"Jesus. How...big...a fire–"

The phone starts ringing. 

"- Oh, s'the ER, that's probably me." Nellie grabs it. "ICU-Nellie-speaking," she barks as though it's all one word.  

"This is Nat - any way you can come over and help us with the drug OD admit?" 

"Sure, I got you, fam." Nellie's already on her feet. "You're sure it's drugs, then?" 

A sound of slight confusion. "Uh, yeah, pretty sure?" 

"Well, hang in there, I'll be right over." 

She texts Emmy on her way to very quickly pee before her mission.

[Admit here. Confirmed drug OD] 

[On my way] 

And, indeed, by the time Nellie reaches the ER, Dr Beckett is already there. She is currently occupied by having a very confused conversation with the ER charge nurse. 

"–had said it was a near-drowning?" she's saying. "Also, male?" 

"Huh, what? No, this is a 20-year-old female, took Ecstasy at a rave -" 

     "To clarify," the very exasperated-looking paramedic by the gurney mutters, "she took 'Ecstasy'," (finger quotes are provided), "and then when it didn't kick in fast enough for her liking, she went back and got more from her, uh, friend. 'Friend.' And then she ended up taking...what did the other girl say, six, seven tabs?" 

The blonde girl lying supine on the stretcher is, in fact, very clearly NOT an early-twenties male victim of a swimming pool near-drowning. She's wearing a scoop-necked, sparkly sequined spaghetti-strap minidress, and still has her glittery purple stiletto heels on. She has glowstick bracelets on both arms. Her eyeshadow is almost painfully sparkly. She's on oxygen by nasal prongs and is currently staring blankly at the ceiling as though captivated by it, blinking occasionally. 

"This," Nellie says eventually, "is definitely not the patient I got report on!" 

"- and then some creepy guys were following them?" the paramedic is saying. "Although I honestly don't know if that was, like, relevant to the OD, it's just really hard to get a history out of someone's college friend who was also at a rave with them." 

     "Wait, she's not?" Nat looks nonplussed. "Philip! You called report to the ICU, right?" 

A blond nurse across the aisle turns around. "I got Ellen to do it." 

     "Ellen?" Nat calls. "Ellen, did you call the report over for Philip?" 

Ellen sticks her head over from the nursing station, scowling. "You don't have to yell! To the ICU, right? No, because I'd already transferred the paramedics directly to the charge nurse over there." 

     "...."

"What?" 

"It's....sounding like we maybe dropped some balls here? Nat, can I confirm that you've got two patients both of whom are probably ICU-bound, and only one of them is here so far?" 

"- What? Do we have two - who's the other one?" 

     "Drowning kid from the university free swim night?" 

"Oh, right, I overheard the radio on that one - they thought probably also some dumbass college kid on too many drugs." 

---

Nat lifts a hand. "Hey. Everyone. Shh one sec. Right. So - yes, it sounds like you've got two admits headed your way. Do you have two rooms available?" 

"I think there were three beds available - Nellie?" 

"Mmm-hmm. We've got - hmm, options are 201 or 188, neither's great. Loren could admit in 201, she's got 200, but she's just off orientation, I don't love the idea of giving her someone really sick. I should call Chantal and figure something out." 

"Can we do a swap, give Loren 202 and then Isobel can take the admit?" 

"I'd love if Isobel could take the admit - either of them, honestly, they both seem likely to be dumpster fires tonight - but 202 is Ma'ar."

"Hmm, and?" 

"He uses mindreading to understand us?" Still getting a blank look. Jeez, is Emmy going to be so oblivious that she has to say this out loud. "...Loren's wonderful, but she's still a baby new grad and she's going to be feeling unsure of herself most of the time, even if it doesn't show. Ma'ar gets really freaked out if he can pick up that the person responsible for keeping him alive possibly doesn't know what they're doing." 

"Hmm, yeah, suppose so." Emmy is now distracted, scowling at the monitor. "- Has she been running tachy like that the whole time?" 

"Pretty tachy, yeah– Christ! Not at 200 bpm before!" 

"IV access? Any fluids given? - Let's get a 1L bolus in stat, she took MDMA at a rave - who the hell goes to a rave at eight-thirty pm in the evening on a Wednesday - she'll be dehydrated. Get a 12-lead ECG and print me a monitor strip now, she's going so fast I can't tell if it's SVT or not." 

Nellie can't tell either! In any case, she's going to focus on sorting out their admission situation. 

Her portable hospital phone rings six times before Chantal picks up at her extension. 

     "What." 

"Nellie, at the ER. There was a miscommunication. We've got two admits. Swimming pool guy, and another young drug OD - this one pretty confirmed, she took way too much Ecstasy at a rave. She's satting fine on O2 by nasal prongs but she's not super responsive and she's running tachy at 200, they - appear to be working on IV access right now? I don't think Loren's up for this one. Wondering if she can swap with Isobel and we can put the new one in 201?" 

"I - wait, sorry, which one is Mayumi taking and which is the new one?" 

Pause. "....You know, I dunno that it matters? Mayumi barely got a report on pool drugs guy. Do we wanna put pool drugs guy in 201 and rave drugs girl in 196?" 

"....Sorry, I'm still not managing to keep who's who straight. Who's going to give us more trouble?" 

"I'll have a better guess once I've actually seen pool guy? Must still be en route– oh fuck are you fucking kidding me what now -" The alarm is screaming again, and it's not the heart rate of 200, she saw Nat changing the settings on that. "- Okay rave girl's in...V-tach? Or something? On reflection let's put her in 196, I am doubting pool guy can be worse than this anyway I gotta go bye."