POCKET CHANGE 3: HIDE and SEEK
by Sharon R.
Chapter Six
The tray of food Emily had left for him earlier at noontime was still on the table where she left it. So was the vest. Carter picked at the fruit, then grabbed the bottle of water as he left his room, the vest under his arm. It's time to dispose of this memory, he thought. The cook was somewhere in the house - everybody else was gone for the evening - and the functionality of staff within the walls had reverted back to emptiness. In the foyer, he stopped long enough to retrieve the phone message Emily had put there earlier in the day. It gave him a smile, but he was too occupied to give it the attention it deserved.
"No time for some dinner, Dr. John?"
"No, thank you. I'm going in a little early. I'll get something…" The Carter family loyal servant was drying her hands with a kitchen towel and a warm scent of savory herbs and warm spices followed her from the kitchen. She had obviously taken the time to prepare a meal for him. And if he wasn't mistaken, his favorite apple pie. "I sure would appreciate something to-go," he offered her appreciatively.
"Your mail is under the paper there. I'll be right back."
Pushing the paper aside, Carter grabbed the three days worth of mail and headed into the living room where Emily had made a fire in the oversized fireplace. Like dealing a deck of cards, he tossed one piece of junk mail after another into the flames, until he got to the large manila envelope at the bottom. The return address peaked his interest - Washington D.C. Reaching in, he pulled out just the letter:
Dear Dr. Carter:
It is with great pleasure and admiration that we welcome you to the National Press Club's annual recognitiondinner on the Tenth of May to receive the Robert Capa Photo Journalism Award posthumously for Colleen J. Reilly. Robert Capa's motto was:
If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough
CJ Reilly lived that motto. Her work is a credit not only to the men and women who put their lives on the line every day in the name of honest journalism, but also to the refugees for whom she gave an international voice.
I look forward to meeting you and hope that you will be able to share with us an insight into CJ's work in Africa.
Enclosed, please find…
Carter huffed as the thought of honoring Colleen turned his empty insides. He didn't even want to finish reading the letter, but scanned to the closing.
Yours Truly,
Jeffrey Alton Dutton
National Press Club President
"So not returning a call means I'll do it?" he asked out loud to no one.
He very nearly threw the envelope into the flames until he saw the program with Colleen's picture on the cover with her birth and death dates, like a tombstone.
Colleen Juverna "CJ" Reilly
1971 - 2004
"Did you say something?" Emily asked walking up to Carter with a bag in her hand.
"No, just thinking out loud." Putting the envelope on the chair next to the fireplace along with the vest, he took his dinner from Emily. No simple bag lunch - it was heavy. "All this?"
"There's enough for two, just in case, you know…," she demurely smiled with a hint of mischief in her eyes.
Carter nodded. She's sweet, he thought. "See you in the morning."
"You take it easy." Following Carter to the door and barely catching him she added, "oh, and by the way, the man from the phone company came and checked the lines."
"Dr. Kovac," Jerry called out as Luka crossed in front of the Admit desk, "Dr. Flynt from radiology is on his way down to see you. Says to tell you to stay in one place so he can find you. Oh, and to stop sending patients."
"He's not serious, is he?"
"I've never known him not to be."
Luka stopped his hike to the lounge and instead went over to the board and began erasing discharged patients.
"Keep this up and there won't be anything for the night shift to do," Jerry whined as he unwrapped a submarine sandwich and took his first of four mouthfuls on the way to finishing it.
"Well, maybe Dr. Carter can return the favor one day."
"With my luck, I won't be on that day."
"Fast tracking everything through radiology isn't going to get you many allies down there." Steve Flynt rounded the corner with an armful of large brown envelopes, each with radiographs. "It's been like the mall on Christmas Eve down there today."
"Yeah, well it freed up beds long enough for me to get other patients in and out." Luka followed Flynt to the viewing room with a wall of light boards. "Are you saying that I ordered unnecessary tests?"
"No. But there is such a thing as portable X-rays and ultrasounds."
"Which arrive only at the tech's convenience, not mine. What's the matter Steve," Luka kidded as he mockingly looked at his watch, "you guys down in Radiology can't handle more than a 9 to 5?"
"Very funny. I don't have many students this rotation, so I'm doing scut to free up my residents to do some actual learning."
With the light boards turned on, Flynt began his review, slapping the large plastic x-ray sheets up under the clips as he went.
