This time she did roll her eyes. ‘No.’
‘Virgo?’
‘No.’
‘Then what?’
She gave him an I’m-a-scientist-and-above-all-that-nonsense look. ‘You surely don’t believe in that stuff?’
‘I don’t know; there could be something in it.’ He flicked the paper once more and bent forward to read. ‘Listen to mine. “With the cosmic upheaval currently going on around you just now you should take extra care when dealing with difficult people who will not appreciate your quirky sense of humour.”’ He looked at her over the paper again and grinned. ‘Pretty accurate, huh?’
She gave him a withering look. ‘Does it also say you should act your age instead of your shoe size?’
His smile widened disarmingly. ‘You really are uptight, aren’t you? Are you sure you’re not a Virgo?’
‘I suppose you could be nothing but a Gemini with your propensity to switch identities,’ she tossed back.
‘Wow, I’m impressed!’ He reached for another sandwich and took a generous bite and started to chew.
A full minute passed in silence.
‘What do you mean I’m uptight?’ Holly glared at him.
Cameron took another sandwich and peeled back the thin slice of bread to inspect the contents before answering. ‘This isn’t the big, bad old city, Holly. Everyone knows everyone around here. We don’t stand on ceremony. Your patients will not just be your patients, they will become your friends. And, as for your medical partner…’ he gave her another cheeky grin ‘…I’m not just your colleague but your landlord and neighbour as well.’
She sent him a challenging look. ‘I can always find somewhere else to live.’
‘You can, but you won’t come up with anything remotely like you’re used to.’
‘How do you know what I’m used to?’
His blue-green gaze swept over her, taking in her Lisa Ho skirt and blouse and Garry Castles sandals. He lingered over her lip-glossed mouth for a moment before roving over her subtle but expertly applied make-up and smoothly blow-dried shoulder-length honey-brown hair with its meticulously spaced blonde highlights.
He rocked back in his chair so it was perched on two legs as his eyes came back to hers. ‘If there’s an emergency out here you won’t have time to put your face on. I expect you to be ready instantly, not dawdling about choosing which outfit to wear.’
Holly stiffened in anger. ‘I know how to respond to an emergency.’
‘Are you EMST trained?’
She shifted in her seat uncomfortably. Her sudden break-up with Julian had completely thrown her the weekend she’d attended the course in Adelaide. She’d failed the final practical and, to her shame, she had been the only one of the sixteen candidates to do so. She had been meaning to resit the practical exam but hadn’t so far garnered up the courage.
‘Yes…I mean no…’ She lowered her gaze a fraction. ‘I have to resit the practical.’
‘As soon as you get the opportunity you should do so,’ he said. ‘Too many lives are lost in remote regions because of inadequately trained medicos who don’t know how to assess and treat severe injuries in proper priority.’
‘I know…I just haven’t had the time…’
‘Make the time.’ An edge had crept into his tone that she’d not heard before. ‘I want to be able to rely on you to back me up in an acute situation. I don’t want you panicking and doing the whole flustered female thing. We are responsible for thousands of lives way down here and I need to know I can rely on you at all times and under all circumstances.’
Holly was still boiling at the whole ‘flustered female thing’ and wondering how best to respond to it when Karen came bursting through the door.
‘Kelly Springton’s husband just called. Kelly’s gone into labour. He’s bringing her in. I’ve called the Jandawarra ambulance but from the sound of it they’re not going to make it in time.’
Cameron was on his feet, his short sharp expletive slicing the air like a scalpel. ‘We can’t let her lose this one. Come on.’
Holly followed him out of the room, her heartbeat starting to escalate in time with her hurried footsteps. ‘What happened before?’
Cameron gave her a grim look as he shouldered open the doors connecting the consulting rooms with the small six bed hospital section of the complex. ‘She went into labour out on their property when the roads were cut by floods about eighteen months ago. By the time I got there with the help of the State Emergency Service the baby was stillborn.’
‘Oh, dear…’
There was the sound of squealing brakes as a car took the turn into the hospital.
‘You ever delivered a baby before?’ he asked as the doors swung shut behind them.
