Gold Coast Angels: Two Tiny Heartbeats

by McArthur, Fiona

  Finally the baby’s hair and then rest of the head was born, and during what seemed an eternity, but which after Lucy’s third glance at the clock she knew was only ninety seconds, the flaccid little body of a slightly smaller twin boy was born in a flurry of floppy arms and legs.

  ‘It’s Benjamin,’ Nick said. ‘We’ll take this little one over to Dr Richards for a few minutes, Bonny.’ Nick cut and clamped the cord and Callie swooped in, dried the limp baby with the warmed towel and then gathered up the tiny scrap in her confident hands to carry him across to the heated resuscitaire.

  ‘He’s a bit stunned so he hasn’t taken his deeper breaths to start off,’ Lucy said quietly in Bonny’s ear. ‘Needle,’ she warned as she gave the injection to help separate the placenta and reduce the risk of bleeding after birth.

  She glanced across to where the two neonatologists were working quietly on Bonny’s second twin.

  The neonatal nurse who’d stayed to observe William began to explain to Bonny what was happening and Lucy’s attention was drawn that way, too.

  Within thirty seconds the tiny oxygen saturation probe had been taped to Benjamin’s tiny hand and they were puffing little bursts of air into his lungs.

  From where she stood she could see his heart rate was reading eighty and that wasn’t too bad if it crept up over a hundred with the inflation of his lungs.

  But that didn’t happen. In fact, the heart rate slowed agonisingly and dropped to fifty.

  She heard Dr Coleman’s comment to Dr Richards. ‘So, secondary apnoea. Change from air to oxygen. I’ll do the cardiac massage.’

  Smoothly Dr Coleman changed position, circled the baby’s chest with his big hands and began to compress the little rib cage three times to every breath from the face mask Callie held over the nose and mouth.

  They began inflating baby’s lungs with more oxygen and immediately his blueness seemed to wash away.

  ‘He needs a little oxygen until he gets the idea of this new breathing business,’ Nick said in answer to Bonny’s worried look. ‘Pinking up now.’ He glanced back at the sudden gush of blood that was forming a ruby puddle in the bed.

  The placenta came away and Nick passed it swiftly to Meg in a dish. ‘Check it’s all there because we’ve got some bleeding.’

  ‘Fundal massage, Lucy.’ Lucy leant over and rubbed Bonny’s soft belly firmly until the underlying uterus contracted under her hand to slow the bleeding.

  Swiftly Nick checked for any trauma that could be contributing to the blood loss while Meg carried the placenta over to the bench and made sure none of the lobes of tissue were missing from the circle. Lucy knew that sometimes lobes or even membranes from the bag of waters left behind could cause bleeding after a birth.

  Nick pulled the spare drape from the trolley and tossed it up onto Bonny’s belly. ‘I’ll do the massage now, Lucy, if you draw me up another five units of syntocinon and get two fifty micrograms of ergometerine ready just in case.’

  His big hand came in over Lucy’s with the drape between them and Lucy stepped back to assemble the drugs. Nick went on, ‘I’m afraid your uterus has gone on strike, Bonny. I have to rub it until it contracts and stops the bleeding. Sorry if it’s uncomfortable.’

  Lucy held up the first drug to check with Nick and he read the name, dose and expiry date out loud. ‘Fine. Give it slowly intravenously. Then start the forty units in a new flask of saline in the line.’

  Meg was back. ‘Placenta looks complete.’

  ‘Good.’ He looked over his shoulder at his registrar. ‘Simon, put another cannula in, please, and draw some bloods as you do. Repeat coags and full blood count. We already have blood cross-matched if we need it. You can run normal saline through that as a replacement fluid. I think this bleeding is settling now.’

  Lucy leaned towards her patient and took her wrist. Amazingly, Bonny’s pulse was only slightly raised. ‘You okay, Bonny?’ she asked as she strapped the blood-pressure cuff to the woman’s arm.

