The Bush Doctor's Challenge

by Carol Marinelli

  ‘Here.’ He was standing next to her, clipping together the connection and tightening the straps under her chin. As unwashed and unkempt as he looked, this close up Abby realised it just wasn’t the case as she caught the faint scent of his soap mingling with a strong masculine deodorant that most definitely did the job. As he lifted his arms and fitted her helmet, pulling the straps so taut under her chin Abby was sure she might choke, the worst part of it all was that while she suffered this brief indignation there was no place else to look than at his very flat, very brown stomach.

  OK, he was sexy, Abby admitted reluctantly, in a sort of overgrown, salt-of-the-earth way.

  Very sexy, she conceded, eyes level with his epicentre. Even his belly button was sexy, which up to this point Abby had been sure was an impossible feat. Belly buttons were just that—belly buttons. But Kell’s, well, the hair around it circled gently, and Abby found herself momentarily mesmerised by the strange beauty of such a normally nondescript object.

  ‘Third time lucky.’ Kell grinned, climbing nimbly in front of her and shouting over his shoulder as the bike sprang into life between her thighs. ‘Let’s go.’

  Abby had never been on a motorbike in her life. In fact, she’d barely graduated to getting the training wheels taken off her push bike before books had beckoned, or a drop of pond water placed under her father’s antiquated microscope had held more excitement than riding around the back garden in circles. And now here she was in the middle of nowhere, roaring along a dusty red road clinging on for dear life to a man she’d only just met.

  It was terrifying, exhilarating and strangely…Abby’s mind clicked over, struggling against the whipping hair around her face to find the word she was looking for.

  Sexy.

  There it was again.

  Thousands of dollars’ worth of chrome catapulting them along the rough, unsealed road, and it would be a lie by omission not to recognise the added thrill of Kell’s snaky hips beneath her hands, her fingers coiling through the loops on his shorts, and unless she wanted to fall off the palms of her hand had nowhere else to go other than resting on his warm, bronzed skin. Abby kept her body well back, though, leaning against the back box, terrified she might be catapulted forward and forced to touch more of him.

  It was over too soon, and vague memories of the waltzers at the fairground surfaced as Abby took Kell’s hand and attempted to dismount with at least a shred of dignity. Her legs felt as if they didn’t quite know what to do and the ground still seemed to be moving.

  ‘Sorry.’ Kell grinned. ‘I didn’t realise it was your first time, you should have told me.’

  ‘Why?’ Abby shrugged. ‘Would you have treated me more gently?’

  Ouch! The sexual connotation had never been intended, and as Kell grinned ever wider Abby followed him up the steps of a massive house, wondering where her attempt at flirting had blown in from.

  Yes, he was sexy, yes, he was a fine specimen of a man and all that, but a farm labourer with a thing about bikes certainly wasn’t on Abby’s agenda.

  She was here to work.

  Three months of grass roots medicine and she was out of here, and if Bruce’s plane collapsed, no matter, she’d walk if she had to.

  ‘Abby!’ A very pregnant, very pretty, red-headed woman came out of a fly door and stood at the top of the steps, the massive laundry basket she was carrying in no way covering up the enormous swell of the baby within her. ‘I’m Shelly, we spoke briefly on the telephone. I’m so sorry Ross isn’t here to meet you.’

  ‘That’s no problem.’ Abby smiled in what she hoped was a friendly fashion. ‘Kell made me very welcome.’

  ‘Did I?’ Kell asked with a vaguely surprised grin. ‘I wasn’t even trying.’

  ‘I was being polite,’ Abby muttered, as Kell’s grin widened.

  ‘Tell you what, come to the watering hole with me tonight and meet the locals, we’ll show you a real Tennengarrah welcome. I’ll even leave the bike at home this time.’

  ‘I might just give it a miss, thanks.’

  Even though his offer had been imparted in his usual laid-back style, Abby couldn’t help but feel a flurry of butterflies as she said no. OK, he wasn’t exactly asking her out on a date, but it was certainly the closest Abby had come in a long time.

  A very long time.

  ‘You should go,’ Shelly pushed happily. ‘If I wasn’t the size of a baby elephant, I’d take you there myself.’ Putting the basket down, Shelly rubbed her back and gave a weary smile. ‘Come inside. We’ll have a drink and then I’ll take you over to where you’ll be staying—it’s that one.’ She pointed over to any one of about three white houses scattered on the perimeter of the property. ‘It’s all ready for you.’

