Hawaiian Sunset, Dream Proposal

by Joanna Neil

  ‘Hmm. But in these situations time is of the essence, isn’t it? So, I’d like to speak to the consultant in charge, if I may?’

  He posed it as a polite question, but Amber was in no doubt that it was a request. She guessed from his deep, well-modulated and assured tones that he was used to having things his own way. He would be somewhere in his mid-thirties, she imagined.

  ‘Of course, I’ll put you in touch with him as soon as possible, but he’s in Theatre at the moment. Perhaps I could assist you in the meantime? I’d like to reassure you that we’re doing all that we can to make your uncle comfortable.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear it. My cousin and I are very worried about her father.’

  Amber had the feeling he didn’t want to be dealing with an underling at all, but she made an effort to remain calm and not take it personally.

  ‘I’m very well aware that this is a difficult time for both of you,’ Amber murmured, ‘but I can assure you that everything that can be done is being done. Your uncle has received the recommended treatment so far…oxygen, aspirin, glyceryl trinitrate and painkilling medication, as well as blood-thinning drugs. I’ve already cleared the way for him to be taken up to the angiography suite. As soon as my boss has finished in surgery, he’ll come down and assess your uncle’s state of health.’

  ‘So you’re thinking about operating on him?’

  ‘It’s a possibility, if his condition will allow us to do so. We may be able to find the clot that’s causing the damage and remove it by means of a catheter. That might do away with the need for more intrusive, major surgery, but I have to say that Mr Wyndham Brookes’s condition is very precarious. From the looks of his X-ray there could be an underlying disease that might cause more problems. That’s why it would be extremely helpful for us to have access to his medical records.’

  ‘I’m already onto it, and I’ll send them to you as soon as possible. In the meantime, I’d like to set up a video link with his hospital room. I know you have conferencing capabilities, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to arrange.’

  His suggestion took Amber’s breath away. This man clearly knew what he wanted, and didn’t see why he shouldn’t sweep every obstacle to one side in order to get things done.

  ‘Is that going to be a problem for you? Perhaps I should speak with your chief administrator?’ Perhaps he had heard her swift intake of breath. Ethan Brookes sounded as though he had no time for shilly-shallying. If she couldn’t deal with it, he would go to someone who could.

  ‘That won’t be necessary,’ she murmured. ‘Your uncle is in a private room, so I’m sure we can accommodate your request, as long as his daughter has no objection.’ She glanced at Caitlin, raising her brow in a faint query.

  ‘I’d like that,’ Caitlin said. ‘It will make me feel better to know that Ethan’s looking on.’

  Amber wasn’t at all sure how she felt about it. Having her every move watched by a stranger wasn’t something she welcomed, but technological advances meant that it could be done, and if it was something that helped unite families in their hour of need, who was she to object?

  ‘My boss should be here within a few minutes,’ Amber said. ‘I’ll speak to him about it, and if he agrees, we’ll call on one of our technicians to set it up. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to give my full attention to your uncle…unless there was something else that you urgently wanted to discuss?’

  ‘No…it will keep. Thanks for your co-operation,’ Ethan said. The speaker-phone link was cut, and Caitlin went out into the corridor to finish her conversation with him in private.

  Amber drew in a deep breath. It was one thing to deal with worried relatives close at hand, but having difficult, long-distance discussions with someone she had never met was a first for her.

  A few minutes later, she left Martyn in Sarah’s care, while another nurse took Caitlin away to show her to a waiting room. There she would be able to sit in comfort and talk about her concerns to the nurse with the aid of a reviving cup of tea. Having Caitlin looked after took a great deal of the strain off Amber’s shoulders and left her free to go and check on her other patients.

  When her boss came down from Theatre, Amber grabbed the opportunity to update him on Martyn’s condition.

  ‘We’ll take him up to the catheter suite as soon as the team is assembled,’ the consultant agreed. ‘As to the video link, I see no reason to object.’ He gave a brief, wry smile. ‘Besides, I’ve heard of the Brookes’s international fruit-shipping company. I read about their goings-on in the newspaper from time to time. These people are high-powered, influential individuals. Let’s not get on the wrong side of any of them, if we can help it. Call the technician and ask him to sort out the video link. Anything to keep them happy.’

