ER: Into the Fire (15/17)
12:46pm
"You've got him from here?" Luka asked as the surgical staff rushed out to grab Carter's gurney and wheel him into pre-op.
Peter nodded. "Yeah, I've got him."
Luka nodded in return, and started to walk back to the elevators. He spun back around suddenly, and called to Benton's retreating back, "Dr. Benton! You'll keep us informed?"
Peter turned his head, and a tired smile made its way across his lips. "I'll have one of the nurses call down with updates, and I'll call down myself when I'm done."
Satisfied that Carter was in the best hands he could possibly be, Luka nodded firmly one last time, and walked back down the hall.
Romano was waiting for Benton as soon as he walked through the doors to the surgical wing. "That was nice of you, Peter."
"Yeah," Peter returned absently, quickening his pace as he headed toward his locker to prepare himself for surgery. Romano almost had to jog to keep up with him.
"Just one little problem with it."
"Yeah? And what's that?"
"You're not going to be in surgery."
"What!" Peter roared, stopping dead in his tracks and glaring down at the other man. "What the hell do you mean, I'm not in? He's my patient! I've been with him from the beginning! I stood outside that damn school all morning, waiting for him to come out! I brought him all the way from the scene, I ran his trauma, and I'm damn well going in that OR with him!"
"Look, I don't know what you've got going on with Carter, buddies or blood brothers or lovers or whatever..."
Benton raised his hand and his eyes flashed fire.
"... and I don't really care to know. But, whatever it is, there is no denying that you're personally attached to him. There's no way I can let you operate on him right now."
"Come on, man, that's bullshit! I've operated on him before!"
"Did we have a choice that night, Peter? Think about it... did we really?" Benton's only answer was the same hard, cold stare as before. Romano sighed, and lowered his voice. "Peter, you're tired. Yes, you did spend the whole morning at the school. And you saw how many patients in the twelve hours before that? Performed how many surgeries? How many patients did you treat while you were there?" Romano paused to let his words sink in, and then continued. "You're more of a threat to him than a blessing right now, and you know that. Do you really want to be responsible for killing him because you're too tired to concentrate?"
"I'm not that tired," Peter insisted. "And my patients are never in danger because I'm fatigued. You know that!"
"Taking chances like that when we have no choice is one thing, Peter. But do you really want to take that chance with Carter right now? When I've called every surgeon on staff in to cover anything that might come up?" Robert paused and lowered his voice even further, making certain than no one would hear him but Benton. "Are you willing to risk his life just to prove your loyalty, Peter?"
Peter lowered his head and let his eyes fall closed. After a few seconds, he shook his head and raised it again. "No."
Romano slapped him on the arm, and almost smiled at him. "Go get some sleep. You look like hell. I've asked Dr. Anspaugh to assist." He paused again, to make certain that Benton was listening. "I'll take care of him for you, Peter."
Peter snorted at Romano's back as the man walked away. "You'd better," he whispered before turning and heading for the waiting room to lie down on the couch.
1:27pm
Abby walked up to the admit desk for the fifth time in thirty minutes. "Randi, is there any news from upstairs?"
Randi shook her head sadly. "No. Nothing since the last time you asked. Still just that Dr. Romano started about half an hour ago."
Abby sighed and turned away. "Thanks." She closed her eyes and rubbed them with her fingers, trying to clear away the exhaustion that was threatening to overtake her.
"Abby!" she heard Luka call from down the hall, and she swallowed hard. The thoughts that had been running through her mind today had convinced her that she needed to talk to him, seriously, and soon. If John lived... But she didn't want to think about it right then. So she forced a smile onto her lips, and turned to face him.
"Hey, Luka."
"Are you okay?" he asked, the concern plain in his voice.
Abby nodded slowly. "Yeah... yeah, I'm fine. I'm just worried." She turned and started to walk down the hallway, not surprised to realize that Luka was following her.
"How is she?"
"Who?" Abby asked, confused.
"The pregnant girl. Is she all right?"
"Oh, her. Yeah, she is. They both are."
"So the baby made it too?"
Abby nodded. "A boy. Not a scratch on him. Her bullet wound wasn't serious, and Dr. Finch patched her up pretty easily. Her boyfriend got here about twenty minutes ago, and now they're in there trying to think of a name for him. I'm going to check on them now."
Luka smiled, thinking back over the horror of the day and the small miracles that had happened along the way. "Life goes on, right?"
"Yeah," Abby answered, pushing open the door to Trauma One. "Yeah, it certainly does."
She walked in, watching the young people in front of her fawning over their newborn son. John had risked his life to save all three of them. There they were, celebrating the lives he'd protected, while he was upstairs fighting for his own. And they hadn't even bothered to ask about him. Abby tried not to be angry with them, but it was a battle she was finding herself losing.
"Miss," the boyfriend, Daniel said.
"Abby," she corrected him.
"Abby... what's his middle name?"
"Whose middle name?"
"Dr. John. Do you know Dr. John's middle name?"
Abby was overwhelmed with emotion. They'd been thinking about him the whole time. More than that... they wanted to know his name. She smiled at them, the first real smile she'd given anyone in hours. "Truman."
She watched as they looked at each other, each shaking their head at the other. Abby almost laughed at the guilty expressions on their faces. "What's his last name?"
