Summary ~ When a fatal accident occurs, many lives are forever shifted. Elizabeth must take on the challenge of a new role, and Tess must learn how to adapt to her new life.

Genre ~ Mark/Elizabeth/Tess/Kate

Disclaimer ~ Every person you have heard of before are not of my creation. The characters you have not heard of before are mine, although I borrowed their names from Centreville High School.

Need to Know ~ This story takes place in 2015. The last episode that applies to this story is April Showers.

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Mark and Elizabeth both tried to talk to Tess. It didn’t work. They did everything in their power to try and get her to open up to them. But nothing worked. Eventually it got late, and Elizabeth and Mark went to bed, having not accomplished their goal.

That morning was the same as every other morning. Julia was down first, followed by Kate, and Tess came down just minutes before she had to leave. She didn’t eat breakfast anymore. Claiming that she didn’t need it, and that she wasn’t hungry. Elizabeth knew she was lying.

Tess sat down on the sofa, waiting for the time when she would get to leave. Elizabeth decided that she had to say something, this might be her only shot. She slowly approached Tess, who paid no attention to her. "Tess?" she said softly. Tess didn’t answer. "Tess, we know you have been skipping classes, and your grades are suffering because of it. We know that you are having a hard time, and we don’t blame you. I don’t expect you to like me. But please, please don’t let it effect your schoolwork. You are way to smart for this."

"And if I don’t stop? Then what are you going to do?" Tess asked annoyed.

"If you continue to skip classes and your grades continue to fall…" she paused "Then we will consider home schooling."

Tess looked at Elizabeth for a moment. She didn’t respond right away. She finally said disgusted, "You bitch."

Elizabeth was taken aback by that, honestly not expecting it. Tess stood up quickly and made her way to the door. Elizabeth followed her, not wanting to end it like this. She was becoming very angry and very impatient with Tess. "Tess, Tess wait." Elizabeth said.

Tess swung around. Her voice was filled with anger as she said, "Look, why don’t you just leave me alone! I don’t want your help! I don’t want your guidance! I just want to be left alone! I am fine, just leave me alone! Why wont you just do what I want for once!"

"Because it’s not always about what you want! Some of the biggest decisions in your life aren’t based off of what you want! I know what is best for you, and sometimes what is best for you isn’t want you want!" Elizabeth said, trying to control the volume of her voice.

"Just go away! You have no idea what is best for me! None of this is best for me!" Tess then swung open the door and began walking quickly down the driveway. When she got to the end she turned around and said, "If I don’t come home today, I would be glad! I hate this house, I hate this city, but mostly I just hate you!" Tess yelled, storming off.

Kate came down the stairs with a quizzical look on her face. "What was that all about?" she asked.

"Same stuff it is always about." Elizabeth sighed. Kate grabbed her backpack and walked out the door, smiling at Elizabeth as she left.

The rest of that day was not a pleasant one for Elizabeth. She went to work, but most of her day was spent in another world. She couldn’t keep her mind off what Tess had said. The several months Tess and Kate had been living with Elizabeth and Mark Tess had always been a bit hard to handle. And Elizabeth knew that Tess was heading towards trouble. But she never thought about how much Tess hated living in Chicago. Elizabeth always attributed her problems to the fact that Tess had lost both her parents and moved to a new city. She never really thought Tess hated Chicago, or hated her and Mark. She always thought that Tess just hated her situation. Elizabeth knew that Tess wasn’t crazy about Chicago, but she never thought that she wanted out so badly. Elizabeth felt overwhelmed all day.

Around one that afternoon Elizabeth’s world was shaken. She had been sitting in the lounge drinking coffee and thinking about what she would have to say to Tess that night. Abby had popped her head in at about one fifteen, telling Elizabeth there had been a shooting, and that they needed to prepare for a mass causality. Elizabeth sighed and threw her coffee away. She hated dealing with mass causalities.

She walked down the hall and grabbed a gown and began getting ready. She had her gloves on and her glasses and was heading towards the doors to wait for the criticals. It was then that she heard Carter say something to Abby.

"Yeah, there was a shooting at a high school." Carter said, his voice monotone.

"Oh God, I hate these. Do you know which one?" She asked.

"Lincoln High." He replied. Elizabeth’s head shot up when she heard that. Lincoln High? The high school across for her development? The school that Tess and Kate went too? Elizabeth couldn’t believe it. She told herself that she had to have heard wrong.

"What high school was the shooting at?" Elizabeth asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as she could.

"Lincoln High School." Abby answered.

"Oh my God." She said quietly. Elizabeth froze. She didn’t know what to do. Her mind raced. She didn’t move. Others must have noticed because she heard Carter calling her name, trying to get her out of her trace. "How bad is it?" she asked. "The shooting, how bad is it?"

"What? Oh, pretty bad. Apparently there are three gunmen, I think. They haven’t contained the scene yet."

"Oh God, oh God no." Elizabeth said, her voice shaking.

"Elizabeth? Elizabeth, what’s wrong?" Carter asked concerned.

"Lincoln High, that’s Tess and Kate’s school. Oh God, that’s their high school!" Elizabeth said, her voice rising.

"What?" Carter asked, not believing what he had just heard. Elizabeth didn’t have time to respond because the doors smashed open and a gurney rolled in, followed by another one. Elizabeth was swept into the action. She was pulled into trauma one, to treat a critically injured young man. Pretty soon, the ER was full of patients. Gurneys lined the hallways and teenagers sat everywhere, bleeding. Elizabeth didn’t know what to do. She finished working on patient after patient, her mind drifting off to where the girls where. During the little time she had to look for them she didn’t see them anywhere. She was becoming more and more frightened with every passing second.

