‘HOL. Holly.’ David shook her. ‘Wake up. Coffee.’
‘Uh.’ She yawned, sat up and took the mug from him. ‘Thanks. I think. What time is it?’
‘Quarter to six. We have to be out of here in an hour.’
‘You have to be out of here,’ she corrected.
He frowned. ‘So do you. We’re on early shift, remember.’
‘You are. I’m not. I switched with Trish.’
‘What? Why?’
She grimaced. ‘Sorry. I forgot to tell you. Trish is doing my late on Wednesday and I’m doing her late today.’
He still looked puzzled. ‘What’s special about Wednesday?’
‘The fundraiser.’ At his blank look, she said, ‘If I haven’t made you buy a ticket yet, I must be slipping. Zo, Jude and I do a fundraiser once a month. Zo does the food, Jude sings and I make people buy tickets. We split the proceeds between Paeds, Maternity and Emergency.’ She smiled.
‘Yup, you’re slipping,’ David told her. ‘It’s the first I’ve heard of it.’
‘I’ve had some—’ she gave him her wickedest smile ‘—distractions, you could say. So, are you going to buy a ticket?’
He rolled his eyes. ‘OK. For you, I’ll buy a ticket. Even though I won’t be able to make it.’
‘It doesn’t start until half past eight, so you’ll only miss the first half-hour or so if you come straight after your shift.’
‘Fine.’ He climbed back into bed beside her. ‘I hate the idea of leaving you here in bed while I’m on the ward.’
‘Tough.’ She wrinkled her nose at him. ‘I’m all nice and warm. I don’t have to be on the ward for another seven hours. So I’m staying put.’
‘I’m almost tempted to throw a sickie.’
Her eyes widened. ‘You’ll do no such thing, David Neave. Not when you’re on my ward. And I don’t care if you are my senior.’
He lifted his hands in surrender. ‘OK, Dr Scary. You win.’
‘I’ll leave you something nice for lunch,’ she promised.
‘Here?’
‘Ah, yes. You’ll need a key.’
He went very still. ‘You’re giving me a key to your house?’
‘It makes sense. Seeing as we’ve, um, spent more time here than anywhere else in the last few days.’ Since their night at the little country hotel they’d spent all their off-duty time together, unable to bear being apart. David’s purple bedroom had been too much for Holly to stomach, so they’d stayed at Holly’s. David had only been back to his flat to grab a change of clothes and get rid of the things that had gone off in his fridge.
‘Hol, am I being dense, or are you saying you want me to move in?’
She smiled at him. ‘If you want to. I know we said we were going to take it slowly this time. But it’s not as if we’ve only just met.’
‘And we’ve wasted twelve years already.’
‘So what’s the point of wasting any more time—?’
‘When this feels so right?’ he finished.
‘Exactly.’
He kissed her. ‘Hol. I don’t know what to say.’
‘Think about it and tell me tonight. Because you, Dr Neave, are on duty very shortly.’
‘Give me your keys when you come on duty,’ he said. ‘And I’ll have dinner ready when you come home.’
Home.
Holly had adored her house since the moment she’d bought it. She’d always thought of it as home. But now she realised there had been something missing for all those years.
David.
And now…everything was perfect.
‘Handover,’ David said. ‘Let’s go to my office.’
‘You call that an office?’ Holly teased. ‘It’s the size of a broom cupboard!’
‘Big enough to do a handover.’ The second they were in his office, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard. ‘Mmm. That’s better.’
‘We’re supposed to be at work,’ she reminded him.
He sighed. ‘You want to keep it quiet?’
‘For now.’
‘OK. Work it is.’ He switched into efficient doctor mode and took her through the patients who were waiting to see a specialist, the ones under observation who might need admitting and the ones that he thought they could send home that afternoon. ‘That’s about it.’
‘Fine. Since you’re off now, I’ve left you something in the fridge. And I know exactly how much better-than-chocolate is left,’ she warned.
‘I’m going to be too busy to raid your supplies,’ David said. ‘Cooking dinner for my woman. Plus doing a bit of packing.’ He rubbed the tip of his nose against hers. ‘And, since you suggested it, moving my stuff.’ He nibbled her lower lip and she sighed, melting into his kiss.