"Wickham, Seth. Rule out fracture-dislocation of the 5th metacarpal base. Negative. Bellamy, Ruth. Rule out orbital fracture. Negative." Flynt was obviously in a hurry, moving from one case to the next as he summarized what he had already taken the time to review back in his department. "Ellington, Stephen. Post reduction films - right shoulder. No abnormalities. Stoker, Dakota. Rule out epiglottitis due to chronic croup. Negative. Ivory, Erin. Rule out ectopic pregnancy. And we've got a winner." Flynt snapped the large collage of different views into the viewer and pointed to each frame. "Here… see it here again… and again."
"Right side ectopic?" Luka confirmed.
"Very early, that's why she's experiencing spotting but no pain yet, and her white cell count and hematocrit are normal. Not only that, we get a bonus." Pointing to the left side of the view, both doctors moved closer to get a better look.
"Both sides?"
"Could be. Notes say she was taking fertility meds. I've never seen it on both sides, but I'm sure it's possible. I'm not as convinced that that's what we're seeing on the left. I'd like to repeat the ultrasound and this time do it myself with the OB/GYN attending before they play with their laparoscopes up in the OR."
Luka looked at his watch again and loosened his necktie. "Was hoping to get her up to the OR before shift change, but okay. I'll call for the consult. Set it up."
Luka meandered back to the desk where he parceled out the orders for discharge to the students, with the exception of Mrs. Ivory, who he handed off to Abby and Pratt. "Tell her that she definitely has an ectopic on the right. There's a chance that the left fallopian tube is involved as well, but before we send her to surgery Dr. Flynt wants to do a repeat ultrasound himself with the OB/GYN attending. Get that consult and I'll sign off when they get here."
With close to five more patients off the board, Luka was sure to give Carter a quiet start to his shift. "Jerry, tell Dr. DeRaad I'll be in the lounge. And don't let anybody discharge Trauma-2 until I see the patient."
Carter parked the jeep in his spot and looked at his watch. Six fifteen. Still had plenty of time before his shift started. He picked up one of his medical journals off of the seat next to him and tried to read it, but it was too dark in the parking garage and he didn't want to draw attention to himself by switching on the dome light. Peaking into the bag Emily had put together for him, he laughed. Next to the container of Chicken Cordon Bleu was a little bag of Fritos. He would beg her for those when he was a kid because the other kids' moms would pack them in their lunches.
Early wasn't so bad. Sam usually didn't work twelve hour shifts, so he wouldn't have to worry about putting another wrinkle in that mess. The EL roared over head as Carter opened the door to the ER and went through security.
"Hey Jerry," he called out, "how was your day?"
"Not bad exceptSuperman of the Balkans sped everyone through in record time."
"Yeah? Well at least you weren't bored."
His hands full with his dinner, the bottle of water and his satchel, Carter backed into the lounge door to open it. He had to move quickly to the refrigerator before he dropped anything, but stopped short at the sight of Carl DeRaad and Luka sitting at the table in discussion - discussion that had stopped abruptly upon his entrance.
"Oh. I see." Carter felt awkward. "Carl, if my watch is right, it's only been eight hours. I've got another four and a half days before I have to see you again." DeRaad and Luka both held their tongues at Carter's flippant remarks. "So Luka, are you checking up on me, or is it the other way around?"
"Neither, actually," Luka was quick to offer.
"John," DeRaad added, "I'm down here on a consult for Luka. But as long as the three of us are here, it wouldn't hurt to ask if the two of you want to talk about what has been bothering you."
"I'm fine," Luka quickly offered.
"You sure? Look, Luka, John has barely told me anything, but I get the distinct impression that the two of you experienced a devastating trauma before you came back." Carter leaned against the counter top as he watched DeRaad grill Luka. "The only thing that tells me you're not alright is the fact that you are so keen on telling me you are. I'm worried about both of you having your life disturbed by sense memories, especially if you insist on keeping the event to yourselves."
"Really," Luka nodded to reinforce himself, "I'm fine, but if John wants to -"
" - No. Carl, we talked already. I don't think I'm going to have any more issues. I even had a peaceful few hours of sleep today."
"You still look pretty haggard," DeRaad commented.
Carter reached up and felt his beard growth. He'd forgotten to shave again. "I'm thinking of changing my image. A beard maybe to ward off the evil spirits."
His joking was lost on the other two doctors who obviously had concerns. While checking the faces of his colleagues, Carter opened the freezer up top of the refrigerator and put in his bottled water for a quick cool down. The refrigerator was next as he found a spot down low for his substantial packed dinner.
