(A few minutes earlier)

John looked up in surprise when Michael entered the station. "Didn't expect you back so soon, Michael. Marcie's shift isn't over for a while."
"I know." Michael said. "I just wanted to surprise her. Where is she?"
"She and Jessica are in Bo's office."
Panic overcame Michael. "What happened? I-Is she okay?"
"She was a little upset earlier but I think she's fine now." John said.

"Why? What happened? Did-Did that jackass Nick come by? I swear, I'll-."
"Calm down, Michael. Hey, you look a little upset, too. Is everything okay?"
"Not really." Michael admitted.

"What's wrong?"
"Oh, I lost a patient today." Michael said.

"I'm sorry, Michael. That must be pretty rough." John said.

"Yeah, tell me about it. I mean, I've lost patients before but this one was... well, it hit me pretty hard."

"Want to talk about it?" John asked.

Michael pulled up a chair and sat down next to his brother.

"We had this woman in the virology unit who had this mysterious virus that's been going around. She was pretty bad off, so we ended up doing a partial liver transplant. I called Marcie after it happened and she ditched me on the phone."
"Really." John said.

"Yeah, it was weird, you know? Just all of a sudden she was making excuses to get off the phone. I can't figure it ou-."

Angrily he pounded his fist on Marcie's desk. "Damn it!"

"Michael, what is it?"
"Damn it, John! I never think!"

"What are you talking about?"
"Al Holden."
"You mean Gabrielle's son?"

"Yeah. He got that infection and-."

"Damn. No wonder she sounded strange. I just keep making things worse. She must hate me." Michael sighed.

"Michael, you were hurting. You didn't know. And Marcie doesn't hate you. I guess it just brought back some old memories."
"Thanks John."

Michael looked up to see Marcie and Jessica coming out of Bo's office.

"Is everything all right?" John asked.

"Yeah, she's okay." Jessica said with a squeeze of Marcie's hand.

"Marcie, if you want to take the rest of the day off, it's all right." John said. "We're pretty slow here today."
Marcie looked at him anxiously. "But what about the filing? I mean-."
"The filing will be here tomorrow." John said. "I don't want you to overexert yourself."

"Spoken like a true doctor." Michael said, smiling at John. To Marcie he said, "Are you ready to go, Sweetie?"
"Michael I just don't think I-."
"Go on, Marcie." Jessica said encouragingly. "Remember what we talked about."
"Okay... but only if you're sure."

Michael smiled and held out his hand.

"Come on, Sweetie. Let's go."