Lofty lunged forwards and caught Ethan as he collapsed, carefully lowering him onto the ground. The familiar sound of high heels clicking against the plastic floor began approaching- that meant that either Connie or Zoe was walking towards them.
Lofty held his breath as he waited or the person to turn the corner into the corridor, praying that it would be Zoe.
"What on earth happened here?" Connie's voice echoed through the corridor as she caught sight of Ethan lying on the floor with Lofty kneeling over him.
"Oh, er, Mrs Beauchamp- he just collapsed, something must be wrong with him," Lofty explained awkwardly.
"Yes, I can see that," Connie replied dryly as she came over and knelt by Ethan's side, "Okay, Ethan, it's Mrs Beauchamp, can you hear me?"
She didn't receive a reply so she proceeded to take a torch out and check his eyes, before muttering, "Pupils blown, heartrate slowing slightly..."
"Shall I get a trolley and move him to cubicles?" Lofty asked, straightening up.
Connie shook her head, "We're still on black alert- there's no room in cubicles, and all the trolleys are being used."
"We can't just leave him here," Lofty remarked.
"Yes, I'm very well aware of that fact," Connie said exasperatedly, "Take him to the staff room and get someone to treat him there. Make it quick- we really can't afford to be one doctor down right now."
Lofty nodded and hastily picked up Ethan bridal style- he knew how ridiculous he must look, but there was no other option. At least Ethan was surprisingly light. Lofty tried to ignore the odd stares from his coworkers and the patients as he hurried past reception.
"Alright there, superman?" Max joked, before noticing who it was that Lofty was carrying and frowned, "Is that Ethan?"
"Long story." Lofty replied simply.
He burst into the staffroom and was relieved to find Lily sitting there reading some complicated dermatology book.
"Ethan? What on earth happened?" She asked, jumping up and rushing over to help Lofty to lower him onto the couch.
"I don't really know, I found him in the toilets, and then he just fainted," Lofty explained, "Mrs Beauchamp said that his pupils are blown and he has a slightly slowing heartrate."
Lily nodded, before frowning as she suddenly noticed a small bead of blood on Ethan's forearm, almost as if he had been pricked by a needle.
"Look at this-" She began, but abruptly stopped talking when she looked up to realise that Lofty had gone over to the bin and seemed to be rummaging around in it. After a few seconds, he stood up holding what looked to be a used syringe.
"What's this doing here?" Lofty asked, frowning.
Lily's mouth opened slightly in surprise as she quickly made the connection between the prick in Ethan's arm and the syringe in the bin.
"We need to have the contents of the syringe identified right away. Look, someone injected something into him with that syringe, we have to find out what it was." Lily said, pointing out the blood on Ethan's arm to Lofty.
Lofty frowned, "How do you know that he didn't inject himself?"
Lily glared at him, "How stupid are you? First off, Ethan would never inject himself with something that would cause him to become this unwell, and secondly, if he did, he would know better than to put the needle in a normal bin like that!"
"Okay, okay, sorry!" Lofty said, raising his hands in surrender, "I'll go and get the syringe checked."
In less than an hour, Lofty was back with the results and Lily had set up an IV drip for Ethan in the staffroom.
"Beta-blockers."
Lily looked up sharply, "What?"
"Beta-blockers," Lofty repeated, "In the syringe."
"Who... Who on earth would inject Ethan with beta-blockers? He... He could have died if they had given him a big enough dose!" Lily said, growing more and more flustered.
Lofty shrugged, "I don't know, but it seems to me like someone's out to get him."
"What do you mean?" Lily said, scowling.
"Well, just last week someone stabbed him, and now someone's injected him with a substance that could kill him? I don't know, it just seems like too much of a coincidence." Lofty said.
Lily sighed, "I'll go and tell Zoe about it. My shift is starting now, look after Ethan."
She managed to track down Zoe in cubicles, and hastily explained everything to her.
"Are you sure about this?" Zoe asked Lily, frowning.
Lily gave a slight nod.
"Alright, we're far too overloaded with patients to take any action right now, but I'll try to send someone to keep an eye on him." Zoe said.
She looked around, and immediately caught sight of Dylan who seemed to have overheard her and was now trying to silently escape, edging away from Zoe whilst trying to look casual about it.
"Ah, Dylan, perfect! You'll keep an eye on Ethan, won't you?" Zoe said, cornering him.
"Oh, uh, of course, but the thing is..." Dylan paused to think of an excuse, "Um, I was just about to check up on one of my patients,"
"Oh, that's fine, I'll do that for you, what's their name?" Zoe said, raising an eyebrow.
"Um, you know what, I'm sure they're fine," Dylan huffed, before grudgingly going off to the staff room.
"Where's Cal? He should know about this," Zoe said, and as if on cue, Cal emerged from a nearby cubicle.
"Ah, Cal, a word?" Zoe said, quickly pulling him aside as Lily returned to her patients.
"What is it?" Cal asked, confused.
"It's Ethan, we think that someone injected him with beta-blockers when he was asleep in the staff room. He should be fine, but he passed out earlier and hasn't woken up yet." Zoe explained gently.
A flash of surprise and worry passed over Cal's face, but he soon managed to supress it with a scowl.
"I don't care." He growled, before storming off without another word.
