Page 45 of Crescendo

“Okay.” Small world, really. She’d been lodging with a student who went to the university my hospital was part of.

I doubted they lived far from the uni, which meant they probably hadn’t lived far from me.

There were a lot of people in London, but there was every chance we’d passed each other in the street long before we met here.

She drooped down in her seat—probably the most I’d ever seen her slump.

“The woman who lived on the ground floor of our building was old and she’d been ill.

The student, he’d taken up helping out with things she needed, and, when we moved in, he asked if we could too.

So, we did. She was sweet. She used to talk all about how her doctors saved her life.

And, well, one night, we got home late and she caught us in the entryway.

She needed someone to stay with her. She was having a rough night.

Hannah was exhausted, so I sent her to bed and went to sit with the neighbour. ”

I smiled at her. She was kinder than she liked to let on. I mean, she was also snappy and sarcastic, but people were complicated.

She sucked in a breath and looked at me very deliberately.

“I held her hand as some flu ravaged her body and she tried so hard to sleep, and she told me a story about a doctor who’d sat with her through her first chemotherapy treatment.

A young radiologist who’d been involved in diagnosing her cancer.

A doctor who, when she was told she had to get chemo alongside the radiotherapy, saw how scared and alone she felt.

One who insisted on staying after her shift to sit with someone getting chemo. ”

My chest buzzed uncomfortably. A very small world indeed. “Right.”

She tilted her head, smiling slightly. “Edith Pennavale.”

Edith wasn’t the only one I’d done that for—people were scared, they needed someone, and I wanted to help, to be useful.

I knew I needed to be with them. I’d take as many shifts as I could, and then I’d stay after sometimes, just to sit with people I didn’t want to be alone through a scary time in life.

They helped me, too. They were human connections when I tried to keep everything locked away. They gave me something productive to focus on, something I could understand and be useful with. I’d filled my mind with their names and stories just to feel like I was still living.

Edith wasn’t the first or the last, but she was the first case I’d had after completing my clinical radiologist training. It was that treatment that she must have been recovering from when Eliza met her, her immune system shot to pieces and picking up every virus that crossed her path.

She’d even told me about the sweet boy who lived upstairs. PhD student in astrophysics. Edith had concentrated so hard when trying to remember what he’d told her about his work. And about how his favourite snack was gherkins with cubes of cheese.

Eliza and I had been two degrees of separation apart all this time.

“I remembered your name,” Eliza said, “because of the musical amplifier, but also because it was clear how much you meant to her. So, when I saw your name on the list here, I looked you up. I don’t know how many Ella Hendricksons there are in London, but I figured there can’t be many of you that are radiologists at UCH. ”

My body locked down, wondering if she’d scrolled my socials enough to find out about Callum too. I didn’t want to delete him from those things, to pretend it never happened, but I hadn’t considered who might look me up and learn them.

Still, she didn’t say anything about him. Nor did she look at me in that way people tended to when they’d found out what happened.

I nodded. “I can confirm I’m the only one in my department.”

“So, yeah. I’ve known who you are, and, you know, you’re a good person. You deserve good things.”

I smiled softly, my heart still beating a little too quickly. “You are, too, you know? Even if you try to hide it.”

“Eh.”

“Hey, you sat up with Edith too.”

She waved a hand. “I was just wired from the night out. I was going to be up either way.”

“Sure thing, Eliza,” I laughed. “I’m still rooting for you and Hannah.”

“Why?” She stared at me, her brow furrowed.

“Because I think it’s what you both want, and you deserve to be happy.”

She sighed heavily. “Well, I think I messed that up, and I’m messing Crescendo up…”

I stood, sensing she was ready for a moment alone with her thoughts. “You’re not messing it up.”

“Easy for you to say. Amazing doctor, out there saving lives, and then you come here and you’re some musical virtuoso, too?”

“Eliza? All of these feelings that you hate right now? Put them in the music.”

“What?”

“You were in a rock band,” I laughed. “Put the feelings in your music. It turns out that’s what everyone loves, that’s what makes a piece amazing. And I know you know that, that you’ve done it in the past. It’s not different just because you’re composing with classical instruments. Plus, it helps.”

She looked at me and I wondered whether she did know about Callum after all. “Why are you telling me that? I’m your competition.”

“Yeah, but it’ll be more fun to beat you if we’re both emotionally destroying everyone—and nobody can call your piece boring.”

She laughed and shook her head. “Lydia really is a terrible influence on you.”

“I’m okay with that.”

She rolled her eyes. “ I’m going to beat you . Just so you know.”

I smiled, walking back towards the door, glad to see a little of her fire returning. I wasn’t foolish enough to think this solved everything, and I already knew just hearing what you had to do wasn’t enough to make it happen, but hey, it was a step in the right direction.

I paused at the door, looking back at her. “Bring it on, Liverpool.”

She laughed. “Oh, you’re making this a north-south thing? Fine. You asked for it.”