"What's going on here?" Connie barked at the intimidating man towering over the frightened woman next to the coffee machine. It was then that she recognised to woman as the wife of the shop-keeper who had been brought into the ED earlier after being attacked.
Poor Asma Petrossian looked terrified. Connie automatically edged between her and Scott Ellison. There was a knife in his hand – no doubt the same knife that had killed Cal.
"Get out!" Connie demanded – her anger at losing one of her doctors to this man – this knife, taking over. "Get out or I call security."
Scott Ellison glowered at her menacingly,, but Connie held his glare without blinking.
Asma, however was even more terrified. She was now wedged between Connie and the coffee machine.
As Connie and Ellison continued to glare at each other, Asma's terror got the better of her. She suddenly lunged forward trying to run, but as she did so, she knocked Connie hard into Ellison. She reached the door but spun around upon hearing Connie cry out.
Connie's eye's were a mixture of shock, terror and pain. Ellison looked shocked to by the turn of events. Suddenly realising what was happening, he wrenched the knife out and bolted with it. Connie slumped back against the coffee machine.
"Help...get...help...Sam..." She gasped.
Asma ran into the ED and bumped straight into a doctor that she recognised from earlier.
"Mr Strachan, I need your help...please, quick!"
He followed her back where she had just come from. "CONNIE!" he yelled when he saw her. He dropped down next to her.
"Oh! It would be you!" She muttered as he put her arm around his shoulder.
"Shut up, Con, I'm trying to help you!"
"She was asking for 'Sam'" Asma told him helpfully.
He smirked slightly at Connie as he scooped her up. "Yeah,, she would - that's me!"
"Arrogant!" Connie hissed as he smirked again.
"Tell them in the ED that I'm bringing Connie in and she's been stabbed – go, hurry up!" he added sharply to Asma – sharper than he intended, but he didn't like the sound of Connie's breathing.
Connie leaned her head against him as he kicked the door in front of him open. "I'm glad it's you," She whispered, her breaths starting to come in gasps.
"Oh I'm good for something then!" Sam exclaimed. "You're going to be ok, darlin' I promise."
"Help...I need some help – it's Connie! Quick!" He yelled in the ED at anyone who was listening. Dylan and Lily were ready for her though – Asma had done as he'd asked.
"What happened, Sam?"
"I don't know" Sam answered, talking too fast in his anxiety. "She's been stabbed – she was by the coffee machine."
"Oh no, not again!" Dylan groaned.
"That...Ellison bloke...I...got...in...his way" Connie gasped as Sam put her on the bed in resus. She grabbed his hand when he went to move away – to the surprise of everyone in the ED.
"It's alright, darlin' I'm not going anywhere." He told her.
She nodded but then her eyes grew wide again. "Grace...physio..."
"It's not til later, Connie. She's fine, I'm not leaving."
"Ellison? You've got to save her..." Ethan stormed into resus – having heard the news. "You can't let him kill Connie as well...not after Cal!"
"She's going to be fine!" Sam growled at him.
Half an hour or so later...
"Connie's going to be fine." Dylan told Sam. "Somehow, the knife missed all her vital organs...and Sam? She's still determined to take Grace to physio."
Sam sighed. "Tell me honestly Dylan. Is she well enough?"
"Well, she can't drive obviously and she'll need to go in a wheelchair, but if you're there to keep an eye on her..."
So Sam got to go to Grace's physio appointment with Connie and Grace, as a family, after all.
It was what he wanted – just not the way he'd planned it.