Let's go round again

Chapter Two

After what seemed like an age the doctor was back bringing a nurse with him. After he'd offered her a drink which she declined he began to explain why they'd called her. "It took us a lot of persuasion and I'm afraid to admit it a little bit of coercion to get him to give permission to contact you. Isn't that right Staff?"

The young nurse nodded her head "Yes, he's a bit prickly isn't he? He most certainly has a mind of his own."

Ruth found herself agreeing with the pair that Harry Pearce could be a difficult man to deal with but she also found herself automatically defending him. Telling them that he was in fact a good and kind man who was totally different when one got to know him...know him well that is.

The young man smiled at her, nodding his head in understanding and it struck Ruth that he must have had his conversation dozens of times before as anxious friends and relatives assured him that their loved ones were nothing like the ill tempered patients that he'd been faced with. Swiftly casting aside the notion that Harry could be cast in role of her "loved one"shepressed them to tell her what was wrong with Harry. She feared that they would tell her he'd had a heart attack, after all what age was he now? She quickly did the calculations in her head and with a jolt she realised that he must be at least sixty seven!

"He was involved in a collision with a rickshaw. Apparently he'd been drinking in his club and was trying to hail a cab to take his home when he stepped out into the road and the rickshaw took his legs out from under him. He was lucky, if he'd been hit by a car or God forbid a bus the damage would have been far worse. As it is it's quite bad enough. At his age that is".

The word "rickshaw" had thrown her for a moment and she found herself wondering if it were all part of a plot by the Chinese secret service to take Harry out? But she quickly suppressed that flight of fancy; rickshaws had become a common sight on the streets of central London in the past decade as a novelty but also as an environmentally friendly mode of transport.

"What exactly are his injuries?" she asked deciding not to pay any attention to the reference to Harry's age.

"Dislocated shoulder, we managed to pop that back in quite easily but he's badly sprained his right wrist and his left leg from his knee to his ankle is very badly bruised and grazed, there's going to be a lot of swelling in the next few days. He also banged his head on the kerb as he went down but we've put him through the scanner and we can't see any damage although I suspect he's going to have a couple of really noticeable black eyes in the next couple of days. And I suspect he'll suffer from headaches and maybe some blurred vision. Might even be a little unsteady on his feet."

"You can see Lady Pearce" said the nurse as she joined in the conversation "Why we don't want Sir Harry to be on his own. He seemed to think, well hope really that you would be willing to well take him home and provide the support he'll need?"

"I'm not Lady Pearce" she began. She had to explain, had to put them right but as she was preparing to talk to them both there pagers went of and a red light flashed in the office. "Sorry"the doctor interrupted her "But we have to respond to this. If you go out of the door, turn left you'll find Sir Harry in room seven. Either myself or another member of the team will come and talk to you as soon as possible." And with that they were both gone.

Ruth sat for a moment as she struggled with herself once more. What should she do? Should she follow her head, leave a note with reception and go home? After all Harry was in no way her responsibility was he? Or should she follow her heart? Follow her heart and do as much as she could for the man who had once been the centre of her world.

It was no contest really.

As she stood in front of the door to room seven she took a deep breath before she pushed it open.

Her eyes were drawn straight to him as they had always been; he was lying on the hospital bed his eyes closed, his face drawn and she could see even from where she was standing that the doctor had not been lying because already his face was showing the tell tale signs of heavy bruising and she thought that see could see a cut across the top of his nose. The skin around his eyes looked puffy and discoloured and she had no doubt that by the morning he would be sporting a couple of "shiners". The nurse who was standing in the corner of the room filling in various forms turned as he heard her enter and beckoned her in "Lady Pearce" he began ""I'm so pleased that you could make it. Sir Harry wasn't sure if you would come or not. He, we hoped that you would because, well I'm sure he'll tell you himself how unhappy he was with the alternative arrangements that we'd made". The man shrugged his slender shoulders "He certainly knows his own mind doesn't he?" he enquired smiling at her.