As he stood back up, the freezer door swung back open, and like in slow motion, Luka called out to warn Carter as his head aimed right for the corner. "Carter, stop," he yelled.
But before Carter could react, he smacked right into the door. "Shit. God Damn it," he shouted back as the sting into his scalp made him see stars.
Luka was quick to his feet and made Carter sit down in a chair where he leaned over and rested his sore head in his hands. As Luka pulled a chair up next to him and held his head to check for bleeding, Kerry walked in the door and took in the scene before her.
"Carl? What's going on in here?"
"Nothing," Carter whined pushing Luka away. "I'm alright."
"Kerry," Deraad asked, "could you give us a moment?"
After Kerry had left the lounge, Luka and Carter loosened up with a laugh.
"I don't see any bleeding," Luka said as he looked at Carter's head again. "You seem to have a thick head."
"Family trait."
"Listen," Luka changed the subject, "I have a patient that was brought in by the police. Carl just saw him. He has had a troubled history. Running away, some self mutilation. Won't let me examine him. The kid had been kept locked in a closet in his foster parent's house for possibly up to six months."
"I heard that on the news on my way in."
"I'm wondering if you and Luka could talk to him together" Carl chimed in. "The time you spent in captivity in Africa is well known. He's blaming himself. Even siding with the foster parents to some extent. I think maybe he might be able to identify with you two."
Carter shrugged his shoulders, then went to his locker to get ready for his shift. "Sure," he said while connecting eyes with Luka to make sure they were on the same track, "I wouldn't mind at all."
"Great." Luka got up and patted Carter on the shoulder as he left the room. "Trauma-2. I'll see you in there."
"John," DeRaad waited for the door to close all the way, "did you get those scripts filled?"
"Ah, you know," Carter fumbled, "I don't think that will be necessary. I'll be okay."
"Remember what we talked about. About managing this. You need consistent sleep, and someone to talk to."
As Kerry walked towards the Admit desk to touch base with Susan, she saw Carl DeRaad standing in front of a trauma room, his arms crossed in front of him as he watched the goings on through the window. She stopped next to him and looked in at Carter and Luka talking with a patient.
"Carl," she said in a subdued voice as she stared at Carter, "should I be worried about him?"
"I think he has a chance. He's finally reaching out," he clinically answered as he watched the boy start to talk, intent on watching his body language. "But…"
"But what?"
"These things can come back to haunt you." He was pleased to see the boy reach out to the two doctors. "I'd hate to see him fall back on old habits." As the boy leaned back, he finally let Luka examine him.
"You think that's a possibility?" She, too, was focused, but on Carter, not the boy.
"It's not a matter of if, but when. He may already be there for all we know. But with the right help and maybe medication, I think he'll get through this."
Shift change was smooth with Luka having done most of the paper work before Carter even got there. The patient load was light and, even better, he managed to snag the better med students and residents for the shift. Frank was the only draw back, but with some creative planning and Susan as his accomplice, Carter was hoping to get in some long earned practical jokes with the fourth year med students who were days away from graduating - Abby included.
"Did you get it?" Carter asked Susan as he pulled her into the storage room.
"Yeah, but not without having to put up with some really bad flirting from the pharmacy technician down there."
"Franklin?" Carter mocked in a very high voice. "Fraaaaaank-liiiin."
Susan couldn't help laughing. "Shut up. I have to have coffee with him at midnight, just for this." She pulled a jar out from behind her lab coat, which Carter promptly pushed back towards her.
"Not here. God, don't open it now."
"I wouldn't think of it. You owe me. How about that guy in Medical Waste who has the hots for you? I heard he wanted to give you French lessons. What is his name?" Susan tapped her chin as though deep in thought. "Let's see. Is it… Gerard?" Carter threw his head back, exasperated with Susan's one upsmanship success. "It is, isn't it? Gerard," she flittingly laid her hand out, pinky extended as she put on a very bad French accent. "Gerard!"
"Alright, I get it. I'll page you at 12:01." Carter opened the door and looked both ways down the hall before giving Susan the all clear. With the stealth of the Three Stooges minus one, they bumbled across the hall to an empty exam room.
"Where's Carter?" Kerry's voice couldn't be missed as it bellowed from the Admit desk.
"Shit, Weaver. Get in there." Carter was giddy as he pushed Susan into the exam room and closed the door. Susan's laughs could be heard through the door. "Shhh," he scolded as he cracked it open, then tried to walk away as Kerry approached him.
