Dr. Dark and Far-Too Delicious

by Carol Marinelli

  The patient, though conscious, was beyond pale. His pulse was thin and thready and Jasmine set to work, with Greg cutting his leathers off.

  ‘Can you tell me your name?’ Penny asked as she examined him.

  ‘Reece.’

  ‘And do you know where you are?’

  He answered the questions when prompted but kept closing his eyes and drifting off. Jasmine could only just palpate his blood pressure manually and Penny wasted no time in drawing blood for an urgent cross-match and telling the porters to run it up.

  ‘And I mean run!’ he warned. ‘Let’s put the O-neg up.’

  Penny was possibly up there with the most horrible doctors Jasmine had worked with. She was abrupt to the point of rudeness, gave no thanks, only barked demands, except...

  She was brilliant.

  ‘If they can’t be bothered to get down here,’ Penny shouted as Jasmine tried to locate the surgeons again, ‘tell them that I’ll meet them up in Theatre.’

  The patient had had a spinal and chest X-ray, and despite the O-negative blood being squeezed in, his blood pressure was still barely discernible. It was clear he needed Theatre and Penny wanted him taken straight up.

  Jed was dealing with the latest admission, and Jasmine quickly prepared Reece for theatre, loading his clothes into a bag and itemising his valuables—rings, wallet... But as she opened up the wallet Jasmine hesitated. There were loads of hundred-dollar notes—at best guess the wallet contained a few thousand dollars.

  ‘Can someone check this with me?’ Jasmine asked.

  ‘I’ll check it with you later,’ Greg called. ‘Just put it in the safe.’

  ‘Can we just check it now?’ Jasmine pushed, except Greg wasn’t listening, so she popped her head around the curtain to where Vanessa and Lisa were assisting Jed. ‘Can someone check this, please? He’s got a large amount of cash.’

  ‘Just pop it in the safe,’ Lisa called. ‘I’ll count it when things have calmed down.’

  ‘We’re supposed to check it before we put it in the safe.’ Jasmine’s voice was shrill. ‘We’re not supposed to sign—’

  ‘Here.’ It was Penny who stepped in. ‘Give it to me, Nurse. I’ll put it in the safe.’ She walked over and took the wallet, signed the piece of paper and threw the contents into the safe. Jasmine realised that she was sweating and she could feel Jed’s eyes on her.

  ‘Right,’ Penny said. ‘We need to get him up or he’s going to bleed out.’ She picked up the phone and told Theatre the same as Jasmine prepared the trolley for an emergency transfer, but her hands were shaking and her heart was thumping as she knew she’d made a bit of a scene.

  ‘All okay, Jasmine?’ Lisa checked as Jasmine walked past to get a space blanket to put over Reece on the way up to Theatre.

  ‘We’re just about to move him,’ Jasmine said, and as Jed briefly looked up she felt the question in his brief gaze, knew she wasn’t fooling anyone that everything was okay, least of all Jed.

  ‘Reece.’ Jasmine tried to explain things as best she could as she covered him with the space blanket. He was irritable now and struggling to remain conscious, and he wanted to wait till his wife got there before he went up. ‘We’re going to have to move you to Theatre now. Miss Masters will explain things.’

  Which Penny did.

  She was efficient, brusque but also terribly kind. ‘I know you want to wait for your wife—I completely understand, but you’re too sick,’ she explained gently but firmly. ‘I will talk to your wife myself as soon as she gets here. Is there anything you want me to say to her?’ She glanced at Jasmine and Greg and at the anaesthetist who had just arrived. ‘Could you all excuse us a moment?’

  As Jasmine stepped outside to give Penny and Reece some privacy, there was a strange sting of tears in her eyes. It wasn’t that she had seen a different side to her sister, rather she had seen a side to Penny that she had long forgotten.

  Sitting on the stairs, hearing her parents argue, had terrified four-year-old Jasmine. It had been Penny who would take her back to bed, Penny who would sit beside her and tell her not to worry, that she would take care of things, that even if things did get bad, that even if Dad did what he was threatening and left, they would be fine.

