THE rest of November flew past and Annie’s condition gradually improved.
‘The burns are almost all round her skirt area,’ Jack told Bryony one day as they snatched a quick cup of coffee during a late shift. ‘I talked to the consultant last night. She’s going to need extensive skin grafts.’
‘Poor mite.’ Bryony pulled a face at the thought of the number of hospital stays Annie was going to have to endure. ‘It’s going to be so hard for her.’
Jack nodded. ‘But at least she’s alive. And Lizzie seems to have bounced back amazingly well.’
‘Yes.’ Bryony smiled. ‘I was worried about that but she’s doing fine. We’re visiting Annie a lot, which helps, and Lizzie has made it her mission to act as the link between Annie and the school. She’s been taking her all sorts of books and things to do and generally keeping her in touch with the gossip.’
‘She’s a great girl.’ Jack drained his coffee and sat back in his chair with a yawn, long legs stretched out in front of him. ‘So, Blondie. December the first tomorrow.’
Bryony stared gloomily into her coffee. ‘Don’t remind me. I now have less than a month to sort out Lizzie’s Christmas present, and I’m fast coming to the conclusion that it’s an impossible task.’
Jack looked at her quizzically, a strange light in his eyes. ‘So, is the romance with David Armstrong not working?’
Romance?
Bryony looked at him. ‘We’ve been on two dates. The first one we barely had time to talk because you kept calling—not that it was your fault that Lizzie was demanding that night,’ she added hastily, hoping that he didn’t think that she was complaining, ‘and the second date was disturbed because you called him back to the hospital to see a child. And that wasn’t your fault either.’
Jack looked at her, his expression inscrutable. ‘And he hasn’t asked you out since?’
‘Well, funnily enough, he rang me this morning,’ Bryony confided, ‘and he’s taking me to dinner at The Peacock on Saturday. Neither of us is on call and Lizzie is sleeping at my mother’s so this time there should be absolutely no interruptions.’
And this time she was going to kiss him.
She’d made up her mind that she was going to kiss him.
She was utterly convinced that kissing another man would cure her obsession with Jack.
David was a good-looking guy. She knew that lots of the nurses lusted after him secretly. He must know how to kiss.
And it was going to happen on Saturday. She was going to invite him in for coffee and she was going to kiss him.
The next day was incredibly busy.
‘It’s the roads,’ Sean said wearily as they snatched a five-minute coffee-break in the middle of a long and intensive shift. ‘They’re so icy and people drive too fast. I predict a nasty pile-up before the end of the evening.’
His prediction proved correct.
At seven o’clock the ambulance hotline rang. Bryony answered it and when she finally put the phone down both Sean and Jack were watching her expectantly.
‘Are you clairvoyant?’ She looked at Sean who shrugged.
‘Black ice. It was inevitable. What are the details?’
‘Twenty-two-year-old female, conscious but shocked and complaining of chest pains.’
She’d barely finished repeating what Ambulance Control had told her when the doors slammed open and the paramedics hurried in with the trolley.
‘Straight into Resus,’ Jack ordered and they transferred the woman onto the trolley as smoothly as possible. While the rest of the team moved quickly into action he questioned the paramedics about the accident.
‘It was a side impact,’ the paramedic told him. ‘She was driving and the other vehicle went straight into her side. Her passenger walked away virtually unharmed. He’s giving her details to Reception now.’
Jack nodded and turned his attention back to the young woman, a frown on his face. ‘She has a neck haematoma. I want a chest X-ray, fast,’ he murmured, and looked at Bryony. ‘Have you got a line in?’
She nodded. ‘One.’
‘Put in another one,’ he ordered, ‘but hold the fluid. And cross-match ten units of blood.’