There To Catch Him If He Falls
By Carrie Verkman
carebear1025@juno.com
Chapter Three


Kerry Weaver hated Valentine's Day. She hated it ever since she was a little girl. At school, it was bad enough she got teased about her leg, but she only got a few Valentine's from her classmates every year. It made her feel very lonely. Kerry sighed and walked up to the ambulance bay doors, preparing herself for the night ahead, filled with drunks, people who had eaten too much candy, and all the weirdos that would float in.
Kerry moved to avoid the ambulance leaving. Zadro was in the passenger's seat and he called out to Kerry. "Hurry up Dr. Weaver! You're going to miss the party!"
"What?" Kerry yelled, but no answer. She soon figured out what he meant when she heard the loud music. After a brief report from Cleo, Kerry walked in on a happy group of people. Luka greeted her cheerfully before she went to the lounge. When she came out, Kerry snapped into her boss mode and demanded that her colleagues get to work.
"Radiology is looking for Carter." Randi said.
"Well go find Carter." Kerry replied.
"Kerry there's a man dressed as Cupid waiting for his ankle x-ray. He's outside Exam Three." Luka said.
"All right." This was one of the weirdos Kerry had thought of earlier. She found the man and was about to look at his x-ray when the light on the board went out.
"Is my ankle broken?" he asked.
"I don't know. I need to find another board." Kerry was about to walk into Exam Three when Dr. Chen came up to her.
"Dr. Weaver, can you talk to toxicology for me? Some kid drank this and they wont run tests on it."
As Kerry talked to Jing-Mei, John could faintly hear voices outside. He could also see their shadows. John used all his strength to open his eyes to look at Lucy. She was still unconscious. He then tried to speak, but no words came out and he closed his eyes again.
Kerry noticed a bloody footprint outside the door. The longer she looked at it, the more curious she became. Kerry opened the door and her eyes met at John and Lucy. Kerry screamed.


Jing-Mei wasn't that far from Exam Three when she heard Kerry. She ran back and said, "Dr. Weaver what is...oh my God!"
"Get everyone over here with two gurneys!" Kerry yelled. Jing-Mei did as she was told. Kerry went over to Lucy and John to check their pulses. They were still alive.
"They're still alive." She said to herself. "They're still alive."
Luka, Dave and some nurses arrived with a gurney and a backboard. They were horrified at what they saw. Dave bit his lip to keep from crying. Luka and Jing-Mei lifted John onto the gurney, as Kerry and Dave got Lucy onto a backboard.
"Spin a crit right away! Send 8 units of O-Negative down here!" Kerry yelled. "Someone page Benton and get Mark and Elizabeth over here!"


Jing-Mei and Luka worked on John with the help of Abby. "I was just talking to him." Abby said.
"I can't believe no one saw anything." Lydia said, trembling and trying to hold her tears back.
"We can talk about it later." Luka said. He too, was shocked at such a thing. He had only just met John and he still saw him as a friend.


Lucy was severely bleeding out. Kerry and Dave rolled Lucy to see where her injuries were. Randi came in and nearly fainted at what she saw. "Dr. Weaver, the cops a-are looking f-for anyone who took care of the p-patient. T-they want to close off Exam Three."
"Handle it Randi!" Kerry yelled.
"The son of a bitch sure sliced the hell out of her." Dave said. "Oh my God, look at this. Look at this!"
"Dammit, tracheal laceration!" Kerry said, wiping away more blood from her neck.
"She needs a trach, get Benton in here!" Kerry said.


Jing-Mei shinned a light into John's eyes, and then he finally came out unconsciousness. He shook his head violently as if he was having a seizure.
"John? John!" Jing-Mei said. "Do you know where you are?"
"Deb?"
"You were stabbed."
A police officer was in the room also. "John I'm Officer Benigni, did you happen to see the man who stabbed you?"
John shook his head no. The officer was about to ask him another question when Jing-Mei pushed him out of the way.