"Carter. John Carter."
"Carter," Kristin whispered. "Oh, I like that better."
Daniel nodded. "So do I." He reached down and took the baby from Kristin's arms, placing him carefully in Abby's. "Abby, we'd like you to meet our son, John Carter Thaden."
1:43pm
Alarms blared in the operating room. Romano glanced at Donald Anspaugh across the operating table, and shook his head at him.
"Dr. Romano, pressure's down to 60!" Shirley called out in alarm.
"No," Romano mumbled to himself, pushing himself to move even faster to repair the injuries that were threatening to kill his patient. "I will not lose this kid. Squeeze in two more units."
Anspaugh raised his head in surprise. "Robert?"
Romano looked up quickly, then back down at his work. "We will not lose our young Dr. Carter today, Donald," he said. "He saved a few hundred kids today, all by himself. And he's ours. He's a public relations dream. Nothing like a bonafide hero to help drum up some positive press for this place." With another quick glance at the older man, he added softly, "Besides, I've got a promise to keep."
"He's in fib!" Shirley cried out as a new alarm blared.
"Damn it, no!" Romano called out to anyone who could hear him.
Peter shot up suddenly, swinging his long legs back to the floor and sitting upright on the couch he'd fallen asleep on. He leaned forward, resting his head in his hands, trying to focus. He glanced up at the clock; it read 1:46. He'd been asleep for just about forty-five minutes. He certainly wasn't completely rested; in fact, if anything he felt worse.
So why was he awake?
He stood and stretched, deciding to get himself a cup of coffee. He was heading for the coffee pot when the feeling hit him.
Something was wrong.
Having no idea what was going on, and not even fully understanding why, he ran out of the waiting room and down the hall, barreling toward the OR as fast as he could.
Abby was walking down the hallway toward Kristin's room when it hit her: an overwhelming sense of dread. Something was horribly, terribly wrong. She stopped and turned slowly, looking back over her shoulder toward the admit desk.
"Abby?" Luka asked beside her, noticing her sudden distraction. "Abby, what is it? What's wrong?"
Randi was on the phone, but she wasn't talking, only listening. Abby watched as all the color drained from Randi's face, saw the shaking hand the clerk raised to cover her mouth.
"No," Abby breathed. "No!" She dropped the blankets she had been carrying and ran down the hall.
"Abby, what's wrong?" Luka called after her.
She didn't answer him.
She didn't bother with the elevators, but instead bolted up the stairs, pushing herself to run faster the closer she got to the surgical floor. The higher she climbed, the more she felt it. Her heart pounded in her chest, more from fear than exertion, and she heard blood rushing through her ears.
'Don't let him die,' she prayed as she ran, pulling open the door to the surgical floor and racing down the hallway. 'God, please, don't let him die!'
2:48pm
Anspaugh pulled his surgical cap from his head as he and Romano walked through the doors together. He smiled softly at Abby and Peter, who were standing just off to the side, and then reached out to lightly touch Romano's arm. "Good work in there, Robert."
"Yeah, you too," Romano answered, pulling his own brightly-colored cap off tiredly.
"Dr. Romano?" Peter asked anxiously, stepping forward as Anspaugh continued down the hall.
Romano glanced toward the pair briefly, casting his eyes back to the floor without answering.
"Dr. Romano?" Abby asked then, taking a few steps past Peter. "Dr. Romano?"
Romano sighed and shook his head slowly as the doors opened again, and the gurney bearing John Carter's body was pushed through them.
3:15pm
"I don't understand...," Kerry began.
"Join the club," Romano answered. "Hell, I was there, and I don't understand it either."
"Dummies," Frank interjected from the other side of the admit desk, not bothering to look up from the computer screen.
"What?" Kerry asked him, leaning forward slightly.
"Dummies. Dummy bullets. Cops have been using them for a couple of years. They're made out of rubber." The clerk finally looked at them, his face a combination of concern and certainty. "The idea is to incapacitate without killing. My guess is... these kids got a hold of them somehow, probably from the same jerk that sold them the guns, and they couldn't tell the difference."
"But...," Dave stammered. "I mean, I saw him. I didn't see much, but I saw the holes in him..."
"Incapacitate?" Romano asked bitterly. "You call Carter incapacitated?"
Frank shook his head. "At close range, they can penetrate. And they can do damage. Just not as much as real ones would."
"So why didn't we see them earlier in the day?" was Luka's question.
Frank shrugged. "They reloaded? The guy that shot him hadn't shot anyone else? Take your pick. There's a hundred different possibilities."
"So that's it?" Jing-Mei asked, incredulous. "He got shot with fake bullets and it was just dumb luck?"
"Not fake," Frank answered. "Just not real."
Luka nodded in agreement. "We shouldn't really ask how it happened," he said softly as he turned away from the group that had gathered to hear Romano's report on Carter's status. "There's nothing we can get from asking any more questions."
Mark walked up to the desk just as Luka walked away. He had just finished finalizing the Death Certificate for the boy he'd brought in on the other helicopter, and though he knew Carter had survived long enough to be taken to surgery, he hadn't heard the outcome yet. "Kerry?" he asked, looking from face to face, trying to gauge the mood of the gathering.
Kerry smiled through her tears and nodded her head. "He's alive."
TBC