"Chris, you don't have to...." Hook would normally have been thrilled that she wanted to work with him on this but with how he was feeling, sure that Elmer's current condition was definitely his fault, he wasn't sure that it wouldn't be better for Chris to totally disassociate herself from him before blame could end up falling on her too.
"Hook, we're in this together. Elmer's my friend too and I'm not
just going to walk away when he needs my help, when you need my help. So,
what are we going to try now? There has to be something that would explain
what in the world is wrong with Elmer." Chris said firmly. She just
wished she could think of a way to take the guilt that was weighing Hook
down away. He wasn't to blame for this. She knew that he wasn't. She
just needed a way to make him believe that.
Before Chris could speak, the pair suddenly heard a familiar voice
and looked up just as Stegman came heading down the hall right for them.
"I thought he was in Boston in hiding." Chris muttered as she stared at
him. Maybe Stegman's presence would actually be a help this time, though.
At least Hook would have the person who was actually responsible for the
entire situation handy to heap blame upon.
"Hook." Stegman said with a smirk as he stopped in front of Hook and Chris. "Now what's this I hear about you goofing up an operation and messing up Louis Traff's son?" This was just so rich. As soon as Brenda had called to tell him about what had happened, he had caught the first flight he could get on back from Boston, unable to resist the opportunity to gloat at that self righteous Hook's failure.
Before Hook could say anything, Chris burst in. No way was she letting Hook take the blame for this. "Actually, if anyone goofed up things, I believe that would be you, Doctor." Chris said firmly as she glared at Stegman. "It was your patient who lost it and shot Elmer, after all. You don't see any of Hook's patients going psychotic and shooting people, now do you? I think I have a pretty good idea of who Louis is going to be blaming for this entire thing. You really must like the hospital lawyers. You're keeping them so busy."
As Stegman sputtered, shocked that Chris had actually talked back to him, she reached out and snagged Hook's arm. "See you later!" she called as she drug Hook down the hallway away from Stegman. "Say hello to the hospital lawyers! I'm sure they'll be along soon to talk to you about that patient and the gun!"
"Chris, don't do that, okay?" Hook told her firmly as soon as they
were out of earshot of Stegman. "You know he's going to try something to
pay you back for that." Not that Stegman would succeed if he tried,
however. No way was Hook letting that idiot do anything that might hurt
Chris.
"Hey, I wasn't about to stand there and let him blame you for something that was his fault." Chris said firmly, wrapping her arms around Hook and cuddling him close as they leaned back against the wall. It really made her feel special that Hook cared enough for her to try so hard to protect her but two could play at that game. She was going to do her best to protect him as well and that meant dealing with Steg. "So, what do we do now about Elmer?"
"There's not a whole lot that we can do at the moment." Hook said with a frustrated shake of his head as he thought of the situation. "I'm going to scan his head again in the morning in case there might be some sort of tiny bleed and a friend down in Portland suggested doing a twenty-four hour blood sugar test instead of just the random checks, see if anything unusual shows up there."
Chris nodded, knowing that fluctuations in the blood sugar level could definitely cause something like this. "So Elmer's going to be poked every hour on the hour? If that doesn't get him to wake up.... What about drugs?" She asked after a moment. She didn't want to think that Elmer would be foolish enough to take something illicit but....
"I'm going to get them to test him again and widen the list of drugs they're checking for. I just hope something turns up soon." The longer that Elmer remained unconscious, the harder it would be for them to snap him out of it.