Water and Fire (4 page)

"Belinda, can you help me with
something in the office?" Aidan asked, with a brief look at the
students. "Call us if any more patients arrive."

Both girls nodded, standing
side by side at the desk. Lin looked a little flushed, but the
other girl didn't seem to notice.

I followed Aidan back to the
duty doctor's office and he shut the door as soon as I'd joined him
inside.

"How'd you do it, Belinda? You
took over my ED and had it running smooth as satin or melted
chocolate in about fifteen minutes. You even had the patients
thinking I was in charge, though I knew I wasn't. How can I repay
you? Let me buy you dinner. Please?" His eyes held both admiration
and desperation.

Satin or melted chocolate?
Unusual examples for smoothness or a hospital.

I summoned an uneasy smile. "I
didn't do much. You took care of your patients and all I did was
tell the nursing students what to do. Hardly worth a dinner. I'm
just doing my job."

"You did a bloody amazing job.
At least join me for dinner, even if you won't let me pay for it.
Please?" he persisted.

I surrendered. "Okay."

His grin was fierce. "The
Tanglehead again, right after your shift finishes?"

I nodded. The restaurant had
just taken a delivery of bronze whaler fillets, I'd heard from the
kitchen staff, and I had a taste for shark right now.

I agreed to meet him by the
front desk at the end of my shift, before heading back to my ward.
The ED was empty of patients and I was only a phone call across the
hospital, after all.

The remainder of my shift
passed without incident, so it seemed a very short time later that
I collected my things and made my way back to ED.

Rob, the orderly, manned the
desk as I approached it. He looked surprised.

"Is the intern around?" I asked
him.

Rob's hands tightened on the
edge of the desk, his knuckles paling to bone white. "I haven't
seen him for a bit," he replied with difficulty.

My eyes darted around, looking
for either the intern or anyone else I could ask. Movement in the
reflective office window caught my attention.

I heard Rob make a choking
noise, but I paid him no heed as I squinted at the window. Beneath
the desk, reflected in the glass, little Lin was on her knees with
her mouth inside Rob's unzipped work pants. Against the rear of
Rob's pants, Lin's hand splayed like a sea-star, over the green
rectangle I recognised as a hundred dollar bill.

Busy night
for the nursing student,
I thought acidly,
turning away to peer out into the car park. Perhaps he thought I
would meet him outside? Or at the restaurant?

"Perfect timing, Belinda."
Aidan entered from the corridor, his hair damp as if he'd just
stepped from a shower. He'd changed his clothes, too, making me
feel uncomfortable in my work clothes.

"Should I go home and get
changed, too?" I asked uncertainly.

"You look lovely already. I
just wanted to look good enough to be seen with you, is all," he
replied with a wide smile.

Behind us, Rob choked again,
though it seemed like Lin had no issue with swallowing
silently.

I shrugged and walked outside
with Aidan. The students were now no longer my problem, nor his. Dr
Tan had started his shift, as had the night shift nurse.

We parted to enter our own
cars, then drove in convoy the few kilometres to the brewery.

The restaurant was half empty
this late on a weeknight, so it seemed no time at all before my
steaming plate of battered shark landed before me.

Aidan slurped his way through
some ribbony pasta as I savoured every bite of hot shark. I
considered ordering another.

"Hell, that was quick." Aidan
laughed, nodding at my plate. "I've never seen a girl enjoy her
food so much before."

I returned my raised hand to my
lap, deciding not to signal the waitress for another serving if it
made me appear strange. I'd return tomorrow to satisfy my craving
instead.

Without the observant
intern.

I excused myself, telling him I
was tired, before paying for my meal and heading home.

A week passed. I passed Aidan
occasionally in the corridors when our shifts coincided. On those
days, he always seemed to appear in the cafeteria on my breaks. He
wouldn't sit anywhere but at the same table as I did.

His lyrical voice inevitably
burbled about something that made him smile. Only minimal input was
required of me, so that's all I gave.

I said little and gave away
less, but his interest in my company didn't lessen in the
slightest. I resigned myself to his company, for it was not so
unpleasant.