‘Once or twice but the obstetrician was there as well.’
He didn’t answer but Holly could see that for once his eyes were not smiling. There was tension in his jaw and in his tall body as he strode towards the Springtons’ car as it came to a screeching halt in front of them.
CHAPTER FOUR
HOLLY watched as the young woman was placed on a trolley and wheeled into the examination cubicle, her distraught husband by her side.
‘Hold on there, Kelly.’ Cameron gave the young woman a gentle pat on the leg as the nurse on duty pulled the curtains around the cubicle. ‘You’re in safe hands. Just try and breathe through each contraction while I take a look. Try not to worry, Tony—’ he did his best to reassure the hovering, white-faced husband as he examined Kelly ‘—you got her here, that’s the main thing.’
He turned to the nurse on duty. ‘The head is on show. Get me sterile gloves and an instrument pack, plenty of clean linen and the IV trolley.’
‘But we can’t deliver a baby here; this isn’t a maternity hospital,’ the nurse, Valerie Dutton, protested.
‘We’ve got no choice,’ Cameron said. ‘There isn’t time to wait for an airlift. The head’s on show. Now get me what I asked for—now!’
‘Don’t push yet, Kelly.’ He turned back to his patient. ‘Just breathe quick and shallow—pant—don’t push until we’re ready.’
‘I can’t help it…’ Kelly cried out in distress. ‘Oh, God! Help me…the pain is too much…’
Valerie Dutton returned with the IV trolley, then left for more gear.
‘Holly, can you get an IV line in for me and start saline?’ Cameron asked.
‘Of course I can.’ Holly rummaged through the drawer and chose a large bore canula and tourniquet and after a minute’s effort the canula was in.
Cameron quickly drew up ten milligrams of diazepam and administered the drug IV. He settled Kelly back and encouraged Tony to support her by holding her hand and helping to remain calm. Valerie returned with piles of sterile linen, another trolley and an instrument pack. Holly helped open the gear and set out the instruments, pouring sterile warm saline into one of the bowls.
‘We’re nearly there, Kelly,’ he said as he scrubbed at the sink. He exchanged a quick glance with Holly as he donned a sterile gown and gloves.
Holly gave him a worried look in return.
‘It’s coming!’ Kelly gasped.
Cameron reached between the young woman’s spread legs and, taking the baby’s head, gave the head and shoulders a gentle rotation as he instructed her to push. ‘That’s it, Kelly. Push now.’
Holly felt a lump come into her throat as the wizened and reddened baby emerged, the tiny mewing cry as he took his first breath of independent life pulling on her heartstrings.
‘You’ve got a beautiful baby boy!’ Cameron informed the parents, a huge smile taking over his face and brightening his eyes to a brilliant green.
Holly watched as Kelly and her husband embraced, the tears of relief and joy flowing freely.
‘Holly, open the artery forceps and scissors on to the trolley; I need to cut the cord.’
Cameron took a clamp and clamped and cut the cord and, once the nurse had cleaned the tiny face, placed the t
iny wriggling body on the new mother’s chest.
‘How about that, eh? Well done, Kelly. What a little champion he is.’
‘Thank you…Oh, thank you…’ Kelly choked with overwhelming emotion as she tenderly cradled her newborn son.
‘We’ll weigh him and clean him up a bit and then you can have him back for a decent cuddle,’ Cameron said as he took the baby from her and handed him to the nurse. ‘Have you got a name for him?’
Kelly smiled up at her husband. ‘We thought we’d call him Jacob, didn’t we, darling?’
Tony gave a proud grin. ‘Yes, it’s my second name.’
‘Congratulations to both of you,’ Cameron said as he worked to deliver the placenta and checked for abnormal uterine bleeding. Thankfully, there was none. He gave a deep inward sign of relief. Unlike the last tragic time, this had been a normal textbook delivery.
Holly did her best to keep up with Cameron’s long strides as he left the ward a short time later.
‘We’ve got an afternoon clinic in a few minutes,’ he said as he glanced down at his watch. ‘But I’ve got to check on a patient in the nursing home.’ He turned to the right and threw over his shoulder, ‘Tell Karen I might be a few minutes late.’
