Sorry for the late update! College starts up again this week and I had a lot of stuff to do before I went back and haven't had as much time as I wanted to work on stuff. Updates might come a little slower depending on course work and what not, but hopefully I can crack out an update or two every few weeks or so... No promises though!

Happy Reading!

-DFD

Chapter 2

The ER was unnaturally quiet compared to just a few hours ago. There had been a car accident where two people had been drag racing and crashed into a semi. Padme stifled yawn as she stretched her shoulders. She was stiff. Glancing at the clock it was well past four in the morning. She had worked since six in the morning the previous day and in two hours she would finally be off. Padme smiled as she thought about the hot bath that was waiting for her when she got home. Padme walked over to the ER desk and handed off the release for a patient to a nurse just as Sabe answered the ER phone. It figured that just as her shift was nearing its end, something else happened.

"Ambulance five minutes out." Sabe said as she hung up the phone. "Great." She muttered.

"Don't sound too excited." Padme commented, noting her friend's lack of enthusiasm.

She shrugged, "I'm just tired." She said, "Dating and working is not an easy feat my friend."

"And that's why I don't. Not now anyway." Padme said with a smile, "Later on, when we're second or third year residents it will be a lot easier to juggle."

Sabe groaned, "I'll be twenty-six by then! Our friends would already be onto their first kid by that point."

"Not all of them." Padme said as she pulled on a pair of gloves, "What exactly is coming in?"

She shrugged, "Just boys being boys."

"Something stupid?"

"Something stupid with knives."

Padme shook her head. In six months she has learned that humans are without a doubt the stupidest species to ever live. Where most people think everyone has common sense, the ER has showed her that common sense is more likely a trait only a select few possess.

The sound of a siren coming around the corner, alerted the two interns to the arrival of the ambulance. Padme and Sabe walked out the ER doors just as the rig pulled up and the doors opened. Laying down on the gurney was a man whose hand was tightly wrapped in gauzes that wound their way around his hand and the knife sticking out of it. He was smiling and kept insisting he was fine as they pushed him into the hospital. Behind him walked a tall brown haired man whose white shirt had spots of blood on the sleeves.

After transferring the reluctant man into one of the hospital beds, Padme began unwrapping the wounded hand as Sabe started filling out a chart and taking his vitals. The knife went through the heel of his palm and came straight out the other side. From where it was positioned, Padme knew there was a good chance he could lose some motor function.

"I told you, I'm fine." The patient said as Sabe took a look at the other cuts on his body.

"You don't look fine." Padme said, holding up his hand.

He scoffed, "Its only a flesh wound. I'll be fine."

The other man rolled his eyes, "You can stop the tough guy act any time." His friend said. The man on the bed just gave a shrug.

"You could lose the hand." Padme said, "The knife cuts through-"

"Between the median and ulnar nerves, through several carpal and metacarpal bones, and there is currently no bleeding because the knife is keeping it in." Sabe looked at Padme with a bewildered look. Whoever this guy is, he isn't the normal did-something-stupid type of guy they expect to walk into the ER. The man smirked at them, "I'm a medical student." He explained.

"Aren't you a little young?" Sabe asked, taking note that he didn't look older than nineteen.

He gave a shrug, "Yeah, but I graduated high school early and finished my undergrad in two years."

Padme shook her head as she looked back down at the knife hand. "Tell me if you can feel this." She said, running her fingers from the tip of his pinky down his palm.

"Yeah." He said, "I can also move that finger too." He said as he flexed the digit.

"Don't. It could shift the blade," She warned.

"I'm fine." He said again.

"Can you tell us your name?" Sabe asked.

He turned his head to her, "Anakin. Spelled A-N-A-…"

Padme momentarily forgot what she was doing when he said his name. She knew a boy called Anakin a long time ago. They met once on a family vacation when the car broke down. A sweet little boy who lived in the trailer park just across from the mechanic offered them a place to stay for the night. They had stayed up most of that night just talking and before she left, she gave him her email. Every few weeks or so, she received an email from him and every few weeks, she sent one to him. It was nice talking to him and she almost wished she had kept in touch better. But with high school and deciding she wanted to be a doctor, she lost what free time she did have to studying to make sure she got into the best school. He must have gotten into a similar situation as little by little his emails stopped as well. She hasn't thought about Anakin in years.