‘Go home,’ she said when he broke the kiss. ‘You’re distracting me and I have patients to see.’
‘That would have sounded more effective if your legs hadn’t been wrapped around my waist,’ he murmured into her ear.
‘My legs aren’t…Oh.’ She flushed as she realised just where her legs were. ‘When did that happen?’
He grinned. ‘Hey, I’m not complaining.’
‘I am. I’m on duty.’ She stroked his face. ‘I’ll see you later.’
‘Count on it.’
‘Mmm, before I forget.’ She took a small bunch of keys from her pocket. ‘My spare set.’
‘And your alarm code?’
‘Zero-one-zero-four.’
‘April Fool’s Day?’ he asked.
She chuckled. ‘See. You could have guessed it all by yourself.’
‘Hol. Before you go…’ He pulled her back into his arms and kissed her lingeringly.
When she left his office, she really hoped she didn’t look as if she’d just been thoroughly kissed. She busied herself seeing patients.
Most of the cases were routine—until she ushered Tiffany Baker into Cubicle Three.
‘I’m not that ill, really. My boyfriend’s making a fuss. It’s just flu,’ Tiffany said.
‘There isn’t any flu going round.’
‘Jet lag, then.’
He shook his head. ‘She got back from Thailand two weeks ago. And she’s burning up—that’s why I brought her in.’
An alarm bell rang in Holly’s head. Flu-like symptoms, a high temperature and Tiffany had been in Thailand. Malaria? ‘So what are your symptoms?’ she asked.
‘Hot, tired and headachy.’ Tiffany shrugged. ‘I just need stronger headache tablets, that’s all.’
‘And you’ve just come back from Thailand?’
‘Yes. I’m a magazine photographer—I did a shoot there a couple of weeks ago.’
Tiffany was shivering, Holly noticed, and sweating. It could be flu, but she had a nasty feeling it was more likely to be something more serious. ‘Have you been to West Africa at all?’
‘No.’
Which pretty much ruled out one of the nastiest of the nasties—Lassa fever.
‘How long have you been feeling like this, Tiffany?’
‘A couple of days,’ her boyfriend answered. ‘So I think it’s more than flu.’
‘Did you take anti-malaria tablets before you went?’ Holly asked.
Tiffany nodded. ‘Is that what you think it is?’
‘Possibly. Even if you took the tablets, some of the mosquitoes around Thailand are drug-resistant. When did you take your last malaria tablet?’
‘The last day I was there, which I know was too early—about two weeks ago.’
Holly checked Tiffany’s temperature. Way too high. Her blood pressure was low and her heart rate was too fast: both symptoms were common with malaria. ‘My gut feeling is that you’ve got malaria, which is a notifiable disease. It’s a parasitic infection transmitted by the bite of an infected female mosquito—there are four different types, so I need to find out which it is.’ If it was Plasmodium falciparum Tiffany could become very ill indeed. ‘I’m going to take some blood for tests, and call in a specialist to see you.’
Tiffany’s boyfriend looked slightly panicky. ‘Malaria can be fatal, can’t it?’
‘Most of the deaths are in children under the age of five, and in developing countries,’ Holly reassured him. She paused. ‘Tiffany, is there any chance you could be pregnant?’
‘No. We’re careful, and I had my period last week.’
‘I’ll do a test, just to be on the safe side,’ Holly said.
‘So why’s it taken this long for me to start feeling ill?’ Tiffany asked.
‘You often don’t show symptoms of malaria for a couple of weeks after an infected bite—with some types it might be six weeks or longer.’ Holly smiled at her. ‘Basically, what’s happened is that the mosquito had a quick snack out of your arm, and at the same time put the parasite in you. The parasite goes into the red blood cells and eats the haemoglobin—it scoffs sugar about seventy times as quickly as your red blood cells can metabolise it, so your blood sugar drops. Then it replicates itself inside your blood cells and puts toxic by-products into your bloodstream—that’s what’s causing the flu-like symptoms. It can also make you anaemic, so I’ll be checking your blood count as well as doing a screen for the parasite.
‘I’m going to admit you to the ward—if there aren’t any complications, you’ll be feeling a lot better in forty-eight hours or so, and your fever will be gone a couple of days after that.’
