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- One Week Later -
"So much for hoping it be a quiet day today." Ava sighed as she looked up at the elevator to see the numbers at the top going down to the ED. The hospital just activated the Mass Casualty Protocol. Every single doctor, nurse, tech on call were ordered to come in. News of a mass shooting event in Millennium Park and there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of people that were injured or killed during the attack. It was very likely the hospital may have called their workers who weren't on call, given the scale of how large this event was.
"Well, that's Chicago for ya. GSWs are part of the norm here. But for someone to start a shooting in Millennium Park of all places in the city. Especially during a block party event going on there on a Saturday..." Connor looked over to her to see how she was doing. Knowing full well, she lived through this trauma once as a child. "Hey, are you doing okay, Ava? I know this could bring back bad memories for you."
She looked over at him. "I'm fine. I knew what I was signing up for when I decided to become a doctor. A surgeon no less in a city where they're known for getting frequent shooting events."
He nodded. "Just know, if you need a shoulder, or anything I... I'm here for you." Connor looked genuinely sincere at her.
Ding
The elevator doors open to a random floor and a nurse enters. Leaving their conversation on hold.
Instead of talking, the two of them just stared at each other.
Talking to one another through their eyes.
Ding
The two flinched their heads at the sound and towards the doors opening.
"We're here. Let's go." Connor says as the two of them swiftly exit the elevator and move around an incoming tech worker and quickly head into the ED. Putting their gloves on, they stop at the entryway to see and take in the chaotic scene before them. Doctors, nurses, techs, paramedics, police officers everywhere with a large incoming flow of patients bleeding on the gurneys and patient beds. The floor was covered with several bloody drip pool trails, discarded latex gloves along with empty medicine bags and boxes littering the floor.
There was an undeniable strong scent of iron in the entire area.
This was the worst shooting event this hospital has seen in a long time.
"Oh, my god. Where do we begin?" Ava stares with wide eyes at the scene.
Connor looked around the room to see a familiar face, an authority to talk to. "Maggie?" He spots the Charge Nurse walking by them.
"Yeah?" She turns around to face them.
"We need to prioritize surgical candidates. Where are they?" He asked.
Maggie turns her head in an instant around the room. "Everywhere." She walks away.
The two cardiothoracic surgeons already looked fatigued at what was expected of them to do. Connor scans the room, trying to quickly come up with a plan on how the two of them can divide the massive workload.
"Connor, I need you." Will pops out of one of the Trauma rooms on Connor's right side to get his friend's help on a patient.
He turns back to Ava and points to the other side of the room. "All right, start in the treatment rooms." He places his left hand on her shoulder. "I'll meet you on the other side." She nods.
Connor's hand trails down Ava's shoulder and down midway to where the two of them quickly made contact with their gloved hands before parting ways to start examining every patients' condition.
A few hours have passed by, and things only have gotten worse as more and more ambulances or other vehicles carrying too many injured patients to them.
"Hey, Maggie, where do you want us?" A male paramedic asked bringing in another patient from the ambulance bay entrance.
Maggie was behind the counter of the nurses' station that was cluttered with various supplies. "Treatment room, wherever you can fit." Maggie points with her free right hand over to her left. Noah approaches the gurney to treat his next patient.
"Copy." The medic replied.
"Maggie?" A male nurse asks, also bringing in another patient.
"Follow Noah and make space." Maggie directed them
"Mm-hmm." The male nurse nods and Will approaches them to treat his next patient.
Ava and Natalie walks towards the entrance to get the next patient, both holding onto the bed railings on opposite ends and proceeding to follow the train.
Till Maggie stops them. "No, no, no, no, no, I gotta stagger the intake. Find a trauma bay." She points with her right hand in the opposite direction.
"They're all jammed." Ava informs her as they backed up the gurney.
"Well, elevator hallway?" Maggie weakly replies.
The South African woman gave her an unease look. Patient care was getting harder by the second with more patients showing up at every wave, more injured than the ones before.
"Did you get to Liz?" Natalie worriedly asks as they started to move the gurney in the opposite direction. Her growing anxiety that her young toddler son might have been in the park with his nanny to ride his scooter.
"No, voicemail." The nurse regrettably tells her.
"Please keep trying." The ED doctor begs.
"Yeah." Maggie's voice trails.
Ava stares at Natalie with sorrowful eyes as she worries about her son. She knows what she's going through better than anyone here. Slowly herself getting flashbacks to the day she got separated from her family, being scared and worried where they were. Only to find out the shooter got to them, and they were gone forever.
'I can't be thinking about them right now. They're gone. I'm still here. I'm a doctor now. I have to work.' Ava keeps repeating that to herself.
In another room nearby where Ethan and Ms. Goodwin were treating a male patient's neck that was spilling out a lot of blood after getting shot.
"Two hemostats and 10 ml of lidocaine." Ethan orders, placing a cloth against the wound to stop the spilling.
"We're out of lidocaine. Waiting on resupply. 50 mics of fentanyl instead?" Goodwin, dressed in a yellow gown was assisting.
"25. He's gonna need a neuroexam. Can't dope him up." He replies holding a tool up towards the neck wound.
