‘And now...’ Luc said with all solemnity. ‘We’ll make a movie. Watch.’ And he took the phone, stepped back and took a quick clip of Luc and Beth in the bath with Troy stooping to knock away the tiles.
‘We can do even better,’ Luc told him as he replayed it for James’s benefit. ‘If I hop into the bath we can make pictures of everything that’s happening. I’ll show you and then I’ll teach you how.’ He handed the phone to James and held out a hand to Beth, a hand that told her she was coming out of the bath right now.
So she could object—or she could do what he said.
It felt like giving in.
It felt like sense.
She went to push herself out but she wasn’t permitted. He stooped, tugged her upright, then put his hands on her waist and lifted her bodily from the bath. Then he swept her against him and hugged, a brief, strong hug that had nothing to do with professional anything—but if they sold that sort of comfort in bottles...
Um...not. She’d be professional even if he wasn’t.
‘I... Thanks.’ But he’d already released her and was sliding into the bath behind James, attention back on his phone.
‘Now, James, we press this button. That lets us see ourselves in the camera. If we hold it right out here we can even see what the firemen are doing under the bath. You can hold it while we take pictures of just us, but if we want the firemen I might need to hold it because my arm’s longer. Dr Carmichael, can you please go check on anyone else who needs checking? We’ll call if we need you, won’t we, James?’
‘M-Mummy,’ said James, uncertainly.
‘Dr Carmichael’s going to give your mummy a cuddle,’ Luc told him. He’d been recording while he talked so now he turned the phone around and hit replay. ‘And the firemen are going to get your toe free. James, I think you might need to wiggle your ears to make our picture more interesting. Can you wiggle your ears? I can. Why don’t I wiggle and you hold the camera?’
* * *
And twenty minutes later one toe—with metal plug and James attached—was ensconced on the front bench seat of the fire engine. With Millie. Troy even obliged by using sirens and flashing lights as they headed for the hospital.
Luc followed in his car.
Beth followed in hers. Dazed.
Luc had his car. That meant he hadn’t flown here.
It was half a day’s drive from Sydney.
That meant...no flying visit?
Her mind was in overdrive. Here was Luc, dashing to her rescue again. She should tell him to turn around and go straight back to Sydney but of course she couldn’t. She needed his professional help.
Nothing else.
Liar.
What was he doing here?
‘Just rescuing,’ she said wearily. ‘Just being someone I need. Oh, Luc, how am I going to learn not to need you?’
* * *
With two doctors the procedure to remove one toe from one metal ring was relatively simple. Beth gave the anaesthetic, really light as James was already sedated. Once the adrenaline of the rescue and the fire engine ride was done he’d slumped into his mother’s arms and hardly noticed as Beth had set up a drip and administered what she needed to put him under.
Luc did the actual removal of toe from metal. If the plug hadn’t been so bulky he could have used an orthopaedic pin-cutter, but for this they needed heat shields to protect the underlying skin, then the specifically designed surgical cutter with grinder attachment.
And good eyesight.
Yeah, she could have done it, she conceded. Her magnifying glasses would have worked.
Except...she was bone weary. Her hands were starting to shake and the cutter required eye-watering precision. To be safe, she’d have had to send him to Sydney. Instead she monitored breathing and watched while Luc expertly freed one toe.
It was a five-minute job. The toe wasn’t compromised. James surfaced from the anaesthetic and almost instantly drifted toward normal sleep.
There was swelling because of initial tugging, but by tomorrow he’d have nothing more than a slightly sore toe, a memory of firefighters and fire engines—and a heap of pictures to show his dad when he got home.
One of the firefighters had stayed on to take Millie and James home. Beth walked out to the car park to see them off and then walked back inside.
To face Luc.
He was helping the nurses clear equipment, chatting as if he’d known them all their lives—and gently probing as to what else needed to be done tonight. For a moment she stood back in the doorway of Theatre and watched. Barb and Dottie were the nurses on duty—middle-aged, sensible women. The clearing was finished. Neither of them actually needed to be in Theatre any more but she could see they were attracted to Luc as moths to flame. She stood and watched and thought... Yeah, why wouldn’t they be?
And then Luc turned and saw her. He smiled and she thought moths and flames had nothing on her.
‘All done, Dr Carmichael?’
‘Thanks to you,’ she said, and was cross that her voice quavered a bit. ‘I... Thank you.’
And Barb nudged Dottie and Dottie nudged Barb and they disappeared.
Which made her feel even more...even more she didn’t know what.
‘Think nothing of it,’ he said, and his smile became a caress all on its own. And before she knew it, he was across the room, enfolding her into his arms and holding her tight.
Just...holding her. Nothing more. Just holding.
She could feel the beat of his heart. She could feel the strength of him.
Her Luc.
‘Beth,’ he whispered into her hair, and somehow it sounded like a vow.
She had things to do. She needed to move on. She needed to back away, thank him nicely for what he’d done, ask what the hell he was doing here, tell him she no longer needed him but it had been very nice of him to come check on her.
