This chapter is dedicated to my friend Polly, for listening to me obsess about this show at all times of day and night.
Thanks to everyone who has read, or is reading, this story.
Her breathing was off, and her pulse was all over the place, not to mention the fact that Dylan had neither the equipment nor the time to properly deal with her, one thought stuck at the forefront of his mind.
She didn't have 'a little while', he just didn't want to admit it to himself yet.
She had less than half an hour to get out, or she wouldn't be getting out at all.
Looking between the two unconsciousness women, David turned to a once more silent Dylan and asked the question that had been prying on his mind since Sam had gotten hurt, although more dominantly since they had been notified of Cave Rescues arrival. "Which of them goes up first?"
Dylan glanced at Sam, and then at Amanda, both of them seriously ill - but though his heart was begging him to send Sam up first, to give her the best chance of survival, Amanda was in the worse condition, and his head was telling him that she had to go up first.
Head.
Heart.
Heart.
Head.
...Head.
"Amanda." Was his short reply, he wouldn't say anything else, for fear of trying to convince the poor man to let Sam up first. Dylan knew Sam would make the same choice, even unconscious he knew her thoughts.
Checking the vitals of both women, Dylan settled next to Sam, whilst David held Amanda's hand loosely - rocks fell near continuously from the movement on the surface, Cave Rescue were nearly ready to come down after long last.
"You have to go up with Amanda, David. There's an ambulance waiting to take you both to Holby City ED. I need to stay with Sam." Dylan's voice was faint- he had never felt as weak as he did now, unable to do anything else to help.
From the corner of his eye, he saw David nod with understanding - the Doctor had to stay with the patient, and he would only be on his own with Amanda for a matter of minutes, if not seconds, nothing altogether too bad could happen in that short a space of time.
As the Rescue worker made his way down the cave as carefully as he could, it didn't stop the near avalanche of small stones and rubble that fell on the two males sat unmoving by the women they were subconsciously protecting.
Finally at the bottom of the cave, the Rescue worker and Dylan sprung into action, pulling a now screaming Amanda out from under the rock shelf and strapping her down onto the stretcher, to prevent further injury.
David was attached to the side of her stretcher, and he couldn't completely mask the look of relief that flooded his face as he began to rise from the ground up to the surface.
As Amanda and David were unclipped from the top of the pulley system, Dylan saw Sam's eyes flicker open slightly, she was awake once again.
With no other way to help her whilst the Cave Rescue worker finally began his own assessment of Sam, Dylan simply held the delirious woman's hand until the stretcher made it back down to the cave floor.
Then came the procedure Dylan wished he could put off forever - the removal of the boulder - with a huge amount of pushing and pulling on the behalves of Dylan and the Rescue worker, whilst Sam lay as still as she could, though it did nothing to stop the tears streaming down her face.
She was as far from the confident woman who entered the cave two hours ago as it was possible to be.
Then the boulder shifted slightly before moving off of Sam completely, and she immediately paled, losing blood from her stomach faster than she was getting it from the bags were refilling her body.
Her eyes took on a slightly glazed look as he helped her onto the thick plastic stretcher, ready to leave the dark dingy hole.
It was slow work winching both himself and Sam up, the Rescue worker following soon after. He saw Jeff first, a face he would have never guessed he'd be glad to see.
Sam was quickly whisked away from him in a cacophony of noise.
"Careful with her," came from Jeff, always looking out for Sam.
"Alright easy boys. Easy does it - she's losing blood." A fireman, the man in charge, whose name Dylan hadn't bothered to learn.
Dylan just stood there in a state of mute shock, everything happening at once while nothing happened at all.
"Are you okay? Dylan?" The voice faded into his subconscious as he pulled his eyes away from Sam, lying unconscious once more strapped to that orange plastic board.
He didn't, couldn't, reply verbally - not while Sam was just there, dying in front of him.
He heard the same man ask the Rescue worker if anyone else was still down in the cave, but the rest of the world was shut out as he saw that annoying, obnoxious fireman begin heart compressions on his beautiful, (if not always) sweet Samantha.
Not even noticing that he was almost running to her side and pushing the fireman away from her still body, one thought echoed in his head.
She can't die. Not like this. Not now.
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Thank you for reading,
Mia.