"You alright, Charlie?" Dillon asked at the end of the shift that day. He'd never seen Charlie look so irritated about something, not even bed shortages or bureaucratic nonsense.
"I'm fine." Charlie was about to walk away when he turned back to Dillon. Dillon Cahill was an intelligent guy; he was sensitive and quiet, but kept his ear to the ground. Maybe he'd know something about the mysterious Lucy Hart. "Dillon, what do you know about Lucy?"
"Not a lot. She's a good nurse, hard worker. But she keeps herself to herself. Bit short-tempered, but alright. Why? Is there a problem?"
Charlie sighed. "No, not really. I mean… I've got this feeling. Something's not right. I was hoping you could shed some light on the subject. Do you know anything about her and Patrick?"
"Patrick?" Dillon fought the urge to yelp. "Erm, no. Nothing. Is there anything to know?"
"Probably not." Charlie really had to let this one go. "Thanks Dillon. Go on, go home and enjoy yourself."
Dillon laughed. "Not much hope of that, I'm doing a night shift tonight. Samaritans," he added quietly before Charlie could reprimand him for moonlighting. "And it's my day off tomorrow."
"I wasn't going to say a word." Charlie smiled. "Night." He picked a stack of paperwork up off his desk. Was this all really necessary, he wondered, not for the first time.
"Charlie! Good, you haven't gone home yet," Jan Goddard, the Chief Executive and his on-off girlfriend, said enthusiastically as she caught up with him. "Listen, I've been sent some information and I thought you might be interested in it…"
"Team building?" Anna Paul exclaimed, looking at the noticeboard.
"I thought that went out in the nineties!" Jack scoffed.
"Duffy, you can't be serious!" Lara rolled her eyes. "Send a group of us to roll around some woods somewhere in the name of togetherness? How is that a good idea?"
"I know, I know." Duffy nodded wearily. Trust Charlie to go away on holiday to Canada and leave her to deal with this mess. "It wasn't my idea, believe me. It was…"
"A management initiative," Dillon completed the sentence for her, without a hint of irony. "Of course. So… what exactly is it?"
"More importantly, which poor souls are you going to make do it?" Collette Griffiths asked.
"Yeah!" Lara nodded. "Because let me tell you now, it's not going to be me."
"Or me," Collette agreed.
Before the whole of the department could insist that it wasn't going to be them, Duffy called for some silence. "In the interests of fairness, it's been decided that the six members of the department to take the course will be picked at random."
"Oh great!" Anna grumbled.
"Do we draw straws or what?" Patrick asked sarcastically. "This is ridiculous!"
Duffy ignored the registrar's strop. "And the draw was done this morning -"
"By an impartial body?" Fin Newton, the paramedic, suggested, grinning widely.
"The draw was done this morning and the six people going on the course are…" Duffy glanced down at the piece of paper she had. "Chloe, Dillon, Jack, Lara, Lucy and Patrick."
"What?" Lara looked at her in alarm. "Patrick's just recovered from pneumonia, are you crazy?"
Patrick frowned at her, giving a slight shake of his head.
"It's not that kind of team building," Duffy insisted. "It's… look, it's all in the leaflet," she said, handing a few out. "If anyone has any problem with this, you can take it up with Jan Goddard." She looked around frowning. "Where is Chloe?" She'd better be in, Duffy had had the police breathing down her neck about her for days. "Anna?"
"Chloe?" Anna looked shifty. "I haven't seen her… she didn't come home last night." She smiled weakly. "You know Chloe, she'll show up."
"Hmm. Well, everyone else get to work," Duffy concluded. She'd have to get onto the agency again… she was almost certain that Chloe Hill wouldn't show up, today or ever again, if the last few weeks had been anything to go by. "Now we've all got work to do, so I'll leave you all to it."
Lucy hurried after her. There was no way she'd do this team-building thing, it was a stupid idea. "Duffy," she said, catching up with her. "Listen, this team-building thing… I really don't think it's me, I'm sure there's someone else who would be more suitable -"
"Lucy, it was pot luck," Duffy interrupted. "You drew the short straw. I'm afraid there's nothing I can do, it wasn't my idea. You can talk to Jan Goddard if you like, but…"
Lucy had no intention of talking to her about anything. "But I'm sure someone else would be willing to -"
"I don't have time for this, Lucy. It's one day, read the leaflet, it doesn't sound too bad. Now let me get on with my job," Duffy said firmly, heading into the cubicle area. Lucy was the one person who the course might actually do some good and she was trying to get out of it. Typical.
