Note: On with this one…
Heat 06
"Okay." Patrick Drake sat cross-legged on the bench facing Elizabeth, who had finally returned to the bench she shared with Jason and was mimicking her colleague's pose. "How about this – In an otherwise healthy, non-toxic patient with a localized cutaneous abscess, what is the preferred antibiotic after incision and drainage?"
Jason watched curiously as Elizabeth thought, playing with the ends of her hair. After a moment, she perked up and smirked at her co-worker. "That's a trick question, you loser – no antibiotic is necessary."
The doctor grinned triumphantly, pleased that their late-night study sessions were most definitely paying off. "Good – but when are they necessary?"
The brunette ticked the cases off on her fingers as Jason continued to watch quietly with a twinge of pride at her competence. "Antibiotics should only be considered in patients with high fever, toxicity, systemic disease, vascular compromise, immunosuppression, or an abscess in the area of the central face or mastoid."
"Impressive," Epiphany murmured, tipping her chin at the young woman. "Try this one on for size: What is the difference in clinical presentation between labyrinthitis and vestibular neuronitis?"
"I know this!" Patrick yelped, spinning around on the bench to face the matronly nurse stretched out on the thin bunked cots. "The difference is-"
"Hey, it's all about me, remember?" Elizabeth groused, poking him hard in the back through the bars of the cell. "Um, both of the disorders cause peripheral vertigo, and are most commonly caused by a viral illness, although bacterial labrynithitis can occur and can be devastating. But vestibular neuronitis is characterized by peripheral vertigo without hearing loss, while labrynthitis is characterized by peripheral vertigo with hearing loss."
"Awesome," Patrick grinned, high-fiving her through the bars. "But try not to be such a show-off, though; that's my schtick."
"Oh, I wouldn't dream of taking it away from you, Patrick," the brunette smirked. "Let's do it again." The doctor opened his mouth, but she quickly held up her hand. "And so help me God, if you turn that into an innuendo-"
Jason smirked to himself as Patrick scratched the back of his head and launched into another case study for her to pick apart. He tried to stay out of General Hospital on principle, which was why he'd only found out that Elizabeth was a nurse several months after she started. She had been a godsend during the virus scare, working alongside the Drs. Drake, the Scorpios, and the Spencers to find the antidote and administer it to the dying.
He had seen her at work, alert and methodic as she cared for her patients, and it had amazed him then. She made a good nurse – but that wasn't the cause for his surprise. Elizabeth had always been compassionate, and she had a big heart: she was the perfect person to go into the profession. What surprised him most was her confidence and her ability to keep up with the likes of trained professionals like Patrick and Robin, while matching wits with Robert and Luke as they tried to piece through the puzzle. She possessed a number of noteworthy qualities that she brought into the workplace with her, and that was what made her such an exceptional nurse.
And the exchange between her and Patrick now – he felt it should surprise him, too, but it didn't. Elizabeth was intelligent and diligent when she set her mind to something. She was unfazed by Patrick and Epiphany's interrogation and did her best to spit back answers as fast as they volleyed questions. There was a natural bond of support and camaraderie between the three of them, a casual air that made it seem as if they were taking a break and horsing around at the nurses' station instead of stuck in a cramped jail cell.
He watched as Elizabeth laughed and shoved Patrick through the bars when the doctor responded with one of his typical double entendres. Epiphany, too, was smirking and offering the feisty brunette silent encouragement to put the pompous doctor back in his place.
This was what he had always wanted for her.
She was an intelligent, giving, spunky young woman who belonged out in the world sharing her gifts – be they art or the task of nursing – with others. She never belonged behind bulletproof windows, carted from one location to another by a bevy of armed bodyguards. She deserved to have friends and colleagues and a career and a life – and he knew he'd never be able to offer that to any woman that he was with.
When he and Courtney were together, her sphere of friends was pretty much limited to Carly; the only real job she had was running her organization and that was after they had divorced. Sam had a career before him, but she had been able to do nothing but putter around the penthouse and join him in meetings since they had gotten together. She had no friends outside of him – very little contact with anyone else, in fact.
