Ultimate Heroes Collection

by Various Authors

  ‘A lunch has been ordered for you—it should be here soon. After that we’ll get you a bath—’

  ‘I don’t want a bath,’ he snapped, rolling on his side. ‘I just want something to eat.’

  ‘Sure.’ Annie nodded, but she gave a little unnoticed frown. Mickey was hiding something, but till he’d sobered up and was a bit more co-operative there really wasn’t much that could be done about it. ‘You rest up till lunch comes and whatever you do, don’t get off the trolley. If you need anything at all, just press the call bell.’

  Her hand was up, about to swish the curtain right back so Mickey could be easily watched, when suddenly it was pulled back, making Annie jump—and not just at the motion. Never had a curtain opened on such a stunning cocktail of sensations.

  The breeze of the curtain was heavily laced with the most potent male scent and close up Iosef was even more divine. ‘How is he?’

  Annie wasn’t exactly short, but he towered over her. Even allowing for his rather more senior status, he was superbly dressed. Black trousers sat low on his slender hips, a thick white cotton shirt with a thread count that was surely in the millions set off a stunning gunmetal grey tie that almost exactly matched his eyes. Though Annie barely got a glimpse of them as he strode past her and proceeded to take the blood-pressure cuff off the wall and wrap it around a grumbling Mickey’s arm.

  ‘Fine. I’ve just done his obs,’ Annie said, picking up the chart and offering it to him as he pulled on his stethoscope. ‘His blood pressure’s—’

  ‘Shh …’

  OK, a lot of people shushed others when they were concentrating—nodoubt, she diditherselfseveraltimes a day when she was trying to pick up a difficult blood pressure or listening to a chest—but it was more the way he’d shushed her that had Annie’s teeth grinding, the dismissive shake of his head, the brief wave of his free hand as he shooed the obs chart away that had her bristling.

  ‘Good!’ he said, more to himself than her, taking off his stethoscope and wrapping it round his neck before pinching Mickey’s ear none too gently. ‘Afternoon, sir,’ he called, and the old boy rolled over and requested, not too politely, that the doctor please just leave him alone. Annie spoke up again.

  ‘I’ve just done his neuro obs.’

  ‘Good.’ He nodded, again completely ignoring the proffered chart, his findings clearly just to satisfy himself. ‘Once I’ve sutured him, I want him moved to the observation ward.’

  ‘I thought George was going to suture him.’

  ‘He’s my patient!’ Iosef shrugged.

  ‘Yes, but …’ Annie started, unsure why a senior reg would choose to do the rather menial task—not that he was listening. Instead he was picking up the file and heading out through the curtains. ‘Well, there’s no rush, whoever stitches him. The obs ward is closed till six,’ Annie called to his departing back. ‘Jackie wants—’

  ‘Jackie wants the beds used for emergency patients only—which Mr Baker is. Anyway, I want this cubicle cleared.’

  ‘It just confuses things if we open it,’ Annie protested. ‘Other doctors see that it’s open and—’

  ‘Are you confused, Nurse?’ he asked, halting her explanation in its tracks as she stared open-mouthed at possibly the rudest introduction to a colleague she’d ever experienced. ‘Because if you are confused, I will explain things more simply: I want my patient in a bed, I want this cubicle to be utilised rather than providing a babysitting service because it’s easier for the nurses to keep the obs ward closed. If you have a problem asserting yourself and telling doctors that they cannot use the emergency beds, send them my way and I will explain it to them.’ He stalked out of the cubicle, leaving Annie to unwrap the blood-pressure cuff from the patient, her hand shaking with rage. Somehow he’d managed to condense more insults into a minute than most managed in a day. Her title was actually ‘sister’, though, given it sounded like a nun, she preferred Annie, but aside from that, assertion was as essential a qualification as a degree to make it in the emergency department, and for him to insinuate that she was lacking in that had Annie’s blood boiling.

  Still, there wasn’t time to dwell on it now—the baby next door was due for his Ventolin and then she had to take one of her patients up to the ward—oh, and set up for Mickey to be sutured.

