Arrow in the Heart

I stood there, frozen in place. I closed my eyes, hoping I had read the name wrong. When I opened them again, the name was still the same and the nurse stared at me as if I was insane for not rushing off to help the man.

I took a deep breath and made a decision that I would help Samuel only until he was stable and then pass him off to a different doctor. I followed the nurse to the room in the ER that Samuel was occupying. When I got there, I immediately got to work. I started yelling directions to nurses and interns. We worked quickly, stopping the blood that dripped from my abuser's body.

"Get me two bags of AB negative blood!" I instructed a nearby intern.

"We don't know his blood type! Shouldn't we use O negative?" he asked.

"Just get it! I know him and I know his blood type!"

The intern rushed away to the hospital's blood bank as I continued to stitch up Samuel's wounds. I directed a nurse to call down to the OR and let them know we were coming.

"He's stable for right now. Let's get him down to the OR stat. We have no way of knowing how long he'll stay this way." I said.

As soon as we got to the operating room, I began scrubbing in. I had a nurse page another doctor to help assist me. I cut Samuel open and began fixing up his internal injuries. We worked as quickly and efficiently as we could. As I worked, I blocked all memories of Samuel out of my mind and saw him only as a patient who needed me to save his life.

When we finished, I scrubbed out and immediately headed back to the locker room. I tossed on my clothes and raced out of the hospital. I barely made it to my car before the tears started streaming down my cheeks. I sent a text to Lyla saying that I would be at dinner as soon as I could. I swung by Felicity's closet and grabbed a pale yellow maxi dress and a pair of nude heels before heading to the Diggle's home.

"Emma! It's so good to see you again!" Lyla said, hugging me and letting me into her home.

"You look amazing. Pregnancy looks good on you." I commented, smiling at her baby bump.

"Oh geez. I feel like I'm going to pop any minute." she replied, rubbing her belly.

I laughed and gave her another quick hug before moving to greet everyone else.

"Could I borrow Ollie for a second?" I asked Felicity, interjecting into her and Laurel's conversation with Oliver.

She nodded and Oliver followed me out into the hallway. I closed the door behind us and moved a little farther down the hall, knowing someone might try to listen through the door.

"What's going on, Emma?" Oliver asked, clearly worried.

"It's Samuel. He's back." I said, trying to hold myself together.

"What do you mean he's back? Did he hurt you? Where is he?"

"Ollie, calm down. He hasn't hurt me. I treated him in the hospital today. He got stabbed in jail. I don't know the whole story, but he had almost 30 stab wounds, one cut open his lung and another almost pierced his heart. I operated on him for 4 hours with another doctor. He's in stable condition now, but he's my patient. I can't just turn my back on a patient."

Oliver started pacing back and forth in anger. I placed my hand on his arm, stopping him. He looked at me and sighed before pulling me into a hug. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, allowing my frustration to melt away for a minute.

"There has to be some way for you to get out of this, Emma. The hospital can't force you to help your abuser."

"I'm sure if I really wanted to I could get myself removed from the case, but I don't think that's a good idea. I can at least defend myself against him. The other nurses don't know what he's capable of." I said.