Two months had passed since the confrontation between Elena and Simon on Christmas Day. He had finally been able to have the cast on his hand removed from where he had punched the wall outside of Ike's. He had been lectured by his uncle about it, especially since Dr. Anspaugh knew the truth about what had happened with Simon and Elena. He had also been limited to what he could do in the ER on his shifts and that irritated him just as much as having to come face to face with a part of his past that still hurt to think about.
Two days after Christmas, Ray had went with Neela to her first appointment with Elena and they had gotten their first ultrasound picture of the baby. It was still too soon to tell the gender yet but they had agreed they wanted to know, so the doctor had scheduled another one in a couple of months.
There was a bad snow storm outside and the ER was, for once, not very busy. There wasn't any patients and Brenner was in charge while both Banfield and Morris were at an ER conference in Nebraska. He had to pull a double and also only had Grady, Ryan and Laverne working that shift. Chas Pratt had come in but he was only supposed to observing like he did every Friday night.
Ray was visiting because the next day he and Neela were supposed to go the appointment to find out the baby's sex. He was also giving Neela moral support as she went through a deposition for a malpractice lawsuit from the death of a patient, who had bled out. Her intern, Andrew, had went to the family of the woman who had died and told them the truth about what had happened to her and despite their promise not to sue, they had anyway. All of the trouble had come down on Neela and now the interns were treating her like crap because she had told Andrew off when she had received the notice that she was being sued.
He was sitting in the lounge watching as Ryan, Laverne and Grady practiced their stitches on pigs feet, when he saw Neela come into the room. Ray then heard the conversation between Neela and the interns and saw their attitude towards her. He waited while Neela got her cup of coffee, gave him a quick kiss before she left to go back out and take care of patients. When she left, Ray looked over and saw all three of the other occupants giving him a scared look as if they knew he was about to say something to them. He didn't disappoint.
"I'm only going to warn the three of you this one time and I want you to pass it on to the other interns and residents freezing Neela out and giving her hell over what happened with Andrew. Cut it out." The last part he put emphasis on. "I swear if she ends up losing our baby because of this nonsense, I will resume my ER residency and become an attending just for the sheer pleasure of making the rest of your internship and residency's a living hell. I won't give a damn that it will hurt like hell to stand on my prosthetics for 12 hour shifts, I will do it just for the sheer pleasure of making all of you scared of me. Dealing with me will be a hundred times worse than your worse possible nightmare." Ray finished speaking with a fierce intent in his hazel eyes.
"Dr. Rasgotra is pregnant?" Laverne asked, a stunned look on her face. Ryan and Grady were just as shocked as she was and had terror in their eyes because in that moment, Ray looked like he was very pissed off and would carry out the threat he had just made.
"Yes. I know I will most and likely be in trouble with her for telling you this way but I will deal with that. I am very serious, leave her the hell alone."
Ray slowly got up and walked out of the lounge to the sight of Simon Brenner standing outside the door, fighting not to laugh. He matched Ray's slower pace as they walked up to admit, where Ray sat down in one of the chairs.
"I think you scared them enough that they will stop treating her that way, Dr. Barnett. You do know that Neela is going to be pissed when she finds out that you have just told the interns about her pregnancy?"
"I'll deal with it, when the time comes. I want you to make sure they cut it out and if they don't, remind them of what I just told them, especially Dr. Martin. Neela told me about her attitude and she won't like me very much if she causes any undue stress to Neela or our child."
"I understand and I will do my part to make sure they back off."
Brenner walked away and over to take care of a patient, right when the door to the ER opened and Elena walked in. She was carrying a small boy into the ER, who had blonde, curly hair, fair skin and dark eyes. She had a look of dread on her face until she saw Sam walk up to admit where Frank was standing at the counter. The nurse walked over to Elena and smiled at both her and the little boy.
"Hello Dr. Hernandez, how are you doing?"
"Not so good. My son, Nathan is running a fever and even after doing everything I knew to do, it still hasn't come down. Is there anybody who can take a look at him? As long as it isn't Dr. Brenner."
"I'm sorry, Elena. He is the only Attending on duty tonight, both Banfield and Morris are stuck at a conference in Nebraska because of the storm."
Ray stood up and walked over to them so he could get a look at Nathan. He smiled at Elena, who looked torn as to what to do.