Her eyes shifted from the patient's hand and slowly followed his arm to his face. There was a resemblance, though it was hard to tell since the last time she saw him he had only been around ten years old. "Anakin?" Padme asked, "As in Anakin Skywalker?"

His eyes went wide as he turned his attention to her, "Yeah," He said, his sharp blue eyes squinting as he looked at her, "How did…?" his voice trails off as his piercing gaze tries to figure out who she is.

She smiles at him, "Padme Naberrie." She said.

The wide, surprised smile he gives her makes her broaden her own smile as he shakes his head, "I haven't heard from you since-"

"I know." She said, "I'm sorry, I got busy."

"I can see that."

Padme looks him up and down, "I can't believe its you." She said, "Little Ani, my goodness you've grown."

He smirked at her, "So have you- more beautiful I mean." He said, "And a doctor too, hot."

"Anakin, stop." His friend said, but Padme didn't mind.

She laughed and shook her head, "Now do you want to tell me about this." She lifted his hand up so he could see it.

"Alright." He sighed, "There's this old guy who lives a couple blocks from campus. Ben and I pass it when we go for a run-"

"Ben?"

"That would be me." His friend said, holding up a hand, "Ben Kenobi." He introduced.

"He's my roommate." Anakin explained, "Anyways, we aren't the only college kids that use that route, so apparently when someone got the smart idea to mess with the guy's lawn- and it is a good lawn too- he decides it is appropriate to just blame the first one who dares pass his house again." Anakin wiggles the fingers of his right hand, "And it just so happened I was the lucky winner."

Padme raised a brow at the story. Whoever this guy is, he sounds crazy and yet Anakin seems perfectly calm. "You do realize this counts as assault."

He gives a shrug, "He's an old guy and he was rightfully pissed about his lawn. It could have been worse."

Padme looked back down at his hand then over to his left arm where Sabe was stitching up the largest of the cuts, "I would like to take an x-ray to he certain where it is in the hand." She said, "Then depending on the damage you will most likely need surgery to make sure there isn't any nerve damage."

Anakin groaned but nodded his head, "Fine. But only if you're operating."

"I'm just an intern." Padme said.

He gave a shrug, "I trust you not to maim me."

[][][][]

After taking Anakin for x-rays and admitting him, they left him in the capable hands of the nurses to make sure he didn't pull the knife out himself. Padme walked down the hall with Sabe in search of . Sabe kept looking her way, an amused smile on her face that Padme could recognize even through her attempts to hide it. She knew it was because of Anakin. He was clearly flirting with her and Sabe probably found that they had met before extremely interesting, especially since she hadn't mentioned him before.

Padme sighed, "Alright, let get this over with."

Sabe's smile widened, "You know him? How? When?"

"Remember that vacation my family took when we were fourteen? The one where my dad worked the entire time and my mom spent the entire trip fuming over it? Car broke down on the way on the edge of some small town. Anakin lived across from the mechanic and he offered us a place to sleep since there wasn't a hotel nearby. We emailed for a couple years."

Sabe shook her head, "And now you find each other again. You know if Dorme was here-"

"Don't start." Padme groaned, "Dorme is a hopeless romantic. She would tell me 'its fate, we were destined to be together'."

She raised her hands in mock surrender, "Hey, I'm not a romantic at all." She said, "I'm more interested in the sex."

"Probably why you took Ian up on his offer." Padme said with a sly smile of her own.

Sabe returned it, "Yes. And it's why you should take Anakin up on his."

She shook her head; "He's too young for me."

"He's over eighteen as far as I'm concerned that is all that matters. And he's giving you the green so go for it." Sabe took Padme by the shoulders and pushed her back against a wall, "You're not up for a relationship; I get that. But come on! Two hot guys are into you. You turned one down, don't turn this one down. Besides, this one is way hotter." She released her hold on Padme after a moment and they continued to walk in silence.

They found Shessaun on the intensive care unit, finishing up a post-op and waited outside for her. The way she interacted with patients was the complete opposite of how she interacted with everyone else in the hospital. She smiled at the patients and made jokes with them, she was patient with them and took the time to make sure they understood what was happening. Padme was always surprised to see this cold stoic woman acting this way, and it made her wonder which was the real her. After a few minutes she left the room and the smile she had worn for the patient vanished, replaced once more with the indifferent look they were used to.

