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Guilty by Association
“Alright people, I’ve got two traumas coming in, that includes a CPD officer, a waiting room full of coughing, snot, and I need rooms! This is no time for coddling! Let’s go!” Maggie called out confidently. She paused checking in with April to see where hers and Dr. Choi’s patient were.
“Just waiting on the discharge paperwork now,” April told her.
“Good, Okay let’s move faster!” The head nurse ordered, checking to see how far out the ambulances were. The ambos rolled up five minutes later. Some kid had decided it was a good idea to park their beamer in a living room and it had started a fire. Connor and April took the kid while Sarah stood, following behind Dr. Choi (the doctor had somewhat taken her under his wing) as he ran into treatment six to treat the police officer.
They were assessing the officer's injuries, his partner filling them in that he went in the house to save the family that was still in the living room. Dr. Choi moved quickly, calling out a series of tests they needed. Then it was a waiting game as they got him set up on a standard package of IV fluids.
“Hold on, you’re not taking him anywhere! Not until I get a DUI blood draw! We’re charging him!” They heard the female police officer say loudly. “You already have him on IV fluids, I’ve only got about ten minutes to get an accurate measurement. If you take him now, then that chance will be gone.”
Doctor Choi looked at her as they stepped outside the treatment room just in time to see the fight.
“His belly is shredded,” Sarah’s husband was arguing, “If we don’t get him to the OR, you won’t have anyone to charge.”
Connor started to push the gurney forward, only for the cop to grab one of the bed rails. “You’re not moving him before I get that blood.”
Sarah watched with everyone else as her husband leaned down and lifted the oxygen mask, “The officer wants to do a blood draw to test your blood-alcohol content, do I have your consent?”
“No,”
“There’s your answer,” Connor retorted as he started to push the gurney again. With Maggie urging him forward.
“State law says I don’t need consent,” The officer tried to stop him again, but Connor and April didn't stop moving. “Hospital policy says you do.”
Then they were gone. The officer tried to follow them, but Maggie blocked their path, letting them get to the elevator.
“My partner could’ve died back there. You step aside.” She demanded, but the head charge nurse held firm.
“This is a hospital. Our priority is to treat patients, not to make arrests.” Maggie told her. Her tone wasn’t unkind, but it was firm. “Once he’s out of surgery and recovery, he’s all yours.”
“Get me that blood,” the cop now hissed, brandishing her set of handcuffs, “Or you’re going to be placed under arrest.”
There was a murmur through the remaining ED staff as Dr. Choi questioned on what grounds. And Sarah wasn’t quite sure what happened after that. Well, she did know what happened. She knew she moved so she was standing so she was in between Maggie and the other woman after they said obstruction. But Sarah didn’t remember actually telling her feet to move.
“If you’re going to charge anyone with obstruction, it should be me, because the doctor that just made that call? That was my husband, Maggie was just backing his call.” Well, it only took five years, but her husband was finally starting to rub off on her.
“Reese,” Maggie started, grabbing her right arm. But the police officer already had her left wrist and was tightening the cuff around it. It bit into her skin and she winced.
“Reese, you don’t have to do this, I’m the head nurse,” Maggie told her somberly. Reese shook her head because, in her mind, she did have to do this.
“Yeah, but for better or worse, he’s my husband. Which means he’s a little more my responsibility than he is yours.” She said before she glanced at the cop, “Can she get my wedding ring from around my neck? I don’t want it to get lost.”
The police officer inclined her head and Maggie lifted the delicate silver chain from around her neck, her platinum wedding band resting at the bottom.
“Hold on to it for me till Connor gets done?” The charge nurse still looked unsure.“It’s okay Maggie. I promise.”
“Your husband is going to hate me for this.” Maggie shook her head as the cop started walking her out.
“Stay back,” she warned the crowd. Sarah just shook her head, calling back to the charge nurse, “He’ll just say it’s when I do things like this that’ll make him go grey early. Good thing, I don’t act like him very often.”
“How’d the surgery go?” Maggie asked, slowly trying to ease her way into telling Connor that his wife had been arrested.
