The Assignment

By Shayla C. Freeman

Emerging from the ashes of a stagnant long-term relationship, Dr. Savannah Dawson finds the adrenaline rush of the emergency room has dulled to a monotonous routine. It's her best friend Lacey who nudges her out of her comfort zone, convincing her to take a leap into the unknown with a new job in Barcelona. However, Savannah soon discovers she's signed up for more than she anticipated, finding herself entwined in a century-old family coca business that demands she apply her sharp wits and judgment beyond the ER.

Tomas Rey IV, a man who holds the title of the decade's most eligible bachelor, becomes her most challenging puzzle: a man who might just fulfill her dreams or plunge her into a nightmare. With the aid of serendipity and a loyal group of friends, Savannah navigates the complexities of a new country, a foreign lifestyle, and a covert role she's intent on keeping under wraps. As she adjusts to this unexpected chapter, she hopes to stay beneath the radar, all while the stakes grow ever higher.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798891550001

Shayla C. Freeman

Shayla C. Freeman finished college with a Journalism and Media Production degree. However, after years of working in the scripted television and film sphere, she spun a full 180 degrees to pursue a career in medicine. Ultimately, she obtained her MD and has worked almost a decade as an emergency medicine physician. Now, she’s intertwined both passions into this endeavor as a debut author. Combining her years of knowledge and personal experiences behind the camera and in the trenches of the ER to birth this new literary life.

Book preview

About the Author

Shayla C. Freeman finished college with a Journalism and Media Production degree. However, after years of working in the scripted television and film sphere, she spun a full 180 degrees to pursue a career in medicine. Ultimately, she obtained her MD and has worked almost a decade as an emergency medicine physician. Now, she’s intertwined both passions into this endeavor as a debut author. Combining her years of knowledge and personal experiences behind the camera and in the trenches of the ER to birth this new literary life.

Dedication

To my family, who have continued to allow me to navigate my dreams, and not only support me but also ride high in the clouds with me.

Copyright information ©

Shayla C. Freeman 2024

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Freeman, Shayla C.

The Assignment

ISBN 9798889109990 (Paperback)

ISBN 9798891550001 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023921465

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published 2024

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

[phone]

Author’s Note

For conversation in Spanish, { } have been used.

Chapter 1

Ugh. You’ve got to be kidding me. I think I said the words out loud, but who knows? Maybe it was just my first thought. Even the tiniest movement sent pain permeating through my entire body. I could swear I’d been beaten with a baseball bat all night. This rattling cough, sore throat, and itchy eyes were just icing on the cake. But the sun was high, and the air was crisp and with my job there was no such thing as a day off or calling in sick. How else would other people get better? I swallowed down some Cinfatos to alleviate my symptoms. DayQuil was absent in this city, so I settled for the best I could find and hopefully it would do the trick.

I brushed my teeth, jumped in the shower, donned my gray scrubs with matching headband, and attempted to energize myself for another day in the ‘office’. Although coffee had never been my drink of choice, Barcelona expresso had been keeping me alive the last three days. Fortunately, this amazing extended stay rental became available just days before I arrived. It was a block from a great café, a two-mile walk to the Urgencia Hospital del Mar, and directly overlooking the ocean.

With my all-encompassing utility bag and worn-in Danskos, it was time for a very pleasant trek to work. The route that I was taking today crossed the Rambla del Mar, an amazing boardwalk overlooking the Barceloneta beach and the beautiful Balearic Sea. Walking down the path, the wave catchers first caught my attention. Past them surfing the peaks, the skyline layered in perfect shades of blue with fluffy white clouds that looked like they were waiting for a ‘trust fall’ to catch someone. People were beginning to mill around but not as much as I would suspect in a bigger city like Barcelona. Without much of a reference point, it appeared that Spain had more of a late-night vibe with dinners that started around 9 or 10 pm. I would guess it was because of the afternoon siestas but maybe it was just the beach town feel. A metropolis on the water. It reminded me of Chicago with better weather and for some reason even more leisure. What was not to like?

I am originally from a small town in Georgia and used to make some summer trips to the beach. The little black girl with pigtails running into the breaking waves on the shore was a common picture of me from my early days. This coastline though was somehow distinct from that experience. Sea birds were flying, but even the sea gulls seemed different. They were not just white, they had patches and specks of black and they weren’t as big, nor did they have that long sprawling wingspan. Maybe flying over these seas, they had more places to stop as compared to the Atlantic Ocean. But while smaller, these aerial birds seemed freer. Or maybe that’s just how I felt now. I’d only been out of the country for vacation before this trip. This was the first time for work and this six-month assignment was just what I needed; a break from the humidity and stuffiness of the South in more ways than one.

