An Impossible Task

Chapter 1

**TW--hospital situations, implied violence, fluff, swearing**

Braxton Memorial Hospital was a community medical center about 90 minutes north of Manhattan. Its emergency room was a constant flow of people coming and going, partially due to the hospital's proximity to the Interstate and the fact that it was the only decent hospital within an hour's drive. It applied for and received a Level One Trauma designation and was able to handle most critical situations. Cases they could not handle were stabilized and air-lifted into New York City.

The emergency room physicians were lorded over by Edwin Baker, MD, a no-nonsense doctor with no sense of humor, and, some felt, no sense of compassion either. The doctor he referred to as his "Hawkeye Pierce", or his trouble-maker, was Cassie O'Hara, MD. She was young, full of energy and had finely tuned empathy skills. It was her 6th sense about patients that irritated Dr. Baker, who seemed to have to really stretch himself to make a connection with people. This is the reason he turned to administration where he thought he would excel, but only just managed to get by on poor people skills.

Cassie was a dedicated doctor with exceptional skills and was recognized by her peers as such. She was hard-nosed but flexible and her charm got her past many a pile of paperwork. At any one time, 5 physicians maintained the ER, and even that was a stretch on some days. This had been one of those days.

Cassie was in the physicians break room, pouring herself a cup of coffee for the road. Her shift was finally over, the ER had settled down considerably and she was looking forward to two days off.

She pulled her coat and scarf out of her locker and slipped them on with a tired sigh. Picking up her coffee and purse, she headed for the exit from the ER, waving goodbye to staff as she walked through.

The New York November weather hit her in the face as the double doors opened. Her breath turned to white mist as she pulled her coat in closer to her body and made her way down the exit ramp. When she looked up from getting her keys out of her purse, she noticed a dog sitting perfectly still at the end of the ramp. He neither barked nor moved as she approached.

"Hey, boy," Cassie said softly. "Are you lost?" She approached the dog slowly, not wanting to scare it or cause it to attack her and extended a hand out. The dog began to move away from her the closer she got. Cassie looked carefully to see if it had a collar but she didn't think so. As she took another step towards it, the dog moved down along the side of the ramp.

When Cassie turned the corner, she saw what the dog was trying to lead her to. An adult male lay on the cold asphalt on his side, exposed to the cold in only what appeared to be a business suit. Cassie dropped her purse and ran to him, dropping to her knee to quickly assess him. His pulse was steady but weak, he was very cold to the touch and his white dress shirt was nearly soaked through with blood.

"Shit," she said to herself, standing up. "Sam!" she called to the security guard at the door. "Sam!" she called again.

"Yes Dr. O'Hara?" came a response from the top of the ramp.

"I need a gurney and some help, stat," she called back to him. Cassie took her coat off and covered the man. Two nurses ran down the ramp with a gurney and it took the 3 of them to get the man on the table, rolled back up the incline and in through the double doors of the emergency room.

"Room 8," the triage nurse called out to them as they quickly pushed the cart down the hallway and into the room.

It became a finely tuned dance of medical professionals trying to assess what was wrong with the patient. His wet clothes were removed and replaced by a hospital gown and a thermal blanket was thrown on him after they saw his temperature was only 97 degrees. They took a blood sample and Cassie examined him to find the source of the blood loss, quickly assessing his chest, neck, head and legs, recovering him with the thermal blanket.