Page 69 of Anything but Easy
She bristled and narrowed her eyes right back at me. “Well, your brother is very much my bloody business now and so is the way you treat him and his friends. You’re a condescending, sanctimonious arsehole. Kira’s well shot of you, if you ask me. Come on Henry, we’re going.”
Henry looked stunned and impressed as he took her outstretched hand and they both followed Kira out of the back door. I hated to admit it, but I was impressed too. Another wave of relief for my brother washed over me. That woman loved him. She was willing to fight for him. She wasn’t going to let him go. There was another person to stop him going down into the black pit again.
But then, there had already been somebody doing that. Somebody taking that weight from me the instant she walked into his house. Someone who’d cared enough to make my brother re-engage with life. The tight feeling in my chest intensified and I absently rubbed my sternum as I glanced down at my phone. Clicking the screen on to show Kira’s image again. I took a long breath in through my nose and let it out through my mouth. I stared at my phone for a long moment before throwing it over to the far wall, where it smashed into pieces and scattered over the floor. I let my head hang down between my shoulders as I rested my elbows on the granite counter.
“Fuck,” I whispered down at the tiles below. Images of Kira flooded my mind – Kira in my bed, in my kitchen, laughing with my brother, teasing me in my office, waiting in the foyer of the House of Commons with that ridiculous lunch box, forcing me to sit on a beanbag in her tiny flat, cooking foul-smelling vegan food for me, laughing at my bad impressions of my fellow MPs. “Fuck,” I whispered again as I closed my eyes against all the visions tormenting me.
“Enough,” I said, my voice rough as I scrubbed my hands down my face and sat up straighter on the stool. I didn’t need Kira and all the craziness that came with her. I needed to keep my brother safe and my career, that I had sacrificed so much for, on track.
So, I focused on that.
I focused on that and tried to ignore the colour fading from my world.
Chapter 29
Saved
Kira
“Dr Murphy?”
I looked up from the screen and saw Mr Lucas standing on the other side of the ward desk.
“Er . . . hi?” I replied, scanning from left to right to try to see why he could possibly be hanging out at my place of work. He shifted uncomfortably on his feet and stuck his hands in the pockets of his suit.
“You’re a tricky young lady to find,” he told me, and my eyebrows went up. Why on earth would he be trying to find me? Then, I remembered the desperate tone he used to warn his son off me a couple of weeks ago and it all made sense. I sighed.
“You didn’t have to come here,” I told him. “I haven’t seen or heard from your eldest son for over a week. I think it’s fair to say that badger has sailed.” I didn’t mention that I was still very much in contact with Henry. Or that I had been following the drama in parliament with rabid curiosity. Barclay’s bill had managed to get through . . . just.
“Oh, no. That’s not why I . . . wait – why haven’t you seen Barclay? I thought you were living with him.”
I rolled my eyes. “I was never living with him. He insisted I stay after my flat got broken into. I’m staying with a friend now and looking for a new flat, so . . .”
“Dr Murphy?” Mark interrupted, and I could have hugged him – saved by the annoying, overly inquisitive gay man. “You said to let you know if Mr Denton was being discharged and Dr Tabard is just sorting out the paperwork, so . . .”
“Bloody shit badgers,” I muttered, pushing up off my stool and tucking my pen back into my ponytail. Kevin Denton was an HIV positive patient, non-compliant with medication and sporting a low CD4 count, who’d come in with vague symptoms of intermittent confusion and one episode of blackout. I hadn’t been happy with his neurological examination yesterday and wanted him to stay in for an MRI as an inpatient. Something was off about the guy. He was confusing his words and I had seen him having what I thought might have been absence seizure on two occasions.
Simon however, was renowned for clearing out the ‘timewasters’. The management loved him as he discharged patients left and right on his ward rounds. I knew this would happen – that was why I’d asked Mark to contact me if Kevin was going to be discharged.
“I’m sorry but we’ll have to finish this later,” I said over my shoulder to Mr Lucas. I was already moving down the ward to the bay Kevin was in.
“That’s okay,” he called after me. “I’ll just hang on here and . . .”
There really wasn’t any point him ‘hanging on’, seeing as I was frantic on the ward that day and then would be on-call that evening. But I didn’t have time to explain that to him. I had to sort Kevin out.
“Hey,” I said to Sandra, one of the other staff nurses, who was pouring over Kevin’s chart with the pharmacist. I gave her a wide smile and held out my hand. “Hold on a sec – can I see the chart?”
“Of course, hun,” she said, handing it over with a smile of her own that looked a little on the relieved side. “So glad you’re here,” she added under her breath, raising her eyebrows and jerking her head to Kevin, who was sitting on the side of the bed next to his half-packed case, staring off into space again.
“Kevin,” I called, putting my hand on his arm and giving him a small shake. “Yo, Kevernator. You in there, buddy?”
He blinked a couple of times then turned to me. His auburn hair was sticking up at all sorts of angles and his face was sporting a couple of days of beard growth.
“I . . . er, hey Dr Kira,” he said. “Good, er . . . good . . . news. I’m getting through the, um . . . I . . .”
“Take your time, big man.” I squeezed his hand and felt my chest tighten at his confused expression.
“I mean . . . I’m getting to go through . . . to go home.” After he’d finished finding all the words, he looked relieved and then a little scared. “Listen, I think maybe we should hold on to you a bit long–” I stopped as the file was ripped out of my hands.
