LITMIR.BIZ

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fine.’

      ‘No!’ Nina said. ‘Blake is not fine, Blake is being looked after but he’s not being loved. He’s clingy and needy and he needs to be with his family.’

      Jack listened to her fighting for her brother and sister, saw the determination in Nina’s eyes and that she would not back off, would not wait for the department to take its time. This was going to be dealt with, and soon, she told Lorianna.

      Jack went and got a drink from the water cooler and just stood and looked around the familiar department, except everything felt unfamiliar. He was glad to be there, glad to have helped, and despite Nina insisting that he go home, Jack actually didn’t want to, he really wanted to be here and see things through.

      ‘I thought you were off.’ Alex caught up with him at the water cooler. ‘How come you’re here?’

      ‘Personal stuff,’ Jack said, but it was more than personal, it actually felt like family—better than family, in fact.

      No one tried to spare anyone’s feelings in his family. There were, Jack had long since concluded, no feelings to spare.

      Imagine Nina when she met his family—she’d run a mile, Jack knew it. Still, he wasn’t going to talk about that with Alex. Instead, he asked about another young patient who, thanks to a certain young woman, had been on his mind of late.

      ‘How’s Tommy doing?’

      ‘He’s had a good weekend,’ Alex said. ‘They’re starting the treatment tomorrow and hopefully there will be a good response. We should be able to buy him some time.’

      ‘Surgery?’

      Alex grimaced. ‘I think time is all we can hope for.’

      ‘But do you think it could be an option …’ Jack knew he was pushing things, knew what Alex’s problem was, but Alex wasn’t in the mood to open up either. ‘You’ve done similar surgery before.’

      ‘Thanks for that, Jack,’ Alex snapped, but still Jack wouldn’t back off.

      ‘If you want to talk …’

      ‘Again—thanks.’

      ‘I mean it, Alex.’

      But Alex stalked off. Jack had clearly got to him, but just as he was pondering how better to discuss things, Jack was distracted by an irate man storming through the department. ‘Where is she?’ Security was pulling him back, keeping him well away from the patients, and Jack walked over to the waiting room where the man was still ranting. Unable to calm him down, Security took him outside.

      ‘She’s a lying bitch,’ he shouted, and Jack looked at him, felt the anger he’d never felt before slowly building. ‘Janey’s a liar, I never laid a finger on her …’

      And while Jack should have been thinking about his career, the newspapers, the hospital, his role, none of that entered his head. Instead, he just stared at the piece of filth that had tried to touch Nina’s little sister and as detached and dispassionate as he could be at times, tonight just wasn’t one of those times.

      ‘It was her that came on to me,’ Vince shouted, ‘flaunting her …’ He didn’t get to finish.

      Jack’s fist met his jaw, and two rather startled security guards had to let Vince go. After all, they could hardly hold him as the Head of Paediatrics hit him.

      And that was what greeted Nina’s eyes when she walked outside.

      Vince sprang and lunged at Jack, who met him with his fist again, and Nina stood there just a little bit torn, because she abhorred violence, there really was no place for it in Nina’s book, but seeing Jack’s fist mid swing and one blackening eye, seeing someone for the first time truly fighting for her family, seeing Jack doing to Vince what she could have so easily done herself, she was hard placed not to stand there cheering.

      Still, the fight was broken up quickly and when Vince shouted he that was going to press charges, Nina saw a very different Jack from the one she thought she knew. He was being held back by Security, telling Vince to go ahead, that he was looking forward to seeing him in court where he could explain himself …

      Of course there was no chance of keeping things quiet.

      Not a hope. It was all around the hospital by the time Jack’s closing eye was being treated with an ice pack and even though Nina had tried to keep it from Janey, of course gossip was rife in the corridors and she’d heard people talking.

      ‘Did he hit him?’ Janey was sitting on a hospital trolley and was absolutely delighted. ‘Did Jack really hit him? That’s brilliant!’

      ‘It is so not brilliant,’ Nina scolded. ‘There’s no excuse for violence.’

      And there would be ramifications for it too, Nina fretted when she had a word with Lewis a little later. ‘Do you think he’ll get into trouble?’

      ‘Who, Jack?’ Lewis shook his head. ‘Not a chance. Really, it’s the other guy who needs to be worried. I tell you, I cheered inside. Sometimes in this job you’d love to forget the law …’

      ‘I know,’ Nina said. ‘Except we don’t!’ She really couldn’t get her head around it, but Lewis was talking about Janey now.

      ‘I’ve spoken to Social Services and given you already have reprieve access with her, we could send Janey home with you tonight, but I’ve spoken at length with Lorianna and we both agree that if we do a case meeting in the morning, once they’ve spoken with Blake’s case worker, it might just push things along. It’s not the hospital department we’re dealing with, but we might stand more of a chance of moving things along than you’ll have once Janey is home.’

      ‘I know.’

      ‘So let’s keep Janey here and we’ll roll the ball a bit harder tomorrow morning.’

      He’d been marvellous and again Nina thanked him, before going in to say goodnight to Janey. Jack stood with his keys, trying not to yawn as she said goodbye.

      ‘Jack’s going to give me a lift home. We both need to get some rest. It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow,’ Nina said, and she saw the worry return to Janey’s face.

      ‘And I am going to do everything I can to make sure that you and Blake are home with me as soon as possible.’

      ‘Do you think it will happen? Do you think we’ll all be together?’ Janey asked, and Nina thought for a moment, not as a frantic sister but as the social worker she was. She was their sister who finally had a three-bedroomed flat, an older sister who, though it would be incredibly strained financially, actually could support them, there were no protective issues, the children wanted to be there and finally, after all these years, Nina was able to look her sister in the eye and give her real hope.

      ‘I do,’ Nina said. ‘I actually do.’ And she gave Janey a cuddle, knew that nothing was guaranteed, but for the first time Nina allowed herself to get excited. She didn’t say it, didn’t want to make a promise that she might not get to keep, but she thought it. Janey, I swear you and Blake are coming home to me.

      Jack was quiet on the drive home and quiet again when she told him he could just drop her off there.

      ‘I want to talk to you, Nina.’

      He followed her in.

      ‘Thanks again for tonight—’

      ‘Things will get sorted now,’ Jack said. ‘I’m sorry Janey had to go through all that …’ He saw her struggle to blink back the tears, moved in to hold her, but she shrugged him off.

      ‘I’m really not up for talking, Jack.’

      ‘Fair enough.’ His mouth grazed hers, his eyes open and watching hers close, not in bliss but in reluctant acceptance.

      He felt her tongue in his mouth and her hands move down to his crotch, he heard her

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