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Episode 3:

Too Much Pressure


AN: Thanks to Louise for inspiring us to write this episode. We wouldn’t have thought of the idea for it without her.


“Don’t fall away and leave me to myself. Don’t fall away and leave love bleeding in my hands, in my hands, again…” sang two off-key female voices.

“I can’t believe we’re actually seeing Fuel tomorrow night!” Bianca Parker exclaimed over the song, Fuel’s “Hemorrhage (In My Hands)”, which she had cranked up so that it blared through her car speakers.

“I know!” cried her best friend, Brianna Chambers, from the passenger seat. “It’s gonna kick ass!”

Fuel was one of the two best friends’ favorite music groups, and they had gotten tickets to see them in concert the following night in Raleigh, about two hours away from their hometown of Atlantic City, North Carolina. They both had managed to get the next two days off of work, so they had decided to drive to Raleigh that night and spend the next day shopping and getting ready for the concert.

Bianca was relieved, for as an ER physician, it wasn’t always easy for her to get off work. But she had saved up some vacation time, so she felt she deserved it and was prepared to argue if Elizabeth O’Brien, the head of the ER, had not given her the days off. Luckily, Dr. O’Brien did so without a fuss.

Bianca yawned and immediately was glad they had the music so loud. It was helping her stay awake. She had worked a long day at the hospital, gotten off at 7:30, and come home to the apartment she shared with Brianna just long enough to change clothes. They had been on the road by quarter till eight. It was now just after eight-thirty, and Bianca still had another fifteen minutes to go before she and Brianna stopped to switch places halfway through the drive.

“Bean, take the next exit,” Brianna said, noticing a sign for the exit that would take them to Indian Valley, a city just a few miles away from where they were, and eventually Raleigh, which was still almost an hour and a half away.

“’What?” Bianca asked, trying to hear her friend over the loud music. She leaned down towards the radio to adjust the volume.

“Bianca!” Brianna suddenly shrieked, causing Bianca to jerk up immediately.

Bianca looked up just in time to see the car in front of her stop suddenly, and she moved her foot from the accelerator to the brake as fast as her reaction time allowed. Unfortunately, it was not fast enough. In a split second, her car rammed into the back of the one in front of her at seventy miles per hour, sending the air bag on Bianca’s side bursting open and her body thrusting forward. Although somewhat cushioned by the air bag, the impact was hard and painful, and before she knew it, the world around Bianca faded into darkness, as she instantly fell unconscious.

+++

“Dr. O’Brien! Dr. O’Brien!”

Elizabeth O’Brien went quickly to the nurses’ station of the ER, where nurse Natalie Spade was calling her.

“What is it, Natalie?”

“There’s been a bad MVA – an overturned semi and a multi-car pileup – on the interstate near Indian Valley. The hospitals near there are filled up and closed to trauma, and they want us to life-flight some of the patients here. How many can we take?” Natalie asked.

“Uh… two criticals, no more. We can handle a few stables, however many they need us to take,” Elizabeth said, thinking quickly about how much room they had left in the ER.

“Alright. I’ll have them dispatch our life flight units,” Natalie said, immediately getting back on the radio.

“We’re going to need more doctors,” Elizabeth said to herself, going over the line-up of those who were working that night. It was not enough to handle two critical patients and several other more stable ones from this MVA, as well as the usual number of patients they saw each night.

Memorial had been having financial problems for the past few months and had been forced to lay off many of their staff members, leaving the hospital severely understaffed, especially in the ER. Fewer doctors meant longer hours, and sometimes, when things got hectic, it meant coming back in to help out when you had already worked your shift.

“Hey, Melissa!” she shouted to nurse Melissa Ruffino, who was still on duty.

“Yeah?” Melissa called back.

“I need you to page Jack and Bianca and tell them to get their asses down here right now; we’ve got some traumas coming in, and we need their help,” Elizabeth ordered.

“Bianca’s gone; she was heading to Raleigh for that concert, remember?” Melissa reminded Elizabeth.

Elizabeth rubbed her temples warily. “So call someone else in!” she snapped.

“Who?” Melissa inquired.

“Um…” Elizabeth racked her brain, trying to think of someone who wasn’t already on duty and wasn’t on vacation that could come back in. “Page Bianca’s med student.”

“Her med student? But he just started; he won’t know-“

“I don’t care, page him!” Elizabeth barked. “And then call up to surgery and get someone to come down here for surgical cases.” With that, she stormed off down the hall to make sure things were in order for the traumas that would be coming in.

“Lance,” she said to Lance Bass, another over-worked, over-tired ER nurse that had been there most of the day. “Make sure we have at least two trauma rooms set up for critical patients, and then get all the other rooms ready for stable patients.”

“Sure, boss,” Lance said, immediately getting to work.

Elizabeth gave him a tight smile. She liked Lance; he was young, only twenty-six, but he was serious and seemed to be on top of things and in control. This wasn’t exactly true, she would later find out, but Lance was better at hiding his feelings than anyone ever realized.

“Siara!” Elizabeth called to Dr. Siara Reily, one of the pediatric ER residents. “We’ve got a couple critical patients being flown in from an MVA outside Indian Valley and then probably some stables arriving by ambulance. Palmer and one of the new med students, Timberlake, are supposed to come in to help cover everything.”

“Okay,” Siara said, nodding calmly. “What’s the arrival time?”

“I’m not sure yet. Natalie was going to page the paramedics and have the life-flights dispatched ASAP, but it’s forty-five minutes away, so I don’t know how long it will take for them to get back here.”

“Okay,” Siara said. “Well, back to work. Let me know when they get here.”

She hurried off to tend to one of her patients, and Elizabeth went back to the nurses’ station to make sure everything was running smoothly.

