Trauma
Summary: After Susan's departure, Mark does not want to go back to work. He only returns once he hears that her train was in an accident. Susan/Mark
Disclaimer: I do not own anything, and my lawyer friend is on maternity leave.
Mark Greene kept walking through the cold harsh streets of Chicago. He had no real place to go to. What did it matter? He lost the one person for whom he truly cared. Susan was gone. She had gotten on that train, and she was probably well on her way to Phoenix by this point.
He groaned. Why did I have to keep my feelings to myself? If I had told her earlier, she might have stayed. He groaned again. There was nothing that would make him feel better about the whole situation. It was hell. In a way, it was worse than when Jen had given him the divorce papers or when she had announced she was getting remarried. Those times he could still count on Susan to be there for him. Now she was gone, and he was left all alone.
What was the point of going on with life, he wondered as he kept walking along the streets. The temperature was only dropping, but he did not care. He was still supposed to be on shift for the next five and a half hours, but he did not care. Nothing at all mattered anymore. He felt awful inside.
He glanced overhead at the hospital's helicopter flying towards County. Without a doubt he would be paged momentarily. He did not care. He was suffering a fate worse than death. Why should someone else in Chicago get better treatment? Why should he be required to give it to them?
Seconds later he could feel his pager vibrating. He glanced down and sure enough, someone at County was paging him. He ignored it and kept walking.
How could he let something like this happen? Why was he so afraid to tell Susan how he felt? Was it his fear of rejection? Nothing was worse than this. This was the ultimate rejection. The woman he loved was on a train to Phoenix, Arizona, while he was stuck in Chicago being paged again by his work where he met her in the first place. He groaned. "I love the whole insult to injury thing," he muttered as he walked over to the pay phone. He pulled out a quarter then dialed quickly.
"Yea, this is Mark Greene. Someone paged me twice," he said irritably.
"Mark," came Carol Hathaway's rushed reply. "Look, we need you back in the ER NOW!"
Mark shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, I'm not going back," he told her. "I can't." Luckily for the both of them he was managing his words without crying.
"No, Mark, we NEED you," Carol told him. "And I think you need to be here," she added.
Mark shook his head once more. He could hear the commotion in the background. Someone was asking about an ambulance's ETA, which was about twenty minutes. Jerry was informing Kerry Weaver about the accident.
"We need to clear both traumas," Jerry was saying. "It's bad. Drunk truck driver was completely not paying attention. From what I hear, he crashed into a train. It's on the news."
Mark's face paled. "Carol," he stated. He heard nothing. "Carol, talk to me," he commanded. "I know you're still there. What did I just hear?"
"Mark, you need to get down here ASAP," Carol stated with no emotion in her voice. Her eyes were focused on the one female body who had been flown in via helicopter.