‘I’ve had a shower!’

Marty ran his hands through his hair and tugged on his man bun. ‘Another one then.’

Chapter 3

For Danny, walking through the William Harvey Hospital felt very much like Groundhog Day. Callie had been in here for a month now and Danny had made the same trip just about every day since. Today – as always – he walked with his head down, following the same endless polished floors that reflected the blur of different coloured uniforms as they hurried in every direction, spreading the thick smell of bleach and antiseptic as they went. The Intensive Treatment Unit was on the second floor. He took the stairs, he liked to anyway, but it would also avoid the confined space of the lift, despite heeding Marty’s advice to take a second shower.

And then there was Callie.

His daughter always seemed the same too. The same bed in the same space. The ITU was made up of five areas: Callie was in the third, first bed on the left, furthest from a window that was sealed shut to ensure the ITU was stuffy to the point of oppressive. Callie was in the same position too: laid out on her back, her eyes closed, her face expressionless, with the same mechanical hiss and whirr as a machine assisted her breathing through a tube that parted her lips to reach deep into her throat. Another tube ran alongside it too. Danny had asked a lot of questions when he was first presented with the horrific image of his daughter, to be told that she needed much more than just assistance with her breathing. She was also being fed a sedative to keep her asleep, an analgesic for pain and drugs to minimise the risk of long-term liver damage. Since that first terrifying image, additions had made it even more terrifying. Another tube now fed her through her nose, her wrist trailed another that monitored her blood pressure, while she was also connected to a dialysis machine via her groin. The final intrusion was a catheter that left a bag of urine visible, hanging down from under the bedsheets. They had told Danny that he would get used to seeing her like that but a month down the line and it still hit him every time.

He felt the same cold, clammy touch from her skin as he took hold of her hand.