+++
"Man, I wish we could have gone to that Fuel concert tomorrow night," Addie commented as she stared at the picture of Fuel's lead singer, Brett Scallions, as it flashed across the screen as part of a commercial for Fuel's concert in Raleigh the following night. "He is so hot!"
"Riiiggghhht," Jack said with a snort.
"Whatever!"
"Be right back, guys," Kylie commented as her pager began to go off.
Addie just nodded and leaned against Jack's embrace, feeling warm and protected as she closed her eyes.
"Guys!" Kylie's panicked voice yelled from the small kitchen.
The three others looked at each other in confusion and concern, wondering what had happened. Their confusion didn't last for long as Kylie entered the living room a moment later, reaching for her jacket.
"Where are you going?" Josh asked as Kylie searched through his jacket pocket for his car keys. "And why are you taking my car keys?"
"You know that major MVA near Indian Valley, that Darrin had to go to? Well, they need as much help as they can get. Our life flights are going to go help and bring some critical patients to Memorial, and Harry needs me to go with them," Kylie explained. "And we are taking your car because we were the last ones to get here, therefore your car would be easiest to get out with."
"Do you think they need people to come help at the hospital?" Addie asked, gently touching Jack’s arm.
"I dunno. If they need me, they'll call," Jack replied, wrapping an arm around Addie.
Addie nodded and took a step back as Kylie ran out the door.
As if on cue, Jack's pager began to vibrate. Snickering, he glanced at it; sure enough, it was the hospital. He hurried to the kitchen to get the phone and call back to the ER. Nurse Natalie Spade answered.
"Oh, Jack, good," she said in relief. "Listen, there's been a bad MVA on the interstate outside Indian Valley, and our life flight crews are going to pick up some of the critical patients and fly them in. We need some extra help in the ER. Can you come back in?"
Inwardly, Jack groaned, not wanting to give up his relaxing evening and his time with his girlfriend. But he nodded and professionally replied, "I'm on my way."
Hanging up the phone, he headed back into the living room and made a face at Addie. "I'm sorry, but I have to go to the hospital," he told her. "Duty calls."
"It's okay, Jack, I understand," Addie replied, patting his arm. "Call me when you get home, okay?"
"Sure, honey. Sorry about this," he apologized again.
"No problem. Just go save some lives," she told him with a smile, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before he left the apartment.
When Jack had gone, it was just Addie, Josh, and baby MacKayla left.
"So what are we gonna do?" Josh asked. "Do you think one of us should go to the hospital too and see if they need more help?"
"Yeah, probably so," Addie said.
"Okay. One of us needs to stay here with MacKayla. Who's going to go?"
"I don't know," Addie replied she looked at the sleeping baby on the couch. "You go, I will stay and watch her."
"Are you sure?”
"Yeah, I’m sure. They might need more paramedics on the scene; I better go.”
“Okay.”
Josh offered Addie a tight-lipped smile as Addie picked up Kylie's car keys and threw them at Josh.
"Good luck," she said as the door slammed behind Josh. Then she smiled at MacKayla’s sleeping form. “Well, Mac, I guess it’s just you and me.”
+++

Justin Timberlake was lying in bed when his pager, which was sitting on his night stand, went off. He rolled over, away from his girlfriend Britney, who lay naked at his side, to get it.

“It’s the hospital,” he told her.

Britney made a face. “So? Ignore it.”

“I can’t. I work there, and besides, it’s a 911. That means it’s important,” he replied with a sigh.

“Justin!” Britney hissed, as he picked up the phone to answer the page.

“Just a minute, Brit, let me find out what’s up,” he said, putting a finger to his lips to silence her as someone in the emergency room picked up.

“Hi… this is Justin Timberlake. I was just paged,” he said uncertainly to the woman who answered.

“Oh good. Mr. Timberlake. This is Natalie Spade, one of the ER nurses. We have at least two major traumas coming in from a bad MVA on the interstate, and we’re severely understaffed. We need you to come back in.”

“But I already got off,” Justin protested. “I worked all day; my shift’s over! And besides, this is only my first day, and I…“

At the nurses station in the ER, Natalie rolled her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” asked Elizabeth, who had stopped to listen to Natalie’s side of the conversation.

Natalie cupped her hand over the receiver. “He doesn’t want to come in. He ‘worked all day and his shift’s over and it’s only his first day!’” she mocked in a whiny tone.

Elizabeth’s lips pressed together tightly, and her eyes narrowed, a sure-fire sign she was pissed off. “Give me the phone,” she demanded, stalking over to Natalie.

Natalie couldn’t help but smile as she obediently handed over the phone to Elizabeth.

“Justin??” Elizabeth asked.

There was a pause, then came Justin’s hesitant “Yeah…”

“Elizabeth O’Brien, chief resident of the ER. I don’t know what kind of crap you’ve been giving Natalie here, but this is a hospital, not a Dairy Queen. Your work is not always over when your ‘shift’ ends. You come in when we need you, or you lose your job. Right now, there’s an emergency, and you either get your ass in here, or you’re out of here for good, med student or not. You got that??”

Another long pause, then a tiny “Yeah.”

“’Yeah?’ I’m your superior, Justin. It’s common courtesy to address me or any other doctor or nurse here with more than a ‘yeah’,” Elizabeth snapped.

“Yes, ma’am,” Justin replied, his tone sarcastic.

“Keep it up, Timberlake. Just keep it up,” Elizabeth growled and slammed down the phone. To Natalie she barked, “If he doesn’t get here in twenty minutes, page him again, and this time, he’ll really hear it!”

“Sure, Dr. O’Brien,” Natalie replied, trying to hold back her laughter as Elizabeth stormed off. She actually almost felt sorry for Justin. Almost.

+++

“You’re leaving?” Britney screeched, as Justin stormed around his bedroom in his boxers, rounding up his clothes from the floor.

“I have to. If I don’t, I’m fired,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Fired?! You’re only a med student; they can’t fire you! Can they??”

“I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out,” Justin said. “My mom would kill me.”

“Your mom? Justin, give it up with your mom! You can’t do things just to please her; you have to do them for you!” Britney shouted.

