by Tina Beckett
‘Have you been sick?’ Molly asked once she had made Abbey comfortable on the bed.
‘No. It’s just these pains in my stomach.’ Abbey drew up her legs and moaned. ‘It really hurts!’
‘The doctor will be here to see you in a minute,’ Molly said soothingly. ‘Let’s get these leggings off you for starters.’ She helped the girl remove her boots and leggings, trying to hide her dismay when she discovered that Abbey was bleeding from the vagina. ‘Did you know that you were bleeding?’
‘No! I knew I felt a bit damp down there but I slipped over in the car park on my way in and landed in a puddle so I thought it must be that. What’s happening to me, Sister?’
‘Is it possible that you might be pregnant?’ Molly said carefully.
‘Pregnant,’ Abbey repeated, looking stunned.
‘Yes. Can you remember when you last had a period?’ Molly persisted.
‘I’m not sure... I’ve always been very irregular, you see. Sometimes I can go five or six weeks between periods so it’s difficult to say for certain.’ Abbey gulped. ‘If I am pregnant then why am I bleeding like this? Am I having a miscarriage or something?’
‘It’s possible.’ Molly patted her hand, knowing what a shock it must be for her. Not to have realised that she was pregnant and then have this happen would be a lot for any woman to deal with. After she had split from Sean, she’d had a worrying few days herself when her period had been late, even though they had been meticulous about using protection. Thankfully, everything had resolved itself although she couldn’t help wondering what she would have done if she had been pregnant. Would she have contacted Sean and told him about the baby? She wasn’t sure. After all, he had made it abundantly clear that he hadn’t wanted anything more to do with her, hadn’t he?
Molly pushed aside that thought as she focused on finding out if Abbey was indeed pregnant. She fetched a pregnancy testing kit from the cupboard and helped her to the bathroom. When Abbey reappeared a few minutes later, she was shaking.
‘It’s positive,’ she whispered. ‘I had no idea I was pregnant and now it looks as though I’m going to lose the baby.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Molly said gently as she helped her back onto the bed. ‘It must be a terrible shock for you, but the main thing now is to get you sorted out. Do you want me to tell your boyfriend or would you rather do it yourself? It’s entirely up to you.’
‘I don’t know!’ Tears began to pour down Abbey’s cheeks. ‘We’ve only been going out for a couple of months and we’ve never even spoken about having kids. I really don’t know what I should do for the best.’
‘You don’t have to decide right this very minute,’ Molly assured her, understanding only too well what a dilemma it must be for the girl. She and Sean had never discussed having children either, for obvious reasons, i.e. he’d had no intention of committing himself for the long-term. A child would have caused an unwelcome disruption to his plans, and the thought hurt even though she knew how stupid it was to let it affect her.
‘I’ll just tell him that you’re being transferred to a ward for further tests,’ Molly said hurriedly, not wanting to go any further down that route.
‘Yes. Thank you.’ Abbey wiped her eyes. ‘It’s such a lot to take in.’
‘It must be.’
Molly treated her to a smile then went to the desk and phoned the maternity unit. Sean appeared as she was ending the call and she quickly explained what was happening.
‘Sounds as though you’ve sorted everything out.’ He frowned. ‘Who brought her in?’
‘Her boyfriend.’ Molly nodded towards the waiting room. ‘He’s over there. I had a feeling that it wasn’t food poisoning and asked him to remain out here while I examined Abbey.’
‘It will be a shock for him too, I imagine,’ Sean observed.
‘If she chooses to tell him.’ Molly smiled tightly, conscious of the dilemma she would have been in if the same thing had happened to her. ‘They’ve only been seeing one another for a few months and she isn’t sure if she wants him to know or not.’
‘Really?’ Sean’s tone was grim. Molly frowned because it wasn’t how she would have expected him to react. If anything, she would have thought that he would be all in favour of Abbey keeping the news to herself if it meant there would be less pressure put on her boyfriend.
