Elizabeth sat down at her desk, totally exhausted. She had just pulled a LONG double shift and was looking forward to a never ending, hot shower and a comfortable bed.
There was a knock at the door, and Elizabeth looked up, startled.
“Come in,” she said in her crisp British accent.
Robert Romano strode into her room and sat down without being invited. “Why hello, Lizzie! Tired, are we?” he taunted her, “Well, I was just wondering if you could cover my shift…”
“Robert, no, I just pulled a double, I’m exhausted, and I’m going home. Get Anspaugh to come in.”
“Thanks! I knew you’d be happy to do it! You get off at 5:00,” and with that he turned and left the room.
“Robert! No! Robert Romano! Wait a dang minute Romano! Oh, you little toad,” she muttered as she watched him leave, her eyes piercing into his back. She looked down at her watch. 8:00 a.m. This was turning out to be the longest day ever. She dropped the charts she was holding back on her desk and walked out into the hallway. She took one look at the board and sighed. An appendectomy was scheduled for 8:15. She had to scrub in with Benton. She shuffled into the room.
“Hey, uh, Elizabeth, I thought you were off at 8:00,” Peter Benton said from the sink he was scrubbing at.
“Tell that to Romano.”
“Don’t tell me you’re doing ANOTHER SHIFT!”
Elizabeth nodded and started to scrub in.
“Man, you shouldn’t let him do that to you; you give in too easily.”
“That’s not the problem, Peter. I said no, and I know he heard me. I told him to call Anspaugh. He wouldn’t listen. I started yelling at him from my office doorway as he strolled down the hall too. I’m not all that surprised though. When has he listened to me?”
“Good point,” Benton said with a slight chuckle.
“After the surgery, why don’t you go call Anspaugh? He’d probably come in.”
“I plan to, Peter, I certainly plan to.”
They continued to scrub in silence.
“Dr. Benton, Dr. Corday, the patient is ready for you,” an anesthesiologist poked his head in the door to tell them.
“Thank you,” they said in unison.
When they were fully ready, they walked in together.
The surgery started smoothly; Elizabeth cut open the patient and opened the stomach vicinity so they could see the appendix.
“Can you see it?” Elizabeth asked.
“Uh, kind of,” Benton said.
Elizabeth lifted the stomach up a little so that they could see the full appendix.
“No wonder he needed an appendectomy, just look at that thing!” Benton yelled.
“Yes, well, that’s the worst one I’ve ever seen, I’ll have to say that!” Elizabeth exclaimed, also surprised at the shape of the appendix, “It looks as if it healed that way.”
“Yeah, here are some scars,” he said, pointing them out to Elizabeth, who nodded, “He must have been in a car accident or something.”
“We might as well get it out of him. Shall we?”
“We shall,” Benton said, answering Elizabeth.
With ease, Elizabeth lifted the stomach while Benton carefully cut the appendix away. With the appendix out, Elizabeth surveyed the area while Benton clamped and sewed an artery back together. As Elizabeth was surveying, blood squirted out from the artery that Benton was clamping, leaving the front of her shirt wet and sticky. She gasped and stepped back in surprise.
“Whoops, sorry! Guess I didn’t clamp hard enough!” he chuckled.
“That was not funny Peter Benton!” Elizabeth said firmly, as he laughed on.
“Sorry Elizabeth, it was just that, your face…” he broke off in a fit of laughter.
Elizabeth didn’t wait for an answer from him, nor did she ask another question. She stepped back up to the gurney and continued surveying. Finding no problem areas, they sutured the patient up and sent him to recovery.
As they were scrubbing out, Benton cautiously said, “You look really, really tired. I’d go call Anspaugh, now.”
Elizabeth nodded and finished scrubbing out. She walked out into the hallway and up to the main desk. She grabbed an available phone and dialed Anspaugh’s number.
“Hello?” a dim and muffled voice said from over the phone.
“Yes, hello, Dr. Anspaugh, this is Dr. Corday, I was hoping you could cover Romano’s shift that he dumped on me last minute.”
“Well, no I’m not sick yet, I finished pulling a double and Robert came into my office and dumped yet another of his on me.”
“Yes, I know you come in tonight, but I don’t think I can pull a triple, I can hardly keep my eyes open.”
“The shifts I worked? Um, it was the night shift and the graveyard shift, and now the morning shift.”
“No, Dr. Anspaugh, I would really appreciate it if… Dr. Anspaugh? Dr. Anspaugh?!”
Elizabeth slammed down the phone and felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Well?” Benton inquired.
“Let’s just put it this way, he’s not coming in, under no circumstances is he coming in, okay?” she answered him sharply.
“Well, uh, why don’t you go crash in an empty recovery room until the next trauma comes in.”
“That sounds wonderful. Thank you,” she said. Benton squeezed her hand and she smiled at him. Then she walked away.
“Try to sleep.”
“Oh, that won’t be a problem,” she said with a yawn as she walked down the hall, “See you later.”
She walked into Recovery 5 and brought the curtain around Bed 2. The family next to her looked up at her with sad eyes, and she tried to give them a reassuring smile. They smiled weakly back and then turned back to the person on the bed. Elizabeth climbed onto the bed and fell asleep almost immediately.
