"Where's Stegman?" she said after a moment. Okay, what he did to Mona
was malpractice but this went way beyond that into the criminal arena.
There was no reason in the world for him to perform a lobotomy on someone for a mild
concussion! After a moment when no one responded, Chris looked up, glancing
around at the three others who were looking at her with extremely nervous expressions. "Where
is he? Don't tell me that Dr. James didn't bother to call the police and"
She knew she was starting to scream, a tiny little voice in the back of her head
that sounded like Hook's telling her to get control of herself, but she
just couldn't. Okay, the relationship with Hook had been brand new but Chris had just
known that things were going to work out between them, that this time everything would
be right, and now.... The tears started to roll down her cheeks as she thought of it, of
losing Hook.
"Chris, there was nothing Jesse could do, at least at the moment"
Louis said gently as he wrapped his arms around the young woman, hugging her close.
The fact that Stegman was seemingly getting away with what he had done to
Hook made him furious as well and he had argued with Jesse for hours about it,
insisting that some sort of charges had to be brought. Everyone had. Even Elmer, who normally
caved totally in the face of any argument with authority, had actually managed
to make some demands as well. Louis didn't think he had ever been prouder
of his son than he had been at that moment. "Chris, Brenda and Stegman both insist
that there was a hematoma and until we can get the records from that
surgery, not that I expect that they're going to be accurate.... It's Liz's word
against theirs."
"So he's going to get away with it?" Chris glared angrily around the room as she spoke, looking at each of the three in turn. "All of you are going to just sit by and let Stegman get away with...." She couldn't say it, couldn't speak aloud what she was thinking, but she knew deep down that if Louis was right in his assessment of Hook's condition that the man that she loved was for all intents and purposes, dead.
Surprisingly, Elmer was the one who spoke up. "We aren't going to let him get away with it." he said softly. Hook had been blackmailing him over the head thing, of course, but even with that, the young doctor had been totally freaked when he learned what had happened. Hook had always seemed indestructible, even when Steg was trying so hard to bring him down somehow, and to see him in his current condition.... "We just don't know what we can do to stop him." Hook had always been the one who had dealt with stuff like that, keeping Steg well, not under control, but minimizing the damage a bit.
"Liz is more than willing to testify to what she saw." Louis continued.
The nurse had been outraged when she found out what Stegman had done and it had
taken Louis hours the night before to convince her that calling the police
in immediately wasn't the right move. "The problem is that if Stegman and Brenda stick
together, it's the word of two doctors against one nurse and they're already starting
a smear campaign against Liz to discredit her." Louis saw red as he thought of that.
Liz had been a good friend and for Stegman and Brenda to malign her, to
imply that she was too old and incompetent to do her job....
"So he just gets away with it?" Chris said, anger in her voice as she looked around the room once more. Okay, she knew rationally that there was nothing that anyone could really do if the situation was the way they were saying it was but that didn't take away the anger at the fact that she was losing the man she loved, the man that she had hopes she would be spending the rest of her life with, and that his loss would go unpunished.
"I've talked to Dr. James." Louis said quietly. He wished there had been a better way to break this to Chris, something they could have done to soften the blow but really what was there? "Stegman's been blocking running a MRI and up until the last hour or so, Hook really hasn't been in any condition to be moved. Jesse's going to override that, though, and if he stays stable a bit longer, they'll take him down for the scan. Hopefully that will give us some clue exactly what Stegman did to him, maybe give an idea of what we can do to help, if there is anything." Louis didn't say it, of course, but he was thinking deep down that an autopsy was probably going to be needed to find out exactly the extent of the damage at this point, something that was likely going to be called for relatively soon.
"I want to see him." Chris couldn't deal with it right now, couldn't
deal with thinking of what to do about Stegman and Brenda although she was
burning inside, wanting to do something, anything, to make them pay for hurting
Hook, for taking him away from her. She closed her eyes for a moment, laying her head down
on the table and starting to sob as she realized what she was doing,
thinking about Hook like he was already dead. "I want to see him."
"Chris." Lona said, looking over at Louis and Elmer with worry plainly
in her eyes. How could they let Chris see Hook in his current condition?
She would fall apart completely if she had to see him like that. The other doctors
had barely been able to stand seeing it themselves. "Chris, Hook wouldn't want you to
see him like he is now. He's on life support and his head...." Lona shook
her head as she thought of it. Whatever Stegman had done shouldn't count
as surgery but as butchery.
"What's...." Chris closed her eyes, not even sure she wanted to know anymore, not wanting to have any small hope she might have crushed.
"They couldn't get the bone back in place last night after the
surgery, or at least that's what Stegman says." Louis said with a shake of his head.
"To say there's a lot of swelling would be putting it mildly. Chris, Lona's
right. Hook wouldn't want you to see him like that. I'm just so, so sorry."
Chris didn't speak for a moment. "I don't care." she said
finally, so softly that they almost couldn't hear her. "I want to see him.
Take me to him."