“Look, my mom’s the one putting me through med school, so just shut up about her. I’m grateful to have a mom like her.”

“Well, who would you rather have? Her or me?” Britney demanded, leaping out of bed and grabbing her bra and panties from the carpet.

“Britney, don’t start,” Justin sighed.

“You know you’re going to have to choose sometime. Your mom hates me! So either you go against her, and we get married, or it’s over between us!”

“Brit, it’s just going to take some time, baby. My mom will like you once she gets to know you. She just has to warm up to you first,” Justin insisted.

“She said I was a white trash whore!” Britney screeched. “Face it, Justin, she’s never going to like me!”

Justin sighed again. “Look, honey, I really have to go. We’ll talk later, okay?” He hurried pulled his pants up, grabbed his shoes and keys, and left the bedroom before she could protest.

“Justin!” she called, but he went on without looking back, walking out the door and leaving her standing in the hallway of their apartment in nothing but her underwear.

+++
Howie Dorough slumped down at a table at Sully’s and rubbed his eyes exhaustedly. It was after ten and his shift was finally over. He hated the long days, but that came with the job. Thank God for Sully’s – their coffee and chocolate cake was what got him through nights like these.

The bell on the door of the restaurant jingled, and Howie looked up to see Dr. JC Chasez walk in. JC was an ER physician, and a doctor that Howie did not particularly get along with. He thought of JC as arrogant, demanding, and extremely hard to work with. Luckily, they managed to stay out of one another’s way. Even when their paths did cross, they were polite and courteous to each other, but that didn’t change Howie’s feelings for him.
“Hello, Howie,” JC said, politely, but coolly, as he passed by Howie’s table.

“Hi, JC,” Howie replied, forcing a quick smile at his colleague.

But as he looked at JC’s face, all he could think of was Molly Woods.

Molly was a patient Howie had brought in only two years earlier. Her heart had been destroyed by rheumatic fever, which she had gotten from an untreated case of strep throat. She needed a heart transplant to survive, but in order to get one, she had to have the consent of her main physician, after a consult with her physician in the emergency room. And that physician was JC.

Howie remembered the day clearly. He had been exhausted that day like he was right then, and as soon as they got Molly to the hospital, his shift would be over. He could remember the terrified look in her pale blue eyes as they transported her from the ambulance to the ER. She was used to hospital visits, but that didn’t make her any more comfortable. Just as Howie was leaving the hospital, Molly gave him a pleading look and scrambled around signaling that she wanted to write him a message. After finding a legal pad and pen at the nurses’ station, Howie sat on the edge of the bed as Molly frantically scrawled the words onto the white, lined paper.

Will you stay here with me?

Howie could feel his heart breaking for this little girl who seemed so scared. How could he possibly say no? So, he stayed with her until she fell asleep and then decided to go have a chat with Dr. Chasez.

Molly had been born with cerebral palsy and needed to be seen by her main physician if JC felt that she was a good candidate to receive a new heart. Her case of cerebral palsy was severe and had crippled her from the waist down, causing her to spend her life in a wheelchair. It had also affected her speech, making it difficult for her to communicate.

But it didn’t affect her mind, Howie thought bitterly. Molly may not have been able to talk, but she was bright child. Even though he didn’t know her long, he could tell that. She could not speak, but she could write or type her thoughts into a special computer that spoke for her, and he could tell by communicating with her that way how smart she was. Her body may have been handicapped by her disease, but her mind wasn’t. She deserved a chance to live, to have a future. She deserved to get a heart transplant.

JC, on the other hand, did not believe so.

“She’s practically an invalid,” he had argued with Howie. “Look at her – the kid can’t walk, she can’t talk. She’s going to be in that wheelchair the rest of her life, and she’ll probably never be able to talk. It’s pointless to waste a perfectly good heart on her when you could give it to someone who would otherwise be healthy. Her quality of life isn’t going to improve much anyway. You should give it to someone whose would.”

“Molly’s not some vegetable; she’s a little girl with a mind of her own! She has her whole life ahead of her, and she has plans for her future. So what if she can’t walk or talk right now? How do you know she’ll stay like that for the rest of her life? And even if she does, that doesn’t mean she has to be restricted. Have you ever heard of Stephen Hawking, Dr. Chasez? Famous physicist with Lou Gehrig’s disease? He’s spent the last few decades of his life strapped into a wheelchair like a rag doll, unable to talk except through his computer. But you know what? That man is a genius, Dr. Chasez. He may not look it, but he’s a genius. Molly’s like that too. She has a brain, JC, she’s not just some lump of nothing. She could go places, do things. That is, if you’ll let someone give her the chance to!” Howie had yelled.

“Mr. Dorough, when you become a physician, you will have every right to tell me what you think should be done to help treat patients. Until that day comes, you should just stay to hauling the patients to be treated. Is that clear?” and without giving Howie a chance to respond, JC turned and walked away without a second glance.

JC had not given Molly a consult and recommendation to her doctor to be seen by a cardiologist. The heart had gone to a fifty-year-old ex-smoker who had ruined his old one. Molly had died two weeks later from heart failure, and Howie had never forgiven JC. To that day, it still disgusted him to look at that man, the man who had taken away a little girl’s future.

+++
Lance Bass stifled back a loud yawn as he walked by the ER receptionist’s desk on his way towards the nurses station. He nearly jumped two feet in the air when the metal ER doors swung open with a loud bang. Turning around, he saw three paramedics pushing a stretcher and running down the hall.
“Which trauma room is open?” one of the paramedics yelled out.
Lance immediately burst out of his tired state and snapped into action. “Trauma 4’s empty,” he replied before calling for the ER physician on duty to report to Trauma 4 immediately. “What do we have here?”
“A sixteen-year-old male, pulse is sluggish, breathing rapid, suicide attempt. Supposedly took a whole bottle of his father’s prescription sleeping pills,” explained one of the paramedics, who Lance recognized as one from the rescue squad way on the other end of town.
Elizabeth walked in as the paramedic explained the boy’s condition, but before she could comment, the young man’s body began to shake tremendously as the monitors by his side began to go off.
“Lance! Call some help in here now! We need back up!” Elizabeth called out as she jumped up on the gurney and started to administer CPR, which proved to be a difficult feat amongst the severe convulsions of his body. Finally after a few moments the convulsions ceased and a very faint rhythm from his heart was detected.
“Good job, doctor,” one of the paramedics who had helped commented. Elizabeth gave him a tight smile before tending to her patient once again. The way things were going that night, she knew it would only get worse before it got better.
+++

“Hey, Jack,” said Siara Reily, as Jack Palmer hurried into the ER.

