Chapter 1 – Two weeks
Monday
Zoe was sitting in front of Guy Self upstairs in his office. "I don't need someone to mother me in this job, I've been doing just fine since Mr Jordan left-" "That's the problem though… fine isn't good enough." Zoe ran her hand through her hair, stressed with what was being proposed. "It's not someone checking up on you, I think if the clinical lead role was shared then it would be of a higher standard. We can't have anything else go wrong in the department Zoe..."
It had been a difficult few months for Zoe. She had been clinical lead for almost 5 years now, and was handling it pretty well. After the car accident they had lost several members of staff from the department. Jeff was still unconscious in hospital, Ash and Lily had left the department to take some time to recover and everyone was struggling to move past it.
Zoe had been with Max for almost a year now and everything was good between them. Nobody knew about their relationship because Zoe knew she would face problems with being the clinical lead and dating another member of staff.
"Look Guy, give me two weeks and I will turn this department around. If by the end of the two weeks you still feel I'm not doing this job well enough then you can bring someone in." Before Zoe had come into the office she knew what was going to be said to her, but she planned on just accepting it and leaving quietly. She watched Guy pace back and forth in front of her considering his options. "Okay, two weeks and then I'm hiring someone new." Zoe nodded and thanked Guy before leaving his office. What had she just agreed to?
The first thing Zoe needed to do was sort out the staffing issues within the department. They were short on nurses and consultants, as well as not having enough porters to operate efficiently. Tess and Rita were working together to try and solve the nursing problem, but they needed to hire at least two more members of staff. As for consultants they were looking for a new doctor, but with Ash now gone too they needed to find two consultants to fill the positions. 'One thing at a time' she thought to herself… First she needed to brief everyone in the staffroom before the shift began.
Wandering out of her office she saw Dylan and Rita stood together laughing and talking by the nurses' station. They had been together for a few months now and Zoe couldn't have been happier for her friends. Dylan noticed Zoe come out of the office and signalled for the nurses to begin going into the staffroom. Max and Lofty walked in joking as Cal slowly walked in behind them with a black eye. "Whose girlfriend did you get with this time then?" Cal just smirked sarcastically and sat down with a glass of water and paracetemol. Max walked in and looked at Zoe before smiling and winking at her as he went towards the back with Robyn and Lofty.
"Okay so as everyone knows we've been really busy and coping with less members of staff than we need. I want to assure you all that in the next two weeks there will be new staff beginning and this department will turn back around." Zoe hoped what she was saying was believable to everyone else, as she was having a hard enough time believing herself. "Thank you, you're free to go… Tess can I have a quick word please?" The pair walked out of the staffroom and along towards Zoe's office. "Big Mac has decided to continue training as a healthcare assistant so we need to look at who's going to replace him and train any new porters." Zoe opened her office door and went in with Tess. "Who would you say should do that?" Tess sat down opposite Zoe and looked at all the paperwork spread across her desk. "Well it makes sense for Max to take control. He's the most experienced here and when he works, does a pretty good job of it." Zoe smiled thinking about how true that was, she would have suggested him anyway but didn't want it to appear like he got it through them sleeping together.
Zoe had spent the whole afternoon in her office sorting through piles of paperwork and applications. She had completely emptied the filing cabinets and reordered everything so she knew exactly where it all was. "Knock knock, is it okay if I come in?" Zoe looked up to see Rita stood leaning against the open door. "That's pretty impressive…" Zoe smiled and felt like she had finally accomplished something with cleaning the office. "Is everything alright Rita?" "Yeah, I was just wandering if you needed any help with things in here? You've been in here all afternoon and thought you may like some company." Zoe closed the cabinet behind her and turned to face her friend. "Thanks that would be good, sooo how's things with Dylan?"
The pair continued talking while sorting through the rest of the paperwork until there was nothing left to sort. Zoe sat down at her desk with Rita opposite her and picked up the folder with the applicants details in for the nursing positions. "While you're here I guess we should look through some of these together." Zoe took out the applications and handed half to Rita, beginning to read her own ones. "Jesus…" Zoe put down all the pieces of paper except one which she was glued to. "What… What is it Zoe?" When Zoe looked up she smiled and handed the piece of paper to Rita "An ex colleague, who I think may be worth an interview." Rita took the paper and nodded before they continued searching through the rest. The two women couldn't really find anyone else from the applicant's which stood out to them so they agreed to arrange a meeting with the one person they found who fitted what they needed.
It was nearing the end of the shift when Max was sitting on the wall outside the hospital. Zoe strolled outside taking a deep breath, feeling relief wash over her after getting outside the hospital. "Hey, I've barely seen you all day Zo- Dr Hanna… Everything okay?" She smiled and wandered over to Max who stood up to face her. Zoe wandered straight up to him and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his chest. Max at first confused, put his arms around her too. Zoe moved backwards "Everything is fine. It's just these next two weeks are going to be really tough and I want you to know that no matter what I say or how I act, I really do care about you Max…" He smile and took her hands looking at her "I know." He quickly pulled his hands away when Dylan and Rita rounded the corner which made Zoe laugh. "Hey Zoe we're heading for a drink, fancy joining us?" Zoe looked up and turned back to Max "You coming too?" Max nodded and smiled as the 4 of them wandered over to where the team spent most their free time together.