One morning his coffee clunked
loudly to the table, the contents of the cup slopping around like
the storm swell in the port that morning.

"I swear it's some kind of
crazy conspiracy. Now the Nannup Tiger's broken a man's leg – or
someone's pulling mine."

I looked up in surprise as
Aidan slumped into the seat across from me. His hair was tufted and
on end again. He took a slurp of coffee. For the first time, he
looked annoyed.

"How can an extinct creature
break a man's leg?" I asked calmly.

"Murray Piesse, a dairy farmer
from over Elleker way. Swore he saw a thylacine on his lawn,
drinking from the bird bath. So he grabbed a camera and went out
into the dark after it. The beast disappeared, if it ever existed
at all. Murray stumbled over a tree stump or something in the dark
and broke his leg. He managed to crawl back up to the house by
morning to call for help. The ambulance brought him in." Aidan's
brows met over his nose as he gulped down more coffee.

"I wonder if he got a photo of
it…" I mused.

Aidan snorted, then choked as
he got coffee up his nose. It took him a few minutes before he
could do anything but splutter, so I waited without speaking. "Do
you honestly believe him? Or are you making fun of me, too?"

I wet my lips. "I believe it's
possible – he might have seen a thylacine," I replied carefully.
"But I'd want to see pictures or the beast itself before I'd
believe it for sure."

He looked hard at me, as if he
was trying to decide if I was telling the truth. Finally, he spoke
again. "Thing is, if Murray really did see the Nannup Tiger, it was
headed toward my place. I live next door to him in Elleker and it's
all bush except where the house is. If the beast's out there, it
could be hunting my place at night, and it's just me out
there."

"If you're so scared of the
Tiger, don't go out at night then," I replied lightly. "Besides, it
doesn't sound like the Tiger was the real danger for Mr Piesse, but
the tree stump he tripped over. Take a torch if you go outside at
night and you should be fine."

"I do that already," Aidan
grumbled. His expression cleared. "You could come up any night
you're free and watch for the Tiger, if you like. A proper
stakeout. Maybe we could discover an extinct species in my
backyard." He looked hopeful.

I forced a smile. "No, thank
you. We'd probably just see a lot of darkness and no Tiger, or
freeze if it's a clear, cold night."

"I wouldn't let you get cold.
I'd keep you warm, Belinda," he replied instantly, the sound of
longing in his voice.

I surged to my feet, repeating
my polite refusal as I headed back to the ward. While I walked, I
wondered if I'd find time to speak to Murray Piesse about what he
saw. Without Aidan, I suspected I could find the creature, if it
wanted to be found.

I had five minutes left of my
break, so I decided to detour by the general surgery ward to speak
to Mr Piesse, if he was up. The ward rest period was about to
start, so he'd have no visitors.

The murmur of voices in his
room told me I was mistaken and he did have visitors, but the
curtain 'round his bed wasn't entirely closed, so I peeped through
the tiny gap. I could see the white sheet and cell blanket at the
end of his bed, but that was it. To see, I'd have to stand right up
against the curtain.

If it really was a visitor, I
needed to ask them to leave, but if it was another staff member I
decided I'd return later, when he was alone.

I held my breath, stepping
forward so I almost touched the cotton curtain. My eye to the gap,
I surveyed the scene with some surprise.

The murmuring formed audible
words now, a litany of, "Yeah baby, yeah baby, yeah baby…" as Lin,
her uniform dress hiked up to her waist once more, rode her cowboy
home. Through the fabric of her dress, I could see the fifty dollar
notes folded into her pocket before I stepped back, not wanting to
see any more.

I hesitated, torn between the
welfare of the patient and my desire not to be noticed. I'd heard
that Mrs Piesse had taken off to meet some American bloke she'd met
and fallen in love with online, so Mr Piesse was a very lonely man.
Wavering, I turned and walked away. The naughty nursing student
wasn't endangering his health, nor was he my patient.

I returned to my ward, where I
found a new patient had arrived, swearing a blue streak with each
contraction. Jill was helping her to the birthing suite and I
quickly moved to assist her.

