face lit up. She looked a great deal more enthusiastic about it than she had the other day but, then, she’d obviously enjoyed his lecture, questioning him about it all the way home. ‘Really? That’s good. You’ve made plenty already.’
‘Suppose so.’ A porter wheeled a squeaking trolley into the ward and Julie flinched. Adam remembered that reaction all too clearly. All your senses on red alert, every moment of the day. Alarm at any sudden noise.
Jenna had leaned forward, her hand tapping Julie’s foot gently. ‘Hey. Earth to Julie. It’s okay, honey, just a porter.’
‘Yeah. Just a porter.’ Julie’s eyes filled with tears and Jenna’s helpless gaze flipped to Adam.
‘Listen, Julie, these feelings are natural.’ Adam repeated what he’d been told so many times. ‘It will pass. You just have to hang in there until it does.’
‘When?’ Julie almost spat the word at him. ‘When will it pass?’ Adam recognised that sudden, volatile fury too. As if his heart was already full to the brim with anger, and only a drop more would make it spill over.
‘I can’t tell you. There are ways we can help you …’ Adam tailed off as Julie turned her head away from him. He was losing her.
‘What do you want, Julie?’ Jenna’s voice cut across the space between them. ‘Dr Sinclair can lie to you if you like. Give you a time and a date when everything will be back as it was. Or he can respect you enough to tell you the truth.’
The warrior was back. The woman who took life by the shoulders and shook hard until she got what she wanted. Adam grinned and took Jenna’s cue. ‘I could lie. Do you want me to?’
‘Of course not.’ Julie shot an imploring look at Jenna. ‘But it’s all so much talk, isn’t it?’
Adam saw Jenna’s knuckles whiten as she gripped the rail at the end of the bed. She’d done a good job with Julie. She’d gained her trust, and she’d used it to help Iain and the other doctors do their work. But she’d hit a brick wall here.
Unless … Adam hadn’t planned on this, but the agonised look in Jenna’s eyes spurred him on. ‘That’s what I thought when the doctors said that to me. So they sent me to a counsellor and I didn’t believe her either. In the end you have to find out for yourself.’
He had Julie’s attention. Jenna’s too, only she was trying not to look at him with such overt interest as Julie. ‘What do you know about it?’
‘I’ve been there. Not in the same way as you, but I think I understand part of what you’re feeling. I was shot, and ended up in hospital in Florida.’
Julie’s eyes were as round as saucers. ‘Like on TV?’
Jenna huffed quietly. ‘No, it’s not the same as on TV, Julie …’ Adam waved her to silence. Now wasn’t the time for her to spring to his defence, however much it pleased him to hear her do it.
‘The thing is that being shot changed my view of the world. Before, I’d thought that I was pretty much unbreakable, but I realised that I wasn’t. I had to relearn how to do the smallest things without panicking. But I did, which is how I know that you can. And that you will.’
Julie stared at him, and then gave him a curt nod. Slowly, her eyes left his face and focussed on Jenna. ‘Did you bring me some chocolate?’
Jenna reached into her pocket and held up a pound coin. ‘It’s in the machine if you want it. Dr Sinclair will come with us, it’s right outside the doors of the ward.’
Julie fingered the blanket that lay over her legs. ‘I don’t want to disturb my skin grafts.’
‘You won’t.’ Adam tapped the thick file that he had brought with him. ‘I’ve read all of your notes and the skin grafts have taken nicely. You can get up and move around gently now. In fact, it’ll be good for you, stimulate the circulation.’
Julie wrinkled her nose. ‘They look horrible. I’ve seen them when they do the dressings.’
‘I know.’ He fingered the envelope he had tucked inside the file, wondering whether now was the time to bring it out. ‘They’ll look better. You know that, don’t you?’
‘Yeah. S’pose so.’ Julie huffed a sigh. ‘Every day, in every way it just gets better and better, is that it?’
Adam suppressed a grin. He could see why Jenna had taken to Julie. Underneath all that teenage petulance the kid had spirit. ‘Well, yeah. Some days are always going to be better than others, but if you look at it in the long term, things do get better.’ He was getting there. He got a grin in return. ‘You look better when you smile, you know.’
‘Yeah, I’ve heard that one before too.’
Adam came to a decision and pulled the envelope he had brought out of the file. ‘I brought you a picture. One of my patients, I treated her for burns.’
Julie focussed on the envelope. ‘So I’m supposed to look at this and see how much progress she’s made, am I?’ Petulant and bright. Adam could see why Julie was such a handful.
‘I had a lot of fears when I was hurt. A lot of feelings that I couldn’t come to terms with.’ The look on Julie’s face told Adam that she did, too. ‘So did the girl in the picture. It’s a tough road, but sometimes knowing that you’re not walking it alone makes it a bit easier.’
He was delving much deeper into his own pain than he’d expected to. But somehow, with Jenna sitting quietly beside him, and Julie, whose need was so much greater than his own, it felt okay. Almost a relief.
‘Okay. I’ll look.’ Julie reached for the photograph, struggling to get it out of the envelope with just one hand. Jenna didn’t move to help her. Tough love. But it was love, all the same, the kind that was going to haul Julie through this, kicking and screaming if necessary.
Jenna craned over to see the photograph. ‘Who’s the boy that she’s with?’
‘That’s Rick. They’re married now.’
Jenna exchanged looks with Julie. ‘He’s nice. I think he’s more of a Ricky than a Rick, don’t you?’
Julie giggled. ‘Yeah. Pretty neat guy.’
It wasn’t exactly textbook stuff, but it was working. The last thing that Julie was seeing were the faint scars on Claudia’s leg. She was seeing a young woman, happy and in love, her handsome boyfriend at her side. Jenna worked round to the scars, but only after she’d made her point about Rick not caring about them. Adam’s hand strayed absently to his shoulder. She was almost making him feel better.
‘Can you make me a copy of this?’ Julie regarded Adam, obviously assessing his age and likely technical competence. ‘Do you know how to do that?’
‘I’ve got a copy. Take this.’
‘So you like the younger man, do you?’ All the way down to the canteen, Adam had been smiling at something, and that was obviously it.
‘Oh, go boil your head.’ Jenna stuffed her take-away sandwich into his hand while she rummaged in her bag for her
