Disclaimer: yep, same as before..not mine.
"Is she asleep?" Susan asked Jake as he walked back over to the admit desk, reading a chart.
"Yeah, took her about ten minutes, but she actually did fall asleep," Jake responded
"Is she still having nightmares?" asked Susan as she dumped two charts onto the desk. Jake had told Susan weeks earlier, that often Abby would wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to fall back asleep. Abby had finally told him, after the fifth night, in detail, about the nightmares that had plagued her almost nightly. The following day, Jake had confronted Susan about the problem.
"Not as often, she's actually sleeping through the night most of the time." Susan nodded, as the paramedics rushed through the door. "We'll talk about it later okay?" she didn't wait for an answer, as she joined the medics and Jake went back to his patients.
An hour later, Jake was again sitting at the admit desk, lost in thought. He couldn't get Abby off his mind, the way she had cried to him, how she had held onto his scrubs, how she let him comfort her. Abby needed therapy, and when she woke up, he was going to tell her that she had to go. She would fight him tooth and nail, but she needed to go and he would make it his personal mission to make sure that she went. Right now, it seemed to be his only option.
"JAKE!" Susan snapped at him this time, she had been talking to him for a good five minutes and had realized that the medical student was far from paying attention to her. They all worked long hours and it took it's toll on everyone, seemed that Jake had mastered the art of sleeping with one's eyes open now too.
"What! Sorry Susan, what were you saying?" Jake grumbled as he brought his attention back to the land of the awake, a cat nap was all he was really after right now. He was actually surprised that no one had even noticed that while he had charts in front of him he hadn't been working on them, actually rather engrossed in a good dream.
"Is Abby awake? I'm just going to send her home, she doesn't need to be here." she put her charts down on the counter. Susan looked over just as Jake glanced at his watch.
"Oh shit, I was supposed to wake her up an hour ago. Abby is going to kill me." he rushed off towards exam three not wanting the wrath of his girlfriend on his head right now either, while everyone knew Abby needed a nap, Abby seemed to be the only one against the idea. Susan followed hot on his heels. He slowed down when he reached the door, the last thing he wanted to do was rush in, making a bunch of noise, scaring her even more. He slowly opened the door and walked in.
"Abby?" the gurney was empty, the blankets and sheets gone. He and Susan walked further into the room.
"Abby, are you in here?" there was no sign of her. Jake felt his heart jump into his throat. "Susan, can you check the bathroom, I'm going to go look in the lounge," he was trying to remain calm. They both left the room, heading towards the designated rooms, and each reemerged seconds later, fear already evidentin both of their eyes.
"Jerry, have you seen Abby?" Susan shouted to the desk clerk, who shook his head. "Page her, now," the last time they couldn't find Abby, everyone had dismissed it, saying she had just gone for a walk, gone to blow off some steam, when in fact she had become part of a very dangerous gang war.
Over the span of twenty minutes, they paged her six times, Susan had contacted security to keep an eye out for the doctor, and Jake had run over to the Jumbo Mart to see if she was there. There was still no sign of Abby.
"Susan, what if," Jake was now extremely worried. Abby wouldn't just walk away, not with how worried she knew everyone was. His voice was barely holding back the emotion that was threatening to overtake him.
"No, not yet okay! She's fine Jake! Jerry, page her again," she ordered. Susan didn't want to jump the gun and assume the worst just yet. This was a big hospital she might have just been up on the roof, smoking and not heard her pager going off. But then again, Abby knew better than to not answer a page. Susan took a deep breath in and started to climb the stairs, might as well check there first. Still, no Abby. Susan had asked every member of her staff when they had last seen her. The most recent was Sam who had last seen Abby in the trauma. Nobody had seen her since. Surely, if Abby had been walking around the ER, someone would have noticed.
