ER Front Desk

[Billie]

Continued from: The Onyx; Dressing Rooms

The singer barely jumped out of the way in time to avoid being mowed down by a gurney that was being carted in from the ambulance bay. Frantic, her eyes flickered to the prone form on the stretcher, but she saw no shock of blonde hair. Not Andrew.

Maybe he's fine. Maybe he just got stitched up and they sent him home...

"Ma'am?"

The kind-faced nurse looked up when Billie spoke, leaning slightly against the ledge of the front desk. "Please," the singer continued. "My name's Billie Ferguson. My...fiancé was brought in a bit ago. Andrew Grant?"

Well, that little white lie sure came easy. Billie made a point of hiding her ringless left hand as she tried to convince the nurse to take her to Andrew. Fiancé sounded a bit more dire than 'fairly good friend,' though, right?

[Billie]

The groggy voice made Billie pause in her bullshitery and she turned, only to give a horrified gasp of, "Andy!" before she sprinted after the gurney.

"Oh my god," she murmured, wide-eyed as she gave Andrew a once-over. Her hand immediate found his. "Baby, what happened?"

[Billie]

"Sorry?"

Billie flashed the steadiest grin she could and squeezed Andrew's hand carefully. "You don't have anything to be sorry for, Andy," she told him gently. "Just get better for me, huh? Promise?"

[Billie]

She released his hand with an apologetic wince, but his statement made her smile. "All right, sweetie, I promise."

"Miss?" The orderly was polite when he addressed her, but Billie could sense his slight irritation. "We need to get him up to x-ray."

"Right, of course." Billie nodded, but before she stepped back, she dropped a carefull kiss on an un-bloodied portion of Andrew's forehead and smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring manner. "I'm gonna go find Marion, okay? You just hang in there, Andy."

[Billie]

"He'll be fine, miss, don't you worry," one of the orderlies said with a brief smile. Billie only nodded and watched as they wheeled Andrew's gurney away. St. Benedict's was a good place, and she knew it. They'd take care of him and he'd be fine.

"Miss?"

Billie looked back to the nurse at the front desk. The older woman's smile was sympathetic, and something about it made Billie's stomach roll over; it wasn't like Andrew was terminally ill or anything. "If you're looking for Ms. Barnes, she might still be in curtain two."

The singer's smile was tight-lipped at best, but at least she was trying. "Thank you," she said with a nod before she hurried off to find Andrew's boss.

Continued in: ER Curtain Area with Nate and Marion

[Katherine]

Continued from Main Streets with Marcus

The journey form the crash site had been long and uneventful for Katherine Rivera; the paramedic in the back with her had been firing questions at her in a stream, poking her ribs, her legs, checking for broken bones or bleeding. Again. She'd hit her nose hard in the crash, though she couldn't remember it, but finally the flow of blood was slowing. It was clotting, she assumed. With that out of the way more or less he had strapped an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose and though the detective was more than a little dizzy now, she gave him the darkest look he could muster, her expression grim and bored looking.

He averted his gaze.

They pulled up into the ambulance bay moments later and the door flew open. She suddenly realised how damn tired she was. All she'd done was go out to grab a Chinese to share with her brother and Wiles and a few hours later she was being wheeled into the ER of the local Hospital and she was drained at the thought of what lay ahead. Her eyelids closed for a respite as her gurney was lowered to ground level and she heard Doctors and nurses and the other amublance nearby.

[Marcus]

The second ambulance unloaded its patient as swiftly as they dared, and soon, both gurneys were wheeled through the automatic doors into St. Benedict’s. Marcus was more than eager to get the mask off his face, and once again as they passed through the waiting area, he was rather acutely aware of the sensation of being watched. Why was it bothering him so much?

Other than the fact that you’re clearly a cop covered in blood and everyone’s staring? The thought almost made him smile, but he stifled it before it could form, and settled for concentrating on breathing rather than letting himself think about how they looked being wheeled past. He wasn’t even really listening to the doctors, nurses or paramedics as they talked away briskly at one another in all manner of abbreviations and medical ‘shorthand’.

Marcus reassured himself with a glance ahead to Katherine’s gurney, which was in front of his own. They weren’t speeding off ahead, which meant, all things considered, she was okay. He didn’t need to panic.


Continued in: Trauma Rooms with Katherine.

[Poppy]

Continued from: General Stores Etc; S & J’s Market

The hospital had looked imposing as she entered, making Poppy want to turn tail and run away. She hated them nowadays, the smell and sights only serving to remind her of what she had lost, even though she knew that the hospital had not been responsible for the crushing of her dreams – rather it had saved her from even worse injuries but she couldn’t help it, just the smell of the antiseptic that every single hospital in the world seemed to use was enough to make her brood on her own time spent as a patient.

