The two nurses quickly dropped to the cold tile floor and joined the surgeon as they tried to evaluate the cause of his collapse. Garrett hastily ascertained his ability to breathe as Danni searched for a pulse. The only visible sign of trouble at this time was the trickle of blood coming from the corner of his mouth. Rosie busied herself with the removal of his bulky outer clothing as they waited for Karen and their mode of transport to the back hallway and the Trauma Room.

"Sir! Sir!" The strong commanding voice of the surgeon broke through the quiet of the area but elicited no response for the man at her knees. Faces of the staff now emerged from every corner and filled the desolate hallway. "We need a little assistance here." Her words sparked a flurry of motion as the staff rallied to help and together they lifted the weighty man up from the floor and onto the waiting stretcher.

Within seconds they were in the room set up for such emergent needs, with all of the necessary equipment at their disposal. The impromptu team all worked together to find the cause of the patient’s ill health, each one accepting their role in this life or death scenario without a second thought. They were all there for the patient and for each other.

Mom assumed her role as overseer of the flurried activity within the brightly-lit room. Her job would be to record the actions taken and their time of deliverance, along with anticipating any ancillary needs of the team before her. She knew her job and did it well. The arrival of a technologist from the Radiology Department was evidence of that.

Garrett looked up from her patient as the last remnants of his clothing were stripped off, only to see the familiar face of the X-ray Tech across from her, as she loaded a cassette for an X-ray under the patient’s chest. When their eyes met, she nodded her approval and continued on with her physical assessment of the downed man. Only seconds later did she hear the warning, "Clear the chest. X-ray!" She reflexively withdrew her hands from that area of the body as she let her eyes continue assessing the man’s condition.

Danni and Rosie responded in their usually coordinated manner of working together. It was as if they had never been separated for the last two weeks. The petite blonde nurse assuming the role of Trauma Nurse One, as she readily connected the patient up to the telemetry monitor and verbalized the initial readings, as each one became available. "Pulse 110, BP 100 over 76." She turned to double check the positioning of the finger probe for the pulse oximeter, "O2 saturation 94 per cent."

Rosie was right next to the tall surgeon as she was that first day of Garrett’s fellowship, only this time any thoughts that she had were strictly on the patient as she worked feverishly to gain I.V. assess in the patient’s left arm. "Okay, I.V.’s in! Sixteen gauge in the left AC." She announced without ever really thinking about it, as she placed the last piece of tape to secure it in place.

"Okay, no injuries showing on his anterior aspect. Let’s role him and check his back." Garrett watched as the staff opposite her log rolled the patient’s body into themselves to expose his back to her. The skilled eyes of the surgeon roamed freely over the entire expanse of the man’s posterior surface. There, just below his costaphrenic angle on the right was a small laceration. She gently inserted her gloved finger to see the extent of its penetration. ‘Hmmm…there’s his rib,’ she moved her finger in the opposite direction. ‘Feels like a downward direction to me. Look’s like I’m going to get some surgical time in today since the team hasn’t responded here yet.’ She tried to fight back the happy feeling of being in the O.R. once again. "Get us an O.R. room, Mom. He’s been stabbed in the abdomen." She removed her finger and motioned for the patient to be placed on his back once more. "Let’s hang a unit of O positive blood. Somebody put in a Foley catheter and finish drawing the blood work." She stepped back and removed her bloodied gloves. "Get him typed and cross matched for four units and send them to the O.R."

The surgeon came out of the scurrying room of activity to view the now processed chest X-ray. Her keen eye studied it making sure that there was no need for the insertion of a chest tube into the man’s lung.

"Would you like an abdomen film, Doc?" The technologist waited patiently for her reply.

"Huh…oh, yeah! Get that film and then we’re off to the O.R." Her mind went back to the X-ray displayed on the viewer as she studied it once more.

Karen stuck her head out from the room. "O.R.’s ready and waiting for you." She winked at the tall surgeon when she saw the pleased look on her face. "You miss it, don’t you?"

"Yes, I do." Her tone was somber and for the first time in her life she thought about what it must be like to know that you can never do or be with something that you loved more than you own life. ‘I hope that never happens to me.’

Garrett pulled herself back to the situation at hand and stepped into the room. "Let’s get up to the O.R. They’ve got a room waiting for our patient." She smiled as she saw the already assembled entourage in its first steps toward the door. ‘You just got to love these people.’ Her thought surprised her. ‘Never thought I’d be saying that.’ The surgeon stepped to the side of the stretcher as it passed her and matched her steps to the forward motion that had already been established.

Once the patient was on his way to the O.R., Karen finished the last of the charting and went back to sit at her desk up front. Being a Charge Nurse had certain duties to it, one of which was being relegated to staying in the department. ‘Well, the least I can do now is put her wallet back together again.’ She pulled the rather thin looking wallet out of her pocket thinking how appropriate it was for her pseudo-daughter to have. ‘Nothing heavy to tie her down.’ She mindlessly pulled out the assorted bits of paper and plastic cards that had fallen out earlier and tried to give them some order before stuffing them back into the wallet. She couldn’t help but noticing the absence of photographs so far. ‘Now, that’s odd. Mine is stuffed with pictures of my family and friends.’ Then at the end of the pile she came upon a worn and slightly tattered photo. She tried to make out the faces on it but just couldn’t seem to get them into focus. Mom resorted to using her arm to move the photo back and forth to get a better view of it as she concentrated on it.

