'Just wait here, I'll go and get you a gown to change into.'
'When do I get to see a doctor?'
'Dr Lewis will be with you shortly.' Abby replied, leaving the room. If your definition of shortly is a couple of hours, she thought dryly. She herself was struggling to care for far too many patients, and she knew Susan was in the same situation, the only difference being Abby had just begun her shift and Susan had been going all night.
Abby walked straight to Curtain 3 and changed Mr Simmons' IV. Then she picked up an emesis basin, a suture kit and a gown from the supply cupboard. She gave the basin to Mrs Peterson in Exam 2, set up the suture kit next to Mr Goodman in Curtain 4 and practically threw the gown at moaning Mrs Norton in Exam 1. She picked up Mr Wright's chest film and walked into the hall.
'Hey, Susan. Over here.'
Abby held the chest film up for Susan to see.
'Oh Christ.' Said Susan, not enthused at having to break the news to the pleasant old man.
Abby didn't need a doctor to tell her that the film showed Mr Wright more than likely had lung cancer. And that it had spread. A lot. Abby's fourth terminally ill patient since she had begun her shift two hours ago. God I need a cigarette, she thought.
As Susan took the chest film and went to share their discovery with Mr Wright, Abby walked through to chairs and surveyed the chaos. Jerry was busy trying to calm a drug-seeker and stop a kid from stealing his doughnuts simultaneously. Abby snuck past and into the lounge. She grabbed her cigarettes from her coat pocket in her locker and darted towards the ambulance bay before anyone could notice her. As the doors opened a sharp blast of cold air hit her and she paused in the doorway, contemplating running back for her coat, before deciding it was not worth the risk of getting caught and being dragged back in. She wrapped her arms around herself and ran out to a small spot against the wall which wasn't visible from the ER and also provided some shelter from the fierce wind. She certainly knew all the best places to steal a quick cigarette, she thought with wry pride.
As she lit up she noticed Luka sat across the bay on a bench, he didn't seem to have noticed her, his gaze fixed on a spot a few metres ahead of him on the ground. She walked over and stood on that exact spot. Whatever was engrossing him so was obviously in his head, as he hadn't noticed the pair of feet appearing in his eye line.
Abby took in his unkempt appearance and the dark circles under his eyes. 'Luka?'
He looked up at her blankly, as if unsure how long she had been trying to communicate with him.
'You look like hell.' She stated bluntly.
He gave a small smile.
'If you have flu you should go home.'
'I don't have flu,' he said. 'I'm just a bit tired, that's all.'
She sat down next to him and took note of how he didn't offer her his coat. Not that she would have accepted it, but it did strike her as out of character for him. His eyes returned to the same place on the ground, and, she guessed, his thoughts to the same place in his head. She noted how he looked even worse this morning than he had the past few days. She wondered if he was sleeping. She knew Luka had nightmares, she'd witnessed some herself, but she hadn't seen them affect him like this before.
'You really don't look well, why don't you go home? People would understand.' Abby said, secretly doubting that even the ever-caring Susan would understand if she had to take his shift, which she inevitably would if he did leave.
'Are you just finished?' Asked Luka, purposely ignoring her question.
'No, I've only been on a couple of hours,' she replied, sighing. Well, she couldn't force him to talk if he didn't want to. At least she'd tried. Sort of.
'I didn't think you were on today.'
'I wasn't. I swapped my shift.' Said Abby shortly, knowing full well where this conversation was headed.
If Luka heard the cold tone of her voice it didn't deter him. 'Why?'
'It was inconvenient.'
"Are you avoiding Carter?' Luka blurted the question out as it occurred to him, surprising himself a little.
Abby took a long drag on her cigarette and deliberately avoided his eyes. 'So what if I am?'
Luka didn't know what to say to that. He figured that the two of them were having problems, but knew it wasn't his place to pry.
'I had better get back to work,' he said.
