by Lucy Clark
‘Yes, Mum,’ Julia replied obediently.
Her mother plumped her pillows and helped her to wriggle down in the bed before kissing her forehead and leaving the room. Julia closed her eyes, feeling very much like a little girl instead of a thirty-three-year-old woman who held a surgical degree and was the mother of one.
Julia stayed in bed for most of Sunday, wincing when Edward came and jumped up and down on her mattress, demanding a pillow fight. He’d also insisted on kissing Mummy’s back better and couldn’t understand why it wasn’t immediately as right as rain. The sentiment, however, made Julia love him all the more, if that was possible.
On Monday, she was definitely feeling better. Zac commented on it quietly during ward round.
‘Range of motion seems to have increased,’ he whispered as they walked between patients. Julia elbowed him sharply. ‘Temper seems to be intact,’ he continued, and she smiled. Tess, the ward sister, noticed the action and frowned at Julia. There was nothing for her to do but smile back as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
When they came to their karate experts, Lucas Carter and Philip Gregg, Julia was once again surprised at the difference in their personalities. Philip was as cheerful and optimistic as could be. His check X-ray, taken the night before, showed good stabilisation.
‘You’ve had no after-effects from the anaesthetic,’ Zac said as he read Philip’s chart, ‘so I don’t see why you can’t go home this morning.’
‘All right!’ Philip said, and grinned. ‘Thanks, Dr Carmichael.’
‘I’ll see you in my clinic in two weeks’ time,’ he replied and signed the patient’s case-notes with the discharge details.
Lucas Carter was a different story. His check X-ray showed that everything was in the right place and only time would tell how well he would heal. But where Philip was full of optimism, Lucas was sunk in pessimism.
He was still rather sluggish, even though it had been almost thirty-seven hours since he’d come out of Theatre. It was a fact that general anaesthetics affected different people in different ways and Lucas was taking longer than usual to recover.
‘When can I go home?’ he asked Julia.
She checked his chart. ‘I’d like you to stay in until at least this afternoon and have another course of antibiotics.’
Lucas sneered across at Philip who was in the next bed. ‘How come he can go home and I can’t?’ he protested.
‘Because you’re not him.’ Julia answered calmly. ‘I’d like you to have another blood test and I’ll check up on you later today.’ She wrote up her request and they were about to move on to the next bed when Lucas erupted.
‘Why didn’t I get the male doctor? Why was I stuck with you? Females! Think they know everything. If I’d had him…’ Lucas stabbed his finger in Zac’s direction ‘…instead of you…’ he pointed to Julia ‘…I’d be the one going home today and not him.’ He glared at Philip as though he despised him, and Julia found it difficult to fathom just why Lucas didn’t like Philip.
Zac stepped forward and the rest of the ward round, which was made up of registrars, interns, medical students and nursing staff, edged back a little. Julia calmly put her hand on Zac’s arm and shook her head.
‘I’m sorry you feel that way, Lucas,’ she said quietly. ‘If it makes you feel any better, I’m more than happy to hand your care over to Dr Carmichael here.’ She waited for Lucas’s reply. He seemed stunned. The entire ward round was silent, as were the other patients in the ward. The clock ticked for an entire five seconds without a sound.
Slowly Lucas lifted his chin in defiance, his eyes squinting with dislike for Julia. ‘Yeah,’ he said, and nodded for emphasis. ‘Yeah. I want him to be my doctor.’
Julia picked up Lucas’s chart, wrote the details and signed her name before handing the chart to Zac. He added his comments and, just like that, Lucas had a new doctor.
‘Done,’ she said, and smiled sweetly at him.
Zac looked at Lucas, his expression one of the consummate professional. ‘I’d like to prescribe another course of antibiotics and I’ll be around to see you later this afternoon,’ he told Lucas, before replacing the chart and nodding to Julia. She was hard-pressed not to laugh at the look on Lucas’s face.
‘Shall we move on?’ she asked the round, and everyone nodded or murmured affirmative replies.