  ‘But what if we’re not?’ Jasmine would argue. ‘What if we never see him?’

  ‘Then we’ll deal with it.’

  And in their own ways and albeit not perfectly they had.

  And as she ran up to Theatre with her sister, and Penny told her to head back down, that she wanted to speak with surgeons, Jasmine knew that she hadn’t just come back for the support of her family, neither had she taken the job here for the reasons she had so determinedly given.

  She wanted to be close to Penny again.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  ‘I’LL COME OVER after work.’

  Jed was coming out of X-Ray as Jasmine walked back from Theatre and they found themselves walking together towards Emergency.

  ‘It’s fine.’ Jasmine shook her head. ‘I’ll see you at the weekend. Ruby said that she could—’

  ‘But you’re upset tonight.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be fine by Saturday.’ She couldn’t keep the brittle edge from her voice. Yes, she was happy keeping things light, but sometimes, on days like today, it was hard.

  ‘I’m not expecting to be entertained,’ Jed said. ‘What happened back there?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Jasmine? Why did you get all upset over the safe? You know we can’t just drop everything—the guy was bleeding out.’

  ‘Just leave it.’

  But Jed wouldn’t.

  It was a very long shift. Vanessa was on a half-day and Jasmine really wished that she herself was—she could feel Jed watching her, especially much later when Lisa came over and asked her to check the cash.

  ‘Four thousand six hundred dollars. Agreed?’ Lisa checked.

  ‘Agreed,’ Jasmine said, and because Penny had first signed for it, she had to be there too.

  ‘I just rang ICU,’ Penny said. ‘He’s doing much better. His wife told me that he was on his way to put down a deposit on a car—that’s why he had so much cash on him.’ She added her signature to the valuables book.

  ‘Oh, the irony of it,’ Lisa sighed, because in a car his injuries would have been so much less. ‘Now, I know this is a lot of money and that it has to be checked,’ Lisa continued, ‘but it’s not always possible to just drop everything. It’s better to put it in the safe.’

  ‘That’s not what the protocol says,’ Jasmine pointed out, and Lisa pursed her lips. ‘It’s been six hours now.’

  ‘I didn’t know you were such a stickler for protocol and guidelines, Nurse,’ Penny smirked. ‘The irony of it!’

  ‘What was that about?’ Lisa grinned when Penny waltzed off.

  ‘I think that might have been Penny’s attempt at humour,’ Jed said, but she could feel his eyes on her, knew he was trying to talk to her, but as she had all day she did her best to avoid him.

  Jasmine actually thought she had when she finally finished for the day and went to pick Simon up. But heading over to the crèche she found Jed at the vending machine outside.

  ‘I’ll come over later.’

  ‘You know I don’t want that. I don’t want to confuse Simon.’

  ‘We’re not going to make out on the sofa,’ Jed said. ‘And I’m not going to stay the night till you think he’s ready for that, but I do want to talk to you. You’re nearly in tears and I don’t get why. What happened at your old job?’ He could see the blush on her cheeks but she said nothing, instead walked past him to pick up Simon.

  Simon was happy and scruffy after a day in the sandpit and Jasmine knew that it was time to face things, that she and Jed could not keep skirting around t
he edges.

  Here in her hands was the living proof of an exceptionally difficult relationship, here was the baggage she carried, and yet it felt right in her arms.

  She had to be able to talk about it with someone she trusted.

  And she had to start trusting Jed.

  He was still waiting for her when she headed outside.

  ‘About six?’

  ‘He’ll still be up.’

  ‘I don’t mind, or I can come over around nine if that’s what you’d prefer?’ She longed to let Jed closer but she just couldn’t take any chances with Simon.

  ‘About nine.’

  * * *

  Simon wasn’t at his sunniest and her mum dropped over too. It was just one of those disorganised evenings, not helped by a disorganised brain thanks to the day’s events. Jasmine had just got Simon down and was sorting out his bag for the next day when she heard a knock at the door and looked up to see that it was already a quarter past nine.

