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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 chatted on. ‘Nope, no family—at least, none that he wants us to find out about. I’ve called the social work department and left a message for someone to come and have a chat with him in the morning and see if there’s anything we can do for him, but I’m on tomorrow morning so I can chase it all up if...’ Her voice trailed off as Iosef walked in, bored eyes rolling a fraction in greeting, but whereas only seconds ago she’d been standing on the scales, chatting and weighing herself without giving it a thought, Annie was now blushing self-consciously.
‘Sorry to interrupt your weigh-in. I found Mickey Baker’s ECG in my pocket. When you’ve got time, could you see that it’s pasted to his notes? I’ll be back once he’s in bed.’
‘Fine!’ Annie bristled, as he tossed the beastly tracing on the desk and stalked off without a further word.
So he clearly thought her vain now as well as useless, Annie ranted to herself as she marched back round to the main area, thought she was a lightweight. She halted abruptly, and coolly eyed the chaos that reigned in cubicle two, the suture trolley he’d left behind was piled with dirty gloves and swabs. Her mood blackened further. He hadn’t even disposed of his sharps and clearly he figured it was up to her to dispose of the rest of his mess, as well! Well, Annie decided furiously, tidying up. Whatever he thought of her he was about to find out just how assertive she could be, her grumbling stomach and a healthy dose of premenstrual tension not the ideal time, perhaps, for Iosef Kolovsky to suggest she was otherwise.
‘Dr Kolovsky.’ He was sitting at the nurses’ station, writing his notes and looking as immaculate and groomed as he had at the start of the shift—unlike her. She was growing more and more disheveled. Her cheeks reddened with each and every trudge up to the ward, her hair wild from being pulled in exasperation at having spent the last few hours with a doctor who belonged in the middle of the previous century. ‘Could I have a word, please?’
‘Regarding?’ He didn’t even look up.
‘Regarding the mess you just left in cubicle two.’
‘What mess?’ He glanced over at the empty cubicle then resumed writing. ‘There is no mess.’
‘Because I just cleaned it up.’
‘Good.’
‘I don’t think you understand.’ Annie cleared her throat. ‘You can’t just leave sharps and needles on a trolley—someone could hurt themselves!’
‘I don’t see the problem—you said yourself that you just cleaned them up!’ He frowned, actually looked at her for the first time, his eyes holding hers, as if daring her to carry on, and for the first time Annie wondered if he was deliberately missing the point, especially when the edge of his lips twisted into just a hint of a smile. Well, if that was the case, she’d make things crystal clear.
‘Yes, I cleaned them up,’ Annie answered hotly, ‘but for the last time. I don’t know where you last worked, and you may think the only thing I’m capable of is running patients up to the ward or giving out bedpans, and if you choose to work that way, then go ahead and take the entire load, but don’t ever compromise the safety of myself or my colleagues. If you choose to leave your mess for others to clean up, please, at least have the decency to clear away any sharps.’
‘Sure.’ He turned back to his writing, and heaped insult on insult by giving an utterly bored yawn as he effectively dismissed her, leaving her standing mouthing like a goldfish for a second before she turned on her heel.
