Night shift - Completed

Chapter 2

Poppy's POV

I already knew this day was going to be bad. They'd called me last night and asked if I could do an extra shift because of sickness and the fact the ward was full. They wanted me and a few others to come in and cull the patients, making sure only those who needed to stay did. I reluctantly opened the door to the ward, the heat hitting me from the amount of bodies in the four small walls. I tried to fake a smile as I headed into the staff room, quickly changing into my uniform before getting handover from the lead nurse for the night shift, Mavis.

"Glad you could make it, Poppy. We need it!" She said in her strict tone. "There's twenty one patients in here, and the emergency room are calling for four beds. We need patients in and out of here today." She was interrupted by another staff member bursting through the door, causing it to slam against the wall before flying back to the door frame and clicking closed.

"Start by getting rid of the drunk moron in the side room. He's aggressive, violent and there's nothing wrong with him." Iliana spat harshly, yanking her coat off the hanger with force. "Sorry matron, no one wants to look after him." I watched Mavis's face sink in horror as she looked over the few staff members who had shown up for the day shift and they all shook their heads.

"I will." I offered bravely. "I've finished all my training on safeguarding, handling mental health and conflict resolution." Mavis smiled softly at me.

"You're sure?" She offered but I nodded confidently.

"Great, everyone talk to the nurse in charge of your patient, get handover and then get those patients better. We need the beds urgently." She ordered before heading over to Yvonne, the nurse in charge for the day shift. I walked over to Iliana with a smile.

"You won't be smiling when you meet him." She shoved a paper in my hand. "Came from emergency, fell down a set of stairs when drunk. He's been hostile since he came, shouting about his pain but I couldn't see any issue, not that he let me examine him! That's pretty much all, I avoided him all night." She let out an evil laugh.

"Medication?" I questioned, concerned.

"I didn't give him a thing." She shrugged. "Bye." I opened my mouth to ask more but she'd already left. Wow, this was going to be difficult.

"Have a good rest Mavis!" I called as I waved her out of the room. "See you tonight." She let out an old laugh, shaking her head.

"You always manage to kick me out of this place on time." She said in a thankful tone, waving back as she headed out of the ward. I stood still in front of the side room for a second, taking a deep breath in and out before I opened the door to see four young men in the room. Three of them smiled at me as soon as I walked in the room and shut the door behind me quietly, quickly putting my hair in a ponytail.

"Hi, I'm your nurse for this shift. My name is Poppy." I smiled sweetly as I walked over and shook the hands of the men sitting in the room, finally reaching the man in the bed. "You must be Calum?"

"You think?" He spat, glaring at me through pained eyes. I took an instinctive step back but kept the smile on my face.

"I'm sorry about him." The man with long blonde curly hair said to me. "The other nurse was... err-"

"A bitch?" Calum snarled. I let out a small snigger behind tight lips. Stay professional Poppy, come on.

"I'm so sorry to hear that..." I said sadly. "Look, I can give you some time and come back later but if I'm being honest with you, I need to assess you quite quickly. You seem to be in a lot of pain." Calum sat up instantly, making me jump.

"That's what I'd been saying to your fucking friend all night and she didn't listen to me!" He grabbed his cup of water and threw it against the wall.

"Cal, enough!" A man with rose gold hair soothed him. He dropped his voice to a whisper, hoping I wouldn't hear what he was saying. "This nurse is clearly better than the last one, just let her do her job."

"It's fine. Look, I'll give you a minute to calm down and then-" I began but Calum's eyes were on me in an instant.

"That's what she said." He said, talking about Iliana. "She never fucking came back!" He shook his head and tutted. I sighed quietly, in the hope they couldn't hear me, just to relieve the frustration of Iliana being terrible to this patient and making him this irate.

"In that case, sir, are you happy for me to examine you now?" I smiled sweetly, in the hope this would win him over baring in mind I actually wanted to help him. The room was tense and the air was hot as I waited for my answer.

"Sure." He huffed, throwing himself back in the bed to lay down.

"Okay, so between you and your friends, could you tell me what happened?" I said as a distraction so I could count his breathing and do his blood pressure.

"What they couldn't even be assed to tell you?" Calum spat, quickly receiving a smack on the arm from a friend. "Fine! We went out, had some drinks and I slipped down the stairs." His breathing and pulse were slightly high, making me think he was in pain. After all Iliana had said, she didn't even check to see if he'd hurt himself? His blood pressure too was high.

"How much drink?" I wanted to carry on distracting him. I began to feel down his arms, making sure he hadn't broken anything.

"I had a few double whiskies..." he shrugged.

"Calum, we shared two trays of shots after that." A brown haired man added, his hair slicked back. Okay, it's also possible he has no recollection of how bad the fall was. I began to feel down his left leg as they continued talking.

"Alright, we had a lot." Calum said, hoping it was what I wanted to hear.

"And the stairs, what were they made of? How high were they?" I quizzed. I moved to the right leg.

"It was only one flight, and they were metal I thi- ARGH!" He kicked his leg away from me and arched back in the bed, his face reddening as sweat formed on his hairline. "Fucking hell! What did you do to me?" I took a couple of steps backwards. "Get her out of here!" He continued to cry out in pain, rolling on the bed.

"What the hell happened?!" The blonde asked me, his face screwed up in anger. He stood up and began to walk over to me, I assume to shove me out of the room.

"I'm so sorry, I think you may have broken your ankle Calum." I spat out, slightly nervously. The blonde stopped in front of me and turned back to Calum, jaw dropped open.

"You think?" The rose gold haired man questioned me. I nodded.

"His obs are high, which could be the alcohol but I think is linked to the pain. The way he acted when I merely touched his ankle show he's definitely hurt it somehow. I'll need to get you an urgent X-ray to confirm it though. I'm really sorry." I rambled on, knowing at least his friends would be listening. Sweat began to form in my palms, which I kept rubbing against my tunic.

"I fucking told you!" Calum shouted at me, his finger pointing at me angrily. "I told that other cow I was in pain and she fucking left me in here like a piece of shit! I had no pain relief, no checks, nothing. Fuck all." The brown haired man walked over to Calum's bedside and turned his back to me as he scolded Calum, telling him to calm down. The door flew open and Yvonne stood with a security guard.

"Is everything okay in here?" Yvonne's scary parental voice rang through the room and silenced everyone. Calum suddenly sunk in the bed. "Do I need this security guard to do something, Poppy?" The four men's eyes were on me. No pressure Poppy, they may kill you if you do the wrong thing.

"No, it's fine. May I speak with you outside, Yvonne?" She looked sternly at the four men before she nodded and took me outside with her.

"What's up?" She asked, a lot more relaxed than a second ago. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"I don't want to bad mouth any staff, or get anyone in trouble, but I'm pretty convinced Calum has broken his ankle. He was shouting because Iliana left him all night with no pain killers and apparently didn't even check on him. He was saying she kept saying he wasn't even in pain. He's really upset, like, I think he might complain." I said softly. She sighed heavily and shook her head.

"Leave it with me. In the mean time get an urgent scan."