9

Broken Silhouette

Will stopped dead in his tracks as he found the room empty. Worriedly he sought out the familiar silhouette of Beth and moved over to the nurse's station.

"Hey, where's Connor?" he asked, fearing he'd been brought back into surgery.

"He was moved to the VIP wing earlier. Apparently, Mr. Rhodes insisted that he'd be brought over," she explained.

Halstead rolled his eyes. "But he's still fine?" he asked.

Beth smirked. "I guess you could say he's on the mend but grumpy."

Halstead frowned.

The nurse clarified; "Doctor Bardavi has taken it upon herself to make sure her mentor will be all right," Beth leaned in and lowered her voice. "Under Doctor Bekker's watchful eye of course."

The good doctor couldn't help but to smirk at that. Connor was normally a private man. "Yes, I can see why he would love that. Listen, thanks for the information. I'll head over and make sure he's not trying to make a run for it."

OOOOOO

Ava Bekker felt lost when there was no one there to argue with. She secretly loved the conversations with Connor; their usual disagreements about patient care and procedures. He spurred her to shape up and stay sharp yet she'd graduated at the top of her class.

Doctor Latham was the person in charge and the one she should impress but he had a personality that she couldn't decipher. He didn't behave like she predicted. However, that didn't stop her from competing with Connor whenever she could to show him that she was a better CT fellow than the all-American rich guy next to her.

She enjoyed teasing Rhodes; taunting him. She liked to see how far she could go before he exploded. However, Connor played the game perfectly, having had experience of manipulation since he was born. She couldn't help but to feel drawn to him; to feel attraction. He was confident and knew what he wanted. He wasn't afraid to voice an opinion and he was a very skillful surgeon.

Ava found herself wondering if she was beginning to fall for the guy. Now, Robin did complicate matters but she had tried to tell him, on numerous occasions, that his girlfriend might be experiencing symptoms up to a year after the removal of her tumor. Surely, it was only a matter of time before they broke up? No one would put their life on hold for another for that long?

OOOOOO

"I guess I learned a long time ago to see the threat or the opportunity."

Sarah Reese opened her eyes to the cold and harsh reality that encompassed her in the dark afternoon. Doctor Charles' words still ringing in her ears. She shook her head as she thought back upon the last couple of weeks.

People were dangerous. She saw that clearly now. Somehow, she'd turned a blind eye to it earlier but she had seen it clearly ever since Kellogg shot her mentor. Then there was that manipulating woman, the one who'd attacked her, accusing her of placing her prescription tablet in her purse. After that Doctor Charles had continued to surprise her by telling her that she shouldn't blame the woman because she was sick and that it was their job to make sure the sick got the best care possible. She really thought she'd seen it all then and that was before the paramedics had brought in the man who insisted that he was being chased by demons. Charles had been forgiving again, almost to the point of displaying sheer stupidity. Even Miss Goodwin had told him he needed to take a step back. It turned out the man had killed a priest for goodness' sake and Doctor Charles said people weren't really dangerous.

She hadn't slept that night. Unfortunately, it didn't end there. Her world was continuing to spiral out of control and the next thing she knew someone had broken into her car. The police hadn't been helpful at all and the guard had said it was probably just a random smash and grab. She snorted bitterly. Why would anyone break into her small, old Nissan when Doctor Rhodes' shiny BMW stood next to it? No, that incident had only heightened her anxiety and confirmed her suspicions that someone was out to get to her. She was jumpy and afraid when she walked back into the hospital but she forced herself to set her self-destructive thoughts aside. She managed to dodge a few patients, claiming she had other matters to attend to but she knew Doctor Charles would catch on eventually.

As they day went by it turned uglier and Noah Sexton was assaulted right in front of his colleagues. To her astonishment no guards came fast enough to stop the fight. The staff had to insert themselves between the two and break up the fight. Poor Noah could have been killed if Doctor Rhodes hadn't stepped in when he did. She ran from the hospital that day, fearing for her life. She knew the fear was irrational but she couldn't get rid of it. On trembling legs and with a heavy heart she stepped into a weapon store, telling herself that everything would be so much better if she had something to defend herself with.

She snorted bitterly – she'd been such an idiot. What did she hope to achieve? In hindsight she should have realized that she couldn't walk around with a gun in the ED. The guy in the weapon store had obviously felt sorry for her and offered her to buy a pepper spray since she didn't have a license to carry a gun. Strengthened by the fact that she had it in her pocket, she thought she'd be able to handle the situation.

Here she was, still a little jumpy, distrusting most people around her. Her finger's gripped the balcony railing so hard that her knuckles turned white as a gust of wind tousled her hair. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

OOOOOO

"Connor?" Will stated as he stepped into the room only to find the bed empty and the patient next to the window, trying to keep himself upright with the IV pole as support. "Are you crazy?" he asked as he quickly made his way over.

Connor said nothing, just stared out through the window.

Will swirled around as he saw a figure in his periphery vision and was relieved to find that Choi had stepped into the room. "Ethan," he called urgently. "Help me get this stubborn idiot back into bed."

Rhodes squeezed his eyes shut as a wave of pain hit his gut. He felt hands on his shoulders, gently trying to guide him around. "No," he whispered.

