Page 97 of Doc Defence

“And probably the walls and ceiling too,” Barney finished.

The young officers glanced at each other, and one paled significantly. Great, Hel thought, just what she needed, a man mountain who was squeamish.

“Gents. The plan is: I’m going in via the cab, and you two come in the back doors. If you can hold him for thirty seconds, I should be able to jab him with the sedation. Then we can retreat until he settles down,” Hel explained to the officers, who both nodded in agreement.

She waited until she heard two knocks on the ambulance and rushed into it through the front door.

The officers managed to grab hold of the patient. A skinny, unkempt-looking man who didn’t seem very happy to have two policemen holding onto him and, despite the size difference, was doing an epic job of shaking them off.

Hel lunged forward and grabbed onto his upper arm, jabbing the needle of the syringe through his clothes, into his deltoid muscle and depressing the plunger.

Pulling the syringe out, she went to reverse out the way she entered. However, she wasn’t quick enough, and the patient’s arm, which was slippery with blood, wrenched out of the officer’s grip, and his elbow connected firmly with her eye socket.

“Fuck,” Hel hollered, unable to help herself as stars exploded in front of her vision.

Despite the shock and pain, she carried on reversing, getting herself out of the front door of the ambulance.

“You okay, Hel?” Barney shouted from the back, where she heard the doors slamming.

“Yeah.” She walked back to the men, who were holding the doors closed as the patient yelled incoherently. “He got me in the eye. It was a bit of a shock.”

And Frost wasn’t there to throw him to the floor, unlike the last patient who managed to hit her. She shushed her brain that only wanted to think of Frost.

“Sorry, Doc.” The young officer who let go of the arm that caught Hel apologised.

“It’s not your fault. Hazard of the job.” Hel shrugged, pleased to note the noise from the back of the ambulance was getting quieter. It wouldn’t be long before they could safely scoop him up and head inside to assess him.

After another thirty seconds, she nodded to Barney, who opened the back door. The patient was still conscious, but he was now sitting on the stretcher, blinking with a bewildered look on his face.

“Fuck,” Barney swore loudly when he observed the state of his ambulance.

Hel agreed. It looked like a battle zone. There was blood everywhere. It was on the wall, the floor, the ceiling, and all over the patient.

“Shall we get him out?” Hel enquired, as the ambos, apart from swearing, seemed to be struck dumb at the state of their rig.

“Yeah,” Barney agreed.

Hel heard a retching sound and looked over her shoulder to see one of the young police officers dry heaving and the other rolling his eyes in annoyance.

“I think we’ve got it from here,” Hel said dryly.

The two paramedics made short work of getting the patient strapped to their gurney and out the back door.

When they walked into the Emergency department one of the other consultants was passing and drew to an immediate halt when he saw Hel.

“Hel. What happened?” he asked, his voice full of concern.

She lifted her hand to her bruised cheek and pointed to the patient on the gurney they were wheeling straight to resus.

“Shit. You can’t keep seeing patients. You’re leaving soon anyway, I’ll take this one. You go sort yourself out.”

“Thanks,” Hel nodded gratefully. The pain in her eye was now throbbing in time with her heartbeat, which couldn’t be good.

“Walk and talk. Hand me over the rest of your patients, and get out of here,” the other doctor requested.

Hel accompanied him along the corridor, giving him a rundown of the department and the patients she was supervising for the juniors.

Once she finished talking, she made her way to the computer desk and finished up a couple of things before heading to fetch her bag.

---