“Are you really allowed to bring people back here?” Ellie asked as Mike shut the door behind them.  The small on call room contained a single bed, small cupboard and side table.

“Well as you can see, all I have is a single bed, so it is meant to deter people from sharing!” he smiled down at her.

Ellie could feel the warmth of his smile and she tingled all over, the red wine with their meal had served as a lubricant but his smile was all she needed, she thought.  “So how many girls, or guys have you brought back here then?”

“Well, let me see,” Mike held up his two hands and began to count in tens along his fingers.

“Oh come on!”

“You are my first!  We don’t make a habit of pulling grieved friends and relatives of our patients, you know!”

“Hmm, bet it would be an easy pull though!”

“Yeah, I hadn’t thought of that, I will need to add it to my repertoire!”

Ellie looked up at him, was she going to go through with it, this was her last chance to get out, she thought, but she really didn’t want to.  Mike was very charming and not at all pretentious, very different to her usual type and she was curious to find out more about him.

“What are you thinking about?” Mike asked as he touched her arms, stroking them gently.

“Hmm, I was just wondering where you were going to sleep?”

He smiled broadly, “You forget, I’m on call, I don’t sleep.  You are welcome to the bed, I’ll head out to the doctor’s lounge.” He stepped away from her, dropping his hands from her arms.

Ellie stepped toward him, she touched his chest lightly and then on her tiptoes, reached up and gingerly kissed his lower lip, “I think we can both share the bed, but I don’t think much sleeping is going to go on here.”

Ellie began to undo his shirt buttons, his chest was lightly haired and she ran her fingertips along his chest down to his navel.

* * *

An alarm was going off somewhere, Ellie reached out to turn it off, she knew she had a few minutes snooze left, but there was no snooze button.  Suddenly she sat up, saliva had gathered in Mike’s pectoral region, and she tried to quickly wipe it away.

Mike looked at her quizzically, “What are you doing?”

Ellie looked at him sheepishly, “oh, I thought I drooled on you!”

“That’s not all you did on me!” he said, a cheeky grin on his face, “I would like to see what else you can do, but unfortunately I have been summonsed by a needy patient, so I have to go!”

“Oh,” Ellie looked around the sparse room and remembered where she was. “Oh, gosh, did we?”

“Mmm, yes, you seduced me! You wanton woman,” he said caressing her hair.

“Oh, sorry!”

“No need to apologise, it was refreshing, having someone who knew what they wanted and wasn’t afraid to say so!”

Ellie wasn’t sure if she should be embarrassed but remembering what had happened earlier made her tingle again.

“Look, I’ve got to go, but you can stay, I’m booked in here and I may be back if it’s not much of an emergency.” Mike explained as he looked for his clothes, strewn across the floor. “It’s only 2am, so you might as well stay until the morning, and then check in on Kate, I had a message from her ward, she’s awake so she’ll be able to talk to you when you get down there.  I’ll let you know if there’s any change with her, ok?”

Ellie closed her eyes, she certainly could do with a little more sleep. Mike pulled the blanket over her shoulders and Ellie fell back to sleep.

* * *

Ellie looked at Kate, sitting up in bed having a breakfast of something that resembled gruel.

“Hey, how are you?” Ellie questioned Kate, she still looked pale, like all her blood had drained from her, but her eyes were bright.

“Hey, look at you.  You look like you’ve been out partying all night!”

“Umm, well I stayed here all night, keeping an eye on you, but I was offered a spare Doctor’s on call room.  It’s good to see you up, how are you feeling?”

“I feel like I’ve been on an all night rave, after doing a huge session at the gym!” Kate smiled wanly, “Nope, perhaps worse than that.”

“Do you remember what happened?” Ellie said touching Kate’s hand as she sat beside her on the orange plastic chair.

“No, not really.  I remember heading for the shower, there was a knock on the door, I went to it and …” Kate trailed off, her eyes seemingly to look at nothing across the room from her.  “I’m at the Royal, right?”

“Yep, that’s where the ambulance brought you.”

“Why hasn’t mum moved me to a private hospital?” she hissed, looking conspiratorially around her.

“Well, ahh, your mum hasn’t been in touch yet.  Emma called her, but she hasn’t called back, she’s in Majorca.”

“Oh yeah.  I’ll have to call her mobile.  Where’s my mobile?” Kate looked around her room, there were six other beds, only two were taken at the end of the room.  Kate was closest to the nurses station she attempted to reach for her metal bedside stand. “Ohh, not ready for that yet!”

“I’ll take a look,” Ellie offered, standing up and walking around to the bedside stand.  She handed Kate the mobile.

“Thanks, mum will sort it out.” Kate said confidently.

* * *