“She’s crashing!” Lara swung around at the sound of Charlie’s cool, but at the same time, frantic voice. She stared at the lifeless body of Nikki, lying helplessly on the bed and then up to Jack’s panicked face. She could feel the policewoman tugging on her arm.

She just stared at the surreal scene, ignoring the shouts and the continuous beep of he heart monitor, indicating the inevitable fate of the young paramedic. All she could concentrate on was Jack’s face, and all the memories of when she was in his position came flooding back.

“I’m sorry Dr. Stone, you have to come with me.” Lara didn’t have the energy to fight. She grudgingly let her pull her down the hallway, fully aware that everyone would be staring at her. But she really didn’t care.

“Nikki!!” She heard Jack scream. She wanted to help, she wanted more than anything to prevent someone else going through the same pain that she had had to endure when Patrick died. But she couldn’t do a thing.

As the two police officers man-handled her into the back of the police car, all she could remember was hearing the same harsh tone of the same monitor in the same room, and all she could see was Jack, and imagined that her face must have looked the same. She wasn’t close to Jack, but she had seen him with Nikki and knew how much they cared for each other.

Lara knew exactly what it was like, caring for someone and then loosing them, she prayed that that wouldn’t happen to him like it did to her.

This whole situation was all too familiar. Not being arrested, of course, it wasn’t everyday you got accused of murder, but she wasn’t even thinking about that. She was only vaguely aware of what was happening in the real world. Only what was happening in her mind, all these memories coming back to her and imagining what was going on inside the hospital which had now disappeared from her view.

What had happened tonight was uncomfortably similar to her own predicament only a few months ago. She had just started to heal, but the events that were unfolding tore the wound wide open again. She took note of the irony of that thought but pushed it aside. She wasn’t going to feel sorry for herself, it was Jack that she was concerned about now. And Nikki.

She felt a sudden twang of guilt that she couldn’t help save the girl’s life. Then Frustration and anger towards the people sitting in front of her for dragging her away. If Nikki died, they could be held responsible. Having another doctor could make all the difference.

She wasn’t able to help save Patrick, Max wouldn’t let her, but she could help now, but again, she was of no use. Lara was feeling nauseous. A mixture of disbelief and mourning taking her over.

She didn’t like this at all. It was all happening again. Nikki had got seriously injured trying to help someone, just like Patrick and Jack had proposed, just like Patrick. It was all unfolding again and she couldn’t handle it.

She snapped herself out of it and yelled angrily at the policewoman who was driving. It was probably not the best idea, she could land herself in more hot water, but she couldn’t sit around not doing anything.

“I’ve got to help!” she screamed. “I have to do something to help my colleague.”

“Dr. Stone, please calm down” she replied in a cold flat tone, “If you don’t I will be forced to restrain you.”

“But, I....” Lara couldn’t help wanting to help, she had been a doctor for long enough that her instincts far outweighed her common sense. “That girl’s dying!”

“And I’m sure your colleagues are doing the best they can to save her.” She could see the policewoman’s reflection in the mirror, and she could see the uninterested, fed up look on her face.

She felt like screaming at her to have some more compassion but thought better of it. Then the image of Patrick’s body, lying helplessly in resusc flashed all too vividly into her mind and she was overwhelmed with the impulse to do something. She couldn’t let anyone else go through what she went through.

“Let me go!”

As the police car drove further and further into the night, towards the police station, only one image stuck in her mind. Patrick. She was still thinking about Jack, of course, but she found it hard to focus her mind on anything else. Once the picture of Patrick flashed through her mind, it stuck there.

She was so focused on Patrick and what was going on back at the hospital she barely noticed when they pulled up outside the police station. The two police officers spoke to her and they pulled her roughly out of the car and into the station.

Lara just let them, she couldn’t fight. She was too numb and spaced out to know what was going on around her. She only knew what was going on in her mind. She was lead into the cold, dirty cell and sat down on the hard mattress.

As the door was slammed, the loud bang of metal on metal snapped her out of her daze and she began crying. Crying about Patrick, crying about Jack and Nikki and her colleagues back at the hospital and crying because she couldn’t do anything to help either of them.

Her emotion had totally drained any energy she had straight out of her. First there was seeing Collier, then everything with Nikki, and now being arrested had just made her crack.

She lay down on the uncomfortable excuse for a bed and started blankly at the brick wall, reading the scruffy graffiti that had being scratched into the 5 year old paintwork. Various dedications from convicts past and present that just served to remind her even more of her pain.

She focused her tired, tear filled eyes on a heart in corner by the barred window. ‘L&P 4eva’ it read. She couldn’t quite make out if it was a P or a B but she decided it didn’t matter. It was a P.

The next thing she remembered was being harshly woken by heavy hammering on the door. She groggily opened her eyes and suddenly remembered where she was. There was another thump as she sat up and the small window in the door was slid open and a pair of menacing eyes stared at her.

“Phone call Stone” a man’s voice hollered through the metal. Lara heard the jangling of keys and stood up as and a bolt was slid across. The door opened and two largely built male officers handcuffed her and took an arm each. They lead her out of the cell.

“You’ve got 2 minutes” a woman said in the same harsh tone, sitting behind a desk at the end of a long corridor of empty cells.

“Hello?” Lara said in a shaky voice, her tears starting to well up in her eyes again.

“Lara” a familiar voice said from the other end of the line in the same, wavering voice.

“Harry” Lara said. She was slightly relieved but it made the pain stronger. “you’ve got to do something.”

“Don’t worry Lara, we will do everything we can to get you out of there. That’s a promise.”

“How’s Nikki?” she asked, a sickening feeling twisting in her stomach.

There was silence. When Harry finally spoke, it was barely a whisper. “I’m sorry Lara, she died.”