Bear Spark

1. Bear Spark-2

“We take you firsthand into a blazing fire where lives were on the line,” the news reporter said on the TV. What followed were men running into a blazing factory, yelling orders, axes before them, fire extinguishers ready. The cameraman followed into the darkness lit only by flashlights before a red glow slowly overtook the men. After a few moments, the red tint gave way to a full on blaze, fire engulfing the building they were in.

After another few minutes, the scene cut to a big man standing in front of a fire engine. His face was smudged here and there with black but he appeared altogether unharmed. He smiled and revealed a set of white teeth in what Carrie Sanderson could only think of as predatory.

“Well, that was riveting stuff,” her nurse said from next to her. “Who would have been interested in learning about the government cuts to hospital funding? Not me, I can tell you that much.”

Carrie looked over at Natasha, who more often than not wore a scowl on her face. She lifted a bite of cheap takeout to her lips and ate, chewing thoughtfully as the man finished up his speech. In the background, Carrie could see other men moving around, putting away gear.

“You gonna eat that, Doc?” Tasha asked, pointing with a chopstick at the box of noodles forgotten in Carrie’s hand.

“No, take it. I’m not hungry anymore,” Carrie said, handing over the half eaten box of Chinese to Tasha. Carrie leaned back in the chair and rubbed her eyes. She was tired – and her shift was only halfway over.

“You could have said no, you know,” Tasha said around a mouthful of food, her eyes staring at the news on TV. “These graveyard shifts twice a month really throw off my sleep schedule.”

“You could have said no,” Carrie reminded her. “You didn’t have to agree. There are plenty of other doctors that would have loved to have your experience.”

“I don’t like them as much as I like you.”

“I’d hate to see how much you like them, then,” Carrie said. Tasha shot her a glare – the closest the other woman ever came to a smile.

But she does have a point. Agreeing to this graveyard shift, well, it probably wasn’t my best idea.

Then again, what else did Carrie have? Thinking about it, she realized not much. She had…

My career.

She was a young woman, nearing the dreaded 30 years old, with no boyfriend – there hadn’t been time, she told herself – no debt, and no idea to do with what little free time she now had. She’d worked hard right out of school. She’d tackled her mountain of medical school debt in a spectacular fashion, living mostly off of ramen and TV dinners for a few years in a cheap apartment before buying a nice little house close to the hospital she practiced at.

Carrie was, in her opinion, a great surgeon – but she’d seen a lot of great surgeons laid off in the past year due to budget cuts and she was determined not to be one of them. So she’d increased her workload to the maximum, taken on the night shift twice a month that no one else wanted, and got to work. It had been a long few months – but she was still there, as was the staff that worked under her.

She looked over at Tasha, a woman nearly 20 years her senior. She’d been a nurse long before Carrie had even considered a career in medicine. Her demeanor was prickly, to say the least, but she was good at her job and as it turns out, her and Carrie got along reasonably well. She wasn’t a fan of the night shifts, but she recognized how important it was to stay employed, so all she did was complain about it constantly.

To be fair, the night shifts were tough. Carrie had known getting used to staying up would be tough on her, especially while working nearly every other night of every other month, but she hadn’t expected the extreme amount of down time. Most shifts found her and Carrie sitting in the break room, eating cheap Chinese takeout, and watching the nightly news.

“I would have thought this would be a little bit more… busy,” Carrie said.

“You say that every time,” Tasha said. She leaned back in her chair and put her empty box on the break room table. “You should have known, Carrie.”

“I know, I know.”

“I warned you.”

“I know you did,” Carrie said. Tasha had warned her – after all, their hospital they practiced in was in one of the more affluent areas of New York City. There were less drunk driving accidents, fights, and anything else that might require late night operations. Sure, they had people coming in the emergency room often, but the chances that they needed a surgeon of Carrie’s skill and couldn’t wait until morning was small.

In short, the two night shifts a month often found Carrie and Tasha sitting around bored, almost dozing off.

“But at least it pays well,” Tasha said.

Carrie repeated, “At least it pays well.”

The amount of times either one of them had said that must have been in the hundreds. It was how these night shifts went: they talked about the exact same thing each and every night.

“Found a young man to put a ring on that finger yet?”

Carrie had known that question was coming – though truth be told, Tasha didn’t usually ask that question until about 4 A.M., and a quick glance at the clock told her that they’d barely broke 2.

“A little bit early for that kind of question,” Carrie said with a chuckle. Tasha just looked at her. “But no, if you must know, I haven’t had any luck on that front.”

“What about that young doctor I put you in touch with? Luke Norell? He’s single.”

“He’s twice divorced, Tasha! And he’s younger than I am!”

