'The One Where Rita Has a Cold'
A Freechamp one-shot.
Rita awoke with a cold. Somehow it had crept up on her overnight without warning. She rolled over against her pillow, feeling the scratch of her throat as she swallowed. She had slept with her mouth open and her lips were dry, and they cracked when she yawned, making her wince.
She let out a long groan and ran a hand across her face, rubbing her eyes with her fingers before reaching for her phone.
She unlocked it and the screen illuminated showing '1 new message' -
Happy Birthday Sweetheart!
Card in the post,
love Mum and Dad xxx
She drew in a deep breath and exhaled. She was hot. Far too hot. But when she kicked the covers off to the end of the bed she found she was shivering – her skin prickling and she sat up, took hold of the covers again and pulled them all the way up so that they covered her head, cocooning herself within their warmth.
Today she was 35, half way to 40. The day had not started well.
-.-
Outside the sun hung low in the sky, the air was smothering, the temperature was creeping up and her skin seemed to be crawling with a fine film of sweat that made her shiver beneath the cardigan she wore.
"God, you look like you had a good night!"
Robyn called, catching up with her at the hospital entrance, joining her as they slipped through the automatic doors into reception.
Rita tilted her head to one side and glanced at her.
"I'm fine."
Robyn raised an eyebrow and held the door open for her as they made their way into the locker room.
"Yeah...you look it."
She laughed, her voice muffled as she set her bag down and pulled her jumper off over her head.
"It's just a cold."
Rita admitted finally, unlocking her own locker and withdrawing her uniform.
She shrugged her coat off and undid the buttons of her cardigan before slipping it from her shoulders and replacing it with the cool blue fabric that made her shiver. Even her skin seemed to ache as she moved, slipping on her trousers with stiff jerky movements that made the pain in her head throb even more.
"You look like you're going to pass out..."
Robyn said, reaching out a hand to her, but as she did so the door to the small room opened and Dr Keogh peered in at them, his face a picture of pure exasperation.
"Are you planning on getting any work done today, Sister Freeman, or am I to assume that the patients will have to begin treating themselves?"
He asked, the end of the stethoscope that he wore about his shoulders tapping lightly against the door, and he raised a hand to it, stopping it sharply.
"Just give me a minute..."
Rita murmured, straightening herself up and blinking against the blackness that began to creep up across her vision, the hairs at the back of her neck rising.
She had been dreading this day for weeks. She had known that nobody but her parents would remember, that she would spend another birthday on her own, and now, with a cold on top of everything else, she was exhausted.
She couldn't wait for the end of the shift, though it hadn't even begun.
"Well, I'm afraid that's just not acceptable, I need you in you in cubicles..."
"Problem, Dr Keogh?"
Rita heard the gentle scrape of Connie's heels as she stopped by the door. She glanced up, her face pale, her eyes rimmed with pink and her nose so blocked she had to part her lips in order to breathe.
It appeared her day was about to get much worse.
"I have a hernia in cubicle six and Nurse Freeman here seems to be taking longer than anybody else to get ready, despite the fact that she is already late...as usual."
"I'm just putting my shoes on!"
Rita spoke louder than she had meant to and the sound of her own voice made her visibly wince against the throbbing pain that seemed to be everywhere, inside her head, running down the back of her neck, behind her eyes and in her jaw.
Connie looked at her up at down, her hands placed elegantly on her hips, and Rita braced herself for whatever it was that Connie was going to have to say, knowing that whatever it was, it would be far worse than Dylan's mild irritation at her lateness.
Instead Connie cleared her throat and turned back to Dylan who was staring at Rita, his brow furrowed, his eyes bulging.
"Dr Keogh, I hardly think a patient with a hernia is going to die in the time it takes for Nurse Freeman to put her shoes on."
Dylan raised his eyebrows and turned to her, alarmed by the fact that Connie seemed to be taking Rita's side.
"Oh for..."
He held his hands up in defeat and backed from the room.
"women..."
He muttered, and Connie watched him leave before turning back to Rita, surprising the nurse with the flicker of a smile.
"Quick as you can, please."
She said gently, and with a nod of her head she disappeared from view, leaving Robyn and Rita to look to one another, dumbfounded by Connie's alarming change in behaviour.
"Talk about getting off lightly..."
Robyn muttered, closing the door to her locker and turning the key.
Rita blew out a breath between her lips, folded her coat and placed it into her locker.
"I don't expect it will last."
She sighed, closing the metal door gently to avoid the sound of grating metal that would no doubt add to her headache.
