She approached the desk, "Johnny." She leaned on the counter.
"Yes, my love?" He looked up from his computer screen.
"Name me some symptoms of early sepsis." She asked tapping the thermometer on her palm.
"Um, let's see now, high temperature, feeling chilly, rise in heart rate, increased pace of breathing." He listed, "Why? What's up?"
"Mr Hanssen, the room is a perfectly comfortable temperature and there are no draughts yet he says he's cold. I think I noticed an increase of heart rate from when I left five minutes earlier and when I took his temperature it read 38.5." She held up the thermometer.
He grinned, "Glass and Mercury, old school, nice." He nodded impressed, "So, you think it's early sepsis?" He asked.
"Well, it's hard to be sure, but something's not right." She shook her head.
"Alright, I'll take a look." He got up from his seat and headed for the side room. He held the door open for Tabby, "Hello again, Mr Hanssen. How are we feeling?" He took the chart from its holder.
"I wish people would stop asking me. Fine, I'm fine, alright?" He huffed.
Johnny leaned his elbows on the bar at the bottom of the bed, "Now, Mr Hanssen, I'd like you to be serious with me for the next five minutes. I know you're sick of being told what to do when you already know what to do but please just work with me here, alright. Now, Tabby's approached me with a concern she has, so tell me honestly, how are you feeling?" He spoke quietly and empathetically as he asked the question again.
"I'm feeling fine, just a little cold." He gave in.
"Chilly cold or need more blankets cold?" He opened the charts.
"What's the difference?" Henrik rolled his eyes.
"Well do you feel shivery and needing more heat or is it like you're mind playing tricks?" Johnny shrugged.
"The second one." He sighed.
"Ok, now you're last obs were taken half an hour ago and your heart rate has definitely gone up quite considerably since then." He shut the folder, "I'll do a digital temperature check." He sorted out the equipment and took the reading, "39" He read the result with surprise, "Ok, Mr Hanssen, I won't patronise you, I think you can tell from those symptoms what's wrong."
"Minor sepsis, I'd guess." He sighed.
"I'm afraid so, so I think we would be alright giving you some intravenous broad spectrum antibiotics and not waste time in getting to the infection. If that doesn't work we'll need to look at some other alternatives."
Johnny had just tightened the band around Henrik's arm and was about to start getting a vein up when a hand covered the arm in front of him.
"Actually Nurse Maconie, may you let Miss Rees do this?" Henrik requested.
"Um, are you sure?" Johnny was sceptical.
"I don't believe it's above her skill level."
"Er, Tabby would you be ok with that?" Johnny turned to her.
"Look, the longer we dither, the further Mr Hanssen gets to going into septic shock, so let's just do whatever." She put on some gloves, took the cannula from Johnny and stood next to the bed, "Are you sure about this, Henrik? It's been a while since I've inserted an intravenous drip." She asked making sure.
He lowered his head and looked over the top of his glasses, "I trust you, Tabitha. If I didn't I wouldn't let you treat patients in the first place."
She nodded and took a deep breath, "Ok, flex your hand for me?"
Henrik did as he was told.
Tabby pressed around the crook of his arm, "There's the little bugger." She swiped the area with a piece of cotton with some antibacterial liquid before she brought the cannula to the arm and inserted it perfectly into the vein. She pulled out the needle, "Drip line please." Johnny handed her the needle of the drip and she inserted it into the cannula, "Ok, I think that's in."
Johnny opened the drip, "Yep, that is in. Good work Tabitha." He patted her on the back and left the room.
She smiled as she taped it down with medical tape.
"Well done, I knew you could do it." Henrik congratulated.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." She smiled proudly.
Things went quiet again as Tabby got back on with her work. After while she noticed the tapping of keys was no longer coming from the bed and as she looked up, Henrik had his eyes shut. She took a quick look over his vitals and checked he wasn't dead. She removed his glasses and ran her fingers through his hair caringly before leaning down and kissing his forehead softly. Movement outside the door caught her attention, it was Serena again. Tabby made her way out, but not before giving Hanssen one last look.
She shut the door gently, "He's asleep, you should probably come back later."
"Actually Tabby, I wanted to know if you would like to join me for coffee and have a little chat."
Tabby was taken aback, "Um, sure, I think I need a break from my paperwork."
They sat down in the coffee shop in the hospital.
"I didn't know you wore glasses?" Serena pointed out.
Tabby forgot she still had them on, "Oh!" She took them off, "Yeah, reading glasses, I need them when I'm using a computer for long periods of time. But my optician thinks I might need them for general reading as well." She sighed disappointed.
"Well when you get my age Tabs, you'll start to find it hard to read any damn thing, despite having glasses on or not." She joked making Tabby feel a bit better, "Anyway, you and Hanssen, is there something going on there?" She smiled a 'tell me all the goss' smile.
"What are you talking about?" Tabby sipped her drink hurriedly.
"Well I saw you kissing him on the forehead just now." Serena indulged.
Tabby sighed, placing down her cup, "This is going to sound ridiculous but whenever we're together, alone, I feel that there's something between us, a connection that we don't quite understand yet. Earlier he asked me to insert his IV and when I asked him if he was sure he told me he trusted me. My heart melted but it wasn't just that, it was the way he said it. It was meaningful and warm."
Serena smiled knowingly.
"It sounds like a stupid schoolgirl crush really doesn't it." She chuckled and hung her head.
"Not at all Tabs." She sipped her drink.
