Sam stared up at the ED for a moment before walking in with a cautious air to her demeanour. She was heading in half an hour before her shift, hoping that Zoe was going to be in her office, and in a talking mood.

She had spent most of the night running the future conversation through her head, exploring every twist and turn it could take until she exhausted herself and fell off to sleep on her sofa. When she awoke she spent all of thirty minutes dressing, eating and then heading out into the world half an hour early.

As she walked through the usual hustle and bustle of Friday night's party goers spilling into the ED on a cold Saturday morning complaining of every possible symptom of a hangover you could think of, she felt a twang of nerves in her stomach which almost made her do a double take.

Unfortunately for her, her brain had decided on this double take directly in front of Tess who immediately rushed forwards and gave Sam her usual nurse-to-patient look of concern.

"Sam? What's wrong?" Tess said as she placed her hands gently on Sam's upper arms.

Sam sighed and gave her a small smile. "Nothing. I'm good."

"Sam, you do realize who you're talking to I presume" Came the reply with a stern look.

"Tess I'm fine." Sam implored as she composed her features to match Tess's.

"Hmm." Tess replied in an unconvinced tone. "Now tell me what's going on."

Sam looked up to the ceiling for a moment and sighed exasperatedly. The ever increasing knot in her stomach was making her do several double takes in her head until the point where she was half expecting her legs to start carrying her straight out of the ED.

"I'm…" Sam muttered before taking another deep sigh. "I'm going to see Zoe, to see if I can sort this out."

"Oh, well I best warn you that she's not in the best of moods… She just lost a patient." Tess said with a tinge of sympathy in her voice.

Sam's jaw worked for a moment as she once again fought the urge to turn tail and run, but this time she overpowered it and gave Tess a more confident smile.

"It's fine. I'll go and see her." Sam said as a more confident smile formed on her lips.

Tess gave her an expression full of misgivings but allowed her to pass regardless, though Sam could still feel her gaze burning a hole in the back of her head as she walked over to Zoe's office. She knocked a couple of times before poking her head around the door, and was greeted with the sight of Zoe looking like she was about to break the phone at her ear.

"Zoe can I-"

"…Yes Mr Rogers, I understand that but… No, Yes Mr Rogers.. Bringing a lawsuit down on this hospital will not bring your wife back! Hello? Hello? Great, just great."

Zoe slammed the receiver down and stared at it as though it had just insulted her mother. Sam knocked on the door cautiously again and couldn't suppress the startled double take she did at the livid expression she received when Zoe looked up.

"Dr Nicholls… I didn't see you there. Come in." Zoe said, hastily re-arranging her features.

Sam gave a wary smile and complied, taking a seat slowly in front of Zoe's desk.

"What can I do for you?" Zoe said as kindly as she could.

"I-I… I wanted to apologize for my behaviour." Sam stammered, aware that the tension in the room could be cut with a knife.

"Oh." Zoe said with an unreadable expression.

"So… I-I'm sorry. It wasn't my intention to cause all of this drama with you or with Firth."

Zoe sighed and looked down for a moment, and in that moment Sam wondered if Zoe was going to accept her apology or not. When Zoe rose her head again the lines of tension that had been stretched over her forehead were far less pronounced and a small smile had formed upon her lips.

"Sam, I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to be so hard on you. I know more than anyone how much you've been through. But unfortunately it's going to take more than an apology to smooth over this thing with Firth. He's already filed a complaint and he appears intent on following it through."

Sam's smile faded slightly as a new source of worry started to gnaw at her insides.

"So... what do we do?"

"We fight it. It's the only thing we can do. He has made two complaints against you, one for incompetence-"

"What the hell?!"

"And another for assault."

"Assault? Are you kidding me? He threw the damn bed pan at me! What did –"

"…You apparently 'rammed' and needle into his arm full of sedative with excessive force, and before then you abandoned him"

"I needed some fresh air… and I hardly abandoned him, I gave the case to Tom." Sam said stubbornly as she stood up and glared at Zoe from across the table.

"And the needle? Did you use excessive force?"

"Zoe I can't believe you would even ask me that!" Sam blurted. "I thought you of all people-"

"Sam please! I'm just trying to gather all the facts so I can mount a strong defence should this end up in a hearing. I saw you were upset. Please just tell me if you may have used more force than necessary."

Sam took a couple of short breaths before answering, hoping to stop herself from blowing up once more.

"I may have used more force than I should have, yes." Sam muttered.

Zoe sighed and rested her head in her hands. "Ok thanks Sam. You can go and continue your shift. We'll have to have a meeting at a later date."

"Fine." Sam said with a colder voice than she intended.

"Oh and Sam?" Zoe said, looking up just as Sam was about to open the door.

"What?"

"Do not under any circumstances go to Firth's house, understood?"

Sam gave no answer, and simply walked out of the door as an idea began forming in her mind.

…

Sorry for the lack of updates! Hopefully I should be able to update a few more times this week.