“Good, it took a while because we found a major laceration on his bladder. We spent most of the time on the repair. Have you managed to track his parents down yet?”
“I’m still working on that,” She handed off another case to another resident, before she looked back up at Dr. Rhodes, her hand reaching into her scrubs’ pocket for Sarah’s ring. “Listen, there’s something I need to tell you and before you say anything, Sharon is already working on getting her cut loose, but Sarah-she’s been arrested.”
Connor’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. Did Maggie just say that his wife-the same one who had a near aneurysm, anytime she was late for a class, was arrested? “What do you mean arrested? What the hell happened?”
Placing his wife’s ring in his hand, Maggie explained what happened after he and April took the kid up to the OR. How they had been wanting to charge her with obstruction of a police investigation when Sarah stepped in and intervened. Saying that Maggie was just backing Connor and that they should charge her, instead because she was his wife.
Connor pinched the bridge of his nose. Worry and anxiety for his wife, already stirring together in his stomach. It wasn’t that often, but when Sarah swung, she really took the big swings didn’t she? He looked up at Maggie’s snort, blue eyes narrowing.
“I’m sorry. None of this is funny but I said you’d hate me for letting her take my place. She said and these are her exact words: He’ll just say it’s when I do things like this that’ll make him go grey early. Good thing, I don’t act like him very often. And what you just said was basically saying the same thing. ”
It was then he realized he had spoken out loud. He put the chain that held her ring around his own neck for safekeeping. He sighed heavily, “She’s not wrong. Goodwin went to see about getting her out?”
Maggie nodded.
“Keep me updated? Or page me when you see her or Sarah if Goodwin can get her released.”
“Of course.” With those words, Connor turned to pull out his phone looking for a certain number within his contacts. If Mrs. Goodwin’s plan to get Sarah released didn’t work, then he might want to consider pulling his own strings.
“And Connor?” The head nurse called and Connor turned back to her. The search for the phone number paused for the moment. “I am sorry, for what it’s worth.”
“Maggie, I wasn’t there but my wife knew exactly what she was doing when she did it. I can almost guarantee you that. There’s nothing for you to be sorry for.”
He turned back, finding the number. But just as he was about to hit the call, the kid’s father showed up. No one had called him about his son, but they had called about his Beamer parked in the middle of a living room. From there he tracked his son down.
Connor sighed, putting his phone away as he stepped in and took the father up to his son, explaining his condition and the severity of it. Hopefully, Goodwin’s plan would work.
“I’m sorry Sharon, but I can’t help you. My hands are tied here.” Hank sighed, folding his hands together.
“Hospital policy requires consent. She was backing up her husband’s call to enforce that policy.” Sharon argued back, “More than that, any longer, and that boy could’ve coded. They made the right call.”
“Sharon, I don’t have as much pull as you think I do. And look at this from my patrol’s point of view: the kid was doing 85 in a 20 zone. Crashed into a living room. Windham told me there was a family inside. If we can’t get the DUI charges to stick, then he will be back behind the wheel and we’ll have another situation like this on our hands.”
“Hank, please. This girl is top of her class at Northwestern, and she isn’t that much younger than your son. Plus, she was backing up her husband. Tell me you wouldn’t do the same if it was Camille.”
Hank sighed, “I can try to see if Trudy can move her up on the docket. But my hands really are tied, Sharon.”
“Can I at least see her?”
Sharon followed the CPD officer as they moved through the maze of holding cells. Then she stopped as she saw the person she was looking for.
“Sarah,”
“Mrs. Goodwin,” Sarah stood up from her seat, moving forward so only the bars separated them.
“You seem surprised to see me,” Goodwin said and Sarah shrugged, “Honestly? I kind of am. The next person I expected to see outside of CPD was a stressed-out version of my husband.”
“You have five minutes,” the officer Voight had sent with her, cut in as she gave Sharon a pointed look.
“So I guess that means you’re not here to take me back to the hospital?” Sarah sighed.
“Not yet, I’m afraid. The police sergeant I spoke with, says they can’t release you until you’ve been processed and arraigned. I’m sorry, Reese but it looks like they’re going to try and charge you.”
