A VERY ODD COUPLE
Part VI

Previously on my ER

Dave needed a place to stay and moved in with Luka.
One night, on his way home he was attacked,
and ended up in the ER seriously injured.
Luka treated him, and Elizabeth operated.
Dave's sister, Chris, traveled to Chicago to be with him.
Luka offered her a place to stay while she was in Chicago.
---------------------
The sound of a phone ringing roused Chris from an uneasy sleep.
"Go away," she muttered as she pulled the quilt over her head. "I'm not here."
She heard footsteps rush past her door and down the stairs. A few seconds later the ringing stopped. Half awake, Chris rolled over to see how much time she had left until her next shift. Bleary-eyed she tried to make out the digits on the clock, wondering vaguely why it was a digital display and not roman numerals like it should have been.
Her eyes widened in shock as she remembered where she was, and why.
"Oh god, Dave," she said as she sat up in the bed. She was suddenly afraid that the phone call was from the hospital with bad news. Throwing back the quilt, she hurried to the top of the stairs.
Luka was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, with the phone in his hand. He had obviously been in the shower; his hair was wet and all he was wearing was a towel. Normally Chris would have been taking in all the details of his slender, yet finely toned body, but now all she could concentrate on was the one-sided conversation going on fifteen feet below her.
"Yes, thank you for informing me."
"No, I was awake already."
"I should be there in an hour or two."
"I will see you later. Goodbye."
He replaced the handset. Chris couldn't see his face, and was unable to tell if he had received good or bad news. She sat on the top step, almost afraid to ask.
Luka sat thinking for a few minutes, before standing and turning to climb the stairs. He was startled to see Chris sitting there watching him.
"Luka," said Chris with fear in her voice. "Was that the hospital? Is something wrong?"
"It was a colleague of mine from the hospital. They wished to query me about a patient I admitted yesterday."

"Is there any news of Dave?" Chris choked out the words.

"He is doing fine," said Luka reassuringly as he climbed the stairs and sat down beside her.
"Oh God, when I heard the phone, I was convinced it was bad news."

"It is all right," said Luka as he instinctively put his arm around her. "Dave is doing well, and Dr Corday thinks he will make a full recovery."
Luka could see tears starting to form in Chris's eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said turning away. "It's just, I couldn't bear to lose him."
Luka gently turned her face towards him. "I care about Dave as well. He has become a good friend to me these past months."

"He's told me a lot about you," said Chris.

"Do not believe a word of it, it is all lies."

Chris smiled.

"That's better," said Luka. He shivered slightly.

"You'd better get dressed," warned Chris. "We don't want you to end up in a hospital bed next to Dave."

"It would certainly make for some interesting rumors."
Chris looked at him quizzically.

"I'll explain on the way," said Luka as he stood up and returned to his shower.
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The sensation of someone or something tugging at his side roused Dave from a dreamless sleep. Not wanting to face the outside world just yet, he tried to push away whatever it was that was annoying him, but his arm wouldn't move. Puzzled, his eyes flickered open and he saw the cast that was encasing his left arm from hand to elbow.
"Oh yeah, that's right," he thought. "My arm's broken." He was about to close his eyes and go back to sleep when he noticed the figure standing over him.
Elizabeth was just finishing her afternoon rounds. She had just completed her examination of the chest drain and was replacing the bandages when she heard Dave speak.
"Morning, Dr Corday," said Dave.

"Actually, it's nearly evening," replied Elizabeth. "You've slept through most of the day." She moved round to the foot of the bed and made a few notes on the chart.

"Cool. Hope I didn't miss any visitors."

"If you did, I'm sure they'll return. Now that you're awake, I want to do a few neurological tests."

"Can I have some time to study first?"

Elizabeth smiled involuntarily. Malucci seemed to be getting back to his usual irrepressible self. She quickly went through the tests, checking Dave's reflexes, and responses to stimuli. Finally she untied his hospital gown and checked his breath sounds, wincing involuntarily at the array of bruises covering his back. It was a miracle that he hadn't sustained any spinal damage from the kicks and blows he must have received.
"All done," she said as she retied his gown and lowered him back to the bed.
Dave sank back gratefully against the pillows. He would never have thought that the simple act of sitting up unaided would have left him so exhausted. "Oh God," he thought to himself. "Am I ever going to feel normal again?"
Elizabeth noted the beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead, and the worried look that furrowed his brow. "I know it probably doesn't feel like it at the moment, but this will pass."

Dave looked at her with puzzlement on his face. "How did you know what I was thinking?"

"Believe it or not, I have treated people in your situation before. One day you're fit as a fiddle, able to take on the world, and the next you're stuck in a hospital bed, weak as a kitten."

"It just feels so wrong. I mean I'm the guy who gets called to break up fights in the E.R. And now look at me. I can barely raise my head without feeling sick. I hate feeling like this." He turned his head away from Elizabeth so that she wouldn't see the tears that were threatening to fall.
Elizabeth sighed and sat down on the bed beside him.
"Look at me, Malucci," she said. Dave did so reluctantly.
"You've been through a lot, both physically and mentally, in the last twenty-four hours.
You cannot expect to just wake up and find yourself functioning normally again. It is going to take time and patience on your part. Now, I have managed to put you back together again, but the rest is up to you. I hope you are not afraid of hard work, because that is what it is going to take."
"I'll work as hard as it takes to get fit again."

