Gliding through the hustle and bustle of the emergency department reception area like an oil slick through water Doctor Rory Malone walked into the doctor's lounge and clocked on to his shift. Lifting his wrist to look at his freshly wound Rolex watch a smile touched his chiselled lips when he noticed he was dead on time, nothing unusual there. Not one to look a mess for his patients whatever the day brought he sauntered over the mirror and checked his appearance. A frown knotted his thin brows when he saw that several hairs had moved themselves onto his forehead after being combed back and summarily dealt with them. Pulling his comb from his pocket he swept back the rogue hairs and when they didn't resume their position on his forehead he replaced it.

"Hello Gable. Did you have a nice holiday?" Doctor Malone purred in his silky voice when he heard the door open and saw who it permitted in the mirror.

"Well, well, well if it isn't Rory Malone, as I live and breathe." Gable replied looking rather surprised. "I thought you were in England. Back home in Oxford practicing for the NHS."

"For one thing it wasn't Oxford it was Cambridge, another thing is that I was working in a private hospital."

"Ah. What brings you back here then?"

Doctor Malone turned to face Gable, "I heard that Doctor Cole has been taken ill and offered to come in. Unlike most of you other doctors I have experience in neurosurgery."

"I'll tell you now; you picked the wrong time to come back. There's a young lady whose life support machine gets turned off today. Between you and me she's not expected to recover. The DNR forms are going to be pulled out they say. You're the one that has to get them signed."

"Do not resuscitate forms, whatever for?"

"In case she doesn't wake up, none of the readings have been particularly promising on her monitors. She's a goner."

"Let me guess, the family don't know and the department has been spoon feeding them false hope and it's me who has to clean up the mess."

Gable nodded, "Like I said, you picked the wrong time to come back. Good luck."

Shaking his head Doctor Malone left the room. He knew that there had been a good reason why he'd returned to England after practising medicine here for several years. As always the hospital had been able to find a way to let him down, sometimes he'd wished he'd accepted their offer of a place on the board. Life would have been a lot easier if he had done.

Not one to think too long or hard on the past Doctor Malone went to see his first patient. Sauntering past a crowd of people waiting for the lifts up to the wards he took the stairs. It was no use being a doctor if he couldn't set a good example to people. Having been in the neurosurgery department before he knew it was six floors up, apprehension tugged at his conscience when he thought of what or how he'd tell the girl's family that they wouldn't be able to treat her any further if she deteriorated. He cursed the person who had invented DNR forms and the ones who had thought it a good idea to lie to the very people he had to see.

Making it to the sixth floor in no time he opened the door and stepped out of the stairwell. Looking around the ward briefly he noticed that it had hardly changed at all since he'd been here last. The same pictures hung in the same places on the same walls. None of the seats which had been bolted to the walls and floors to allow relatives of patients to sit outside the rooms had been removed. The sign pointing to the stairwell hadn't been corrected after it had been recognised that someone had misspelled stairwell. It seemed to him that things never changed.

Walking down the corridor he noticed that a lot of the staff had changed, there were only very few nurses he recognised out of the plethora of nurses hovering about doing their duties. When he got the nurses' station he introduced himself and was handed his list of patients for that area. Skimming over the list briefly he noticed saw that right at the top of the list was the girl he'd been told about.

"Nurse…Kathleen, can I ask you to give me a brief idea of my patients, who they are and such?" Doctor Malone asked not wanting to be unprepared.

Kathleen nodded, "Of course. I can give you a guided tour if you like; Robyn's first on your list isn't she?"

"Miss Rotten?"

"That's her. She's a very nice girl, it's unfortunate that she's still in her coma but her family are nice people too."

"Let's get on and meet them then."

Kathleen nodded again and walked in the direction of Robyn's room with Doctor Malone following behind. She didn't see the almost pessimistic expression on his face nor did she notice that he hung back deliberately as if trying to delay his arrival at the room. When she reached the door she turned back and motioned for him to enter which he did so. She followed in behind him and closed the door.

"Mr Rotten, Mr Sportacus this is Doctor Malone. He's taking over from Doctor Cole." Kathleen introduced.

Robbie stood up and shook hands with the doctor, "How is Doctor Cole?"

"I should think he's well. I haven't yet seen him but I will make a point to see him and give him your regards if you have any."

"Thank you very much. I better let you see to Robyn."

Doctor Malone smiled and walked over to Robyn's bedside. Before he started to examine her his attention was drawn to a small red spot on her gown. Leaning in for a closer look he saw that it appeared to be above her right shoulder and was in fact a spot of blood. Curious, he asked Kathleen to lean Robyn forwards slightly for him to undo the gown so he could pull it away enough at the front to see where the blood might have come from. Kathleen did as she was asked and he slipped the gown down at the front.

Noticing that he had an audience he spoke to them without taking his eyes from Robyn's shoulder, "Tell me Mr Rotten, has your daughter been shot recently?"

"Shot!"

"Yes. There's a bullet wound here on her shoulder. It looks to be a fairly recent one, it's scarred over slightly but this happened I'd say within the last fortnight."

Sportacus shook his head, "That's impossible. Robyn's been here for six weeks and she's not been left alone for more than five minutes at a time. No one could have shot her without someone knowing."

"Strange, very strange." Doctor Malone whispered and then turned around to look at Robbie and Sportacus, "If I could gentlemen I'd like to ask you to sit down."

"Why?"

"When I have completed my rounds which will be in the next hours I'll be coming back here. As you know I'll be switching off Robyn's life support machine. It would be advisable for you to call in any friends that might wish to see her and family if there are any additional relatives."

"What are you trying to say?"

Doctor Malone looked away as he delivered the bad news, "There is a chance that Robyn will not be able to live without the machine. If that is the case I must inform you that we will be able to do no more for her. I'm afraid that resuscitating her will be beyond our means."

Stunned silence filled the room. Neither Robbie nor Sportacus could say a word. Both were ripped to shreds by the news that Robyn might not survive her machine being turned off.

Neither of them wanted to say goodbye.