Chapter 17

While Cruz and Mills searched the parking garage, Joe worried about Taylor. He has no idea if she was involved in the blast or if she was safe. He had no time to check his phone, and he worried that she wouldn't be able to contact him.

"Anything from Taylor?" Mills asked as they went from row to row in the garage.

"Not yet."

"She'll be okay, Cruz."

"Seems to me we were telling Clarke that about a year ago."

"And it all was okay," Mills reminded.

Everything was okay with Clarke. He had been promoted to Lieutenant and was serving at Firehouse 25 as the Squad Lieutenant. He and Kaitlyn were planning on getting married the following summer. Things had worked out with Clarke, but there was a period of hours when Kaitlyn's life hung in the balance. Faulty wiring had caused a fire in her condo complex, and she would have died of smoke inhalation had Severide had not found her and brought her out.

Cruz heard Mills' voice over the radio saying he found the bomb. He hurried over to Mills' side to check it out.

Taylor tried to nap on an empty gurney. Things had finally started to settle down. The most seriously injured were at other hospitals. They were down to treats and releases at the present time. After sixteen hours, she was relieved and was told to go home. She couldn't leave her coworkers knowing they were just as exhausted as she was. Dr. Richards had ordered her to nap before she made a mistake. She rolled over on her side, and felt her cell phone press against her thigh. She rolled over onto her back and pulled it out of her pocket. Unlocking the screen, she checked her texts and missed calls. She saw three missed calls from Joe, all within the past hour. She pulled up her cell log and pressed the call button.

Cruz heard his cell vibrate, and he pulled it out of his pocket. He saw Taylor's number come up and he jumped out of his chair and walked out of the common room. "Are you okay?" he asked anxiously.

"I'm all right. I'm just ready to drop. Dr. Richards sent me to time out."

"What's going on over there?"

"We're doing the best we can. We're shipping because we can't really keep anyone upstairs. The ER is almost totally gone. The UCAN office is okay, but we're not flying anyone. What about you guys?"

"We're back at the house. I'm just glad you're okay."

"I'm fine. They wanted to send me home, but I couldn't go. They need me here."

"But you're in time out."

"For a couple of minutes. Dr. Richards should be gone by now. I can go back to the pod."

"Just be careful. I love you. And don't you dare say you love me more."

"I do."

"I'll see you when I'm off shift."

"Ok. I should be home by then." She disconnected and slid off the gurney. No way was she going to be able to nap when her coworkers were busy working. She was counting on Dr. Richards to be long gone from the ER when she rounded the corner. She entered the nurse's station and checked the computer for patients she could assess.

"Williams, I thought I sent you home," she heard from behind her.

'Oh,shit. Busted,' she thought. She turned around.

"I can't go home when patients need treated," she said.

"We have enough staff to take care of things. Stop playing combat nurse and go home. You can come back tomorrow morning if you want to, but right now you really need to get away from here."

She bristled at being told she was playing combat nurse. Combat nursing was very much like Emergency nursing, only it was done under fear of constant enemy attack. She stood up. "I'm going. But I'm only going because I'm not in the mood to fight about this right now. I've gone longer hours than this taking care of patients and I've been fine. Stop trying to think you know what is best for me because you don't."

As she entered the UCAN office, she closed the door behind her and slammed her fist into the wall. While she respected Dr. Richards as an excellent Emergency Medicine physician, she despised his personality and his attitude that nurses were still the doctor's handmaidens. Nursing had advanced so much in the past twenty years, and he was still clinging to the 1940's mentality. "Dammit," she swore under her breath. "I hate having to leave patients that need me."