Redeeming the Playboy

by Carol Marinelli

  ‘And it would be called …’ Elspeth asked.

  ‘We haven’t decided on a name yet,’ Jack said. ‘But certainly it would be something that honours the Hillier name.’

  ‘Not for me, of course,’ Elspeth said. ‘I just want Edgar to be remembered.’

  ‘Of course,’ Jack duly replied, though he was quite sure it wouldn’t be called the Edgar child-care centre or the Edgar Hillier child-care centre … He knew the routine only too well; he’d been raised on it after all.

  ‘So when will building commence?’ Elspeth asked, but Jack didn’t answer. He was distracted for a moment, not because of a new outbreak of commotion—that was commonplace here—but more at the sight of those red stockings again. Nina was walking through the department alongside a gentleman who was holding a pale-looking child. They were flanked by two security guards and Alex Rodriguez was present too.

  Jack tried to answer Elspeth’s question but his eyes kept wandering to the group and he watched as a nurse approached to take the child.

  ‘Excuse me for a moment, Elspeth …’

  Security were bracing themselves, Alex was hovering, nurses were looking over, and any second now the button would be pressed for the police to be called as the father was becoming more and more agitated. Only Nina stood resolute and calm. He could see her speaking to the gentleman and, as Jack approached, he saw that whatever she had said had worked, for without further demur he handed the child over to a nurse.

  Jack was about to head back to Elspeth and even Alex had turned to go when the explosion hit. ‘Who the hell do you think you are, bitch?’ The man was right in Nina’s face, cursing her and, despite the presence of Security, backing Nina into a cubicle. But even then her voice was, to Jack’s ears, annoyingly calm, telling the security officers to step back.

  ‘I can handle this, thank you.’

  Er, actually, no, she couldn’t, Jack was quite sure. There was well over six feet of angry male yelling at her, telling her that he had trusted her, that she should know him better, that he would never harm his child.

  ‘Take a seat, Mike.’ She just stood in the middle of the cubicle as he ranted. ‘No one is accusing you of anything, but Tommy looks unwell and needs to be examined. He has a cut that appears infected. No one has said anything about you harming your son.’

  ‘You’re nothing but a—’

  ‘Enough.’ Jack stepped in between them. ‘I’m Jack Carter, Head of Paediatrics. Can I ask what is going on?’

  ‘I’ve got this, thanks, Jack.’ He heard her bristling with anger and held back the slight incredulous shake of his head, because her anger was aimed at him! Still, he happily ignored Nina and looked at the man.

  ‘Sir?’ Jack stood patiently, his eyes warning the other man to calm down, and slowly he seemed to a little, but his words were still angry when he answered.

  ‘Tommy had an appointment today with the child psychologist and everything seemed fine but then they decide that the cut on his hand needs to be seen. I just want to take him home, he’s tired, and then she arrives with security guards in tow and I’m hauled down here just because a four-year-old has a cut hand.’

  ‘It looks infected,’ Nina stated. ‘It needs to be checked, it’s that simple, Mike.’

  ‘How did he get the cut?’ Jack asked.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Mike’s temper reared again. ‘He’s four years old, they fall over all the time.’

  ‘Sure they do.’ Jack nodded. ‘I’ll go and take a look at him myself right now. The thing I want you to do is to calm down before you go in to see him. You’ve scared your son—he doesn’t need to see his father angry and upset.’ He gave a brief nod to Nina, who stepped outside with him.

  ‘It’s a very complicated history—’ she started.

  ‘I’m sure that it is,’ Jack interrupted, ‘but right now my concern is the child’s medical status.’

  ‘The father can be explosive at times, but he’s never been that way with his child …’

  Jack didn’t want to hear her findings at this stage. His only thought was for the safety of the child—well, there was one other thing he would address later. ‘I’m going to speak to you afterwards about your own safety. I don’t want staff taking risks.’

  ‘I know the family. I knew what I was doing—’

  ‘I’m not arguing about this right now,’ Jack broke in. ‘I’ll speak to you later.’

