"He okay?" Emma asked Elizabeth, when she joined them at the elevator.
"No, I don't think so." Elizabeth answered, "He hasn't been okay for a long time." She could feel Caitlyn's stare penetrating the back of her head.
"I can't believe he didn't tell me any of this." Emma said, sounding quite hurt. "I mean, I can understand his reasons, but still…" She trailed off, not knowing exactly what she wanted to say.
"He's different," Caitlyn commented, "I mean, permanently." Her mother seemed to be ignoring what she said, "Something's gone, something that was definitely there the last time I saw him."
"Loosing the ability to perform surgery is what hit him really hard," Elizabeth told Caitlyn, "And it hit the hospital hard as well. I can remember when new doctors, or med students used to watch open mouthed when he used to operate."
"It's all he ever wanted to do you know," Emma said. She ran her hands through her hair, looking exhausted, "Geez, this is all such a mess." They got out of the elevator and stepped out into the ER,
"I just want to leave a message for someone," Elizabeth explained, holding out her arm to stop her two companions from walking into the path of an incoming gurney. They manoeuvred their way to the front desk, where Emma managed to stare out Frank, who's eyes had been following her across the room. "Is Abby still here?" Elizabeth asked Frank,
"How should I know?"
"Well have you seen her?"
"Just had three kids brought in, blood everywhere." Frank said, dismissively, "Didn't see her, but it doesn't mean she's not lurking somewhere." Elizabeth rolled her eyes,
"Thank you for being so helpful." She said sarcastically. She glanced around quickly, and stopped Morris on his way past, "Is Abby Lockhart still here?" She asked him. As usual, he was nervy, and irritatingly vague,
"I uh… not sure. I think I saw her leave earlier. Oh wait, no, that was… I think Abby's still here." Elizabeth shook her head, wondering how things had gotten so bad that they had had to employ Morris. She took and envelope from under Frank's nose. She quickly scribbled a name on it, sealed the envelope, and handed it to Frank.
"Make sure Abby gets this. Tonight." Frank nodded, taking it from her without looking up. Emma looked slightly worried, but Elizabeth knew that he would give it to Abby. "Okay," She said, turning round, "Let's get out of here."
"No need to tell me twice," Caitlyn muttered, ducking out of the way as another gurney flew past, "Geez,"
"Goodnight Elizabeth," Susan said on her way past, stifling a yawn,
"Goodnight Susan," Elizabeth replied, leading Emma and Caitlyn out of the hall, "Have a good Christmas,"
"Some Christmas. I'm going to be here!" Susan called back, disappearing into a room down the hall.
"Come on." Elizabeth said, "We should be able to get a cab quite quickly."
"Doctor Lewis, you're needed in exam three," Haleh opened the door where Susan was examining a patient. She nodded, pausing to listen to the heart rate of her patient.
"I told you, I have Pneumonia," The elderly lady said, with an over exaggerated cough,
"You don't have Pneumonia Mrs Harper, you have a cold." Susan told her, she picked up the woman's bag and handed it to her, "Have a nice Christmas." She hurried out of the room, down the hall to exam three.
"What's up?" She asked Pratt, who had just successfully inturberated a trauma patient,
"She's bleeding out in her stomach," Pratt said, hurriedly handing the bag over to Haleh, and pushing past Susan to get closer,
"What do you need me to do?" Susan didn't see how she was needed,
"I don't need anything," Pratt said, nodding to the double doors, "Gallant's loosing the kid in there," Susan instantly headed for the doors, "You might need to get surgery down here," He called after her.
"Gallant," Susan said, pulling on an apron,
"GSW to the chest," He said, "There's too much blood to see and not enough nurses to go around,"
"Where is every one?" Susan grabbed the suction pump, to clear the blood for Gallant,
"No idea. Oh no,"
"What?" Susan couldn't see past Gallant's arm,
"It's punctured her heart, right ventricle," He took over compressions of the ambu-bag from Chuny, "Get surgery on the phone. Tell them we've got a kid down here who needs a Thoracoctomy," Chuny dialled upstairs, and relayed Gallant's instructions,
"They say bring her up,"
"We can't bring her up," Gallant said, "Her right lung's collapsed,"
"We can't move her," Chuny said into the phone. She listened for a moment, then hung up, "On their way,"
"Who?"
"Dorsett," Susan groaned,
"Oh, just what we need." Gallant was still desperately trying to keep the girl alive,
"Where's Corday?" He asked, thinking that she would be a much more favourable surgeon.
"I saw her going home a few minutes ago," Susan said, "She's done for Christmas." Chuny was listening while replacing the blood bag,
"You see who she was with?" She asked Susan,
"Yeah, a woman, and a teenager," She said, "I don't know who they were,"
"I heard from Frank that the woman's Romano's sister." Chuny told her, holding to door open for Dorsett, who came swanning in, Susan gaped,
"Romano has a sister?" She said, surprised, "God, can you just imagine a female Romano?" Dorsett interrupted,
"Clamp," He said, his hand out. Susan grabbed the clamp and handed it to him with her spare hand. Dorsett looked like he was about to say something, but waited in silence, as did the rest of the room, until he had the bleeding under control, "It's not… the sister you need to… worry about," He said, finding it difficult to stitch the wound with the heart trying to pump blood into the empty ventricle, "Crap," He tried again, "I was in the lounge when the niece came past. She's definitely inherited the family lungs."
"Apparently they had no idea he'd lost his arm," Chuny said, watching over Susan's shoulder, "Sister thought he was still a surgeon."
"Not surprising." Dorsett commented, "Romano's got far too big an ego." Susan ignored him, but she caught Chuny's eye, and saw she was thinking the same thing. Dorsett had no right to say anything about any one else's ego. The whole of the ER and most of the OR knew about how Dorsett had messed Elizabeth around, and it was rare to find any one who would favour him over her. A few more moments and he had finished. The EKG went back to normal, and he stepped back, "A needle and thread, AKA my magic wand." Susan rolled her eyes,
"Thanks," Gallant said shortly, moving back into view.
"I can finish up if you want,"
"I think we're okay down here now," Susan said, her voice was cold. "Thanks for your help." Dorsett glanced at Susan, her glare was off putting. He shrugged, pulled of his gloves and scrubs and headed for the door. Susan grimaced as he walked away. "God he pisses me off,"
"You and me both," Chuny muttered, cleaning off the wound that Gallant was stitching up.
"Romano could have done that Thoracoctomy in seconds."
"And thought of better insults."
"He really must be bad of if he's got you two defending Doctor Romano," Gallant said with a grin. Susan pulled off her scrubs.
"Yeah well," She mumbled, "This is going to one of those days. I can tell."