At seven pm, Neela and Abby headed into the hospital for their night shifts. Both, being med students, always got stuck with the worst shifts available.
"So I called in this afternoon to check what was going on," Abby was saying, "I mean, surgical rotation's nearly over, so I didn't know what we were going to be doing and guess what happy news I got?"
"What?" Neela was finding her rotation a lot easier now that she had Abby's friendship instead of rivalry.
"I'm Romano's doctor."
"No!"
"Oh yes." Neela laughed despite herself, "It's not funny. He's going to make my life hell."
"I can imagine. A healthy Romano is enough for me. You can have the invalid all to yourself." Abby groaned,
"Why oh why didn't I just keep my old job? At least if I was a nurse I could leave all this to some one else."
"If you were a nurse you wouldn't have been able to save Doctor Romano," Neela reasoned, "That's got to be something." Abby sighed, knowing she was right.
"Great. I'm going to get my head bitten off, but at least I know that I saved his life." She nodded to Luka who was busy talking to what looked like the parents of a patient. When they got upstairs, Neela headed off to the OR where she was due to start her shift. Abby went to Romano's room where she has to change the dressing on his eye.
"Have fun!" Neela waved her off, and Abby rolled her eyes.
"Oh I will." Abby called back.
When she went into the room Robert was asleep. Abby noticed a small vase of flowers on his bedside table, other than that the room was empty, devoid of any personalisation. She paused, not liking the idea of waking him in case she got her head bitten off. Fortunately, (or unfortunately, depends which was you look at it) just when she was thinking about coming back later…
"That you 'Lizabeth?" Abby shut her eyes in the doorway, then took a step into the room,
"Uh, it's Abby, Doctor Romano," She said cautiously, "I'm here to change your dressing."
"What time is it?"
"It's just after seven pm. I can come back later if you're-" Abby cut off when she noticed him roll onto his side and push himself upright. An action he had been practicing in the day so as not to have to rely on any one else again.
"Just get it over with." Abby let out a controlled breath and said nothing. "Playing nurse again?" He asked, Abby frowned,
"No… why?"
"Because changing dressings is the nurses' job." Abby didn't think it wise to mention that no nurse in the hospital would go near him willingly when they had to opportunity to do their jobs without his constant criticisms.
"I don't ask questions," Abby said quickly.
"That doesn't sound very familiar."
"How are you feeling Doctor Romano?" Abby directed the conversation, feeling her temper rising. She had had a long night last night, mainly due to the man in front of her, and she hadn't had much sleep. When he didn't reply Abby proceeded to take out the fresh dressing and lay it out on the table before starting to unravel the old one.
"This is going to get repetitive very quickly." Robert commented, indicating the fresh bandage,
"The eye is particularly vulnerable to infection. It has to be kept as clean as possible so it can recover properly."
"You want grading on that?"
"And," Abby continued, ignoring him, "If you want to know whether your sight is improving then the more often the dressings are changed the better." She took off the surgical tape and his eye flickered open again as it had earlier in the day. Abby flashed a light in front of his eye and saw the same thing as Clarke had that morning. "Hmm."
"First lesson of the day, never say that."
"Can you see any clearer than this morning?" Abby asked,
"Nope."
"Okay…" Abby switched off the light, "I need you to look to the left, and the right," Robert did this and then directed his eyes up and down without her asking him. "Do you-"
"Strain on the right side, probably where you sliced into my face." He added, "Doesn't hurt though. Morphine does it's job." Abby blinked in surprise, beginning to think that most while people were thinking that Romano would be the worst patient to treat, she was saving time because it was obvious that he had already pretty much diagnosed himself.
"I bet this really sucks doesn't it?" She asked him, starting to cover his eye again. He looked at her with his good eye,
"What does?"
"Having me try to work out how to treat something you already know how to treat." Robert scoffed and looked away, leaving her to get on with the job. "Doctor Corday's in surgery," Abby continued, "She's been there since five when she got in apparently. Some kid came in with multiple stab wounds." Still he said nothing. "I'm sure she'll be in later though…"
"Why exactly are you telling me this?" He asked her, wondering why she was still talking.
"Because you were expecting her." Abby said simply, finding a sense of security in the fact that he was laid up in bed and there were a lack of things available to throw. She felt more confident now that he wasn't barking orders over her shoulder in critical situations. "You thought I was her when I came in. I can get her to come in when she's done…"
"Doctors treat, nurses talk." Robert reminded her.
"Well, old habits die hard, you know how it is." Abby said brightly. "So do you want me to get her to come in?"
"You know if I wasn't in this bed then you'd be in a hell of a lot of trouble for spending so much time with one patient. Get back to work." Abby rolled her eyes.
"Fine." She muttered, packing away her things. "I'll be back later to tell you when your CT scan is." She was just heading out of the room when Robert stopped her.
"Abby," He said, causing her to turn round. She looked at him, but he wasn't doing the same. "I heard you and the male Barbie doll were the ones who sliced up my face." Abby folded her arms across her chest, wondering where this was going.
"That's right." She answered, waiting. He said nothing for a moment.
"I haven't seen the damage you two incompetents have done to me, but I do know it could have been a lot worse." Abby couldn't stop herself from smiling.
"Your welcome." She said, and left, shutting the door quietly.
