Emergency Room
Part Four
By Gary Schneeberger
TheSchnays@cs.com

Benton wasn't listening anymore.

He'd stopped about the time the words "Julliard" and "Joe Papp" left the lips of Eriq La Salle, put off not so much by the
actor's condescension - although he found him plenty condescending - but mostly because this "interview" Romano had forced him and Elizabeth to sit through had so far been nothing more than a soliloquy.

All actors are the same, he thought. Even black ones. Especially black ones. All smooth and smug. Spelling his name with an "IQ" at the end. Calling Papp "Joe." Sitting here going on and on about all these roles he'd played and all these people he's
worked with, like he and Elizabeth were supposed to be impressed.

Well, OK, that silly smile on Elizabeth's face probably meant she was impressed.

What did he expect? Women always went for the easy flash of guys like La Salle, always had ever since he'd been a kid.  He could have gone that route, too, if he'd wanted. But he'd decided a long time ago he wasn't going to be just another brother who thought a few gold chains made him a man. Let's see how smooth and smug this guy would be if he was standing over the cracked chest cavity of some dude who'd just gone into defib.

"Peter?"

Elizabeth had stopped mooning long enough to ask him a question, apparently.

"Did you say something?"

"No. Mr. La Salle asked you a question."

"Call me Eriq."

But spell it with an IQ.

"I'm sorry, I missed the question."

"I was just wondering what was going through your mind when you covered that kid on the playground, during the shooting. That had to be a scary moment."

Yeah, Benton thought, especially since the bullets were real and not some Hollywood sound effects.

"I didn't ... uh ... think much of anything. I heard the shots and just did what I did. No big deal."

"How about later, in the altercation with" - he checked the newspaper clipping in front of him - "Dr. Kovac at the helicopter. What were you thinking then?"

"I can't talk about that."

"The lawsuit?"

Yeah, George Washington Carver, the lawsuit. Didn't they teach academics at Julliard?

"Yeah, the lawsuit."

"Well, the school shooting is just one of the real dramatic scenes in this movie. Dr. Corday, I'd like to ask you a little bit about your interactions with Dean Rollins. Now that you've been cleared you of any wrongdoing in that case, I assume it would be OK for you to discuss it."

Do I really sound that pretentious? Elizabeth wondered.

"Well, of course, there's no legal reason I can't discuss it. But I'm not really comfortable doing so."

"Yes, I imagine it must have been very traumatic for you. But if I'm going to get inside Dr. Elaine Cornette, make her a faithful
representation of you, it really would be darling if you could give me a little something to go on."

"I don't know. I'd just as soon--"

Elizabeth wasn't sure exactly when she stopped listening to Kingston's explanation of why personal, emotional information
about a character is so crucial for an actress. She remembered hearing something about the "Royal Academy" and maybe even a reference to "Ralph" - as in Fiennes, her ex-husband - but everything after that was an auditory blur.

A heavily accented auditory blur. Who did Kingston think she was talking to - lobbing those oh-so-proper enunciations in her
direction like she was some cockney tart? Did she actually think she and Peter would be impressed by it?

Well, OK, that silly smile on Peter's face probably meant he was impressed.

What did she expect? It was easy as shepherd's pie to get off with an American man by whittering on like the bloody queen, all
polished and perfectly pronounced. But she'd decided a long time ago that she wasn't going to be just another dishy prat who
relied more on the way she talked to impress a man than on what she actually had to say. Let's see how cheeky this slag would be if she was standing over the cracked chest cavity of some bloke who'd just gone into defib.

"Elizabeth?"

Peter had stopped mooning long enough to ask her a question, apparently.

"Did you say something?"

"No. Ms. Kingston was talking to you."

"Call me Alex."

Oh, bugger off.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said."

"Oh, I was just wondering if you could explain a little about the surgery department and how it functions in the emergency room."

"Yeah," La Salle added.  "I'm a little confused that Dr. Barton and Dr. Cornette are even major characters in a movie about an
emergency room, since you guys actually work up here, not down there, right?"

