Will arrived at the Acute Care Unit to see the robot blood analyzer in action and to interview some of the station personnel. He found the posted fire escape plan and, employing a routine which had proved useful in the past, got permission to copy it. He began noting some of his observations directly on his copy of the plan.

Leaning against the door to the empty visitor's TV lounge, Will surveyed the area around the nurses' station. There was a significant level of activity at this hour of the morning. A nurse was proceeding down the hall with the meds cart, stopping at each door and methodically making certain that the proper pills got passed out to the correct patient. Several patients were hooked up to ventilators. The swoosh swoosh of the artificial breathing machines resounded in the hall. Several gurneys had collected at the nurses' station, manned by attendants come to pick up their charges and whisk them away for various tests and x-rays.

One patient was being wheeled down the corridor by an nurses' aide (NA). The NA parked him in the tiny TV lounge and adjusted the channel to his liking. Almost immediately, an imposing man in the long white coat that marked him as an attending physician, swept into the small room, closely followed by a flock of interns and residents, crowding themselves into the lounge and surrounding the patient in the wheel chair. "There you are, Mike" said the doctor as he strode up to the patient. "Not very capacious in here. But we'll all just fit in one way or the other." Then to one of the interns. "Run and get Mr. Woidohowisc's paper chart for me, will you." The lackey sprinted towards the nurse's station.

Will watched with interest from the doorway.

"You're looking at a real miracle." Someone had come to stand beside him.

Turning, Will looked into the a friendly face of nurse.. "Kate Kenny, RN," said the badge pinned to her white jacket.

She continued, "Mike just transferred down from surgery. He was in that terrible accident several weeks ago. They didn't expect him to live. Coded several times. But he's got a strong will and the constitution to go with it. He's with us to be weaned from the ventilator. He's already breathing on his own for 30 minutes every 3 hours. Doing great."

Will had talked to Kate Kenny earlier when he had phoned asking whether he could stop by the floor to see the blood analyzer and interview some of the staff..

She had agreed to demonstrate the workings of the analyzer herself. Clearly a no nonsense type, she grabbed Will's arm and began scrutinizing it carefully. "You've got good veins," she said admiringly.

"Well thanks ....but wait a minute what are you doing?" Will gasped as Kate pulled a rubber tourniquet out of her pocket.

"You did say you wanted to see Roberta in action, didn't you? Have a seat"

"Roberta??"

"Roberta. Our RBA, Robot Blood Analyzer." She spelled it out for him slowly. He was mesmerized when with the flourish of a magician producing a live pigeon in a hat, she removed the white cloth cover from the small tray she was carrying to reveal an assortment of syringes, test tubes, caps, labels, and alcohol swabs.

"Well, it analyzes blood and I don't happen to have any spare samples lying around. You're not chicken are you-great tall guy like you?"

"No I...don't.... That is....I thought I could just watch."

"This is an interactive machine and you can understand how it works best if you truly get into it, so to speak. N'est-ce pas?" She was holding a large hypodermic needle.

He shut his eyes and prayed he would stay vertical. Kate kept up the steady steam of talk. "You're just lucky I took pity on you, I could have inflicted young Dr. Beamon on you He's a medical student and needs the practice. Hasn't done it on the first try yet. Usually digs around, hunting for a vein, until the patient keels over. The nurses call him the vampire of the fourth floor."

Will could tell Kate was one of those people whose sense of humor was beyond him.. Obviously, she was enjoying his discomfort enormously.