‘Yes.’ She shrugged. ‘Maybe it’s a good idea if they’re not in a committed relationship.’
‘I disagree. Keeping something like this a secret only creates problems, in my opinion. But if it’s what the patient wants then we have to go along with it.’
He didn’t say anything else as he made his way to Cubicles to see Abbey. Molly wasn’t sure what to make of it all as his reaction had been the complete opposite to what she would have expected. Did Sean have personal experience of this kind of situation? she wondered suddenly as she went to speak to Abbey’s boyfriend. And was that why he had taken such a hard stance just now? Her mind raced off at a tangent and she gasped. Did it also explain why he avoided commitment? Because he had been so badly hurt at some point in his life that he refused to run the risk of being hurt ever again?
It was an intriguing thought, but Molly knew that she mustn’t make the mistake of reading too much into it. To allow herself to believe that it was the true explanation for the way he had treated her two years ago would be asking for trouble. No, the truth was probably much simpler: Sean had grown tired of her and ended their relationship.
* * *
By the time everything was sorted out quite a large queue had formed in Reception. Suzy was doing triage that night—making sure the most seriously injured were seen first. Ambulance control had rung as well to say there was a young man who’d been involved in an RTA on his way. He had a suspected fractured pelvis so Molly told the paramedics to take him straight to Resus when he arrived and buzzed for Sean. As the senior doctor on duty, he was the one who would need to deal with this casualty and she would assist him.
‘Right, so what’s happened here?’ Sean hurried into Resus and came straight over to the bed. Molly moved aside to give him some room as he bent over the bed. He was wearing light blue scrubs that night and she found herself thinking all of a sudden just how much the colour suited him, emphasising the intense sapphire-blue of his eyes. Sean was an extremely handsome man, with that jet-black hair and those clean-cut features, and it was impossible to ignore the fact too. It took every scrap of willpower she could muster to concentrate as the lead paramedic did the handover.
‘This is David Gregory, aged twenty-two. He came off his motorbike after hitting a pothole in the road and slammed into a stone wall,’ the paramedic explained. ‘There appears to be some instability around his pelvis which is why we fitted a belt. He’s had ten mgs of morphine for the pain plus eight mgs of metoclopramide to counteract any sickness.’ The crew finished off with an update of the patient’s BP and Sats before they left.
‘Hello, David. I’m Dr Fitzgerald. I know you must be in a great deal of pain but I need to check what damage you’ve done to yourself. OK?’
Sean set about his examination when David nodded. He was quick but thorough, his hands moving as gently as possible over the young man’s hips and pelvis. He glanced at Molly and she could see the concern in his eyes. ‘Can you organise an X-ray, please, Sister? There’s quite a bit of movement here and I’d like to check if we’re dealing with more than one fracture.’
‘Of course.’ Molly hurried to the phone and summoned the radiographer. She arrived just moments later and quickly set about taking the X-rays they needed. Resus was equipped with an overhead X-ray machine so there was no need to move the patient. They all stepped aside while the films were taken and in a very short time the results were up on the screen. As Sean had suspected, David Gregory had fractured his pelvis in not one but two places, which made the situati
on even more complicated.
‘He needs to go to Theatre ASAP,’ Sean said after studying the films. ‘If I’m not mistaken, there’s some damage to the bladder and that needs sorting out immediately. Who’s the surgeon on duty tonight—do you know?’
‘I think it’s Adam Humphreys,’ Molly informed him. ‘Do you want me to phone him and tell him we have a patient for him?’
‘If you wouldn’t mind.’ Sean smiled at her. ‘Thanks, Molly. It will save me a job.’
‘No problem.’ Molly gave a little shrug before she hurried over to the phone but she couldn’t ignore the fact that her heart had lifted when Sean had smiled at her. Was she right about him being hurt in the past? she wondered once again and then sighed. She had to stop trying to find excuses for him and simply accept that he had finished with her because he hadn’t wanted to be with her any longer.