“Hey, Siara,” he greeted his fellow ER physician, heading immediately off to get changed for work.

Minutes later, he emerged from one of the bathrooms, dressed in a pair of blue scrubs, and headed to the lounge to get his lab coat and stethoscope. But before he could get there, he heard a raspy voice call his name.

“Jack!”

Jack turned to see paramedic AJ McLean running up the hall towards him, dressed in his uniform. Jack knew AJ well, for they saw each other often when AJ brought patients into the ER, and also because he was dating Bianca Parker, Jack’s friend and coworker.

Jack, like the others who knew Bianca and AJ well, had been shocked to find out the two were a couple. AJ and Bianca were as different as night and day. He was an outgoing, flirty, wild rebel, while she was quieter, at least around people she didn’t know well, and sensitive. AJ was a party animal and people person, while Bianca enjoyed spending time alone. But they also shared some of the same qualities – both had short tempers, both were good at what they did and were very serious about it, and both loved to make people laugh. But still, it was an odd hook-up. Jack was happy for them though; they had only been dating a couple months, but they seemed to go together well. He hoped things would work out for them.

“Jack, we’re taking the life flight copters to that MVA near Indian Valley, and we need a doctor to come with and help. You feel like doing a ride-along?” AJ asked.

“Sure,” Jack replied. He had done several ride-alongs before - it was a required part of his residency – and he had enjoyed getting out of the hospital and seeing the action that the paramedics got to see on a regular basis. He had only done life-flight once, but he had enjoyed it a lot.

“Alright, come on,” AJ said, and the two hurried off to join the rest of the paramedic squad.

+++
Bianca awoke to sirens, flashing lights, and loud drilling noises. Panicked, she thought quickly, trying to remember where she was and what had happened. Recognizing the white mass in front of her as an inflated airbag, the memory of the car accident came flooding back to her in one terrifying wave.

“Brianna!” Bianca cried out, her voice sounding shrill and choked with fear. “Brianna!”

No sound was heard from her best friend, and Bianca could barely turn her head with the airbag in her face to see much of anything. Not to mention her body ached all over, and she was not sure where exactly she was hurt and how bad.

As a doctor herself, she knew that moving too much could do serious damage if she was injured, especially if she had some kind of neck injury. As she thought of that, she realized her neck and right shoulder both hurt, but she prayed it was just a combination of whiplash and the impact of the seatbelt. Her stomach ached also, but she figured it was also the result of the lap belt digging into her flesh as it restrained her.

“Brianna?” Bianca asked again, trying hard to keep the panic from her voice, in case her friend could hear her. She didn’t want her to be afraid. “Brie, can you hear me??”

But again, there was no answer. Bianca squeezed her eyes shut and whispered a hurried prayer, hoping with all her heart that Brianna was not critically injured, or worse, dead.

+++

AJ’s eyes widened as he looked down on the crash site from the helicopter windows. A large semi truck was turned on its side, blocking most of the road, and engulfed in flames. Fire trucks were parked around it, the firefighters working to put out the blaze. There were at least seven smashed cars that were crunched together near the semi and surrounded by a circle of ambulances, their lights flashing eerily.

The helicopter began to lower and landed in a field near the interstate.

“Alright, guys, let’s do this,” AJ said to his crew, which consisted of Jack and his fellow paramedic, Allison Brooks. Three other paramedics, Kylie McCartney, Harry Littrell, and Amelia Caston, had ridden in the other of the squad’s two life flight helicopters.

The three of them grabbed their medical bags and climbed out of the helicopter. Ducking down to avoid the spinning propeller above him, AJ ran across the field, towards the massive wreckage. Jack and Allison ran along behind him.

They quickly made it to the blocked-off interstate, which was a mass of confusion and chaos. AJ didn’t bother to ask any of the paramedics that were already there where to go; he just led his team to a car that wasn’t already being tended to by the others.

When he got to the car, AJ immediately put his face close to the driver’s window, trying to see inside. He could see a woman slumped over and knocked on the window, trying to get her to wake up. She did not respond. He jerked on the door handle, trying to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Allison, try the passenger side,” he said. Allison nodded and hurried around to the passenger side to try to get in the car. Again, it was stuck, as were both of the back doors. The car was stuck in the middle of the pile-up, its front and back ends crumpled in from other cars. The doors were all too battered to open.

The windshield was surprisingly still intact, with just a few cracks in it, but the back window looked like it could shatter at any moment. AJ used this to his advantage. Hurrying around to the back of the car, he climbed onto the trunk and kicked at the large window, shattering the already fractured glass with just a few blows from his booted foot.

“Jack, go on down the line and see if you can help anyone that they’ve already gotten out. Allison and I will check on this one and try to get her out,” AJ said to Jack.

Jack nodded and hurried off to look for any critical patients he could help.

