"Are you two ready yet?" I heard Tim's voice from outside the bathroom. I glanced at Alice, just putting the final touches to her mascara. "Five minutes," I called. "I promise."
We emerged from the bathroom to find Tim waiting in the hall. "Wow," he blinked, "you two look even better than yesterday."
I grinned at Alice. "Panties and bra today for both of us, though - I almost feel overdressed."
Tim pretended to fan his face. "Come on, into the car, or your nursing careers really will be limited only to one patient."
"And who would that be?" I pretended utter innocence.
He rolled his eyes. "The one whose check-up you completed so... thoroughly, last night, if you remember."
Alice and I slid into the back seat of the car, nudging one another playfully. "Behave," Tim mock-warned. "I know what you two are like now."
He dropped us at the entrance to the nursing school, and Alice flashed her eyebrows at me as she kissed him. "Got to keep the story straight."
"That's not the only thing that's straight," Tim chuckled, leaving Alice with a shocked look on her face as he drove off grinning.
"Men," she shook her head. "Come on, Beth, let's get to class."
"Remember," I said as we walked down the corridor, "our objective is to study hard, get good marks, have everybody know we're totally serious about this."
"And, to drive the whole class mad with either curiosity or attraction," Alice grinned.
"Could be both," I agreed.
We walked into the classroom, finding two seats together, and glanced around. There were about a dozen people in the room, mostly young women around our age. One slightly older man sat towards the back, and I caught a flash of interest in his face. "We have one admirer already, anyway," I murmured.
The door opened again and Veronica Baines walked in, uniform perfectly creased, old-fashioned silver buckle on her belt, nurse's watch pinned precisely to her pocket. "Good morning, class. For those of you who haven't met me, my name is Veronica Baines - you are welcome to call me Ms Baines, or Matron if you wish."
She briefly outlined the course - all information that Alice and I had already picked up from the information pack - then began to give a brief history of the nursing profession. Even though quite a lot of what she said was familiar, I found myself becoming absorbed, and I blinked in surprise when Alice nudged me with her shoulder. "Earth calling Beth - break time."
We headed for the cafeteria, getting coffee before sitting down at a free table. It was obvious that a lot of the others there were students from the years above us, and most of them looked tired, one girl with her head resting on her hands trying to get a little rest.
"Mind if we join you?" I heard a voice, and looked up to see a couple of our classmates, both young women, one of them holding a tray with their drinks. "Sure, no problem."
"I'm Liz," the taller, blonde one introduced herself as she took a seat, "and this is Claire."
"Beth, and Alice."
"How are you finding it so far?" Claire queried.
"Really good," I nodded.
"Didn't we see you being dropped off this morning?" Liz asked.
Alice nodded. "That was Tim - Beth's brother, he's my boyfriend."
Claire raised her eyebrows. "There's handy."
She glanced round for a moment. "So you live in the residence, but you don't, if you get my drift..."
"Exactly," Alice grinned. "You two?"
"No such luck, yet," Liz sighed. "But we've only just got here - there are bound to be heaps of junior doctors."
"You're not local?" I asked.
"About fifteen miles away, we're both from the same little place out in the sticks."
"Ah, OK."
Liz glanced at her watch. "Wups, we should all get back - I hear Matron Baines can be a bit sharp if people aren't prompt."
"Well, great to meet you, really," Alice ventured.
"You too."
We all returned to the classroom, finding our seats, and Ms Baines continued the lecture. Finally she put down her papers and looked at us. "So we expect all of you to continue the tradition of care, hard work and skill laid down by those who have gone before you."
She looked at her watch. "So - lunch break, then you all have a tour of your assigned wards."
Lunch was sandwiches from the café, and I looked at the handout we'd been given. "Phew - we're both on the same ward. 97?"
Alice checked the coloured map from the pack. "Male surgical. OK."
We made our way to the 1960's brick-built part of the hospital, and followed the signs to the ward. As we walked through the double doors, a white-coated doctor - he looked Indian, with a neatly-trimmed beard - spotted us. He looked us up and down and nodded. "First years."
"This is Alice," I supplied, "and I'm Beth."
He smiled. "The first two letters of the alphabet. I think I'll call you Alpha and Bravo."
I exchanged a glance with Alice, but she just shrugged.
"Right, you two," the doctor continued, "it's ward round time, so you're with me."
"Not so fast, Deepak," I heard a voice behind us, and a young woman in a staff nurse's uniform walked round from behind the desk. "I'm Katharine Sparrow," she introduced herself. "Whatever Doctor Patel thinks, he doesn't own you."
