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SAVING GRACE- CHAPTER 8
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It was 8:15 am the next morning, and Carter was sitting on the worn-out sofa in the lounge, drinking a cup of coffee from one of the old, slightly- chipped mugs that he had found in the cupboard above the coffee pot. Carter hadn't been able to sleep well that night. His mind kept turning over the strange revelations that he'd found the previous day. There was so much that he needed to know about Grace Knight.
He had even made a list of things to do. He'd been in so much shock the night before that he'd forgotten to call the police and tell them the information that he'd found out. He resolved to do it later today, once he told Kerry the news.
Carter snorted suddenly. This was going to be the talk of the ER for a while. The ER nurses were definitely the biggest group of gossips that he'd ever known.
As he drank the dregs of his bland cup of coffee, Elizabeth came into the lounge, dressed in the usual blue scrubs, a half-tied surgical mask around her neck. Her hair was tied back, and she looked rather tired. She smiled when she saw him.
"Carter," she said, "I didn't think that you'd be here this early." He shrugged.
"Where else would I be?"
"Oh, I don't know, sleeping, at home, anything is better than here." she said, smiling. "Just a moment, I'm going to grab a quick cup of coffee and then we can go, okay?"
"Okay," Carter nodded. "Sounds good." Elizabeth gave him a small smile and turned to pour a cup of coffee. Carter stood and walked to the sink, rinsing and drying his own cup. As he replaced it in the cupboard, he saw Elizabeth standing nearby, downing her coffee as fast as she could. Carter laughed at her.
"Hey, hey, you're gonna burn yourself!" he laughed. She brought the cup down from her lips and gasped shortly for air.
"Well," she told him, taking another sip, "I don't mind. And I am eager to see this patient." With that, she took the cup and lifted it to her lips again, chugging the rest quickly. Carter shook his head disapprovingly, waiting for her to finish. She finished the cup of coffee and put it into the sink, not bothering to wash it. She whipped past Carter, pushing open the door to the lounge.
"You coming?" she asked Carter.
"Yep," he said, following her out the door and to the elevator. They boarded the elevator, and Elizabeth hit the 5th floor button, leaning against the wall of the elevator. She sighed, blowing a loose curl out of her face. Carter looked over at her as the elevator stopped on the fifth floor.
"Which way?" Elizabeth asked him. Carter pointed down a hallway.
"There," he said, leading the way to the girl's room. When they had arrived at the door to room 512, Carter heard Elizabeth take a breath in. He turned to her.
"What?" she asked defensively.
"You sure you want to do this?" She nodded.
"Of course." Carter opened the door and held it open for Elizabeth. She stepped into the room with a mood of uncertainty. Carter let the door close, stepping into the room behind her.
The room was filled with sunlight, the blinds having not been drawn the night before. Grace was sound asleep in her bed, hair tousled under her head. Her blanket had slipped down as she slept, and her left arm was thrown out, hand over the side of the bed. Elizabeth approached her cautiously from the left side. Carter hovered near the foot of the bed. He heard Elizabeth draw in a sharp breath.
"Holy Lord," she said quetly, amazed. "This girl's a spitting image of Lucy." She moved closer to the bedside. Gently, she moved her hand to the child's head and smoothed her hair. Grace stirred, but did not wake. Carter picked up the clipboard on the counter in the room and saw that Grace's stats had been checked at 8:00 by the night nurse, and she was improving well.
He looked up and really looked at the child's face. Elizabeth was right: she was a spitting image of her mother. Besides the hair, she had Lucy's nose, her chin, her ears. But the thing that had taken Carter aback earlier were her eyes. The eyes were exactly the same.
"Oh," Elizabeth said rather suddenly, causing Carter to put the clipboard down and stare at her.
"What?" he asked her. Elizabeth bent down behind the bed and came up again with a toy, the stuffed octopus that Carter had found going through the girl's backpack the day before.
"She seems to have dropped her stuffed animal while she was sleeping," Elizabeth said quietly. She examined the creature. "Looks like an octopus," she observed, turning it over. Something caught her eye, and she stood staring at it. Carter moved to the side of the bed, near Elizabeth.
"What is it?" he asked her. She just shook her head, looking like she was holding back tears again.
She said nothing, but placed the octopus onto the chair beside the child's bed. She reached down and pulled the blankets up to Grace's collarbone, placing the stuffed toy back into the girl's arms.
"I am so sorry, Grace," Elizabeth said, her voice so soft a whisper that Carter could barely hear it himself. Elizabeth touched her head again, smoothing her blond hair. She turned to go, walking so briskly that Carter thought about turning after her. Thinking about it, staring at the slightly open door after her, she probably wanted to be left alone. He didn't follow her.
Carter knew she was upset. She probably felt horribly, still feeling responsible for Lucy's death. He frowned, and reached for the stuffed octopus. He examined it himself, turning it over in his hands. Something strange caught his eye.
On the underside of the octopus, there was a small tag, the kind that would hold cleaning instructions. This tag was small, maybe one inch and a half by one inch, and looked as if it had been bleached. On it, in a fine laundry-marking pen, there were words. Tiny but neatly-written, Carter recognized it as the handwriting that Lucy used to use, not the kind she used on patient charts, but what she used when she wrote out greeting cards, her neat handwriting. He read the words written there.
"My dearest daughter," Lucy had said, "I am here though I am gone. I
love you with all of my heart."
Carter reread the tag several times. Lucy had written those words, obviously, before her death. It was still ironic, though, that a simple message could bring him comfort as well.
Carter tucked the tag neatly under the octopus, and nestled the creature under the blanket next to Grace, who still slept soundly. He lightly touched the child's hand, and turned away. He slipped quietly out the door and down the sparsely populated hallway of the pedes floor of the hospital.
