Part One Hundred And Eighty Six
It took Karen only two more days to come to the realisation that she needed to talk about what she'd done for Jo, and not just to anyone, but to someone who would fully understand the magnitude of what she had done. It wasn't usually in Karen's nature to want to confess her sins, but this time was very different. When she turned up on Ric's doorstep therefore, she had to wonder at the sanity of being there in the first place.
"This is a nice surprise," Ric said as he opened the door to her, Karen never having seen inside his current abode. "To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?" "I need to tell you something," Karen began a little cautiously. "After which I think you will quite rightly tell me just how stupid I am." They were upstairs in his bedsit by this time, and Ric gestured to the sofa for her to sit down. "Wine, scotch, or coffee?" He offered, seeing that she looked incredibly tense, and perhaps even frightened of whatever it was she had to tell him. "Scotch, if you have any," She replied, knowing that if there had ever been a time when she really needed some Dutch courage, now was that time. After pouring both Karen and himself a large dose of the amber-coloured liquid, he sat down next to her, pushed an ashtray towards her and simply waited for her to start.
"Not too long ago," she began after taking a swig of her scotch. "John came to see me because he was convinced that Jo had, or has, a drink problem. There wasn't much I could suggest, apart from his actually talking to her about it. I've no idea whether or not he did, but I suspect he did. John is currently away at the Human Rights seminar in Milan, and last Friday night, Jo took an overdose." "Well, she didn't get admitted to St. Mary's, so she must have gone somewhere else," Was Ric's reply. "She didn't get admitted anywhere," Karen told him quietly. "She got treated at home." Ric stared at her, far too many things were being added up in his brain, leading him to the conclusion that he honestly didn't want to face. "Am I to assume that Jo Mills was treated for an overdose, by a nurse, a fully-qualified one admittedly, but a nurse nevertheless? Not to mention the fact that you are certainly not qualified to make the types of decisions that may arise in such a situation?" "What do you want me to say?" Karen asked him. "Yes, I treated her myself, having obtained the necessary drugs from Larkhall's hospital wing." "With the help and say so of your resident doctor?" Ric demanded, his ire rising at the utter incongruity of the situation. "Yes," Karen replied, hoping against hope that Ric didn't go looking for the name of her resident doctor in order to make this official. "Start at the beginning," He said, sounding half-exasperated, and half-proud of her achievement.
"I was closeted in my office with our resident doctor, whose name I am not about to give you, when I received a phone call from George. She told me that she thought Jo had taken an overdose, and I was all for getting her to a hospital, but George refused, pointing out what a section would do to a QC's reputation. Please don't say it, because I know that a person's life is far more important than their professional reputation, but our doctor agreed with George, which was certainly something of a surprise. So, he supplied me with everything I might need, bar a defibrillator, and as he was on duty, this was something I had to sort out myself." "And did you?" Ric asked, not unkindly. "Yes, though there were a few fraught moments. I had to give her a shot of adrenaline because her pulse rate had gone down to 48 beats per minute. That was a bit scary to say the least." "What did she overdose on?" "Alcohol and sleeping pills, a lethal combination that we used to see nearly three times a week when I was working with you all those years ago."
"Karen," Ric said carefully. "I'm not going to tell you how stupid such a course of action was, because I think you already know that. You aren't exactly without intelligence, so you will be aware that should this ever come to light in any official sense, both you and your resident hero would lose your registration. Now, that won't happen through me, but only because I am assuming that Jo is to all intents and purposes all right. If she wasn't, then that would be a different matter altogether." "I know," Karen replied in a tight little voice. "But I couldn't just let her die. I couldn't just sit there and refuse to help, because it might have meant me losing my registration. I had the knowledge and the drugs with which to help her, neither of which I had with Ross. I had no idea that he was contemplating killing himself until he'd actually succeeded, so there was absolutely nothing I could do to help him. But I could help Jo, so I had to do it."
Ric had been pacing the room as he'd listened to her explanations, but when he heard the words of a grieving mother accompanied by the tears that were now drenching her cheeks, he realised that Jo wasn't really the root of the problem, but the death of her son the year before. Sitting down next to her on the sofa, he put his arms round her and silently held her, trying to offer what comfort he possibly could. "You did this for Jo because you couldn't do the same for Ross, didn't you." "It sounds stupid, doesn't it," Karen replied through her tears, always having felt safe and secure in this man's arms. "No, of course it doesn't," Ric told her gently. "But in this job, you need to be able to detach yourself from any feelings you might have. Emotions, especially that of unresolved grief, have a tendency to enable us to make decisions that we wouldn't otherwise even entertain. Now, whilst part of me could cheerfully wring your neck for trying to act the doctor you certainly aren't, I do understand why you did it. But under no circumstances must you do anything of the kind again. I have a deep-seted wish that one day, maybe in a few years time, you will come back to nursing, and work with me as you did before. You did the nursing profession a great disservice when you left it, because caring for people, and helping to cure them of whatever disease or injury they came in with, was and I suspect always will be what you do best. I have no idea just how much impromptu nursing you have had to do during your stint in the prison service, but I also suspect that when it has been a necessity, you have risen to the challenge admirably." "Delivering babies and dealing with those who cut themselves has been the extent of my nursing involvement with inmates," Karen replied with a watery smile. "I wouldn't have thought that delivering babies was a usual occurrence," Ric said with some surprise. "Oh yes," Karen assured him. "I have delivered a baby in a cell before now, and the medical team only arrived when it was all over."
They sat in contented silence for a while, their old familiar position of having their arms around each other being something that neither felt needed any comment. "There is one thing that I would like you to do for me," Ric said eventually, getting them both back onto a professional footing. "I need you to ask Jo to come and see me. There's no telling what damage she might have done to her liver in all this." "I took blood samples for LFT's and Creatonine, so the results ought to be available by now." "Well, I'll check that out in the morning, but as I have a liver clinic tomorrow afternoon, that would be the best time for Jo to come and see me, as I'll be in theatre all morning. Did you write a report on everything you did, what drugs you used and so on?" "Of course I did," She said a little defensively. "Even if this wasn't going to go official, I wasn't going to be accused of not doing my job properly." "That sounds like the Karen Betts I know," He said with a smile. "Always sticking to protocol where possible." "That's hardly what I did last Friday night, now is it," She said in slight disgust. "No, but most people break the rules somewhere along the line, just not usually so spectacularly. Does the Judge know about this yet?" "No," Karen said with a slight frown. "And I'm dreading the reaction he is bound to have when he is told. That isn't going to be either quiet or restrained if I know John."