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Episode 14:

Something to Be Thankful For
(Hungryman Dinners and the Cartoon Network)


AN: A big thanks goes out to Ash for her help with this episode.


According to the small, silver watch on her wrist, it was 6:50 in the morning when Susan Walker walked through the rotating glass doors that led into the lobby of Atlantic City Memorial Hospital. She had walked through this lobby twice recently, but both times, she had gone to the second floor, to the office of Dr. Holli Brunson, the chief of staff at Memorial. This time, she was heading for the ER.

As she strode through the lobby, Susan held her head high, trying to seem confident. But it was all an act. At twenty-seven, she had just moved from her home state of Utah to North Carolina and secured herself her second ever nursing position, at Memorial. Although she had worked as a nurse for several years already at a hospital in Utah, she was still very nervous starting this new job. Though she had never been a very shy person, she was uncomfortable coming into a place where she was all alone and knew no one.

Don’t stress out about it, Susan thought, giving herself a mental pep talk. After today, everything will be much better. By the end of today, you’ll know a lot more people, and this won’t be so new anymore. Everything will be fine.

Feeling slightly better, Susan took a deep breath and found the double doors marked “Emergency Room”. She was glad she had taken the time after her last interview to take a quick tour of the hospital and find the ER, in hopes she would soon have a job there. Now she had the job, and it was time to begin. Taking another deep breath to calm her nerves, Susan pushed open the doors and walked through.

+++

Jack Palmer had just arrived in the ER for his seven o’clock shift. Looking at the clock in the lounge, he saw that he was almost ten minutes early. Ten minutes – that was plenty of time for a quick game of Madden Football 2002. He checked to see that the Playstation 2 was plugged in to the TV in the lounge and sat down on the floor in front of it, grabbing one of the controllers.

The door to the lounge swung open, and Jack turned around, hoping to see Chris, Justin, Bianca, or anyone else that would play a quick game with him, but instead, he found himself staring at a young, pretty woman.

“Hi there,” Jack said, setting down the controller and jumping to his feet, watching the woman in interest. “Do you work here?” He had definitely never seen her before, but she was wearing a pair of purple scrubs, and no one but staff was allowed in the lounge.

“Today’s my first day,” said the woman with a smile. Stepping forward, she held out her hand. “I’m Susan Walker. I was just hired as the new ER nurse.”

Lance’s replacement, Jack thought. It was about time they hired one – it was now late November (the day before Thanksgiving, in fact) and Lance had tried to… well, he had been in the hospital since the end of September. For the past two months, the whole ER staff had been very overworked, with Lance’s absence and Bianca’s before that. Now Bianca had recovered totally and working full-time again, and finally, they had hired another nurse to take on Lance’s share of the work.

“Jack Palmer,” Jack introduced himself, shaking her hand warmly and giving her his most charming smile. “I’m an ER physician.”

“Great to meet you,” Susan said, smiling again. She had a very nice smile, Jack noticed. It lit up her eyes and gave her a sparkle that enhanced her features. She was not a knock-out, but she was pretty and very friendly looking. Jack was glad they had hired a woman to replace Lance, instead of another guy. Guys were cool to hang out with, but Jack had always loved the ladies.

Remember, you’re engaged, he told himself sternly, before he let himself get too excited over the newest hospital employee.

“Well, if you need any help finding your way around or anything, don’t hesitate to ask,” Jack told Susan kindly.

“Thanks. I really appreciate that,” Susan said genuinely. She found her locker (which happened to be Lance’s old one – Jack noticed someone had finally removed his name from the front of it) and fumbled with the combination lock.

Jack glanced up at the clock – six minutes till seven. He still had some time. Quickly, he turned on the Playstation and grabbed his controller.

+++

“You’re late, Timberlake, aren’t you?” said Jack, half an hour later, as Justin Timberlake staggered into the ER, more than twenty minutes later for his seven a.m. shift.

“Sorry,” Justin mumbled. “I overslept.” Jack couldn’t help but snicker at him. He had obviously jumped out of bed and come just as he was - his curly hair was standing on end, and there was still a red imprint on his cheek from sleeping on something. However, his skin looked pale, and there were circles under his eyes.

“You look like you haven’t gotten enough sleep,” Jack observed, studying his sallow face. “You feeling okay?”

Justin shrugged. “I dunno. I’m just tired,” he replied.

“You better not be coming down with something. You shouldn’t be here if you’re sick.”

“I’m fine,” Justin said irritably. “You’re right – I just haven’t been getting enough sleep.”

Jack grinned devilishly and leaned close to his student. “That girlfriend of yours been keeping you up?” he asked slyly. Justin blushed. “Where did you ever find her?” Jack continued. “She’s hot!”

Now Justin grinned. “I met her at Hooters,” he replied. “That’s where she works. I go there all the time – lotsa hot chicks there.

Jack raised his eyebrows. “Hooters girl, huh? I should have known.” Justin grinned again. “Well, Timberlake, tell Bianca to go easy on you today if you’re tired. Start out with some simple patients. I think Bianca just went to look at one in Exam 2, if you’re looking for her.”

“Okay,” Justin replied and walked off to find Bianca in Exam 2.

Jack went away to find a patient of his own, an picture of Justin’s girlfriend in a skin-tight Hooters shirt and orange short-shorts flashing into his mind. Then, for the second time that morning, he remembered he was engaged.

Wonder if I could get Addie to get a boob job too…

+++

“Dr. Parker? I’m here; sorry I’m late. Dr. Palmer said you were in here.”

Bianca Parker looked away from her patient as Justin entered the exam room. “”Morning, Justin,” she greeted him casually, thankfully not mentioning anything about his lateness. “Here, you can finish taking her history.” She handed Justin the chart she had started for her patient, a twenty-year-old girl with an ankle injury.

Justin glanced at the girl sitting up on the examining table, her feet propped up in front of her. She was red-haired and petite and dressed in a pair of shorts made of sweatpants material and a gray hooded sweatshirt. One of her feet was bare, and Justin could see that it was swollen and turning various shades of black and blue. On the other foot, she was wearing an ice skate.

“I hurt my ankle skating,” she explained to Justin when she saw him looking strangely at the ice skate, as if that wasn’t obvious. Justin was wondering why she hadn’t taken her skate off yet, but he didn’t ask.

“So, um…” he glanced down at the chart and read that her name was Cortney Philips, “… Cortney…”

“My partner and I – he’s also my boyfriend – were practicing for a Christmas show that we’re going to be in. We’re pairs skaters. I used to skate solo, but now I skate pairs with him instead.”

“Oh. Cool,” said Justin. Glancing back down at the chart, he started to ask, “So, Cortney, do you have any aller-“

“Hey, speaking of pairs skaters, you know the Canadian pair from this year’s Olympics? The one that got the silver, when they should have gotten the gold, but then they ended up getting a gold after all with the Russian pair? Jamie and David, you know?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, I wrote them a letter, and I sent them one of my own skating medals, and they got my letter – I know because I saw it on TV – and then they wrote back to me! Cool, huh?”

