| |
––––––––
Nick had spent all his time with one eye on the entrance to the ward and was pleased to see the doctor appear and begin to make his rounds. He sat up in bed and hoped he was looking fit enough to leave. It was already after 11 a.m., so he would be here until after lunchtime. Hurry up he said to himself as the doctor continued to examine the charts in great detail at the next bed. Finally, he came over to Nick and asked him how he was feeling.
‘Oh, much better, I’m sure I’m ready to go home now?’ said Nick, hopefully.
‘Well you certainly look a lot brighter today, much calmer too,’ he added. Nick felt himself reddening at this last comment. Thinking back, it was so embarrassing that he’d had to be sedated like some spooked horse or wild animal. ‘I’ve been discussing your case with the consultant, Dr Brakeshire.’
‘Oh, well that’s good I guess,’ replied Nick beginning to get a bad feeling about what might be coming next.
‘He wants you to have an MRI scan on your abdomen where you sustained those really severe kicks.’
‘Yes of course, so can I come back next week for that?’ asked Nick.
‘Absolutely not, we need to know there’s no damage before you leave. Some of the injuries are in the region of your spleen and that can be very nasty. If that has happened then you will be in here for a good few days yet.’
‘Really? But I want to go home,’ Nick heard himself and he sounded like a small child, whining that he was tired and wanted to go home.
‘Of course you do but we can’t take any chances. You should get the scan done today but if not it will be tomorrow, we run them at the weekends now. Take care and get some rest,’ and he moved on to the next patient.
Nick cursed under his breath, would he ever get out of here. He put his head back on his pillow. There was now very little chance he would get to work this week and the weekend was out of the question, the company would be all closed up. Feeling completely fed up he reached for his tablet to email Polly with the doctor’s update.
**
Brett was eating his prepared salad and bagel which he’d brought in with him, having bought it the night before at the Tesco Metro shop near his flat. He had a busy weekend ahead. Firstly his alumni dinner, then Saturday to recover, then a barbecue at Piers’ house. The senior team were all invited to that, it was an annual thing apparently. He invited some of the top people from other companies and also his neighbours. Perhaps there will be a nice young lady there for me to meet he mused. He checked the trains times and live departures from Persford but it was too early to see his train yet. All seemed to be running OK apart from the usual delays of a few minutes. It was a while since he’d been into London, he was quite excited about it. He checked his Facebook account and a couple of people he knew had posted about going this evening, he vaguely remembered them. He hoped it was going to be worth the money he’d forked out, the food should be good for that price. The Hurlingham club was quite famous, he would need to get the tube out of London to Putney but he should have plenty of time. He had a meeting with Frank Stevens the finance head this afternoon and so with Frank’s input he would be able to think about the press release they were preparing for about a month’s time. He could re-read the notes Bob had given him on the train and add any thoughts or amendments.
**
By 4 p.m. there was still no sign of anyone coming to collect Nick for his MRI scan, waiting around was so boring and in his case frustrating. Every time an orderly appeared he hoped the wheelchair was for him but no luck so far. He’d been reading about the MRI scans on his tablet. He hoped he didn’t feel claustrophobic, he’d fortunately never had to have anything like that before. Presumably, they would look at the scans fairly quickly and come to a decision as to whether he could go or have to stay longer. Then there would be the dreaded discharge process to get through. It was absolutely soul destroying, he would be being treated for depression as well after all this. He wondered how things were at work. He felt so aggrieved that Zac was able to have free reign whilst he was laid up here, all the pressure was off him. He was certainly a cool customer, how brazen to carry out an illicit synthesis whilst in employment. Had he done this before Nick wondered? Perhaps that was the reason for leaving his previous company, he couldn’t remember what it was called. As he recalled Zac just said something about lack of career progression or something had made him look for an alternative job and it just coincided with BioQex expanding. Well, I wonder if that was the real reason thought Nick or was someone getting a bit too close to your coat tails.
He wished he had his mobile phone. He’d like to chat to Mark about things at work. Mark was aware of Nick’s suspicions and had pleaded with him to be careful. Surely he might suspect that Zac was involved in Nick’s beating. He didn’t want to ask Polly to contact him as she would think it odd that he was so friendly with the security guard, they’d only been out for drinks on a couple of occasions. He would contact him over the weekend once he had his mobile up and running again. Mark would listen to him he was sure, he wouldn’t be dismissive.
Nick felt tired and depressed. He picked up the magazines which Polly had brought in last night, he started to flick through them but they held no interest for him. He put them to one side, put his head back on to his pillows and closed his eyes, hoping that sleep would consume him and make the time pass more quickly.
**
Brett closed down his laptop, locked it away for the weekend and left his office. His taxi had arrived, reception had just phoned. Hello London and hello weekend he said to himself. Waving goodbye to Amanda he jogged down the stairs and into the waiting taxi. The trains were still running on time so by a few minutes after 6.30 p.m. he would be in the metropolis and cramming on to a tube with thousands of others towards Putney and the Hurlingham Club. He relished the opportunity to tell people about his position in BioQex, he was sure the city types would have heard of it after the recent successful placing of shares. Of course, he needed to be careful what he said, only things which were in the public domain could be discussed. But he would do his best to present the company in a good light, there was no harm in hinting about further expansion, after all, that could well be on the cards if this next compound progressed or even better was snapped up by big pharma. He hoped that Giles Wentworth would be there. He was an annoying public school type, with a top position at some bank or other, who had looked down on him before and made some derogatory comment about scientists. He would enjoy telling him about BioQex’s success particularly as a Google search had revealed that his bank’s recent results were not as rosy as the previous year’s.
He arrived at the station, paid the taxi driver, didn’t bother with a tip so he heard some muttered comment as he alighted and headed into the station. He felt like giving him the finger but as he’d been picked up on site he didn’t want to find some comment about BioQex on social media. The board showed the train was on time and would be arriving on platform two in nine minutes. Just time to pick up a coffee at the kiosk before he headed through the barrier to board the train. It shouldn’t be too busy at this time of the evening he thought as most people would be coming out of London now, not going the other way, apart those heading off to the capital for the weekend. He walked along the platform where it was less busy and checked the monitor. Two minutes to go and he actually felt excited, he was like a schoolboy heading off on a trip.
