"Elmer?" She called the young doctor's name anxiously, her hand reaching out in search of him.
"There's no change." Louis whispered with a shake of his head as Lona fully opened her eyes, the hope in them fading as she saw Elmer still lying there so unnaturally still.
"Nothing?" Lona whispered. What was going on here? It had been two days now. Why wasn't Elmer awake? He should be awake! The reached out, gently taking his hand in hers, running her fingers over his, hoping for something, a twitch or some sign. This was so unnatural that it was frightening. Elmer was never so still.
"They're going to do another scan of his head in a little while.
Hook's wanting to see if there might be some sort of small bleed that's
taking awhile to show up." Louis paused for a moment before continuing to
speak, not sure if he ought to ask this of Lona or not. "Listen, I was
wanting to go and check on some patients." It felt more than a little
awkward to be speaking of his patients now when he knew his entire focus
should be on his son and getting him better but.... "I haven't had time to
get them covered or anything and...." He felt terrible even considering
his patients but at the moment with Elmer still unconscious, there was
nothing he could really do and better for him to get things covered now
than to wait anxiously at his son's bedside until he woke up and then have
to scramble to get someone to cover for him when he would rather be with
Elmer and fussing over him.
"I understand, Louis." Lona said gently, definitely glad that the only thing that she had to worry about at the moment was research and not people that couldn't wait. "I'll be happy to stay with him."
"You're sure you're feeling up to it?" he asked her. With how upset Lona had been, he definitely didn't want to put her through anymore stress.
"I'll be fine. I'll take good care of him. Go on." Lona told Louis firmly. This was all her fault, after all. Sitting with Elmer and looking after him was the least that she could do.
"Elmer?" She called his name, her hand reaching out and gently
touching his face as soon as Louis was out of the room. She felt the tears
starting to build up once more as she watched him, lying there so still.
"Elmer, sweetie...."
Before Lona could say anymore, the door came open and Carrie poked her head in. "Hi, how are you doing?"
"Okay. Louis had to go and get someone to cover his patients"
Lona told the nurse as she entered. "What are you doing down here? I
thought you were covering ICU for now."
"They were short staffed and needed anyone they could find"
Carrie looked closely at the bandages on Elmer's head and shoulder. Okay,
Elmer was her friend, even after his stupid joke with the head, but.
"There isn't any blood on those, is there?"
Lona shook her head. "No, everything's fine."
"Good. I swear I don't think I'm going to remember where I live anymore if they have me do many more shifts. After this, they need me over on Peds." Carrie said with a shake of her head before flushing slightly as she recalled the task she had been sent down to Elmer's room to do.
Lona watched critically as Carrie bustled around the room,
obviously trying to avoid something. The nurse was around Elmer's age, she
knew, and Carrie was definitely very nice. Maybe she would be a good match
for Elmer? Well, if she had forgiven him for nearly giving her a coronary
with the head, she likely would be.
"Carrie, are you seeing anyone?" Lona asked cautiously, a moment later.
"Who has time with the hours Dr. James makes people work?" Carrie
said with a laugh. "I think it's been a week now since I've been home.
I'm not sure I'm going to even be able to find it if I ever get out of
here." The nurse paused for a moment. "You know those employment
contracts we had to sign a couple of months ago, Dr. James didn't slip
something in there about obtaining our souls or something, did he?" She
chuckled nervously as she spoke now. "Because I could swear that I felt
mine going a little loose on me a few days ago and...."
"No, he didn't get our souls in the contract negotiations." Lona said gently. Honestly, the little nurse was just so nervous about everything. Of course, Elmer could be a bit jumpy as well so maybe they would be a good match, after all. And Carrie would certainly be someone safer for Elmer to be around than she was.
"Well, that's good to know." Carrie said. Looks like she couldn't delay things any longer. "Ummmm, they sent me down here to see about getting him cleaned up before they come to take him for the scan." She could feel her face turning redder and redder with each word. Okay, it wasn't like she hadn't bathed patients before but never anyone she actually KNEW!
"Carrie?" The nurse had turned bright red when she mentioned her assigned task, making Lona more than a bit nervous. "Are you alright?"
"I'm just...." Carrie forced herself to laugh slightly. "No problem. I've done this lots of times. Just need to get the water and some soap and a razor and..." She was babbling now, trying to hide her nervousness about what she was going to have to do.
"Carrie, why don't you let me take care of things here?" Lona said as she jumped up, steadying the swaying nurse a bit. No, she was not going to be letting Carrie anywhere near Elmer with a razor. He really didn't need to have to have major blood transfusions at the moment.
"Will you? You're okay with that?" Carrie sighed inwardly with relieve but didn't want to show it to Dr. Massingale. She hated that everyone knew how nervous she was and now here she had chickened out over the issue of a BATH!
"I'm fine with it. Why don't you just run along to Peds?" Lona said, shaking her head as Carrie hurried out of the room, calling a quick goodbye to Elmer over her shoulder. No, now that she had time to think about it she knew that Carrie wasn't the right one for Elmer. Entirely too nervous. She would drive him nuts with her panicking within a week.
"Well, now what am I going to do with you?" Lona said softly as she looked down at Elmer, thinking of what she had promised to do. Had they even covered bathing the patients in med school?