  ‘I wouldn’t have got here at six anyway,’ Jed said, following her through to the kitchen. ‘I only just got away. It’s still busy there.’

  ‘Who’s on?’

  ‘Rex!’ Jed rolled his eyes. ‘And Penny’s still hovering. I swear she never sleeps.’

  ‘Do you want something to eat?’

  ‘Are you going to cook for me?’ Jed grinned.

  ‘No,’ Jasmine said, ‘but if you’re nice I might defrost something.’

  Actually, she did cook. Well, she made some pasta and defrosted some sauce and it was possibly their most normal night together. He ate a large bowl while Jasmine got things ready for the next day. Perhaps realising she wasn’t ready to talk yet, he chatted a bit more about himself, telling her a bit about his siblings and their families.

  ‘Don’t you miss them?’

  ‘A lot.’

  ‘So how come you moved down here?’

  ‘Just...’ Jed shrugged. He knew he had to tell her, but there would be time for all that later—he wasn’t here for himself tonight. He could see that she was still upset, see her hands shake a little as she folded some washing and then finally joined him.

  ‘You got upset in Resus today.’

  ‘I didn’t.’

  ‘Jasmine?’

  ‘I just get annoyed when people don’t check valuables properly,’ she attempted. ‘Everyone bangs on about how important it is and then if something goes missing...’

  ‘People are busy.’

  ‘I know that.’

  ‘I heard you speaking to that paramedic,’ Jed admitted, and he watched as she closed her eyes. ‘Jasmine, did something happen at your old job?’

  ‘No,’ she broke in. ‘Jed, please...’ And then she started to cry. ‘I found out that my husband was stealing from patients.’ It was so awful to say it, to admit to it. She’d made it so huge in her mind that she half expected him to stand up and walk out, but of course he didn’t. Instead, he took both her hands.

  ‘Come on.’ He was very kind and very firm but he wasn’t going to leave it. ‘Tell me what happened.’

  ‘I don’t know where to start,’ she said. ‘There was an unconscious patient apparently and there was a lot of money missing.’ She knew she wasn’t making much sense, so she just told him everything.

  ‘Lloyd,’ Jasmine said. ‘Simon’s father, he was a paramedic. We really got on, but then everyone did with Lloyd. He was very popular. We went out for about three months and—’ she couldn’t really look at that time properly ‘—I thought everything was fantastic at first,’ she admitted. ‘But I know now that it wasn’t because I was being lied to even then. I didn’t know but there had been a report put in about him.’

  ‘You can’t know if someone doesn’t tell you,’ Jed pointed out.

  ‘I know that, but it wasn’t just that he didn’t tell me.’ She took a deep breath, because if she was going to tell him some of it, then she had better tell him all. ‘Remember I told you that I can’t take the Pill?’ She blushed as she had the first time she’d told him. ‘Well, we were careless.’ She went really red then, not with embarrassment, more with anger. ‘Actually, no, we weren’t. I know it takes two, but I think he was the one who was careless.’

  ‘Jasmine.’ Jed was completely honest. ‘I nearly forgot our first time.’

  ‘I know,’ she admitted. ‘But even if you had, I’ve got a coil now, so it wouldn’t matter. It was more that I didn’t forget.’ She looked at Jed, she knew how they had lost it in bed together, but she never had till him. ‘I reminded him, I tried to stop him. I don’t know, I can’t prove that, but there was an accident, and I found I was pregnant and not sure I wanted to be. I was just so confused and yet he was delighted. He insisted we get married and and then we took three months off to see Australia. As he said, to have loads of fun before the baby. I had lots of annual leave saved up.’

  She couldn’t even look at Jed as she went on. ‘What Lloyd hadn’t told me was that he was under investigation for stealing from a patient. It was all kept confidential so not even his colleagues knew, but another patient had come forward with a complaint and they’d placed Lloyd on three months’ paid suspension. We were swanning around Australia and I had no idea.’

  ‘When did he tell you?’