“Yeah, cool. Well, anyway, do you have any allerg-“

“Hey, do you wanna see a picture of my niece? I have one in my wallet here.” Before Justin could answer, Cortney was digging through her purse, which was sitting on the table beside her. A moment later, she was pulling something out of her wallet and handing it to him. “Isn’t she adorable?”

Justin looked briefly at a photo of a grinning baby. “Yeah, she’s cute,” he replied, glancing over his shoulder at Bianca, who was sitting on a stool on one side of the room, snickering silently. She beamed at him, and he glared in return. Turning back to Cortney, he tried to again ask, “But really, do you have any aller-“

“Her name is-“

“DO YOU HAVE ANY ALLERGIES?” Justin shouted, his voice rising over hers.

Cortney stopped and looked up at him, blinking. Then, after just a moment’s hesitation, she replied, “Oh yeah, I’m allergic to tons of things. Chocolate, strawberries, bees, dust…”

“Any medications?” Justin asked, as Cortney continued to list the things she was allergic to.

“Yeah, penicillin. I’m also allergic to cat dander, weeds, nuts…”

“Thanks, that’s enough,” Justin said quickly, setting down the chart . “So, um… could you tell me how you hurt your ankle?”

“Well, duh! I already told you – I was ice skating!”

“Well, I know, but I mean, did you twist it or fall or what?”

“I was doing a jump – a double axle – and I landed wrong and twisted my ankle, and it gave out on me, and I fell right on my ass. And then my boyfriend laughed at me! I was like, ‘Oh, some boyfriend you are, laughing at me when I’m hurt! Can’t you show some sympathy? Jeez!’, and so then he came over to look at it, and he tried to help me up, but I couldn’t put any weight on it, it hurt so bad, so he just picked me up and carried me off the ice. It was throbbing something awful by then, so we only stopped to get the skate off that foot (that hurt like a bitch!) and put the blade cover on my other skate – I didn’t want to bother with shoes, I just wanted to get here – and then he brought me here, and I had to wait like over a freaking hour for someone to get in here, and it’s still throbbing! You’d think someone would have given me some pain meds by now! Jeez!”

She said this all very fast, and Justin just blinked at her. “Um… okay, thanks…” he said, still watching her warily. “Dr. Parker, could you go get one of the nurses to bring her some painkillers?” he asked, turning around to face Bianca.

“Sure,” replied Bianca, slowly rising and backing out of the room, staring strangely at Cortney the whole time.

“It’s about time!” Cortney snapped. “Jeez!”

“Okay, I need to examine your ankle now,” Justin said, pulling a pair of latex gloves on. He gently started to lift up her ankle. Cortney gasped out in pain, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw something jerk. Before he had time to dodge it, Cortney’s other foot – the one with the skate on it – came swiftly up and connected with the left side of Justin’s face.

“OW!” he shrieked, roughly letting go of Cortney’s injured ankle as he reached up to clutch his face in pain. He stumbled backwards, tripped over the stool he had been sitting on, and tumbled over it, landing hard on the floor.

“You bastard! That hurt!” Cortney screamed angrily. Justin just lay on the floor, moaning in agony, his left cheek burning from the impact of the skate blade, his back and butt throbbing from the impact of the tiled floor.

Bianca ran into the room, skidding to a stop when she caught sight of Justin on the floor. “Justin! What happened?” she cried, looking from him to Cortney. Cortney looked mad; Justin looked about ready to cry.

“She kicked me!” Justin moaned, his hands still clamped tightly over the left side of his face.

“He grabbed my ankle, and then he dropped it!” Cortney screeched, angry pink streaks rising in her cheeks.

“You kicked him? With your ice skate?” Bianca asked, eyeing the skate in disbelief.

“Not on purpose! Jeez!”

Shaking her head, Bianca knelt down beside Justin. “Here, Justin, let me see,” she said tenderly, gently trying to pry his hands away from his face. When she did, she saw an angry red mark going across his left cheek. There was no blood, but she could tell it was going to leave a bad bruise. “It’s okay, Justin, it’s not bleeding,” she told him. “Luckily she had a cover on that blade – otherwise it probably would have slashed your cheek open!”

“It hurts,” Justin moaned. He blinked furiously, and Bianca looked away, pretending not to notice him trying not to cry. She felt bad for him.

“Come on, Justin,” she said, offering him her hand. “Get up and go put some ice on it. That’ll make it feel better.”

He reluctantly accepted her hand, and she struggled to pull him to his feet. Finally, he got up, tenderly rubbing his backside, and hobbled out of the room, gingerly running his hand over his cheek.

“Okay, let’s take a look at your ankle,” Bianca said, turning her attention back to Cortney. Touching it as little as possible, Bianca inspected Cortney’s ankle. “I’d like to get some x-rays, to make sure it’s not broken. It looks like just a bad sprain to me, but I want to be sure. I’ll order the x-rays, and someone will be here to take you to radiology soon,” she told Cortney and left the room as quickly as possible.

+++

Around noon that day, Kevin Richardson led his girlfriend Elizabeth O’Brien through the brand new door of Sully’s. The door and front window of the small café had both been replaced since the hurricane that had ravaged Atlantic City over a month earlier. Sully’s old, hand-painted sign had also been knocked down and had been replaced with a neon, light-up sign. It seemed to be a good thing that the restaurant had suffered so much damage, for it now looked better than it had in years.

“Hey, Kev, Elizabeth, over here!” called Jack Palmer, who was sitting with his new fiancée, Addie Burke, and their best friends, Josh and Kylie McCartney.

Kevin grinned at the four of them, and he and Elizabeth walked over. He sat down next to Addie, and Elizabeth took the empty seat across from him, next to Jack.

“How long have you guys been here?” Kevin asked, pulling one of the laminated menus out from the slot that sat in the middle of the table. He absently skimmed over it, not sure why he was even bothering to look. He had been coming to Sully’s on a regular basis since he had been hired at Memorial five years earlier, and he had the menu practically memorized by now.

“We just got here a few minutes before you did,” Addie replied.

“So, how is everyone’s day going?” Kylie asked.

“Pretty boring. All I’ve done so far is remove an old lady’s gall bladder,” Kevin said. “I’ve got a quadruple bypass scheduled for this afternoon though.”

“Yeah, the ER’s been pretty low-key today too,” Elizabeth chimed in. “That new nurse, Susan, is a godsend.”

“Oh yeah, she’s wonderful,” Jack agreed, his eyes lighting up. Addie raised her eyebrows suspiciously at him from across the table. “Not as wonderful as you are though, of course, babe,” he added, grinning. Addie just rolled her eyes, unable to stop herself from returning his playful smile. Looking at Addie, he suddenly remembered his conversation with Justin that morning.

“Hey, Addie,” he said suddenly.

“Hey what?”

“You ever considered getting a boob job?”

In a flash, Addie’s hand whipped up and slapped him lightly across the cheek.

“Ow!” Jack cried exaggeratedly, rubbing his cheek.

Addie glared at him, half amused, half offended. “You ever say anything like that to me again, mister, and you won’t have a girlfriend to ask to get a boob job.”

“Justin’s girlfriend gets boob jobs for him,” he muttered poutily, the corner of his mouth turning up in a sly half-smile to let her know he was just playing.

