"Grounded? What do you mean…grounded?" Mom sat up straighter, her senses anticipating the story. "That’s not what I heard. McCormick told us that he sent you and Garrett out on that rescue." Karen looked around. "Grab your coat, Danni, we need to talk outside. I’ll meet you out there in a minute."


Danni stood under the awning watching the snowflakes fall slowly to the ground, as she zippered the leather jacket closed. It hadn’t taken Mom long before she was coming through the door to the outside. The blonde nurse turned her body to greet Karen. "Look, Mom, it’s snowing.


"Yeah, I see." She looked around, then settled back on Danni. "Hey, is that a new coat?" Karen pinched the material between her fingers. "Leather, must be nice to get perks like that." She pointed to the embroidery.


"It’s not a perk. Gar, gave it to me for Christmas." Her face brightened at the thought. "I’m just glad that we’re still a team."


Karen shook her head and teased. "Was there ever any doubt?"


"Mom, I really flubbed up on Saturday. I froze on the helicopter ride out of here. Garrett had to carry me off it when we landed. That’s when McCormick grounded me. I never thought that Garrett could be so protective of anybody but her patients. I was wrong."


"How were you wrong, Danni?"


"She told McCormick that if he grounded me, he grounded her, too. She told him that we were a team and that she wouldn’t be paired with anyone else." Danni looked self-conscious and speculative. "I’m not sure that I could have been so supportive and understanding."


"You…not supportive?" The older nurse laughed. "Danni, I’ve seen you support what others would have called a hopeless cause and Garrett Trivoli was one of them."


The young nurse wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, I guess you’re right." She pulled the collar of the jacket up to give her face added protection from the cold. "I’m thinking that we really are a team, now."


Mom saw the tall figure standing at the door and motioned with her head towards it. "I’ve been thinking that for a while. What do you say we go back in and have some fun since it’s all nice and quiet?"


"I’d like that…I think we’d all like that." She smiled and waved to the surgeon standing behind the plate glass door. The two nurses walked back into the hospital as they teased and taunted one another about saying the forbidden word… ‘Quiet.’


"Hey, Merry Christmas, Mom!" Garrett greeted the older nurse. "So when is the action going to start?"


Danni laughed as she removed her coat. "Should be anytime soon. Mom just said that "Q" word."


"No! She didn’t!" Rosie was adamant. "You know better than that. I wanted a nice…" she paused, placing her hands out in front of her with her thumbs and forefingers pinched together and drawing them out in a slow, smooth horizontal line, starting at the center and ending opposite one another. "Night." Her last word was little more than a whisper.


Karen just shook her head. "Ain’t going to happen. Nope…no way! Trivoli is on and you know what that means."


Rosie turned to face the Charge Nurse. "We’re doomed. Trauma gravitates to her like iron shavings to a magnet." Her shoulders slumped and her head dropped down. Then her face slowly came back up into sight, with a devilish grin stretched from ear to ear. "At least we got Danni back with us tonight."


Without warning, Rosie began to dance wildly around the petite blonde nurse. "Danni’s Trauma Nurse Number One, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la."


The somewhat subdued singing from the rest of the staff soon began to snowball as Rosie lead them from one chorus to another.


"Trauma time ‘til Garrett’s done," Rosie sang out to which was met with a growing chorus of, "fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la."


"Don we now our traum’ apparel," the nurse was beginning to dance around as the rest sang out, "fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la."


Just as Rosie was about to start the next line, the shrill tone of the Trauma Pager Alert went off causing everyone to stop what they were doing.


"Trauma Team Page, Trauma Team Page. Medivac Two is inbound with a 22-year-old male victim of electrocution. Contact was made while attempting to unscrew a broken light bulb from an outdoor display with a pair of pliers. Patient has suffered burns of right hand and left foot. ETA five minutes."


"Well, there goes that quiet night, Mom!" Danni laughed at the face the older woman was making at her. "Then again, you just knew that it wouldn’t stay quiet long with both of us here, didn’t you?" She pointed to herself and the tall surgeon standing next to her. "Come on, Gar…let’s go get ready."