  Bonny nodded. ‘I’m more worried about my baby.’ At that moment a little wail came from the second resuscitaire. ‘But I think he’s getting the hang of it.’

  Lucy watched the unhurried way Nick moved through the mini-crisis. She tried to estimate the blood loss and decided it would have been around a litre or two pints. ‘Blood pressure one ten on sixty, pulse eighty-eight.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Nick said to acknowledge he’d heard, he looked at Bonny. ‘You lost an amount of blood that would certainly have caused problems for most adults but thankfully you pregnant ladies have mechanisms in place to cope with extra blood loss at birth.’

  He smiled reassuringly a Bonny. ‘You still look the pink-cheeked and bright-eyed mum we started with, though tomorrow might be a different story.’

  He went on quietly, ‘Tummies that have carried twins are notorious for being tired after birth, Bonny, but it’s all settling now.’

  He gestured to the two IV lines now hanging above her. ‘Sorry about the two drips but one can come down when we’ve replaced a little of the fluid you’ve lost. We’ll run this new flask over four hours and see how you’re doing then. Might be able to just put a cap over your IV lines after that.’

  Bonny nodded. ‘I’ll forgive you,’ she said, and stroked the little body that still lay across her chest. ‘I just want Benjamin.’

  Nick glanced across at the team, who only needed to observe her baby now. ‘I know. He’ll be across here as soon as we can.’

  By sixty minutes after birth everything had settled. Benjamin, the second twin, spent a little time with oxygen near his face while he lay on his mother, but soon he was sucking as robustly as his brother from his mother’s breast. He’d go to the nursery as soon as he’d finished so he could be watched for another hour.

  Nick had gone. Meg had gone home. One of the neonatal nurses had stayed to help Lucy with the babies and they’d been weighed—both had come in at just under seven pounds—and the neonatal nurse was in the process of dressing them.

  Lucy took Bonny into the shower and helped her freshen up and climb into her pyjamas, all the time alert in case Bonny began to feel faint, but to her relief the new mum just kept going.

  It was incredible how reassuring the whole experience had been for her on a personal level, Lucy thought.

  Ten minutes later she finally helped Bonny into bed with her two little guys beside her in the twin cot.

  The room was peaceful for five minutes until Bonny’s husband arrived with their two little girls, and excited pandemonium broke out.

  There were squeals, bed-jumping and excited tears as Bonny’s husband squeezed his wife tightly in relief that she and the babies were well.

  Lucy was still smiling as she walked away with a promise to return in fifteen minutes to make sure the bleeding remained settled and to check that Bonny had survived the onslaught.

  * * *

  Three hours later, after another emergency trip to Theatre, Nick walked down the corridor to his rooms and deliberately loosened his shoulders.

  He was mentally tired but there really wasn’t any reason for him to be this drained.

  Last night had been torrid in Theatre but ultimately successful.

  Today, there had been another good outcome, and he was glad everything had worked out fairly smoothly for Bonny because they’d had many long talks during her pregnancy about her preference for as little intervention if possible. In the end they’d achieved most of that.

  But mentally he was distracted, and he didn’t do distraction, so where the heck had that come from?

  Lucy’s worried face at the ultrasound yesterday slipped into his mind. It wasn’t a certain little midwife causing all this, he hoped.

  He ran his hand through his hair. He guessed he hadn’t slept well on Sunday night after Lucy’s scare and then they’d been u
p most of the night after that.

  And he’d spent a bit of mind space hoping the scan would come back normal, to the point that he’d made sure he had been there for the appointment yesterday, which, when he thought about it, hadn’t really been necessary.

  Because Lucy was only a colleague. And a once-only pleasant breakfast companion. And a patient of his. Nothing else.

  Not a sister he could put up in his flat until her world righted itself. Not someone he had to go in to bat for when other people let her down. But she was vulnerable and she didn’t have anyone else.

  Was that why he’d wanted to take her aside after Bonny’s birth and make sure she was okay? Maybe give her a hug and reassure her that her own birth would be fine? Her babies would be fine.

