Nurse In Need

‘It’s time to go home again, Patrick,’ Amy announced. Mrs Benny would be back from X-ray soon and the increase in general activity and noise beyond the cubicle curtain indicated that the quiet spell was over. Amy helped Patrick to his feet where he stood for a moment, swaying slightly. She pulled back the curtain, glancing up automatically as she did so.

It seemed as though the stranger had been waiting for her to appear. How else could she have caught his eye so instantly? He wasn’t laughing this time. Not even smiling, but Amy recognised him. She tore her gaze away. It was like a physical touch, that eye contact. It was too personal. Intimate, even, which was ridiculous. Amy made eye contact with perfect strangers all the time. Why on earth should this man be any different?

‘Come on, Patrick. You’re all right now.’

Amy turned so that she was side on to the stranger. He was talking to Noel Fenton, an orthopaedic registrar who was probably on his way to see Mrs Benny. Could the man be a relative perhaps? Mrs Benny’s son? Amy shook her head unconsciously. No. Mrs Benny was in her eighties and this man didn’t look much over thirty. A grandson, maybe.

Amy waited patiently while Patrick collected his hat and walking stick from the end of his bed. She was quite aware of the men in her peripheral line of vision, however. Noel was introducing the man to Gareth Harvey. Amy risked another glance as he shook hands with the consultant. He was smiling again now. His manner was as relaxed and casual as his faded jeans and the leather jacket over an open-necked shirt. Not a frantically worried relative, then.

Amy turned away quickly as the trio of men started moving towards her. Her movement coincided with Patrick’s tentative foray back into the world, and the old man staggered a little. He caught Amy’s arm and then hooked her waist with a bony hand.

‘You’re an angel, Amy Brooks,’ he proclaimed loudly. ‘I love you. Will you marry me?’

Amy prised the hand from her waist. ‘Come on, Patrick.’ She could sense the proximity of the consultant and his companions. She heard the appreciative chuckle that could only have come from one person. Amy gritted her teeth and spoke with quiet desperation.

‘Come on, Patrick.’ Amy kept hold of her charge’s arm and began to steer him very firmly towards the door. Patrick was looking back over his shoulder.

‘Sent by heaven, she was,’ he informed the department triumphantly. ‘An angel, to be sure.’

Amy’s blush had finally receded by the time she had signed Patrick out and seen him to the taxi stand outside the waiting room. The nurse manager, Peter Milne, signalled to her on her return.

‘Can you give Jennifer a hand to sort out Resus 1? It’s still a bit of a mess.’

‘Sure.’ Amy smiled willingly. ‘Any word on Daniel yet?’

‘Still in Theatre, but Noel was in there to check on the leg and things were going pretty well. The bleeding’s under control. Ruptured spleen and some liver damage. I think he’ll pull through.’

‘That’s great.’ Amy spared a thought for the relief Daniel’s mother would feel. Jennifer had the same thought when Amy relayed the information.

‘Can you believe Janice brought her in here at that point in time? You’d think she’d know enough to check first.’

‘I think she feels uncomfortable dealing with relatives,’ Amy said. ‘And sometimes it is better to let them see that everything possible is being done, especially if the outcome is likely to be bad.’

‘Hmm.’ Jennifer was counting empty drug ampoules as she slotted them into the sharps container. She didn’t sound convinced.

Amy began collecting the discarded sterile packaging. ‘Patrick just proposed to me again.’

‘So we heard.’ Jennifer grinned. ‘You’re an angel, to be sure.’

Amy returned the grin. Suddenly the moment she’d been waiting for seemed to present itself. ‘Hey, Jen?’

‘Mmm?’ Jennifer was now peering into the drugs cabinet.

‘About tonight,’ Amy said carefully. She didn’t want this opportunity to go the way all the others had. ‘I thought—’

‘No,’ Jennifer interrupted firmly. She kept her gaze on the contents of the cupboard. ‘We’re low on adrenaline in here. Pretty low on morphine as well. I’ll go and get some more.’

‘Please, Jen,’ Amy said forlornly. ‘I really want you to come to this party.’

‘No. Sorry, Amy, but I’m not going to change my mind.’

‘But you love parties.’

‘Not this one I don’t. I’d rather stay home and stick needles in my eyes.’ Jennifer glanced at Amy. ‘Which reminds me. How are those IV cannula supplies?’

‘Down on 14-gauge,’ Amy responded automatically.

‘I’ll get some of those, too, then.’

Amy straightened the ECG electrode wires and rolled up the blood-pressure cuff. She was tucking in the clean sheet on the bed as Jennifer returned. Amy accepted the bundle of cannula packages and caught her friend’s eye hopefully.