He would never have wanted to sentence Elizabeth to that kind of life. She deserved so much more than withering away to a shell of her former self in a sparsely decorated penthouse with men in suits pacing by the elevator. She deserved her friends, her work, her art, her colleagues, her freedom…and her questions about mushrooms.
"Well, if the kid had ingested a toxic mushroom," the brunette was saying, tapping her chin as she thought. "…Um, what kind was it again?"
"Gyromitra esculenta," Patrick repeated patiently. "What do you give him?"
"Pyroxidine?" she asked hesitantly, unsure of herself. "The vitamin B6 complex."
"That's right," Epiphany nodded. "Now, a patient comes in with polycystic kidney disease and complains of severe abdominal pain."
"What intestinal catastrophes are seen more commonly in patients with this condition?" Patrick finished, toying with his shoelaces as he waited for her to formulate a response.
"Bowel perforation and…"
"…Diverticulitis," came a soft voice from outside the facility. Four pairs of eyes swung around to see Elizabeth's grandmother, nurse Audrey Hardy, standing with her hands clasped politely at her waist as she waited for the officer to let her in to the holding cell facility.
Elizabeth's jaw dropped as her grandmother walked over, her one-inch heels clicking on the polished tiles. "Gram? What are you doing here?"
Audrey reached for her youngest grandchild's hands through the bars when Elizabeth approached them, and clasped them firmly. "Oh, darling, I came as soon as I could. Alan said that you and Patrick had been…arrested?"
The older doctor sheepishly swung his long legs off the bench and shuffled over, rubbing the back of his head as he fidgeted in front of the hospital's most senior nurse. "Guilty as charged, Mrs. Hardy."
The old woman's pale blue eyes darted to Patrick's dark chocolate ones, a frown of disapproval pinching her lips. She knew all about the younger Drake, and if the stories about him were true, then he really was quite the renegade.
Elizabeth anticipated what her grandmother was thinking and vehemently shook her head. "Oh, no, Gram, it's not what you think. Patrick's not responsible for my being here."
Audrey glanced at Jason, pursing her lips when the enforcer stared blandly back, but folded his hands in his lap as a sign of greeting and respect. "Elizabeth, dear, I don't have the details and I would really like to know-"
"It's kind of a long story, Gram," the brunette sighed, waving Patrick away. "Samantha McCall was shot on the terrace of the Port Charles Hotel. An emergency hysterectomy was done and the damage was repaired…until her charts started showing spinal compression and cranial edema."
Her grandmother's eyes widened, her lips parting on a heartbroken sigh. "Oh, dear…"
Elizabeth nodded gravely, her thumb still sweeping back and forth over her Gram's wrinkled hands. "Dr. Noah wanted to wait for the medication to take effect – knowing that there was a very slim chance of that. I was talking to Kelly and she told me that there was a procedure that could be done and it could save Sam's life, but that it was extremely risky, too. So, I…"
"She called me at the villa in the Markham Islands," Patrick spoke up, surfacing once more at Elizabeth's side. "She explained the scenario and asked me to come home as soon as possible. When I got back to the hospital, she had the charts and X-rays ready for me, and I thought I could operate and fix it. But my father had already succeeded in scaring the DA, and she and her husband had taken out an injunction to keep me from operating. At Jason's behest, I asked Elizabeth if she would be willing to perform the surgery by my side with the injunction in place, and she agreed. We did this together – with Nurse Johnson – and we're all responsible for this."
Elizabeth was watching him with an impressed smile, and the young woman couldn't help but elbow him in the side through the bars. "See? It's not that hard to stick up for others, Drake."
"Don't get used to it," Patrick warned, his dark eyes twinkling. "I'm all about numero uno."
Audrey watched as Elizabeth rolled her eyes and shooed him away, and her eyes were soft as her youngest grandchild turned back to her. "Is that correct, Elizabeth?"
The brunette nodded slowly. "Look, Gram, I get that you don't agree with what we did. We knew that breaking the injunction and operating was illegal and that we could lose Sam anyway, but we went ahead with it and we have no one to blame but-"
"Easy does it, darling," the nurse smiled, taking the girl's soft, firm hands in her own wrinkled and age-worn ones. "Often enough, the best doctors in a hospital are those that realize the value of human life above the value of human laws."