“Well, she’s obviously got some body image issues then. For your information, I’m comfortable with my body as it is, thunder thighs and all, thank you very much,” Addie retorted.

“If you got a boob job though, you could have thunder boobs to match your thunder-“ Jack stopped as Addie playfully raised her hand, threatening to slap him again. But suddenly, her attention was diverted to the door, as the little bells overhead jingled, and two people walked in. She let her hand fall absently and cocked her head to one side. “Who’s that?” she asked Kevin.

Kevin turned around. Following her gaze, he saw that Hayley had just walked in, accompanied by a tall man he did not recognize. The man had tousled brown hair and green eyes framed with a pair of glasses. His eyes narrowed as he watched them look around the café. Hayley spotted Kevin and the others and grinned, waving. She took hold of the man’s hand and marched him over to their table.

“Heya, Kev!” she said brightly. “This is Tyler. Tyler, this is Kevin. We work together – he’s a surgeon.”

Kevin just stared at Tyler and didn’t say a word. After a pause, Tyler said, “Good to meet you” and held out his hand. Kevin looked down at it for a moment and the reluctantly shook it.

“Same,” he grunted.

Addie noticed Hayley’s eyes narrow as she looked from Kevin to Tyler. But then she just shrugged and introduced the others to Tyler. When they had all said their hellos, she said, “Well, talk to you guys later,” and led Tyler off to a two-person table. Addie watched as Kevin continued to stare at the two of them. From across the table, she saw Elizabeth look up at Kevin, then over at Hayley and Tyler. She frowned.

Sensing some tension, Addie cleared her throat loudly, finally causing Kevin to look away from the couple. Elizabeth looked down, and Addie, sneaking a quick peek at Tyler, commented, “Is it just me, or does he look kinda like an adult Harry Potter?”

Jack snorted loudly and muttered something under his breath, but Kylie looked over at Tyler, tilting her head to one side. “Actually,” she said, “He kinda does…”

+++
Justin entered Exam 2 hesitantly, not knowing what would be waiting for him behind the door. Last time he had been in the room, a skate had not so gently hit him on the left side of his face, resulting in a swollen and bruised left cheek along with a sore backside.
With the manila folder clasped tightly in his hand, Justin entered the room, shooting a distasteful glance over at Cortney. Cortney, oblivious to Justin’s presence, just kept on talking to a figure that was sitting at her side, his back turned to Justin. Justin sighed in relief to himself and cleared his throat, ready to give Cortney her diagnosis.
“Cortney…” Justin started to say as he looked down at the notes about the x-rays written in the folder. Out of the corner of his eye, Justin saw a flash of pink coming straight for him and before he could react, he was knocked to the floor.
“You bastard!” a shrill voice screamed.
Justin forced his eyes open, and if the situation hadn’t been so serious, he would have laughed. The shrill voice yelling at him belonged to no other than a young man clothed in a pink frilly shirt, which looked like a blouse in Justin’s eyes, and tight, sparkly, white spandex pants.
“How dare you hurt the love of my life? You hurt her, you hurt her!” the young man again screeched as he tried to get a few good punches in as Justin thrashed around with his hands shielding his face. If anything his mother had told him had gone through his thick skull, it was not to fight with patients, no matter what happened, for he knew it would probably terminate his short medical career at Memorial, and his mother would kick his ass if that happened.
“Lionell!”
“Umph!”
“LIONELL! Listen to me!!”
“LIONELL!”
Suddenly, the punches stopped, and Justin relaxed, thinking it was over. Without warning, his hands were jerked away from his face, and a fist came straight for him, hitting him on the left side. The small man that attacked the med student got up from the floor and sashayed over to where his girlfriend lay, propping a jewelry clad arm protectively around her shoulders as Justin lay flat on his back, moaning loudly in pain.
“Justin, are you finished yet?” a voice called from outside the doorway, the owner of the voice entering the room seconds later.
“Justin!” Bianca cried as she bent down at Justin’s side and tried to help him up into the sitting position. “What happened?”
Justin didn’t answer, just looked over at the couple in front of him and pointed at the young man. Bianca bit back a laugh as she got a good look at Justin’s attacker. The man looked like he wouldn’t hurt a fly, his face cherubic and innocent.
“Come on, Justin, go to the restroom and get yourself cleaned up. You poor thing,” Bianca said, as she helped Justin rise unsteadily to his feet. After assisting him with taking the first few steps, Bianca turned and pulled a seat up to Cortney’s bedside.
“Well, Cortney, you have what is called a malleolar fracture.”
“But…”
“No, Cortney, let me finish, and then you can talk all you want to,” Bianca said as she turned her head to look at the opposite wall to hide the rolling of her eyes. “What we will do is set your ankle in a cast, and you will wear this cast for approximately six to eight weeks, possibly longer depending on your progress. And don’t worry, there is a good chance you won’t have any long-term complications from this injury.”
“But what about the Christmas show?” Cortney asked in panicked voice, her face turning as red as her hair.
“Unless the Christmas show will be postponed until after Christmas, you will not be able to participate in it. As I said before, you will be wearing the cast six to eight weeks and Christmas is in four weeks. I’m sorry. I will be back in about ten minutes to start putting on the cast.”
As Bianca walked towards the door the voice of Cortney had turned from panicked to demanding and she was letting out on her boyfriend. Bianca felt sorry for the guy, almost.
“We need to call David, Jamie, Thomas, Andrea, Kathy, Tony, Tonya, Stephie, Bryna, John, Paul, Tyler, Matt, Lauren, Mary, Tammy, Barry, Heather….”
+++
“So, what’s up with that Tyler guy?” Kevin asked Hayley that afternoon during his scheduled bypass, trying to make his tone sound casual. “Scalpel, please.”

Hayley handed him the scalpel. “Tyler? He’s one of my old friends from high school. His parents live near Wilson, and he flew out here to spend Thanksgiving with them. He came to visit me first, and we had lunch,” she replied nonchalantly. Glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, she watched him cut carefully into their patient’s abdomen for a moment, then asked, “Why?”

Kevin paused and glanced quickly at her. Then he shrugged. “Just wondering, that’s all.” He continued to cut and purposely did not look at her again.

+++

“I can’t believe you were scheduled to work on Thanksgiving,” Addie grumbled as she kissed Jack goodbye the next morning.

“I know, babe, but you know how it is. We measly second-year residents don’t exactly get first pick at what shift we want. It’s only for a few hours. I’ll be done at ten, and you can pick me up, and we’ll go to the airport.”

It was Thanksgiving Day, and as soon as Jack finished his shift at the hospital that morning, he and Addie were catching a flight to Iowa, where Jack’s family lived. They had spent Thanksgiving at Addie’s parents’ house in Illinois the year before.

“You have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Jack,” said Alexandra Sterling, one of the hospital’s oncologists, smiling at him as she came into the foyer to say goodbye. Addie and Jack had been staying with Alexandra and her husband Roger for over a month, while their apartment was being repaired and treated for water damage from the hurricane. Addie had always looked up to Alexandra, ever since she had worked under her as a nurse in the oncology ward for her first two years at Atlantic City Memorial, and when Alexandra had heard that Addie and Jack’s apartment was damaged, she had graciously accepted her former colleague and her fiancée into her home. She and Roger, who was a lawyer, had a nice, large home with plenty of room, since it was just the two of them living there, but still, Addie was taken aback by her generosity. And grateful too, for she and Jack weren’t sure where else they would have gone. Most of their friends, like Kylie and Josh, also lived in apartments or small houses which simply were not large enough to accommodate two extra people.

