‘Let’s start with that one,’ Daphne agreed. Later they could brainstorm. Between them they might come up with some solutions.
They finished the Chinese food and Daphne cleared away the packaging. Then she reached into her bag and drew something out carefully. ‘I have something small I’d like to share with you.’
She sat the cupcake with the candle on the scarred coffee table. ‘Although you probably don’t feel like it, we still need to celebrate your birthday. Because you are the light in your grandad’s life and without you being here he wouldn’t be. So celebrating your birth is a must.’
‘Thank you.’ Soretta stared for a minute, blinked and then gave Daphne a watery smile.
‘The next year is going to be your best yet.’
Soretta raised one disbelieving eyebrow. ‘I’ll hold you to that.’
When Billie let herself into the control centre of Mica Ridge Flying Doctor Service nobody noticed her for a minute. It felt like the room wasn’t big enough to fit her in as well. She’d been sitting dressed at the side of the bed since five this morning, ready to go, and now her belly twisted with nerves.
How did you approach your dream job come true? Something you’d worked towards for years, and always kept at the back of your mind.
Her palms felt sweaty and she wiped them down the side of her trousers as she glanced at her surroundings. There was a circular workstation with a computer screen opposite and she knew that most retrieval calls came in via the ordinary telephone during the day.
Most of those calls would be logged on the computer and fielded by the doctor on duty, and on the days she wasn’t flying to an outlying health clinic to provide much-needed chronic care, that would be her. Then it would be her decision in an emergency whether a nurse and pilot would fly out to assist or if the situation required a doctor as well. She knew that most of the time the nurses and pilots were frontline and she’d be at the end of the phone.
There was no hospital visiting involved, but there was a little consulting room on the base where a doctor could follow up a patient they’d seen at an outlying clinic on a rare occasion when a patient came to town. And, of course, the two doctors would take turns to be available if one of the nursing or ancillary staff fell ill. She could manage all that.
It was a much smaller base than Broken Hill, which ran differently with its admin centre, eight doctors and sixteen nursing staff. They only had two aircraft at Mica Ridge and the maintenance was across at the Hill.
She saw the colour-coordinated daily roster board with the other doctor’s name, and there was hers, as well as a column for the flight nurses and for pilots, and any extras for the outreach clinics of the day.
Across the room a group of four staff in flight uniform, three men and one woman, stood talking. Apart from them stood a tall, hulking, black-haired commander in a white shirt with the insignia of the MRFDS. The other doctor and station boss, Morgan Fraser. He filled a whole corner of the cramped room as he stood in front of another computer desk.
One look was enough for Billie to see he wore authority so easily it didn’t require effort as he spoke firmly into the phone.
She switched her attention back to a small, dark-haired woman in the same blue trousers she was in, who split from the group and came across. She looked about Billie’s age, maybe a couple of years younger, around thirty. For some reason, probably the smile, Billie thought of Pollyanna.
‘You must be Dr Green. Lovely to meet you.’ She gave a wide, genuine grin that touched Billie unexpectedly.
The woman held out her hand well before she reached Billie. ‘I’m Daphne, the nurse manager, but also one of the flight nurses. We missed each other last night.’
They shook hands briefly. Billie met the friendly brown eyes and felt the unaffected warmth in them. Daphne was one of those people you liked on sight.
‘Call me Billie.’ One responsive face was all it took. Her belly settled to a gentle flutter.
Daphne said, ‘I hoped to meet you last night, but we all get used to things cropping up. Did you find everything in the flat?’
So Daphne had set things up. ‘Yep. All sorted. Thanks for leaving the key. And the milk and bread.’ She studied her surroundings again. ‘Have you been up all night?’
‘On and off. Just came in for a retrieval in the early morning. There’s an accident-prone cook out at Palinup Station, between here and Broken Hill. Accidental Al, we call him. Shot himself with the nail gun trying to knock tin cans off the fence in the dark. Punctured an artery in his leg.’ She grinned. ‘That’s not something that happens much in the city. Rex and I are going home now for a few hours, but I’ll introduce you around first.’