  ‘He didn’t,’ Jasmine admitted. ‘I went back to work. I was coming up for six months pregnant by then and he told me that he had another month off and then he started to talk about how, given I love my work, why didn’t we think about him staying home to look after the baby? Every word that man said to me was a lie.’ She could feel her anger rising as it did whenever she thought about him and wondered, as she often did, if he’d got her pregnant deliberately.

  ‘So how did you find out?’

  ‘The other paramedics were a bit cool with me,’ Jasmine admitted. ‘They’re a pretty honourable lot, they don’t take kindly to what Lloyd did and there was I, chatting with them like I used to, about our holiday, about things, and then one of my friends pulled me aside and said it might be better if I didn’t rub things in.’ She started to cry. ‘She said it was fine if I could accept what he’d done, but it was a bit much for them to hear about us having fun with his suspension pay. He’d been fired by then and I didn’t even know.’

  ‘Oh, Jasmine.’

  ‘He said that as his wife I should have supported him, but the fact is I wouldn’t have married him had I known.’ She looked at Jed. ‘I wouldn’t have. I’m not saying someone has to be perfect, I’m not saying you don’t stick together through bad times, but I didn’t even know that he was in the middle of bad times when we got married, when he made sure I was pregnant.’ She was really crying now. ‘I moved out and kept working right till the end of my pregnancy, but it was awful. I think my friends believed I had nothing to do with it, that I hadn’t had a clue...’

  ‘Of course they did.’

  ‘No.’ Jasmine shook her head. ‘Not all of them—there was loads of gossip. It was just awful at the time.

  ‘I see some of the paramedics now and we’re starting to be friendly again,’ she continued. ‘I think they really do understand now that I simply didn’t know. I’m just trying to get on with my life.’

  ‘Do you speak to him at all?’

  ‘Nothing,’ Jasmine said. ‘He came and saw Simon a couple of times when we were in the hospital, but there’s been nothing since then. He’s got a new girlfriend and so much for being a stay-home dad—he doesn’t even have a thing to do with his son. He’s working in the family business, they’re all supporting him, as families do, and making sure it looks like he earns a dollar a week, so I don’t get anything.’

  ‘You can fight that.’

  ‘I could, but I don’t want to,’ Jasmine said. ‘I don’t want any of his grubby money. I stayed close by for a year because, at the end o
f the day, I figured that he is Simon’s dad and I should make it as easy for him as possible to have access to his son. But when he wanted nothing to do with him...’ She was a little more honest than she’d expected to be. ‘I was embarrassed to go back to work too. He just completely upended my life.’

  And Jed got that, he got that so much, how one person could just walk into your life and shatter it, could make a normal world suddenly crazy, and he could have told her then, but Jed knew that now wasn’t the time.

  ‘And I’m the one left holding the baby.’ She was the most honest she had been with another person. ‘And I know if it hadn’t happened then I wouldn’t have Simon and I love him more than anything so I can’t wish it had never happened, except sometimes I do.’

  Of course she heard Simon crying then, just to ram home the guilt of her words.

  ‘I need to go and settle him.’

  ‘Sure.’

  Simon didn’t want settling, Simon wanted a drink and a play and a conversation.

  ‘He’s not going to settle.’ She came back into the living room a good twenty minutes later.

  ‘Do you want me to leave?’

  ‘No,’ Jasmine said. ‘But I’m going to have to bring him in here.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Jed checked.

  ‘It’s no big deal,’ Jasmine said.

  Except they both knew that it was. Jed hadn’t seen Simon since that day on the beach when he’d helped get him into the water.

  And Jed really didn’t want to leave her.

  Simon was delighted with the late night visitor, chatting away to him for as long as he could till his eyes were heavy and Jasmine put him back to bed.

  ‘Cute,’ Jed said. ‘He looks like you—apart from the blond hair. Is his dad blond?’

  ‘No,’ Jasmine replied. Simon was a mini, male Penny.

  ‘Have you told Lisa what happened?’

  Jasmine shook her head.