Testing Boundaries Pt. 03

On the way home I stopped by Sampson's Renault again to thank Rich for the break and to give him a bottle of calvados we'd bought him by way of a thank you. I was surprised to see he had a bandage on his right hand. I asked what happened but he brushed it off as not paying attention with a power tool while he was working on his latest project and it had only been a short visit to the Emergency Department. I pushed him, he tried deflecting by asking when I was going to come and pose on his Honda 750 but eventually, he gave me the full story.

"I've got a new project starting, I bought an old Laverda to restore and I was trying to strip it right down so I can start by getting the frame shot blasted. One of the retaining bolts on the engine block was badly corroded and I tried everything, penetrating oil, heat gun, I even went down the Veesntwins pathway of mole grips and pliers but nothing. In the end I resorted to drilling it but as I'd been on the job for about fourteen hours, I was tired and slipped, drilling into my hand. I went up to casualty and finally got home around midnight, four hours later." He showed me his copy of his letter from the hospital to his GP.

I told him he was silly but as it was his right hand, I would feel fine about him using my sofa for the next few weeks, which got me a look of shock, punctuated with "Oh my god. I cannot believe you said that. Here I am in agony and you go making sex references. You wicked woman."

In one of those funny coincidences that life sometimes throws at you I glanced at the letter and noticed the registrar that signed it was Doctor Yuri Melnyk, but didn't mention it, confidentiality, GDPR and all that sort of thing, best left alone really.

It wasn't until a couple of days later that things started to connect up. It was my turn to work the helpdesk support line and the scheduling gods still liked me because I was on with Ieuan. He's a lovely guy but being young he can't sit and work in silence, if there's no radio available, he'll fill the silence with chatter and gossip and that day was no different

I'd filled him in on the Paris trip and mentioned Rich had hurt his hand, Ieaun smirked when I confirmed it was his right hand and suggested some potential causes and a short term solution that might involve his friend Simon and a bottle of baby oil, on Rich's behalf I thanked Simon but on reflection we decided it was probably a non-starter, but if Ieuan wanted to meet us at the Beggars on Friday after work he could make the offer direct.

Shortly after that he turned as if he's had an electric shock.

"Oh, hey did you hear? Your friend Tim Cherry" I emphasised he was not in any circumstances my friend but just got a "Yeah, yeah, whatevs, your friend got himself into some bother on Saturday night, someone broke in and gave him an all over body massage with a crowbar. He's got most of his bones shattered, he looks like an Egyptian there's so many bandages on him."

Oh. That's probably why the cops came to see me and Jonny. Oh. Rich's hand.

Feeling cold inside I accessed the Emergency Department records, there are some advantages to working in IT and being able to drive a bus through data Protection regulations when you feel the need is one of them. I felt a bit better when I saw his name in the triage list at 8pm, first seen by Doctor Melnyk at 8.15, must have been unusually quiet on Saturday to see a doctor that quickly. X-rayed at 9, seen again by the doctor, no it was a senior Nurse Practitioner at 9.45 then tetanus injection at ten, wound cleaned by 10.30, dressings applied by eleven and patient discharged to GP care by Doctor Melnyk at 11.30.

Good it wasn't Rich, maybe it was a coincidence.

I did some more burrowing in the access records for the night. There was Yuri arriving, swiped in at 10am. I know I moaned about my shift patterns sometimes when I was on a 24-hour contract but when you look at Junior doctors' shifts, 24 hours over a weekend? Not funny. Anyway, there he was arriving. There he was swiping out of the side entrance, I cross referred to the CCTV, just because I could, and followed him to the smoker's den, a bus shelter contraption across the car park.

He had to go and sign in through the front door again, after his smoke, the notes said, 'swipe card left in jacket'. He did it again just before he discharged Rich, hospital security were probably going to have a word about not leaving his card around. I scooted through all the CCTV footage of the evening, Rich spent a lot of time sitting round, even for a quiet night it took a while, Yuri appeared every now and again, disappearing out for a smoke around 9 again. I didn't see him again until 11 when he came back in through reception. Something made me hesitate over the image, something wasn't quite right. I couldn't see it but it was annoying me.