"Maybe Elena could sign the consent form allowing for him to be treated and then maybe I could stay with him while he is being treated. We could tell Brenner that his mother went for some coffee or something but signed the paperwork befor she left. That way he wouldn't have to know that Nathan is your son and possibly figure out the truth about him." Ray said, trying to help out with what was going on. He knew he couldn't treat him because he didn't have privileges to practice medicine at County anymore. He just wished Elena didn't have to deal with her past just so she could her son treated.
As they were standing there, a gurney, carrying a teenage girl, was being brought in. One of the paramedics was doing CPR, and Sam was pulled away to take care of her. Ray looked at Elena, who didn't know what to do because she knew with the trauma, her son might not be seen my a doctor.
Sam came walking back and looked at Ray, who was curious as to why she was not helping with the trauma.
"I talked to Brenner about what was going on with Nathan and he told me to ask you to start the exam, Ray. He knows you don't have privileges to treat patients at County anymore but with the trauma, he is going to need all of the help he can get and you have experience in Emergency Medicine. I will send a nurse to help you with the bloodwork. We can have Elena go into the lounge or something when Brenner has to come and sign off on the chart."
"Okay."
Ray slowly led Elena and Nathan over to one of the curtain areas while Sam went back into the trauma room. He took the little boy's temperature and did an exam while one of the few nurses who was involved with the trauma that had come in, took some blood from Nathan. Elena watched as a young teenager was brought in and put in a nearby curtain area. He was freaking out and calling out for his girlfriend, who had been brought in before.
Thirty minutes had passed when Neela had came out of one of the trauma rooms with Sarah, who had a broken wrist, Ray had a bad feeling about what was going on. His fears were confirmed when Neela told him that one of the three kids who had been brought in was Sam's son, Alex.
It was a little bit later, as Nathan finally fell asleep while they were waiting on the test results, Elena watched Simon and Neela treating the boy who had been brought in. He was having a seizure and Elena cringed when she overheard Sarah, the girl who had been with Neela earlier and who was Tony Gates' adopted daughter, telling them that the boy had took some sort of drug at the party they were at. She had heard about kids doing what Sarah had called trailmix from various attendings, residents and interns from the ER at Mercy and hoped they were able to help the young boy.
Elena looked down at Nathan as he slept and hoped he never got into anything like that when he became a teenager. She was so lost in thought that she didn't see Ray come up to her with the test results in his hands.
"Elena, the lab finally sent the test results. His white blood cell counts are very high so there is obviously an infection but we can't figure out where the source of it is. We are going to have to run some more tests. I am going to talk to Dr. Brenner about what we should do. Do you want me to send somebody to warn you so you can go to the lounge."
Elena couldn't breathe as she realized just what could possibly going on with her son and it scared her. What she hadn't told Ray was that Nathan had been sick off and on for the past six months and bruising very easily. As a doctor, she knew what could be wrong with Nathan but as a mother, a part of her was in denial and didn't want to believe it.
"
No. If this is what I think it is, Simon needs to know the truth. I don't have to like that man but to save my son, I will deal with him. I will do anything for Nathan."
"Elena, this might not be what you think it is."
"Ray, I'm a doctor too and you and I both know what is wrong with Nathan. I can't hide from it anymore."
"Has there been other instances where Nathan has been sick?"
"Yes, off and on for the past six months and he has also bruised much easier than he had before." She started to shake and was fighting tears. "I had a feeling this is what was going on with my little boy but I didn't want to believe it."
"Elena, go and get a cup of coffee, I will watch over Nathan for you." Ray looked over at Frank, who was standing at admit. "Frank, can you take Elena to the lounge for a cup of coffee?"
Frank didn't say a word, he just led Elena to the lounge while Ray sat down in the stool by Nathan's bed and watched as Gates walked over to where he was at.
"How is he?" Gates asked, having been told who Nathan despite the chaos of everything that was going on that night.
"He's finally asleep and we have his temperature down but we have to run more tests to find out what is going on. How's Alex?"
"They are waiting to take him up so he can have surgery on his shoulder." Gates paused before he started to speak again. "I guess you overheard Sam screaming at me in the drug lockup."
"I heard. She's emotional right now, I'm sure she didn't mean what she said. Neela isn't that far along in her pregnancy but I know if that was my child in there, I would be very pissed off right now."
"I know. If that was Sarah, I would be the same way."
Gates then walked back towards the trauma room to check on Alex. As Ray sat by Nathan's bed, he wished that Sam and Gates weren't going through the pain they were going through right now. He also hoped that the news was going to be better for Elena and Brenner, when he found out Nathan was his son, and that the innocent little boy in the bed beside him was going to be okay.
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