Polly slowly started to regain consciousness and she opened her eyes, trying to make out where she was.
The room had been dimly lit up until a split second ago when the bulb died, leaving her in complete darkness.
Meanwhile…
"Jeff, you seen Polly?" Dixie called to him, sighing as she looked around for her colleague.
"No, sorry Dix"
"Pol? Ah, Derek, how about you? Have you seen her?"
Derek shook his head, making sure that nothing obvious was written across his features before he replied "Sorry. Look, I need to get back, I'll see you tomorrow"
"Yes. Fine. Jeff, is Alex on late shifts tonight?"
"I think so" Jeff replied "Why?"
"Bugger. The girls, they're at nursery. Can you pick them up, phone the nursery to let them know why. Then ring Avani, I don't think she's working tonight, so she should be able to look after them"
"Okay"
"Thanks Jeff, I'm going to stay and see if she turns up"
Dixie sighed heavily, turning around to see if anything needed replacing in the ambulance; she may as well do something to keep herself organised.
The morphine container she was holding slipped through her fingers and smashed on the ambulance floor "Oh, give me strength" she muttered, grabbing the dustpan and brush and sweeping up the broken glass and cleaning the liquid off the floor. She grabbed a wet floor sign and put it inside the ambulance to warn people then went to get some more morphine.
She arrived at the utility room shortly afterwards. Grabbing her keys and unlocking the door, she wasn't prepared for what she saw next.
Polly was lying on the floor, blood dripping from a wound at the side of her head.
"Polly! Can you hear me sweetheart?" she asked her gently, taking hold of her wrist to check her pulse. Dixie quickly dressed the wound, cleaning it carefully.
Polly mumbled something she couldn't make out and tried to pull her arm away.
After a few minutes, she suddenly sat up and was sick all down herself and on the floor "Okay, Pol, I need to get you out of here. Do you think you can stand for me?"
Polly shook her head, so Dixie had to carry her; she had checked her over and she had no signs of neck or spinal injury. Once they were out into the harshly lit corridor, Polly whimpered quietly, burying her head in Dixie's shoulder.
"Okay, drink this" Dixie said, handing her a glass of water, noticing how pale she was and how her hands were shaking. What had happened?
Polly drank the water quickly, handing the empty glass to Dixie who put it on the table "Good girl. Can you tell me what happened?"
"Not there, not there. No, no!" Polly cried out, clearly frightened and confused.
"It's alright; I'm not going to take you back there. You're safe, Pol" she decided to leave the questions for now, Polly clearly had no idea what she was asking her "We need to get you cleaned up, get you home"
She did a quick pulse check and checked all of her vitals. Once she was satisfied, she grabbed an old towel and wrapped it around the girl's shoulders to keep her warm and to stop the sick going all over the car. She put another towel over her seat, and then helped her to sit down and put her seatbelt on before driving off.
Pulling onto the driveway, she stopped the engine and got out. She helped Polly get out, and rang the doorbell.
After a moment, Jeff opened the door "Ah, here she is!" he smiled, then, noticing the state of her he added "Dix, what happened?"
"Good question! She was locked in the utility room"
"No, no! Not there, not there" Polly shouted suddenly, clinging to Dixie tightly "Not there"
"Nobody's going to take you back there sweetie, it's alright. Right now, we need to get you cleaned up. Did you get Avani?"
"Yeah, she's with the girls now. She said to stay here in case Polly turned up; I'll go and ring her, let her know we've got her"
"Thanks mate" Dixie started to help Polly up the stairs and into the bathroom and ran a bath for her. She helped her into it and went out the room to give her some privacy, leaving the door open.
The warm water seemed to bring Polly to her senses and she called out to Dixie "Dix? W-what happened? How did I get here?"
"You alright love? I don't really know, I was hoping you could tell me that"
"I-I don't remember anything…"
"You were locked in the utility room at work. I dropped a thing of morphine and I needed to get another one, so I went in to get one and you were lying on the floor"
"W-what?" Polly gasped, what had happened that she couldn't remember?
"You gave me a bit of a shock as well! How are you feeling now?"
"Fine. The girls! I was meant to pick them up; Alex is on late shifts all week"
"Its okay, Avani's with them at your house" waiting until she had got out of the bath and got changed she added "Do you think you can manage to eat something? You still look a bit pale from earlier, you must have fainted when you went into get something…"
"I guess I must have done, I don't remember anything. I'm not hungry"
"Pol, come on sweetie, for me? Just some toast and a drink?" Polly nodded and Dixie smiled at her, leading her into the kitchen.
She was fine at first, but after a couple of minutes the smell of food made her feel sick and she ran into the downstairs bathroom. She coughed and was violently sick into the toilet.
Dixie heard her and came to see if she was alright "Pol? Alright darling, are you going to be sick again?" Polly shook her head "Okay, come on then, let's go and sit down, yeah?"
She sat down with her on the sofa, letting Polly lean against her, tears streaming down her face. Why couldn't she remember anything?
"Shh, shh, you're okay" Dixie soothed, rubbing small circles onto her back and handing her a glass of water.
Dixie shot Jeff a look and sighed. What on earth had happened that afternoon?
