The Doctor's Longed-For Family

by Joanna Neil

  ‘It won’t, though, will it? Go wrong, I mean?’ Helen was suddenly doubtful. She applied a smear of lipstick to her full lips and then made a final check in the mirror. ‘Right, I’m ready. Back into the fray.’

  Abby followed her a short time later, going out into the corridor and catching sight of a camera team that looked as though it was heading her way. She froze. The wretched people were everywhere. She would have to find a different route to take her where she wanted to be. She swivelled around to avoid them and walked straight into a solid object, one that was living and breathing and exuding warmth and energy.

  ‘Hey, there, what’s the rush?’ The voice was calm and faintly amused.

  She was temporarily knocked off balance, but two strong arms reached for her and steadied her, and she looked up distractedly, to find herself staring into Matt’s laughing blue eyes.

  ‘I know we said that we were going to be working closely together,’ he murmured huskily, keeping hold of her, his hands coming to rest at the base of her spine, ‘but I hadn’t expected it to be quite such a riveting experience.’ He ran his glance over her. ‘Not that I’m complaining, of course. This has to be one of the bonuses of the job.’

  Abby was struggling to cope with the rush of heat that swamped her entire body. Her breasts were crushed against the strong wall of his chest, and her thighs were in collision with a part of his anatomy that she didn’t even want to think about. She tried to compose herself.

  ‘Yes, well, um…I think I can manage now, thank you. I um…need to go and find my patient. He should be arriving any minute now.’ Her heart was pounding, and she couldn’t think straight with his arms wrapped around her that way.

  He gently extracted himself from their unexpected embrace, but still held on to her, albeit at arm’s length. ‘The baby with the projectile vomiting? I heard that he was on his way to A and E.’

  Did he ever miss anything? She nodded. ‘That’s the one.’ She glanced up at him. ‘If you’d care to let go of me, I was heading for the ambulance bay.’

  ‘Of course.’ He released her and stood to one side, and she could feel his gaze following her as she started off along the corridor. Unfortunately, she also caught sight of the camera crew bearing down on them, and she had the horrible notion that they had homed in on their minor entanglement. She promised herself she would go and vet the footage just as soon as she could grab a minute.

  It was bad enough that she had been involved in such a situation in the first place, but if Matt was married and his wife happened to see their encounter broadcast on the television, what on earth would she think? And what was Matt thinking of, flirting with her like that? What kind of man was he? Didn’t he have any scruples?

  She reached the ambulance bay and the ambulance that was bringing in the baby drew up a moment or two later. Abby supervised the transfer of the infant into A and E.

  ‘I didn’t know what to do for the best,’ the child’s mother said, looking anxious. ‘He’s never taken his feeds properly, and he seems to be wasting away. He’s so tiny and he looks so ill. What’s wrong with him?’

  ‘That’s what we’re going to find out,’ Abby told her. The baby was about four weeks old, and he was clearly dehydrated, lethargic and undernourished. There were also signs of jaundice.

  Abby gently examined the infant. ‘His fontanelle is depressed,’ she said in a low voice to the nurse who was assisting her, ‘and that’s a sure sign of dehydration. We need to correct the fluid imbalance as quickly as possible, because he’s already very ill.’

  ‘Do you want me to set up a fluid infusion?’

  ‘Yes, I’m going to obtain intravenous access so that we can do some tests, and once we know what we’re dealing with we can correct the electrolyte abnormalities.’

  She moved around to the other side of the bed in order to help set up the fluid infusion, and almost ran into the camera rig. She looked up, startled to see that she was being filmed, but she quickly swallowed her irritation. Her main priority right now was to help this little boy back to health.

  ‘You said that he’s dehydrated,’ the mother queried. ‘Is that bad? Like I said, I’ve tried to feed him but he won’t keep anything down.’

  ‘It isn’t your fault,’ Abby reassured her, ‘but when a child loses fluid, either through vomiting or diarrhoea, the kidneys have to work much harder, and they aren’t as efficient as normal. The baby’s whole system becomes unbalanced.’

