"PC Younger, please take Tom and Katie upstairs." PC Bellamy asked after Gordon had informed him that he was going to deal with Jill's injuries.

PC Younger seemed quite pleased with the order, judging by the queasy look on his face as the children led him by the hand upstairs.

"They seem to have taken quite a shine to him." Jill commented, gazing up after them.

Phil smiled. "He's good with children. Seems as if it's the only think he's good at sometimes." He then turned to Gordon. "Is there anything you'd like me to do to help?"

Gordon looked up from his medical bag. "Have you got a torch?"

He nodded and drew it out from his pocket.

"I'd like you to shine it on the wound when I get started, so I can see it better." He stood up and started towards the kitchen. "I'm just going to wash my hands."

Jill shifted to make herself comfortable on the stairs. Her side was the most painful, it alternated between a deep throbbing to sharp stabs. She also knew that it would be the most painful when Gordon saw to it, since her nightdress was stuck in a bloodied mess. She attempted to run a hand through her hair but got stuck, it too a matted mess of blood. She dropped her hand to her lap, hating to think about what she looked like.

"Okay." Gordon had returned and began pulling various items out of his doctors' bag. "PC Bellamy."

The constable nodded. He settled a few steps above Jill, and Gordon sat beside her.

"I'm going to clean them up, use some antiseptic, and then we can see what else needs to be done. Okay?"

Jill nodded and braced herself as he reached up towards her cheek. His touch was gentle and he worked silently, thoroughly cleaning the wound, his face a picture of concentration, one side of which was illuminated by the torchlight, the other darker in comparison. Although he was gentle, Jill couldn't help but wince periodically as the swab made contact.

The cut started just below her eye, near her nose and ran in a red bloodied diagonal streak to end a couple of centimetres from her ear.

"You're getting a lovely coloured bruise there." Gordon murmured, to which Jill smiled at, then grimaced. "Okay, now for the antiseptic." He looked raised his eyes to hers. "I don't suppose I need to tell you it'll sting." He put some of the liquid onto a clean swab then applied it to her wound. There was nothing for a few seconds, and just when she was starting to think nothing would happen, it started stinging with a vengeance. She drew in sharp breath and clenched her fists, her nails biting into her palm. After a while, however, it receded, and she relaxed. "Okay?" He asked her. She nodded. "Now just for the other two."

"Oh don't." She moaned, half smiling at the inevitability of it.

"Constable, could you shine the torch here." Gordon indicated her side. It was deeper than that on her cheek. The glass had slashed from just below her ribs, almost vertically down for about two inches. He studied it for a moment then looked up at her. "I'm going to have to cut the material away. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, do what you want."

Gordon brought out a pair of scissors, then ever so slowly began to cut away the thin material. The cold blade pressed to her skin making her shiver involuntarily. "Keep still." He murmured. His head was bent so she couldn't see his face, but she could imagine it. She kept the image in her mind as he began to peel the material away, she trying to block out the pain. It didn't work though.

She cried out his name, but he didn't stop. She could feel the material being ripped from her, the blood holding it to her torn skin until it was pulled away. She didn't need to look to tell the bleeding had started again. Nor did she need to look to tell his wasn't even a quarter of the way finished. "Gordon, please!" She cried; her voice higher and more desperate than she would have liked it to be, especially in someone else's presence. That someone else being PC Bellamy, who although directing the torch beam where Gordon had instructed him, was averting his eyes, seemingly finding the place where the ceiling and the wall met much more interesting.

The pain suddenly intensified another notch. Jill jerked herself away in reflex and clasped her hand over the laceration. She pressed herself as close as she could against the wall as if that would prevent Gordon from getting at it. "Please, Gordon, stop." She pleaded pitifully then mentally berated herself, thinking herself weak.

"Jill, you know I have to do it."

She nodded but still didn't remove her hand.

He sighed. "Look Jill, we're both tired, the sooner we get this done the better. Are you going to let me help you, or are you just going to sit there?"

His harsh, impatient tone wasn't lost on Jill. She moved her hand, but turned her head away so her face was hidden from him by her hair. Tears came unbidden to her eyes, partly due to the way he'd spoken to her, partly due to the pain, and partly due to tiredness. She blinked them away but they came back to blur her vision again when the pain once again increased. A few escaped but she wiped them away quickly with a trembling hand. She was glad that PC Bellamy as well as Gordon couldn't see her face. She bit down on her lip hard, but didn't make a noise. After a while she began to taste blood as her teeth cut into the soft skin, but she didn't care.

It was while before Gordon stopped. She presumed he'd finished separating the material from her wound. Then she felt him using the swab.. It wasn't long after before something else was pressed on, and the sharp sting that followed told her it was the antiseptic. She whimpered, and a few tears dropped onto her nightdress. She brushed them away, but the spreading dark dots gave them away. She heard Gordon rummage in his bag, then press something onto her side. He still didn't speak to her. She risked a glance at him but couldn't see the expression on his face. Once he was finished, he started on her foot, and began to carry out the procedure again. PC Bellamy moved to crouch at the bottom of the stairs.

Her foot had the smallest injury of the three on the surface, but it was the deepest, the glass having pierced the sole quite severely when she'd stepped on it.

She couldn't blame Gordon for being annoyed at her. She guessed he was probably angry at her as well. It was bad enough that he had to spend time cleaning her up, she thought, but it was even worse that she was moaning and being uncooperative. She leant her elbow on her knee and dropped her head into it wearily. She'd have to do some serious apologising, she decided.

"I'm going to have to use tweezers." Gordon said. "There's still some glass in here, along with some fluff."

Jill merely nodded. She might have been making something out of nothing, but she couldn't detect any warmth in his voice. She thought he would probably talk to his patients nicer. She hoped it was just tiredness making her overanalyse things.