A/N: This is my first time publishing any of my fics because I've always been scared, so please review! I will try and update as much as possible, this story has been coming together nicely, I aleady have several chapters almost completely finished. I hope you like it, I promise we'll get more backstory, and more of our favorite characters! (I do not own Rookie Blue, though that would be nice ;))

CHAPTER 1

Emmaline Caley looked at her reflection in the vanity mirror of the car before she killed the engine. She reveled in the fact that after three years of debating her return to Toronto it took just four words to make her board a plane; four words that made her heart jump into her throat and made her mind race. It was like her mind had the conversation with Oliver on replay.

"Emma? Hey, it's Oliver," he had a particularly panicked tone in his voice.

"Oliver? Good to hear from you! How've you been?" she hadn't spoken with any of the officer's of Fifteen since she left three years ago.

"Great, great. Look, Emma, Sammy's in the hospital," Oliver didn't want to drag it out, he called for a reason, he waited for Emma to respond but there was silence on her end, "…he's in critical condition."

"What happened?" she asked, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"Bust gone bad. He's," she could tell Oliver was choking back tears, "…he's in bad shape, Em. He's in a coma and the docs are saying he might not wake up."

"I'll be on the next flight out," she didn't even have to think about it. She knew she had to be there.

She had only spoken to Oliver five hours ago, but it felt like an eternity. Was it just fear of the unknown that had made time slow down to nothing more than a crawl? Who am I kidding? I hate not knowing what I'm getting myself into. Finally, she just shut off the car and made her way into the sliding double doors. Her palms were sweating and her heart was racing. "Could you please tell me where I could find Sam Swarek's room?" she asked the woman sitting at the front desk, who appeared less than thrilled to answer the question.

"Are you family?" she asked. Emma pulled out her badge and flashed it. The woman quickly jumped to action, "..he's in room 4304. Take the elevators over there to the right to the fourth floor, when you get out take a sharp right. Go straight down that hallway and into the restricted doors. Mr. Swarek is in the ICU."

"Thank you, I know exactly where that is," she got on the elevator and hit four, she used to do that everyday. When she reached the doors she seen a few familiar faces and they weren't the coppers of Fifteen Division.

"Emma?" a man in scrubs, wearing surgical gear made his way in her direction.

"Hey, Ryan."

"What are you doing here?" he removed the surgical mask and set the chart that was in his hands down.

"I'm here to see Sam Swarek, he's supposed to be in 4304, but I don't see him."

"They took him down for some tests. He should be back up soon," he walked behind the desk and pulled scrubs out of a cabinet, "…you're going to need these, unless you want to wear one of those ugly yellow coats."

"Thanks," she took the blue scrubs out of his hand.

"What do you know?" His expression became sullen.

"All I know is it was a bust gone wrong, that he's in a coma and might not wake up."

"Come with me," they walked back into the Authorized Personnel Onlycorridor, which lead into the glass observation room where the tests were being conducted. "…this was a bust gone severely wrong. We've had cops that were in car accidents, cops that had been shot, stabbed or beaten to a pulp, but I've never seen this before. Now remember, I'm a doctor, not a cop, so forgive me if I get some of this a little wrong. He was involved in a high speed chase, he didn't wait for back up so he and his partner went after them. A few cars came up behind them, shots were fired. She was shot in the shoulder, straight through. Swarek however, took a bullet to the head at the frontal, one in the chest. That alone would have been bad enough, but he lost control of the car. It flipped a few times, landed upside down. It took EMS a while to get them out. He went into shock, lost a lot of blood, has several broken bones, including ribs. One of which punctured his right lung. The bullets are out, and we've fixed the lung. He's not out of the woods yet, he's in very critical condition, but he could very well pull through this."

"Did you operate?" she sat down in the chair, and stared down at the unconscious man being x-rayed.

"I did."

"What do you think, Ryan? I want your opinion," she looked up at him.

"You know, I could get in trouble for telling you any of this. You're not family, and I could get in even more trouble for telling you my own personal opinion, but right now…" he looked down at Sam, "…I can't take a firm stance. It could really go either way. I wouldn't go so far as to tell you to prepare for the worst, but I wouldn't tell you to expect a full recovery either. None of us know if his lack of oxygen in the car will cause any permanent brain damage, or if he'll even wake up," he sat down next to her. "Look, Em, go change, grab a mask and some gloves, go help them. Take him back to the room, spend some time with him before everyone goes back up there."

"Thank you," she got up and hugged him, then did just as he said.

When she got back to the room, she pulled the chair next to his bed and grabbed his hand. He looked so helpless there; wires and tubes everywhere, monitors beeping. "I'm so sorry, Sammy. I'm so sorry I left, so sorry that it took this to happen for me to come back, to see you. I've missed you so much," she scoffed at herself. It's not like he can hear you. "I can't even believe that this is where we are. After everything we've been through together, this is where we end up," she heard voices and looked up as Oliver pulled the curtain open.

"Oh, sorry, they told us he was back and we could come back up," he was wearing one of those stupid yellow gowns. She had forgotten she still had the mask on.

"Oliver," she slid the mask off of her face. She couldn't hide the tears any longer.