Only Once

Chapter 8

The ambulance rounded the corner to the hospital, sirens flashing. Isabelle waited outside ready in a trauma gown. Often she adored her job in the emergency room, the thought of saving someone else's life was almost as exhilarating as actually doing the saving. She was in her second year of residency and got along pretty well with everyone. She wasn't rude to any attending and was patient with the patients. She studied often and would practice technics on cadavers wherever she was able to.
When the three ambulances parked, Isabelle pounced on the one.
"What do we have?" She asked the EMT as he handed her the patient's chart.
"The car she was in was t-boned, lucky for her it was the driver's side that was hit, not so lucky for the guy she was with. She's got a small cut on her head, and her arm was cut. Should just need a quick look from orthopaedics and neurology, but I think she'll be only need a few days, maximum." She thanked the man, he had a 5 o'clock shadow.
Isabelle along with a few other doctors pushed the gurney the woman laid on into the central treating area.
"Someone page neurology and orthopaedics!" Isabelle yelled as she began to flip through the chart. Blood pressure, good. Heartbeat, steady. All vital signs seemed to be good. Whirling around, she grabbed a suture kit and wheeled a chair over beside the woman. Isabelle sat the kit down, examining the wound on the woman's arm. The cut had stopped bleeding, but it would definitely need to be stitched up.
Isabelle pulled her light from her pocket, ripping the gown off.
"Miss I need you to follow my light, okay?" Isabelle finally looked at the patient, recognition flooding her. The woman in front of her was Karen.
"I can follow the light fine," she finally spoke. Karen did as she said she could.
"Karen how'd this happen?" Isabelle asked as she checked to make sure the woman's air way wasn't blocked or beginning to swell.
"We were driving and someone ran the red right into our car. Scott, he got hurt really bad. No one would tell me anything, but Iz, I saw him. I don't know if he's doing well, they wouldn't tell me anything," Karen choked, Isabelle could tell she was trying to keep from crying.
Isabelle's heat stopped beating then, just as Scott's may have been doing down the hall.
"Scott? Scott was with you?"
"Yes, we went out. Please check if he's okay." That's exactly what Isabelle wanted to do, but she couldn't abandon her friend or patient just yet.
"I'll stitch you up and then I'll check on him, okay?"
"Okay."
Isabelle sat down on the chair she brought over.
"You're going to feel a slight pinch, it's just the freezing."
She injected small amounts of the freezing around the cut and uncovered the suture kit. As she worked, she tried to talk to Karen to keep her calm. She asked questions about their date, even though every answer bothered Isabelle slightly more than the last.
"So what did you guys do?"
"I wanted to go dancing, so we went to the club downtown, Conspiracy."
Isabelle nodded. Every time Karen answered a new question, Isabelle would try to keep the answer locked away in the back of her mind. She was anxious to check on Scott's progress and wanted to make sure he was okay, but right now Karen was her first priority. That's what Isabelle was trained to do, put the patient first. However, Scott was a patient too. Didn't that mean something?
"You're all stitched up, I'll check on you later and update you on Scott."
"Thank you." Karen looked grateful as Isabelle walked away, she had no idea that Isabelle was checking for her own selfish reasons.

Doctors talked around him, discussing what was wrong with him. Scott wanted to tell them he could hear them, that he wanted to be informed of what was wrong with him too. Also, he wanted to know what happened to Karen. However, Scott couldn't make his lips or eyes open. He had a throbbing pain in his chest and head, he was smart enough to know that must not be good.
"How is he?" A woman's voice rang through the room. It was familiar but Scott couldn't think of her name, it was on the tip of his non-responsive tongue. Maybe it was Karen, he thought, but somehow he knew it wasn't right. This woman talked to the doctors like she was one of them. Inwardly, he gave up the fight of searching his injured mind for the woman's name. It didn't matter who it was, anyways.
Scott tried to pay attention to the conversation going on around him, but his mind only processed bits and pieces.
"Yes... Surgery soon... Tear in the aorta... Waiting... Bad shape... Leave you alone..."
Although Scott heard the words the doctor was saying, as soon as they entered his mind they disappeared almost instantly. Like the saying went, 'in one ear and out the other'.

Isabelle waited for the doctors to disappear from sight before she took a step closer to him. She held his hand in hers, it was pale. He was pale. She pulled the beds blanket up so it covered to just below his armpits. She held his hand tightly, afraid if she touched anywhere else something bad would happen to him. She looked up at the heart rate monitor and she had to admit it didn't look good.
"I'm sorry this happened to you," she whispered even though no one else was in the room.
She noticed his skin blended in with the room, pale and lifeless.
He's not going to die, Isabelle reminded herself.
Although his injuries were very severe, the doctors on his case we're very hopeful about recovery, making it through the surgery would practically put him in the clear. Still, Isabelle worried. Although she knew everything that happened between them shouldn't have, she found herself happy it had. She knew Scott was a good man and it hurt her to see him so lifeless, vulnerable in the hands of the doctors. She knew her colleges, her superiors, were good but that didn't make her any less nervous about the major surgery Scott would be undergoing. Isabelle knew well that even small surgeries had risks and some people died and the thought kept nagging at her.
"You will get better," she sighed. She brushed his hair back from his forehead that was covered in sweat. Bending over, Isabelle planted a small, lingering kiss to Scott's temple.
"I promise."