“Thanks, you too, Alexandra,” replied Jack. “What time is your company coming?” Alexandra had spent all week getting ready for Thanksgiving; she and Roger’s family were all coming to their house for dinner.

“Around one,” said Alexandra. “Oh, I hope everything goes okay. This is the first time I’ve done Thanksgiving dinner on my own.”

“Everything’s going to be fine,” Addie assured her. “Trust me, you’re an excellent cook. The food will be perfect.”

“Aw, thanks, hon,” Alexandra beamed. “I just hope my relatives will think so.”

“Trust me, if they’re used to anything like Addie’s cooking, this will be heaven for them,” Jack said, shooting Addie a devilish grin.

“Uh!” she gasped in mock offense, giving him a playful shove. “My cooking’s getting better!”

“I have to admit, you can whip up a mean box of Kraft macaroni and cheese,” Jack teased. Then he leaned over, pecked her on the cheek, and darted out the door before she could smack him.

+++

“Hey, happy Thanksgiving, Bean,” Jack said as he entered the staff lounge and found Bianca closing her locker.

“Thanks, you too, Jack,” she replied. “So, how long do you have to work today?”

“Just till ten luckily, and then Addie and I are flying to my parents’ house in Iowa. How about you?”

“Noon. AJ gets off then too, and we’re heading to my parents’ house. They only live a couple hours away, so it’s not a long drive,” said Bianca.

“That’s cool. Well, ya ready?”

“Yup. Let’s get this morning over with,” said Bianca determinedly, and the two doctors left the lounge. On their way out, they practically ran into Justin, who was slowly slouching his way in, his face glum.

“Dude, they really got you, didn’t they?” Jack asked, noticing Justin’s left cheek, which was a lovely mix of black, blue, purple, and red and was swollen to nearly twice the size of his other cheek, making his face looked oddly lopsided and misshapen. His left eye was black and swelled nearly shut from Lionell’s punches.

Justin didn’t reply.

“Dude, what’s wrong with you?” Jack asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Justin muttered. “I’m only working the entire day. It’s Thanksgiving, for crying out loud!”

Bianca shrugged. “That doesn’t mean people don’t get hurt,” she said.

He glared at her and crossed his arms over his chest, pouting. “It’s not fair,” he muttered.

“Believe me, we know,” Jack said. “We were both med students once too, remember. We’ve worked our share of holiday shifts.” Rolling his eyes at Bianca, he continued down the hall, and she followed, leaving Justin behind to stew.

Passing the nurses station, Jack grinned widely when he saw the new nurse, Susan, jotting down something on a chart. “Hey there,” he said, coming up to her. “I see they’re making you work on Thanksgiving too.”

“Yeah,” she said, “but it’s okay. I’m the new girl, after all. Besides, all my family’s back in Utah, and I don’t have the money to make it up there anyway, so I don’t mind working all day.”

“I admire your optimistic attitude about it,” Jack said with a chuckle. “I can’t say I wouldn’t be complaining if it was me.”

She smiled. “So, you don’t have to work all day?”

“Nope, just till ten,” he replied. “Then my girl and I are flying to Iowa, to my parents’ house.”

“Oh, you’ve got a girlfriend?” Susan asked.

“Yeah… Addie,” he said casually, shrugging.

“Yeah, Addie. His fiancée,” added Bianca from behind him, giving Jack a stern look.

“Oh, really? Congratulations!” Susan said genuinely.

“Thanks,” Jack said, blushing and glancing sheepishly at Bianca, who just laughed and went to check the patient board.

“Hey, Jack, Susan!” called nurse Chris Kirkpatrick suddenly.

“Yeah?” Jack asked, turning around to see him standing next to the radio.

“We’ve got a big trauma coming in. Bad accident on the interstate – a semi plowed into a car with a family of four in it. Two of the family members are being life-flighted in, and the other two and the semi driver are being transported by ambulance. ETA for the life flight is five minutes,” Chris said.

“Alright, I’ll get on it,” Jack said. “Susan, you wanna come with me?”

“Sure,” said Susan.

“I’ll go with Bianca, and we’ll take one of the criticals. Natalie and Elizabeth can take the two other family members, and Timberlake can take the truck driver. He’s not too badly hurt.”

“Oh, Elizabeth’s here this morning?”

“Yeah, she worked the night shift. She’s supposed to be off at eight, but I don’t know if she’ll be leaving then or not. We need her,” said Chris.

“Oh,” said Jack. “Well, come on, Susan, let’s go up to the roof and wait for the copter to get here.”

He led her towards the elevators, while Chris went to find the others that were on call that morning.

+++

“Thirty-four-year-old male, name’s Ken, unconscious on scene, absent breath sounds in both lungs, pulse is crashing,” said Kym Jennings as she and her team lifted a stretcher out of the helicopter, ducking under its propeller.

Bianca looked down at the patient and found a young man lying lifelessly on the stretcher, covered in blood. “Let’s get him inside,” she said, she and Chris both taking hold of the sides of the stretcher. Jack and Susan hung back, waiting for the second patient to be brought out of the helicopter.

“Six-year-old female, drifting in and out of consciousness. She’s in respiratory distress, pulse is weak and thready,” said AJ, helping lower a second stretcher. A sweet-faced blonde little girl lay on it. Looking down at her, Jack saw that she was awake. Her hazel eyes shifted back and forth nervously, and her face scrunched up in pain.

“My name’s Jack, sweetheart, what’s yours?” Jack asked over the sound of the helicopter’s whirling blades, as he and Chris grabbed hold of the stretcher and pushed her away from the copter.

“Kelsie,” came her shaky reply. “Where’s my mommy? I want my mommy! It hurts!”

Jack glanced at AJ and mouthed, “Mom?”

“Your mommy’s coming to the hospital in an ambulance,” AJ told Kelsie. “She’ll be here soon, and you can see her once we’re done helping both you and her, okay?”

“Okay,” Kelsie whimpered. “It hurts!” she cried out again.

“Where do you hurt, sweetie?” Jack asked.

“Everywhere!”

“Don’t worry, honey, we’ll get you something for the pain as soon as we get into the hospital. We’re going to take very good care of you,” Chris assured her, as they rushed her into the hospital and towards the nearest elevator bank.

+++

A short while later, three ambulances pulled up in front of the ER, and more paramedics jumped out, pushing three stretchers. On the first one was a man who appeared to be in his early fifties. He had bloody gauze taped over his forehead, but was awake and alert and seemed otherwise fine.

“You take this one, Timberlake,” Elizabeth O’Brien said to Justin, who was standing with her, JC Chasez, and nurse Natalie Spade, waiting for the accident victims to arrive.

