Come With Me

Chapter 5

Connie had tried her best to set herself up so that she was working alongside Jacob most of the time, so that they could talk about whatever had happened between them, but he seemed so distant and unapproachable. He wouldn't talk to her, and constantly treated her as if she was just his boss, and that he'd never felt anything for her. One day, she was assigned to work with a young woman who had been helping out at a friend's wedding ceremony, and had fallen from the step ladder and broken three bones in her leg, as well as getting a deep laceration to her left thigh. The best man had come along in the ambulance with her, and it was clear as day to anyone that the couple were interested in each other, but they both seemed oblivious to it. Connie addressed to the laceration and then took Jacob out for a chat as the pair got ready to go up to X-Ray.

"What are we doing about the man?" Connie asked. "It's fairly obvious that she likes him, and they've not let go of each other yet."

"Since when were you interested in relationships?" He replied coldly.

"Don't mistake this for me being interested," she snapped back. "I simply want to get my patient up to X-Ray, and I can't do that when she's carrying a 6-foot pile of baggage along with her."

"So that's what love is, is it? Baggage?"

"That's not what I meant, and you know it. With all due respect, Staff Nurse Masters, I'd appreciate it if you could just get on with your job, rather than twisting my words to suit yourself!"

"Yeah, well, also with all due respect, Mrs Beauchamp, you can shove your job. I'm out." With that, Jacob took off his name badge and threw it across the floor, then turned around and walked away from Connie.

"Jacob!" She called, sighing in defeat. She was gobsmacked! That was the second time he had walked away from her, and Connie was starting to feel as though he hated her. He couldn't even look her straight in the eye, and he struggled to hold any form of conversation with her. She wondered what on earth she had done wrong, and felt her eyes welling up with tears. She pushed her patient documents into the arms of Cal, and stood watching the busy ED rushing around her. Lofty came past pushing a trolley with some equipment on it, and Connie just turned around as he rolled over Jacob's badge. "Nurse Chiltern, would you please watch where you're going?" She shouted, and he scuttled away after apologising, so Connie leant down and picked up the cracked name badge, looking down at it fondly. She went back to her office and sat there for a short time, looking at Jacob's name badge as if it was going to give her some great ideas on how to fix their relationship. Instead, it was just the same five letters, repeating over and over, meaning very little to her except heartbreak and anger at the moment.  Reluctantly, she stood up and left, deciding that she needed to do some work as the ED was very busy, and stuffed Jacob's badge into her pocket.

She worked throughout the day, and didn't stop for anything until her shift ended, and she walked outside to go to her bike, fastening up her leather jacket. Walking over to it, she saw Jacob perched on one of the far benches away from the ED, and decided to go over and sort through whatever it was they had going on between them.

"I didn't know you smoked," she said, creeping up behind him and seeing the puff of smoke rise over his head. She wasn't exactly an expert, but she knew that he wasn't smoking standard tobacco.

"I don't," he replied, taking another deep puff from the cigarette, without turning to look up at her.

"Good," she answered, and took a seat beside him on the bench. He had clearly been sat there all day, as he was still wearing his uniform, and his eyes were red and puffy, though Connie didn't know if it was because he'd been crying, or if it was because of drugs. "Cannabis?" She asked, and he nodded carelessly, taking another deep inhalation.