Disclaimer:  “ER” is property of Warner Brothers Television, NBC, and all respective producers and cast.  I have written this story for fanfiction and nothing else.  I am not making a profit from this.  This is simply for fanfiction enjoyment. **

Spoilers: None

 Rating: PG-13 for strong language and some violent scenes.

Summary: Mark is the victim of a hit-and-run and is severely injured.  As the search goes on for the man behind the wheel, Elizabeth is there for Mark every step of the way.

Acknowledgment:  I’d like to thank Lori (SixteenOzs) for all her help with this fanfic!! She is a wonderful M&E fanfic writer!!  Thanks Lori!!!

In A Heartbeat

Mark’s limp body jumped up.

            Everyone stared at the monitor.  Mark was still flatlined.

            “Charge to 300!”

            “CLEAR!”

            Benton shocked Mark yet again, this time his heart responded.

            Everyone in the trauma room breathed a sigh of relief as the heart monitor resumed beeping. 

            “Should we take him up to CT now?” Carter asked Kerry.

            “Yes.” Kerry confirmed.

            Benton and Carter pulled up the gurney rails and they clapped into place.  Elizabeth looked deeply into Mark’s face.  Tears were streaming down her face as she leaned toward him and rubbed the side of his face with her palm.  She cringed as she felt his face.

            “He’s freezing,” she said softly.

            Kerry turned around and grabbed a thermometer off the cart behind her.  Quickly, she took Mark’s temperature as the rest of the doctors prepared for Mark’s transport.

            “Temp’s 96.5!  Get some warm saline!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Once they had taken the CTs, Carter grabbed the films as soon as they were processed.

            “Oh man!” Carter shouted, holding up Mark’s CTs to the light.  

            Benton looked up at the CTs.

            Elizabeth  stared incredulously at the film and gently kissed Mark on the forehead.

            “Oh God. Mark,” tears rolled from her cheeks and splashed down on Mark’s face. 

            “His fractured ribs punctured his lung!” Benton gasped, “and his head CT shows some bleeding around his skull.”

            “Let’s get him up to the OR!” Benton shouted, and the crowd that had gathered in the doorway immediately stepped back.

            “I’m going with you,” Elizabeth announced, looking at Benton .

            “Elizabeth, I can handle this.”

            “Peter, it’s Mark! I need to treat him.”

            Benton pushed Mark’s gurney alongside as he strode to the elevator, Elizabeth fast at his heels.  Carter who had now taken over the bagging, looked up sympathetically at Elizabeth.

            “Elizabeth, I know you want to do this, but to be honest, you can’t.”

            Before Elizabeth could protest, Benton continued. 

            Carter pushed the elevator button, and stared down at his friend. 

            “Look at you.  Look at your hands.”

            Elizabeth brought her hands up to her face.  They were shaking uncontrollably. 

            “Do you know that he needs…” rushed Elizabeth, looking into Benton’s eyes.

            “Yes.”

            “He has a pneumothorax . ." both said simultaneously. 

            “Elizabeth,” Benton assured, “I’m going to take care of him.”                   

            “At least let me be there with him,” Elizabeth implored.

            Benton nodded before he and Carter wheeled Mark into the elevator with Elizabeth holding Mark’s hand.  Back in Trauma 2, Kerry and Yosh followed Mark a few feet and watched silently as the elevator doors closed.  Yosh gave an exasperated sigh as Kerry walked slowly away.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~           

            Benton walked quickly by the OR admit desk.

            “Prep OR 1,” he commanded, “we have an emergency.”

            “You’re going to take it?” questioned the nurse at the desk, “What about the appendectomy scheduled?”

            “Give him to Romano,” Benton said hurriedly.

            Benton took over the bagging and hooked Mark up to a ventilator.  Mark had been unconscious since he crashed, but Elizabeth clung onto every bit of hope that he could hear her.

            “Mark,” she said, her voice quavering, “I’m right here. I’m going to be right here with you.  I’m going to change into scrubs now.”  Two more tears began to roll down her cheeks and she quickly wiped them away with the back of her hand. 

            Elizabeth quickly changed clothes as Benton scrubbed up.

            A neurosurgeon was called in to stop the bleeding in Mark’s head.  Fortunately, his skull had not cracked, but there was some bleeding between his skull and head.  The surgeon stopped the bleeding and sutured Mark’s head.      

            Then, Benton took over to repair Mark’s lung.  Throughout the surgery, Elizabeth kept an eye on Benton’s progress and intently surveyed Mark’s face.  He looked so pale and vulnerable.  Several times, Elizabeth bit her lower lip to try and maintain her composure.  The delicate surgery lasted 5 hours.  All the while, Elizabeth was at Mark’s side.  Finally, after inserting bolts to reset the fractured bones in Mark’s left arm and right ankle, Benton finished up the last of the sutures. 

