‘Sure!’ Nina choked back the sudden tears that were threatening. ‘I could use a coffee.’
Nina waited till they were well away from the cubicle before she spoke. ‘Jack, what’s going on?’
‘Just come in here and have a seat, Nina.’
‘You think I did it.’
‘Nina.’ He shook his head. ‘Not for a second did it enter my head that you’d hurt your sister.’ Then he was honest. ‘I did wonder why she didn’t want to spend a night with you, but I think we both know that I don’t jump to conclusions.’
He didn’t know whether to tell her just yet, but at that moment a nurse popped her head out. ‘Jack, Janey wants you to be in there when she speaks to Lewis.’
Nina stood.
‘She wants me,’ Jack said.
‘Why not me?’ Nina demanded. ‘Why can’t she speak to me?’
‘Because she’s been trying to spare your feelings,’ Jack said. ‘Because she doesn’t love me and she knows I’m not going to get upset or angry or do anything rash, so just have a seat, Nina, and I’ll be back to you as soon as I can.’
‘Have you any idea how hard this is?’ she demanded. ‘You gave me no clue. All weekend you never gave a hint you were going to do this.’
‘I didn’t know then,’ Jack said, and he was just so matter-of-fact and calm about everything. ‘Nina, she said something in the car that I can’t ignore but, please, you just have to trust that I am doing the very best I can for both you and Janey, and right now that means that I’ve got to go.’
It killed Nina to sit there not knowing what was going on. What on earth had Janey said in the car? Had she threatened to self-harm or was she doing drugs? She’d certainly been withdrawn at times. Or maybe she was pregnant? Nina sat there for what felt like an eternity before Jack finally returned, his face grim. He gave her a thin smile and then took a seat next to her.
‘She’s fine.’
Nina blew out her breath. ‘But?’
Jack looked at her tense face and the bundle of passion that was Nina and didn’t blame Janey a bit for not wanting to be the one to tell her.
‘Barbara, her foster-mother, has got a new boyfriend, Vince …’
‘Oh, God!’ Nina stood. She just wanted to dash out there, to be with Janey, but again Jack was stern.
‘Sit down, Nina, you need to hear this. First of all, nothing has happened, well, not what you’re dreading, at least I don’t think so, but you need to listen and then calm down and then you can go in and speak to Janey.’
‘So he hasn’t touched her?’
‘He’s tried to.’
Jack was very calm and annoyingly matter-of-fact, but sadly he dealt with this type of problem all too often, and though it was upsetting a cool head was needed. Jack was very good at that, except as he went through it with Nina he felt his anger starting to rise, an anger that he had to work hard to keep in check. The detachment that made this job easier for Jack was dissipating by the moment as he told Nina all that had happened.
‘When you took Blake inside, she got very angry with me, told me I didn’t care, that I’d made things harder for Blake, all that sort of thing.’ Nina nodded, because that sounded very like Janey. ‘Then she said I was up myself with my flash car and my good looks …’ Nina frowned. ‘Then she made a couple of suggestions and I told her that if she carried on like that I would get out of the car and go and get you.’
‘Suggestions?’
‘She was testing me, Nina, being deliberately provocative, and when I was having no part of it she broke down and started to cry. You know teenage girls do that sometimes, and most guys in an authoritative position know how to deal with that.’
Nina started to cry, because of all the things she’d dreaded hearing, this was the one she’d dreaded the most.
‘Vince has been coming in to say goodnight to her.’ Nina started to retch and he handed her the bin as she struggled to take breaths. She heard stuff like this every day, but it killed her to think it had happened to Janey. ‘She didn’t like it and she told Barbara, but then she got told off, because Barbara said it was nice that her boyfriend was making an effort. He’s been creeping Janey out and she felt that she had to start getting dressed in the bathroom, because he was always finding an excuse to come into her room. Even when she was sent to bed early, or late, or whatever, he’d come in. He’s tried a couple of times to kiss her, made a few inappropriate comments, and basically she’s been fending him off.’
