go there tonight, Cort decided.
He would go over, because he knew that she was struggling and he didn’t know if she’d told her friends, and, he admitted to himself, if he was going to be there at any point in the future, then he ought to be there for her now.
‘Not hungry?’ Sheila frowned at his discarded sandwich.
‘Not as much as I thought I was.’
‘Is that Ruby?’ Sheila asked, knowing full well that it was. ‘Doing an agency shift?’
Cort said nothing, just as he usually would.
‘She finishes soon,’ Sheila said, which she never usually would either. ‘I’m having a lot of trouble getting that one through.’ She picked up the untouched half of Cort’s sandwich and took a bite. ‘She’s like Lila …’
‘Your daughter?’
‘Both vegetarians, both live on another planet.’
Cort drained his coffee and still said nothing, but for the second time in fifteen minutes or so he was blushing.
‘I still don’t know if she’ll turn up for her shift. What is it with these girls? My daughter just dropped out of maths—two years of study gone, just like that.’
‘Sheila,’ Cort asked, ‘what if your pager went and they asked you to go and work on Ophthalmology?’
‘They wouldn’t.’ Sheila flushed, because she could not stand eyes—they were her thing, the one thing she ran from—she didn’t even like putting in eyedrops.
‘If they did, though?’ Cort said. ‘If they told you that you had to spend six weeks there—and in the ophthalmic theatre too.’
‘I’d say no,’ Sheila said. ‘Because I’m allowed to. Emergency is an essential part of her course. Anyway …’ Sheila met him with a firm gaze ‘… let’s hope she turns up and that we can keep things uneventful for her.’ And that was all she did say, but he took the warning, because in three years he’d never so much as looked at anyone and, yep, Emergency could be a horrible place to work at times and he didn’t want any more of the spotlight falling on Ruby.
‘Cort?’ Sheila checked, and he nodded. Nothing more was said, but both fully understood.
As he headed back to work, deliberately he avoided Ruby’s table, and deliberately he didn’t glance back.
It hurt not to be acknowledged, though Ruby did her best not to let it show, just concentrated on her patient, the aim to keep things light and uneventful, because Louise hated eating in public.
‘Can we go now?’ Louise said, for perhaps the fiftieth time.
‘Soon,’ Ruby said, gently but firmly, deliberately eating her salad as slowly as she could. ‘I want to finish my lunch, I won’t get another break.’ Though as Sheila walked directly towards them, Ruby was rather tempted to take the easy option and tell Louise they were heading back to the unit.
‘Hi, there, Ruby.’ She gave a brief smile to Louise too.
‘Hi, Sheila.’ Ruby wasn’t too embarrassed to be seen working. As a third-year student, she was able to practise as a division-two nurse and a lot of the students crammed in as many shifts as they could. Still, it was just a little awkward given she was due to be on night shift tomorrow.
‘Are you doing some agency?’
‘Hospital bank.’ Ruby gave a sweet smile and then pointedly turned her attention back to her patient. When Sheila continued to hover, Ruby extended the conversation a touch. ‘It’s my last one for this week.’
‘Good,’ Sheila said, ‘because you’ll need all your wits about you for night duty. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
‘Looking forward to it,’ Ruby said as Sheila finally left.
‘Who was that?’ Louise asked.
‘The A and E NUM.’ Ruby rolled her eyes. ‘She’s not too bad really, but she runs a tight ship.’
‘She reminds me of my mother.’ Louise gave a wry smile and Ruby was delighted to see that now the conversation was rather more normal, without thinking, Louise took another mouthful of food.
‘Funny you say that!’ Ruby grinned. ‘I remind her of her daughter apparently.’
It was a slow walk back to the unit, deliberately so, because Louise would have happily run all the way back, just to burn up a few extra calories, but Ruby deliberately ambled, and never in a million years would Sheila, or even Jess, Ellie or Tilly, realise that as she stopped by the guest shop and chatted about some flowers, her mind really was on the patient, that this was, in fact, a deliberate action and part of her job.
Doing this, she was happy, Ruby realised, then tried to push away that thought, although it was occurring all too frequently lately. She could stay a div two if she didn’t complete Emergency, or Sheila insisted that she repeat, but Ruby didn’t have to—she could still work in her beloved psych. Okay, she might not be able to go as far in her career as she would like, but she could still do the job she loved.
As she swiped her ID card and they entered the unit that actually felt like home, Ruby had no intention of not showing up tomorrow.
It was just nice to have options, that was all.
HE SAW her again, walking down the hill towards her home, and, yes, he had guessed at the time she might finish and had taken a different route home, because though he had heeded Sheila’s warning he did need to see her—away from the hospital and house—just to check in with her, to find out if she was okay and, Cort admitted, tell her how much he was thinking of her.
‘Hey.’ He felt like a kerb-crawler as he pulled in beside her, but she gave him a very nice smile. ‘Do you want a lift?’
‘I’m five minutes away,’ Ruby said, but she climbed into the car anyway.
‘How come you’re not on nights?’
‘Sheila swapped them round so that I’d be on with her so I’m doing a couple of shifts on Psych. I can work as a div two,’ Ruby explained.
‘And you’re liking it?’
‘Loving it.’
‘Not long now till you’ll be studying again.’ He glanced at her. ‘For your mental-health nursing …’
She stayed silent.
‘A few nights and you’ll be done.’
‘Yep.’
He turned and looked at her again and she smiled back at him but he was quite sure it didn’t reach her eyes.
‘Ruby?’
‘It
