The team plane touched down in Dallas and Jamie could hardly restrain himself in his seat. As much as he loved the Stars and being on the road with his boys, he finally found a reason to be happy about the end of long roadies. Lauren. She had become a force of nature in his life. He was happier than he had been in years. His game was better. Everything was great. And it all had to do with the little redheaded firestorm that had shown up when he least expected it.

Walking with confidence into the lobby of St. Thomas, Jamie had flowers in hand and went straight to reception. He was a man on a mission. He and Lauren had been friends for nearly 3 months at this point but this road trip had really given him time to think about wanting to be more. Of course, he had been attracted to her since that night in the game room. She was pretty (there was no doubt about that) but seeing her attitude with Segs made her stand out from the crowd. He smiled just thinking about it. Approaching the Front Desk, he knew that tonight was the night he was finally going to make a move.

The young male nurse at the triage desk looked him up and down before saying, “Are you checking in?”
Jamie chuckled, “No. No. I’m actually here to see Dr. Mitchell.”
It was at that moment that an announcement came over the P.A. system in the hospital.
“Code trauma, Bay 3. Paging Dr. Knowles and Dr. Mitchell to Bay 3.”
Jamie barely flattened himself to the wall when a stretcher came bursting through the double doors to his left. On it, he could barely make out the shape of a person. There was too much blood and frankly, he couldn’t look very long.
Lauren and another female doctor came running down the hall to meet the stretcher. Jamie watched with wide eyes as Lauren’s hands moved quickly while she communicated with the trauma staff. He had always known her to be sweet and somewhat quiet until she was comfortable around people. To see her in a position of authority like that was like getting a glimpse into a whole other part of her world. As the trauma team and stretcher disappeared behind closed doors with Lauren leading the charge, he couldn’t help but wonder if he belonged in that part of her world. Would she let him in?

Lauren's POV

She was exhausted. Every part of her body and mind ached. She had been pulling regular double shifts to pick up the slack that Dr. Hale was leaving for her. She was lucky that by this evening, Jamie would be back in Dallas. Of course, she still had another 8 hours before she would get to see him but the thought of it was keeping her motivated to make it through her shift. Just as she put her hand on the door to the staff room to have a moment of peace, an announcement came over the loudspeaker.
“Code trauma, Bay 3. Paging Dr. Knowles and Dr. Mitchell to Bay 3.”
Lauren looked over her shoulder to Dr. Knowles who was filling out paperwork at the nurse’s station. Dr. Knowles had become her adopted mentor since Dr. Hale couldn’t seem to be bothered to try. Both women looked at one another and then quickly headed down to the trauma entrance. They met the stretcher in the hallway. Dr. Knowles nodded at Lauren and allowed her to take the lead. It was baptism by fire.
Looking at the EMT she said,”Okay. What do we know?”
“Female. Caucasian. Early 30s. Car collision off I-30. Head on collision.”
Lauren felt the adrenaline kick in as she started giving out orders to the trauma staff. As they wheeled the stretcher into the Emergency Room, the woman on the stretcher grabbed Lauren’s hand.
“I have babies. Please save them first.”
Lauren barely had time to process before the hand went limp.
“She’s pregnant! Get her stable so we have a chance to save them.”
The sound of the flatline alarm forced Lauren to rip her eyes away from the patient.
“She’s crashing! Everyone stand back.”
Lauren grabbed the defibrillator off the crash cart and warmed the paddles up.
“Clear!”
The woman’s body jumped with no response. Lauren pleaded in her mind, “Please. I have to save her.”
“Clear!”
No response.
Dr. Knowles put her hand on Lauren’s shoulder.
“That’s enough, Doctor. She’s gone. We can’t get her back.”
Turning to the nearest nurse, Lauren said with very little emotion, “Time of Death, 4:03pm”

Lauren walked out into the hallway to try and grab some air. She pulled her hair guard off her head and threw it on the ground.
“FUCK!”
Bracing herself against the wall, she began to cry. Whether it was losing the patient or the exhaustion she didn’t know. It all seemed too much for her to handle. Sometimes the burden of being a doctor was too much. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to see Dr. Knowles.
“Lauren. It’s going to be okay.”
“No it’s not okay! She was pregnant. She had babies. I couldn’t save her! I couldn’t save them,” Lauren practically screamed.
“Lo, how long have you been on shift?”
“12 hours? I don’t know. It’s all kind of a blur. I can’t even remember the last time I sat down.”
“Go home.”
“What?”
“Go home.”
“But, I have 8 more hours…”
Standing up straight, Dr. Knowles looked at Lauren with a fierce look.
“Doctor, that was not a question. As your superior, I am telling you to go home.”
It was at that moment that the triage nurse approached the two women.
“Um. Dr. Mitchell? There’s a young man waiting in the lobby. Says he is here to see you.”
Lauren pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Okay. Thank you, Travis.”
Looking back at her adopted mentor, she wiped the tears from her face.
“I’ll see you in a few days. You need to learn to balance. Take the weekend off and try to relax,” Dr. Knowles said with a smile.
“Okay,” Lauren whispered.

As she walked back towards the staff room to collect her things, she remembered that Travis had said there was someone in the lobby waiting to see her. Sighing, she turned around and walked towards the lobby. She came around the corner and sitting in a chair, holding flowers, and looking at the floor, was none other than Jamie. Her Jamie. A hand raised to her mouth out of shock.
“Jamie?”

Jamie’s POV

Looking up with his big brown eyes, Jamie couldn’t help but stare. There was blood on her scrubs. Jamie couldn’t bear to think where it had come from. Her eyes were red and it looked like she had been crying.
“Lauren.”
He got up and walked over to her.
“What are you doing here?”
Jamie scratched the back of his neck nervously and smiled.
“Well I knew that you wouldn’t be done for a few more hours but I couldn’t wait that long to see you. I just wanted to come by and check in on my girl.”
Lauren stared at him and he noticed tears welling up in her eyes. She threw her arms around his neck and buried her head in his chest. Instinctively, Jamie’s arms wrapped around her torso; as if to protect her from any harm.
“I missed you so much,” she whispered.
Kissing the top of her head, he murmured back, “I missed you too.”
She pulled away and wiped the tears from her eyes.
“Jamie...will you take me home?”
“Aren’t you still on the clock?”
“No. Dr. Knowles is sending me home and told me to take the weekend off. I put in 96 hours this week while you were gone.”
Jamie was dumbfounded. He knew Lauren was a hard worker but there was no way she would have the time to be at the hospital that long. Something else must of forced her to be there. He had a nagging feeling that it was Dr. Hale.
“Jamie?”
“Um. Yeah. No problem. Um I’ll take you home.”
“Okay. I’m gonna go get my things.”
“Okay.”
As she walked away, Jamie could practically feel the sadness emanating from her. He would do anything she asked as long as it would make her happy.

Notes

Oh my god. I can't believe I have been gone for 8 months. Life has just had horrible timing as of late. I was trying to take my mind off of some family drama, I was rereading this story on my Google Drive. This chapter just came to me and once my fingers hit the keyboard, I couldn't stop! I can't believe that this story has 97 subscribers! Thank you for not giving up on me and keeping this story alive. I freaking love each and every one of you.

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What an emotional roller coaster!
Will this be the event that pushes Jamie and Lauren together?
Only time will tell.