First responder, second love

Chapter 1

    

    "Sammy, are you almost done?" a voice asks. I hear a loud knock somewhere near me, but I don't react. Instead, I cover myself with the covers of my bed and turn to my right side with my back to the door.
    "Sam, you need to get out of bed, we need to leave in ten minutes," I hear again. I don't react and stay in my warm bed with the covers up till my neck. After a couple seconds, I feel a hand on my shoulder.
    "What are you doing?" I ask still with my eyes closed.
    "It's time to go to work," a friendly voice answers, but this time very close to my ear. Work, what work? And then I understand what she's talking about. I open my eyes and almost jump out of my bed. When I turn around, I see my roommate Holly standing in my bedroom.
    "How late is it?" I ask her.
    "Almost half past five, you've got about ten minutes to get ready." I stare at her for a second, and realize my alarm clock didn't go off.
    "What are you standing there for, hurry up," Holly says. I grab a pair of jeans, a bra and a black T-shirt from the floor of my room. I put them on and get some socks from a drawer from my closet. I run to the bathroom and throw some water in my face. After that, I look in the mirror and make a high ponytail with my long dark-brown hair. 

After a few minutes, I walk into the living room and see that Holly is waiting by the door with two thermos flasks.
    "Black coffee for me and lemon tea for you, and now we leave." We walk out of the apartment to the elevator and get on it. Holly takes a sip of her coffee and looks at me.
    "I think you need a new alarm clock," she says.
   "Why, I just forgot to set it," I answer defensively.
    "Sam, it's the third time this month. Don't tell me you forgot to set your alarm all three times."
    "Maybe I did."
    "If it's that big of a deal, I will get you a new one."
    "Why would you do that?"
    "So, I don't have to rush you anymore. It's not fun for either of us." We step out of the elevator and walk to the parking lot.

Fortunately, it's not busy on the road yet. So, we will be at the hospital on time. After driving for a couple of minutes in silents, Holly slows the car down to stop for a red light. A few cars on the right side of the road cross the intersection. I sip my tea while we wait for the red light to turn green again.
    "Alex texted me about some VIP patient this morning," Holly says.
    "What about it?"
    "Some VIP patient got a surgery, and they are going to transport him today." "Transport him too where?" I ask Holly curiously.
    "Alex didn't say, guess he doesn't know that. But we will probably find out when we get to the hospital." Holly crosses the intersection and after a couple of minutes we arrive at the hospital. She parks the car, and we get out. I grab my bag from the backseat, and we walk to the entrance.
    "Did you hear?" I turn around and see Jo standing beside me in the dressing room. "What?" I ask while I put my shirt over my head.
    "There is a criminal in the hospital. They brought someone from the prison to get surgery."
    "Serious, Holly was talking about a VIP, that isn't a VIP." I close my locker and look at Jo, who is still standing there, like it's somehow cool to have a prisoner in the hospital you work at.
    "They are going to transport him in a while," Jo says.
    "What is he in for?" I ask her.
    "I don't think we are supposed to know that," she answers.
    "I wasn't talking about his crime, Jo. I was wondering why he came into the hospital." I walk through the door into the halls of the hospital.
    "A nurse told me that she heard from a doctor that he swallowed something that needed to be removed fast" Jo said after a view minutes.
    "Swallowed what?" I ask her.
    "I heard there were small blades," someone answers me. I look to my left and see that Alex is walking besides me.
    "How does a prisoner get access to blades, like anything sharp at all?" I ask a bit stunned.
    "I don't know how resourceful prisoners are," Alex answers.
    "Well, I find it a little strange."
    "No doubt about that," Jo agrees.
    "Time for rounds, see you at lunch." I wave them goodbye and walk to the nurses' Station to get the charts of my patients.