"Maybe you should take tomorrow off..."
Robyn asked, watching as Rita yawned and struggled to turn the key in the lock.
"Ugh, don't worry. I'm going to buy the entire ten seasons of 'Friends' on the way home tonight. And I'm going to drink my weight in hot chocolate, wrap myself up in my duvet and never come out again."
-.-
"Nurse Freeman, what exactly are you doing?"
Dylan asked, the curtain of cubicle six fluttering out behind him as he entered, and he stopped dead in his tracks, looking at her as though she were the last thing that he would ever expect to have found here.
"The patient mentioned that..."
"That's her foot. Nurse Freeman. I think you'll find her herniated bowel a little further up."
He cut her off and ushered her backwards with his hands.
"I trust you actually did attend medical school?"
He muttered, glancing to the patient.
Rita scowled, though she remained silent, she could feel the tickle of a sneeze in her nose and she sniffed and rubbed the back of her hand at the tip of her nose, willing it to go away.
"Well?"
He asked, looking at her pointedly, ignoring the fact that her eyes were bloodshot and watery, and her forehead gleamed with a cold sweat that came on as suddenly as it went away again.
"I'm perfectly capable, thank you."
She whispered hoarsely, wriggling her nose.
"I tell you what, why don't you carry on trying to work out one end of your patient from the other and I'll deal with the rest of the ward."
He said, his voice loud, and he placed the folded the backs of his hands onto his hips and looked down at the patient.
Rita swallowed. She felt the sting of tears at the corners of her eyes and her sinuses began to throb. She wouldn't cry, she told herself, not here, not in front of Dylan. She dipped her head and looked down towards her hands, seeing them bloom out of focus behind her un-shed tears.
There was the rustle of the curtain once more and Connie peered around it's edge, taking in the sight of the defeated nurse and Dr Keogh who was busying himself with the patients OBS.
"Everything ok?"
She asked, and Dylan sucked in a breath between his teeth.
"Is there any particular reason why you keep popping up behind me today? Only it's very disconcerting..."
"I was merely concerned at the amount of time it seems to be taking you to diagnose this patient. Are you planning on sending her up to theatre?"
She asked.
"Oh, no. I thought I might take her for a Chinese first...and then we're off out clubbing."
Dr Keogh sighed whilst Connie arced a perfectly sculpted eyebrow and bought the patients notes she was holding up to her chest.
"The patients foot looks swollen."
She said, glancing to the foot that Rita had been assessing.
"I'd say it needs a good wash."
Dylan retorted as Connie rolled her eyes and made her way over to Rita's side, pushing the patients trouser leg further up her calf.
"Would you say that was swollen, Nurse Freeman?"
She asked, turning to Rita, catching the slight wobble of the nurses lip as she replied.
"Yes...that's what I was trying to say to Dr Keogh."
She murmured without looking up, and she blinked again against the incessant throbbing of her head.
"Any blood in the sputum?"
Connie asked, looking pointedly to Dylan who drew up his shoulders and widened his eyes.
"I suppose I will check."
He said eventually and Connie gave a purse of her lips and an ever so slight nod of her head.
"Thank you, Dr Keogh, after all, it is customary here for the doctors to do the diagnosing, not the nursing staff."
She said quietly before placing a hand upon Rita's arm, making her jump.
"Nurse Freeman, perhaps you should take a moment...?"
She asked, her head to one side, her eyes watching the confusion on the nurses face.
Rita opened and closed her mouth, her head was too fuggy to think and there was a sharp pain behind her right eye from her sinus.
"Oh no, I'm fine!"
She exclaimed at last, her cheeks growing warm. The last thing she had wanted to do was to draw attention to the fact that she was struggling, least of all Connie's attention.
"You know, when you put a 'D' at the end of 'fine', you're not fine..."
Connie said, her voice low, and she held the curtain open, waiting for Rita to exit.
Rita paused, a frown between her eyes.
"Did you just quote 'Friends'?"
She asked incredulously, as she dipped her head to pass under Connie's arm, feeling the presence of the clinical lead behind her as she closed the curtain.
"Absolutely not."
Connie said quickly, though as Rita glanced behind her she caught the glitter of amusement behind the older woman's eyes, and she couldn't help but feel thankful to her for rescuing her from Dylan.
"Come to my office, I'd like to have a word."
She added, stopping before the office door and watching as Rita's face fell.
Connie held the door open for her, watching the nurse draw in a breath as she entered, as though readying herself for whatever was to come.