My childhood consisted of an older brother that was annoying and protective all at once, and parents that worked for everything they had. They made sure we had family dinner most nights and love abounded. Giving us as many experiences as they could on a limited budget, I was happy for every trip we could take. I tested well and was able to get into an elite college and glide into medical school. My mother thought I would be a pediatrician and while I don’t mind kids, dealing with immunizations and annual check-ups daily wasn’t for me. A shot of expresso and the spring morning chill had my sinuses and chest clearing. It was a good thing too because as I walked up to the emergency department, I saw two ambulances pulling up and I knew it was go time.

Dr. Richard David who liked to be called Rich had been manning the emergency room all night.

I’m so glad to see you, he said. It’s been a hell of a night and I’m ready to go home. There are two coming in by ambulance now and there is one drunk girl sleeping it off in Bed 5. Everyone else is admitted to the hospital team.

Ok. I will take it from here.

I walked into Room 1 and my two favorite nurses were fast at work. Knowing that I could speak some Spanish but that my English was much better and everyone else in the emergency department was bilingual, they took pity on me and spoke English.

RN Maria said, Dr. Dawson, we have a male patient, 55 years old that was at work and was hit by a car outside the job. The driver of the car is in Room 2.

We’ve got an 18 in the right AC and gave 75 mcg of fentanyl. He has an obvious deformity to the right upper leg. He was stuck under the car for about five minutes, continued Roberto the EMS worker.

His leg appeared not only broken but more severely swollen than it should be. I knew from working in many trauma centers however that I shouldn’t work immediately on the leg, but first ensure that the patients airway, breathing, and then circulation was maintained. In my best Spanish I said, {Hello, sir, what’s your name?}

He answered, {Carlos. I don’t know what happened. I was just putting out the morning trash and the street was empty and then all of a sudden, I was pinned under a car.}

I began my trauma survey of the patient doing each action while calling it out for the nurses to stay on the same page. One nurse was writing down everything that was happening while the second nurse was taking his blood pressure, temperature and putting the patient on the cardiac monitor.

Airway intact. GCS 15. Pupils equal and reactive. Breath sounds equal and normal bilaterally. Abdomen distended and Tender to palpation.

Nurse Anna said, Blood pressure 100/60, Heart rate 120. Respiratory rate 16. Oxygen Level 99% on room air. Temperature 95 degrees.

Ok these are the first signs of shock. Anna, can you bring me the ultrasound so I can do a FAST exam and call over to X-ray for a STAT chest and pelvis X-ray? Maria, can you pull some blood work for a CBC, CMP, PT/INR, and Type and screen, and bring two units of emergent O-negative blood.

While they were fast at work, I peeked my head next door and saw a teenage girl crying in Bed 2. RN Matthew was in with her.

Looking at the monitor in the room, her vitals were all within normal range. I motioned for Matthew to come over to give me the story.

Her vitals are good. She doesn’t have a scratch on her and she physically appears fine. She seems stressed and not answering my questions directly. She said she just got distracted which is why she went off the side of the road. When I asked her whose car it was, she didn’t answer, Matthew said.

How old is she?

Her passport says Isabel Morales and 19 but I don’t know.

Ok, watch her and try to get a urine sample and I will be back in a few minutes.

I walked back into Room 1 and the X-rays were complete. I took a look at the chest X-ray, which appeared normal, but he had a mid-shaft femur fracture on the pelvis film, which could be the main source of bleeding and that needed to be reduced. First, I had to complete the FAST exam with the ultrasound. Unfortunately, I saw a pooling of black of the screen in an area where it shouldn’t be under the liver pushing the kidney further down. That black was blood in the abdomen.

Maria, start the blood on Carlos and give him another dose of fentanyl.

In Spanish, I told him, {Carlos, your leg is broken. I’m going to give you medicine for the pain, but I need to straighten it now. Also, it looks like you have some bleeding from an organ in your abdomen so I will send you for a CT scan, but you will need surgery today.}

Maria gave the pain medication and Anna brought the right leg traction splint. With a quick pull and a small yelp, the leg was straightened, and I applied the splint. The thigh still looked a little bigger than it should. I sent the patient over for a CT of his chest, abdomen, pelvis and right leg with contrast dye. As I was walking back toward Room 2, it became obvious that Room 5 was awake and yelling and belligerent. Dumb American tourists. I could think that because I am one, right?

Where am I? Where are my clothes? Bed 5 patient yelled. Matthew and I rolled our eyes but made our way to Bed 5 to make sure she didn’t hurt herself.

You all need to come help me right fucking now?