‘I’ll kill him.’ Nina could hardly breathe. She wanted to go there right now, right this minute, and she told Jack exactly what she’d do when she got there. Jack just sat there as she ranted on for a while till she got back to Janey. ‘Why couldn’t she tell me?’
‘Because she didn’t want to watch you retching into a bin, because she knew you’d get upset and feel guilty, that you’d think it was your fault …’
‘It is, though,’ Nina sobbed. ‘It’s my job to protect—’
‘Nina!’ Jack was firm. ‘You are not allowed to have your sister as a client for a very good reason. Right now the hospital social worker is coming down to see her, and it will all be dealt with properly. The main thing is, she is not going back there.’
‘Can I speak to her?’
‘In a moment, when you’ve calmed down.’
It actually took more than a moment for Nina to calm down. She couldn’t stop crying and Lewis came in and had a word with her and confirmed all that Jack had said. ‘She’s fine, just relieved that she’s told someone. In fact, she’s more worried about you.’
‘I’ve calmed down now,’ Nina said, and she looked at Jack. ‘I’m actually glad that she told you. I’d have reacted terribly. It’s just impossible to think of it as another job. It’s different when it’s your family.’
‘Of course it is,’ Jack said. ‘You should go and see her.’
Nina nodded.
She was determined to be calm when she walked in there, but she burst into tears when she cuddled Janey, and Janey burst into tears too. After a few minutes they calmed down and a while later, Jack popped his head in.
‘How are things?’
‘Better,’ Janey said, and then her eyes filled up with fresh tears. ‘I’m sorry for all the things I said.’
‘Yeah, well, you had a good reason,’ Jack said. ‘But what’s wrong with my car?’
Janey even managed her first laugh since her arrival at Angel’s. ‘How was she when you told her?’ Janey nodded in the direction of Nina.
‘Pretty much as you’d expect!’
‘I am here,’ Nina said. ‘I took it quite well.’
‘Oh, God!’ Jack impersonated her, and Janey smiled. ‘I handed her the bin …’
‘I wasn’t that bad.’
‘You were fine.’ Jack smiled.
‘Thank you,’ Nina said. He really had been marvellous. ‘We’re going to be here ages, so you might as well go home. Thank you so much for everything.’
‘I’ll stick around for a while.’
‘You really don’t have to.’
‘It’s fine.’
It was a very long night. Things like this were dealt with thoroughly and given that Barbara had two other foster-children, Child Protection went around to speak with the family, but Vince was out and Barbara angrily denied there had been anything inappropriate taking place, Nina was informed by her friend and colleague. ‘She’s very angry with Janey,’ Lorianna told her. ‘The usual stuff, but don’t worry …’
‘I want my sister and my brother in my care.’
‘It sounds as if Blake is doing fine.’
‘No!’ Nina said. ‘Blake is not fine, Blake is being looked after but he’s not being loved. He’s clingy and needy and he needs to be with his family.’
Jack listened to her fighting for her brother and sister, saw the determination in Nina’s eyes and that she would not back off, would not wait for the department to take its time. This was going to be dealt with, and soon,
she told Lorianna.
Jack went and got a drink from the water cooler and just stood and looked around the familiar department, except everything felt unfamiliar. He was glad to be there, glad to have helped, and despite Nina insisting that he go home, Jack actually didn’t want to, he really wanted to be here and see things through.
‘I thought you were off.’ Alex caught up with him at the water cooler. ‘How come you’re here?’
‘Personal stuff,’ Jack said, but it was more than personal, it actually felt like family—better than family, in fact.
No one tried to spare anyone’s feelings in his family. There were, Jack had long since concluded, no feelings to spare.
Imagine Nina when she met his family—she’d run a mile, Jack knew it. Still, he wasn’t going to talk about that with Alex. Instead, he asked about another young patient who, thanks to a certain young woman, had been on his mind of late.
‘How’s Tommy doing?’
‘He’s had a good weekend,’ Alex said. ‘They’re starting the treatment tomorrow and hopefully there will be a good response. We should be able to buy him some time.’