  ‘If I can just explain about Tommy …’

  ‘Please, don’t. Right now I want to go and see that child and find out first hand what we’re dealing with.’

  So quickly Jack dismissed her.

  Other times he blamed her.

  But right now she couldn’t think about Dr Perfect Never Make A Mistake Carter. Instead she turned to another man, one who had made an awful lot of mistakes that morning, and she watched as Mike sat down, put his head in his hands and started to sob.

  ‘I didn’t mean to scare him.’ He was beside himself. ‘Tommy will be petrified without me …’

  ‘I know that,’ Nina said. ‘What’s going on, Mike?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘When did Tommy get the cut?’

  ‘I don’t know, a few days ago … I need to be with him.’

  ‘Not yet. I want you to sit here for a while. Someone will bring you a drink and when things are more settled I’ll come and speak to you.’

  ‘I should be with him.’

  ‘You can’t be with him because you just lost your temper, Mike!’ Despite what Jack might think, Nina was no pushover. ‘You can’t be with your son because you refused to bring him down for an examination, because you avoided Security and then bullied me into a cubicle. You blew this, Mike, so, no, right now you can’t be with him. I’ll go in. Tommy knows me, I’ll stay with him for now …’

  Nina left the cubicle and asked a nurse where Tommy was and was pointed in the direction. She knocked on the examination-room door and was let in.

  ‘Good timing.’ She could hear the weary bitterness in his voice. ‘I was just about to call you with an urgent referral.’ She looked down at Tommy, who was being helped into a gown that was covered with cartoon characters.

  Nina looked at his pale, bruised body and immediately she could see why she was about to be called. Then she looked over at Jack and she saw it again.

  The look he had given her when she had walked into Baby Tanner’s cubicle.

  The look he would give her if Sienna returned unwell to the department.

  It was a look she knew all to well, and one Jack Carter gave her all too often.

  I told you so.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ‘EXCUSE ME A minute, Tommy.’ Jack stepped outside and Nina assumed that she was meant to follow, but of course she had it wrong. Instead, Jack spoke with an elderly, very elegant woman, who looked less than impressed when he headed back towards Tommy’s cubicle, offering Nina a brief explanation. ‘Lewis is stuck with a multi-trauma, I’m just waiting for the registrar to come and take over. I just want to make sure that there’s nothing medically urgent that is wrong.’

  ‘Can I just have a brief word before you go in, Jack?’ He gave a slight hiss of frustration as he turned around. ‘Tommy is a very guarded child. Initially he had nothing to do with his father and responded only to me, but over the past months …’

  She didn’t finish; instead she watched as Jack’s grey eyes shuttered as they so often did when she spoke. ‘You don’t want to hear what I have to say?’

  ‘At this stage, no. I want to find out from the child what has happened and given that you have had dealings with the family and that Tommy seems to trust you, I’d like you to assist. Do you think you can?’

  ‘Of course, but—’

  ‘I like facts Nina,’ he interrupted. ‘I like to explore things for myself and I do not want to walk in there with my thought process crowded by yours.’

  ‘Sure.’

  He was arrogant, dismissive, even rude, but there was no mi
staking that he was brilliant with Tommy. He didn’t rush in, he just chatted to the little boy for a couple of minutes and then asked him something about his parents.

  ‘Tommy’s mum is deceased,’ Nina said quietly, and had he given her just one moment to speak he might not be feeling such an insensitive bastard right now. At least, Nina hoped that was what he was thinking.

  Of course it wasn’t.

  Jack had been rather hoping Tommy might speak a little for himself, but instead he sat silent and pale, his mop of dark curls unkempt and unwashed. He had dark circles under his eyes and, Jack noted, despite gentle prompting, he remained silent.

  ‘Okay, Tommy,’ Jack said, pulling on his gloves, ‘we’re just going to take a look at that cut of yours.’ He looked at Nina and for the first time that day he was smiling in her direction—for the sake of the patient, of course. ‘You know Nina, I hear.’

