“Si–”
“Not another word,” Simon hissed, giving me a look of such pure hatred that I actually took a step back. “Don’t youeverembarrass me like that again or you’ll regret it.” Before I could answer, he spun on his heel and stalked out of the ward.
I sighed and flinched as my bleep went off again. After I’d dialled the extension and assured the harassed senior house officer that I would be straight down there to review her patients, I turned to leave the ward, but ran into the solid wall of Mr Lucas instead.
“Ah. You’re still here. I–”
“That man, Dr Tabard, is he your boss?”
Okay, where were we going with this?
”Well, yeah. Look I’ve really got to get going. I–”
“I’ll walk with you,” Mr Lucas said. I shrugged. I really didn’t have time to argue anyway.
“How did you even know where I was working, anyway?” I asked as we walked out of the ward and into the corridor.
“I’m a personal friend of Nigel Derwent.” Jesus, Nige has his fingers in a lot of pies. “He told me where I could find you. I didn’t want to go through the boys.”
“Well, I’m sorry to keep you hanging around but I don’t really have much time to spare at work, so …”
“I came to say thank you.”
“What?” I almost tripped in shock. “Why are you–?”
“You saved my life,” he said dramatically. I snuck a look at him and saw that his face was deadly serious.
“I did?”
“I had a basal cellcarcinomaon my hand. It’s been removed, thanks to you.”
“Right,” I said, drawing out the word. “You do know that BCCs are benign, don’t you? I mean best to get it whipped off, but I didn’t save your –”
“There is nothing benign about acarcinoma,in my opinion,” he told me. “I am now in the uncomfortable situation of owing my life to someone I have been unforgivably rude to.” We drew to a halt outside the medical assessment unit and I suppressed a smile.
“Ididn’tsave your life,” I told him. “Honestly. You weren’t–”
“That man back there,” Mr Lucas waved off my protestations and changed the subject with the deft experience of a professional lawyer. “Heisyour boss?”
“Simon?”
He nodded.
“He’s the consultant in charge of the unit, so . . .”
“You saved that patient’s life on the ward just now, didn’t you? Your boss had no idea what to do and you saved him.”
“I just did what I’m trained to do. It’s all protocols with emergencies like that – you just follow them and hope everything works.”
“The other consultant . . . Tim? He didn’t think you’d just ‘followed a protocol’. He was impressed with you.”
I shrugged, not sure how to answer him. His one-eighty change in attitude was confusing the hell out of me.
“I’ve misjudged you and I’m sorry.” His expression was serious. I got the impression this man did not make a habit of apologising. “And I can’t thank you enough for saving me.”
“I didn’t save–”
“Kira?” the SHO cut me off and we both looked at her harried face through the open doorway. “I need you to review this patient. The registrar who was on for the day was a right dick and left me to it. I’m sorry, but I’m sinking a bit.”
