Conviction
Chapther Twelve
By Triggersaurus
triggersaurus@hotmail.com

Okay, so this ended up much shorter than I expected, but what can I say?! I hope it doesn’t loose anything by being short. Please let me know! This is my second fic within three days, so I’m very proud! See what Christmas holidays will do for you?! With any luck, I’ll do a couple more before the hols are out, so watch out! Triggersaurus

Previously: Doug and Carol had an interview with DCFS after applying to foster Ben, and Mark caught Ben and a friend in the ER looking for Doug and Carol.

The ER is buzzing at ten o’clock in the morning, with a normal flow of patients. The staff had already seen two traumas, and there was another one on its way. Carol is in exam one, with a four year old and her father, waiting for Doug. He breezes in, with a jar of surgi-lube in one hand, and a handful of paper towels in the other.

"Okay, lets get this off your hand"

He rolls up a seat, and takes the girl’s hand, putting it on a draped table. The hand is squashed into a small fist, as a large metal bolt is stuck around it. The girl starts to cry, and her anxious father, wearing overalls, takes her other hand and whispers to her.

"Hey Sally, listen to me, okay? I’m gonna give you some medicine to stop it from hurting, then we can get the bolt off without you feeling a thing."

Carol wheels over the Numby machine behind Doug, who reaches behind himself to get some.

"Hey, what is that? Are you giving my daughter anaesthetic?!"

"No, this is just so she doesn’t have to get a shot. It just numbs the skin."

"A shot?"

"No darlin, no shots. I’m just going to put this on your hand for a while, then you won’t feel anything."

"That’s good Sally, no shots!"

She still looks tentative as Doug puts the medication on, but she relaxes after a moment.

Carol hands Doug the lubricant and some cotton wool. He looks at Sally, who is looking straight back at him.

"Okay, we’re going to start now, why don’t you just look at your dad for a moment?"

"Okay…"

Her father gets the message and talks to her to distract as Doug coats her hand in the gel.

He tugs at the piping, twisting it until it begins to give, then pulling in more forcefully as it finally slips off. The girl turns when she feels Doug pulling and sees her hand, which is bloody, with bits of skin loose from the edges of the bolt. She starts crying again, this time very loudly. Doug winces, and her dad grabs her other hand again, talking very loudly. Carol grabs the hand and wipes it down, washing it as Doug gets some bandages. They move quickly to cover up the blood and Doug wraps the bandages tight enough to stop too much blood soaking through. The crying has quietened a bit now.

"Look, the doctor’s bandaged it all up now! It’s fine!"

She sniffs and looks at her hand again, now swathed in white. Doug leans forward to talk to the father.

"She’ll need to keep that wrapped up for about a week, we’ll give you a change of bandages, change them about once every two days. I think it’ll be fine, but come back for a check up with the clinic if you’re unsure."

"Thanks, thanks Dr. Ross. What do you say Sally?"
"Thank you…" She is still sniffing.

"That’s okay, Sally. Bye now."

"Bye."

Doug leaves the room, followed by Carol. He exhales loudly, pulling off the latex gloves and dropping them in a bin. Carol looks at him. "How many of those have you had today?!"

"I think that was the third. I don’t know what has come over Chicago’s kids, but they all seem to be sticking their hands and fingers into anything recently!"

"Yeah, well, it’s part of being a kid, right? Didn’t you ever do anything like that when you were small?"

"I remember my mom telling me about a time when I ate her favourite earrings…"

Carol laughs and Doug grins as they approach the main desk, dropping the chart off and checking the board for more cases. Randi sits at the desk, head in her hands, and jolts up as a passing Romano bashes into her chair. "You okay, Randi?"

"Huh? Yeah, I’m okay. Just tired."

"Someone was up to something other than sleeping last night?!" Doug teased.

"If you classify pulling a double as that, then yeah."

"A double? Oh, you’re covering for Jerry, right?"

"Yeah. I don’t know if he expects me to be awake at his wedding, but I hope he hasn’t put me at a table with anyone important."

"I’m sure it’ll be fine…you can always use two cocktail sausages to prop your eyelids open!" He grins.

"Yeah, thanks Dr. Ross. Kid puking in three." She hands him a chart.

"Aww, was it really that bad a joke? C’mon, tell me there’s another peds case…"

"No, sorry Dr. Ross, just that one. Do you want me to get you a spare scrub top?"

Doug grits his teeth and heads off to three, not before Carol catches him up though.

"Doug, are you going up to see Ben? He’s getting the casts off today, isn’t he?"

