'There's been a pile-up on the motorway. Six cars. They've asked for a medical team. Zach, I'd like you to go.' Sean Nicholson glanced at the other cas. officers. 'And Keely.'
Keely felt a rush of excitement which died immediately when she heard Zach contradict him sharply.
'Not Keely. I'll take Adam.'
Adam?
Keely opened her mouth to protest and then shut it again, glancing instead towards Sean. Surely he'd object?
But he didn't. He merely gave a brisk nod. 'Fine. Nicky and I will get things ready here. Nicky, which of your nursing staff do you want to send?'
'Liz,' Nicky said promptly, and immediately everyone swung into action.
Seething with fury, Keely helped prepare Resus for a large influx of casualties and she liaised with Ambulance Control and the wards.
By the time the patients had been admitted and dealt with her shift was almost over, but she was determined to have a word with Zach. She thought she knew why he hadn't sent her out with the medical team, but she wanted to hear it from his lips.
'May I talk to you?'
He looked slightly surprised but he gave a nod and they walked towards his office.
'Were there any fatalities?' It was small talk but she didn't want to tackle her problem in the corridor with the whole department listening.
'Two. Trapped inside one of the vehicles. It was the usual story—everyone driving too close together, bunched up in the fog.'
He opened the door to his office and she followed him inside and closed the door firmly behind them.
His eyes drifted quizzically to her hands which were still holding the door handle. 'So what's the matter, Keely?'
She took a deep breath. 'You're the matter. Or rather, the way you treat me is the matter. Why are you doing it, Zach?'
He looked at her warily. 'Why am I doing what?'
She gave him an impatient look. 'You don't ask me any questions, you don't let me see any complicated patients, you hang over me like a nursemaid and now you just refused to let me go out as part of an emergency team even though Sean obviously thought I was capable of it.' She ticked the reasons off one by one on her fingers. 'I know you' don't trust me but I think you should at least give me a chance.'
There was a long silence and then he turned and walked over to his window, staring out into the darkness towards the fells. 'I do trust you.'
'No, you don't!' She walked over to him, determined to make him look at her. 'You never let me work the way you let the other doctors work.'
'That isn't because I don't trust you,' he muttered, raking long fingers through his already ruffled hair.
Keely frowned, baffled by his response. 'Why, then? If you trust me then why aren't you just throwing me in the deep end along with everyone else? Why wouldn't you let me go out as part of the emergency team? It's obvious that you don't trust my clinical judgement—'
'That's not true.' He frowned sharply, as if the thought hadn't occurred to him. 'From what I've seen, your clinical judgement is spot on.'
'So why...?'
He turned to look at her, his blue eyes suddenly hard. 'Because sometimes these pile-ups are dangerous and the medical team ends up operating in lethal conditions. You could have been sitting in a squashed car giving pain relief to some poor chap who was going to be trapped for hours, you could have been dealing with someone who'd been thrown through the windscreen...'
She swallowed, taken aback by his grim expression and by the harsh tone of his voice. 'But you sent Adam.'
He closed his eyes briefly and gave a sigh. 'Yes. I sent Adam.'
'Because he's a man?' Keely frowned. 'Because you don't think I can handle the stress? Why can Adam handle the stress better than me? I didn't think you were a chauvinist, Zach.'
He muttered something under his breath. 'I am not a chauvinist.'
'Then why did you choose not to send a woman into that situation?'