After rounds, I walk to the cafeteria to meet up with Jo and Alex. I'm almost at the doors when I feel my phone ring in the pocket of my scrubs. I crab it out of my pocket and see Malia's name on the screen of my iPhone. Malia is my other roommate, and she is besides Holly one of my best friends. Malia and I know each other for ages. The first time she talked to me was one of the last times I got bullied. Some blond, pink wearing girl named Layla was picking on me in one of the halls at school.
At the age of ten, I wasn't the confident and strong girl I would have liked to be. I was scared to stand up for myself, and I didn't have any friends who would have my back.
So, when Malia heard Layla calling me pathetic and telling me that I would never ever find a boy who would like me, she came running. She told Layla that picking on someone makes you pathetic. And that if she sees Layla doing it again, she will go to the principal to tell on her. Later I asked Malia if she meant it, if she was really planning to tell on her. Malia then said that she knew if she would threaten with it would be enough. Layla was the kind of girl who was pretending to be perfect in the eyes of the grownups. She would never let Malia ruin the way they see her.
I touch on the green button and put my phone to my ear.
    "Were you on time this morning?" I hear Malia asking.
    "Yes, right on time, thanks to Holly."
    "What would you do without her?"
    "I don't ever want to find out," I answer quickly. But to be honest, I would never ever want to know how my life would be without either of them. I already lost a piece of my heart; I won't survive losing another. Malia is quiet for a second, and I walk through the doors of the cafeteria.
    "Why are you calling anyway?" I ask her.
    "Kevin wants to get dinner tomorrow night, are you free?"
    "I have to work till eight, but I can get drinks after." I walk with my lunch to the table where Alex and Jo are sitting.
    "Drinks tomorrow night sounds good. I let Kevin know."
    "Okay, I'll see you at home tonight," I say, and I hang up.
    "Is this seat taken?" I ask my colleagues.
    "Go sit down, Kinsley," Alex answers. I sit down at the table and open the lunch box, I have with me. I feel Alex's eyes on me while I grab a sandwich out of the box.
    "What is it, Alex?" I ask without looking at him.
    "Nothing, just surprised to see a homemade lunch."
    "They're just cheese sandwiches. I made them last night."
    "Good for you." I look at him, and he shows a subtle smile. Alex is one of those guys who likes to tease you but would never harm you in any way. He is a very hard worker and is determined to show everyone that he deserves to work at the hospital. He fought hard to get where he is now. Nobody from his past would have thought that he would one day become a surgeon. But I see him for the smart, kind man he is. He is a co-worker and a friend.
    "Hi, how is your lunch?" Holly asks right before she sits down at the table. She puts her lunch box with her salad in it on the table and takes the slit off.
    "A salad I see, very healthy and grownup from you," I hear Alex say to Holly while he's watching her take a bite of her lunch.
    "I see you are eating chips again, good for you," she reacts with a sarcastic tone.
    "He's never going to chance," Jo says with a laugh on her face. She reaches for the little bag of chips and takes one of them.
    "When are you two going to date?" I ask when I point to Alex and Jo. Alex immediately looks at me with a kind of surprised expression on his face.
    "Too soon?"
    "We're not dating, or anything like that," Jo says.
    "Why not? You're kind of cute together," I hear Holly say.
    "We're not. How about you, Kingsley?" Alex says with a subtle smirk. Even though we're at the same rank in the hospital, he refuses to call me by my first name, and I don't know why.
    "Do you want Sammy to date you?" Holly asks confused. I start to laugh, and I see that I'm joined by Alex. Me and Alex dating, that would be weird. Yes, we're friends, but I don't think we would match in any other way.
    "Oh no, I wouldn't dare to dream of it," Alex says after a while.
    "Am I that horrible?" I ask sarcastic. Right when Alex wants to react to my question, he reaches for his pager in the front pocket of is doctor's coat. He looks at it and quickly stands up from his chair.
    "Sorry, I would love to continue this conversation, but I need to go. Enjoy your lunch," he says before he walks out of the cafeteria.
    "He would be lucky to have you, you're an amazing woman," Holly says, and she takes another bite from her salad. I don't react, because I don't know if I can agree with her. Am I really that amazing, or did I leave that person behind? I chanced; nobody can't deny that. Before my heart broke, it was very big and carefree. I loved meeting new people and making friends. Now I'm holding on to the ones I've got, in the hope they won't disappear; in the hope they won't get taken away for me to be lost forever. That's exactly what doesn't make me the great person I once were. It makes me afraid, scared and fragile. I'm too afraid to lose anyone else, so I put a lock on my heart, so nobody new can come in. I know that's not a good way to live, but I don't know how to heal my heart.

After lunch, I check on my patients and finish the research which I am working on, for next weeks' operation. One of the surgeons asked me to assist her during the operation, and of course I was thrilled. I was focused on my research when I heard my name. I looked up and saw the Chief of surgery Holden standing next to the nurses' station.
    "Hello, Doctor Kingsley," he said.
    "Hi, is everything okay?" I ask him, because he kind of looks like he has something to say. He crosses his arms before his chest and stares at me for a few seconds.
    "Are you busy?"
    "No, why? Can I help you with something?" I ask politely.
    "Would you mind riding along with the ambulance to the prison? One of the other men got ill, and the patient needs to be brought back to the prison soon."
    "Can you find someone else?" I ask him hopefully.
    "I tried, but everyone is busy, and we're kind of understaffed today. You would be a great help, I would ow you."
    "But I never drove on an ambulance."
    "Patient is stable, and there will be a policeman with you in the back of the ambulance. So, you don't have to worry," he assures me. Driving on an ambulance with a prisoner, that doesn't sound that great. But the chief of surgery owning you does sound good. And what can go wrong?
    "Okay, I will do it," I answer Holden.
    "Great, that's great, Kinsley."