"Well, yes, but ... It's complicated. When particularly severe traumas come in, our services are needed."

"According to our script, though," La Salle interjected, "You actually spend more time in the emergency room, and out in the
field at school shootings and car accidents, than you do in surgery. In fact, the only scene which actually takes place up here in the surgery department is one that's about 30 seconds long, as you scrub up, and it's really nothing more than a little comic relief involving some really obnoxious things Dr. Rosetti says to you."

"Well, that's why I don't watch a lot of movies or TV," Benton said grimly. "Anybody who'd write a script where surgeons spend all their time in the E.R. doesn't know much about medicine."

"Oh, come on, Peter" - Alex's pronunciation of his name was even more liltingly British than Elizabeth's "PEE-tah" - "surely
you've seen something you've enjoyed at the cinema or on the telly?"

"Yeah, man," La Salle chided. "You're about the same age as I am. You mean to tell me you were the only little brother who didn't dig "Shaft"?"

Benton could feel Elizabeth's eyes on him, sense her teasing grin, her recollection of their most memorable date, even as his
mind wandered involuntarily back to the song he first heard when he was 9. As it began to play in his head, he was too focused on drawing out the images it created to notice the did-you-see-that-look-she-gave-him look that passed between Alex
and La Salle.

>Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the
>chicks?
>SHAFT!
>Damn right!

"Um, Dr. Benton?"

>Who is the man that would risk his life for his bother man?
>SHAFT!
>Can you dig it?

"Are you all right?"

>Who's the cat that won't cop out when there's danger all about?
>SHAFT!
>Right On!

"Is he OK?"

>They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother...
>SHUT YOUR MOUTH!
>I'm only talkin' 'bout Shaft.
>THEN WE CAN DIG IT!

"Peter, do I need to call someone from downstairs?"

>He's a complicated man but no one understands him like his
>woman.
>JOHN SHAFT!

"Uh ... no, Elizabeth, no. I'm fine."

He wasn't, not really. How could he be? Not when the pain of that day, that day Jackie's   friend Eva, the really cute one, walked in on him doing his John Shaft impersonation in the bathroom all those years ago, was still so fresh. She didn't think he was a sex machine. She thought he was a stupid little kid. And it still stung. Not just when he remembered it, but every time he met slick, smug players like La Salle who came on like such bad mother-"

"Shut your mouth!"

Funny, that didn't sound like Isaac Hayes. It sounded like Elizabeth.

"How dare you say that to me?"

It *was* Elizabeth.

"This is not some sick Shakespearean soap opera. This is my life!"

Yelling at Alex.

"I was just trying to find a little something to spice up Elaine, create some tension in her scenes with Doug Hollins."

"By suggesting that I was somehow attracted to Rollins? He is a loathsome, vile, disgusting man. I never felt anything but contempt for him."

"Hey, Dr. Corday, relax, Alex was just trying to-"

You relax, Eriq with an IQ, Benton thought as he instinctively stood, his shoulders squared and his brow furrowed. He was going to defend someone's honor here - he just wasn't sure if it was Elizabeth's or his.

La Salle stood, too, recovering from his momentary shock over Benton's aggressive posture to quickly match it.

"Pee-tah."

"Air-ick."

The women were concerned enough by the scene unfolding before them to postpone their own bickering and call out to the would-be combatants almost simultaneously, but neither Benton or La Salle could tell who was calling whom - what with their eyes so steelily focused on each other.

"What's going on here?"

All four froze - but especially the two who recognized the voice and braced themselves for the upbraiding they knew would come.

"This isn't exactly what we had in mind when we set up these interviews, is it? I leave you alone for 10 minutes, and you're
already embarrassing me."

Two of the faces turned away from the two others and adopted their best repentant casts as they regarded their disappointed
boss.

"We're sorry," they said in sheepish unison. "It won't happen again, Mr. Wells."

NEXT TIME ON 'EMERGENCY ROOM': John Wells spends some time with the nursing staff, to find out what really goes on around the E.R., and finds himself and his cast smack in the middle of a major trauma - not to mention some sick and injured people who need treatment STAT.