"Kerry, still here? You've put in a long day," Carter mentioned as he leaned against the exam room doorway hoping that Kerry wouldn't go in.
"I wanted to speak to you alone before I left." Her voice was very business like, which usually meant he was in trouble. "John, I'm going to have to ask you to submit a urine and blood sample for drug screening."
"What?"
"I hope you can understand. You've been off lately. Not quite yourself…"
"And that makes you automatically assume I'm using again?"
"Please, John," her tone was patronizing at best, "I have to protect the hospital and the patients…"
"What about me? What about protecting me?"
"Of course. We wouldn't want a patient getting the wrong idea, and by having a negative drug screen on file we would be protecting you, yes."
"Kerry, you are the only one getting the wrong idea. You can't just do this."
"Read your employee manual. Drug testing can be random or at the supervisor's discretion." Pulling the clipboard away from her chest that she had snuggled there, she presented Carter with a specimen cup, and took out pre-labeled test tubes from her pocket.
"I have been sober for almost four years. My probation is three years expired."
"Don't make this harder than it is. I have a job to do."
"You want to watch me pee? Better yet, you can draw my blood while I pee. I only need one hand," he pitched sarcastically as he waived a hand in her face.
"Let's go in here and talk." Kerry's attempt to open the door was met with Carter's arm in front of her.
"No, nobody is out here. I don't have anything to hide. Do you?"
This time as she pushed open the exam room door she was met by Susan coming out.
"Hi Kerry," she said as though it was common to exit a darkened room by herself. "Whose labs are you getting?" she asked pointing to test tubes.
"Apparently mine," Carter answered for Kerry, displaying the plastic specimen cup. "Want to join me?"
"I thought you'd be more comfortable with another man. Maybe Morris." That made Carter visibly cringe. "But I suppose Susan or Abby would do since, well, you're familiar with each other." With that Kerry gave the clipboard with the forms filled out to Susan, put on her raincoat and walked out the door.
"Did she just say that?" Susan asked incredulously. "A little Romano-ish, isn't she?"
"I heard Weaver mention my name. My ears are burning." Abby walked up behind Susan and looked over her shoulder at the clipboard. "What's up?"
Susan looked through the two pages of paperwork on the clipboard. "Weaver's doing random drug tests."
"Random?" Abby smirked. "Nothing Weaver does is random."
"You don't have to do this, Carter." Susan tried to be the voice of reason. "Maybe you can protest it. She's obviously making snap judgments…"
"No. It's the price I pay for my sins of the past." He tried to hide his disgust by being lighthearted, but the two women knew him too well. "Let's get this over with, shall we?"
"Abby's a better stick I guess," Susan offered with a sigh.
Walking across the hall to the men's room, Carter offered the open door to Susan.
"Uh, no," she said smiling. "How about I stand guard out here." Carter shrugged and let the door slowly swing shut behind him. "Just remember cowboy," she tried to joke through the door, "I know the difference between urine and tap water."
"Is he okay?" Abby quietly asked Susan.
"Yes. This is about Weaver, not Carter."
"Alright, I'll - ah - wait for him in the exam room," Abby said nodding towards the door Carter had been guarding.
"No," Susan shot back hoping to keep her out of there, "the suture room."
Abby looked at the darkened exam room, then back at Susan. "Right."
"Here you go ladies. A lovely shade of yellow. A good year, I think." Carter handed off his warm specimen cup to Susan. "Next?"
Carter and Abby walked in silence down the hall to the suture room. They had worked together since they broke it off the previous summer, but they hadn't really been alone. It was awkward for both of them.
"Okay, pick an arm." Abby said as he sat up on the gurney. The alcohol was cool as she wiped down the crook of his left arm. "And a pinch." The blood quickly filled the first test tube, and then the second, until she finally loosened up the latex band on his upper arm. Still they didn't talk. As she took out the needle and pressed a gauzed pad onto the venipuncture site, then bent his arm up, she was reminded of their kiss on that first day of the pox scare.
"You okay, John?"
He sighed, sick of that question. "Abby… please."
"Just asking." Taking his arm back down and replacing the gauze with a Band-Aid, she dared to ask more. "So do you want to go to a meeting with me?"
"Abby, stop. Don't be one of them. Okay? Just believe in me."
"Hey you two," Susan stuck her head in the door, "three traumas coming in and about a dozen walk-ins just took over chairs. I need you."
