"Hmmm…mad at me are you for breaking up the team?"
The petite blonde just glared at him. "You’re the boss."
"Trivoli needed a little time to herself, O.R. time." He grunted. "Besides, who else could I send and not worry about doing their best. In fact, I was kind of glad when Dr. Beckman called me with the request."
"David asked…"
"For a surgeon to help out in a sticky situation. Seems some of their surgeons were at a conference and got stuck without transportation for a couple of days and just yesterday, another one of their surgeons fell and broke his arm. They seemed to be in a bit of a bind for a few days."
"He didn’t ask for her specifically did he?" ‘David if you did, I’ll kill you.’
"Why no. He just asked for someone to cover their emergency surgeries." He thought about that for a moment. "David said that he wouldn’t need someone for more than two or three days."
Now Danni really had something to think about while she waited for Garrett to come home. ‘I wonder if I’ll be one of the subjects that come up when he talks to her?’
The sound of the ding for the elevator was heard and grabbed both of their attentions. The arrow pointed up as the doors began to open.
"That’s for me." Dr. McMurray advanced onto the car and turned to face forward. "She’ll be home before you know it." He nodded reassuringly just as the doors closed.
Danni stood there wide-eyed and wondering. ‘Home before I know it. Now if I only knew what David's going to do, now that he has her all to himself? As if I don’t already know.’
Garrett waited outside of the swinging double doors to the Operating Room, her fingers nervously playing with the change in her pocket as she thought about how it would feel to be back in surgery. How she loved to be in the thick of things, the leader in a well-orchestrated symphony of surgical skills. She let her thoughts drift as she turned and stared out the window overlooking the small rural area.
It was funny how her mind evolved from the thick of surgery to one petite blonde, but it did. Everywhere she looked, the surgeon saw Danni in different stages of her pregnancy and with David not far behind. Garrett closed her eyes tightly trying to will the images away from her view. ‘Well, McMurray, I guess this is my fate now, isn’t it?’ She turned and opened her eyes to see David emerge from the doorway. ‘Why did you have to send me?’
"Ah, Dr. Trivoli. I see that you made it a little earlier than I planned."
The surgeon swallowed the bile that was gathering in the back of her throat. "Yes, it seems that I’m a little earlier than planned for all around today." Garrett thought of the earlier surprise that made her aware of Danni’s condition. "I hope I’m not too early for you now."
"No, in fact, now is a good time. I just finished a case and I can show you around."
Garrett reached for her duffel bag and shouldered it. "Lead on," she said dryly and waited to follow him.
"First, let’s get you settled in." He motioned for her to follow and after a few quick turns down the hallway, they stood in front of a door. Producing a key, he opened the door and ushered her into the room. "This is my call room. I’ll let you put your things in here and this will be where you’ll sleep when you need to. I’ll use my office for the nights that I’m on call." He held out the key for her to take.
"Thanks," she took the key and then eyed the mattress as she laid her bag down on it. ‘I wonder if this was where…NO, I don’t want to go there now.’ "I won’t be spending much time in here, but thanks. Now, can you show me to the Emergency Department? That’s what you want me to cover, right?"
"Yeah," David noticed the changed expression in her eyes when she looked at the bed, "I’ll show you the way right now." He motioned for her to go through the doorway ahead of him. As she did, the man looked back at the single, made up bed and wondered just what Danni saw in this woman. She just seemed so cold and aloof to have someone like the blonde nurse be interested in her. He exited the room and closed the door behind him, hearing the click of the lock as it set in place.
"I’ll need to see the E.R., the O.R., and the Recovery Room." Her voice was all business as she followed him down the hall. "Maybe the Cafeteria, too." She added with the thought of Danni running through her head.
"I can do that." David chuckled. "I didn’t think that you were a big eater like Danni." He watched the expression on her face soften at the mention of the woman’s name. Yes, she had a soft spot for the nurse somewhere in that stoic heart.
"I’m not. I’m just used to asking, for her sake." She raised an eyebrow in challenge.
David smiled and nodded his head. "She grows on you after a while, doesn’t she?"
‘And I’m sure that you’re going to get first hand evidence of that in just a very short time.’ Garrett bit at her lip not wanting her thoughts to slip out. After all, it wasn’t her place to tell him he was a father in the making. No, that was strictly between Danni and him. The tall woman continued to follow his lead without commenting on his question, hoping to put an end to the small talk.
They rounded the corner and came to a door marked Stairwell No. 3. Opening it, David started on his rehearsed speech. "We’re headed down to the first floor now and the area right outside of the Trauma Room. The hospital is only providing services on a Level Three accreditation, that means we only receive and keep traumas during the hours of 7 in the morning until 7 at night when the full compliment of services are available."
"And what of the other twelve hours?"
"We stabilize and transport to a Level One facility, such as the one that you are on loan to us from."
Garrett wasn’t quite sure that she liked that thought, but it was one that she would have to live with for the next few days.
As they reached the bottom of the steps, David’s pager beeped as he reached for the door.
"Trauma Team Page Level One, Male mid to late 20’s with a single gunshot to chest, agonal breathing noted. ETA 2 minutes. This is a Level One Trauma Team Page."
David stopped short. He turned to the tall woman, his eyes pleading silently for help.
"Care if I scrub in with you, doctor? I’ll be able to get a first hand look at how your department runs that way." Her eyebrow arched as she waited for his acceptance of her help.
With a smile breaking at the corners of his mouth, he silenced the beeper. "Right this way, Dr. Trivoli. I’d be happy to have your assistance."
With a few twist and turns down the hallway, they soon found themselves in the newly arranged trauma room. The gathered nursing staff was dressing quickly in lead aprons, gowns and masks. The two surgeons followed suit, finishing as the medics wheeled the patient into the room.
Gasping, intermittent, labored breath sounds of the patient were noted as the stretcher passed in front of Garrett, alerting her of his dire straights. His skin was cool and clammy to touch while looking to be a pasty color of white.
"Can someone page Anesthesia to this room, STAT," her voice rose above the din of the room. Her ever-observant eyes caught sight of small pool of blood on the left side of the stretcher sheet. "Cut his shirt off on the right side of his body and across the left shoulder and sleeve, we’ll need to keep that left side intact for the police."