2

Broken Body

Natalie Manning woke up with a sigh, her arm reaching out across the empty side of her king-size bed. Will had left hours ago and she felt cold and alone. She needed his warmth and his comfort by her side; she realized that now more than ever. After Jeff had died in the line of duty she'd been devastated for months, all she had wanted was to rewind time just to be able to hug and kiss him one more time.

While she had appreciated Will's camaraderie back then, the thought of being able to love someone again had been non-existent for a long time. Then came Jeff – the other Jeff – and she began to think that maybe they could get something going. Unfortunately, that hadn't worked out the way she had hoped. However, dating Jeff had fueled a desire for love, a desire to be part of a twosome again. For each day that passed the harder it got to motivate why Will couldn't stay the whole night instead of quietly slipping out the door when Owen was asleep. The little boy was big enough to be able to handle that Will was close to her; wasn't he?

She sighed and narrowed her eyes to look at the small numbers on her phone, then groaned as she realized the clock was only 04.30 in the morning.

OOOOOO

Connor Rhodes awoke to an eerie silence, tangled into the inflated airbag, as he opened his eyes and grimaced in pain. It took him a moment to figure out what had happened and where he was but his muddled brain slowly cleared and his memory began to paint a horrible picture of a car crash. Multiple vehicles pile up. Somewhere deep within, it awakened a duty in him to respond, to help those who'd been injured since he was a fully trained physician. Straightening in his seat, he welcomed his own aches and pains, suddenly glad he was feeling something other than emotional numbness, and headed out into the early morning.

Sirens could be heard at a distance and he knew he'd involuntarily become a first-hand responder. He knew every second might count as he took in the scene before him and shuddered. There was a sportscar pinned deep beneath a semitrailer, another car was smashed like a sandwich between his own car and a pickup and yet another car lay upside down a bit further away.

People started to gather all around them, shocked pedestrians began filming with their cellphones as the sirens grew louder. Connor scanned the area quickly and froze as he saw the small hand of a child through the broken window of the car next to his. Adrenaline fueled him to spring into action and he grabbed his first-aid kit and headed over.

Years of medical training and experience kicked into gear as he moved around the car. There was no way he could reach the kid as he couldn't get the back door of the car to open and he was too big to wiggle his way through the broken window. He muttered a string of curses as he was forced to rethink his actions. Connor then made the snap decision to head toward the front of the car as the smell of gasoline assaulted his senses. He threw a glance at the sportscar and noted that the impact had caused the fuel tank to rupture. He had to hurry, the place could be engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes and he didn't want to leave the poor family helpless in their car.

Connor swallowed as he realized he should probably go check on the man in the sportscar but given the extent of the damages to the car and the stillness of the bloodied driver, he surmised there was nothing he could do for him. He gave the crackled windscreen of family car a shove with his foot and grimaced as the action caused a spike of pain through his gut. The doctor frowned but gave it no further thought as he knelt down and began to climb into the car to reach the injured kid.

The woman, probably the mother of the two children in the backseat, watched him from the front passenger seat; her eyes large and anxious as she reached out with her bloodied hand towards his shoulder. "My boys," she wheezed. "Please, help my boys."

He shuddered involuntarily as he catalogued her injuries, with his training and background he knew that she was in a dire condition and needed to be cut out of the car as soon as possible if she was to survive the chest trauma she had sustained – but even then – it might already be too late.

"I'll do my best, ma'am," Connor said seriously.

"Rhodes, what the hell?" the familiar voice of Herrmann called from behind.

"I need some help over here," the doctor said as a way of confirmation that he'd heard the other man. "If you don't cut this roof open and get these people out fast-,"

"We're on it!" The firefighter assured him quickly and waved at his colleagues. "But you have to get out of there."

"I can't," Connor began to protest. "I need to apply pressure-,"

"Rhodes. I am serious. Get the hell out of there, now," Herrmann commanded in a no-nonsense tone.

OOOOOO

"Hey," April said softly as she stepped up to her little brother and gently put her hand on his shoulder. "You should have left hours ago. What are you still doing here?"

Noah shrugged. "I guess I just, huh, got caught up in work," he replied meekly.

"You've just gotten back," she reasoned kindly. "You should take it easy."

He shook his head. "I'm fine, sis. I figure I got off lucky. I mean, I did assure him his brother would be just fine. I don't-," he looked her in the eye and hesitated for a moment, "-I don't know what I would have done if someone had promised me you would be fine and then turn up a few hours later only to hear that you'd died."

April tilted her head and gave him a faint smile, taking a good look at her little brother. She studied him for a moment. He was clearly uncomfortable of her scrutiny. "When did you turn so humble?" she asked. "If all it took was a knock on your head, I would have given you that a long time ago."

He gave a short laugh at that and April slapped him playfully on the upper arm.

"Get out of here, get some rest and come back later," she said.