  Privately all Abby wanted to do was grab the keys and head off but, not wanting to be appear rude, she smiled appreciatively and followed a rather cumbersome Shelly back up the steps, hesitating slightly as she realised Kell was joining them.

  ‘Kell,’ Shelly said as he followed them in. ‘You don’t have to babysit me. I’ve got Abby here now, she is a doctor.’

  ‘I’m not babysitting,’ Kell insisted, but Shelly shook her head.

  ‘So why have you spent the whole afternoon painting the baby’s nursery when Ross was going to do it at the weekend?’

  ‘When did Ross ever get a weekend off?’ Kell said, collapsing onto the couch and placing two massive feet onto the coffee-table before him, which had Abby cringing, though Shelly didn’t seem remotely bothered. ‘Anyway, I need the cash.’

  For some reason Shelly seemed to find this hilarious and picking up a T-shirt she tossed it in Kell’s vague direction. ‘Well, if you’re staying you can at least put some clothes on.

  ‘Kell thought I needed a rest,’ Shelly explained to a politely smiling Abby. ‘So he decided to make lunch.’

  ‘You don’t have to tell everyone,’ Kell grumbled, pulling a very white T-shirt over his head, much to Abby’s relief. Now at least she’d be able to look at him without blushing. ‘Trouble is he ended up wearing a bottle of mayonnaise.’

  ‘It’s not my fault Ross screws the lids on so tight.’ He cast a brief look to Abby. ‘I don’t usually walk around half-naked. Sorry if I scared you.’ Fortunately, Abby was saved from answering as he turned back to Shelly. ‘Look, if you really don’t want me around I’ll head off, but I think I’ve at least earned a cup of coffee.’

  Which, Abby reasoned, at the rate Shelly was moving, would probably give Bruce plenty of time to have Ross safely back home. This man took his duties seriously.

  ‘Abby, would you like a coffee?’

  ‘Thanks.’ Abby smiled. ‘If you show me where things are I’ll make it. You look as if you’re a bit busy.’

  ‘Just a bit,’ Shelly admitted, gesturing to the mountains of laundry adorning every available surface. ‘I’ll feel so much better when all this is done.’

  Abby chose to ignore Kell’s upwardly mobile right eyebrow as she fumbled around the kitchen, watching with undisguised bemusement as Shelly proceeded to tear the wrappers off a pile of new baby clothes and bundle them into yet another laundry basket.

  ‘So how was the journey, Abby?’

  ‘Long.’

  Shelly laughed. ‘Tell me about it. I remember the first time I came here I thought the journey would never end. It’s like another planet, isn’t it?’

  Abby nodded, her smile finally genuine as she warmed to the likable Shelly.

  ‘Hard to believe it’s the same country. Just wait till Ross takes you out and you see some of the homesteads, miles and miles from anywhere. They make Tennengarrah look like a thriving city—at least we’ve got a pub and a few shops, and a hairdresser’s…’

  ‘Since when?’ Kell asked, perking up a bit and leaning forward.

  ‘Well, not a hairdresser’s exactly,’ Shelly conceded. ‘But June Hegley’s niece, Anna, is staying for a few months and apparently she trained in Sydney, so she’s going to set up shop at June’s house.
’

  ‘I must remember to make an appointment,’ Kell said, shooting a wink at Abby, who realised with a start she was again staring at him.

  That shaggy dark mane that framed his face could certainly do with a cut, but on the other hand it actually suited him, Abby couldn’t quite imagine Kell with the short back and sides which was so much part of the uniform of most of her colleagues.

  ‘The clinic’s nice,’ Shelly chattered on, happily oblivious to the sudden crackling tension in the room. ‘It’s really come a long way since we’ve been here. I think you’ll be quite pleasantly surprised.’

  ‘How busy does it get?’

  Her question was aimed at Shelly. From their brief chats on the telephone and a couple of longer ones with Ross, Abby had gleaned that Shelly was a nurse who until recently had been working, but Kell, who obviously thought he knew everything about anything, decided to answer for her.

  ‘All depends. Sometimes you can go a full day without even getting a new patient, but those days are getting few and far between now. With tourism and everything the town’s thriving.’

