ENGLISH ROSE

Chapter 3

Anna groaned and put her head under her pillow as her alarm clock woke her at 5.30am. She hated early starts, particularly in the winter as it was so dark in the mornings. She reached over to the night stand and hit the snooze button and switched the lamp on she rolled over and let her eyes adjust to the light, she felt as if she'd not had any sleep at all. It was her own fault for staying up so late, going through her wardrobe looking for something to wear for tonight.

She glanced over at her wardrobe and then it dawned on her she hadn't actually picked out anything in the end. Well it was too late now she didn't have time, her trail of thought was interrupted by her alarm going off it was 5.40am and if she didn't get a move on she was going to miss her train. She shot out bed raced to the bathroom and took a quick shower. There wasn't time to blow dry her hair, so being blessed with having naturally curly hair which she hated, but at the same time it came in handy on mornings like this, she part towel dried it ran some styling moose through it and clipped it up half up and the rest down. She didn't have time to sit and eat breakfast so she did herself a piece of toast and ate it on the way to the subway.

It had snowed quite a bit during the night and the pavements were quite icy. However it didn't stop Dr Dave Malucci from cycling to work. He'd passed Anna on his way in but she hadn't seen him pass her, just as she got to the back entrance of hospital he jumped out behind a parked ambulance and threw an icy cold snowball at her hitting her right in the face.

" Malucci! Why you little…." she fumed reaching down to grab a handful of snow. She certainly wasn't going to give up that easily. She threw one back at him but she missed as he was ducking behind the ambulance. Cleo came to her rescue as she came out the entrance at the end of the night shift and crept up behind Dave with a handful of snow and put it down the back of his neck.

"That'll teach you." she laughed as he squirmed "Don't let him mess with you Anna."

"Thanks Cleo, don't worry I won't." She replied laughing as she headed off inside the hospital to the Doctors lounge.

"Morning Anna." Connie said as she walked in the lounge. "Have a nice afternoon off yesterday?" she asked handing her a cup of coffee.

"Yeah if you can call having a headache nice." she replied putting the cup down on the table and taking her coat and scarf off then hanging them in her locker. They both looked at each other and laughed.

"Well I for one are glad your back. Kerry had me doing all kinds yesterday afternoon, so sorry if your desk looks like a bombs hit it this morning."

" Well there's nothing new there. Thanks for helping out Connie I appreciate it."

The lounge door swung open "Hey Anna sorry I know you've just got in, but I need some X-rays finding for the patient in exam two a.s.a.p." Dr Greene asked.

"Sure Dr Greene. No problem I'll get onto it now." She replied. Coffee would have to wait till later. It was going to be one of those days she thought to herself.

Connie was right the admissions desk did look a mess, a big mess. There were post it notes everywhere, charts not where they should be and to top it off take away boxes left over from the night shift. She searched underneath papers for her pen pot.

"Looking for one of these?" Carter said handing her a pen.

"Thanks Carter, you're a star." she replied

"Can you run off some blood glucose charts that Kerry made when you've got a second? We ran out yesterday afternoon and no one could find the old ones." he asked.

"Yeah I'll make it my next job, I just need to sort some X-rays for Dr Greene first." she replied as she looked at the board and copied down the patients details.

She was about to head off to X-ray department when a drunken patient waiting to be seen came to the desk.

"Hey sweet cheeks. How much longer do I have to wait? When am I going to be seen by a doctor? I can't wait much longer I think I'm going to be…." the man threw up all over Anna's shirt. Malucci had been stood behind her and laughed at her unaware that Kerry Weaver was the other side of the board.

"Dr Mulucci will see you now sir." she said as she walked round the other side it.

He quickly wiped the smirk of his face. "Hi Chief, yeah I was just about to see to him." he replied grabbing a blank chart.

"Yeah sure you were Dave." she snapped back at him. "Hey Anna glad your back."

"Yeah me too." Anna said as she looked down at her shirt "Feels like I never left the place." she added.

"Go change, and I'll look after the phone till you get back."

"Thanks Kerry. I won't be a sec." she replied dashing to the lounge to change.

Luka was sat having a coffee in the lounge as Anna burst in. He looked at her with a bemused look on his face when he saw that she was covered in sick.

"Hey. Looks like your having a good day already." he said finishing off his coffee.

"Yeah you could say that Luka." she smiled as she started routing through her locker trying to find a fresh shirt.

"Dam it." she snapped

"Is everything alright?" he asked getting up and walking over to his locker.

"No. I thought I had a spare shirt in here, but I must have used it and forgot to bring in another spare."

"Here you can borrow my scrub top. It's a bit on the small side for me." he took out of his locker a surgical green top and passed it to her.

"Thanks." she replied and closed her locker.

"Are you still ok for dinner at my place tonight?" he asked as he draped his stethoscope round his neck.

"Yeah I should be." she smiled back.

"Great I'll pick you up at 7 o' clock. Hope you have a better day today than what you did yesterday. I'll see you later." he said as he went out the door leaving her to change.