Abby sighed as she looked over the boxes and boxes of medical supplies she and Chuny had just sorted and organized on the racks in the drug lock up. It wasn't necessarily a job she would be expected to do but she'd volunteered to help in the lull.
"It's so amazing," she said as she shook her head. 'We have no clue how lucky we have it here." Chuny rolled her eyes.
"Compared to who?" she laughed. Abby shrugged. Hard to explain. How could you really tell someone about scavenging supplies and scrimping on meds because you had so little to work with? She didn't really absorb it when Luka...and Carter...would tell her about their Congo experiences. Darfur had definitely changed her perspective on things.
" I wanted to buy a new couch," she mused. "You know, something new to lighten up the...bat cave...that we live in?" Chuny chuckled and crouched down to straighten the boxes on the lower shelf. "I started looking through some catalogs and couldn't believe the prices. All I could think of was how many vials of antibiotics I could buy for the cost of this one...or how many suture kits could be assembled for the cost of that one." She sighed and shrugged. "I threw the catalogs away."
"We need to restock the Compazine too," Chuny said. Abby made a notation on the clipboard near by.
"What kind of hospital did you work in while you were there?" Chuny asked. Abby chuckled.
"Hospital? It was more like a clinic...in the middle of 20,000 people...in tents. We had six doctors, eight nurses, a couple of French aides and a medical director from the L'Alliance. There was a line at the door from the moment the sun rose until it set at night," Abby said. " We shared this house of mud walls with tarps stretched over the top for a roof. There was no electricity except for the generator we used in the clinic. When was the last time you used instruments directly from an autoclave?" Chuny chuckled and shook her head.
"And you volunteered for this?" she shrugged.
"Sometimes I felt like I was just watching some bad movie on late night tv," Abby sighed. "And then there were other times...most of the time...when I knew that this was the reason I wanted to be a doctor. And I didn't feel so helpless any more."
"Helpless?" Chuny stood up and Abby nodded slowly.
"All those weeks in NICU...trying things and then finally letting go of Joe..." She shook her head. "I was so...shattered...and I wasn't sure that I would ever be able to get myself back together again. I know that Luka felt the same."
Kerry Weaver stopped as she noticed Luka standing against the wall next to the drug lock up's open door.
"Are you eavesdropping, Dr. Kovac?" she asked sternly. Luka grinned and nodded. He put a finger over his lips and gestured to her to be silent.
"My god, Chuny," Abby was saying, "It took three weeks in the middle of a blistering desert surrounded by people who have absolutely nothing for me to get my head on straight again. They have nothing and yet...life goes on."
"Well, you make a very good case for the program, Abby," Chuny laughed. "Do they accept nurses as well? Maybe I can go with you next time." Kerry frowned at Luka and put her hands on her hips.
"Next time?" she whispered. "Why don't we just shut our doors and you can take the entire staff with you?" Luka's eyebrows went up as he pondered that thought.
"It was a joke, Dr. Kovac," Kerry spit as she walked away. Luka grinned and shrugged as he headed back toward the admit desk.