The medical student nodded her head, staring down at her feet. “Mrs. Goodwin? I don’t regret what I did, but could this get me thrown out of my ED rotation or even stop me from becoming a doctor?”
Since everything happened, the thought had crept into Sarah’s mind. And like the worrier she was, it hadn’t let go of her since.
“We’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen.” The older woman promised fiercely, “We’re going to get you through this, I promise.”
“Time’s up.”
Goodwin reached up to squeeze Sarah’s hand. “I’ll see you soon.”
After talking with the boy’s father, Goodwin still wasn’t back. So to distract himself, Connor made his way back to the ED. He saw Maggie handing out cases.
“You got anything for me?” He asked after he made his way up to the desk. The nurse handed him a light blue folder, “Treatment three. A guy got clipped by a car while crossing the street. How close are you to going up there?”
“I’m giving it another hour.” He rubbed his forehead, taking the folder, “Then if I don’t hear anything…”
“I let you know when I hear something,”
Connor nodded and went to go see his patient in treatment three. He glanced down at the folder before pulling back the curtain. “Mr. Deitrich? Hi, I’m Dr. Rhodes. Let’s take a look at that leg.”
After leaving Mr. Deitrich with Dr. Charles, Connor was back in the ICU, changing the boy’s bandages when he woke up. His eyes found Connor and when he spoke, he sounded groggy. “Hey. Hey, am I gonna be okay?”
“Yeah. you are.” Connor told him passively, looking at his tablet and inputting information. He was ignoring the feeling of deja vu that seemed to overcome him when he looked at the kid in the bed. “The surgery went well.”
“Like totally okay? I want to be a naval aviator.” Connor looked at him. The kid in the bed was only concerned with himself. He didn’t ask about the police officer or the family...The deja vu feeling grew worse. Connor pinned him with a look, “Do you have any idea what you did today? Hmm?”
“Yeah. Yeah. It was stupid.” The boy looked away from him, only to be interrupted by his father. “Trev, you’re awake.”
The older man waved Connor off and it was when he was talking to his son about how a lawyer could make probably make this go away because no one was ‘seriously’ hurt. The kid in the bed? That was Connor at eighteen. The self-entitled privileged rich boy.
“Someone got hurt.” He could help the words that came out of his mouth because his wife was sitting in jail because he had decided to protect this kid and-
“You must be Dr. Rhodes,” The older man offered a hand for Connor to shake with the signature rich man smirk. But the doctor just stared at the outstretched hand. “Thank you so much for everything you’ve done.”
Yeah, everything Connor had done.
“We’ll do a cystogram next week to see how your bladder is healing,” he addressed his patient before looking back at his parent. He kept his arms folded, not shaking the man's hand. “You can schedule that with radiology.”
His pager buzzed from where it was on his hip. The page was from Maggie, Goodwin was back. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
“Really, Daniel?” Connor heard Sharon ask as the elevator’s door opened up to the ED. “I have a medical student in city lockup and an ongoing child-abuse investigation, and now you bring me this?”
“He tried to commit suicide, Sharon.” Dr. Charles was saying as Connor walked up, “I wasn’t about to let it happen again.”
They debated for a few more minutes before Mrs. Goodwin looked at him, “And what do you think, Dr. Rhodes?”
“What do I think about what?”
“Doctor Charles suspects that your patient, Mr. Deitrich’s accident wasn’t an accident. He’s placed him on a temporary psychiatric hold. What was your take on him when you treated him?”
Connor thought back. The man had seemed in a hurry to get out of the hospital, refusing medical treatment because he had a busy day and insisting he would follow up with his regular doctor the next day. But did that mean that his accident wasn’t an accident?
“Honestly Mrs. Goodwin, I couldn’t tell you. I was more than a little distracted.” He answered honestly and he knew that wasn’t the answer she had been looking for. She looked back at Dr. Charles, “Fine. Alright, just find a way to it without further complicating my life.”
The portly psychiatrist walked away, waving his hand in acknowledgment. Connor now looked at his chief of services. “So my wife is still in jail.”