Soon the only one left standing there was Karen. She had deserved the harassment for saying the "Q" word but she wasn’t mad. How could she be? She had her girls back, if only for the rest of the night. ‘It feels good having everyone home for the holiday.’ She thought as she made her way down the hall.


At the Trauma Room, everyone was in their places and waiting for the patient. Garrett looked around at her assembled team, studying each one as her eyes circled the room. The last team member she gazed upon was the one opposite her with blonde hair. Their eyes met and if anyone could have seen underneath the masks, they would have found warm, loving smiles. Their gaze lasted for only a moment when Garrett winked at her Trauma Nurse One. Each one now realized that this was indeed their real family and the best way to spend the last hours of Christmas.


Chapter 5

The stacks of paperwork were well on their way to becoming mountains ready to avalanche down on her when the dark-haired woman finally let out a scream of anguish. All that Garrett had wanted to do was help those who were now in the same position that she had been in for the last twenty some years, that being a lone survivor. It sounded so easy to do in the proposal that she and Danni had worked on. The surgeon had never realized all of the paperwork that would be involved to even get the program on its way to that first meeting.


"No wonder the Board gave us cart blanche for this program. They knew that the paperwork would be insurmountable." Garrett looked over to her brother’s image that was now perched in its frame on top of the monitor where it could be seen. ‘Luc, I’m not going to let this get me down.’ She was more determined than ever to get the group going. ‘Not after what Danni went through to get us here. I’m not letting this foil me now.’


The surgeon started shifting through the stacks of papers, looking for the necessary forms, in triplicate no less, to reserve the meeting room. She let her mind go about its logical thinking, "First things first, a room to meet in."


Garrett’s mind was so focused that she didn’t hear Rene open the door. The tall, thin man crossed his arms over his chest and stood staring at the mound of white where the empty desk used to be. Shaking his head, the man thought out loud. "First the coffee cups and now all this." He held his arms out to emphasize. "My friend, if you wanted to be buried alive in a snowdrift I could give you the location of several nice ones in Canada. You’d have a better view at least than in here…eh?" Dr. Chabot let his eyes sweep across the small room. "Not much more air to breathe, mind you." He made a comical face as he tipped his head from side to side.


"Sorry, Rene. I didn’t mean to…" Garrett looked around her, "take over the office. I’ll have this all cleared up by the time I leave today."


Her colleague let a low laugh escape his lips.


"What?" Garrett’s eyes riveted back up to him. "What are you laughing at now?"


"You!" Rene shook his head. "I know how you are, Dr. Trivoli. You will get so caught up in everything," he motioned at the mounds of paperwork, "that you could be here for days and not realize it. I don’t even think that you would stop for nourishment. Coffee…" he wiggled his fingers in indecision, "maybe."


Seeing the small blonde figure that was partially hidden by Rene’s taller frame, Garrett commented. "Rene, haven’t you heard, I’m part of a team now? One thing that I’ve learned this last month is that everything is for the good of the team."


The tall Canadian felt a tapping at his shoulder and turned to see who it was. "Nurse Bossard!" Chabot nodded at her with a smile.


"And I’m in charge of keeping this team running with a full tank." Danni held up the take-out bag from the fast food place down the street. "Season’s Greetings to you, Dr. Chabot. Care to join us?" The nurse smiled up at him and dangled the bag out before her in an enticing manner. "I’ve got more than enough." The petite woman moved around him and into the room. Once behind the desk, she looked for a place to set the food down. Finding none, she pulled open a desk drawer and placed the package there.


"No, thanks. I’m still trying to get rid of all the food that my wife stuffed me with on Christmas." Rene patted his stomach. "I take it that you both had a nice holiday?" His eyes went back and forth between the two women searching for any subtle exchanges.


Garrett rolled her eyes. "What is this…everybody needs to have a nice holiday with you? Of course mine was nice, I got to operate for the first time in over a month."


"Gar, I think he meant with friends and family." The petite nurse looked over to Rene.