As Zoe stared at her friend's pale complexion she began to allow her mind to drift backwards to the events of two days ago.

Two minutes. It had taken one hundred and twenty seconds for everyone to get a strong enough grip on Sam to wrench her out of the waves and carry her as quickly as possible back to the ambulance.

By the time they had pulled up at the ED Sam was barely breathing, forcing them to put her on a ventilator as soon as they had rushed her into recess. The rest of that day had been touch and go, it involved wheeling her from ED to intensive care and to numerous rooms for tests and scans all the while a defibrillator was carted around behind them by Tom, just in case.

None of them had slept for the fear of missing something important or Sam taking a turn for the worse if they did. Everyone couple of hours someone would nip into the private room Sam was in along with Zoe and make sure that they were both still breathing, for Zoe hadn't moved since she had sat down on the chair beside Sam's bed and taken hold of her hand.

Everyone else was camped out in the staff room just down the end of the same corridor, Linda doing coffee rounds now and then to keep everyone awake, albeit looking like Zombies.

They were all anxiously awaiting the second half of the test results after the blood work and X-Rays had come back clear with bated breath and praying that she woke up soon, but deep down several of them had begun to lose hope. It had only been two days, but they had the fact that Sam had willingly walked into that icy water without as much as a look back playing on their minds. She wanted everything to end.

There was cause to argue that she would never awake, simply because she didn't want to exist any longer. Though it wasn't scientific, it was on the minds of everyone including Zoe who sat holding her had as though it was made of glass.

No one had bothered to tell Zoe how bleak Sam's prognosis was looking in her eyes, for it was clear by her haunted expression that she already knew.

"Come on Sam, you're tougher than that…" Zoe muttered to herself as she ran through the moment Sam had walked into the waves in her mind once more.

There was a quiet knock on the door and Zoe jerked her head up and came face to face with Jordan and Tess, who were holding several sheets of paper in her hand.

"Is that…?" Zoe said, not daring to say the phrase 'test results' out loud.

"Yes. It's bad new I'm afraid." Jordan replied, giving her the same look she had seen him give bereaved relatives countless times.

Zoe took a deep breath and nodded. "What's wrong with her?"

Tess walked out of the room as soon as Jordan started to talk Zoe through everything they had found out and their options for what could be the end of her life, unable to hear it again. She walked towards the staff room but didn't go inside, instead standing next to the wooden door and listening to everyone's reactions.

"I- I can't get my head around this." Tom muttered after a long silence.

"Me neither." Linda said in a dulcet tone.

"I can't believe that she's never going to walk into ED again…" Tess heard Dixie mutter from some distance away.

"Don't say that. There's still hope, however slim." Jeff countered.

"Slim? There's no hope Jeff." Tom said dully. "She's not going to get better; we may as well just accept that."

"Oi!" Barked Tess from the doorway. "You want to give up on her? Fine. You do that, but you keep it out of this hospital and more importantly away from the people who still have faith in Sam. There isn't anything we can do but pray for her to wake up and for the man who bought her to the choice she made that night to be brought to justice."

Tom made a noise and looked at the ground. "What good is praying? It's not going to do a damn thing, Tess"

"No, maybe you're right. But it can't do anything to harm Sam and what would you rather do, camp out in this room feeling sorry for yourself until we find out what the end to this chapter in our lives is?" Tess said as forcefully as she could. "Come on! All of you… you can't just give up on her! She's your friend and colleague and you know she wouldn't give up on any of you so why are you giving up on her?"

"Tess is right." Jeff said, standing up and crossing the room in a few strides to stand beside her. "She may be in a bad way now, but there's no guarantee that she won't wake up tomorrow and be right as reign."

"Jeff she's in a coma!" Tom sad angrily, standing up. "It's not like she just had a bit too much to drink and hasn't woken up from some hangover!"

Tess was about to reply but was cut off by a piercing scream coming from the direction of Sam's room.

"Nick must have told Zoe…" Tess muttered sadly.

No one replied.

So first I tease you for 50 chapters with the whole 'is she going to die?!' thing, and now you have to wait and see if she wakes up or dies now. Hehe… sorry!

All I can say is this won't be dragged out for nearly as long.