He nodded. "Yeah, sounds like a good plan. Hey, sis? Do you know where Sarah went too? I saw her earlier and she didn't sound like herself."

April made a face. "I didn't realize anyone had missed it," she said. "Reese attacked a patient earlier with pepper spray. Her presence was required in Goodwin's office a while ago. I haven't seen her since."

OOOOOO

"The place is unstable. A lot of fuel is leaking from the sportscar. We're giving it all the water we've got but I don't like it," Severide reported.

First responder and paramedic Sylvie Brett quickly jogged up to them. "We have a fairly clear picture of the medical situation but we're missing the driver of the BMW-,"

"Rhodes," Herrmann muttered. "Damnit. Where is he now?"

"Doctor Rhodes?" Severide asked for confirmation. "I thought he was riding with you guys?"

Sylvie frowned. "No, no. But I admit that it would have come in handy to have a surgeon with us when attending an accident like this," she said and nodded at Herrmann. "Is he injured?"

Herrmann narrowed his eyes as he spotted the black-haired surgeon at a distance, assisting the paramedics with the driver of the semitrailer. "I didn't have time to play twenty questions and Rhodes - when he's set his mind to it - can be pretty stubborn."

Severide snorted. "You and I both know Doctor Rhodes. He can be very- what's the word – arrogant."

"Not sure that's the word you're looking for but I do hear you," Herrmann replied. "Remember, I owe my life to him."

"Dawson and I will make sure he's all right," Brett assured them. "Let's get everyone out of this mess and drop them off at Gaffney."

Herrmann nodded and then narrowed his eyes as he saw a grey Dodge Ram pull up a bit further down the road; small blue lights twinkling in the car grille and above the visors.

OOOOOO

Choi smirked amusedly at April's playful smile directed at him but remained behind the data screen, trying not to let his eyes linger on the nurse. He chided himself for letting her preoccupy his mind, taking his focus away from the patient he was currently attending. However, he had to admit that her being in his life made it much more joyful and bright between all the shootings, beatings and other crap the streets of Chicago decided to throw at him.

"Incoming!" Maggie suddenly shouted. "Multiple vehicles pile up. Severe trauma." She sighed inwardly. It was time for shift change and she was understaffed as it was. She'd arrived two hours early just to sort everything out but she didn't mind that, what she did mind was to ask her colleagues to stay behind and help out.

"You don't have to ask," Ethan said as he passed her, already on his way to the ambulance bay.

"Me neither," April added as she followed him.

The charge nurse breathed a sigh of relief and thanked heavens for her lovely friends and coworkers.

"Hey, what's going on?" Halstead asked as he was ushered out of the way by one of the orderlies.

"Major trauma coming in!" Maggie hollered as Manning showed up behind the other doctor.

"Then we need the trauma attending," Natalie suggested. "Who's on call?"

Maggie glanced at her watch and grimaced, still the night-shift, she had hoped Connor would be available as he was double certified but as of yet there was no sign of him reporting in.

"McKenzie," she said. "He's already on his way down. I saw Bekker step through the doors just minutes ago, I am paging her as well, in case we need CT help. What are you two doing here already?"

"Couldn't sleep," Natalie replied.

"Same here," Will said and gave her the thumbs up as he opened the door to the lounge to throw his bag on the sofa.

"What's up?" McKenzie asked as he quickly slipped on a pair of dark blue gloves.

"First one's being rolled in," Maggie informed and nodded as the paramedics came through the door with a bloodied man.

The trauma surgeon wasted no time. "What have you got for me?"

"Patrick Wise, fifty-four-year-old Caucasian male," Cesar began as the doctor listened intently.

The trauma attending grimaced at the mess of the abdomen.

"You're going to Trauma two," Maggie instructed as the next gurney began to roll in. "Natalie, you're up," she called over her shoulder as she saw the injured child."

Doctor Choi reached for the third gurney as it appeared in the bay. "I'll take this one," he said.

April quickly joined him on the other side of the gurney. On it was a teenager, probably the older brother of the kid that had just been handed off to Natalie.

Will experienced as sense of déjà vu as the last gurney was wheeled into the bay with Rhodes next to it, his hair messy and his hands bloody. "Connor?" he asked confused as he stepped up on the other side of the gurney.

The trauma/CT surgeon responded by rattling off the patient's history and what he'd done so far to stabilize her condition.

However, Will's focus was split as he studied the ghostly pale woman on the stretcher and his colleague next to it. There was something off with Rhodes. "Are you alright?"

Connor pursed his lips in what appeared to be annoyance. "Just help me with the patient," he replied tight-lipped.

"I would check him over if I were you," Dawson said seriously as she and Brett brought the gurney further into the hospital. "He was involved in the pile up."