After she finished calling the time of death on a young girl, probably about the age of 16, Elizabeth walked quickly out into the busy hallway. She found Mark, who was impatiently talking to someone on the phone. She ran over to him. "Mark, Lincoln High!" she said, her voice full of fear.

"I know, I know, Kerry told me. I am trying to find you since this whole thing started." He said.

"Have you heard anything?" Elizabeth asked, her voice pleading.

"No, nothing. I just got off the phone with Mercy, they don’t have either of the girls." He told her.

"Well, what about Lakeshore? Or Saint Luke’s?" Elizabeth asked impatiently.

"I haven’t gotten a chance yet." Mark began to say. He was about to continue when he was interrupted by Chuni telling him that his patient in exam two was crashing. Mark walked quickly away from where Elizabeth stood. Elizabeth watched him walk away, then slowly scanned the area around her. Her mind seemed to play everything in slow motion, as if it was having a hard time processing the information it had been given. She heard crying, and yelling. High-pitched noises rang through her head, and she felt as if she could hear every little sound. One by one the people ran by, and soon they began to morph together. The room began to spin, and she took a deep breath in, trying to steady herself. Elizabeth felt helpless. She didn’t know where to go or what to do. She felt completely helpless.

The wounded teachers and students kept pouring in. No one could believe the horror that stood before them. What was going on? So many people had been killed. At last count 11 students had died from gunshot wounds. And the victims never seemed to cease. Why had so many people been hurt and killed in school? Why would anyone do such a horrible thing? Those were the thoughts of all the doctors and nurses at County General that day. That shooting was a massacre.

But the thoughts of Elizabeth Corday were a bit different during those few hours. Not only was she horrified and saddened by what had gone on that day, but she was also afraid for the lives of people that she loved. Her fear was different then the fear of others. She didn’t just fear for lives in general, but for the lives of two girls she had been chosen to protect. The lives of two girls she loved.

Those were the worst few hours of her life.

Elizabeth and Mark hadn’t heard anything about Tess and Kate. Elizabeth grew more fearful for their lives with every minute that went by. She wanted nothing more at that moment then to see them both walk through the doors, smiling and laughing about a movie they saw over the weekend. She didn’t know what she would do if anything happened to them. And frankly, she didn’t want to think about that. But try as she might, she couldn’t push the fear out of her head.

At about two thirty the doors flew open again. Elizabeth was walking from exam two to the admit desk. When she saw the paramedics bringing in another victim she walked out to get the bullet. She gasped when she saw the girl on the gurney.

"Caitlin?" She asked.

Caitlin looked up at Elizabeth, her eyes wide in fear. "Dr. Corday?" She asked.

"Oh my God, Caitlin." Elizabeth said as she walked with the gurney to curtain area three. She heard Doris tell her what was wrong with Caitlin. Thankfully, Caitlin didn’t have severe injuries. Just burns on her legs from an explosion. Doris left and Elizabeth and Haleh were left alone with Caitlin. "How are you feeling Caitlin?" Elizabeth asked.

"Freaked out." She answered. "I’m not going to die, am I?" She asked, her voice full of fear.

"No, you are not going to die. You are going to be just fine." Elizabeth answered. She told Haleh to give her more pain medication to make her more comfortable. Elizabeth explained what they would be doing to her leg to get rid of the brunt skin and help her heal. Caitlin didn’t respond; she seemed too scared to reply.

After a few minutes Elizabeth asked, "Have you seen Tess or Kate?"

Caitlin looked up and answered slowly, "I saw Kate outside of the school when they were putting me on the ambulance. She was fine. But I don’t know where Tess is."

Elizabeth shook her head. Kate was okay; Kate was fine. Elizabeth felt a huge sense of relief. Kate was okay.

But what about Tess? They still didn’t know where Tess was. Learning that Kate was okay was bittersweet for Elizabeth. She knew she wouldn’t be totally at ease until she knew where they both were.

When she finished treating Caitlin she walked out of the exam room and down the hallway towards admit. It was then that she saw a frightened Kate turn the corner. Elizabeth froze in her tracks, not making a sound. She wanted to be sure that she wasn’t seeing things, and that she was really seeing Kate. The girl turned around and made eye contact with Elizabeth. She began walking quickly towards Elizabeth and Elizabeth walked quickly towards her. As she got closer Elizabeth could clearly see that it was indeed Kate.

Kate was crying as Elizabeth brought her in for a hug. He clothes were dirty and stained with blood. Her eyes were full of terror and she was shaking as Elizabeth tried to calm her down. Neither of them said anything. Elizabeth was to overwhelmed and Kate was too scared. Kate’s sobs began to become heavier, as if she had wanted to cry for hours, but hadn’t been able to. Elizabeth shushed her, telling her she was okay. Elizabeth felt as if she was calming down a young child after they had had a bad dream.

Elizabeth began to cry as she held Kate in her arms, overwhelmed with relief. It was then that Kate began to say through sobs, "I can’t find Tess! I don’t know where she is! Oh God, I don’t know where she is!" Her voice was loud and full of fear. Tears poured down her face and her hair stuck to her wet cheeks. "I don’t know where Tess is!" she cried.

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