Chance Encounters

Part 1: Chapter 2

Charlie's 72 hour shift had ended up closer 80 hours after a three car crash had the ED overrun. As soon as she had removed a ruptured spleen in one operating theatre, she moved on to setting two broken femurs in the next one. Once all the patients were stable she made her way to the lockers to get her bag.

She was out of clean clothes and still hadn't found her access card as she grabbed her car keys and decided to head home as she was. She grabbed a takeaway coffee from the cafeteria as she walked to the car park. Charlie headed to her black Escalade and blinked as she couldn't remember parking it where it was. Shaking her head at her exhausted confusion she once more mentally attacked Mayor Peña for not finding a solution to the staff problems. No one should be operating this tired, it was just scary. She should be working 40 hours a week not double that.

Charlie got to the door of her truck and pulled it open only to find a man on her front seat. It was the man who had bumped into her yesterday, or maybe the day before. He narrowed his eyes at Charlie who put her hand on her hip aggressively.

"What the hell do you think you are you doing?" She growled at him.

"Excuse me?" He chuckled humourlessly. "I'm just sitting in my car. What are you doing?"

"What? You car?" Charlie frowned before looking around.

Sure enough two spaces down was her black Escalade. She clicked the unlock button on her car keys and saw the sides light up and sighed. Charlie turned back to the man who was looking across at her car trying not to smile.

"I'm so sorry." She said feeling embarrassed as hell. "I've never seen another one parked here and I thought this wasn't the spot and obviously I was right but-"

"It's fine." he said interrupting her.

He moved her blonde hair over the bag that hung from her shoulder to see her name tag. He his fingers across the engraved letters before looking back at her ice blue eyes.

"Dr Charlotte Adams."

"Call me Charlie." She said automatically as she looked at his battered face. "Holy crap, your face."

"Thats not usually the reaction ladies have to it." He said with the hint of a smirk teasing his lips.

"No, I'm sure, I mean... you need stitches and your leg might need an X-ray." She said as she looked at the pitiful, probably homemade, attempt at stitching his cheek up.

"What about my leg?" He asked confused.

"I saw you favouring your left leg after you bumped into me..." She  trailed off.

Charlie quickly rummaged through her bag that had been in her locker the the last four days and found her access card on the top of everything. She looked at the man and he looked at her, chills running down her spine as beads of sweat broke on his brow. She backed away from his door and rushed a goodbye before speed walking to her actual car.

She locked the doors as soon as she was inside and checked through her bag again. She knew she didn't leave it in her bag but she couldn't fathom why this man would take it and return it. Maybe she was just being paranoid. She saw him drive off and waited a few minutes before putting her seatbelt on and making her way into town.

Her heart-rate had only just calmed down when she noticed the same Escalade parked terribly askew on the side of the road. It was outside the entrance to the local grocery store she needed but as she passed by she noticed the driver falling out of his door. With a curse she pulled over and put her hazard lights on. Even if he had stolen her access card, which she wasn't 100% sure about, she had to help him. Hippocratic oath or not, she didn't ignore anyone who needed help.