+++
“Get ready you guys!” Harry Littrell called out as the helicopter landed roughly in a field near the interstate. Once the chopper had landed completely, the door burst open and Harry, Kylie, and fellow paramedic Amelia Caston jumped out immediately running towards the ambulances and fire trucks.
“Doug, what do you need us to do?” Harry called out to one of his old friends from college, who was also a paramedic.
“We need to find people and determine which are injured more seriously so they can be treated first,” Doug replied.
Harry nodded and took off in a run before turning around to motion for Amelia and Kylie to follow him. The area he took them towards seemed to be nearest to the tail end of the wreck and the one where hardly any medical personnel were.
“Help me, Ky,” Amelia called out as she grabbed Kylie’s arm and dragged her towards a random car.
+++

As Jack went along, he surveyed the crash scene, looking all around for trapped people or paramedics that could use his assistance. And that’s when he saw the car. A small Dodge Neon that looked to be silver, but it was hard to tell in the dim light. The car, like the other he had seen, was crumpled in at both ends, but the car that had rear ended it had bounced off enough that he had a good view of the back end of the car. Good enough to read the bended license plate. Bean 77.

Jack’s heart lurched. Bean 77. The license number rang through his head, sounding frighteningly familiar. From working with her for three years, Jack knew that “Bean” was Bianca Parker’s nickname. If anyone had asked him before what kind of car she drove, Jack would have never remembered, but now, looking at that little silver Neon, he recognized it. It sat nearly every morning only two spaces away from his in the Memorial Hospital parking lot.

“Oh, God, Bianca!” Jack cried, snapping into action as the realization hit him that one of his colleagues, a woman he knew and liked well, was inside that car, possibly seriously injured. Forgetting about helping anyone but her, he ran to the car. Through the driver’s window, he could barely see Bianca, for the airbag had been inflated and still was.

He ran around to the passenger side of the car, hoping to get in that way. Being a cheap car, the Neon didn’t have an airbag on the passenger side, so it was easier to see in. Jack pressed his face up to the window and squinted into the car. On the passenger side, he saw a dark-haired woman, slumped forward against the dashboard. He pulled at the door handle, but like the other car, it was jammed. The windshield was broken in though, and so Jack did what AJ would have done and climbed onto the hood of the car.

“Bianca!” he called through the hole where the windshield once was. “Bianca!?” He leaned into the car, desperately straining to her a reply. And then, to his relief, one came.

“Help!” she cried, her voice muffled by the airbag in her face. “Please help me!”

“Bean, it’s me, Jack!” he cried, unzipping his medical bag.

“Jack?!” she cried in shock.

“That’s right. Don’t worry, Bianca, I’m gonna get you out of here,” he shouted, pulling a scalpel out of his bag and stabbing at the airbag to deflate it. When the big white mass finally sunk down, Jack could finally see Bianca, sitting back in her seat, looking at him, her blue-gray eyes wide.

“Oh my God, it is you,” Bianca said in amazement. “I thought I was hallucinating.”

Jack chuckled, relieved that she was awake and talking. “Nope, it’s really me. Your guardian angel, I guess.” He offered her one of his most charming grins. “So how you doing? Where do you hurt?” he asked, getting back to business.

“I… I don’t really know. I sort of ache all over, but it’s mostly my stomach, my shoulder, and my face.”

“Your face stings from the airbag probably,” he said. “And the rest-“

“From the seatbelt, I hope,” Bianca interjected. Before he could continue questioning her, she asked, “What about Brianna?”

Jack remembered the girl in the passenger side and immediately turned his attention to her. She was still slumped over, unconscious. Bianca turned towards her friend too, getting a good look at her for the first time.

“Oh my God, Brie!” she screamed. “Jack, is she, is she breathing? Oh God, Brie…”

“Shh, sit tight, Bianca,” Jack said. “I’ll take care of her; just sit still till I can examine you better.”

Lying on his stomach on the hood of the car, he leaned inside the windshield and reached out to touch the girl’s neck. He felt for her pulse, terrified he was going to find that she was dead and have to tell Bianca that. But luckily, he could feel it. It was slow, but it was there.

“She’s got a pulse,” he said to Bianca. Leaning close to her, he heard her breathing in light, shallow pants. “She’s breathing too,” he added, although it did not sound good.

“Bianca, I need to go get some more help to get you guys out of here, okay?” Jack said, knowing he would be better able to examine and help both women once they were out of the car. But he realized he was going to need help to get them out, especially the unconscious Brianna.

“Hurry back,” Bianca whispered, as Jack leapt off the hood and raced away to find help.

+++

AJ crawled into the car through the back window he had broken. He climbed down into the backseat, which was empty, and squeezed between the two front seats so that he could get into the front passenger seat.

Finally making it there, he turned to the driver, a woman, who was slumped over, unconscious.

“Ma’am?” he asked loudly, gently squeezing her shoulder. “Ma’am, can you hear me? Ma’am?”

But when he pressed his fingers to her neck to check for a pulse, he realized she could not hear him. She was dead.

Gently lifting her head up, he saw that her face was a bloody mess, her forehead bashed in from the impact of her head hitting the steering wheel. She had died instantly.

“Allison!” he called back to Allison, who was perched on the trunk, looking in, waiting to see if AJ needed more help. “This one’s dead. Just help me get her out, and then we’ll go find someone else to help.”

Allison climbed into the car, and together, they managed to move the woman, who, luckily, was petite, from the driver’s seat into the back, and from there, out the back window. They placed her on their stretcher and slid her into one of their black body bags. That was something they hated to do more than anything else, but unfortunately, it had to be done.

“Go on and see what else you can do; I’ll take care of this,” AJ said, zipping up the body bag. Allison nodded and hurried off to see where she was needed.

Meanwhile, AJ climbed back into the woman’s car to look for some sort of ID. He found her purse under the passenger seat, got out her wallet, and opened it up. Looking at her driver’s license, he found out that she was thirty-two, and her name was Brandy McCartney.

“McCartney?” AJ said out loud, tossing the last name around in his head. There were only three McCartney’s that he knew of: Paul, the legendary Beatle, and Josh and Kylie - his fellow paramedics. He hoped this woman wasn’t related somehow.

A few minutes later, as AJ wheeled the stretcher towards one of the many ambulances parked around the area, he noticed Kylie talking to another paramedic, one he did not recognize.

“Kylie!” he called to her.