Poppy moved up to the ER front desk, looking around idly as she did so. It seemed fairly quiet for an ER, making her think that perhaps the makers of such quality shows as… well, ER, might not have been entirely truthful in their depictions. There were a number of white coated people wandering about the area, some looking as if they were working and some chatting to each other. There were also a number of people not in white coats and her attention honed in on one couple in particular, the women of the pair giving the doctor she was talking to hell. The poor doctor looked cowered and the man standing behind didn’t look much better. She looked away after a moment, turning her attention back onto her own quest.

“Hello, I’m looking for Detectives Rivera and Rivera?” Poppy asked the nurse behind the desk, feeling suddenly small for no real reason. “Are they allowed visitors?”

[Poppy]

“They are able to have visitors but the doctor is in with them right now, you’ll have to wait,” the nurse behind the counter replied after what felt like an age to Poppy. She nodded in thanks and took a step away, lifting a hand to tuck some of her long hair absently behind her ear, trying to shake off the feeling that someone was staring at her.

Poppy was indeed being stared at, and approached even. The woman she had noticed from before was moving towards her, leaving the doctor behind her to sigh heavily in relief. She came up beside the young woman at the desk and asked without warning, "Did you say Rivera?" She didn't snap, exactly, but her tone implied a kind of concerned desperation of sorts.

Silently following the woman who approached and then proceeded to question the young woman was a man taller than her, quiet but equally as worried looking. He glanced at the nurse behind the counter and then back to the girl, a hand coming to rest on his wife's shoulder lightly. There was no point in terrifying the poor girl out of her wits before she'd even gotten a chance to answer, even if he was just as keen to know if he had heard her right; that she was indeed asking after their son and daughter.

The appearance of the woman next to her had been sudden and unexpected, Poppy flinching at little at the words. She turned to face the couple, her expression rather like the proverbial deer in the headlights. “Yes?” she ventured slowly, her answer sounding more like a question in its own right. “I’m looking for Detectives Rivera…”

"How do you know them?" the shorter woman asked, looking briefly up at the man who had laid a hand on her shoulder. She couldn't help but be shaken as she stood there, her jacket folded almost too neatly over her crossed arms, which practically hugged around her chest defensively. "Do you work with them at the station?" The girl didn't look like a police officer, but that didn't mean a thing.

"Let her speak, Marge," the man prompted softly, giving the shoulder beneath his hand a slight squeeze and casting a sympathetic smile to the young woman in front of them.

“Oh no, no, nothing like that. I only met them last night. They uh…” Poppy shifted her feet slightly, feeling awkward and uncomfortable under the gaze of the couple that she was starting to suspect were the parents – her mother looked at her in exactly the same way. “They saved my sister’s life and I just wanted to make sure they were okay.”

Marge, as her husband had called her, seemed to loosen a little at that, looking up at the man behind her before she considered Poppy once again. "Were… were you there when it happened?" she asked after a moment, the tension in her voice having lessened noticeably.

He watched silently for a moment, taking in the words and more importantly the tone of voice of the young girl. The pair of them probably seemed daunting at best. He stepped alongside his wife after her question, wanting to keep things calm as often seemed to be one of his functions, "I'm Hank Rivera, this is Margaret." He offered gently, as if that would just clear everything up regarding the questions.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Poppy Marcus,” she replied automatically, half of her mouth curling up in a half hearted attempt at a smile before it dropped into the pervious semi serious, semi nervous expression. Poppy looked down at her plastic bag for a moment and took a deep breath before looking back up, meeting Marge’s gaze square on. “I was in the car in front of them. I heard it but I didn’t see it.”

Margaret's hand was at her mouth, but not clasped over it. Clearly, they had been told some of the details, but standing in front of someone from the event itself brought it into more clarity somehow. She couldn't process it properly, and likely wouldn't until she got to see her children with her own eyes. "Well…" she managed after a moment, "well it's a good thing you're all right." She nodded her head, looking up at Hank as if to pass the job of talking to him while she absorbed this information.

Hank got the unspoken message and with a reassuring semi-squeeze of his wife's shoulder he drew in a breath and looked beck to Poppy. He gestured away from the ER desk slightly as he spoke, free hand in his pocket, "Your sister's alright I hope?" he asked quietly. He had the feeling were she not that her sister would already be with her, and he tagged another sentence on, after a minor pause, "You're welcome to wait with us until the doctor has finished talking to them, Poppy."

“She’s fine. Marcus got in there before anything really bad could happen.” There was a hint of awe in her voice as she spoke, her tone making it clear that at the moment she considered Marcus Rivera her personal hero. “I’m sure both of them are alright too. They were both talking when they went in the ambulance…” she trailed off and fiddled with a strand of hair for a moment. “I don’t want to get in the way, I mean I’m sure they’d rather see you on your own than me too.”

