Undercover At City Hospital

‘One hundred milligrams?’ Bella checked, looking at Jordan’s writing, surprisingly neat for a doctor.

‘He’s a big guy,’ Jayne responded, pulling up the drug into a syringe and placing it in the kidney dish. ‘And a bit of a baby,’ she added. ‘You’ll soon see.’

Walking towards the cubicles, Bella didn’t need to be told twice who the medication was for—the groans coming from cubicle four spoke for themselves. But at that moment Jayne’s pager shrilled loudly.

‘Damn,’ she cursed, glancing down at the little bleeper clipped to her blouse. ‘I need to get this. Bella, go and tell him I’ll be there in two seconds.’

‘Sure.’

He certainly was a big guy. Mr Evans practically filled the trolley, but Jayne’s rather mean description that he was a baby seemed a touch harsh, Bella thought as she introduced herself to the patient. He was in a lot of pain yet still he managed an understanding nod when Bella explained there was a bit of a hold-up with the medication.

‘It shouldn’t be too much longer, Mr Evans.’

‘Ben.’ He grimaced. ‘It’s my own stupid fault anyway. That’ll teach me to go climbing ladders.’

‘Just think.’ Bella smiled, happy to make small talk to keep his mind off the pain. ‘In a few weeks this will all be behind you and you’ll be sitting under your lovely new pergola, having a nice cold beer.’

‘If I ever get the roof on the damn thing!’

‘Sorry about that, Mr Evans.’ Jayne bustled in, waving the kidney dish and prescription chart as Bella checked the patient’s name band.

‘Benjamin Evans, ID number 1514103.’

They both checked the name band and drug sheet, making sure the identity matched before turning to the drug order.

‘Pethidine 100 milligrams,’ Jayne confirmed, and Bella nodded. ‘OK, Mr Evans, just a small scratch.’ Swabbing his thigh, Jayne slipped in the needle and delivered the powerful drug, before carefully disposing of the needle and syringe in the sharps box on the wall. ‘Now, that should take a little while to start working, but once it does, you’ll be feeling a lot more comfortable.’

“Thanks, Sister.’

‘You were very nice to her,’ Bella said a couple of hours later as Heath wandered into the staffroom, where she stood attempting to read the instructions on a massive vending machine and rueing the fact that the five-dollar note in her hand wasn’t going to fit into the coins-only slot.

She meant it.

After the initial discomfort Heath had guided the trembling woman through the event, listened as she’d told them how she’d bought the tablets from a ‘doctor’ on the internet, sure this would be the answer to Charles’s little problem.

And he’d been wonderful, gently explaining to Celia that the tablets she and Charles had purchased could, in fact, be dangerous in the wrong hands, that Charles’s cardiac condition meant he wasn’t suitable for that type of medication. However, he’d gently said, it didn’t mean it wasn’t treatable, that with a sympathetic real doctor they could, when Charles was better, resume a fulfilling sex life.

‘And very well informed on erectile dysfunction too,’ Bella added with a cheeky smile, giving up on the vending machine and heading for the massive tin of brown powder that supposedly passed as coffee and pulling out a mug to wash from the overflowing sink.

‘I was about to buy you a coffee,’ Heath responded, not remotely fazed by the below-the-belt humour nurses lived by—police officers, too, come to that. ‘But if you’re going to be like that, I guess I’ll just have to watch you suffer.’ He fed a dollar coin into the machine and Bella listened as it whirred into motion, the delicious smell of coffee beans reaching her nostrils as Heath stood watching his cup fill, jangling his loose change in his suit pocket. ‘Are you going to take that back?’

‘Absolutely.’ Bella smiled, weakening instantly, the smell of coffee just too good to resist. ‘I think there’s algae growing in that sink. Doesn’t anyone ever wash up here?’

‘No,’ Heath said, and Bella could have sworn there was an edge to his voice. ‘But whenever I say anything, apparently I’m nagging.’

‘Says who?’

‘Jayne!’ Heath rolled his eyes. ‘Apparently, since my temporary promotion I’ve become picky, that if I were just a bit easier on the domestic staff they might stick around a bit longer. The place is falling apart and I’m not supposed to notice!’

‘Do you have change for a note?’

He rolled his eyes and fed a dollar into the machine then headed off, leaving Bella to make her selection. If she had just been a nurse the conversation would have ended there—the polite small talk made around the coffee-machine, a fifteen-minute break from outside activity definitely what was needed now—but, with her police ID burning a hole in her pocket, Bella consoled herself as she dragged him away from his newspaper that she had to do this, had to force a conversation, had to get to know him a bit better.

She wasn’t flirting!

Just doing her duty.

‘Thanks.’ Holding up her plastic cup, she sat on a couch on the other side of the room.

‘No problem.’ He flashed a perfect smile and promptly turned back to his newspaper.

‘My shout next time. Once I get change, of course.’

‘Fine,’ Heath responded without looking up.

‘It’s been a busy morning!’ Bella said brightly, wincing inside as Heath visibly sighed and put down his paper, clearly giving up on any chance of a quiet cup of coffee.

