Plugs and Batteries
By Zoinks
ergirlz@yahoo.com

WARNING: This story contains characters that belong to Warner Bros. Network; however, the plotline and ideas for this story are my own. If you wish to post this story on any other fanfic page, please notify me first.

ALSO: This is my first fanfic, please do not it against me:) Before you read this, it is important that you know I did not do this all by myself. I have to thank Splash, for listening to my story, and to Michelle for hooking me up with two helpful editors, Erin and Jen. Also, thanx Jen for helping me post.

They stood in a straight line, all with their heads hung, avoiding making eye contact each other, or with Dr. Romano, who was pacing across the ambulance bay eyeing his colleagues. His back against the charred remains of County General's, ER. An eerie silence engulfed the group as they heard the last firetruck pull away from the hospital. Finally, Rocket spoke.

"According to the fire marshall, someone plugged in a crash cart that was already being charged by a battery. After their little trauma, they did not unplug it. This caused the system to overcharge and burst. Now, instead of you all pretending that you do not know what happened, I would appreciate if the perpetrator would just come clean and tell me what happened. This way, I don't have to kill everyone, just someone. I'll be up in my office, I just have to find a way to get there." With that, Rocket spun on his heels and entered the gutted first floor of the hospital.

Taking charge now that Rocket was gone, Kerry Weaver addressed the group. "We all need to sit down and discuss this, because, like it or not, someone has to confess to this. Why don't we all go to Doc's and talk about what just happened."

One by one, the nurses and doctors slowly followed Kerry across the street. They were all off duty, and a new shift was beginning. The doctors now on duty, had their hands full trying to relocate all of the patients that had been in the ER.

"Oh my God," Carter said as they sat down, "What the hell just happened there?"

"You were there," Benton scoffed.

"I know where I was, I'm just shocked, I mean, what happened there?"

"You heard Rocket, the crash cart overcharged," Benton smugly replied.

"Peter, stop being such a smart-ass, and John, stop asking such dumb questions." Kerry said. She looked around the group. Everyone was sitting quietly. "All right," she started, "We will go around the group and everyone will give their account of the events leading up to the fire. Now, we were all involved in the double trauma brought in. Therefore, at some point, we were all in rooms 3 and 4, and Trauma 4, harbored the flames, so one of us is responsible for the destruction of the ER, and it is important we find out who, so we can make up a story to get that person out of trouble. Okay, Mark, you start."

Mark looked around the group. He was among his co-workers, his fellow doctors, Kerry and John, the nurses he worked with everyday, Chuny, Lydia, Haleh and Yosh, and the two surgeons called down for consults, Peter and Elizabeth. They were the people he saw everyday, they were his colleagues, but more importantly, they were his friends, and now, one of them was going to be in serious trouble.

Mark swallowed hard, he began to speak. "Well, I got called in to assist John in Trauma 3 on a GSW to the chest. Peter came in for a consult and was prepping the patient for surgery when Kerry called for help. I sent John to Trauma 4. Peter, Haleh, Yosh and I never set foot in Trauma 4, so I do not know what happened in there."

Mark's last statement caught everyone's attention. Haleh spoke, "We were just as surprised as everyone else when the sprinkler system went off."

"So, that means that you four are innocent," John said, "But that only eliminates four of us, someone is still responsible for the fire. I mean..."

"Why just one person?" Yosh interrupted John, who looked up surprised. "Sorry," he said apologetically when he saw the look on Carter's face, "I just meant to say," he continued, "that it cannot just be one person's fault."

"He's right," Chuny piped up, "Someone had to put the battery in the crash cart, someone probably plugged it in during the trauma not realizing it was already being charged, and then after the trauma, no one unplugged it. This fire was a group effort."

"This has happened before," Peter said. "When a crash cart is charging, it does not work, so we have to plug it in. Then, we have to take out the battery so it doesn't override the circuit, but of course, during a trauma, we do not always have time to do so. This was an accident waiting to happen."

Lydia looked down at the table, she had a tear in her eye, "I cleaned up the room after we sent the victim up to surgery, and I never thought to unplug the crash cart. It's my fault."

