Valentine’s Day was forever tainted for you.

Because suddenly, your shift at County General was turned upside down as your boyfriend, Mark Greene, was rushed into a trauma room. Mark had been beaten up severely by an unknown attacker in the bathroom: blood dripped from him as the pain was excruciating. He was found by Doug who immediately told you.

The imagery was burned into your retinas forever: your Mark, on the trauma room table, with extreme damage to his lungs and face with blood gushing everywhere. Knowing that, if he survived, there would be irreparable lifelong damage.

Mark was unconscious in a great deal of pain while you sat at his bedside, just weeping into the mattress, still dazed by the past few hours that you very nearly lost the love of your life. Whatever happened to the Valentine’s dinner you were going to have? The chocolates and champagne? It was all up in smoke in an instant.

A hand brushes your hair. Your head snaps up.

Mark is awake. Pained and on heavy pain medication, plus a tube down his throat, but he’s alive.

You can only hope he’s mentally alright as well: he is physically and emotionally tormented by the event.