Back in the ER, Carter headed for the lounge, since he wasn't officially on yet. He glanced at the clock in the Chairs of the ER as he passed. He still had another 15 minutes until he needed to work. Carter entered the lounge and discovered it was empty. He opened his locker and took off his coat, replacing it with his white lab coat. He sat down on a wooden bench near the locker, pulling off his shoes to replace them with his work sneakers. He had just tied one sneaker on when the door of the lounge opened and Kerry walked in.
"Good morning, Carter," She greeted him.
"Morning, Kerry," he replied, tying his right shoe.
"I thought you weren't on until eight?"
"I'm not. I just came in early to check on my Jane Doe." Kerry raised her eyebrows.
"And?" she asked expectantly, sitting down at the scrubbed wooden table.
"I've got a name," he said. Kerry sighed, relieved.
"Good. We'll finally be able to get that girl home to her family." She took a small notebook and a pen from the pocket of her lab coat and set them down, ready to write. "So what's the name?"
"Grace Knight," Carter told her. She began to write, then stopped. She looked up at Carter, a strange, uncertain expression coming over her face. "Could you spell that, please?"
"K-n-i-g-h-t" he spelled out quickly. Kerry put down her pen suddenly on the table and folded her arms down.
"This is a ridiculous question, but is this girl somehow related to--?" Carter nodded. Kerry's mouth parted in disbelief. She tried to regain her composure.
"How is they related?" Carter moistened his lips.
"Grace is her daughter," he said carefully. There was a pregnant pause. Kerry's mouth fell open again. She shook her head in disbelief.
"Oh, God," she said, massaging her forehead with her hand. "This is not happening," she said, more to herself than to Carter. "Why did she come here?"
"Because she is looking for her father."
"What about her grandmother?"
"Died in a car crash a couple of months ago. As far as Ohio Child Services goes, she's an orphan," Carter told her. Kerry looked at the wall.
"Who's her father?"
"She doesn't know. She only said that he used to work in Chicago." Kerry massaged her temple, groaning softly.
"Okay, well, that doesn't rule anything out," she said, turning back to Carter, "Okay, here's what I want you to do--no, I'll do it."
"Call Ohio's Child Services?" Kerry nodded.
"Yes, I'm going to call them and talk to the foster family, tell them we have Grace. I'm going to see about getting records on the birth father and then we'll take it from there, ok?" she asked. Carter agreed that that would be the best thing to do.
"Will you let me know how it goes? What you find out?" Kerry nodded.
"Of course, she is your patient," she replied. Carter nodded.
"Thanks Kerry," he told her. She gave him a small, understanding smile.
"You're welcome. I know how much this one means to you." With that, she turned and walked out of the lounge.
Carter hadn't even had the time to gather his thoughts when Neela poked her head through the door. Carter stood abruptly.
"Dr. Carter, there's a trauma coming in. They need you're help," she informed him quickly.
"I'll be right there," he said as he gathered his stethoscope and rushed out the door, meeting Neela on the other side. "What is it?" he asked her, taking long strides out through the ER.
"They have a multi-victim motor-vehicular accident coming. Two major and three minor patients." Carter pushed through the doors and made his way to the ambulance bay with Neela. He found Drs. Weaver and Corday already standing there, waiting. They were conversing quietly, and looked up when Carter and Neela came out.
"Hey, Elizabeth, I thought that you got off?" She gave him a look that said quite clearly, 'I was.'
"Yes, well, this looked like a bad trauma, so I thought I'd stay and assist if need be." A few nurses appeared in the ambulance bay as they spoke. Sure enough, though, within a minute Carter heard the inevitable sirens of the ambulance approaching. Soon, the first two ambulances had pulled up in the bay in a torrent of flashing lights and sirens. The doctors and nurses surrounded the ambulances.
"Okay," Kerry was shouting. "Elizabeth and I have the first ambulance, and Carter and Neela are on the second one. You lot," she said, indicating the nurses, "go where you are needed. Divide yourselves up!" She shouted these instructions as she hobbled over to the first ambulance quickly, and the paramedics began unloading the patient.
"Male, 36, possible broken ribs and internal bleeds, got tension pneumo on the way over here. BP's 85/60, pulse weak at 80..." the paramedic's voice drifted off as Carter turned his attention to the second ambulance that was unloading. Carter helped to unload the gurney.
"What've we got?" he shouted to the paramedic as they wheeled in the gurney.
"66-year-old male, possible head trauma and spinal cord injury. Smashed his head up pretty bad in the accident. Probable internal bleeds, resps shallow and quick. Unconscious," the paramedic told them all. They got into Trauma one, and chaos ensued.
"Okay, I want a head CT, x-rays of the head and chest, CBC, type and cross, dip of urine, two liters of saline, five units of O-neg, and get the portable ultrasound for the abdomen," Carter told them all. "Neela, start a saline IV and put two units on the rapid infuser."
"All right," she said, bustling about to do what he had asked. Carter moved around to the man's head.
"Sir, what's your name?" he asked. The man's eyes opened slightly, out of focus.
"Tom Bennington," the older man gasped.
"Do you know where you are?" The man drifted, his eyes rolling back into his head. "Mr. Bennington!" Carter raised his voice. No response, He took out his penlight. "Pupils equal and reactive," he said.
"Pulse Ox dropping to 82," Lydia said. Carter clenched his teeth.
"Okay, someone get me a number seven ET tube," he said.
"You're tubing him?"
"His pulse ox is low, he's not breathing enough." Carter got the tube in his hand and put the man's head back a bit.
"You need crichoid pressure?" Neela asked him.
"Yeah," he said as Neela helped him steady the man's head. "Dammit! I can't get past the cords."
"Do you need--"
"No, never mind. I've got it." Carter said as he triumphantly pulled the tube applicator out of the man's throat. "Bag him," he said, and one of the nurses took over. The ultrasound matching was swishing.
"Oh, man. Belly's full of blood...so is the chest. Looks like one of his ribs punctured his lung."
"What else have we got?" Carter moved around the bed to check on the foley. To his dismay, the fluid inside was pink. "There's blood in the foley."
