Page 13 of Together Again at the Cornish Country Hospital

‘Not long.’

‘Confusion can often be the result of a UTI. Have you had any physical symptoms of one?’

‘I have been needing to go for a wee more often, but at my age…’ Gwen rolled her eyes and a thought popped in to her head that made her next smile a genuine one. ‘An old school friend of mine from back in Wales called me a few months ago, to say things had got so bad with her bladder weakness that she was going into hospital to have a cafetiere fitted!’

‘No, she didn’t say that!’ Vera’s laughter filled the space between them.

‘She did, and I told her to remind me never to have a coffee at her house.’ Gwen laughed too, and for a moment she felt as though she was back, and that maybe she’d been making far too much of the symptoms she’d been experiencing.

‘That’s so funny, but all joking aside, I do think there’s a good chance you’ve got a UTI and I’d like to rule that out before we look at any other possibilities.’ Vera’s glasses had slid down her nose again, and she pushed them back into position for a second time. ‘Do you think you might be able to squeeze out a sample for me, so that we can test it now?’

‘I can give it a go.’ Less than five minutes later the results were in. Vera had performed a dipstick test and, to Gwen’s surprise and relief, she did have a UTI.

‘That could explain a lot, especially if you’ve had an untreated infection for a while.’ Vera gave her a reassuring smile. ‘But I’d like to run some blood tests too, to make sure there’s nothing else going on.’

‘Okay.’ Gwen nodded. Blood tests she could cope with; they wouldn’t show up anything she didn’t want to know about and Barry would be satisfied by the news that the doctor had ordered further tests. For now she was choosing to believe that the antibiotics Vera prescribed her for the UTI would resolve all the issues. She wasn’t going to think about the whole list of symptoms she hadn’t mentioned, which deep down she knew weren’t the result of a UTI. Ignorance was a form of bliss and she wasn’t ready to give that up just yet.

10

Zahir Chatterjee was acting clinical lead in A&E, covering during Danni Carter’s maternity leave. Danni was a friend of Amy’s and if she’d still been at work, Amy wouldn’t have hesitated to ask if it was okay for her to leave her shift early. Danni loved dogs every bit as much as Amy did, and understood that they could come to mean as much as family members to many people. She could have asked Esther, who was the most senior nurse in the team, but she was busy with a patient in resus. She felt far less comfortable asking Zahir. She had a good working relationship with him, but she wouldn’t call him a friend. Added to which, staffing in the emergency department was always tight and they could ill afford to lose a staff member, but all she wanted was to get to Monty and see for herself that he was okay.

Amy had called Dolly, who’d put her on to speak to the vet, and they’d both reassured her that Monty was going to be all right. He had a nasty injury to his leg, which the vet had needed to operate on to clean and stitch the deep lacerations as a result of the attack. Somehow there were no broken bones, but there was nerve damage and risk of infection, and the little dog was going to need rest and rehabilitation. Amy was already panicking about how she’d manage his care while she was working, especially as he was likely to be far more nervous than before around dogs he didn’t know well, and he might not be able to return to Dolly’s care, even when he was better. Despite all of that, the most important thing was that Monty had made it through surgery and that was the toughest part for a small dog, apparently. That didn’t stop her mind from whirring, thinking about what could have happened to the sweet little dog who just wanted to be everyone’s friend; what almost certainly would have happened if Lijah hadn’t been there to intervene and take some of the brunt of the attack himself.

‘Are you okay?’ Aidan asked as Amy came out of the cubicle where she’d left Lijah. It wasn’t just her concern for Monty that was weighing heavily on her, she was worried about Lijah too. The years felt like they’d peeled away when she’d first seen him, as if Lijah had been a town or two away all this time, living an ordinary life that mirrored her own. But as much as she wanted to believe that fame hadn’t changed him, she knew there was no way he could be the same old Lijah. The reactions of other patients, and even some of the staff, had been enough to tell her that. His fame set him apart, he wasn’t the same as everyone else, and it had taken her less than an hour in his company to see that there were serious downsides to that.

