Spinning The Wheel
Chapther Six
By Triggersaurus
triggersaurus@hotmail.com

Hey everyone, this is the sixth instalment in my series. I think this one should have been longer, and I don’t think I’ve really done the idea justice, but that’s the way it goes. Enjoy! Triggersaurus

Previously: Carol got a task force of ER nurses to squash the Carter/Kerry rumour and promised them dinner in return, Ben goes to Theatre for surgery on his legs, and the prostitute that brought him in dies in the ER after being raped and stabbed. 

It is a bright day in Chicago, the sky is blue and cloudless after the recent snowstorms but it is still cold. It is early in the morning. The ER remains quiet. Various members of the night shift are scattered around the ER, asleep wherever they could find a bed. Only Jerry remains, partially awake at the main desk. Occasionally a nurse or doctor will awaken and stumble out to see Jerry and check the time. In the staff lounge are Doug, Carol, Mark and Carter, who has come in early and is the only one awake enough to be scribbling at the table with several huge files. Doug is slumped on the sofa with Carol asleep with her head on his shoulder. Mark is in the armchair opposite them, head on his chest. Carter gets up to reach for a file and his chair scrapes back, making a noise similar to that of nails on a blackboard. All three that are asleep jolt awake, Carol smacking her head into Doug’s as she jumps.

"What the hell was that?"

"Oh, sorry guys, didn’t mean to disturb you."

Mark looks at his watch as Doug rubs his head. "Wow, it’s nearly 9. I was off at 8. Got to go and say bye to Rach."

"What time are they going?"

"About 11 I think, yeah, 11. They’ll be passing through Chicago, so at least I don’t have to go up there I guess."

He says this while at his locker, grabbing his coat. He heads for the door.

"Hey, buddy, say bye to Rach for me."

"Will do. She’ll be up for Christmas, we’ll have a party or something then."

"Tell her I look forward to it."

Mark leaves the room.

"Ugh."

"Weren’t you off at 6?"

"Yep. You were too."

"Yeah…guess I’ll stick around though. What time did they say they’d be done?"

"Ten."

They sit in thought before Doug gets up.

"Well, I’m going to see what’s happening out there for a while, pull some pencils out of noses, that sort of thing. Would you care to accompany me?" he said, sticking his arm out for Carol to take.

"Well, thank you kindly, but I think I will remain here for the time being and catch forty winks," Carol replied in her best English accent. Doug laughed and left the room, putting on his stethoscope.

At the desk, Jerry sat eating a muffin, looking dead.

"Hey Jerry. You look good this beautiful morning. Long night, huh?"

"You could say that. It’s okay for all you doctors, if no one comes in you can just collapse on the nearest gurney. But someone has to watch the desk and man the intercom at all times so I can’t just fall asleep…"

"And did you study for four years before getting your job, Jerry?"

"No, but…"

"Well then, call it a perk of the job then, a deserved perk. Now, you got anyone for me? Any kids put their hand through a window? Fallen off a swing? Throwing up? I’m desperate - I’ll even take the puking ones…"

"Sorry Dr. Ross…"

"Not even a baby with the croup? There’s always one of those lurking somewhere…"

"Nothing Dr. Ross, the ER’s been dead all morning."

Doug hangs his head. "I suppose I’ll just have to start on that pile of charts then."

He grabs a seat and sits down opposite Jerry, by the computer. There is silence for a while. Doug turns around when he thinks he hears someone coming through the doors, but it isn’t - Jerry’s fallen asleep and his head has just hit the desk. Doug double takes and then grins, deciding to leave him there for a while. A couple of seconds later, a loud beeping and the voice of an EMT penetrate the silence and Jerry jumps up, checking to see that no one had noticed he was asleep. He sees Doug, but he is more bothered about the intercom, which is still beeping as the voice shouts,

"County General, come in County"

Jerry makes his way over, knocking some large cardboard boxes off the desk as he goes.

