Garrett fixed the last of the test tubes with the blood samplings. "Ultrasound! Call the O.R. and tell them to get a room ready for an acute traumatic abdomen."


Danni placed a warmed sheet over the lower half of the patient as the surgeon pulled the ultrasound machine out of the corner of the room. ‘I know that you’re bleeding. I just need some hint from where.’ She quickly typed in the patient’s name and squeezed out the cold gel onto Chris’s abdomen, spotting it here and there in the most strategic places. Placing the probe into the first mound of gel, Garrett rocked her hand as she scanned for any visible defect in the organs underneath it. "There’s blood in the pericolic gutter." The surgeon moved the probe to the next heaped up mound of gel, repeating the same motions. With each visual screen that showed on the unit’s monitor, it was evident that Chris was bleeding from several sources in her belly. There would be only one prudent thing to do.


"Danni, call the O.R. and tell them that we’re on our way." She wiped off the probe of gel and pushed the machine out of the way. "Chris, you got some damage to the organs in your belly. I’m going to need to get in there and fix them."


Chris blinked back a tear. "Okay, I understand." She paused then reached out to Danni getting her attention. "Marie…you’ll tell her?"


Danni nodded then moved closer to Chris. "Anything that you want." Their eyes met and the compassion was evident.


"Tell her I love her..." Chris whispered as though it were her dying wish, "Then, now and forever." She grabbed the nurse’s gloved hand and clutched it upward toward her mouth then kissed it. "Give her that from me."


Danni nodded in understanding. She kept silent fearing her voice to waver from the emotions she was feeling inside her own body. The tears were now forming in her eyes and she blinked several times to halt their motion. Finally she took in a breath and spoke. "You’ll be able to tell her all those things yourself. We’re not giving up on you yet." She looked over to Garrett and then back to the patient. "You’re in good hands with her. I’d trust her with my own life." Danni reached out and wiped the lone tear that cascaded down Chris’s cheek.


The surgeon mindlessly disrobed from the trauma room apparel as she studied the X-rays of her patient on the viewer. Satisfied that nothing else would be of any concern, she stepped back into the room. "Okay, let’s package up and get up to the O.R. now!" The words were out before she realized it. She, Garrett Trivoli was going to operate!



* * *

The evening hours had now slipped into the darkness of night when Danni was finally able to get a free minute to find where Marie had been given a bed on the 23 hour observation unit. The efficiency with which Dr. Jamie Potter had been clearing out the E.R. was amazing. There seemed to be none of the usual time delays in getting patients out of the E.R. and to their assigned rooms.


Now, finally after five hours of adrenaline filled activity in the E.R., Danni was standing outside of Marie’s room. She collected her thoughts before entering and wished that she had more to say. The last time she had called into the O.R., she was told that there had been some liver lacerations and that the spleen was removed. They were closing now.


The nurse could hear the sound of restless movements and guessed that sleep would be an elusive thing for Marie tonight. Danni knew that it would be the last thing on her mind if she were worried about someone she loved. ‘Garrett, when are you going to wake up and see?’


The sound of muffled crying became evident, tugging at Danni’s heart. She couldn’t leave knowing the state of Marie’s emotions. At least not until they knew for sure from Garrett what Chris’s outcome would be. The nurse had every confidence in the world in the surgeon, but there was always the possibility of something going wrong. ‘By the gods, don’t let it come to that.’


Danni silently offered up a prayer for both the women in the O.R. right now. Chris, for the obvious reasons and Garrett, so that her skills as a surgeon would keep another potential member of the lone survivors group from feeling the same way she had for most of her life, alone.


The nurse stood in the doorway, waiting for a pause in the sound of the crying. It didn’t stop, but instead only grew in its intensity. Danni raised her hand and knocked gently against the opened door.


It was a moment before Marie realized that the sound she heard was not of her making. Somewhat startled, she quickly dabbed at her eyes with a tissue and sniffed in the remainder of her tears. It would have to wait until she was by herself. Clearing her throat from its hoarseness, she croaked out the words. "Come in." Gathering up the spent tissues in her hand she hurriedly tried to hide them from sight. ‘Gosh, don’t let this be bad news.’ Marie’s brow furrowed with her growing fear of the unknown.