They moved into the next ward which contained another six beds of male patients and where Aki Ishimaru had been transferred late last week. His asthma had been stabilised but Julia sensed there was still something wrong. His face was drawn and he looked very unhappy. She mentioned it to Zac, who agreed. When the round was finished, the two of them stayed at the nurses’ station, discussing Aki’s situation.
‘Have we checked his diet? Is the food being prepared the correct way?’ she asked.
‘His notes say he’s eating well.’
‘Has he seen any of his friends? People from the tour bus?’
‘Tess told me the other day that he refuses to.’
‘I know he speaks very little English—maybe that’s the problem. How often does the translator come around to help the nursing staff?’
‘Once a day.’
‘Is it possible to make it twice?’
‘More conversation? I’ll ask Tess. Perhaps we should also schedule some extra times with the translator and social worker.’
‘He doesn’t want to see one,’ Tess said as she came into the nurses’ station. ‘You’re talking about Aki, aren’t you?’
‘Yes,’ Julia answered.
‘He doesn’t want to see the social worker.’
‘Why not?’ Zac asked.
‘We have no idea, but every time the translator has suggested bringing the social worker in, Aki has furiously protested.’
‘Beatrice!’ Julia said triumphantly.
‘Beatrice from Theatres? What about her?’ Tess asked.
‘Beatrice speaks Japanese. Let me have a word with her and see if she can drop in now and then. Aki might benefit from some chats in his native tongue.’
Zac nodded. ‘It’s worth a try.’ He made a note on Aki’s chart. ‘Also, Tess, ask the social worker to write a list of questions and the next time the translator or Beatrice is around, have them ask Aki—subtly, of course—to see if we can’t determine what’s really bothering him.’
‘I’ll see what I can organise,’ Tess agreed with a smile at Zac.
‘Let us know how it goes,’ he replied. ‘Great. Well, we might go and see Bianca Hayden next. Come along, Julia.’ With that, Zac walked out of the nurses’ station and over to Bianca’s private room. The thirty-nine-year-old businesswoman was now one week post-op and was driving the nursing staff insane with her constant demands.
Bianca was still in traction and definitely in one of her moods.
‘How are you today, Ms Hayden?’ Zac asked as he crossed to the foot of her bed and took up her chart. He scanned it for a moment before passing it to Julia.
‘How do you think?’ Bianca answered rudely. ‘I loathe being stuck in this place. At least I’ve been relocated into this private little…box, for want of a better word, and away from the riff-raff. I am a private patient, you know. Why can’t you just transfer me to a private hospital? I have insurance, you know.’
‘So you’ve mentioned.’ Zac smiled. ‘Unfortunately, Ms Hayden, my response is still the same as it was when you asked me yesterday. I can’t risk moving you at this stage. You could do more permanent damage and your recovery time would increase.’
‘I just can’t accept that, Doctor,’ she said primly. ‘Not at all. I have a business to run and was told the other day that I have to use the hospital phone to make my calls rather than my mobile. Your nursing staff actually took my phone away from me yesterday. Confiscated it. It’s private property, Doctor, and I want it back. I told them I’d be speaking with you at the first available opportunity. I’m a private patient and I’m uncomfortable enough as it is…’ she ge
stured to her traction ‘…without having hospital staff taking my private possessions away, only to probably run up hundreds of dollars’ worth of calls on it.’
‘Ms Hayden.’ Zac patiently smiled his winning smile. ‘Even the doctors aren’t allowed to use their mobile phones within the hospital grounds. The signals from them can interfere with the equipment. Heart monitors, respirators, that type of thing can be badly damaged from too much interference, which is why the hospital has the policy that no mobile phones are to be used.
‘Your phone was only taken away from you because one of the nursing staff caught you using it for the third time. It just won’t do. It’s too dangerous.’
Julia could see him clenching his jaw but his smile was still in place, his voice calm and collected.
‘But I’m in traction,’ Bianca argued.
‘I know but that’s not an excuse.’ He paused for a moment and frowned. ‘I thought you were handing most of your immediate work to your assistant.’
