Night shift - Completed

Chapter 15

Poppy's POV

The night shift had slowly crept up to me and now here I was, dragging myself in at 8pm for a twelve hour shift. I think what had made this shift worse was knowing I wasn't going to be with Calum. They'd called me and said they were short staffed on another ward and they'd swapped me to be over there. My heart sunk as I realised I wouldn't be seeing Calum and his friends but I knew I had to do my job. I made my way over to the staff room and saw the head nurse there, who began handing over a patient to me when the receptionist knocked on the door and made her way in.

"I'm sorry, Georgia, there's a phone call for you. It's Mavis." Georgia quickly took the phone and answered.

"Hello Mavis, how are you today? Lovely... Yep... Oh, okay... right. Well I haven't done much so I suppose so. Lovely, have a good shift!" She handed the phone back to the receptionist and smiled. As the receptionist left, Georgia put a hand on my shoulder and smiled. "It appears you're a popular lady, Poppy. Someone is refusing care unless it's by you. Mavis needs you back, she's going to send me a different nurse." I stared back at her in shock, not quite sure how to react to that. Part of me was thrilled yet the other part nervous.

"Of course Georgia, Sorry about this. I hope you have a good shift!" I grabbed my things and made my way back to my most familiar ward and to my favourite head nurse Mavis.

"Poppy!" She called straight away as I came in the ward door, rushing towards me and swamping me in one of her huge hugs. "I'm so glad you're here!" I hugged her back as well as I could with all my bags and she led me to the staff room, making sure it was empty as she closed the door. I threw my stuff down on a chair as she lowered her voice. "Now, I'm assuming you know who has requested your care." I nodded.

"I can only assume it's Calum." I shrugged like it was no big deal.

"It is. Now, he's been a little tricky over the last two shifts, quite snappy and argumentative with staff. I've got some stuff I need to tell you before you go in there." As if it were an ominous movie, we both looked out of the window to his side room, where two large men opened the door and came out, standing outside it and guarding it.

"Oh that's new!" I gasped.

"Exactly. Now, as you know Calum is somewhat of a celebrity with his band mates and he had a very bad experience on his first night here." I nodded. "Well, it appears someone within this hospital has leaked his information to the press, it apparently aired on tv last night." I nodded again. "I think he's being tricky to weasel out who did it. Iliana left in tears this morning and James, who's watching him until you get handover, has voiced that he's been difficult. Yvonne has been pulled off this shift because someone from their management spoke to her and there is a line of enquiry going on with any doctor or nurse who encountered him that day. I'm just warning you, it may not be as friendly in there today." She finally finished warning me. I merely nodded to her to acknowledge it but I daren't ask about any of the staff, it was obviously tense enough as it was.

"Thank you Mavis. I guess I'd better get over there and let James get home." I said with a smile. "I'll let you know if it's anything I can't handle." She smiled as she nodded me out of the room and I made my way over to the two guards on the door, who looked down at me like I was a piece of dirt. I ignored it.
"Hi gentlemen, I'm Poppy, Calum's nurse for tonight." They both remained silent as they studied me and my badge before they opened the door, letting me in without saying a word.

"Poppy!" The first to greet me was James, who pulled me in for a big hug. I hugged him back tightly. "I've missed you!"

"That's what happens when you work certain days and I get lumbered with everything else!" I laughed as we pulled out of the hug.

"Well, I hope you don't mind but I really need to get home. Calum's been fine since the surgery, which was a success. They have just fitted the cast too. They're reckoning he could probably be out of here by tomorrow but he'll need a follow up with the surgeon. They reckon the cast will need to be on for about 6 weeks."

"Brilliant, So what are my main parts overnight?" I asked.

"Just monitor for side effects, make sure the medication is kept on top of and that he ticks all the boxes to be discharged. If not, he'll be moved to a surgical orthopaedic ward." James reeled off what he'd been told earlier. I nodded to acknowledge all my duties for the shift.

"Thanks James. Have a great sleep!" I said as he waved, exiting the room quickly. I turned straight to Calum. "I'm so sorry about that, having handover in your room, how are you feeling?" I smiled sweetly at him, hoping to take off the same way we did during the shift before.

"Yeah, fucking peachy." He snapped, making me flinch. I averted my gaze from him towards his friends and offered them a smile and wave.

"It's nice to see you all again." I tried to show his comments weren't affecting me.

"You, or one of your fucking colleagues ratted me out for money. You think I'm going to be okay with that?" Calum continued, clearly not done scolding me.

"Calum, you know damn well it wasn't me. I didn't even know who you were until it popped up on my tv." I instantly stood up for myself. "I text you to warn you, what would I gain if that had been me that had sold the story?" He didn't look at me, even to acknowledge my existence as I pleaded innocence in front of him.

"Don't worry Poppy, he's been like this to everyone since he found out." Ashton tried to make me feel better but Calum's gaze instantly shot over to Ashton, silencing him where he sat.

"Someone who was meant to care about me sold my story to the paps. I'm not letting this go. I'm taking this to the very top. You could all lose your jobs." His finger pointed over to me despite still not looking over at me.

"Calum, enough!" Michael snapped at him. "Poppy has been more than nice to all of us, just calm down!" His eyebrows furrowed and his jaw tensed as he shouted over. The door opened quickly and one of the guards poked his head round the door.

"Is everything okay here?" The guard asked, his eyes on me straight away.

"I just need some peace, please leave Poppy." Calum said sorrowfully, looking down at the bedding as he said it.

"Sure." I sighed, biting my lips together as I made my way out to hold in any emotion. What on earth had happened to him? This certainly wasn't the guy I'd spoken to yesterday.