  Sucking in her breath, Abby bit back a smart answer, her eyes pointedly trained on Shelly. ‘So, how long have you been here?’

  ‘Just over a year. It took me a while to settle in but I think I’m finally getting the hang of it. Matthew, on the other hand, fell in love the first day he was here.’

  ‘Matthew’s Shelly’s son,’ Kell interrupted needlessly, and Abby didn’t even bother to answer him, again directly addressing Shelly.

  ‘How old’s Matthew?’

  ‘Three. He’ll be up soon, he’s just having an afternoon nap, which is great for me as I finally got a parcel today. Mum sent me some baby clothes and a few odds and ends.’ Holding up a box of laundry powder, Shelly grinned. ‘You’d be surprised the things you miss.’

  ‘They don’t sell laundry powder here?’ Abby asked, aghast, visions of washing her shorts with a rock in the creek gushing into her mind. What on earth had she let herself in for?

  ‘What’s laundry powder?’

  It took a second for Abby to register Kell was joking. Blushing, she took another drink as Shelly started to laugh. ‘It’s not that bad, Abby. I wanted some soap flakes, but the local shop didn’t quite stretch, so it was quicker to get Mum to send some than wait till we do our big shop in town next month. Now, if you two don’t mind, I’ll just go and throw this lot in the washing machine.’

  ‘Go ahead.’ Kell nodded, flicking on the television with the remote. ‘I’ll go and get the other basket pegged out for you.’

  Abby tried, she really did. She tried not to roll her eyes but sitting in the middle of nowhere discussing the merits of soap flakes versus detergent was just so far removed from her normal life she couldn’t help herself.

  ‘Something wrong?’ Kell asked.

  ‘Nothing,’ Abby retorted.

  ‘Shelly’s great,’ Kell enthused. ‘And if the conversation’s not up to your usual standards, bear in mind the poor woman’s about to give birth.’

  ‘I didn’t say anything,’ Abby protested, annoyed with herself for being caught out, and also irritated with Kell for his uneducated assumptions. Shelly Bodey did not look like a woman about to give birth!

  ‘You didn’t have to.’

  They sat in uncomfortable silence for a moment or two before Abby succumbed, curiosity finally the getting the better of her. ‘Kell, why is she washing new clothes?’

  ‘You’re supposed to wash them,’ Kell explained patiently, his smile back in place to show her she was forgiven, ‘before the baby wears them. It gets rid of any perfume or harsh detergents.’

  To Abby’s utter surprise she found she was actually laughing.

  ‘What did I say?’

  ‘Nothing.’ Taking a sip of her coffee, Abby started to laugh again then forced herself to stop. ‘It’s just the last thing I expected to hear from a guy like you.’

  ‘A guy like me?’ Kell asked as he stood up and picked up the laundry basket. ‘What, do you think I’m too macho to know about washing powders and the like?’

  Finally she managed to look at him. It should have been so much easier now he was wearing clothes, but even without visual access to that toned body he was still stunning, and something about the way he was looking at Abby had her stomach doing somersaults. He looked so ridiculously gorgeous, six feet five of oozing masculinity with a laundry basket tucked under his arm and a handful of pegs!

  ‘You’d better get on.’ Abby smiled. ‘If you want to get your washing dry.’

  It was Kell laughing this time. ‘Now, what would a woman like you know about laundry?’

  As the fly door slammed Abby let out a long-held breath and sank back into the deep sofa, staring out of the window, her gaze filtering out the so-called town to the view beyond which seemed to stretch on to infinity. Mile after mile of red soil, no bay view, no skyscrapers, no hum of traffic in the distance, just the aching gap of emptiness. Staring moodily out as the sun bobbed lower in the sky, Abby truly wondered how she could possibly survive.

  Three months, she consoled herself.

  In three short months she’d be handing her washing over at the dry-cleaners without even meriting it a thought.

  In three months she’d be a consultant.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘KELL!’

  Shelly’s voice wasn’t particularly loud, but the note of urgency in it had Abby on her feet in less than a second.

  ‘Kell!’ Shelly’s voice was louder this time, more desperate. Putting down her mug, Abby cast an anxious look through the window, catching sight of an oblivious Kell, happily pegging out the washing, his mouth full with pink plastic pegs.