The older Rivera woman smiled, albeit quietly, as if the way Poppy spoke of her children reassured her, and she leaned into her husband lightly to draw strength from his presence as well, apparently content to just stand in silence for the time being, no doubt a state that wouldn't last long when she was actually able to see her son and daughter for herself. When Poppy brushed off the invitation, polite though it was, she shook her head. "Nonsense. You're more than welcome to stay."

Hank gave a nod, agreeing with his wife as she assured Poppy that it would be perfectly alright for her to wait with them, he even gave a small smile at the way she spoke, "I'm sure they'd be glad to see you." He added gently.

She blushed slightly and nodded, fingers twisting around the handle of her bag. “Thank you,” she replied, deciding it would be pointless to try and refuse again, not to mention rude. And she did really want to see them, to reassure herself that they were okay.

It was after a couple of minutes of the three standing quietly together not far from the ER desk that the nurse who had spoken to Poppy not long ago moved over to them. "The doctor's finished with them now. I can take you up to see them."

Margaret Rivera took her husband's hand in her own, and nodded her head, obviously not needing to be asked twice.

Co-Written with Clez and Hezy.

Continued in: General Ward with Marge and Hank Rivera

[Mimi]

Continued from: Rayne's Territory; Apartment Complex; Parking Garage with Bo

"They'll let us in to see her, right?"

With her arm looped through Bo's, the pair strode through the automatic sliding doors and into the main lobby of the ER. It wasn't quite as hectic as Mimi had seen it but, as a rule, it wasn't exactly the picture of calm. A few panicked, foreign thoughts flitted through her head, strong in their intent and loud in volume; it was enough to make the blonde bartender flinch just vaguely.

"I mean, since we're technically not family," she clarified to Bo. "Then again, they don't know that."

[Bo]

Bo wasn’t even thinking about how a crowded, busy place like a hospital could play havoc with the abilities of someone like Mimi, so her flinch went unnoticed as they headed for the desk, waiting behind an ageing — and not gracefully — pair who were bickering over one form or another. “And what they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em,” he agreed in response to Mimi’s remark.

He and Fiona were practically siblings, the way they bantered and teased and even fought, and he thought it over, supposing they could get away with being step-siblings of some sort, if he wanted to bend the truth. She was family even if they couldn’t understand the meaning of the bond, and anyway, he wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer.

[Mimi]

After what seemed an age, the bickering old pair moved on -- still squabbling -- and Mimi loped her arm through Bo's as they stepped up to the desk. Immediately, the country girl's demeanor changed; her normally cheeky expression became one of deep concern, and when she spoke, her Southern drawl was more apparent than ever. Hopefully, it would do the trick.

"Pardon me, ma'am," Mimi began timidly. "But we're here to see Fiona MacDuff? I believe she was brought in just a few hours ago."

[Bo]

“Are you family?” The desk clerk, or nurse, whatever she was, didn’t even look up, her pen hovering over the papers she was working on before she turned her gaze to the computer screen, glasses perched on the end of her nose.

“Not exactly,” Bo said, not really one to sugar-coat and even with his thoughts from just moments before he hadn’t really considered lying. The nurse, or clerk, glanced up for only a second.

“Then I can’t let you through.”

Bo’s laugh was quiet, and completely lacking in genuine humour, just as his smile was anything but amused when he laid one hand on the desk and leaned forward a fraction to catch the nurse-clerk’s attention. “Okay, that’s not really what we wanted to hear. See, Fiona MacDuff? My family, regardless of the blood in our veins. And we’ll be going through to see her within the next minute, because this is just the right thing to do here; you know it, I know it. This discussion here? Just a waste of everyone’s time.”

[Mimi]

Obviously Bo wasn't the type to be subtle about things, but Mimi was fairly sure that getting snappish with the hospital staff would not get them through to see little Fee. She was gentle when she tugged Bo away from the nurse's station, taking his place against the desk, and offering the bespectacled woman a gentle smile.

"Ma'am, please, we just gonna see here," Mimi pleaded gently. The nurse looked up -- it was a start. "I know lettin' non-blood relations by isn't exactly policy, but we love Fiona like blood, really. We just wanna make sure she's doin' all right."

'Oh, you poor dears...'

It wasn't usually her policy to set thoughts in other people's minds, but this, in Mimi's eyes, was a special case. The nurse's face softened somewhat before she spoke, "Oh, very well." Her attention returned to the computer for just a moment. "Ms. MacDuff is in the general ward -- just find one of the orderlies to escort you."