The Chief Resident nodded his head and moved out into the hallway. "I wonder what happened?"


"Don’t know…they never said what the injuries where, just that they were both coming in the same ambulance." Rosie was hoping that it wasn’t too bad, it was never a pleasure to work on someone that you knew.


Just then the first sight of the ambulance crew came into view and all eyes were on them, eagerly anticipating the report. The Medics wheeled the stretcher into the room but instead of a deep male voice giving the report, a familiar female one was heard instead. Rosie looked up, surprised to see Danni dressed in casual clothing consisting of jeans and a pullover top.


"Fifty-two year old male unrestrained driver of a single car into a utility pole accident. We initially found him unresponsive on our arrival at the scene." Danni watched as they transferred the man from one stretcher to another. "Heart rate was Sinus Brady at 56, showing some PVC’s with occasional runs of bigeminy lasting for a minute or so. His BP was 110 over 82 and Respiration was at a rate of 12."


"Okay, thank you Nurse Bossard." Rene looked questioningly at her. "New uniform?" he teased.


"This?" Danni looked down at her clothing, "No, just out shopping when we saw this accident happen in front of us."


"Us?" Rene looked behind the blonde woman. "Where is the rest of the ‘us’ at?" He knew that Garrett would not be far away.


Danni tried to hide a knowing grin. "She’ll be here in a min…"


"I told you that I don’t need this!" The sound of Dr. Trivoli’s commanding voice traveled down the hall to the Trauma Room. "I can walk perfectly fine."


Danni wrinkled her nose in response to the voice. "There she is now." Then turned to see the hallway filled with the presence of the Flight Surgeon.


"Sure you can Doc." The medic pushing the wheelchair just rolled his eyes and laughed. "Just humor me, okay?"


"Humor you! You want me to humor you? How about you humoring me and let me out of this thing." The surgeon was twisting and turning in the chair as she ranted and raved.


Danni just sheepishly grinned, "They always say that doctors make the worst patients." Then shrugged her shoulders and left the patient from the car accident in the hands of the Trauma Team. "Looks like I’m needed elsewhere."



* * *

Rosie shook her head. "I’m glad that I’m not the nurse to get her out of those clothes." There was a subdued chuckle coming from the members of the team with that comment.


"Okay, everyone! Let’s get to our jobs, eh?" Rene urged them on as he thought. ‘And I’m glad that I’m not the physician to treat her. Ah…But Danni will keep her from killing anyone…I hope.’ The Trauma Fellow turned his attention back to the MVA patient before him. "Let’s get a 12 lead EKG and draw some blood for labs."



* * *

The Charge Nurse passed by the room with the mutterings of anger casually spewing out into the hall. The patient was obviously upset and blaming everything from the rain to landmines as the cause of his or her misfortune. Curious of the voice, Mom stuck her head into the room. "Is there anything that I can do to…Dr. Trivoli?" Karen’s eyes bugged out to see the surgeon trying to get her pants off over the swollen left ankle.


"What?" The voice was loud and irritated. "Can’t you see that I’m busy?"


Karen had now let her face reflect the Charge Nurse that she was. "I’ll get your nurse to help you with those, Doctor. Now, could you just stop with the cursing out of the world? I mean…what kind of example are you setting for the rest of the patients?" Mom’s hands were on her hips by now and her right foot tapping to the cadence of her words. "Now, who’s your nurse? I’ll go get them."


The blue eyes of the surgeon lifted to meet Karen’s. The raging sea in them only worsened with the mention of calling her nurse for help. "You call that perverted little man back in here and I’ll send him off on another wild goose chase again. I’m not having him take my jeans off."


Mom had to laugh; Garrett was right. She thought for a moment and could hear the stories in her head already that would boast of John’s ability to get into the tall, dark, and deadly-with-a-scalpel, surgeon’s pants. It would read like something out of a romance novel of wanton lust. The seductive power that the male nurse possessed to land the great and all-powerful Dr. Garrett Trivoli would be told again and again.


"Come on, let me give you a hand." Karen closed the curtain to shield the woman from any wayward eyes. "You know, I bet Danni would just love to help you out of these. Where is she anyway?" The nurse looked at the swollen ankle and asked rather shyly, "What the heck did you do to this…use it to beat that lawyer over the head when no one was looking?"


