Thanks to Sam for Beta reading this,
thanks also to Monica and Sarah for their suggestions re the
title.
February 14th 2001
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We see a fuzzy background on a TV screen. After a few seconds a
picture comes up of a dark haired, olive complexioned young man
in his late twenties or early thirties, sprawled in an armchair.
"Is this thing working?" he says to a person off screen.
"What? Oh yeah, right." Facing the camera, he says,
"Hi, my name is Dave, and I'm a doctor...so you can call me
Dr Dave." He smirks at a person off-screen. "Man, this
sounds so corny."
We hear an inaudible voice. "Okay, okay," says Dave.
"I'll be serious."
Putting on a relatively serious expression, he starts again.
"I guess you want to know how it all started, huh? Truth is...I'm
not really sure. I mean, everyone had been on edge the whole day.
After what had happened the last Valentines day...well, we were
all a little uneasy. But it was just an ordinary day. The usual
mix of traumas and walking wounded. Nothing strange. I'd been
treating this kid...can't have been more than fifteen. He...he'd
been shot in a drive-by shooting. Word was, he'd been in a gang.
Anyway, I had the job of explaining to his brother that he
probably wasn't gonna make it through the surgery. It was pretty
quite at that stage so I brought him into an exam room. Anyway, I
was telling him this and he was getting kinda freaked out...and
he's yelling and screaming at me, and I'm trying to calm him
down, and the next thing, he's pulled out a freaking gun."
------------------------
The picture changes to a red haired woman, probably late thirties
or early forties. Sitting primly in the chair, she says to the
camera, "Hello, my name is Kerry, and I'm Chief of Emergency
Medicine at County General hospital."
We hear the sound of suppressed laughter and Kerry glares at
someone off-screen, making a 'cut-throat' motion with her hand.
"I was having a fairly ordinary day," she says. "Well,
as ordinary as you get in one of the busiest Emergency Rooms in
Illinois. I was trying to find Dr Mal...Dave, to assist with an
incoming patient. One of the nurses told me that he was talking
to the brother of a patient in an exam room. I wasn't sure
whether or not to disturb him or not, but the other residents
were all busy, so I decided to check discreetly whether he had
finished with the him."
Kerry flushes slightly as she continues, "Of course, I was
wondering if he <had> finished, and was just trying to have
a quick nap."
A voice says from off-screen. "I can't believe you thought
that." But we can hear that he sounds amused rather than
offended.
Kerry makes a face before continuing. "So I decided that I'd
listen in on the conversation and perhaps try to discreetly
signal to Dave that he was needed. There was a screen just inside
the door, so I couldn't see them at first. But the brother was
yelling so loudly that they couldn't hear me either. I...I looked
round the screen, and I saw the gun...pointing straight at Dave."
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Dave shifts uneasily in the chair. "So I'm looking at this
gun, and a part of me is thinking, no way man...this can't be
happening...that can't be a real gun. Another part of me is
thinking, shit, this is it...he's gonna shoot me. I couldn't
believe it. I mean it seemed like such a dumb way to go...shot by
someone I didn't even know...had hardly spoken to."
He smiles wryly, "I'd sort of always hoped that if I did get
shot, it'd be at the age of ninety and a jealous husband would
have pulled the trigger...but this...man...it seemed so...so
unreal. So I'm standing there and I'm trying to think, what the
fu...hell do I do? Do I try and grab the gun? Talk him down? Hope
he'll suddenly drop dead on the spot? I was just sort of frozen
to the spot. And all I could see was the gun...pointing straight
at my chest. Shit, even a blind arthritic grandmother wouldn't
have been able to miss me."
He laughs, but we can tell that it's forced. "So I try and
look away from the gun...see if there's anything I can grab...maybe
throw at him...distract him...and I glance over at the screen...and
I see a shadow there...and I'm thinking, thank God...someone's
gonna rescue me...and I look down to the floor to see if I can
figure out who it is...you know see if it's someone who'll be
able to help...and that's when I saw the crutch, and I knew it
was the Chief. And I'm thinking, no way...she's never gonna be
able to take him...and if she goes for help, he'll probably hear
her and shoot me...or worse...he'll shoot her ...and I try to
look away, so that he won't notice what I'm staring at...and I
try to reason with him so he won't panic and just pull the
trigger. But he just gets madder and madder and he cocks the gun."
Dave is silent for a few seconds. "I know it only made a
small sound...but it was the loudest thing I've ever heard...I
knew that he was gonna pull the trigger and I'd probably be dead
before I hit the floor."
---------------------
Kerry bites her lip as she says, "I could see that Dave
wasn't having any luck in calming the man down. And when he
pointed the gun at him again...it was like time had slowed down...I
could see his hand tense on the trigger...I could hear the gun
being cocked...and all I could think of was the very first thing
I'd been told when learning to shoot. 'Never point a gun at
anything unless you want to destroy it'. I didn't stop to think...I
just swung with my crutch, hoping to knock the gun away before he
fired...or at least hoping to deflect his aim so that he'd hit
the floor or something...I heard a crack...I heard a crack as I
hit him...but he still had the gun in his hand...so I hit him
again...and again until he was on the ground..." Kerry stops
at this point and buries her head in her hands.
The off-screen voice asks gently, "D'you want me to stop the
tape?"
Kerry rubs her eyes, "No...no, I'm fine. Anyway..." We
can see her visibly pull herself together, before she continues.
"I was so angry at him...I kept thinking, how dare he come
into <my> ER...threaten <my> staff. I don't know what
I would have done if Dave hadn't called my name."
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Dave says, "So I'm standing there, wondering if I dare try
and jump him...and I can see his arm muscles tense like he's
gonna pull the trigger...and I can't move... It's like a bad
dream where you're stuck in molasses or something. I mean, I've
heard of people saying they were 'rooted to the spot', and now I
know what they meant. And I'm thinking, this is it...I'm going to
die...and the next thing I see the Chief lashing out with her
crutch...and there's a bang...and I still can't move. Kerry's
there, beating the crap out of this guy...and I can't do a thing
to help her. Finally I manage to take a step," he pauses
before continuing. "And that's when I realized that I'd been
shot."
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To be continued