Chapter 10
Ten
W hen Jon returned to the fifth floor about an hour and a half later he found Steph sandwiched between Eddie and Jason.
“He scrubs up okay, doesn’t he?” joked Eddie before Jason joined in.
“Yeah, but I reckon those shoes cost as much as either of us earns in a month and the suit looks about six months money.”
Eddie looked slightly uncomfortable until Jon laughed. “Unless I had the shoes flown in from Milan on my private jet.”
Steph looked up at Jon in a grey three piece suit with a black shirt and a perfectly matched pink and grey striped tie and handkerchief before gazing down at the handmade Italian leather shoes and thought that Jason’s assessment probably wasn’t too far from the truth.
As he bent down to kiss her she suddenly realised that she must have appeared and smelt the complete opposite of him in yesterday’s crumpled clothes, without so much as a wash never mind a shower in over twenty-four hours, and then she realised that neither her hair nor her teeth had been brushed in that time either.
“Did you bring my toothbrush from yours?” she asked suddenly panicked at the prospect of inflicting her morning breath on his perfectly cleansed and fresh smelling body.
“Ah, now I could lie, but honestly, no. However, I realised when I was on my way back here so I stopped off at the supermarket and picked you one up and some toothpaste.” He passed her a bag containing a few toiletries. “But I left your work clothes in the car, but there’s a t-shirt and leggings in the bag.”
“Thank you, I might just go and try and make myself look a little more human,” she said as she headed towards the ladies toilets.
Once safely in the ladies Eddie asked, “How is she?”
Jon shrugged. “Okay I suppose. She talked about your mum quite a bit through the night.”
“Really?” Eddie sounded shocked as he drew his brother into the conversation, “She rarely talks about her, does she Jay?”
“No, not really, but it tends to be a conversation killer when you say I woke up to find my mother’s corpse lying next to me and Dad’s bit on the side told me to stop being so melodramatic for screaming ! So you can see where she’s coming from, can’t you?” Jason’s question definitely needed no answer, and if his intent was to shock Jon, then he accomplished that fully.
“Sorry,” said Eddie as Jason walked over to the partially open window and gazed out. “They both struggle with the whole Mum thing, and I think that’s because they were both there and they’re the babies so only ever really saw her ill and witnessed far more than the rest of us who’d moved out. They also have the unenviable common link that they both shortened our mum’s life considerably.”
Jon’s expression conveyed his confusion.
Eddie expanded further. “Mum was poorly when she was about five months gone with Jay and they found she had cancer. The doctors advised a termination, but she refused. She figured Jay was due soon enough and she’d start treatment as soon as he was born and he would be the last Pryor.”
“But Steph?” asked Jon.
“Yes, Steph. Mum had Jay and had a few weeks before she started treatment, and it would seem that despite my parent’s precautions my baby sister still managed to be conceived. Mum went to have some pre-chemo tests done and they found that she was pregnant. The doctors told her she had to get rid of the baby, no other option and that waiting would almost certainly kill her. Even the old man begged her to get rid, but our mum was stubborn and principled and refused. Steph gets that from her.”
Despite the tragedy of it, Jon smiled and couldn’t disagree with the other man who was already continuing his story.
“So it was another year almost before she could start treatment, but she was never really free of cancer after Steph was born and her and Jay know that they were the reasons why her treatment was delayed.”
“Fuck,” cried Jon, unsure what else to say but had a strong urge to hold Steph and kiss her gently, to keep her safe forever.
“Yeah that just about sums it up. Did Steph tell you she was there when Mum died?” asked Eddie, wondering just how much Steph had shared with Jon.
“Yeah and stuff about Janice, but not about her calling her melodramatic,” admitted Jon with a greater understanding of Steph’s reaction and annoyance to Janice the previous day.
“I dunno how much she remembers, but when I got there it was about an hour after they found Mum and Steph was completely hysterical; crying, screaming, rocking in a corner, literally and when the doctor turned up to see Mum she saw Steph first and sedated her. I don’t know what Janice said to her, or the context of it, but Steph was in a bad way and it affected her badly.”
“It must be hard for you all, your dad and Janice.”
“It’s a bit weird. We all had letters from Mum and she liked Janice, I mean she’s a nice woman. The old man told me that him and Janice had tried to avoid ending up together, and I believe him. The thing is that we all know that our parents loved each other and Dad lost his wife a very long time before she died. They were the real deal, the sort of marriage you strive for and life cheated them of the life they deserved. We loved our mum and we still love our dad and want him to be happy. Mum wanted him to be happy.”
