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Chapter 1

11:30pm, General Hospital, Port Charles, NY

            With every hiss of the sliding emergency room doors, more of the cool autumn air dances in.  A slight chill raises the hair on my forearm, I instantaneously rub the skin to friction the warmth.  Patients and their companions huddle in sweaters, hoodies, or coats as they wait for a nurse to call them back.  Nothing urgent among the patrons- sprains, cuts, and someone complaining of stomach cramps.  I tap my pen on the counter as the nurses behind me start gossiping - nothing is more irritating.  When I turn around, both girls stop and look up at me.

            “Why don’t one of you go see if there’s any new patients and the other go see if any paperwork needs to be filed.  Idleness will not happen on my watch,” I command, looking at them both.

            They nod and scatter away, grumbling they wished another doctor had come in.  I wish someone else had been called in also but the emergency room was short staffed and someone had a death in the family.  My nephew, Rafe, was staying with Lucy, and I had no one else at home.  Didn’t see a need to say no.  All that was left in the refrigerator was stereotypical empty Chinese takeout boxes, horrible sugar loaded sodas, and a lonely orange.  It was just the boy and me.  My love life died years ago when she slipped away.

            Not wanting to dwell on the past, I gather a chart for a patient that was patched up and ready to leave but stop in my tracks when a young man bursts through the emergency room doors carrying an unconscious person.  Several nurses scurry to the boy, prompting someone to bring a gurney.  I drop the chart, running to the cluster of bodies.

            Upon arrival, I notice the person is small, long dark, almost black hair swept over their face.  The person’s small body lay like a rag doll.  The ample swell of the chest said it was a female.  Making everyone move, I crouch down, feeling for her pulse which is sluggish, her skin cold, and breathing is erratic.

            “Where did you find her?”  I ask the young man, who stands a few feet away, staring as if the woman was dead and he’d never seen a dead body before.  He looks to be all of eighteen, maybe nineteen, wearing a gray hoodie and baggy jeans, buzzed brown hair.

            “Son, I said where did you find her?”  I ask again.

            He snaps his head, looking at me for the first time.

            “Oh…uh…yeah.  It was about two blocks away.  All of her possessions were gone except her purse,” he mumbles, handing a nearby nurse the tattered black leather purse.

            I nod at the nameless boy as I sweep the long, black hair away from the woman’s face.  Her face is an angry purple and blue, colors of swirling storm clouds.  Eyes are swollen, lip is split and bleeding, and blood is caked on her hairline.  Once I take in the whole face, I feel the breath knock out of me.  It is her.

            A nurse harshly pats my shoulder; I quickly swallow the lump in my throat and tell them to take her to exam room four after they swiftly but safely put her on a gurney.  Nurses and techs are running with the gurney, I’m quickly beside keeping check on her pulse, a pit of gnawing worry swells up.  A nurse sweeps the exam curtain back, I tell them to hook her up to monitors immediately. Her vitals are a mess, highly unstable. I’m afraid she could crash any moment.        

Oxygen is given but her heart rate is still unstable, too slow.  I check her pupils for dilation, they looked fine but I wanted her stabilized.  She needs a CT scan done for possible head trauma but her heart rate still worries me.  An IV is placed and I monitor her heart and respirations.  Her breathing is still sluggish.  And there’s still bleeding from a gash in her hairline.  I grab sutures, alcohol swabs, and begin cleaning the wound, preparing to sew it up.  In the middle of closing the gash, she crashes.  Someone hauls everything away, bringing in the defibrillator.  Time seems to stand still while it rushes around me.  It feels as if I’m pulled back in time.  With all my might and knowledge, I will not lose her again- not after all these years.