As time ticked by, it became painfully obvious that Abby was missing. Susan didn't know what to do, she didn't want to give in to the fact that any one of the horrible scenarios running through her head could be accurate, but she knew that if something happened and she could have acted sooner, she'd never be able to live with herself. She looked at the clock. One hour, it had been a full hour since they had first noticed Abby was missing. "Damn it!" Susan pushed past Jake and Jerry, reaching for the phone. "I need to speak to Dr. Weaver... No, I realize she's very busy... Okay, well this is more important than a meeting. Just tell her she's needed in the ER, STAT!"
Susan slammed down the phone, and headed to the elevator and jabbed at the button so hard she practically dislocated her index finger. "Could this damn elevator possibly move any slower?" she pounded the button again, this time with her fist, her thoughts to irrational to even consider taking the stairs. "If Weaver's too fucking busy to come down here, I'm going up there, screw budget meetings. She's always telling department heads to show up at more of them anyhow." she thought to herself.
"If you keep pounding on the elevator, you will break it, and according to the budget meeting I just got pulled out of, we may not have the funds to repair it. Now speaking of said meeting, what was so important that you saw it fit to have me pulled out to come down here?"
Kerry Weaver's voice in the ER was one that you could not mistake for anyone else's. Sure they had all been on the end of one of her rants, some of them more than one. Jerry had gotten it when he blew up the ambulance bay, Susan had gotten it several times over various administrative things since taking over the ER. While at times you knew the woman had a heart when it came to her staff, there were other times that everyone had debated if she was even human. Right now was one of those moments, granted once Susan had told her what was going on and maybe Kerry's tone and demeanor would change when she realized the full scope of the situation.
"I just thought you might want to know that we think something has happened to Abby. We can't find her, she's missing, though clearly the rising prices of foley catheters is a much more pressing subject," Susan's sarcasm and rage were completely unrestrained.
After a moment of silence and shock, Kerry opened her mouth to speak. Then closed it again, trying to figure out exactly what to say. Finally, "Are you certain she isn't on the premises, or maybe she just stepped out," this was Dr. Weaver's attempt to rationalize.
"You think I would be calling you if I wasn't absolutely certain she was missing?"
"Look, I'm sorry, it's just not something I like to have happen more than once. Call the police."
"I thought I should wait for your okay before I did-"
Kerry cut her off before she could finish what she was going to say. "I wouldn't suggest waiting, but either way, I'm here now, so lets get on the phone, shall we?" Kerry rushed off toward admit, while Susan followed quickly behind her. Weaver picked up the phone, dialed and handed off the phone.
"You mean I'm-"
Kerry didn't mean to but she gave Susan that look. "Yes, you are talking to them, now ear to the phone and wait for someone to answer, you have to take charge. You are in charge of this department and she's a member of your staff. Don't let them push you around."
"Hello I need to report a missing person... just over an hour... What? Yes I'm sure it's urgent, I wouldn't be calling if... I understand… no you need to realize… stop cutting me off, she's a member of my staff and they don't just disappear in the middle of … and I know she didn't just go home… " Susan glanced over at Kerry, as if begging for help. The latter quickly grabbed the phone.
"This is Dr. Kerry Weaver, chief of staff at Cook County General, I am calling to report a missing doctor, quite frankly I don't give a damn what your excuse is, this is not a joke, and I don't care if it hasn't been twenty four hours, she is missing and you will have an officer here in twenty minutes or... No, that is not a threat, I'm just... Okay then, I'd like to speak to your supervisor…" After nearly twenty minutes of trying persuade the Chicago police to send down an officer, they finally complied. "Someone will be here soon," Kerry slammed the phone down, she, like Susan, and Jake was extremely worried about Abby's safety now. She had reminded the guy on the other line that Abby was a doctor who had mysteriously disappeared. That had clicked with the guy, like her had put the pieces of a puzzle together. He then informed Kerry that he was sending over a patrol car ASAP. "Susan, does anybody else besides us know about this?" Susan shook her head, not exactly sure where Kerry was going with this.
"Some of them know that Jake and I were looking for her, but that's it."
"Okay let's try and keep it that way until the police show up, then we'll go from there." Susan nodded, not knowing what else to do at that moment. All she could do was worry, worry that her best friend might once again be in serious danger.