  This was getting out of hand.

  The only ironically amusing part about this was how horrified his parents would have been at his involvement, and how fortunate for Lucy that he didn’t speak to them.

  He was developing an interest in a non-Greek, pregnant nurse with twins by another man! Well, he knew she was a midwife and not a nurse, but it would be the same to them. Anyone less than a specialist would be a failure to them.

  He could hear his mother now. ‘This woman, she is after your money. You are a doctor. You are too good for her.’

  In fact, he had a sneaking suspicion that Lucy was too good for him. But for some reason she just had to look his way, smile in that cheeky, sexy way of hers, and he was hot. What was that about?

  Lust, his inner demon suggested sardonically. He laughed out loud and then glanced around. A hospital orderly dragging a garbage bin looked at him strangely and he pulled himself back under control.

  But it was darkly humorous and the joke was on him.

  Because lust wasn’t going anywhere with a woman pregnant with twins.

  Not like he could drag her off to bed for goodness knew how many months so he’d be better casting his gaze elsewhere and scratch that itch with a woman who understood that he was footloose and fancy-free and staying that way. Plenty of those around.

  Somehow it just wasn’t an attractive thought. But what was most important was that he keep everything under control.

  ‘Would Dr Kefes please phone Emergency. Dr Kefes, please phone Emergency.’

  The page boomed overhead and Nick ducked into the nearest nurses’ station to pick up the phone, actually a little relieved to be called to an emergency. Looked like he was going to miss the squash game with Cade as well.

  * * *

  At eleven that night Lucy pushed open the night exit at the front of the hospital and stepped out into the balmy evening.

  She was limp with exhaustion but exhilarated by the way Bonny was managing with her babies, and how well both little boys were.

  She’d felt so reassured about how Nick had agreed to less intervention, how calm and wonderful he’d been with Bonny, and if everything went well she was going to have babies like that. With Nick as her carer.

  She wanted to ask Flora to be her support person because her senior was certainly taking an interest in her well-being and Lucy didn’t really have any other friends she could ask to be with her.

  It was all months away but she guessed in another couple of months she’d have to start looking for antenatal classes. And going to those alone, too. She lifted her chin.

  A car stirred the warm air as it flew past with its headlights on and she stepped up onto the path towards home.

  The bonus of living close to the hospital was that it was quick to walk to and fro, but the disadvantage was that at night it could be a little creepy, heading along a street that comprised of mainly driveways and garages behind big walls.

  Another car started up and she waited for the acceleration of sound but unexpectedly this one rolled up beside her and Lucy’s heart rate soared.

  She stared doggedly ahead and refused to look at the driver. It was even harder not to glance round when the passenger window was wound down, and her heart rate bumped up another notch.

  ‘You’re not walking alone at night, are you?’

  Nick. She blew out the breath she’d been holding in a long stream. Grrr. ‘Hell, Nick! You frightened me half to death.’

  ‘Sorry.’ He didn’t sound it and her irritation went up another notch. ‘Would you like to hop in and I’ll run you the rest of the way?’

  She could guess what had happened. He’d obviously seen her and decided to go all interfering on her. But now her nerves were shot it would be a horrible walk until she was safely inside her own yard.

  So she’d look pretty silly if she said no. Especially when her feet were killing her. But there was no use getting used to it.

  He wouldn’t be waiting every night so what was so special about tonight? The last thing she needed was to feel let down after every shift because Nick wasn’t there to pick her up.

  Lucy sighed and opened the door but after she’d climbed in she frowned at him. ‘Aren’t you going the wrong way?’

  The seat felt fabulous as she rested back and took the weight off her feet, and that only made her feel more cross. ‘Do you have any idea how bossy you sound?’

  ‘Sorry again.’ He didn’t sound it and she was glad someone was amused. Not. ‘It’s the Greek in me,’ he said mildly. ‘I don’t like to see a woman walking alone at night.’