Peter Benton walked into Recovery 5 and peeked into Curtain 2. Elizabeth was fast asleep on the bed; her head buried in the pillow. One arm was underneath her head, the other draped across her stomach. He smiled to himself and closed the door. He wanted her to get as much sleep as possible.
As he was leaving, his beeper went off. He pulled it out; it was the ER. He turned around and passed back into the room. Elizabeth’s beeper was going off on the bedside table, but she wasn’t responding at all. He picked it up and turned it off, seeing that she was called down to the ER too.
“Elizabeth, Elizabeth, wake up!”
“What is it?” she groaned sleepily.
“Come on! We’re wanted in the ER, get up!”
She opened her green eyes and looked at him. He raised his eyebrows.
“Oh, I’m coming,” she groaned, sat up and looked at him again, “How long was I out?”
“Bout an hour,” he said casually.
She nodded and redid her hair in a loose ponytail. They walked out of the room and got into the elevator. Elizabeth was impatient and tapped her foot, while Benton crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall.
“What’ve we got?” Mark Greene asked as Elizabeth and Benton ran up.
“MVA. Alyssa McDien, 36, BP 60/40, Pulse Ox 87, Pulse 110. Head, chest, and abdomen trauma, regained consciousness 3 minutes out, lost consciousness 1 minute out,” the paramedic spit out.
“Okay. Elizabeth, you take this one with Carter and me. Benton, why don’t you go with Luka and Abby,” Mark stated.
Carter and Elizabeth helped push the gurney into the trauma room.
“Three amps of epi, CBC!” Carter yelled.
“We need to intubate!” Elizabeth shouted and Chuni ran over to the drawers, where she started to search for the correct kit.
“We’re out!”
“Chuni, I need suction!” Carter yelled.
Chuni ran over and started the suction for Carter.
“I’m going to go get one, be right back,” Elizabeth called as she left the room. She ran out, blood on her protective cover, to the supply room. She whirled around the corner and started searching for one.
“Oh, come on, come on, Ah ha!”
She pulled one out and rushed back to the trauma room.
“Elizabeth, get that thing in, now!!” Mark shouted to her.
She nodded and ran to the front of the gurney. Once there, she ducked down and tried to put the tube down the woman’s throat.
“I can’t see!”
Chuni took her cue and started gauzing the throat area. When it was nearly dry, Chuni stepped back to let Elizabeth work, while she went over to Dr. Greene, who was busy trying to stop the bleeding in the heart.
“Get the tube in Elizabeth!” Carter practically screamed at her.
She ducked down again and could see the airway, partially. She stuck the tube down her throat and felt the familiar passageway open. She pulled the tab up.
“I’m in, bag her.”
Chuni grabbed a bag and hooked it to the top of the tube.
All of the sudden, a loud whine pierced through the air. All four heads popped up.
“She’s in V-fib! Charge the paddles to 200!” Mark yelled as he rubbed the gel evenly over the surface of the paddles, “Clear!”
Elizabeth, Carter, and Chuni’s hands flew up and their heads turned towards the monitor.
“No, charge to 300!” he yelled again, “Clear!”
Again their hands flew up and again there was nothing but the incessant whine of the heart monitor.
“400, Clear!”
Nothing.
“500, Clear!”
Nothing.
“Again!”
Nothing.
“That’s it, we can’t do it anymore,” muttered Carter. Mark and Elizabeth nodded, “Who wants to call it?”
“Elizabeth?” Mark inquired.
“Time of death: 10:49,” she whispered, barely audible.
Chuni shut off the monitor and unhooked the bag from the intubation tube. Carter, Mark, and Elizabeth pulled off their gloves and protective covers and walked out.
Carter went his own way while Mark and Elizabeth walked down the hall together, hand in hand.
“Hey,” he nudged her, “You look shot. Are you feeling okay?”
“As much as I don’t want to admit it, I could probably fall asleep in a surgery or something. At the very least space off and forget what I’m doing!” she said with a slight laugh, “I’m pulling a triple, my first one, I don’t like it at all!”
I’ve never had to pull a triple before, and I’ve been here much longer than you!”
“Well, you know, everybody’s best friend, or should I say fiend, Romano, dumped his shift on me. I really hate him sometimes you know,” she said menacingly.
“I thought you hated him all the time,” Mark chuckled.
“Well, yes, that’s true.”
“If I worked with that bastard daily, I would be out of a job!”
“Sometimes I can’t keep my temper either,” Elizabeth sighed, “Can we change the subject, please?”
“Sure, what do you want to do tonight?”
“Sleep.”
“Okay…what else do you want to do tonight?”
“Sleep some more,” she stated simply, then laughed at his disappointed expression, “I bet I stay awake for a nice dinner together at home.”
“Great. When are you off?”
“5:00,” she said.
“Me too, meet you down here then?”
“Sounds good.”
They kissed briefly and went their separate ways.
The rest of the morning was quite uneventful for the ER.
