Read Chapter 6: — A NEW DOCTOR

The nurses noticed Adrian before Lena did.

He arrived on the respiratory ward wearing goggles, an N95, and the quiet confidence of a physician who had spent years in tertiary centres where very sick people arrived without warning.

Nurse Emily Ross whispered to charge nurse Olivia Grant, “Who is that?”

“New pulmonologist.”

“Single?”

“I am literally charting oxygen requirements.”

“That wasn’t my question.”

Adrian stopped at the desk.

“Dr Adrian Shaw. Thirty-six. Unmarried. Previously in a relationship. Favourite kind of woman—”

He looked past them.

Lena was walking down the corridor reading a chart.

She saw him, stopped, and for half a second forgot how to arrange her face.

“Dr Ward,” he said.

“Dr Shaw.”

Peter Quinn appeared behind him, delighted by the coincidence.

“Excellent. You know each other. Adrian is joining us.”

Lena stared at Peter.

“Joining us?”

“Today.”

“Today today?”

“What other kind is there?”

Adrian’s eyes smiled above his mask.

“I offered to take nights.”

Peter clapped him on the shoulder. “And tonight he can shadow you.”

Lena considered whether medicine had ethical guidance on strangling a department head.

That evening, she and Adrian worked together as if eight years had been a long weekend.

They argued over oxygen escalation, agreed on imaging, finished each other’s differential diagnoses, and barely needed to speak during an emergency intubation.

Muscle memory, Lena thought bitterly, was not limited to hands.

Near midnight, Ben called.

Lena answered in the stairwell.

He denied the hotel photograph. Nothing had happened, he said. He had been drunk. Claire Palmer had taken him to a room. He did not remember the photograph being taken.

“I believe you may not remember,” Lena said.

“That means you believe me?”

“It means the photograph isn’t why we’re finished.”

Silence.

“Finished?”

“We want different lives.”

“That’s convenient now that your ex is back.”

She closed her eyes.

“This is not about Adrian.”

“Of course it is.”

“No. It’s about the fact that you keep asking me to become smaller so your life can stay exactly the same.”

Ben swore softly.

Then he said, “Come with me anyway. The city’s getting bad. My father has a jet going west tomorrow.”

“I’m working.”

“You are unbelievable.”

“No,” Lena said. “I’m finally being very clear.”

She ended the call.

Adrian was waiting one landing below.

“Accidentally overheard again?” she asked.

“I was trying to be discreet.”

“You’re terrible at it.”

“I heard enough to know I shouldn’t say anything.”

“Then don’t.”

He nodded.

For once, he obeyed.