Chapter 8 – Appi Holidays

As luck would have it, Weaver was in the middle of a trauma and didn't notice Grace was late when she arrived in the ER. Still reeling from Romano's kiss, she was quickly swept up in the activity of the ER and had to put it to the back of her mind. It was only a week before Christmas which usually coincided with the ER becoming a chaotic mass of humanity.

A few hours into her shift, she began to feel ill. She was a bit nauseous and was experiencing some abdominal pain which continued to get worse. At first she thought she too had finally succumbed to the ER Christmas flu, but it became so bad that she doubled-over in pain. Carter was nearby and rushed to help her.

"Grace? Are you feeling faint again?"

"No. Abdominal pain." She said wincing. "It's pretty bad."

He soon had her on a gurney and began to examine her. "How long have you had it?"

"On and off for a few hours. It's been a lot worse the past half hour though. I thought at first it was the flu. Oh, God!" She exclaimed, holding her belly.

Carter grabbed Abby and ordered some tests. "Her temp's up." She confirmed.

"Lower, right quadrant pain. Are you nauseous?" Carter asked.

"Yes. Please don't say it, Carter." Grace pleaded.

"Abby let's get a cbc, I want to check her white count. I'd place bets that you'll be spending the night in the OR, Grace."

"Can you scrub in?"

"I don't know. I'll have to call for a consult first, but I'd like to get you up there sooner than later. We don't want it to burst."

A few minutes later Romano showed up for the consult. "Where's the fire, Carter? You people can't leave me alone for five minutes without paging me these days! I'm beginning to think the ER stands for everyone's retarded."

"Grace needs an appendectomy as soon as possible." Carter said seriously.

Romano stared back at him. "Well, let's see if the drugstore cowboy got it right. Where are her labs?" He demanded. He reviewed them and then turned to Grace. "How bad is the pain?"

"It's bad. Like a nine."

"Let's have a look." As he moved his hands onto her abdomen, she flinched.

"Did that hurt, or was it just the thought of me touching you?"

Grace shook her head, "Not you," She whispered as she rolled over in pain.

"That's good enough for me." He said. "I'm taking her up right now."

Just before they put her under, Romano looked down at her and touched her arm. "Don't worry, Grace. You won't feel a thing."

As Grace was slowly coming out of the anesthetic, Romano tried to wake her. "Grace. Grace, it's over. You need to wake up now."

She was mumbling and he couldn't make out what she was saying. He leaned down to try to hear her. Still feeling the effects of the anesthetic and not fully awake, she murmured, "Surgery is like sex…with Romano." As no one else was looking, he bent down and kissed her forehead softly and squeezed her hand. "Get some rest, Grace."

Grace slept through the night fairly well and Romano stopped by first thing the next morning to check on her.

"Still trying every means necessary to get my attention, Grace?"

She smiled and replied, "Well if I'd known you were the only one on who could operate, I would have told them to let it burst."

"I saved it for you. It's in a jar in my office."

"No thanks. I prefer not knowing what I look like on the inside."

"Just as cute as on the outside." He said, giving her a wink. "Do you need any pain meds? We keep all the best drugs up here, you know."

"Motrin will do just fine, but come to think of it, I wouldn't mind some ice cream." She grinned. The thought of him fetching something for her was just too much to pass up.

"Anything else, Princess?"

"Yes." She said and then softened, "Thanks. I'm glad it was you."

During the course of the day, most of the ER staff had stopped by before or after their shift to see how she was doing. When Carter came up, he gave her chart a good going over.

"So, looks like we got you to the OR just in time. Romano noted that they removed your appendix with minutes to spare. Of course I'd never admit it to his face, but you're lucky you had County's best surgeon working on you, Grace."

"Correction, he's the best surgeon in the entire Midwest, or so he would tell you himself."

Carter leaned in a kissed her affectionately on the forehead. "Get better."

"Trolling for patients, Dr. Carter?" Romano said, entering the room.