Elizabeth put her hand on Lydia's shoulder, "It's not just your fault, I plugged in the crash cart when the paddles wouldn't charge. We were running out of time, so I plugged it in, meaning to unplug it after we revived the little boy that was apart of that double gun shot spree. But then, he was stable, and we took him straight up to surgery to remove the bullet, and I..." Elizabeth's voice trailed off.

Lydia looked at her, "Yes, but that's your job, my job, well, I should have unplugged it."

"No," Elizabeth answered, "I should have checked to have seen if there was a battery in it before I plugged it in."

"How could have you known there was a battery in it, I was the one who asked you to plug it into the outlet," Carter said bashfully, "I mean, I was the one looking at screen, and after I saw it wasn't charging, I told you to plug it in. Like you said, we were running out of time."

Kerry cringed, now it was her turn to throw in her two cents. "Who do you think started charging them?"

"I don't know, probably one of the nurses, isn't that their job?" John asked innocently. Haleh sneered at him. Carter's face reddened. <Looks like I better bring her in some donuts tomorrow and beg for mercy> he thought.

"Nurses aren't the only ones who charge crash carts," Mark said, gesturing in Kerry's direction.

"It was me that put the new battery in," she confessed, "The storm we had a few hours ago knocked out all of the power, and we were forced to use batteries in the crash carts, afterwards, they were pretty well drained. After the power outage fiasco,
we were rather slow, and not having any patients, I felt it my duty to recharge the crash carts." Kerry looked around to see the expressions on all of her colleagues faces. They all looked somber and worn out from the days events.

"I'm going home," Yosh finally said after a long silence, "I'm beat, and need to get some sleep."

Everyone slowly got up and followed, except for John, Kerry, Elizabeth and Lydia. Those four headed back to County to face Romano. They walked quietly and surprisingly quickly through the hospital. The quad made their way to Romano's office. Elizabeth knocked on the door, she felt a little bit more confident than the others, she was due for a confrontation with Romano, it had been about four days since their last. He opened the door and looked at the crowd. "Lizzie, Lizzie, Lizzie, what'd you do, bring along a fan club? Where are your boyfriends at?"

Carter came forward, he put his hand on his hip and in a haughty voice said, "She only has one boyfriend." Kerry looked at Carter, and nudged him aside, "Just let us handle this," she said to him.

Rocket looked at the group. "Well, c'mon in," he finally said. As they entered the office, he studied each of their faces. John and Lydia stood close to each other in a corner of the office. They had guilty looks on their faces, and he thought that either one of them might cry at any moment. Kerry sat down on the couch Rocket motioned for her to sit on. She looked angry, like she was ready to explode with fury. Finally, he looked at Elizabeth. She walked in and sat right down in her usual seat. She appeared to be deep in thought.

The foursome pleaded their cases, explaining exactly what happened and suggesting ways to prevent such occurrences in the future.

It was now Rocket's turn to address the group. "First," he began, "calm down. Although this is one of the most asinine occurrences I have ever seen, you four made a good point. This was a freak accident. It could have happened to anyone. So, go home, get some sleep, it's over with, obviously the ER staff is not going to have a busy shift for awhile, it will be almost like a vacation."

John, Elizabeth, Lydia and Kerry were heading towards their cars after almost two hours of talking. They had escaped with no punishment at all. Rocket deemed the occurrence accidental, and said that under the circumstances, the fire could have happened to anyone. He also mentioned that he would look into finding a better crash cart system.

"I think this calls for a celebration," Kerry said, "I'll call everyone up, and we'll all go out and celebrate."

"That sounds great Kerry, except Peter and I still have to do work tomorrow," Elizabeth responded.

Lydia laughed, "Yeah, next time, we can burn down the OR to give you surgeons a vacation."

"Thanks, Lydia, I'll call you next time we get restless up there."

John looked at Elizabeth and Lydia horrified, then he lightened his expression. It was just like them to make jokes about the ER being gutted by flames. He opened his car door and got inside. "See you guys later," he called.

"Until next time," Elizabeth said, driving away.

"Adios," Kerry yelled.

"Bye," Lydia waved to all of them. Then, she laughed at Elizabeth's final words, "until next time." God forbid should there be one, she hoped she wouldn't have to be the one in Rocket's office explaining how she helped burn down the ER.

The End