So Daphne was the motherly type. She was young for that, but there was something about her thoughtfulness that spoke to Billie. She had the feeling Daphne had needed to find big-girl britches in the past. Billie had learned to rely on herself, too.
As the others came across Daphne said, ‘We’ll have to catch up later.’
‘I’ll look forward to it.’
‘This is Rex.’ There was an extra ‘tada’ in the introduction that she didn’t think Daphne actually noticed, and Billie felt her mouth twitch.
Rex just smiled. A tall, sandy-haired man, he had tired lines at the sides of his eyes that looked like they would turn into laughter lines if he had enough sleep. He shook her hand calmly. His hand was big and capable, like him, and she warmed to him, too. Rex would be a good man to have beside you in an emergency, she decided, just by the look of him.
‘I’m the senior pilot,’ he said. ‘We’ve exceeded our on-call time. Welcome to the mad house.’
She said again, ‘I’m looking forward to it.’ It didn’t look too mad at the moment. Except for the expression on the face of the big guy growling into the phone, taking up emotional space as he continued his phone discussion.
He must have sensed her look because he lifted one long finger her way and raised dark eyebrows in acknowledgement at least. She nodded back before she looked away from him to smile in the general direction of the other two, who began to cross the room towards her.
Rex waved and left, and Daphne turned to introduce the newcomers. ‘This is Hector, the other pilot, and Michael, a flight nurse like me. They’ll look after you.’
‘I’m not as pretty as Legs, here, but I’m way taller.’ Michael grinned. He pushed back the mop of dark hair falling over his forehead. ‘Welcome, Doc.’
As Billie smiled at Michael’s harmless compliment to the nurse, she noticed Daphne wince at the teasing, hesitate and then shrug and look away.
Daphne said to no one in particular, ‘Well, I’ll leave so I can come back. Have a good day.’
They watched Daphne leave. ‘Michael’s not as easy to get along with as Daphne,’ Hector murmured. He was mid-height and wiry, like he enjoyed sport and was probably very good at it, blond and blue-eyed. He grinned at Billie and sized her up. ‘Hi. Hope you like it here.’
The vibe was good. Professional and genuine, which was a huge bonus on a first day. All the flutters in her belly went to sleep.
‘We’re going to leave you, too,’ Michael said. ‘Our first clinic starts in an hour and it’s forty minutes’ flying time.’ He glanced across the room. ‘Morgan said you’re staying on base today to get used to it all?’ He grinned again. ‘I’ve bet him five bucks you’ll get called out.’
The man called Morgan loomed up beside her and she suddenly felt as though she was going to start shrinking, like Alice in Wonderland down the rabbit hole as he towered over her. That was weird.
She hadn’t noticed him move, which said a lot for his agility for such a big guy. It might pay to remember that. She didn’t like men who could sneak up on you.
‘Welcome.’ He held out his hand and the shake was firm and no-nonsense, but for some reason she wanted to check she didn’t have a smudge on her nose. He did ‘Boss’ very well. Made her neck prickle.
‘Morgan Fraser. We spoke o
n the phone. We’ll walk out to the aircraft and hangar as the others leave. Then cover how the base runs and what we expect of our medical officers.’
His voice was deep and slow, not drawling, but measured as if nothing would send him into a real flap. But there was an undercurrent that switched on her warning signals; he had the sort of voice that was viscerally attractive in a macho kind of way, not suggestive, just sexy, like she’d always imagine phone sex would sound—not that she’d tried it.
Spare me, she reprimanded, and reminded herself she wasn’t going to risk allowing men back into her life for at least two years. She straightened and wrenched autonomy back from his easy hold.
‘Sure. Let’s go,’ she said, as if it was her idea. She couldn’t help the tiny spurt of independence that reared its head. She could take orders but she didn’t have to like it. It had been a long time since she’d felt like a schoolgirl and she wasn’t going to start now with Captain Seductive.
