By My Side

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Kate swallowed back another gulp and shook herself. “Okay, I’m better now,” she said. “Hey, have any of you seen the new anaesthetics registrar yet? The one everyone’s raving about.”

“I have,” said Jenny, excitedly. “He’s lush.”

“Lush? How old are you?” Sophie asked.

“Well, if you don’t want to hear about him.”

“Ignore her,” said Flis, straining to hear what was being said. “I do.”

Jenny beamed. “He’s gorgeous, isn’t he? He’s called Peter.”

“Peter? Peter what?” Sophie asked.

“Florin,” Flis put in.

“He came on to our ward today and he’s… well… He must be over six foot tall, fair, well-built and such dreamy eyes.”

Flis was daydreaming already. “I want to switch wards,” she whined. “He’s never going to come over to Age Care. The only time I ever see him is in the corridor at lunch times.”

Jenny shook her head. “No, you wouldn’t like him, Flis; he’s far too good for you. He’s a complete love with the patients: gentle and calming, but his eyes… What I wouldn’t give to be stuck in a lift for an hour with those eyes.”

“Are you sure it’s his eyes you’re thinking about there?” Kate asked her.

Flis flumped back into her seat, complaining that it wasn’t fair, and Jenny grinned mischievously.

“Did you get to speak to him?” Sophie asked.

“Not much. I just showed him where his patient was. But you should see the way he looks at you… He really looks at you, you know?” Jenny’s eyes were wide as she fanned her face with her hand.

“Is he married?” Kate asked.

“I didn’t see any ring,” Jenny said.

Kate nodded over to Flis. “Keep bumping them off, Flis. He’ll have to be on the crash team sooner or later,” and the girls all roared with laughter at Kate’s macabre yet practical approach to romance.

The following morning Kate was feeling a little more fragile than usual. She was woken at six-thirty by a punishing alarm that she’d forgotten to change from the previous day. She groaned, rolled over and went straight back to sleep. The next thing she knew it was a quarter past twelve, three quarters of an hour before her shift was due to begin.

She flew out of bed at Mach eight and just about managed to hurtle through the doors to A&E only a few minutes after the shift had started, still a little dazed and with the mother of all headaches. She slunk inside, downed a couple of Paracetamol and got straight to work.

Half an hour later she was volunteered, along with two more junior nurses, to join the junior doctors in an impromptu teaching session. Kate walked into the clinic room and sat down and then for the next twenty minutes was bombarded with a lecture on ethics and teamwork and when it was time to go, she walked back to her duties, exceedingly suspicious of the motivation that had sparked such an extraordinary talk.

Throughout the evening Kate made discreet enquiries to see if anyone could shed light on the reason for such a session and why she in particular had been chosen to attend it, but nothing was forthcoming.

On Saturday, everything was back to normal. Kate was on an early, Elliott was not on call, and so had no chance of being around, and she was left to get on with her work in peace.

~~~

“So who was the love of her life, then? Not Elliott, surely?” Lena asked. “Was it Peter?”

The woman smiled. “Would you like me to go on?”

Lena nodded, her curious gaze piercing her heavy fringe and the woman could feel the bond between them growing.