She glanced at the doctor. "Though in this instance, he's right, you do need to join the ward round. He can introduce you to our current patients, give you the clinical picture, and then when he's gone off to do whatever it is doctors do, I'll take you through your duties here."
We followed Doctor Patel into the ward, and he turned into the first side room. The young man in the bed sat up gingerly. "Well, well, doc, you've finally come through for us."
He glanced from me to Alice. "Old Sparrow's pleasant enough, but she can be a bit frosty - you two are a sight for sore eyes."
The doctor cleared his throat. "Good afternoon, Mr Baxter. How are you feeling today? Still a bit sore?"
He turned to us. "Mr Baxter has recently had a bilateral vasectomy with fascial interposition - I take it you know what that is?"
Alice blinked. "The first part, yes, of course - the rest, not so much."
"Check your textbook and I'll ask again tomorrow," he directed.
"So," he continued, "fortunately this is a straightforward procedure and Mr Baxter has not experienced any complications. But we're keeping him in for a couple of days to monitor sperm count, motility, that sort of thing."
Our patient didn't seem to mind what I counted as quite intimate details being discussed with us, and I decided this was my first lesson in my new vocation. "What exactly do Alice and I have to do, to take care of Mr Baxter?"
Doctor Patel glanced toward the corridor. "Nurse Sparrow will of course be more specific. But generally you'll take observations - pulse, blood pressure, monitor fluid intake, everything that's on the chart." He indicated the clipboard hanging at the end of the bed.
"What about -" Alice hesitated. "Bedpans and stuff."
"I can manage the bathroom," our patient chipped in hastily. "And please, call me Phil."
Doctor Patel nodded. "Fortunately for you two, those sorts of duties are generally undertaken by the healthcare assistants. But yes, sooner or later you'll have to be involved in the more personal aspects of care."
The question I naturally wanted to ask was about exactly how our patient's sperm count was monitored - I assumed a sample was required, and for a moment my mind flicked incongruously back to yesterday evening, our teasing fantasy with Tim. But I decided to wait for our staff nurse to explain that, if at all.
"Right, let's move on," Doctor Patel instructed briskly.
"Hurry back," Phil grinned. "You two are the best thing that's happened to this place."
We toured the main ward, trying to take in the jargon that the doctor seemed to relish testing us with. "As soon as we're out of here, we're definitely going to order the fattest medical dictionary we can find," I murmured to Alice.
The rest of the patients were quite a mixture, some young, some old. One or two of them were dozing, but most of them exchanged a few words with us. The last patient we visited looked at us sourly. "Another couple of idealistic teenagers who think they're Florence Nightingale. Tell me how that works out for you."
I could tell that Alice had been stung by his words. "Don't take any notice," I reassured her. "Come on, let's see what Sparrow has to say."
The staff nurse was brisk. "So you've had Deepak's version - now let me go through what really happens for the twenty-three hours or so that the medical staff aren't breezing around the place."
Her words seemed critical, but I guessed that underneath there was a genuine respect for Doctor Patel, supported by the fact that they were on first-name terms. "Let's go and see Mr Baxter, shall we."
He looked up as we came in. "Now, Katharine, don't you dare try and make these two as cynical as you are."
She busied herself straightening his sheets, glancing down the chart. "Nurse Sparrow to you, and I'll be telling Ms Oakes and Ms Hannigan exactly what I think they need to know."
Phil grinned, throwing us a wink. "At least now I know who to look out for on the ward rota."
She glowered at him again. "Your discharge plan says that you're home the day after tomorrow, so don't get too attached to them."
The staff nurse turned to us, unwrapping a plastic cuff. "Who'd like to take his blood pressure? I assume you've not used one of these before."
"'Fraid not," I shook my head. "But I'll do it, if you show me."
Phil submitted to me clumsily rolling up the sleeve of his hospital gown, wrapping the cuff around his arm. I took the readings, and the staff nurse noted them down. "Well within normal, as usual."
"Thank you," Phil smiled at me. "You have gentle fingers."
I threw him a pleased look. "Maybe I can do that again tomorrow."
"We need to move on," the staff nurse interrupted. "Once you're familiar with everything, all the patients have to have obs twice a day."
We worked our way round the rest of the ward, and by the time we finished, I was nodding. "This is starting to make sense." Again we got a scowl from the patient in the end bed. "Hope you're putting that the right way up," and Alice winced. "Sorry."