"All right, squeeze my hand." Goodwin grabs the man's hand to help him deal with the pain. "Come on, it's only gonna take a second." The man starts gasping at the pain "Okay, keep squeezing. We're almost there."
"Done." Ethan successfully stops the bleeding by clamping it with a tool.
"What do you got?" Connor walks into the room wearing goggles.
"Lacerated right carotid. Bleeding's under control for now." Ethan answers.
"What's his pressure?" Connor looks up at the monitors.
"Low but holding. 89 over 50." Goodwin responds.
"All right, up his volume. I'll get him in the O.R. as soon as I can." Connor takes off his gloves.
"He can't wait. Connor, I clamped off blood flow to his brain. He sits too long-" The chief resident gets cut off.
"He hasn't stroked. That means he's got adequate flow on the other side. He can wait." The surgeon explains.
Maggie appears in front of the room with her pager beeping. "Dr. Rhodes, I need you in Three, Four, Six and Seven." She tells him.
"Who's first?" Connor asks.
Maggie scoffs as she shrugs, not sure what to do either. The entire ED was becoming a mess with more patients than they could handle from his event. They were all scrambling on who to help. Almost everyone needed some sort of surgery, but there were only two surgeons in the ED whereas the rest had to be upstairs scrubbed and ready to go each time.
"Ava and I are running all over the place. We get to one patient, three more pile up somewhere else. This isn't working." Connor complains as he backs out of the room to run towards one of the nearest rooms that needed a surgical consultant.
"Oh, heads up, next wave five minutes out." Maggie tells them when another page reaches her. She leaves to head back to her post in front of the ambulance bay.
"Ms. Goodwin, we're stabilizing patients, but if we can't get them to surgery, we'll start losing them. Unless something changes, the ED's gonna collapse." Ethan points out to their boss.
"Well, if you have an idea, now is the time." Goodwin willing to take in any sort of plan that'll help them out.
"Casualty collection areas. Designated zones for specific treatments, especially surgical eval. Doctors stay put, patients shuttle between zones." The Navy reserve explains.
"An assembly line?" She thinks carefully. That plan does sound more organized than the protocol they had in place. "All right, you set it up in Triage, I'll spread the word."
"Yes, ma'am." They both exit out of the room.
"I need help!" April rushes into the ED holding a young blonde-haired boy to her chest. She brushes off a small section of the counter of the nurses' station with another nurse quickly helping to clear before heading back to one of the rooms. "Trample victim. No pulse." The nurse tells Natalie and Ava when they approach to help.
Ava unzips the boy's jacket for Natalie to use her stethoscope to check. "No breath sounds either. On his chest." She takes her tool out of her ears and back around her neck as Ava starts doing compressions on the boy's small chest with her right palm. Natalie starts to check out his pupils.
The surgeon turns her head to look at the nurse on her right. "April, quick look and an intubation kit. Then start a line to push meds."
April was about to leave till Natalie started to speak. "No, triple zero. Pupils are fixed and dilated. He's dead. Where's his family?" She frowns as she sighs looking at the nurse. Ava slowly lifts her head to look at her, knowing full well seeing a young dead boy in front of her was going to add more anxiety to what she was feeling already.
"I don't know. Good Samaritan found him on the ground not moving, drove him in his own car." April frowns looking down at the boy.
Maggie appears and sees what they were unsettled looking at. "Dr. Bekker, Dr. Rhodes is calling you." She softly tells the surgeon, feeling the uncomfortable aura around them before walking away.
Natalie looks down to pick up the boy's discarded left shoe from the ground. "If Owen and his nanny did go to the park today, what if they got separated too?" she said softly.
Ava reaches across from her to grab Natalie's right shoulder. "Until you know for sure, don't let your mind lead you to a bad place. Stay focused on right now." She comforts her by giving her some encouraging words. Natalie looks up to face her and nods. She gives her one more comforting squeeze before leaving to find Connor.
"Natalie," She looks to find Will when he calls out her name. "need extra hands." He shrugs his head towards Trauma rooms 6 and 7 to help him deal with intubating incoming patients.
She turns to face the nurse. "April?" She says softly.
"I'll move him." April nods and slowly zips up the boy's jacket and carries his lifeless body towards the makeshift morgue.
Ava finds Connor in Baghdad where he explains to her the new plan. Possible surgical patients will be brought to them instead of them going to each room one by one.
"I need a hand in here!" Connor calls out as two nurses brings in a gurney bed carrying an injured blonde-haired young girl covered in bloody gauzes on her left leg and left hand.
"No! No, no, don't touch me!" The girl freaks out with everything happening so fast and not knowing what's going on.
"I'm sorry, honey, but I have to. I'm a doctor, okay? I promise you I'll be quick." Connor, standing on her right side tries to calm her down as Ava starts checking her wounded leg on the other side.
"It hurts where's my mom?" The little girl asks.
"We're gonna do our best to try and find her, but right now, I have to help you. Can I do that?" He asks and the girl silently nods her head slowly. "Thank you."
