This story is for and requested by westlife4ever80. I'm not really happy with it, but I'm not sure what I can do to make it better. I hope it will improve in future chapters. I love Dylan and I identify with him, but that doesn't make him easy to write!
I apologise to the Lofty fans. Characters are always saying and doing things I don't agree with. I've spoken to them about it, but they won't listen.
Dylan had seen a few strange things in his time at the ED.
Zoe locking lips with a porter. Louise being nice to someone. Lofty being... well, Lofty.
But this was something a bit different.
It was the car alarm that had caught his attention. Although Dylan was not particularly interested in whether or not someone's car was being stolen, it was only natural to glance in the direction of the sound. What he'd seen had surprised him so much, he couldn't help but stare.
A girl was putting her head underneath a parked car. She'd then got up, moved to the next car and set that alarm off too before putting her head underneath that car too.
Dylan watched her for a few minutes, telling himself that when someone behaved so oddly, it was only sensible to keep an eye on them. She might have a perfectly logical explanation for everything, but until she'd provided it, Dylan was going to treat her with suspicion.
He didn't think he'd seen her before. That didn't necessarily mean anything as he made a point of forgetting his patients' faces as soon as he'd discharged them and as for their relatives, he barely even glanced at them. But he was almost sure this was the first time he'd seen her. She had shoulder-length brown hair that shone in the sunlight (Dylan was a little bit surprised at himself for noticing that, but he was a doctor: it was his job to be observant). She was wearing a white blouse and a black, knee-length skirt. Even from a distance, Dylan had the impression she was anxious and in a bit of a hurry.
But whatever her reasons, such behaviour could not be allowed in a hospital car park. Dylan spent a few moments wondering who would be the correct person to report her to, but he quickly came to the conclusion that there wasn't time to report her to anybody. She could be gone by the time Security had arrived. Therefore, the correct thing to do would be to approach her himself.
Dylan walked over to her, trying to ignore the fact he had no idea what he was going to say, but she suddenly became aware of his presence. She scuttled out backwards from underneath the car and lost her balance, almost landing on Dylan's feet.
"Are you hurt?" asked Dylan.
After all, he was a doctor. It was a perfectly reasonable question to ask.
"Oh, no. I'm fine." The girl got to her feet and turned to face him. "I'm Angela Hamilton."
"I'm D… I'm sorry, is this relevant?"
Angela smiled. "Sorry. You're probably wondering what I was doing."
"Oh, no, I don't care what you're doing," said Dylan, not entirely truthfully. "But I thought I should warn you we do have CCTV."
Angela didn't take offence. She looked slightly embarrassed, but she was nodding as though she agreed. "I suppose I did look a bit weird."
Dylan had the impression she was a little amused.
He hoped she was amused with herself and not with him.
Actually, no. It didn't matter who she was amused with. All Dylan required was an explanation.
"I've lost a patient," said Angela.
Dylan reminded himself to be kind and polite and more like Lofty. "I'm very sorry to hear that, but you don't think speaking to a bereavement counsellor might be more helpful than indulging your secret desire to be a mechanic?"
Did I really say the words 'secret desire' to her?
Do I care if I did?
No. I don't care.
Angela stared at him, then she laughed.
It was a rippling sound of amusement and delight and Dylan tensed, convinced she was laughing at him. It wouldn't be the first time, of course, but it wasn't something he'd ever got used to.
Angela must have noticed something in his expression. She stopped laughing abruptly, a look of guilt coming to her face. "Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't laughing at you!" she said quickly. "I was laughing at myself. At my choice of words. When I said I'd lost a patient, I actually meant it literally. I'm sorry, um…"
"Dr Keogh."
"-Dr Keogh. I'll try to explain properly this time. I'm a nurse on the psych ward. We mostly keep a pretty close eye on our patients and to be honest, most of them wouldn't think of running away, at least not unless they're told to."
"Told to?" said Dylan blankly.
"If they have voices," explained Angela. "Voices in their head telling to run away because we're trying to poison them or something. It's understandable really. If someone told you your wife was trying to poison you, wouldn't you run away?"
"I don't have a wife, so it's irrelevant," said Dylan.
"That's a shame… but great news for the single ladies!" said Angela. She looked at him quizzically. "Or possibly for the single men."
"Ladies," said Dylan. "Though not… not recently. Don't you think we should be discussing your errant patient?"
