Rookie - The Finale | Ethan Ramsey

Chapter 33~ Pressure Points

Pressure Points

"You do not crowd her... You do not touch her. And you do not move unless we tell you to. Is that clear?"
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The atrium of Edenbrook Hospital was all glass and steel and early-morning noise, sunlight pouring down from the skylights in sharp, clinical lines — nothing like the warm spill of gold they had left behind.

Still, Blue walked a little lighter than usual, steps unhurried, shoulders loose. Ethan matched her pace without thinking, coffee untouched in his hand, eyes already scanning the space out of habit.

They crossed the atrium together, the hum of the hospital wrapping around them — monitors chiming, gurneys rolling, voices overlapping in controlled urgency. A few people glanced their way. Married couples in medicine developed a kind of visibility whether they wanted it or not. Something in the way they moved together gave them away.

It had been three days since Tenerife, and the island still clung to them in small, stubborn ways.

In the way that the salt air had clung to them when they were back in Boston, to the way their quiet intimacy had only increased ten folds since then.

Edenbrook's atrium swallowed them whole, glass, steel, motion. The hum of the hospital wrapped around them the moment they stepped inside, replacing the hush of waves and warm wind with the familiar cadence of urgency. Blue adjusted the strap of her bag as she walked beside Ethan, their shoulders nearly brushing, their steps instinctively in sync.

"You look like you're still on island time," Ethan observed, eyes forward.

She smiled faintly. "I could say the same. You didn't scowl at a single person on the way in."

"That's because I'm saving it," he said. Then, after a beat, "You sleep okay?"

"Fine," she replied easily. "You?"

"No, you stole all the blankets and kept tossing in your sleep." he teased gently.

Blue laughed under her breath gently, "You're six feet tall, you don't get to complain about blankets."

They reached the center of the atrium just as the overhead announcement cut sharply through the air.

"All available units to emergency briefing at Lecture Hall. Immediate response required."

Ethan stopped and Blue looked up at him.

"Well," she said, exhaling. "Welcome back to us."

The lecture hall was already crowded when they arrived. Naveen stood at the front, jaw tight, eyes sharp.

"Subway derailment and malfunction," he said without preamble. "Both Southbound and Northbound lines stalled in tunnel. Multiple passengers train cars have detached from the impact and are sprawled across the tunnel. Several passengers were injured from a minor fall and more severe cases have our EMTs already on route there and our ER team are ready here at the pit for incoming. The rest of the teams to aid with the minor cases, carry out triage if the situation is worse than reported. Solomon Kenmore is covering Southbound while we take the Northbound lines."

A murmur rippled through the room.

Blue straightened. The diagnostics departments was not usually this early in the chain and were usually kept in the hospital in emergency cases like this, so she wondered.

As the rest of the teams filed out after Naveen's specific instructions for them, he turned to the diagnostics team.

"Usually I would need you four here, but this time, we may need your help on field." Naveen told them as he passed the medic aid packs to them. "Dispatchers suspect that there is an unknown etiology in some of the cars. Passengers coming from the airport in particular, have been reported to be showing symptoms from the call that came in to them, so please keep an eye out on the situation to prevent anything worse and containing it. If this is really anything serious, I can count on the diagnostics team to solving it."