“Frank Black, age fifty-three,” said Amelia Caston to Justin, as he helped her wheel the man into an exam room. “He was driving the semi that hit the family’s car. He bumped his head on the steering wheel, but there was no LOC on the scene, and he doesn’t complain of any other pain.”

“I didn’t even see them,” Frank murmured, shaking his head in disbelief. “Th-they were in the merge lane… they just came out of nowhere… I didn’t even see them… ran right into them… sideswiped them…”

“Looks like he might be going into shock,” Justin observed. “Mr. Black? Mr. Black, do you know where you are?”

Frank looked up at Justin as if he had grown a second head. “Well, of course I know that, kid. I’m in a hospital.”

Justin chuckled and nodded. “Okay then. So you say you aren’t having any pain anywhere besides your head?”

“No, no, I’m fine. What about the people in the other car though? How bad are they?”

“I don’t know yet, sir.”

“I swear, I didn’t even see them. They just came out of nowhere,” Frank said again.

“I know. It’s not your fault,” said Justin. “The driver of the other car should have looked. It’s his fault, not yours.”

“Still… I hit them…”

“You couldn’t have stopped. It’s not your fault,” Justin assured him. “Now, I need to take off this gauze so I can check out your head. You probably need suturing.”

But Frank didn’t seem to be paying a bit of attention to what he was saying. He kept shaking his head, looking shocked and terrified. “I hit them…”

+++

“Where are my children and my husband?” the woman lying on the table in Trauma 1 was crying frantically, as doctors and nurses bustled around her, hooking her up to monitors and examining her.

“Ma’am, we need to examine you first, and then someone will go find out about your family,” JC Chasez told her. “Now, can you tell me your name?”

“Tammy. Tammy Lupin. Please, I’m alright, can you just go find out how the others are? My husband, Ken, he was unconscious. And my daughter, Kelsie, they put her in the helicopter too. She was bad… and Kyle, my son, how is he?”

“We’ll find out soon for you, I promise,” JC said. “The other doctors are working on them now. They’re in very good hands, I assure you. Now, I’m going to feel your stomach, and you tell me if you feel any pain, okay?”

“Okay,” Tammy said with a sigh, resigning herself to the fact that she was going to have to cooperate before she could find out how the rest of her family was doing. JC watched her face, creased with worry, and felt a wave of pity rush through him. If only she knew that her husband was in the room right next door, rapidly going downhill…

+++

“Lost his pulse! Starting chest compressions,” said Bianca, cupping her hands over Ken Lupin’s chest and pressing down. “Chris, get the paddles ready.”

“Charging paddles,” Chris said obediently. “Here.” He handed them to her, and she took them, rubbing them together. “Somebody get the ultrasound ready too; he probably has internal bleeding… clear!” The staff backed away as Bianca pressed the paddles against Ken’s chest. “No response. Chris, charge to 300… clear!”

“I’ve got the ultrasound ready,” said another nurse.

“Okay, Chris, resume chest compressions, and I’ll check for internal bleeding,” said Bianca, watching the ultrasound screen as she ran the ultrasound. “There’s some blood in the belly, but it doesn’t look like too much. There’s got to be something else that made his pressure crash like this. Let’s check the chest.” She moved the ultrasound equipment up to Ken’s chest area and gasped. “Oh yeah, his chest cavity is filled with blood! Someone go get Dr. O’Brien, stat, and page surgery! We’re going to have to crack his chest.”

Elizabeth came rushing in a few minutes later. “Bianca, I’ve got this. You can take the son; he’s in Trauma 3.”

“Alright, I’m on it,” said Bianca, hurrying out of the room.

+++

Bianca entered Trauma 3 to find a little boy who looked about nine or ten lying on the table, his face contorted in pain, his cheeks tearstained.

“Hi, honey, I’m Dr. Parker. What’s your name?” she asked, leaning over him.

“Kyle,” he replied.

“Okay, Kyle, can you tell me where it hurts?” Bianca asked. He looked all right, in much better condition than his father.

“My chest,” he said.

“Elizabeth already ordered a chest x-ray,” said Natalie, writing down something on Kyle’s chart. “His lungs are all right, but he probably has some bruised ribs.”

Bianca nodded. “Alright. Has anyone checked the belly?”

“Yeah, belly’s clear. Just take him down to radiology and get the x-ray done. Everything else seems to be okay.”

Just then, the door to the adjoining trauma room burst open, and Susan stuck her head in. “Excuse me, Natalie, are you busy? We really could use another nurse in here.”

Bianca looked past her to see Jack leaning over the patient in the other room. It was the little girl, Kyle’s sister.

“No, we’ve got things under control in here, right, Bianca?” asked Natalie.

“What? Oh, yeah, yeah, go ahead,” Bianca said, and Natalie followed Susan into the other room.

“Is that my sister?” Kyle asked suddenly, trying to sit up. He gasped out in pain, and Bianca eased him back down again.

“Yeah, your sister’s in there,” she said.

“Is she hurt bad? Can I see her?” he asked anxiously.

Bianca glanced through the window of the door separating the two rooms. Susan was off to one side of the room, on the phone, while Jack and Natalie examined the girl. Bianca was relieved to see that she was awake and seemed to be talking to them. She went over and opened the door and stuck her head in. “Hey, Jack, I’ve got her brother in here,” she said. “Can we open the door so he can see her?”

Jack glanced over at her. “Sure, for a few minutes,” he said. “Then we have to get her up to surgery. She’s got internal bleeding.”

“Alright, great,” said Bianca, and she opened the door wider, stepping back so Kyle could see into the other room. “There’s your sister,” she said to him. “They’re going to take her upstairs in a few minutes for an operation.”

“Kelsie?” Kyle called.

The little girl’s head turned towards the other room. “Kyle?” she cried, her voice shrill and frightened-sounding.

“I’m right here, Kels!” he called. “I’m okay! How do you feel?”

But Kelsie did not answer him. All of a sudden, the monitors around her began to beep wildly. “She’s crashing!” Bianca heard Jack cry.

“Kelsie?!” Kyle called wildly. “Kelsie, answer me!” Looking up at Bianca, he asked hysterically, “Why won’t she answer me? What’s happening to her?”

Susan suddenly appeared at the door and quickly shut it, blocking Kelsie from Kyle’s view. Through the window, she met Bianca’s eyes and shook her head once. Bianca bit her lip and looked down at Kyle. “They’re working on her, honey,” she said.

“Is she going to die?”

Bianca watched as Natalie pushed up and down on Kelsie’s chest, giving her CPR, while Susan squeezed a bag over her mouth, giving her oxygen.

“They’re doing everything they can for her,” Bianca told Kyle, avoiding his eyes. “She’s in good hands.”

+++

“His aorta’s shredded. There’s no way we’re going to get him back. I’m going to call it,” Elizabeth said heavily, pulling her hands out of Ken’s open chest. “Time of death: 9:16.” She let out a sigh and slowly peeled off her bloody gloves, dropping them in a disposal bin on her way out of the trauma room.

“Where’s his wife?” Chris asked, following her out.

“In Trauma 1, I believe,” Elizabeth said. “I’ll go talk to her. Get him cleaned up.”

Chris nodded shortly and went back into the room..