Angela nodded and became instantly more professional. "Of course. As I was saying before I distracted myself by prying into your personal life, this particular patient has voices telling him he needs to get away and he needs a vehicle. Last time he disappeared, we found him attempting to hot-wire a car. I don't think he has any idea of how to do it, but he probably could still do a bit of damage."
"Don't you think," said Dylan, "if he was underneath the car, he might set off the car alarm? Perhaps if you look for a car that is already beeping, it seems not unlikely that your missing patient will be underneath it. That seems much more practical than setting off every car alarm yourself."
Angela laughed. "I know. It is a bit embarrassing! I wish we could use the lack of car alarms as a guide, but he didn't set it off last time. Perhaps, if you crawl up to a car and go underneath it without touching it, you don't set off the car alarm. I have no idea, to be honest. I've never tried it. Have you?"
"No. Funnily enough, I never have," said Dylan.
"I hope no-one calls the police," said Angela. "I know what I'm doing is perfectly innocent, but they won't know that and I don't want to waste their time. And I really do need to find him."
"Instead of which, you're standing here, talking to me," said Dylan.
Angela laughed again. "You're right again! I suppose I had better get back to searching. But it was nice meeting you, Dr Keogh. I might see you around."
"That seems unlikely," said Dylan, and turned away – though not fast enough to miss the disappointed look on her face.
He thought about feeling guilty, but then he decided he must have been mistaken. What could she possibly have to feel disappointed about? She was probably glad to see the back of him. Most people were.
He walked a couple more paces and stopped. He stood for a moment, then he turned towards the sound of the latest car alarm. Quickly. Dylan walked over to her. "Nurse Hamilton."
"Dr Keogh!" said Angela. "Didn't I say I might see you around?"
Dylan ignored this – mostly because he didn't know how to respond. "This patient you're looking for: is he wearing a hospital gown?"
"Yes, he is!" said Angela, looking around eagerly.
"Does he have stupidly-long dark brown hair and a fondness for Mars bars?"
"I don't know about 'stupidly-long'," said Angela, "but the rest sounds just like him."
She wasn't in any way reproving him for his description of the man's hair. She'd simply dismissed it as unimportant and responded to his question. All the same, Dylan found himself wishing he hadn't said it.
Even more strangely, he found himself wanting to apologise for it.
"This way," said Dylan, and walked off without waiting for a response, but he soon heard the sound of her hurrying to catch up with him. "There you are."
There was young man sitting against the wall. He was eating a Mars bar and there were several on the ground beside him, along with some empty wrappers.
Angela touched Dylan's arm and made eye contact. "Thank you, Dr Keogh," she said as though she really meant it. "Thank you so much." She hurried to the man's side. "Leo, there you are! I was worried. Come on: I'll take you back to the ward."
Leo looked up at her. "They said you wanted to poison me," he said in a childlike voice.
"I know they did," said Angela. "But you know it's not true, don't you? It's natural to worry about it, but now you've had a time-out, you do know I'd never do that?"
"There's a new man!" said Leo.
Angela nodded. "Yes, there is. But he's very nice and he's not going to poison you either. His name's Simon and he's a nurse like me and if you come back with me now, I'll introduce you to him. I know you won't be able to trust him straight away and that's fine, but I hope you'll get to know him better over the next few weeks. In the meantime, I'll keep an eye on him for you, so I can make sure everything's all right."
Leo pointed over Angela's shoulder. "No, that man!"
Angela looked over her shoulder and saw Dylan. She smiled.
It was a friendly enough smile, but Dylan was uncomfortably aware he shouldn't still be here. He shouldn't be listening to a private conversation between a nurse and a patient who weren't even from his department. He couldn't imagine why he'd even want to listen.
"Oh, that's Dr Keogh," said Angela. "He's a very nice man and he's been helping me to find you." She turned and smiled at Dylan again. "We're okay now, Dr Keogh: I'll be able to take him back to the ward in a moment and I don't think I'm going to need backup, but thanks for waiting."
Dylan recognised the dismissal, polite and friendly as it was, and hurriedly began to walk away.
It wasn't as though he had the slightest interest in either of them.
If they stayed on the floor and got hit by a car and needed emergency treatment, he'd do his job, but unless that happened, he had no reason to think of them again.