Chapter 2
Sarah almost felt like skipping as she wandered into the hospital the next day. She felt energised, rejuvenated. She had missed her family in Chicago. Sarah had been so convinced that all they would see in her face was her father, but watching Connor's face as they touched on the topic last night made her wonder if she was wrong.
"Of course, being the daughter of a serial killer has its perks- built in case study right?"
"You don't need to do that Sarah, you don't need to joke about your pain. My father may not have been a killer, but he was an expert in hurting and manipulating people. That leaves it's mark on children."
"It hasn't been easy."
"You're not alone anymore, Sarah, you can lean on me."
"You can lean on me too, Connor."
Perhaps she shouldn't have left. Changing into her scrubs and stepping onto the ED floor, Sarah felt stronger than she had in a long while.
"Dr Reese, you're a dark horse aren't ya?" Sarah quirked a brow at Kimmi, confused.
"The handsome and illustrious Dr Rhodes? That man is hotter than an Arizona desert, and he sure makes the women thirstyyy. He's in there with a patient." She pointed to a treatment room, enclosed with a curtain. Sarah smiled at her and shrugged.
"We worked together at Chicago Med. He's part of the reason why I like the ED. We're…well friends I guess." Kimmi looked her up and down.
"I wouldn't mind friends like that!" Sarah laughed and got to work.
"Ok, so we'll take you upstairs and get you prepped for surgery. Try not to worry, appendectomies are a straight forward surgery, minimal risk. I'll see you in a bit." Connor gave his patient a reassuring smile. The appendicitis was caught early, so he didn't have to rush to scrub. As he left the treatment room, Sarah came out of hers requesting her own tests from a nurse. He caught her eye as his patient was moved out and waved before following his patient out of the ED. Connor felt the warmth from her returned smile throughout his surgery. It was like the dark clouds had begun to lift. He felt able to chat and get to know the scrub nurses, the anaesthesiologist, the young trauma resident. As he left the OR he rolled his shoulders and turned to return to the ED.
"Dr Rhodes! Car accident vic!" Connor listened carefully to the vitals provided by the medic. The patient had been raving in the ambulance, not letting them get close enough to assess, but had emotionally shut down on entering the hospital.
"Can I have a psyc consult- Dr Reese, are you available?" He called.
"Right here, Dr Rhodes. Hi there- I'm Dr Reese, this is Dr Rhodes, he is going to get you fixed up. Can you tell me your name?" Connor ran through the checks as Sarah tried to get the patient to respond to her questions and flashed her light in her eyes. The two worked in tandem with the nurse.
"Right, all injuries seem to be superficial, but let's get a chest and head CT to be sure- I think the head injury needs a couple of stitches. Dr Reese?"
"Agreed. Let's see what the CT says, then I think we'll be looking at potentially moving her to the psyc ward."
"That might be a bit premature. Let's see."
Connor opened the door for Sarah as they briefly exited for the radiologist to take the CT scan.
Connor dropped his voice so only Sarah could hear "How are you today?" Sarah glanced up at him.
"I'm good. Slept well, good breakfast, the coffee has even tasted decent. And you?" Connor chuckled. She was so unapologetically herself.
"I'm great, better than I've felt in a while."
"All clear, I'll have the images up in a moment on the screen Dr Rhodes. Dr Reece." The tech nodded and left.
"Shall we Dr Reece?" Connor motioned to the computer.
"I suppose we shall Dr Rhodes." Connor tapped in his login and pulled up the CT. Sarah groaned. "Ah, is that a bleed?" she pointed to a small area in the patient's brain.
"Good eye, yeah, very small hematoma from where she banged her head, we'll call neuro for a consult, but it should ease up without surgical intervention."
"That would explain why she's non-responsive at the moment unfortunately. Possibly the cause of the reported behaviour in the ambo."
"Ok, I'll monitor her and let you know when she's lucid."
"Sounds good. If nothing's changed in the next hour I'll come back and check in with her."
"Pleasure to work with you today, Dr Reece." Sarah rolled her eyes at him and turned away. Connor watched as she hesitated and turned back.
"Wanna get lunch together today? You know, to discuss our patient." Sarah stumbled over the words, her cheeks turning a delightful shade of rose. Connor made eye contact.
"Yeah, I do. One o'clock? Unless I get pulled for surgery?" Sarah nodded and speedily walked away. Connor watched for another moment as she clearly went the wrong away and had to turn herself back around. He laughed at how sweet she was. It felt good to laugh again. He turned back to the monitor and his Jane Doe, rechecking the scans and asking the nurse to call neuro. He couldn't wait for lunch.
Sarah felt her cheeks light up in embarrassment as he turned herself around. She didn't dare look back at Connor to see if he'd noticed. Why couldn't she be cool and suave? She thought about Connor's exes, Robin and Ava, both cool, collected, self-assured. She was hardly his type. But then, he wasn't typically hers. Besides, it didn't matter a bit. They were friends, colleagues who got on well. Once he had met more people here he would spend less time with her, of course. Sarah took a deep breath and got on with her day, she had what felt like a hundred patients to check on, three therapy sessions to conduct and all the notes to review and add to for each. She sighed, unconsciously counting down the minutes until lunch.
"Dr Rhodes? I'm Dr Cleo Haven, the neuro consult on call today." Connor turned to the neurologist and plastered on his professional smile.
"Ah yep, my Jane Doe is over here, have you been able to review her scans?"
"I have and I hope you don't mind but I ordered another one. The bleed is already reducing, so I think we can monitor her, bring back Reese in to evaluate and send her on her merry way later on today, has she been anymore lucid?"