  But in an almost reverse mirror image of moments ago, as Annie pulled open the curtains Iosef was just finishing up, giving the baby the last few puffs of his Ventolin through a spacer, though at least this time he did sign his name on the chart.

  ‘Did you need something?’ he asked, not even bothering to look up.

  ‘What could I possibly need?’ Annie gave a very twisted smile. ‘You’ve clearly thought of everything!’ And pursing her lips, she headed off to find Les, the porter, to come with her as they took her patient up to the ward.

  She seethed every step of the way.

  And not just on the first trip.

  As her shift wore on, she felt more and more useless beside the incredibly efficient, horribly arrogant and utterly loathsome Dr Kolovsky. It was actually closer to six by the time Mickey was eventually stitched, which made their earlier exchange rather pointless! Dr Fantastic set up for his own sutures and the happy laughter and chatter that came from behind the curtain as he joked with a now sober and much more compliant Mickey for some reason rankled Annie.

  ‘There you go,’ Annie heard him declare when she came in just as he was snipping the last stitch. ‘As good as new.’

  ‘I will be once I’ve had a bath.’

  ‘That will be arranged—then I’ll come and see you around there.’

  ‘Thanks, Doc.’

  Well, Mickey had changed his tune.

  ‘Could you take him around now?’ He didn’t even look up. ‘Jess has gone round to run his bath.’

  ‘So soon after being sutured?’ Annie checked.

  ‘He wants a bath before he will allow me to examine him—I’ve spoken to Jess and she’s to wait outside the bathroom door to listen out for him.’

  Jess, one of the students, had indeed run Mickey a bath and he hopped off the trolley and into the bathroom, refusing all offers of assistance. As Jess hovered outside the bathroom door Annie started handover and catching sight of the scales, with Melanie’s strict instructions still ringing in her ears, she unabashedly jumped on, moving the little weights to see where her weight was as she spoke to the student.

  ‘He doesn’t like being woken for his obs. He’ll grumble like crazy but don’t let him talk you out of it—he needs hourly neuro obs overnight. There’s something else going on with him—normally he’s not so bashful— but once he’s had his bath he’s agreed for Iosef to examine him. It will be interesting to see what’s going on.’

  ‘Any family that knows he’s here?’ Jess asked, and Annie shook her head as she gave a confused frown at the scales. ‘That bad, huh?’ the student asked sympathetically as Annie peered more closely at the scales.

  ‘Actually, no!’ Annie blew out a long breath. ‘I weigh less than I thought I did.’

  ‘Lucky you! That’s good news, isn’t it?’

  ‘I guess,’ Annie said, deciding it was too complicated to explain, but she stepped off and then back on again to make double sure the scales were right as she chatted on. ‘Nope, no family—at least, none that he wants us to find out about. I’ve called the social work department and left a message for someone to come and have a chat with him in the morning and see if there’s anything we can do for him, but I’m on tomorrow morning so I can chase it all up if…’ Her voice trailed off as Iosef walked in, bored eyes rolling a fraction in greeting, but whereas only seconds ago she’d been standing on the scales, chatting and weighing herself without giving it a thought, Annie was now blushing self-consciously.

  ‘Sorry to interrupt your weigh-in. I found Mickey Baker’s ECG in my pocket. When you’ve got time, could you see that it’s pasted to his notes? I’ll be back once he’s in bed.’

  ‘Fine!’ A
nnie bristled, as he tossed the beastly tracing on the desk and stalked off without a further word.

  So he clearly thought her vain now as well as useless, Annie ranted to herself as she marched back round to the main area, thought she was a lightweight. She halted abruptly, and coolly eyed the chaos that reigned in cubicle two, the suture trolley he’d left behind was piled with dirty gloves and swabs. Her mood blackened further. He hadn’t even disposed of his sharps and clearly he figured it was up to her to dispose of the rest of his mess, as well! Well, Annie decided furiously, tidying up. Whatever he thought of her he was about to find out just how assertive she could be, her grumbling stomach and a healthy dose of premenstrual tension not the ideal time, perhaps, for Iosef Kolovsky to suggest she was otherwise.