+++

“God, I can’t believe this is happening,” moaned Tammy Lupin, letting out a shuddering breath. “We were on our way to Ken’s parents’ house. We were merging onto the interstate, and this semi just came out of nowhere. Ken looked back, I’m sure he did, but he didn’t see it. We left the merge lane, and it slammed right into us. Ken and Kelsie, they were on that side of the car. God, I hope they’re okay.”

The young mother was near tears with worry, and JC didn’t blame her a bit. This waiting, not knowing if her husband and children were all right, was probably more torturous than the accident itself and any of the physical pain that went with it.

“Would you like me to go check on them?” he offered. “The doctors might still be working on them, but I can check and see.”

“Would you?” Tammy asked gratefully, and JC nodded.

“Of course,” he said. “I’ll be right back.” He left the room and went out into the hall, where he met up with a grim-faced Elizabeth.

“Is the mother in there?” she asked. “Mrs. Lupin?”

“Yes,” said JC. “How’s the rest of the family?”

“I don’t know about the children, but her husband’s dead,” Elizabeth said shortly. “He must have smashed into the steering wheel – there’s an imprint of it across his chest. No airbags, I guess. He broke several ribs, and they punctured both his lungs and hit his aorta. He arrested, and there was nothing we could have done to save him.”

JC sighed. “Are you going to tell Mrs. Lupin, or do you want me to?”

“I’ll tell her,” said Elizabeth. “Maybe I should wait and find out about the children first though. I suppose if I have to give her bad news, I should give it to her all at once.”

She didn’t have to wait long. Jack suddenly came out of Trauma 4 and walked slowly towards them. The two women could tell right away by his face that whoever he had had did not make it.

“The little girl’s dead,” he said quietly. “Too much internal bleeding. We tried to get her back, but we couldn’t. I just called it.”

“The father’s dead too,” said Elizabeth. “Anyone know about the boy?”

“I think he’s all right,” Jack replied. “He was in the room next door, and he was alert and talking and everything. I think Bianca took him for a chest x-ray.”

“At least one of them made it,” Elizabeth said.

“Yeah, at least the mother has something to be thankful for,” JC said sadly.

Jack sighed and raked a hand through his short brown hair. “Why do things like this have to happen? It’s Thanksgiving, and this poor woman just lost her husband and daughter. Her son lost his sister and father. Yeah, I bet they’re real thankful.” His voice was laden with sarcasm.

“Well, come on, Jack,” said Elizabeth. “We need to go tell her.”

Jack nodded, a feeling of dread growing in his stomach. It was bad enough to lose a patient, especially a little six-year-old. But it was worse having to tell the family. And this was going to be doubly hard.

+++

At ten o’clock, Jack slowly trudged out of the hospital, looking around the staff parking lot for Addie’s car. Ahead of him, he saw Howie Dorough walking out to his own car, an old Corvette that he had restored and painted purple.

Howie spotted Jack as he was unlocking his car door and waved. “You getting off too, Jack?” he called.

Jack walked over to talk to him. “Yeah,” he said. “You too?”

“Yup. We’re doing Thanksgiving dinner at my place this year. Rita’s been up since five in the morning getting the turkey ready. My family’s coming up from Florida, and Dani spent last Thanksgiving with Sophie, so she’ll be with us this year too.”

“That’s great,” said Jack. “Do me a favor, Howie, and make sure you give Danielle a hug when you get home.” Howie stared at him strangely, and Jack explained, “I just lost a six-year-old girl. She and her family got in an accident on their way to her grandparents’ house. She and her father are both dead, and I just had to tell the mother.”

“Oh, God,” Howie said sadly, his forehead creasing in sorrow. “That’s awful.”

Jack nodded and sighed. “Well, Addie’s waiting for me somewhere around here. I’m going to go find her, and then we’re headed to the airport. You have a great holiday, Howie.”

“You too, Jack, thanks,” Howie replied. He got in his car, and Jack spotted Addie’s silver Beetle and walked off toward it.

+++

“Daddy!”

Howie arrived home to the pattering of feet running to greet him. His six-year-old daughter Danielle flung herself into his arms. “Happy Thanksgiving, Daddy!” she cried.

“Happy Thanksgiving, baby,” he replied, hugging her tightly and kissing the top of her head. It had been over two months since Danielle had undergone the operation to fix the aneurysm in her brain, and she was now completely recovered. That’s really something to be thankful for, he thought, reluctantly letting her go.

“Where’s Rita?” he asked Dani. “In the kitchen?”

“Yup,” Dani replied, grabbing his hand and tugging him toward the kitchen. “She’s making whipped cream for the pie, and I get to lick the beaters when she’s done!”

Howie followed Dani into the kitchen, where he found his girlfriend of two years, Rita Sumari, blending a small bowl of white liquid with the mixer. Glancing back over her shoulder, she smiled at Howie and shut off the mixer. “Hey, you!” she said cheerfully, removing one of the beaters from the mixer. She tapped it on the side of the bowl and handed it to Dani, who took it gleefully and began to lick the whipped cream off of it.

“Hey,” Howie replied, grinning at her. He sniffed the air. “Turkey’s starting to smell good. So, what time did Dani get here?”

“Sophie dropped her off about half an hour ago,” answered Rita. “And your family’s flight gets in at noon, right?”

“Yup. I’ll leave in about an hour to go pick them up,” said Howie.

“Can I go with, Daddy? I wanna see Grandma and Grandpa too. And Uncle John and Aunt Polly and Aunt Angie.”

“Sure, Dani,” Howie replied with a smile. He was excited to have his whole family coming for Thanksgiving. Usually they all gathered at his parents’ house in Florida. But this year, he and Rita had volunteered to have the festivities at their house. Rita’s family lived in Hawaii, and there was no way they would be able to come, nor would she be able to go there for Thanksgiving. But she loved Howie’s big, close family and liked the idea of being domestic and preparing a Thanksgiving meal all by herself for them all.

And so far, Howie thought, opening the refrigerator to find a perfect-looking pumpkin pie sitting on the top shelf, she’s done a great job.

+++

It was dinnertime at Harold and Jackie Littrell’s home in Lexington, Kentucky, and the dining room table was more crowded than it had ever been. Harold sat at one end of the long table, Jackie at the other. Their sons, Brian and Harry, sat on one side, their girlfriends Ivory and Siara next to them. Jackie and Harold’s youngest nephew, Kevin, and his girlfriend Elizabeth, sat there as well. On the other side was Kevin’s mother, Anne Richardson, who also happened to be Harold’s sister. With her sat her two older sons, Jerald and Tim, and their wives. The only one absent from the table was Kevin’s father, Jerald Sr., who had passed away over a decade earlier from colon cancer.

As they bowed their heads to say grace, Harold leading, Kevin could not help but think of his late father and all the past Thanksgivings his family had spent together when he was younger. But he forced himself to push his thoughts of his father out of his mind and concentrate on all the wonderful things he had, all the things he was thankful for. His wonderful family, his friends, Elizabeth, his health, and a successful career.

“Amen,” they all murmured as Harold closed off the prayer, and when everyone had raised their heads, platters of food were passed around the long table.

