Fate

Chapter 1

The limb body lay flat against the table. The figure's eyes would not budge from their place beneath the lids. The hairs on the chest were motionless as he laid there, his chest wide open and his heart not beating. The guy had come in complaining of sharp pains in his chest. At first they had figured it to be the normal heartburn case but it quickly escalated into a much more serious situation; one minute the guy was gasping rapidly for breath and the next he was in cardiac arrest.

"Charge the paddles to two hundred," Neela said.

"Clear." Neela watched in frustration, as she shocked the heart again. It had been thirty minutes and still nothing.

"Do think we should call it?"

"Stop," Abby said. "Time of death…" Something inside of Luka told him that they could save this patient if they just gave it one more try.

"Wait. Let's try one last time."

"He's been down for twenty minutes," Abby argued.

"I still think he has a chance." Luka said.

"Charge paddles to three hundred."

"Clear." Luka placed the paddles against both sides of the guy's heart, praying that it would regain rhythm. Within minutes, the straight line on the heart monitor came to life.

"He's back." Luka looked down at his gloves. The manila color peeked through the blood that covered them.

"Nice save," Neela said.

Luka struggled as the latex stuck to his hand. Once he was able to pull the gloves free, he tossed them into a nearby waste basket.

"You got it from here Neela?"

"Yeah, I'll go let the family know that they are taking him up to the OR now."

With that, Luka returned to the board to cross off the patient's name. Abby walked up behind him. "Nice save in there."

"Just doing my job," Luka snickered.

Abby reached over and grabbed a chart.

"Hey, I'm off in twenty minutes, would you like to grab a cup of coffee or something?"

"Sure, that would be great."

Abby studied the chart of her next patient; six years old. He was brought in by his mother. She approached the curtain and pulled it open.

"Hi, what's your name?" Abby asked the boy sweetly.

"Benjamin," the mother answered. "I brought him here because he has been having trouble catching his breath. I think he might have the pneumonia. "

"Okay, Benjamin, I'm going to take your temperature with this thing." Abby held up the thermometer so that the boy could see it.

"It won't hurt, I promise." She smiled at the boy. Abby proceeded to lift the thermometer to the boy's ear. He screamed and Abby instantly pulled away.

"Benjamin honey, please let the nice doctor take your temperature," his mother cooed as she tried to hold him still.

"Okay, ready?" Abby asked, as she once again lifted the thermometer to the little boy's ear. This time the child did not resist.

"He is running a little bit of a fever," Abby said as she wrote 101.2 on the chart. "Let me check his breathing and then I can see what we can do."

Abby lifted the black stethoscope that hung around her neck and applied it to the boy's chest. Next, she moved to his back.

"Can you take nice deep breaths for me sweetie?" The boy obeyed.

"His breath sounds are slightly raspy and labored." Abby recorded the information on the boy's chart.

"I am going to order some x-rays of his lungs and then we will be able to determine if we need to admit him or not."

"Okay, thank you," the mother said.

"You're welcome. You did the right thing bringing him here," Abby said.

"Morris, I have a little boy in exam three. His mother brought him in. He may be showing signs of possible pneumonia." Abby passed the chart of to Morris.

Morris gave her a puzzled look. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Finish the case. The boy's running a temp of 101.2 and his breathing is raspy and labored. I need you to call radiology and order a chest x-ray."

"But Abby, he's your penitent, why can't you do it?" Morris asked.

"Sorry, my shift's over." Abby walked into the doctor's lounge and retrieved her coat from her locker.

"Are you ready to go?" Abby looked up to see Luka.

"Yeah. Are you off?" Abby wrapped her scarf around her neck.

"I got Morris to cover for me." Luka said as he retrieved his coat from his locker.

The December air was cold as they walked out into ambulance bay towards the busy streets of downtown Chicago.

Abby shivered.

"It's freezing out here."

"I hate December."

"With it being this cold out, it makes working more bearable, at least then we're indoors."

Luka laughed.

"True."

Abby sighed as she stopped and faced Luka.

"Luka there's something that I need to tell you." Her eyes not meeting his.

"Another weird patient come into the ER today?" Luka joked.

"No," Abby smiled, looking up at him.

"What is it then?" Luka asked. His demeanor was more concerned now. He looked deep into Abby's eyes and tried to figure out what was bothering her.

"Luka, I'm pregnant!" Abby blurted out.

Luka just stood there, unable to utter a word. A baby? His baby?