‘I fired her,’ Bianca stated bluntly. ‘Completely incompetent, she was.’
Zac’s gaze briefly met Julia’s. She read his mounting frustration and she smiled encouragingly. Bianca Hadyen had been argumentative every single day and she guessed this was half the reason Zac brought her in—to help him control his frustration.
‘I see. Is there anyone else at your office that you can trust?’
‘Absolutely no one, so you see the importance of why I need to get back to work? I’m a small business, Doctor, and if I cease to conduct business, I’ll lose business. Probably everything.’ Her tone broke on the last word and Julia watched her carefully to see whether this was just a ploy or whether she was seriously worried. After a moment, she concluded that Bianca appeared quite genuine but, then, who wouldn’t be if their business was about to go down the drain?
‘Bianca,’ Zac said softly, and she looked at him in surprise. It was the first time he’d ever called her by her first name and it definitely had an effect. Julia tried not to smile. How did he manage to wind women around his little finger simply by saying their names? He’d been doing it for years and it never failed to amaze her. Charm. She guessed it all came down to charm.
‘I completely understand what you’re saying and you’ve stressed often enough just how important your business is to you. I’m not diminishing that in any way but the point is, you need to be relaxed and calm or your body will take longer to recover. Now the last thing you want is to be in here…’ he spread his arms wide, indicating the room ‘…any longer than necessary which, as we’ve discussed, is going to be for at least the next five weeks. What we need to find is a way for you to continue with your business, as well as relaxing enough to recover properly.’
‘What do you have in mind?’ Bianca’s tone was less forceful and Julia was glad Zac had managed to get through to her—on this occasion. Who knew what she’d be like the next time they came through the door?
‘I need to make some calls first but hopefully we can come up with something to help you. After all, it’s you we’re most concerned about. Isn’t that right, Dr Bolton?’
‘Ah, absolutely,’ Julia replied, trying to get her brain in gear. She’d been busy watching the way Zac had charmed the fierce businesswoman and trying to figure exactly what his secret was, rather than paying attention to what he’d been saying.
‘Leave it with me and I’ll get back to you—hopefully today.’
‘All right, then,’ Bianca agreed reluctantly.
When they’d left her room, Julia shook her head in disbelief.
‘What?’ he asked, grinning at her.
‘You charmer, you. You had her right in the palm of your hand.’
‘I know.’
‘Charming and conceited,’ she teased. ‘Yep. Some things never change.’
Zac laughed, not taking her words to heart as they walked through the ward.
‘So, what brilliant scheme have you got up your sleeve to help Bianca Hayden recover without the stress of having her business going down the drain?’
‘Mona,’ he said simply.
Julia stopped walking and looked at him. ‘Of course. After all, she did used to be Jeffrey’s secretary, but will she do it?’
‘For me? She might. For Jeffrey?’
‘Definitely,’ they both said together.
‘So, have you been taking your anti-inflammatories like a good little doctor?’ he asked as they walked to clinic.
‘And if I haven’t?’ she queried, her gaze quickly travelling down to his shoes and back again. He looked incredible today. Wearing a blue shirt that matched the colour of his eyes and his university tie, Julia could quite easily have spent her entire day staring at him. Instead, she had patients to see and a clinic to get through. Not to mention the mountain of paperwork that awaited her attention.
‘Then I’ll have to…ring your mother and conspire with her to get you to take them.’
‘Ha. If you think you can wrap my mother around your little finger like you do every other female you come into contact with, then you’ve got another think coming, Dr Carmichael.’
He stopped at the clinic door, his arm on the handle, and she waited for him to open it. He paused, looked down into her face and wiggled his eyebrows mischievously, ‘Wanna bet?’
‘Zac.’ She laughed and gave him a playful nudge. Oh, she so enjoyed times like these. He’d been right last week when he’d said they’d always been good friends. Being able to joke and share had been a vital part of their relationship.
They walked through the waiting room and said good morning to the staff before heading down the corridor to the consulting rooms.
