Thursday

Becky felt sick. She was sooo tired.

It had been 45 minutes past her shift when she had finally left Jacks room.

She'd missed the last 12.15am bus and had to pay time and a half for a taxi.

But, as much as he hoped Jack wouldn't remember his ramblings from last night, she knew she would happily sit there again with him.......she felt silly at how quickly she'd left. He hadn't even known what he was saying.

-

As promised Liam had picked up a bacon butty for her and she sat in the staff room devouring it with the fresh cup of tea he'd made her.

"Can we grab lunch together babes?"

"Of course, you ok?" She eyed him up and down, he looked just as tired as she felt. It was sure to be a bad sign. But before she could ask anymore, Sue burst in calling them to sort themselves out for handover.

-

"Good morning" Becky greeted Jack. He smiled dosily at her.

"Mornin' beautiful"

Becky froze.

"Sorry....I don'.....I didn't mean...."

"It's ok" Becky smiled, brushing it off "how do you feel?"

"Betta" he said firmly. And looking at him she felt relieved that he looked a lot better.

"Thanks......." He continued

"For what?"

"Last night, stayin' with me"

"It is my job"

"But ya were 'ere so late"

"I just did a crossover shift, I do get paid" she laughed.

"Yeah, but I know ya stayed afta ya shift, the nurse in 'ere this mornin' doin' me meds was sayin' ya notes were at least half hour afta ya shoulda gone......Why'd ya stay?"

"You asked me too, you were poorly, I would have stayed with anyone that asked Jack"

He looked at her, Becky felt slightly uncomfortable, his eye contact was intense

"I'm glad ya did, I thought I might die at one point y'know"

"I know you were feeling bad, so it's good you're feeling better now!"

"I need a piss......" He suddenly says urgently.

Becky helped him to his feet, and placed a hand on his lower back for support, bringing the IV trolley with them as they crossed the room to the private bathroom.

"Right, I'll wait outside the door, shout if you need me" Becky left him alone and took the opportunity to tidy the bed and open a window. She noticed he hadn't even opened his cornflakes.

The door opened and Becky helped him manoeuvre across the room back to the bed.

"Jack I'm a bit worried about how little your eating?" She coaxed.

He wrinkled his nose up at her. "I fuckin' hate cornflakes"

"Ah you're supposed to choose your breakfast with your evening meal, you were too unwell....." Becky pulled the menu for today from his tray, "choose your lunch and tea from here, I'm going to take charge here and say I think you should order from the light menu"

Jack raised an eyebrow "love a girl that knows how t'take charge"

"Choose something!" She said sternly. Prompting him to laugh. His laugh was contagious and she found it impossible not to smile.

He finally chose a jacket potato for lunch and chicken sandwich for tea.

"Right, what can I get you to eat now? Toast? We've got some selection pack cereals in the staffroom"

Jack's face lit up. "Ya got Coco pops?"

"Yeah I think so......you want Coco pops?"

"Bab I'd love ya foreva if ya got me some Coco pops"

Becky shook her head at him "I'll see what I can do"

Mid morning Becky was on the desk writing out notes after the Dr had finished his rounds.

Dr Adams was back on duty and was impressed with how quickly Jack had responded to the antibiotics, he had requested a fresh blood sample go off in the late afternoon sample run, but had told Jack he didn't envisage Jack being in past the weekend.

The door buzzer went disturbing Becky from her writing. Kirsty was on the phone so Becky peered over to see one of the security team there for Jack hovering. She pressed the intercom "hi?"

"Verified visitor for patient in room 3"

Jack's name was not allowed to be used outside of his room.

"Er, visiting is at 3..." Becky said, not hiding her annoyance, the security guy knew that.

"This is an approved visitor, please can you let him in?"

"Who is it, I'll check, visiting times are set for a reason" Becky wasn't going to be told to just let someone in on this guy's say so.

"Tell him it's Pep"

"Pep?" Becky repeated

"That's what I said" he said sharply down the intercom.

