Ward Rounds

Eyes Of Italia

'You're worthless.'
'You're unlovable.'
'She's such a difficult child.'
'Why do you think your mother abandoned you?'
'We don't want you either.'
'Ha ha! Jackie's crying!'

Jac Naylor's blue-green eyes flashed open and she gasped for a breath of air.
Another nightmare.
She cursed herself under her breath, a patient yesterday had thought they'd known her mother and had insisted on asking pointless and frankly annoying questions about the woman. Jac hadn't known, and had no intention of finding out. But the event had given her nightmares.
She must've woken up at least 3 times that night, sweating and angry. She'd forced herself back to sleep each time but now it was so close to her alarm she supposed she may as well get up.
Jac huffed to herself as she untangled her legs from her Egyptian cotton covers. She had at least a whole blissful hour before Emma woke up, which meant she could get her breakfast in peace.
As she padded along her landing towards the stairs she heard a mournful cry from her little girls room.
"Mummy... Mummy...," the little child's voice was distressed and the redhead darted into her daughters room, her maternal instincts taking her a little by surprise.
She'd never really imagined herself as a mother, but here she was; sat in the middle of a deep sea themed room, holding her sobbing daughter into her arms like she was the most precious person in the world, promising her there were no monsters under her little bed.
                                  •••
Bzzzzzzzzzz.
Zosia woke with a start as her alarm sounded. She stretched out an arm and hit the off button, sending her phone flying off the cabinet. She rubbed her eyes and thanked God she didn't join Ollie and Mo for Albies drinks the night before. She had only just managed to catch up on the sleep she'd lost doing her night shift and she would've felt awful if she'd had another late night. She grabbed a hair bobble from her cluttered beside table and sat up in her checkered pyjamas as she scraped the long strands into a ponytail.
                                 •••

Ollie arrived at work on time, by some kind of miracle after last night. Not a bad hangover, but still a hangover. He downed some paracetamol and rolled his striking blue eyes as he saw the formidable face of Ms Naylor walking towards him.  The consultant stared at him as she approached.
"I would've thought you would know better than to come onto my ward with a hangover Valentine."
Ollie winced at the volume of her criticism, and muttered "sorry, won't happen again."
Jac turned and strode to her office, as Zosia ran over to her, a thick patient file stowed under her arm.
"Ms Naylor? I... Uh... Can you give me a second opinion on this patient please?"
"No" Jac entered the office and slammed the door in Zosia's face.
From inside she heard the muffled call of, "ask the bloody alcoholic over there."
Matteo sauntered past the closed door, and smirked at the brunette's confused face, "she means Dr Valentine." He directed his attention to Oliver, who was completing obs on his patient, leaving the young woman to sort her files.
"Ah, Oliver. Surely you know that alcohol is the work of the devil?" His deep velvet voice spoke the words perfectly, and as this was met with a small, confused nod he continued, "it is a shame the devil is so good at mixing flavours, no?"
He smiled broadly and squeezed Dr Valentines strong shoulder before sweeping elegantly over to the nurses station.
"Forever the charmer hey Rossini." Mo laid back in the chair and twiddled a pen between her fingers, "you'll have to teach me your tricks, and pass me a chocolate would you."
Matteo smiled as he fished around in the box of quality streets for a plain one, "you know, I think all the men in England must be stupid. You should have a queue of men waiting for you and doting of your every word, begging you just to look at them. You are a beautiful woman Maureen..."
Jac appeared out of seemingly nowhere and butted in, "Do you not have any work to do Rossini?"
She glared at him until he moved, tossing a chocolate at Mo on his way.
Jac raised her eyebrows, in his wake and muttered under her breath, "bloody Rossini."
Mo smirked, "he's not that bad! I think you feel threatened, never had any competition at the top have you Naylor?"
Jac's eyes flashed with shock and she inhaled sharply, how could the dratted woman read her so easily.
She realised she still hadn't replied, so she settled for an icy "nothing of the sort." In an attempt to pull herself back together.
Mo watched her leave and screwed up her face in confusion, Jac Naylor had almost looked insecure- the woman who only cared about her patients once they where under anaesthetic and on her operating table. Still Mo supposed it was nothing- a trick of the light maybe- and twisted the silver foil off her chocolate, popping it into her mouth as she swivelled her chair around to face the computer.
•••

Matteo grabbed his stethoscope and ran for the bed in bay 2, which was the bed currently occupied by Mrs Williams, a reasonably wealthy, middle aged woman with dark brown hair and and tanned skin. The heart monitor clipped to her finger was beeping wildly and the screen read 'O'.
He ran to the side of the bed and began CPR.
"Cardiac arrest! Probably VF, get Ms Naylor in here now please," he reeled off to a nurse. "Get a defibrillator please. We're going to have to get a pacemaker in her today."
Nurses scurried off in all directions, collecting equipment and alerting staff.
Matteo grabbed the defibrillator pads and stuck them to the patients body, he then charged the machine and held the metal to her chest.
Thankfully after just one shock her pulse was back, and he hooked up a 12 lead ECG.
"V-Fib, just as I thought." He began unhooking the wires, "right, page theatre, tell them we have an emergency case, who was scheduled for tomorrow, Mrs Williams, Cardiomyopathy. Got that?" The nurse nodded and he smiled at her, waving her away, "go, go. We like to keep patients alive here, no?"
•••

Jac burst out of the theatre doors and pulled her cap off. She shoved it in her scrub pocket and made to head off when Matteo strutted through after her.
"Good work Mrs Naylor." He said, his Italian accent strong.
"Ms." Jac corrected, glaring at him.
With that she strode of down the corridor, pulling her long hair out of its tight bun.
Matteo pulled his own cap off and smiled to himself, rubbing his neat black beard.
"freddo ghiaccio" he exclaimed and followed her down the corridor.

A/N
freddo ghiaccio = ice cold
I hope you like the new story, it is hopefully better than my others. I'm busy writing a second chapter for this, a jasia story and a Zollie one! Anyway- this is meant to be like an episode of holby bug just the Darwin teams parts. The net chapter will be from the next 'episode' and so on. They will link but it won't be a complete day to day story. Enjoy!
Eloise