As she reached over to the other side of the bed, the coldness of the sheets woke Sam up. Luka had been up for a while. Usually when he rolled out of bed she would move onto his vacant side - onto the warmth left behind - and snuggle into his pillow still smelling of his scent. Must be time to get Alex up for school, she thought. But her eyelids refused, weighing heavily as they eventually retreated.
Crack. She had been too far into slumber to notice the flash of lightening that preceded the thunder as it fell hard onto the top of the building, jolting her upright.
"Just a springtime storm," Luka remarked standing by the window, putting on his tie. It was still dark out and the only light entering the bedroom came from the streetlights below.
"It's only six o'clock," she said in her still asleep, gravelly morning voice as she pulled the down blanket up to quell the shiver the morning air gave her naked bosom. "Been up long?"
Luka leaned against the moulding and stared out at the storm as it covered the city in a blanket of thick, hard rain punctuated by sharp blades of lightening. "An hour, maybe. Haven't heard a storm like this since Africa." He spoke to the window pane more than to Sam and caught himself, turning his attention back to the woman in bed. "Woke me up."
"You okay?"
Luka shrugged, then smiled coyly at Sam as he approached the bed. "Yeah. I took a long shower." He stroked her hair as he sat next to her, the back of his hand falling downward from her cheek to the side of her breast. "Missed you."
As he gently leaned into her, she tilted her head, tickling his lips with her curly long locks of hair, before he pushed them aside and tenderly kissed her slightly opened mouth. Sam eagerly returned Luka's morning gift of passion, this time assaulting his mouth with her hunger, her hands roaming his pressed dress shirt.
"You, have plenty of time, you know, for…" she managed to get out between breaths.
"Mm hmm." Luka smiled and eagerly drew Sam's tongue into his lips playfully before letting her do the same for him.
Crack! CRASH!
The thunder rolled over the building at first, then shattered the air. Luka instinctively ducked, his shoulders dipping below Sam's for just a moment. As she peaked down into his eyes she caught him staring at her as though she were a stranger. Not for long. It was just a moment, but one which gave her a lonely feeling… and a shiver of sorts.
"I'd better leave before Alex gets up," he somewhat unassertively gave her. Leaving the bedroom, Sam hastily put on her bathrobe and followed him to the door where they both nearly bumped into the ten year old.
"Hey Luka." The adults were at a loss for words. "Mom, no more milk." The kid put two slices a bread in the toaster, depressed the lever and proceeded to open the morning paper at the kitchen table.
"Good morning, Alex," Luka straightened his tie which just minutes before Sam had attempted to take off. "I thought I'd stop in and say hi, um, before…"
"Nice try, I know you spent the night."
"Huh?" Luka feigned.
"Mom doesn't snore." Alex scoured the comics spread out in front of him like a businessman with Sunday's New York Times. "I need three bucks for that field trip. And you have to sign the permission slip."
Luka and Sam shared a shy, if not, humorous smile as he politely kissed her on the cheek. "I'll see you at work."
"Okay, I'm on at eight. Yeah…, ah…" She bumbled at the locks and Luka tried to open the door before the chain was taken off, all reminiscent of teenagers caught by the girl's father, all while Alex prepared his breakfast and read the paper.
"Quiet night?" Luka asked Abby as they met at the ER doors, both with large cups of coffee from across the street.
"Until about ten o'clock. You're early."
"Loud night," he answered pointing to the sky.
"Yeah, and looks like another one rolling in off the lake pretty soon."
Luka went straight to the board and whistled as he saw how many patients were still in beds. "They've been here all night?" he asked Abby.
"Hell no. It's been a revolving door. Ahhh, the smell of ambulance exhaust on a stormy spring night," she joked.
"Where's Carter?"
"Quarantined in Exam-2 with Susan signing off on charts."
"He hasn't gotten any sleep?"
"Oh, they've been occupied," she giggled, enjoying her inside joke with Chuny and Neela who had joined them at the desk.
Luka did a rewind of the conversation in his head as he tried to figure out what the women were up to. "Okay, I'll play. Why are they quarantined?"
"Let's just chalk it up to a prank malfunction."
Luka couldn't stand the suspense and left his briefcase and overcoat on the chair. He'd see for himself. Looking into the exam room he saw Carter and Susan sitting across from each other, a huge stack of charts between them. The malfunction was apparent to him as soon as he opened the door.
"Oh! What the hell…"
The tiredly sarcastic smile on Susan's face was only part of the story. The rancid smell was the rest of it.