‘It won’t be that bad, you know. The party, I mean.’

‘Yes, it will.’ Jennifer was arranging the fresh supply of ampoules in the drug cabinet. ‘A pack of stuffy consultants and their wives. All geriatric,’ she continued decisively. ‘There’ll probably be a string quartet in the corner and a waiter with a tray of sherry. Everybody will be overdressed and horribly superior.’ Jennifer clicked the cabinet door shut and locked it. She gave Amy a reproachful look. ‘And your boyfriend will be the worst of the lot.’

Amy sighed. This wasn’t going the way she’d planned it at all. ‘Don’t start on Nigel,’ she begged. ‘He’s not that bad. He really wants you to come.’

‘Oh, sure.’ Jennifer’s expression was now openly sceptical. You’re talking about the man who told me, only yesterday, that if my neurons could get close enough to hold hands occasionally then I would have had those scan results available before he had to disrupt his precious schedule to come down to Emergency.’

Amy’s glance slid sideways. ‘OK, so he can be a bit sarcastic sometimes. Major trauma cases can be stressful, as you well know.’

‘He hadn’t even got anywhere near the patient,’ Jennifer countered. Her expression softened. ‘I admit he probably has his good points. He can be very charming when he wants to be.’ It was Jennifer’s turn to sigh. ‘I just can’t pretend to like him, Amy. There’s something about him that I don’t trust, and it’s more than the fact that his eyes are far too close together. I still don’t understand why you started going out with him in the first place.’

‘He asked me,’ Amy said simply. ‘Anyway, that’s months ago, now. It’s ancient history.’

‘Like Nigel.’

‘He’s only forty-two,’ Amy said impatiently. ‘And he’s a very talented surgeon. You don’t have to like him, Jen. Just come to the party. For me.’

‘No way.’ Jenny pulled back the curtain. Resus 1 was ready to go again. ‘Catch you later, Amy. Looks like there’s some work to be done out here.’

A new stretcher was coming through the automatic double doors from the ambulance bay. The bed arriving from the other end of the corridor that led into the hospital was returning Mrs Benny to the emergency department. Amy caught up with her patient.

‘That was nice and quick. How are you feeling, Mrs Benny?’

‘Dreadful. They moved my leg and the pain is ever so much worse.’

‘Is is?’ Amy helped the orderly position the bed back in cubicle 4. ‘I’ll get one of the doctors to come and organise some more pain relief for you.’

Amy’s route to notify one of the registrars of Mrs Benny’s need for more analgesia took her past Jennifer, who was helping a woman towards the toilet. The smile that the two nurses exchanged was fleeting but it was enough to reassure Amy that Jennifer was not really bothered by her persistent efforts over the last week directed at getting her to accept the party invitation.

The difference of opinion concerning Amy’s dating of orthopaedic surgeon Nigel Wesley hadn’t been enough to seriously compromise their friendship. Yet. Amy’s spirits sank a little further. That was something that could well change after tonight, and Amy dreaded that possibility. Somehow she had to warn Jennifer of developments and ensure that their friendship wasn’t going to suffer irreparably. Persuading her to attend the party and then making sure she enjoyed herself was the only plan Amy had, so far, been able to concoct.

Perhaps she should just come straight out with it and tell Jennifer the truth. If she was really confident that she was doing the right thing, then it shouldn’t be a problem, but confidence was an emotion that Amy generally associated only with her professional abilities. Anything else was too risky to be confident about, but this was a risk she was happy enough to take. It was the right thing to do. It had to be. Time was running out in more ways than one.

Maybe the doubts that were troubling her were due to the sneaking suspicion that a friendship might have to be sacrificed. Not just any friendship either. The one and only really close relationship that Amy had ever had with another person. Nobody else had ever come close. Not her school friends and definitely not her parents. Not even Nigel. Maybe especially Nigel. Jen was the one person in the world who loved Amy for who she really was. Jen made her feel good about herself and had always supported her wholeheartedly. Well, almost always. At least until Nigel Wesley had surprisingly shown an interest in Senior Nurse Amy Brooks.

Gladys Benny was transferred to a ward half an hour later. Due to her patient’s reluctance to let go of her hand, Amy accompanied the bed as far as the lift. It was on her return that she spotted the man for the third time. He was now in the emergency observation area—a mini-ward, adjacent to Emergency, that could hold non-urgent patients for up to twenty-four hours until a decision was made regarding their need for admission. Amy didn’t give him the chance to look in her direction this time. She sped on and didn’t stop until she found Jennifer. She followed her friend into the sluice room.