Sunday

Last night of a night shift run was Becky's worst shift, especially when it proceeded going onto days. That 'day off' in the middle in reality was always lost between the feeling of tiredness and fighting sleep and knowing you had to be up at 6am the next day.

At least Liam, Becky's partner in crime was back on shift after his holiday. They were the youngest on their shift by a good few years on the surgical and trauma ward.

They had originally met as newly qualified nurses starting at the same time downstairs in and A&E. Over the course of the next year or so they had both transferred up to the surgical and trauma ward.

It was Becky's intention to one day go back to the fast paced environment of A&E, but wanted to continue gaining the practical knowledge of care after the patients had been patched up and sent on by the emergency staff.

Liam on the other hand had discovered his passion seemed to be in the longer term rehabilitation side of things.

He adored getting to know patients, chatting to them. His friendly Yorkshire manner helped people warm to him quickly. He especially had an empathy with the more elderly patients.

He might only be 27 but Becky often teased him he was more like 72!

Becky had often worried that her own bedside manner wasn't good enough to be on a ward like this, but her senior always said that people likeed her 'nice and normal' manner, plus apparently she was approachable.

She was in the staff room for handover. It was as rushed and hectic as ever, call alarms from the ward were going off and by all accounts it had been a very busy day.

"Becky room 3" she strained to hear the senior nurse. "Young man, RTA, multiple internal injuries, half hourly obs" she listened as she was given details of injuries and surgery the patient had endured, she was handed a clipboard that had been taken from his bed, but she had no time to look before she was then updated on her beds within the bays.

As the fresh shift started to drift out of the room Becky took another look at the clipboard.

"Hey why does it say VIP by his name?"

But there was no one that had heard her.

Becky went straight to room 3 to replace the clipboard.

He was heavily sedated and sleeping. Becky quicky checked the monitor even though obs had only just been done by the day shift.

"I'll be back soon to check on you" she softly spoke outloud to her patient.

She glanced over again, she had no idea who was.

Back on the main ward Becky was delighted to see John one of her patients looking well, he had been in for nearly two weeks after a nasty work accident that saw him nearly lose his leg.

He had been very poorly due to a wound infection but was finally on the path to recovery now.

"Whose playing?" She asked him noticing he was watching football.

"Whose playing? Whose playing she's asking Des!" John called to a patient across the ward.

"Call yourself a Mancunian love?" Des laughed.

"Ah ok I'm guessing it's United then" Becky guessed seeing red tops on the pitch.

"No love!" John shook his head at her.

"Well they're wearing red?" She explained her thinking.

"That's Arsenal!" Des shouted over.

Becky took another look at the screen "ah ok city then. I don't follow football at all!" She couldn't stand it, she had no idea what the attraction was.

"So guessing you both want Arsenal to win then?" Becky cheekily commented.

"Get out lass!" John exclaimed making Becky giggle. "Although they will lose the way this is going! The news is that Grealish our number ten didn't even turn up! Of course they give it the 'unforseen circumstances' bulloocks, but we all know it's bullocks! It's all over twitter it is that he just never reported in with the team!"

Becky felt her heartbeat quicken. "What's his name again John"

"Grealish, Jack Grealish it is, good baller normally"

Becky excused herself and walked back down to room 3.

She stared at the patient's name 'Jack Grealish' so that explains the VIP on the records she thought.

Checking the time Becky checked her patients observations and duly recoded the results. She stood for a few moments watching the monitor. 'must have been some car crash' she thought to herself.

The man in front of her was battered black and blue, cuts and lacerations to his face and arms. She was familiar with the pattern of bruising and burns caused by airbags and seatbelts.

There were broken ribs, a broken collarbone, several internal injuries, including a punctured lung and swelling to the brain.

Nothing on its own too serious, but considering the surgery he'd had and the fact they'd decided sedation was the best course of action for now Becky expected him to be on her patient list for at least a week.

Scrolling through the notes further she got to the next of kin section. His parents were away on holiday and had not been contacted. His brother was also away, but on a work trip which he was cutting short and would be with them tomorrow.

"Looks like you're stuck with me until the morning Jack" Becky said out loud.

-

Becky sat in the staffroom eating buttered toast on her main break at midnight.

Liam breezed in "alright slapper! Where have you been hiding?"

"Me? Where have you been? I've not seen you all shift!"

"I had a few hours paperwork time owed"

"You've just got back from holiday, how can you be behind on paperwork already?" Becky wasn't surprised, she knew he wouldn't have got up to date before he even went.

He just grinned, knowing how well she knew him.

"So how was the holiday then?"

"Hmmm good, could have been great if Matt hadn't been there" Becky groaned internally. She had no idea why Liam and Matt were still together, because half the time they clearly hated each other. Liam told her it was all about the make up sex, but Becky failed to see how a whole relationship could be based on the concept that the making up was worth continually treating each other like shit.