"Ahh!" The girl screams a high pitch sound when Connor removes the gauze on her left palm, reveals a bloody bullet hole in the center. Ava winces at the sight and slightly turns her head to the left where she sees another nurse with a tech bringing in another patient, a middle-aged man covered in blood with his shirt cut open. She helps bring him in and starts checking on him.
"Bullet wounds on the left hand, the left thigh..." Connor starts examining the girl.
"Where is she?" The girl asks.
"Good pulse in the wrist and feet. No life-threatening issues. 4 of morphine for the pain, then bandage her wounds, send her upstairs. They can dress her up there. I'm gonna send you to another doctor, okay? Be brave sweetheart." He tells her as he unlocks the gurney bed for the nurse to move her.
"Okay~." The girl weakly nods and replies in a high pitch.
"Hole in the left anterior chest wall. Breath sounds present and bilaterally. Get him in line for a chest X-ray." Ava takes off her stethoscope after examining the patient and unlocks the gurney bed for the nurse to take him.
"Yep." The nurse nods before moving the patient out of the room.
Goodwin walks into the room after seeing two patients leave them. "Things moving smoother in here?" She asks to see her surgeons change into a pair of new gloves from their back pockets.
"Yeah, bringing patients here instead of us trying to find them, it's a great call." Connor answers as Ava nods. The two were able to breathe easier now when treating their patients.
And just in time as another tech started to bring them another patient to check.
"Heart rate's jumping, BP's crashing. There's only a trickle of blood coming from the chest tube." Said Connor as both him and Ava were examining a male patient together with three nurses and a tech. His injuries were far worse than the ones that came before him in the room that he required more health workers' aid.
"Guy has two holes. He was stable. Hemorrhagic shock?" Ava questions how the patient's condition changed since he came into the room.
"The GSW must've traverse the liver." Connor gave her an idea for the cause.
She takes in his words. "Fast scan." She orders one of the nurses to hand her the wand.
"2 units o-neg and 2 of plasma on the rapid transfuser. Chest tube must've clotted. It took a bit, but now he's coagulopathic." Said Connor.
"Yeah, fast scan's positive. He's bleeding into his chest and belly." Ava tells him after seeing the patient's insides on the monitor.
"We need to replace the tube. Scissors?" He orders one of the nurses.
"Connor, what's up?" Ethan enters the room, wondering what was taking the surgeons so long with one patient.
"This guy needs surgery, but the O.R. is packed. I need to convert Baghdad and do it here." Connor tells him.
"Okay, I got more victims en route. You can have half the space." Ethan informs him of more patients on the way and he needs to share the space for them with his makeshift operating room.
The surgeons stopped what they were doing to stare at each other, talking with their eyes.
'Connor we can't do that.'
'Yeah, I know.'
They can't open their patient with another one in the same environment that wasn't protected from any exposure to possible infections.
Connor turns his head to face him. "No, I'm not opening him up with people running in and out." The two of them stared at Ethan with looks on their faces telling him his idea wasn't an option to do.
It took Ethan a few seconds to come up with a solution that might be better. "Then take the doctor's lounge." Ava flinches at his words and her facial expression changes into a disbelief look with her eyes stretched wide open. "Four walls and a door, as quiet as you're gonna get."
"Doctor's lounge?" Ava questions him. The two men looks at her. "No gas lines, suction lines, airflow capabilities, it's short electrical outlets, lighting?" She explains the issues of operating in a room that wasn't meant to be used for saving patients, let alone to perform any surgeries in.
"Ugh!" She directs her attention to the frustrated sound her partner makes. Things weren't looking good on his end.
"Come on." Connor groans as the chest tube he tried to replace doesn't work due to lots of blood spilling out of the patient's chest and over his forearms and the floor.
"I'll take it." He concedes as he turns to grab a gauze from the nurse next to him.
Ethan runs off to the doctor's lounge to set it up.
Ava freezes at what just happened.
Connor Rhodes just agreed to perform emergency surgery on a patient in a room that was not designed or set up for patient care of any kind. And now he was prepared to cut open patients in there.
"Connor." She starts to speak.
"We don't have a choice, Ava. It's all we've got left." He tried another way to fix the blood before the patient started bleeding out. Once he manages to get through for it to work, he looks up at his partner. "Look, the two of us can't leave this spot together, so I'll handle the surgeries in the makeshift O.R., you stay here in charge of Baghdad. Hopefully another surgeon will show up and help me out there. If you see one, please send them my way."
The two stare at each other for a few seconds before Ava closes her eyes and sighs as she shrugs her shoulders. "Fine. I'll deal with the mob of incoming patients here while you try not to kill them in the doctor's lounge."
About 10-15 minutes later, Dr. Latham arrives at the ED dressed in a dark grey dress suit and carrying a briefcase. He carefully walks through the crowed emergency room, passing by and taking in the scene before him. Multiple injured bloody patients everywhere with multiple doctors, nurses and techs scattered everywhere. He walks further in, looking all over both directions to see if he can spot of any his surgeons.