‘Ready to begin?’ Dorothy, the clinic sister, asked, and Julia nodded, the smile still on her face. ‘I see that our Dr Carmichael is already making a lasting impression on you.’
Julia laughed. ‘He did that quite a few years ago.’
When Dorothy’s eyebrows hit her hairline in surprise, Julia asked, ‘Hasn’t the grapevine been buzzing with the gossip?’ When Dorothy shook her head, Julia shrugged. ‘We studied at medical school together.’
‘Really? How interesting? Then you’d know his sister Vanessa?’
‘Yes. That’s how I met Zac. Vanessa and I were good friends.’
‘A bright girl, that. I used to be a theatre sister in the vascular department in Brisbane before my husband retired and decided to move us to the Gold Coast. Vanessa Ferguson is now one of the top vascular surgeons in the country. I have a lot of respect for her.’
Julia nodded. ‘I couldn’t agree with you more, even if she did pip me at the post for dux of our year.’
‘No ill feelings?’ Dorothy asked.
‘None. Vanessa deserved it.’
‘Vanessa deserved what?’ Zac asked, coming up behind them.
‘To be named dux for our year.’
‘She’s a smart little cookie, my sister. Takes after her brother,’ he said, and preened with his tie.
‘Ha. Look at him,’ Julia said to Dorothy. ‘Still as modest as the day I met him.’
Dorothy chuckled and Zac frowned at them both. ‘Are we going to start this clinic or stand about chatting all day long?’
‘That’s a tough one. Can we think about it?’ Julia asked, but Zac simply laughed, took a set of case notes from the top of the pile and handed it to Dorothy.
‘I’ll be in consulting room two, Rodney’s already in consulting room one and if Dr Bolton finally decides to do some work, she can see the patients in consulting room three.’ With that, he turned and headed into his room.
‘I haven’t seen Zac this happy in a very long time,’ Dorothy murmured. ‘You’re good for him, Julia.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE comment made Julia wonder why Dorothy would say such a thing. It was obvious the clinic sister had known Zac for a while. Had there been a time when he’d been terribly unhappy? Her first patient was shown through so there was no time for further reflection, but she tucke
d it into the back of her mind to delve into later.
When there was a brief lull between her patients, Julia phoned Emergency Theatres to check when Beatrice was next rostered on, and couldn’t believe her luck when Beatrice herself answered the phone.
They discussed Aki’s situation and his slow recovery, with Beatrice promising to visit him at the end of her shift. Julia quickly called Zac in his consulting room to tell him the good news.
After clinic, Julia returned to her office to deal with some paperwork. If she could make a dent in it now, hopefully within the next few weeks she’d be up to date with the backlog of work she’d inherited and could give her complete attention to the paperwork she was generating all on her own.
At six thirty, just as Julia was starting to pack up, there was a knock on her door.
‘It’s open.’ She looked up to find Zac standing in front of her, grinning like a Cheshire cat. ‘Hi. I didn’t know you were still here.’ Her whole body had zinged to life the instant he’d walked into the room and now she was trying to control it. Friends, she reminded herself.
He nodded. ‘I’ve just finished speaking to Jeffrey and then Mona.’
‘So I take it by the silly grin on your face that you’ve been successful in your plan?’
‘Naturally. Did you really expect anything else from the great Zachary Carmichael?’
Julia laughed. ‘I’m not going to touch that one,’ she said with a twinkle in her eyes. She’d finished packing her briefcase and, after collecting her bag and keys, she pointed to the door. ‘Why don’t you tell me about it on the way to the ward? I presume that’s where you’re headed next? To tell Bianca Hayden the good news?’
‘I sure am.’ He stepped back so she could close and lock her office door. ‘Mona is magnificent,’ he told her as they headed out of the department. ‘She’s agreed to come in tomorrow morning after ward round to meet Bianca and we’ll take it from there. Right now, I want to impress on Bianca how generous this is of Mona so hopefully Bianca will behave with respect and gratitude towards her when she comes in tomorrow.’
