"Where the hell are they?" Carter muttered, mostly to himself and fought harder to hold back the tears that were rapidly threatening to break down his barrier.

He was sitting outside on a bench, staring at the floor in shock. His brain still couldn't process the information that Abby was in trouble. What was killing him now, more than no knowing, was the thought that he couldn't do anything to help.

The adrenaline rush that he had felt when he had first heard the news had quickly disappeared and he was left with a terrible, numbing feeling that he was trying to fight, but the harder he tried to get rid of it, the more intense it seemed to be getting. and he was feeling a hundred times worse than he had been three days ago when he had being trying to cope with Lucy's death. Now he might have another one to cope with.

He remembered again the shock that he had felt when he had fallen to the ground and seen Lucy's almost lifeless body flopped on the floor. He had seen her frightened face and had prayed to God to give him enough strength to help her. Now he had the strength. But he had no idea what to do with it. He was there when Lucy needed him and he couldn't help, and he wasn't there then when Abby needed him and again he was supposed to wait around while another woman he loved perished.

He bent forwards and put his head in his hands and started to silently sob. He was so happy yesterday and now his whole world was falling apart around him.

* * *

"Dr. Lewis!" a young looking fireman came running over to where Susan was sitting and by the relieved look in his eyes, she knew what he had to say. "We've found your friend."

He held out a hand for her and helped her to her feet. They both scrambled over bricks and rubble to the spot where 15 or so fire men and women had been searching for the past 20 minutes.

Susan's initial relief that they had found Abby quickly disappeared when she saw the way Abby looked. Only her face was uncovered but from the massive cuts and bruises that covered her face and neck, Susan dreaded to think what the rest of her looked like. She was unconscious, and if it wasn't for the slight but steady flow of blood that was trickling across the ground, she would have said she was dead.

Susan covered her mouth with her sweaty hands and stepped back, close to tears. The rescue crew crowded around Abby once again and blocked Susan's view of the patient which she was having a hard time believe was her friend. But to be honest, she didn't really want to see what was going on. She had seen things far worse than the sight she was presented with now but when it was someone you knew, it was somehow very different and far more disturbing.

"Susan?" she heard a familiar voice from behind her and she turned around to see the concerned face of paramedic Doris Pickman standing next to her, a concerned look etched across her face.

"I just started my shift. I'm here to take over from some of the men, what happened?" The paramedic put her hand on Susan's shoulder and tried to comfort her.

"Abby's trapped. I think it's pretty bad." Susan was finding it harder and harder to fight the emotion.

"Nurse Lockhart?" She looked as shocked as Susan had been. "What is she doing in there? Does the hospital know?"

Susan suddenly remembered that in all the panic, she had forgot to tell her co-workers what was going on, although she was sure that they had some idea that something was up. "I forgot tell them."

Susan started to make her way to the makeshift base that the fire crew had set up to see if anyone had a cell phone but Pickman stopped her.

"Lets not panic them. Lets wait until we know exactly what is going on."

Lewis nodded reluctantly and composed herself. She walked forward slowly to see what was going on with the rescue of her friend and gasped at what she saw.

Susan suddenly clicked into medical mode and instantly forgot who the patient was. All her years of medical knowledge was rushing through her brain and the will to help, fuelled purely by adrenaline, took over.

"Excuse me, sir. Excuse me." Susan pushed her way to the front of the crowd of fire-fighters who, only a moment ago had been shouting orders at each other and frantically doing their job, but were now still, not quite knowing where to go from here.

"Move!" Susan yelled again. She got to the front and knelt down on the uneven ground and tried desperately not to let her building emotion overwhelm her and tried to focus on her job. While she knew, and was very conscious of the fact that it was not a very good idea to treat somebody you know in this kind of situation, who was there else to help?

Abby was cleared of bricks and rubble as much as was safely possible but no one dared do any more for fear of doing more harm than good.

The main portion of Abby's body that was visible was covered in gashes and bruises that, while they were big, were fairly superficial. But on injury stood out from the nurses almost lifeless body. Literally. It made Susan sick just looking at it. A sharp-edged, rusty metal rod, twisted an gnarled from the weight of the material that had fallen on top of it, was embedded deeply in Abby's abdomen and was wedged in tighter than anything Susan had said before. It must have had some serious weight on top of it for it to be in this state. Susan dreaded the extent of the internal injuries that it was bound to have caused.

Thank God she was still alive. Susan could feel a pulse, which was weakening with every beat and short, laboured breaths that were infrequent and barely noticeable but never the less, still there.

And while they were still there, there was a chance that Abby would live, and Susan vowed not to let her go without a fight.

"This woman is in a lot of danger!" she yelled, the emotion she was keeping inside, evidently bursting out in one go. "We need to get her to hospital. Now!"