  Bully for him. ‘It’s not my preference, but the Australian in me says get over it and get home.’

  ‘I’m Australian,’ he said mildly. ‘But I’m also second-generation Greek.’

  ‘Hmm.’ As in not my problem, Lucy thought, still grouchy from her fright. ‘And this is my house. Thank you for the lift.’

  He pulled on the handbrake. ‘I’ll walk you in.’

  ‘No, thank you.’

  Nick tamped down his frustration. He was sorry he’d startled her but he hadn’t been able to believe it when he’d seen her head off in the dark. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before. He guessed he’d assumed she caught a taxi home or something.

  But she was so darned independent he should have known she’d put him on the back foot. He forced himself to relax and smile at her as he leant across to open the door. ‘Our first fight.’

  She didn’t smile back. ‘It was fun. Goodnight.’ She pushed the door wider and climbed out and he watched her walk to the gate, and hated it that nobody would be there to greet her when she got home.

  He thought for a moment she was going to just march away but when she took out her key she looked back. Shook her head and sent him one of those ray-o-sunshine smiles he could live off if he had to.

  ‘Sorry. You scared me.’ She shrugged. ‘I was cross with myself for being nervy and you copped it. Thank you for the lift.’

  He let out his breath. At least she didn’t hold grudges, though he’d done nothing wrong by wanting to see she was safe. ‘In penance you should have breakfast with me on Sunday.’

  She grinned at him. ‘Now, that would be a hardship. Love to. But I’m—’

  He finished the sentence for her. ‘Paying for yourself. Excellent. I’m broke.’

  She looked startled for a moment and he patted himself on the back. It had made her smile again. Keep ’em guessing, good motto. ‘I’ll pick you up at eight?’

  ‘Eight’s perfect. See you then.’

  Lucy closed the gate behind her as the automatic lights came on then she heard Nick’s car accelerate away.

  The night noises surrounded her. The owners had only stayed for two nights and now she was back to being home alone.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ONE OF THE fronds from the palm trees crashed down somewhere along the path near the pool and Lucy jumped at the noise and spun around before her brain recognised the familiar sound.

  Her babies wriggle
d and fluttered and she patted her stomach. ‘Sorry, guys.’ Leftover nerves from the fright Nick had given her.

  For the first two weeks she’d house-sat she’d been sure someone had been outside the house when that had happened, but she could have done without it tonight.

  She glanced up at the big house and then frowned at the flicker of unexpected light she could see in the lounge room.

  There was a small tinkle of glass and this time she knew it wasn’t normal. Her hand edged into her bag and she felt around for her phone as she backed towards the gate.

  As soon as she was out of sight of the house she pressed the button for contacts and Nick’s name lit up. Without hesitation she pressed his number and he answered it on the second ring.

  ‘Lucy? You okay?’

  ‘I’m coming back out,’ she whispered. ‘Someone’s in the house.’

  ‘I’m on my way and I’ll ring the police as I come. Get out into the street and under a streetlight.’

  By the time Lucy had crossed the street and hurried away from the driveway Nick’s car was roaring up the road towards her, and she’d never been so glad to see anybody.

  Nick saw her a hundred yards down the street under a lamppost, her arms wrapped around her belly and shaking.

  He screeched to a halt and was out of the car in seconds with his arms wrapped around her and her face buried in his shirt. ‘You were quick,’ she mumbled into his shirt, and he stroked her hair. Poor Lucy.

  ‘I should have walked you into your house.’ His arms tightened. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  ‘I said no. And I’m not your responsibility.’ She eased back as she looked up at him, chin thrust forward and her eyes showing she was bravely determined not to crack. All the conversations, concern, downright worry and now this scare twisted in his gut.

  Maybe that was why he tilted her chin with his finger and murmured against her lips, ‘It’s sure starting to feel that you should be.’ And then he kissed her.

  It was intended as a gentle salute, a comfort peck, sympathy even, but that wasn’t what it turned into.