Morgan raised one eyebrow and she had the feeling they were at a stand-off. Except she sensed he was amused.
‘All right then,’ he said as she followed him outside. ‘As you know, FDS planes never have a patient without a nurse. Ever. The cabin, equipment, satellite phone etcetera is the nurse’s responsibility and when a doctor comes along they still run the show, we just oversee and make decisions regarding the patient.’
Billie nodded. At orientation they’d talked a lot about cabin safety.
Morgan went on as if she’d disagreed. ‘It’s her or, in the case of our male nurses Michael and Grant, his cabin, and even if there are two doctors, which happens sometimes, it’s the nurse’s responsibility during the flight to make sure the safety briefing is given to all patients, teams, escorts and so on. They ensure the patient is secured adequately – we have harness type seat belts on the stretchers, capsules for bubs, a “pedimate” to secure a child to the adult stretcher, or the humidicrib for a neonate. The pilot always asks the nurse if everything is “all secure” prior to take off and landing, too.’
Billie had forgotten to feel annoyed. She looked at the aircraft in front of them and glanced at the blue sky above. When she looked back at Morgan she nodded again. This was so much bigger than her ego. Or even his. Maybe she could get on with this guy after all. She could feel the smile stretch her face and he smiled back. He understood.
By the time Billie let herself back into the house late that afternoon, she knew she was in the right place. She resisted the urge to hug herself with glee. If Mia’s day had panned out okay then they were laughing.
Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t spent as much time as she’d thought she would worrying about her daughter, mainly because there was so much going on at the base.
Morgan she found challenging, but she’d met challenging men before, although perhaps not quite like him. He ran a tight ship, and apparently he’d been in the army before becoming a doctor and she guessed that this was a good place to be multi-skilled when lives depended on them all.
She’d spent the day re-reading the induction manual, taking phone calls from outlying stations, and referring those whom she diagnosed as needing medication.
Then there’d been one or two patients from outlying areas who had seen the doctors at an outreach clinic and were in town for the day, so she’d seen them, too.
It was like holding her usual surgery except she couldn’t see the patient. As their doctor, Billie could hear their voice and read the corresponding number on the body chart that identified the area of the pain or problem. It was funny how much even inflection in the voice could tell her when it was all she had to rely on. She made sure she confirmed diagnosis and advice with Morgan until she became used to the way he did it. She’d gained the impression Captain Seductive appreciated that. She doubted he’d appreciate her nickname for him, but at least it made her smile.
And for these outback families their pharmacist lived in a box. The ‘Medicine Chest in the Home’ concept was an excellent system when the logistics of dashing down to the chemist possibly hundreds of kilometres away just wasn’t on. One person in the household held the keys to the chest and the responsibility for being accountable and replacing stock. This was a necessary precaution when addictive drugs were part of the inventory and you couldn’t have just anybody waltzing in and peering into the lolly shop. Then there was the fact that the accountable person would have to know how to give an injection if needed in an emergency. Station families had many responsibilities that people in towns didn’t think about when they could just pop into a hospital or a doctor’s surgery. Or a chemist.
Tomorrow she was going on her first outreach clinic. Like most of the FDS services, they flew to towns too small to have doctors or dentists and who relied on the monthly visits provided by the flying doctor. Early diagnosis drastically improved outcomes for these families. Outback health problems were shifted to the back burner because it was so time-consuming to get advice.
This was preventative medicine at its most needed and tomorrow she’d get started. But that was tomorrow, and Billie unlocked the front door of the grey residence with some trepidation about whether her daughter had enjoyed her own day.
Mia bounced into sight munching on something. ‘Mum! You’re home!’
Phew. Mia looked okay. ‘I am. How was school?’
Mia’s eyes skittered away. ‘Actually not too bad.’ Billie’s initial relief was tempered by a suspicious thought. Has she already met a boy?
‘So the teachers were good and you were happy with your classes?’
