Summary: Tragedy brings twelve-year-old Rachel back home to her father, and Mark hopes that things will go back to the way they were in the old days. But it’s not as easy as it seems

Author’s Notes: Spoilers from Piece of Mind onward. There’s not too much to say except that this is my first series, so bear with me, I’m still learning!

Disclaimer: The characters you’ve seen before are not mine. The end.

Feedback: I’m not a doctor, I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t have the time to pretend to be. I’m just a lowly high school student with very little free time on her hands. But if you have comments unrelated to those two areas, please tell me. I’d really love to hear what you think. This is me down on my knees begging!! Just send all comments and criticism to greeneblob707@yahoo.com with the title of the fanfic as the subject. I can take it, I really can!

Elizabeth arrived home from the hospital exhausted and slightly annoyed. Her day had not been the best one in history, and she was grateful to arrive home to a nice, comfortable house and a loving husband and child. It was days like these when she realized how much easier it was to come home to a family instead of an empty house.

Throwing her coat onto the hanger, she rubbed her hands together to generate some warmth. Unfortunately, she wasn’t too successful. From there, she walked into the kitchen, where Mark was fixing dinner with Ryan. Just seven months old, he was seated in his special chair, admiring his daddy, talking nonsense, and of course, drooling.

“Elizabeth,” Mark said, surprised. “You’re home.”

“Yes, I am. Very observant of you,” she teased. “I got off early. Romano canceled some sort of conference so we had a few extra sets of hands available. And I took advantage, of course.”

“Of course,” Mark smiled, leaning in to accept her kiss.

“Smells good,” Elizabeth said as she moved over to Ryan, who smiled back at her brilliantly. She leaned over and scooped him up, returning his smile and adding a kiss. “Hello, Ryan,” she cooed. “What have you been up to today?”

“Googoo. Da,” he replied proudly, showing off his huge grin.

Elizabeth chuckled, giving him another kiss.

“Getting ready for Rachel’s visit?” she asked. He giggled, his sign of approval toward the idea. Rachel was visiting for Christmas vacation and staying with Mark until it was time to go back to school. Jen and Craig were planning to come down with her to visit Rache’s grandparents. They would stay for a few days and drive back without Rachel. Rachel hadn’t seen Ryan since the summer. She had been absolutely amazed by his tiny features and precious faces. She was very much looking forward to this visit to see him, as well as to see Mark and Elizabeth, with whom she had grown much closer over the summer.

“How about you?” she asked, looking at Mark.

“I think we’re ready. Her bed just needs some sheets,” he replied. “We can do that after dinner.”

Elizabeth nodded and placed Ryan in his high chair. She watched him play with his hands, which he loved to hit against the table or stair at adoringly. He was a happy baby and hadn’t given her or Mark any trouble since birth. He was still basically bald, taking after his father, Elizabeth joked. His eyes had a touch of color from each parent, and his chubby cheeks and half-toothless grin were priceless. Neither Mark nor Elizabeth could imagine a greater gift than he.

Ryan had come just months after Mark’s battle with cancer. There had been a number of stresses exasperating their daily life at the time, but they felt they had finally gotten over the rough spots. They were both devoted to making their family life work regardless of how difficult their professional lives became. Mark had initially taken some time off from the hospital, allowing Elizabeth to go back to work fairly quickly without having to worry. After a few months, he began easing back into his old position, and he was now managing a full time job and a full time family. Meanwhile, Elizabeth had continued in her position in surgery. She had been making an effort to do as much work at home as she could, but she had to admit that it was difficult to balance both her career and her home life, and she realized it would take some getting used to. Regardless, they were both happy in their positions and were finally looking forward to happier times.

And then that night as they sat down to dinner, the phone call came. The one which delayed their plans for just a little bit longer. Ryan sat in his high chair, eating the smushed carrots that Elizabeth happily maneuvered with the spoon. It was a good night; more than half the carrots made it to his mouth and remained there. Mark sat cutting his chicken and listening to Elizabeth talk about the numerous stressful and depressing cases that had made their ways to the E.R. and O.R. that afternoon. When the phone rang, they debated whether or not to answer it. Mark finally arose from his chair, deciding it was safer to answer just in case Jen had gotten lost or needed to get in touch with him.

“Hello?… Yes, this is Mark Greene… Yes, why? Is everything alright?… I see… Well, how bad is it?… Okay, I’ll be there- I’ll be there as fast as I can… Thank you.”

Mark hung up the phone in a daze. Not missing a beat, Elizabeth inquired, “What is it, Mark?”

“They were in a car accident.”

“Who?” she asked, already knowing but not wanting to know for sure.

Mark stared at her blankly for a few moments. “Rachel. Jen. Craig, Amanda. They were almost here. They’re at Mercy now.”

“Are they stable?” she asked, now more visibly concerned. She had already begun to move from her seat. As Mark stood shocked by the news, Elizabeth’s mind began reeling. “Why don’t you get the coats. I’ll clean Ryan up. You can start the car. But I’m driving,” she called as he began to make his way out of the kitchen.