Jon nodded, words sticking in his throat, refusing to come out and be heard for several long seconds. “What do you mean, it affected her badly ?” Jon asked, deflecting conversation back to Steph rather than her parents.
“She went off the rails big time until she met Charlie really and we thought she was back on the straight and narrow, but he was a bit too nice really, no offence,” Eddie laughed. “And then she ended up with that dickhead Simon who was always bad news. It’s as if she thinks she only deserves a shit as a boyfriend, no offence again.”
“Bad news how?” Jon kept his voice low and quiet, aware of Jason’s presence and the fact that he seemed to be paying more attention to their conversation now.
“He earned a decent wage, but never had any money. He lived in a crappy flat in a run-down part of town, he drank too much, placed more importance on his mates than he did on Steph and honestly, I always suspected he was a bit heavy handed with her, a bully. I think her guilt over Mum told her that she deserved all he gave her. He totally took away any self-esteem she had left before she kicked him into touch and I thought he had crawled back under his rock until he turned up again and gave her grief before he cracked her head open that day at Charlie’s,” said Eddie as Jason joined them.
“Is that the scuffle she told me about? That fucking knob cracked her head open? I will fucking kill him!” shouted Jason angrily as he seemed ready to storm out.
“Calm down, Jay, please. Steph can’t come out here and find you like this,” said Eddie firmly as Steph reappeared devoid of any make-up, but fresh faced, with teeth and hair brushed wearing the leggings and white t-shirt Jon had brought her along with a pair of white plimsolls he’d also thrown into the bag.
“Feeling a bit more human, darling?” Jon kissed the top of her head.
“Yes, thank you.” She turned to Jason. “You okay Jay? Is Dad okay?” Panic caused a hitch in her voice.
“Yeah, yeah, fine sis. Did somebody mention breakfast?” Jason was now changing the subject.
“Sounds like a plan to me. We missed out on dinner last night,” said Jon as a man of around fifty appeared behind them dressed in a pair of black trousers, white shirt and black and white striped tie.
“Are you here for Mr Pryor?”
“Yes,” they all answered in stereo and turned to face the greying man who stood at around six feet.
“Ah, Jonathan Brooker. I believe it’s you I have to thank for my four a.m. alarm call this morning.” He didn’t sound entirely amused, but he still wore a slight smile.
“Yes, your registrar was unable to commit fully to the Pryor family meeting with you today, so I felt obligated,” explained Jon.
“Yes, well, my wife did not appreciate your father’s early morning call, but I am here now, so can we meet at say . . .” He looked at his watch . . . “Erm, eight thirty? Sorry, lack of sleep makes me forget my manners, I am your father’s consultant, Angus Wright.” He extended a hand to them all in turn before heading towards the ward. “Eight thirty, Mr Brooker or I will be giving your number to my wife!”
As the door to the ward slammed behind him Steph stared wide-eyed at Jon as did her equally confused brothers.
“What have you done?” she asked.
“I’d have thought that was quite obvious, I have gotten you an eight thirty appointment with your father’s consultant,” he replied as he moved on swiftly. “But first breakfast.”
They were all sitting in the hospital canteen and the three men had almost cleared their plates while Steph continued to push the full English around her plate managing to eat very little.
“Come on, sis, eat up,” encouraged Eddie.
“Or pass it this way,” said Jason, smiling, but not joking.
“You need to eat, Steph. If you don’t want that let me get you something else,” said Jon seriously.
“I’m not hungry,” she protested.
“You must be and even if you’re not you still need to eat,” insisted Jon firmly. “When did you last eat?”
“Breakfast yesterday, although I did have a muffin with my coffee yesterday about half two,” she said as though this would be sufficient to avoid any further discussion on breakfast.
“You have to eat something, so say what you want.” Jon stared at her, oblivious to the presence of anyone else until Jason spoke to him.
“If she doesn’t want to eat leave her alone or are you a bully too?” Jason was preparing to get to his feet, his whole demeanour confirming his agitation.
“Jay!” cried Eddie as Jon turned to face Jason.
“No, I am not a fucking bully, but I happen to care about your sister and she needs looking after and that includes making sure she eats because she will be no good to anyone if she makes herself ill by not eating,” Jon said indignantly.
“Sorry.” Jason headed over to the window that overlooked the car park.
“Come on, darling, what do you want to eat?” Jon looked at his watch. “We’ve got about twenty minutes before you meet with the consultant.”
“I’m going to take Jay for a breath of fresh air and we’ll meet you back up there,” said Eddie as he got up.