Down in the ER, news was spreading like wildfire about the accident, and anyone who didn't already know was finding out at that moment.
"So that's why he didn't turn up to get me fired?" Pratt was saying to Mike Gallant. "Maybe he's forgotten all about it anyway."
"I heard he got a skull fracture," Gallant remarked, taking a chart from the front desk and checking through it, "You never know, all knowledge regarding your job might have been knocked out of him."
"I can only hope." Pratt said dramatically, stepping back and almost colliding with Susan. She frowned at the two men,
"How can you guys joke about this?" she asked, genuinely appalled, "No matter how Romano treats you, you shouldn't wish it on anyone. Do you ever think about any one other than yourself Pratt?" She took a chart like Gallant had done. "And it's an orbital fracture, not a skull fracture." Pratt scoffed as she stalked away,
"Sheesh, what's eatin' her?" He said to Gallant, expecting to resume their conversation. He was met with a different expression on his friend's face though,
"Maybe she's right." He said, "Doctor Romano's an asshole, but you've got to feel just a bit sorry for him."
"Sorry for him?" Neela had been listening to them while checking files on the computer, she looked a little nervous about interrupting them,
"Imagine your worst ever experience," She said to Pratt, "Something that probably haunted you ever since. Then imagine that horrifying experience happening to you again. Something like the helicopter accident is so unlikely, the chances of it happening twice aren't even considered. We can't even begin to imagine the effects of something like that." She walked, the resemblance to Susan unsettling. Pratt looked at Gallant in shock, and rolled his eyes when he saw the expression on his face,
"Not you too."
"She's got a point," He said, shrugging. "Better get some work done, Weaver's in somewhere."
"Great." Pratt took a chart at random and threw up his arms in despair at the rest of his colleagues.
Susan pushed open the door to Chuck's room quietly, until she knew he was awake.
"Hey," She said warmly, "How you doing?" He folded up the newspaper he was reading,
"Hey," He greeted her brightly, "I'm alright. Back kind of hurts but other than that…" Susan smiled and sat on the edge of his bed. She kissed him quickly,
"Well, I got some good news." She said, "All your tests came back positive. The surgery was successful and you should be able to go home in two to three days."
"Thank god," He said grinning, "I'm going crazy in here. You read the news today?"
"Nope. Don't need to read it. I lived it remember?" She paused, "Am I in it?" he laughed,
"Not by name." He said, opening the front page out, "But it says, 'Without the dedication of Chicago's County General ER department the situation could have been disastrous." Susan scoffed,
"It was already pretty disastrous if you ask me."
"Everything seemed alright last night." Chuck said, frowning, "Hardly any fatalities except the helicopter's crew." Susan shrugged,
"But look at the state of the hospital! Kerry's seriously pissed off and she's taking it out on all of us. And as soon as Romano's back on his feet I'm sure he'll be the same."
"Why's he off his feet?"
"Nearly got squashed by the chopper." Susan said, used to the shocked expression she had been receiving every time she gave out this information. "He's alright. Regained consciousness this morning."
"Enough to give you a phobia of choppers." He said, shuddering, "That's my career down the drain though so I'll take my chances."
"I woke up this morning with that same feeling I had when I saw the crash." Susan said quietly, "There was just one moment when I couldn't remember what had happened." This time it was she who shuddered, "Why do you have to have such a dangerous job?"
"Technically that's the only chopper crash this hospital's ever had." Chuck pointed out, "There's been more shoot outs and knife attacks in this hospital than I can count on both hands. And that's just while you've been working here."
"Oh shut up." Susan said quickly, "Don't make me scared to do my job."
"So is that what you're doing now then? Your job?"
"You're my patient," Susan objected, "I'm just being a good doctor."
"Do I get special treatment?" Susan grinned,
"No, I do this for all my patients." She leant forward and kissed him. Just as she pulled away Chuck made like he was looking at something behind her,
"Quick, Weaver," He said, laughing as Susan jumped up. She glared at him,
"Bastard."
"That's why you love me."
"Is it now?" Susan just realised that the two of them had never actually spoken about 'love' before.
"Is it?" Susan suddenly felt uncomfortable. She was about to try and think of what to say next when Gallant opened the door,
"Doctor Lewis," He said, out of breath, "Three crash victims just been brought in," Susan nodded,
"Yeah, okay. I'll be right there." Gallant left, and she turned back to Chuck. "Gotta go do my job." She said, attempting a smile.
"Yeah." Chuck didn't break eye contact. "Go save some lives." Susan looked like she was about to say something but stopped herself,
"I'll be back," She said, "I will. I want to talk about this, really I do-"
"Susan, go." Chuck pressed her, "We'll talk later."
"I promise." She said as she hurried out the door. "I'll be back on my break."
"Yeah." Chuck said quietly, when the door had shut. "See ya."
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*
Sparky0151Peace and love 666 – now there's an idea…
Britgirl2003 – gotta love Ella
Mindramble
Thank you all, I hope this is enough to keep you going until the weekend because I'm out of town for a run of shows, opening tomorrow night. I'll be back at the weekend, and should have a new chapter posted on Saturday morning. Oh by the way, Dorsett's been on holiday for a few weeks, as you will find out in the next chapter, and he's back soon. Heh heh heh…