Emily Quartermaine focused on the finish line as she sprinted down the final straight away to win the Girls' Class AA Race at the Section 9 Championships. Across the line she turned around to watch the race unfold behind her. Port Charles had completed an undefeated dual meet season and had won the team championship at the Hudson Valley Championships. It would be so much better if her team could also win the Section 9 title and go with her to the NY Cross Country Championship.
"Good Job Em!" her mother called.
Emily turned and then leaned over the rope that separated the spectators from finishers to give her a hug as the second-place finisher a girl from Sutton crossed the line followed by her teammate Amy Rourke only a few seconds later. "Go Amy!" she called before she turned back to her mom. "Thanks!" she said.
"So, your dad, got stuck covering trauma call for Dr. Boardman but once you're done cheering for your teammates and cooling down, we can give your dad a call and you can tell him how the race went," Dr. Monica Quartermaine offered.
Emily laughed, not because it was really funny; because she had definitely not been raised that it was funny to shirk your responsibilities. "Good job Lisa. Go Gee Sung and Gianna you all broke 18!"
Emily turned back to her mom. "Knowing dad, even though I'm sure this was something that was sprung on him at the last minute he feels badly about missing my race," she said.
Dr. Monica Quartermaine nodded. "It was but he does because he is one of your biggest fans."
"And Grandfather is definitely my loudest fan. I seriously could hear him even before I could see him coming up that hill out of the Cascada Falls," Emily said.
Dr. Monica Quartermaine laughed. "Of course, you could!" she said.
"Also, umm, I kind of forgot we have a Health Test this afternoon which I think I would rather just take and get over before the weekend. I want to watch the boys run because it's only fair that they cheered for us so we should cheer for them, but could you bring me back to school before seventh period so I can go to Health and then I guess I'll go to my Latin class since I'm there," Emily said.
"I can do that. I need to go back to the hospital to check on some patients but in contrast to my hectic morning, my afternoon is pretty open. What time does seventh period start, do you want to come home and have lunch with your sister and I and then I'll drop you back at school on my way to the hospital?" her mother asked.
"The bell for seventh period rings at 12:45 so it will have to be a quick lunch, but we can do that. I should go find Amy and Lisa for a cool down and then get out on the course to cheer for the guys," Emily said. She leaned in to give her mom another hug and then whispered, "Just FYI the Yoos seem to have spotted you and are en route." Then with an impish smile she jogged off in the direction their team area to change out of her racing spikes.
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Melissa McKee Murdoch had never believed in karma until she got called in, then had to float to SICU, and ended up once again with Carly Ashton as her patient. The only vindication was that her nurse manager had realized that a pregnant patient with continuous fetal monitoring, intubated, sedated on the ventilator, and requiring two pressors should be one to one. Of course, that forced to basically spend her entire shift in the room titrating up sedation and then titrating up pressors to support that.
"Shh, it's ok honey, I'm right here," Ned Ashton whispered as he rubbed his wife's back. He glanced upward at the monitors for a moment and then gave his wife's upfacing shoulder a squeeze. He leaned down gently kissed his wife's forehead and then looked up again and made eye contact with Melissa. "She isn't doing well, is she?" he asked.
"I paged Dr. Cahill, one of the OB residents. He is coming over to check on her again and take a better look at the strips," Melissa said.
Ned nodded silently. Sadly, Melissa realized that was probably all he could do.
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Hugh Lars Quartermaine exhaled deeply as he stood at Marla's bedside in Port Charles General Hospital's CCU. It had been almost a week since Marla's collapse and although his cousin's wife had stabilized her heart rhythms, fixed her electrolytes, and pulled all the fluid out of her lungs she wasn't responding to him. Monica had turned the sedation all the way off hoping she would be more awake in the morning, and they could remove the breathing tube. He was sure that made sense, but he was afraid that it was less that Marla was oversedated and more that she was refusing to respond, especially to him.
He couldn't remember the last time they had really talked about something of substance. He had told Monica earlier that they had fallen into a rut, but he wondered if that was true. That seemed to imply that there had been a time when they had shared their hopes, dreams, and fears and truly Marla had never done that with him.
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Carly Ashton could hear Ned and Dr. Meadows talking but couldn't even begin to process their conversation. It was almost like they were speaking in a foreign language. Everything hurt and her whole body felt so heavy, and she felt dizzy and shaky. Without warning more horrible spasming pain seared across her abdomen and took her breath away. Something was very wrong!
Please, God, let Michael be ok, and maybe don't let me die she prayed desperately.
"I'm right here, honey, I'm right here," she heard Ned whisper before everything went black again.
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Screw karma! Melissa McKee Murdoch thought as she maxed the Norepinephrine drip and started another bolus of IV fluids. She looked desperately at Ned. "Umm can you just see if any of the other nurses are at the desk and have them come in here," she asked.
When Ned left, she could only hope that he would return with someone other than Amy Vining. Unfortunately, luck wasn't on her side, or perhaps more importantly Carly's side. "Dr. Meadows ordered 2 units of FFP and 1 unit of packed cells STAT and then she is going to the OR. Can you call blood bank and see if any of that is ready and if they can bring it up here unless someone else is able to go get it from blood bank."
Amy glared at her, but she didn't refuse. "I'll check," she said before she glared again and then left the room.
If the situation wasn't so disastrous Melissa would almost have to laugh. Amy had actually been helpful. She knew it was likely because even Amy Vining couldn't refuse to help a patient in front of their husband, who also happened to be on the hospital board.
"Just let me know if I'm in the way," Ned Ashton said.
"The ventilator and all the pumps are on this side of the bed so you're fine over there. As far as I'm concerned, you're comforting to her and I'm not going to be able to turn up the sedation anymore because her blood pressure won't tolerate it so I'm fine with you staying until they're ready to take her down to the OR," Melissa said.
"Thank you," Ned said before he turned back to his wife and started rubbing her back again. Perhaps it was the only thing he could do.