‘How are you finding things on your first day?’ Heath asked.

‘Great,’ Bella said eagerly. ‘Everyone’s been really friendly, except, of course…’ Her voice trailed off and she waited for Heath to jump in to seemingly instigate a conversation she needed to have.

‘This morning’s little altercation?’ Heath gave a tight shrug. ‘I’m sorry you had to hear that on your first day. Normally the department’s very friendly and easygoing, but things have been a bit tense lately.’

‘Why?’ When Heath didn’t immediately respond, Bella pushed harder. ‘Are there really drugs going missing from the department?’

‘Unfortunately, yes.’

‘A lot?’

Heath gave a grim nod. ‘Enough for the police to be involved.’

‘Really!’ Bella’s eyes widened suitably.

‘All the staff were interviewed a few weeks ago and it seemed to settle down for a while, but it seems to have started again. That’s the reason Jayne was so worried this morning when the morphine was unaccounted for.’

‘You weren’t,’ Bella pointed out, watching his reaction as Heath gave an easy shrug.

‘Because there was a logical explanation. Last night was hell down here. I was called in at three a.m. because the department was stretched to its limits. It’s no wonder Bethany and Hannah didn’t get a chance to sign for the drug, and I certainly wasn’t about to see poor Hannah stuck here filling in an incident report after the night she’s had and Bethany hauled out of bed for a simple, honest mistake.

‘Anyway, it’s nothing for you to worry about. Just understand that people are a bit on edge at the moment and, for goodness’ sake, make sure you check and sign for everything.’

‘Well, thanks for explaining.’ Bella smiled, but any chance of prolonging the conversation had to be aborted when the senior consultant, Martin Elmes, walked in and Heath, who had been lounging on the couch, sat up just a touch straighter as his boss came over.

‘Sorry to do this at short notice, Heath, but would you mind giving the doctor’s talk this morning? I’ve got a slight touch of laryngitis.’

‘I’d be glad to.’ Heath beamed.

‘Nothing too in-depth. I know I haven’t given you much notice. Just something light and interesting, perhaps generate a discussion. I’d like to hear some of the new interns open up a bit, find out if we’ve actually taught them anything!’

‘No problem at all,’ Heath responded as Martin made his way out, the smile rapidly disappearing as the door closed. ‘I’ll give him bloody laryngitis,’ Heath mumbled.

‘His voice did sound a bit husky.’

‘Because he smokes a pack a day,’ Heath countered. ‘How the hell am I supposed to come up with something “light and interesting” on two hours’ sleep?’

‘You could have said no,’ Bella pointed out.

‘I don’t think so somehow.’ Heath gave a wry grin. ‘Not if I want to drop the acting part from my job title.’

Bella gave a sympathetic groan as Heath stood up, recalling her own false enthusiasm when Eddie Bandford had first suggested this role. She watched as he drained his coffee in one gulp then stretched, not even attempting to cover a massive yawn before heading for the door.

‘I wonder how many more Celias there are out there?’ Bella called to his departing back.

‘Sorry?’ Clearly distracted, Heath flashed her an irritated look over his shoulder as he reached the staffroom door, no doubt wondering if this blessed nurse ever stopped to draw breath.

‘I was just sitting here wondering how many more patients there are ordering drugs from the internet or delaying coming to Emergency because they’re self-diagnosing on the net.’

‘Hundreds probably,’ Heath muttered, that hand raking through his hair again, those dark green eyes creasing endearingly as his mind ticked over. ‘Thousands even.’ A smile crept over his lips. ‘And if it does nothing else, erectile dysfunction always raises a smile.’

‘Light and interesting.’ Bella grinned back, picking up a magazine from the couch and settling in for the five minutes before she was due back on duty. And normally she’d have devoured it, normally she’d have flicked straight to the back and scanned the pages for her horoscope before turning to the fashion section, but instead she just held it, staring blankly at an ad for deodorant, feeling a vague fluttering in her stomach that hadn’t been there for almost as long as she could remember.

She liked him.

Really liked him.

Liked the way he’d stood up to Jayne, liked the way he’d spoken to Celia, liked the way he’d put down his paper and spoken to her when all he’d clearly wanted to do had been to read…

She really liked him.

A trembling hand came up to her lips and Bella screwed her eyes closed for an uncomfortable moment, wishing she could somehow erase that thought, guilt stinging the edges. She didn’t want to like him, didn’t want to complicate her world that way. She was here to work not just one but two jobs, here to concentrate, to make sure the thief was caught. Heath might even be the thief.

But all that she could deal with, all that she knew she could take in her professional stride…

Her guilt was solely reserved for Danny.

‘Still no better?’ Bella asked sympathetically, checking Mr Evans’s blood pressure. She frowned in concern when he shook his head, his face screwed up in pain.

‘Maybe a little bit. That second injection you gave took the edge off a little, I guess.’

‘That was Voltaren—it’s an anti-inflammatory,’ Bella explained.

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