Marcie seemed as bright as usual when Beth slipped through the curtains, half-drawn around Josh’s bed in the bright, spacious ward, but there was a brittle quality to her smile. Josh was propped up in bed, his hand on the covers, still attached to a line that ran to the IV drips. His eyes were open, though, and he made an attempt at a smile when he saw Beth.
‘Well, young man. How are you today?’ Matt was beside him, speaking softly and running a professional eye over him.
‘Okay, thanks.’ Josh didn’t seem much disposed to talk, and his eyelids began to droop. Matt grazed his fingers across Josh’s forehead, his eyes on the heart monitor by the bed, and gave a satisfied nod.
‘He’s much better.’ Marcie took Beth’s hand. ‘Thank you both. For everything.’ Since they had arrived in the ward last night, Marcie had developed the discomforting habit of not only thanking Beth in practically every other sentence but generally referring to Matt in the same breath as her.
‘Wait until you see the mess I left at your house before you start thanking me. I turned Josh’s room upside down.’
Marcie gave a tired smile. ‘Didn’t Matt tell you? James said on the phone this morning that when they got back to the house, the place had been cleared up and was like a new pin. Apparently, after you left, everyone set to and did it before they went home.’
‘That’s nice. Only what you deserve.’
‘I don’t deserve anything…’ Marcie broke off and a tear rolled down her cheek.
Matt’s attention was suddenly all on Marcie. ‘Have you eaten this morning?’
Marcie shrugged. ‘Not really. Few cups of coffee and a biscuit. I’m okay, I don’t really want anything.’
He threw Beth a quick look and she nodded. Marcie needed to get away for a while. ‘Look, Beth will stay with Josh for half an hour. Come down to the canteen with me. I haven’t had anything and I’m starved. You can watch me eat if you don’t want anything yourself.’
Marcie seemed unsure, but Matt was not taking no for an answer. He propelled her towards the end of the bed, and Beth slipped into the seat that she had been occupying beside Josh. Marcie gave in without too much of a fight, and let Matt lead her out of the ward, earning a swift nod of approval from the ever-watchful ward sister.
It was forty-five minutes before Marcie returned, and Beth had spent the time talking quietly with Josh and watching him sleep. She still looked tired, but she smiled as she plumped herself down by the bed, and Beth saw a flash of the Marcie that she knew.
‘Okay?’
‘Yeah. Matt made me eat one of the dreaded Danish pastries and told me a few home truths.’
‘Oh. Nasty.’
‘He doesn’t pull his punches, does he? I thought that people were meant to be nice to the mother of a sick child.’
‘And you would have listened to nice, of course. All this I don’t deserve anything, I’m such a bad person.’
Marcie laughed. ‘Well, when I found that stabbing him with the plastic cutlery wasn’t going to work I gave in and listened to sense. Not that I don’t still feel as guilty as hell, but wanting to exact horrible vengeance on myself isn’t going to make things any better.’
‘No, it’s not. You love him, Marcie, and you and James have always done your best for Josh and Anna.’
Marcie poked the tip of her tongue out. ‘Don’t you start. I’ve already had that from Matt. You two haven’t developed some kind of psychic link, have you?’
It felt a bit like that. The way they seemed to be able to communicate with just an exchanged glance. ‘Well, if we had, I wouldn’t need to ask where he’s got to.’ Beth couldn’t see Matt in evidence anywhere around the ward. ‘I hope you haven’t left him slumped in a corner somewhere with critical head trauma.’
‘No, he escaped that one. James turned up with Anna and they’ve gone to the Christmas grotto. Matt wanted to check it out and take Jack.’ A thought seemed to strike Marcie and she switched her gaze from Josh for a moment. ‘And by the way, where were you last night when we couldn’t find you?’
Beth felt her cheeks flush. ‘Sorry about that. We came as soon as we heard you calling.’
‘Oh, not again. Matt’s already been through all that as well, although he was shifty in the extreme when I asked where he actually was. What I want to know is whether I heard right when I thought someone said you were in the kitchen with the lights off.’
‘We were outside.’ Being outside in the dark seemed somehow more innocuous that being inside with the lights off. ‘Matt was taking a look at the garden.’
‘Right. The other one’s got bells on it. So you went out there in the freezing cold to help him look at a half-acre of mud and grass. Sure that the lovely Dr Matt wasn’t examining something a little closer to home?’
Beth shrugged. It was just a kiss. At a party. If she ignored it for long enough, surely it would simply give up and go away. ‘Well, if he was it would have been the kind of mistake that I wouldn’t admit to. Matt’s a nice guy and a fantastic doctor. I don’t want to ruin what could be a great friendship by getting into anything else with him. It’s just too complicated, from his point of view as well as mine.’ Maybe if she said it enough times, she’d believe it herself.
/> ‘If you say so.’
‘Yes, I do. It’s friends or nothing with Matt, I’ve made up my mind. I’ve got my life back on track now and I can’t go through what I did with Pete again.’