The surgical level, on the other hand, was scheduled for three or four doctors, not two. Elizabeth and Benton were rushing around, trying to get to surgeries, setting back surgeries, and alternating visits to the ER for surgical consults.
On one of Elizabeth’s surgical consult calls, she found that it was Mark who called her down.
“Hey, you look like a living zombie!”
“Watch it, it’s a bloody madhouse up there.”
“Sorry,” he chuckled, “Well you get to examine Mr. Namov’s leg. He complains of not having full feeling and some times the “pins and needles’. I know that the femoral artery is blocked off by about 70%.”
“Well, let’s take a look, shall we?” They walked in.
“Mr. Namov, this is Dr. Corday. She’s going to look at your leg.”
After examining it, Elizabeth came to the conclusion that he did indeed need surgery.
“Well, you definitely need surgery to repair and reopen the artery. We’ll get you in as soon as possible. We have some scheduling problems today. We’re very understaffed,” Elizabeth explained to the patient.
“I’ll come check on you later, Mr. Namov,” Mark called behind him; he nodded, “There’s only an hour left, you can do it!”
“Don’t remind me. I better go. Peter’s up there by himself,” Elizabeth said.
“Okay, see you at 5:00!” he kissed her quickly and she turned and ran towards the surgical floor.
The last hour of his shift, Mark sat at the admit desk doing charts.
“Hey, Mark. When are you off? Has it been this slow all day?” Kerry Weaver asked as she hobbled into the hall.
“I get off at 5:00, and we had two MVAs come in at 10:00-10:15, but otherwise, very slow.”
“Did the MVAs make it?” Kerry asked.
“Uh, the one Carter, Elizabeth, and I were working on didn’t, and I don’t think the other one did either. Luka was pretty down when he came out,” stated Mark, who was preoccupied with a chart.
“Okay, thanks for filling me in, I’ll be in the lounge if you need me,” Kerry called back as she strode into the lounge.
Elizabeth and Benton’s shifts were almost up, but they were still running around madly trying to be at two places at once.
In surgery, Benton asked, “Say, did your MVA make it?”
“No, yours?”
“Nope.”
That was the end of the talk in that bypass surgery.
As they were scrubbing out afterwards, Elizabeth stated cautiously, “I hope I didn’t make any mess ups during that one, I was sort of out of it.”
“Oh, you did fine. I didn’t notice anything.”
“So! How was my shift?!” Robert Romano exclaimed as he burst into the room, oblivious to any other conversations.
“Robert, you know I said no. If you don’t mind, I’m going home, and this time I am going!”
“Peter, you can go, I saw Anspaugh coming down the hall,” Robert said, gesturing behind him.
“Mark!” Elizabeth yelled. He turned his head to look in the direction of her voice, “Do you need any help on this one?”
“No I think we’ve got it, you can go sit down or something, I’ll be out soon,” Mark said, pushing her to chairs.
She sat down and tried to stay awake. She must have looked pretty pathetic; everyone was staring at her.
When Mark came out, he looked pretty happy.
“What happened?”
“Oh, he went up to surgery, but I’m just happy your shift is over. I’m really happy mine’s over too. Let’s go home.”
On the drive home, Mark could tell that Elizabeth was half with him and half somewhere else.
“Elizabeth? You all right?”
“Mmm? Yeah, just exhausted,” she sighed.
“Chinese okay tonight?” he inquired.
“Yeah, do you want to pick it up now?”
“Well, I already had it ordered; it should be there when we get there.”
Elizabeth laughed and said, “You know me too well.”
“I know. Isn’t it great?!” he asked.
Elizabeth broke out into laughter again, “Maybe,” she said, teasing him, “But most of the time I like it.”
“Good.”
The rest of the drive home silent, but when they got to Mark’s apartment, he saw that she was asleep in the passenger seat. Mark got out of the car and went around to her side. He opened the door and tried to lift her out as gently as he could, but she woke up.
“Oh, sorry, guess I fell asleep, huh?”
“It’s okay. You can go right to bed if you want.”
“No, I’m hungry,” she said as he let her down from his arms.
They walked up to the apartment arm in arm. When they got there, they found their dinner by the door. They took it and went in.
During dinner, they didn’t really talk much. Elizabeth was busy gobbling down food, and Mark was watching her in amusement.
“You must have been hungry!” he exclaimed.
“I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast this morning.”
“Well, that explains why you’re eating like a pig.”
“Thanks,” she said dryly.
“No problem.”
“I’m going to take a quick shower,” she said getting up, “I should be out soon.”
After she came out of the bathroom, she found Mark sitting on the couch with a blanket. He was reading a book by the firelight. He motioned to her to sit down.
He wrapped his arms around her and drew her into an embrace. She wrapped the blanket around both of them and snuggled closer to him.
For a while, they sat there in each other’s arms starring at the fire.
Mark looked down and saw Elizabeth fast asleep, her head rested against his chest. He kissed the top of her head and gently smoothed back her hair.
“I love you, Elizabeth.”
Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled up at him sleepily. He smiled back at her and kissed her forehead.
“I love you too, Mark,” she whispered before falling back to sleep.
He kissed her on the cheek and snuggled closer to her before falling asleep himself.