"Whose is this pot noodle?" He asked head in one of the cupboards.

"No idea"

"Right mine now"

"You know you'll end up causing someone to start covering the place with passive aggressive notes about not eating other people's food!" Becky warned him.

The door opened and Kirsty one of the admin staff came in, she was just finished a 4pm-12am shift.

"Ah Kirsty, you might be able to help me" Becky started.

"What's that?"

"Room 3, my Mr Grealish, what's the story? According to John and Des in bay 6 he was supposed to be playing tonight but never turned up, and well he's here......."

Liam's eyes widened "Grealish is here?"

Becky looked at him, "you know who he is? You don't support City?"

Liam dramatically sighed at her "babes have you seen the Manchester City team??"

"He got knocked off the road by a lorry on his way to the ground, apparently the fact he was driving a big meaty range rover was his saving grace by all accounts" Kirsty revealed.

"Nasty" Becky muttered.

-

4am and all was quiet.

Most of the staff had sat down with hot drinks to write out any reports or finish any outstanding paperwork.

Becky had sat in Jacks room, mainly because he was her highest priority patient, but also if she left his door open she was still in shouting distance of the main desk, plus Jack wasn't snoring like the other patients on the bay were. The room was silent bar the occasional hiss of oxygen supplying the nasal cannula and steady beep of the monitor.

5am and one of the duty Drs popped his head around to check on Jack, he was happy with how his stats had stayed level through the night.

"Good job nurse Hayes, we'll keep him sedated, everything looks nice and stable, I'll let Dr Adams take a look in the morning"

"It is morning" Becky replied dryly.

The young Dr looked back at her "I've lost track" to be fair, he did look frazzled.

"How many hours you up to?" Becky asked him.

He looked at his watch. "One more and I hit 24, I got a quick nap at 6pm though....."

"And that is why I stopped at nursing" Becky raised her eyebrows "do you want me to make you a tea or coffee? A proper one from the staff room, not a vending machine one?"

"That would be amazing nurse Hayes" he smiled.

"It's Becky"

"Nice to meet you Becky, I'm Tim"

He shook Becky's hand.

"Right well I'll leave you here with Jack while I get you a drink, was it tea or coffee?"

"Make it a coffee, black and strong ta"

Becky bumped into Liam on her way to the staffroom "so my shift just got better!"

He followed her intrigued.

"Oooh did your Mr Grealish wake up?" He asked.

"Nooo, bless him, he isn't going to want to wake up anytime soon, I think they'll keep him sedated for a few days, no but fit Dr alert!"

She started lining the mugs up, making a drink for herself and Liam too.

"Whoooo?" Liam shrilled next to her.

"Tim? You met him?"

Liam looked vague before a look Becky had seen many, many times before flashed across his face.

"Noooo, Liam no!" Becky stamped her feet in frustration, knowing what was coming next.

"Sorry babes......though I've never snogged or shagged him......defo would though!"

"Of course you bloody would!" Becky tutted. Of course it had been too good to be true that someone could be both fit and straight around here.

-

Towards the end of her shift Becky took some cotton wool and warm water into Jacks room. She had noticed when she took his last lot of obs some fresh blood in his hairline.

She sat on the chair next to his bed and started cleaning up the dried blood, she knew full well that nurses in A&E never had enough time to do this, as much as they wished they could.

The recovery nurses normally did, but it sounds like yesterday had been a particular busy day for them too.

Liam joined her with the saline and steri strips she asked him to get. He sat the other side of her and took over gently soaking off the dried blood while Becky started cleaning the deeper cuts, checking there was no glass left in any of the wounds.

The hairline cut wasn't as deep as it had appeared, but they redressed the wound above his eyebrow.

Just as they had finished adjusting fluids and recording medicine doses Carol from day shift arrived.

Becky loved Carol, she was an older motherly woman, with grown up children older than Becky. Carol had given Becky many many much needed hugs on handover after difficult night shifts.

Carol took Jack's chart and Becky updated her.

"Right then Jack, I'm going to leave you with Carol now, you'll be in the best hands!"

With a warm smile from Carol, Becky and Liam set off for their routine end of night run breakfast.

-

Sitting in the cafe Becky sat sipping on her coffee started flicking through the paper that had been left on the table.

A headline caught her eye

Man city Star Jack Grealish in horror crash

Becky showed it to Liam. "I know, look" he said angling his phone to her "its everywhere!"

"I had no idea who he was...." Becky said as she read the comments on Liam's phone from the article that had been shared on Facebook. "Surely he'll be moved to the private hospital?" She looked at Liam

"No, I doubt it, I don't think they deal with that extent of trauma, I mean poor blokes pretty bashed....."

Becky shook her head "no, I bet anything he's moved out to a private place by the time we get back in"