‘What if there are complications?’ Tiffany’s boyfriend asked.
‘Then she might need to be nursed in Intensive Care.’ Holly decided not to mention the possibility of cerebral malaria—the chances were things wouldn’t go that far. ‘But you’ve come to us early enough, Tiffany, so we should be able to sort it out.’
‘I hope so,’ Tiffany said. ‘I’ve got a shoot in Moscow next week.’
‘Not sure you’ll make that,’ Holly said. ‘I’m going to ask our infectious diseases specialist to come and see you. In the meantime, I’m going to start treatment—I’ll give you something called quinine, and I’ll also need to give you some antibiotics.’ With Plasmodium falciparum it was best to assume that it was the drug-resistant type so, as well as intravenous quinine dihydrochloride, she’d give Tiffany a course of tetracycline. ‘I’m going to ask one of our nurses to take some blood from you—she’ll be wearing a gown, mask and gloves, but that’s standard procedure and nothing to get worried about.’ She patted Tiffany’s arm. ‘We’ll get you feeling better shortly.’
She left the cubicle; Cody was the first nurse she saw. ‘Cody, can you do some bloods for me? Tiffany Baker in Cubicle Three. But you’ll need to barrier-nurse her as I think it’s malaria.’
Cody nodded. ‘Full blood count, Us and Es, and blood culture?’
‘Plus thick and thin films—we might have to repeat them. Warn the lab it’s potentially an infectious disease. And I’d better fill in a form for the Public Health lot after I’ve spoken to Infectious Diseases and got Tiffany admitted.’ She smiled. ‘Oh, and I could do with a urine test and an HCG test as well.’
‘Right-oh.’ Cody smiled back at her.
The rest of Holly’s shift contained the more usual cases in an emergency department—deep lacerations that needed cleaning and suturing, sprains, suspected fractures, and removing tiny objects from the ears or noses of toddlers. She did the handover, changed and walked home.
The curtains were drawn and the light was on: it felt strange, yet welcoming. The feeling intensified when she opened the door and caught the distinctive scent of jacket potatoes and a hearty casserole. And one of her favourite CDs was playing.
She leaned against the doorjamb in the kitchen. David was chopping up fruit for a pudding, humming along to the CD. It was as if he’d always been there. Always lived with her.
If this was the future, she liked it. A lot.
‘Need a hand?’ she asked.
He looked up and smiled. ‘No. Sit down. How was your shift?’
‘OK. I had a case you’d have liked—malaria.’
‘How bad?’
‘If I say “Thailand”…’
He grimaced. ‘That probably means drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum—and the possibility of it becoming cerebral malaria.’ Cerebral malaria was a complication which could lead to seizures, coma and even death. ‘Ouch. In that case…’ He reached into the fridge and poured her a glass of wine. ‘Here.’
She smiled. ‘Thanks. You know, I could get used to this—being waited on, hand and foot.’
‘Only if we worked on different shifts. And just imagine if you were on nights and I was on earlies.’
‘And we never got a day off together.’ She pulled a face. ‘So, um, you’ve been busy this afternoon?’
‘Mmm-hmm. I called my landlord. Said I couldn’t live with purple and orange paint any more.’ He shrugged. ‘It was a furnished place, so it didn’t take long for me to pack.’
‘So is that your CD or mine you’re playing?’
‘Yours. I just did my clothes today. I put most of them in the spare room. So I’m not invading your space.’
Holly set her glass back on the table. ‘You’re not invading my space, David. We’re sharing.’
‘It’s your house.’
‘And I’m happy to share it with you,’ she said softly. ‘And we’re not going to do the “it should have been like this” thing either. We’re different people now. We’ve had different experiences; maybe we even have different outlooks on some things. But I want to be with you.’
‘And I want to be with you.’
‘So if you think I’ve got too many clothes and there isn’t enough room for yours, just say so.’
‘Actually, I think I’ll be the wardrobe hog,’ he admitted wryly.
‘Just don’t tell me that your shoe habit’s like Jude’s,’ she teased.
‘No. But she told me where to buy the better-than-chocolate.’
