A.N.: Believe it or not – but I'm still alive! I just realized its been for month (!) since my last update. I really didn't think it's been that long...

But after finally getting a new PC, a new laptop, a new Internet provider and a different text editor which forced me to convert all my files I finally managed to make a reappearance!

So I hope there's someone still out there remembering this story and willing to read (smiles nervously). Reviews would be very much appreciated.

Enjoy!

Chapter 15:

It was deep into the night as Samantha woke from an unpleasant, restless sleep in that hospital bed in an empty store room at ICU, normally just used by the doctor in charge if he had to work by night and there was nothing of importance to do.

She had welcomed that chance to sleep a little, to get a rest and lose the thoughts about her fallen and severly injured co-worker for a while, but she had been uneasy. The smell of the hospital invaded her nose and her thoughts of Danny hadn't vanished, but had pursuated her in her dream. Although she wouldn't remember anything about it anymore, she knew it had been some kind of nightmare.

That was probably why she had woken up... Actually she didn't care about the reason for her waking. Right now she just felt the deep and urgent longing for some coffee and afterwards she would get back to her co-worker's room, reassigning to her night-watch.

She got out of the bed and slipped back into her shoes, carefully opening the door to the corridor. It was absolutely silent out there and except for the emergency signs there was no light down the hall. It seemed to be a calm night at ICU, which actually was a good sign. It meant that none of the patients were in danger – that Danny wasn't in danger.

She went down the corridor to the nurse's office to ask for a sip of coffee and then get back to her chair at Danny's room. But before she even got there she heard a sound that made her blood freeze in her veins. It came from one of the monitors at the nurses office – a monitor checking the ICU patient's vitals. It was a shrill beep which she heard and she knew what it meant.

It was the sound of alarm, of emergency – one of the patients had just flatlined and she knew this meant he was in mortal danger. She didn't even want to think about it, didn't even want to imagine. She could see the nurse in charge pick up the phone and call the doctor's office to inform them about the incident and get some help as soon as possible.

She wished not to listen to the nurse's fast and slightly hysterical, but at least alarmed words as she told the doctor what was going on – she didn't want to know, she didn't want to have certainty, but she just couldn't keep herself from listening.

"Dr. Collins – this is ICU. I got a patient flatlining up here – I need you to approach immediately... Yes. I already send two of the nurses, they are performing CPR right now...It's room eight, Dr. Alright, see you in a minute!"

Sam wasn't able to step out of the way as the nurse in charge came out of the office now and hurried down the corridor. Room eight – she knew what this meant. It meant her nightmare - she couldn't remember anymore, but knew she had - was coming true right now. This was Danny's room.

She didn't even know how long she had been standing there, ripped of all emotions and thoughts, unable to move any further. But as a figure in a white coat rushed besides her down the hall, she was pulled back to reality. Dr. Collins had just arrived!

Without even knowing how or why, Sam followed her, getting ever closer to Danny's room and hearing the muffled sounds increase to orders and strict words. She knew she wasn't allowed to go in there and she didn't even know if she wanted to look inside the room. Hearing the orders was a thing barely able to bear already.

"Get me another unit of adrenalin, quickly! We need to get his heart working, goddamn it!"

A few moments of silence followed, probably as Dr. Collins was injecting the medication. But Sam could still hear the performance of CPR and the hiss of the respirator giving air to her co-worker's lifeless body.

"Anything?"

"No, Dr. Collins – I don't have a pulse..."

"How long?"

"It's almost five minutes now..."

"Okay – get the defibrilator working, we need to shock him..."

"But you said it was too dangerous, you said he probably couldn't cope with that!"

"Are there any other options left?"

"Get me a 180 – hurry!"

Sam couldn't help it but look up, through the window and into the room right now. She didn't even know why she was doing it. She was doing everything without thinking for the last couple of minutes. This wasn't about curiosity to see what was going to happen, or fear and the urgent wish to know if Danny would be alright. She just did it.

"Clear!"

She just looked as the medical staff, except for Dr. Collins, who held the defibrilator's paddles in hands stepped away from the bed. She could see Dr. Collins lower the paddles to Danny's bare chest. Sam was able to see the bandages, the stitched cut wounds, the healing and scarbuilding flesh of minor injuries and the blue and purple bruises all over his chest and abdomen. The sight was already making her feel extremly troubled, but the picture of Danny's lifeless form convulsing on that goddamn hospital bed, while Dr. Collins was putting the paddles down, made her feel nauseous.

She just wished for this to stop. Logic told her that this wasn't alright, that Dr. Collins was hurting Danny. But she although knew that she wasn't at all thinking rational and that she had no idea what was the right thing to do. She just knew that this current piercing beeping tone needed to disappear.

"Still no pulse!"

"Alright get me another unit of adrenaline and the paddles to 200."

"Doc!"

"Just do it! We don't have any choice. I won't lose him, you hear me – I won't! Hurry!"

Sam had to see the same image, appearing just a few seconds ago for another time. Right now she wished to rather run in there and stop the doctor or to loudly scream. But no words emerged from her lips and she wasn't able to move a single inch. She just kept on staring inside.

"Still nothing!"

"Try again..."

Something changed, something about the surrounding was different right now and Sam needed some seconds to detect what it actually was: The noises had died down, the beeping had vanished. And then she heard that soothing, selvating words from one of the nurses.

"We got a pulse – it's weak and pretty irregular, but it's there."

Dr. Collins allowed herself a small smile and a slight feeling of temporary triumph. She hadn't won the war yet, but she had won another very hard battle. She wouldn't give up on her patient. She would push him through. She could hear herself, breathing a sigh of relief as she laid down the paddles. It had been close, extremely close.

"I want all the stitches and bandages checked. And I need a full x-ray check. We need to see if any of the injuries were screwed up again, due to the spasm. I will stay upstairs for the rest of the night. Get me a full check-up every two hours and call me as soon as there's the slightest change in his condition!"

As the doctor left the room, Sam held her back. Her voice was once again trembling as she started to talk and her eyes were watery. She had just started to realize what this whole situation meant, how close to the edge it had been.

"What just happened in there?"

"I'm not really sure. It may be a sign of infection, but for now I couldn't find any. His heartbeat had already been irregular, when he was brought in. Maybe his system couldn't take the load of the injuries and the coma anymore. Maybe it was some reaction to the medication... I don't know right now, but we're about to find out..."

"What about his condition, is it worse... Is he..."

"I don't know if he's going to survive, I still don't. The only thing I can say, is that it isn't an encouraging event. But I still have some hope for him... I already said this before – I don't even know how he made a survival up to this point and he just surprised me once again. I won't give up on him so soon."

Sam felt somehow relieved by the doctor's words. She was the one in charge, the one who needed to know. And hearing that she wasn't willing to give up, was the most soothing thing she had heard in days. It was the first glimpse of hope there ever had been since she entered this hospital. She even allowed herself a small smile about it – yet hope remained.