"BP's' dropping."
"Someone call surgery now! Lydia, hang another two units of O-neg on the rapid infuser, and get 350ccs of saline in there. We have to raise the guy's pressure."
"CT's ready,"
"Okay let's get him up there now."
"He's not stable," Neela told him. Carter shook his head.
"We need to get him up there, or we're gonna lose him." Pratt came into the trauma room, holding X-rays.
"Hey, Carter, films are back on this guy. Doesn't look good," he said. Carter grabbed the films and snapped them up onto a board, flicking on the backlight. Just then he heard a high-pitched, rapid beeping on the EKG.
"We're in V-fib," Neela called to him.
"Charge the paddles to 300, get them ready. Neela, take over chest compressions,"
"I can't bag and do compressions at the same time."
"I've got it, doc," Pratt said, rushing over and taking over the ambu bag, freeing Neela to do chest compressions. Carter moved over and grabbed the paddles.
"Clear!" he shouted. Everyone moved their hands off of the elderly man, and Carter put the paddles to his chest, giving a shock. They were still in V-fib. "Push an amp of epi, go again at 325." No luck with the defibrillator. "Again, give that epi a chance to circulate. Clear!" Another shock, but the patient didn't improve.
"Asystole," Neela said as the EKG flatlined.
"Push another amp of epi, let's go again at 360," Carter said as he got ready to set the paddles down again. "Clear!" he yelled for the third time. The shock came. The man was still asystole. Carter sighed. They were gonna lose this one. There was nothing that they could do. He set the paddles back on the cart. "Stop the compressions," he told Neela. Pratt kept bagging. The patient was still flatlining.
"I think that's it," Neela said. Carter nodded.
"Time of death, 8:33," he said. Turning to the nurses, he said, "Make sure that he gets cleaned up. Neela, call the morgue please." She nodded.
"Of course," she said, leaving the room. Carter looked through the glass into the next trauma room. Elizabeth and Kerry had cracked the younger man's chest, and were working to save him. Sam, one of the ER nurses, looked up at him through the glass. She saw from the look in his eyes that he hadn't been able to save that one.
"Need me in here for anything else?" Carter asked. Lydia shook her head, grabbing a death kit from a drawer in the room.
"No, Carter, I have it from here. Go see if there's anything that you can do for the other man injured," she answered, opening the death kit. Carter pulled off his gloves and threw them into a garbage can, along with his smock, and left the trauma room.
He checked around for something else to do. After finding that the minor victims from the accident were okay, he checked back in on the younger man from the car wreck. The moment he stepped into the trauma room, he knew things weren't going well.
"Is there anything I can do here?" he asked. Kerry shook her head.
"No, he's stabilized, but it's not looking good for him. Two of his broken ribs had punctured both his heart and right lung. We fixed the tears, but he's been deprived of oxygen for so long that he's in a coma," she explained.
"Any chance of him waking up?" Carter asked.
"It's too soon to say, but I don't think so," Kerry said as Carter rubbed his forehead. "How about the older man?"
"Dead, he had massive internal injuries."
"That bad?"
"It looked like someone took an eggbeater to his organs. There was nothing that we could do for him," Carter told her. They were both silent for a moment. Kerry began to take off her gloves.
"I'd better call the family. The police have gotten ID's on him and on the older one, so we can notify the family."
"Family?" asked Carter, placing emphasis on the fact that she had used the singular. Kerry nodded.
"They were father and son," she said. She looked at Carter. "Oh, and after that I'm going to call that number to call about your...patient," she said cautiously, throwing an apprehensive glance in Elizabeth's direction.
"It's okay, Kerry. Dr. Corday knows," Carter told her. "I told her about her this morning." Elizabeth looked up at the mention of her name.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing," Carter said. "Don't worry about it. Kerry left the trauma room, and Carter followed. They got to the admitting desk, and Kerry pulled out a clipboard, presumably containing information about the patient.
"Why don't you go visit her?" Kerry suggested kindly to Carter. He was struck with puzzlement.
"Who?"
"Miss Knight," Kerry said.
"But she's not in the ER anymore."
"Go. Go look after her. It's pretty slow down here, I'm pretty sure that we can handle things down here." Carter hesitated.
"Page me if anything comes in, please," he told her. She nodded.
"Go!" He obeyed, walking down the hall to the elevator.
Back at the doorway to room 512, Carter hesitated before going in. He saw through the glass window, of which the blinds were opened, that she was awake. Her bed was propped up slightly, and she appeared to be watching TV. He took a breath, and opened the door.
"Good morning, Grace," he smiled at her. A smile spread across her face as she looked at him.
"Hello, Dr. Carter," she said cheerfully. He tried not to think about how much she looked like Lucy.
"You seem better this morning, how do you feel?"
"I feel better, my tummy still hurts a little, and I had a headache. The daytime nurse gave me medicine through the IV tube for that, though," she said, turning back to the television for a moment. Carter moved to her beside and pulled up the stool to sit in.
"What are you watching?" he asked her.
"The Care Bears," she said. Carter smiled at her.
"My cousins used to like them. Which one is your favorite?" he asked.
"I like the rainbow one," she said. There was a pause, as Grace turned to the television. She looked at Carter. "They said that I could watch TV as much as I wanted to here," she said, somewhat melancholy.
"Yes, you can. Do you like to watch TV?" Grace shook her head.
"Not really. I like it a little, but Grandma never let me watch more than an hour a day. She said that it rots your brain." Carter chuckled. He had been told the same thing when he was young. He noticed suddenly that the octopus was still sitting at the girl's side.
"That's a nice stuffed animal," he said, pretending he'd never seen it before. "What kind is it?" Grace ignored the television set and took up the animal in her arms.
"It's an octopus," she said. She looked apprehensively from Carter to the octopus, and then back again. Finally, she handed the creature to Carter. He took it gingerly.
"What's it's name?" he asked her.
