Tato Potato, thank you for your review. I'm pleased you like the scene between Sophie and Lily. I like writing medical scenes.
CasualtyFanForever81, thank you for your review - I'm really happy you enjoyed the chapter.
ETWentHome, Cal is definitely cut up! And possibly on a knife-edge too. Thank you for your review.
Tanith Panic, I think Lily is very shy socially but much more confident professionally - so she overdoes the professional side. Thank you for your review!
"Kenneth's bloods really should be back by now," said Lily. "Do you mind if I go and see what's happening, Miss Matthews?"
Sophie had taken the bloods herself - and done a very competent job of it. Lily didn't like the idea of complimenting Sophie in front of the patient, but she planned on doing so later. She'd done an excellent job with taking Kenny's blood pressure too and Lily was favourably impressed.
Sophie smiled. "That's fine, Dr Chao. I'm sure I can manage."
"I don't doubt it," Lily assured her. "I'll be back as quickly as I can."
She tried to phone the lab, but all she got was an answerphone message. Lily sighed: they really ought to have someone in charge of the phone at all times. It worried her sometimes how incompetent hospital workers could be. She had been told her standards were unrealistically high, but she wouldn't have thought that answering the phone was difficult.
She stayed where she was for a moment, wondering if she should go back to Sophie and the patient. She came to the conclusion this was unnecessary. Sophie would be fine.
Lily looked at the clock. She would wait a few minutes and then phone again.
Cal didn't enjoy working with a bandaged finger. It was embarrassing. Everyone noticed it. Between the sympathy, the amusement and the concern that he might not be fit to do his job, he was starting to get very annoyed . Even the ones who were too polite to say anything gave his finger a good stare and it was perfectly obvious that most of them were trying not to smile.
He discharged one comedian and stood outside cubicles for a moment, wondering if he could justify taking a break. It was too early, but he felt like he needed one and both his head and his finger were hurting now.
He'd just about persuaded himself that taking a break would be acceptable when he heard a sound from one of the cubicles. Two sounds, in fact. A yelp and a thump. Cal quickly went over and pulled the curtain aside.
To his horror, Sophie was lying on the floor with a male patient on top of her. Cal grabbed hold of him, dragged him to his feet and shoved him out into the cubicle. "Security!" he shouted, and then knelt down beside Sophie. "It's okay, baby. It's okay. I've got rid of him."
"Cal… no…" Sophie said between attempts to breathe.
"Sh, don't try to talk," said Cal. "It's okay. I'm right here." He took her hand in his and stroked it. "You're safe now. It's going to be okay."
"No… he didn't…"
Cal placed his finger against her lips. He felt a jolt of electricity and his hand shook slightly. "Don't talk now, Sophie. Just try to breathe. It's okay, beautiful."
"But…" gasped Sophie. Her eyes filled with tears. Whether it was from shock, the effort of speaking or pain, Cal couldn't say.
"You can talk later, baby," he said softly. "I've got you. Nothing else bad is going to happen to you. Something bad might happen to Lily because she shouldn't have left you alone with him, but none of this is your fault. Okay?"
"No… Cal, listen…"
"Sophie, if you say one more word, I'm going to kiss you!" said Cal. "You don't have to worry about talking now. Just breathe and try not to panic. You're completely safe."
Sophie tried to sit up.
"No, don't sit up either," said Cal. "You might have injured your back. I'll check you over once we've got your breathing sorted. It's okay."
"Dr Knight," said a voice from behind him. "I assume you have an explanation of why you just threw an unconscious patient out into the corridor and started pawing our student doctor?"
Cal kept hold of Sophie's hand as he turned to Connie. "Mrs Beauchamp, I'd like to report that patient for sexual assault," he said, his voice shaking. "He jumped on top of Sophie and pushed her over."
There was a gasp from Sophie, but she caught Cal's eye and thought better of speaking.
In the circumstances, Cal couldn't even feel disappointed. The more he thought about it, the more upset he felt. "I'm so sorry, baby. I'm so sorry this happened to you."
"Sophie." Connie knelt down on Sophie's other side and spoke with the gentle voice she only ever used for patients, and even then only occasionally. "It's going to be all right. Whatever happened, we'll get to the bottom of this and take the correct action. Can you tell me what happened in your own words?"