The figure bathed in light from the hall stood like a guardian angel at the door. The form moved into the room with such grace that, to Marie, it seemed to float. The sullen woman closed her eyes hoping desperately that this apparition was not some form of good-bye from her longtime lover. As much as she wanted to be in her presence, she didn’t want it to be like this.


A single tear broke through the dam of closed eyelids and embittered self-restraint. Marie could feel it escaping down over her cheek. Then, she felt the warm touch to her cheek and heard the soft words on her ears. ‘No! No! If I don’t listen, if I don’t hear that…then she can’t be gone.’ She tried to shut the world out of her life, out of her love, out of this time.


The words would not stop, but instead continued on. The soft soothing tone of the voice seemed mellow against the dark of the night with its growing fears lurking in every shadow. Finally Marie forced one eye to open, taking in the vision in front of her. It was not a heavenly body to the forlorn woman, anything that did not resemble her soulmate was a godsend.


"Marie?" Danni looked upon the patient lying in the bed as she tried to ascertain her emotional state. "It’s me, Danni. I’m the nurse that took care of you with Dr. Trivoli in the Trauma Room."


The tiny gasp at the recognition of the nurse coincided with her heart as it fluttered with relief. "I…I remember you."


Danni smiled and let her hand come to rest on the woman’s shoulder. "I hope you don’t mind." The nurse motioned to the drop of moisture on her finger. "I’ve always thought that a single tear shared between two isn’t as hard to bare as one shed alone."


At first, the idea didn’t make sense to Marie, but the more that she thought about it, it made the most sense that she had ever heard. It was in this light that the woman let the corners of her mouth twitch upward into a half smile, not wanting to aggravate the stitches that had been used to close the laceration on the side of her face.


"How did one so young get to be so wise?" The whispered voice challenged the nurse.


"I think that sometimes I’m older than dirt. Pretty good disguise…eh?" Danni winked and let her broad smile shine through the abyss that the woman was climbing out of.


The older woman began to smile nervously then stopped with the twinging pain that resulted from the stitches in her face. "Oww!"


"Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you hurt. Really, I just thought that maybe you’d like to have someone to talk to…I mean…while we wait to hear about Chris." Danni was amazed at the delicate features of the woman before her. Now that the bloodstains were all removed, it allowed the beauty of the woman to grab you at first sight. She still had the youthful skin and physical appearance of a much younger person, the tinges of gray at her temples adding a well seasoned look. Her hazel eyes sparkled with the attention she was being given.


Marie nodded her head. "Yes, I think that I might like that." She studied the nurse trying to figure her out. "You always dress like that?" She pointed to the Flight Suit.


Danni looked down at herself. "No, actually we were paged out to assist with the trauma disaster. I’m the Flight Nurse on the Flight Surgeon’s Team."


"Your doctor…she’s the Fight Surgeon?"


"Yeah," Danni nodded her head as her smile grew bigger. "She’s the one operating on Chris in the O.R." Danni face brightened as she thought about the surgeon. "Gar…er…Dr. Trivoli is a great surgeon. I’ve seen her do things that an ordinary surgeon wouldn’t even think of. Chris is in the best of hands."


"Oh, is it…I mean…was she bad," Marie bit her lip, "They won’t tell me anything about her."


"Do you two have a legal document…a written power of attorney?"


"No, Chris wouldn’t think about it. She said that we were too young to worry about things like that." Marie tried to get her mind off what her life had been. "You seem to think very highly of this surgeon. Have you known her long?"


The nurse had to think about how to answer that question. "You know there are times that I think I’ve known her for ions but in the reality of it all, I only met her on July first of last year." Danni shook her head. "I guess living with someone, you get to know them better than you know yourself."


"Then you two are…"


The smile faded from the nurse’s face. "No, we just share the house that I own. She’s a Fellow and her year will be up in a few more months."