"Just making sure our girl was in good hands."

"Oh that's rich, coming from a surgical drop out."

"I would have been a great surgeon, if I'd wanted it." He reminded.

"Yeah, well, coulda woulda shoulda Dr. Carter."

"Thank, John." Grace smiled and winked as he was leaving.

"Oh, so now it's John, is it?"

"I like John. He's nice to me." Grace smiled.

"Well, I was the one who saved you from almost certain death."

"True. But you had to, you were the only surgeon available and besides, you took the Hippocratic Oath."

"My fingers were crossed." He said, pausing for a moment. "You can call me Robert."

"I guess I can handle that."

"Are you sure?"

"I've handled everything you've thrown at me so far."

"Touché."

"So, Carter mentioned it was a close call in there. He said I was damn lucky you were my surgeon."

"I can assure you luck had absolutely nothing to do with it. You did give us a bit of a scare though. Your bp dropped and we ran into a bit of trouble, so I'd like to run some additional tests."

"Do you think it's anything serious?"

"Let's wait to see if the tests show anything to be concerned about. It could just be your reaction to the anesthetic. You know another half an hour later and I'd have been on my way to the Philharmonic." He said rubbing his eyes.

"Which you gladly passed up because of me?"

"Anything for you, Grace." He smiled.

Grace lay still while Romano examined her incisions. "You look tired, are you okay?" She asked.

He shook his head, "You don't want to know."

"With Anspaugh away it can't be easy, being pulled in so many directions, not to mention all the elective surgeries you're still performing."

"Today was the day from hell, actually. We're already short nurses in the ER, not counting you, I'm dealing with one, maybe two sexual harassment charges against a resident and about half an hour ago a patient jumped out of a 4th storey window. Oh, and the icing on the cake is that Weaver left me swinging in the breeze by taking a last minute vacation."

"Just another typical day."

"Is that supposed to cheer me up?"

"I'm sorry. I wish I could help." She said genuinely.

"You help more than you know." He smiled.

"Don't you go soft on me now, Robert. I'll never be able to recognize you."

He approached her and looked straight into her eyes, "Grace, I will never go soft on you."

"You are completely unbelievable. Here I am, lying incapacitated and helpless, and you still manage to get a shot in."

"Helpless? That's a word I would never use to describe you, Grace."

"Well just you remember I can give as good as I get."

"I'm counting on it."

"I saved my jello from lunch. It's all yours if you stay and tell me about the chaos. I'm bored to tears up here."

"No can do Grace, I don't eat sugar."

"That's a lie. I've seen you raiding the vending machines."

"That was until Kerry, the nutrition Nazi, replaced all the candy bars with raisins and rice cakes."

"We keep a stash of junk food in the lounge behind a stack of old medical journals. The trick is staying one step ahead of her."

"The trick might be not calling her a bitch. For some reason she seems to take offense to that."

Grace laughed.

"So, I'll need to see you again in a week for a follow-up. Just set it up with Brenda."

"Will do." She said.

"Probably best to have a sponge bath for the next few days, you don't want to get those bandages wet. You'll be sure to let me know if you need any help with that?"

"I'm sure I can manage on my own, thank you."

"You can also thank me for making sure you get paid you for your full shift, even though you weren't able to finish, for obvious reasons."

"You're all heart."

"Let that be our little secret. I'll be back in the morning to sign you out. You need a ride home?"

"Carter offered to drive me."

"Does he have seat warmers?"

"I don't know. I guess I'll just have to take my chances. Look, you don't have to come in on a Saturday just to sign me out. I won't tell if you have one of the residents do it."

"You're my patient, Grace."

"I'll be fine, just make sure it's not Malucci. I should be back to work in a few days, but in case I don't see you before, Merry Christmas, Robert."

"Grace…"

"Dr. Romano, they need you downstairs." Shirley called from the doorway.

He squeezed her hand before leaving her beside. "Merry Christmas to you too, Grace."