for emergency patients only—which Mr Baker is. Anyway, I want this cubicle cleared.’
‘It just confuses things if we open it,’ Annie protested. ‘Other doctors see that it’s open and—’
‘Are you confused, Nurse?’ he asked, halting her explanation in its tracks as she stared open-mouthed at possibly the rudest introduction to a colleague she’d ever experienced. ‘Because if you are confused, I will explain things more simply: I want my patient in a bed, I want this cubicle to be utilized rather than providing a babysitting service because it’s easier for the nurses to keep the obs ward closed. If you have a problem asserting yourself and telling doctors that they cannot use the emergency beds, send them my way and I will explain it to them.’ He stalked out of the cubicle, leaving Annie to unwrap the manual blood-pressure cuff from the patient, her hand shaking with rage. Somehow he’d managed to condense more insults into a minute than most managed in a day. Her title was actually ‘sister’, though, given it sounded like a nun, she preferred Annie, but aside from that, assertion was as essential a qualification as a degree to make it in the emergency department, and for him to insinuate that she was lacking in that had Annie’s blood boiling.
Still, there wasn’t time to dwell on it now—the baby next door was due for his Ventolin and then she had to take one of her patients up to the ward—oh, and set up for Mickey to be sutured.
But in an almost reverse mirror image of moments ago, as Annie pulled open the curtains Iosef was just finishing up, giving the baby the last few puffs of his Ventolin through a spacer, though at least this time he did sign his name on the chart.
‘Did you need something?’ he asked, not even bothering to look up.
‘What could I possibly need?’ Annie gave a very twisted smile. ‘You’ve clearly thought of everything!’ And pursing her lips, she headed off to find Les, the porter, to come with her as they took her patient up to the ward.
She seethed every step of the way.
And not just on the first trip.
As her shift wore on, she felt more and more useless beside the incredibly efficient, horribly arrogant and utterly loathsome Dr Kolovsky. It was actually closer to six by the time Mickey was eventually stitched, which made their earlier exchange rather pointless! Dr Fantastic set up for his own sutures and the happy laughter and chatter that came from behind the curtain as he joked with a now sober and much more compliant Mickey for some reason rankled Annie.
‘There you go,’ Annie heard him declare when she came in just as he was snipping the last stitch. ‘As good as new.’
‘I will be once I’ve had a bath.’
‘That will be arranged—then I’ll come and see you around there.’
‘Thanks, Doc.’
Well, Mickey had changed his tune.
‘Could you take him around now?’ He didn’t even look up. ‘Jess has gone round to run his bath.’
‘So soon after being sutured?’ Annie checked.
‘He wants a bath before he will allow me to examine him—I’ve spoken to Jess and she’s to wait outside the bathroom door to listen out for him.’
Jess, one of the students, had indeed run Mickey a bath and he hopped off the trolley and into the bathroom, refusing all offers of assistance. As Jess hovered outside the bathroom door Annie started Mickey’s handover and catching sight of the scales, with Melanie’s strict instructions still ringing in her ears, she unabashedly jumped on, moving the little weights to see where her weight was as she spoke to the student.
‘He doesn’t like being woken for his obs. He’ll grumble like crazy but don’t let him talk you out of it—he needs hourly neuro obs overnight. There’s something else going on with him—normally he’s not so bashful— but once he’s had his bath he’s agreed for Iosef to examine him. It will be interesting to see what’s going on.’
‘Any family that knows he’s here?’ Jess asked, and Annie shook her head as she gave a confused frown at the scales.
‘That bad, huh?’ the student asked sympathetically as Annie peered more closely at the scales.
‘Actually, no! ’ Annie blew out a long breath. ‘I weigh less than I thought I did.’
‘Lucky you! That’s good news, isn’t it?’
‘I guess,’ Annie said, deciding it was too complicated to explain, but she stepped off and then back on again to make double sure the scales were right as she