Chapter 5 – Little Soldiers
Susan sat at her desk signing paper work, heard a knock on the door.
"Come in."
The door opened and the pretty brunette popped her round the door. Susan waved her in, placed her pen down on the desk, clasping her hands together. Susan made direct eye contact at Abby, who stood in front of her desk.
She pursed her lips "I'm disappointed in you Abby."
Abby looked at her but doesn't say a word.
"If I was a mean boss, I would have reported this to Weaver."
"Oh Well I can explain…" said Abby defensively; thinking her patient had reported her. "My patient Sara…"
"You know the rules?" Susan interrupted.
"What rules?" Abby shook her head looking confused.
"Jake is a med student and you are his supervisor! What were you thinking when you got intimate with him?"
Abby clenched her jaw, in shock; she wanted the ground to swallow her up. 'God! How did she find out? Oh shit! Jake can't you keep that big mouth of yours shut?'
"I did try to avoid, I guess I got weak. But I didn't think it would last, so I didn't bother to say anything."
"How long you two have been seeing each other?" Susan asked
"Erm..." Abby raised her brows, puffed out her cheeks "About a month? We broke up a month ago, so it doesn't matter Susan."
Susan glanced at her; leaned back in to her chair.
Abby continued "Ok I understand… and I understand you reporting this to Weaver, you are only doing your job" Abby stood looking at Susan, feeling bad; she had really let her friend down. She said, "I'm really sorry Susan"
"Apology accepted." Susan nodded back "You can go now and you can do the drug lock-up stocktaking on your break tomorrow."
"What? Uh ok…" Abby sneered and turned round putting her hand on the door handle and paused and turned her head round looking at Susan again. "I guess tomorrow night's cancelled then?"
"No" She answered. "Are you still coming?"
----
Chuny shot out of the treatment room, looking for Abby and saw her walking down the corridor.
"Abby your patient is crashing!"
Abby ran after Chuny catches her attention.
The girl was lying, soaked in blood, Chuny and Haleh scurrying about sorting out IV's and drips.
"She started haemorrhaging," Haleh said, checking the vitals.
Abby nodded as she stamped her foot on the brake of the gurney and released it.
"Lets take her to Trauma 2!" Abby commanded as they raced the gurney in to the other room. They crash the door open. Greg Pratt followed and joined in
"What we got?"
"Female, 14, Primigravida, Gestation 15 weeks, O neg, placental separation… haemorrhaging," Abby replied "Ok, everybody on my count, one, two, three. Nice and gently. Good."
They lifted the patient over on to the trauma bed.
"BP falling 60 over 40, were losing pulse!" said one of the nurses.
"She needs transfusion quickly, disturbance of the blood coagulation, her kidneys will shut down!" Abby instructed
"Need to load up on the O neg!" Pratt shouted.
"Lines in!"
"Push 4 mag sulphate."
"Someone call OR!"
"Pressures dropping."
"She's in Fib! Paddles!" Abby shouted "Haleh, 250" She places them on the patients chest.
"Clear!"
The girl's body jolted up as defibrillator shocked her. The cardiac monitor screeched out the lethal rhythms.
"Charging to 300 and clear!"
The body jolted again. Still no sign of life
"Turn volume up to 360," Dubenko ordered, coming in from the trauma room next door. "What we have here?"
Pratt gave the details.
"Clear!"
Abby placed the paddles on the girl's chest again. Another jolt.
The cardiac monitor beeps normal heart rhythm again.
"Normal sinus." Haleh announced.
"Good work guys, get her up to OR now!" Dubenko said.
Abby snapped off her surgical gloves, threw them in to the trashcan. She stood there with one hand on hip and the other rubbing her nose. She sighed and shook her head as she walked out.
Her shift was over, she's glad to see it was the end of the shift…
----
Jake sat on the doorstep outside Abby's apartment reading a book. He looked up and saw her walking from a distance.
"Hey!" Jake got up and picked up his rucksack.
"Uh jeeez!" Abby scoffed in disbelief, she climbed up the steps to her door and unlocks it, ignoring him.
"You really are having a bad day!" Jake chuckled nervously.
Abby doesn't answer, seriously not in the mood for company especially with Jake. All she wanted was to chill out at home in peace have a nice soak in a hot bath hoping to wash away all her troubles. She opened her post box in the lobby, grabbed her mail and looked at them. "Junk, bill, junk"
"I've got to work night shift tonight."
"Ok, so what do I care?" Abby replied as she headed to her apartment door. She bent over to get the newspaper from the floor. Abby kicked the door from behind, to shut it firmly. Jake flinched back as it slammed inches from his face.
----
The early morning heavy rain drummed on the bedroom window. On the bed, Abby laid with one arm over her head, tucked under the pillow, chewing at her bottom lip, staring at the leak stains on the ceiling. Thinking about what consequences she may have to face about her situation with Luka. Abby sighed out loud when she closed her eyes after turning over. Trying to erase recollection of what happened the other night with Luka. The guilt has got to her. She opened her eyes wide in surprised when the phone rang and leaned over to the bedside to reach for it.
"Hello?" Abby answered.
"Hi, you sleep well?"
"Ugh! What you want?"
"Oh? Still cranky eh?" Jake asked chuckling away "Anyway I need to talk to you, can we meet up when you finish work?"
"No," Abby got out of the bed and walked to her wardrobe. She placed her phone on her shoulder wedging it with her ear and pulled out a top. "Can't you get it to your stupid head that we are no longer together? God sakes Jake stop harassing me!"
