were steady, her pulse calm. She was performing a procedure she’d done a hundred, maybe even a thousand times—first on dummies, then on real patients.
She still felt a pinch of nerves each time she did such a tricky procedure. It would be very nice when that was no longer the case, when she was as confident as the doctors who had been doing this for years. She would get there—it was only a matter of time.
While the nurses stripped the patient down and threw a hospital gown over him, she focused on the job at hand. That’s why this worked. They all knew their jobs and they moved together as one.
“He needs a unit of blood, stat. That gash on his leg is still bleeding. Let’s get the blood loss stopped.”
Orders. Lots of orders. Shouted orders. Everyone responding. It was awe-inspiring. They were going to save this man’s life, and she was right there, right in the thick of it.
“Dr. Banks, what comes next?”
Sage’s head snapped up as she looked into the eyes of Dr. Snyder, the surgeon who was on call that night. He was new, someone she didn’t know and didn’t feel comfortable with, which made her slightly nervous.
When she didn’t answer, he shouted out his next order. “Finish cleaning that leg wound. I want him in surgery ten minutes ago!”
Sage moved to the patient’s leg and didn’t hesitate at the sight of the protruding bone. This she could handle—blood, bodily fluids, torn skin. From the time Sage was eleven years old, or so her grandma told her, she was meant to be a doctor. That was when she’d brought home a kitten that had been run over and had a nasty wound on its side.
Most kids would have panicked at the sight, but she’d wrapped up the kitten, slowed the loss of blood, and ended up saving its life because she made sure they got it to the vet in time. The vet had been so impressed that she’d let Sage watch through the window as she operated. After this swift trip down memory lane, Sage Banks, MD, pulled herself together again and focused on cleaning John Doe’s wounds.
“This is Mike Smith. Forty-year-old male, was skateboarding with his son when a car slammed into him. He went flying about fifty yards, so we could have some major internal damage,” the paramedic called out as he read the man’s chart to them.
“Got it. Is the OR ready?”
“Yes, Dr. Snyder. Ready to go.”
“Let’s move.”
Sage started to follow when Dr. Snyder turned. “Stay in the ER. There will be more incoming. It’s Friday night.” With that, he was gone.
Sage sagged against the wall and took her first deep breath since the trauma patient had come into the ER. This was an unusually busy night, but at least she wouldn’t be bored.
SAGE’S FEET FELT as if they would just fall off as soon as she undid her laces and removed her shoes. And doing that would take more effort than she had right now. She’d certainly had some long nights when she was in medical school, and whole days without any sleep, but none of it compared to the way she was feeling at this moment.
Add to it all the fact that she was frozen solid—her car had refused to start for a full ten minutes, and once it had started, the blasted heater hadn’t worked, so she had to leave her windows down to keep her windshield from fogging up. In short, she was a broken Popsicle.
Rushing inside the apartment she and Grace shared, Sage moaned loudly as a blast of warm air encircled her. If she even thought about another cup of coffee, she was going to heave. She needed a nice cup of hot chocolate, followed by a steaming hot bath, and topped off by about twenty-four hours of dreamless, blissful sleep. Of course, she wasn’t going to get even six hours. This was the life she’d signed up for. And despite everything, she was still sure she’d made the right career choice.
Her grandmother hadn’t been nearly as upset when Sage had moved in with Grace as Sage had thought she’d be. As a matter of fact, Bethel had practically pushed Sage out the door, making her think her grandmother might be up to something. It was so nice living with Grace, though, that she refused to worry about it. She wished her friend was home. It would be nice to tell her about her hellacious day, and