Kylie said something to the man beside her and hurried over to him. “Yeah, AJ?”

“Um… does Josh have a sister or anyone in his family named Brandy?” he asked hesitantly.

Kylie’s face paled. “His sister-in-law,” she said. “Why??”

AJ bit his lip and unzipped the body bag just enough to let Kylie get a glimpse of the dead woman’s face.

“Oh my God!” she shrieked, clapping a hand over her mouth. “Oh God…”

“I’m so sorry, Ky,” AJ said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Kylie shook her head, tears rising in her eyes. “Her… her husband… he’s right over there,” Kylie choked out, pointing to the man she had been talking to earlier. “Darrin McCartney. Josh’s brother. He’s a paramedic for Indian Valley.”

“Oh God,” AJ whispered, his eyes widening. “D-do you think he should see this?”

“I-I don’t know,” she said, swallowing hard. “He would want to know right away… but it’s just so horrible to look at.”

He put a hand on her shaking shoulder. “Okay, wait a few minutes, until the ambulance has taken her away to Indian Valley General, and then tell him. That way, he won’t have to see her like this. They’ll get her cleaned up at the hospital before they let him see her.”

Kylie nodded. “Okay. Let’s get her into the ambulance. I don’t think I can look him in the eye and not tell him that his wife’s dead.”

AJ offered her a sympathetic glance.

“I don’t even know how this could have happened,” Kylie said shakily. “Darrin called Josh before he left for this accident – he needed us to watch his daughter, MacKayla – and he said that Brandy was already at work.”

Darrin and Brandy lived in a small town that was twenty minutes away from the city of Indian Valley, but both of them worked in Indian Valley, Darrin as a paramedic, and Brandy as a receptionist at the hospital. She worked nights often, and Josh frequently babysat MacKayla in times like these, when Darrin was called to an emergency, and no one else could take care of her. Kylie often helped out too, when Josh couldn’t. Being his wife, she was close to his family and had always been. Even though she and Brandy were only related by their marriages, her death hit Kylie hard.

“Maybe she forgot something and was on her way back home,” AJ suggested.

Kylie nodded. “Probably so. Talk about bad timing.”

“Yeah,” AJ said glumly.

Together, they loaded Brandy into the ambulance. Some of the Indian Valley paramedics climbed in with her, and a few minutes later, the ambulance left. Only, unlike many of the others that had already departed, this one left without lights, without sirens. There was no emergency this time; Brandy McCartney was already dead.

+++

With paramedics Allison and Amelia in tow, Jack ran back to Bianca’s car. Both Brianna and Bianca were just as he had left them, Brianna slouched over in her seat, unconscious, and Bianca sitting nervously in the driver’s seat. Only now, Bianca was gripping Brianna’s hand tightly in hers, as if she was holding on to her for dear life.

“How’s she doing?” Jack asked Bianca, knowing that she had been keeping a close check on Brianna in his absence.

“She’s still breathing, and her pulse is weak, but steady,” Bianca replied.

“Alright, guys, we need to get Brianna here out of the car,” Jack said to the two female paramedics. They both nodded, Amelia patting one of the two stretchers they had brought with them.

Both Allison and Amelia climbed onto the hood of the car and directed Jack in helping them carefully lift Brianna and move her through the hole where the windshield had been. They got her onto the stretcher, and Jack took over her care from there, able to better examine her out in the open.

Meanwhile, Allison and Amelia helped Bianca out and placed her on the other stretcher. Seeing that Bianca was in better condition than Brianna, Amelia went to help Jack with Brianna, leaving Allison to help Bianca.

Bianca lay helplessly on the stretcher, answering Allison’s questions absently, as she tried to listen to what was going on with Brianna. She couldn’t catch much, only bits and pieces of what Jack and Amelia were saying as they worked on her friend.

But when Jack announced, “We have to fly her out of here now!”, Bianca heard every word and immediately tried to sit upright, knowing that if they were life-flighting Brianna to Memorial, it had to be serious.

“Whoa, lie back down, Dr. Parker,” Allison said, easing her back down onto the stretcher.

“Jack!” Bianca cried, ignoring Allison. “Jack, what’s wrong with her? How bad is she?”

“Shh, don’t worry, Bianca,” Jack tried to tell her, as he and Amelia pushed Brianna’s stretcher past.

“Wait!” Bianca cried. Grabbing Allison’s wrist, she asked, “Can I go on the life flight with them? Please?”

Allison bit her lip. “I don’t know, Dr. Parker. I’m not sure if there’s enough room…”

“I’ve been on those life-flights before, Allison, I know how big they are. There’s enough room for me. You don’t have to bring the stretcher for me; I’m fine,” Bianca argued.

“I’m sorry, Dr. Parker, but it’s standard procedure. We-“

“I’m a doctor, God damnit, I can assess my own condition. I’m telling you, I’m fine. A little bruised, a little beat up, but I’ll live. Now please, take me to my friend. Please, I’m begging you!” Bianca pleaded, refusing to back down.

Allison sighed. “Alright, fine,” she finally said, after some hesitation.

Bianca smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Allison,” she said, starting to sit up again.

“Ah, ah, ah, wait a minute. Stay on the stretcher until we get to the copter at least,” Allison told her, holding her down.

Bianca rolled her eyes, but compromised, as Allison wheeled her off towards the helicopter.