He stood up and left Abby sat alone, quietly wishing he had pried. Well, she thought, rather disappointedly, he obviously had enough troubles of his own without having to worry about her.
Luka walked into the ER and slipped into the lounge unnoticed. He quickly discarded his things in his locker and walked back out, he paused in the doorway, taking in the familiar anarchy of the ER. Jerry was having a heated argument with a patient who was yelling that he was in immense pain, and behind him a young boy was sat on the floor in the middle of admin eating his doughnuts. Luka quickly walked though admin, grabbing a chart and reaching down to steal a doughnut from the box the kid was holding on his way. He glanced at the chart and headed for Curtain 2, pleased with having gone undetected.
'Luka!'
Luka halted only inches away from his destination, annoyed at having come so close. He slowly turned around and put on his best fake smile for the short redheaded doctor.
'Has my watch stopped?'
'Excuse me?' Said Luka, confused at Dr Weaver's humour which never even seemed to amuse herself, never mind anybody else.
'With the way you're skulking around avoiding me I would have though you were late, but my watch tells me you're almost half an hour early.'
'It's busy.' Said Luka, hoping the irrelevance of the words would tell her that he wasn't at all in the mood for an inquisition.
'I was informed that you left yesterday with flu. You must have made a quick recovery.'
'Yes.'
'You don't look good. I don't want you working if you're going to infect the patients.'
Luka knew that that was Kerry's way of saying he could take the day off if he felt he needed it.
'I'm fine, Kerry.'
Weaver paused, unsure of whether to pursue the conversation. She must have decided that it wasn't worth the bother, because she turned and walked off without another word.
Luka watched her leave and then turned back to where he was headed.
'Right Mr Fletcher, what seems to be the problem?'
Luka glanced at the clock. 7.30. He'd been on barely two hours but it felt more like twelve. His whole body ached from exhaustion and an overdose of ibuprofen had done nothing to stem that or the throbbing headache which seemed to worsen with each passing minute. He was having trouble hiding the dizziness that caused him to pause in the middle of something, and his squinting at things because of blurred vision was earning him suspicious looks from the nurses and the patients. There was no getting round the fact that he couldn't last much longer without some sleep, but he was determined to make it until the end of the shift. If he could just last ten more hours he would be able to go home, take a handful of pills and sleep all day tomorrow. He knew that he would be better off leaving now, after all he wasn't much use in this state, but something in him made him want to hang on just that little bit longer. It wasn't about proving to people that he wasn't unreliable anymore, though that was a part of it, if he did leave most of them would more than likely think he was ill. No, it was more than that. He needed to get through this, and he didn't think he could without his work. He had to stop this from affecting his work. He had to get through this shift.
Susan glanced at the clock. 7.30. She should have been off an hour and a half ago. She should be at home getting some well-needed sleep. Instead she still had seven patients to finish up on, and not only could she not find anyone to dump them on, she was being dumped herself.
'Jerry, where the hell are all the doctors?'
'Weaver disappeared upstairs, and Kovac just ran down that way when I told him there was an ambulance coming in.'
'A trauma?! Well you had better find one of them now Jerry because there's no way in hell I'm taking it.'
At that moment the paramedics brought their patient in themselves, announcing their arrival loudly.
Susan threw the charts she was holding down on the desk angrily and ran over to them.
'What have we got?'
'Twenty-nine year old woman found unconscious in her own home, a neighbour called 911 when he noticed her apartment door was open and went in. He said she came around after a minute or two, but we don't know how long she was out for before that. Her vitals are stable, and there are no signs of seizure. No major trauma either, just a few bruises.'
Out of the corner of her eye Susan spotted Luka. 'Hey, Luka! Get over here!' She yelled. 'I already have too many patients and I shouldn't even be here!'
Luka jogged over but froze in his tracks a few metres away. Susan looked up to see what the problem was and saw that his face had turned ashen, his wide eyes on the woman on the gurney.