It was too much for John to take. The last thing he could remember was being in that dark room looking for Lucy. The loud music that muffled his cries for help was still echoing in his ears. Now he was lying on a gurney, just like the patients he took care of everyday. John looked up and saw Abby, Luka and Jing-Mei. He was too scared to think straight.


Peter Benton was a tough guy. He had seen a lot. But he had never seen one of his students lying on a gurney bleeding to death. Peter immediately took over when he saw John. He was diagnosing John with a bad renal line, when Haleh announced that Kerry needed him to trach Lucy. Everyone stopped what they were doing. At this point everyone realized just how serious this was. Peter ran over to Lucy.
John looked over to Lucy. He could see her pale face. She looked so innocent, why did this have to happen to her?
"Lucy?" John said.
"She's alive." Abby said, who was holding his head.
Just then, John's blood pressure began to drop. John cried out in pain.
"He needs to go up now! Get Benton over here!" Luka said.
By that time, Elizabeth and Mark had arrived and they helped Kerry and Dave with Lucy. Peter and Lydia began to bring John up to surgery.
"I need you to stay with me Carter. Stay with me, you hear me?" Peter said.
All John could do was nod his head. Above him he saw the lights on the ceiling and the faces of Lydia and Peter. John was still in shock.
"Anna!" John said. "Where's Anna?"
Peter didn't know. "I don't know Carter."
"We'll call her right away." Lydia said as they moved into the elevator.
John nodded again. He felt a small tear come down his face.


Back in the ER, Luka went over to Trauma One to help with Lucy. Kerry began to scold everyone for not watching Paul Sobriki, who was now missing. Kerry couldn't believe this was happening. She also couldn't believe that she had just cut open a med student's chest. As soon as Lucy was stable, Dave and Haleh brought her up to surgery.

Mark and Luka sighed. "I can't believe this happened."
"She has a good chance. Both of them do." Luka said.
"Yeah." Mark said. He saw Kerry leaving. "Kerry?"
Kerry didn't answer. She didn't answer anyone who tried to talk to her. She had just witnessed two of her colleagues, two of her friends, suffering and bleeding. She didn't need this. Especially on the loneliest holiday of the year. Kerry went outside into the cold February air and vomited into a nearby trashcan.


John blinked. He saw bright lights up above him. It took a while for his eyes to adjust and then he realized where he was. He was in the OR. He looked around the room and memories of his surgical internship came back. But now he was the one going under the knife. John noticed a tray of tools that would be used in the surgery. He could hear his own pulse ox monitor beeping. John could see he was wearing a surgical cap and nothing from the waist up. He could also hear Peter yelling at a nurse.
"I asked for type specific! This is O-Negative!" Peter said to a nurse, waving the bags at her.
"It is type specific. He is O-Negative." The nurse replied.
John looked over to Peter and nodded. "That bad, huh?"
"Yeah, I mean...well it could be a lot of things." Peter said. "Don't worry Carter, I'm going to check out everything. I'll get you through this."
"I'm glad it's you." John said. "Have they called Anna yet?"
"I don't know. Someone in the ER will and they'll send her up here. Just try to relax now." said Peter.
The anesthesiologist gave John some Verset to relax. Before John fell asleep he whispered, "Peter, tell Anna...and my kids...that...I...love...them."
"He's out." said the anesthesiologist.
"Alright, prep him and I want to be able to cut in two minutes!" Peter began to scrub with Elizabeth and Dr. Anspaugh. No one said a word, but they were all thinking the same thing. Peter was thinking about what John had just said to him. What if he had to tell Anna that John loved him, and that he wasn't able to save John? Peter shivered at the thought and continued to scrub.


