Bernadette shook her head.‘Caleb, son, I might change my mind about Ibiza.’
Caleb gave her a weary thumbs up.‘I’ll have my swimmies packed by morning and meet you at the airport.’
A beep from the desktop radio, the communication system the paramedics used to alert them to incoming patients, interrupted the conversation, and Caleb attended to that, while Stevie got back to work too, but not before saying, ‘Bernie, we’re hoping to take our break at two o’clock, if you can get away at the same time and join us.’
‘I’ll try, lovely – but only if you promise to dish some scandal about that man of yours.’
Bernadette had treated a fair few famous faces over the years, and most of them – if she were being honest and indiscreet – were egotistical arses, but Stevie’s Glasgow-born actor boyfriend, Ollie Chiles, truly seemed to be a good one.And in a weird, small-world coincidence, Val was friends with his mother, Moira Chiles, and said she was an absolute gem – which was close to sainthood in Val Murray’s book of praises.
Alone for the first time since she’d started three hours ago, Bernadette took advantage of the moment to quickly pull her phone from her scrubs pocket and check the screen.Still no reply from Jack.Still nothing from Stuart.Nina hadn’t changed her mind and asked her to help with preparing for tomorrow’s vow renewal.But there was a notification to say there were two texts in the group that she’d set up for the ladies she was meeting tonight.That chat lay dormant all year long, and then burst into life on the twenty-first of February every year as they confirmed attendance.
The group had been established in 2021, and in the four meetings they’d had since then, no one had missed the gathering, and Bernadette had no reason to think anyone would cancel on them tonight.She was about to check the messages, when a harassed junior nurse came hurrying towards her, sporting a troubled expression.
‘Bernadette, can you help me out?I’ve got a patient in bay 11 – head injury, possible concussion, extremely agitated and saying that he’s discharging himself.He’s also asking to see the consultant on call, so I literally don’t know if he’s coming or going, but I don’t want him leaving before we X-ray him to rule out a skull fracture.’
Bernadette immediately put her at ease.As the most senior nurse on the floor, she was always prepared to take on the more challenging and belligerent patients because she had almost forty years of experience in dealing with them and didn’t want the more junior staff to have to put up with it.Especially as it was a growing epidemic these days.Back when she’d started, there would be the occasional abusive drunk or outrageously obnoxious family member, but now it seemed like every single day they had people demanding to speak to management, shouting about their rights and giving the staff utterly unwarranted abuse.Bernadette completely understood why more and more people were leaving the service.
‘No worries, Letisha, I’ll have a word.’
‘Thanks, Bernadette.’The young nurse handed over the chart and was about to go in the other direction when she stopped.‘Oh, and he’s ranting about being a doctor.I should probably have led with that.’
Bernie felt an immediate conflict of emotions.There was an acknowledgement and respect for the fact that the patient was a fellow medical professional, and then that positive feeling was immediately bumped out of the way by irritation because a doctor should know bloody better than to harass and make life difficult for a junior nurse who was only doing her fecking best.Then came an instant judgement that this man – like many of those celebrities she’d treated – was an arse.She’d had her fill of men like that in the past and no intention of putting up with their crap now.
Taking a breath, she steeled herself, mentally clipped on her bulletproof bra, and marched over to bay 11, pulled the curtain open far enough to step in, surveyed the scene and almost gasped aloud as she saw the familiar face that was lying on the bed.
‘Murray!’Hers was a shocked but warm exclamation.
‘Bernadette?’His was almost a groan.That was a surprise, because on the few occasions they’d met over the years, she’d always had a perfectly cordial relationship with Murray Atkins, one of her ex-husband’s oldest friends.Or maybe that should be peers.Long-term acquaintances.Bernadette had always thought that, like most narcissists, Kenneth didn’t have the emotional capacity for true friendship.And she’d occasionally wondered if he and the very charismatic Murray Atkins were two of a kind: ruthlessly driven, self-aggrandising, brilliant perfectionists, with unlimited charm and zero empathy or conscious thought for anyone but themselves.
Although, in the next couple of seconds, a couple of reasons for his less than enthusiastic reaction to their reunion emerged loud and clear.
The first was sitting on the chair in corner of the room.A younger woman, maybe in her early thirties, her brows knitted with concern.His daughter?Bernadette racked her brain.Nope.Murray had no children.And she knew that because, oh bugger the coincidence… The text she’d got this morning from Diana.Diana was Murray’s ex-wife.Information began dropping into place.That meant that the last time she’d seen Murray Atkins was five years ago today, at Kenneth’s funeral.He and Diana had avoided each other that day because they’d recently divorced and couldn’t stand the sight of each other.Jesus, what a mess.
More information dropped in.A memory.Something Diana had said the next time Bernadette had spoken to her, on the first anniversary of Kenneth’s funeral.An update on Murray’s marital status that had both shocked and mildly amused her, but didn’t fit with the scene that was playing out in front of her right now.
Cue the second possible reason for Murray’s reticence to greet a blast from the past with a sunny, welcoming smile – other than the obvious reality that he was in a hospital ward with a head injury.She took in his bare feet.The bare legs sticking out from under his gown.The bare shoulder visible at the neckline.He’d come in with a head injury – so why on earth was Murray naked under that gown?
And why was he in a very evident state of arousal, one that he was trying desperately to conceal?Oh, in the name of the holy erection, this was mortifying.
Bernadette maintained her warm, calm professional manner.‘I would say it’s lovely to see you, but given the circumstances…’ She offered a gentle smile.‘Okay, let’s see what we have here.’
She took a step towards him, but he put his hand up.
‘Look, Bernadette, I just want out of here.Draw up the discharge papers and I’ll sign them, otherwise I’m walking out the door.I’m perfectly fine.’
She decided it wasn’t the moment to point out that if he walked out of the door right now, bollock naked and aroused, he’d end with a charge of indecent exposure and an entry on a register – not ideal for one of the country’s top doctors.
‘Let me make a deal with you,’ she said, ignoring his reluctance as she reached the bed, where she used her torch to check his pupil dilation.‘The nurse who dealt with you…’ She tried not to say that in a chastising way.‘Is concerned about a possible skull fracture, so I don’t want you leaving here in case she’s right and then I’ll have that on my conscience.I don’t need to tell you the potential complications if something is missed.But I can see that you’re busy and don’t want to be here, so let me go and speak to X-ray and see if I can get you fast-tracked…’ She knew that would play to his ego.‘And if so, we’ll get you over there, checked out and then have you out of here in no time.I’ll be right back.’
She didn’t even give him time to object, before turning to leave.On the way out, she gave a well-practised smile of reassurance to the young woman in the corner.Another tug of recognition.She’d definitely seen her before.But then, in her decades of work in a busy hospital, she’d met thousands of people and stored their faces in her memory bank.It was quite possible that the woman had come in with appendicitis in 2012.Or maybe she was someone who’d been in Nina’s year at school.They could be around the same age.Murray.Fricking.Atkins.What the hell was he doing?
Turned out she didn’t have to go through to radiology to check the processing times, because Stevie was back at the nursing station writing something on the whiteboard.When she’d finished, she put the pen down and turned her way.
‘Bernadette, are you okay?’
Bernadette stumbled over her words.‘Yes.I think.Just a bit… surprised.Letisha asked me to see a belligerent patient and it turns out he’s a doctor, an old friend of my ex-husband.’
‘Not the first time we’ve had a difficult doctor around here.’
