Paddington Children's Hospital Complete Collection. Kate Hardy

      ‘Hayley says that she doesn’t want anything. She just wants...’ Glen hesitated and then changed whatever he had been about to say. ‘I’m getting her an eternity ring. Sapphire and diamonds.’

      ‘That sounds gorgeous,’ Victoria said. ‘So what does she really want?’ She looked over to Glen, who concentrated on the road ahead, but Victoria could guess exactly what Hayley wanted and Glen knew it.

      ‘Leave it, Victoria.’

      Victoria would not.

      ‘How did you pull up after the school fire?’ she asked.

      ‘I’m fine. They got everyone out.’

      Victoria knew that Glen was stressed. They had been crewmates for two years now. Though it had taken her a while to open up, even a little bit, Glen had been open right from the start.

      He was friendly and laid-back and brilliant at his job, but recently things had changed.

      They had been called out to a motor vehicle accident a couple of months ago and taken a very sick child to Paddington’s, where she had subsequently died.

      Some jobs were harder than others and Glen had taken this one very personally indeed. The little girl had been the same age as his daughter and the accident had occurred on a road that his wife often took.

      It was a couple of weeks after that that Victoria had noticed the change in him. Instead of his usual laid-back self, he was tense at times and kept calling home to check with Hayley that everything was okay.

      Despite Glen’s insistence that he was fine, Victoria was sure that Hayley wanted Glen to speak to one of the counsellors made available to them, but Glen steadfastly refused to do so.

      She would wait for her moment, Victoria decided, and, in the meantime, keep a bit of a closer eye on him.

      ‘Your flowers were nice,’ Glen said.

      ‘Beautiful,’ Victoria agreed.

      Which they were, of course, but what was niggling her was that there had been a thud of disappointment that the flowers weren’t from Dominic and this unsettled her.

      It was a busy morning and just as they were starting to think about lunch they were called out to a woman who had collapsed in a shop.

      ‘I haven’t got time to go to hospital,’ the woman protested as she lay there. Her daughter was with her and was upset, and as they were transferring her mother to the ambulance, they found out that it was her ninth birthday.

      ‘No school today?’ Glen asked the little girl.

      ‘She’s goes to Westbourne Grove,’ her mother said.

      Victoria looked over and gave the young girl a smile. ‘You’re having a bit of a time of it, aren’t you?’

      The girl nodded. ‘My friend Ryan is very sick.’

      ‘That must be so hard for you,’ Victoria said.

      They took her and her mother to Riverside but once they had settled them in, and just as they were making up the stretcher, Victoria saw her father walking into the department.

      He gave her a very cool look. ‘Victoria.’

      She gave him a small nod back and let out a breath when he had passed.

      ‘Who’s that?’ Glen asked, but Victoria just gave a noncommittal shrug as if she wasn’t really sure who the man who had just passed was.

      She wasn’t going to tell Glen that it was her father.

      Glen chatted about his family all the time and, though it drove Victoria bonkers on occasion, she liked the glimpses of family life and was embarrassed by the state of her own.

      They were just starting to think about lunch again when Dispatch asked if they could transfer a patient from Riverside’s children’s ward to the burns unit at Paddington’s.

      The burns unit had been stretched to capacity by the fire but a bed had opened up and a very sweet little girl called Amber was, this morning, on her way to join the others at the Castle.

      ‘Hello, Amber,’ Victoria said when she met her.

      She had a deep burn on her hand, arm and shoulder that was going to require grafting. Amber became teary when she saw the stretcher.

      ‘It’s no problem,’ Glen said. ‘We can take you to the ambulance in a wheelchair if you prefer.’

      That seemed to cheer her up and so they fetched a wheelchair and the small problem was solved, but she became distressed again when she saw the ambulance. No doubt Amber was remembering the pain she had been in the last time, and remembered the fear of the lights and sirens.

      ‘I’m going to make you a chicken to keep you company,’ Glen said, and Victoria smiled as he pulled out a rubber glove and blew it up.

      He was very good with the little children and knew how to amuse and distract them with antics, such as this one, and Victoria tended to leave that side of things to him.

      Soon enough, Amber was holding her ‘chicken’ and seated in the ambulance, and the transfer went smoothly. As they made their way up to the burns ward she saw Dominic coming down the corridor and walking towards them.

      He wasn’t in scrubs; he was in a suit and tie and, to Victoria’s mind, looked impossibly handsome.

      Did she nod and say hi? Victoria wondered, but Dominic dealt with that—he nodded a greeting to them both and Victoria gave a brief smile back.

      Glen was a bit cheeky. ‘Direct Admission,’ he said as they passed. ‘We’re taking her straight to the ward.’

      ‘That’s what I like to see,’ Dominic called back.

      It was just a little dig, a small exchange, but hearing his voice and dry response made Victoria smile and feel a bit hot in the face.

      The burns unit was busy but they made Amber very welcome.

      ‘Hello there.’ Matthew, the burns specialist, smiled to Amber as she was wheeled in. ‘I’m Matt.’

      As Glen and Victoria wheeled Amber into her side room, Matthew had a brief chat with the girl’s mother but she soon joined them.

      ‘It’s good to be at the Castle,’ she admitted, clearly relieved and reassured to be at the famed hospital. ‘Amber, you’ve got a couple of friends here already.’

      ‘It’s just like being back at school.’ Victoria smiled.

      Soon the little girl was settled and they could head off. It was incredibly warm on the burns unit as the temperature was kept high for the patients, but it made for hot work. Victoria would be very glad to get out of there, but first she had a small chat with Matt, who had spoken at the Save Paddington’s meeting.

      ‘Still being kept busy?’ Victoria asked.

      He nodded. ‘I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon. I meant what I said about it being good that the fire happened so close to us. It made all the difference to some of these children. Did you bring in Simon?’

      ‘Simon?’ Victoria frowned and then shook her head.

      ‘The little boy from the foster home?’ Glen asked, because he knew about all the patients, and Matt nodded.

      ‘No, that was another crew. How’s he doing?’ Glen asked while Victoria was overheating.

      ‘I need a drink,’ she said, and left them to it. Glen would stand chatting for ages and it really was terribly warm in there.

      The drinks machine wasn’t working but as they passed the canteen Glen nudged her.

      ‘We’ll get lunch,’ he said.

      And she couldn’t really protest. There was no stretcher to take back to the vehicle and