It was almost as if Felix had read her mind and, as she turned to look at him, his striking blue eyes meeting hers, the temperature suddenly seemed to rise by twenty degrees. Her pulse was racing too.Oh God, no. This absolutely wasn’t happening. She wasn’t going to get a schoolgirl crush on Felix, just because he was so incredibly lovely, or because he looked every bit as beautiful on the outside as he was on the inside.No. Absolutely not. No way. That would have been ridiculous and she wasn’t allowing it to happen. It would make her even more pathetic than still trying to turn to Max for support, like she had in the old days, when he was the one who needed it most. She wasn’t going to let herself go down that road. She had to nip this in the bud and say it out loud, to spell it out to herself and Felix.
‘We just all really want Max to continue making progress, so that we can get things back to where they always should have been.’ The smile Eve painted onto her face was so forced it hurt. She knew getting Max back to who’d he’d been before was never going to happen, but she had to keep pretending. Only now the charade wasn’t solely for Annie’s sake, it was also to protectherself, from looking like a total idiot by falling for Felix, when all he was trying to do was help.
4
Lots of people looked forward to the weekend and woke on Friday mornings with a spring in their steps and thethank God, it’s Fridaymantra on their lips. Working in A&E was a different story. It was often more like Freaky Friday than TGIF. It was the day of the week that seemed to bring out all the people hell-bent on self-destruction. Throw in a stag do of twenty lads, determined to help their mate enjoy his last weekend of freedom at ‘all costs’ and you had a recipe for disaster. Not to mention a very overcrowded waiting room.
‘How many of the stag party are receiving treatment or waiting to be seen?’ Danni Carter was Clinical Lead in the emergency department and it was her job, along with Lead Nurse, Esther, to try and ensure that all the patients who needed care would receive it within the guidelines set by the trust, despite the constraints of staffing and other resources. It wasn’t a job for the faint-hearted.
‘Six, but they all came in from Port Tremellien by cab. There’s a seventh one on his way in by ambulance, the best man apparently.’ Esther shook her head and let out a long sigh, looking from Danni to Eve. ‘Although I use the term loosely, asapparently, he was demonstrating how to do a scissor kick while he was walking along a half-height wall. As you can imagine, it didn’t end well and he’s got an open fracture. Another group of lads in the area were watching when he fell and they laughed. That’s when the fight broke out that landed the rest of them in here.’
‘I don’t envy the bride marrying into that kind of friendship group.’ Danni wrinkled her nose. ‘I’ve got no idea why they want to spend the money hiring an Airbnb for the weekend just to get horribly drunk and only remember the weekend at all because of the injuries they end up with.’
‘I hate stag dos.’ Eve hadn’t intended to say the words out loud, because the last thing she wanted was to have to explain why just hearing the term ‘stag do’ was enough to make her shudder, but they’d slipped out of her mouth before she could stop them. Luckily, when it came to her colleagues, she didn’t need to give any rationale for her hatred of stag dos. Esther was already nodding vigorously.
‘God, me too. And hen dos and anything else that involves binge drinking, as well as losing all your inhibitions and parking your ability to think rationally at the door. I try really hard to be sympathetic to all my patients, but some of them don’t make it easy, sitting there covered in their own vomit, with injuries inflicted by stupidity, while other people who are here through no fault of their own are having to wait longer as a result.’ Esther suddenly stopped. ‘Oh no, hark at me. It’s official, isn’t it? I’m getting old. I sound like the kind of grumpy old killjoy I swore I’d never turn into.’
‘No, you sound like the mum you’re going to be before you know it.’ Danni squeezed Esther’s shoulder. Not only were they best friends, they were also sisters-in-law, as Esther was married to Danni’s brother, Joe. Most of the team knew Esther and Joe were trying for a baby, but Eve would never have dreamt ofbringing the subject up, she wasn’t close enough to any of the team to initiate that kind of conversation.
‘I really hope you’re right.’ Esther smiled.