"This is County."

"We have an aeroplane crash at O’Hare, 260 passengers with major and minor injuries. At least seventy five percent coming your way County, first victims on their way now."

Doug and Jerry look at each other with shocked expressions.

"Ask them if it’s a practice, Jerry, ask them."

"Uhh, 371, this is County. Is this a practice?"

"Yes County, this is a practice, but you must treat it as a real situation. ETA for first 20 victims is 7 minutes, I’ll hand you over to Rig 29 now for more detail."

Doug’s expression is grim, but slightly more relieved than earlier. He gets up and takes the intercom off Jerry.

"29, you there? This is County, 29, do you read me?"

"We read you County, this is 29. We have two victims suffering major injuries, female in her mid thirties with multiple lacerations and burns and complex breaks to both arms. Second is a male early fifties with probable broken neck, he’s immobilised and on a back board."

"Okay, have you any idea what else is coming?"

"It’s all pretty bad, mostly second and third degree burns, loads of breaks, some with respiratory problems."

"Okay 29, signing off."

He hangs up the receiver and turns to Jerry.

"Okay, I want everyone up and about. We need supplies by the hundred. Page Kerry Weaver. Page the surgical resident on call as well and notify the ICU. Let’s get the triage kits out…. we’re gonna need O neg as well, and let the labs know what’s going on."

"But Dr. Ross, it’s a practice! What’s the point? We can’t actually use the blood or anything…"

"You heard what they said Jerry, we have to treat it as if it’s real. I’m going to wake up everyone in the lounge and exams 1 and 2, you do the rest and tell them what’s going on."

He jogged off towards the lounge.

In the lounge, Carol is dozing again on the sofa and Carter is still working furiously. A couple of other nurses have obviously stumbled in and fallen asleep. Doug goes over to Carol and shakes her gently. Carter looks up. "Is there something I can do, Dr. Ross?"

"Yeah, we have up to 260 victims of a plane crash coming in Carter, you may want to get out there and start getting ready. They just radioed in." Carter’s eyes go wide and he jumps up, scraping his chair again and waking everyone else up. He disappears out of the room in a hurry.

"Doug? What’s the time?" Carol is groggy.

"Carol honey, we’ve got over two hundred patients on their way on from an air crash at O’ Hare. We’ve got about 5 minutes to get ready, they just radioed us."

"Doug, are you kidding? Coz it’s a really sick joke if you are." She is sitting up now, wide-awake.

"No, I swear, it’s not a joke. It’s not the real thing, it’s a practice, so they’re all actors, but we have to treat it as if it were real."

"Ohhhhh god. What could be more cruel?"

"I know, I know. Let’s get going though, okay?"

They all leave the room and head off in different directions to get supplies and prepare for the onslaught.

Whilst the ER is flooded with fake patients, Mark sits at home in joggers and an old T Shirt with Harvard written across it. He flicks aimlessly through the TV channels and then checks his watch. He flicks some more, when a beeping outside the window interrupts the glories of ‘Ready Set Cook’. He leaps up and looks out of the window. Jenn’s Jeep sits at the sidewalk, roof rack on top overloaded with wrapped up suitcases and boxes. Rachel is running up the path to the front door, as Jenn gets out of the passenger seat with difficulty. The doorbell rings and Mark answers it. Rachel is standing there with her rucksack on, holding a very old teddy bear.

"Hey Rach. You’re kinda early, I was expecting you at around eleven."

"Yeah, Mom said we have to make a move earlier or we’ll never get there."

There is a silence as they both stand in the doorway, looking at each other.

"Well, I guess this is it, huh?"

"Yeah."

"You’re always welcome to come and stay here, you know that?"

"Yeah, sure Dad."

"And you’ll come at Christmas…"

"Yeah…"

"And Hanukah…"

"Same holiday Dad!"

They both force a laugh, and the silence returns.

