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with a worried look on their face. She sat in her corner expecting something to happen. She tapped her foot nervously. She just couldn’t shake the feeling she had. Paxton decided to head back to her room as she still couldn’t find the source of the feeling after she looked around the room again. She shut the door behind her and knew she was in her safe zone. She thought she would be able to shake the uneasiness in here but she was wrong. She knew something wasn’t right, but she didn’t know what it was. Something had changed.
    An hour after getting back to her room, Paxton heard a knock at her door. “Paxton?” Dr. Keeler said as she opened the door. She stopped by the bedside. Dr. Keeler looked worried.  “I have something to tell you.”
    Paxton stopped pacing. She wasn’t sure what Dr. Keeler was about to say to her. She stared at Dr. Keeler waiting for her to continue.
    “I think you should sit down.” Dr. Keeler motioned for her to sit at her table. Paxton sat at the table and nervously shook her leg. “I’m not sure how to say this.”
    “No, no!” Paxton covered her ears. She has heard this before. “Get out!” she screamed.
    “Paxton, I’m sorry,” Dr. Keeler tried to continue.
    “Out! Out! Get out!”
    She closed her eyes and started rocking herself in the chair she was sitting in, she knew she was starting to unravel. She didn’t want to hear what was to come next. She heard it too many times before and unfortunately with her profession she told it to families whose family member died on her table. It always started out the same.  A worried expression, a ‘please sit down’, ‘I’m sorry’, ‘this isn’t easy to say’. It didn’t matter what you said. As soon as you said they passed away or didn’t make it, no one listened to you. They try to wrap their minds around it. Paxton did not want to lose anyone else.
    Paxton felt two arms wrap around her. She leaned into Dr. Keeler still rocking herself.  “Paxton, Jack has been in an accident. He’s alive but needs surgery.”
    Paxton stilled in her arms. She didn’t expect to hear that news. Jack was just here at the facility and now he is in the hospital? She couldn’t understand it.
    Her natural instincts as a surgeon needed to know the list of injuries. She could then assess what needed to be done. “How badly is he hurt?”
    “His leg needs some repair and they think there may be internal bleeding. He’s refusing to go into surgery without you as the surgeon.”
    Paxton was going over the causes of internal bleeding. She listed the possible treatments but she couldn’t figure out why he was refusing treatment. He needed it and she couldn’t operate. He was family. “No. I can’t.”
    “He has signed the forms, he will not let anyone touch him or provide him any form of treatment without your orders. He’s asked for you.” Dr. Keeler paused. “I signed your release forms today right before I received the call. I was going to put you in an outpatient recovery program since you started opening up. I have no reason to keep you here any longer.”
    “I have to stay here. It’s safe.”
    “You don’t belong here, you said so yourself, and now someone needs you. Can you really ignore your oath?”
    “I have ignored it for the past year.”
    “No, you know that’s not true. You are going through an emotional time. I don’t know what happened yet, but I know deep down, you are itching to get into the O.R., get your old life back. I know you still care for Jack. I saw your reactions to him. Now, he is asking for you. What are you going to do?”
    Paxton waited a moment to let everything sink in. She was going to be released back into the real world and no one told her. Was this part of her treatment? Did she blow her well-rehearsed cover in a matter of days because her past showed up at her door?  Now Jack has been in an accident and was requesting her surgical skills. Skills she hasn’t used in a year.  She doubted