"Squirt is his name. I named him myself, when I was old enough to." Carter handed Squirt back to Grace, and she looked relieved to have him back. "Thank you."
"You don't like other people holding Squirt?" Carter asked her. She shook her head. She looked into his eyes, and her own eyes almost caught Carter off-balance.
"I don't want to lose him," Grace explained. "My mother gave him to me." Carter nodded. Grace looked like she was thinking hard about something again.
"Oh," Carter said simply. She looked at him again. Her eyes seemed to be searching his carefully. She held the toy in her arms and drew breath.
"You knew my mother, didn't you?" she asked him. Leave it to a child to be blunt and say exactly what is on her mind. Carter willed himself not to get emotional. He looked straight back at Grace, who was anticipating his answer.
"Yes, I knew her," he told the child. Her eyes lit up. The Care Bears were forgotten, and she clutched Squirt in her arms.
"Really? What was she like? How did you know her?" she asked, eyes shining. Carter sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He did not want to talk about this now.
"She worked at this hospital when she went to medical school," he said, keeping his answers as brief as possible. Her eyes grew wide.
"So, you knew her when she died?" she asked, eager for answers. Carter nodded.
"Yeah," he said softly. He stared out of the window at the buildings across the street. The sun was shining; it was a clear autumn day. "More than you know," he breathed, so quietly that he could barely hear himself say it. Grace followed his gaze out the window, then turned her head back to him.
"Was she a good doctor?" She asked Carter. He closed his eyes for a moment before answering.
"She was better than she thought," Carter answered briefly. He looked around, everywhere but at the little girl. He needed to change the subject. He got his answer. "Hey, the Care Bears are over. Do you want to watch something different?"
"No," Grace said, looking slightly hurt and confused. "No more TV. I want to do something different. Hey!" She said, remembering something. Guess what?" she asked Carter.
"What?" he asked. He was amused by how quickly Grace could change her emotions. She sounded excited about something.
"I'm getting a roommate! She gets that bed, over there," she said, pointing over at the empty bed on other side of the room. "Holly told me. She said that the girl, I don't know her name yet, had to have an operation, so she's gonna be with me when she gets better."
"Wow, a roommate," Carter said. "That sounds like fun," he told her. She nodded excitedly.
"Yeah, so I'll have someone to talk to instead of watching TV all day," she wrinkled her nose at that prospect, glad to have a roommate. Carter nodded, not bothering to mention to the child that the other girl would probably be too sleepy to be good company. "Dr. Carter, do you want to play a game with me?" Grace asked him.
"What game?" he asked. Grace shrugged.
"Well, we could play I Spy," she suggested. Carter smiled.
"Okay, that sounds like fun," he said. Personally, though, he hated the game: he'd never been good at it as a kid. "You can go first."
"Okay," she said excitedly, looking around the room, thinking about what she would choose. "I spy with my little eyes, something black," she clued. Carter looked around the room.
"The TV?" he guessed. Grace shook her head, smiling secretively. Carter glanced around, searching for something else. "The...um...the garbage can?"
"No, that's silver," Grace said, giggling. Her eyes flicked to Carter's chest. He got the hint.
"My stethoscope?" Carter guessed. Grace nodded.
"Yes, that's it. See? You aren't bad at this," she said, smiling. "Now it's your turn to choose." Carter thought for a moment.
"Okay, I spy with my eyes, something pink," he said. Grace looked around the room, lokking to find what Carter was talking about.
"Carter, can I speak with you for a moment?" Kerry appeared in the doorway to the room. Carter rose and went to meet her. Grace looked a little sad.
"Will you come back?" she asked him, a note of hopefulness in her voice. Carter gave her a small smile.
"Yes, I'll come back as soon as I can," said Carter. She smiled.
"Okay," she said as Carter went out into the hallway. Kerry was standing there, waiting for him. She glanced curiously through the window. Turning back to Carter, she shook her head in disbelief.
"Wow," she said, turning back to the window. "Carter, I really don't know what to say."
"What is it, Kerry?" he asked. Kerry looked at him, surprised, for a moment, then straightened up to speak with him.
"I called Ohio's Social Services Board," she said.
"And?"
"And they are trying to locate her records and contact the foster family. Someone will come here to pick her up and take her back when she is discharged," she told him. Carter sighed, slightly disappointed at the prospect of never seeing Lucy's child again. He nodded at Kerry.
"Okay," Carter said. Not finished, Kerry cut him off.
"I have a short shift today, and I told them that when they call back, to ask for me or for you."
"Why me?"
"Because," she continued, "You are her doctor, and you also are the one that she has had the most contact with." He nodded.
"Okay," he said, "that's cool." Kerry nodded, and there was a short pause. She glanced through the glass again. Grace had gone back to watching the television. Kerry shook her head.
"I can't believe this," she said. Carter laughed softly.
"That's what Abby said, too," Carter said. Kerry frowned.
"Abby knows about this?"
"Yes, she knows," he answered.
"Who else knows about this?" she asked him, frowning slightly. Carter shrugged.
"I told Dr. Corday too," he said. Kerry groaned slightly.
"Oh, no, Carter," she massaged her forehead. "How is she taking it?"
"Not very well," he told her. There was another pause. Kerry glanced into the window again. She seemed to be contemplating something.
"Um...Carter--" she looked at him with slight uncertainty, questioning him with her gaze. He gave her an encouraging smile.
"Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Go in and see her. She likes the company." Carter held open the door to the room for Kerry. She hesitated briefly, then went into the room. Carter followed, letting the door swing shut behind him.
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And that's all for Chapter 8! Stay tuned for Chapter 9, coming soon!
How will the staff, especially those who knew Lucy, react to Grace? What about Elizabeth? What will Child Services do?
Hopefully, the next part will be up before the end of the week, if I don't have any more computer problems.
In the meantime, don't forget to REVIEW!!! I haven't gotten one of those in a looong while.
