Hot Docs On Call: One Night To Forever?. Kate Hardy

that she knew more than a six-year-old should.

      She was indeed febrile and her little heart was beating rapidly when Victoria checked her vital signs.

      ‘She’s being admitted straight to the cardiac unit,’ Julia said as Victoria checked Penny over. It wasn’t an urgent transfer but, given Penny’s history, a Mobile Intensive Care Unit had been sent and Victoria was thorough in her assessment.

      ‘Though,’ Julia added, ‘they want her to have a chest X-ray first in A&E.’

      Which might prove a problem.

      Accident and Emergency departments didn’t like to be used as an admissions hub, though it was a problem Victoria dealt with regularly. In fact, just three days ago she had had an argument with Dominic MacBride, a paediatric trauma surgeon, about the very same thing.

      Victoria just hoped he wasn’t in A&E this evening, as they tended to clash whenever she brought a patient in.

      Generally though, things were better at Paddington’s than at most hospitals. The staff were very friendly and there was real communication between departments.

      And also, Penny was a little bit of a star!

      They’d just have to see how it went.

      ‘I like your earrings,’ Penny said when Victoria had finished taking her blood pressure.

      ‘Thank you.’

      Usually Victoria wore no jewellery at work. It was impractical, given that she never knew what her day might entail. Her long dark brown hair was tied up in its usual messy bun and, of course, she wore no make-up for work. So yes, her diamond studs stood out a touch.

      The earrings had been a gift from her father and Victoria wore them for special occasions. She had been at a function yesterday and had forgotten to take them out.

      Penny was ready to be transferred to the hospital. For such a little child, often Glen or Victoria would carry them out, the goal being not to upset them. Once though, Victoria had referred to the stretcher as a throne and Penny, who loved anything to do with fairytales, had decided that she rather liked it.

      Penny insisted on moving onto the stretcher herself and Julia took a moment to check that she had all of Penny’s favourite things to bring along. They were very used to a ‘quick trip’ to Paddington’s turning into a longer stay.

      ‘Ready for the off?’ Victoria asked, and Penny gave her regular thumbs up.

      Spring was a little way off just yet, and so even though it was only early in the evening, it was dark outside.

      ‘Are you just starting or finishing?’ Julia asked as Victoria took her seat in the back of the ambulance with them.

      ‘Just finishing,’ Victoria said.

      ‘Have you got anything planned for tonight?’

      ‘Not really,’ Victoria answered, and turned her focus to Penny.

      In fact, Victoria was going out on a date.

      A second one.

      And she was wondering why she’d agreed to it when the first hadn’t been particularly great.

      Oh, that’s right, she and Glen had been chatting and he had suggested that she expected too much from a first date.

      Not that she said any of this to Julia.

      Victoria gave nothing away.

      She was very discerning in her dealings with people. She was confident yet approachable, friendly but not too much.

      The patients didn’t mind; in fact, they liked her professionalism.

      Socially, she did well, though tended to let others talk about themselves.

      Victoria relied on no one.

      She and Glen had worked together for two years and it had taken a long time for Victoria to discuss her private life even a little with him. Glen was a family man, with a big moon face that smiled rather than took offence at Victoria’s sometimes brusque ways, and he loved to talk. He was happily married to Hayley and they had four hundred children.

      Well, four.

      But while Glen chatted away about his wife and children and the little details of his day, Victoria didn’t. Certainly she wasn’t going to open up to her patient’s mother about her love-life.

      Or lack of it.

      Julia, as she often did, told Penny a story as the ambulance made its way through the Friday rush hour traffic. They weren’t using lights and sirens; there was no need to, and Penny was too used to them to want the drama.

      ‘I think it looks like a magical castle,’ Penny said as Paddington Children’s Hospital came into view.

      The Victorian redbrick building was turreted and Victoria found herself smiling at Penny’s description.

      She had thought the same when she was growing up.

      Victoria could remember sitting in the back seat of her father’s car as he dashed to get to whatever urgent matter was waiting for him at work.

      ‘That’s because it is a magical castle,’ Victoria said, and Penny smiled.

      ‘It’s her second home,’ Julia said.

      It had been Victoria’s second home too.

      She knew every corridor and nook. The turret that Penny was gazing at could be accessed from a door behind the patient files in Reception, and had once been Victoria’s favourite space.

      She would sneak in when no one was looking and climb up the spiral stairs and there she would dance, or dream, or simply play pretend.

      On occasion she still did.

      Well, no longer did she play pretend, but every now and then Victoria would slip away unnoticed and look out to the view of London that she somehow felt was her own.

      ‘Such a shame they’re closing it down.’ Julia sighed.

      ‘It’s not definite,’ Victoria said, though not with conviction. It looked as if the plan to merge Paddington’s with Riverside, a large modern hospital on the outskirts of the city, would be going ahead.

      There was a quiet protest taking place outside, which had been going for a few days now, with protestors waving their placards to save the hospital.

      Victoria’s father now worked at Riverside. The only real conversations she had ever had with him were about work. The function she had attended yesterday had been for an award for him, and in a conversation afterwards Victoria had gleaned that it really did seem the merger was going to go ahead.

      Of course, the beautiful old Paddington’s building was prime real estate.

      As always, it came down to money.

      ‘I don’t want it to close,’ Penny said as they pulled up under the bright lights of the ambulance bay outside Accident and Emergency. ‘I feel safe here.’

      And Penny’s words seemed to twist something inside Victoria.

      That was how she had felt as a child whenever she was left here.

      Yes, left.

      Her father’s quick check-in at work often turned into hours but, though alone, and though lonely, here Victoria had always felt safe.

      ‘I don’t want it to close,’ Penny said again.

      ‘I know that you don’t.’ Victoria nodded. ‘But Riverside is a gorgeous hospital and the staff there are lovely too.’

      ‘It’s not the same.’ Penny shook her head and there were tears in her grey eyes.

      ‘You don’t have to worry about all that now,’ Victoria soothed. ‘It might not happen.’

      She wished