Cook County General Hospital - 10:22 AM

     The Emergency Room at Cook Country General Hospital was almost empty.  The trauma rooms were empty, as were the exam rooms and the waiting area.  Curtain Area Three held only two patients, an elderly man who thought he might have had a heart attack, and a young mother who had managed to catch the flu from her seven-year-old son.  In Curtain Two, a middle-aged man who had injured his leg while rollerblading was waiting for his x-rays to come back.  And in Curtain One, Dr. Dave Malucci was taking a nap.

     The rest of the current ER staff, Mark Green, Luka Kovac, Abby Lockhart, and Peter Benton, along with most of the nurses, huddled around the admit desk with the clerk, Randi Wozinak, watching the tense scene on the television news in front of them.  WGN had begun broadcasting within moments of the first shots being fired, and both CNN and FoxNews had picked up their feed soon after.

     "Again, updating our top story," the announcer began.  "At approximately 10:15AM, 911 Emergency Services received a report of shots fired inside this Chicago high school.  The name of the school is currently being withheld, until the parents of the students can be notified.  We do have unconfirmed reports that there are three gunmen, all possibly students at the school.  It is not known at this time how many people remain in the building, but school enrollment is seventeen hundred eighty-four..." 

     "Why do these children keep doing this?" Kovac asked.  "Why do they need to kill each other?"

     "Who knows?" Mark answered, sighing.  The emergency service receiver behind them started to beep, and he turned to the charge nurse, Haleh.  "Could you get that?  We need to see how many we're going to be getting."

     Haleh nodded, and pressed the button to answer the call.  "County General.  We read you dispatch."

     "County General, this is Cook County Sheriff.  We need two docs to respond to a major shooting incident.  Air Evac requested.  Advise you to prepare for multiple casualties."

     "We read you, Cook County Sheriff.  We're watching it now.  How many casualties?"

     "So far, forty-nine.  Twelve major, thirty-seven minor."

     "How many are coming here?"

     "We're sending all majors your way.  We'll try to divert all minors to LakePoint and Mercy, but you may still end up getting some of them.  You're the closest to the incident, County."

     "What is the location of the incident?"

     "Harry Truman High School, County."

     Benton's head swiveled in the speaker's direction.  "Where?"

     "Cook County Sheriff, could you repeat location?"

     "Harry Truman High School."

     "Damn it!" Benton swore, slamming his fist into the admit desk, making everyone huddled around it jump.  He pushed himself away quickly.  "I'm going.  Mark, who's coming with me?"

     "Dr. Benton, is there some particular reason you're volunteering for this?" Mark asked, exchanging confused glances with Kovac.

     "Yeah, there is.  Harry Truman High School."

     "Your alma mater?"

     "No.  That's where Carter is this morning," he answered, staring intently at the television screen as the cameras focused on a group of students carrying an injured teacher away from the building, and then turning toward the elevators.  "I'm going."

     "Me too," Mark piped up quickly, pulling his eyes away from the scene on the TV and following Benton toward the elevator to the roof access.  "Kovac, get set up for multiple traumas.  Page Weaver and Finch, wake Malucci and Chen up.  You're going to need as many hands as you can get in a few minutes."

     "I've got it, Mark," the attending answered in his thick Croatian accent.  "Good luck!"

     "Hopefully, we won't need it," Mark answered quietly, stepping through the elevator doors.  As the door closed, Mark glanced at Peter Benton, who had his eyes closed and his face turned upwards.  "Peter, Carter's got a good head on his shoulders.  He'll know to get out of there."

     "Will he?" Benton returned, opening his eyes and staring straight ahead.  "Or will he stay in there to help someone else?"

     Mark sighed, knowing that the surgeon was right.  If John Carter was in that building, and if he saw other people, children, being injured, there was no way he'd leave them in there alone.  He was a damn good doctor, Carter was, and he had a good heart.  There were times in the past that Mark had worried that his compassion for others and his ability to put their welfare above his own would get the young man into trouble.  If there was ever a time that Carter would be forced to choose between saving someone else's life and saving his own, this was it.