TTFN,
Snapdragon
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SAVING GRACE- CHAPTER 8
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It was 8:15 am the next morning, and Carter was sitting on the worn-out sofa in the lounge, drinking a cup of coffee from one of the old, slightly- chipped mugs that he had found in the cupboard above the coffee pot. Carter hadn't been able to sleep well that night. His mind kept turning over the strange revelations that he'd found the previous day. There was so much that he needed to know about Grace Knight.
He had even made a list of things to do. He'd been in so much shock the night before that he'd forgotten to call the police and tell them the information that he'd found out. He resolved to do it later today, once he told Kerry the news.
Carter snorted suddenly. This was going to be the talk of the ER for a while. The ER nurses were definitely the biggest group of gossips that he'd ever known.
As he drank the dregs of his bland cup of coffee, Elizabeth came into the lounge, dressed in the usual blue scrubs, a half-tied surgical mask around her neck. Her hair was tied back, and she looked rather tired. She smiled when she saw him.
"Carter," she said, "I didn't think that you'd be here this early." He shrugged.
"Where else would I be?"
"Oh, I don't know, sleeping, at home, anything is better than here." she said, smiling. "Just a moment, I'm going to grab a quick cup of coffee and then we can go, okay?"
"Okay," Carter nodded. "Sounds good." Elizabeth gave him a small smile and turned to pour a cup of coffee. Carter stood and walked to the sink, rinsing and drying his own cup. As he replaced it in the cupboard, he saw Elizabeth standing nearby, downing her coffee as fast as she could. Carter laughed at her.
"Hey, hey, you're gonna burn yourself!" he laughed. She brought the cup down from her lips and gasped shortly for air.
"Well," she told him, taking another sip, "I don't mind. And I am eager to see this patient." With that, she took the cup and lifted it to her lips again, chugging the rest quickly. Carter shook his head disapprovingly, waiting for her to finish. She finished the cup of coffee and put it into the sink, not bothering to wash it. She whipped past Carter, pushing open the door to the lounge.
"You coming?" she asked Carter.
"Yep," he said, following her out the door and to the elevator. They boarded the elevator, and Elizabeth hit the 5th floor button, leaning against the wall of the elevator. She sighed, blowing a loose curl out of her face. Carter looked over at her as the elevator stopped on the fifth floor.
"Which way?" Elizabeth asked him. Carter pointed down a hallway.
"There," he said, leading the way to the girl's room. When they had arrived at the door to room 512, Carter heard Elizabeth take a breath in. He turned to her.
"What?" she asked defensively.
"You sure you want to do this?" She nodded.
"Of course." Carter opened the door and held it open for Elizabeth. She stepped into the room with a mood of uncertainty. Carter let the door close, stepping into the room behind her.
The room was filled with sunlight, the blinds having not been drawn the night before. Grace was sound asleep in her bed, hair tousled under her head. Her blanket had slipped down as she slept, and her left arm was thrown out, hand over the side of the bed. Elizabeth approached her cautiously from the left side. Carter hovered near the foot of the bed. He heard Elizabeth draw in a sharp breath.
"Holy Lord," she said quetly, amazed. "This girl's a spitting image of Lucy." She moved closer to the bedside. Gently, she moved her hand to the child's head and smoothed her hair. Grace stirred, but did not wake. Carter picked up the clipboard on the counter in the room and saw that Grace's stats had been checked at 8:00 by the night nurse, and she was improving well.
He looked up and really looked at the child's face. Elizabeth was right: she was a spitting image of her mother. Besides the hair, she had Lucy's nose, her chin, her ears. But the thing that had taken Carter aback earlier were her eyes. The eyes were exactly the same.
"Oh," Elizabeth said rather suddenly, causing Carter to put the clipboard down and stare at her.
"What?" he asked her. Elizabeth bent down behind the bed and came up again with a toy, the stuffed octopus that Carter had found going through the girl's backpack the day before.
"She seems to have dropped her stuffed animal while she was sleeping," Elizabeth said quietly. She examined the creature. "Looks like an octopus," she observed, turning it over. Something caught her eye, and she stood staring at it. Carter moved to the side of the bed, near Elizabeth.
"What is it?" he asked her. She just shook her head, looking like she was holding back tears again.
She said nothing, but placed the octopus onto the chair beside the child's bed. She reached down and pulled the blankets up to Grace's collarbone, placing the stuffed toy back into the girl's arms.
"I am so sorry, Grace," Elizabeth said, her voice so soft a whisper that Carter could barely hear it himself. Elizabeth touched her head again, smoothing her blond hair. She turned to go, walking so briskly that Carter thought about turning after her. Thinking about it, staring at the slightly open door after her, she probably wanted to be left alone. He didn't follow her.
Carter knew she was upset. She probably felt horribly, still feeling responsible for Lucy's death. He frowned, and reached for the stuffed octopus. He examined it himself, turning it over in his hands. Something strange caught his eye.
On the underside of the octopus, there was a small tag, the kind that would hold cleaning instructions. This tag was small, maybe one inch and a half by one inch, and looked as if it had been bleached. On it, in a fine laundry-marking pen, there were words. Tiny but neatly-written, Carter recognized it as the handwriting that Lucy used to use, not the kind she used on patient charts, but what she used when she wrote out greeting cards, her neat handwriting. He read the words written there.
"My dearest daughter," Lucy had said, "I am here though I am gone. I
love you with all of my heart."
Carter reread the tag several times. Lucy had written those words, obviously, before her death. It was still ironic, though, that a simple message could bring him comfort as well.
Carter tucked the tag neatly under the octopus, and nestled the creature under the blanket next to Grace, who still slept soundly. He lightly touched the child's hand, and turned away. He slipped quietly out the door and down the sparsely populated hallway of the pedes floor of the hospital.
