Anna pulled on a jumper over her pyjamas, her flat was freezing, and by the time the heating would kick in she would be half way to work. Her mug of tea woke her up enough to focus on the news headlines being piped through the radio in amongst the pop music and adverts for a wedding fayre and a 2nd handcar showroom off the A368. " … a further 18 month contract has been awarded to the Braime pressings factory in Leeds, helping to put to bed fears of further redundancies after cut backs in May ... " Anna reached over and switched off the radio – the health of Yorkshires manufacturing industry would have to wait, she had work to do.

Jumping off her bike and chaining it to the rack, Anna walked into A&E, the organized chaos of the night shift was subsiding, the drunks had either been sobered up and shipped off or admitted. And the morning rush of people who would get hit on their way to work, or scold themselves with kettles of boiling water had yet to turn up. Anna pulled on her scrubs, locked her locker and rounded on Daisy. Student nurse Daisy, was hard to dislike, but spending time with her required the patience of a saint.

"Morning Daisy, how are you?"

"Morning – god I'm tired, are you tired?" she said yawning loudly and looking a bit like a kitten being held up by the scruff of it's neck.

"No – but then if you will spend all night out with Ethyl and Gwen …" she said with a laugh, tying her hair back she slipped out into the main room. She sat down behind the nurses station, running her eyes down the list of internal memos – endless red tape. Glancing up she spotted F1, Dr Mason, carrying two cups of coffee and looking lost.

"Morning William, she's in the staff room."

"Who?"

"Daisy … unless you're buying me coffee?"

"It's not for you … and I'm not looking for Daisy …" Anna raised an eyebrow at him as he turned and scurried off, carefully avoiding the staffroom door. Anna smiled to herself, she was glad that Daisy and William might be making something together – even if the idea of the two of them as a couple seemed oddly silly – like anthropomorphised field mice.

"Anna!"

"Mr Carson?"

"We've got a serious impact injury coming in from the Braime factory … pelvic crush - ETA 8 minutes, prep resus and can some-one page the on-call ortho bods – this one sound pretty damn nasty."

"Jane – you do resus, I'll page Mr Mosely."

"Mr Mosely? Jesus – have we given up on the patients already? How that man became a surgeon Christ alone knows!"

"Oh sorry Thomas – did you want to do spinal surgery today?"

"Just saying."

"Look don't worry – I get it, it's a nice juicy ortho case – I'll make sure your down as anesthetist – but shall we try and get him stable first. Have we got a name Mr Clarkson – for the records?"

"It's a … Mathew Crawley,28, lawyer from Manchester."

"Oh well screw him then – lawyers are all parasites if you ask me."

"Oh don't worry Dr Barrow – no-one would dream of asking your opinion and then acting on it ."

Anna caught her hands on her knees, slopped over, inhaling deeply trying to get the salty metal smell of blood out of her lungs. The air out side the entrance was cold, -4 according to Gwen, who had caught a lift in with a man whose car had a thermometer, quite why, Anna wasn't sure.

"Are you OK?" Said a voice from behind her, she jumped, spinning on her heels. Previously unseen by her, a man was sat behind her, he was tall and broad, his dark hair had begun to fall in his eyes and as he went to stand up Anna spotted the buckled knee and walking stick, even though he was probably only in his 40's. And he was handsome, not in a conventional pin up kind of a way, but he was good looking, kind looking, and as he looked at Anna she felt her stomach tighten and flutter.

"Yes … sorry … thank you." – you idiot - she thought to herself, - going to pieces over some man –

"I'm sorry to ask, but I saw you in there, you're one of the nurses who treated Mathew Crawley, I wanted to know how he is."

"Are you family? No? Well he's stable, our consultant Mr Carson's with him now, the orthopedic surgeon's on his way. I'm afraid I can't say more than that if you're not family."

"Of course – of course I understand." He took a step back, stubbing his cigarette out on the wall. " Nervous tick – filthy habit."

"All the best one's are." She replied, he smiled at her, and her stomach jumped again, the way his brown-green eyes looking right into her own, and the way his eyes crinkled at the corners, Anna realized she had been looking a fraction too long and broke away from his gaze.

"I need to get back to the factory, new contract and a press out of use – heads will roll. His cousin is one of the managers, Robert Crawley – could you telephone when there's news, he's stuck in his office."

"He didn't want to come to the hospital, he sent a colleague?" The tall Irishman smiled lightly again, extending an arm he said:

"John Bates, official right hand man … and floor manager." She shook his hand, it was big, much bigger than her own, and slightly scarred, years of manual labour had taken it's toll on his palms.

She stood in the entrance door, watching the man, Mr Bates, walk away into his waiting minicab. She almost wished she did smoke, anything to calm the pounding in her chest.

"Jesus – Christ." She whispered out loud. "Come on Anna – get a bloody grip." A hand caught her round the elbow, bringing her back to reality.

"Anna, get a frigging move on – or have you forgotten you're at work! Shiting hell Anna – you're meant to be the sensible one!"

Yes – thought Anna, I am the sensible one – and she followed Ethyl back inside!

Wooo - so there it is! I hope you enjoyed it, I should say that I know Fuzzydream has just started a story - Misty rains, where Anna is a nurse. I am not plagiarizing, it's a coincidence. Read her story though - I recommend it!

Please review and tell me what you think! And I'll try and get another chapter up by the end of the week!