"Ah!" He spots Ava after stopping in front of Baghdad. She was checking a patient. "I'm sorry I took so long." Ava turned her head right once she heard her boss' voice. Then looked back down at her patient. "The police had the streets blocked off. Never mind, unimportant. Where is Dr. Rhodes?"
"Operating in the doctor's lounge." She replies in an unserious tone as she turns to face him with pursed lips, eyes wide open and her eyebrows raised up.
Telling him that she wasn't joking.
Dr. Latham stares at her dumbfounded.
Ava nods. "Yeah, I know." She turns her head back and licks her lips. She had a facial expression that said, 'I couldn't stop him.' "He also asked if I could send another surgeon his way if one showed up." She pointed.
Still confused at what was going on, Dr. Latham turned his body forward and headed toward the doctor's lounge to find out what his other surgeon was doing exactly. Once he approached the room, he saw Connor with other doctors and nurses moving the furniture around, setting up lights and placing blue drapes on surfaces in the small room.
"Dr. Latham, good, you're here. We're gonna do a laparotomy." Connor said as he was moving things around.
"This is not a surgical suite, Dr. Rhodes." Said Dr. Latham.
"Oh, I know, but I'm afraid it's all we got." The surgeon fellow briefly looked up as he continued to move tools.
"We'll also need an electrocautery machine and an ultrasonic cavitation device." The older man continued to explain his concerns.
"There's no frills today, sorry." Connor apologized.
Standing next to them was Ethan as he moved a large surgical lamp and turned it on. The action caused Dr. Latham to turn to his left to face him.
"No, no, no! There can't be any shadows." He held his left hand up, opposing them to do surgery in the room.
"Dr. Latham, I know this is a lot of change all at once, but this patient is running out of time. I can't do the surgery alone. I really need your help, okay?" Connor explained that they didn't have a choice, and they needed to work fast to save patients.
"Yes. Yes, of course." Dr. Latham nodded to give in, seeing he didn't have a choice, but can provide help. "I'll scrub in. Where?"
Connor and Ethan regretfully both pointed at the small sink in the doctor's lounge. Dr. Latham turned to look at the sink and then back at Connor in disbelief.
"Yeah." Connor shrugged his head to the right and spoke softly. 'Sorry about this.'
Dr. Latham didn't say anything and proceeded towards the sink.
"All right, Connor, anything else you need?" Ethan asked.
"Uh-huh, Noah." Connor turned to the right to glance at the young resident.
"Hm?" Noah turned around hearing his name. "For what?"
Even Ethan looked at Noah, curious about what Connor needed him for. He knows full well that Noah doesn't spend time in the operating rooms.
"Anesthesia and airway control." Connor replied looking at him.
Noah then looked at Ethan who didn't say anything but nodded in his approval.
"Uh, D-Dr. Rhodes, I-I have, like three hours of surgical experience." Noah tried to explain his lack of experience in the operating room.
"And now you get more." Connor looked at him and then back at Ethan. "Bring in the patient."
A few hours later, the mass chaos in the ED started to slow down. The assembly line set up for patient treatment did its job of making it easier for the staff, as did the makeshift O.R. Ethan and Connor had set up. Jay Halstead and some undercover cops were wandering around the ED looking for the shooter, who is most likely hiding among the injured as confirmed by an officer who managed to shoot the shooter and got him injured. Nothing was concrete yet. There was one man that was suspected to be the shooter due to his sketchy personality, when really, he was stealing wallets and electronic items from the deceased.
Dr. Charles on the other hand, thought he had a lead with another patient who appeared to have been near the shooter and saw everything that happened. Based on man's fuzzy memories, thinks the shooter is a young man, named David in the ED helping other victims. But that theory was proven wrong based on Jay getting an ID of the registered weapon to a man in his 40s, Trent Harris. He was waiting to get his photo from the DMV to confirm what he looked like, but still had an officer stand by to watch David just in case. Jay then revealed to another officer that when they sent cops to his house, they found out that he was hoarder and had killed his wife earlier today. That information reminded Dr. Charles about another patient he talked to today.
A middle-aged male patient said he lost his wife today in the shooting, this morning,
said his wife complained to him about being a hoarder and threatened to throw it all out,
was very reluctant to hold pressure from bleeding out,
he wanted to die,
was trying to leave the ED without treatment,
and said his name was Trevor.
"Trevor" is actually Trent Harris
and was the shooter.
Dr. Charles went back to where "Trevor" was, only to find out he had left. Leading him to go looking for him out in the ambulance bay where he had further injured himself to avoid going to prison. He quickly calls out to Natalie for help. The two of them with some nurses and techs assisted and got him on a gurney heading to the ED.
"Ethan, April, I need you." Natalie calls out to the two of them as they were nearby working in Triage right outside the entrance. "Thready pulse, hole in the neck. Slashed his wrists. Multiple stab wounds to the abdomen."
The two of them joined Natalie by getting on both sides of the gurney to help push it in. Standing at the nurse's station was Maggie and Jay who saw them coming in. The detective took a closer look at who was on the gurney bleeding. He looked down at his phone.
"Is that guy..." He started to walk.
The group headed straight to Baghdad where Ava was.