Becky nudged Kirsty who was still on the phone.

"Yeah I'm on hold what's up?"

"Pep, room 3?" Becky asked her.

"Oh shit, sorry meant to say, he's his manager.....he's allowed in, if room 3 is happy to see him"

Becky huffed, now she felt like a twat.

She got up and marched into Jacks room, knowing it was tiredness making her so agitated. Jack's head snapped up from his phone at how abruptly the door opened. "Ya ok?"

"Yes, there's a Pep here to see you?"

Jack's eyes went wide "Peps here?"

"Yes! Pep! Seriously I feel like I've said that name a million times, is it even a real name?"

Jack broke into a beaming smile "yeah, he's Spanish en'he!"

Becky went to let him in, she led him to Jack's room "so, he looks ok, but he's actually fighting the sepsis infection at the moment, he's actually quite poorly so be mindful of how tired he'll be"

Pep nodded at her "yes, and I'm sure Jack is enjoying all the lovely nurses looking after him no?" Becky frowned at him.

"Jack use the call button if you need anything"

"Yeah, o'course, actually can I have some more water?"

As Becky picked up the jug Pep clocked the empty Coco pops box to the side of Jack.

"Jack!" He exclaimed before looking at Becky "this is a professional footballer, an athlete! He's here to heal, to repair yes? And you give him a child's cereal full of sugar?"

Becky glared between Jack and Pep.

Jack spoke "gaffer nah, I was reeeeeally ill last night, I didn't order breakfast an' they said I jus' needed to eat summat......"

"Jack I'm joking with you" Pep smiled.

When Becky returned with the fresh water jug, Pep was smiling and Jack was laughing lightly holding his side to try to prevent the pain in his ribs.

"Nurse, this bag is for the staff looking after Jack here, I'm sure you deserve medals putting up with my class clown here, but I hope this will do in the meantime"

Becky took the heavy paper bag, she also noted the exotic looking fruit basket that had been placed on Jack's table.

"Thank you, that's very kind"

Becky took the bag to the desk "oh my god, there's like hundreds of pounds worth of hotel Chocolat stuff here!"

Liam and Sue appeared behind her "oh my god, chocolate from the best football manager in the world and my bloody ex reckons nursing isn't a decent job!"

"Ex?" Sue and Becky exclaimed at the same time before exchanging glances as Liam disapeared into room 2.

"I'm having lunch with him in a bit, I'll chat to him" Becky assured Sue.

-

"Ere Becky! My wife said last night that there's security guards outside the ward" John said as Becky changed his dressing.

"No there's not" said Becky, denial seemed to be the official way to handle any discussion of Jack on the ward still.

"There is pet, I know you can't say so I'm telling you that I know that there is" he lowered his voice and motioned for Becky to lean closer to him. "So that must mean that our lad Jacky Grealish is in one of them side rooms out there"

"He's not" Becky sighed

"He is pet, you know he is, all I'm asking" oh here we go she thought to herself, "all I want, is for you to ask the lad for an autograph, for me grandson like?"

Becky looked at him. "John, I can't because he's not here.......but, I'll ask around to see if anyone knows if he's elsewhere in the hospital yeah?"

"You little beauty" he smiled at her.

-

Becky took Jack's painkillers into him.

He was pushing his jacket potato around on his plate, but at least he had eaten some of it.

"If it's any consolation I'm off to the staff canteen now and it's really not that much better" she told him.

He looked up at her "ya not gonna force me to eat it all are ya?"

She smiled "no, you've done alright. Can I check your temperature and blood pressure?"

"Yeah ya can do wot ya want to me....." Becky tried to ignore his tone, but then he raised his eyebrows and looked right at her eyes, "ya don' even hafta ask me....." But just at the point it could sound sleazy from anyone else he breaks into that ridiculous cheesy grin.

"I bet you actually get away with murder you don't you?"

Jack watched as she did his obs and switched his IV bags over.

She yawned. "Oh god I'm so sorry that's so rude of me!"

