That's The New Me
By Noa Geller
sharlot12@hotmail.com

Rating: FFA (Free For All) And yeah, I invented it (:

Archive: Please! Just let me know…
Time Line: New Year Eve 2001 (That means, when we enter year 2001).
Spoilers: Season 7, but doesn’t totally follow the episodes that were already screened.
Feedback: I’d love to get it!
ICQ: 73762228 

Disclaimer: Sadly enough, none of the characters belong to me… they belong to Contact-C, Michael Crichton, NBC & all the other people who own them… I just borrow them for fun, and I promise to return them in the end! ;-)

Thanks: Thanks to Ash, which without knowing inspired me to write this story! And many thanks to Cein, for beta - reading and editing this. Tank you guys so much!

Another long day in the ER of ‘ Cook County General Hospital ’. But it wasn’t just any day…

Today was New Years Eve, but still, some of the staff had to work. And that included Abby, Haleh, Malik, Randi, Kerry & Dave.

Abby hated the fact that she had to work, yet again, with that juvenile man – Dave Malucci.

And now they were working together on yet another patient

The patient was a 14-years-old girl, who had fallen from her boyfriend’s motorcycle. She had broken her right leg and sustained a lot of cuts and bruises.  

“Well, Lindsey, you want to pick a color for your cast, or is white okay?” Asked Dr. Dave, smiling. Abby noted to herself that is seems as if having to work on New Year’s Eve didn’t bother him at all. 

“Yeah, White is good… Listen, you’re not going to call my folks or anything, right?” 

“Hmmm.. Abby, can you please go bring the materials for the cast?” He said, turning to the nurse who stood behind him. 

“Sure,” she said and left the room. 

“And about you… Well, don’t you want us to call your parents?” 

“No! They kill me if they’ll know I went out with Tommy and got hurt! They hate him!” 

“We’ll have to call them, because of the insurance… And also, you’re still not 18… So I kinda ought to call and tell them.” 

“They’ll kill me, Dr.,” The girl cried. 

“Don’t cry. Listen, I’ll have someone talk to them before they see you, is that okay?” 

“Well, I guess that would be okay… By the way, where’s Tommy?” 

“I don’t know, but I can go and check if you want.” 

“Please…” 

“Ok, so after I do your cast…” 

At that moment, Abby entered the room. 

“Wait a sec, Lindsey … Abby, can you do the cast? I need to do something…” 

“Sure, Malucci,” Abby said, smiling, and thinking, well, at least she can at least be nice to him in front of the ER patients… 

“Great, thanks. Lindsey, I’m going to check on Tommy and call your parents, okay?” 

“Sure, thanks.” 

Dave left the room.  He mentally noted that today Abby seemed to be acting nice to him. “Well, it’s probably because she’s going to spend the New Year Eve here, with me.”

At the Admit Desk

Helah, Malik & Randi were gossiping at the Admit Desk, while Kerry did some paper work on the other side. The ER seemed to be pretty empty, though they knew that it’d get flooded when the celebrations began. 

Dave reached the Admit, and went straight to the nurses & Randi.

“Hey, guys, a guy named Tommy was brought in here, right?” 

“Yeah, I think he was sent up to surgery.” Randi answered quickly. 

“What’s the extension for surgery?” Dave asked her. 

“Hmmm… 7629,” Randi answered, smiled, and went back to her conversion with Malik & Haleh. 

On the Phone

“Hello… Yeah, that’s Malucci from ER… Yeah, we sent a kid for surgery… his name is Tommy… Yeah, I wanted to check on him… Yeah, I’ll wait. He’s what? His girlfriend, yeah. I don’t know if they tracked his folks yet… I’ll check. Okay, thanks.” 

Dave hung up the phone. Shirley had told him the kid died in surgery. And he was the one that had to break the news to Ali. He hoped he would be able to deal with that.

Back At Lindsey’s Room 

“There you go, it’s all done. Now you can go around town and ask people to sign it…”

The girl smiled. “Or are you too old for that?” 

“Guess I am. But I’m sure people will want to sign on it… They kinda’ seem to like it…”  

They both laughed. Just then, they heard a knock on the door. 

“Open!” They said together, than smiled at each other. 

Dave entered the room, and signaled Abby to come with him, “I’ll be right back, Lindsey.” She said, turning to the girl.  Dave & Abby stepped out of the room, and Dave said, “He’s dead.”

“Who? Tommy?’ 