"It's called, Guess That Smell." Carter tried to be less than a humiliated victim, but it was no use.
"What is that smell?"
"Rottenstone, better known as decomposed limestone. It's from old man Burkett's days in the pharmacy," Susan answered. "And this, I think, was a particularly well aged vintage."
"How…?" As Luka grabbed a surgical mask from the rack in the hall and covered his nose and mouth Abby and Chuny joined him.
"Maybe a little oil of wintergreen under your nose will help." Chuny held the bottle out to him in jest.
Carter and Susan rolled their eyes in unison and went back to their charting.
"It's an old, stale joke the Attendings used to play on the med students the month before graduation," Abby explained. "Get something real foul and plant it in the students' pockets while they're catching some Z's. Only this time Lucy and Ethel here failed to get past the planning stage."
"Close the door if you're going to bathe in the glory yet again," Susan called out.
"You see," Chuny started in, enjoying the tale, "they kept going into the exam room. Lights out, wouldn't let anyone in, so finally while they were in there plotting, we - Abby actually - introduced a little air horn through the door. Evidently they walked into each other rather hard and the jar broke spilling the rottenstone all over them."
"So you exiled them?"
"Oh, yeah," Chuny laughed. "Even Pablo turned around and walked out. Said he'd come back later."
"Hate to tell you this Carter," Abby announced from her covered mouth, standing as far back from the propped open door as she could, "but we're waiting for you to do rounds."
His head dropped down in anticipation of the razzing he was about to endure again. "Okay, let's get this over with so I can hit the shower."
By the time Sam had arrived, most of the patients had been discharged or admitted to other units. Carter and Luka reviewed the last of the remaining patients' charts in an empty Trauma-1.
"Chavez, he's the fifty two year old man with two less fingertips. Updated his tetanus, and gave him ten of Demerol. Pain has gone from a seven to a three with a burning sensation. Hung a gram of Ancef. Waiting on ortho, but his hand modeling days are over." Carter closed the chart and opened the next.
"Pew, what is that…?" Sam entered the room with an armful of supplies.
"Don't ask," Carter answered as he sheepishly raised his hand. "Mrs. Sedlak - her primary called. Ordered another sed rate and head CT. He's supposed to show up before nine."
"Dr. Carter, someone here to see you," Randi announced from the door.
"Alright, be there in a minute." Carter looked through the door at Kerry who was closing her umbrella as she walked through security. "Uh, Mrs. Moffitt had syncope with LOC, low potassium. Her primary wants her admitted and we added some Kcl to her fluids." Carter's attention veered from the charts. Kerry exchanged words with a few of the staff members, then finally looked in through the windows at the two doctors.
"Carter?" Luka tapped his pen on the charts sitting between them.
"Hmm?"
"What about the two year old with the seizure history?" Luka asked, making sure the charts were accounted for.
"Waiting on a phenobarb level and a neuro consult."
"John," Kerry opened the door just enough to stick her head inside, "I need to see you before you leave."
Carter put on a pleasant face and nodded.
"And you have a visitor out here. Randi…?" she called as she left the doorway.
Carter sighed and put his tired head down into his folded arms while letting out a frustrated growl.
"Kerry giving you a hard time?"
Carter was reluctant to get into Kerry's latest unpleasantries, but in his exhaustion and defeated state of practical jokester-ism, he relented. "She had me submit to a tox screen last night."
"What?"
"Says I've been off lately."
"Well, at least you didn't have to pee in front of her."
"Oh, that too, except she let me choose between Susan and Abby since we are, you know, familiar with each other." Luka's eyes widened as he processed the thought. "Don't worry. Susan was kind enough to stand outside the bathroom."
"Why blood and urine?"
"My guess is that she is too impatient to wait for the blood results since employee screens are sent out, so she added on the quicker urine test as well. Probably waited with baited breath by her phone last night."
Luka spoke quietly even though they were alone in the room "Well, I wouldn't worry..."
"I'm not." Carter sighed and rubbed his exhausted face with his hands.
"Want me to talk to her?"
"No. Let her get it out of her system."
A knock on the doors brought their attention to Randi standing on the other side of the glass with their visitor.
"Well, will you look at that." Carter perked up at the site, then rose to his feet eager to reach the door.
Luka, too, was delighted to see who had come to the hospital and shared Carter's smile from behind him. A large clap of thunder simultaneously with the sharp lightening brightened the room through the glass windows. As Luka saw who else was there, his joy was extinguished and replaced with a foreboding unease.