"She's started asking for water and talking about her pain in simple phrases. I've paged Dr Reese."
"Great. How are you finding your first day?"
"Everyone has been great so far." Connor tapped on his IPad, not sure why the, admittedly very pretty redheaded doctor, was still here.
"Good, and I hear you and Dr Reese are…friends?" Ah, gossip. About right.
"Yeah, we worked together at Chicago Med, it was a nice surprise to see her. We worked well together then." A strange smirk spread across Haven's face.
"I see. She's a helpful little thing, isn't she? A few of us attendings are going for drinks at Kipper's after work. We'd lovvveeee for you to join us." Connor watched as Sarah rounded the corner and clearly head Haven's comments and hung back, her back tuned, her head tilted so that she could hear. He wanted to roll his eyes. Connor hated being in the middle of game playing. This was…unusual though. He had forgotten the almost unspoken divide between residents and attendings. Of course, he shouldn't be getting close to a resident, but it was Sarah. He glanced at her. Maybe he could make it work.
"You know, that would be great, but I have plans with Dr Reece. Maybe at the weekend?" He smiled and didn't wait for a reply as he went to Sarah's side. He certainly didn't miss the narrowed eyes on Sarah's back before Haven turned on her heel and walked away.
"So, we have plans tonight eh?" Sarah couldn't resist teasing, her stomach doing cartwheels. Connor gave an awkward laugh.
"Well sugar, Dr Rhodes has the right of it with Dr Haven, you're a much nicer gal." Kimmi interjected and winked at the pair. Sarah rolled her eyes at Kimmi and smiled up at Connor.
"Sarah, would you like to have dinner with me tonight? Protect me from the attendingggsss." Sarah chuckled.
"Let's have lunch first and see where we go? At some point you'll get bored of my company and be begging for the attendings to save you." Connor bumped his shoulder gently to hers.
"I don't think that could happen." Sarah looked at his face, almost searching for any signs of deceit. She's struggling to trust me. She looked back to her notes.
"Let's talk about Jane Doe before I go in there."
Sarah's heart raced as she overheard Connor's conversation. She remembered this from Med, the women falling over themselves for a chance to spend time with Connor. The comment about her being helpful grated a bit though. The only attending she really had any contact with was her own, and he wasn't a huge fan of ED psychiatry and mostly left her to it, beyond occasional case review meetings where they discussed the progress of patients and her own professional development. Sometimes, it was good to be a fourth year. Dr Campbell liked that she could be trusted to work alone these days.
Sarah closed the curtain after entering her patient's treatment room. She smiled reassuringly and the patient smiled back. That was an excellent sign.
"Hi, I'm Dr Reece, we met when you came in, but I expect you weren't quite yourself. What's your name?"
"Camille. Camille Costello." Sarah wrote it down.
"Great, and do you know where you are Camille?"
"The hospital."
"Do you remember what happened?"
"Er no… not really, I was driving I think?"
"You were, you were in an accident but I'm pleased to say your injuries are superficial."
"Great, when can I leave then?"
"We'd like to monitor you for a while longer, then we can sort your discharge papers. Is there anyone we can call for you?"
"Yes my husband please… I'm sorry I don't have my phone…or my bag…"
"It's ok, we'll find you on the system. I'll ask a nurse to come in and take your details. If you need anything, just ask."
Sarah wandered out, Connor was gone. She asked a nurse to see to Camille and looked at the time, barely 11. It was going to be a slow night day.
As if by magic, the ED sped up with ordinary heat related issues, dehydration, rashes, seizures. The morning flew by for Connor, and he was grateful that no surgical patients were admitted. He was looking forward to lunch with Sarah.
He skipped to the ED door, where Sarah joined him. She blew some hair from her face, almost stopping Connor in his tracks. He itched to twirl that piece of hair between his fingers. Come on now Connor, you're obsession with Sarah's hair is just downright weird.
As they walked to the cafeteria they chatted about their morning. This is just so… easy. They got into line and ordered their food.
"Dr Rhodes, why don't you and… Dr Reese come join us?" Another ED attending, Dr Milton, Connor thought, invited. Connor glanced at Sarah, who looked like a deer in headlights. A phone buzzed and all three reached for their phones simultaneously.
"It's me, I'm afraid. Duty calls!" Sarah said sheepishly as she gathered her sandwich and coffee and left. Connor smiled at Milton, "Lead the way."
As it turned out, Connor enjoyed the company of his fellow ED attendings.
"So we have great crop of residents here." Commented Dr Keith Phillips, almost slyly.
"Eugh, way to be subtle Keith." Dr Rachel De Luca rolled her eyes and smiled at Connor. He liked the way her face lit up as she teased her colleagues. "Dr Reece is a sweet kid, quiet though. I don't think she's had a single non-work related conversation with any of her peers." Rachel shrugged, as though it were a matter of fact.
"She's great at what she does though. One of the best shrinks we've had in the ED. Very calm and stable. Dr Reece was a great help with the patient who had a gastro issue last week. Very anxious patient- couldn't get her to agree with any course of treatment but Reece talked her round."
Connor listened as they fairly discussed Sarah's strengths, then moved onto the strengths of the other residents in the program.
While it wasn't the lunch he was looking forward to, it was still a great chance to get to know his new colleagues. Connor thought he would be happy here, given time. On the way back to the ED, Connor couldn't help buying a chocolate chip cookie, which he left on the ED desk with Sarah's name on it and an invitation to dinner. He remembered her eating them on short breaks.