Back in the ER, Carter headed for the lounge, since he wasn't officially on yet. He glanced at the clock in the Chairs of the ER as he passed. He still had another 15 minutes until he needed to work. Carter entered the lounge and discovered it was empty. He opened his locker and took off his coat, replacing it with his white lab coat. He sat down on a wooden bench near the locker, pulling off his shoes to replace them with his work sneakers. He had just tied one sneaker on when the door of the lounge opened and Kerry walked in.
"Good morning, Carter," She greeted him.
"Morning, Kerry," he replied, tying his right shoe.
"I thought you weren't on until eight?"
"I'm not. I just came in early to check on my Jane Doe." Kerry raised her eyebrows.
"And?" she asked expectantly, sitting down at the scrubbed wooden table.
"I've got a name," he said. Kerry sighed, relieved.
"Good. We'll finally be able to get that girl home to her family." She took a small notebook and a pen from the pocket of her lab coat and set them down, ready to write. "So what's the name?"
"Grace Knight," Carter told her. She began to write, then stopped. She looked up at Carter, a strange, uncertain expression coming over her face. "Could you spell that, please?"
"K-n-i-g-h-t" he spelled out quickly. Kerry put down her pen suddenly on the table and folded her arms down.
"This is a ridiculous question, but is this girl somehow related to--?" Carter nodded. Kerry's mouth parted in disbelief. She tried to regain her composure.
"How is they related?" Carter moistened his lips.
"Grace is her daughter," he said carefully. There was a pregnant pause. Kerry's mouth fell open again. She shook her head in disbelief.
"Oh, God," she said, massaging her forehead with her hand. "This is not happening," she said, more to herself than to Carter. "Why did she come here?"
"Because she is looking for her father."
"What about her grandmother?"
"Died in a car crash a couple of months ago. As far as Ohio Child Services goes, she's an orphan," Carter told her. Kerry looked at the wall.
"Who's her father?"
"She doesn't know. She only said that he used to work in Chicago." Kerry massaged her temple, groaning softly.
"Okay, well, that doesn't rule anything out," she said, turning back to Carter, "Okay, here's what I want you to do--no, I'll do it."
"Call Ohio's Child Services?" Kerry nodded.
"Yes, I'm going to call them and talk to the foster family, tell them we have Grace. I'm going to see about getting records on the birth father and then we'll take it from there, ok?" she asked. Carter agreed that that would be the best thing to do.
"Will you let me know how it goes? What you find out?" Kerry nodded.
"Of course, she is your patient," she replied. Carter nodded.
"Thanks Kerry," he told her. She gave him a small, understanding smile.
"You're welcome. I know how much this one means to you." With that, she turned and walked out of the lounge.
Carter hadn't even had the time to gather his thoughts when Neela poked her head through the door. Carter stood abruptly.
"Dr. Carter, there's a trauma coming in. They need you're help," she informed him quickly.
"I'll be right there," he said as he gathered his stethoscope and rushed out the door, meeting Neela on the other side. "What is it?" he asked her, taking long strides out through the ER.
"They have a multi-victim motor-vehicular accident coming. Two major and three minor patients." Carter pushed through the doors and made his way to the ambulance bay with Neela. He found Drs. Weaver and Corday already standing there, waiting. They were conversing quietly, and looked up when Carter and Neela came out.
"Hey, Elizabeth, I thought that you got off?" She gave him a look that said quite clearly, 'I was.'
"Yes, well, this looked like a bad trauma, so I thought I'd stay and assist if need be." A few nurses appeared in the ambulance bay as they spoke. Sure enough, though, within a minute Carter heard the inevitable sirens of the ambulance approaching. Soon, the first two ambulances had pulled up in the bay in a torrent of flashing lights and sirens. The doctors and nurses surrounded the ambulances.
"Okay," Kerry was shouting. "Elizabeth and I have the first ambulance, and Carter and Neela are on the second one. You lot," she said, indicating the nurses, "go where you are needed. Divide yourselves up!" She shouted these instructions as she hobbled over to the first ambulance quickly, and the paramedics began unloading the patient.
"Male, 36, possible broken ribs and internal bleeds, got tension pneumo on the way over here. BP's 85/60, pulse weak at 80..." the paramedic's voice drifted off as Carter turned his attention to the second ambulance that was unloading. Carter helped to unload the gurney.
"What've we got?" he shouted to the paramedic as they wheeled in the gurney.
"66-year-old male, possible head trauma and spinal cord injury. Smashed his head up pretty bad in the accident. Probable internal bleeds, resps shallow and quick. Unconscious," the paramedic told them all. They got into Trauma one, and chaos ensued.
"Okay, I want a head CT, x-rays of the head and chest, CBC, type and cross, dip of urine, two liters of saline, five units of O-neg, and get the portable ultrasound for the abdomen," Carter told them all. "Neela, start a saline IV and put two units on the rapid infuser."
"All right," she said, bustling about to do what he had asked. Carter moved around to the man's head.
"Sir, what's your name?" he asked. The man's eyes opened slightly, out of focus.
"Tom Bennington," the older man gasped.
"Do you know where you are?" The man drifted, his eyes rolling back into his head. "Mr. Bennington!" Carter raised his voice. No response, He took out his penlight. "Pupils equal and reactive," he said.
"Pulse Ox dropping to 82," Lydia said. Carter clenched his teeth.
"Okay, someone get me a number seven ET tube," he said.
"You're tubing him?"
"His pulse ox is low, he's not breathing enough." Carter got the tube in his hand and put the man's head back a bit.
"You need crichoid pressure?" Neela asked him.
"Yeah," he said as Neela helped him steady the man's head. "Dammit! I can't get past the cords."
"Do you need--"
"No, never mind. I've got it." Carter said as he triumphantly pulled the tube applicator out of the man's throat. "Bag him," he said, and one of the nurses took over. The ultrasound matching was swishing.
"Oh, man. Belly's full of blood...so is the chest. Looks like one of his ribs punctured his lung."
"What else have we got?" Carter moved around the bed to check on the foley. To his dismay, the fluid inside was pink. "There's blood in the foley."