"Hey, Mom! What you trying to look at?" The pleasant voice of Danni called over to her. She moved closer trying to see.

"Oh, these darn bifocals. You’d think that they’d help." She handed the photo over to Danni. "Here, see if you can make out who’s in this."

Danni took it and studied it carefully. "Mom, where’d you find this?" A smile was slowly coming to her mouth. Her eyes dancing in merriment as she recognized the strong features of her roommate evident on the youthful face in the picture.

"It was in her wallet. Must have fallen out when she tossed it at me." Karen craned her neck trying to see it. "Who do you think it is?"

"Well, the tall one is definitely Garrett," she turned the photo over and looked at the back of it. The youthful writing on it made the nurse sigh as she ran her finger over it. ‘Luc, and me 1980. I’ll be…’ She flipped the photograph over and stared down at it. "It’s her brother," the words slowly came out almost like a prayer.

Rosie’s ears perked up. "Tall, dark, and gorgeous has a brother. How come she’s been keeping him a secret? Let me see." Rosie moved to get a better look from over Danni’s shoulder. "Well, I’ll be." She let out a low whistle. "I wonder were I can find him now."

Danni hesitated as she worked out the numbers in her head. ‘Let’s see, She told me that she was seventeen when the accident happened. Hmm…that would have been…’ then she slowly spoke. "I think this was taken the same year of the accident." The blonde closed her eyes wishing that she could bring him back to her friend. She knew that Garrett and her brother were close but this photo only confirmed it more. ‘By the gods, how she must miss him.’ The looks on their faces and the openness of their posture with one another in the photo told her all that she needed to know. In her mind she just wanted to go right up to that O.R. suite and find the tall surgeon and throw her arms around her in an understanding hug for the loss of such a vital part of her friend’s life. The petite nurse considered it, but knew that the stoic woman would just think her crazy.

Their attention was broken with the banging of the fire doors as John walked into the E.R. The male nurse was considered to be the black sheep of the E.R. family, as his sleazy reputation afforded him. Seeing the women standing around he put on a lecherous grin. "So, you girls want to be the first ‘Maids of Desire’ on my new website?" He held up a shiny looking pocket camera and pointed to it. "It’s digital." The assembled nurses all cringed at the thought. "Danni, come on," he winked at her. "I’ll make you and that tall roommate of yours famous on the Internet. What do you say?"

Nothing ever changed with John. She’d been absent from the E.R. for two weeks and he still wouldn’t pass up a chance to try to seduce her. No ‘Hi! How you been?’ just right to the point of his warped mind. Sex, that’s all her ever thought about. Then an idea came to her mind and a sly smile trickled across her face as she looked up at the camera and back down to the photograph in her hands. She had an idea and John’s camera was just what she needed at this moment. "So, you want a picture of Dr. Trivoli…eh?" She fanned herself with the photo and wiggled her eyebrows up and down.



* * *

Garrett finished scrubbing her hands as she donned her sterile gown and gloves. She adjusted them into place on her way to the surgical table. She positioned the lights and accepted the first of the sterile draping towels to expose the area over the already Betadine prepped abdomen. Upon placing the last drape, she looked up to see the hurried form of her colleague Dr. Chabot enter the room.

"Ah, Rene, you’ve come to assist me." She nodded. "I was wondering who would be my second."

He grabbed at the gown and thrust his arms into it. "McMurray sent me in here. He said that you’re not to be operating." He was breathing hard from running up the back stairs from his office. "He said that you already have a job to do and that I should let you go do it." His eyes searched hers, pleading for her not to take out her wrath on him. ‘I’m only the messenger.’

The tall surgeon’s eyes turned to a steely blue and the nurse standing next to her could feel a change in the climate of the operating theatre, as her stare seemed to turn the air to ice. She wanted to explode on him but knew that it would do no good for any of them, her patient included. The favor that the Board had asked for came dancing back through her head. Her gaze lessened and she let her hands come down to her sides as she stepped away from the table. She was a woman of honor and that meant keeping her word.

Rene moved to replace her at the patient’s side. His eyes looked into hers as he thanked the gods above for not letting him be the brunt of her anger. "I’ll take good care of him, Garrett." He nodded in assurance as he readied himself to take over for her.

Garrett pulled off her gloves as she relayed the knowledge she had about the patient and his injury site. She wasn’t used to walking out of an operating suite before the patient was even worked on. She made her way to the door, then turned and watched as the tall thin man guided his team to best serve the patient. ‘I hope that there’s something good that comes out of this next six months.’ Listening to the quiet direction of surgical equipment to use in the operation as Dr. Chabot began the surgical incision, she pulled open the door and left the operating theatre. ‘I better not keep my job waiting.’ She pulled off the gown and threw it into the first debris container that she passed as she made her way out of the O.R.



* * *

The bright lights were making the small blonde perspire as she stood waiting for her friend. It wasn’t going to be a physically strenuous day, but the heat of the lighting was sure to sap her strength. She could feel herself becoming anxious as she wondered how Garrett was making out in the O.R.

"Okay, I’m strapped for time. Set up for the individual shots." The man working with the camera was directing his assistants now. "Somebody give her that flight suit to put on. Come on now, we don’t have all day to get this shoot done."