Chapter 4 – You do the Crime…
As much as she loved her job, Grace was in a particularly good mood in anticipation of leaving work and going home on this day. She was dead on her feet and was already thinking about a bubble bath and a large glass of wine waiting for her at home, not to mention a few hours of mindless television.
She noticed Romano had come down to the ER, but it wasn't like him to be raising havoc so late in the day, however his motive was soon revealed.
"I need a volunteer to help with surgical charts. It seems our chart abstractor has taken a last minute trip to Mexico for the holidays." Of course his request was met with dead silence and complete avoidance. "Don't everyone jump in at once. Come on people I can't wait all day! Hanson, you'll do. Upstairs in half an hour. Brenda will show you to my office. That's all people, back to work!"
"Son of a bitch!" Grace said under her breath.
"Man, Romano seems to have it in for you." Carter commented. "What did you do to piss him off?"
"I don't know. Well, that's not exactly true. I kind of told him to go fuck himself." Grace answered.
"You're serious? And you still have a job?"
"It was under extenuating circumstances, Carter. Come on, everyone in this place has wanted to tell him that."
"But none of us were stupid enough to say it out loud." He said, tapping her on the head with a file. "Have fun with those charts, Grace."
Grace finished her shift and slowly made her way up to Romano's office. Brenda smiled when she saw her coming and pointed towards his door. Grace knocked tentatively and waited for a reply.
"Enter." He barked.
She took a deep breath for courage and opened the door cautiously.
"Yes, yes, all the way in, that's the ticket." Pointing to a massive stack of files, he told her that he needed them all finished before she left. It was part of a huge research project with an impending deadline.
"You've got to be joking? I'll be here all night." She said, incredulously.
He said nothing and stared back at her blankly.
"Come over here and I'll show you what I need you to do." She walked over and sat down across from his desk. "No, over here." He said pointing beside him. She shot him a look and slowly came around the side of his desk, so she could see exactly what it was he wanted. He began pointing out the specifics of the job at hand and as she leaned over, her hair fell across his shoulders and brushed against his face.
It was exactly what he hoped would happen. Not only did he get to feel her soft, silky light brown hair against his skin, he was able to breathe in her intoxicating scent, and better yet, as the end to a perfect triple play, he was given a front row view of her ample female assets. He lingered a bit to enjoy the moment and as he stood up to leave, he allowed her to make herself comfortable in his chair. "Have a seat, Grace. It's still warm."
She ignored him and got down to business.
He put on his coat and as he turned to leave he looked back and said, "Oh, and if you're still here in the morning, I take my coffee with cream and I like those banana muffins they sell in the cafeteria. Try to get there early enough to get a fresh one right out of the oven."
Grace had assumed there would ultimately be a price for her scathing comment, but in a way, she was still glad she had said it. She finished the last chart around 4 a.m. and decided to catch a quick nap in one of the treatment rooms before her ER shift started at 7.
Around noon, Romano was paged to the ER for a consult on a woman who had been in a car accident and come in with a severely crushed femur. Grace was with another patient but it didn't take him long to track her down eventually. She was worried he might have more plans for her after her shift, and the thought of it nearly set off the waterworks. However, she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her look stressed. Any punishment he could dole out, she could take.
"Hanson! My, my. Don't we look tired today?"
"It must have been the wild party I went to last night." She glared.
"I didn't see my coffee and muffin waiting for me in my office this morning."
"I gave them to Luka. I thought he was more deserving since he was up all night treating patients. They had several major traumas, you know."
"Well, that's what we pay him the big bucks for."
Grace suddenly felt light-headed. She swayed for a moment and then fell to the floor, hitting her head on an open cupboard before she landed.
"Grace? Grace!" Romano yelled. With no response, the staff immediately jumped into action to revive her. When she came to, she was on a bed in exam 1, hooked up to an EKG, bp cuff and had four staff buzzing around her.
"Grace, you fainted." Romano said.
"What?" She said groggily.
"Do you know where you are?" Carter asked.
"Unfortunately, yeah." She muttered, starting to get up and trying to take off the EKG leads.
"You're not going anywhere until we find out why you passed out." Romano said, actually sounding concerned.
"I'm fine. I don't need all this."
"Her bp is a bit low. Puls/ox is 98." Abby said. "EKG is normal, breath sounds are good bilaterally, pulse is strong." Carter added.
"See I'm fine. Just low blood sugar, that's all. I haven't eaten in a while."
"Has this ever happened before?"
"No. Can I go now, please? Before I die of embarrassment?"
"Let's get a CT, cbc, chem 7, lytes and urine."
"If you come at me with a Foley, Carter, you're a dead man."
"You did lose consciousness, Grace." He reminded her. "And you've got a bit of a nasty cut on your head."
"We need to be thorough, Grace. Can't have you suing us for malpractice. So, any chance you might be pregnant?" Romano demanded.
Grace shot him a look. "No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure." She glared.
"You're not seeing anyone?"
"No, not that's it's any of your business!"
Romano's pager went off. One of his patients was taking a turn for the worse in the recovery room. "Carter, let me know when you get the results back on her labs and CT." Romano barked as he left the room.
Carter dressed her wound as the staff dissipated, seeing Grace was out of imminent danger.
"Sorry, Carter."
"For what?"
"For all the drama."
"Hey, we're all just worried about you."
"I'm fine. Besides, I should get back to work before Romano docks me for the rest of my shift."
"I think he feels bad." Carter replied.
"I doubt that man is capable of feeling anything, except maybe a perverse pleasure orchestrating his manipulative little games."
"He seemed genuinely worried about you, Grace."
"Well, good. If I hadn't been up all night working for him, I'm sure I wouldn't have passed out."
"Maybe he wouldn't have felt the need to punish you if you hadn't said what you did?"
"Whose side are you on, Carter?"
"I'm not on a side. There, you're done." He smiled.
Grace finished the last couple of hours of her shift. After receiving the all clear on her labs from Carter, she took a cab home, thankful that the day was finally over.