Molly deliberately turned her mind to tracking down Adam Humphreys, not an easy task, as it turned out, as he wasn’t in the surgeons’ lounge or in Theatre, and he wasn’t responding to his pager either. She finally traced him to Women’s Surgical, where he was checking on a patient he had seen earlier in the evening. He was full of apologies when she politely pointed out that his pager appeared to be switched off. He promised to come straight there and, true to his word, he arrived a couple of minutes later.
Molly knew him quite well and had always found him a pleasant if not very exciting kind of a man. He had asked her out a couple of times, but she had always made an excuse and refused. However, when he repeated his invitation after he had finished examining the X-rays, she found herself accepting. Maybe she should go out with Adam and forget about Sean. Having Sean turn up out of the blue like that had had a highly detrimental effect and she hated the fact that she couldn’t seem to get him out of her head. Why, just look at the way she had seriously considered instigating another affair with him! It had been madness, pure, unadulterated madness, to come up with such a crazy plan. Going out with someone as uncomplicated as Adam Humphreys would help to put her back on track. And who knew what might happen in the future? It could turn out that Adam Humphreys was her Mr Right, the frog who finally turned into her very own prince.
* * *
Sean had to bite his tongue when he heard Humphreys asking Molly out on a date. It had nothing to do with him who she dated, he told himself sternly. She was a free agent and he had given up any claim on her two years ago. It was no less than the truth but it was hard to take such a balanced and rational view. For some reason he didn’t intend to examine too closely, he couldn’t bear the thought of Molly seeing the other man.
The night wore on, the usual mix of the mundane and high drama. Several of the people he saw should have been seen by their GPs rather than turning up at the A&E unit. Sean politely explained that if something of a similar nature occurred again they should contact their local surgery, but he knew that most wouldn’t take his advice. Why wait for an appointment when they could be seen immediately? was their view. The fact that it simply added to the pressure the A&E staff were under was of little concern to them.
It was all very depressing and, added to his previous thoughts about Molly and this date she was planning, it had a marked effect. Sean’s spirits were at an all-time low when he left the hospital and it didn’t help when he saw Molly getting into Adam Humphreys’ car. He knew from what he had overheard her saying that her car still wasn’t fixed and he couldn’t blame her for accepting a lift rather than waiting for the bus, but it made no difference. He didn’t want the other man driving her home, certainly didn’t want to think about her inviting Humphreys in for coffee! Maybe he didn’t have any right to dictate what she did and who she did it with, but it didn’t matter. Deep in his heart, tucked away in the very darkest corner, lay the truth: he wanted Molly to belong to him and only him.
* * *
Thankfully, Molly managed to get some sleep and awoke feeling a lot better than she had done. She showered and dressed, taking extra care as she blow-dried her hair so that it fell in soft red-gold waves around her face. Adam had asked her if she fancied having lunch with him that day at one of Dalverston’s newest and most expensive restaurants and she had accepted. It had seemed propitious to put her plan to forget about Sean into action as soon as possible.
The restaurant was beautiful if a tad formal for Molly’s taste. She was glad that she had chosen to wear a smart lilac dress for the lunch date rather than something more casual. The clientele was somewhat older than her and Adam, although she had to admit that he seemed very comfortable with the surroundings. He was obviously well known to the staff too because they were immediately seated at one of the best tables overlooking the river. Molly had to hide her amusement as Adam and the sommelier had a long and intense discussion about the best wine to accompany their lunch. It all seemed slightly over the top to her but she knew that Adam would be very hurt if she let him see how she felt.
Lunches out with Sean had been very different affairs, she found herself thinking as she listened to the two men discussing the merits of Sauvignon Blanc compared to Chablis. One day it had been a picnic of bread and some deliciously crumbly cheese produced by one of the local farms, all washed down with a bottle of beer, while on another occasion they had stopped at a mobile burger bar on the bypass and consumed huge and highly calorific egg and bacon sandwiches. A smile twitched at the corners of her mouth as she remembered how Sean had laughed when the egg had oozed out of her sandwich and dribbled down her chin. Bending forward, he had delicately licked the bright yellow eggy goo away, not something she could imagine Adam doing...