Halstead gave a nod, thankful for what the paramedic told him, and accompanied his colleague into Baghdad. Rhodes acted and worked like he normally would, until it was time for them to shift the patient from the gurney of the ambulance to the one in the trauma room, then he suddenly hung back.

"On my mark, one-two-three," Will ordered as he took charge.

Connor hovered nearby and quickly took command again as the now unconscious woman had been settled. Brett and Dawson quietly and quickly slipped out of the room as Rhodes ordered an x-ray of her chest and had the nurse start a central line. Will was about to let out a sigh of relief when he saw the surgeon suddenly stiffen and grit his teeth.

"I need help in here!" Halstead shouted as he popped his head out in the corridor, his eyes searching for Maggie.

"She needs surgery, right away, we can't wait," Connor's steady voice stated from behind him.

Will swiveled around again only to see that his friend had paled visibly during the last couple of seconds. However, Connor was nothing but persistent. His fingers curled around the bedrail in an effort to keep himself upright.

Ava chose that moment to meet up with them as the bed was wheeled halfway out in the corridor. "What's going-," she paused as she spotted her fellow CT surgeon, white as a sheet, blood smeared on his left arm, hands and shirt. "Connor, what the hell," she exclaimed, clearly concerned.

"She needs surgery, she'll bleed out," Rhodes began seriously.

Ava made a quick decision and nodded gravely at him. "Give me a run down and I'll do it. You are in no condition to perform any kind of surgery," she said. "You look like you could need one yourself."

That elicited a strangled laugh. "You are not going to poke around my insides," he wheezed.

Halstead's quick reflexes saved Rhodes from the embarrassment of ending up face first on the floor. "I take care of him," Will assured Ava. "Go, go!"

She hesitated for a split second then nodded and took off.

"What's going on in here?" Maggie asked as she appeared in the doorway with Daniel Charles in tow. They both froze at the sight of Rhodes partly collapsed in Halstead's arms.

"Not injured, huh?" Will stated sarcastically.

"I need another stretcher stat!" Maggie hollered over her shoulder.

"Just some throbbing in my side," Connor admitted vaguely.

"And you thought nothing of it?" Will exclaimed, suddenly furious with his colleague. "Didn't they teach you medicine in Guadalajara?"

Doctor Charles cast a curious glance in Halstead's direction, noting the concern laced with anger in his voice. Daniel knew that Will's frustration was directed upon his own inability to help his friend in need. The psychologist edged closer to the pair as the stretcher arrived.

"The world needs good surgeons, you ass," Will muttered as he, with the help of Maggie and Doctor Charles, gently pushed Rhodes onto the bed.

A light ironic chuckle escaped the other man's lips at the words thrown at him. "A modified version," Connor said with slight amusement. "So, you do listen once in a while?"

Will pushed his lips into a thin line of displeasure and concern as he took in a few worrying signs. "Now, excuse me, for trashing your clothes. Don't expect me to pay for new ones because we all know I can't afford it," he said, trying to diffuse the serious situation.

Connor's only reply was a slight grimace in pain as the cold air made contact with his bare chest.

Halstead efficiently poked and prodded his colleague, finding various tender spots that only heightened his concern. He looked at Maggie. "Okay, I am going to need a chest x-ray." He then looked at the heart-monitor and saw tachycardia present itself. "The skin is pale, he's tachycardic-," Will cast a quick glance at Connor's drooping eyes. "Hey, buddy, any dizziness?"

"Think I-" Connor began slowly as he fought to keep his eyes open. "-might have lacerated my spleen. Possible rib fractures-,"

Maggie and Will shared a troubled look as Daniel studied them from a slight distance, trying to deduce Connor's state of mind. The surgeon had catalogued his injuries, just as he suspected he would have, then decided to ignore his own well-being to take care of others. The psychiatrist knew Connor had been high on adrenaline and probably looking for something else to occupy his mind with than Robin's abrupt departure. There was nothing he could do for him at the moment; what the surgeon needed was another surgeon.

"I need trauma in here stat!" Will shouted.

"Not available," Monique said apologetically.

"Damnit! It's Connor," he argued.

"I think everyone here is aware of that," Daniel spoke up calmly over the rim of his glasses.

"Page Doctor Latham immediately," Will commanded, his voice low and steady as he sent the psychiatrist a glare.

"On it!" Maggie replied quickly.

Will moved around the bed to shine a penlight in his patient's eyes only to find signs of a mild concussion. Both of them grimaced but for entirely different reasons.

Halstead glanced down on Rhodes' left side, saw the vivid bruise, and then threw a look over his shoulder, at the x-ray pulled up on the monitor. He noted that Connor had been right about rib fractures and the tenderness to the left side of the abdomen told him of a more troubling underlying injury; a hematoma. Connor might also be right about the spleen injury, Will was just hoping the hemorrhaging wasn't developing into something life-threatening right under their noses. He willed for Latham to show up; the sooner the better.

OOOOOO

To be continued