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Chapter 4

Eddi spent the remainder of that morning avoiding Luc by sticking closely to Sacha and his patients. She did her absolute best not to make eye contact with him, nor look flustered by his presence.

"Just act professional" she told herself "like you have been for the past week."

By lunch time, the pair still hadn't sat down to sort out their problems. In Luc's defence, this wasn't from lack of trying. Every time he approached the nurses' station, Eddi would get up and see to a patient. The one conversation they had managed, had been concerning patient notes, and Eddi had deadpanned throughout. Luc realised that it was he, the socially inept one, who would have to get the ball rolling. The question was, how?

"Nurse Mckee, could you get this puss down to the lab for me please?" Nice one Hemingway- what woman isn't wooed by puss in a test tube? He could have hit himself.

"Of course" was the extent of her reply.

"Oh, and while you're heading that way, could you take Mr Daniels up to Keller?" he asked, well aware that this was not her job, but the job of a porter.

"Okay" was all he got from her. Okay? What had happened to her? The Eddi he knew would never have allowed herself to be pushed around by a doctor, least of all by him. He wished he knew how to get her back to her former self. He had to talk to her.

"Oh and one more thing Nurse Mckee. Meet me in the staff room in fifteen minutes. You'll be on lunch, correct?"

Eddi opened her mouth to say something, but quickly shut it again. She gave Luc a simple nod before continuing with her duties. She knew she'd better meet Luc and talk to him; he'd corner her eventually anyway.

To Luc, the following fifteen minutes seemed to last for an eternity, he was so anxious to speak to Eddi. He couldn't get his mind to focus properly and he found his eyes continuously glancing up at the clock on the wall. At last his lunch break had arrived, and he almost sprinted to the staff room, hoping she would show. He was relieved to find her sitting in the corner, absent- mindedly starring out of the window.

"Eddi" he stuttered. She looked up, her face giving nothing away. It was at this point that Luc realised he had nothing to say to her. He stood, awkwardly hopping from one foot to the other as he racked his brains for how to begin.

"You look good" he said honestly. It was true, she looked exhausted and had bags under her eyes, but to Luc she couldn't look more perfect if she tried.

"You don't" she replied simply, lying through her teeth. Luc couldn't help but smile, if her wit was back, then that was half the battle won. Or so he thought.

"Listen, I owe you an apology and a big one and I…" he was cut off.

"No, you don't. You don't owe me anything. It's fine"

The phrase 'It's fine' kept running through Luc's mind. It most certainly was not fine and that was because of him. He was lost in his trail of thoughts and didn't notice that Eddi had exited the room for several moments. He was getting nowhere and he didn't think he ever would. He knew Eddi was stubborn, she was the only person he'd ever met more stubborn than himself, but he didn't think she was this stubborn. Grimacing, Luc began to accept the fact that through his departure, he'd lost her and this time he felt there was no chance of getting her back.

Eddi took a deep breath and almost ran back to the ward, knowing that hearing Luc's explanations would only send her back to him, and she really couldn't risk that, in case she lost him again. She wished she felt angrier- shouting was one thing she knew she could do well. She decided she would have to work even harder to avoid him all afternoon. However, Eddi's job was made easier than expected as Luc was nowhere to be seen…