Busted Thoughts (Saving Hope)

Breadcrumbs--Part II

Alex snapped her gloves off, shoving them into the waste basket before quickly washing her hands and walking out of the surgical area. "If I were Dawn, where would I be?"

"Charlie, you didn't have to do this." Following Alex, I watched her approach Maggie who was filling out a chart at the front desk

"Hey." Maggie flipped the pen back in her hand before turning back to the chart. "How did your surgery go?"

"Good. Charlie is closing up now." Alex leaned up against the desk, before facing her. "You haven't seen Dawn anywhere, have you?"

"Not since this afternoon. Why?"

"Uh, Charlie remembered she wanted to talk to me right as we were finishing up the surgery."

"Okay. My best guess would be she either left--which I know is highly unlikely, or she's up in her office. When I went up there earlier to talk to her, she told me she was taking a few days off, and Dr. Hamza was filling in for her while she's gone."

"Hmm. Thanks, Maggie."

"You're welcome." Watching her walk away, I realized that even though there was nothing I could do, I should probably follow her instead of standing there. I was able to catch up to her just as she entered the elevator.

"I guess when Charlie has a hunch, I should follow that hunch," Alex told herself out loud as gravity pulled her up and the metal doors slipped open. I could feel my heart beating wildly the closer she got to my office. "Hey, Dawn?" Rapping lightly on the door door, she entered the slightly darkened space. I watched her expression falter as she rounded the corner of my desk, kneeling, sticking two fingers to my carotid artery for a pulse "Dawn!"

"Alex?" My eyelids flew open, pain etching across my forehead as I was lying on the floor, feeling like I had just had an out-of-body experience. "What happened?"

"You tell me."

"Must have not eaten enough today." I brushed off her concern as she studied the raised goose egg on the corner of my forehead. "I got busy."

"Dawn, I need you to stay lying down. You could have a concussion."

"I'll take my chances." Swallowing hard, I went through a mental check of the situation. It didn't look good with me sitting there, disheveled and sitting on the floor.

"I want Shahir to take a look at your head, and I want to examine you, make sure you didn't injure anything when you fell.

"That won't be necessary."

"You know as well as I do those adrenaline rushes mask injuries, and your pulse is--"

"Out of control. I've been busy today, so you're most likely going to find my blood sugar is a little low and I'm probably dehydrated."

"Unless you've been skipping a lot of meals, I don't think that would cause you to pass out as you did. Anything I should know about?

"No. If I did, you probably wouldn't know about it anyway."

"That's not exactly what I want to hear. What did you eat today?"

"A sandwich."

"That's it? A sandwich?"

"Now I'm regretting not going home and eating more before taking a long shower and hopping into bed. What's the last thing you ate?"

"This isn't about me."

"Humor me."

"Okay, I had toast and eggs for breakfast. A turkey sandwich with chips for lunch, and spaghetti for dinner. Happy?"

"Very."

"It's been a long day. All I want to do is go home, eat something and I will sleep as long as it takes to recover. I'll even call Lane to be with me." I swallowed more out of nervousness as she leaned forward to look at the flowers in the trash. I knew immediately what she was thinking even though she hadn't said a word.

"Have you taken anything today? Anything I should know about?"

"Lorazepam."

"You prescribe it yourself?"

"No. Zach saw me having a bit of a freak-out moment in the ER this afternoon. He gave me some medication to help me calm down, which it did."

"What about the rest of the day? Have you experienced any dizziness, nausea, or tiredness?

Anything like that?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary."

"I'll take that as a yes on everything." She pulled out her phone from the back pocket of her white coat.

"Who are you calling?"

"Zach. He prescribed the medication this afternoon. He deserves to know what's going on." Alex got up, stepping to the other side of the room to make the call.

"I'm fine," I called after her, leaning my head against the wall.

"Alex?" I could hear the sleep trailing from his voice as I leaned my head back against the wall to rest my eyes. "How's our patient?"

"She's fine."

"So, what is it you're not saying?"

"It's Dawn."

"Another panic attack?"

"I think it's more than that. Hit the desk on her way down. I found her on the floor of her office unconscious. Said you prescribed her some Lorazepam this afternoon."

"For a panic attack, yeah. I talked to her right before she had her last surgery for the night. I knew something was going on when she walked into the ER but she insisted she was fine. She conscious?"

"For the time being, yes. By the looks of it, she hit her head pretty hard on her desk. I'm afraid she may have a concussion, among other things she's not saying."

"I'll be there as soon as I can." Alex hung up, walking back over to me. I had caught little bits and pieces of the conversation, but she had lowered her voice enough that I only caught the gist of the conversation.

"You should go be with Charlie and Luke."

"Charlie is with Luke. Nice try, but I'm not going anywhere until we find out what's going on."

"I didn't think I would be able to get rid of you that easy."

"Maggie mentioned you were taking some time off. Never thought I'd see the day that Dawn Bell took a day for herself."

"I'm getting that a lot today. It's not often I take a day off, but I thought it was time to spend a little more time on myself."

"As glad as I am to hear that, my mind is asking why. You're even worse than I am at taking days off."

"It's a long story." I offered her a small smile, although the small gesture sent waves of pain through my forehead. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with."

"Despite what you think, we do care about you. I'm not sure I would be alive if you hadn't decided to put that heart monitor on me."

"Just doing what I do best." We laughed and then things grew serious as I looked around, the flashbacks coming back as if the attack were happening all over again.