‘Surgery?’
Alex grimaced. ‘I think time is all we can hope for.’
‘But do you think it could be an option …’ Jack knew he was pushing things, knew what Alex’s problem was, but Alex wasn’t in the mood to open up either. ‘You’ve done similar surgery before.’
‘Thanks for that, Jack,’ Alex snapped, but still Jack wouldn’t back off.
‘If you want to talk …’
‘Again—thanks.’
‘I mean it, Alex.’
But Alex stalked off. Jack had clearly got to him, but just as he was pondering how better to discuss things, Jack was distracted by an irate man storming through the department. ‘Where is she?’ Security was pulling him back, keeping him well away from the patients, and Jack walked over to the waiting room where the man was still ranting. Unable to calm him down, Security took him outside.
‘She’s a lying bitch,’ he shouted, and Jack looked at him, felt the anger he’d never felt before slowly building. ‘Janey’s a liar, I never laid a finger on her …’
And while Jack should have been thinking about his career, the newspapers, the hospital, his role, none of that entered his head. Instead, he just stared at the piece of filth that had tried to touch Nina’s little sister and as detached and dispassionate as he could be at times, tonight just wasn’t one of those times.
‘It was her that came on to me,’ Vince shouted, ‘flaunting her …’ He didn’t get to finish.
Jack’s fist met his jaw, and two rather startled security guards had to let Vince go. After all, they could hardly hold him as the Head of Paediatrics hit him.
And that was what greeted Nina’s eyes when she walked outside.
Vince sprang and lunged at Jack, who met him with his fist again, and Nina stood there just a little bit torn, because she abhorred violence, there really was no place for it in Nina’s book, but seeing Jack’s fist mid swing and one blackening eye, seeing someone for the first time truly fighting for her family, seeing Jack doing to Vince what she could have so easily done herself, she was hard placed not to stand there cheering.
Still, the fight was broken up quickly and when Vince shouted he that was going to press charges, Nina saw a very different Jack from the one she thought she knew. He was being held back by Security, telling Vince to go ahead, that he was looking forward to seeing him in court where he could explain himself …
Of course there was no chance of keeping things quiet.
Not a hope. It was all around the hospital by the time Jack’s closing eye was being treated with an ice pack and even though Nina had tried to keep it from Janey, of course gossip was rife in the corridors and she’d heard people talking.
‘Did he hit him?’ Janey was sitting on a hospital trolley and was absolutely delighted. ‘Did Jack really hit him? That’s brilliant!’
‘It is so not brilliant,’ Nina scolded. ‘There’s no excuse for violence.’
And there would be ramifications for it too, Nina fretted when she had a word with Lewis a little later. ‘Do you think he’ll get into trouble?’
‘Who, Jack?’ Lewis shook his head. ‘Not a chance. Really, it’s the other guy who needs to be worried. I tell you, I cheered inside. Sometimes in this job you’d love to forget the law …’
‘I know,’ Nina said. ‘Except we don’t!’ She really couldn’t get her head around it, but Lewis was talking about Janey now.
‘I’ve spoken to Social Services and given you already have reprieve access with her, we could send Janey home with you tonight, but I’ve spoken at length with Lorianna and we both agree that if we do a case meeting in the morning, once they’ve spoken with Blake’s case worker, it might just push things along. It’s not the hospital department we’re dealing with, but we might stand more of a chance of moving things along than you’ll have once Janey is home.’
‘I know.’
‘So let’s keep Janey here and we’ll roll the ball a bit harder tomorrow morning.’
He’d been marvellous and again Nina thanked him, before going in to say goodnight to Janey. Jack stood with his keys, trying not to yawn as she said goodbye.
‘Jack’s going to give me a lift home. We both need to get some rest. It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow,’ Nina said, and she saw the worry return to Janey’s face.
‘And I am going to do everything I can to make sure that you and Blake are home with me as soon as possible.’
