Night shift - Completed

Chapter 13

Calum's PoV

The time had come. The time I was dreading. The end of Poppy's shift. I sat and watched the seconds fade past as she rushed about on the ward prepping everything perfectly for my surgery. Was she going to say bye? What would I say back? Do I try and get her number or will I never think about her again? I drummed my fingers nervously on the bed which attracted the attention of my friends.

"Hey, it'll be okay. This surgery is going to fix everything!" Luke soothed, trying to make me feel better. Ashton looked between him and me and then outside to Poppy.

"Gotta be honest, Luke, I'm not so sure this is about the surgery." He said, nodding over to Poppy who was stood talking to another nurse in the ward.

"No way... has he actually opened his heart up to someone?" Michael said, humour obvious in his voice.

"He'd sworn he was done with love!" Luke added. I threw a glare over to the three of them.

"I'm fine thank you. It's got nothing to do with that." I lied as well as I could. "I'm just nervous that nurse will be back swearing I'm fine again." That silenced them all. They all looked out of the windows at all the staff coming in, all the fresh faces we hadn't experienced before - and then the one I was dreading. Iliana. She rushed in and looked straight over to my room, grabbing Poppy by the arm as she dragged her into the staff room for privacy. I could see Iliana talk animatedly at Poppy who stood her ground and shook her head. Iliana spoke to her more, looking more like she was pleading before Yvonne came over and interrupted. She said something that upset and angered Poppy and straight away I knew what it was going to be. That Iliana was looking after me again.

"The bitch is back." I blurted, the others all sighing in disappointment. Within seconds, Poppy burst into the room without knocking and shut the door behind her. She looked mad, which in turn made me feel happy because it showed she cared about me.

"I'm sorry Calum, I really tried but the management had already allocated it." She said sorrowfully. "Iliana will be looking after you tonight." In unison, the four of us sighed and tutted clearly showing our disapproval of this choice.

"And I don't get a say?" I piped up, anger filling me. "Is it wise for someone I'm complaining about to be looking after me?" Poppy shook her head as she sighed.

"I argued it to Yvonne and to Iliana's face but somehow I lost." She sounded deflated. "I'm so sorry."

"Hey, it's not your fault!" Ashton calmed her, which is what I should have been doing - but I was so mad I could barely concentrate.

"I'm not having surgery tonight." I shook my head as I looked away from everyone. "I'm going to make their nights difficult for this..." the others sighed at me, clearly disappointed with how I was acting but I didn't care. This nurse didn't give a crap about me last night and she certainly wasn't going to this time - unless she found out who I was and wanted to make up for her bad shift the time before. That was even worse.

"Calum please..." Poppy walked towards me, pleading with me. She stopped beside my bed and put a hand on my arm. "Have the surgery and get out of here as soon as possible. Any delay could make it worse and then the treatment doesn't work as well. Don't let her affect your life in the future." She smiled at me, hoping I could be swayed by her. Truth was, I was already convinced, but did I want to show her that?

"Alright." I sighed heavily. "But one wrong step and she's going to have every person I can think of coming at her with complaints." Poppy let out a small laugh.

"Thank you Calum." She patted my arm as she moved away. "I hope your surgery goes well. I'm back tomorrow night but I'm not sure if they'll put me here, so if not it was lovely to meet you all and I hope not to see you again unless it's outside of a hospital setting." She laughed. She walked over to my friends and shook their hands before she waved over to me.

"Thank you for everything Poppy." I thanked her as she left the room and shutting the door behind her. My heart felt like it was being ripped up for the few seconds after she'd left. I'd made the wrong decision. I should have got her number.

"You're seriously just letting that one go?" Ashton asked me, adding more pressure to what I had already put on myself.

"Ash, the minute she finds out who we are she's going to run a mile. She's too sweet for that life." I sighed, sinking into the bed sadly.

"Are you making that decision for her?" Luke added, shaking his head in disgust. "Let her tell you that with her own mouth." I rolled my eyes, my chest feeling like four elephants were sitting on it.

"Look, she's gone. I was too late. Just forget it." I snapped, turning away from them so they couldn't see the hurt in my eyes. Within a second, someone got up and left the room, shutting the door behind them.

***
Ashton's PoV

I ran out of the room and checked the staff room, she wasn't there. This could be a complete waste of time but for Calum I was willing to try. I sped out of the ward and headed down to the main entrance where I saw someone who looked like Poppy in the distance. This was where I'd either look like a moron, or a great friend.

"Poppy?" I shouted out, my voice echoing the walls of the main foyer. The brown haired lady ahead of me stopped in her tracks and spun around, relaxing as soon as she saw it was me.

"Ashton? What's wrong?" Her voice sounded panicked as she rushed back towards me, her face showing worry. "Is something wrong with Calum?"

"Kind of..." I shrugged. "He's an idiot who never realises what he's got until it's gone. I've seen him do it too many times and I'm not gonna witness him do it again." I said, realising I was sounding really cryptic as I spoke. Poppy's eyebrows furrowed as she tried to work out what I was talking about.

"I'm sorry, I don't-" she began but I interrupted her.

"He wanted to ask for your number. To meet up once he was out of hospital." Her jaw dropped open but she quickly composed herself.

"Oh." She said in utter surprise. "Umm, Yeah sure!" She dug around in her bag and pulled out some paper and a pen. She wrote her number down and threw the pen back in her bag. "If you wouldn't mind..." she said shyly. "I'd go back up but my train is in five and-"

"Say no more. I'll take it to him now." I grinned excitedly. "Thanks again for everything today. It was nice to meet you and hopefully we'll be seeing you soon!" We waved at each other as she took off for the train and I headed back to Calum, number in hand and feeling pretty smug.
He owed me one.