‘It’s going to happen, I know it.’ Danni returned her smile. ‘And as a mum who’s just about to face toddler tantrums, I’m going to get in some practice at laying down the rules and assign some chores to you both. Would you be able to lead on dealing with the patient who’s on his way in, with the compound fracture, please, Eve? You’ll need to liaise with the surgeons from orthopaedics by the sound of things.’
‘Absolutely.’ Eve nodded, stilling her breath at the thought of what she might be about to face as she moved off to await the ambulance. She had to remind herself that it was okay. They already knew what injuries the best man had sustained. He’d been assessed by the paramedics and there were no concerns about life-threatening injuries. The break had been stabilised as much as possible and she just needed to take immediate action to reduce the risk of infection, compartment syndrome, or a thromboembolism. Whilst the latter could be life threatening, if a blood clot formed near the injury site and travelled to the lungs or brain, treatment in a hospital environment would be relatively straightforward. Eve would ensure that antibiotics were administered and decide whether any further action was immediately necessary. The surgical team would then carry out an assessment and it was quite likely they’d decide to operate, after which the patient would continue to receive medication to prevent blood clots until his mobility was sufficiently restored. This wasn’t an injury that could be compared to the one Max had sustained on his stag night, but that didn’t stop Eve’s stomach churning like a washing machine on a spin cycle as she awaited the arrival of the ambulance.
‘Are you okay, Eve?’ Meg’s voice was louder than it needed to be, given that she was only a few feet away from where Eve had been standing.
‘Yes, why?’ She blinked her eyes a couple of times in order to focus. For a moment she’d been miles away, back in Leeds, on the night that had changed everything. But she had a job to do, and she had to shake the memory off.
‘It’s just that I spoke to you three times and you didn’t answer.’
‘Sorry, I was just thinking about what an absolute nightmare stag dos are.’
‘Definitely. It would put me off marriage, if I hadn’t already decided that I’m going to stay single and have about ten dogs instead of a husband.’ Meg laughed. ‘I came out to try and track down one of the men from the stag do, who Isla triaged. He needs treatment for a superficial head wound, but one of his mates just told me that he’s got a cab back to Port Tremellien to get to the pub before it closes.’
‘I can’t imagine why you’d ever want to stay single, when there are men like that around. He sounds great.’ Eve laughed as well, immediately feeling better. The atmosphere was completely different to how it had felt on the night of Max’s assault. She had to stop comparing every incident that had any similarity to that night, otherwise she’d spend far too many shifts in a state of unbearable tension.
‘Hmm. Give me a Labrador any day.’ Meg was already walking away. ‘Right. I’d better get back into the thick of it. Eden was trying to persuade one of them to put his trousers back on when I came out. Apparently, he couldn’t get it into his head that there was no need to take them off when his only injury is a suspected broken knuckle.’
‘We should get danger money and patients like that should be fined to pay it.’
‘I’d vote for that.’
Just as Meg disappeared back through the doors, Eve’s patient arrived and she breathed a sigh of relief to see him laughing and joking with two of the paramedics, Julia and Dean, who quickly outlined the handover information.
‘Anything else I should know?’ Eve looked towards Julia after the briefing and the other woman pulled a face.
‘Tom here is a bit handsy, aren’t you, Tom?’ She gave him a stern look and, to his credit, he managed to look contrite. ‘But I’ve told him if he does it again, he might wake up from this op to discover it’s not just his injured leg that’s been shaved.’
‘It’s the groom who’s supposed to wake up with no eyebrows.’ Tom’s voice had taken on a whiney tone.
‘Who said anything about your eyebrows?’ Julia gave a wicked grin and Eve couldn’t help laughing.
‘I promise to be good.’ Tom gave a mock salute, but he was laughing too. ‘And thanks for looking after me.’
‘I would say no problem, but my mum always told me not to lie.’ Julia winked. ‘Come on then, Deano, let’s go and see what other reprobates we can pick up on our travels.’
‘Am I really going to need surgery?’ Tom’s eyes were round with concern as he looked at Eve after the paramedics left. All the cockiness and swagger that had made him think it was a good idea to demonstrate a scissor kick on a wall had clearly deserted him.