"Here," Rachel hands her father the old bear, "I want you to look after him for me, so you don’t forget me, okay?"

"Rach! How could I forget you?! You’re my daughter, and I love you where ever you are, if you’re in Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis, Alaska…I’m not going to forget Rach."

She looks down at the bear, trying to hide her tears. Mark crouches down to look up at her, tears in his eyes too.

"I’m going to miss you so much …"

He pulls her into a hug and she cries even more. One tear runs down Mark’s face. They stay like that for a while, until Mark sees Jenn coming round the corner. He pulls away from Rachel, holding on to her still.

"Your mum’s here, you’d better go now. I’ll phone you tonight okay?"

Rachel wipes her face and nods, still tearful. She stares at him for a moment more then turns away and walks down the corridor looking at the floor. Jenn touches her on the shoulder but she ignores the touch and walks on. Mark looks up for his crouched position at Jenn, who smiles weakly at him. She moves forward and hands him a slip of paper. "The new address and number…she’ll be okay in a while…."

Mark nods and takes the paper.

"Well, we’d better get going, the traffic on the Interstate is going to be awful later and we’ve got a long way to go, it’s going to be really warm down there, Rach wanted to wear shorts but I told her no, she’d be cold on the way down…"

Mark stands up and watches Jenn talk.

"Okay, well, have a good trip…I’ll call tonight."

He starts to shut the door, but Jenn stops him.

"Mark…Mark, you know I don’t want to stop you seeing her. But this is a job opportunity I can’t afford to miss, I’m sorry Mark, I’m sorry."

"Yeah. Well, it’s not that far away I guess, I mean I can always take the weekend and travel down."

"Yeah, sure! You should do that sometime soon!"

They force smiles. Jenn looks at her watch.

"Well, we really have to be going. I’ll see you, Mark."

"Bye Jenn. Hope all goes well."

He closes the door and slumps into a chair, and then notices that Rachel’s teddy bear is lying by the door. He just looks at it.

Back at County, The ER is full to the bursting, in sharp contrast to the quiet of the night before. Kerry is in after being paged by Jerry earlier, and triage areas have been set up. Two doctors have been assigned to each section at least, and the nurses are trying to spread themselves as far as possible. Still the traumas keep flooding in, and although it is a practice, it seems very, very realistic.

"We need more O neg in trauma one!" Carol yells as she runs past the main desk, where Jerry is holding two phone calls, making another and holding a bunch of charts under his arm.

"Hey, what happened?" Jerry turns around to see Randi looking in amazement around her. "Air crash, it’s practice, but don’t treat it that way. Hello?…yes, I’m still holding…."

"Wow."

Jerry looks at the clock, which reads 10.30.

"Hey, I’ve been off for half an hour! Why are you so late?"

"I had prior engagements…but I’m here now, so scoot and let me do this - I’ve never been here for a big emergency before!"

"Fine, you take ‘em, I’m off!"

He hands her the charts and the phone lines and heads off round the desk to the lounge, nearly knocking over a fast moving gurney.

"Watch it, Jerry!"

"Sorry, Dr. Weaver!"

"Okay, let’s go people! What’s free?"

"Curtain 2!"

They wheel the patient round, and Doug slides past to the waiting area where the green tag patients are being kept. He looks down at the first chart in his pile and shouts out "Mrs. Mendez?" As an elderly woman gets up, holding her wrist, the ambulance bay doors bang open again, and paramedics push a gurney through, on which lies a middle-aged gentleman, screaming in agony. "We need some help here!" shouts the EMT. Carter comes round the corner.

"Okay, through to Trauma 1…what’s wrong here?"

"55 year old male, thrown forward in the crash, probable broken sternum and internal bleeding. He’s tachycardic, bp 120 over 80, very much conscious."

They speed into Trauma 1, and Carter shout to the waiting team, "On my count, lift him gently…okay, 1, 2, 3!"

The man has stopped screaming and is unusually quiet.