She received a vague nod and then a small shy smile. ‘The people are nice.’ So she had met a young man. She hoped he was young. It was the older ones you had to watch out for. She wished someone had told her that all those years ago.
Billie resisted the urge to put her hands on her hips. ‘Did you meet any girls?’
Mia shrugged. ‘Of course.’
Billie gave in. ‘And what’s the interesting new boy’s name?’
‘Trent.’ She said it quickly, and then she caught the look on her mother’s face and blushed.
Billie raised her eyebrows. ‘Trent the gent.’
‘He’s in my year.’ So Mia knew that her mother was wary of seniors. She must have made her feelings clear at some point. At least Mia seemed to have listened to something she’d said. ‘How was your day?’
Well this boy sounded better than someone three years older, like the hellion in Sydney. And it was nice that Mia had asked about Billie’s day. ‘Interesting.’
Billie felt her daughter’s scrutiny and there was definitely cheeky humour glinting back at her.
Mia tilted her face. ‘And what’s your new man’s name?’
To her own surprise she almost said, Morgan, and then stopped herself. Instead she said, ‘Funny girl. Did you get to meet Daphne today?’
Daphne had been banned by Morgan from coming back again for another twelve hours. He’d discovered she’d spent hours at the hospital with one of the patient’s daughters and he’d said she had to sleep. Billie had been privy to that phone conversation and had winced for the kind-hearted woman.
‘Yep. She knocked just after I got home from school. Seems nice. She can cook. I’ll show you how well.’
Mia grinned, waltzed into the tiny kitchen and lifted the lid on a glass jar of enormous chocolate-chip biscuits, lusciously piled on top of each other, and reached in to take another one.
‘That’s very sweet of her. How many have you had?’
Mia grinned. ‘Three. They’re great.’
‘Stop then.’ Billie felt the last of the tension fall from her shoulders. She hadn’t seen Mia this friendly for a long time. And her work was worthwhile and exciting, and despite the challenging boss, she couldn’t wait until she climbed into that plane tomorrow.
THREE
Daphne had heard the new doctor come home and she had to stop herself from knocking at the door as soon as Billie would have put her car keys down.
/> ‘They don’t need you barging in like a busybody,’ she muttered and winced at the echo of her ex-husband’s voice. She’d only wanted to offer food, and anything else she could do to help, after a family next door had suffered a tragedy, but his derision still hurt.
She switched the kettle on for another cup of tea she didn’t want, to distract herself from the rumble of voices through the wall, and deliberately picked up her iPad to scan the local news. She’d see Dr Billie at work tomorrow. That would be the best way to start. Give them time to settle in.
Daphne scanned the digital news and saw the small column devoted to the farm accident yesterday. Soretta had looked tired this afternoon, and Daphne wished there was something she could do to lighten the girl’s load. Make sure she ate a decent meal, for one thing. Or offer an ear to listen to her concerns.
Soretta’s grandad was still heavily sedated from the pain relief he needed and it wasn’t surprising that she was stressed. That wouldn’t be helped by being bowed down with the financial responsibility of a floundering property. Maybe she could zip out to the station on her days off. Take over the housework so Soretta could concentrate on the farm.
It wasn’t the first time Daphne had done that. Some of her best weekends since she’d moved to Mica Ridge had been when a station family had all come down with some nasty lurgy and she’d been dropped off to be nanny, cook and bottle washer. Had been in her element cooking up and freezing food, cleaning houses and minding children, until the parents had been able to walk.
The hard part of that idea, of course, would be getting it past Soretta who, like most of the locals around here was fiercely independent. But Daphne understood that. She hadn’t asked for help herself when her world had imploded.
A gentle knock sounded at the door and Daphne jumped. Visitors? She wished. Probably a door-knock appeal. She picked up her purse and began counting her change. But when she opened the door it was the new doctor from next door and the smile that greeted her warmed the cold loneliness like a ray of afternoon sunlight.
The Homestead Girls Page 3