Holly’s smile broadened. ‘I note that you didn’t call it better-than-sex.’
David pulled her out of the chair and into his arms, and kissed her thoroughly. ‘That’s because I know it isn’t. Not when the sex happens to be with a certain Holly Jones.’ He kissed her again.
‘Can I remind you that I’ve just come off duty? And I’m starving.’
He grinned. ‘OK. I’ll feed you first. And then I’ll give you a foot massage.’
And she knew what would happen after the massage. ‘Sounds perfect,’ Holly said with a smile.
Life definitely didn’t get any better than this.
On Wednesday evening, David changed swiftly after his shift and raced over to the hospital social club. He found Holly at the back of a roomful of people and manoeuvred her into a quiet corner. ‘Hi.’
‘Hi, yourself.’
‘Come here.’ He stood behind Holly, his hands linked over her stomach, and pulled her back against him. ‘Jude’s got a fabulous voice,’ he said, looking towards the stage.
‘Yeah. I think Zo’s next move is to persuade her into making a CD. We could play it on the hospital radio, sell it to visitors, that sort of thing.’
He leaned his head against hers. ‘This is what it should have been like at Southampton. You and me in the Students’ Union, listening to a band after a hard day’s lectures.’
She stiffened slightly. ‘Well, it didn’t work out like that.’
He pulled her closer. No way was he going to let her freeze him out. Not now. ‘I know. But it’s going to work this time round.’ They were living together. Doing what they should have done years ago. He nibbled her earlobe. ‘So now I’ve moved in…are we going public?’
Holly twisted in his arms, reached up and kissed him. Very thoroughly.
When they broke the kiss, a voice said beside them, ‘Thank God for that.’ Kieran pretended to mop his brow. ‘I don’t have to watch what I’m saying any more in case my wife carries out her threat.’
Holly rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, honestly. David, this is Kieran Bailey—’
‘Jude’s husband. We’ve met,’ David said.
‘Course you have.’ The emergency department staff knew nearly everyone in the hospital, because of referrals to other departments. Holly gave an embarrassed smile.
‘So what threat is this, Kieran?’ David asked.
‘You don’t want to know,’ Holly said hurriedly, remembering what Jude and Zoe had told her. No sex ever, ever again, if they allow a single word to escape.
Kieran laughed. ‘Holly, this must be the first time I’ve ever seen you blush. It’s probably a hospital first, come to think of it.’
‘Featherboard guitar,’ Holly retorted.
Kieran groaned. ‘I’m never going to live that down, am I?’
‘Live what down?’ David asked.
‘I serenaded Jude in the street. Except I can’t sing. So my sister made me a featherboard guitar and I mimed it.’
‘Ah, so this was the public proposal Hol told me about.’ David raised an eyebrow. ‘The reason why Hol won’t let me kiss her outside her front door.’
‘Twitching curtains,’ Kieran said. ‘Though my sister spotted you bringing Holly some flowers.’
‘And told him. And he told Jude, Zo and Brad,’ Holly said in disgust.
‘Ah. But then Jude and Zoe told us if we breathed a word—’ Kieran began.
‘Enough.’ Holly held her hands up in surrender. ‘But it worked.’
‘Be warned,’ Kieran said darkly to David. ‘They plot when they’re together. Like the three witches.’
Holly grinned. ‘Four, actually. Tess is usually in on things as well.’
‘My sister. Holly’s neighbour,’ Kieran explained. ‘Who’s dying to meet you, David. I think she’s planning to paint spots on Charlie’s face so she can rush round and do the “Help me, Doctor” bit and get introduced.’
David chuckled. ‘Is she here tonight?’
‘No—it clashed with one of her classes. She’s finishing her design course part time,’ Kieran explained.
‘OK. Hint taken. Tomorrow, I promise, we’ll drop in and see her before we go on night duty,’ Holly said.
‘That’s the thing about London City General,’ David said, when Kieran had left to order a drink for Jude. ‘You get the rush of working in a busy city department—but it feels almost like a cottage hospital, because everyone knows everyone else and looks out for them.’
‘Best of all worlds.’
He tightened his arms round her. ‘Everything I want is right here in my arms.’
‘Me, too,’ she said softly. ‘Me, too.’