“Yeah… I just called surgery, and Shirley told me… I was pretty… Well, you know, shocked. I mean, she came out of it almost in one piece, and he died…” 

“There are many things that we can’t control, Dave. Death is one of them. We could only try” 

“Yeah, you’re right… Anyway, can you please tell her? I… I don’t think I can do it…” 

‘Yeah, no problem,” Abby said and smiled a sad smile toward him. 

“Thanks.”  

After that, Abby entered the room, and Dave ran toward the elevators. 

In Lindsey’ Room, 10 minutes later  

“I can’t believe he just…died,” Lindsey said crying, as Abby hugged her. 

“That’s okay, sweetie, that’s okay…” Abby’s shirt was completely wet above her shoulder, but she didn’t care. She knew she had to be there for her patient, and right now, she had to be there for Lindsey. 

“Have…have…have you called my folks yet?” She sniffed. 

“I don’t think so… why?” 

“Because…I want to be alone right now. Just to think… If you don’t mind…” 

“Not at all. It’s good to be alone sometimes.” Abby smiled a sad smile at Ali. 

“Thanks, you know, for understanding, and for being here and all…” 

“You’re welcome. And if you’ll need me, ask one of the nurses to page me, ok?” 

“Okay.”  

With that, Abby left the room, allowing Lindsey to be alone. She turned to the Lounge, where she changed her shirt. She also drank a cup of hot coffee, and took a pack of cigarettes out of her locker. ‘That’s the last time you smoke,’ she said to herself. She took her coat, and turned to the elevators. 

She entered one of them, and clicked on the button that said ‘Roof’. While waiting for the elevator to reach up, she thought about Dave. She believed she had seen another side of him today. The serious, caring and mature side of him. 

The elevator reached the roof. Abby remembered her first day on the ER, almost one year ago. She had gone up to the roof, and after about an hour of being there, thinking, Carter came up. And they talked a bit. Then, they went back down for the ER Valentine’s day party. 

She stopped her thoughts there. She didn’t want to think of those miserable few hours, when the question of Lucy & Carter had hung in the air.  

The roof was almost totally covered with snow.  When she looked for a place to sit, she saw a figure curled near the edge.  She went close to the figure.

“Dave?” 

The figure turned and looked at her. “Abby… what are you doing here?”

Dace was glad Abby was there, because he needed to talk. Lindsey’ case brought back some memories he was trying to forgot for so long…

“I had to have one of those,” she said and lifted the cigarette pack she was holding. 

“I thought you quit a long time ago.” 

“So did I. But I also keep one pack in my locker… it’s good when I’m stressed.” 

“Like now, I guess?” 

“Well, Lindsey’ case really got me… After I told her, she was crying in my arms for about 15 minutes… Poor girl. I mean, she’s only 14 and she just lost someone that meant a lot to her… And I know how she feels…”

“Something like that has ever happened to you?” 

“Well… I had a friend named Jaime. We were neighbors, and best friends since we were little…And when I was 15, she and her family were involved in an MVA. She was killed instantly. For two weeks, all I could do was sleep and cry. And I thought I couldn’t survive…and now, even though years had passed…every MVA here reminds me of Jaime…” Abby started to cry.

 Dave knew he’ll have another time to talk to Abby about his own memories. Right now, he thought it’ll be better to just be there for her. His time will come.

“Oh, come here,” Dave said, and pulled her towards him, and she sobbed into his chest. 

“Thanks you, Dave… I’m sorry for all the things I said about you. Maybe you’re not that childish after all…” 

“I’ll take that a compliment,” He smiled, even though she couldn’t see his face.

 
20 Minutes Later

Abby and Dave sat next to each other, close to the roof edge, talking. 

“Hey, what time is it?” Dave asked her. 

Abby looked at her watch, ”It’s 11:59pm… Wow, 1 minute until 2001…” 

“And we’re here… alone… Together.” 

“Yeah…”

They both turned to look at each other… and when Abby’s watch beeped at 12:00am, their faces came closer, and they kissed.

It was a sweet, long and passionate kiss. After a few seconds, both of them pulled away for some air, still holding each other’s face in their hands. 

“You know what, Malucci?” Abby asked and smiled at him.

“Huh?”

“I think I love the man you were today.”

“And I think it’s mutual. And you can count on me to stay that way…that’s…the new me.”

And they kissed again, as the snow fell on both of them.

The End. 

I know this one was pretty kitsch, especially at the end… but it’s New Year, and I wanted to start it with a happy feeling ;-)

Also, I want to remind you again that I LOVE feedback… So please send some! And I’m thinking about making this stand-alone a series. What do you think? Please send your thoughts!