be there with you, but you have to fulfil your placement. I’ll put you down for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I’m on Saturday night as well but I think you might want to miss that one—there’s a festival on in the city and the place will be steaming. Do you want me to change you?’
Ruby nodded. ‘Thanks, Sheila. I’m sorry to have caused so much trouble, and I really am sorry for walking out yesterday.’
‘We’ve all done it,’ Sheila said, and when Ruby shot her a look of disbelief, Sheila smiled. ‘Okay, I don’t head for home, but I’ve handed over the keys more than a few times and headed to my office or just out to the car park. And,’ Sheila added, ‘there is some tentative good news on little Victoria, Violet’s sister—it’s looking more promising than it did yesterday. They’re talking about extubating her later on this afternoon.’
It was good news, far, far better than Ruby had hoped, except it didn’t take away the pain—it just didn’t.
‘How was it?’ Cort asked a little later as she took the discharge book through to the main section and asked him to write up some discharge meds. She gave a tight shrug.
‘Ruby?’
‘I have to do nights.’
‘You’ll be fine.’
‘I don’t think I can do it, Cort.’
‘Did you speak to your housemates?’
She couldn’t really talk much more because Siobhan came over, and what could Cort really have to say to a student apart from discussing the patients? He took the folder from her and skimmed through it.
‘Is everything quiet around there?’ Siobhan asked.
‘Fine,’ Ruby said. ‘One’s just waiting for a lift home. I’m just asking Mr Mason to write up some analgesia.’
He didn’t get another chance to talk to her.
At about half past three the day staff left, including Ruby, and that was that.
Some one-night stand!
For the rest of the week Cort thought about her. Once when Connor rang Psych to see if they were ready for a patient that was being admitted, Cort almost wanted to rip the phone out of his hand when he realised Connor was talking to Ruby.
‘I might just bring the patient up myself!’ Connor said, and then laughed at something Ruby had said. ‘Well, enjoy it while you can. We’ll run you ragged next week.’ And then he told her he was on a lunch break soon and then added, ‘Two sugars!’ Cort felt his jaw tighten, not jealous so much, because Connor would never be interested in Ruby in that way but, yes, jealous, because why did he get to have a drink with Ruby, why did he get to chat to her in his lunch break, why did he get to see her in an environment she loved?
‘Because,’ Elise said, when, desperate for some female insight, finally Cort cracked and told his sister just a little of what had taken place, ‘you’re not friends with her.’
‘Oh, so just because we’ve slept together we can’t be friends?’
‘Cort,’ Elise said. ‘Do you want to be just friends?’
‘No.’
‘Friends with benefits?’
‘No!’ God, no! Cort thought in horror—he really wasn’t ready for all this. ‘I’m just worried about her. She’s got a lot to deal with at the moment. I don’t know who, if anyone, she’s talking about it with. I guess I just want to be around for her and I don’t want to make things more complicated for her either.’ He was more confused about a woman than he had ever been in his life.
Ever.
‘She’s nothing like you’d expect, Elise.’
‘You mean she’s nothing like Beth.’
And did his sister always have to be so forthright? But she was on to something.
‘I thought that was what it would be,’ Cort said, because feelings for another woman, if ever they arrived again, were supposed to enter slowly. Another Beth, or close, or similar.
‘What do you want, Cort?’
Not this, he thought, but didn’t say it.
Not this, Cort thought, because surely he wasn’t ready.
‘Just leave it,’ Cort said, and decided that he would too.
HE TRIED to leave it.
Cort really did.
But when he was called in late on Monday night, he sensed the second he arrived that Ruby wasn’t there.
There was no one he could ask without making things obvious, which was what he was hoping to avoid.
He couldn’t even ring her, because they hadn’t even swapped phone numbers, which, Cort told himself, was a pretty good indicator as to what they had both wanted from each other that night.
It just felt like something more now.
‘I’m going to lie down in the on-call room for a couple of hours.’ Cort yawned around seven a.m., because he was officially on duty at nine a.m. and two hours’ sleep was too good to pass up.
‘No, you’re not.’ Hannah grinned as she walked over. ‘We’ve got a mum who’s not going to make it up to Maternity.’
‘Oh, God,’ Cort groaned, because this was happening rather too often. The car park for Maternity was currently closed so that new boom gates could be erected, which meant mums-to-be were currently having to walk a considerable distance further, and on more than a couple of occasions they landed in Emergency.
‘We’ve rung Maternity, they’re sending someone down.’ Hannah smiled ‘Come on, Cort—let’s go and have a baby!’
‘I’m not responsible enough,’ Cort said, and Hannah grinned back, but it was Cort who checked himself, because normally he’d have said nothing. Normally, he didn’t joke along with the staff, not even a little bit. Usually he just rolled up his sleeves and got on with whatever job presented itself. Ruby had changed him, Cort realised. Ruby really was infectious.
‘Hi, there …’ Cort smiled at the mother who was groaning in pain but, unlike the last couple of maternity patients who had landed in Emergency, Cort wasn’t quite sure if she was at that toe-curling, holding-it-in stage. He put a hand on her stomach and asked a couple of questions, but to save her from two examinations, as Maternity was sending someone down, he decided to hold off for a moment.
‘Can you believe it?’ Hannah was looking more than a little boot-faced when Cort stepped outside. ‘Maternity sent a grad midwife—she’s just washing her hands.’ Hannah rolled her eyes. ‘She looks about twelve!’
Cort
