“Go home and fuck your boyfriend,” snapped Sam with more venom than she’d intended, knowing she needed rest and some time with her thoughts of things that may, or may not, come.

            Reluctantly, Brian went over and kissed Sam’s cheek, Sam wrapped her good arm around his neck, kissing back his unshaven cheek, “I’m ok.”

            “I know,” whispered Brain back to Sam.  “I just want you to stay that way.”

            It was now Justin’s turn to hug Sam, finally, to Sam’s relief, they left the room.  Sinking back into the pillow, Sam felt the weight of the day finally sinking in onto her.  Her grey eyes filled with tears, rubbing her eyes with her right hand, shaking at the thought of having taken a life.

            Knowing that she’d saved Angelica and Tina, but she’d broken an oath, one to herself and one as a doctor, to do no harm.  Yet, she’d done that, taken a life, the life of a father to his child.  Soft sobs shook the bed as Sam let it all out, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand as she heard the door being crept open.

            Earlier, Jo and Shane had come by, then later Alice.  All of them had attempted to tell her that everything would be fine, but Sam knew otherwise.  For as many things that Sam had seen and done, this one had been, by far, the worst.  Killing someone, feeling that life ebbing away from a body, had been utterly terrifying, even if her own life had been threatened. 

            Looking up at the door with her red rimmed eyes, seeing a still disheveled Shane standing there, closing the door softly and shuffling towards the bed, hands in her pockets, rocking back and forth on her heels, “Sam?”

            “Yeah,” croaked Sam trying to put on a brave face.  But her voice betrayed her, telling Shane that she’d been crying. 

            “I-I hung around, waited ‘til Bri left…”

            “What for?” asked Sam in a pain filled voice, closing her eyes tightly, wiping the last of the tears away.

            “Because I thought you’d need a friend,” admitted Shane, hoping that maybe Sam might see her as more than a friend someday, but today, Sam Vance needed a friend.