‘Dr McCarrick?’
Cameron turned to look at her. ‘Cameron,’ he corrected.
‘Cameron.’ She moistened her mouth but for some reason the slightly tingling sensation of his name on her lips remained. ‘I—I wanted to apologise for losing my temper earlier. I’m not usually so…’
‘Stuck-up?’ he offered.
She frowned at him. ‘You think I’m stuck-up?’
‘I think you should loosen up a bit. Patients pick up on stress signals. You were like a coiled spring in there. The Springtons had their own stress—they didn’t need yours to deal with as well.’
Holly’s eyes flared with anger. ‘I was stressed? What about you? You were the one with the clenched jaw and rigid spine when that car pulled up!’
‘Which I had under perfect control by the time the patient was under my care. That young couple have been to hell and back and I didn’t want them to think for a moment they were in any danger of having history repeat itself. We’re the ones supposedly with the training and skill to deal with an emergency with unflappable clinical calm.’
‘You don’t think I have what it takes, do you?’ she accused. ‘Right from the moment I drove into this godforsaken place, you decided I wasn’t suitable.’
‘From what I can tell so far, your attitude is what is unsuitable; as for your skills—that remains to be seen. And this is not some godforsaken place, as you so charmingly describe it. It’s the home of some fifteen thousand people who need us at any hour of the day to treat them.’ He shoved the door open with his shoulder. ‘I’ve got work to do. I’ll see you later.’
Holly stared at the doors left swinging in his wake, wishing she could think of something caustic to fling at him, but for once her quick tongue refused to co-operate.
She gnawed her bottom lip for a moment. Had she been so transparent? Certainly Baronga Beach wasn’t exactly her idea of a career-advancing position but she’d comforted herself that at least for the next twelve months she wouldn’t have to run the risk of bumping into her ex-fiancé with the gorgeous Sienna Salisbury on his arm, proudly flaunting her priceless wedding and engagement ring ensemble.
But had she made a mistake in running away without truly considering what she was getting into? She hated to admit it but Cameron McCarrick was very probably right. This wasn’t the big city with reliable back-up within easy reach if her confidence was ever put to the test. This was a small coastal country town with limited resources. The small community was dependent on the only doctors in town. And she could no longer rely on other people to take charge if things got rough. She was on her own…Well, maybe not quite all alone…Cameron McCarrick was to be her partner for the next twelve months.
She gave a wry grimace as she pushed open the door to the consulting rooms. That was if she didn’t throttle him first.
Holly had just finished treating a ten-year-old boy with an ear infection when Karen gestured to her as she approached the reception desk for the next patient file.
‘Can I have a quick word with you, Holly?’ she said in an undertone.
‘Sure.’ Holly followed Karen out to the small filing nook at the back of the reception desk.
‘I thought I should warn you about who your next patient is,’ Karen said.
Holly looked down at the patient file she’d just picked up, her eyes widening a fraction when she read the name of the convicted murderer Karen had told her had recently resettled in the district. The date of birth showed the patient was now in his early forties, and there was a black marker tick in the box next to ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander’.
She did her best to disguise her reaction when she looked back at the receptionist. ‘It’s all right, Karen. As far as I’m concerned he’s a patient just like any other.’
Karen’s eyes narrowed and she leaned closer so her voice wouldn’t carry through to the waiting room. ‘He killed a sixteen-year-old girl. He took her life and yet he still gets to have one. It’s not fair. They should have locked him up and thrown away the key.’
Holly compressed her lips for a moment. This was probably not the time to tell Karen about her cousin’s conviction. Although she’d always been a firm believer in the punishment adequately fitting the crime, she had lost faith in the prison system through seeing what had happened to Aaron.
‘Look, I’ve dealt with all types of people before. I’m sure I’ll be able to handle it.’
‘I suggested Mr Maynard see Cameron but he flatly refused. He wanted to see you. Be careful, Holly. You’re not dealing with a normal person.’