"Guy's lost a lot of blood. Let's give him two units of o-neg and start bagging." Ethan calls out as they turn the gurney around backwards into the room.
"I need to intubate. 20 of etomidate, 100 of sux." Natalie instructed as the group started to work on him.
Outside the room, was Dr. Charles, who was slowly trailing behind the group, and had parts of his coat covered in Trent's blood. Goodwin was standing next to him. They were watching from outside.
"Detective Halstead said he'll have a photo of our suspect, Trent Harris, an-any second now." Goodwin said looking between him and the waiting room where David was through the sliding doors.
Dr. Charles looked at her and then at David. "He's not the guy."
Goodwin stares at him in question. He answered by shifting his eyebrows up as he pointed his head up in front of them. She gaps her mouth open as she realizes what he means.
"Sats, 82. Heart rate, 130." Said April looking at the monitor.
"Interior abdomen stab wounds. Belly's distended. Fast scan." Ava checks his belly and orders someone to hand her the wand.
Outside the room, Jay finally approaches where Goodwin and Dr. Charles are to get another look at the man they brought in. He looks down at his phone and lowers his shoulders.
'That's him.' He shows his phone to Goodwin and Dr. Charles.
"Razor slash to the bone." Ethan comments putting some alcohol on it.
"I'm in." Natalie says after intubating Trent.
"Fast scan's positive." Ava says looking at the monitor and hands the tool back to April.
"Where are we?" Connor comes by outside, having been alerted by one of the nurses about an incoming patient. Natalie stands next to him.
"Belly's full of blood. He needs surgery now." Ava tells him as she and the others pull the railings up, getting ready to move him.
"We'll take him to the doctor's lounge. Let's go." Connor tells the group.
The group proceeds to move the gurney. Connor moves aside so they can get out. He's stopped by Jay who shoves his phone in front of his face.
"Connor, that's our guy. Don't let him off the hook by dying." On Jay's phone was Trent Harris' DMV photo, confirming his identity.
Connor looks at the phone and then at Jay. He didn't say anything, just headed to the doctor's lounge with him.
"What are we looking at here?" Dr. Latham says all gowned and gloved up, ready for his next surgery.
"Guy here tried to kill himself for whatever reason." Said Ethan as they entered the room.
"He wanted to kill himself to avoid going to jail." Jay said out loud to them.
The whole stopped what they were doing to look at the detective.
"What?" April asked with her eyes wide open.
"This is the shooter." Jay tells him.
"Wait, this man is the shooter that caused all of this to happen?" Ava asked.
"Yeah." Connor nodded. "The police need him alive to face his crimes, we need to give him all our O neg. He's not getting a "get out of jail free card" from us." He said with a stern face.
Regardless of a person's actions, Connor doesn't judge them and treats all of them the same: as his patient.
Within the next two hours roughly, Connor and Dr. Latham managed to stabilize and save Trent's life... long enough for his court date for him to face crimes. As for whatever happens to him in prison, that was up to Chicago to decide. Dr. Latham along with two nurses and a tech were taking him upstairs with two officers with them. Connor placed a quick hand on his boss' back, signaling him as a good job. Dr. Latham looked back at him nodding.
Connor took off his goggles and looked to his right side, seeing Ava slowly approaching him with a concerned look.
"He'll live." He tells her moving his left hand towards his forehead, feeling a headache forming from the long day they had.
Ava stands next to him and stares at the group taking the shooter upstairs. She sighs.
'One man and an automatic rifle again? Why does this keep happening where I am?'
"Tired?" She asks before turning her head to look at him.
"I am exhausted." He replied sounding worn out.
"Yeah, me too." She turns to look forward and crosses her arms. He nods in response. "They still need help upstairs in the ." Ava informs him and the two look at each other.
Connor exhales sharply. "Let's go."
The two proceeded to walk to the elevators. They waited a few minutes for the elevator to come back down. Once they were finally inside and alone from no one else, Connor started to speak.
"Hey Ava." He turned to look at her. "Now that the craziness is mostly over, I just wanna check in with you. See how you're doing okay." She turns to look at him and sees a sincere look on his face.
'Has he been worried about me this whole time?'
"Are you that worried about me?" She asks.
"Of course, I am. Today was really a tough day for all of us. This day was far worse than that train crash I was in when I first came back to Chicago for my first day at Med."
"Train crash?" That got her attention.
"It was three years ago, I was on the L train heading to the hospital and I don't know how it happened, but some of the train carts somehow got off the tracks and..." He motioned with his right hand. "multiple carts were out of place and not on the tracks. This was over a bridge area."
"And you? Were you okay?"
"Luckily the cart I was in was still on the tracks. It was the ones in front of me that weren't so lucky." He explained. "The most I suffered was just a cut on my upper right arm." He quickly pointed. "Just needed a few stiches and I was fine and ready to work."
"How am I not surprised you went right into work on your first day after getting into a mass casualty event. Sounds just like you."
"But, back to my earlier question, are you okay?"
