Chapter 4

Hannah spent the last days of September getting organized. She got to know where the local shops were, she worked out the easiest public transport to the hospital and she arranged for a bank account, a UK SIM card for her cell phone and so on. She even remembered to tell people about the new number. She had not brought her computer over, only a backup disk. The PC was too heavy, so it would cost more than it was worth to have it sent. Besides George had promised there would be a PC in the apartment. There was and it was nice (of course!), but when she tried to get it working she had difficulties getting her stuff from her own computer on it and she missed her Skype setup and some of her net-handles.

Friday was the 1st of October and her first official day at work. She reported herself to the personnel office and was taken up to the ward to meet the duty matron and some of her new colleagues. Hospitals wards are always busy; intensive care units especially so and there can sometimes be very little time for social niceties, but luckily Hannah knew that from her experience at home and she was not put off by it. She made a point of seizing every quiet moment to introduce herself and get a sense of the way things were organised and how the hierarchy worked. It took her a day or two to realise that there was not one but two neonatal ICU wards. This was primarily for administrative reasons, but also because smaller units are safer. The two wards shared management and some senior specialised staff, but were otherwise quite separate.

After a couple of days Hannah started to worry. She didn't like the atmosphere at 'her' ward much; everyone seemed tense and closed in and serious. It was serious work - working with critically ill babies is quite possibly the hardest field in all of medicine, but for precisely that reason a warm, collegial atmosphere is imperative. With so much heart-ache, and let's face it, quite a few of the patients have a very brief life, you need to support one another. But that was not the case in 'Left Ward', as it was internally known (for the simple reason that you turned left from the main stairs to get to it), and Hannah, used to getting to know her colleagues in a matter of days and used to being liked - she had a sunny disposition and was quite frankly pleasant to behold - felt she was out on deep water.

After a week she felt she knew no-one and while she recognized good nursing and medical work, it was not a happy place to be. What got to her most was the attitude towards the parents. In her work back in Australia, it had always been the policy to give the parents as much access to the babies as could be medically justified and make them feel as included as at all possible. In many sad cases, this was the only time they would ever get with a much wanted child; Hannah felt that the staff owed them compassion, sympathy and respect, but they got neither. The nursing staff offered next to nothing, always looking like they were checking over their shoulder for their superiors. And the medical staff was just awful.

No-one more so than a Dr. Gregory Alexander Hamilton-Smythe. His attitude to parents was condescending and unpleasant, leaving them with the impression that they were a nuisance and their offspring an inconvenience. To add insult to injury, he was a sexist bastard with an overdeveloped sense of his own qualities. He was around 30 and quite good looking in an arrogant public school boy way, and in his mind, he was God's gift to women - junior nurses in particular. He immediately hit on Hannah, making all kinds of unwelcome innuendo. Of course it hadn't helped that, after having introduced himself with his full name and titles, he added "but I like my friends to call me Greg."

'No way! I will do no such thing, ' a horrified Hannah thought to herself, although she only offered a reserved "I don't think that would be appropriate Dr. Hamilton-Smythe."

But the barrage went on. Hannah learnt that he was divorced (that didn't surprise her), supposedly in a new relationship (that did), and still he made hints and suggestions, using every opportunity to stand close to Hannah and touch her. She hated it and started swapping shifts to try to avoid being on duty at the same time as him. Being available to take the less popular shifts - and why not, she had no private life - was popular with the other nurses, but it rarely got her more than a hesitant smile or a hasty 'thank you'.

So when George - and Colin - made good the promise to come over in late October, Hannah was not a happy camper and George sensed it. She wasn't able to have very much time with them due to her shifts, but she did manage to talk to George - who had fixed her computer problems in minutes, by the way, and gently chided her for not asking him before - and she admitted that a big London hospital was possibly not quite so pleasant to work at as the hospitals back home. In his usual gentle way he coaxed the story out of her. "I know different places have different work-cultures, but this ward gets to me. And what's worse, I don't feel I learn anything," she finished.

"Have you tried talking to the medical staff about it?" George asked. Hannah's look startled him. "Honey, did I say something wrong?" he asked, all concerned.

Hannah apologized and listed Dr. Hamilton-Smythe's litany of inequities. George smiled wryly. "I can't blame him for finding you attractive. Any sane heterosexual male would - and putting you in a nurse's uniform is probably just the icing on the cake," he grinned and Hannah - reluctantly - grinned back. "But he should shut up with his innuendo when you are so obviously not interested, and he should especially keep his grubby hands off you. Tell him so, and if it doesn't help, tell his boss."

"Yeah," Hannah said. "I thought about that. The chief matron and the professor are both very kind and professional, but I'm just a junior nurse and I've haven't even been here a month yet. I don't want to lose my job."

"Hannah, sweetheart!" George said. "There are other hospitals. You still have your recommendation from home. If you say you wanted to change because of sexual harassment then you should be OK."

"I know," she sighed, "but this is supposed to be the best place in London. I so want to learn more."

They had to end the conversation there - Hannah had a night shift and she wouldn't be back until George and Colin had left. The farewell hug turned into a tight embrace. Hannah couldn't let go. "I miss you so," she said. "I so wish you lived here too."

His kiss was avuncular, but there was a deep longing in his voice when he replied. "I wish that too sweetheart." Hannah ran off to make it to work on time.

George was sufficiently worried that he called Joanna from Norway the next evening. "That sounds pretty bad," Joanna said. "She is not the kind of girl you get 'down' easily. I'll give her a ring and ask her over for dinner."

"Thanks," George said, "I hoped you would."

"The only reason I haven't done it before is that I thought it would give her a little time to settle in," Joanna said almost defensively.

"Jo," George replied, using a nick-name reserved for only the most intimate situations. "Stop apologising. You hardly know the girl. You don't owe her anything."

"I know George, I know," Joanna said. "But I like her. Besides I promised Helen I would look after you lot. That includes Hannah. I know Helen loved her too."

George was silent for a while. When it had become obvious that his wife's lifespan should be counted in days or perhaps even hours, rather than months or weeks, he had called Joanna. She had flown over at once and just exactly made it. Their farewell had been the last time Helen was conscious. Joanna had stayed and was with George and the kids when Helen died the following day. That kind of bond doesn't break easily.

Hannah was happy with the invitation and if she suspected George had a hand in it, it didn't worry her but rather made her appreciate him even more - if that was possible. The kids were over the moon seeing her again and looked up to her like a much older sister. The evening was pleasant and Hannah was happier than she had been in a long time. "Have you heard from George," Catherine asked when they got a moment together alone in her room while her younger siblings were being put to bed.

"Not since he and Colin where here the other week," Hannah replied. "And I didn't get to spend very much time with them because I had to work."

"I know. And we had to go to school - lucky Colin; he had holidays!" Catherine said. "But they did come to visit for my birthday."

"He is looking a bit better, isn't he?" Hannah said, meaning George, not Colin. She had noted that George had filled out a bit. Just a little, but he didn't look sickly thin anymore.

"Yes!" Catherine replied happily, understanding her perfectly. "And he seemed much happier." Then in a more sombre mood, she added "Nell noted it too."

"Who is Nell?" Hannah asked quickly.

"One of Mum's friends," Catherine replied. "She is divorced and very keen on George."

"And is George... ?" Hannah started. She couldn't make herself finish the question, but Catherine answered anyway.