Defy Desire

Chapter 42 - Maia

My fifth nightshift of the week came and I was completely drained by this point. The bags under my eyes were almost purple and I hadn't even bothered washing my hair all week. After the conversation I'd had with Tom the day before, I was reluctant to come into work even more and was literally praying that I wouldn't be on a case with him tonight.

Ava and I spent most of the night in the coffee room eating doughnuts and chatting and I almost thought we'd have no cases for the night until we were called through the intercom to trauma.

Ava let me scrub in for the case which was a patient who'd been airlifted in from the hills after tumbling down them and breaking both tibias and fibulas in his legs. It was a long one, and I shuffled my feet to keep them from aching as I concentrated on my trays for Dr. Wharton. He was a miserable old git, but at least he worked silently and didn't try to put me on the spot or pressure me. He was probably as sick of nights as I was.

'Maia, go get something to eat,' Ava told me, as I took off my gown after the procedure was over. 'You've done great.'

I smiled and exited the O.R, strolling slowly through the empty, dull corridor. I rubbed my tired eyes and didn't allow myself to look at the clock on the wall. I headed towards the coffee room and passed by Sister Winter's open office door where Tom had been working the other night. He wasn't there and I worried that he might have been in the coffee room. I peeked inside quietly before I entered, seeing that he wasn't around. I made my coffee and lay back on a comfy chair and shut my eyes for a second. There was a consultant sat a few seats up from me and two nurses eating in the far corner, but besides that, it was empty. Eventually, the door opened and I quickly opened my eyes to glance in that direction and closed them again when I saw it wasn't him. I was relieved.

'Mark.' I heard the man who had just entered approach the already seated consultant near me. 'I've just got out of that Kyphoplasty. I'm fucking pissed off Tom's pushed this onto me again.'

My ears perked up and I knew this was my Tom. A Kyphoplasty is the procedure done to treat a fracture in the spine. I didn't know of anyone else in the spinal team by the name Tom.

'No way,' the man named Mark said, uncaringly. 'You should just speak to him tomorrow, he's probably gone home.'

'No he hasn't!' the man said, sounding outraged. 'I've just seen him down the corridor. He passed his case to me last night too, it's not right.'

'There'll be some valid reasoning behind it if you speak to him,' Mark said. 'Anyway, you're on-call, that's what you're there for.'

'Not so people can just call us in whenever they can't be arsed to do their job!' the man cried.

Before I knew it I was on my feet and out the door. Why was he doing this? Why was he acting like he didn't care about his job, passing surgeries onto the on-call surgeon. They were there for emergencies; they were there for when they were actually needed, not so that Tom could mope around and feel sorry for himself.

I paced down the corridor and glanced into the office. He still wasn't there, but I knew exactly where he would be. I moved quickly through the department and down the final corridor to the library. I pushed through the doors quickly and unsurprisingly, there he was, sat at a table reading through paperwork. He looked up as I marched in and his expression turned to confusion as I paced towards him and stopped at the table.

I glared down at him, suddenly not sure what to say or why this was even my concern.

'What?' Tom asked.

'What are you playing at?' I asked him, crossly. 'Why are you passing surgeries off to the on-call surgeon?'

Tom sighed and glanced around the room awkwardly before returning his gaze to me.