“Come on, Ry. Be a good boy for me, okay? We need to get cleaned off. We can finish eating at the hospital. I promise,” Elizabeth said soothingly, more for her own peace of mind than for Ryan’s information.

She scrubbed his face clean of the orange gook. He whimpered slightly but didn’t protest too loudly. She was able to bundle him up without too much fuss before tucking him safely in his car seat.

“Are you ready?” she asked Mark as they climbed into the car. He nodded slightly before they drove off through the streets. The car was filled with nervous tension, and the only sound made was Mark’s voice reminding Elizabeth, and himself, of the last time Jen had been involved in a car accident.

“Well, let’s hope more good comes out of this one than the other one,” Elizabeth remarked, trying to lighten the mood while she had the opportunity. Even more stressful was the fact that they had no information to go on. The hospital had not revealed anything of substance on the phone, which didn’t help them regulate their moods. While he understood the importance of a privacy policy in the hospital, he wished that policy would disappear for a moment, just until they disclosed Rachel’s status. They hadn’t even told Mark whether anyone was stable. Mark didn’t know how much energy he should waste on worrying at the moment, but relying on his past experience in his own E.R., he estimated that a fairly large amount of worry could be appropriate.

Elizabeth had attempted to start a conversation several times, even though by the look on Mark’s face and the worry in his eyes, she knew he wouldn’t be responding much. The heavy traffic was not helping to relieve any uneasiness about the situation at all. They sat in anxious silence for a while. Attempts at finding a song on the radio to fit their mood had failed, and Elizabeth finally gave up on conversing, eventually giving in to her own worry. Both had only one concern on their minds.

After an eternity, they arrived at the hospital. Elizabeth pulled up to the entrance. “Do you want to get out here?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’ll do that,” he answered, giving her a quick kiss before getting out of the car.

“I’ll be right in, okay?”

Mark nodded. “Alright.” Then he turned to the doors of the E.R. and began his attempt to seek out information.

Elizabeth searched frantically for a parking space. The farther away she got from the doors of the E.R., the more frustrated she became. She watched as a small red sports car pulled out from a spot a few feet ahead of her. She sighed with relief and tried to sneak quickly into the spot. Unfortunately, a bright yellow beetle had the same idea and swerved in to cut Elizabeth off.

“Damnit!” she cried. “That was my spot! My spot! Bloody-“

“Waaaah!” Ryan, who had fallen asleep from the soothing stopping and starting of the car, roared from the back seat, awakened by Elizabeth’s frustrated calls. She quickly regained her composure and reached back to rub Ryan’s leg in the hopes of comforting him a little. Finding a spot fairly close to the hospital, she unstrapped the still crying Ryan and moved quickly to the doors of the E.R. She hoped that she would arrive to good news, or at least that she would be there to comfort Mark in the case of bad news.

“Mark?”

He was sitting in the waiting area, slumped over, head in hands. Elizabeth touched his shoulder to get his attention after he didn’t respond to her call. The whimpering Ryan sat in Elizabeth’s arms, looking on innocently.

“Any information?” she asked.

“Yeah. It was pretty bad. Rachel and Jen are up in surgery. Rachel’s fine, breathing on her own and everything. They’re up in surgery repairing a fracture to her leg.”

Elizabeth exhaled, not even realizing she had been holding her breath. “What a relief,” she said, giving Mark a half smile.

“Yeah. Jen’s up in surgery. Her injuries were pretty extensive. It’s not looking too good.”

“Why? What are her injuries?”

“They didn’t say exactly. Since I’m technically not a family member anymore. But they barely had her stabilized before they took her up.”

“You’re kidding. How long have they been up there?”

“It doesn’t seem like too long. Looks like it was a major trauma. I was going to head up as soon as you got here.”

“Yeah, damn bug took my parking space.”

“Bug?”

Elizabeth chuckled a little at the sound of her own comment. “The car, Mark. A yellow Volkswagen beetle.”

Mark nodded his head slightly. “Right. Gotcha.”

They headed toward the elevator and pressed the button for the fourth floor. Mark stood impatiently waiting as an elderly woman with a walker, a tattooed young woman, a young toddler and his mother, and a few other assorted faces exited the elevator on their way home. Mark knew he was lucky that nothing too serious had happened to Rachel. But in his heart, he knew he had been hoping he could just come into the E.R. and take her home, a few scrapes and bruises requiring a few band aids and some ice. They would talk about the big scare, laugh about how worried they had been, have some hot cocoa, and catch up on each other. Then, just like in the old days, Mark would show her to her room, give her a good night kiss, tuck her in, and know she was safe and sound for the next few days. Maybe she wasn’t five years old anymore, maybe she was a little too cool for bedroom stories, and maybe things weren’t exactly like old times, but things would be okay anyway.

Now, instead, he had to go up to her recovery room and try to somehow explain why her mother wasn’t there to see her, to reassure her, to comfort her. As much grief as Jen had caused him in the past, that was who Rachel really needed at the moment, and as much as Mark hated to admit it, that meant that that was who he needed too.

Part 2