<strong>Samantha Cole -- Ambulance Bay 2 -- First steps are always the hardest</strong><br/><br/>Not enough gauze. Not enough bandages. Not enough antiseptic. Not enough not enough not enough! His pulse was weak and thready, and some of his wounds looked like they were already reaching the preliminary stages of infection. Others looked like...well, almost like they'd been cauterized. Sam's shaking arms kept the already-bloodsoaked gauze pads pressed against as many of the oozing wounds as she could manage in a last-ditch effort to staunch the man's blood loss. But keeping him alive much longer was one fight the exhausted EMT was pretty certain she simply couldn't win.<br/><br/>'I don't think a hundred doctors could save this guy now; he doesn't need a medic, he needs a miracle,' Sam thought grimly. Shadows flitted overhead, and her brow furrowed in confusion until she glanced up to see the impossibly lovely dark-haired lady standing over them. The odor of sulfur was quickly fading, but in its place arose the scent of pine needles in winter, and her grandmother's fresh apple turnovers. Sam felt the woman slip a finger under her chin and pull her face upward to meet her eyes, and even though her touch was gentle as falling snow, it was also as inexorable as an avalanche. Her eyes were so comforting, and Sam felt a sudden surge of warmth and peace wash over her entire being.<br/><br/>"Dear girl. Do you not know that tonight seems wondrous? You can save him. All by yourself. Just do as you did before."<br/><br/>Oh, her voice. So beautiful, so harmonious. So...heavenly. But, what did she mean? Sam wanted to break down and sob in frustration when the lady broke their eye contact and moved away, taking those soothing sensations of warmth and safety with her. Almost immediately, she crashed back into the cold and unforgiving waters of reality, and fresh tears formed in her eyes. '<em>Do as I did before? I don't know what I did before! I...I can't save him...he's going to die, and it's...it's my fault</em>,' she thought. She felt powerless, and more alone than she could remember ever feeling in her life. A man was about to die, and all she could do was mop up his blood and listen to what may or may not have been a delusional daydream.<br/><br/>Except that her hands were glowing again.<br/><br/>Sam gaped in confused, slightly horrified fascination at the shimmering sparkles that swirled around her fingers, certain at first it was just a trick of the light playing through her bleary vision. But as her tears dried and the glow remained, she jerked her eyes back and forth between the women standing nearby and her own hands. "What?! How do I...how is this...I mean..." Sam looked down again at the man on the gurney, then back to her hands. Slowly, with the utmost deliberate care she could manage, she lowered her hands onto the man's chest, touching him gingerly as though either he or she might break at any moment.<br/><br/>"Somehow, I have a feeling this is really going to hurt..."