  ‘Dr Kolovsky.’ He was sitting at the nurses’ station, writing his notes and looking as immaculate and groomed as he had at the start of the shift—unlike her. She was growing more and more disheveled. Her cheeks reddened with each and every trudge up to the ward, her hair wild from being pulled in exasperation at having spent the last few hours with a doctor who belonged in the middle of the previous century. ‘Could I have a word, please?’

  ‘Regarding?’ He didn’t even look up.

  ‘Regarding the mess you just left in cubicle two.’

  ‘What mess?’ He glanced over at the empty cubicle then resumed writing. ‘There is no mess.’

  ‘Because I just cleaned it up.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘I don’t think you understand.’ Annie cleared her throat. ‘You can’t just leave sharps and needles on a trolley—someone could hurt themselves!’

  ‘I don’t see the problem—you said yourself that you just cleaned them up!’ He frowned, actually looked at her for the first time, his eyes holding hers, as if daring her to carry on, and for the first time Annie wondered if he was deliberately missing the point, especially when the edge of his lips twisted into just a hint of a smile. Well, if that was the case, she’d make things crystal clear.

  ‘Yes, I cleaned them up,’ Annie answered hotly, ‘but for the last time. I don’t know where you last worked, and you may think the only thing I’m capable of is running patients up to the ward or giving out bedpans, and if you choose to work that way, then go ahead and take the entire load, but don’t ever compromise the safety of myself or my colleagues. If you choose to leave your mess for others to clean up, please, at least have the decency to at least clear away any sharps.’

  ‘Sure.’ He turned back to his writing, and heaped insult on insult by giving an utterly bored yawn as he effectively dismissed her, leaving her standing mouthing like a goldfish for a second before she turned on her heel.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ His apology stopped her in her tracks and slowly she turned around. ‘I forgot. Normally, I am meticulous about this sort of thing, but when I found his ECG I decided to bring it around—and the mess just slipped my mind.’

  ‘Why didn’t you just say so?’ Annie frowned. ‘You sat there, letting me rant.’

  ‘You are very easy to goad … to wind up.’ A glimmer of a smile twisted at the edge of his sulky mouth and he gave a small shrug as he returned to his notes. ‘I couldn’t resist. Again—I am sorry for the mess.’

  ‘That’s fine.’ Disarmed by his niceness, she made the stupid mistake of giving him the benefit of the doubt, of thinking maybe she could have a normal conversation with him.

  ‘What’s going on with Mickey?’

  ‘I don’t know yet—I haven’t examined him.’

  ‘But did he say what—?’

  ‘That’s men’s business,’ he answered, effectively dismissing her.

  ‘Fine,’ Annie bristled. ‘I’ll just wait to read it in his notes.’

  ‘Oh, and by the way, Nurse …’ Her back stiffened as again he halted her, her rigid face turning as again he failed to use either her name or title. ‘Your top …’ He pointed to his own chest, made a tiny little gesture up and down with his finger before returning to his notes. Annie glanced down, aghast to see the top of her blouse gaping open. Worse, the ugliest, tattiest sports bra in the words was smiling up at her.

  She refused to jump. If it had been any other of her colleagues they’d both have roared with laughter—but Iosef Kolovsky wasn’t like anyone she’d ever worked with. So instead, excruciatingly embarrassed, she walked as slowly and as calmly as she could towards the change rooms, holding her top together with one hand and grabbing a theatre top off the linen trolley. Only when she was safely inside and the door was closed did she let loose—a full afternoon and evening of humiliation and frustration hissing out in one single word.

  ‘Bastard!’

  Stunning to look at he might be, but he was quite simply the most pompous, arrogant, loathsome person she had ever met. Why on earth hadn’t Beth warned her about that?

  Yet all her colleagues seemed utterly smitten with him—and most confusing to Annie as the shift wore on, the more horrible he was to her, the nicer he seemed to them. And the patients didn’t seem to mind his rather austere bedside manner a single bit. He was so commanding, so utterly confident that it actually put them at ease. And he did listen to them, which was somewhat of a rarity among doctors—without interruption, too, that haughty face listening intently then quietly processing the information along with his findings and coming up with a swift diagnosis and course of action.

