Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out
Part Three
By Triggersaurus
catherine@cjtrigg.freeserve.co.uk

Disclaimer: They're not mine, bite me.

"Hey!"

Carter jumped as the curtain swished back loudly, as did his patient who was a nervous old lady who had had a nasty disagreement with a carrot and lost the end of her third finger. Before he could say anymore, he was drowned out by screaming as a throng of about ten teenage girls leapt on him. He dropped off the chair he'd been sitting on, wincing as he landed, and then squealing in horror as five of the screaming teens dropped down on top of him. Mrs. Frank sat on the bed and watched, her mouth slightly open. Amidst all the failing limbs and screaming, Carter managed to get his head free and yell for Malik, before disappearing again. Randi, watching from the admit area, diverted her attention long enough to check if Malik was about, elbowing him in the side as she turned back to see what was going on now. Malik, who had been engaged in the task of collecting a heap of dropped charts, stood up to see what was going on. He smothered a laugh at the sight of the heap of people writhing on the floor.

"Hey, I can't help it if they wanna have some orgy here."

Randi whacked him. "No you idiot, that's Dr. Carter under there. They just jumped on him."

"And he's not having a good time?!"

"No, he."

"MALIK!" Carter's head bobbed up again, and he managed to free an arm to push one of the larger girls off. Peter Benton, on his way to Trauma One, rushed forward to help followed by Malik and two aides. They found Carter at the bottom of the pile, looking maybe a little flatter than he had before.

"What was THAT?!"

The culprits, being held back by various medical personnel, were still screaming, and reaching out. One of the girls had fainted and had to be rushed off on a gurney. Carter, helped up by Malik, was dusting himself down and backing away from the noise, when a group of ten security guards burst into the ER from the ambulance bay.

"They're not from our normal security firm.," Randi noticed as they jogged past, in all black and with a strange badge sewn on their jackets. "Hey, he' s got a gun!"

The last trooper, carrying what looked like a semi-automatic gun, went to grab her but was cut short by a patient who had been waiting in chairs, who reached up and grabbed him.

"Watch that one, man, she's lethal. She'll have you down in a moment. Don' t you watch the show?"

The guy grunted and joined his force, which was gathering up the clutch of girls who had attacked Carter. Carter himself was standing by his patient's bed, rubbing one hand through his hair, picking out bits of lint.

"Can any of you guys tell me what is going on here?"

He was answered with silence as they turned around and left the ER, dragging the screaming girls with them.

In Trauma Two, the unconscious teenager was starting to come round. Her eyes opened slowly, and focussed on the slightly blurry form of Cleo above her, reaching towards a long tube of fluid that was feeding itself into her left arm. Lily was making notes on a chart behind her.

"Oh."

Not really the reaction Cleo had been expecting, but nevertheless, the girl was awake. She hadn't hit her head at all, so she wasn't expecting any damage - just maybe coming down from a high or something.

"Hi. Do you know where you are? You're in hospital, you passed out. Can you tell me your name?"

"Mary." The girl definitely looked depressed. Must be a bad come down, the tox screen should be back shortly to figure out what was going on.

"Hi Mary. Can you remember what happened to you?" The face before her perked up a bit, then a lot. "Oh, wait! I'm still here, aren't I?! You're Dr. Finch! You're seeing Benton, boy he has issues. Where's Dr. Carter? I want him to treat me! Look, see, I don't feel so good," she made a strange face, "and I think maybe you should go get him. He's real good with stuff like this."

Cleo frowned. What was she on about?? She'd believe it was a bad trip, but how did this kid know about Peter? She didn't recognise the patient at all - she'd know if she'd treated her before, especially one so.odd.

"Please?"

"I think Dr. Carter has another patient Mary. We're just going to wait on the results of a few tests we did, and then you can go home. Do you want us to call your parents?"

"No! I'm meant to be in school, but my friend emailed me about this break in and I told all my friends on the Internet so we could come and see John.I 'll be okay, I'll just go home and tell my mom I got sick at school. You don't have to tell them anything do you?"

"By the time they had diminished from 50 to eight, the other dwarves began to suspect "Hungry"."