"No, I was going over to the accident scene after parking the Blazer and all of a sudden, I was almost knee deep in a blasted puddle in the middle of the lanes of traffic." Garrett sighed pointing to the other trauma. "So Danni’s over there filling out the report with the Medics."


The Charge Nurse laughed trying not to let it show. "Garrett, welcome to Pennsylvania. You’ve just been sucked into one of our famous potholes."


"Pothole, damn it! It felt like a crater in a minefield."


"Well, we’ve been known to have small cars swallowed whole in them." Karen shook her head, "Come on now, let me help you with those jeans."


"Why would they let them get that big? Doesn’t anybody see them when they start out little?" The surgeon winced as the older nurse gently eased the stiff denim material over the injured limb.


‘Should I? Hell, I might as well try! Danni, here goes.’ "You know, Doc, not everyone sees things the same. It takes some little feeling or emotion to let some people know that things are different about a person while another may be pretty dense to the activity going on around them." Karen watched for any sign that she was being understood before she continued on. "Take the way that you and Danni have become friends over the last few months. Most people might think that you two are very close friends."


"Well, of course we’re close. You work with a person long enough you get to know them."


"I don’t mean in that way, Doc. There’s something different about the relationship that the two of you have." Mom felt like she was sticking her neck out on the chopping block and hoped that Garrett would know what she meant.


Garrett looked down at her discolored ankle. "Hmmm…" she wasn’t happy with the way it looked "That’s because we live together. We both know what is going on in the other’s life."


Mom’s eyes rolled at that statement. "Sometimes, Doc, I think you’d need to be hit with a railroad tie to wake up and see what’s going on." Karen set the jeans down on the foot of the stretcher as she prepared to let the steam out of her boiler. This was getting her mad now. Who would believe that the skilled surgeon in front of her could not know that Danni had feelings for her? "Doc, you can be so observant of the tiniest imperfection in someone’s anatomy and not see the giant good that your being here does for her. I don’t get it. I just don’t get you." Karen pulled the sheet up, covering the surgeon to her waist. "You better start thinking about what’s going to happen when this year is all over. I swear, Garrett Trivoli, if you just leave without so much as a goodbye, I’ll…I’ll…" The Charge Nurse saw the puzzled look on Garrett’s face. "Well, just don’t! I don’t know what she sees in you, but then again who does when they’re in..." Mom ended her thought without finishing when she heard the footsteps at the door.


"Hey! There you are. How’s the ankle? Ouch!" Danni stuck her head into the curtained off room, her face showing pain at the sight of the surgeon’s ankle.


"Yeah, too bad it ain’t as thick as her head, she’d be just fine then." Karen bustled out of the room. "I’ll go get an attending to come look at that."


"What’s up with Mom?" The petite blonde motioned toward the door.


"I’m not sure. She was telling me about the car-swallowing potholes and then started to talk about…" Garrett stopped short of finishing her thought out loud. ‘Our friendship and saying goodbye.’ "Ah…my ankle and how bad it looks." The surgeon studied Danni’s face. ‘Could Mom be right? Is there more than just an everyday friendship between us?’ This was something that she was going to have to think about and this just wasn’t the right time or place.


"It does look kind of nasty, Gar. Are you going to be able to walk on it?"


The surgeon tried to move her ankle in any easy direction. Each way that she tried, her action was met with pain. "Maybe you better call the Command Desk and notify them that we’re out of service for a while." A scowl was on her face as she handed over her cell phone to Danni.


The nurse accepted it and began the round of phone calls that would be necessary.



* * *

Being a medical professional, especially one that is known for her demanding nature, helped to hasten Garrett’s time in the E.R. It wasn’t long after the customary examination, X-rays, treating, and teaching that the petite blonde assisted the crutch-using surgeon to the door of the Blazer in the driveway.


Using crutches was something new for the surgeon and she found herself feeling a little like a baby bird does going out for its first flying lesson. The tall woman was in no mood for joking as everyone within earshot could tell. The faint mutterings under her breath hinted at first of the pothole but were now turning in the direction of the crutches instead. The surgeon always thought of herself as striving for perfection while now all she was striving for was to go home and rest, away from the staring looks and pity-filled faces of those who saw her.