“Will yoghurt and a banana be enough to make you happy?” Steph asked Jon.
“Anything, as long as you eat it,” he said as he strode off back to the counter and returned a couple of minutes later with a banana and a strawberry yoghurt. “Do you think I bully you?” he asked seriously as he lay the food in front of her.
“No. You are a bossy git, but not a bully and I know you only do what you think is right for me,” she told him.
“Good because I do want to take care of you, not bully you.” He studied her expression as if gauging whether her words and the sentiment of them were genuine. “Right, you eat and I will talk and I believe we agreed to a summary of my family. I have a mum and a dad, a brother and a sister, my sister, Alexandra is older by two years and my brother Craig is younger by two. My dad is an oncologist and Mum is a GP and they met and fell in love at uni but divorced about eight years ago when Dad started an affair with an anaesthetist at the hospital where he works. Mum realised what was going on and threw him out and his affair ended soon afterwards, but he then met a younger, beautiful woman who worked for one of the big cancer charities and he married her just over a year ago. My mum remarried two years ago, another GP, and they both seem very happy. My sister is married to a vicar and they have three kids, Craig is unmarried, but lives with an artist, Zelda who you’d like, she is a free spirit and usually says completely the wrong thing at the wrong moment, although we’re unsure if she really is called Zelda or whether it’s just a nickname.”
“So how come you didn’t become a doctor?” She smiled at the thought of him wafting around a hospital with every nurse in the building hanging off his every word, much as she was.
“It was what my parents wanted, but I hate the sight of blood for one thing, but Craig is a physio so one of us went into medicine at least.”
“You would have made a very dashing doctor,” mused Steph.
“You need to stop flirting with me because I have missed you a great deal,” he told her, grinning.
“And you love me.” They both paused briefly as she made the first reference either of them had to love since he’d said it the previous day.
“Yes, and you love me too as I recall.” Jon did nothing to fight his smile as he watched Steph eating the last of her yoghurt.
“Yes,” she agreed and then changed the subject. “So, why did you feel the need to wake my dad’s consultant up this morning?”
“Because his registrar was unable to commit to a meeting, so I called my dad and asked if he knew Mr Wright the neurosurgeon and he did, although I was just checking his credentials, but when Dad said he knew Angus and he offered to call him, I went with it. Although I think my dad thought he could wait until daylight to call him.”
“But you had other ideas?” She smiled across at the beautiful man opposite her, the control freak, never take no for an answer force of nature that she loved with every fibre of her body.
“Too right, now eat your banana,” he said, suddenly bossy again.
She peeled the banana and as she held the tip of the fruit against her lips seductively, he shook his head at her and squinted his eyes. “You, Miss Pryor are very naughty.”
“I thought that’s the way you liked me?” she asked feigning innocence.
“It does have a certain attraction, but not here and not now. Come on, I am sure Angus won’t wait around for us.” He was already getting to his feet and taking her hand as she followed his lead.
They arrived back on the fifth floor and found Jason and Eddie standing together and almost immediately Mr Wright appeared with Chris.
“Very prompt, I like that,” said Angus Wright holding the door to the ward open and gestured for Steph to walk through it first.
“Yes, Miss Pryor and I both share your distaste for lateness,” Jon told him as he followed them through to the small office on the ward where they’d sat with Dr Patterson earlier that morning.
They all sat around a small coffee table as Mr Wright began discussing Roger’s condition.
“I think Chris explained earlier this morning that ideally we would like to monitor Roger for a while longer rather than jumping in surgically and he is stable so that is still our intention. The brain is a strange thing and can endure horrific injuries and just bounce back, however there are times when the injury seems relatively minor and the effects are huge. All things considered, it is incredibly hard for us to be precise in terms of a prognosis, so, I personally err on the side of caution and frustratingly for you I tend to be quite guarded.” He smiled at Steph and then gazed across at Eddie and Jason.
Mr Wright continued to answer questions and where he could, reassured everyone. He discussed possible and probable treatments that might be necessary but remained as guarded as he’d warned them he would be. After the questions and answers appeared to have finished, a silence hung in the air as everyone absorbed the details. Steph bowed her head and rested it in her hands as she sighed loudly.
“Should we stay here?” asked Eddie confused by all of the information they now had, much of it contradictory.
“You would be unable to remain on the ward until visiting time, but you could wait outside if you want to. I am sorry that I can’t be more specific, but everyone is different and although your father is stable, you can’t underestimate the injuries he incurred, the most concerning for us would be the skull fracture and the swelling.”