Ava took a deep breath, recalling everything that happened today. The strong scent of blood was everywhere, carrying multiple victims to different rooms that were made into makeshift morgues. It was hard to not be affected by it all. "I'll be honest. Today was actually a lot more scarier than what happened to me 20 years ago. I didn't see the victims, but today I did." Her mind thinks back to that little girl who got shot in the hand and separated from her mother. She looked around the same age she was when she got separated from her family after her own shooting event.
"That little girl, I wondered if they managed to find her mother."
Connor nodded carefully listening to her. "She reminds you of yourself at the time?"
She nods. "Kind of, yeah."
"I can ask around to see what happened to her. She'll probably recognize my face. The poor kid was in a state of shock like everyone else."
"Mm-mm." Ava takes a few steps to her right to lean her head against Connor's shoulder.
Connor's heart started to beat feverishly, and the familiar sensation came back to his chest. The same one he felt the night they almost kissed. He slightly turns his head to stare at the top of her blonde head. The air in the elevator may have still smelled like iron, but he could still smell the scent of her shampoo. It smelled very sweet.
"Do you wanna get a drink after shift?" he asks softly.
"Yeah, I could use one or three. A little boy, maybe 3 or 4 was brought in dead already. Trample victim."
"Damn." Connor shook his head and looked up to see the elevator had reached the surgical floor.
Ava separated herself from Connor as the doors opened. "Time to get back to work." she said as they stepped out.
The two of them headed to the main area where a few other surgeons were dressed in scrubs and surgical caps, taking what appears to be a break from the countless numbers of surgeries they've been stuck doing all day.
"Look who it is, reinforcements. It's about time." A tan-skinned dark-haired man said to them as he walked out of the O.R. area to join the rest of the surgeons taking a break. He took off his surgical cap before leaning against the counter of the nurse's station and picked up a water bottle.
"Hey Crockett, thanks for the warm welcoming." Connor sarcastically greets him.
"My pleasure." The man looked between the two of them. "You two, you look like a crap."
Ava crossed her arms. "You're one to talk, Marcel. You should probably go take a shower; I see your underarms sweat sweeping through your scrubs there." She taunted him.
Crockett just nodded at her words; they were all just blowing steam from today.
"Dr. Bekker's not wrong, ya know." A female voice on his right spoke. He turned to see a pale skinned red-haired woman, dressed in scrubs and had taken off her surgical cap. It was Pamela Blake. "I can smell your sweat right here where I'm standing." She tilted her head away.
Crockett looked between the two, then at Connor who just nodded to confirm the ladies of their inspection. He looked down at his clothes and saw they were telling the truth.
"Damn, that liver bleed had me stressed out more than I thought." He checked underneath this shirt.
"Uh-huh, you stink, Crockett. Go take a shower, the rest of us here will fill in your absence. There's already the smell of iron in the air with sweat, we don't need more in the air by you." Sam Abrams spoke sitting in one of the waiting room chairs.
"Since the majority are in favor, I better wash up." He pushed himself off the counter to walk towards Connor. "Passing the baton to you, Rhodes. Good luck." He held his right hand up to pat his right shoulder.
"Thanks man." Connor sighed, getting ready for the next round.
"Better get back in myself. We're working in separate short shifts to give each other a break." Pamela picked up her surgical cap. "I'll see you two on the other side."
"Good luck." Ava says as the chief of transplant walks through the O.R. hallway entrance. "Guess, it's our turn now." She turns to look at Connor.
Connor exhales sharply. "Let's go."
Nightfall finally came and the staff were more than happy to leave with the long day the city had today. There hasn't been a full body count of how many lives were lost today, it was estimated to be somewhere in the hundreds as least. Citizens have gathered in Millennium Park to pay tribute to the lives that were lost today.
A terrible day in a long time in the city of Chicago.
Which was why many bars in the city were filled with first responders and hospital staff.
Molly's bar was crowded tonight with the crew from Med, Firehouse 51 and 21st District.
"Hey, hospital workers are all on the house tonight." Herrmann says handing Goodwin and Charles their drinks. "You don't have to say anything. It's been a long day for you guys."
"Thanks Herrmann. You as well." Goodwin held her drink up to him.
"It's one of those days, right?" The firefighter's voice was soft. The sights he saw today, was one of the most gruesome calls he's ever been on for a call. Nearly dying in a fire is one thing for his job, but the number of wounded civilians at the park...
... that was a sight most first responders are not always prepared to see.
"It's the world we live in today." Said Dr. Charles.
"Unfortunately." The two old friends clinked their glasses together.
At the back of the bar was where most of the surgeons and O.R. personnel were hanging out. At one of the tables were Connor, Ava, Crockett and Pamela.
"A hybrid O.R. in the ED?" Pamela asks, looking at Connor sitting diagonally from her next to Ava by his side.
"It's not a bad idea. I like it. Saves us and the patient taking a field trip upstairs." Said Crockett sitting on her right side.
"And it would avoid further operations in the doctor's lounge." Ava gives Connor a look, reminding him what she thought about his actions.
"I pitched the idea to Latham after we saved Trent's life. He supported the idea right away." Connor explained.
"He probably wanted to avoid further scrubbing in a tiny sink for surgeries in the ED." Ava as always having a snarky comeback.