Sophie opened her mouth, then looked at Cal and shut it again.
"Um, I might have told her I'd kiss her if she tried speaking," said Cal. "I didn't think it was a good idea for her to speak till she'd got her breath back."
"So you threatened to do the exact same thing as Sophie's assailant has allegedly – in your opinion – done," said Connie. "Perhaps you could explain your logic to me later, Dr Knight."
Cal was shocked. "No! It wasn't like that at all. I wouldn't actually have kissed her."
"Really?" said Connie. "Forgive me if your reputation has preceded you. Sophie, can you tell me what happened, please?"
Sophie was breathing more easily now, though her voice was still soft and breathy. "He wanted to go to the loo. I said I'd show him the way. But he fainted. I tried to catch him. But he was so heavy, he pushed me over."
"Well done," said Connie gently. "That's all we need to know." Her voice changed as she turned back to Cal. "You see, Dr Knight? There's a perfectly innocent explanation. Now I very much hope for your sake that you haven't caused that young man a serious injury."
Cal was the one who felt slightly faint now. "I'm sorry, Mrs Beauchamp. I wasn't thinking straight. I just panicked. I thought he'd hurt Sophie."
"We don't pay you to panic - and thinking is exactly what we require in all situations," said Connie. "Being a knight in shining armour isn't about rushing in to rescue people. It's about doing the right thing. You clearly didn't."
Cal looked miserably at the floor, unable to meet her stern gaze.
"It's not your fault, Cal," said Sophie. "Thank you for coming to help me. I couldn't breathe."
Cal tried to smile. "Any time."
Sophie looked at Connie. "Can I sit up? I'm sure I'd breathe better… if I sat up."
"You probably would, but I need to check you over first," said Connie. "Are you in pain anywhere?"
"I think... my diaphragm is in spasm," said Sophie.
Connie smiled. "An excellent diagnosis, but I am asking about pain. Have you hurt your back or your head?"
"I don't think so," said Sophie. "I'm not aware of any pain. I didn't twist my body… as I fell."
Connie looked over Cal's shoulder. "Dr Knight, it looks like the patient is awake. I suggest you go and apologise."
"Okay." Cal squeezed Sophie's hand. "Would you like me to find Ethan?" He looked quickly at Connie. "After I've apologised, I mean."
Sophie shook her head firmly. "No, thank you. I don't want to worry him."
"Okay," said Cal a bit doubtfully. "I'll see you later. I'm sorry for getting everything wrong as usual, but I'm glad you're okay."
Lily was almost feeling happy as she returned with the blood results. Not that she was in any way happy about the patient's condition, but it marked another success for Sophie. She walked down the corridor towards her cubicle – only to stop.
Her patient wasn't in the cubicle. He was lying in the middle of the floor, being checked over by Rita and a very red-faced Cal.
"Dr Knight, what happened?" she demanded sharply.
"The patient fainted on top of Sophie," said Rita. "Our resident knight in shining armour thought he was attacking her and decided to throw the patient out of the cubicle. Literally."
Lily gave Cal an exasperated look, but her main concern was Kenny. "Is he all right?"
Cal looked even more awkward. "He hit his head so we're sending him for a scan, but there's a twenty-minute wait so we're going to get him into a cubicle first."
"What about Sophie? Is she all right?"
"I think she's just winded," said Cal. "Mrs Beauchamp is checking her over for spinal injury. She said her head and her back weren't hurting, but what if she's hurt and she doesn't realise it?"
Lily was surprised to feel a stab of sympathy. Cal had got everything wrong, as happened far too often in Lily's opinion, but she knew he'd only been trying to protect Sophie from what had looked like serious danger. As she was suffering from solar plexus syndrome, Sophie would have been struggling to speak and unable to explain what had really happened, leaving Cal to draw his own conclusions. "She's in very good hands, Cal. Even if Sophie doesn't know she's hurt – which I'm sure she would– Mrs Beauchamp will know. Try not to worry."
Cal looked down at Kenny. "I hope he's okay too."
"Yes, you do have more reason to worry where the patient is concerned," Lily couldn't help saying.
Rita looked up as a trolley arrived. "Okay, Cal. We can take it from here."
Cal nodded and hurried quickly off.
Lily watched him go. She would have hoped that Cal would be over Sophie by now. It seemed he wasn't.