Chapter 2

Isabel knew she didn’t have much time. Everyone should be awake now and would discover she had escaped. The cars probably had tracking features. Her new passport and the cash she had stolen should get her a train ride out of the country. She thought she was going to be on a bullet train into France before they could find her. Instead, she was sitting in the emergency room. She had thought someone was following her, so she had turned around in the car to look behind her. The next thing she knew was that the car was on the curb and the man was stuck under it. She couldn’t just leave him there, but she couldn’t pull him out either, so she had yelled for someone to help. That help had landed her here so what to do now?

She was just in Barcelona on a trip with her Spanish class, and she had got separated from them in the city three weeks ago. Her parents must be worried sick. Being first generation Mexican-American, she didn’t look like she was from the United States and was pretty sure her captives didn’t know. She had only spoken Spanish around them, when she had talked at all. They had put her to work separating out cocaine and they seemed to want her to transport drugs for them as they made her practice swallowing bags of sugar. One had broken while attempting to swallow it and caused a sugar rush that would have killed her if it would have been the real thing.

Isabel heard a person yelling from another room and sensed this was the time. Maybe she could leave and not get seen. Maybe she should ask the doctors for help and tell them what was going on, but they would call the police and she had already seen that some of the kidnappers were working with the police. She decided her best chance was to hail a cab to the train station and disappear to another country where she can tell their police. If all went well by this afternoon, she would be free.

Two nurses were working on the man she drove over, and the doctor and other nurse were in the room with a lady screaming. She slowly crept out of bed and tiptoed out of the room and into the emergency medical service bay entrance. She tried to open the door, but it appeared to need an ID badge to go in and out of the EMS sliding doors. Two police officers were coming through the front entrance as she looked for a badge or something to make the doors slide apart. She recognized one of them as having talked with the kidnappers on prior days. The doctor and nurses were talking to them and seemed to be telling them about the accident and pointed to her room and the hurt man’s room.

As the cops walked around to the room, she shimmied behind a cart and snuck into the stairwell and up to the above floor.

{Hello, miss, what are you looking for?}

Another technician had spotted her coming from the stairway and looking around.

{I’m just looking for my grandmother; they said she had a heart attack.} Isabel quickly answered.

{The cardiac unit is the next floor up.}

{Ok, thank you.}

Isabel nonchalantly walked down the hall to the elevator and hit the up button. She saw the tech go into a room, and she hit the down button on the elevator as well. Luckily, the elevator appeared to be going down and she could hop on. She hit the ground button. When the doors opened, she was outside of the emergency room in the lobby of the hospital. There was a taxi pulling up letting out two people. She made her way outside and jumped in the taxi telling the driver to take her to the train station. As she drove away, she was able to look in the glass ER doors and there was the doctor looking directly at her. The doctor did not attempt to get the police’s attention or do anything she just watched her. She saw the doctor’s eyes fix on something behind her but just then she was turning the corner and off down the road.

Chapter 3

I didn’t know what exactly was going on with the teenager from Bed 2, but something felt off. She had run away before the police got here but if she was a criminal why stop when she hit the man. She seemed scared, but of what? The computer monitor’s skeleton icon turned red, which indicated that I had a new image to review. It was the CT scans of patient Carlos. He appeared to have a liver and spleen laceration that would need emergency surgery. He also appeared to be bleeding from a large vein in his right thigh probably cut by the broken bone, but the bleeding appeared to be slow. His blood count had already returned and his Hb was low at eight. I quickly called the general surgeon and orthopedic surgeon to make them aware of the patient and his injuries. They would need to come to see him, review the images, and take him to the operating room and soon.

The ER doctors’ job is to stabilize and treat patients and to determine where they need to go next. Some will go home and will be fine with no other treatment needed. Some will be admitted to a hospital for further surgical or medical care. Some will need follow up outpatient with specialists or their primary doctors and some will go to the morgue. Some days I send different patients to all four locations throughout the shift. For Carlos, he was headed for inpatient care and hopefully home to be with his family afterward. His blood pressure had improved, and his heart rate was closer to normal range. His thigh did not appear to be getting any bigger now that the splint was in place. And he had two surgeons ready to repair his internal injuries. I had been doing this job for ten years if you count residency training in Chicago, but this was the first time I practiced in another country and put my educational Spanish to real use. It was a new challenge and a new adventure that I needed.

Having recently left a long-term relationship after five years with no sign of a ring coming, I longed for the change. If I was really honest with myself, I didn’t know what my answer would have been if he had asked. He was nice and I was nice. He was safe and I was safe. It was a set up that my mom and his mom had arranged years ago that likely should have just been a friendship. It was honestly a waste of time. My best friend had convinced me to take this assignment in Barcelona. She had convinced me of a lot of things in the last six months but so far, I think maybe she was right. Maybe Lacey had a point. Maybe I was better at things than I thought and maybe giving myself a new challenge would allow for new growth.

As I finished the call with the consultants, I began having a minor coughing and sneezing fit, which had me up and out of my seat and by the window. Through