O’Sullivan, we weren’t expecting you till tonight. Don’t tell me: you just can’t stay away from the place.’ Jess chatted away good-humouredly, her Irish accent thick and strong, as the team lifted her onto the trolley. There was nothing Emergency staff dreaded more than being wheeled into their own department, but unfortunately it happened now and then, and the staff dealt with it with a very special brand of humour—intimate, yet professional.
‘Perhaps she’s checking up on you.’ Ken Holmes carried on the joke as they swapped the paramedics’ monitors and equipment for the emergency department’s own.
‘Or…’ Jess smiled as she wrapped a blood pressure cuff around Meg’s bruised arm ‘…she decided that she did want to meet the new consultant after all.’
‘She works here?’ Apart from leading the count as they’d lifted her over it was the first time Flynn had spoken since they had arrived in the unit.
‘She does.’ Fifty milligrams of Pethidine on top of a sleepless night had not only controlled her pain but also taken away every last piece of Meg’s reserve, and her comment came out rather more sarcastically than intended. She saw his perfectly arched eyebrow raise just a fraction as he skilfully palpated her abdomen.
‘And what is it you do here, Meg?’
‘The same as Jess.’
‘And what does Jess do?’
God, why all the questions? All she wanted to do was sleep. Closing her eyes, she ignored him, but Flynn hadn’t finished yet.
‘Meg, what job do you do here?’ His voice was sharp, dragging her out of her slumber.
‘I’m a nurse,’ she answered reluctantly. Maybe now he’d leave her alone.
‘What day is it today?’
The interrogation obviously wasn’t over. He was testing her reflexes now, lifting her legs slightly and tapping at her knees as he repeated the question. ‘Come on, Meg, what day is it today?’
‘Pay day.’
Jess laughed. ‘It is too. Thank God,’ she added. ‘My credit card bill is crashing through the roof. Now, come on, Meg—tell the good doctor here what day it is so he can get off to his welcome breakfast.’
‘Tuesday.’ No, that was yesterday. Meg always got mixed up when she was doing nights. ‘Wednesday,’ she said, more definitely. ‘Today is Wednesday.’
The same small affirmative nod he had used at the accident scene was repeated and Meg gave a relieved sigh.
‘Do you remember what happened yet?’
‘I had an accident.’
Flynn gave her a thin smile. ‘You certainly did. I meant before the accident. Do you remember what caused it?’
She opened her mouth to answer, to tell him exactly what had happened in the hope of finally being allowed to rest, but as she tried to explain Meg felt as if she was trying to recall a dream. Little flashes of the morning would pop into her head, rather like watching a photo develop, but before the picture appeared it would vanish again, and no matter how she fought to remember the images just slipped away.
‘Can you remember?’ His voice was gentle, as if he realised how much she was struggling.
‘No.’ The simple word terrified her.
‘You will. Just give it time, Meg.’
Turning to Jess, Meg listened as Flynn ordered what seemed an inordinate amount of tests. ‘We’ll get her over for a C. spine and head CT now, and I want one of her abdomen. She’s tender over the spleen. Chest and abdo films, and I want those bloods back from the lab stat, in case she needs a transfusion. It might be better to pop in a catheter.’
‘No.’ This time the simple word was said much more forcefully, and Flynn and Jess both turned to her simultaneously. ‘No,’ she repeated. ‘I’m not having a catheter.’
‘Okay.’ Flynn relented. ‘But if you haven’t passed urine in the next hour I’m getting one put in.’ He turned back to Jess. ‘Obviously keep her nil by mouth for now. I’d best go and do a quick duty speech, and then I’ll be back to check on her. Call me in the meantime if you’re in the least concerned.’
He came over to the trolley then and looked down at her, her hair fanning out on the pillow, knotted and full of glass, streaks of blood on her cheeks and her lips bruised and swollen. Yet there was an air of dignity about her, coupled with a wary, but somehow superior look that brought the beginning of a smile to his lips. ‘And try not to give her any more Pethidine. I want to do a full neuro assessment when I get back.’
‘Are you going?’ It was a strange question, one Meg couldn’t believe she had just asked.
‘Just for a little while, then I’ll be back to review you.’ That seemed to placate her, and she relaxed back onto the pillow. ‘If you’re very good Jess and I might even save you a Danish pastry.’ He smiled then, properly, for the first time since their eventful meeting.
It was like being rescued all over again.
Closing her eyes, his face still etched in her bruised, muddled mind, Meg let sleep finally wash over and, utterly oblivious to the world, even the hourly neuro obs the staff performed at regular intervals, she slept through what was left of the day.
* * *
‘She’s waking up.’
‘Leave her, Kathy. The nurse said not to disturb her.’ Mary O’Sullivan’s voice had that sharp warning edge that would have sent Meg scuttling straight back to her chair, but it had little or no effect on her sister.
‘That was two hours ago. I just want to see she’s all right for myself.’
‘Do as your mother says, Kathy.’ Ted O’Sullivan had as little impact on Kathy as his wife, and as Meg came to it was to the all too familiar strains of her family bickering.
Kathy stood there peering anxiously over her. ‘You’re awake.’ Kathy’s eyes filled with tears as she looked down at her big sister.
‘No thanks to you,’ Mary interjected. ‘Can you not obey a simple order, Kathy? The nurse said to leave her be.’
‘Hello, Mum,’ Meg croaked. ‘Sorry for all the trouble.’
‘No trouble—apart from a coronary when the police came to the door.’ Mary’s attempt at a joke felt more like a telling off, and Meg closed her eyes again, the bright lights of the Emergency observation ward too much for her fragile head. ‘Are you all right, pet?’
Keeping her eyes closed, Meg nodded. Now the collar was off at least she was able to do that. It was about the only thing she could do; her chest felt as if a bus was sitting on it. Mary fussed and chatted for a while, but Meg could almost sense her relief when six o’clock came and her mother had a valid reason to go home.
‘That lovely Irish nurse, Jess, has kept us up to date. She’s away home now, to her husband, but she said that you were to
