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𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀 sat at the nurses station in the Emergency Room charting on her 8 AM patient in the company of Lori and Kara. As she was putting in a charge, she took a sip of her morning coffee.

"So what happened last night?" Kara said as she put in a charge on her patient. "You forgot to call us."

"Yeah, what happened after you and Johnny left the dojo?" Lori said

"Well, they have to fight in a tournament, just like back in '84, but this time instead of fighting against each other, they are teaming up." Stella said

"Wow, they actually agreed to that, with out killing each other?" April asked

"I was just as surprised as you were." Stella said as she finished her charting.

"Hey, Stella, there's a 16 year old in trauma 3." Maggie said. "Can you take it?"

"Of course." Stella said

Getting up from the nurses station, Maggie gave Stella the chart, and she walked to trauma 3, to find a young girl named Clara. Clara didn't have a good home life. She bounced around from foster home to foster home. She lived on the streets mainly. No matter how many times Child Protective Services were called, she always ran away from home.

Clara was jaundiced and her liver was enlarged. She hasn't had anything to eat or drink in a while. When Stella saw her, she wanted to fall apart, but she had to remain strong.

"Hi. My name is Stella. I'll be your nurse today. What's going on sweetie?" Stella said

"My stomach hurts." Clara said

"We're gonna figure out what's going on, okay?" Stella said

Dr. Halstead came in, and smiled warmly at both Stella and the young patient. "How are you? My name is Dr. Halstead. I'll be your doctor today." he said

"BP is 102 over 68. Heart rate, 112. Temp, 103." Stella said

"You are running a high fever, Clara. Let's see what's going on." Dr. Halstead said

Stella held Clara's hand as Dr. Halstead did an abdominal exam. He felt Clara's liver was significantly enlarged. "Let's get a CBC. I'll be back to give you morphine, okay?" Dr. Halstead said

Outside, Dr. Halstead and Stella spoke about Clara. "This little girl is severely emaciated, lethargic, and profoundly jaundiced. Incubation time should be similar, but she's presenting so much worse than other patients I've seen." Dr. Halstead said

"I know you guys grew attached to Clara. I'm so sorry." Stella said. Dr. Halstead nodded to Stella and walked away.

Later, Stella was getting supplies out of the supply closet, when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Grabbing her phone, she looked at the caller id, which read Johnny.

"Hey you." Stella said as she answered Johnny's call

"Hey, how's your day going?" Johnny said

"Eh, I have a patient that's not doing so well. We're waiting on her results to tell us more, but just from looking at her, and from Dr. Halstead doing her exam, it's not looking so good." Stella said.

"Oh, I'm sorry princess. Anything I can do?" Johnny said

"No. I'll be alright. But how are you doing? How's everything going with you, and even joining dojos with Mr. LaRusso?" Stella asked

"It's going." Johnny said

"Well, I haven't seen the two of you come in, so you must be making some kind of progress." Stella said

"You're funny." Johnny said. "Anyway, you wanna have dinner at my place? I thought we could tell your family about us." 

"Yeah, I'd love that. You might want to wear a bullet proof vest." Stella said

"Why?" Johnny chuckled

"You have my dad to worry about." Stella laughed.

"I can handle your dad princess. How does 7:30 sound?" Johnny asked

"That's perfect." Stella said. "It will give me time to go home and change. But I gotta go, I'll see you later, and good luck today, okay?"

"Thanks, and I hope everything turns out okay with your patient." Johnny said

"Thanks." Stella said. "Bye.

Stella ended the call and placed her phone back in her pocket, then walked out of the supply closet, towards Clara's room, where Dr. Halstead was doing another exam on Clara.

"Dr. Halstead, your results." the lab tech said

As Dr. Halstead reviewed the results, it wasn't good, and Stella could see that. "Clara, your HIV antibody tests came back as negative. However, you did test positive for both hepatitis A and hepatitis C. The Hep A is recent, but the Hep C, we think you've had for a long time. It's damaged your kidneys and your liver." Dr Halstead said

"I'm so sorry honey." Stella said

"Can I have some time alone?" Clara asked

"Press the call light if you need me." Stella said as she placed a gentle hand on Clara's cheek.

Later, Stella sat at the nurses station charting, and Code Blue was heard over the PA system. Getting up, she ran into trauma 3, followed by Dr. Halstead.

"Need a crash cart in trauma 3!" Dr Halstead said

Stella hadn't seen anyone pass on since her mother, and Clara had full on coded. The hepatitis A and C and the enlarged liver were just too much to handle. 