  Amber lifted a faintly arched brow. Her boss wasn’t someone who usually worried too much about following protocol and treading carefully around people, so if he thought it expedient to appease Ethan Brookes, who was she to argue?

  ‘Professor Halloran,’ Sarah interrupted, ‘you’re needed in the resuscitation room. One of your pacemaker patients is in difficulty.’

  The consultant nodded. ‘Okay, I’ll be along right away.’ He sent a brief glance towards Amber. ‘Prepare Mr Wyndham Brookes for surgery, and I’ll be along as soon as possible.’

  Amber did as he asked, leaving a nurse to call in the technician to set up the video link. Martyn was barely conscious, but she spoke to him gently, explaining what they were going to do.

  ‘Professor Halloran is the best cardiac surgeon we have,’ she told him. ‘He’ll use X-ray images to look at your blood vessels through our cardiac monitor, and that should help him to find exactly where the blockage is. He’ll most likely insert a very thin catheter into a blood vessel of the top of your leg, and then he’ll use specialised instruments to remove the clot that’s causing the problem.’ She looked into his grey eyes. ‘Do you understand what I’m saying?’

  He nodded almost imperceptibly. ‘I do.’

  ‘Is there anything that you’d like to ask me about it?’

  ‘Nothing. Thank you. I’m very tired.’ He tried to lift his hand and made a frail attempt to pat hers as it rested gently on the bedclothes beside him. His breath came in quick gasps. ‘I know you’ll do your best for me. You mustn’t worry if it all goes wrong.’

  Amber felt the quick sting of tears behind her eyelids. Somehow, this man had managed to reach her inner core, the place where she tried to keep her feelings hidden. In the short time she had known him, she had found an affinity with him, and she realised that she cared deeply about what happened to him.

  ‘Nothing will go wrong,’ she said softly. ‘I’m going to take good care of you, I promise, and you have to know that Professor Halloran is the very best.’

  He didn’t speak any more after that, but lapsed into what seemed like an exhausted sleep. The heart monitor began to bleep, the trace showing a chaotic descent into a dangerous rhythm, and Amber called for help. ‘I need a crash team here—now. Call for Professor Halloran.’ Her patient was going into shock, and cardiac arrest was imminent. ‘He’s in V-fib.’ Ventricular fibrillation meant the heart was unable to pump blood around Martyn’s body and without swift intervention he would die.

  James and Sarah rushed to the bedside. Sarah started chest compressions, while James set the defibrillator to analyse the patient’s rhythm and prepared to deliver a shock to Martyn’s heart. Amber was aware of Caitlin standing in the room, watching everything that was going on, tears rolling down her cheeks, but she couldn’t let that distract her. She worked quickly to secure Martyn’s airway with an endotracheal tube and ensure that he was receiving adequate oxygen through a mechanical ventilator.

  ‘Stand clear, everyone,’ James said. As soon as the shock had been delivered, Sarah continued compressions. Amber checked for a pulse and looked to see if the rhythm of the heart had changed.

  ‘He’s still in V-fib,’ she said. ‘Let’s go again with a second shock.
’ By now, Caitlin was making small sobbing sounds, and Amber was aware of another strange background noise, an odd swishing sound that she couldn’t quite make out.

  James set the machine to deliver the second jolt of electricity, but Amber could see it hadn’t had the desired effect. ‘Keep up the compressions,’ she said. ‘I’m going to give him a shot of adrenaline.’

  They continued to work on their patient, but after a while, when Martyn’s response was still insufficient, Amber added amiodarone to his intravenous line. She wasn’t going to give up on this man, no matter how resistant his condition seemed to her efforts.

  ‘You can do this, Martyn,’ she said, under her breath. ‘Come on, now, work with me. You’re going to the catheter suite and you’re going to come through this. Don’t let me down.’

