Chapter Two

Lim directs two more patients to the holding area next to the fire response team. She hasn't seen a trauma scene this severe in a while. Luckily, most of the injuries have been treatable and relatively minor, but the ones that aren't are posing some pretty major problems.

The fact that the ER and surgical units at the hospital are short-staffed is stressful enough. Shaun's run off looking for Lea, which she'll have to deal with when this is all over. Park has an almost certain fatal young patient who they can do little for, and Melendez and Browne are preparing for emergency surgery in the middle of a disaster. If an aftershock hits, they all could end up worse off.

"Doctor, you wanted to sign off on the two patients we're transporting over next. I have their x-rays right here ready to download." He makes some adjustments to the equipment and Lim sees her screen flash and then turn off. The tech leans over. "Sorry, this thing has been on the blink. Hold on." He pushes a few more buttons and the scan comes through.

Lim stares at the image in front of her and frowns. "Why isn't this labeled? That's the first thing we need to be doing to catalogue our images so there's no confusion about who we're treating."

The tech looks over at Lim's scan. "That can't be right. I remember finalizing the download into the system. The scan numbers have my daughter's birthday, so I'm sure."

Pointing to the empty log number, Lim confirms that there's no longer any identifying information associated with this scan. "I don't know what happened, but it's not here now. And why was this person not in the transport that left five minutes ago instead of in holding? There's some troublesome shading here in the abdomen, possibly internal bleeding, but we'll need to do an MRI to confirm."

"That can't be right," the EMT says. "Both patients have wrist injuries from falling. No abdominal complaints at all and certainly no scans of that area."

"I'm not making this up, look at it," she shoves the screen back at him. "If it's not from those two patients, then whose scans are these? They need medical attention ASAP."

"Oh shit," he says. "We were having problems with this machine earlier when doing the scan for Dr. Melendez. Dr. Browne had us do a test scan on his abdominal injury he's supposed to get checked out after transporting the patient. The scan got stuck in the buffer. But now they're about to do surgery, so he definitely didn't go back with a transport."

Lim stiffens. "This is Dr. Melendez's scan?" The EMT nods. "Where is he?" she asks, as calmly as she can.

"Last I saw, he and Dr. Browne were gathering supplies over there in Transport 4." He points up the block, but the ambulance looks locked up at the moment. "They must have gone inside to prep."

"Alright. Get those two patients onto the next transport, and I'll deal with this."

Lim jogs over to the building entrance, climbing over debris and dodging personnel to find Neil. She still holds the tablet with the image and feels as if it may crack from the pressure of her grip. She finally spots him standing soberly with Claire at a respectable distance away from a tall woman in a dress talking with the patient. Right before she reaches them, they jump into action and begin setting up for surgery.

"Neil," Lim calls over. "I need to show you something."

Neil directs the two spare EMTs assisting him to spread out their equipment while Claire moves around the back of the patient to begin prepping her for surgery. He hears Lim call his name and acknowledges her after giving everyone their orders.

"Can this wait? We need to get moving so we can get Marta out of here and back to the hospital."

"No, it can't wait. And you won't be doing any surgery." She turns to Claire. "Dr. Browne finish prepping. I'll be taking over."

Neil whips around, a flash of anger in his eyes. "The hell you are. Marta is my patient. I'm doing her surgery. I don't need to be a hotshot trauma specialist to get this done."

Glaring at him, she chooses to ignore his frustrated barb that Neil would admit borders on insubordination. "It's not that." She lifts up the scan for him to examine. From the corner of his eye, he sees Claire watching with interest as she continues to work. "The x-ray tech pulled this up on the tablet, said it was in the buffer from right after he turned it on."

The screen shows a standard abdominal image. Upon closer inspection, the shading by the bowel indicates that something is going on there, potentially an internal bleed. He feels an iciness seize his body.

"Neil, the timestamp and lack of ID information indicates this is the test scan on you that Dr. Browne very rightly insisted on. You need to get back to the hospital now."

His hand reflexively wanders to his side where the beam hit him. The bruise looked normal. He doesn't feel great, but he's not distressed. As he'd told Claire, he otherwise doesn't feel any more pain than he should with such an injury. Adrenaline, the dire nature of their situation, the responsibilities he has in front of him are what he's been focusing on.

And yet those are all things that could be masking a very real and serious problem. He's stubborn and arrogant, but he won't lie to himself about that.

Speechless, Neil glances from Lim to his patient and finally to Claire as she continues to watch them. She couldn't have heard Lim's explanation, but she knows something important has developed.

"I can't—"

"—you can and you will. Next transport leaves in five. This is happening."