When Nick had started talking about how they could smuggle Lijah out of the hospital without him being papped or mobbed by fans, Lijah had pulled a face, and it was obvious he found the mention of fans and press uncomfortable. She’d read the stories online about his so-called breakdown, and having witnessed his relationship with Maria first hand, she knew how much her death would have affected him, but he seemed incredibly tense in a way that went beyond his grief. She’d seen the same thing before with patients in recovery from some kind of trauma, as if they were in permanent fight or flight mode, because they didn’t feel comfortable anywhere.

Lijah might be back in his home town, but he didn’t fit in like the old Lijah any more. Amy was certain Maria would have provided him with a sense of home, even as his fame increased, but now she was gone and that had to make him feel rootless. It was hard for Amy to imagine when her whole life was so firmly embedded here. She couldn’t walk down the street without bumping into someone she knew, and if she needed a friend there was always someone she could drop in on. Living her whole life in the area had made her part of a community she couldn’t imagine finding anywhere else, and it felt like her safe place whatever troubles she might be facing. Lijah couldn’t walk down the street either, but for entirely different reasons, and not even Port Kara could be his safe place any more. He probably had more money than he could ever spend, but Amy wouldn’t want to trade places with him. Looking at the concern on Aidan’s face as he waited for her to respond, she knew she had something money couldn’t buy, and she was so grateful to have the support of her friend in the midst of her worries about Monty.

‘I don’t think I’m going to be any good to the patients, I just can’t think straight.’ Despite all the assurances, Amy couldn’t get the image of the little dog, lying bloodied and broken, out of her head. She needed to see Monty for herself before she could really believe he’d be okay. Working in A&E wasn’t the kind of job anyone should do when they were distracted, there was no room for error.

‘You need to go home.’ Aidan’s tone was insistent, but she shook her head.

‘I can’t, we’re short staffed already.’

‘We’ll manage. It’s only an hour until the late shift starts. I can always give Eden a ring and see if she’s able to come in early. She’s only across the road and there’s got to be a downside to being able to roll out of bed and straight into work.’

Eden Grainger was one of the newer members of staff. She lived across the road from the hospital with her parents, who took care of her little boy whenever she was working. She’d been really flexible about taking on extra shifts and she seemed keen to pick up whatever overtime she could, but they couldn’t expect her to just drop everything and come in at such short notice.

‘I can’t ask her to do that.’

‘You don’t have to.’ Aidan cut her off. ‘I’ll do it.’

Within five minutes he’d sorted everything out. Eden was coming in early, and Aidan had told Zahir, who hadn’t raised any objection. There was just one more thing she needed to do before she left.

‘I just wanted to say thanks again before I go.’ Amy looked towards Lijah as she went into his cubicle. Some of her old insecurities had risen to the surface when she’d been talking to him, but she didn’t want to leave things between them on a bad note, not after everything he’d done for Monty. He was wearing a woolly hat pulled down so low that it was half covering his eyes, and a long scarf that was wrapped around his neck several times. He looked like someone about to head out across the frozen plains of Antarctica. ‘Is that your disguise? Given that the weather is starting to warm up, it might get you more attention rather than less.’

‘This is the closest thing to a disguise we could lay our hands on.’ Nick laughed. ‘It was either that or one of those backless gowns and unfortunately his arse is even more famous than he is. ARear of the Yearaward will do that; it looks like it’s been sculpted out of marble, but then I guess you know that.’

Heat flushed Amy’s face. Nick had always been good at embarrassing her, and she wished she had a quick response that would turn things around on him, but all she could think of was just how nice Lijah’s bum had always been. That was one thing the press hadn’t got wrong. Thankfully Lijah was far more ready with a rebuff.

‘The only famous arse here is you, Nick. See what I have to contend with? He’s supposed to be helping me.’ Lijah shook his head and looked at Amy. ‘Are you going to the vets?’

‘Yes.’ Amy nodded. ‘But I walked to work this morning, so I’m going home to grab my car, because the vet is in Port Tremellien.’

‘I can take you.’ Lijah’s offer was tempting and not just because it meant Amy could get to Monty sooner, but she shook her head.

‘You can’t drive with your hand like that.’

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