“If only Lily could see all this,” Elizabeth commented, chuckling slightly as she helped herself to some turkey. “She’d be in heaven.”

Kevin laughed and rolled his eyes. “You and that dog.”

Lily was Elizabeth’s cocker spaniel and was more like her daughter than her pet. Elizabeth doted on that dog, and sometimes it seemed she paid more attention to Lily than she did to Kevin. It had been torturous for her to have to leave Lily in a kennel while she went to Kentucky with Kevin for Thanksgiving weekend.

Down the table, Kevin saw Brian pick off a tiny bit of his turkey with his fingers and lean over, ducking under the table. “Speaking of dogs,” he said with another roll of his eyes, motioning to Brian, who was obviously feeding turkey to his tiny chihuahua, Tyke. If Lily was like a daughter to Elizabeth, Tyke was like Brian’s son. He took that dog everywhere with him – even to work sometimes.

“Brian, do you have to do that now? Sit up and eat,” Jackie reprimanded in her motherly tone, smiling exasperatedly at her son. Brian just grinned, patted Tyke’s little head, and picked up his fork.

Sitting next to Brian, Ivory Harnett couldn’t help but smile. She knew how close Brian and his mother were. He was a total mama’s boy, which she teased him about often, but really, she thought it was adorable. She loved being in the midst of the Littrell/Richardson family for Thanksgiving. It was like the perfect family holiday.

+++

While families enjoyed their Thanksgiving dinners in the comfort of their homes, Chris Kirkpatrick sat in his usual post beside Lance’s bed. He was working all day and had chosen to spend his break with Lance, since no one else had come to see him on Thanksgiving. His parents, who had rented an apartment so they could stay in Atlantic City for however long they needed to, were eating in a restaurant.

“I really need to get a girlfriend or something,” Chris said out loud, feeling sorry for himself as he thought of his pathetic existence. He was spending Thanksgiving working and sitting with his vegetable-like friend, and if he hadn’t had to work, he would have mostly been pondering his pathetic life in the comfort of his shabby apartment, eating a Hungryman TV dinner and watching the Cartoon Network. At least he was doing something productive, though sitting with Lance and talking to him didn’t seem quite “productive”. It was basically like talking to a wall, a parking meter, or any other inanimate object.

“And now I’m talking to myself,” he went on, chuckling. “Cause it’s not like you’re comprehending anything I say, buddy.” As usual, Lance remained in his motionless state and did not reply.

Chris glanced at his watch. “Well, I guess I should get back to the ER now. I’ll see you later, Lance.” He rose from his chair and started to slowly leave the room, when suddenly, the beeping of Lance’s heart monitor began to speed up.

“Lance?” Chris said, turning back and sitting down on the edge of the chair again. He checked the levels on Lance’s monitors. Everything seemed fine, but there was a definite increase in Lance’s heart rate. He frowned, not sure what would make that happen all of a sudden, but he shrugged and stood up again. He picked Lance’s pale hand up from the bed and gave it a squeeze. “See ya, dude.”

And that’s when he felt it. A very slight squeeze back.

+++

Risha Veers shuffled absently through the pile of papers that covered her desk. I really need to clean my office, she thought, looking around her. Her organizational skills weren’t usually that horrible, but somehow things had gotten away from her, and her office was in a state of disarray.

“Where is that stupid pen?” she asked aloud, continuing to search through the papers for her misplaced pen. Why do I keep losing things? First her ring, now her pen. Not to mention John, but that was a whole other thing, and she didn’t want to start thinking about it now. Still, it was hard not to on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was a family holiday, and she had no family. None that was close anyway. That was why she had offered to work all day on Thanksgiving, knowing that it would do her no good to sit and home and brood. She would rather be occupied at work.

Unfortunately, the surgical ward was practically dead that day. There were no surgeries scheduled because of the holiday, and unless an emergency came up, it didn’t look like she’d be doing much except checking up on the patients that were already there recovering from surgeries and doing consults in the ER. Most of the other surgeons were off spending time with their families. Risha and Holli Brunson were among the few left there. From what Risha had seen so far, Holli was a workaholic and didn’t seem to have any family either.

Deciding that since she didn’t have any operations scheduled, she would take the down time to straighten up her office, Risha began to carefully sort through the heaps of paper on her desk, filing some away, pitching others. Toward the bottom of the stack, her fingers brushed across something small and hard. Looking down to see what it was, she gasped in astonishment. There, taped to a small piece of paper, was a ring, the very ring she had lost over a month earlier when she had taken it off to scrub in and forgotten about it. She pulled the ring off the paper, peeled the tape off of it, and slid it onto the ring finger of her left hand. Tilting her hand towards the light, she admired the way the stone, a cubic zircon, sparkled in its gold setting. Tears rose in her eyes, making them gleam just as much as the ring, and before she could stop herself, she had begun to cry silently, overwhelmed with emotion and relieved beyond words to find her ring after all this time.

Through her tears, she looked down at the paper the ring had been taped to. Scrawled across it in messy doctor’s cursive was a note.

Risha,

Is this yours? I thought I’ve seen you wearing a ring like this before, and I found it in the scrub-in room. If it’s not yours, just take it to the lost and found box at the nurses station.

- Kevin

Risha blinked, the words blurring on the page. Her heart swelled with gratitude for Kevin. When did he leave this? she wondered. Since it had been under the whole huge mound of papers, she figured it had been left there awhile ago, probably right after she lost it. She must have set something down on top of it without even noticing it.

Suddenly, someone knocked on her closed office door.

“Veers, are you in there?” came the brisk, familiar voice of Holli Brunson.

Risha stood up, quickly wiped her eyes, and opened the door.

“One of the-“ Holli started to say, then stopped. Narrowing her eyes, she studied Risha’s face for a moment, then asked disdainfully, “Have you been crying?”

“Oh… uh…” Risha took a swipe at her eyes again. “… no, I’m just… tired. I was yawning, and my eyes water when I yawn.”

She could tell right away that Holli didn’t believe her, but Holli didn’t press the subject and continued saying, “One of the nurses from Neurology came down here and wants to talk to you right away. She said it’s important. Why she didn’t just page you, I don’t know, but she’s waiting by the nurses station.”

“Oh.” Risha frowned, slightly perplexed. “Okay.”

Holli went in one direction, and Risha went in the other, heading for the nurses station. There she found Nurse Katie McGraw standing there. When she saw Risha, she ran toward her.

“Dr. Veers!” she cried, her hazel eyes wide and excited behind her glasses. “Lance Bass woke up, Dr. Veers!”

Risha’s mouth opened in surprise. “Really? When?”

“Just a few minutes ago. His friend Chris was in the room with him, and Lance squeezed his hand. Chris called me, and by the time I got there, his eyes were open. He seems really disoriented, and he’s not talking, but at least he’s awake. Dr. McCartney’s not here, and I know you operated on him, so I thought you’d want to know. Maybe you’d like to come examine him.”

“Sure,” Risha replied. “I’ll go up right now. Do his parents know yet?”

“No, Chris said they’re out to dinner. They’ll be so happy. His poor father still comes to visit him every day,” Katie said, as they got into one of the elevators.