Padme held out the scans for her, "ER patient. Male, twenty years old, has a knife stuck in his hand." She explained. Shessaun pulled out the scans and held them up to the light to see them.

"Course of action?" She asked.

Padme and Sabe exchanged looks, "We think surgery is needed to remove the knife." Padme said, "It is extremely close to the median nerve and it has fractured two of the carpal bones so we should get ortho to repair that as well."

Shessaun was silent for several moments as she looked through each of the scans. Padme was nervous that perhaps she had said something wrong, as more often than not if she was this silent she is waiting for them to make a correction. But Padme can't think of another course of action that is better than what she has said. There is no other way to ensure Anakin has complete function of his hand. She shifted nervously as Shessaun directed her attention back to her.

"Good." She said, "But ortho is the least of my worries. The bones will heal and they won't fuse so long as he follows all post-op instructions. So instead have neuro send someone to ensure the nerves are okay." She handed the scans back to her, "Have them schedule it as soon as possible. I don't trust him not to try and pull it out himself."

[][][][]

By the time Padme found her way to Anakin's room after making sure his surgery was scheduled and taking care of some matters for other patients, she had found that the nurses had to restrain his arm to make sure he wouldn't pull the knife. A vertical sling kept the right arm immobile while a soft velco cuff kept his left hand down low enough that he couldn't reach for the knife. He smiled at her as she entered the room.

"Will I live?" He asked.

"If you can last an hour without touching that knife, yes." She said crossing her arms over her chest in a manner she hoped was intimidating but instead resulted in him laughing. Padme shook her head, "You must not be that good of a medical student."

"Actually I'm pretty impressive." He said, "I graduate next year."

Padme raised a brow at his words, "You're twenty."

"Graduated high school and college early." He said, "Wasn't easy, but it was worth it."

"You're crazy." She said. Padme remembered how hard it had been for her to finish high school when she was seventeen like everyone else. It was hard to imagine doing it any earlier. Add college to that mix and she can't imagine ever wanting to do that- and he had. "So what then?" She asked, coming to stand at the foot of the bed, leaning on the tray table with a pitcher of water perched on top.

He smiled, "What do you think? Where do prospective surgeons go after medical school?"

Her eyes went wide, "You want to be a surgeon. You?"

"Everyone said I'd never make it to medical school, now that I'm almost out, they think I'm going to be some third-rate doctor in the middle of nowhere." Anakin shrugged, "So I figured I'd become a surgeon. That's the best anyone can do, short of being the surgeon general."

That sounded like something he would do. Padme remembered how his emails often said he wanted to be the best at whatever it was he was into at the time. She remembered how the lawn in front of his trailer had been littered with car parts and other such trinkets with half finished machines leaning against the trailer. Over the time they had emailed, he would occasionally send her pictures of the engines and machines he had been working on. He had wanted to be a mechanic back then, not only that he wanted to be the best mechanic. Now that she thought about it, the last email she had gotten from him wasn't too long ago- maybe six years ago- and if she recalls correctly, he was still working on engines. She could easily see him wanting to be an engineer instead of a simple mechanic; and she couldn't help but wonder what had made him change his mind so drastically. Was that too personal a question? Padme shook her head; it wasn't any of her business. "They should be finishing up in the OR by now, ready to get that knife out of your hand?" She asked.

He smiled again at her, "Are you ready to pull it out?"

"Yes. But I don't think they'll let me."

"Not even if I demand that you do?"

She shook her head, "We do what's best for the patient, and letting an intern mess with something so delicate is not what's best for the patient."

"Perhaps, but you're going to be in there alone at some point, dealing with something like this and isn't it better to get an early start?"

"Yes." She said, "But only when we're ready."

Anakin shook his head, "You're ready now. They just can't see it."

Padme raised a brow at him, "Is that your expert opinion?"

"Yes." He said, "You have the confidence, the knowledge and the determination to do it, you just lack the experience. And what better experience than the guy willingly telling you to just pull the thing out?"

Padme shook her head; "Lets just get you down to the OR."