Chapter 3: The Present Day, aka No More Flashbacks
The flashbacks are over, and I take you to the present day portion of this sad little story, but first let me fill you in on what has happened in the last two to three weeks after Malik's tragic death. No wait, I'll let you figure it out on your own, as I take you to County General's ER once again, but not in a flashback, thus making it the present day.
Susan ran around frantically. It was a pretty busy day, and the new nurse (the one to replace Malik) had her first shift today. She had asked Sam to show her around, but as usual Sam was late, leaving her with Sydney, the new nurse. Sydney was young. Very young. Like just out of nursing school young. But she seemed like the only normal candidate for the job, so Susan chose her. Too bad she didn't seem so normal now. Sydney was extremely perky. Susan could tell she would never make it here in the ER.
Sam finally comes, late as usual. She takes Sydney into the lounge, then goes to give her the grand tour of the ER. Afterwards, Sam goes off and leaves Sydney on her own, who fits right it despite Susan's earlier thoughts. Things go well until Neela comes down with a fever.
"Neela, you don't look so good, you should really go home."
"I don't know Dr. Lewis, it's really busy here today," she says.
"Neela… you should really go home and get some rest," Susan tells her. A little while later, she finally decides to go home, only to be returned a few hours later by an ambulance.
Susan runs to the ambulance bay. When the doors to the ambulance door open, she realizes it's Neela. She stares at Neela's unconscious body. "Neela?" she says.
"You know her?" one of the paramedics asks.
"Yeah, she works here. I sent her home because she had just a fever," Susan replies.
"Well, she doesn't have just a fever now," the paramedic says as they wheel her into a trauma room and he tells them Neela's vitals.
No one knew what caused the death of Neela. All they knew that it was depressing and tragic. Her family flew in from England to go to her funeral, and she was buried in Chicago.
At the funeral, Susan starts crying. "It was all my fault. I told her to go home. I could've helper her," she says, crying onto Abby's shoulder. Abby gets a little teary too, and then she finally lets her tears escape.