"That actually might be half of the reason why now I think of it." He laughed.
"Plus, an operating room in the ED can be really good PR for the hospital." The blonde commented.
"Still would be very expensive to invest it." The red head added.
"But given what happened today, maybe donors would be willing to give more money to upgrade the hospital, the ED especially." Connor replied.
"Might be something to bring up at the next mixer you go to. As someone who takes care of some of the trauma cases during the nightshift, this would help me as well when dealing with patients." Crockett took a sip of his beer.
"Maybe." Connor nods.
At the front entrance of the bar, more people arrived, one of them was Will and Natalie.
"Are you sure it was a good idea to head to Molly's with everyone for a drink and leave Owen with Helen?" Natalie asks, turning to her red-haired boyfriend.
"Helen was very insistent on spending a few hours with her grandson after today. And Owen was looking forward to having dinner with her by himself." He replied.
"I guess, but only for like 2 hours max we're staying." Natalie spots Ava sitting with the other surgeons drinking at a table. "Hey Will, why don't you grab us some drinks, I need to go talk to Ava."
"Sure, no problem." Will places a kiss on her head before heading to the bar to get Stella's attention.
Natalie approaches the surgeons' table. "Hi guys. Ava, can I borrow you for a moment?" She stands on the blonde's right side at the edge of the table.
"Sure, what is it?" Ava gets up from her seat and the two ladies take a few steps away from the table.
"I just wanted to thank you for what you said to me earlier today." The brunette put her hands together.
"Oh that, it's no problem at all. You had every reason to worry about your son."
"Still, I didn't make it easy for some people. I took that anger out on Dr. Charles when he had us save the shooter over other patients." She points with her head where he was sitting at the bar with Goodwin and some other incoming doctors and nurses.
"I can understand your frustrations. I'm sure there's a long waiting list of angry people in the city who would have preferred the shooter had a painful death."
"And things did work out in the end with Owen. His nanny did take him to the park, but they ran when they heard the shots and took shelter in the 51st District. She never answered her phone because they left everything behind." She explained.
"I'm glad to hear things turned out good for you." She slowly nods. "You should consider yourself very lucky. Most families don't get a happy ending from a traumatic situation like this one."
'I know that better than anyone else.'
"Yeah, I really am." Natalie nods and then gets an idea. "You know, this Saturday, Maggie, April, Resse and I, along with Burgess, Upton and the ladies from 51 are going out dancing at a club after a while to hang out. You should come with. Get to know each other outside of work." The ED doctor started to look cheerful, the most she's been all day.
"Oh, Dr. Manning, I appreciate the offer. I don't know..." Ava slowly became hesitant.
"Do you already have plans?"
"Not really." The blonde's eyes looked up at the twinkling lit up ceiling to think.
"Then you're free then? You're not on call that night, are you?"
"This Saturday I won't be." She answers taking a quick look at Connor a few feet behind her.
"Then you have to come out and join us. I don't think most people in the hospital see you hang out with anyone outside of work aside Connor."
"Connor?" Ava raised her eyebrows in confusion.
'Wait, since when did others know I've hung out with Connor outside of work?'
"Yeah, is he like the only one you socialize outside of work?"
Ava couldn't lie, that part is true. Even she realized that two weeks ago. He was the only one she was open to talking about anything that was close to her.
She doesn't exactly have any female friends here.
Her reputation in the hospital had a part to play in that.
And here is someone offering her to join her close friend group of other female first responders.
It couldn't hurt to try and be open with them.
"Sure, why not. But if things get too wild, I'm calling an Uber."
"Oh, trust me, if you put Maggie Lockwood and Stella Kidd in the same place together with alcohol and music, it's gonna get wild for sure. We'll share the Uber ride home." The two ladies laughed.
Ava looked over to her left side and saw Sarah taking off her coat and sitting down at one of the few remaining empty bar stools. She thinks back to her conversation with her earlier from today.
=Flashback=
"While he was waiting for his X-ray?"
"Epidural hematoma. By the time they got him to me, he was gone. There was nothing I could do."
Sarah sighs. "His mother is here. Thinks he's all right."
Ava sighs knowing how the mother is gonna react. "Poor woman."
=Flashback Ends=
"I'll talk to you more about this later, okay?" She says trying to finish the conversation to check in with the psychiatry resident.
"Okay, keep in touch." Natalie touched the surgeon's left shoulder before heading back to find Will.
Ava approached the bar to stand next to Sarah. "Hey, Dr. Reese."
"Oh, hi Dr. Bekker." Sarah turned her seat to face her.
"Are you doing okay after what happened to the boy?"
"I think we're all processing what happened today in our own ways. The kid was just like the rest of them. One of the phones that were found and brought back to the hospital, the person's father kept trying to get in contact with their kid. I don't know what happened to them."
"The kid's mother?"
"Took the news the same way most parents react when losing their kid." Sarah nodded recalling the poor mother holding onto her as she cried.
"Yeah, had a young boy, around maybe 3 or 4 years old, some good Samaritan found and brought to the hospital. He was already dead, nothing we could do."
