Sam was staring at the zeros on the cheque with the same wide eyes that Zoe was. It took Sam a moment to find her voice and when she did she wasn't quite sure what to say. What do you say to someone who just made you a millionaire 30 times over?
"Thank you!" Zoe said, looking to Sam as though she was answering for her.
"Y-yes. Thank you... But I can't possibly accept-" Sam began, holding the cheque out for her to take back.
"Nonsense," Replied the woman as she waved the cheque away, "When you reach my age and have as much money as I do, £60 million pounds is only a small dent in my bank account, to say nothing of my family's."
"So your nephew must be quite rich…" Sam sad slowly.
"I'm afraid I haven't exactly been transparent when it comes to him. He was disowned more than twenty years ago due to a gambling addiction which wiped out nearly half my family's money, and took on an entirely different persona- changed his accent, his dress and his name all to avoid the debt collectors who were hounding him for money."
"£60 million isn't even half of the money you-"
"How did you get rid of them?" Sam asked, cutting off Zoe.
"We discovered through the use of a private investigator that the gambling agency your estranged nephew was illegal and so we were able to get them prosecuted." The woman replied after staring at Zoe haughtily for a moment.
"Well let me assure you that I don't need money in recover to recover from this, and I'm sure Mark doesn't either." Sam said kindly, making to hand the cheque back again.
"My dear, forgive me for probing but I also learned from the media that you have lost a significant portion of your memory due to that ordeal. Please do feel free to hire the money to find the very best doctors to fix this problem." The woman said kindly.
"She is one of the best Doctors around." Tom said after staring at the cheque in Sam's hands for a long moment.
Sam turned to Tom and gave him a grateful smile. It was quickly becoming clear to her that this money was hers no matter what she thought of accepting such a large cheque from someone she barely knew. Following a ten minute long monologue from the woman which had pretty much convinced Sam that she would feel guilty if she did not take the money, she finally accepted the gift and placed the oversized cheque in her pocket. After saying their goodbyes the trio then began to head back down the hill and into Zoe's car.
The journey back home was a quiet one, with Sam staring out of the window to avoid taking the cheque out and staring at the zeros for the thirtieth time. She was also avoiding looking at the person who was sitting in the seat next to her who apparently needed her to tell him she was fine once for every member of the population of the UK for him to believe it.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Tom implored.
"Tom. I just got given a life changing amount of money from a woman who looked like she was about as old as the numbers on this cheque. No I am not fine. I am somewhere in between shocked and confused and I really don't want to talk right now, especially to the person I shared a bed with last night."
"WHAT?!"
Zoe had been quiet for so long that Sam had almost forgotten she was there.
"Zoe it's not what you think-" Tom began.
"You two slept together last night?!" Zoe yelled incredulously.
"Yes, Zoe. SLEEP being the operative word. I had a nightmare and I got upset. Tom slept beside me to make sure I was ok." Sam said in a warning tone.
"Mmm hmm." Was her disbelieving reply.
"Zoe just say whatever it is you want to because I know one way or another we're going to hear it anyway." Tom said impatiently.
"Fine. Sam, you like Tom. You may not want to admit it but I know you do, and deep down I know you know you do." Zoe said in a made Sam want to hit her.
"You don't know what's going on in my head Zoe." Sam said coldly.
"No you're right, for the most part I have no idea what the hell you're thinking, but you're forgetting I've been at this ED for longer than both of you and I have never seen you light up the way you do when you're around each other around anyone else."
"'Light up?'" Sam repeated amusedly.
"Yes, Sam, as stupid as it sounds you literally do light up around each other. Tom was the one you trusted when you first woke up, he was the one you stayed with and now he's the one you rely on when you're scared. You could have told him to leave but you accepted his help happily. Not to mention you've been moody as hell since you left his house. You join the dots," Zoe said as she stared at them in the rear-view mirror, "But I really shouldn't be the one talking here, that should be you two."
"Us two?"
"Yes. Talk this out. Figure out your feelings for one and other. Don't destroy something that could be beautiful before it's even had a chance and most of all- give me a break."
…
Hint to my last question: It would cost far more than £60 million to rebuild a hospital… Guess again! ;)