"BP's' dropping."
"Someone call surgery now! Lydia, hang another two units of O-neg on the rapid infuser, and get 350ccs of saline in there. We have to raise the guy's pressure."
"CT's ready,"
"Okay let's get him up there now."
"He's not stable," Neela told him. Carter shook his head.
"We need to get him up there, or we're gonna lose him." Pratt came into the trauma room, holding X-rays.
"Hey, Carter, films are back on this guy. Doesn't look good," he said. Carter grabbed the films and snapped them up onto a board, flicking on the backlight. Just then he heard a high-pitched, rapid beeping on the EKG.
"We're in V-fib," Neela called to him.
"Charge the paddles to 300, get them ready. Neela, take over chest compressions,"
"I can't bag and do compressions at the same time."
"I've got it, doc," Pratt said, rushing over and taking over the ambu bag, freeing Neela to do chest compressions. Carter moved over and grabbed the paddles.
"Clear!" he shouted. Everyone moved their hands off of the elderly man, and Carter put the paddles to his chest, giving a shock. They were still in V-fib. "Push an amp of epi, go again at 325." No luck with the defibrillator. "Again, give that epi a chance to circulate. Clear!" Another shock, but the patient didn't improve.
"Asystole," Neela said as the EKG flatlined.
"Push another amp of epi, let's go again at 360," Carter said as he got ready to set the paddles down again. "Clear!" he yelled for the third time. The shock came. The man was still asystole. Carter sighed. They were gonna lose this one. There was nothing that they could do. He set the paddles back on the cart. "Stop the compressions," he told Neela. Pratt kept bagging. The patient was still flatlining.
"I think that's it," Neela said. Carter nodded.
"Time of death, 8:33," he said. Turning to the nurses, he said, "Make sure that he gets cleaned up. Neela, call the morgue please." She nodded.
"Of course," she said, leaving the room. Carter looked through the glass into the next trauma room. Elizabeth and Kerry had cracked the younger man's chest, and were working to save him. Sam, one of the ER nurses, looked up at him through the glass. She saw from the look in his eyes that he hadn't been able to save that one.
"Need me in here for anything else?" Carter asked. Lydia shook her head, grabbing a death kit from a drawer in the room.
"No, Carter, I have it from here. Go see if there's anything that you can do for the other man injured," she answered, opening the death kit. Carter pulled off his gloves and threw them into a garbage can, along with his smock, and left the trauma room.
He checked around for something else to do. After finding that the minor victims from the accident were okay, he checked back in on the younger man from the car wreck. The moment he stepped into the trauma room, he knew things weren't going well.
"Is there anything I can do here?" he asked. Kerry shook her head.
"No, he's stabilized, but it's not looking good for him. Two of his broken ribs had punctured both his heart and right lung. We fixed the tears, but he's been deprived of oxygen for so long that he's in a coma," she explained.
"Any chance of him waking up?" Carter asked.
"It's too soon to say, but I don't think so," Kerry said as Carter rubbed his forehead. "How about the older man?"
"Dead, he had massive internal injuries."
"That bad?"
"It looked like someone took an eggbeater to his organs. There was nothing that we could do for him," Carter told her. They were both silent for a moment. Kerry began to take off her gloves.
"I'd better call the family. The police have gotten ID's on him and on the older one, so we can notify the family."
"Family?" asked Carter, placing emphasis on the fact that she had used the singular. Kerry nodded.
"They were father and son," she said. She looked at Carter. "Oh, and after that I'm going to call that number to call about your...patient," she said cautiously, throwing an apprehensive glance in Elizabeth's direction.
"It's okay, Kerry. Dr. Corday knows," Carter told her. "I told her about her this morning." Elizabeth looked up at the mention of her name.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing," Carter said. "Don't worry about it. Kerry left the trauma room, and Carter followed. They got to the admitting desk, and Kerry pulled out a clipboard, presumably containing information about the patient.
"Why don't you go visit her?" Kerry suggested kindly to Carter. He was struck with puzzlement.
"Who?"
"Miss Knight," Kerry said.
"But she's not in the ER anymore."
"Go. Go look after her. It's pretty slow down here, I'm pretty sure that we can handle things down here." Carter hesitated.
"Page me if anything comes in, please," he told her. She nodded.
"Go!" He obeyed, walking down the hall to the elevator.
Back at the doorway to room 512, Carter hesitated before going in. He saw through the glass window, of which the blinds were opened, that she was awake. Her bed was propped up slightly, and she appeared to be watching TV. He took a breath, and opened the door.
"Good morning, Grace," he smiled at her. A smile spread across her face as she looked at him.
"Hello, Dr. Carter," she said cheerfully. He tried not to think about how much she looked like Lucy.
"You seem better this morning, how do you feel?"
"I feel better, my tummy still hurts a little, and I had a headache. The daytime nurse gave me medicine through the IV tube for that, though," she said, turning back to the television for a moment. Carter moved to her beside and pulled up the stool to sit in.
"What are you watching?" he asked her.
"The Care Bears," she said. Carter smiled at her.
"My cousins used to like them. Which one is your favorite?" he asked.
"I like the rainbow one," she said. There was a pause, as Grace turned to the television. She looked at Carter. "They said that I could watch TV as much as I wanted to here," she said, somewhat melancholy.
"Yes, you can. Do you like to watch TV?" Grace shook her head.
"Not really. I like it a little, but Grandma never let me watch more than an hour a day. She said that it rots your brain." Carter chuckled. He had been told the same thing when he was young. He noticed suddenly that the octopus was still sitting at the girl's side.
"That's a nice stuffed animal," he said, pretending he'd never seen it before. "What kind is it?" Grace ignored the television set and took up the animal in her arms.
"It's an octopus," she said. She looked apprehensively from Carter to the octopus, and then back again. Finally, she handed the creature to Carter. He took it gingerly.
"What's it's name?" he asked her.