  Unsure whether to call Kell or investigate herself, Abby tentatively followed the sound of Shelly’s increasingly urgent demands. As she pushed open the laundry door, she swallowed a gasp of shock as Shelly let out a deep guttural groan, two frightened eyes darting up to meet Abby’s as she hunched over the washing machine.

  ‘I want to push!’

  Please, don’t. Abby didn’t say it, but she definitely thought it!

  Stay calm. Abby mentally steadied herself making her way over and gently helping a groaning Shelly onto the floor. There’s a clinic two minutes away filled with nurses, equipment… Her mind flashed to her doctor’s bag winging its way across the outback, a doctor’s bag with artery forceps and umbilical clamps and, luxury of luxury, latex gloves. For that split second she could have cheerfully strangled Kell with her bare hands.

  ‘I’ll get Kell to ring the clinic,’ Abby said assuredly, pushing herself up from the floor, but Shelly’s hand grabbed her arm as she shook her head, her face purple as she started to bear down.

  ‘It’s coming now!’

  ‘Then we’d better get on and deliver this baby’ Abby soothed, her voice amazingly calm given her rapid heart rate. ‘We’ll manage just fine.’

  Grabbing a handful of folded towels, Abby took a deep steadying breath. She hadn’t delivered a baby for years.

  Years!

  Even then it had only been a token attempt, with registrars and midwives beside her in a delivery room packed with equipment! Still, she reassured herself, fast labours were normally easy, just a steadying hand to help Mother Nature along. But as she examined Shelly Abby’s heart sank and Shelly’s question reiterated Abby’s findings from her brief assessment.

  ‘Is the baby still breech?’

  ‘Yes,’ Abby’s said, in what she prayed was a confident voice, as Shelly let out a moan of terror.

  ‘I thought it had turned. I said to Ross this morning—’

  ‘Shelly,’ Abby broke in firmly, ‘the baby’s going to be fine. I just need you to listen carefully to what I’m telling you to do.’ Her eyes shot up to her new patient and she forced a smile. ‘I’m going to shout for Kell. He can get someone over with a delivery pack, so try not to push just yet.’

  ‘What if I can’t stop myself?’

&n
bsp; Abby took a deep steadying breath then looked up at Shelly, her smile every inch the confident emergency doctor she was. ‘Then we’ll deal with it.’

  ‘Kell!’

  It wasn’t exactly a dulcet summons but, given that the television was still blaring and no doubt he was still playing housemaid, Abby wasn’t exactly left with much choice.

  ‘What’s up?’

  He strolled into the laundry and to Abby’s bemusement he didn’t even look remotely fazed by the sight that greeted him.

  ‘Ring the clinic,’ Abby said through gritted teeth, as the baby’s buttocks descended lower in the birth canal, Shelly’s agonised screams splitting the hot afternoon air like a knife.

  He returned moments later, pulling open a large leather bag, and Abby nodded her thanks as he handed her a pair of gloves and started to open a large paper-wrapped pack. ‘Did you ring?’

  ‘Yep, Clara’s on standby’ Kell said as Abby’s eyes widened in horror.

  ‘I don’t want Clara to be on standby,’ she hissed as loudly as she could without alarming Shelly. ‘I want her to send a team.’ Hell, why didn’t this Neanderthal just do as she asked? Yes, she was a doctor but this was a complicated delivery. Beads of sweat were on her brow as she struggled to stay calm. Why was Kell still here? Shouldn’t he do the polite thing and go and boil some water or something?

  ‘I’ve got to push,’ Shelly begged, and as the baby moved further down the birth canal Abby wasn’t sure what terrified her the most—the thought of a breech birth with no back-up or the fact Kell was pulling on a pair of gloves.

  ‘We are the team, Abby,’ Kell said in low tones, bending down so that only she could hear. ‘This as good as it gets here.’ His voice changed then, coming out lighter and friendly, as he looked up and smiled at Shelly. ‘The little one’s still bottoms up, Shelly, so I’m just going to move you.’

  To Abby’s stunned amazement, in one quick motion he scooped Shelly up as easily as if she were a child and deposited her gently on the laundry bench. Then, pulling a basket over, he kicked it upside down and pushed Abby’s shoulders firmly down till she was sitting. As the fog cleared from her shell-shocked brain Abby realised Shelly was actually in the perfect position for a breech delivery.