Chapter 11
Chicago, County General Hospital
Claire walked out of the trauma room and ripped off the trauma gown that Sam had thrown at her earlier. She walked up to the admit desk and grabbed a chart off the counter and walked into the waiting room and called the name out. A man in his late twenties got up out of the seat and held the hand of his young daughter while holding his hand up against his chest, trying to clutch the ice pack that the triage nurse had given him.
"What happened here?" Claire asked as she walked them in a curtain area and pulled the curtain shut for privacy.
"We were at a softball game and I got hit by the ball," the man began to say.
"Were you playing?" Claire asked him.
"Yeah," he said.
"And it bruised up this badly," she asked.
"Yeah," he continued to ask.
"How long ago did it happen?" she asked.
"About a half an hour," he said.
"Okay, well, we'll have to take you back to x-ray. She can't come into the room with you. I'll take her into the family room if that's okay," Claire said to him.
"Will you stay with her?" the man asked.
"I can't, but I'll have someone stay with her," Claire responded to the man's request.
"That sounds fine," he said.
"Thanks, someone will be in soon to take you to x-ray," Claire said as she exited the room. She passed Becca in the hallway on her way to the admit desk. They both eyed each other and walked into the lounge to grab a cup of coffee.
"So, how was your first trauma?" Claire asked her friend.
"Better than what she had me doing before that accident," Becca said.
"So, your saying that you were expecting that trauma was coming," Claire said.
"In a way, yeah," Becca said, "It was a lot more exciting that stitching up children's heads and explaining discharge information to patients,"
"I thought that was a nurse's job," Claire said.
"Well, it is, but Dr. Lockhart thought that I would be better at doing it," Becca said, "She hasn't been the same since that incident with the mother and child a couple days ago. I think I'm going to give my family a call."
"Well, that's good," Claire said, "Is your shift almost over?"
"Yeah, in a couple hours," Becca said.
They walked out of the lounge and threw their cups into the trashcan on the way out of the lounge. They continued to walk to the admit desk to find their respective doctors standing and waiting for them. Neela and Abby had a concerned look on their face.
"Should we be scared?" Claire whispered to her friend.
White House
Washington, DC
Amy threw her hoodie over her shoulder and grabbed her book bag and walked down the stairs and into the kitchen to see her parents both sitting at the table. Amy didn't know whether to be scared or elated that both her parents were there at the same time. Mac was always busy doing something or other and Rod was always too busy as well, so to see both of them at the breakfast table was a little bit scary.
"Should I be scared," Amy said as she entered the kitchen.
Rod began to chuckle and the sound of his daughter's voice. He did have to admit that Amy did have to know that something was going on. She just didn't know what.
"No, honey," Rod said as Amy sat down at the table.
"We just wanted to have breakfast together," Mac began.
"Are you sure I'm not in trouble?" Amy asked her parents curiously.
"Yes, were sure," Mac said confidently.
"Okay…" Amy said cautiously as she walked to the refrigerator to grab a glass of orange juice and a glass out of the counter and sat down at the table with her parents. She looked at them both nervously as she grabbed a bagel from the middle of the table and put it on her plate. This breakfast was far from normal and she couldn't wait for one of them to talk.
"What's going on?" Amy asked.
"What do you mean by that?" Rod asked his daughter.
"Well, your rarely at breakfast and dad your usually still in bed so are you going to tell me what is going on," Amy said trying to get what her parents didn't want to tell her out of them.
"Nothing, is going on, we just wanted to have breakfast together," Mac said to her daughter.
"Is there something wrong with that," Rod said to Amy.
"Oh… okay," Amy replied slowly and began to eat her bagel. In the back of her mind she knew something was up and she was going to get it out of them. She walked over and grabbed her bag that sat on the table and began to walk out of the kitchen.
"So, I'll see you guys at the swim meet tonight," Amy said assuring that both her parent would be at the meet.
"Sure, honey," Rod said as his daughter began to walk out of the kitchen and out to the limo that waited to bring her to school. Amy was excited about the meet but a little scared about what she would find out about what her parents had to tell her. It had been a while since the family had heard from Horace and most conversations that were with Becca were about five minutes in length and she would rush you off the phone because she had an emergency and couldn't talk for that long.