Chapter 16

Her legs are on his lap with his hand stroking over it a few hours later. "I need to talk to you about something"

"What's up?"

Sienna takes a deep breath, "It's time I tell you what really happened in Afghanistan but promise me you wouldn't run."

"Babe, I will never run from you." He replies the honesty and sincerity in his voice spin her in a loop. She scoots closer to him; "My team and I were treating 30 people in triage when a guy opened a grenade, killed 15 of my men and 8 patients. He took me and Pete, one of the other doctors, hostage with a 5-year-old kid. She was chained to a wall and covered in blood and semen. She had only a shirt on but that too was ripped in pieces."

She takes a shaky breath. Her eyes water, Antonio immediately takes her in his arms.

He refused for us to treat her, said she was his toy to relieve himself of the tension of the war. He had three friends in there as well and they held shotguns to our heads. They chained us up; Pete and I were across from each other. He raped her in front of us; I can still hear her screams.

I told him to rape me instead but he refused, saying he only likes small girls. Ugly fucking monster. We tried to untie ourselves to help her and Pete, Pete was amazing. He stabbed the man in the leg with his foot." She chuckles sadly, "He was amazing. But then the guy shot him with the shotgun"

She cries out, "his head fell into my lap and I couldn't...." She pauses, "I couldn't throw it off. He was stuttering about how that was a long day for him and took it out on the little girl again. She died that day from blood loss. He was coming up to me with the gun saying how we're nothing but trouble and I thought I was going to die. Jay and his squad came in right then. The gun was pointed to my forehead; I mean he was almost pulling the trigger when Jay shot him in the head. Jay saved my life. He saved my life."

She cries in the crook of Antonio's neck as he holds her close to his body. Antonio wordlessly kisses her temple knowing words aren't what she needs right now.

All she needs is him.

**

"When I said I'm not running, I meant it. Thank you for telling me what happened to you. It only makes me love you more."

She smiles and kisses her fiancé deeply, "You're my hero babe"

"So when do you want to get married?" He asks, "The guys have been hassling about it, said we're taking too long"

Sienna pouts, "It's only been 10 months, is that long?"

Antonio laughs, "Apparently, yeah. Let's set a date babe"

Upon her silence, Antonio scowls, "What's your favourite day?"

"I don't have a favourite day"

He rolls his eyes with a chuckle, "How about 15 March?"

She smiles, "I like 15 March. It's a Saturday, it's warm and it's close. Perfect"

"So we've finally decided on a date, you tell that wedding planner cousin of Maggie. I know Jay; Matt; Mark and Chris are going to be my groomsmen." He said, referring to his colleague; the truck 81 lieutenant and his two friends from school.

"You've done some thinking" She smiles, impressed as hell.

"I have" He smirks

"Well, Erin; Gabby; Maggie and Natalie are going to be my bridesmaids. Becky is going to meet with me tomorrow before my shift. Which reminds me, I'm on call for the rest of the week so I won't be seeing my baby"

He frowns, pouting and sulking. "Three days without my annoying person – how ever will I survive?"

She slams a pillow onto his head, "I think I'm going to tell Jay to kick your ass"

"I can take him, cheeky girl, sorry to burst that pink flowery bubble of yours."

She smiles, "It is pretty pink and flowery, isn't it?"

He arms are tightly wrapped around her waist as he brings his head down to hers to kiss her. "You're pretty."

**

Her hair is French-braided on both sides of her face topped with a black sweater and a very warm jacket. The jeans she wears is snugged on her legs with furry boots to shield her feet from the cold.

"Sorry I'm late" Sienna smiles apologetically when she meets up with Becky at Rosie's Coffee & Cakes near the hospital.

"It's all good. I haven't ordered yet"

"I'm dying for a coffee" Sienna smiles. They flag down the waitress and each order a coffee with a pastry.

"So Tone and I finally decided on a date, 15 March"

"Nice date" Becky smiles, writing it down in her little notebook, "Wedding colours?"

"Antonio refuses to help me with that so the ball is pretty much in my court now. I like white and gold, you think that will work?"

Becky nods her head, "definitely. I know you and Antonio are both very busy with work but we need to make time for cake tasting and meeting up with a florist. We also need a venue"

"Venue is easy" Sienna quips, "We want to do it at Antonio's family church, where his mom and dad got married. Even though his parents' are divorced, it's still a good place for Antonio. It's the street up on 5th, the Catholic church"

Becky continues writing down the details of the wedding, "So we need a florist; baker and a chef now. Also a DJ"

"God" Sienna groans, "I had no idea planning a wedding requires so much stuff."

"That's only the start" Becky jokes, "Look, I'll handle all of this. All I need from you is the okay"

The blonde doctor nods her head, her taste buds tingle as she drinks her coffee. "I'm pretty sure I will be satisfied with anything you choose. But, we can arrange a day I'm off to handle everything. Antonio already said he's only going to be there for the cake testing."

Becky laughs, "Great. Let me know when you're off so I can schedule meetings with the different parties available."

"Uh" Sienna grabs her daily planner out of the blue bag she carries with her. "I'm off on the 23rd, so Friday."

"I'll arrange it and let you know. Thanks, Sienna."

"Thank you" The doctor smiles, "My shift starts in half an hour so I have to go. Thanks, Becky for your patience, and well, for everything."

"My pleasure. Good luck with your shift. I'll see you on Friday."

Sienna hugs the older woman. She throws a couple of bills on the table and walks towards the hospital.

Her shift starts with a suicide attempt on a thirteen-year-old boy which triggered the emotions of many staff members including Sienna. The boy survived after four cardiac arrests. He's been kept on suicide watch by Doctor Charles's staff.

Somehow the ER kept flooding with patients, one worse than the other with head injuries; shootings; drug overdoses. It's just another Tuesday in Chicago.

She's drinking her fourth cup of coffee when her pager goes off 911.

She meets with Choi at the ambulance stand waiting for the ambo to roll in. Sienna opens the door as soon as the bus comes to a halt.

"What the hell happened here?" Sienna asks with a raised eyebrow at the scene in front of her. Two men, drunk out of their minds, with broken bottles lodged in their skulls.

"Welcome to Chicago" Choi mumbles.

"Dumb and dumber here decided to re-enact some sort of magic trick" Gabby mumbles as the two guys continue laughing. "They are lucky the bottles didn't do any damage but it needs to be removed."

The one guy cackles, "Hey man, we didn't kill ourselves, we good." Followed by the other one's laughing.

"Let's get these two to trauma 1 and 2," Sienna says. "Thank you two" She murmurs to Brett and Gabby.

"Who do you want?" She asks Choi. He smirks, "I'll take dumber in 2"

Sienna chuckles and walks into trauma 1.

"So Larry, how did this happen?" She asks

"My buddy and I were up at Dolly's Bar. Dude, you should have seen the specials on the board. It was so dope man. We had so many drinks!"

She looks at the amused nurse next to the patient, "let's get him sobered up"

"Copy"

"Okay Larry, I'm going to slowly take out the bottle. Don't worry, you're numbed down so you won't feel a thing. This is going to be an easy fix but do it again and it might be fatal." She warns. "Doctor Swart, hold his head steady." She orders her resident.

He does so, and she continues. She pulls out the bottle with her right hand and then immediately puts gauze on the wound to stop the bleeding.

She checks his head for any trauma and when she doesn't find, she wraps up the wound.

Larry is finally asleep – hopefully by now sober because of the banana bag the nurse put on him.

"Do a Neuro exam on him in an hour and if he's fine, he can be sent home." She tells her resident.

"Copy that"