A nurse was walking up and down in front of the central desk, holding the toddler who’d come in with the first wave of patients. Danni was still crying. ‘Someone needs to check that child again,’ Rory said. Other patients had come in while they’d been involved in the resuscitation area drama. Cubicles were full and staff were flat out. An ECG machine was being wheeled to one bedside. Someone was having a seizure in Cubicle 6 and a very inebriated person in a Santa costume was yelling for attention in Cubicle 5. And there seemed to be children everywhere they looked. Cubicle 1, beside the woman they were assigned to see, had a thin, worried-looking girl peering out. ‘Rhys?’ she called nervously. ‘Alex? Come back here!’ A small girl, maybe four or five years old, was tugging on an older child’s arm. ‘Lucy? Why is Father Christmas shouting? I want to go home!’ ‘Are you all right?’ Kate asked as they got closer. The girl nodded. Then shook her head. ‘I can’t see the boys and I’m supposed to be looking after them.’ ‘What’s your name, sweetheart?’ ‘Lucy.’ ‘And how old are you?’ ‘I’m eleven.’ Lucy was looking past Kate now.