"And once you <are> fit, will you apply the same effort to your work in the ER?"
Elizabeth watched Dave's face fall as she continued. "This is not the right time or place, but when you're feeling better, you and I are going to have a long talk about your future in medicine."

"Surprised you think I have one," muttered Dave.

"You would be surprised what I think about your future. In any case, it isn't up to me.
You have the intelligence and the compassion to be a successful doctor. What you lack is experience and the proper attitude to your responsibilities as a physician. The one, you will gain over time. The other; well, that's up to you."
She got up to go. "We'll talk about this another time. Think about what I've said."
"Dr Corday"
"Yes?"

"Before, when I was in pre-op, you told me you'd get me through the operation." Dave paused before continuing, "I wasn't imagining that, was I?"
"You weren't imagining it. I promised that I would get you through this, and I was not referring just to the operation."
"Just wanted to say thank-you, I really appreciated it."

Elizabeth smiled at Dave. "You're welcome."

She looked over to the door. "It looks like you have a visitor. I'll check in on you later."
Dave watched her leave, while thinking about what she had said to him. Did she really think he had a future as a doctor, or was she just being nice to an invalid? He watched as she stopped to talk to Chris at the I.C.U. doors.
------------------------
"Dr Corday," said Chris, with cool politeness, while wondering what Elizabeth had been saying to Dave <this> time.

"Dr Malucci," said Elizabeth.

"How is Dave?"

"He's making good progress. We should be able to remove the chest tube in a few days."

"Good. I presume he's allowed visitors?"

"Keep it to one person at a time, and make sure he gets plenty of rest between visits."

"I'll take good care of him."
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Chris walked over to Dave's bed. She noticed that while he still looked as if he had been the loser in a bar-fight, he was a lot more alert than the last time she had seen him.
"How're you doing?" she asked, as she gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"A lot better than I was last time I saw you. At least I'm a bit more lucid than I was then. Man, I was really out of it."

"Oh, I don't know, you seemed pretty normal to me."

"Ha ha. So where did you get to, these last few hours? I mean you didn't hang around here waiting for me to wake up, did you?"

"Hell no. Seriously though, Luka said I could stay at his place, your place that is. Hope you don't mind me using your room."

"No worries, just don't touch anything. You never know what you might find."

"Well, I've already found a couple of books of mine, which you swore blind that you'd returned to me," replied Chris with a mock frown on her face. "Not to mention your secret stash of magazines."

"Oh no, not my magazines," groaned Dave.

"You should really find a more original place to put them. I mean you've been hiding them under your mattress since high school."

"Old habits die hard. Listen Chris, thank you for being here for me. I mean, I know it hasn't been easy for you."

"It's been easier for me than for you. I'm not the one attached to all these machines and IV's"

"That's not what I meant."

Chris bit her lip, not trusting herself to speak. Seeing Dave lying here, with all the monitors beeping, had brought back a lot of painful memories for her.

Dave noticed the tears in her eyes. He took her hand and squeezed it gently.
"I <am> going to get better. Dr Corday says I'll be out of the I.C.U. in a few days."
To change the subject he asked, "So what did you do with Luka?"

"He's downstairs in the E.R.," replied Chris. "Said he'd do some work there first, and then come up and visit. We didn't want to tire you out having the two of us together."
They fell silent for a while.
"Oh, I almost forgot," said Chris. "Good news and bad news. Good news, I phoned Mom, and she's definitely not flying out."

"What's the bad news?"

"She said she's definitely taking the train to Chicago to see you when you get out of hospital."

Dave groaned. "Oh well, at least Luka keeps the place tidy enough, so she won't have any complaints about my lack of housekeeping abilities."
-----------------------------
Luka joined them some time later. Chris excused herself to phone their parents and give them the latest news.
"Poor Chris," said Dave as he watched her leave. "This has been really hard for her."

"It is hard for all of us," said Luka.

"Oh, I know that." Dave sighed. "It's just that this isn't the first time that she's had to sit over someone she knows in an I.C.U. ward."

"I did not know. Was it another member of your family?"

"No. It was a guy she was seeing in college. One day he just collapsed with a brain hemorrhage. It was a few days before they were able to get in touch with his parents. Chris stayed by his side the entire time. When his parents finally got there, all they could do was pull the plug. Chris was devastated."

"I can imagine. They were serious about each other?"

"Serious enough to be looking at med-school brochures together. Alex was the guy who got her interested in medicine in the first place. See, Chris had been sort of drifting her way through college. I mean, she was getting good grades but she didn't know what she wanted to do with them. Then she met Alex, and got the idea of becoming a doctor. After he died, she decided she owed it to Alex to not give up on the idea."
Luka was silent for a moment after hearing this story.
"I can see why she did not wish to discuss it before. I cannot say that I blame her."

"Like I said, this isn't easy for her. She told me that in med-school, the first time she had to go into an I.C.U., she nearly had a panic attack. She got used to it eventually, but seeing me here like this hasn't helped. Listen; don't let her know I told you about it. She hates for anyone to think she's weak."
"I will not mention it to her." Luka continued, "At least you will be out of here soon enough."

"I can't wait. Although I'll miss some of the nurses, they are kinda hot."

"Do you ever think about anything else?" said Luka with a mock scowl.

"For now thinking's all I can do, but just give a few more days."

Luka shook his head in disbelief, thinking to himself that at least Dave's sense of humor hadn't been damaged.
To be continued

Part V

Part VII

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