"It's just one of those days."
"Yeah, we can't save everyone."
"Yeah."
Ava gave her a comforting squeeze to her right shoulder.
Next to them was Noah getting beers for his table: Maggie, April, Ethan and his sister Emily. "Thanks Herrmann." Noah thanked the firefighter before walking back to his table. "Here we go." He hands everyone a bottle.
"Thanks Noah." Emily smiled at him.
"No problem, Emily. How was your first day? It must have been crazy in the waiting room." He asked.
"Yeah, it was." She sighed. "So, all of this happened because a hoarder was mad at his wife for wanting to throw away all his junk." Emily asked the table.
"Mm-hmm" Maggie nodded before taking a sip from her beer. "He went crazy all because of that. Who knows what he was thinking, wanting to take all those lives because of it."
"A monster was what he was. I carried a dead little boy to the morgue because of him." April closed her eyes and shook her head.
"Well, he's gonna die in prison now for his crimes." Said Ethan.
"Good riddance. Though, part of me wished he did die a painful death." His sister looked at him.
"He almost did. But sometimes bad guys don't deserve to get off easy for what they've done." Said April.
"Amen to that." Maggie held up her drink to the center and the group clinked their drinks together.
At the front end of the bar where Goodwin and Dr. Charles were at, Connor walks up to them.
"Hey Ms. Goodwin, do you have a moment to spare?" He stands on her right side.
"Uh sure, what is it, Dr. Rhodes?" Goodwin turns in her seat to face him.
"All the cases we saw today, the chaos of sending patients to surgery, but having died on the way and operating in the doctor's lounge really got me thinking something the hospital could do. I've talked about this with the other surgeons, including Dr. Latham about this." He points to them in the back of the bar.
"Go on."
"There needs to be a hybrid operating room in the ED. Fully equipped to perform emergency trauma and cardiac surgery."
"An O.R. in the ED." Goodwin says to confirm his words.
"That's a smart idea." Dr. Charles says facing sideways to them on their left.
"We have lost far too many patients on the way to the O.R. in the past and what we saw today, we need to improve protocols where rooms like the doctor's lounge are able to perform operations like cardiac surgeries."
"Actually, I like the idea," she held her hand up, "but converting a trauma room into a surgical suite-it's not an inexpensive proposition."
"I know, I just thought I share my idea with you for something to think about at a future board meeting. I know it's only been 3 years since the ED was renovated, but after the numbers we saw today, it might be time to start thinking of another renovation in the next few years."
"That I do agree with you, 100%. And I shared my words to Peter Kalmick about this I can assure you."
"That's all I'm asking. Just pencil it in."
"If you need more supporters for this petition, add my name to the list." Dr. Charles holds his drink up.
"Thanks, that means a lot." Connor smiles holding his drink up.
*Clink *Clink *Clink
Someone clears their throat and starts clinking their glass, it was Matthew Casey from Truck 81. He was sitting at a smaller table up front with Chief Wallace Boden. Getting the attention from everyone in the bar to either move forward, get out of their seats or shift their bodies to face the front. Ava who was in a middle of a conversation with the women of 51 moved to stand by Connor on his left.
"Just a quick word. Uh, wanna take a moment and let you all get back to the fine cocktails and beverage they serve here at Molly's." Boden starts talking.
"Keep talking, Chief." Herrmann replies.
"To the good people at Chicago Med. You made us proud today, a horrible day it was in Chicago after a long time. Lives were lost, but also lives were saved today by all of you remarkable doctors and nurses. And we are very grateful for the service that you do for us and for the city. It's not said enough. We firefighters and cops may be the ones out there on the front lines going against danger every day, but you guys are the true heroes that make sure the lives we pull out of danger, survive to see tomorrow. And today we've learned we've reached our limits on how we can provide aid to those who need it after a tragedy like today. Hopefully, we as a city can learn from it and heal towards a better tomorrow." The chief finishes his speech.
"Thank you, Chief." Goodwin starts talking. "We want you all to know that every time those doors crash open, there are good people, strong people, people at the top of their game ready on the other side. Sunny, cloudy, rain or snow, we're always there to help. Even if we reach our limits, we always strive ahead to overcome those obstacles and better ourselves for not only those who comes through those doors, but also to the city of Chicago."
"Hear, hear." Boden raised his beer.
"Hear, hear." Everyone in the bar raised their drinks in the air and then took a sip.
Connor and Ava looked at each other and clinked their glasses together.
While taking a drink, out of the corner of her right eye she carefully stares at him, admiring his side profile.
'Hmm. He really does care about me. And the feeling is mutual…. but today isn't the best day to start something. Next time though...'
This chapter covers 3x18
*With additional scenes/context from 4x01 & Chicago Fire 3x19
*This Is Now (3x18) still to this day remains as my #1 favorite episode from this show
- Equal amount of storyline with the characters
- A huge incident that involves the entire hospital to work as one team
- My main OTPs having moments/scenes together
*Added a few new scenes to add more character development for Ava with other people besides just Connor since the show BARELY showed her working/interacting with others on cases that didn't include Connor.