"1 milligram of epi." Stella said

Stella gave Clara a milligram of epi, then Dr. Halstead continued compressions. "Come on, Clara. Come on." Stella said

After compressions, shocks, and one more milligram of epi, unfortunately, Clara had died. Dr. Halstead stopped compressions and took off his gloves and looked up at the clock to call the time of death. "Time of death, 15:25.

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After going home to change, Stella met August, Janette, and Nathan at Johnny's apartment, where they were sitting at the kitchen table.

"Dinner is served." Johnny said as he walked over to the table, a dish in his hand. "All right, tonight's main course is fajitas and grilled vegetables. I have pico de Gallo and corn and flour tortillas." he said as he placed the dish down before taking his seat next to Stella.

"Wow, this looks delicious, Johnny." Stella smiled

"Thanks. I got it off the Chili's website. I wanted it to be authentic." Johnny replied.

"Authentic for who? We're from Texas, we're not Mexican." Nathan stated

"Nathan." Janette said as she served herself some rice

"So, how was the big first day?" Stella asked as she served herself some fajitas

"Uh, you know, it's the first day. Work in progress." Johnny said with a shrug.

"Well, I'm glad you and Mr. LaRusso are working together. I want to make sure my brother is safe." Stella said

"My back's in better shape than ever, you don't have to worry." August said

"She's your sister, she's always going to worry." Johnny said. "But don't worry, I'm watching him."

"So, August, how do you like, doing karate with your girlfriend?" Janette asked. "You guys enjoy a lot of one-on-one sparring?"

"I'm glad you and Sam are back together. You guys make a cute couple." Stella smiled

"I mean I'm not the only one getting back together with an ex, huh, sensei?" August said. "He had a date with the love of his life."

"Oh really?" Nathan asked genuinely interested

"The one that got away?" August said.

"Is that right?" Stella said, trying not to sound hurt, but Janette could see, in her granddaughter's eyes, just how hurt she really was.

Stella opened her heart to Johnny and after sleeping together, he had been seeing Ali, it was all a joke to him, or so she thought.

"It wasn't a date, no," Johnny answered, trying to take Stella's hand, but she snatched her hand away and wouldn't hold it.

"He's being modest. We took all these cool pictures, and made you look — I mean not to say that you didn't look cool already, but, he had to look special for the special lady. Tell 'em about the sushi?" August said

"We don't have to talk about it." Johnny said

Nathan leaned back and folded his arms over his chest. "No, I think I want to hear about it." he said with a rude scowl on his face. "I would love to hear this John."

"I don't know why he's being all shy right now, but we went to this sushi spot because Ali likes sushi, or so we thought. So we got the dragon roll." August said

As August continued on and on, Stella turned to look at her grandmother, and let a silent tear escape, and Janette laced her hand with Stella's. She tried her best to brush it off, but she couldn't. She had fallen for Johnny and she had fallen hard. Nathan took notice of his daughter's heartache, and he didn't like it. Not one bit.

──────

After dinner, Stella and Johnny stood in the kitchen washing dishes, an awkward silence between them. As he washed the dishes, she dried them.

"It's not like that you know. We're just, old friends catching up." Johnny said.

Stella nodded in reply. "Whatever you say."

"Stella, on the night of what happened at the LaRusso house, I was coming to see you, to tell you..." Johnny started

"Johnny, with everything that's happening, and going on, I think it's best if we don't jump into anything. Let's just slow things down." Stella said, as she finally turned to look at him. "Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah, we'll slow things down." Johnny said

Stella smiled sadly as kissed his cheek, then walked to the living room to grab her purse. "Well, I've gotta go. I've gotta go in early in the morning. Thanks for tonight. Goodnight."

"Stella, before you go, what happened with your patient?" Johnny asked

"She passed away." Stella said. "But it's alright. I'll talk to you soon."

Johnny deeply sighed as he tossed the sponge into the sink. He replayed the events of the dinner in his head, as August went on and on, about the day out, and trying to do something impress Ali, he saw how it truly hurt Stella, and that shattered him to no end.

Stella meant so much to him, and he was finally ready to take the big leap with her and tell her how much he truly loved her, but the fight got in the way, now, he might not get the chance to tell her.

Upon walking into her Sherman Oaks apartment, Stella hung her purse on the coat rack, and locked the doors, then walked to the ensuite bathroom to get ready for bed. She was going to tell Johnny how she truly felt, but then the fight got in the way.

"You don't even know what happened. Don't over think anything." Stella thought to herself as she laid down in bed, and turned off her lamp

Author's Note:

Medical Translations:

Febrile - Having or showing the symptoms of fever

Hypotensive - lowering of the blood pressure

Emaciated - abnormally thin or weak, especially because of illness or lack of food