"Yeah, at three, I’m going with him like we said."

"I’ll try to make it, hopefully I can take a break around then without Kerry breathing down my neck. Have you checked it with Mark?"

"Uh, no, not really, I haven’t seen him yet today. I think he’s on at noon."

"Okay, don’t worry about it, I’ll see if I can speak to him."

"Thanks Carol. I don’t suppose you want to assist with the pukemaster in three?

"Uh, no, actually."

"Well, that’s just great."

Carol smiles sweetly and disappears back to the desk.

Some time later, Mark is sitting in the lounge with a pile of charts, signing off on them. Doug comes in with a coffee mug and checks his watch.

"Hey Doug."

"Hey. I don’t suppose you want to see the fifteen charts I’ve had today?"

Mark groans. "I hate these trial procedures! I don’t have time to be a doctor AND sign off for the whole ER! Can you believe they think this is a good idea?"

"Nope. But have you been thrown up on three times today?"

Mark laughs. "Three? And how long have you been here?"

"Since 6. I’m going for the record, it currently stands at 7 times in one 12 hour shift."

"Well, I’d say good luck, but I’m not sure that’s what you need!"

They both laugh as Doug makes himself some coffee, then sits down opposite Mark.

"Can I ask you a question, seriously now?"

"Sure, fire away."

"What do you think are our chances of fostering Ben?"

Mark looks up from the chart he is signing.

"I’m sure you’ll be fine."

"No, c’mon Mark, honestly."

"Honestly?"

"Yeah."

"Well, really, I don’t know. I’m not sure. I think you will. It’s hard to say, y’know?"

"Yeah. I’m not sure myself."

At this point, Carol comes in with a mug as well.

"Doug, I can’t believe you made coffee without getting me one! Oh, hey Mark! You coming to the wedding tonight? You wanna share a car with us, save gas and everything?"

"Uh, yeah sure. That would be great."

"So, is it okay to go and see Ben later?"

Mark looks up, and Doug clears his throat.

"Oh, please tell me you checked?"

"Ah, not yet…"

Carol sighs, pouring her coffee out.

"Is there a problem guys?" Mark looks a little worried.

"No, no problem. I was just, uh, wondering if it would be okay if I could go up to peds later for a while, you know, Ben’s getting his casts off today, and I, we, wanted to be there."

"Doug, you sound like a junior asking for permission to use the bathroom!" Carol laughs.

Doug looks at the floor, grinning, and Mark is smiling as well. The room gets silent, and Mark looks up at them both.

"Okay you guys, I know this is a pretty unique situation, and yeah, one of you can go, but you really have to watch it now because I can’t keep covering for you. I understand what’s going on, but this is your shift time and sooner or later we’re going to get caught short, so I’m going to have to ask one of you to stay here. We’re busy today and I can’t afford to miraculously lose a senior doctor and a head RN."

"Okay. Thanks Mark. We’ve got different shifts next week, so we can balance it more then."

"Yeah, thanks. We’re kinda putting your ass on the line doing this, we really appreciate it."

"No problem. But if your pager goes, you’d better get down here fast!"

"We will. Um, Carol, do you want to go?"

"No Doug, you should go. I have to re stock here, and you told Ben that you’d be there. I’ll go and see him after my shift."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, go."

"Okay. Look, thanks again buddy. I’m going at 3, I won’t be long."

"See you later Doug."

Doug breezes out of the room and collects the next patient, a twelve year old with a black eye, from chairs.

At 3.15, Doug is standing by Ben’s bed on the paediatric ward as a nurse wields a machine that looks very similar to a chainsaw. Ben’s eyes are huge as he watches her approach his right leg, and he grabs Doug’s hand, gripping it so tightly that it goes a peculiar shade of white.

"Aah! Ben, hey, I know it’s scary, but you’re hurting me more than it’s ever going to hurt you!"

Ben is too preoccupied by the whirring metal blade to say anything, but he loosens his grip a little, and looks up at Doug briefly with scared eyes.

"That’s better. How you doing? You okay there?"

"Yeah," the boy whispers as the saw crunches up the cast, not coming near the skin.

"See? I told you Nurse…" he squints at the name badge on her uniform, "…Sandra was an expert!"

"Yeah." The first cast is done, and Ben looks relieved and is smiling again. The nurse smiles at Doug, a little red in the cheeks, and peels off the remains of the cast from around the leg. She picks up the saw again and starts on the other cast. Now used to the experience, Ben watches the saw.

"Is Carol here?"

