Zoe's POV

The ED is as busy as ever. Nick and I are run off of our feet. I finish discharging another patient from cubicles and head to the staff room for a quick drink of water before heading out again. I'm just taking out a glass when my phone rings
"Hello?" I say into it.
"Zoe? Hi. It's Dixie. There's been a shooting at Holby Senior High. I need a doctor down here. Can you please come? Er... Patient has asked for you personally." My heart hits the floor.
"It's... It's not. No... It couldn't be... Not... Is it Amy?"
"'Fraid so sweetheart." She says, as gently as she can manage.
"I'll be right there. Keep her conscious!"
"Will do. Bye." She hangs up the phone. I run out of the staff room and bolt to Nick's office like a bat out of hell, ignoring the stares from my confused colleagues.
"NICK!" I scream as I burst through his office door.
"What? What's wrong?" He asks, worry spreading over his face.
"It's Amy. She's been shot. Dixie needs a doctor. I'm going now! Prep paed's! She's going to need emergency surgery by the sounds of it!" He sways a little letting the news sink.
"You better get going." He throws me his keys and I bolt to the car. I'm probably getting a speeding fine, the way I'm driving. I do have the 'emergency doctor' sign on the back of my car, however, I haven't bothered with the over all's, we're supposed to wear. I pull up at the school, sling the medical pack over my shoulder and bolt into the office.
"Mrs Jordan?" Asks a surprised Mrs Mathison.
"Doctor Jordan." I correct her. She looks momentarily shocked, then accepts it and nods. "Just show me where my daughter is!" I snap at her. She does. We run down the corridors and burst into the room together. It's the smell of blood that hits me first. She's lost more than a litre by the looks of things. Jeff has his hands pressed firmly on her chest. That's... That's where her left ventricle would be.
"Has... Has it punctured the ventricle?" He just nods. My heart sinks even lower. I rush to her side.
"Sweetheart I'm here." I squeeze her hand. She smiles weakly at me. I proceed to check all of her vital signs and then check the wound itself.
"We need to close this now! We can't move her! It'll make it worse!"
"Can we operate here?" Jeff asks.
"Does it matter? We need to! Dixie, phone Nick. Have him on loud speaker please." She does. His voice fills the room moments later.
"Zoe, what's happening?" He asks, extremely worriedly.
"Nick. I can't move her, it's punctured the left ventricle. I have to get it out before we move her, a few more millimetres could cost her her life! Oh, and her breathing is compromised, I'm going to intubate."
"Just do it, I'll be there soon but start."
"Stay on the phone." I command.
"Don't worry." He says.
"Okay Dixie. I'm going to sedate and intubate her now." I start to do it.
"I can't get the tube in!" My eyes fill with tears. "Nick I can't do it!"
"You can. Zoe you've done this procedure a hundred times! You can do it. Just relax and try again." I listen to him. I get the tube in place successfully, with the aid of a bougie, and let out a long sigh of relief. "I take it that means you were successful?"
"Yes." I move to the medical supplies, gown up and shove on a face mask. I remove the rip spreaders and a scalpel from the bag. In order to see what I'm doing, I extend the wound with the scalpel and then open it with the rip spreaders. I place both tools down on the sterile tray Dixie has provided. The next step is to remove the bullet fragments. This is an extremely tricky process. My hand shakes as I lower the forceps into the wound and begin retrieving the bullet fragments.
"Okay. I think I got all of the fragments." I say, finally.
"Let me check." He bursts in the door to the class room and rushes over to us. He spends a few seconds examining my work.
"Well done doctor Jordan. Okay. We need to close this u..." He doesn't get a chance to finish his sentence when the monitor goes into a frenzy.
"Her heart's stopped! Nick do something!" I'd do it myself but its too much of a risk. He's calm and I'm hyperventilating. So he's doing it. He closes the hole in her ventricle, with expertise, in less than a minute.
"Okay. Starting cardiac massage!" He lowers his hand into her chest and begins. Dixie is doing all that she can to calm me down. It's not working. I'm not going to calm down until her heart beats by itself again. A few minutes pass. I'm crying hysterically on the floor. Suddenly, the machine starts to sound a normal rhythm. My head snaps up.
"Back in sinus rhythm." Nick announces.
"Any output?" I ask. He checks
"Steady pulse." He confirms. "Okay. Lets get this closed." It doesn't him take long to do. I let Nick do it. I couldn't. Quite abruptly, and for the first time throughout my entire medical career, a nausea washes over me. I run to the class room bin and throw up in it. Dixie hands me a tissue.
"Okay. Jeff, fetch us the trolly will you?" Nick asks the paramedic. He heads into the corridor and returns with the desired trolly. I watch them put her on it and wheel her out to the ambulance.
"Zoe, you go in the ambulance with her. You're not safe to drive just now." I nod, throw him back his keys and get into the ambulance with Dixie. Nick takes off at top speed and we reach the hospital in no time. Adam meets us at the entrance.
"Dr. Trueman this is Amy Jordan, aged 15 gun shot wound to the chest. GCS 5 at the scene, risen to 7 since. BP 70 over 60. Cardiac arrest at the scene, resolved with cardiac massage. Sedated, intubated and operated on at the scene. She's been given oxygen and saline throughout." Dixie tells him.