     "We'll just have to trust him to make that decision on his own," he answered, well aware that Benton's own thoughts mirrored his own.

     "In that case," Benton responded, walking quickly through the opening doors, "I just hope he doesn't get himself killed in the process."

     "I agree."

     The two men ran up the short flight of stairs to the roof access door two at a time, ducking to avoid the whirling blades of the helicopter, and climbing aboard.  The medevac chopper took off quickly, turning as soon as it had enough clearance, leaving the calmness of the hospital behind on its way to the chaos that had erupted at Harry Truman High School.



10:26 AM

     "Malucci!" Haleh yelled through the door to Curtain One, flipping the light switch as she did.  "Malucci!!"

     "What, Haleh?  It's eleven already?"

     "No.  We've got multiple traumas on the way in.  We need you now."

     Dave Malucci rolled over slowly and groaned, throwing his arm across his eyes against the bright lights overhead.  "Why does this always happen during my naptime?"

     "Your naptime be damned," Haleh snapped, suddenly very irritated with the resident.  "There's been a shooting at a high school.  We're the closest; we're getting the criticals.  The first ones are only four minutes out.  So get your ass out of that bed, get gowned and gloved, and get to Admit!  NOW!"  The nurse turned on her heel and charged out the door, heading for the suture room to wake Dr. Jing-Mei Chen.

     Malucci shot up in bed, wiping his eyes once to clear them, his mind immediately focused on the task ahead.  A shooting at a high school, she'd said.  The criticals were coming here.  Dave sighed, and hopped out of bed, walking out of the room quickly.  "So much for my slow day," he said to himself, holding his stethoscope around his neck and trotting toward the admit desk.



     "Dr. Chen?  Jing-Mei, honey, we need you."

     "What is it, Haleh?"

     "Shooting at a high school.  Criticals are coming in.  They're about three minutes out."

     "I'll be right there."  Jing-Mei Chen rolled over in the bed, and pushed herself to sitting, dangling her feet over the edge.  A school shooting.  That meant kids.  She closed her eyes and shook her head, already saddened by what she knew she was going to see today.  She hopped off the bed and walked out the door, quickening her pace when she saw the others already waiting at the admit desk.

     "So much for my slow day."



10:29 AM

     Kerry Weaver walked through the ambulance bay doors just as quickly as she could.  "Ambulance rolling up!" she called out, moving out of the way as the first wave of doctors ran out to meet it.  She took her coat and hat off and threw them on the couch in the lounge, not wanting to waste time with her locker.  She walked back out into the corridor just as the first patient was being rolled past.  Doris was giving the doctors the bullet on him.

     "Forty-eight year old male, name Gary Evans.  GSW to the right upper chest.  B/P 110/74, pulse 104, resps 18, temp 98.9.  Conscious and alert. No respiratory distress.  Shot about 13 minutes ago.  He's the guidance counselor.  A bunch of kids broke out a window and carried him out of the building."

     The group pushed the gurney through the doors to Trauma One, Kerry and Malucci walking around the bed to grab the side of the backboard.  "On my count," Kerry said calmly.  "One, two, three!"  They lifted as one, and swiftly transferred the man to the gurney in the room.

     "Run a Trauma Panel, type and cross for four, CBC, Chem 7, ABG, spin a crit, and check his sats.  Dave, start a central line.  Hang two units O-neg on the rapid infuser.  Get x-ray in for a cross-table C-spine and a chest film, and get a Foley in," Kerry ordered, turning her attention to the patient himself.  "Mr. Evans, are you experiencing any pain?"

     "Yes," he answered.  "My shoulder."

     "Anywhere else?"

     "No.  No, just my shoulder.  Where are the kids?"

