Poppy's POV

I can't believe he just did that. He just stood there and blurted it out, not a care in the world for these men's feelings. You're going to need surgery. That one sentence could change someone's life and he just threw it out there like he was reading a newspaper article aloud. A fire grew inside me instantly, one that I was unfamiliar with, but it caused me to have an outburst. I called him outside and, thinking he'd already won, Mr Shine - or Terry as I knew him - followed me with a smirk on his face.

"Really Terry?" I began, an attitude I barely knew I had flew to the top and boiled over like a pan of water. "You've just given that man life changing news and you just threw it out there like it was a Christmas cracker joke?" My eyebrows were furrowed as I folded my arms in disgust. "This is a patient, someone who is putting their life in our hands and you can't even be bothered to treat them with respect?" Terry let out the same patronising laugh he always had done to me, so it barely affected me anymore. Out of the corner of my eye, I noted a thick mop of blond curls come back into the ward. I prayed to everything that he would hear the awful things Terry was about to say and report him. Someone needed to, he'd got away with too much shit for too long. We had a long and complicated history, but all in all I hated him and he hated me. I thought he was a bully, he thought I was a goody-two-shoes.
Back when I was training, I had a session where a group of nurses got to view surgery and how the surgeons operate - don't ask me why, they thought it was good team building - and myself and my friend, Leanne, got put with Mr Shine. He was cocky, a know-it-all with flashy gadgets and new suits but no feelings or heart. A patient was just a number and numbers meant pay checks. Obviously, I disagreed with that and from the start I was doomed. He showed us some of his cases, he told us how he had diagnosed and treated these all on their own and made himself out to be God. There was one case that had stumped him though, for a while, and he brought it up in front of us to show how only the most complicated of cases stay with him - except I knew the answer to the case. I'd known someone with the exact symptoms who had been seen by another hospital and diagnosed. When I, in front of Leanne, told him what the diagnosis was he flipped, ordering me out for backchatting him and being a smartass. I hated him for embarrassing me like that.
Anyway, skip forward a few months and Leanne and I moved into a flat together. The rent was cheap and it was local to the hospital so between us it was easy to decide it was the best course of action. Well, I'd thought it was. Turned out Leanne and Terry has been seeing each other since the day he'd kicked me out of the room and, although they never made it official, he ended up popping round a few nights a week for his fix before disappearing again. If I ever mentioned it to Leanne, I got shouted at, so I left it. Months later, when the newest nurses came fresh from university, he traded Leanne in for a newer model and left her upset. I was the one to pick her up when she was down - not that he cared. He went around the place acting like he didn't even know her. In the end, Leanne had had enough and she called for a transfer to a hospital closer to her parents who she then moved in with. That left me struggling to pay rent on a two bedroom until I could find a smaller one I could afford. Eventually, when I was nearly in debt, I stumbled upon a studio flat and jumped at the chance. I finally got myself sorted again and this was the first time I'd had to work with him since that happened.

Luke offered me a smile as he caught up to us, just in earshot to hear Terry.

"Respect? He doesn't deserve respect! He's just another drunk who fell over." Terry laughed maliciously in my face trying to prove a point.

"Surely without those people, there'd be no surgery and no need to hire you! You should be thanking him!" I snapped back, not believing what I was hearing. He stepped back and shook his head like a parent to a child.

"I see you're still the same. Thinking every patient is a godsend to your precious little job." He scoffed.

"I came into this job to help people. Without these people we wouldn't have jobs." I spat. "I expect you to apologise to him for how you spoke and act like a half decent doctor, which I know may be difficult for you." I snarled, turning up my nose at him.

"You'd better watch your mouth." He prodded a finger at me.

"Would you have spoken to him like that if he was your child? Or would you have broken the news nicely?" I waited expectantly for an answer.

"Don't bring my kids into this." He hissed, folding his arms over his broad chest.

"Well that guy is someone's kid too. Just learn some manners..." I huffed, walking away from him before I blew my top. He turned away too and headed into the nurses office to speak to Yvonne, most likely to complain about me. I didn't care though, I stuck up for what I thought was right. I saw Luke rush into the room quickly with a shocked grin on his face, probably excited to tell them I'd got into an argument with the surgeon.

I watched from afar as Terry spoke to Yvonne, his movements exaggerated like he was mad. He kept gesturing over to the side room and to him, then to a space in front of him which I assumed would have been me. Yvonne shook her head at times and calmly tried to offer advice but he always seemed to interrupt. Then there was one thing she said that silenced him. She picked up a piece of paper and showed him it and he seemed to deflate right in front of her. Within seconds he was back out of the room and storming over to me.

"Room. Now." He ordered as he dragged me along. He knocked hard on the door and opened it without permission. He walked into the room and, standing slightly in front of me, cleared his throat.

"Mr Hood, I am terribly sorry for the way I gave you that diagnosis if it seemed in any way rushed or blunt. I am new to the emergency ward and normally the people I've seen have known about their conditions for a while. Please accept my sincerest apologies and I hope you get better soon. I will try and arrange your surgery to be as soon as possible if that's what you wish."  He rushed, halfheartedly. Well, at least it was better than nothing. He left the room quickly after that and Luke offered me a grin.

"Excuse me, I'll be back in a second." I said as I rushed out after Terry but he seemed to be long gone.