  Tommy’s eyes darted towards her and she gave him a smile. ‘We’ve met a few times, haven’t we, Tommy?’ Nina walked over and looked at the cut. It was deep and infected and it was clear that it should have been medically dealt with at the time it had happened. ‘That looks sore,’ Nina said. ‘What happened?’ She saw the confusion in Tommy’s eyes. ‘It’s okay,’ Nina said. ‘We just want to find out what happened so we can make sure it gets better.’

  ‘Where’s Dad?’ The question was aimed at Nina, and it was the first words Jack had heard Tommy say.

  ‘Dad’s just having a seat and a drink in another area.’ She made it clear, Jack noted, that his dad was well away and that he could talk freely, and she asked him again about the cut.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  Gently Jack examined him, probing his little stomach, exploring his rib cage, noting that Tommy winced when he did so. Jack pulled on his stethoscope and listened to Tommy’s chest, but looked up as someone stepped into the cubicle.

  ‘Sorry about that.’ A woman smiled. ‘I’m Lorna Harris, locum registrar.’

  ‘It’s fine Lorna, I’ve got this,’ Jack dismissed, but then a nurse popped her head around the door and explained that Elspeth was getting impatient.

  Jack closed his eyes in mounting frustration. He opened them to two very dark blue ones and the serious face of Nina, and for the first time that morning he said what was on his mind. ‘Do you know what I hate about charity?’

  His voice was low and for Nina’s ears only, the words not even for her really, they just came from a dark place inside him called frustration, not that she could understand. Jack never expected her to answer. He was already pulling off his gloves, and he certainly never thought that she might get it, but at the sound of her voice he stilled.

  ‘The cost?’

  Jack gave a wry smile, noted the small circles of colour rise on her cheeks as still he kept looking. He would have loved to continue this conversation, would have loved to say more, but the world outside waited. He turned and apologised to Tommy, told the little guy that Lorna would take good care of him now.

  ‘Will I see you again later?’ Tommy suddenly asked.

  Jack had many noncommittal answers that he used to reply to questions such as this one, but apart from Nina he was the only person Tommy had spoken to, and though Jack did his best not to get too pulled in, especially with cases as emotional as this one, for reasons he didn’t want to explore, yes, he would be following up on this case.

  In detail.

  ‘I’ll come and check on you later, but it probably won’t be till tonight,’ Jack said. ‘So you may already be asleep.’

  Certainly Tommy was going to be admitted.

  He handed over his findings to Lorna and then stepped out. Nina found herself blushing and unsettled by their brief conversation and just the effect of Jack Carter close up. He unsettled her in many areas—filthy rich, filthy morals, combined with a brilliance that somehow, despite his title, was wasted.

  She’d always thought him shallow; a spoiled rich boy playing doctor, but she had sensed that he really wanted to be in here with Tommy, not out there talking with a benefactor, and for the first time she wondered if it was always so easy for him. Not that she had long to dwell on it. Despite gentle questioning, Tommy could offer no explanation for the cut and the bruising.

  ‘Yes.’ He started to cry when he admitted that his dad had been really cross that morning when he had wet the bed again.

  Tommy had stopped wetting the bed three months ago.

  Lorna was nice to Tommy, but not as thorough as Nina found Jack to be, and despite Nina telling her the complicated history, it was clear by the time they went into speak with Mike, Lorna had already made her mind up.

  ‘As tragic as their history is,’ Lorna said after interviewing Mike, ‘we have a child with injuries neither he nor the father can account for, a nasty, infected cut that the father has not sought help for and a father that is hostile and angry towards staff. He already has a history with Child Protection.’

  ‘I’ve explained why.’

  ‘I know you have, but he’s also admitted how frustrated he is that Tommy has started wetting the bed again.’ She paused as they were told Tommy’s X-rays were in, and as she checked them Nina’s heart sank. ‘Two fractured ribs.’