The answer surprised Patrick and Jason as well as Elizabeth, and the young woman tilted her head to the side, her glittering sapphire orbs narrowing as she studied her grandmother. "Gram…what are you saying?"
A small, mischievous smile kicked up the corner of the older nurse's mouth. "Darling, I'm afraid you won't believe me, but forty years ago, your grandfather Steve and I were sharing the same bench as you and…Mr. Morgan."
Elizabeth's jaw dropped and her squeal soon echoed in the vast facility. "Gram – what did you do!"
Audrey laughed to herself as memories from decades past came rushing back. "Oh, gracious, nothing too different from what you did today, Darling. We had a patient in critical condition and your grandfather did the same thing Patrick did – he asked me if I would help him. I was the only nurse he asked, so I agreed. Together, we succeeded and the patient began to stabilize. As soon as your grandfather looked over the charts I gave him and issued instructions to the other nurses…the two of us were thrown – rather roughly, I might add – into a holding cell. Fortunately, his position allowed him to pull some strings from the inside and we were out in twenty-four hours. But, Darling, that is something I'll never forget."
Patrick was grinning as Elizabeth tried to pick her jaw up off the floor. "Hey, Webber, you come from some good stock."
Audrey laughed at that, her pale blue eyes twinkling. "Well, Darling, what do you think of your stuffy old grandmother now?"
"I think she's kick-ass, that's what I think," Epiphany muttered, folding her arms under her head as she studied the ceiling.
"Definitely hot stuff, Mrs. Hardy," Patrick laughed, crossing his arms over his chest. "You've got the good girl image down pat, but…I always knew you were a wild one."
The nurse glared at him, her twitching lips belying her amusement, and a chuckling Patrick shuffled off and flopped down on his bench once more, leaving the Webber women alone for a moment.
"I hope you understand, Elizabeth," Audrey started softly, looking directly in her youngest grandchild's eyes. "That I am very proud of what you did today. You exercised your best judgment and acted with compassion, even though it could have ended very badly. But we won't think about that, Darling. There comes a moment in every medical professional's career when you find yourself at a crossroads, dear. And all you can do is make your decision and stand by it. And you did that admirably, Elizabeth."
She felt tears prick at the back of her eyes but quickly blinked them away before they were visible, and smiled up at her grandmother. "Thanks, Gram."
"You're welcome, Darling." Audrey kissed the young woman on the forehead through the bars and squeezed her hands through the bar. "I apologize for not being able to stay longer, dear, but I must get back to the hospital as soon as I can. Day care's almost over, and I'm going to take Cameron home with me for the night."
Elizabeth frowned at that, refusing to relinquish her hold on her grandmother's hands before she received an explanation. "Wait – Gram, what about Lucky? He should know by now what's going on – he should be taking Cam home with him-"
Audrey shrugged apologetically. "I've been trying to reach him at the apartment for quite some time, dear, but he's not picking up the phone. If he's working on a case, I wouldn't want to distract him. It's easier to simply bring Cameron home with me tonight."
"Are you sure you'll be all right?" Elizabeth worried, nibbling on her lower lip. "He can get fussy if-"
"Darling, I know the routine," Audrey replied, her pale eyes twinkling. "A chamomile bath, warm milk, and a song. You're forgetting, dear, that I did this, too, once upon a time."
The young woman smiled despite herself and nodded, slowly at first but then with confidence. "Okay. Thank you, Gram."
"I'll be sure to stop by again as soon as I possibly can, Darling," Audrey assured her, kissing her forehead once more. "And you stop fretting about Cameron – my grandson and I get along famously, and he will be just fine. Goodbye, Darling." She looked around at her granddaughter's companions, nodding politely. "Epiphany, Patrick…Mr. Morgan."
All three nodded politely as Audrey left, followed out by an officer in uniform. Elizabeth watched her grandmother retreat from view and leaned her back against the bars, sighing. Jason met her amused gaze, and the corner of his mouth hitched up in answer.
"What's so funny?" Patrick wanted to know as he shook a rock out of his sneaker, almost falling off his bench in the process.
Elizabeth simply chuckled to herself. "The fact that the first time my grandmother tells me she's proud of me is when I'm behind bars."