Hospital of Hell

Thirty-Two

Scarlett

"Star!" Sam smiles as I walk into hell, placing my bag in my locker. I'm not in the mood for his excitement. I'm tired, I miss Saraphine, and I want to go home.

"Hello, Sam," I sigh, placing my stethoscope around my neck as he follows me back into the emergency department. The boys and I went three rounds last night, despite knowing I had to be at work at seven this morning. It was worth it, I'm sore but in a good way.

"Only one more week of training, then I'll be out of your hair," Sam keeps talking as we pick up a chart of a patient who was just brought in.

Can't wait! I say to myself. "Stab wound, bay four," I state as we walk towards the room. As I assess the situation, I'm not surprised to see the knife still protruding from the man's shoulder. He sits there with a calm expression on his face. He's taking it better than most, these men usually don't know how to handle pain.

"Sorry to bother," the patient states as I walk in. "But my wife stabbed me, figured I'd wait to take it out until I got here," his words are sheepish.

"Your wife?" Sam asks in surprise. I hide my smile as I place a pair of gloves on my hands.

"She's a feisty little bitch, but I love her all the same. I went out last night and didn't come home. When I walked through the front door- she didn't ask any questions. She just swung the knife and lodged it in my shoulder," he chuckles. I raise my eyebrows, amused at his situation. He looks up to me with a grin. "You know how woman can be."

"Hm, I can say that I don't stab my boyfriends for not coming home for a night, but it seems to me there's more to the story than you're telling," I muse.

"Guess it would be kind of hard to stab the Don and get away with it, huh?" The patient states.

I gaze towards his face once more. "Guess so. I won't try and find out," I stand to my feet, instructing Sam on the plan of action so he can handle it.

I walk to the nurses station, confused on his assumption that I am the Don's girlfriend. As I look around, I see the shy whispers and glances. Word always runs fast through the mafia, I'm not sure why I thought this would be any different.

An hour passes before Sam comes back to find me, smiling wide per usual. "I didn't know we had a safe haven for babies, that's a pretty cool thing to know," he mentions as we gather the supplies for another patient.

I pause, turning to look at him with per anger on my face. "The fuck did you just say?"

His smile drops, his cheeks turning flush. "Uh, the baby box? I think that's what it's called. Am I wrong or something?"

"Who the fuck told you about that?" I ask, fury bubbling in my core. I spent a lot of time, a lot of effort trying to keep the knowledge of the program for the babies and women extremely secretive. I dedicated a lot of my time hand picking select women to help me with it.

"I overheard a nurse in pre-op talking about it yesterday," he says shyly. I groan in frustration, rubbing my hand through my hair.

I don't have much time to think about it or consider my options. A nurse runs into the supply room, looking around frantically.

"Star! There's another victim, eta two minutes out!" She yells, her face red. The whole situation with Tao has been affecting everyone who works in the emergency department. We're constantly waiting, dreading those exact words that she just said. There's another victim. Half of me had hoped that once we knew it was him that he would stop, but I was being naive and I see that now.

I drop the supplies, rushing to the entrance with the other six or seven people who are waiting. The room has suddenly quieted, our eyes staring down the road to wait on the arrival of the ambulance. It doesn't take long, the vehicle driving much faster than it should. It stops in front of us, the paramedics jumping out and rushing to the back. We all follow, gloves already on.