  They spoke at length and a child abuse screen was ordered—bloods would be taken and a full skeletal survey done, and in the meantime Nina would obtain an order that the father could only visit Tommy while supervised.

  It was a long, busy day—the emergency with Tommy was just added to her routine work and by the time Nina had caught up with Sienna the clock was nudging nine p.m., but still there was work to do.

  Nina had had a long conversation with Mike, and, despite all evidence pointing to him, something simply didn’t sit right with her. Tommy had been desperately upset when his father had left, and Nina had assured Mike that there would be a case worker available first thing in the morning to supervise his access. Then she headed back into the general ward, where Tommy had been admitted, and went over and spoke to him, reassuring him that he was okay and that his father would be back in the morning.

  Jack was sitting in the small office, going through Tommy’s notes, and he looked up as Nina entered the darkened ward. Her hair, which had been rather more neatly pinned up that morning, had bit by bit worked its way out of the pins and fallen in soft tendrils around her face. She must be exhausted, Jack thought, remembering that she had been called out for an emergency even before that morning’s meeting.

  He wondered again if there was a Mr Wilson, though, remembering the blush that had spread on her cheeks that moment when their eyes had locked, he was certain that there was no Ms Wilson.

  He was so not going there! Jack looked down at the notes he was reading—the last thing he needed was a fling with someone as intense as Nina Wilson.

  Don’t even think about it. Jack grinned to himself.

  Maybe his own lack of sleep was catching up with him.

  Still, he did find himself looking at her again, saw that she was in no rush with Tommy, and wondered how she had the mental energy to be so involved.

  And then she looked over towards the office and caught his eye, and Jack, for once, felt a little uncomfortable, as if he’d been caught staring. But he didn’t look away, just watched as she made her way over to him.

  ‘Nina.’ He gave her a nod and he noted that she closed the door behind her.

  ‘Could I have a word with you?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘I’m worried.’ She gave him a tight smile. ‘Which is nothing new. I always am … but tonight I’m really worried.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘I’ve just spent another couple of hours talking to Mike and I’ve just been in again to Tommy and I just don’t think that Mike’s responsible for the bruising.’ She looked at him. ‘Have you read the notes?’

  ‘I’ve just started.’

  ‘Have you read my notes?’

  ‘Not yet.’ Part of Jack’s frustration was that he never actually got
a chance to sit down and do that. He was always relying on handovers, catching up. He had read Lorna’s findings and wasn’t quite happy with the detail of her notes, would have preferred to have thoroughly examined Tommy himself rather than rely on a locum registrar’s findings. He looked at Nina, saw the tension in her face and her genuine concern. ‘Tell me what you know.’

  She actually exhaled in relief before she started talking.

  ‘I’ve been working with the family for six months, since the mother’s death,’ Nina explained. ‘Prior to Kathy’s death, the marriage was in trouble—they had major financial issues and Mike was away all week working, and when he came home at weekends Kathy often went to her mother’s, so he hardly saw Tommy. Six months ago, Mike left for a trip after a huge argument with Kathy. He didn’t ring her that day, but the next day, when he did, she didn’t answer her phone and he figured she still wasn’t talking to him.

  ‘When she still didn’t pick up the next day, Mike had a neighbour go and check on her. She was dead and Tommy was with her, hungry and dehydrated …’

  Jack wasn’t shocked, he had heard many stories like this before, but he saw tears well up in her eyes and her involvement in the case unnerved him, challenged him even. ‘Given the row and the circumstances, there was suspicion as to Mike’s involvement in the death. While Tommy was admitted here, the father was flying back to face police questioning, and Child Protection was naturally called in. That’s the reason for my involvement.’

  ‘Okay.’ His expression was deadpan, but his mind filtered the information, and, Nina noted, he really was listening.

  ‘Tommy had shut down from the trauma of being with his mother’s body, but apart from that there were issues with bonding with his father.’

  ‘Explain.’

  She smiled. He didn’t waste words, but gave her a chance to speak.