  ‘Is that why he has that yellowish colour?’

  Abby tried to explain in a way that the infant’s mother might understand. ‘It’s most likely because his liver is trying to cope with the extra workload.’

  ‘Do you know what’s causing all this to happen?’

  ‘I think so,’ Abby told her. ‘There seems to be an obstruction in the outlet from his stomach that’s preventing him from digesting his feeds properly. I felt it when I examined him, but I’ll do an ultrasound to confirm it.’

  ‘Is it dangerous?’ The young mother was alarmed. ‘Can you do something for him?’

  ‘Yes, I’m sure we can. We don’t really know why these things happen, but it’s certainly treatable. It’s probably caused by a thickening of the muscular outlet that allows food to pass from the stomach, which is easily cleared by an operation. It’s usually a fairly straightforward procedure, and the surgeon will most likely do it through the umbilicus, so that there shouldn’t be too much indication that he’s had the surgery at all once it’s healed up.’

  ‘And will that cure him?’

  ‘Yes, he should be able to feed normally a few hours after he’s come back from Theatre.’

  Abby did what she could to put the mother’s mind at rest, and then she went to speak to the nurse. ‘We’ll call for the neonatal surgeon to come and take a look at the infant, but I think she’ll want to make sure that the fluid balance is restored before she does anything at all.’

  ‘So we’ll admit him to the observation ward for the next few hours?’

  ‘Yes. He can stay there until he goes for surgery.’

  She left the treatment room and had to wait while the cameraman backed the rig out of the way. Her mouth made what she hoped looked something like a smile, but she was sorely tempted to grit her teeth. Matt had a lot to answer for.

  She would have liked to give him a piece of her mind, but he was working with a patient when she went by the trauma room, and she contented herself with looking in on him to see how things were progressing.

  He was busy resuscitating a child who had collapsed earlier that morning, and Abby had to admit that he certainly seemed to know what he was doing. The girl was on a heart monitor, and Matt left her side to go and ring for a cardiac surgeon.

  He looked across the room and saw Abby as he replaced the receiver on its base. ‘She has a valve problem,’ he told her. ‘Once we have that sorted out, she’ll be back on her feet again.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ she said, keeping her voice cool and evenly modulated.

  She started to move away into the main area of A and E and he went with her. ‘Do I detect a hint of frost in the air?’ he said. ‘Or has management decided to save money on heating by turning the thermostats down? I thought you might be relieved to have an extra body on your team, but you don’t seem too happy with the way things are going.’

  ‘I might be relieved,’ she agreed tautly, ‘except that it came at a price.’ She looked around to see if the cameras were still following her around, but thankfully they were nowhere to be seen. She glared at him. ‘If I seem to be out of sorts it’s because I’ve come to realise that you used me to get what you wanted. I’m definitely feeling touchy about that. I’ve had enough of men walking all over me to further their own ambitions, so maybe it would be for the best if we simply agree that we have to work together and aim to keep things between us on a purely professional footing.’

  He nodded. ‘Of course. I know that you had a raw deal in the past. Helen told me about the ex-
boyfriend.’ His blue gaze was sympathetic. ‘That must have been a nasty experience, and it must have left a bad taste in your mouth. I’m not surprised that you’re cautious around people but, believe me, I’m not about to make inroads on your territory. I just feel that you’re doing such a good job here, and I think others should know about it.’

  Was he patronising her? Her mouth clamped down on a bitter retort. Instead, she managed coolly, ‘Helen has far too much to say about things that don’t concern her. She’s an excellent doctor, but I’d rather she had kept that to herself, and I would very much prefer it if you don’t go discussing my private life with any more of my colleagues.’

  He gave her a startled look. ‘It really wasn’t like that, you know. Helen didn’t spill the beans as such. I just made a comment about a research project I was interested in, and she made a throw-away remark that caught my attention. She was pointing out how hard you had worked on a project of your own, and I started asking questions. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me.’

