Disclaimer – I sadly do not own Casualty or any of the characters!
Behind Closed Doors
Chapter 2 - Time
Who knew being on time was so difficult?
Kirsty sighed as for the fifth shift in a row she ran into the emergency department.
She was beginning to struggle to sleep again which was not helping anything.
"You look knackered." Adam was blunt.
"It's been a long night." Kirsty replied putting her bag down on the desk of reception for a moment.
"Kirsty is something going on?" Adam asked simply "I mean if its anything you can ask for help Tess wouldn't be so..."
"Just leave me alone." Kirsty snapped having had enough. "We all make drunken mistakes."
She picked the bag back up and stormed into the staffroom Adam watched her go not entirely sure whether to be hurt, upset, angry or worried.
She really shouldn't have said that.
She really really shouldn't have.
Kirsty cursed herself as she changed quickly into her scrubs and headed straight back to reception to be given her first patient of the day. She didn't mean it. Ok it had been a little bit of a drunken mistake but not a totally bad one. Adam was a good man, pretty good looking with it. He seemed to care about her in away Warren never really had even back when things were good. The way he had sat there in the on call room and just waiting for her to fall asleep, his hand gently resting on hers was sweet. She felt safe under his watchful eye she hadn't been so relaxed in such a long time. She was glad for Adam's restraint, he could have taken advantage of her that night when she pounced on him in the toilets but he didn't. Why she did it in the first place she was unsure; a mixture of tequila, Dutch courage, a slight crush and frustration she guessed.
But she had a husband and they had a daughter. He needed her, they both needed her.
Things weren't simple. Her relationship with Warren was far from it. She wasn't sure how much more she could take but she couldn't exactly put her foot down and walk out. If she could run into Adam's arms, off load her problems and let him help she would, in many ways she wanted to do that, she didn't know him that well but she knew he was a good guy and he seemed to have a similar soft spot for her that she had for him. He had kissed back originally after all and then the on call room kind of proved it in her eyes but she was in no position to act upon this, not right now.
She accepted the patient's notes off Noel and headed towards cubicles, glad to get on with her job.
As the day went on Adam couldn't help but keep an eye on Kirsty which proved to be easier said than done as she seemed to be avoiding him for most of the morning until they were both called into resus after a RTA to treat the same patient. He couldn't fault her work, she was more on the ball than he was.
Her phone suddenly began bleeping, she checked her clock and cursed slightly
"I've got to take this." She said looking panicked
"Kirsty? Kirsty!" Adam yelled after her leaping into position to continue pushing the fluids through. He watched her go a little annoyed and a little worried.
"Mads, would you?" He gestured towards the nurse and she immediately stepped in as Adam tried to focus himself on the patient who was thankfully stabilising. He asked Mads to call and see how long orthopaedics would be and then promptly followed Kirsty's footsteps out of resus. It wasn't hard to find her, she was down the next corridor, Adam stepped in behind a trolley with bedding on and listened to what she was saying. She was deep in conversation, he was curious as to who it was that she would have abandoned her post for.
"It can't be helped..." She was arguing, she paused listening to the person and then sighed "Yes, I'll be back soon... No It'll be an hour or so... Nita's getting the bus... She'll be fine... just take your tablets and watch television... I'll bring take out... It'll be ok..." Kirsty's voice was shaky as Adam listened to her side of the conversation "I know... I can't help it... Look please don't be like that... No, don't come and get me... Warren I said no... An hour tops I promise." She removed the phone from her ear and with a panicked look in her eyes she hurried passed Adam's hiding place and back towards resus.
Adam watched his worries growing. Something was going on and he needed to find out what. He headed back towards resus and observed Kirsty helping her patient. She really did have a brilliant bedside manner and she was really good at her job despite the fact she had just had what didn't appear to be the most pleasant of phone conversations with her husband she didn't let that effect her work, in fact the only thing that affected her work was her tiredness. He wondered for a minute what tablets her husband was on, there was obviously something going on there, he was obviously ill in some way shape or form.
"Adam! She's crashing!" Kirsty stuck her head around the door and Adam snapped out his trance and hurried forwards. Now wasn't the time to be debating this, patients were the top priority.
He entered resus and set to work.
By the time he left resus, the patient was on the way to orthopaedics she had long gone.
