It was a Wednesday lunchtime in Holby City ED, which meant relatively few casualties usually, and the few that they did have were fairly simple.
Basically, it was just an ordinary day.

Mid-way through her twelve hour shift, Sam Nicholls headed to the CDU desk after helping Zoe with a man who had dislocated his shoulder.
Watching Dylan out of the corner of her eye, she silently mused her marriage, or what was left of it anyway.
Broken out of her silent reverie by a sharp ringing, she answered the red telephone seconds before her husb... Dylan.
The spoken instructions were simple enough, they needed a Doctor as soon as possible for a cave rescue, with two casualties.
Agreeing almost before she knew what she was saying, she hung up on the caller, and went to get changed into the green uniform, only waving the small post-it note on which she had written what she had been told at Dylan, when he asked me if she was going anywhere interesting - a move Sam knew with certainty would annoy him.

Arriving at the scene in the middle of the woods, Sam wasn't sure what she had expected, but it hadn't been a large group of people doing nothing, whilst Jeff was very nearly yelling at who appeared to be the Lead Fireman, and two dogs ran in crazy circles around everyone.
Coming to the correct conclusion that the Lead Fireman wasn't allowing Jeff to retrieve his patients as he was not qualified for that sort of Rescue, Sam soon made herself known.
"I was trained in line rescue in the army," Sam remarked, not even introducing herself first.
The Fireman turned around, "Have you ever actually rescued anyone?" It was a valid point from the man clearly in charge, and one that he was obligated to ask, but it did not stop the twinge of annoyance Sam felt deep in her gut.
"Yes." Sam answered firmly, she had rescued people before, even if was only once or twice. Noticing she was expected to say more, she quickly expanded upon her answer. "I'll go down, assess and stabilise the casualties and we'll wait for cave rescue to get here." Feeling slightly annoyed at his lack of faith in her abilities, though in her head she knew his lack of faith was not unfounded as he had never met her before, she did not stop there. "And when they do, we'll give you a rescue that'll have your Health and Safety forms crackling."
Fortunately for Sam, the man either did not notice, or ignored, the slight jab from the female doctor, and allowed her down the hole, though she had to go alone, despite offers of help from both Jeff and the younger Fireman named Tommy.

Finally strapped into the abseiling gear, ready to head into hole, the dark hole, the full consequences of what she was about to do almost overwhelmed her, and Sam closed her eyes momentarily as her blood rushed through her ears, making it nearly impossible to hear. Realising that Jeff had been talking to her, she nodded in the affirmative, despite not knowing what he had just said.
It took less than two minutes for Sam to get from the cave entrance to the two casualties situated at the bottom of the cave - two minutes from having to be strong in front of colleagues to having to be strong in front of casualties.
Plenty of time to have a minor panic attack.

Sam's eyes darted around as she lowered herself slowly, every tiny movement magnified a thousand times, the all encompassing darkness attempting to crush the air from her body - the fear ... the terror ... of the slowly suffocating dark bubbling under the surface continuously.
When only a metre or two above the two casualties, Sam heard them joking slightly - something about Superman at the male's expense, though what exactly Sam could not quite make out.

Now almost at the floor, Sam called to the two adults, "Hi, I'm Sam, I'll be your Doctor for today." Acting no different to how she normally did with patients, acting as if she dealt with this sort of thing every other day, appeared to put the two of them at ease, and Sam continued. "How are you all doing down here?"

It was the man who answered, as Sam struggled slightly with letting herself loose from the ropes. "We're still alive," was his short answer, and although it wasn't that funny, the woman laughed slightly before wincing and coughing as the sudden laughing hurt her insides further.

Sam too smiled at the comment, "Well, that's a start," she told the man who appeared at first glance to be the less injured of the two, if his more mobile state, and her leg bent at an odd angle was any indication. "Can you tell me your names?" It was always polite to know who you were treating, and judging by the argument at the top of the cave, Cave Rescue was still a long way off.

"I'm David, and this is Amanda," the man Sam now knew was called David told her, and the woman, Amanda, smiled slightly at Sam to convey that it was indeed the truth.

A light, yet steady, rock fall began coming down the main shaft of the cave, and Sam moved to the side beside Amanda and David as fast as she could to prevent being hit with most of the debris.

Immediately falling into 'Doctor-mode', she began assessing Amanda, and Sam's first thoughts about her were right, she was the more seriously injured of the two, with possible spinal injuries, internal bleeding, and a leg that was almost certainly broken.

David winced in obvious discomfort, no matter how futilely he tried to hide it, and Sam promised the dark-haired man that she would give him some morphine for his pain in just a moment.
Recognising the need for both her patients to stay aware and conscious, even though awareness was dependent upon consciousness, Sam instructed David to talk to Amanda whilst she continued to assess her, as the rubble continued to fall millimetres from their backs, hitting them on more than one occasion. Though the man was clearly nervous around Amanda, Sam could easily tell he honestly cared about what she thought, and wanted to get to know her properly.

Finishing her initial assessment of Amanda, Sam listened with only half an ear to their conversation about personal preferences of French films, which were sometimes shown at their local cinema.
Needing more supplies, Sam left Amanda for a moment instructing David not to stop talking to her, and as Amanda fell into yet another coughing fit that obviously pained both her, David lay down beside the woman who half an hour earlier, he had been too nervous to talk to, and held her hand, all the while speaking in reassuring tones that everything was going to turn out okay.
Looking up, Sam hid a slight smile when they were both trying to figure if the other was in a relationship, without being overly obvious about it.

Without warning, the previously light, but steady, rock fall became heavier suddenly, most likely due to someone up top moving around too much, and Sam quickly escaped to the side of the cave floor - opposite to David and Amanda.
Still laying side-by-side, David attempted to shield the still-immobile Amanda, but the sheer force of the continuous rock fall forced them both under a rock shelf.
Their backs to the main cave, neither David nor Amanda saw the giant boulder that fell with the rest of the rubble, but they heard the crash when it collided with the ground, crushing a large portion of the medical equipment that Sam had brought down, and so screamed all the same.

Sam, on the other hand, saw the entire thing - the boulder falling, the boulder crashing, and the boulder moving again, until it came to its final stop.
Right across her abdomen.

This is how I wanted yesterday's (7th April 2012) episode to go - I just think it would have been a lot more dramatic had Sam been the one to get trapped.

Please review,
Mia