Survival of the Fittest

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Sam glared at Zoe-

"Thank you, Dr Hanna, for that insight. You have been so very helpful."

The girl in the bed looked up at them, nervous-

"Please don't give me pain relief…"

"Do you promise me that it doesn't hurt?" Sam sighed.

The girl nodded.

"Okay, fine- I'll stitch it without pain relief…"

"Dr Nichols, outside… NOW," Zoe demanded, pointing to the door.

Sam sighed and bit her lip, pulling her favourite I-want-to-KILL-you face.

"What?" Sam growled.

It didn't help that Zoe was taller than Sam, and was looking down at her with a stern, teacher-like expression.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm doing MY JOB." Sam retorted.

"No you are not!"

"Fine, Zoe- then what AM I doing?"

"Making a bloody great mess of things as far as I can tell!" Zoe snapped.

"Well, thank you very much. So now I am not only your personal child-minder and a crocodile, I am also incompetent."

"No, Sam, I wasn't saying that…"

"Then let me treat my patient!" Sam begged.

"Do you REALLY think that she can't feel pain?"

Sam thought for a moment, "Yes. I think she's telling the truth."

"Fine, but let's get Jordan in on this…" Zoe saw Sam's face, then said:

"I'd get him if it was ME treating her."

Sam nodded and walked back into the room, while Zoe went to find Nick.

"Nick, can I borrow you for a moment please?" She called, seeing him in cubicles.

"Is it urgent?"

"No, it's completely unimportant, that's why we need the clinical lead."

Nick stood up and walked over, "Show a little respect for your superiors, Dr Hanna."

Zoe gave him a 'do-I-really-care?' look, and he smiled.

"What is it?"

"The teenage girl we brought in earlier. She doesn't have a name and she's refusing pain relief."

"Why, scared of needles? Drunk? On drugs? Compulsive liar?"

"No, she says she doesn't feel any pain. And she has weird marks all over her, scars from operations- but not any operations that I know." Zoe sighed.

"Wait, is this the mad scientist victim?" Nick asked.

"Er, yeah- I think so."

"Right then, lead the way…"

When Nick arrived, Sam was sat on the end of the bed. She heard them enter the room, and got up to speak to them.

"She says that the man she was found with preformed different operations on her. The one that stops her feeling pain was the third or fourth one he did, she reckons. Anyway, I truly don't believe that she can feel the pain, or if she can that it doesn't bother her. Now, she won't say why he did this to her, she keeps stopping mid-sentence. I'd like to stay with her but if she's to trust us…"

"Then she'll need us to perform the operation without pain relief," Nick finished.

"Yeah, and I'm happy to do it myself. But if you'd rather…" Sam began.

"No, it's fine. Dr Nichols, you stay with the patient, stitch the wound however you see fit; try and get to the bottom of these operations- see if you can find out how many there are, what each one was and what it did. Also, find out why… good luck!"

Nick left the room, and Zoe looked up at Sam.

"Look, Sam- me staying, it by no means has anything to do with you being incompetent… which you're not… but…"

"You want to know what's going on as much as I do?" Sam smiled.

"Er, yeah."

Sam sat on the end of the bed, looking the young girl in the eyes. Zoe sat in a chair, pulled back from the bed slightly.

"So, you don't have a name?" Sam asked.

"No," she whispered.

"Okay, why? Do you ever remember having one? Or did you just never have one?"

"I never had one." The girl answered.

"Okay, so- what do people call you? Y'know- when someone's looking for you?" Sam asked.

"Um- they don't. I can only remember seeing one person in person, and that's him."

"Him… you don't know his name either?"

The girl shook her head.

"Are you scared of him? Of hospitals?" Sam asked.

"A little. I don't like it when… when he changes things. It hurts afterwards- but not when it's being sewn up, just… afterwards. When I try to move, or use whatever he's changed, it hurts."

"Right, how about being here? Because I promise, none of us are going to hurt you."

"I… I know, it's just… I just remember things more." She sighed.

"Like what?" Sam bit her lip as soon as she'd said it, she didn't want to bring back the girl's terror. "You don't have to answer that…"

"But… I think I want to. I... I think I should… I don't know why… but…"

"Okay, if you want to- but in your own time," Sam whispered.

"Okay. Where we lived together, I was allowed in four rooms. A room like this one… I hated that room, it was where he did all this," she gestured to the many scars that covered her body. "Then there was another room, with different machines- exercise machines, he said. And then a room, full of books- I've read every single one, that's why I know about the world, because it's in books. And I was allowed in the bathroom. I knew there were other rooms, but I didn't want to go there… I didn't want to know… because the screams came from there… and I didn't want him to hurt me and more…" the girl broke down into sobs.

Sam moved tentatively round the bed. She tried to hug the girl, to comfort her, but found herself being thrown off with more force than she'd expected.

"What… what are you doing?" the girl asked, confused and worried.

"Dr Nichols was trying to hug you, because you were upset…" Zoe explained.

"What?"

"What do you mean, what?" Sam asked, holding her stomach. That shove hurt more than it should have.

"What's a hug?" the girl asked, nervous and baffled.

Zoe and Sam looked at each other.

"Well, it… it's like…" Zoe began, trailing off. How the hell do you describe a hug?

Sam sat on the bed beside the girl, and wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulder, and the girl relaxed slightly. She leant her head against Sam, and began to cry.

"I never want to go back there…" she sobbed.