Title: Privilege
Author: NightMage
Rating: maybe PG13, to be safe.
Summary: The team gets very, very frustrated with doctor-patient privilege! And Sam deals with a problem of her own. My very first M/S fic. Please R&R!
NOTES:
Well people, this is the second to last chapter. Yes, this is not the end! So please remember to keep going after you read this.
I do have a possible sequel in mind which will tie up some of the loose ends, like what happens to Sam now that she's shot a man, what happens to Carolynn, Cai, and their babies, and, for all you Smarties fans, what happens between Sam and Martin.
But I won't bother writing it if no one wants to read it, so tell me what you think!
I don't plan on having any author's notes on the next (the last) chapter, for effect. So I just want to thank you all now, all my readers and reviewers, you guys were my incentive to keep the story going. I started this thing over a year ago! I am really proud of this. And luv to Che, my editor, idea bouncer, encouragement, and sister. Luv to Sika, my support and my other half. Andthanks so muchto Poppy Montgomery, Eric Close, Anthony LaPaglia, Enrique Murciano, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, cause Without a Trace rocks!
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Chapter 20
AFTERMATH
Samantha's mind was making her dizzy. She remembered Richard's body on the ground in front of her. She distantly remembered being proud of herself for not collapsing or fainting or becoming amnesic. She remembered refusing to follow Martin into the ambulance until she'd learned what had happened to Carolynn. And she remembered when the EMT had begun to examine her ankle.
That had been hard. She was trained to be tough, to act on logic and reason, not mental reflex the way any other trauma patient might. She knew she could have requested a female EMT to finish up, but she stubbornly refused to. She was an FBI agent. FBI agents were analytical, sensible, and rational.
But when that EMT – she refused to think of him as a paramedic, which was part of the problem – began to gently prod and poke at her ankle, she had to fight the brief jolt of sudden fear. She firmly squashed it – it was not analytical, sensible, or rational, and she already felt less professional than she wanted to be.
Now she sighed, and glanced toward the closed door from her chair in the hospital room. The fan in her window clicked, and something she couldn't identify kept up a low, persistent hum. The room smelled like nothing. Now that she thought about it, most places did have some kind of smell. The office always smelled like cheap black coffee, office supplies, cologne, purpose. But this room had nothing. Not antiseptic or Pledge or death or hospital food, just nothing. It annoyed her and made her feel very out of place.
Her apartment now smelled like blood.
That's it. Samantha yanked her mind back to something she hoped she could control and stood up. She didn't like white walls or green plastic chairs anymore than they liked her. She was going to visit Martin.
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He glanced up when she entered the room. "Hey, college girl," he said softly, smiling.
She gave him a hesitant smile back. "Hey." She felt tall and gawky, standing over him, and occupied herself with finding a chair to avoid the awkward silence that followed their greetings. The green plastic in his room was no better than that in hers. She had a sudden urge to sit beside Martin on the bed.
She quickly dropped into the chair.
"So…" she laughed awkwardly. "I feel pretty stupid."
He sighed. "Sam –"
"No, I messed up. You were right. I - I should have told someone, or…
"Sam – "
"or figured out what was going on sooner, or –"
"Sam!"
Their eyes locked.
Samantha looked away first. "Sorry."
More awkward silence stretched out between them.
Again, Sam broke first. "I, um, I guess this is the second time you've saved my life.
"You're welcome." Martin's grin was lopsided.
Sam smiled and glanced down.
Martin cleared his throat, no longer grinning. Sam looked up to find him watching her. "What?"
"Samantha, would you… would you go out with me?
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Danny stood outside Carolynn Casper's hospital room talking to her nurse, Miss Watts, who had one of those faces that has seen too much and smiled too little. Danny, who was normally very good at reading people, was having difficulty, and he didn't like it.
"How is she?"
The nurse eyed him suspiciously. "Family?" she asked.
"No, Ma'am, FBI."
She nodded as if this was common and her expression relaxed a little. "Carolynn will be fine. She is being treated presently. She will suffer no permanent damage from the overdose."
"And the baby?"
Her mouth hardened. "It is too early yet to tell. When I get an update you will be the first to know, Mr….?"
"Taylor, and thank you."
She nodded again and walked off.
Later, when Cai burst into the waiting room, crying, Danny told her what he knew, and sat with her while she wept.
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