“Yes, I’m sorry I tried-” Sharon started, but the trauma fellow cut her off.
“Then I was the one who kept the cops from drawing that kid’s blood. Not Sarah. If anyone should be held responsible it’s me and I’m gonna go turn myself in…and before you ask if I would do this for any other medical student, probably not. And I know our relationship was grandfathered in on the exception that we could work together without any preferential treatment. But she’s my wife and I’ll put her first every single time, before any job.”
Goodwin smiled sadly at him as she spoke, “I’m afraid that’s not how the social justice system works, Dr. Rhodes. Even for husbands and wives. I have a friend at twenty-one who will let me know when she can be bailed out. I’m sorry Dr. Rhodes.”
Will was staring intently at the computer login screen when Connor stormed in, looking at his phone. He watched as the trauma surgeon groaned and threw his phone against the wall. It bounced and landed with a dull thump.
“Tough day?”
“Well to start with my wife is sitting in a jail cell right now because I stopped the cops from drawing my DUI kid’s blood. And to top it off, it was all for nothing because my DUI kid? He’s ruined. All because his dad is rich and has a stupid sense of entitlement. God, I wanted to pop that guy.”
“Yeah, I heard about Reese. I’m sorry.” Will turned and found himself looking back at the computer screen. He paused, thinking. Then he spoke, “Connor, look, we don’t get along. You don’t like me. But I need a favor and there’s no one else I can ask.”
Connor picked his phone up and looked back at him, waiting. “I need to access some records and I can’t use my code to log in.”
“Why not?”
“Because no one can know I looked at them.” They stared at each other for a moment and Will was almost completely sure Connor was about to say no when Connor exhaled. “You caught me on the right day.”
The trauma surgeon moved, so he stood in front of the computer, typing in his info.
“It’s my DNR patient, Jennifer Baker-” Will started to explain, figuring he owed him an explanation. But Connor shook his head, “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know anything about this.”
Connor’s pager buzzed. Will glanced down at it out of habit, thinking it was his own. Mrs. Goodwin was calling him to her office.
“Just don’t do anything stupid,” With those parting words, Connor left him.
Connor sat on a bench in the twenty-first district, waiting for an officer to bring Sarah out, with her jacket in his hands. When she finally appeared, she held up a finger before darting past him and into the restrooms. She appeared a minute later.
“Don’t be mad,” Sarah said as Connor stood, helping her into her jacket. They started to make their way to his jeep. “Because we both know I was doing what you would’ve done if the situation would’ve been reversed.”
“I’m not mad at you,” he mumbled when they were out of the police station. She wrapped her arms around his waist. Obvious anger manifesting itself as taut tension in Connor’s body. Even though his arm came down around her shivering body. She glanced up at him while they walked, “Then why do you have your mad face on? Because I got busted? I wasn’t going to let Maggie go down. Connor-”
Connor opened the door for her, “Because the system is rigged and it pisses me off.”
The door was slammed and Sarah waited until her husband had climbed into the driver’s side of the Jeep he had bought last week, before asking, “Pisses you off? Babe, I’m going to need more information.”
Her husband glanced at her, “I have sat in jail,”
Sarah looked up from where she was putting on her seatbelt. That was news to her. He continued, “My buddy and I-the summer before I went to college, we got busted buying drugs off an undercover cop.”
Her eyes widened. He had never told her any of this. This was really news to her. “You’ve never told me any of this.”
Connor sighed, “Yeah. I mean, come on, at that age, you think you’re invincible right? Turns out, only one of us was right. My dad pulled some strings, and he got me off.”
Sarah stared at her husband, dreading the question she was about to ask because she was pretty sure she already knew the answer from Connor’s tone of voice and body language, but she still had to ask, “What about your friend?”
Another heavy sigh left her husband’s mouth, “Well, his dad didn’t own a department store. Turns out the lifeboat was only big enough for one of us, so I had a choice. I could stand by my friend, or I could jump in.”
Her hand fidgeted, itching to grab his hand. But there was this feeling nagging her that Connor didn’t want comfort right now. He wanted to be, needed to be angry. At least for the moment and Sarah could give him that.
