“You said she stopped breathing and you had to perform CPR?” the doctor asked Sam.
“Yeah, she swallowed some water, I think,” said Sam, feeling insecure under the doctor’s scrutinizing gaze.
The doctor looked back down at his chart and his brows furrowed.
“Her heart rate is actually up, which is unusual for someone who recently endured cardiac arrest. Are you certain that her heart stopped?” His eyes rose again to drill Sam with intensity. His mouth curled to one side as he awaited the young man’s response.
“I-I think so…” Sam said uncertainly. “It all happened so fast! I know she wasn’t breathing… And she coughed out a bunch of water when she started again. I can’t remember whether I checked her pulse…”
The doctor scowled briefly, eyes looking past Sam for a moment before returning to the clipboard.
“Her adrenaline levels have increased, which is normal, but her hormone levels have increased as well. That is highly unusual after a cardiac event… There has to be more going on here. There just…” He stopped suddenly, glancing around, noticing that he was speaking his thoughts aloud. In front of others.
The doctor spun suddenly and walked away from the group of friends, his white lab coat, swishing around his legs.
“Well that was weird,” said Rob, hand working its way down Megan’s lower back toward her shapely ass. She slapped it away, giving him a “not right now!” glare.
“Yeah. She definitely wasn’t breathing. I mean, who checks each vital carefully when your friend is laying there dying on the fucking ground!” said Mara, laying a hand in the center of Sam’s back and rubbing circles of comfort into him. “You did good, Sam. You did really good.”
Sam turned to her and managed to turn the corners of his mouth into a fleeting smile while he focused the majority of his attention on ensuring his chin didn’t quiver. He just hoped Candace was okay. Baffled doctors weren’t a good sign.
He said a silent prayer for the target of his unrequited affections.
“I just wish I knew what happened to those parachutists,” said Matt, rubbing the outside of his bulging bicep compulsively, his expression troubled. His face was flushed.
“Me too,” said Sam. “I saw them for a minute, but then they just… vanished into the water. It was so weird.”
“Well, you guys are real heroes anyway, saving Cand and all,” said Mara moving to comfort Matt next. “By the time I realized what was going on, you guys were already in the water!”
Rob shifted uncomfortably, and Megan took his hand in hers and squeezed, sensing his guilt over not helping the others. She knew the reason--he couldn’t swim.
Matt swooned momentarily, then sat down.
“You okay?” asked Mara, grabbing his arm to steady him.
“Yeah. Fine. Just a lot to take in, you know?” Matt smiled weakly.
“Yeah,” said Mara. Sam and the others nodded their agreement.
After a couple more hours, the friends were draped over the waiting room chairs in various stages of bored, trepidatious, faux-relaxation.
“It’s Candace!” said Mara, seeing the doctor coming back out, Candace in tow, a worried parent clutching each of her arms.
The friends leapt up, bodies instantly taut with the internal turbulence of anticipated news even as their expressions went slack with relief upon seeing their friend upright and headed away from the emergency room entrance.
Candace’s father walked up to Sam, plucked his hand from his side and gripped it with his own.
“Thanks, son,” he said with grateful eyes and a weary smile. “From what Candace says, I owe you my daughter’s life. I won’t ever forget that.”
Sam, too stunned to speak, simply stood there, shaking the man’s hand weakly. The older man nodded as he released Sam’s hand, then moved to Matt to do the same.
Sam felt Candace’s eyes on him. He returned her gaze, unsure exactly what he found in her eyes. He held her eyes in silence for a long moment as her father walked back to her and joined his wife to walk their daughter out to their car.
Sam let out bated breath as their eye contact finally broke. What had that look meant? It had been intense, sending his stomach writhing. He had never seen anyone look at him like that before. It was… confusing.
Shaking his head, he followed the others, who were now chatting and moving toward the exit to the hospital waiting room.
Sam’s mind continued to work on the puzzle that was Candace’s look as he made his way home.
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