Before I know it, I'm sitting in the ambulance next to what some called a VIP-patient, but who is just a criminal. Nobody from the hospital even knew what he did to get locked up. Did he commit fraud, did he rob a bank, or has he raped someone? I must stop; I can't think about stuff like that. He is just a prisoner who must be brought back to the prison where he belongs, for whatever reason.
I kept quiet for a while until I realized that the man bound to the gurney was staring at me, with a little smirk on his face.
    "You're quite beautiful," I hear the man on the gurney say, but I try to ignore him. I look at the policeman, but he doesn't say a word either.
    "Beautiful long, brown hair you have," the man continues, and again I don't react and refuse to look at him.
    "Can't believe a beautiful girl like you is a doctor. You must be pretty smart. Do you have a boyfriend, or a girlfriend? You never know, these days." I keep looking away from the man, but it's getting harder by the second. If I'm honest, I start to regret agreeing to this, because being here starts to feel very uncomfortable. Again, I look at the officer, but again he doesn't make a sound. He is staring in the distance and holding one hand on his belt, where he keeps his weapons. Does that mean that he feels uncomfortable too? Does he have a bad feeling about the way the prisoner is acting towards me? He must know what the man did, what kind of crime he committed.
The man on the gurney decided to stop talking and everything is quiet again. We will arrive at the hospital in a few minutes, and I can't wait to get out of here. Suddenly the ambulance stops, and I got thrown off my seat. I fly through the ambulance, hit my head against one of the cabinets, and it immediately gets dark around me.

After a while, I open my eyes and try to sit up. A throbbing pain starts to fill my head and I feel kind of dizzy. I touch my head to feel if I injured myself. There is something wet on my head and when I look at my hand, I see it's covered in blood. I must have hit my head pretty hard when we hit the brakes. But why did we stop so sudden? When I look at the officer who sat next to me, I start to panic. There are big red stains on his uniform.
    "No, no, no," I start to stammer. I'm almost too afraid to look beside me, I'm too scared to check if the patient is still in the ambulance. But before I can look, I feel it move, without hearing its motor running. It feels like someone is pushing the ambulance, but why? What the hell is going on? And then I hear him, the patient who was lying on the gurney, but not from inside the ambulance anymore. It's coming from outside, from behind me. 
    "Can you hurry up?" I hear the man say.
    "Are you sure she's dead?" I hear some other voice ask.
    "Yes, and otherwise she will be soon. She won't survive falling from this cliff." What cliff? What are they doing? But before I can do anything, I feel the ambulance drive away. Except the ambulance isn't going straight, it's going down and fast.

Again, I get thrown through the hospital wagon, and my body hits all kind of cabinets around me. I feel like I'm falling, and I think this is the end. The hospital wagon spins around during the fall, and I spin with it. I hit my head against the ceiling a couple of times. And after what feels like hours, everything stops. The ambulance stopped spinning, the instruments inside stopped flying in the air, and I stopped hitting my body against my surroundings. I'm lying on the floor of the ambulance with the policeman right beside me. I stare at the ceiling, and I feel pain in almost my whole body. The pain makes me want to scream, but that wouldn't make it better. I keep staring at the ceiling, too afraid to move. I have no idea why the ambulance stopped moving and why I'm still alive, but I'm too afraid it would start moving again. With that in my mind, I also know that I can't stay here. I must do something, get help somehow.
    "Where is my phone?" I ask myself. Slowly I turn my head to the left and look right in the eyes of the officer. He hasn't made a sound the whole time and his uniform is covered in blood by now. Very slowly, I reach out to him and lay my fingers on his neck to check if he's still alive.
    "I thought so," I say. "I'm so sorry," I say to him even though he can't hear me anymore. Then I slowly move to my stomach, so it's a little bit easier to look for my phone. It's lying a bit further under the gurney, which got turned over. I move to my phone very carefully, and I pick it up. The screen of the iPhone is broken in two places, but it's still working. My fingers touch the numbers 9-1-1 and I put the phone to my ear. And Luckily after a few seconds I hear a woman's voice say: "911, what's your emergence?"