Knight on the Children's Ward by Carol Marinelli

Caroline’s scolding and then went to warm up a bottle for a screaming baby. Only when he was fed, changed and settled did she pull up the cot-side and let herself think.
    Oh, she didn’t need to run it by Elsie.
    Ross had certainly been flirting.
    And Annika had loved it.

CHAPTER FIVE
    â€˜I DON’T want a needle.’
    Hannah was ten and scared.
    She had flushed cheeks from crying, and from the virus that her body was struggling to fight, and Annika’s heart went out to her, because the little girl had had enough.
    Oh, she wasn’t desperately ill, but she was sick and tired and wanted to be left alone. However, her IV site was due for a change, and even though cream had been applied an hour ago, so that she wouldn’t feel it, she was scared and yet, Annika realised, just wanted it to be over and done with.
    So too did Annika.
    Ross was putting the IV in.
    â€˜I’ll be in in a moment,’ he had said, popping his head around the treatment room door—and Annika had nodded and carried on chatting with Hannah, but she was exhausted from the hyper-vigilant state he put her in. She knew he was in a difficult position; he was a consultant, she a student nurse—albeit a mature one. She also knew a relationship was absolutely the last thingshe needed. Chaos abounded in her life; there was just so much to sort out.
    Yet she wanted him.
    Â 
    Elsie, when Annika had discussed it with her, had huffed and puffed that it should be Ross who asked her out, Ross who should take her out dancing. But things were different now, Annika had pointed out, and she’d already said no to him once.
    â€˜Ask him,’ Cecil had said when she had taken him in his evening drink. He had a nip of brandy each night, and always asked for another one. ‘You lot say you want equal rights, but only when it suits you. Why should he risk his job?’
    â€˜Risk his job?’
    â€˜For harassing you?’ Cecil said stoutly. ‘He’s already asked you and you said no—if you’ve changed your mind, then bloody well ask him. Stop playing games.’
    â€˜How do you know all this?’ Annika had demanded, and then gone straight to Elsie’s room. ‘That was a secret.’
    â€˜I’ve got dementia.’ Elsie huffed. ‘You can’t expect me to keep a secret.’
    â€˜You cunning witch!’ Annika said, and Elsie laughed.
    She hadn’t just told Cecil either!
    Half of the residents were asking for updates, and then sulking when Annika reported that there were none.
    So, when Ross had asked her to bring Hannah up to the treatment room to have her IV bung replaced, even though Cassie had offered to do it for her, Annika had bitten the bullet. Now she was trying to talk to her patient.
    â€˜The cream we have put on your arm means that you won’t feel it.’
    â€˜I just don’t like it.’
    â€˜I know,’ Annika said, ‘but once it is done you can go back to bed and have a nice rest and you won’t be worrying about it any more. Dr Ross is very gentle.’
    â€˜I am.’
    She hadn’t heard him come in, and she gave him a small smile as she turned around to greet him.
    â€˜Hannah’s nervous.’
    â€˜I bet you are,’ Ross said to his patient. ‘You had a tough time of it in Emergency, didn’t you? Hannah was too sick to wait for the anaesthetic cream to work,’ he explained to Annika, but really for the little girl’s benefit, ‘and she was also so ill that her veins were hard to find, so the doctor had to have a few goes.’
    â€˜It hurt,’ Hannah gulped.
    â€˜I know it did.’ Ross was checking the trolley and making sure everything was set up before he commenced. Hannah was lying down, but she looked as if at any moment she might jump off the treatment bed. ‘But the doctor in Emergency wasn’t a children’s doctor…’ Ross winked to Hannah, ‘I’m