Yet, here he was, sitting around a table with Joe, and with Ben, sharing the kinds of stories that bored men do. Kate was off working on her computer, something she had been doing since the beginning of the shift, keeping to herself. As all residents in any major hospital learnt, everyone had their own way of surviving the nightshift. The helicopter base, aesthetically sparse as it was, was actually accommodating for these long nights. There was a small lounge with a large television, a kitchen with a variety of food and non-alcoholic beverages available, and two small on-call rooms with fold-out beds. ‘The first night is always the longest and most boring,’ said Joe, as he and Ben went to leave the kitchen, heading for the army cots. The older men had assured him that their homes were too loud during the day to get proper sleep. Unlike every hospital Andrew had ever worked in, noise was not a problem here. Only the two-way radio, set to an emergency frequency, buzzed occasionally.