"Oh right?" Jake snapped
Abby walked to her bedside and slammed the phone down. Abby grunted in sheer frustration "Men!"
----
Abby walked quickly down the steps through the rain after her ride on the EL. She spotted Neela stood outside JumboMart looking bewildered.
"Hey." Abby greeted
"Morning." Neela replied in her British accent.
"Erm… you coming in for coffee?" Abby pointed at door
"I suppose." Neela replied unenthusiastically
Abby opened the door, cocked her head to one side to let Neela in first and walked to the nearby queue at the coffee bar.
"What's bothering you?" Abby asked, nudging Neela waking her from her daydream.
"Uh-huh." Neela shook her head, pursed her quivering lips as she was close to tears. "Living with bloody Ray Barnett!"
"Ah!" Abby nodded sympathetically "I did say you were nuts moving in with the guy."
"I hardly get any sleep!" Neela sobbed "He's always got his bloody rock band practice at all hours, they all got keys to get in and they even come in when Ray's not there"
"What? So much for privacy!"
"I can't take it anymore!"
Abby puts her hand her coat pocket, pulled out a tissue from a little handy pack and gave her it. "Here…"
"How am I going to concentrate on my job with no sleep? I'm going to kill a patient at this rate," said Neela blubbering with her bottom lip sticking out.
"Hey… shush" Abby placed her arm round Neela giving her a hug. "I help you find you some place elsewhere."
"Morning, how about the pleasure of Dr Ray Barnett buying you two beautiful ladies some coffee?" the rocker asked, coming from behind, pouting his lips trying to give them a sexy look…
Abby and Neela both sneered at Ray
"What?" Ray giving his innocent look, chewing his gum "What did I do?"
----
Luka sat at his breakfast bar drinking coffee, reading the morning paper.
"Oh I see the cat's got the cream!" Said a voice from behind. It was Sandra, His once weekly cleaner.
"Huh? Sorry?" Luka replied turning to Sandra, looking puzzled.
"I erm… found a used erm… you know" The cleaner raises her brows and mouthed "condom under the bed…"
He blushed with embarrassment. "Oh!"
Luka shook his head, turning round and smiled. He picked up his cup and drank out of it whilst glancing at the newspaper. He was struggling to read the article because he was too distracted, thinking about the other night, making love to Abby. She was a fantastic lover. It was a mind-blowing encounter once again.
"I guess you know then… Doctor?" Sandra's voice woke him up from his daydream.
"What?" He responded shaking his head.
"About the split?"
"What split? Sam and I?"
"Are you ok? You seem very distracted this morning…" Sandra interrupted then laughed, "I'm on about the condom! It has a big split in it."
"What? You're kidding me!" Luka jumped out of seat and looked in the bag. "Shit!" He started to feel frantic and ran his hand through his hair, trying to come up with a solution.
"Mmm I think you make a great daddy" the cleaner smiled. Luka stopped and stared at the cleaner thinking what she had said.
"Thanks Sandra for noticing that split… I better get off." Luka grabbed his coat and left his apartment.
Luka got in his car. Started the engine and paused for a moment gripping both hands on the steering wheel, with his mind playing…
'Abby, the woman I probably always had loved would not oblige to have children, meaning if she was pregnant, would she abort it? Like she did with her ex-Richard's child? She has this stigma about having children by having fear that they would inherit her mother's Bi-Polar disorder. I would love her to be the mother of my children. I still brood over babies, desperately want to be a father, I know Sam doesn't want anymore… Uh… The sex with her took place 2 nights ago, there's still time for Abby to get the morning after pill… now I have a choice – Be a completely mean by not telling her, so she'll have my long waited child… or be a honest friend and inform her…'
----
Abby was stood in the drug lock up doing the stocktaking, She sighed, as it's one of the most boring jobs in the hospital.
"Susan said I would find you here" Said a man's voice; it was Luka leaning against the doorframe.
"Hey"
"You ok?"
"Uh-uh" Abby replied pursing her lips, writing down the figures
"So you've been a naughty girl then, Abby?" Luka chuckled putting his hands in his doctors' lab coat.
Abby placed the clipboard down on the counter. She turned to him, resting one hand on the hip and her head titled to one side looking up at him raising her brows.
"I've been a naughty girl all week"
He chuckled nervously back at her. "What did you do naughty to do this then?"
"Not important, Luka"
"Well it must be…" Luka pursed his lips.
Abby rubbed her forehead "I don't want to discuss it, thank you… Did you want something?"
"Yep, We need to talk…" Luka said hoping she would respond instead of saying the usual There's nothing to talk about Luka…
"Ok… What is it?"
He stepped in to the lockup, shutting the door behind him. She raised her brows as she is suspecting that privacy is needed.
"You know about the other night?"
"Hmm how can I forget?" Abby chuckled, rolling her eyes.
"I have no regrets, ok? "Well erm… this morning my cleaner found the condom"
"Oh nice! She had a glimpse of your little soldiers?"
"Well no… they've escaped…"
"Huh?" Abby paused to think chewing on side of her lip and took a hard swallow "Err… are you telling me the…"
"It split" Luka interrupted "Yep."
"Oh? Erm… oh god, ok." Abby nodded and raised her hands up, lays them flat on against his chest, giving him the reassurance "I'll go and get the morning after pill…"
Abby stood up on her toes, placed both hand on his cheeks and pulled him towards herself to plant a kiss on the lips. She pulled away looking into his eyes.
"Thank you Luka.," she mouthed.
He stepped aside to let Abby leave the room… they are unaware that they were both being watched…