Patrick dialled the number again hurriedly, hoping no one would miss him while he tried to reach Rachel. He hated leaving it like this, he hated thinking about her going back to Greg. If he could just get to answer the phone…

It switched to voice mail again and he finally plucked up the courage to leave a message. "Rachel, it's me," he said. "Look, I'm sorry about this morning. Call it commitment phobia or just me being a man. But I do, Rachel. I love you…" He put the phone down. He'd never meant to fall for Rachel James like this. It was only supposed to be a quick fling. She was married for God's sake! But now she wanted to end it with him, and go back to her marriage, something they'd both agreed was always going to happen, he suddenly couldn't handle it. What the hell was happening to him?

He headed back down to the staff room, hoping that no one would catch him before he made yet another cup of coffee. As he opened the door he inwardly groaned (he'd stopped outwardly groaning since the day he'd had to pay a pound every time he irritated or upset someone). There was that blonde nurse, Lucy Hart. Again. He'd hoped he'd have some time alone for a minute or so, but she was obviously on her break. The worse luck for him.

She was making tea. The kettle had just boiled. Patrick grabbed a mug and chucked some coffee in before putting it on the work top underneath her nose.

Lucy looked at the cup before turning to look at him, and Patrick could have sworn he saw a look of disgust on her face.

"What did your last slave die of?" she asked, fishing the tea bag out her own mug.

Patrick was momentarily nonplussed. Normally he was the one being rude to other people not the other way around! He frowned. "I just thought… seeing as the kettle's in your hand…" he said, before regaining his composure. "It wouldn't kill you to chuck some water over it, would it?"

Lucy poured water over hurriedly, spilling some on her hand. She yelped involuntarily.

"I didn't mean you to chuck it over yourself!" Patrick exclaimed, instinctively reaching out to look at her scalded hand. Lucy pulled away. "Let me have a look!"

"It's fine, it doesn't need looking at!" Lucy glared at him, her hand red and already blistering. "It's just fine!" She stalked towards the door.

"What about your tea?" Patrick asked.

"I've gone off the idea," Lucy retorted, shutting the door behind her.

"Skiving off to attend weddings!" Jack Vincent, the receptionist, shook his head in disbelief. "Would never have believed it of you, Duffy!"

"Jack!" Charlie warned him.

"I was only saying!" Jack protested. He looked to Lucy for some support. "What do you think?"

"About what?" Lucy looked up from the notes she was filling in. Charlie couldn't help thinking that all he ever saw Lucy do was fill in case notes or treat patients. Which was obviously her job, but he was used to young nurses loitering around reception. And it wasn't that he condoned that sort of behaviour, but… it seemed highly unnatural to him.

Jack, mate, shut up," Tony Vincent, his older brother and a security guard for the ward, warned him. "Give Josh and Collette all the best from me, yeah?" he added to Duffy.

Lucy vaguely remembered something about that, and frowned. "What? I thought they got married yesterday?"

Jack laughed. "God you're behind! What happened was…"

"Things didn't go according to plan," Charlie filled in for him. "So they're doing it today. And Duffy, you better get up there."

Lucy felt strangely removed as they all made Duffy vow to give the couple a thousand different messages. She had nothing to say really. Collette was nice enough and so was Josh, but she didn't really know them, not well enough to say anything special anyway. It was the first time she'd felt so distant from the rest of the staff. It was the first time she'd cared.