St Matthew's Passion - By Sam Archer Page 0,58

Retreating back into the hospital, Melissa headed for a little-known exit through the kitchens and made her escape that way.

During the days of Fin’s recovery, as test after test came back normal and the relief began to intensify in Melissa, the two of them conversed very little. Melissa didn’t want to weaken Fin by overtaxing him, didn’t want to get in the way of his healing. But he made it clear he didn’t want her to go away either. So she sat by his bed, in ICU and later when he was transferred down to one of the regular wards, often holding hands with him, sometimes kissing in a fairly chaste way. There was so much to be said between them, but it could wait now that it was becoming clearer that he was going to be all right.

Now, as Melissa stepped on to the ward ready to face a day’s work, she felt a pang of sadness. Prof Penney had told her not to start her duties again: she had less than a week left, and she’d been through a serious trauma. She needed rest. But Melissa couldn’t leave just like that. She had to go out with a bang, giving her all to the job right up until the end.

The sadness she felt was for the ward, the department, the hospital itself. Because she couldn’t stay, even now that she and Fin had made clear their feelings for one another. Perhaps particularly so now. Deborah had been right: a love affair between two of the most important people in the department would inevitably get in the way of the smooth running of the service. Melissa had made her choice: she wanted Fin, and it looked as if they were going to be together. But in return, she had to give up her job at St Matthew’s.

As Melissa busied herself about the ward, the atmosphere different now, cheerful even despite the enormous suffering many of the patients had recently undergone (Deborah later said one of the patients had told her that being treated by doctor who was a genuine hero had assisted his recovery, and Melissa snorted, though secretly she was pleased), she thought: I’m going to miss this place. Perhaps more than I can even imagine.

***

By the fifth day after the episode on the river, Fin was up and about, taking regular walks, a little shakily at first but with growing confidence. Melissa visited him upstairs whenever she could snatch a few minutes away from her work. One such opportunity arose after the orthopaedic and neurosurgeons took over one of her cases for whom their skills were better suited than hers. With no patient to take to theatre, Melissa wandered along to Fin’s ward.

He was sitting on his bed sipping tea, in pyjamas and a hospital gown, his hair rumpled, his face a little thinner for his ordeal, but good-humoured. And handsome as ever.

His eyes appraising her, he patted the bed beside him and she sat down. They pressed close.

‘Busy morning?

Melissa gave him a rundown of her day so far. Fin interjected from time to time with questions about the patients she was describing, and remarks about how she’d managed them. There was an easy familiarity between them now, but the tension hadn’t entirely disappeared. It wasn’t the simmering dynamic of things unspoken and unacknowledged that had been there earlier, but rather a delicious, slightly frightening sense of expectation. A taut thrill of anticipation, stretched almost to breaking point.

Too soon, her pager went off. It was a non-urgent call to the ward.

Melissa pressed her face against Fin’s neck, breathing his warmth. ‘I need to get back.’

‘Have you said your goodbyes yet?’

She sighed. ‘I’ve been putting it off. It’s better that way, I think. Last-minute handshakes all round, just before I leave tomorrow. It’ll avoid all the tears and hysteria.’

‘I’m sure the staff will be more restrained than that.’

‘I wasn’t talking about them.’ She smiled, stroked his knee, stood up. As she bustled through the doors, she wondered about the twinkle she’d seen in Fin’s eyes. It was probably because of her hand on his leg, she thought.

To Melissa’s surprise, Deborah met her at the entrance to the ward. Was there some crisis on?

‘What’s up?’ she said in alarm.

The relationship between her and Deborah had changed utterly, to Melissa’s delight. The cool distance between them, the silence when they weren’t discussing work-related matters, had been replaced by an easy bonhomie. Melissa discovered that Deborah was actually a highly likeable