"Squirt is his name. I named him myself, when I was old enough to." Carter handed Squirt back to Grace, and she looked relieved to have him back. "Thank you."
"You don't like other people holding Squirt?" Carter asked her. She shook her head. She looked into his eyes, and her own eyes almost caught Carter off-balance.
"I don't want to lose him," Grace explained. "My mother gave him to me." Carter nodded. Grace looked like she was thinking hard about something again.
"Oh," Carter said simply. She looked at him again. Her eyes seemed to be searching his carefully. She held the toy in her arms and drew breath.
"You knew my mother, didn't you?" she asked him. Leave it to a child to be blunt and say exactly what is on her mind. Carter willed himself not to get emotional. He looked straight back at Grace, who was anticipating his answer.
"Yes, I knew her," he told the child. Her eyes lit up. The Care Bears were forgotten, and she clutched Squirt in her arms.
"Really? What was she like? How did you know her?" she asked, eyes shining. Carter sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He did not want to talk about this now.
"She worked at this hospital when she went to medical school," he said, keeping his answers as brief as possible. Her eyes grew wide.
"So, you knew her when she died?" she asked, eager for answers. Carter nodded.
"Yeah," he said softly. He stared out of the window at the buildings across the street. The sun was shining; it was a clear autumn day. "More than you know," he breathed, so quietly that he could barely hear himself say it. Grace followed his gaze out the window, then turned her head back to him.
"Was she a good doctor?" She asked Carter. He closed his eyes for a moment before answering.
"She was better than she thought," Carter answered briefly. He looked around, everywhere but at the little girl. He needed to change the subject. He got his answer. "Hey, the Care Bears are over. Do you want to watch something different?"
"No," Grace said, looking slightly hurt and confused. "No more TV. I want to do something different. Hey!" She said, remembering something. Guess what?" she asked Carter.
"What?" he asked. He was amused by how quickly Grace could change her emotions. She sounded excited about something.
"I'm getting a roommate! She gets that bed, over there," she said, pointing over at the empty bed on other side of the room. "Holly told me. She said that the girl, I don't know her name yet, had to have an operation, so she's gonna be with me when she gets better."
"Wow, a roommate," Carter said. "That sounds like fun," he told her. She nodded excitedly.
"Yeah, so I'll have someone to talk to instead of watching TV all day," she wrinkled her nose at that prospect, glad to have a roommate. Carter nodded, not bothering to mention to the child that the other girl would probably be too sleepy to be good company. "Dr. Carter, do you want to play a game with me?" Grace asked him.
"What game?" he asked. Grace shrugged.
"Well, we could play I Spy," she suggested. Carter smiled.
"Okay, that sounds like fun," he said. Personally, though, he hated the game: he'd never been good at it as a kid. "You can go first."
"Okay," she said excitedly, looking around the room, thinking about what she would choose. "I spy with my little eyes, something black," she clued. Carter looked around the room.
"The TV?" he guessed. Grace shook her head, smiling secretively. Carter glanced around, searching for something else. "The...um...the garbage can?"
"No, that's silver," Grace said, giggling. Her eyes flicked to Carter's chest. He got the hint.
"My stethoscope?" Carter guessed. Grace nodded.
"Yes, that's it. See? You aren't bad at this," she said, smiling. "Now it's your turn to choose." Carter thought for a moment.
"Okay, I spy with my eyes, something pink," he said. Grace looked around the room, lokking to find what Carter was talking about.
"Carter, can I speak with you for a moment?" Kerry appeared in the doorway to the room. Carter rose and went to meet her. Grace looked a little sad.
"Will you come back?" she asked him, a note of hopefulness in her voice. Carter gave her a small smile.
"Yes, I'll come back as soon as I can," said Carter. She smiled.
"Okay," she said as Carter went out into the hallway. Kerry was standing there, waiting for him. She glanced curiously through the window. Turning back to Carter, she shook her head in disbelief.
"Wow," she said, turning back to the window. "Carter, I really don't know what to say."
"What is it, Kerry?" he asked. Kerry looked at him, surprised, for a moment, then straightened up to speak with him.
"I called Ohio's Social Services Board," she said.
"And?"
"And they are trying to locate her records and contact the foster family. Someone will come here to pick her up and take her back when she is discharged," she told him. Carter sighed, slightly disappointed at the prospect of never seeing Lucy's child again. He nodded at Kerry.
"Okay," Carter said. Not finished, Kerry cut him off.
"I have a short shift today, and I told them that when they call back, to ask for me or for you."
"Why me?"
"Because," she continued, "You are her doctor, and you also are the one that she has had the most contact with." He nodded.
"Okay," he said, "that's cool." Kerry nodded, and there was a short pause. She glanced through the glass again. Grace had gone back to watching the television. Kerry shook her head.
"I can't believe this," she said. Carter laughed softly.
"That's what Abby said, too," Carter said. Kerry frowned.
"Abby knows about this?"
"Yes, she knows," he answered.
"Who else knows about this?" she asked him, frowning slightly. Carter shrugged.
"I told Dr. Corday too," he said. Kerry groaned slightly.
"Oh, no, Carter," she massaged her forehead. "How is she taking it?"
"Not very well," he told her. There was another pause. Kerry glanced into the window again. She seemed to be contemplating something.
"Um...Carter--" she looked at him with slight uncertainty, questioning him with her gaze. He gave her an encouraging smile.
"Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Go in and see her. She likes the company." Carter held open the door to the room for Kerry. She hesitated briefly, then went into the room. Carter followed, letting the door swing shut behind him.
***********************8
And that's all for Chapter 8! Stay tuned for Chapter 9, coming soon!
How will the staff, especially those who knew Lucy, react to Grace? What about Elizabeth? What will Child Services do?
Hopefully, the next part will be up before the end of the week, if I don't have any more computer problems.
In the meantime, don't forget to REVIEW!!! I haven't gotten one of those in a looong while.
TTFN,
Snapdragon