Part 9.
"H-hand me that paring knife Cindy.. D-do you have any clean dish towels around.. Yeah... That one in the drawer.. Hand it to me.. Do you have a needle and thread?? Boil some water.. Put the needles in there.. Okay.."
Elizabeth glared at Kurt, who sat on his haunches, the gun pointed lazily at the two women as the attempted to fix the mess he had made. "I.. I need a smaller knife.. A quarter inch blade.." She muttered, looking over at Kurt. "Do you have a jack knife?? A small blade.. I need a small blade."
Disinterested, he tossed the pocket knife to Elizabeth who dipped it into the vinegar and hot water solution. "Okay.." As Elizabeth made a cut into the flesh, they heard a knock on the door.
Kurt stood up sharply, ready to fire. Cindy grabbed his arm. "Don't.. Please Kurt.. Let Dave see who it is.. Then.. Then he can fix Danny.. Don't hurt anyone else.. Please.." Tears rolled down her cheeks, washing away the old ones and leaving fresh trails in their place.
Kurt turned the gun back on Elizabeth. "Go.. Go get the door. Don't try anything stupid."
Elizabeth slowly rose to her feet and walked out of the kitchen to the front door. There outside the peephole was Zadro and Doris. She breathed a slight sigh of relief. Who had called them? Mark?
She unlocked the deadbolt and left the chain hanging.
"Hey Dave.. We got a pretty frantic call saying there was a shooting.. Is everything alright in there?" Doris cocked an eyebrow and tried to peer in.
"Is.. Is there police with you?? It's.. bad... in here.." Whispered Elizabeth, glancing back into the room.
"Yeah.. They're downstairs.. I'll radio them up.." Doris nodded and within seconds, she heard the police creeping up the stairs..
"I.. I'll try to convince him to let you in.. I.. I don't know if I can do this alon-" Elizabeth felt the metal bite into her back and the hot wetness of Kurt's foul breath on her neck.
"Who's there??!! What are you trying to pull Dave?" He poked the gun into 'Dave's' spine again and growled.
"They're paramedics.. Somebody called them.. One of the neighbours.. Probably saw Cindy dragging Danny upstairs.. Please let them in Kurt.. If you want Danny alive.. They're his best chance.."
Kurt eyed them suspiciously and waved Doris, Zadro and the one police officer dressed a paramedic into the room. They crept into the small apartment with the gurney, stopping beside Danny and slowly rolling him onto the backboard.
"Okay.. Open the kit.. One unit of o-neg to start.. God Dave.. What did you use to cut the kid open? A jack knife?? Here.." Doris sighed as she watched Elizabeth pick through the bag of goodies, and stitched up the body enough to stop the bleeding.
"Okay.. We gotta get him into a hospital.. I'll radio in-" Kurt put a hand on Zadro's walkie-talkie, stopping him.
"No.. He stays here.. Fix him here." Kurt glared at the two medics, waving the gun.
"We can't man.. If we leave him here he dies.. You got it? Then you won't be charged with attempted murder.. It'll be MURDER.. He'll die.." Zadro slipped the o2 mask over Danny's unconcious face.
"Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do!" Kurt roared, bringing up the gun to fire. He whipped around firing off a few shots, exploding the flower pot on the window sill, and hitting Elizabeth in the chest. She fell backward against the counter as she saw the cop draw his weapon.
Two sharp reports from the undercover policeman's gun and Kurt lay dead on the floor. Blood trickled from his mouth and the group stood over him shuddering. Doris sat on her haunches and took his pulse. "He's dead.."
"I'd hope so.. Those were perfect shots.." The cop smirked and poked the dead man with the toe of his shoe. "Bastard."
"Okay.. Run downstairs.. Get the other backboard. We have to get these two out of here.. NOW!" Zadro yelled looking at the growing crimson puddle underneath Elizabeth.
**
"Who taught you to drive Dr.Greene? Your grandmother??" Dave cursed
still staring at the blinking clock on the SUV's dashboard. As they pulled
into the hospital they were interrupted by two ambulances. First Zadro
jumped out of one and Doris jumped out of the other.
Mark looked protectively back at his son asleep in his carseat. Carefully he pulled him from the seat and hurried inside the double doors passing off his newborn son to Chuny. "What's going on.. Who are on the rigs that just pulled in??" Mark said, his voice trembling. He already knew who was on those gurneys.
"Dave Malucci and his brother.. Danny's boyfriend went a little nuts.. He was DOA at the scene. Dave has a chest wound and Danny's got a severe abdominal bleed. Dave managed to stop the bleeding before he was shot, but.." Chuny was cut off as the gurneys pulled into the hall.
Dave looked at Mark with Elizabeth's harried expression and worried eyes. "Dammit, Dr.Greene.. Help me.."
Weaver cocked a brow.. Did she just hear Mark's wife, Elizabeth Corday refer to her husband as 'Dr.Greene'?? Something fishy was going on.
They pulled them into Trauma one and two respectively as the surgeons and doctors attacked the challenge before them. Benton gave a low whistle as he looked at the abdomen that Elizabeth had diligently stitched up while having a gun pointed at her. "Man.. Malucci did this?? It's surgical quality.. The half knots.. The slipstitch.. I know plastics tried to recruit him but DAMN! When he's got passion and drive behind his work.." He shook his head sadly and went to work extracting the bullet.
***
"Sternal saw... Thorocotomy tray.. Come on.. We're a team here.. Let's
get him breathing again. Come on Malucci... You can do this.. Don't die
on me.." Weaver cursed and slowly angled the scope, inserting the tube.
"Okay.. It's in.. Bag him.."
Haleh connected the bag and started breathing for the unconcious doctor.
Luka winced, standing by as Weaver started up the sternal saw. It was a normal part of the trauma room, but to see it used on another colleague.. Only a year after Lucy.. After Lucy had died.. He shuddered, Malucci wouldn't die.. Malucci would be okay.
The whine of the saw, the crunch of bone and flesh and the gasp of the other doctors in the room as Weaver cracked the chest. Carter looked up at his fellow colleagues and started internal compressions. Tears came to his eyes as he listened to the heart monitors blare.. Dave.. He couldn't be dead.. "INTERNAL PADDLES.. Charge to twenty.. CLEAR.."
Mark sat in the doorway, tears rolling down his cheeks. Dave standing beside him, shaken as well, watching Benton with his hands deep inside his brother.
"They'll be okay right? Mark?" Dave looked up from the tiled floor and watched Mark running into the Trauma room towards the bloodied, still body where Elizabeth still lay deep inside.
Anguish overcame him as Carter charged the paddles again. "Charge to 50 CLE-" Stumbling into the room, Mark toppled towards the gurney.
"Dr.Greene! No!!" Dave watched with horror as the grief stricken man lurched towards his wife. "Mark.. No." Dave ran, tripping over his feet, trying to get the man away from the doctors, away from the gurney, away from the defibrillator paddles.
With a flying tackle, that his high school football coach would have been proud of, Dave leaped across the room and pushed Mark out of the way.
As Carter looked up at the monitors looking for a rhythm and his eyes widened in shock at the head of surgery stumbling towards him, Dave fell on the gurney.
The force of the shock sent Dave reeling backwards and onto the floor, against Mark. His head rolled to the side, and he lay limp as the doctors rushed to his aid.
"Goddamnit! Page Chen and.. Page somebody.. We need help in here.. The bodies are piling up." Weaver looked frantically from trauma one to trauma two.
"Dr.Weaver.. We got a rhythm!!" Carter yelped, pulling the paddles from
Dave's chest.