Disclaimer: I do not own Casualty or any of the characters. The only characters I own are Olivia and Phoebe Nicholls, Amber Nicholls, and any other OCs I bring in.
The last thing Dylan Keogh was expecting to see when he walked into the ED after being away for a week was his ex-wife. The last time he'd seen Samantha Keogh was when he'd identified her dead body in the morgue after he'd received a call from her army supervisor informing him that Sam had died. He'd identified her dead body, so how was it that she was now apparently standing in the ED alive and well?
Dylan took a deep breath and counted to 10 in his head before entering the ED; somehow, he managed to walk through reception without being noticed by anyone. Once he was inside the safety of his office, he sat down heavily on his desk chair and put his head in his hands. It was official; he'd officially lost his mind; he'd have to go immediately to Connie's office and report himself as not fit for clinical practice.
"This can't be happening," He muttered under his breath. "She can't be back, not now."
He pulled his mobile out of his jacket pocket and called the only person he could think to call.
"Dylan? What's going on? You never call me," Zoe remarked, and he could practically hear the smirk in her voice.
"I think I'm losing it, Zoe. It's finally happened," Dylan told her
Zoe rolled her eyes. "Dylan, this is the fourth time in the last three months you've convinced yourself you were losing it. What happened this time?"
"Sam's back" Was all he said, and the line on the other side went dead for a moment
In her shock, Zoe had dropped her mobile into the glass of wine she was holding. She retrieved it and held it back to her ear. "I'm sorry, I think I must have misheard you. Did you just say Sam's back… as in your dead ex-wife Sam"
Dylan took a moment to try and regain his composure. "I'm just as shocked as you, but I just walked into work, and she's standing there in reception, apparently alive and well," He remarked dryly
Zoe laughed. "I'm sorry, Dylan, but you have to admit, this is hard to believe. It's not physically possible for your dead ex-wife to all of a sudden come back from the dead."
Dylan huffed. "Zoe, I'm not a child. I KNOW what I saw."
"Alright, alright, keep your hair on. Are you definitely sure that it's Sam and not just someone who happens to look like her" Zoe asked him
"It's definitely her, I'm sure of it. If you're not going to believe me, then that's fine" Dylan hung up the phone
For most of the morning, he stayed cooped up in his office doing paperwork. It was almost lunchtime when one of the F1s, Bea, knocked on his office to tell him that they needed his help in resus. Reluctantly he left the office and headed to Resus, he wasn't fully concentrating on where he was going, and he bumped into the paramedics who were leaving Resus. "Sorry," He mumbled
"No worries mate," Iain said cheerfully "Come on, Sam, we'd better go and restock the ambo"
Dylan couldn't believe his ears, Sam was now a paramedic. Since when?
—-
He didn't see Sam again until the end of their respective shifts. He was just finishing his and heading outside when he spotted Sam laughing and joking with Iain, he plucked up the courage to go over there and speak to her. He cleared his throat. "Sam, could I have a word"
Sam looked up from where she was pushing and shoving Iain playfully. "Oh Dylan, hi, sure, let me just grab my stuff" Sam smiled at him
Dylan nervously waited outside the ambulance station whilst Sam collected her stuff from her locker. Once she was done, they walked away from the hospital together "So what did you want to speak to me about?" She asked
Dylan raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, Sam? You're actually asking that? You've suddenly come back from the dead after 3 years, and you're expecting me to carry on like everything is normal. I identified your dead body; I NEED you to explain everything because I am so confused right now."
Sam looked around to make sure no one was listening, and she dropped her voice so it was barely a whisper "Look Dylan, I appreciate that this is very confusing for you and I promise I will explain everything, but I can't explain everything here. I'll meet you at the boat, and I promise I'll explain everything."
Dylan went back to the boat and was greeted by an excitable Dervla. He stroked behind her ears as he hung up his jacket and briefcase "Have you missed me, hm?" He asked softly as she curled up in her basket in front of the fire.
He had worked hard to maintain his Morose and Sullen exterior or as Sam used to refer to him 'Dr. Grumpy' that most people saw at work but behind closed doors there were a few people that allowed him to let down his barriers and saw the softer side of Dylan Keogh, one of those being his unquestioning and faithful dog.
So that's it for Chapter 1. Let me know what you think, I have loads more written so I'll try to upload it, but I can't promise to do so regularly because I'm absolutely rubbish at that.
I absolutely love writing Sam and Dylan together, and I will never not be mad at Casualty for killing her off. Shout out to BanoffeeMacdonald for helping me to come up with parts of this fic, go check out her work she's amazing!