‘Do you think it will happen? Do you think we’ll all be together?’ Janey asked, and Nina thought for a moment, not as a frantic sister but as the social worker she was. She was their sister who finally had a three-bedroomed flat, an older sister who, though it would be incredibly strained financially, actually could support them, there were no protective issues, the children wanted to be there and finally, after all these years, Nina was able to look her sister in the eye and give her real hope.
‘I do,’ Nina said. ‘I actually do.’ And she gave Janey a cuddle, knew that nothing was guaranteed, but for the first time Nina allowed herself to get excited. She didn’t say it, didn’t want to make a promise that she might not get to keep, but she thought it. Janey, I swear you and Blake are coming home to me.
Jack was quiet on the drive home and quiet again when she told him he could just drop her off there.
‘I want to talk to you, Nina.’
He followed her in.
‘Thanks again for tonight—’
‘Things will get sorted now,’ Jack said. ‘I’m sorry Janey had to go through all that …’ He saw her struggle to blink back the tears, moved in to hold her, but she shrugged him off.
‘I’m really not up for talking, Jack.’
‘Fair enough.’ His mouth grazed hers, his eyes open and watching hers close, not in bliss but in reluctant acceptance.
He felt her tongue in his mouth and her hands move down to his crotch, he heard her fake moan to arouse when she realised that he wasn’t hard, and if Jack had been angry before, he was furious now.
‘Don’t …’ She heard the anger in his voice as he removed her hand. ‘Don’t you ever just go through the motions with me.’
He saw the burn on her cheeks as his fury built inside and he struggled to contain it.
‘Did I earn it tonight?’ Jack asked, and he struggled not to shout. ‘Are you just trying to get it over and done with?’
‘Leave if you don’t like it.’
And he saw her gutter mouth come out for him, because that was where she’d almost been, saw the scared angry kid she had once been. ‘When you say you haven’t had a relationship for a long time …’ She pushed past him, but he caught her. ‘When was the last time you had sex, Nina?’
‘Friday night, from memory.’ She opened the door. ‘Just leave.’
‘Before then,’ Jack said. ‘Before us.’
Nina stood holding the doo
r open, but Jack would not move.
‘A while.’ Nina shrugged.
‘Oh, I think it was a while,’ Jack said. ‘I’d say about six years. Is that what the pro bono centre did for you? They got you off the streets …’
‘I wasn’t a hooker, Jack,’ she snarled, ‘if that’s what you’re thinking.’ He saw all the anger shooting from her eyes and it was merited. ‘But there can be a lot of favours to pay for sleeping on a friend’s couch …’ And then she started to cry.
‘And was I the first since that time?’ She just stood there.
‘What was I supposed to say?’ Nina shouted. ‘That you’re the first person I’ve even considered fancying, that for two years I’ve had a thing for you …?’ She just looked at him. ‘You’d have run a mile.’
Jack didn’t know how to deal with this. He just stood there confused, because it had been so much more than sex that night.
‘Can you please leave?’ she said when he walked over to her. ‘I mean it,’ she said, still holding the door. ‘Jack, can you leave?’
And, given what she’d just told him, Jack had no choice but to respect her wishes, no choice really but to do as she asked and leave.
Jack was angry.
More than angry and there wasn’t even an actual person he could pin it on. He had been angry enough with what had happened to Janey, but that it had happened to Nina, that there hadn’t been an older sister looking out for her, that she had been left to her own devices had Jack’s mind working overtime.
There was no one he could speak to about it either.
Jack tried to imagine the reaction of his parents if he tried to talk about what had happened with Nina.
The sneers, the turning up of their noses.
But he knew that the last thing Nina needed was to see that. He had to deal with this himself, had to work out how best to handle it.
Nina’s cheeks fired the next morning when she saw him in the corridor and she just brushed past him. They fired up again a few hours later when her intercom buzzed and Jack was at her door.
And she blushed even more when he sat in the chair where she’d, er, once approached him. And then he did the impossible, just as he had the first time he’d come to her office. Jack made her laugh.
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