Before| Rhekker

Old Friends, Old Enemies

"Dr. Rhodes, T4" Maggie called over to him.
Connor opened the door and curtain,closing them behind him.
"Hello, Daniel Smith. I am Dr. Rhodes, Can you tell my why you've come in today?"
"Yeah Doc, I've got pains in my chest. I know the doctors always say to come in for chest pains" he rubbed his chest.
"Okey well I'm going to take a listen, what bring you to Chicago?"
"Here with some military friends, a holiday before our next tours together" he tells him, unbuttoning his shirt.
"Okey, well you seem to be in pretty good shape. Stress could cause chest pains, you worried about getting back in the field?" Connor listened to his heart and studied the monitors.
"No, I'm not worried about it. Your fellow soldiers understand you better than any civilians can"

"Did you ever serve?"
"No, but we have an ex medic and an ex navy vet in Gaffney" he explained.
Connor looked at his scans. "Daniel, from what I can see your aortic value isn't allowing enough blood flow, which means we'll have to widen it with a stent, which will require surgery"
"But it's a quick fix right?" Daniel asked anxiously.
"You will need surgery, but you should recover fine. But I doubt you'll make the next tour" Connor broke the news to him.
"Will you be doing the surgery Dr. Rhodes?"
"No my colleagues, most likely Dr. Bekker, will be preforming the surgery"
"Okey well I know I'm in good hands here" he relaxed a little.

"Hey Ava can you look at a patient in T4 for me. He needs surgery but I'm on trauma rotation for the next week" he asked her, catching her going back up to the CT floor.
"Connor I'm really swamped upstairs" she defended.
Connor raised his eye brows at her and gave her that look that would make Ava cave to anything. "Fine" she smiled, shaking her head and following Connor back into the ED.
"Mr. Smith this is my colleague Dr. Bekker, she-"
"My Angel" Daniel interrupted him, raising his arms out for Ava.
"Danny" she laughed, wrapping her arms around him.
"It's been so long!"
"How have you been" she asked.

"Am I missing something here?" Connor asked.
"This women, this women right here" he pointed to Ava's chest, still half hugging her, "is the reason I am alive"
"I was hurt real bad, shot twice in the leg and once in the shoulder while away from the field hospital. Other soldiers said I had no chance of survival. But this women, this Angel" he laughed.
"managed to save me, my leg and my arm, while working in the back of a truck. With no long lasting mobility issue" Daniel said proudly.
"My angel" he said softly, giving Ava's waist one last squeeze while she ruffled his hair.
"I was the first person Danny saw when he woke up" she raised her brows.
"That's quite a save Dr. Bekker" Connor congratulated her.
"Well he had to get you home to see that wife of yours, Danny" she teased him. Connor relaxed a bit hearing that Daniel was married.

"Well it's an easy enough fix, we'll get you prepped for surgery. You can have some visitors in the mean time, I'm sure the rest of the musketeers are around here somewhere"
"You bet yeah, stop by before the surgery. We can all catch up it's been so long" he pled.
"I'll see what I can do" she told him, getting some sanitiser as she headed out the door.
"Love you, Angel" he called after her. Ava sighed and rolled her eyes, nodding to Connor to let her know she was heading back to CT.
"Is that Ava's boyfriend in there?" Will asked, eyeing the patient up, he wasn't unattractive by any means.
"Ex-patient" Connor said stiffly, looking to the man over his shoulder.
"Dam, I wish my patients spoke to me like that" Will laughed and Connor felt jealousy rise in him again.

A few hours later Connor stopped by T4, noticing that Daniel was set to go off to surgery soon. There were now four other men in the room, along with Ava. One of them said something to her causing her to turn to look at him. He said something to make her laugh and placed a hand on her waist.
Connor knocked on the door loudly before entering, causing the man to pull away from Ava.
"Just wanted to see how Daniel was doing before he went off to surgery"
"Good, yeah. We were just about to head up. Oh, Connor this is Marty, Alan, Mouse and Richards. I served with them all, and this is my colleague Connor" she smiled.
Ava's pager interrupted anymore Conversations, "looks like that's you Danny. The nurses will bring you up while I get changed and scrubbed in" she told him.
"Checked your trousers, Bekker?" Marty teased her, causing the group to chuckle.
"Yeah very funny Marty" she said as Danny was rolled away. "You better watch yourself, the snakes are rampant in Chicago"
At the mention of a snake Marty immediately jumped into the air, studying the floor. Ava turned to follow Marty out of the room, winking at Connor as she left.