“Lizzie, can you take her? I’ll be up in a minute.” He grabbed Elizabeth as he wheeled Abby out of the trauma room.

Corday nodded and headed towards the elevator. Romano took a deep breath and leant on the admit desk, exhausted. He pulled off his gloves and chucked them in a nearby waste bin.

“How’s she doing, Boss?”

Frank walked over to the surgeon and leaned on the counter, looking at him quizzically. Any other time he’d yell at the clerk for wasting his time and tell him strictly to get back to work but he didn’t have the energy. Not now all this was happening.

“Umm, she’s on the way up to the OR now. She’s not doing great but she’s stable.”

Frank sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Someone told me she had a poll stuck through her abdomen?” Romano scowled at him. He took that to mean yes. “Oh, man. I bet Dr. Weaver’s feeling terrible.”

Romano lifted his head and looked at the desk clerk questioningly. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, she was going to go with Lewis but you called her away so she sent…” Frank trailed off, suddenly realising he had just dropped her in it. Judging by the look on the surgeon’s face, he hadn’t the faintest clue that the accident was anything to do with work at all.

Romano paused and took this in. He didn’t say anything to the apologetic man he was just talking to, he just walked towards the elevator up to the surgery floor, but he obviously looked a bit angry.

Frank stared after him. “Whoops.”

* * *

“Lizzie, you started yet?” Romano called out, bursting through the doors to pre-op, calling out to his associate chief.

“Robert, hurry up” came the muted reply, “I don’t know how much longer she can remain stabilised!”

Romano took a split second to absorb this. Any longer and he would’ve been wasting valuable time, and every second counted when Abby was in such a fragile state. The length he took to get ready could mean the difference between life and death.

“Robert!”

He turned around to see Elizabeth’s panicked face staring back at him through the window into the OR. He quickly scrubbed in and was met by a nurse with a gown as he hurried through.

“How’s she doing?”

Corday glanced over at the monitor and turned back to face him as he snapped his latex gloves on over the sleeves. “Her pressures low, she’s had severe blood loss. God only knows what kind of damage was done inside.”

Romano breathed out heavily. He shook his head and stood up. “Let’s go in and find out shall we?” He replied, in his usual business like manner. It was the only way he knew to cope.

“Robert, you don’t have to pretend like nothing’s wrong…” Elizabeth trailed off.

“Dammit Lizzie! I’m fine! Give me a scalpel, and find some way to get rid of this damn pole!”

* * *

Carter sat in the doctor’s lounge, staring at the wall. Chen stood by the lockers on the other side of the room. She didn’t really know what to do. She couldn’t decide whether she should go over and comfort him or leave him by himself. She felt completely useless.

There was a knock on the door and Susan leaned round the door. “Can I come in?” she asked wearily. Jing Mei nodded.

They both looked at Carter. He didn’t even seem to acknowledge that there was someone else in the room. That’s if he even heard her enter. Susan started to walk over to him.

“I’ll leave you alone” Chen whispered and left the room.

Susan cautiously approached Carter and placed a hand lovingly on his shoulder. “How are you doing?”

“Uh, I’m ok” Carter replied in numb shock. “How’s Abby?”

“Still in surgery. You need someone to talk to?”

Carter lifted his head and looked at Susan uncertainly. “Uh, yeah. What happened? I mean, a paramedic explained it to me but…”

Susan looked at him sympathetically. “Sure.” She sat down next to him and rested her hands in her lap. “What do you want to know?”

“I, uh…”

Susan sensed his discomfort and jumped in. “We were checking on the injured….”

* * *

“Oh God, look at the mess.” Corday spoke with anguish and worry. “It tore right through the stomach lining and punctured the liver.”

Romano shook his head. He leant further over the table and looked at the gaping wound in the nurse’s torso. “Oh man, we’re gonna be here for hours.”

Lizzie nodded but said nothing. No one spoke. They were all in too much shock to form coherent words. Everyone had been doing this long enough to get into a routine when treating people, but having one of your own lying in front of you meant all that self control flew out the window. Elizabeth gazed numbly at Abby.

She was snapped out of it by Robert’s frustrated yell. “Dammit! I hit an artery!”

“Pressure’s dropping!”

Elizabeth stepped slowly back from the table in shock. “What the hell are you doing?” She heard Robert yell, “get your ass back here and help!”

She couldn’t bring herself to do it. In her mind she was right back there on Valentine’s day. And that wasn’t Abby lying on the table, it was Lucy. And just like then, she was helpless.

Robert yelled again, but his words were jumbled and she couldn’t concentrate she just mumbled something back and stood still. Everyone was hurriedly rushed around, frantically doing their jobs but she was rooted to the ground unable to move. Nurses were yelling stats at each other, trying to keep on top of the situation but they too blurred together.

The next yell though, she heard loud and clear and the shrill beep of the cardiac monitor pierced her eardrums and made her silently scream.

“V tach! We’re loosing her! Dr. Corday! Come on!”