+++
“Help me somebody help me please!” twenty-two-year-old Cameron Hendrickson, better known as Cammie, yelled fearfully as she heard yelling outside her crushed car.
“Ma’am, can you hear me?” a male voice was heard through the darkness which started to envelope Cammie’s mind.
“Yes, sir,” Cammie replied meekly, hoping the man had heard her.
“Stay awake for me please, ma’am, we are almost to you. We will get you out shortly.”
Cammie nodded, feeling too weak to even respond. She sat in the driver’s seat of her now severely damaged Mustang, which was a graduation present from her husband, Ron, moaning softly in pain as she subconsciously ran a hand over her swollen belly. She felt a cry rise within her throat as she became aware of the pain shooting through her body, literally from head to toe. Before she could stop herself she cried out but bit her lip stubbornly, secretly hoping that no one would notice her moment of weakness.
“We are almost in, Kylie,” she heard the young man’s voice say, and she felt a wave of relief wash over her, temporarily masking the pain.
“We got it, Harry!” a female voice she assumed belong to Kylie yelled out.
Suddenly the car seemed to let out a groan as the cut away portion of the passenger’s door gave way. Cammie subconsciously began to wonder why they didn’t cut away a portion of the driver’s side door, but quickly noted that it was probably for the best, just in case some freak accident of nature caused something to fall on her, injuring her worse. Cammie looked to the side as someone crawled into the darkened car towards her.
“Hi, I’m Kylie. Can you tell me where you feel pain?” the woman asked as she pointed the flashlight in her hands away from Cammie and turned it on so it wouldn’t hurt Cammie’s eyes. “Oh god, are you feeling any pain in your stomach?” she asked as the flashlight’s beam fell across Cammie’s obviously pregnant stomach.
“Yeah,” Cammie replied glumly. “Please don’t let my baby die,” she begged as tears filled her eyes at the thought of losing her and Ron’s first child before it was even born.
“We won’t,” Kylie replied as she gently unbuckled Cammie’s seatbelt. “How far along are you?”
“About seven months.”
“Okay. Do you feel pain anywhere else?”
“Yeah, just mainly in my stomach and head, minor pain in my left knee,” Cammie replied, praying that she would get out of this prison that was formally her car.
“Alright,” Kylie replied before reaching to her side and taking out a small radio to inform Harry about the patient’s condition without yelling that could possibly make Cammie’s pain more intense, especially in her head. “Harry, can you hear me?”
“Yeah,” the voice Cammie recognized as the first paramedic said. “What’s the situation?”
“We have a pregnant female, pain is most intense in abdomen area and there is a possibility of a head trauma. And patient says there is pain felt in the left knee. Patient is currently conscious but appears to be drifting in and out of consciousness.”
“Okay, Kylie, good job. Let’s get her out of here as quickly as possible and have her transported to the hospital.”
“Okay, Harry,” was the short reply as Kylie placed the small radio back where she got it and began to examine Cammie’s body for more injuries.
“I’m Cammie, by the way,” she said with a tight smile before she tensed up in pain before moaning loudly.
Kylie didn’t say anything just gave Cammie’s hand a firm squeeze before she lost consciousness.
+++
Once they reached the life-flight helicopter, Allison quickly examined Bianca once more and reluctantly let her get off of the stretcher and walk, when Bianca again insisted she was fine. Her legs were a little shaky at first, but with Allison at her side to support her, Bianca made it to the helicopter without any problems.

“Bianca?” Jack asked, looking up in surprise as Allison helped Bianca into the copter.

“Don’t think I’m not coming along for the ride,” Bianca declared, flashing him a mischievous smile, obviously proud of how she had talked Allison into letting her ride with Brianna.

“You got this, Allison?” Amelia asked, as Allison climbed into the helicopter. “I need to get back to the other life-flight and help Kylie and Harry.”

‘Yup, go ahead,” Allison said, as she traded places with Amelia. Amelia climbed out of the helicopter and disappeared into the night, just as AJ came running up.

“What do we got?” he asked breathlessly, boarding the helicopter.

“AJ!” Bianca cried.

“Bean, what are you doing here?” AJ asked in shock. Seeing her face, which was slightly scraped and bruised, he gasped. “Oh God, Bianca, you weren’t… you weren’t in the crash, were you?”

She nodded, her eyes filling with tears. “I’m fine, AJ,” she told him quickly, as his eyes widened. “But Brie’s not.” She motioned to the gurney, where Brianna lay, nearly hidden from AJ’s view by Jack and Allison.

“Oh no,” AJ moaned, getting a good look at Bianca’s best friend. Brianna and Bianca shared an apartment, which AJ spent a lot of time at, so he had gotten to know her quite well. He now felt like he was losing a friend too.

“You ready to go?” asked the pilot, turning around to address Allison.

“We’re ready,” she said with a nod. The pilot closed the helicopter door and immediately lifted the helicopter off the ground.

“Alright, what’s her vitals, Jack?” Allison asked, as he hovered over Brianna.

Bianca’s heart sunk as she was again reminded of what she was doing there. This was not just one of her ride-alongs with the paramedics; she was there as a friend of a patient, not as a doctor. And her friend was not doing well.

+++
The next time Cammie woke up, she was surrounded by several people. Momentarily, she started panicking, before she remembered what had happened. She looked around wildly before her eyes settled on the only person she recognized, the paramedic named Kylie.
“Kylie,” Cammie whispered. Kylie immediately walked over to Cammie’s side peering anxiously down at her.
“Is my baby okay?” Cammie’s eyes widened in fear as Kylie, Harry, and another young paramedic exchanged glances. “Well?” she asked with a trembling voice, silently bracing herself for the worse.
“The baby is still alive, Cammie, but you need to go to the hospital so they can treat you for your injuries and monitor the baby to make sure it is alright,” Kylie replied gently.
Cammie nodded and stared at the ceiling until Kylie grasped her shoulder and wished her good luck before she had to exit the ambulance so Cammie could be transported to the hospital.
“Thank you,” was all Cammie said before she again welcomed the sweet darkness that surrounded her.
+++

Halfway through the fifteen-minute flight, Bianca was staring out the window of the helicopter, absently chewing on her bottom lip. Jack had hooked Brianna up to a portable electrocardiograph, and the sound of the steady beep as it measured her heartbeat was comforting to Bianca. As long as it kept beating, it meant Brianna was alive.