Steph looked up and sighed louder as she slumped back in her seat. Jon reached towards her but was both bewildered and irritated when Chris leaned forward and placed a hand on her knee.
He rubbed her leg gently. “You have to do what is best for you and if staying here is going to offer you some comfort, that’s great, but if that will create problems with your boss you may prefer to go to work and I will call you if there are any changes.” He smiled at her and as his hand stilled on her knee, Jon glared in disbelief whereas Mr Wright stared on with a combination of confusion and disapproval.
“You might want to consider unhanding my sister before her boyfriend has no choice but to put one on you, mate,” said Jason with mild amusement.
“Quite,” said Mr Wright, admonishing his junior.
Jon turned and spoke directly to Chris. “For your information, Dr Patterson, I am Steph’s boss, so there are no problems there. Whatever she chooses to do is entirely her choice.” He then looked across at Steph and took her hand and asked, “Darling, what do you want to do?”
Eddie, Steph and Jason discussed whether to stay at the hospital or go to work and finally decided that as her brothers didn’t have the flexibility in their roles as she did, she would remain in the hospital waiting area.
“I don’t like to think of nobody being here,” Steph told Jon, although she knew she didn’t need to explain her reasoning for remaining behind. “But I could come into the office with you and grab my laptop and work from here.”
“You don’t need to work today.” Jon released a sigh, knowing if the situation was reversed, he would need something to occupy his mind.
“No, but I think I will go crazy if I stay outside waiting on my own all day with nothing to do.”
Her reply caused his lips to curl at yet another similarity. “I could come back after my morning meetings if you want.”
“No, I’ll be fine, but I would rather have something to do.”
“Okay, darling, if that’s what you want, but I can have your laptop couriered over here if you’d rather.” Jon stroked her hair as if he was petting her like some treasured lap dog.
“Thank you.” Suddenly she became aware of everyone around them, looking at her and Jon and felt slightly embarrassed.
“I just have one thing to clarify,” started Mr Wright. “Next of kin?”
“Us,” said Eddie and then expanded on the details. “Our father is a widower and although he does have a girlfriend, Janice Porter, she does not co-habit with him on a full time basis and they have no legal tie, so in the absence of him nominating her to act as his next of kin, that would be us, his children and we are all on good terms and in contact.”
“That’s good to know, so as it will be Miss Pryor here today she will act on your father’s behalf and in the event of any consent being needed it would be her I would talk to?” asked the consultant.
“Yes,” said Jason and Eddie in stereo.
“Right then, I should get on and let you do the same.” The senior doctor turned to Jon. “I had a chat with your father about some combined efforts and he told me to call Lucy but I appear to have lost her number, so could you ask the beautiful lady to give me a call?”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll ring her when I get to the office,” agreed Jon and wished Angus had waited until they were alone to ask that particular question when he looked at Steph’s sad and embarrassed face and finally her back as she left followed by Jason and Eddie.
Jon glared as Chris appeared to be about to follow them so called to him, “Dr Patterson, a word of warning; I realise that you dated my girlfriend during your uni days, but they are over and in the event that you continue to make eyes at her and to touch her, I will not hesitate in asking Angus to remove you from Roger’s care as you would have a clear conflict of interest. Oh, and her brother wasn’t entirely right when he suggested that I would put one on you because I was actually considering laying you out cold. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes,” Chris replied petulantly under Angus’ gaze.
“I do hope so,” said Jon as he shook Angus’ hand. “I will call Lucy as soon as I can and I’ll see you later.”
“What the fuck are you playing at?” asked Angus angrily as Jon left the office.
Jon paused for a second on the other side of the door to ensure Angus was as firm with his junior as he’d hoped.
“Nothing, we’re old friends,” replied Chris.
“No, Chris. She is a young, beautiful and very sexy young lady that you apparently dated in the past, but she is no longer yours. She belongs to possibly the singularly richest businessman in the country, certainly the richest person that actively supports work and research into our field and the charities that underpin it all. So I am telling you now, Jonathan Brooker laying you out cold and having you moved off Mr Pryor’s case is the very least of your worries here. If you so much as look at Miss Pryor with any more interest than you would one of her brothers I will kick your arse out of here and bury you in filing until you retire, do I make myself clear?” he asked recycling Jon’s earlier question.
“Crystal,” was Chris’ only response.
“I do hope so!” said Angus and as it became clear that the conversation was over, Jon hurried off the ward happy with what he’d heard to find Steph sitting alone in the waiting area.