"Nah, don' ya like superhuman or summat you lot.......nice to see ya not a robot"

The look he gave her......suddenly the position of his hand as she fiddled with his cannula felt very close to her breast. The eye contact went on for a little too long. He was daring her, she knew he wasnt going to break the eye contact first.

This wasn't ok. She looked away, putting his hand down.

"It's my lunch break now so I'll be off the ward for a bit. I recommend you get some rest before your family get here. I'll need to take some more blood from you just before 4"

Jack nodded, but he still hadn't looked away.

-

Becky and Liam sat in a quiet corner of the staff canteen.

"What's going on Liam?"

"It's over with Matt, literally there's nothing left. I'm moving out at the weekend"

"Oh Liam, are you ok? Have you got somewhere to go?" She gently rubbed his hand across the table.

"Yeah it's cool, a friend needed a housemate so it's worked out, actually fancy coming round Saturday night after work? We're having a bit of a 'welcome to the house party' for me"

"I can't, I'm working Sunday"

Liam looked stunned "are you fucking kidding me babes? We go back on nights Monday!"

"I know, but it's our short week, it's fine, I need the money"

Liam shook his head at her. He knew she was just rubbish at saying no.

-

3.30pm

Becky had briefly seen Jacks parents arrive with his brother, but hadn't been available to accompany Dr Adams filling them in.

Becky entered Jacks room with the supplies she needed for his blood sample. She walked into one of her absolute pet peeves. A relative reading the chart from the end of the bed.

"You ok there? Any questions? Do you understand what you are looking at?" Becky asked Mrs Grealish.

The woman turned to Becky "I do understand it actually love, thank you"

"Good good" replied Becky, "right Jack you ok for me to take your bloods now?"

"Yeah go for it Becky, like I sez, ya don' hafta ask" his eyes bore into her. She felt her face flush and hated herself for it.

"You ok me doing it with your family here?"

"Ya can do anythin' ya want t'me with me family 'ere"

She tried to ignore him.

It was the worst blood sample she had ever done.

She had his family watching her hands at his arm, which she was trying so hard to keep steady because he was just staring at her face. Intensely staring at her face.

She became hyper aware of everything.

Their closeness, his arm resting on the pillow against her chest.

The way her gloved fingers held his skin taught trying to reduce any bruising.

She felt aware of how she swallowed.

How often she blinked.

Aware of how naked she felt without make up, having skipped it for an extra ten minutes in bed this morning.

"All done" she finally announced.

"I barely felt a thing" he said, his voice suddenly husky.

"I'll get this off to the lab, I'll let you know when the results come back"

"Thank you Becky" he winked at her.

He fucking winked at her.

7pm

"Do you want the good news?" Becky asked as she stood at Jacks bed.

"Yeah" he smiled

"Your infection markers have dropped considerably, so I can take this drip away and you can continue your antibiotics orally"

"Cool so can ya take the cannula out?"

"Yep, ready for me to do it now?"

Again Jack watched her face rather than her hands. But at least this time he chats, making it less intense.

"So when d'ya reckon I can go home?"

"Saturday I reckon, I think you'd have been home today if it hadn't been for the sepsis. Your head scan was all fine, Dr Adams told you what you look out for with regards to dizziness and headaches?"

"Yeah....."

"The rest, you're just as well resting at home than here"

"Doc said I'm not gonna be playing probably for a couple of months"

"The thing with internal injuries is just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they've gone away, even after your bruises have all faded, you'll not be fully healed inside."

He took a deep shaky breath. When Becky looked up at his face, he looked emotional.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm jus' bein' soft"

"Jack, you had surgery on Sunday, you were sedated until Tuesday morning, you've had a major infection....... you're going to be feeling wonky for a while" she said softly. Instinctively she held his hand, an action she'd done thousands of times, but this time the action sent a bolt of lightning through her.

The way Jacks eyes suddenly snapped to hers proved he felt it too.

I'll see you tomorrow she told him softly as she left the room.