I was disturbed from my important work by an actual helpdesk problem and I spent the next hour helping someone on men's surgical access the imaging database. It would have been quicker to walk down and get a copy of the MRI scan but it was a teaching moment and next time they won't need IT support.

It was while I was heading home that I clicked, Yuri had been wearing his jacket when he came back in the second time. It was only a little thing but it had me worried, mainly that my friend was somehow involved. I started formulating a plan. I got home and shared my concerns and plans with Jonny. He was equally worried by the implications and seemed to think my plan was a bit over dramatic but was happy enough to give it a go.

The next day I checked the antivirus records and it was a while since the Emergency Department had been given a routine audit so I scheduled one, randomly of course, for the following Tuesday.

On Friday I recruited Ieuan to my cause, I didn't tell him what my plan was about just what his part was. At five I closed everything down and took Ieuan to the Beggars arms. I got the first round in, a lemonade masquerading as a vodka tonic for me and beers for everyone else.

Three more beers for the boys and three lemonades for me later and Ieuan had to catch his bus and we all wandered unsteadily back to Rich's place for a takeaway. When we arrived, I took a deep breath and said, "Well come on Rich, where's this Honda of yours?"

His eyes open in excitement he led the way to the attached garage, where in the middle was a shiny red and black motorbike, it looked like new despite being over forty years old, the chrome was super shiny and the seat was a luxurious looking leather effect. The spokes on the wheels were chromed and the brake callipers were a burnished gold colour.

I wanted him off guard when I started asking about his trip to hospital so I built up slowly.

"Have you got a camera then? No, not your phone. I don't want you losing it and anyone getting to see these pictures." That set him going and with an excited rush he disappeared, coming back with an aging digital SLR. I nodded, indicating acceptance.

He surprised me by bringing a large bedsheet with him which he hooked up to provide a background behind the bike, rolling it back and forth so it was on the sheet. I passed Jonny my jacket and jumper and climbed onto the seat, allowing Rich to tell me how to pose, what to do and where to look.

After ten minutes I undid the buttons on my shirt and allowed it to hang open, I had a decent bra on this time, all lace and support so my boobs sat up in a horizontal cleavage. That brought a whisper of delight from one or other of them, probably both.

Rich was getting tongue tied now, he didn't know how to refer to my boobs, and just made vague references, saying things like 'below your shoulders' and 'above your tummy'.

Jonny was about to ask something I could tell and I didn't want him to go off too soon, I held up a hand, saying "Wait. Not yet." And turned my back, taking off my shirt and bra then replacing the shirt so when I turned back it was hanging open with most of my breasts showing, keeping the nipples under cover. Rich really liked that and had me leaning and turning. I'll be honest, the more skin I was showing the more I was enjoying myself, I tried to remember all that stuff about boundaries and friends but I was getting quite hot and I was enjoying showing off.

I climbed off the bike and undid my jeans, kicking my shoes off I peeled down so I was just in a thong and my shirt. Climbing back onto the bike I slipped one shoulder out, covering my left boob with my right hand and looked coyly through my hair. I dropped the other shoulder out and did the same with my left hand. I shook my hair back and dropped the shirt completely, briefly exposing myself in full, and loving it in the process.

"Rich, take your shirt off and come and sit here with me, Jonny can take the pictures."

Even one handed that was the quickest shirt off move I've seen in a long, long time. I sat facing backwards on the front seat while Rich sat on the back seat facing forwards, I moved as close as I could, pushing my breasts into him, if I moved, I could feel them scratching on his chest hair, which considering how turned on I felt was nice but possibly dangerous. To get close enough I had to sit with my legs over his and locked behind his back, which left the material on my thong stretched incredibly tight across my pussy, so tight that the outer lips were almost open and exposed, the outlines of my labia and clit were obvious to the eye, and Rich's eye didn't miss a thing.