Instead she simply stood and let her heartbeat settle to his. And pretend for just this moment that this was how it could be.
Luc...
Her phone rang. Of course. Her phone had been ringing pretty much nonstop since she’d returned to Namborra. She’d flicked it off in the bathtub and then again as she’d put James under, but the moment she wasn’t urgently needed, she’d flicked it on again, ready for the next problem. It was what she did.
Like Luc responding to need.
But instead of letting her answer, Luc lifted the phone from the back pocket of her jeans and answered it for her.
‘Namborra Medical Service. Dr Braxton speaking.’
‘Give it to me,’ Beth tried, but he smiled down at her, used his spare arm to hug her even closer, and went on speaking.
‘Right. I can see why you’re worrying, but the incubation period for meningitis is well and truly over. If your little boy caught it from Felix he’d have had it by now. But tell me the symptoms.’
He listened, his face grave and attentive, but while he listened his fingers started playing with her spine. Doing...doing...
She should listen. She should...
Oh, the feel of those fingers...
‘You know, that sounds very much like a cold to me. Thirty-seven point seven? Yes, that is a slight fever but it’s very, very mild. And he has a runny nose? Is he alert? Did he eat his dinner? Yes, I agree we can’t be too careful but I think, given the symptoms, that we can wait and watch for a while.
‘What I’d like you to do is pop him in the bath—watch the plughole, by the way—there’s been a bit of a problem with toes and plugholes and we don’t want that to go around. Pop him in pyjama bottoms with no top and put him to bed as normal. Don’t put too many covers on him. Take his temperature again before you go to bed and if it’s over thirty-eight then I want you to ring me again. No, not Doc Carmichael. I’m the doctor on duty tonight but this number reaches us bo
th. That’s great. Get some sleep yourself and feel free to ring if you have any concerns. Goodnight.’
And he flipped the phone closed and tucked it back into her jeans pocket.
And she stared up at him, stunned. What had he just said?
‘You’re what?’
‘What, love?’ The fingers started their magic again. He was smiling down at her. Lovingly? Oh, Luc...
Back off. Back off! This was terrifying.
‘You’re the duty doctor tonight?’ she managed.
‘I thought I’d start tonight—if it’s okay with you. I agree, as junior partner I should have asked you first, but seeing as I—’
‘Junior partner... Luc, what are you doing?’
They were right by the sinks. She could feel the bench at her back. Luc was in front of her. The bench was behind.
The bench felt solid. Luc felt...terrifying.
‘I’m here to stay,’ he said, and even the bench stopped feeling solid.
‘You can’t.’
‘I can’t stay?’
‘No.’ She was hovering between tears and laughter. ‘Luc, you know you can’t. You’ll go nuts. A family doctor...’
‘I think I might like it.’
‘You wouldn’t. You won’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because it’s not dangerous,’ she said, feeling desperate. ‘Because it’s not filled with adrenaline. Because you don’t get to swing on ropes and dive into burning buildings.’
‘No?’ He appeared to think about it. ‘You know, I’ve never considered family medicine until now, but I’ve spent a lot of the last couple of weeks talking to Maryanne. She sends her regards, by the way. They’re pretty fuzzy regards. She has residual left-sided weakness so her speech is a bit impaired but she’s fit enough to tell me exactly what this job involves. And why it’s unsuitable for someone like you with a bit of sight impairment. Because she says there are times when you need to hang off ropes.’
‘I never have...’
‘But you crawl into wrecked cars. You head into unknown homes at the dead of night. Maryanne says you’ve talked people out of suicide. You watch kids grow, dealing with every dumb accident kids fall into. You cope with unexpected babies... Why is Millie still here, by the way? Are you seriously proposing to deliver her? No matter, we’ll talk of that later. All I figure is that family medicine can be routine and I think I’m ready for that, but it also seems that it can be very exciting indeed. There’ll be dramas here and we’re first responders. Like stuck toes with fire engines attached. How can I return to Specialist Disaster Response and miss that?’
‘You can’t be serious.’ She could hardly breathe. ‘Luc, you can’t. Honest, you’d go nuts.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I’ve figured...tonight in the bath I thought it through. You’re right, I can’t cope here on my own. It’s not fair to anyone. Namborra will need to find someone else. I don’t know who but it can’t...it can’t be me. And as for you coming here, too, you know it’s impossible. You’ll go crazy trying to stop me taking a fair share and I can’t watch you go crazy. Luc, I don’t need you that much.’
‘No,’ he said seriously. ‘You don’t. That’s what I figured. It’s taken me a while—ten years, in fact. I’m a slow learner but I have it now.’ He took her by the waist again and tugged her into him, hard and strong. ‘You don’t need me that much but I need you at least that much. No. I need you more.’
‘What...what...?’
He kissed her hair, a feather touch, a touch she should hardly have felt but it was a touch that sent shards of heat running through her entire body.
‘I get it,’ he said softly, into her hair. ‘Finally...’
‘You get...what?’