"No, she had to stay downstairs Ben, she was working."

"And you weren’t working?"

Doug grins. "Ah, well I’m meant to be. But you’re more fun than working, so I thought I’d come and see you."

Ben grins back. Just then, there is some noise from behind them as the saw stops. A large woman comes in, with a boy of about 8 behind her, and a man hand in hand with a girl of about 11.

"Hey there Ben! How are you? Wow, you got the casts off? Bet you feel better now, right? Kids, what do you say to Ben?"

"Hi Ben."
"Hey Ben. Did that saw hurt?"

"Hi, hi, hi. The saw didn’t hurt at all, it didn’t even touch me, but I was scared!"

"I bet you were kid, if someone ever came near me with one of those, I’d run away so fast I would just be a blur!"

The small area is filled with laughter, as Doug stands by, a little taken aback.

"Here baby, we brought you something…honey, give Ben his present."

The girl reaches into a bag and pulls out a sweater with a Ferrari embroidered on it.

"Wow!"

"Here, let me put it on…yeah, put your arm in there…no, not there silly! That’s where your head goes…there we go! My, what a handsome thing you are!"

Ben looks at his sweater and smiles. The nurse comes back in with a basin of water and some sponges, and tries to clear an area of the bed to sit on. She starts to wipe down Ben’s legs that still have bits of plaster and cotton wool stuck to them, and around the surgical scars, which have healed up. The family is quiet for a moment, watching the nurse do her job, and Doug speaks.

"Uh, hi. I’m Dr. Ross…"

"Oh, hi! We’ve heard about you from the nurses, and we just want to say that you’ve been so great looking after Ben while he’s been in here, taking time out of the ER to come and check up on him and all. Oh, I’m sorry, I’m Annabel Taylor, this is my husband Rick, and this is Rosie and Clark." She taps each one on the head as she names them. "We’re hoping to foster Ben. We’ve fostered before, but he just seems so happy with us already, and so well behaved. We’ve had some real problem children in the past, remember honey? Remember Arnold?" She turns back to Doug, and stage whispers to him. "He had a behavioural problem. Hyperactive they thought, maybe even slightly autistic." She sits back again, looking at Ben. "But this one is no problem, is he? Look at him, isn’t he just gorgeous?" She leans over and ruffles his hair, and he giggles at her.

Doug smiles a forced smile, watching Ben.

Later in the ER, everyone stands at the main desk in coats and hats, and other assorted winter accessories. They are all talking animatedly.

"At seven yeah? I have three quarters of an hour to get ready! Okay, I’m going, I’ll see you later!"

"Bye Lydia!"

"Don’t tell me you’re going to wear THAT."

"What?" says Malik, as he comes out of the lounge in a bright blue suit with a t-shirt underneath.

"It’s…it’s so eighties!"

"I liked the eighties! And it’s not like I’m doing anything special at the wedding anyway!"

Gradually, people begin to filter out and the situation metamorphosis’s into the outside of a church, with guests standing around, shivering. Doug has an arm around Carol, who huddles at his side, buried into her coat collar. They talk amongst themselves and laugh, although Doug and Carol look sombre in their own conversation. Two cars pull up, and feet in silken slippers emerge, and everyone turns to see the bridesmaids arrive. No one recognises them, but they can see some similarities with Jerry’s eyes and smile in a few of them. Finally, the final foot emerges. However, a rubber tipped cane follows it, and everyone looks up as the figure gets out. Some gasps are heard as Kerry Weaver straightens her dress and smiles at everyone, then follows the other bridesmaids to the doors, the crowd parting like the Red Sea before her.

"Did you see that?" Doug whispers to Carol.

"Kerry Weaver? He asked Kerry Weaver to be a bridesmaid?!"

Other whispers make their way around the guests as the final car pulls up, and Jerry’s wife-to-be gets out. She looks nervous, and brushes a stand of blond hair off her face, which seems fragile, and all her features defined. She walks to the oaken doors of the church, greeted by the bridesmaids, and looks as if she would smash if she tripped over.

Everyone murmurs, and says how beautiful she is. Doug leans over to interrupt a conversation between Mark and Yosh.

"How on earth is she going to live with Jerry?! Every time he bumps into her, she’ll lose a bone!"

Mark laughs and Carol swipes at Doug, missing as he ducks. Music within the church begins and they all file in as a snowflake falls above them.

I need to know what you all thought of this one, especially since I think my focus is becoming a bit too centralised on Doug and Carol…but let me know what you think at triggersaurus@hotmail.com