"Take over for a spell Mr Carmichael," Belle instructed as she glanced around the make-shift triage area that had been set up in in the entrance to her department. The patients already in residence had been moved to allow for space and every floor had dealt with a steady flow of newcomers ranging from the mildly injured - who had mostly complained about their waiting time - to those who were in no condition to do much of anything.
There had been one death. He had been dead before he'd even reached her floor and when his body was wheeled towards her Belle had known immediately that they were already too late, but she hadn't been able to spare the time to dwell on his demise for too long. Now though she had a few moments to herself and her body was far too exhausted to support her mind's whirling emotions - what she needed was an injection of sanity.
"Can I take refuge?" Belle asked, entirely rhetorically, as she knocked briefly and let herself into Baxter's office. "I think it might finally be under some kind of control downstairs. How're things up here?"
Making a beeline straight for the bottle Belle poured out two fingers of the amber liquid and knocked it back in one straight swig. It wasn’t especially ladylike, and even with some of the other heads of department Belle might have maintained her cool, but after so many years it was hardly worth bothering around Baxter – a man she had known since school and practically climbed the ranks with – and she doubted he would think any less of her for it.
“Merlin, I needed that,” she muttered reverentially, taking the seat opposite him and reaching to top up her glass, planning to nurse this one until she absolutely had to get back to work. “I hope Mrs Keene is prepared for how much of your time this place will eat up? I think Bernard was living in the office by the end.”
Which in hindsight may have contributed quite heavily to his heart attack but it didn't seem the time to make that point to the current incumbent in the position.
“Oh, you think that now,” Belle said with a sympathetic chuckle, leaning her elbow on the arm of the chair so she could rest her head in the cradle of her hand. To say that she was tired would be something of an understatement and only the thought of what could happen without their intervention stopped Belle from giving in to her exhaustion.
They would get through this and tomorrow they would do it all over again because they were the fools that loved it too much to get more sensible jobs. At least they had a leader that understood that as much as anyone else. Probably better than anyone at the moment.
“Seeing Rommy tonight has made me realise for the first time that she’s a proper healer you know? Before…I don’t know, it didn’t feel real to think that she did the same things I did but there she was, helping just as many people.” She smiled softly to herself, taking a good sip of her drink. “You’ll know soon enough I'm sure.”
Though she blushed at the compliment Belle waved it away. She had always hoped one of her children would follow her into the profession and had long since tried to instil in them a strong sense of empathy and desire to help others, but she had never given much thought to how it would actually feel to see them in action.
Rosamund had never been so beautiful to her.
“It’ll sneak up on you before you know it,” Belle muttered wearily, taking two less-than-ladylike but fortifying gulps of her drink before placing the empty glass on the corner of Baxter’s desk. A brief respite was all she had promised herself and if she stayed here any longer she was in serious danger of drinking too much and becoming insensible with lethargy. “I should get back. Less I start spouting more clichés that make me sound like my mother.”
Her mother had been referring to Vesta’s debut rather than Rommy’s impressive start in the working world but the point remained: she was starting to feel old.
Briefly a thought of Finnian entered her head – he was quite the talisman for fending off thoughts of becoming a matron.
“Oh, and the two of you must come over for dinner soon. Rommy will be thrilled and I have a feeling my father’s Christmas present will come in a bottle so it seems a shame to waste it all on me.”
With a final smile Belle excused herself from the director’s office, ready to return to battle.