Kit walked into the hospital followed by Trixie and Bessie. Both had asked to join him after they had been given the news to expect the sad outcome that their life long friend might not survive the day. There was only an hour and a half more to go until her machine was switched off and all said silent prayers for the friend. They didn't want her to die but they also didn't want her to suffer should she be pronounced brain dead. If that happened everyone had agreed that it would be cruel to keep her alive, lost in their wishes, hopes and fears they hadn't realised that they'd made it to the room.
Doctor Malone had asked Kathleen to take enough chairs for anyone that might be coming from the staffroom to be set up in Robyn's room should anyone wish to remain while the machine was turned off. Kit noticed that Sportacus and Robbie had hardly moved since he'd left them the previous night, they were sat in the same chairs and the chairs were in the same places. The melancholy silence was only broken by the scattered beeps from the machines monitoring Robyn.
With tears brimming in her eyes Bessie walked further into the room and hugged Robbie and then Sportacus. She took a seat beside the latter man and held one of his hands with both of hers trying to offer him some strength for the time ahead. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Trixie taking up a chair and moving it over to sit in between Robbie and Kit. No one spoke for some time, there was nothing to say.
Noticing that Robbie and Sportacus had been joined by three other people Kathleen gave them a few moments before stepping into the room. No one acknowledged her presence and not wanting to disturb them she waited patiently. Eventually Kit turned round and the rest followed suit, they'd all noticed her.
"I was wondering if I could get you anything. If you don't want anything right now the buzzer's there for you to use or I can come back later. It's entirely up to you." Kathleen said.
"If you could can you pop a kettle on for us? We could all do with a brew." Kit asked smiling slightly.
Kathleen nodded and headed for the staffroom. She unlocked the door and walked inside. Looking around she couldn't believe that just two days ago the room had been a complete and utter mess. It had been so untidy that had anyone not known of the attack on Doctor Cole they would have thought a bomb had hit it. The clean up crew had been extremely efficient in the repairs.
Walking over to the kitchenette Kathleen pulled out some mugs from the cupboard and placed them on a tray. She poured some sugar into a small dish and on a plate laid out some tea bags and biscuits. Adding a coffee jar to the tray she put the kettle on and boiled the water. While she was doing this she heard the door open and turned around to see Ellen walking in.
"Hello Ellen. How did the date go last night?" Kathleen asked.
Ellen looked at Kathleen and smiled, "It didn't I'm afraid. Sportacus didn't want to leave his niece and on top of that a friend of mine passed away suddenly. Neither of us was in the right mood to go out so we decided to leave it for another time."
"Oh I'm sorry. Were they a close friend of yours?"
"Not very. We hadn't known each other long but you know how hard friends are to find."
"Don't I just. I better get this water poured, where's that teapot?"
"I think it was moved to the middle cupboard third shelf down."
Kathleen nodded and opened up the middle cupboard. The teapot was where Elle had said and she took it out. Putting it on the tray she took the lid off and poured the freshly boiled water into it. Popping the lid back on the teapot she picked up the tray and walked over to the door. Ellen opened it for her and she walked out of the room. She didn't notice the envelope that Ellen had surreptitiously slid under the plate with the biscuits on.
With minimal trouble Kathleen arrived back at Robyn's room, "Room service." She said cheerfully trying to lighten everyone's spirits.
"Ah Pierre, put the tray on the table in the lounge. We'll have tea in the conservatory this afternoon." Kit joked doing his bit.
"Yes sir. May I ask what sir's last slave died of?"
"He died from want of breath. Give us the tray, we'll let you get away before you get in trouble again Kat."
"Ok. If you need anything you know how to call me. I'll be assisting Doctor Malone so you'll see me later."
Everyone nodded and Kathleen left the room. Despite the fact that she was a senior nurse she had been reprimanded for spending too much time doing minor tasks like making tea for relatives or talking to relatives. The truth was she saw it as part of her job and as most of the patients in this side of the neurosurgery department were in comas there wasn't much more she could do than talk to relatives and make sure they were ok.
Even though she was supposed to stay strong for the relatives of patients that were unlikely to survive and wasn't supposed to get emotionally involved with anyone in her care she had gotten attached to Robyn. When the girl had come in a short time after the New Year she'd fallen to talking with her and they had become friends. She didn't know whether it was Robyn's naturally open-minded and easy going nature or the fact that she was just very easy to talk to she didn't know but they'd gotten on well.
It had been sad for her to learn that Robyn had deteriorated so badly that the likelihood was that she wouldn't recover. Doctor Cole had admitted that he had no idea of the cause for Robyn's deterioration. The operation had gone as planned with no set backs and from a variety of tests had shown there was nothing wrong with her that could be causing this kind of problem. For someone like Doctor Cole to say they were stumped wasn't a good thing. Doctor Malone had been unable to find a reason either and had been purely baffled by the gun shot wound on Robyn's shoulder.
After Kathleen had left the room silence had been resumed. Once again no one felt a need to speak. There would come a time for words but there was fear that those words would be goodbyes to the girl everyone in the room had come to see. They were sure that the people yet to come wouldn't have much to say either. It was a dire situation which had left everyone on the point of high emotion.
Remembering the tray that he'd placed on the locker beside Robyn's bed Kit got up and poured drinks for everyone. He handed the plate of biscuits round and it was given back to him he handed out the drinks. After serving everyone he served himself and sat back down with his mug in his hand. He watched Trixie take a sip of her drink and pulling back quickly. She explained that drink had been a little too hot.
Kit smiled slightly and remembered a joke Robyn had told him once, "There were two monkeys sitting in a bar. One monkey says, 'ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh' and the other monkey says, 'well put some cold water in it then'."
There was a mixed reaction to the joke. Some people flinched while others chuckled, no one could disagree that their moods had been lifted slightly by the joke. It was going to be a long hour and everyone tried their best to keep going by reminiscing on old times.