ETWentHome, thank you for the review! I thought it was about time Cal started thinking of Ethan, but you're right that Ethan won't necessarily accept Cal's help. Cal isn't in this chapter, but he will be in the next one.
Becs2202, Cal can be a bit slow sometimes when it comes to doing the right thing for his brother, but hopefully he'll get there this time. Thank you for the review!
Tanith Panic, I'm glad that part made you smile! There's not much to smile about in this story. I can imagine Ethan arranging all his books in some sort of order. Thank you for the review.
Ethan was tired. So, so tired, but he had to keep going. All his patients had been relatively easy to deal with so far and so had their relatives. He'd had some bad news to deliver on a couple of occasions, but although there had been tears, no-one had blamed him. Gradually, Ethan had felt himself beginning to relax back into his job, but now the exhaustion and stress was catching up with him and he wanted nothing more than to go home, make sure Cal was okay, and then sleep.
But the end of his shift was a long way away and now he found himself in the one position he was really hoping to avoid. An emergency patient was heading straight towards him. Ethan felt a moment's panic, but then his professional instincts kicked in and he went to help.
The person on the stretcher was conscious. And angry. "What's wrong with you?" she was screaming at Dixie. "Aren't you listening to me? I'm in pain and I need pain relief!"
"We've given you some pain relief, lovely," said Dixie. She looked up and met Ethan's eyes momentarily. "And I'm sure Dr Hardy will give you some more if you need it."
"He better had give her some more!" said the man who'd followed the stretcher. "Because as far I've seen, you've been nothing but useless. Look at her: can't you see she's in pain? And all this fuss about her pulse. Of course her pulse is high: she's stressed, isn't she?" He looked at Ethan. "Are you going to do something then, or are you just going to stand there?"
Ethan had been telling himself he needed to do something, but his body wouldn't obey. He was trembling so hard, he was sure it must be visible to everyone, and all he wanted to do was turn and run.
Then Zoe appeared beside him. She apologised to the patient, the paramedics and Ethan for taking so long, and quickly took control. "Dr Hardy, could you go on ahead to Resus and check everything's prepared? And please ask Rita to help if she's available."
Ethan knew there was no need. He knew Zoe was just giving him a minute or two to recover himself. On arriving at Resus, he discovered Rita gossiping with some of the other nurses and reminded them that a patient was on her way in. "She's asking for pain relief. I think she's had morphine so maybe we could have some on standby, but I think Dr Hanna wants to examine her first."
He thought he'd done a reasonably good job of sounding normal, but he didn't miss the concern in Rita's eyes. She asked one of the junior nurses to organise the pain relief and went over to Ethan. "Are you okay?" she asked in a low voice.
"Never been better," said Ethan untruthfully.
Rita seemed about to say something else, but at that moment the patient was wheeled in, and Ethan focused on what Zoe was telling him, trying to push all his fears and anxieties out of his mind.
After all, he didn't have to deal with this alone.
"Well done," said Zoe, and smiled warmly at Ethan as she squeezed his arm. "You did well. Now go and get some lunch."
Ethan gave a small smile and went straight out to the car. He knew he hadn't really done well. The patient was now calm, stable and happily doped up with pain relief and Ethan hadn't put a foot wrong, but he also knew that he should have been able to deal with the problem himself. He knew this with certainty because he had dealt with the problem himself. On numerous occasions.
But he didn't even want to think about what might have happened if Zoe hadn't been there.
When he got home, he knocked on Cal's bedroom door, but there was no answer. Ethan's heart thumped as he pushed the door open, but one glance told him the room was empty. He tried the bathroom, which was also empty, then the living room and kitchen, but there was no sign of him. The only other possibility was Ethan's own room, but he didn't think Cal would be in there.
Unless he'd gone looking for the missing beer bottles, of course. They were actually in the boot of Ethan's car, but if Cal had discovered their absence, Ethan's room would be the obvious place to look.
Ethan opened the door stood there for a moment, frowning slightly. Cal wasn't there and there was no obvious sign he had been, but his room looked different in some way he couldn't define. He didn't think it could be anything Cal had done because if Cal had searched his room, he would never have tidied up after himself when he'd finished.
But there was something.
However, the exact nature of that something was unimportant. Ethan needed to find Cal before he did something (else) stupid. He tried phoning him, something which he really should have done before, but Cal didn't answer, though his phone was clearly switched on. Ethan left a garbled message telling him he was really sorry and asking Cal to call him as he was worried about him, but he knew Cal might not even have his phone with him. He was fairly sure it wasn't in the house as he hadn't heard Cal's ringtone, but he could have left it anywhere.
All Ethan could do was go and look for him.
He ran out of the flat, got back into his car and drove to the prison, but there was no sign of Cal and the man on the desk said he hadn't seen him since that morning. Next, Ethan tried all the pubs, these being the obvious place to go when you needed a drink, but Cal wasn't there. His next thought was to check the park benches, but none of them were occupied by Cal, and now time was running out. He should really have been back at work five minutes ago and he hadn't had any lunch.
Ethan wanted to keep looking for Cal. His brother wasn't thinking straight at the moment and God only knew what he would take it into his head to do next. But Cal was an adult and he was really responsible for himself, however little he was capable of looking after himself at the moment. Ethan was responsible for the patients who were waiting at the hospital in varying stages of distress.
He stopped at the off-licence, bought a sandwich which he wolfed down far too quickly, and returned to the hospital.