  ‘Yes. I already knew that.’ Abby’s green eyes flashed. ‘You have a way of getting whatever you want, and that isn’t all of it…any man who can flirt outrageously the way you do has to be blameworthy. It’s one thing to charm the viewers into watching your programmes, but it’s quite another to get fresh with female colleagues when you have a family waiting for you back home.’

  He appeared to be stunned by what she said. ‘I don’t think I quite follow your train of thought. I wasn’t getting fresh, as you put it. After all, you were the one who walked into me.’

  She glared at him. How dared he turn the situation around and make out that she was the one in the wrong? ‘Don’t play games with me,’ she said. ‘I’m not in the mood.’

  He put up his hands as though warding her off. ‘OK, I can see that you mean business.’ He looked at her more closely. ‘Are you sure you aren’t overdoing things around here? You seem very overwrought. Perhaps you should try to take a few more breaks between seeing patients, or aim to delegate your responsibilities a bit more?’

  Her head went back at that. ‘Are you trying to tell me how to do my job?’ She heard the clatter of a trolley in the distance and absently moved to one side in readiness for it to pass.

  ‘Not at all. You do it brilliantly. If anything, I think you work too hard and you need a complete break, a chance to get away from here and sample the delights of the open air. It’s springtime, and I’ll bet you haven’t even noticed.’

  Abby tried to hide a grimace. He had unwittingly hit on a sore point, hadn’t he? When did she ever have time to stop and smell the roses, so to speak? By the time she left here she was usually too drained to want to do anything except go home. And then there were all the domestic chores that needed to be done.

  He moved closer to her and draped an arm around her shoulders. ‘I know a beautiful spot by the river near the studios where I record some of my TV shows. It would be the ideal place for a picnic. What do you say we try it out? I have to drive over there this afternoon to do a short interview piece, and we could find ourselves a sunlit grassy bank and make the most of the lovely weather.’

  She wriggled her shoulder from out of his grasp. ‘You’re incorrigible,’ she said in a taut voice. ‘What makes you think I would even consider such a thing?’

  ‘Well, because I think you could do with some time off. You were at work way before I was this morning, so I guess that you were either called in to see a patient or you came in on an early shift. Either way, I believe you’re due to finish work by mid-afternoon, so you shouldn’t have any problem getting away. What do you think? Shall we make a date?’

  She looked at him, her eyes widening. ‘What I think,’ she said, ‘is probably unrepeatable in polite company. How can you stand there and proposition me when you have a wife and children waiting for you to go home to them?’

  He was silent for a moment, simply looking at her, with faint frown lines forming between his brows. She guessed he was trying to work out how to get out of the corner he had worked himself into, and she stared back at him, daring him to deny it.

  Finally, he pressed the tip of his tongue thoughtfully across his lower lip and said in a wondering tone, ‘Last time I looked, I didn’t have a wife. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I’m very much a single man, footloose and fancy-free, unless someone slipped something into my drink one day and changed the situation when I wasn’t looking. Bearing that possibility in mind, I suppose there’s a slim chance I could be wrong.’

  Now she was frowning. ‘You said there were children. I heard you.’ She waggled a finger at him. ‘You said, “I have to pick up the children from their friends’ house,” or words to that effect.’

  He seemed to be nonplussed by that, and a small frisson of doubt ran through her. He had been flippant in his answer, but that might have been just a cover. What if he had been married at one time but now he was a widower and she had gone blundering in with both feet? That would be unforgivable, wouldn’t it?

  He must have sensed her sudden tremor of doubt because he tilted his head on one side and looked at her, as though he was trying to work something out.

  ‘That’s very true,’ he murmured. ‘I did say that…and there are children, yes. Actually, I thought perhaps they might come with us this afternoon. School should be finished by the time you’re free, and they’ll be glad of the chance of an outing…especially a picnic. Jacob is seven, and he’s into anything outdoorsy, and as for Sarah, well, she’s just a year older, and she just loves watching the boats go by.’

