Jocelyn stepped into the room and saw her daughter hooked up to various machines, a rhythmical beeping the only sound that violated the silence and she moved closer to the bed.
The nurse had told her that someone would be in to explain to her what had happened and that, even though it looked awful, Sam was going to be all right, they just needed her to wake up.
Looking around, she knew that someone else had been in the room, the two chairs pulled up to the side of the bed, the almost empty cup of coffee sitting on the bedside cabinet. Jocelyn slumped into one of the seats and leaned her elbows on her knees and looked at her daughter.
She looked like hell.
She would kill that bastard for doing this to her.
When Sam hadn't shown up in Elgin at the arranged time, she had worried and called her mobile and when there was no answer, she worried more. And then she had received the phone call from a Doctor Lewis at County General and she had fled her house, swung by the golf course, picked up her husband and drove down to Chicago to see her daughter.
Samuel Taggert was in the city, trying to find a hotel to stay in and would then be on his way to the hospital.
The door behind her opened and she turned to see a young, brown haired man, wearing scrubs and a white lab coat enter the room and move towards her.
"Hi, I'm Doctor John Carter... I was actually looking for Doctor Kovac..?" He said as he looked about, his brown eyes trying to seek out the elusive doctor.
"Oh... Luka isn't here," she murmured as she looked at her daughter lying motionless on the bed before her.
John started slightly at the use of Kovac's first name and he frowned.
"You know him?" He watched her shake her head slightly.
"I know of him." John nodded. "Do you know what happened to her?"
John nodded slightly and took another step closer to her.
"Yeah."
"Can you tell me?"
John sighed.
"I think it'd be best if Doctor Corday did, she was the surgeon who operated on her," John spoke quietly, afraid that speaking too loud would wake Sam - but from he heard that wouldn't be a bad thing.
"Please..." Jocelyn pleaded, her voice strained and thin.
John nodded and began speaking.
"She has bruises covering most of her body..."
He continued, in the same manner he had when he had told Luka and he could see Jocelyn get more and more distressed as he continued. Then he came to the part that he dreaded the most.
"She was raped, Mrs Taggert. And... uh... she had a miscarriage..."
Jocelyn snapped her head around at that and stared at John with wide eyes.
"She didn't tell me..."
John shook his head and reached his hand out to cover Jocelyn's and looked up at her again.
"She probably didn't know..."
Beside them, the monitor started beeping more erratically and John snapped his head towards Sam and saw that her blood pressure had sky rocketed, her eyes were open, she was crying and jerking around - a lot.
He jumped up from his seat and flew to her side, pressing down on her shoulder to stop her from causing injury to her already fragile ribs.
"Sam, you have to calm down or you're going to injure yourself." To Jocelyn he said: "Go into the corridor and get one of the nurses to page Doctor Corday." Turning back to Sam he eased his grip a little when he felt her settle down but her pressure was still through the roof and her eyes were jumping around wildly. "Sam, you're intubated," he said and saw her attempt to roll her eyes at his obvious statement. "Okay... stating the obvious," he smiled at her and saw more tears trickle down the side of her eyes. "Did you hear what I told your mother?"
She nodded as much as she could and John stroked her forehead gently, attempting to calm her down but he knew that was she needed was not his touch.
"I'm sorry, Sam... do you want me to go find Luka?"
He saw her shake her head and close her eyes. He frowned.
"Well hey there, Sam," Corday said brightly as she appeared at John's side and John moved away from her as Corday looked her over. "You gave us all a pretty big scare when you wouldn't wake up," she said as she shone a light into Sam's eyes and watched as the pupils contracted normally. "I think we can take the tube out," Corday said and looked back to Carter. "Maybe you could take Mrs Taggert and get Sam some ice chips?"
Carter looked at Corday, then at Sam and nodded, putting his hand on Jocelyn's elbow and walking her out of the door.
"She's going to be okay."
"Okay, Sam, you know the drill - one, two, three," Corday said as she pulled the tube from Sam's throat and Sam coughed.
When she lay back onto now elevated bed, she coughed again and Corday put a vomit tray in front of her to catch the droplets of blood that flew from her mouth.
"Don't worry, Sam. That's just from the surgery... it'll happen a couple of times."
Sam coughed some more and Corday could see tears jump into her eyes as she clutched at her bandaged ribs.
Eventually, she leaned back onto pillow and stared up at the ceiling, her eyes a dull void.
"Do you know what happened?"
Sam nodded.
"Do you want me to call Luka for you?"
Sam shook her head.
"Do you want me to call anyone?"
Sam shook her head again.
"Is there anything I can do for you?"
"I don't want to see anyone... just the nurses who have to look after me. And close the blinds over the window," Sam answered dully, her eyes not meeting Corday's as she concentrated on a grey dot in the centre of the ceiling.
"Okay... you know where the button is..." She walked towards the door and opened it. "What do you want me to tell your mother?"
Sam didn't say anything.
Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?
I took my love and took it down
I climbed a mountain, I turned around
And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
The landslide brought it down
TBC