  And, who, Annie seethed late in the evening, among her colleagues could she complain to about a doctor that actually lightened their workload? He was completely autonomous, worked completely independently, and neither asked nor needed anyone’s opinion or findings. In fact, apart from the sharps incident, they really had little to say to each other—he just seemed to take every possible opportunity to wind her up.

  Almost as if he’d singled her out to be horrible to.

  ‘How’s Mickey?’ Annie asked Jess on the way to her break.

  ‘Good.’ Jess looked up from the desk. ‘Iosef saw him and said to carry on with hourly neuro obs.’

  ‘What was wrong?’ Annie asked, reaching for his notes. ‘He didn’t say.’

  He hadn’t written it down either. Just a neat little entry giving the time of examination, and even though he didn’t have to write it up straight away, Annie knew, just knew, that it had been a deliberate omission, that the meticulous Dr Kolovsky hadn’t just forgotten … he was once again goading her.

  Well, he could goad her all he liked, Annie decided, still seething at the end of her supper break as she headed back to the locker room. Splashing her red cheeks with cold water, she dragged a comb through her wild hair.

  He could wind her up as much as he jolly well liked and the more he did so, the more she’d smile!

  ‘How are you going?’ Realising she hadn’t been in for a while and aware there were a couple of cardiac patients in Resus, Annie popped in to give Beth a hand. Given the serious nature of the patients in Resus, there were frequently controlled drugs to check, requiring two signatures, which the student who was helping out today wasn’t qualified to check, and invariably there was something in a kidney dish awaiting a second pair of trained eyes. ‘Need anything?’

  ‘Everything is pretty much under control.’ Beth popped her head around the drug cupboard. ‘Iosef just checked the drugs with me.’

  ‘Great!’

  ‘Told you he was, didn’t I?’ Beth grinned. ‘He’s just so on the ball. Oh, actually, there is something you could do for me.’

  ‘Sure!’

  ‘Mr Evans, the anterior MI. Coronary Care just called down and they’re ready for him. I don’t want to send a student up with him in case he goes off en route.’

  ‘No problem.’

  Her face ached from smiling, her feet actually hurt from trudging up and down to the ward, and the absolutely last place Annie wanted to be at nine-thirty that night was pounding the treadmill at the gym, but Melanie had taken it upon herself to become her personal trainer, arriving at the end of Annie’s shift,
jangling her keys and waiting for her at the nurses’ station, flirting blatantly with George the intern who was coming on duty for the night and chatting amicably to a smiling Iosef, who was bouncing a very grubby two-year-old on his knee.

  ‘Here she is.’ Melanie beamed. ‘Ready for a workout?’

  ‘As ready as I’ll ever be,’ Annie said, rolling her eyes.

  ‘Thanks so much, Doctor!’ The grubby two-year-old’s mother blushed a little as she arrived to retrieve her son. ‘It was really nice of you to hold him while I rang my husband.’

  ‘No problem!’ Iosef gave her a very nice smile.

  ‘Have a good night, guys!’ Melanie waved as they headed off.

  ‘You too, Melanie,’ Iosef answered.

  As they headed out to the car park and off to the gym, it wasn’t the prospect of a workout that had Annie’s stomach sinking.

  It was the lack of a goodbye from Iosef that had unsettled her.

  Topped off by the smile he’d given Melanie as she’d waved back at him, that really irked.

  The same smile she’d seen given to patients and colleagues.

  The same smile that was noticeably absent around her.

  CHAPTER TWO

  IT WAS nice to be in Resus.

  Annie loved the unpredictability and the rush of adrenaline that came from having to be constantly alert when nursing seriously ill patients—and there were certainly plenty of them this morning.

  Both Beth and Melanie had been pulled from the cubicles to assist, and Cheryl, the charge nurse, was constantly popping in and out as no sooner had one patient been moved up to the ward than the paramedics wheeled in another, or a patient in the cubicles was deemed ill enough to transfer.

  ‘Are you busy?’ Iosef popped his head round the door and frowned at the activity.