     Kerry looked up at Doris, and the EMT answered quickly.  "None of the kids in the room with him were hit.  He keeps asking about someone else too, though.  Someone who was in there but didn't climb out the window."  Doris took her backboard and gurney, and pushed them back out the door.  "Gotta get back.  See you again in a few."

     "Thanks, Doris," Kerry responded, then looked back down at the counselor.  "Did you hear that, Gary?  None of the kids were hurt."

     "What about Dr. Carter?"

     Kerry froze in place.  "What about Dr. Carter?" she echoed.

     "He was with us, in my office.  One of the boys said he'd been shot too, but no one could find him.  Did he make it out all right?"

     Dave and Kerry exchanged worried glances across the gurney, and Kerry now understood why Randi had been less than forthcoming with information over the phone.  "We don't know yet, Gary.  There are more ambulances behind you, though.  We'll let you know when he makes it in."

     "Dr. Weaver, labs are back," Haleh interrupted, handing the papers across the gurney to her as the x-ray tech pushed the portable x-ray machine through the doors.

     "Gary, we're going to all step out for just a minute while he takes your x-rays.  We'll be back in just as soon as he's done."  Motioning for Malucci to follow her, she stepped into Trauma One, glancing at the patient the doctors were transferring to the gurney in there.  It wasn't John.

     "All right, labs look good.  Blood loss is minimal.  The bullet might have nicked the artery, but that's it.  We need to get him ready for transport."

     "Clear!" the x-ray tech called out, pushing his machine back out into the hallway and taking the films to be developed.

     Kerry and Dave walked back through the doors, as did the nurses, and they converged on their patient again.

     "Mr. Evans, your labs indicate that you are going to need surgery, but I want to see your x-rays before we send you up.  I want to isolate the bullet before we try and move you.  Haleh, call the OR.  Tell them we've got a GSW to the upper right chest on the way up."

     Haleh walked to the phone and picked it up, dialing the number quickly.  The x-ray tech walked back in and handed the wet films off to Malucci before grabbing his machine again and pushing it in to Trauma Two.

     Dave took the films from the envelope and placed them up on the light board.  "There, Chief," he said to Weaver, pointing at the bullet on the backlit films.  "One bullet, lodged under the clavicle.  Artery looks to be intact."

     "All right," she responded, stepping back to Mr. Evans' side.  "Gary, your x-rays are good.  The bullet is lodged under your collarbone, but it missed your axillary artery.  We're going to take you up to the OR now, and you're going to be just fine."

     The nurses began unhooking the cables from their monitors, and pushed the gurney out into the hall, toward the elevators.

     "Dr. Weaver!" Dr. Chen called out as she passed them with another patient.  "Multiple GSW's to the chest and neck.  Where do you want him?"

     "Trauma One!" she answered, looking back over her shoulder.  "Get ready to redline him to the OR!"

     "Dr. Weaver!" Gary Evans called weakly, and she turned back to him.  "You'll let me know when they find Dr. Carter?" he asked again.  "He saved my life...please...I need to know he's all right."

     Kerry smiled down at him.  She wasn't surprised to find that Carter had saved his life; she knew that he would save anyone he could.  "Yes, Mr. Evans.  I'll call you personally, once you're in recovery, to let you know when he gets here."

     "Thank you," the man answered as the elevator doors closed behind his gurney.

     "Chief?" Malucci asked, looking at her in near-horror.  He hadn't known Carter was involved in this either.

     "We'll worry about him later, Dave," she answered, stripping the yellow gown and gloves away and grabbing fresh ones.  "We've got patients coming in faster than we can treat them."

     Malucci glanced through the admit area toward the ambulance bay, and saw that she was right.  Haleh had said something about twelve majors so far, and he counted eight already backed up, waiting to be seen.  He too exchanged his bloody gown and gloves for clean, and followed Kerry out to the first of the gurneys.

     It was going to be a very long day.