In the ensuing birth, I forgot
all about nursing students shagging patients or tigers hunting
interns. A ten-pound boy was going to be born – without
anaesthetic, or so his mother insisted. It was going to be a long
afternoon.

The morning sun shone through
the cafeteria window, dust dancing in its rays. I'd just received
word that Miranda and her premature baby had been allowed to go
home for the first time. I smiled at Aidan as he sat across from
me.

He looked surprised. "So you've
heard the news about the mum and baby you saved?"

I smiled more broadly and
nodded. "Both are well and they've been released from
hospital."

He brought a hand out from
behind his back, where he'd been hiding something. "So, we should
have cake to celebrate!" He placed two of the cafeteria's signature
brownies on the table, the plates clinking as he set them down a
little more heavily than necessary. He watched me nervously for my
reaction.

I smiled and laughed. "Cake it
is. Cheers." I lifted one brownie, bumped it against the other,
before taking a bite of mine.

The gritty cake was still warm
inside. "This would be wonderful with vanilla ice cream," I said,
savouring the warm chocolate with my eyes closed. I thought of how
my mother would enjoy this and resolved to find some brownies and
ice cream next time I saw her in Perth. For the first time, I
missed her.

"I don't think they have any,"
Aidan said quietly. I heard him crunch into his own brownie.

I swallowed and opened my eyes,
to find him staring at me.

"I've known you for four weeks,
but that's the first time I've heard you laugh." His smile was
rueful. "I thought it was because my jokes weren't funny."

I smiled to soften my words. "I
guess I just don't laugh much. I don't find many things funny any
more."

He nodded, taking a huge bite
of brownie. He had chocolate icing on his nose.

My smile remained as I finished
my brownie, thanked him and finished the rest of my shift,
wondering how long he'd keep his brown nose. Perhaps a kinder
colleague than I would tell him he looked like a wombat.

I tried not to laugh when I met
him in the corridor, perhaps an hour later. He still wore his
wombat nose. I hadn't the heart to tell him about it.

The nursing students' last day
dawned with audible relief from some of the staff, though I admit
some of the male staff and patients were looking happier lately.
Perhaps I was imagining it.

To celebrate, the cafeteria
announced that there would be cake after lunch, so it was unusually
full on my lunch break. Aidan still managed to find me in the
crush, sitting across from me with a plate of curry and rice that
tasted nothing like the spicy dishes that passed for curry back
home.

Little Lin sauntered past and I
noticed Aidan's eyes following her. I bit back a smile as I
wondered if he'd used her expensive services, too.

As if he'd read my thoughts,
Aidan leaned over and hissed, "You see the nursing student with the
dark hair?"

I nodded once, without looking
at Lin. I kept my eyes on the intern instead. I wanted to know
whether my surmise was correct.

"She…she offered to spend the
night with me. At my house. She…said it would only cost me fifty
dollars for the whole night!" He kept his voice low, looking
shocked.

I thought of all the other men
she'd shagged and how much she'd charged them. "She must like you,
then," I replied.

"Like me?" Aidan's whisper
sounded almost hysterical. "She wanted me to pay for sex like she
was a prostitute!"

"I heard she charged someone
three hundred dollars for less than an hour," I whispered back.
"She must have liked you, to offer you a whole night for much
less."

His eyes
widened as he stared at me. "She offered her…
services
to you, too?"

I shook my head, smiling
slightly. "No."

Lin was deep in conversation
with her supervisor, the picture of innocent bewilderment. The
supervisor's red face looked furious. The two women hurried past us
and out of the cafeteria. "Never…in all my years of teaching
nursing…unprofessional behaviour…" I heard the older woman
mutter.

Aidan paled more than usual.
"Do you think she's in trouble for…for…"

I nodded once, before turning
to stare at him. "Why do you look so worried? Did you take her up
on her offer?"

His face shifted from white to
red, into a deep bottlebrush blush. He opened his mouth, but no
sound came out. He cleared his throat and tried again, hoarsely.
"I'd never…I…NO! Belinda, you know I…she…" He swallowed and it
looked like he found it painful. "You're the only person I've ever
invited up to the house. No one else." His eyes seemed to be trying
to convey some emotional message that I couldn't decipher.