THE REASON
By Missy
(missy@lexicon.net)

The characters that you recognise from ER are the property of Michael Crichton, Warner Bros, Constant Productions and Amblin Television and to the actors who so marvellously portray them. Many thanks must go to my editors Clotho, Susan Drake and Carolyn Delaney for their tireless and marvellous editing. Season 6 spoilers.

Spoilers up to The Peace of Wild Things or thereabouts. This story is rated R due to its content. It contains rather disturbing descriptions and is probably best read during daylight hours. My editors have informed me that it is rather chilling, creepy and does evoke some of those thoughts about things that go bump in the night and one of my editors has knicknamed it "The VeryScaryFic".

PART 6/14

{November 2, 1999}

Kerry parked her car in the disabled parking bay, taking advantage, for a change, of its close proximity to the hospital doors. The weather had turned nasty. A fierce wind tore through the parking garage and making it difficult to move forward. Kerry went towards the entrance with her head bent against the windy onslaught. By the time she was enveloped in the warmth of the hospital, she felt like she had run a marathon.

When she entered the hospital, she still didn't raise her head, trying to avoid eye contact with other staff, as she moved through the hallways. She knew the natural questions that would arise given her physical condition. The least she had to say about it, the better she would cope with her day.

Kerry had almost managed to make it to the emergency department when a familiar voice stopped her.

"Kerry? What happened?" Donald Anspaugh backtracked his steps until he was next to her. When he first passed by her, he'd given her a quick hello, and it took a few moments for him to register the injury to her face.

"Ah, Donald, I had an argument with some basement stairs." Kerry tried to give a smile to accompany her joke, a joke that she'd rehearsed several times that morning, ready for the onslaught of questions sure to ensue.

"You've had it all checked out, I take it?" Donald asked, squinting behind his glasses as he checked out her injury at a distance. He admired the feisty Chief of the Emergency Room, but he also wasn't about to overstep the bounds of his working relationship with her without being asked.

"Yes, Donald. I've had x-rays and stitches. It looks worse than it is." Kerry was short and curt, trying to curb the conversation as much as possible.

"Make sure you don't push yourself too hard," Donald recommended as he left her to continue to the ER.

Moving through the swamped admit area, she took in the gurneys lined up one after another along the hallway like carriages in a never-ending train. Patients filled not only the chairs, but also stood or sat against any free wall space they could find.

Kerry fought her way through the crowd around to the admit desk, undoing her coat and scarf as she observed the board. "What's the story, Randi? A major pile-up?"

"No, the Mayor's presidential dinner last night." Randi looked up from the magazine she was reading. "But they all look a hell of a lot better than you do. Are you sure we shouldn't put your name up on the board?"

"It looks worse than it is," Kerry told her with a wry smile. She could handle Randi's attitude, a mixture of concern and humour, over any emotional care. "I'll just put these away," Kerry said, indicating her bag and coat. "I hope we have all our on-call staff here with this inundation of patients?"

"Malucci is experiencing the joys of projectile vomiting. I think he's into his third set of scrubs already. Haleh also called in Conni and Yosh to assist."

There was no one else in the doctor's lounge. Kerry went across to her locker, placed her coat , scarf and briefcase inside. She slowly eased each of her arms into her lab coat, the bruised muscles across her ribs caused her to catch her breath and restricted her movements. For a moment, she contemplated whether she should have come in today, but the thought of staying at home had held no appeal.

"Dr. Weaver, we've got a trauma coming in," Haleh told her, a trauma gown and gloves held out for Kerry to use. Haleh kept silent about the bruise to Kerry's face, her dark eyes absorbing every detail of the injury, of as much of it as she could see before it disappeared beneath the small white gauze covering her stitches. It didn't need the gauze, but when she had removed it that morning, she could clearly see what had caused the injury and she had immediately replaced it with another piece of gauze.

"What have we got?"

"Two MVAs; one major, one minor. ETA two minutes."

"Thanks, Haleh. I'll be there in a moment."

Haleh placed the gloves and gown on the counter in front of the coffee maker, observing her boss curiously before leaving the room. Kerry looked at the items, willing her body to muster the energy to meet the stream of patients that were going to keep her busy well into that evening.

*********

Wearily, Kerry entered the lounge and reached up for her coffee mug from the shelf above the sink, wincing at the small twinge of pain from her ribcage. Picking up the coffee pot, she poured herself a strong, straight black. It was only three hours into her shift, yet she felt as if she had completed a long twelve hours.

Moving to the desk at the window, she sank down gratefully into the wooden seat, relief instantly coming to the various bruised areas of her body. Cupping her hands around the mug, she enjoyed the warmth seeping into her hands, and breathed in the aroma. It was typical hospital coffee with a bland taste, but it served the purpose of purpose of a much needed stimulant.

Putting the coffee mug back down on the desk, Kerry grabbed the yellow pages directory and she searched through the thick book until she found what she was looking for; security alarm systems and security doors. Looking through the selection of advertisements, she chose a company which covered all the areas she had thought of that needed securing. Kerry dialed the number, discussed what she needed with the sales representative and booked the company to have everything installed the following day without a single question about the cost.

She placed the phone back down on the handset, feeling relieved that she had managed to organise all the additional security features for her home with such ease. In hindsight, Kerry wondered why she had never installed at least a security door on both her front and back doors. In this day and age of home invasions, it surprised her that she had never even considered this.

Taking a sip of her coffee, she enjoyed the liquid as it slid down her throat, the warmth gradually spreading through her body and revitalizing her.

"Hey, Dr. Weaver," Carter greeted her warmly as he entered the lounge.

"Hi, Carter." Kerry deliberately kept the greeting formal, not wishing to break down any barrier of defence that she had managed to build around her personal life.

"How are you? Dr. Greene told me that you fell down the basement stairs." Carter had been surprised when Mark told him of the fall. In all the time he had lived with her, she had never suffered any sort of injury, even though she had a habit of not using her crutch at home. Carter poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table.

"A few bruises; no breaks thankfully."

"What caused you to fall?" Carter asked quizzically.

This was a question that Kerry hadn't anticipated. She said the first thing that came to mind, "one of the boards is loose."

"I'll come and fix it for you after work tonight," Carter offered with concern.

"It's already been fixed, Carter. I had the handyman come yesterday while I was off work." Kerry wondered when she had become so adept at lying. They just kept rolling off her tongue and she knew from past experience that once you started they just kept snowballing and getting larger. She felt guilty about lying to Carter, knowing that he was only concerned about her well-being.

"I'm glad to hear that," Carter said.

"I'd better get back to seeing patients. It's busy today," Kerry commented nervously, picking up her coffee cup and tipping out the lukewarm remnants in the sink. She wanted to escape the penetrating deep brown eyes that were watching her intently, and her words had the opposite effect. Instead of escaping his presence, she found Carter following her out the door, his coffee mug in his hand.

End Part 6/14