Part Four: Adreneline– Bossa Nova Rush

A career in emergency medicine had taught Kerry Weaver to enjoy the downtimes; it had also taught her to fear them. Silence was always the ER’s worst enemy, for in those moments a sense of complacency could be born– where staff and patient alike began to think "This isn’t so bad…. I can handle this…"

Which was, invariably, a precursor to the very thing that any given person on any given day cannot handle.

For Kerry, that moment exploded when she saw Kim Legaspi covered in blood, wheeled in on a EMT’s gurney.

Yet that endlessly paralyzing moment dissolved in a snap– and she realized the blood covering Kim wasn’t her own, and that she was straddling the limp form of a crash victim pumping furiously on his chest while Doris bagged him and her partner wheeled them into Trauma 1.

"Car versus UPS truck," Kim was shouting as she vaulted over the side of the gurney. "My count– one, two, three…"

Instinctively, Kerry responded– she and her ex-lover moving together as if they were born to the routine– helping Kim and the EMTs transfer the patient onto the exam table.

"Driver was unrestrained…"

"What are you doing here?"

"Saw him go through the windshield." Pale, bleak eyes reflected the horror of the sight, and involuntarily, Kerry was reminded of Thanksgiving night and a story about a young woman and a dying man. It was gone in an instant, concentrated instead on the figure beneath her hands as she watched Kim’s thoughts race visibly, calling up knowledge that had lain dormant since her residency. "Head and spinal CT. Chem, lytes, CVC. Type and cross four units. Hang two units of O neg on the rapid infuser."

You need a tox screen," Kerry prompted her, much the same way she would a new resident under her tutelage, and bit back a smile at the command in Kim’s voice.

Kim ducked her head in acknowledgment, her hands never ceasing in their CPR. "Ultra sound and get surgery down here to clear him for internal injuries."

"What’ve we got?" Carter strode through the swinging doors, double-taking as he saw Kim– now draped in the same yellow smock Kerry wore– working frantically on the trauma victim. "What the hell?"