Jack sat at Brianna’s side, keeping a close eye on her vital signs. There wasn’t much else he could do for her until he got to the hospital, where he would be able to better assess her condition. At that point, she seemed stable, but he was concerned about her unconscious state. He was worried about her having a head injury from hitting the dashboard, but so far, he had yet to see swelling appear on her head, just some minor bruising. He held out hope that if she had hit her head, it wasn’t hard, just enough to give her a concussion, but not cause major damage.

Both of the bones in her right forearm were broken, and the underside of her left arm was cut up with glass, leading him to believe she had pushed against the dashboard with her right arm right before they had crashed to keep her from flying into it. It had broken her arm, but had hopefully lessened the impact of her head against the dashboard, which could have been severe enough to kill her, since there was no airbag on her side to cushion her. From the glass in her left arm, he assumed she had put that arm up to cover her face when the windshield had shattered, showering her with a cascade of glass.

Jack was interrupted from his theorizing by a grip on his arm.

“Jack,” Allison whispered, motioning to Brianna. Jack leaned close to her to see her eyes flutter open.

“Brianna?” he said loudly, causing Bianca to sit up alertly.

“She’s awake?” she asked excitedly.

“Brianna, I’m Jack Palmer. I’m a doctor,” Jack said to Brianna, who was finally beginning to regain consciousness. “You were in a car accident, and you’re being taken to Atlantic City Memorial Hospital by helicopter. Do you understand?”

Brianna gave a short, frightened nod. Her mouth opened beneath the oxygen mask that was strapped over her face, and the clear plastic mask fogged up as she tried to talk. Jack pulled the mask away from her mouth, and Brianna gasped out, “Bianca?”

“I’m right here, Brie,” Bianca said, scooting forward and grabbing Brianna’s hand. “I’m fine. How are you feeling, girl?”

“My chest hurts,” Brianna moaned hoarsely.

“Probably just a broken rib,” Jack said quickly, looking at Bianca, who was obviously worried.

“I… I can’t breathe,” Brianna cried, gasping for air.

“Shh, calm down. Take deep breaths,” Jack urged her, thinking she was hyperventilating from panic.

“I-I can’t… it hurts!” Brianna cried, tears rising in her eyes. “Please… I can’t… breathe!”

Jack put the oxygen mask back over her mouth. “Deep breaths. Slow, deep breaths,” he coached her.

But seconds later, Brianna’s wide, frightened eyes rolled back into her head and then closed. Her monitors began to beep wildly, signaling something was very wrong.

“No breath sounds,” Jack said, listening to Brianna’s chest with his stethoscope. “Allison, bag her!”

“What is it?” Bianca asked, terrified. “Tension pneumothorax?”

“Yes. Her broken rib pierced her lung and collapsed it,” Jack replied, hurriedly fishing through his bag for supplies, as Allison began to bag Brianna to give her oxygen. “There’s too much pressure in her chest, and her heart doesn’t have room to beat. I need to relieve the pressure.”

He quickly swabbed some iodine onto Brianna’s chest and carefully inserted a long needle into her, which was supposed to ease the pressure around her heart. But as he did so, the helicopter jerked with turbulence.

“Shit,” Jack cursed, praying the jostle hadn’t caused his hand to jerk. But as he slid the needle back out, blood appeared instantly from the tiny pinprick in Brianna’s chest. “Shit,” he said again. “AJ, get me some gauze.”

“What? What’s wrong?” Bianca asked in alarm, as AJ grabbed the gauze from the bag and handed it to Jack. “Crap, Jack, she’s bleeding! What did you do??”

“I must have hit an artery when the copter shook. Oh damnit,” Jack moaned, pressing the gauze against Brianna’s chest to stop the bleeding. But in just minutes, the gauze was soaked with her blood, and it was still gushing.

“Excuse me, sir?” Jack called up to the pilot. “How much longer till we get to the hospital?”

“Only five minutes or so,” the pilot called back.

“That’s five minutes too many,” Jack growled under his breath, frustrated and angry with himself for messing up. It wasn’t like he could help it; he had been jostled. But he didn’t like making mistakes, especially on the best friend of one of his colleagues, when she was sitting right there to see it all happen.

Jack turned to glance at Bianca. She didn’t look mad at him, thank God, just terribly upset. Her eyes had filled with tears, and she had begun to chew on her nails again.

“Don’t worry, we’ll fix it in the ER. She’ll be okay,” he told Bianca, not sure if he was saying it to comfort her or assure himself.

Suddenly, the heart monitor’s beeps grew irregular and slow, then stopped altogether, morphing into one continuous beep. The ragged line on the monitor fell and went flat.

“Lost a pulse. Starting CPR,” Jack announced, bending over Brianna and starting chest compressions. To Allison, he said, “Keep bagging her.”

Allison nodded, continually squeezing and releasing the bag that was pumping air into Brianna’s lungs.

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” AJ demanded to the pilot. “We need to get this girl to the ER now!”

“I’m going as fast as I can; we’ll be there in three minutes,” the pilot assured him.

“Oh my God, Brianna,” Bianca sobbed, watching in horror as Jack tried to revive her friend. She had seen him do CPR on many patients in the ER, but now that it was on Brianna, it was something totally new. She was terrified, but she had faith in Jack. He was young, like her, but he was a good doctor. He would pull Brianna through. He had to.

AJ crawled over to Bianca and put his arm around her, letting her cry on his shoulder. “It’ll be okay,” he whispered. “It’ll be okay, sweetie.”

He just hoped his words were not going to end up a lie.

“AJ, let’s try the defibrillator. Charge it to 200!” Jack’s words jerked AJ out of his thoughts and sent him into action, as he got out the defibrillator, the device used to shock hearts, and charged it up.

“Charged,” he said a moment later, holding the paddles out to Jack. Jack took them, smearing them with the blood that coated his hands. Brianna’s blood.

“Clear!”

Bianca squeezed her eyes shut as Brianna’s body jolted with electricity, praying to hear the short beeps start up again on the electrocardiograph.

But all that could be heard was the same, long, continuous beep.

+++