“So I jumped in the boat.”
“And your friend? Did you ever talk to him? Try to make amends to him?”
Connor shook his head, “And I never can because he died of an overdose before…before I could work up the nerve to even try.”
Sarah didn’t know what to say. The story broke her heart, but her husband wasn’t done yet. “And all day I grappled with calling my dad and having him pull strings to get you out. But every time I tried, I was reminded of my friend and I just couldn’t do it and then I felt guilty because I just let you sit-”
“Hey, look at me.” Sarah’s hand moved to his stubbled cheek. She waited until blue eyes met hers. “I knew what I was doing when I did it. And Connor, no help is worth cracking your soul open for. Even for me. ”
Besides his father wasn’t even aware she existed...While they weren't hiding each other; everyone at Med knew they were married by now, they were on the same page about his dad and her mom not knowing about them until they needed to. Did Cornelius Rhodes even know Connor was back in Chicago? Her thoughts were broken by him leaning over and kissing her lips. “You know I love you, right?”
“Even when I do things like this?”
“Yes, because I know you don’t do things like this without a good reason.” He nuzzled her cheek. “Oh by the way, here.”
He pulled away from her just enough so he could lift her ring from where it was around his neck before he placed it back around her neck.
Reese came back to cheers and a tight hug from Maggie. Then she was passed to Mrs. Goodwin, who apologized for not being able to pick her up.
“The uber you sent was fine. He was a little more friendly than most, but I’d still give him five stars.” Sarah said lightly and then yelped before she looked at Connor, who had just pinched her gently. He smirked as he teased, “I better be the only uber driver you’re that friendly with.”
Before she could respond, Sarah was pulled into another conversation, so Connor went to look over some of his charts. That’s where Zoe, a pharmaceutical sales rep found him. She explained what was going on. How she thought Will was about to tell Jennifer Baker and lose his license.
“I’ll handle it,” he promised the woman as he took off after Will. Narrowly making it into the elevator, his eyes caught the floor Will was going to. He looked at the other doctor, a humorless smile on his face. “Eighth floor. Clinical trial wing, seriously? When I helped you out earlier, I said don’t do anything stupid. This is stupid.”
“What do you care?”
“Well, I’m not going to stand by and watch another guy ruin his life,” Connor said, his hand finding the emergency stop button.
“Hey!” Will started.
“No,” Connor shook his head.
“You’re not gonna stop me.”
“Actually, I am,” Connor said and they stared at each other for a moment. Then Will darted forward, trying to shove Connor out of the way. But Connor gripped his arms, pushing him back. Or trying to. Mostly, he was just holding the other doctor where he was. “Hey!”
“You’re not supposed to go near her,” Connor told him as they continued to struggle with each other, “You tell her she’s on the placebo, and that’s your license, okay?”
Will backed him into a wall and he grunted as he forced Will onto the opposite wall. “She can go home!”
“You’re a good doctor.” Connor hissed to the redhead while he continued to struggle, “The world needs good doctors, you ass!”
They struggled for a minute longer, before Connor let go of him, slamming his hand down on the button so the elevator would start again.
They ended up at Molly’s after shift, Sarah leaning against Connor’s arm while he and Will sat quietly, not talking to each other. Herman walked up to them with two glasses of whiskey for Will and Connor because Sarah had said she didn’t want anything.
“Hey, there you go. So how’d your day go? Save any lives?” Herman asked kindly. The boys couldn’t muster up a response for him though. Dr. Halstead immediately picked up his drink and slipped at it while her husband blinked at the firefighter-turned bartender. Sarah shook her head, picking up Connor’s whiskey and taking her own sip. She winced at the burn hitting her throat, (Now she remembered why she stuck to her bottle of red wine) before she spoke to Herman.“It was a very long day, Herman.”
“So not feeling too chatty. Got it.” Herman nodded at them before he left them alone once more with their silence with a grim smile. Under the bar, Sarah grabbed Connor's hand under the table, squeezing it twice. She was here. He squeezed back, twice as well. So was he and her head went back to rest against her arm.
It had been a very long day indeed.