Holly did her best to dampen down her own doubts as well as the receptionist’s. ‘Stop worrying, Karen. He’s served his time and has some sort of rights, surely? Maybe he’s really sorry for what he’s done. You have to give people a second chance. We all make mistakes at times and some people make ones that have very costly outcomes which they regret for the rest of their lives.’
‘Yeah, well, maybe you should talk to Tina Shoreham’s parents about second chances and forgiveness before you go defending that creep. Trust me, Holly. This town can do without him coming back here. I just know there’s going to be trouble.’ Karen stalked back to the desk at reception and plonked herself down in the chair and reached for the telephone which had just started to ring.
Holly sighed and went back to the waiting room and called for Mr Maynard, trying her best to ignore the filthy looks he received when the two other patients waiting heard his name being called.
‘Hello, I’m Dr Holly Saxby,’ she introduced herself once he had sat in the chair by her desk in her consulting room. ‘What can I do for you, Mr Maynard? I gather you asked to see me specifically.’
Noel Maynard sat on the edge of the chair, his chocolate-brown eyes darting about the room before briefly meeting hers. His hands were tense where they clenched the arms of the chair. Holly couldn’t help noticing the nervous jiggling of his right leg until he got control of it by planting his foot a little more firmly on the floor.
‘I need a prescription for some tablets,’ he said. ‘I ran out about two months ago and I’m not supposed to stop them.’
‘What medication are you on?’
Noel fumbled in his top pocket and produced a small empty bottle and handed it to her. Holly looked at the label, which was clearly marked with the icon of Her Majesty’s Prison Service and underneath: Penicillamine 250g—take one tablet four times daily, two hours before meals.
‘These pills, Mr Maynard, are they for arthritis? They seem an unusual treatment these days for that. Do you have rheumatoid disease?’
‘I don’t like being called Mr Maynard,’ he said, his eyes falling away from hers to look at his fidgeting hands in his lap. ‘And no…I don’t have arthritis. It’s in my reco
rds there; I’ve got copper disease.’
‘Copper disease?’ Holly frowned.
‘Yeah…Wilson’s disease,’ he said, dragging his eyes back up to hers. ‘I was diagnosed when I was a teenager. I’ve been on the drug ever since.’
‘The penicillamine, you mean? That’s why you’re taking it?’
He gave a small nod. ‘The doctor who was here when I was a kid diagnosed me. Dr Cooper was his name.’
Holly listened with one ear as she did a rapid search through the undergraduate lecture material she’d crammed somewhere in her head. She wasn’t completely certain, but as far as she could remember the incidence of Wilson’s disease in an indigenous person was extremely rare, if not unheard of.
‘You’re of Aboriginal descent, Noel, and you say you’ve been on penicillamine for how many years now?’ she asked as she glanced down at his file in front of her.
‘Aboriginal, yes. My family has lived on this coast for generations way back. I was diagnosed with copper disease at eighteen, so…twenty-six years.’ His dark features twisted as he continued, ‘I suppose you know I’ve been inside for twenty-five. I just finished my sentence a couple of months back.’
‘Yes, I’d heard…’ Holly wasn’t sure what else to say.
‘I wasn’t going to come back here,’ he went on, his eyes moving away from hers once more. ‘I know I’m not welcome around here. But my mother is elderly, and…well…I wanted to spend some time with her before she…’ He cleared his throat and added in an almost inaudible tone, ‘Before it’s too late.’
‘I understand,’ Holly said. ‘How are you settling in?’
He gave a shrug of one thin hunched shoulder, his expression marked with deep regret and sadness. ‘I didn’t expect it to be easy. I know this sounds weird, but I kind of got, you know, sort of used to institutional life.’
‘I’ve heard it’s really tough in there,’ Holly said, thinking of the harrowing distress on her cousin’s face the last time she’d visited him. It had haunted her for days afterwards. It still haunted her.
He gave another tiny shrug. ‘Yeah, it is, but you learn to play by the rules. I didn’t have any choice. I didn’t want to let the system beat me.’ He paused for a moment before adding, ‘Maybe in a way it helped me.’
A Doctor Beyond Compare Page 4