  James glanced towards Caitlin, clearly disturbed by the girl’s distress, but he could see that Sarah was tiring and moved to take over the chest compressions. Sarah watched the monitors and recorded the readings on a chart, while Amber worriedly assessed the nature of the heart rhythm and debated whether to add atropine to the medications she had already given him.

  Professor Halloran came into the room, taking everything in with one sweeping glance. ‘How’s he doing?’ he asked. ‘Do you have a normal rhythm now?’

  Amber checked the monitor and turned towards him. ‘We do,’ she said, relief sounding in her voice, and Professor Halloran nodded in satisfaction.

  ‘Well done, everyone.’ He turned his attention to the flat screen of the computer monitor that had been set up on a table across the room. He held up his hands in a thumbs-up sign. ‘He’s back with us,’ he addressed the screen, and now, at last, Amber realised where the swishing sound had been coming from.

  The screen was filled with the image of a man standing on what appeared to be a wooden veranda, surrounded on all sides by a balustrade. He was looking towards them, long limbed, lean and fit, with broad shoulders that tapered to a slim, flat-stomached midriff. He was wearing casual clothes made of fine-textured cotton that would be cool and comfortable in the heat of the Hawaiian summer. In the background she made out a palm tree and the clear blue of ocean waves lapping on a golden, sandy beach.

  ‘I see that,’ the man said. ‘I saw it all, as clearly as if I had been there.’ He moved closer to the webcam, and Amber realised that the computer must be situated on a ledge in front of him. The screen showed him now in clear view, blotting out most of the background, and she was aware of the strong, angular lines of his face, of thick, black hair cut in a way that perfectly framed his features. Most of all, she was stunned by his clear, blue eyes, the exact colour of the sea, that appeared to be looking right at her.

  ‘We’ll take your uncle up to the catheter suite right away,’ Professor Halloran said. ‘It’s important that we get to work as soon as possible.’ He glanced at Amber. ‘I’ll leave you to bring him up in the lift, Amber, while I go and prepare.’

  Amber nodded, dragging her gaze away from the image on the screen. She was glad to have something to distract her. There was something about the way Ethan Brookes looked at her that was infinitely disturbing. It was as though he could see into her very soul, and that was an unnerving thought.

  Even more unsettling, though, as her gaze swivelled to the doorway, was the sight of James, deep in conversation with Caitlin.

  ‘I don’t know what to do,’ Caitlin was saying. ‘He’s all I have in the world.’

  ‘You’re not alone,’ James murmured. ‘I’ll look after you. I’m off duty for a while now, and we can talk. Maybe we could even get together later this evening when my shift finishes. I know you’ll probably want to talk some more. These things can hit you very hard. It’s a worrying time.’

  The girl lifted tear-drenched eyes towards the young doctor, and James reacted in the way that men have reacted throughout time. He melted in the face of her vulnerability, draped an arm around her and gently led her away. It was an innocent, caring gesture, but somehow, seeing his tenderness and concern for this young woman, it rocked Amber to the core. James hadn’t taken his eyes off Caitlin’s face. He looked at her with compassion and something else, something akin to adoration. He appeared to be totally, utterly smitten.

  ‘Dr Shaw? Are you with us?’ Ethan Brookes’s voice cracked across the void, and Amber blinked, coming back to reality and trying unsuccessfully to blank out the image that was imprinted on her mind.

  ‘I should thank you for your prompt action,’ he said, and she lifted her gaze towards the screen once more.

  Those steely blue eyes raked over her, as though he was making a thorough assessment of her. ‘You’ve bought my uncle a little more time, and I’m grateful to you for that.’

  She gave a brief, noncommittal nod in his direction. ‘That’s what I’m here for,’ she murmured.

  ‘Yes, but it’s obvious that you’re also young and relatively inexperienced. You did well to cope as you did…but I’m wondering if I should arrange for a private specialist to come and take charge of my uncle’s case. I don’t want anything left to chance.’

  She braced her shoulders. She was a senior house officer, more than capable of doing what was required. ‘Of course, that’s your prerogative,’ she murmured. ‘It wouldn’t be wise to delay proceedings, though. He needs to go to surgery now, and we have his full permission to go ahead…so if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and take him there.’