“He’s cute though, isn’t he?”

Well, yes, he was cute – but he was also arrogant, conceited, and flaunted his wealth like it was going out of style. He was the opposite of the kind of man Carrie had always imagined herself with.

“Looks aren’t everything.”

“Does the money help?” Tasha asked. “You don’t want to end up like me.”

Now Carrie truly did laugh. “You cut and run on more guys than I can remember! I’ve been with you for what, five years? How many eligible suitors did you shoot down? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty?”

“Now, Carrie, that’s none of your business! My personal life is my own!”

“And so is mine!” Carrie said. There was a pause for a few seconds and then Carrie laughed, an actual, deep bellied laugh that seemed to wake her up and take the edge off. Even Tasha’s glare almost betrayed the hint of a smile.

It wasn’t a bad life – a little lonely, but it was her own. Sure, she did want to meet a man. She didn’t mind being alone, yet being with someone else, wasn’t that the point of life? She could start a family, cut back on her hours, and live life.

Then again, she had years for that, right?

I am getting older, day by day, and these nights certainly don’t help…

The sound of her pager beeping on her waist brought her out of those thoughts – and that was a place she didn’t really want to go to.

“Finally, some action,” Tasha muttered, getting up and grabbing one last bite of Chinese before heading towards the door. “What is it?”

“Car accident,” Carrie read. “The passenger’s leg completely crushed. Let’s go.”

Carrie led the way down the deserted hospital hallways, Tasha right on her heels. They met the assistants pushing the passenger down the hall right outside of the operating room.

“Jeff McNabb, 42,” one of the women said. “He’s suffered a crush injury from mid left thigh all of the way down.”

“And who pulled him out?” Carrie yelled. “He’s suffering sever bleeding!”

The woman shrugged and said, “One of the first responders, presumably.”

The man had suffered severe trauma – and the worst thing they could have done was try to remove him from the vehicle in that situation. In extreme cases – like this – the best thing to do was bring everything in at once.

This man could die. All because someone thought cutting him out with the Jaws of Life would be the heroic thing to do.

For a brief moment, she imagined cameras on the scene of the accident as men smiled as they thought they were saving this man’s life. It made her disgusted.

That’s not what really happened, though.

“Let’s get him into the OR as fast as possible!” Carrie yelled, stepping out of the way as the man was wheeled through the operating room doors. Carrie and Tasha followed, going to scrub in as fast as possible.

There was already another person in the room as they came into it.

“What are you doing here?” Carrie asked, stepping up beside the man to wash her hands.

“I work here,” he responded. Carrie spared him the briefest of glances – she didn’t want to argue with the great Luke Norell. She didn’t know why he was here so early or even why he felt the need to scrub in on her surgery, so she did her best and ignored him. “Or, are you wondering why I’m here in this surgery?”

“Let’s just save this man’s life,” Carrie said as level as she could. The three of them entered the operating room and really got a good look at Jeff McNabb. His leg was completely destroyed. There would be no saving it.

“There’s no saving this leg,” Luke observed. “We’ll need to amputate.”

“This is my operating room!” Carrie fumed. Luke raised an eyebrow at her.

“What do you suggest we do, then, Doctor?”

“We’ll amputate,” she said through ground teeth. They got to work.

“I can get you off of these graveyard shifts,” Luke told her as they operated. He glanced up at her and smiled. He was handsome – but talking to the man was like nails on a chalkboard.

“I signed up for this,” Carrie said shortly.

“You signed up for this because you were worried about losing your job in the budget cuts,” he said in an offhanded way. “I have some pull around here, you know. You don’t have to worry about that.”

She looked up for the briefest of moments to shoot him a glare and to tell him off, but he was looking down at the patient’s leg. Tasha looked at her and Carrie shot her the most venomous look she could muster, saying don’t say a word.

Tasha just looked down and ignored her. Carrie wanted to scream, to tell both of them to get out of her OR, but she knew she needed them here, now. She didn’t like Luke Norell. She despised the man. But he was a good surgeon. And if Jeff McNabb had any chance of survival after the botched rescue, he needed the best surgeons he could get.

Of course, Carrie was the best – but Norell was good, too. And Tasha was great at her job. Carrie ignored Luke’s next comments, tuning him out completely, and bent her head down. She would deal with him later.

Right now, she had a life to save – and that’s what she was good at.

The Forest was as bad as Alex had ever seen it. The men were in an uproar after last night’s accident. He sat back and watched it all unfold.

Reg Sharp, the current Chief, though truthfully, he was only Chief in name, was standing in front of the men and trying to calm them down. Crichton was standing off to the side, for once in his life looking a little nervous, and Smith even further away in the corner.