Bonnie Sveen Fan: Thank you :-)
LittleBritishPerson: I'm glad that you're enjoying the story. Loads more to come and you will soon find out.
CasualtyFanForever81: Thanks for reviewing.
Tanith Panic: Indeed but weirdly, I can see Lily saying something like that in the actual show haha. Thanks for reviewing and there will be more sympathetic Connie to read about.
Chapter Two
Out of all shifts, this one was dragging the most. Lily couldn't wait until she was due to go on her break.
She still wasn't feeling one hundred percent, and she also had a book stashed away in her locker that she was dying to read. She was on chapter four and it was beginning to get very exciting. Luckily the staffroom was empty so she curled up on the sofa and started to read, trying to ignore the continued aching pain in her abdomen. She was definitely coming down with something; she had helped out in resus earlier and she felt so out of breath by the time she had finished treating the patient.
She was halfway through her book, completely in a world of her own, when Connie walked in. Lily could tell straight away by the look on the Clinical Lead's face that she was in trouble. Connie had her arms folded and her lips pursed. There was another look in her eyes, though, a look of concern.
"Right," Connie sighed and quietly shut the door. "I think you need to go home."
"Why?" Lily questioned her and slowly shut her book. "I'm okay, Mrs Beauchamp."
"Well, let's see," Connie said, looking at her watch. "You have been in here way over an hour."
"Sorry," Lily apologised. She'd only just noticed that she should have gone back to work quite a while ago. "I lost track of time."
"A patient has also put in a formal complaint against you," Connie said, biting her lip. "And let's just say that I am not the only member of staff who has noticed that you're a little off-colour. Doctor Hardy has come to me and so has Iain."
"A formal complaint?" Lily's eyes immediately widened and she started to fear the worst. "What did I do?"
"She didn't like the way you spoke to her," Connie said. "Said that you had an attitude and that you accused her of setting fire to her own house. You should know by now, Doctor Chao, that you do not jump to accusations of any sort. If that was really what you thought, then you should have spoken to myself or Doctor Hanna regarding the matter."
Lily felt sick and her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. Disappointed and ashamed tears pricked her eyes but she quickly blinked them back so Connie wouldn't see her cry.
"I've asked Doctor Hardy to write a statement seeing as he was there to witness the incident," Connie said. "Look. I know that you said you're fine but in all honesty, you don't look it. Now, I've appreciated the fact that you've come into work and I will take a look at the report you wrote up for me but I think you need to go home and start fresh tomorrow."
"Mrs Beauchamp..."
"No arguments," Connie interrupted. "I'll call you a taxi. I think it will be safer if you leave your bike here, don't you?"
Connie left the staffroom before Lily could say anything else, leaving her alone and crumpled faced.
The young junior doctor winced as she moved position and felt more pain shoot through her abdomen. She felt hot, which was odd considering it was almost nine degrees outside. She sniffed and stood up with her book under one arm and quickly composed herself before heading back out into the ED.
It felt odd returning home in the middle of the afternoon. Lily unlocked the front door of her flat and slowly made her way into the deserted hallway. She locked the door behind her, removed her shoes and hung her coat up on its peg.
Lily walked into her kitchen to grab a glass of water that she could take back to bed with her. She sipped it slowly as she walked along to her bedroom and climbed into bed, still in the jumper and jeans that she had put on earlier that day. She didn't have the energy to get changed, she just wanted to bury herself under the covers and slip off into hibernation for the winter.
Secretly, she felt pleased that Connie had sent her home. Even though she'd gotten a formal complaint put in against her, all she wanted was to lay down and that was all.
She had some more of her water and set it down on her bedside table. Lily suddenly found it hard to breathe and started coughing and spluttering, picking up the cup and had another sip to try and stop herself from choking. The droplets of water just fell from her mouth as she continued to struggle with getting her breath back, feeling panicked and her anxiety rising.
She set her cup back down, almost knocking it on the floor with her trembly hands, and held both of her hands to her mouth. She felt worse than she had done in a long, long time. Removing her hands from her mouth, she panicked when she spotted a tiny spot of blood on the palm of her right hand.
"Crap," she muttered under her breath.
Panic rushed through her body as she coughed again. More blood appeared on her hand. She removed the duvet from her legs and dragged herself out of bed and along to the bathroom. She raced to the sink and glanced at her reflection in the mirror, mouth wide open to check where the blood could have been coming from. Her gums appeared to be bleeding, quite heavily as well.
"Get your act together," Lily scolded herself and squeezed some toothpaste onto her toothbrush.
She stood directly in front of the mirror and made sure to give her teeth a good brush, anything to stop the bleeding. She anxiously perched herself on the edge of the bath and removed the toothbrush from her mouth. There was blood on the bristles.
She debated ringing into the ED and asking if someone could give her a check-up, but she didn't. She couldn't get admitted as a patient when she was one of the best doctors in that place, how stupid would she look?
Lily stood up and gave her toothbrush a wash before placing it back on the side of the sink. She made sure to fill up her water cup and headed back to bed to try and get some sleep. The fact that blood had just emerged from her mouth worried her more than anything. Her night was filled with tossing and turning, a horrible feeling in the back of her mind that something wasn't right.
Lily woke up around three o'clock, realising that she had slept through the entire afternoon as well as dinner. Still, she didn't feel hungry. She just felt tired, hot and sore. She lifted her head gently and touched her face with her hand. Immediately, heat hit her skin and loose bits of hair dangled around her and stuck to her sweaty face. Why was she so hot? She checked the time on her phone and saw that she'd received a message from Ethan at around 6:30pm.
I hope you're feeling better. See you soon x
He was such a sweet friend to her and she had to smile at his effort of making sure that she was okay. She decided not to reply straight away, seeing as it was way too early, but just lay down to take in what Ethan had said to her. He had been so disappointed with her earlier and that made her remember the patient that was putting in a formal complaint against her. God, how could she have been so stupid? Still, Ethan wasn't cross with her and that was the main thing.
She felt her eyes droop and she lay her weary head back against the pillow. She was asleep in seconds, too tired to worry anymore.
Well, there is the second chapter. Enjoy x