  ‘I understand that. I won’t get in your way…now…and thanks again for what you did.’

  Ethan Brookes was thanking her, but his words had an empty ring about them. The image of his cousin and her boyfriend came into her mind once more, and right now she couldn’t help momentarily wishing that the Brookes family had never come into her life.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘WE’VE done all that we can for him for the moment,’ Professor Halloran told Amber as they left the catheterisation suite some time later. ‘We may have cleared up the immediate problem, but Mr Wyndham Brookes is still a very sick man.’

  Amber nodded. ‘At least you managed to remove the blood clot that was causing the trouble. It’s unfortunate that he has a lot of other things to contend with alongside that.’ Martyn was lucky to be alive, but from the results of tests and the indications they had discovered during the operation, his quality of life was going to be severely restricted.

  ‘I expect his nephew will want to know exactly what we’ve found,’ Professor Halloran added, ‘although the medical notes he sent us were a good pointer to the cause of the problem.’ He frowned. ‘Ethan Brookes is certainly keen on being kept fully involved, even though he’s living thousands of miles away. Maybe you could explain to him that his uncle will need to take great care with his health over the next few months.’

  ‘Are you not going to talk to him yourself?’ Amber looked at her boss in surprise.

  ‘Yes, I will…later. Right now, I have to go back to my pacemaker patient. His needs are greater right now.’ He gave her a beaming smile. ‘Besides, I’ve every confidence in you. Talk to Miss Wyndham Brookes, as well. I’ll speak to both of them this afternoon, when I’m free.’

  Amber was glad he had such faith in her to do the right thing, though she suspected it was a ploy…he was a much better surgeon than he was at talking to patients. As to speaking to Martyn’s nephew herself, she was conscious that Ethan wasn’t entirely pleased that she was the one taking day-to-day responsibility for his uncle. He wanted the best…but Professor Halloran was not readily available to be there for him one hundred per cent of the time.

  She went back down to A and E and went in search of Martyn’s daughter. She could understand how distressing this situation was for the girl, but the image of James consoling her and leading her away with his arm draped protectively around her had been running through her mind over and over again as if in a film loop these last few hours.

  Perhaps she was taking things too personally, though. Wasn’t it entirely natural for any normal, thi
nking person to want to comfort someone in their hour of need? James was a good, kind man. She ought to be pleased that he was so considerate towards others.

  While she had been in the catheter suite, James had apparently been working his way steadily through the mounting list of patients who had arrived at A and E. He met her as she walked over to the central desk in the unit a few minutes later.

  ‘I picked up this letter for you from your mail box,’ he said, handing her an envelope. ‘It looks official, so it could be news of the job you applied for.’

  ‘Oh, thanks.’ Amber frowned, looking at the logo on the envelope. He was right…the letter probably contained the information she was waiting for. She glanced up at him. ‘Did you hear anything about the job you were after?’

  His mouth made a downward turn. ‘Yes. It turns out I didn’t get the job. The letter was waiting for me when I went back to the mailroom. They appointed another candidate, but wished me luck for next time.’

  Amber felt an immediate rush of sympathy for him. ‘Oh, James,’ she said, reaching out to give him a hug, ‘I’m so sorry. I know how much you wanted that post. You must be feeling really down about it.’

  He nodded briefly, trailing an arm around her in return. ‘I was almost expecting to be turned down, but it came as a shock, all the same.’

  ‘It must have done. What will you do now?’

  He gave a negligent shrug. ‘I’ll have to think about some of the other research projects available. They weren’t nearly as appealing as this one, but at least I stand some chance of getting one of them.’

  ‘Sorry to interrupt, Amber,’ Sarah said as she approached the desk, ‘but Mr Wyndham Brookes has just been brought back down to his room. His daughter is feeling anxious because he doesn’t look too good…and I think she’s been looking at the medical notes that were sent over from Hawaii—that was never going to make her feel better. Her cousin advised her against it, and so did Professor Halloran, but she was determined to go ahead anyway. Do you want to come and have a word with her?’