Invisible String

Chapter 2: The Very First Page

"Yes, yes. Mr. Beckett. I understand he's here after a valve replacement surgery, right?" When Dr. Rhodes nodded, she went further. "Well, he has infection points with several decayed teeth and an abscess to drain. But his blood pressure was a little high when I examined him, so I would like you to check on him just to be safe before I perform any procedure."

"Okay, let's see."

He walked to the patient's room, Elizabeth walking right behind him.

"Mr. Beckett, hello. How are you feeling today?"

"Doc, hey! I'm feeling great."

She watched as Connor proceeded to ask the patients various questions, while checking his vitals and listening to his heart.

"And you're feeling anything out of the ordinary? Any chest pain or shortness of breath?"

"Well, everytime Red here walks into the room it gets harder to breathe, yeah." Mr. Beckett jokes, pointing to Elizabeth. She bit her lip, a tint of pink all over her cheeks. Connor looked at her and chuckled discreetly.

"Your blood pressure is indeed a bit higher than we would like it to be after the surgery. I'd like to run a few tests just to be sure."

"Whatever you say, doctor Rhodes." the patient agreed.

"Okay. I'm going to do a quick ultrasound first, and we'll see then." Connor turned around to prepare the ultrasound machine, while she talked about amenities to Mr. Beckett, not sure if she should leave the room and wait for Dr. Rhodes to finish his evaluation and tell her their next step. "I'm going to need you to be still for a while, okay Mr. Beckett?"

Elizabeth stood there silently, watching her colleague work with the machine to examine the patient's heart.

"So, the muffins on the doctors' lounge" Connor started, his eyes still on the monitor. "Was it you, wasn't it?"

"My mom always said food was a great way to start friendships." she giggled.

"Your mother was a very wise woman." Mr. Beckett jumped into the conversation.

"She was, yeah." The use of the past tense to talk about Evelyn Halstead still sent a sharp pain through her ribs, even after all those years.

Connor looked at her. He looked like he wanted to say something, or maybe it was just her imagination. Whatever it was, she didn't have more than a few seconds to think about that because the monitors suddenly started to beep crazily.

Their eyes went back to the patient, who seemed to be out. Dr. Rhodes looked at the monitors again.

"He's in v-fib.'' He started to frently push the ultrasound machine behind and checking the patients' pulse, then started to perform chest compressions.

Her training was very specific about these situations, where the patient was arresting: leave the room and let the doctors and nurses do the work they were trained to do.

But she barely had moved out of the way when he looked at her again.

"You know how to perform CPR?"

"Yeah... I had a course in college." She answered, not sure what the point of this exchange was.

"Take over chest compressions. I need to shock him."

The nurse preparing the defibrillator looked at him like he was crazy. She was probably doing the same thing. She wasn't a physician, a nurse, or a member of the code team.

"What? I can't-"

"Just do it!"

It wasn't an order, but the impulse to do as he was saying took over. She got in position, two hands over his chest, and started the compressions exactly as she learned, just hoping she wouldn't get in trouble for that. The nurse handed him the paddles.