“At least someone was keeping the faith. I have to admit, I’d pretty much given up on him,” said Risha. “It’s been a month since we tried to bring him out of the coma.”

“I know,” Katie said. “I can’t wait to see the look on his parents’ face, especially with it being Thanksgiving and all. This is the miracle they’ve been hoping for.”

“I hope so,” said Risha. “But it might not be all they expected. Now that he’s finally woken up, he’s out of the woods, but who knows how much brain damage he’s going to have.”

“I know,” Katie replied solemnly. “But he’s come this far. Maybe he’ll be alright after some therapy.”

“I hope so,” said Risha. “I hope so.”

+++
Jim and Diane Bass sat in the small restaurant, waiting for the waitress to bring their meal. A small shudder ran through Diane’s body as the chilly air of the restaurant hit her arms, and she glanced around to the other patrons to see if anyone else had this reaction.
“You alright, Diane?”
“Hmm?”
Diane turned her attention to her husband and allowed a small smile to grace her features.
“Did you say something, Jim?”
“I asked if you was alright,” Jim said with a small smirk, trying his best to make this holiday as normal as possible.
“Yes, yes I am alright.”
“Good.”
After that, the conversation at the table died, and Diane silently wished this day would be over with. Even though it was Thanksgiving, this day wasn’t much different than any other day. Her son was still fighting for his life at the hospital where he was formerly employed at, and it didn’t look like he was going to make it. In a way, Diane just wished they would just let him die peacefully - that way he wouldn’t have to suffer. On the other hand, she wanted him to fight this battle and win. She had already lost one child and was by no means interested in losing another.
The placement of a plate of steaming food on the table broke Diane out of her trance, and she smiled at the young waitress. Once the waitress left, Diane and Jim began to eat in silence. Without warning, Jim jumped in his seat and reached into his pants pocket, as Diane looked on in confusion. Her confusion was resolved as Jim placed a small cell phone to his ear and greeted the caller.
Diane watched as a range of emotions came over Jim’s face, ranging from serious to shocked, and ending with tears filling his eyes. Diane felt her heart stop and a lump take residence in her throat as tears filled Jim’s green eyes; from that one reaction, Diane knew the call must have been to tell them that their son was dead, that he would suffer no more.
“Lance is awake.”
Diane looked up at her husband, ready to yell at him for playing such a cruel joke on her; she knew for a fact that Lance was dead.
Without waiting for a response from Diane, Jim waved the waitress over and asked for the check. Opening his wallet and whipping out a $20 bill, Jim gave it to the waitress and told her to keep the change. Next thing Diane knew, Jim was at her side, grasping her hand and gently tugging her to her feet.
“I can’t go, Jim.”
“What? Why?”
“Lance is dead, Jim. No need to break the news to me gently by lying about it.”
A strangled laugh escaped Jim’s lips as the words his wife spoke registered in his brain. How could she think this was a joke?
“Diane, trust me. Lance isn’t dead. Chris was in his room earlier, and Lance squeezed his hand, and Chris just called to tell us he just woke up a few minutes ago. I would never lie about our son like this, never.”
Once Diane realized Jim wasn’t lying, hope soared within her. “Let’s go then. I want to see Lance.”
Jim nodded in response, and they quickly walked to the black rental car, their source of transportation since most of their belongings, including their cars, were still in Mississippi. Since Jim had refused to leave his son’s side since that fateful September day, and Diane was too stubborn and insecure in this situation to leave her husband behind, the couple had been renting a small apartment in the vicinity of the hospital and had bought all the clothes and supplies they would need. They never lost the hope that one day they would be able to leave the North Carolina city knowing that Lance would be alright without them and he had no last defects from his rash decision to try and end his life.
As they settled into the car and Jim began to drive to the hospital, Diane had a new perspective on this day. Not only was in Thanksgiving day but it was also the day Lance in a sense started a new life.
+++
Chris was in a state of euphoria. His depressing Thanksgiving had suddenly become much better. After being in a coma for two long months, Lance was finally awake. Not that everything was suddenly perfect. Although Lance’s life was no longer hanging in balance, it was not yet known how much damage had been done. Right now, he was unable to respond to people, except for the occasional hand squeeze, but for all Chris knew, that could have just been a reflex. The worst-case scenario now was that Lance was so brain damaged that he would stay like this for the rest of his life, awake, but unable to communicate. But Chris was determined not to think of the worst. He focused on the fact that Lance had already leaped two major hurdles. First of all, he had survived the gunshot wound and the surgery to remove the bullet against overwhelming odds. And now, he had finally regained consciousness after a two-month-long coma. As far as Chris was concerned, if Lance had made it that far, he could go all the way and recover. Maybe not totally, but he could recover to the point where he could function on his own again.

At seven o’clock that evening, Chris walked through the lobby of Memorial, ready to go home, pull out that Hungryman TV dinner and turn on the Cartoon Network. It didn’t seem quite as bad as before now that he was in a good mood, but still, he wished he had someone to be with that night. He wanted to celebrate, not sit by himself in his lonely little apartment.

Behind him, he heard the elevator doors slide open, and he subconsciously glanced back in time to see Risha Veers step out of the elevator. He stopped and waited as she came toward him, ready to leave the hospital as well.

“Hi, Dr. Veers,” he said, smiling.

“Oh, hi, Mr. Kirkpatrick,” Risha replied, giving him a tentative smile back.

“You can call me Chris,” said Chris with a chuckle. “ ‘Mr. Kirkpatrick’ sounds way too formal.”

Risha laughed slightly. “Okay.”

“So, you got any Thanksgiving plans for tonight?” Chris asked.

“No,” Risha said, a little sadly. “I’m just going to go home and take a hot bath. How about you?”

“Heat myself up a Hungryman dinner and turn on the Cartoon Network,” Chris said matter-of-factly. The corners of Risha’s mouth turned up. “But I’d really rather go out to eat somewhere and celebrate, you know, about Lance waking up and everything. How about it?”

Risha stared at him in surprise. “You’re asking me to go with you?” she asked uncertainly.

“Well, yeah,” Chris said, laughing. “That is, if you want to. I just thought, since you aren’t really doing anything else, and neither am I, that we could at least go have a nice Thanksgiving dinner somewhere. Just to celebrate, like I said.”

“Well…” Risha hesitated.

“Oh, come on. You can go home and take a bath afterwards,” Chris persuaded.

“Alright…” Risha said slowly. “I guess so.”

Chris’s face split into a grin. “Great,” he said. “Guess I won’t be having Hungryman tonight after all. Um… how about we both go home and get changed and then meet somewhere? Where do you want to go?”

“It doesn’t matter to me. You probably know the town better. Where do you want to go?” Risha said.

They decided on a nice restaurant which was sure to have a good turkey dinner and left the hospital together, splitting apart only to go to their separate cars. As Risha climbed into hers and pulled out of her parking space, she couldn’t help but smile. Go out to dinner? With a guy? She hadn’t done that in ten years.

Wow, Chris thought, as he left the parking lot. I have Thanksgiving plans. Guess I’m not such a loser after all. And he headed home, glad that his Hungryman dinner would remain frozen, and he would not have to sit through another episode of Powerpuff Girls.

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