The Shy Nurse's Christmas Wish

‘How would you like to come and stay with me? I have a spare bedroom, so would be able to keep an eye on you during the night, and bring you with me for the day each morning where you could get better by resting and watching your sister and myself performing our daily tasks.’

‘Yes, maybe,’ he agreed when she suggested it, with the thought in his mind that chance might be a fine thing if the lifeboat was called out as often as it usually was at such times.

At that moment Bethany awoke and as Cordelia helped her daughter eat, Darcey went to check on the rest of her young patients and wished that Daniel was there, doing his rounds with her as he would normally be, while instead his presence had been restricted to the night hours that were going to be followed by a very busy day.
Yet typically he managed to call at the ward for a few moments in the lunch hour and was satisfied to hear that the soreness of Bethany’s lower spine was decreasing, she was in less pain and that a second X-ray had shown no further complications.

Collecting the paperwork that he had been working on during the night as his young charge had slept, he passed her the sheet on top and said, ‘Those are my instructions regarding Bethany’s treatment. If you have any problems, you will find me somewhere in the building.’

They arrived at six o’clock and have gone up to the restaurant to have a quick bite before I leave them to it, as I have a very busy day ahead in Theatre and on the wards.’

His concern for his small niece had to come first, and as if the thought had transferred itself to her, she awoke, began to cry, and it was a case of another gentle application of the soothing ointment and a cool drink before she went back to sleep.

‘I came to see how Bethany is,’ she told him, ‘and to ask if you would like me to bring you something from the restaurant.’
‘No, thanks, I’m fine,’ was the reply. ‘The nurses are keeping me fed and watered.’

With Cordelia and Lawrence totally distraught, Daniel had persuaded them to go home for a few hours while he watched over their daughter, and hadn’t even noticed when she had gone home to rest, to be ready for the coming morning in the children’s ward, where she and her staff would take over when Daniel took a break from his loving vigil.

There was a little cry of pain from Bethany and when she opened her eyes and saw him sitting there, a big tear rolled down her cheek as she said, ‘I fell and hurt my back, didn’t I, Uncle Daniel?’
‘Yes, you did, my little love,’ he said softly, ‘and I’m here to watch over you and make sure you get better very soon.’ He smiled as he gazed at her. ‘Would you like a drink and something to eat?’

Seated beside Bethany’s bed in the children’s ward, Daniel watched over his little niece with ragged calm, alert to every sound or movement that she made in spite of the medication she’d been given at the time of the accident, and when he wasn’t reliving the moment of Cordelia’s horrifying phone call he was remembering Darcey’s hurt and anger at his suggestion regarding a wedding when he hadn’t told her about him having already asked for someone to take his place on the lifeboat.