Really she thought this was all getting too much, where on earth had they got the idea that she and Harry were somehow a couple? She had to put a stop to this lunacy now before it got completely out of hand so clearing her throat she replied "I'm not Lady Pearce, I'm Ruth, Ruth Evershed and I want …..."

Whatever else she was going to say died in her mouth as a croaky voice from the bed said "You came Ruth, you came. I told them you would. I knew you would." The voice was slurred, no doubt from the medication and the trauma of his injuries but it was unmistakeably his voice and she turned to him her hand outstretched, the need to touch him suddenly overwhelming.

"I'll leave you two alone for a while" the young man said as he made for the door. "Just press the buzzer if you need anything and Sir Harry please try and stay calm, no sudden movements please you need to let your shoulder heal and your wrist needs to be kept as still as possible for the moment"

Standing by the side of the bed Ruth looked at the man in front of her. He'd put weight on, his face under the bruising whilst not exactly bloated was showing signs of too much alcohol and worse than that she could see that his face wore the world weary look of a man who was not happy in his skin. A man who was not enjoying his life and she felt her heart strings being tugged towards him. And even under the unflattering hospital gown that he was wearing she could tell that he was carrying too much weight around his middle, he'd always been well built, sturdy. But this was different, again it shouted to her tales of a man who had given up on life. But to her he looked, he looked beautiful and she realised with a jolt that even after all this time she was still drawn to him as a moth was drawn to a flame.

"What's going on Harry?" she asked "They seem to think that we're a couple." she couldn't keep the frustration and sharpness out of her voice although she wasn't sure if that was because she was angry with him or herself. He sighed as he shifted uncomfortably on the narrow hospital bed leaning heavily on the cot sides, swearing under his breath as he knocked into them.

"Here let me help you" she said stepping forward to unhitch the catch on one side of the bed so he could sit up. "I'm not a bloody invalid" he snapped back at her his face a picture of frustration and embarrassment. She was just about to snap back when something stopped her, something that she couldn't quite put her finger on; it had something to do with his body language, the way he was finding it so hard to cope with being the one who needed help and she quickly decided now was not a good time to score cheap points so she stepped back and let him get more comfortable in his own time.

"Pull up that chair" he told her "It's hurting my neck to look up at you." He went quiet again as she arranged herself on the hard plastic chair and waited. "I'm sorry to drag you into this, I didn't want to but in the end they gave me no choice. Malcolm was my first point of contact but the lucky sod is off sunning himself in the south of France at the moment and to be frank with you Ruth there was no one else. And the alternative to contacting you was, is unthinkable."

She decided not to question him about how and why he knew where she lived for the moment but to wait for him to fully explain his actions first. "Christ Harry, what did they threaten you with? It must have been pretty bad for you to..."

"They were going to admit me Ruth, they were going to admit me." he stated in a monotone.

"Well maybe you need to be admitted Harry, after all you've had a nasty tumble and at your..."

"Don't you dare mention my bloody age!" he snapped at her his voice and his colour rising, the machines that he was attached to suddenly beeping into life as the young male nurse came hurrying back through the door. As he moved towards the bed he could see that his patient was fine and he assumed rightly that it was just a case of temper getting the most of him. He picked up his wrist to check his pulse before he told him "Please try and stay calm Sir Harry, you're playing havoc with our machines. Do that and I'll do what you told me to do earlier... I'll leave you alone."

When they were alone once more Harry who now had that little boy lost look on his face, his lips pouting in the way that always had had her heart beating faster spoke again "They were going to admit me to a geriatric ward Ruth! A fucking geriatric ward! Don't let them do that to me. For God's sake if you were ever my friend, if you ever cared even a little bit for me, I'm begging you tell them you will look after me. Just get me out of here and you can walk away and never see me again. I swear to that. Please Ruth please!"

She could see that he was very, very angry but underneath there was a vulnerability that she had never seen before.