"Ok on 3. 1,2,3!" Zoe commanded as the ED team shifted her fiftieth patient onto the bed.
The man looked barely older than 20, and had a large open wound on his leg and a gash on his chest. Zoe leant in close and listened ot his breathing.
"OK it doesn't sound like a sucking chest wound. You've been very lucky." She said to the man who was white as a sheet.
"Doesn't exactly feel that way at the moment." He replied, grunting through the pain in his leg.
Zoe leant down and examined it. He had missed the artery altogether but the cut still ran down to the bone.
"We're going to need someone from plastics up here." She said, frowning at the deep cut.
"There's no one available." The nurse replied 30 seconds later.
"Well make someone available!" Zoe snapped at her.
"Zoe!" Called a familiar voice from the ED doors.
"Tom I really don't have time-"
"Sam's remembered something!"
Zoe gave the patient file to another doctor and ran to the doorway.
…
"Enough with the lights in my eyes!" Moaned Sam as Zoe attempted to examine her back on the ward.
Tom had bought Sam back onto the ward before going to fetch Zoe, much to her displeasure. She would much prefer to stay where there was fresh air, instead of air that made you cringe as you inhaled that hospital smell along with it.
"How long ago was the thing you remembered?" Zoe asked, giving up with her examination.
"About seven years ago. My mother died." Sam replied with a slight shudder.
"Seven years ago from now or seven years ago from when you were twenty?"
"From now."
"And you're sure?"
"Yes." Sam replied with a roll of her eyes.
"Well I'm no neurologist and every single one of them here is booked up to the high heavens so we're no closer to finding out what's going on inside your head…"
"But?" Sam asked, sensing what was coming.
"If I was to hazard a guess I'd say that it appears to memory returns to you through triggers. What were you doing when this came back?"
"Looking at ambulances from the balcony…" Sam said, slowly before adding. "We travelled around in them a lot when my mother was sick… she had cancer."
"I'm sorry." Zoe said, looking down slightly.
"I still don't remember where my brother is though…"
Tom, who had remained quiet up until now, cleared his throat.
"Maybe we can find a way to trigger those memories as well." He offered.
"How?" Sam asked.
"Can you remember what kind of job he did?"
Sam thought for a moment. He older than her my four years, and, according to her drastically shortened memory, he was working in a marketing company. When Sam told Tom this, he frowned.
"Can you remember the name?"
"No, he never told me."
"Well I have patients to see and it looks like you two are onto something here. I'll check on you again in a few hours." Zoe said, making her way off of the ward.
Tom was still thinking. Sam could tell by the frown lines across his face. She thought it best to remain quiet for a moment, for she was unsure of what he was going to say.
"Maybe I can find a laptop and we can search around for things that may jog your memory." Tom suggested with a small smile.
"Or…" Sam said slowly.
"What?"
"You could take me down to the ED and see if that brings back anything."
"Maybe later. Its chaos down there at the moment." Tom replied. "I'll go find a laptop."
Sam sighed and rested her head on the pillow after watching him go. She was trying not to freak out at the fact that not only had she killed a man but her mother was dead, and she had no idea where or who her brother was.
She had a feeling no one was questioning sudden calmness because this was how the Sam Nicholls they knew and love would behave in that situation, and she presumed that probably had something to do with years of training at the army. What kind of person did she become in the last ten years?
Clearly someone who didn't like to talk about her life. Is that how she dealt with her mother's death? Rebelling against her by joining the army and refusing to talk about her personal life?