Putting my arms around his neck I put my lips by his ear and whispered, "How did Yuri cover the time he needed to be out of the hospital?" Totally distracted Rich absently answered, "He told the charge nurse he was going for a smoke and then to the imaging lab to check my results and to bleep him if anything came up."

I'm not vindictive, I let Jonny take a couple more pictures then grabbed my shirt back and slipped my jeans on, concerned that I might leave a sticky patch on the bike seat, then leaving my shirt undone as a further distraction I turned into Columbo.

"So, d'you want to expand on that then?"

He tried to deny everything, but when I told Jonny to start deleting the pictures he suddenly weakened.

"I genuinely hurt my hand like I told you, I really did slip and drill into myself, but it was because I was angry not tired. I was angry at that arsehole coming into your house, I was jealous he'd seen you er...like that and I was sickened by what he did with his daughter's pictures. I lost concentration and zip; a 7mm steel drill bit was poking through my palm.

I self-medicated with a large whisky, called a taxi, had another large one while I waited, and took myself to hospital where I met Doctor Melnyk. It was a total coincidence it was him; I didn't even know who he was until I told him the story of how I'd done it. The Whisky probably helped make me a bit more talkative. He seemed to go very cold, he got me to tell him everything. He said something like 'this is more news; I need to fix him.' Then he told me to wait and if anyone ever asked, I was with him every ten or fifteen minutes through the evening. Then he disappeared and came back at eleven to sign me out."

Jonny was still holding the camera across the room. "Rich... mate you're a potential accessory here. This could mean prison time."

I did up my shirt. "Only if anyone finds out. Also, if he keeps the bit about promising to cover for Yuri out of any story he's completely in the clear."

Now, I love Rich and Jonny, they are my two favourite blokes in the world I think, but they are about as shallow as it's humanly possible to get. In a move that ought to get him in the UK Olympic inappropriate questions team Rich asked, "Do I get to keep the pictures?" He'd obviously worked out it was all a subterfuge to get to the truth but they were a long way down the list of important questions.

Jony didn't help by turning the camera round to display the screen on the back, "Some of them are smoking hot mate, look at these."

I tried to draw a line in the proverbial sand. "No, listen, the pictures are not the important thing here. Keeping Rich out of prison is. And you can keep one."

He negotiated it to three. But I got an absolute veto. He ended up with one of me in the shirt open, thong, leaning forward position, one with both shoulders out of my shirt and my hands over my boobs and one where I was straddling him pushing my breasts hard against his chest, in fact I'm not certain it's not when I asked him about Yuri.

Later that evening at home in our bed as I sat astride Jonny, his swollen cock deep inside my burning hot pussy he told me how hot the photo session with Rich had been. "You obviously got turned on, I could see that at the time. If we'd gone on any longer, were you going to fuck him?"

I didn't deny it straight away, I thought about it. Rocking gently, I told him "I thought this was the only cock I want inside me, then we went on that photoshoot and it felt really hot having Jacob fuck me while you watched, but there was no jeopardy there. With Rich there's feelings and friendship. I don't think our friendship could take it. If anything happened to you, I might promote him to friend with benefits but I wouldn't want anything more than that. Did you see the pistons and crank shaft in his dishwasher?"

He seemed happy with that answer. "Part of me was screaming in my head 'Go on, fuck him, fuck him', but another part of me was being calm and saying, 'that will do, enough now.' It was still smokin' hot though."

I bent to kiss him then climbed off and lay on my back, he moved over and I locked my ankles behind his neck as we took each other to a shattering orgasm.

Tuesday came along and I rocked up to the emergency department to do my 'random' sweep. I found the usual examples of illicit software, BBC iPlayer, iTunes and a couple of movies, as there was nothing more offensive than Mrs Browns Boys and Bake Off, I just deleted everything without official comment. I gave words of advice to the senior nurse, mainly of the 'this is how you delete the internet history' type and ended making a show of checking my notes. "That's everyone then, oh no, the registrar, Doctor Melnyk. I need his laptop."