"Sir, sir, can you tell me your name?" Carter says, feeling the man’s sternum and palping his stomach.

The man sits up.

"SIR! Sir, that’s not a good idea, you have a suspected sternum fracture that may have damaged your heart…"

"It’s okay, Dr…." he looks for Carter’s ID badge, "…Carter. You can hold off now - we’re ending the practice. Allow me to introduce myself - Michael Garrison, head of emergency service response for the north west."

Carter closes his gaping mouth and shakes the man’s outstretched hand. He grins in relief. "That’s quite a show you put on there."

"Sure is. I always say that the best actors aren’t from Hollywood - they work for us!"

Carter laughs.

"Now, can you point out your head of department for me? I want to congratulate them on an excellent response by the department, particularly after such short notice."

He jumps off the gurney and walks with Carter to the doors and down the corridor. Kerry is standing at the main desk; ticking off patients on a large triage admit board.

"That’s Dr. Weaver, our Head of Department. I’m going to go and start clearing the Trauma rooms, if that’s okay."

"Yes. Thank you, Dr. Carter."

Carter heads back to the Trauma rooms. Michael Garrison walks up to Kerry and clears his throat. She spins around and gasps. "Mr. Garrison! What a pleasure! Have you called the practice off?"

"Yes, we halted it. May I just say that your department’s response was fantastic, one of the best we’ve seen this year."

"Really?! Well, we pride ourselves on being able to react quickly in such situations…"

They move into the staff lounge.

"Yes, I can see that! But from what I hear, you had an extremely quiet night and most of the staff were changing shifts or taking a break when the message came through…for an ER of half asleep medical staff, I am very impressed!"

"Thank you, I am very proud of my staff too."

Carol finds Doug sitting in exam three, holding a latex glove covered in fake blood, half asleep on a chair. "Doug…. DOUG!"

"Huh?…uhhhhh." He sits up straight, stretching out, eyes forced open.

"Go home Doug, it’s nearly 12…aren’t you on again at 6 today?!"

"No…thank god, no! I’m not on till tomorrow morning."

"Well, it’s time you got some sleep…"

"And how am I going to do that if you’re not there?"

"Well, you’ll just have to be brave…"

Doug grins and stretches again, looking at his watch. Suddenly, his face falls and he stares at the watch face.

"Oh no…oh god, Carol, Ben! We forgot about Ben!"

"Oh no!"

Doug gets up, grabbing his stethoscope from the bed and jogs out of the room, with Carol in pursuit. They run down the corridor, Carol dropping behind to pick up the glove Doug has dropped. As she looks up from the floor to see Doug disappearing around the corner to the lifts, two feet and a crutch end step out in front of her.

"Carol, I just want to say that I thought we all did a brilliant job today and I would like it if…."

"Thanks, Kerry, but I really have to run, I’m sorry."

She barges past her, running again in the direction of the lifts. Kerry watches her run and shakes her head in confused, then limps off towards Haleh in Curtain 1.

Carol reaches the peds recovery room and stands breathless outside the door. She looks up through the glass. Doug is sitting next to a bed, stroking the hair of a small, brown haired boy who is asleep flat on his back, head turned to one side. She takes a deep breath and walks into the room, going up to the bed and standing next to the bed. She looks at Ben, whose legs are both bandaged tightly, with a huge mass of gauze around each knee. Doug looks up at her.

"They say it all went well."

Carol nods, still watching Ben.

"He was out at 10.15. The nurses say he woke up briefly at 11.00, said he was crying, real loud……. He was calling my name, Carol, he was calling for me and I wasn’t there."

His jaw is clenched as he continues to rub Ben’s hair. Carol has turned to look at Doug as he says this, and she looks back at Ben with an unreadable expression. She puts one hand on Doug’s head and they both watch the sleeping boy as Doug rests his head on one hand.

You should know by now that I love feedback, it keeps me writing - mail to triggersaurus@hotmail.com