"You're a fucking pervert!" the man screamed, punching Jeff hard in the stomach.
Luke stood there horrified for a moment before swinging into action. He clamped his hand hard down on the mans shoulder and yanked it hard backwards, the man not expecting the action stumbled backwards momentarily losing his hold on Jeff. Luke taking his opportunity grabbed the mans arm this time and pulled backwards sharply, the man stumbled again losing his hold completely on Jeff and was turned to face Luke. Luke then raised up his fist and hit the man with a solid right hook, he was unconscious before he hit the ground.
"Are you alright?" Luke asked, turning to Jeff concern in his eyes, ignoring the man lying on the floor. Jeff looked from Luke to the man and then back again.
"Yeah," Jeff replied, obviously very shaken up.
"Come with me," Luke told him walking slowly up the corridor, Jeff made no move to follow him, his eyes fixed on the unconscious man. "Come on," Luke encouraged, gently placing an arm around Jeff's shoulders and leading him away down the corridor to his office.
Ken and Lizzie watched them leave, they'd seen the entire exchange between them. The man's scream had reached reception and panicked a few people. Ken and Lizzie looked at each other and exchanged a glance. The rumours had to be true, there was definitely no other explanation now.
An hour later Luke walked into reception absolutely knackered. He'd just finished an interview with the police in which he'd had to defend his every action in attacking that man. It turned out that that man was Mr Bellows, his wife was a patient of Jeff's. Apparently Mrs Bellows wasn't all there and had told her husband that Jeff had acted inappropriately towards her, what with the Samantha fiasco he'd believed it in an instant.
Sighing Luke was about to enter the area behind reception, he'd just been in the staff kitchen to find out, much to his annoyance, that they were out of coffee. He paused just outside the door, he'd just heard Lizzy mention his name, he knew that nothing good could come out of eavesdropping but he found himself doing it anyway.
"So this whole Mr Bellows thing proves it," Lizzy stated.
"I don't know," Meryl voiced. She knew that what Lizzy was saying made perfect sense however if it got out, no scratch that it already had got out. It still wasn't good to gossip about it though, it could ruin a perfectly decent doctor's reputation.
"You don't know. How can you not know?" Stella asked incredulously. Through the crack in the door Luke could see her shaking her head in disbelief. "He's got every nurse in this hospital practically throwing themselves at him. He defends Dr Goodwin without knowing the first thing about the situation. There can be no other explanation. He's got to be gay." Luke covered his face with his hands. Matron who had been going to Mr Middleditch's office saw him there, shaking slightly with repressed emotion.
"Are you alright doctor?" she called down the corridor. Rearranging his expression so he wouldn't convey any sign that something was amiss Luke turned to Matron.
"I'm fine, it's been a long day. I'm just off home." Matron nodded, not buying his story in an instant but certain that she would get to the bottom of it before Monday.