch. Resident Joey, however, is mine.

Chapter Three: Between the Emotion and the Response

Friday 8:33 PM

There she stood, right outside the room that Officer Faith Yokas was in. It was a blur how she had gotten there. Susan could remember returning to the admit desk, locating the whereabouts of the Yokas family, and then she ended up staring into the room. Should she go in? How could she tell her? She should go get Mr. Yokas. Yes, that was the first thing she should do. Walking back to the hallway where Fred Yokas was located was easy enough, facing the questions that were waiting for her would not be.

"Mr. Yokas." Susan politely stated as she rounded the corner into the hallway.

"Yes?" He asked, moving his eyes from the IV in his wrist to Susan's face.

"I've found your wife, and I can take you to her." She said with more composer than her first encounter with the man.

"Please, and what about my kids?"

"I can tell you about them as well, but I'd rather wait and talk to the both of you at the same time." She replied as she helped him out of the gurney, and towards his wife's room.

The briefest of moments pasted as Susan began to open the door into the room that held Faith Yokas, and a surge of nervousness ran through her body causing her to feel a chill.

"Faith. Are you ok?" Fred blurted out as he entered the room. He quickly walked to the side of her bed, wheeling his IV stand beside him.

"I'm ok Fred. What about the kids?" She replied as she grazed her hand along the side of his face.

"Your legs? I mean the bullet? It's ok?" He persistently asked.

Susan remained close to the door as she watched them try to regain their bearings on the situation.

"The doctor said it was fine. The seatbelt didn't hurt anything. What about the kids Fred?" She asked more forcefully.

"The doctor was going to tell me when we got here." He stated, the statement returned his thoughts to the fact that the doctor had yet to tell them. He turned his body towards the door, as Faith glanced over to the doctor standing by it.

"Dr. Lewis?" She said in astonishment.

"Yep, it's me." Was all Susan could say, and once the words left her mouth she knew how moronic they sounded. "I work here at County." That wasn't much better.

Faith didn't reply, not that Susan thought there was really anything to say, so she broke the silence with the news they were waiting for.

"Your kids." She stated.

"Where are they?" Faith asked.

"Emily is upstairs, they are running some tests. She banged her head pretty bad, and they want to make sure there isn't any swelling or brain damage. I talked to the doctor who is treating her, Dr. Pratt, and he can't confirm it until the test come back but he thinks everything should be fine. Doctor Pratt should be in shortly to talk to you himself." Susan took a deep breath.

"And Charlie? What about our son?" Fred asked.

"I was your son's doctor when he first came in." She paused for a moment. "He came in with low blood pressure, which told us he was bleeding internally. Charlie had several broken ribs. One of which pierced his Pericardium, that is the sac around his heart." She paused again.

"Is he ok?" Fred asked, choking back the panic that was running through him.

"We lost his blood pressure completely, and had to open his chest in the ER. Dr. Corday was the ER surgeon on call. We discovered that the rib had passed through the sac around his heart and pierced his Aorta." She took a deep breath and pushed the emotions back. "We were able to stabilize him, after almost an hour in the ER, Dr. Corday took him directly to surgery where they will try to repair the damage to his heart."

"Try?" Faith reiterated.

"Yes, Charlie had significant damage. He's only been in surgery for about an hour, so I don't know anything more."

"When will they…Will he…" Neither parent could finish a sentence and both were overcome by the heart wrenching news.

Susan pulled up the stool that was pushed against the wall. She sat down in front of them, looked them in the eye, and reassured them to the best of her ability.

"I can tell you that your son has the best surgeons available working on him. They will exhaust every means possible before giving up. Charlie has a good chance." Anything more would have been a lie, and there was no way Susan could bring herself to lie, the truth was hard enough.

"What do we do now?" Faith asked.

"Well, you are both being observed in the ER right now, that is just a precaution. Whenever you get discharged I can take you upstairs to the surgery floor."

"Can we…"

Susan interrupted Fred, "I will make sure Charlie gets the best room available, and I will have them set up an extra cot or two. I can also keep you updated on his surgery."

"Thank you Dr. Lewis." Faith replied sincerely.

"Just let me know if you need anything. I mean anything at all."

"How did we not know about this until now?" Fred asked.

"We got slammed with the pile up. Nearly twenty patients came rolling in at once, five of which were traumas, or severe life threatening injuries. We're still scrambling to catch our balance."

"Still, I mean we didn't even know." He replied.

"I know, and I apologize. When things get like this communication usually breaks down. There is just too many injured people to see. There is no time to put last names together. That's what happened."

"We understand, really. Right Fred?" faith asked.

"It's ok, I understand. I would be pissed myself." Susan interjected.

"Really Doctor Lewis, thank you." Fred emotionally stated.

"It's no problem, really. If you need me just find a nurse and they can page me."

"Thank you." They again stated.

"I just…" Susan didn't know how to finish the sentence. "I'll just go see about his room and getting you discharged." Susan stated as she turned and walked towards the door. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

After exiting the room she turned to look in once more. They were hugging and it looked as though they were both crying. A sense of helplessness and failure came over Susan. Never before had being a doctor seemed so futile.

Susan walked down the hallway feeling as though she had stepped into an alternate reality. Faith Yokas had saved her niece's life, and now her son was fighting for his and it seemed as though there was nothing she could do.

Friday 11:47 PM

After locating Luka she managed to get Fred and Faith discharged, from there she took them to the surgery waiting room. Within an hour they had a private room for Charlie ready, for when he was released from the ICU. She had Emily moved to a private room in Neuro, she would be discharged first thing tomorrow.

All the ducks had been lined up into a row. Every arrangement made, every favor promised. After updating them that the surgical team continued to repair the damage to their son's heart, she got them both a cup of coffee. Susan found it inappropriate to wait with the Yokas', instead she would update them every hour, or when news became available. In the mean time she wandered back down to the ER.

She had been there for almost fourteen hours now, and somehow she was still managing to be semi productive. A 72 year old woman, Eloise Barrington, came in with respiratory distress.

Two x-rays later she was diagnosed with Pneumonia. Then Susan's beeper went off. Weaver took over Ms. Barrington's care as Susan returned to surgery. She hadn't expected them to be done so soon.

"Susan." Was the first thing she heard as she exited the elevator.

"Elizabeth, I didn't expect you to be done so soon." She replied as she walked over to Elizabeth.

"Neither did I. I thought the parents would want you here when I told them." She explained.

"Told them?" Susan stated.

"Told them that there Son was recovering, and that the surgery successfully repaired the damage to his heart."

Susan sighed and then hugged Elizabeth. "I didn't know you were that close with the family."

"It's an odd story. Officer Yokas, Faith Yokas, was one of the officers who found Susie."

"Oh, I see. Well, shall we then?" Elizabeth replied.

"Before we do…" Susan said, grabbing Elizabeth's arm. "Doctor to Doctor, what are his chances at a full recovery? He lost a lot of blood, and we both know how long his brain could have been deprived of…"

Elizabeth stopped her. "Susan."

Author's note: This chapter got a little long. The title for chapter three comes from T.S. Eliot's poem "Hollow Men."