            Mark was transferred to the Surgical ICU with Elizabeth holding onto his hand.  An exhausted Benton offered to bring Elizabeth something to eat, but she politely declined.  Before leaving the SICU, Benton turned around, wanting to warn Elizabeth that such a major surgery had a very uncertain and dangerous outcome, but he walked away, rubbing Elizabeth’s hand to comfort her.  She knew all to well what risks were involved, which was why she had turned all her patients over to another surgeon to be with Mark.  But major or not, Elizabeth would be with Mark when he needed her, Benton knew that.  What struck Benton was the fact that he had warned friends and relatives of patients of a poor prognosis numerous times, but seeing someone he had known for years sent shock waves throughout his body.  Benton looked sadly as though the SICU window before leaving.  Mark laid perfectly still with a bandage over his head, sutures on his left side, a splint on his badly swollen arm, and yet another splint that would prevent him from moving his ankle.  His chest, carefully bandaged and encased in a soft but firm brace, slowly rose up and down in sync with the respirator.  Elizabeth sat by his bed, never taking her eyes off her fiancee.

            “Peter wait,” Elizabeth called out.

            Benton strode back to the SICU.

            “What the hell happened?” she cried out suddenly.

“I don’t know exactly,” Benton said honestly.

            “What kind of bastard would hit him and then drive away?” she screamed out.

            It took a moment for Peter to respond.

“I don’t know,” he sighed, shrugging his shoulders dejectedly, “ Listen, I was just about to go down to the ER and ask Kerry what exactly happened.  The paramedics have talked to her.”

            “Can you bring her up here?” Elizabeth asked, “I want to stay here with Mark.”

            Benton nodded and headed downstairs.

            Elizabeth  smiled an appreciative thanks.  She knew Mark wouldn’t wake up for a while.  The major surgery required heavy anesthesia, but she didn’t want to leave his side.  She knew Benton understood that too, but he respected her wishes.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            After just a few minutes, Benton and Kerry silently ascended the stairs that led to the SICU.  Once Benton and Kerry got to the SICU doorway, both paused as they peered through the window blinds.  Elizabeth had her head laid down on the pillow next to Mark’s.  She fiddled around with the Mark’s hospital gown collar and rubbed his chest.  Kerry knocked gently on the door as she eased her way in.

            “Elizabeth,”

            “Kerry,” Elizabeth greeted solemnly, raising her head from the pillow.

            Kerry took a deep breath before starting.  She gave Elizabeth a look that said, “are you sure you want to hear this?”

            Elizabeth nodded.

            “Mark was hit by an SUV…. the paramedics said that it happened so fast.  He was at the scene of a multi-vehicle accident.  The police had gotten there before him.  They cleared traffic, and as Mark was running across the road to another patient, an SUV just suddenly drove down the accident scene and hit him.”

            Elizabeth buried her head in her hands.

            Kerry paused, her voice beginning to waver.

            “After the SUV hit him, the driver just drove on…  They haven’t given me word as to if they caught the person who did this.”      

            Elizabeth bit her lower lip as she turned to look at Mark’s heart monitor.  The faint, weak beeps resounded in Elizabeth’s ears. 

            “Elizabeth,” Kerry said softly, “Mark will pull through this.  He’s a lot stronger than a lot of people I know.  He’ll make it.”

            Elizabeth sighed.  She wanted to be as confident as Kerry was, or seemed to be, but a nagging feeling of doubt invaded her mind.

            Gazing at Mark, Elizabeth laid her head on Mark’s bed with her arms folded underneath.  Recollecting all that had happened that morning, the memory seemed more distant than ever before.  The morning was like every morning.  Mark’s shift started earlier than Elizabeth’s.  When Mark rose from the bed, Elizabeth awoke, but kept her eyes shut.  Though Elizabeth had her eyes closed, she felt Mark lean toward her, and his gentle kiss made a wide grin spread across her face. 

            “You faking me out?” Mark joked, “I see that grin on your face.  Or maybe she’s just dreaming.”

            Elizabeth kept her eyes closed, but her grin stayed in place.

            “Oh well,” Mark played along, “guess I’ll just have to put this flower on the desk so she can see it when she wakes up.”

            Elizabeth felt Mark’s gentle hand lay on her cheek as she felt a soft flower rest on her face.  She finally laughed, opened her eyes, and clasped the flower in her hands.  She and Mark shared a passionate kiss with Elizabeth clutching the sunflower in her hand.

            “‘On the desk’ huh?” Elizabeth smiled as he walked to the bathroom. 

            “Go back to sleep,” Mark said, “you have 1 ½ more hours of precious slumber left.”

            Elizabeth laid her head back down on her pillow as she heard Mark start the shower. 