At this point, Claire has wandered over having pieced together the situation. She looks at the scan, and her eyes darken with a sadness that takes him by surprise. He wants to argue. Wants to insist he's fine so he can take care of his patient.

Then Claire looks up at him, her eyes slightly watery and pleading.

It's the same flash of anxiety he saw when she'd first examined him and he'd brushed her off. At the time, he couldn't let himself get distracted by his infatuation with her or the crushing relief at seeing her approach him through the debris, having survived the earthquake unscathed. This look from her no doubt reflects the fear creeping in that she'll lose someone else she cares about and be left alone. The panic in her eyes, it gives him pause. She doesn't need to say anything. That one tragic, nearly broken expression reveals everything.

No matter what he insists he's capable of right now in his desire to treat his patients, the one thing he can't do is disappoint this beautifully fragile woman who only wants him to be safe and well.

"Okay," he says, directing the acceptance at Lim but never breaking contact with Claire's gaze.

"What's going on?" Noreen asks, panicked and not in a state to handle any more trauma related to her wife's care. "Are we still doing the surgery?"

Neil turns toward her to assure her, but Lim responds first. "I'm sorry for the last-minute change. I'm Dr. Audrey Lim. I'll be stepping in for Dr. Melendez."

If Noreen wasn't skittish before, she's downright ready to walk out with Marta herself right now at hearing this change of plans.

Lim pivots to address Marta while including Noreen in her explanation. "It turns out that Dr. Melendez is more injured than we thought. That test scan we took earlier shows some possible internal bleeding. It may well be nothing, but I don't want to risk his health or yours and am sending him back to the hospital immediately for evaluation."

Beside him, Claire's let out a quiet but hearty breath at the confirmation that Neil will be getting treatment sooner rather than later. She doesn't back down as he notices her relief, in fact, she seems rather defiant and vindicated by the development. He rolls his eyes at her but lets a grin slip onto his lips as well.

Instead of expressing alarm, Marta smiles slightly. "Of course, thank you Dr. Lim. Dr. Melendez, I don't want you on my surgery. I won't risk your life for mine. And Dr. Browne, I know you're too professional to say it to him, but Dr. Melendez, she told you so."

"Oh, she would have said it later, of that I'm sure." He and Claire exchange another amused glance with each other, knowing he's right.

Lim smiles at her colleagues and at the woman's good humor in the face of something so scary for her. "I'll take good care of you as will Dr. Browne. I'm pretty damn good. Better than this guy, actually. That's why I'm his boss." Neil shakes his head, but is glad for the levity. She takes his tablet with the surgical protocols and quickly looks over the scans. "I got this, Neil. I'm going to go update Park and check on Murphy and the field team leads, and I'll be back in three minutes. You better be gone when I get back. Browne can brief me while we finish prepping." She turns away and then steps back for a moment. "And Neil, don't even think about getting out of this. I'm calling the ER, and they'll have their instructions." She smirks at him, but Neil sees the worry and affection as well. Hands on his hips, he nods and watches her walk away.

Neil turns back to Marta and Noreen. Even though they are accepting of this change, he can sense a stress creep in that he'd worked hard to alleviate only a few minutes before.

"Marta, she's a pain in my ass, but she's right. Dr. Lim is the chief of surgery at St. Bonaventure and one of the best trauma surgeons in the country. If you have to have your kind of procedure in the middle of all this, she's the first person you'd want on your team." Noreen nods sadly as Marta lets his words sink in.

Looking over at Claire, she's gone straight back to business cutting off Marta's blouse so they can sterilize and access the operating area. "And you're in excellent hands with Dr. Browne. There's no one I trust more."

Claire's head pops up at hearing that, her focused, determined expression from a moment before settling into something soft and warm as she stares at him. Her eyes spark and brighten and her cheeks flush at the compliment. This flash of something electric from her, between the both of them, lasts only a few beats before she remembers herself and looks away to continue with her tasks, a little more nervously than before.

He marvels at how extraordinary she is. This whole night, she's been calm under pressure despite her worry and stress. She'd boldly pushed for doing the surgery here, sensing how much Marta meant to him. And she'd seized an opportunity to trick him into getting treatment sooner rather than later, demonstrating that unshakeable commitment to helping even at the risk of his disapproval. Traitorous emotions that have been building these past months, that he's been trying and failing to fight, swell.

Neil shakes these thoughts away, not for being embarrassed or ashamed, but for knowing that there isn't a damn thing he can do about his feelings; not if he wants to preserve both their reputations and careers.

Instead, he sighs, catches Claire's eye one more time, and walks away.

TBC