‘Excellent! We’ll have a bottle of the Chablis, Pierre. I’m sure you will appreciate it, Molly. It has the most exquisite bouquet.’
‘I...I’m sure I shall,’ Molly replied, hurriedly driving that disturbing thought from her mind as Adam turned to her. She had come here today specifically to stop herself thinking about Sean and she refused to allow her thoughts to get hijacked this early in the date!
She listened attentively as Adam continued with his theme, explaining in great detail the qualities of the various wines. He was obviously something of an expert but Molly could drum up very little enthusiasm for the subject. In her view, wine was wine and you either liked it or you didn’t. Spending time discussing it wasn’t something she and Sean had ever done—they’d had much better ways to occupy their time!
Once again her thoughts rushed off along their own path and she swallowed her groan of dismay. She didn’t want to think about the hours she and Sean had spent lying in each other’s arms, certainly didn’t want to remember how wonderful it had felt to make love with him. It wasn’t fair to Adam to think about another man when he had invited her for this very expensive lunch. No, she wouldn’t give Sean Fitzgerald another thought, even if it killed her!
‘So which is your very favourite wine, Adam?’ she asked, leaning forward and adopting an expression of what she hoped would appear to be deep and undivided interest. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the head waiter escorting someone to a nearby table. However, it wasn’t until the waiter moved away to fetch a menu that Molly realised who it was. All of a sudden her blood began to boil, growing hotter and hotter until it felt as though she would explode. What on earth was Sean doing here?
CHAPTER SEVEN
WHAT IN HEAVEN’S name was he doing here?
Sean could hear the question drumming inside his head as it had been doing for the best part of an hour, yet he still hadn’t come up with an answer to it. Or not a truthful one, anyhow. Oh, he had listed at least half a dozen reasons to explain why he’d felt a sudden need to dine in the lap of luxury but he knew in his heart that not one of them was valid. He didn’t really feel that he deserved a treat after working so hard. Neither did he honestly believe it was essential he tried out the restaurant in case he decided to invite someone here for dinner. He had come here
today for one reason and one reason only—because Molly would be lunching here with Humphreys. Hell!
The waiter returned to take his order and Sean pointed to the first thing on the extensive menu. He had no idea what he’d ordered after the man left and didn’t care. He wasn’t here for the food. He was here because he couldn’t bear the thought of Molly schmoozing with the other man. OK, so he was behaving like the proverbial dog-in-the-manger but so what? Humphreys wasn’t right for Molly. Maybe he didn’t know much about the other man, granted, but he could tell that just by looking at him. Humphreys was too staid, too solid, too damned reliable—everything he wasn’t.
Molly needed someone with more pizzazz, someone who would treasure her, appreciate her beauty and her kindness as well as her generosity of spirit. He had appreciated all of those things, even though he had had to let her go. But Humphreys? No way was he right for her and she was making a big mistake if she thought he was!
His lunch arrived and Sean picked up his knife and fork even though the thought of actually eating the food that had been set before him was making his stomach churn. Molly was leaning across the table now, laughing at some comment her companion had made. Sean glowered, hating to hear the sound of her laughter and not be the cause of it. He had enjoyed making her laugh; it had made him feel incredibly happy—happier than he had felt for such a long time. He couldn’t bear the thought that some other guy was basking in the same happy glow.
He applied himself to his lunch, wanting to get it over and done with as quickly as possible so he could leave. Coming here had been a huge mistake. Although Molly hadn’t acknowledged him in any way, he knew that she had seen him. The thought of having to dredge up one of those pitifully lame excuses if she demanded an explanation for his presence was more than he could handle. To heck with the food; he was leaving this very minute!