Then Tabby's phone rang, she recognised the number, it was Darwin. Like lightening she hit 'answer', "Hello?" She asked panicky, "Johnny, what's wrong?... No, no no no… Please keep him safe." She slowly pulled the phone away from her ear, "They've taken him into theatre."
Serena slowly put down her cup, "Oh, Tabs." She breathed.
"He was unresponsive to the antibiotics." She quickly got up from her chair, "I've gotta get back up there." She legged it to the lift before Serena could say another word.
"Saline please." Jac huffed.
Tabby got onto the intercom, "What happened?" She asked as calmly as she could.
Jac turned to the gallery, "We believe the patch was the cause of the infection, so we're just changing it over to one that's been soaked in saline, and we're going to use a patch of his own tissue and suture it over the artificial one." Jac watched as Tabby breathed deeply to calm herself, "Don't worry, Paper Girl, he's in safe hands. You trust me don't you?"
Tabby pressed the intercom, "Medically." She revealed.
"Then go and get yourself something to eat and we'll be out of here in no time." Jac smiled knowingly insulted.
Tabby dragged herself over to the staff room.
"Ah, Tabby, look what I found." Serena stood by the counter holding up a pack of bourbons.
Tabby suddenly burst into tears.
"Hey, hey, don't worry; he's going to be fine." She brought the girl into her arms and stroked her hair.
Tabby wrapped her arms tightly around Serena's waist. After a few minutes Tabby's sobs died down and she pulled back, gazing up at Serena's caring features, "Thank you." She whispered.
The longer they gazed the warmer they felt. Tabby slowly moved her arms to wrap them around Serena's neck as Serena moved her hands around Tabby's waist. Tabby leaned up and hesitated close to Serena's face. She waited for the consultant to make a move and when she did, their lips met in a surprising yet soft kiss. As they relaxed realising they were both comfortable with it, they went further. Soon their tongues met and danced in the heat of each other's mouths. It didn't take long though for images of Henrik on a hospital bed to appear back into Tabby's mind, and she quickly pulled away.
She put her hand to her mouth, "I-I'm so sorry."
Serena shook her head, "No, Tabby I should be the one apologising, I took advantage of you."
"No, no that was my fault. I think I'd better go." Tabby swiftly left the room.
She wondered over to the desk and sat in one of the chairs and decided to search up images of Dumbo on the internet.
"That stressed?" The Scottish voice spoke from close behind her, "I didn't realise you were a Disney fan." He sat at his own chair.
"I'm not. I remember back in Primary school I was upset because I missed my mum and so my teacher printed off a picture of Dumbo to make me happy and I didn't cry for the rest of the day. Now whenever I feel upset or stressed I just look at pictures of him and I feel fine." She smiled weakly.
"Well, I just went in to see how they're doing in theatre and they were getting ready to close him up so he should be out soon. Is there anything I can get you whilst you're waiting?" Johnny spun his chair around to face her.
"I'm really craving jelly right now to be honest."
"Righty ho, I shall enquire with catering. Anything else?" He got up.
She turned around surprised, "Um, no thanks." She smiled. She watched him give a thumbs up before he left, 'He'd do that for me? Wow.' She felt privileged.
"Tabs, honey." Mo called.
As she turned around they were wheeling Henrik back into the side room.
She pulled the visitor chair closer to him as they locked his bed into place and after they did a few final checks the room went quiet again.
"Anyone order jelly and ice-cream." Johnny came gliding in with a bowl.
"Ice-cream? Oh Johnny, you're a star." She grinned.
"I told them it was for a member of staff so they gave it more." Johnny explained looking please with himself.
He left her to munch away happily on her jelly and ice-cream. She was reading through a book as she came to the end of her food when she heard a groan from the hospital boss.
"Hello again." She smiled looking relieved.
"That smells sweet." He managed.
"Jelly and ice-cream." She held up the near empty bowl for him to see.
He pushed himself up to a more comfortable position.
"Careful, careful." She got up and placed her things down on the seat, "How are you feeling?"
"Same as the last time I came out of surgery." He croaked slightly.
She took his hand again, "So the patch was the source of infection?"
"That seemed to be the logical answer after the antibiotics didn't work." He explained, "Where did you go?" He asked.
"I went for coffee with Serena. You were asleep."
"Ah I see." He understood, she wasn't expected to stay with him constantly, she took things like this rather painfully so any chance she can get to take a break she should take it, "What are you reading?" He motioned his eyes towards the book on the chair.
"Computer Code, it's got information on popular code such as C++, Java Script, HTML and Python, and it explains how they work." She explained enthusiastically.
"Yes, I keep forgetting you have a Masters in IT." He remembered.
"Hang on, you've got something on your…" She licked her thumb and rubbed off the mark on his forehead. She gazed down into his eyes, "Now, I'm going to go shopping for some normal food in a min, I don't think I could stomach this hospital crap, so would you like me to get you anything?" She asked still leaning over him.
"Your eyes are quite something, Tabitha." He whispered.
"Mr Hanssen?" She found the comment quite disconcerting coming from him.
"I'm sorry, Miss Rees, you couldn't possibly buy a Greek salad for me could you?" He glanced around anywhere but at her, clearly he was embarrassed by his comment.
"Of course." She smiled coyly before turning around and grabbing her bag from behind the chair, "I shall see you in a bit then, Henrik." She called opening the door.
"Miss Rees do you have shoes?" It suddenly dawned on him that Tabby wasn't wearing her original clothes, she was in Darwin scrubs and Naylor's cardigan but he hadn't seen her feet.
Tabby lifted her foot, "I has me trusty Crocs." She laughed.
He chuckled and waved her off.