            “Goodbye,” she said as she heard him open the bedroom door to leave after he had had his shower.

            “Go to sleep,” he said grinning as he closed the door softly behind him.

            <beep……beep……beep…… beep>

The heart monitor resounded in Elizabeth’s ears yet again.  Elizabeth closed her eyes, keeping them tightly shut.  Her arms started to tremble as she wished with all her heart and soul that this was all a dream.  Of course, she knew she would be just kidding herself.  The respirator seemed to whistle in a mocking tone, as if bragging about its presence.    

“Dr. Corday,” a voice gently called out.

Elizabeth snapped her head up, jumping at the sudden voice.

“I’m sorry…” Carter stood in the doorway, “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s okay,” Elizabeth replied.

Elizabeth watched as Carter’s gaze turned towards Mark.  He slowly let out a heavy sigh as the severity of Mark’s injuries glared in his face.  It took a few moments before he was able to find his voice again.

“So, how is he?”             

“Not good,” Elizabeth admitted, “he came out of surgery about half an hour ago, and nothing has really changed since then.”

Elizabeth turned back towards Mark.

“You hungry?” Carter asked, knowing what Elizabeth would say, but he figured it was worth a shot.

“No.” Elizabeth replied.

“But you haven’t eaten since breakfast,” Carter gently protested, “Why don’t you come down to Doc Magoo’s with me?”

“I don’t want to leave Mark,” Elizabeth stated firmly.

“Dr. Corday,” Carter said, trying to be as gentle as possible, “I know Mark would want you to eat something.  Besides, if he knew I let you stay here without eating, he’d kill me.”

Elizabeth managed a slight smile.

Carter looked at her with hopeful eyes.

Elizabeth sighed.  She knew Mark wouldn’t be up for a long time, and she wanted to stay, but Carter was right, Mark would want her to take care of herself.

“Alright,” Elizabeth  said.  She slowly rose out of her chair, holding onto Mark’s hand as she slowly stepped out of the room.

“I’ll be right back, Mark.” she whispered.

As soon as Elizabeth passed the SICU admit desk, she said to the nurse, “Page me right away if anything changes in Mark’s condition.  And I mean if ANYTHING changes.”

The nurse nodded.

Elizabeth sighed heavily as she and Carter sat in a booth at Doc Magoo’s.  She buried her face in her hands with he elbows on the table.  Carter looked solemnly at her, wanting to comfort her, but not knowing how.

“Mark’s gonna be okay,” Carter said softly.

Elizabeth jumped at the sound of his voice.  Once she sat down, she had become lost in her own thoughts.  Wanting to be strong for Mark, even when he was unconscious, she had been fighting back tears.

“How do you kno..o w that?” Elizabeth asked, her voice choking.

“Mark’s strong,…” Carter started.

“I know Mark’s strong!” Elizabeth shouted, “but he’s suffered severe injuries.  A broken ankle, broken ribs, a pneumothorax!”

“Dr. Corday,” Carter said firmly, “Mark’s going to get though this.”

A waitress came up to the table and Carter ordered.  After Elizabeth asked for just some tea, he ordered for her.  Elizabeth managed to smile.

“You gotta eat something,” he smiled back.

A long silence commenced between Carter and Elizabeth as they waited for their food.  Elizabeth kept staring out the window, lost in her own thoughts, while Carter struggled to say something comforting.

Suddenly, Elizabeth’s pager came to life, vibrating and beeping on the table.  Elizabeth grabbed it as soon as it started beeping.

“It’s Mark!” she cried looking at Carter after looking at her pager which read: 9-1-1 .

Instinctively, she bolted out the door, almost knocking over a waitress on the way.

“Dr. Corday!” Carter called after her, “Wait!”

The waitress had just arrived with their food, and Carter was left to ask for the food to go as he hurriedly picked up the tab, trying his best to chase after Elizabeth, but not being very successful.

Elizabeth tore after the SICU, taking the stairs two at a time.  When she got to Mark’s room, it was empty.  Even his bed was gone.  Hesitating momentarily, Elizabeth scanned the room.  She then heard the familiar voices of her colleagues.  Their shouting echoed down the hall.

Elizabeth raced down the hall towards the sound of the panicked voices, which were coming from OR 1.  She burst in the room and found her colleagues already prepping Mark for yet another surgery.

“WHAT HAPPENED?” she demanded.

Immediately, she ran to Mark’s side, then surveyed his beaten body.  A quick scan of his body told her that there were no visible complications on the outside of Mark’s body, but as her eyes followed the many tubes that were connected to him, she gasped in horror.  A container that led to Mark’s abdomen that was empty was now filled with blood.

 “He’s bleeding out!”  Elizabeth gasped.

Chapter 1   Chapter 2    Chapter 3  

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