The two months that followed, Julia focused on work and spending quality time with Conrad. Their relationship was stable but seemed to be on a bit of standstill. It really wasn't much of a surprise as they had little time off and when they did, they had dinner, watched TV, or went out, finishing the evening in bed, having sex, or falling asleep right away from the fatigue.

Julia stood silently in front of the empty hospital room and felt an ache in her gut. Sylvia had passed away the day before. She had fought hard for as long as she could, but inevitably her body had caved.

Conrad had gone to spend a couple of days with his father to tend to some family business and feeling the full scope of emotions from Sylvia's passing, she wished he was there.

"Are you OK?"

She blinked, and quickly brushed the tear it had released from her eye, before turning her attention to Al.

"It never gets easier," she said.

"No. It doesn't. She was a great kid; she didn't deserve to go through everything she went through. And even if it's not much of a consolation, you made a difference."

"I wish I could have done more."

He nodded. "We all do."

Both their pagers went off. They looked at them at the same time, then eyed each other before walking hastily toward the elevators.

"What do you have for us Irving?" asked Al as they walked toward him.

"55-year-old male, his hand and arm are caught inside the gears of a manufacturing machine. Doctor Sullivan is in charge. Follow me."

They followed him to the trauma room.

Julia and Al looked him over. A section of the machinery had already been extracted from the main part and was resting on a separate gurney next to the patient.

The patient was unconscious and intubated and considering the pain he would have felt, it was better off that way. His vitals were all over the place and he was far from being stable. He was still losing blood and if they didn't clamp the vessels quickly, he would bleed out.

"Call the OR and tell them we're coming up," said Al.

"Call maintenance and have them meet us up there, we're going to need the right tools to free him from this and advise the blood bank that we're launching the massive transfusion protocol," said Julia as Hunley nodded and went for the phone whereas other nurses, Cade, and Irving, prepared the patient for transfer.

After an hour of trying to keep the patient stable on the OR, maintenance, with much difficulty, managed to free the patient's hand and arm from the machine. As a result, blood gushed out and Al and Julia only had a few seconds to clamp all the vessels and stop the blood irrigation.

They worked for a few hours desperately trying everything they could to save the limb, and both held their breaths when they removed the clamps.

"The moment of truth," said Al as he looked at Julia standing on the other side of the table.

She nodded and gave a silent prayer.

It took a couple of seconds, but the limb finally pinked up.

She smiled at Al. Another victory. She turned to Jessica.

"Call Doctor Vos, she can come and repair the bone fractures."

Jessica nodded and went over to the mounted phone on the wall.

They remained with the patient for ten minutes while Kit arrived and scrubbed in. She walked over to the patient and looked at the arm and hand.

"Great job on the vascularization," she said. "I'll take it from here."

Both Al and Julia nodded and headed for the scrub room.

As Julia removed her surgical gown, she felt suddenly hot as if she was standing under a heating lamp, and she put her hand to her face.

"Are you OK?" asked Al noticing that she seemed off.

Before she could answer, she felt the room spin and then… nothing.

It happened so fast that Al hadn't seen it coming and was too far from her to catch her fall as she fainted right in front of him.

"Jules!?"

He said as he reached her and knelt by her side.

The entire surgical team turned their heads toward the scrub room.

"I need help in here!" he yelled from a non-visible location in the scrub room.

Kit looked at two of the nurses and nodded, indicating that they should go.

Both Jessica and another of the nurses arrived as Al was taking Julia's pulse.

"What happened?" asked Jessica as she knelt by his side.

"I don't know, she just fainted."

He took his light and flickered it in her eyes, they were reactive which was a good thing. Collapsing like that could have been the vector of many serious things.

"Is she on any medication?" asked Jessica.

He eyed her. "How would I know? Let's get a gurney in here and bring her down to the ER."

The second nurse left the room and quickly brought in a gurney. Together, they placed Julia on it and rolled her out of the scrub room.

"Oh my god!" said Hunley seeing them arrive with Julia on the gurney. "What happened?"

"She fainted," said Al. "Vitals seem to be stable, but she's still unresponsive."

"Shall we call Conrad?" asked Jessica as Irving joined them.

"He's with his father out of state. Let's not worry him unless it's necessary," said Irving.

Everyone looked at each other and nodded in agreement. Al looked at Julia then at his watch.

"I have another surgery. Keep me posted?"

"Will do," replied Irving as he hooked up Julia to the monitors.

After ten minutes, she stirred and looked around. She sat up just as Devon reached her. He had arrived just as Al had left and had taken over.

"Take it easy."

She looked at him, then at the monitors.

"What happened?"

"You fainted in the scrub room."

She narrowed her eyes. "I did?"

"Uh huh. You want to tell me what you remember?"

She searched her mind as she removed the oximeter probe from her finger.

"We had a surgery that lasted a couple of hours. Everything was fine. The only thing I remember was suddenly feeling excessively hot in the scrub room and now I'm here."

Devon sat on the side of the bed.

"Any recent changes in your routine? Are you on any medication?"

"No," replied Julia. "There have been no changes."

"No change in appetite or sleep pattern?"

She eyed him ironically. "Devon we're doctors. Since when do we have regular sleeping patterns and are able to eat every meal of the day when it should be eaten?"

He laughed gently. "You're right, but even if that is the case, sometimes there is a loss of appetite."

She shook her head. "No, in all honesty, I'm fine. It's just been busy. But that aside and what just happened, I actually feel good considering everything that has happened in the past months."

He put a hand on her leg. "OK. I've run a blood test just to check."

She started to remove the cardiac monitor electrodes. "OK well, let me know when you get the results and if there is anything."

He looked at her incredulously. "Not how it works Julia. You're going to stay hooked up to that monitor and in this bed until I get those results."

"Devon, I'm a doctor and I'm telling you I'm fine."

"This is my ER, and we play by my rules. You may be my colleague and friend, but when you are in this bed you are like any other patient and all the rules apply. So, you are going to sit tight until I give you the green light and release you."

He saw that she was about to protest, and he hardened his look. "I don't come into your OR telling you how to handle your patients Julia…"

She sighed. "OK, Doctor Pravesh, I will sit here and wait patiently for you to get the results of the blood work."

"Good."

He stood and headed to the nurse's station.

"Keep an eye on Julia," he said to Irving. "she is not to leave until I say so."

Irving laughed. "She's stubborn."

"Doctor's make the worse patients."

"I'll get her a few magazines," said Hunley, "it should keep her occupied for a while."