“I’m Dr. Adelaide,” I said, my voice as cold and sterile as the steel instruments on the tray beside me. I completely ignored his trembling hands and the utter devastation painted across his features. “Put her on the bed. What happened?” “Adelaide…” he choked out, his voice a broken whisper.

“My god, Adelaide, you’re…” “Patient history,” I snapped, my tone leaving absolutely no room for personal conversation. “How did she get this injury?” He swallowed hard, his eyes still frantically darting between my face and my stomach. “She… she tripped. On the stairs at the house.

She fell through the glass pane of the landing door. There was so much blood. I just grabbed her and drove.” “Okay,” I said, turning my attention entirely to Lily. I pulled back the bloody towel. It was a deep laceration, nasty and jagged, but thankfully it had missed the major arteries.

It would require a good amount of stitches and local anesthetic, but she was going to be perfectly fine.

As I worked, cleaning the wound and preparing the lidocaine injections, Elias hovered in the corner of the trauma bay. He looked like a man who was simultaneously suffocating and drowning. He kept opening his mouth to speak, to explain, to apologize, but every time he stepped forward, my sharp, warning glare pinned him right back to the wall.

“I’m going to numb your arm now, sweetheart,” I told Lily gently, softening my voice for her. “It’s going to pinch a little bit, but then it’ll feel numb. Can you be brave for me?” Lily sniffled and nodded, looking up at me with big, tear-filled eyes that looked exactly like her father’s.