The surgeon let out a breath with the last knot that she tied. Looking up to the electronic monitoring devices, she held her breath, willing the numbers to change to a more stable set. The numbers began to change for the better, slowly at first.


"Give her another unit of blood." Garrett stripped off her blood stained gloves and threw them into the waste bucket on the floor. "Give me a new set of gloves, please." Her command was acted upon without delay and she put on the clean pair as she watched for the changes to occur with the addition of more blood into the woman’s system.


The anesthesiologist rattled off the numbers that were being displayed across the screen. "BP 108 over 78, Heart rate 106."


"They’re better. Now, let’s make sure that we didn’t miss anything." With that statement, the surgeon took on the task of inspecting the remainder of the abdominal cavity for any signs of injury. The battle was over, all there was left to do was to fight the small skirmishes that could erupt into major catastrophe if not handled properly at this time.


The time seemed to eke by minute by minute until finally at her satisfaction, Garrett Trivoli announced that it was time to close. The evening hours had stretched into the early morning but the grueling day was not over by a long run. The surgeon looked up to the clock on the Operating Room wall. It was 0100. If she were lucky, she’d be out of the O.R. and into recovery within thirty minutes. Then it would be up to Chris as to whether or not she was going to make it.



* * *

Danni woke to the sound of familiar footsteps in the hall. The nurse slowly rolled her head from side to side to ease the soreness in her muscles from sleeping in the chair when she saw the form entering the doorway.


"Is that you Gar?" Danni whispered trying hard not to wake Marie.


"Yeah, it’s me. Is she sleeping?" Garrett motioned to the woman in the bed.


"Finally, for about the last hour or so." Danni looked down at her watch, noticing the time. It was 0150. "You just finish up?"


"Yeah, I just stopped by to tell her that Chris is in recovery now." The surgeon walked into the room and stood next to Danni. "We had to remove her spleen and take care to suture some lacerations on her liver and the hepatic artery."


Danni took the hand of the surgeon in her own, feeling the small trembles it was having. It reminded her of Marie’s story about the first time she and Chris held hands. "Thanks for being there, Gar. If you want, I’ll tell her when she wakes up. I think I’m just going to stay here and keep an eye on her for a little while longer."


The tall woman nodded. "I’m going to spend the rest of the night down with Chris in recovery." She let her hand linger in Danni’s, feeling the strength that the young woman possessed.


"I hope that you don’t mind, but I asked Rosie to stop by the house and pick us up some clothes for court tomorrow."


"Hmmm…forgot about that."


"I figured that you would want to spend the night here, keeping an eye on your patient."


"You know me pretty well, Danni." Garrett drew in a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. "I…I better get back to Chris." She didn’t want to break the connection that they had but she knew that it was time to leave. Gingerly she let her hand slip from the nurse’s and walked to the doorway.


"I’ll come find you when Rosie gets here."


Garrett turned to look back at Danni and nodded her head in agreement. She lifted the hand that had been held and waved farewell until morning.



* * *

Sitting and watching the monitors allowed more time than necessary for one’s mind to drift to other things, as the surgeon soon found out. Her mind kept coming back to the moment that her hand was taken and held by the blonde nurse in the dimly lit room. Garrett had never remembered her hands trembling before, not even when she had made her initial cut with a scalpel the first day that she started her career as a surgeon. Her hands had always been rock solid. Why was she trembling now?


Not wanting to think about it, the surgeon closed her eyes and let sleep come to her body.



* * *

It had been touch and go at first with the patient, but Chris was now holding her own. The sigh of relief coming from Marie was loud enough for Danni to hear. The news had even brought a smile to the woman’s face when she learned of her lover’s condition. Her partner was going to live and they would once again be able to laugh and share their lives without the shadow of death circling them.


The nurse watched and hoped that she, too, could one day have a love that great in her life. It was her wish that it be Garrett Trivoli.


Chapter 9

Garrett sat in a daze. She’d been warned of the defense attorney’s tactics to try to get their clients off the hook, but the surgeon never thought that they would resort to something so low. She stared mindlessly out of the car window as they traveled back to Pittsburgh from their court date in Fayette County. She wasn’t even sure who it was that was driving, all she could think about was how could she have let herself fall right into their hands. ‘If it hadn’t been for the District Attorney protesting the line of questioning, I could have been the one that damn lawyer said tried to rape the waitress.’ There were so many questions and the answers that the slick lawyer demanded really had no bearing on the case except to find anything that he could about the surgeon and discredit her testimony in the eyes of the jury.


Garrett sighed as she watched the world go by around her. ‘Is that what I’ve been doing all of my adult life…watching everything go by?’ His questions and her testimony had given her a lot to think about and it wasn’t all cut and dry like she had thought her life to be. You either were or you weren’t, but what if you didn’t know? She could see now, reflecting back on it, how he had pulled the answers that he was looking for out of her. ‘How could people stoop that low?’ Her mind traveled back to the events of earlier that day.


The huge wooden doors opened up and she was beckoned to enter into the courtroom. The prosecution called her as a material witness and it was now her duty to give testimony to the collection of the samples from the body of Leza McCoy, the waitress that she had treated as a trauma patient.


Garrett was the last of the medical personnel to be called to the stand. The others had been called one by one as to their importance and involvement in the participation of the collection of evidence from the patient. Each one had remained in the gallery of the courtroom when they were dismissed from the stand. Whether it was for support of the next one to be called or just the interest in the case itself, it didn’t matter, it just let the number of witnesses in the hall dwindle down to the most significant, namely Dr. Garrett Trivoli. The lone survivor, again.


The surgeon took in a deep breath and started her walk to the front of the courtroom. Taking her place at the empty chair next to the bench, Garrett waited for the Bailiff to swear her in, then as she lowered her hand from the oath-taking position, took her designated seat. Once settled in, the smiling face of the District Attorney met the surgeon.


The polite mannerisms of the man made it obvious as to the reason for his early rise in the power structure of the county’s judicial system. The prosecutor’s first questions were ones of verification as to who she was and what her qualifications were on the night of the alleged crime. His boyish charm put Garrett at ease as he asked the pointed questions associated with the collection of the evidence from the victim’s body and the handling thereof as it was readied for the crime lab. When the events of that collection were relayed to the courtroom for the jury to hear, the young man courteously thanked her for her time and assistance in the trial. Having no more information to extract from her, the lawyer stated, "It’s your witness," nodding to the defense table. Then he turned and sat down pleased with the surgeon’s testimony.


The judge looked out over the jury and then announced, "It’s now the Defense’s turn to question the witness."


Garrett let her eyes drift over the courtroom while she waited for the defense to cross-examine her. The sight of blonde hair drew her attention to the last row where Danni was seated with Mom and Rosie. ‘Just a few more minutes and we’re on our way home. I’ve got to remember to check on Chris before I head home from the hospital. Don’t want to…’ Garrett’s thoughts were disturbed as she heard her name being called out by the Adonis of a man in the suit that was standing in front of her.


"Miss…I mean…Dr. Trivoli," the intense looking dark-haired man flashed his well rehearsed grin at her, "Isn’t it a little unusual for someone of your age and experience to be assuming such an important role in the Trauma Center?"


The question caught Garrett off guard. "Huh, what does my age have to do with it? I have plenty of experience."


He laughed and let his right hand slide smoothly into his suit jacket pocket. "I ask the questions here and you answer them, Doctor." He turned and played to the jury acting like the woman on the witness stand had no courtroom savvy. It would be his first attempt of many to discredit her testimony. "Then, can you tell us non-medical people exactly what is considered a trauma in the world of medicine?"