"Before you say anything...I'd just like to say I'm sorry for today..."
Rita began, hearing the door click closed behind her.
"No need to apologise."
Connie cut her off as she reached for the bag on her desk, causing Rita to falter.
"Oh."
She frowned, and stood in the middle of the office, waiting for Connie to find whatever it was that she was looking for in her handbag.
"Take a seat."
She said, gesturing to the sofa instead of the chair, and Rita glanced to it. She couldn't quite understand what she was doing so, and the offer of the sofa did nothing but make her feel even more uneasy.
"Thank you..."
She began, wondering what it was that Connie fished from her bag, a small cardboard box, black with gold writing.
"I can't help but notice that you're feeling under the weather today."
She said, placing the box on the worktop by the small kettle that Connie kept on the side, for when she was too snowed under with paperwork to leave to buy coffee.
"I'm sorry Connie, I didn't mean for it to affect my work..."
"No apologies, remember?"
Connie smiled as she spoke though her words were firm.
"Sorry...I mean..."
Rita mumbled, and she felt her cheeks grow pink as Connie raised an eyebrow and smiled before turning to the kettle, setting it to boil.
"Ginger tea."
She said, opening the little black box and dropping a tea bag into a mug.
"Ginger?"
Rita repeated.
"Used to relieve a sore throat and loosen up congestion due to a cold. It also relieves aches and pains due to its anti-inflammatory properties."
Rita's eyes widened as Connie spoke.
"Oh! Thank you..."
She looked down to where she folded her hands into her lap, twisting her fingers together.
"You've been very nice to me today..."
She said quietly, needing some sort of explanation, her mind was too heavy and thick with pain to fathom why Connie was behaving the way she was.
"Yes well, I hardly think you needed to have me on your back as well as Dr Keogh. Today especially."
"Today?"
Rita repeated her again, and Connie poured the boiling water from the kettle into the mug.
Without a word she took it by the handle and placed it on the end table by the sofa.
"Thank you..."
Rita murmured, but Connie was already busy reaching for something else from her bag, and she retrieved a pale pink present bag that she handed to Rita.
"What's this?!"
The nurse asked, her eyes growing even wider as she accepted the gift, the bag much heavier than she had anticipated.
"It's your birthday present."
Connie said matter of factly and Rita looked up at her from where she sat.
"Happy birthday."
The clinical lead added, sitting down next to her, her knee knocking against Rita's.
Rita cleared her throat.
"Do you remember all of your nurses birthdays?"
She asked eventually, and Connie smiled.
"Not all of them,"
She said quietly.
"Just the ones who look at me the way you do."
She added.
"What way might that be?"
Rita asked, catching the glint of Connie's eye.
"As though you can't quite decide if you are afraid of me or you want to kiss me."
She whispered, and Rita's mouth fell open further. She felt as though all of the air in the room seemed to thin and it made her head spin.
"I'm not afraid of you..."
Rita answered quietly, surprised by her own bravery, never once looking away from Connie as she spoke.
Connie smiled softly, her cheeks growing warm, and she gave a quick glance to the bag on Rita's lap.
"Aren't you going to open it?
She asked.
Rita bit against her bottom lip and lowered her gaze to the bag. It was tied up with a pink velvet ribbon which she undid, and as she peered into it she couldn't help but laugh out loud, and she withdrew the white box set of 'Friends' DVD's from the bag, turning it, looking at it from all sides before looking up at Connie.
"I don't understand..."
She whispered, glancing to Connie's lips, wondering how she could thank her...
"There's more."
Connie murmured, bringing Rita's attention back to the bag.
She slipped her hand back inside and withdrew an oblong of something wrapped in gold paper and tied with red string, and a packet of Beechams Cold and Flu remedy tablets.
"Beechams..."
Rita ran her finger over the packet and Connie drew in a breath.
"It's a shame about the spelling..."
She murmured, watching Rita peer at the little gold package.
"What's this?"
She asked, turning the packet over in her hands.
"Hot chocolate. Proper hot chocolate."
Connie answered, a smile on her lips.
"It looks far too complicated to be hot chocolate."
Rita murmured, squinting her tied eyes at the instructions printed on the back.
"Well, it's a good job I'm going to take you back to mine to make it for you then, isn't it."
Connie whispered.
-.-
This was just an idea I had this morning whilst I was chasing after my children. Luckily they allowed me to sit down and write it! I hope everyone enjoys it...I'd love to hear what you think :) xxx