  ‘Oh, I didn’t…I didn’t realise that you might be looking after children on your own.’ Why would he be doing that? Was he divorced, or separated perhaps…or, heaven forbid, was he a widower?

  Abby tried to think back over what she had said to him. She had been slightly caustic towards him, derogatory even, and now she was beginning to wish she could backpedal. ‘I…uh…perhaps I was a little hasty in what I said.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. I can see how you might have misinterpreted the situation.’ He gave her a coaxing smile. ‘What do you think? Shall we have the picnic after all? I’ll sort it all out. You won’t have to do a thing.’

  ‘Um…’ Abby was at a loss to know what to do. Perhaps she owed him something after her outburst, and after all he was helping her out by working here, and he was turning out to be a godsend to the department. He was so skilled and experienced in emergency medicine that he was able to advise Sam as well as the junior doctors. It took a lot of the burden off her shoulders. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘I think I’d like that. Thank you.’

  A small cheer rose up from behind her and she turned to see that the camera crew had been following their every move. The colour flew to her face as she saw that the camera was actually focused on her. That hadn’t been a trolley that she had heard trundling along the corridor earlier. It must have been the TV people.

  Horror turned rapidly to annoyance and she glowered at the director. ‘You will not broadcast a single scrap of that footage,’ she told him. ‘Or any of the filming you did earlier, out in the corridor.’

  ‘That’s a pity,’ the director said. ‘We’ve recorded some real gems up to now.’

  A bright spark from amongst the crew chimed in, ‘Instead of A&E Uncovered, maybe we should call it Under the Covers in A&E.’ There was general laughter at that, and Abby shook her head in disbelief. Things were getting out of hand, and this was only the first day. What was the rest of the filming process going to be like?

  She walked away from them and went in search of her next patient. The best thing she could do would be to lose herself in her work. She didn’t even look back to see what Matt made of it all, but she heard him start to speak to the director.

  He came and found her when her shift finished later that afternoon. ‘I hope you’re hungry,’ he said, ‘because I’ve packed up enough food to keep us going for a day or so. Just in case we get stranded out by the riverbank.’

  Sh
e looked at him in alarm. ‘I hope you’re joking,’ she said. ‘Whereabouts is this riverside picnic spot?’

  ‘I was joking.’ He gave her a crooked grin. ‘We don’t have to go too far away. It’s about a half-hour drive from here, but I need to stop off and pick up Jacob and Sarah first. Then I have to do an interview for a programme that will appear some time next month, but it shouldn’t take very long for my part of the programme to be dealt with. They have a hospitality suite, and you and the children will be able to wait there if you want to do that. I believe you could also have a tour of the studios, if you’d like it. They’re right next to the Thames, so the scenery is beautiful.’

  ‘That sounds all right to me.’ She hesitated a moment before asking, ‘Do you think Jacob and Sarah will mind me going along with you? The last thing I want to do is intrude.’

  ‘They’ll love to have you with us. They’re very outgoing children usually. Well, Jacob is at any rate. Sarah is a little more reserved, but she’s a very sensible girl. I’m sure you’ll get on really well together.’ He smiled at her. ‘You forget, I’ve seen the way you handle children here at the hospital. You’re a natural. What surprises me is that you don’t have a child of your own by now…but, then, you had problems with your ex, didn’t you, so I imagine that must have made you wary.’

  Her lips made a brief, taut movement. ‘Let’s not go there,’ she said. ‘I’d sooner forget that he ever existed.’

  He winced. ‘It was that bad?’

  She gave him a concentrated stare, and he backed off. ‘You won’t hear another word from me,’ he said. ‘My lips are zipped.’

  She chuckled at the image, and shook her head. ‘Knowing you, I doubt they’ll stay that way for long.’ She was quiet for a moment, wondering about the children and what had happened in his life for him to be caring for them on his own, but after the mess she had made of things earlier, she thought it would be wiser for her to stay silent. He would tell her when he was ready.