With his eyes still closed, he didn't see the troubled look shared between his friends.

"Connor," Ethan said, his voice low and guarded. "What you are doing right now is just foolish, even for someone without a medical degree.

"I have a high threshold for pain," he replied stubbornly as he continued to stare out the window.

Ethan stepped into his line of sight. "You know, technically we're not your doctors but we're your friends and colleagues," he said kindly. "Trust me when I say, you need to get back to bed."

Connor finally turned his attention to Choi, his blue eyes cold and steely. "One day, out of the blue, when I was ten years old, my mother disappeared from her room. My nanny Carlotta was deeply troubled, my father was on a business trip somewhere. Anyway, she told me to look out for my little sister until she got back," he snorted and shook his head. "But I couldn't. I ran around the house – wanting nothing else than to find my mother. Then I saw her, in the staircase, as she walked out the door to the large sun roof. I have never been running that fast in my entire life. As I pried the door open and ran out on the cold tiles, I saw her; her long hair and her white silk robe wavered in the wind. It was freezing, snow began to fall. I called her name."

Will swallowed, involuntarily shuddering, as he knew what was coming, having heard it from Maggie – yet in lesser detail.

"The woman who stared back at me seemed lost, dejected and broken. I was too young to understand back then. I kept calling for her but she never answered. Instead, she turned around and walked to the far corner. She mechanically and methodically stepped over railing, her bare feet craning around the edge of the roof for a second and then she was just…gone."

Ethan pursed his lips into a thin line of displeasure at hearing his friend hollowly, in a voice devoid of any kind of emotion, retell the story of his mother's suicide. "Connor, come, you need to get back to bed," he insisted.

"I've never felt so helpless in my entire life until Robin stepped out on the balcony, kicking and screaming-," he shook his head as his knees buckled.

"Ok, buddy, take it easy," Ethan said and shared a worried look with Will. "We've got you."

"Since then, I've tried to follow Doctor Charles lead; listened to the row of professionals who was in charge of Robin's recuperation."

"You were afraid she'd suffer a setback, weren't you?" Will asked as he thought back to the day he'd found Connor in the doctor's lounge, slamming his phone into the tabletop.

"Not a setback, more like a new obstacle to overcome," he whispered as he let his friend help him into a flat position. "Somewhere along the line my father got himself involved. He told me to get rid of the mentally unstable woman at my side." Connor paused, his eyes hard and sad as he looked from Ethan to Will. "It stirred up a lot of memories of my childhood and I lost myself in the past. Instead of helping Robin, I got obsessed trying to save her."

"Sounds kind of natural to me," Will reasoned.

"She said I treated her as a patient. That it was all she had become to me; someone to heal. Before the accident I came home to an empty apartment and found a note at the table. I don't know where she is and Doctor Charles refuses to tell me."

"It's going to be fine, Connor," Ethan assured him as he carefully studied the pristine white bandages that covered the surgical incision on his friend's abdomen. Satisfied that all the stitches were still there after the little escapade he nodded at him. "I am sure you'll find her, but right now, you need to focus on your health. You gave us quite a scare."

"Yeah," Will concurred as he watched Ethan gently cover Connor with a blanket. The surgeon seemed exhausted, lines of worry and pain creased his face as he finally lost the battle of consciousness.

The former navy veteran went over to the drawer and retrieved a syringe, measuring up a dose of pain medication and emptied it in the IV-port. At Halstead's curious look, he simply said; "I thought he could use a little break."

"If you hadn't given it to him, I would have," Will concurred. "I didn't realize all the troubles he's been through. Damn, when he first got here, I goaded him because of him being rich. I thought he'd had everything on a silver platter."

Choi frowned. "There is more to people than money, Will," he said kindly.

"I know that," he replied somewhat indignantly. "I have the deepest respect for Connor's work and I consider him a good friend. I just wish he wasn't so damn stubborn."

"You're no better, Will," Ethan pointed out with a faint smile.

Halstead took a moment to study Rhodes, then shook his head. "I am going to track down Doctor Charles," he said.

"Or maybe you should stay out of it?" Ethan suggested seriously. "Whatever happened between Connor and Robin is for them to sort out."

OOOOOO

Doctor Latham walked into the room without bothering to knock, arousing Connor from his slumber. He walked straight up to his protégé's bedside. "Is this a bad time?" he asked.

"No, it is not a bad time, Doctor Latham," he said kindly.

"I-" he hesitated. "I didn't appreciate working on you. I prefer working with you."

"I understand. I would prefer it that way too," Connor replied.

"While I am glad that you are on the mend you do realize you've put me in a dilemma?" Latham said. "You are not fit to perform surgery in at least a month."

"I'll be back in a few weeks tops," Connor assured him.

The senior consultant harrumphed. "Bones in general do require 6-8 weeks to heal properly unless of course you are a special case?"

"After 2-3 weeks most of the pain will have subsided enough for me to-,"

Latham held up his hand to stall him. "Let's talk about that later. Right now, all you are going to do is rest."

They both glanced down to Latham's beeper as it went off.

"I do have to leave," he said.

"Of course," Connor replied kindly.

Latham stopped in the doorway and turned to look at his registrar one last time before he left. "You will have to promise me never to do something like this again."

OOOOOO

To be continued