"Okay, straight to paed's resus." I follow them through. "Okay can someone get me an ultrasound, lets find out if any further surgery is required. I watch as he performs the ultrasound.
"Damn Zoe. You are some doctor! You got it all!" He says in disbelief. I half smile.
"Always the tone of surprise." I say sarcastically, even though I'm as far out of the mood, for joking and sarcasm, as it is possible for someone to be.
"Well, you did operate on a classroom floor. This is remarkable work. Well done." I smile again. "Well. It's all a waiting game now, we need her to wake up. Once she's awake, we can extubate. Then she can tell us if anything else is wrong. Like I said, waiting game." I nod.
"Thank you, Dr. Trueman. Thank you." I say. He nods, dismissing himself from the room. I go over and sit at her bedside.
"I'm so sorry Amy." I whisper. I sit there for a while, tears streaming my cheeks, and drift off into a disturbed sleep.

I wake to a soft knock on the door.
"Er... Come in." I say. They enter. It's the teacher from yesterday.
"Hi. I'm Jennifer..." She says, awkwardly. "Amy's teacher." I nod.
"I know." I say, quite dismissively.
"I'm so sorry about what's happened..." I can hear the regret in her voice.
"I... It's okay." I manage. "What time is it?" I ask her, wondering how long I've been asleep.
"Nine thirty." She says.
"Geez, I must have been tired." I say. Then I start to think about it. In the past three days (if you don't count today) I've had little over 7 hours sleep. That explains it.
"That must happen a lot, you know, being a doctor and everything." She says, trying, and failing, to make small talk. I decide against making it worse.
"Yeah, it does. Some days I'll look at the clock and not have any idea wether its am or pm. other times I go through a whole week not knowing what the wether is like because I've come to work in the middle of the night and left in the middle of the next night. Doesn't bother me too much though. Well, I'd better go find my husband. Find out what's happening. See you in a minute."
"Bye." She says. I leave the room and head to Michael's office. I key in the door code and head in, only to discover him at his desk, head in his hands and fast asleep with more tear stains on his face than I have on mine, and that's saying something. I nudge him a little.
"Nick?" He opens his eyes and looks at me.
"Oh, hi. What time is it?"
"Nine thirty. Do you know when she'll be waking up?" I ask.
"Well, she wasn't too heavily sedated. Probably some time tomorrow, if the night goes well." I feel my shoulders drop.
"I actually can't believe this..." I say. "Why her? Why did he shoot her?"
"Actually, that part was an accident. The school gave me the tape. Come and have a look at this." I walk around to him and look at the computer screen. Shock surges through my body as I watch what Amy did to save her teacher.
"Jesus Christ." I say.
"My sentiments exactly." He replies.
"She did all of that to save a teacher?" I ask, completely and utterly gob-smacked after what I've just seen.
"Yeah, she did."
"She's nuts. A hero, but completely nuts."
"I know. Right you, dinner, come on." He says.
"I'm not hungry." I reply.
"No, you are going to eat. I'm not going to let you starve yourself Zoe. Dr. Trueman is watching her. You need to eat. You've eaten nothing all day, remember?"
"Yes, I suppose so. Lets go then. But nothing big, seriously, I couldn't stomach it.
"Okay." He says, walking me to the lift.
He leads me up to the hospital canteen and sits me at a table while he goes to get some food. Moments have barely passed when he comes back with two piping hot bowls of tomato soup.
"Perfect." I say, I smile at him, but it's half hearted.
"She'll be okay you know." He says, reading my mind.
"I know, but... Still."
"Strong girl that one. You saw what she did." He winks. I love it when he winks at me.
"Yeah, she is. I've never seen anyone be as brave! And she's just a kid!" I say.
"Precisely." He replies, smiling. I proceed to start my soup. It doesn't take long to finish.
"I'm going down to check on her." I say, as I drop my spoon back into my empty bowl.
"I'll come with you." Nick replies.
"Lets go then." He stands, takes my hand and leads me back to the lift. I can feel my tired legs shaking as we walk back to Amy's room. Dr. Trueman is there again. Something's going on.
"Adam! What is it? What's happening?" I shout at him.
"She's a fighter this one, she's breathing by herself." He says.
"So you're saying we can extubate?" I ask, not quite believing what I'm hearing.
"Yep. Nurse Clements, help me get these tubes out please?" He says to Kirsty.
"Thank you." I breathe.
"That's fine Zoe." He says. I stand and watch as he and the nurse carefully remove all of the tubes and then heave a massive sigh of relief as I listen to her breathing on her own.
"Zoe?" Nick says softly, placing a hand on my shoulder. "She's going to be fine. Calm down."
"What d'you mean? I am calm." I say, indignantly.
"No you're not." I suddenly become aware of more tears racing down my cheeks. I quickly wipe them away and apologise.
"Sorry." I mumble.
"Don't be sorry." He says in return, wrapping his arms around me and holding me in a loving, caring embrace. "Lets go get some sleep." He whispers in my ear.
"Okay. But only in the on call room. I'm not leaving the hospital." I say, stubbornly.
"I know sweetie. I know." He takes my hand and leads me upstairs to the on call room. Once we're there, I happily slide under the sheets and shut my eyes. I'm awake just long enough to feel Nick slide in behind me, put an arm around my waist and whisper,
"I love you." In my ear.