Yuri was in the staff lounge on a fifteen-minute break, he made me a coffee and handed me his laptop. "How long will you be? I'll need that shortly."

I'm used to mid-level doctors talking to IT support workers, it wasn't rude, it just sounds rude. I mean, we don't want them to start treating anyone apart from doctors with respect, where would that end up.

I looked up at him, "Depends what I find and what we talk about Doctor Melnyk. Why don't you sit down?"

"I'm very busy, I can't waste time here with you."

I used my 'Senior IT support engineer who's pissed off at being told other people are busy' voice.

"Doctor Melnyk, my name is Louise Hartley, I found the porn in your father in law's computer and I'd like to discuss last Saturday night. Sit. Down."

He sat. He went slightly grey. No, very grey. He tried bluster. "I, er nothing happened last Saturday. I was here. All night. You can see the records."

I don't mind people trying to cover stuff up, I do mind being taken for an idiot, and I told him as much, showing him the records of Rich turning up, him going out for a smoke and returning through the front door, twice, once with a jacket.

Very quietly he started to tell me about growing up in Kosovo, how the civil war came and his parents were killed, the things he saw were horrendous, but he was one of the lucky ones, surviving and getting evacuated to Germany where he went to school, getting a place in Bremen Medical school. He went back to Kosovo when he qualified and joined the army as a doctor for five years, which was where he met Polly working for UNICEF on her gap year.

They came to England, but I was not surprised to find Cherry was a mild racist as well as a misogynist and all-round shite and never really liked Yuri. Finding out what he'd done with their photos had sickened Yuri, and then when he heard from Rich that Cherry was convinced of his own invincibility and was treating people outside his family with the same lack of respect he'd determined to go and have words there and then. It was a short walk from the hospital to Cherry's home and he was soon there.

Yuri claimed his intention was only to confront his father-in-law and to tell him they would never see him again. Cherry responded by telling Yuri when his daughter came to her senses and moved home again, he'd be history, back to Kosovo with his dead family where he belonged, and that any father would be proud to have such a beautiful daughter and he was just enjoying her beauty.

I suspect he had more to say but that was when he swung at Yuri, hitting him in the throat, then he said it all went grey and when he finished Cherry was in a bloodied mess on the ground with two broken ribs, a ruptured spleen and a broken jaw.

"And now, you go to the police? I go to prison?"

Moment of truth time.

"I don't work for the police. He attacked you first, and if I go to them then a lot of stuff I don't want brought up, including my friend's involvement will come to the fore. You could hand yourself in and take away the one thing Polly has in her life right now, and put her through a lot more pain, or you could the best husband possible, you save lives here on a daily basis. Focus on that. What's Cherry saying?"

"He is saying nothing, he thinks I will have him killed if he does. I have done enough. Polly, she does not deserve more pain. Maybe I will see what tomorrow brings, and the next day."

I agreed that seemed like a sensible policy, and that he should do what he felt was best, I wouldn't lose any sleep over Cherry taking a beating. I worried about that, should I? I don't agree with summary violence, an eye for an eye ends up with us all blind in the end, but he was a 24 carat 100% out and out wanker.

I resolved my inner conflict in a drunken discussion with Rich and Jonny one evening, I found the evidence without too much effort. If I was asked to dig into the events of that Saturday I'd do it to the best of my ability, anyone with the right access and ability to use the software could do the same thing. I wouldn't volunteer anything but if Yuri put a foot wrong an anonymous data dump might turn up in the police's hands.

Meanwhile Rich has restored that Laverda he started when he drilled his hand and he and Jonny are dropping hints about another photoshoot, I've said no I don't want to overstep the boundaries of our friendship, but what's the point in boundaries if you don't test them occasionally.