"Amira!" shouted Kerry. "Get Security to open up personnel and find emergency contact numbers for Lucy and Carter. Bring them down here."
Amira scampered off and did what she was told. Kerry looked over to Luka who was talking to Samantha Sobriki. The ER was eerily quiet as other doctors and nurses went about their business. She saw Jing-Mei and Abby leave through the ambulance bay doors with concerned looks on their faces. Kerry sighed. Out of all the terrible Valentine's Day's she had had, this was the worse.
"Here you go Dr. Weaver." Amira said.
Kerry jumped. It was hard for her to be calm knowing a schizophrenic with a knife was missing. "Thank you Amira."


Kerry sat down in the lounge and took a deep breath. She called Lucy's mother, Barbara, first. After a few failed attempts, Kerry finally reached Barbara who was out of town. Barbara was horrified to hear what had happened and would be on the next flight to Chicago. Kerry hung up the phone and then dialed her old number to her house. The phone seemed to ring forever.
"Come on Anna. Pick up. You need to answer the phone." Kerry said nervously.


Anna moaned. She wasn't sure if the phone ringing was part of her dream or not. Then she thought the kids were making noise. Either way, she was not happy to be woken up.
"Hello?" Anna said, sleepily.
"Anna? It's Kerry, I'm at the hospital."
"Hi, what's going on?"
"Anna, I need you to be fully awake to hear what I have to tell you. Are you with me?" Kerry asked.
Hearing the seriousness in Kerry's voice made Anna sit up in bed. "I'm awake."
"Earlier tonight a patient of ours, Paul Sobriki, who we know now to be schizophrenic-"
"That was John and Lucy's law student!" Anna said.
"I know. Paul went missing right before the staff started their party and no one could seem to find him."
"Kerry," Anna said. "Did Paul do something?"
"Anna, Paul stole a knife and stabbed Lucy and John in Exam Three earlier tonight. I found them both unconscious. John and Lucy both went up to surgery. They-"
"Stabbed?" Anna said.
"Yes, Anna I'm sorry to be the one to tell you but-"
"They were stabbed?"
"Anna I think you should come down here right away." Kerry said.
"Is he okay?"
"John? Yes, we stabilized him in the ER, and Dr. Benton is with him in surgery." Kerry said. "Lucy is also up in surgery."
Anna's hands began to shake. She felt nauseous. "K-kerry, I don't think I can drive to the hospital. Can you come and get me? Can you help me with the kids?"
"Of course. Anna, I want you to know they both have a good chance of surviving this. Anna? Are you there?"
Anna had dropped the phone. She stood up and felt her knees go weak. Anna fell back to the bed. A wave of nausea came over her and she ran back to the bathroom. The thought of John lying on the cold hard floor, bleeding to death, made Anna retch even harder. She flushed the toilet and stood up, but then quickly fell to the floor in a dead faint.


Kerry knocked on the door but there was no answer. Kerry then used her extra key to get into the house. As she walked in, Anna was nowhere to be found. She heard a baby crying, but couldn't tell who it was. Kerry walked into the babies' room and saw Julia standing in her crib, eyes red and tearful.
"Hey sweetheart." Kerry said, softly. "Don't cry. Everything will be all right. Let's go find your mommy."
Kerry found Anna in her room with a small suitcase. "He'll probably be in the hospital for a while. I'm packing a few of his things."
"Okay. I'll get Julia and J.J. ready for you." Kerry said.
"Thank you." Anna threw in a couple of John's shirts, pants, a pair of pajamas, toiletries, underwear and finally a picture of the whole family together that John kept on his nightstand. Kerry came back in the room with both kids bundled up.
"Anna are you ready?" Kerry asked.
"He always loved this picture. He always wanted to see his family when he woke up." Anna's voice was trembling.
Kerry smiled a sympathetic smile. "We should probably get back soon, you know, in case there's any news."
"Okay." Anna stood up. She began to cry.
"Oh Anna." Kerry said, while hugging her.
"I'm scared Kerry." Anna said.
"Me too." said Kerry. "Me too."


End Of Chapter Three