‘That I need,’ he murmured. ‘That I’ve always needed. You know my background. You know my crazy mother. She was damaged herself and she spread that damage. I was only worth anything when I was needed. If I wasn’t needed, I wasn’t loved. I’ve done enough hard thinking over the past few weeks—in between fighting fire-breathing dragons—to accept that I need to change. But, then, I guess I’ve always known that. It’s just that I haven’t wanted to change enough to do it.’
Her heart was hammering but so was his. Two hearts beating as one. How corny was that?
She didn’t do corny. She couldn’t hope for corny. Hearts and flowers? Violins playing soppy love songs?
Her heart was screaming, Yes, please.
But she needed to listen. She had to listen. Luc’s voice was little more than a murmur and every nerve-ending was attuned to every syllable.
‘I’ve spent the last ten years thinking you needed me,’ he was saying, even softer now as if he could hardly believe what he was saying, as if there was some deep part of him surfacing that had to struggle past barriers that were a lifetime deep. ‘But you know what? I’ve watched you dispatch dragons, and there hasn’t been a single time when you haven’t whirled and coped with your own threats.’
‘That’s not to say... I mean, there will be times...’
‘When the dragons get too much?’ He kissed her then, properly this time, and it was a kiss that was so sweet, so tender that she almost melted on the spot. ‘Of course there will. Those dragons will be there for me, too, and when they are, I want you to be the one looking out for me. That’s because I need you. But you know what I’ve finally figured? I love you first and need comes second. So, Beth, I’m hoping...no, I’m gambling my life here on the one big thing. That you love me regardless of need.’
She couldn’t speak. She was having trouble breathing. She didn’t...she wasn’t...she couldn’t respond.
But he hadn’t finished. He had both her hands in his, smiling down at her in a way that made her heart turn over, that made joy build to a point where she felt she might turn into a puddle of happiness. That the world was somehow transforming into something new and bright and magnificent.
Listen, she told herself fiercely. Listen...and breathe.
‘Beth, you have damaged eyesight and sometimes you need help,’ he was saying, holding her tight. ‘Right now you have a damaged leg so you need help there, too. Maryanne’s desperate to get back to work but she’ll probably be left with residual weakness and she’ll need help as well. But maybe my disability is worse. Beth, I was a lonely kid who never got taught the basics of loving, and how does a little eyesight loss or leg injury or even left-sided weakness compare to that? It’s huge. So of the three of us...’
‘The three of us...’
‘Yep,’ he said in satisfaction. ‘Because our future needs to include medicine. I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to sort this out. I needed to get all my ducks in a row before I talked to you. This isn’t a half-baked idea, love. It’s a full-blown rest-of-our-lives proposition. Maryanne wants to come back after rehab but she’ll face restrictions. She knows that but she’s accepting—very humbly, by the way—that if we give her space she can manage. That makes a country practice of three doctors. It’ll be three doctors who all have different needs but, hey, no one’s perfect. And maybe together we can provide what this town needs. And...what we all need?’
‘I...’ Where had her voice gone? The lone syllable came out a squeak and she had to breathe a few times before she could try again. ‘Luc...are you talking medical practice here or...or us?’
‘I’m not including Maryanne in the marriage,’ he admitted, and he chuckled and drew her closer. ‘But I am talking marriage. Seriously now. The way a man should talk marriage.’
He put her back from him then and held her at arm’s length but his eyes still caressed her. ‘For that’s what this is all about,’ he said softly. ‘This is the single biggest thing I’ve ever said. We married once but I know now we married for all the wrong reasons. The love was there but there were too many ghosts. I hadn’t sorted them—and maybe you hadn’t sorted yours, either. But fina
lly our ghosts seem to have been dispatched and I can’t tell you how grateful I am. So...’
‘S-so?’
‘So, Beth Carmichael, I love you with all my heart. Would you do me the very great honour of marrying me? Properly this time, though, Beth. Marrying for love. Not for need, though need’s there because, God knows, I need you more than life itself. But, Beth... I’ve never stopped feeling that you’re my wife. I want to slay dragons with you, not for you. I want to have a family. A dog? A brother or sister for Toby? I...whatever... Will you...?’
And he stopped. He could go no further.
And neither could she.
He was looking down at her with all the anxiety in the world. He didn’t know, she thought. He didn’t understand...
So say it, she told herself. Just say it.
One little word.
One vast, soaring ode to joy.
‘Yes,’ she said as he gathered her into him.
‘Yes,’ she said as he raised her and swung her round and round until her heart felt like it was swirling out of her body.
Yes, she said again, but this time her yes was silent because his mouth had found hers.
Because two people had found their home.
* * * * *
Look out for the previous story in the Bondi Bay Heroes quartet
The Shy Nurse’s Rebel Doc
by Alison Roberts
Available now!
And there are two more fabulous stories to come!
Healed by Her Army Doc
by Meredith Webber
Rescued by Her Mr. Right
by Alison Roberts
Available September 2018!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Their Own Little Miracle by Caroline Anderson.
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Finding His Wife, Finding a Son Page 16
