she asked.
Robbie frowned. ‘I can’t remember…two, maybe three in the last twenty-four hours.’
‘Did you know you were falling, or did it happen so fast you had no warning?’ Kitty asked, examining his pupils again.
‘I just found myself on the ground with no idea how I got there,’ Robbie said.
‘Do you take any medication?’ Kitty asked. ‘Prescription or otherwise?’
‘Not for a while,’ Robbie said. ‘I used to smoke dope. I stopped a few months back.’
‘Nothing else?’
‘No,’ Robbie said. ‘I have the odd drink but I’m trying to cut back a bit. I don’t like how it makes me feel any more.’
‘So it feels different when you drink now from how it felt before?’ Kitty asked.
‘It just takes more to get him drunk than it did before,’ Jake muttered.
Kitty threw him another gnarly look. ‘Do you mind?’ she asked.
‘He’s my brother.’
Her eyes flashed grey lightning. ‘He’s my patient.’
Jake twitched aside the curtains. ‘I’ll leave you to him,’ he said. ‘I have better things to do with my time than try and help people who won’t even lift a finger to help themselves.’
Kitty put a hand on Robbie’s shoulder. ‘Sorry about that,’ she said.
Robbie put a hand over his closed eyes.
Kitty sat on the edge of the bed trolley. ‘Do you want to talk about it?’
He shook his head, and then grimaced as if the movement had caused him pain. ‘Not much point, is there? Nothing’s going to change. I’ve stuffed everything up.’
‘It’s not too late to turn things around.’
He turned his head on the pillow and cranked open one bloodshot eye. ‘You think?’
She covered his thin hand with hers. ‘Jake’s concerned about you.’
He gave a grunt as he laid his head back down and closed his eyes. ‘Jake needs to get a life.’
‘Maybe he can’t do that until he feels you’re on the right track,’ Kitty said.
A muscle ticked in Robbie’s jaw, which reminded Kitty of Jake so much she felt a little ache settle around her heart.
‘I’m not doing this on purpose,’ he said.
‘Sometimes it’s hard to see that from the outside,’ Kitty said. ‘The effort you put in might not seem like much effort at all from Jake’s perspective.’
Robbie put his wrist across his forehead and closed his eyes. ‘I don’t know why I’m like this,’ he said. ‘I just can’t seem to get my life sorted out.’
‘There are people who can help you with that,’ she said. ‘Psychologists, counsellors, even a life coach can help you put steps in place to get back on your feet.’
‘I’m not going to a shrink,’ Robbie said, dropping his arm back down on the bed. ‘They just put you on drugs and bomb you out.’
‘Not always,’ Kitty said. ‘If there’s a mental health issue that needs to be addressed, then certainly one way of managing it is drug therapy, but there are other options.’
‘I’m not a nut case,’ Robbie said scowling at her.
‘Then let’s see if there is something else going on, shall we?’ Kitty said. ‘I’m going to run a couple of tests to check your blood count and thyroid and kidney function to start with. Have you had any recent tests done? Blood? Scans? That sort of thing?’
He looked away. ‘Jake ordered some tests a while back,’ he mumbled.
‘Are the results with your GP, or did Jake deal with it directly?’ Kitty asked.
‘He doesn’t usually treat me or my sisters,’ Robbie said. ‘He’ll write the occasional script but he prefers us to have our own GP.’
‘Did anything come up?’
Robbie looked sheepish. ‘I only had a blood test done. When Jake asked me about the scan he ordered I told him it’d been clear.’
Kitty wondered why Robbie’s GP hadn’t formally written to Jake to inform him of the results, as per the usual protocol. But on questioning Robbie further she found out that he had been attending a large and busy medical clinic and had not seen the same practitioner twice. Perhaps Jake had been satisfied another colleague was taking over the care of his brother and had left it at that.
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