A Rose in Shadow

Chapter 73

The ride to the hospital seemed endless.

Samantha had been insistent that she didn't need to go but absolutely no one else was in agreement and then the Sergeant intervened.

"Samantha Kincaid" he barked. "You are going to the hospital. Mrs. Connor is going with you in the ambulance. I've notified your parents who will meet you there and Adam will be there as soon as he's finished up here – even though he is glaring at me right now" he turned to Adam who was pacing behind Samantha.

"Let's get this shit done, McCabe, so that you can go be with Sam at the hospital"

Gathering her tenderly up into his arms, Adam carried her out the door, past the amused EMTs and down the stairs to the waiting ambulance. He set her gently on her feet beside the ambulance and buried his head in her neck, holding her tight before he took a deep breath and let her go to be loaded in.

Arriving at the hospital Samantha and Mrs. Connor were rushed into the emergency room where Sam was looked at briefly by the attending physician who took her vitals and some personal information. Samantha recognized Dr. Mayne from her numerous hospital rotations, as a woman who was very no-nonsense and serious. While Samantha did feel that a doctor should be serious, to a point, this particular doctor was very unbending and almost cold and Sam always preferred to work alongside the other doctors who were both professional but able to communicate well with the patients.

From here, Mrs. Connor was asked to return to the main waiting room and Samantha was taken into another room where she would stay until they came to get her for a CT scan, Dr. Mayne being concerned about the blows that she received to her temple and cheek.

While she waited a nurse came in, Amanda, a friendly face that she also recognized and she was immediately put to ease while the other woman tended to the wounds on her wrists and helped to clean the blood from her face and hair before taking her vitals for a second time. It always fascinated Samantha how differently each nurse approached his or her job and she was thankful that her training had shown her the methods that she, personally, wanted to adopt as well as identifying those that she did not.

Not long now. In a matter of mere months she would be graduating, having already accepted a job from a local doctors' clinic where she would have a 9 to 5 schedule and every other weekend off. Her classmates were envious, to say the least, most of them either still looking for suitable employment or taking offers that would require shift work around the clock.

She had definitely lucked into the job by being in the right place at the right time. It was almost a year ago now that Samantha had been working a Saturday shift at the café when an elderly man had started choking on a pastry and fallen to the floor.

To the rest of the people in the café it appeared as though the man was having a heart attack but Sam had noticed him distractedly eating his pastry and putting a rather large piece in his mouth just moments before. She was the first person to reach him as he fell and she immediately began the process of trying to remove the food from his throat by applying sharp blows to his back and checking whether the blockage could be removed from his mouth with her fingers.

While she did this, she heard someone rushing from behind her "It's okay, I'm a doctor" just as she got her fingers on the pastry and cleared the man's airway. The doctor took over at that point, Samantha happily stepping aside to let him exam the man who appeared, for all intents and purposes, to be no worse for wear.

She was in the staff room a few minutes later washing her hands and changing her apron when she heard a knock on the open door frame. The doctor who had stepped in to help was standing there watching her.

"Have you had medical training?" he asked cocking his head.

"I'm coming into my last year of nursing at the university" she answered. "Will the man be okay?"

Grinning at her the doctor walked into the room. He was on the thin side and not very tall but he walked with a confidence that Samantha only wished she had.

"He'll be fine – thanks to your quick response" he pulled his wallet from his back pocket where he took out a business card and held it in his hand for a moment as though he wasn't yet sure of something.

Suddenly, seeming to make a decision with himself "What is your class schedule like next week?" handing her his card.

The following Monday she found herself in an informal interview with Dr. Burton, the doctor whom she had met at the café, and his associate, Dr. Markus, who were able to squeeze her in between their own appointments and her classes that afternoon.

Dr. Burton had apparently given her a glowing review to his associate before her arrival so her "interview" became a job offer as soon as she arrived. The doctors offered her a position to begin as soon as she finished her program, provided that she keep up her marks – not an issue - and volunteer with them from then until graduation day, at their monthly blood donor clinic. It was a deal that she was more than happy to make.