Winning the Surgeon's Heart

by Annie Claydon

  Matt scrolled through the pictures. ‘We need to get up there as fast as we can. We’re going to have to hope that Isobel doesn’t decide to start panicking again. I’ll need your help to clear the debris.’ The scenario obviously felt real to him as well.

  ‘Maybe we can improvise. Perhaps there’s something we can use as a tool, rather than digging with our hands.’ Hannah looked around.

  They were near the perimeter of the site, where the warehouses were separated from the pavement by a chain-link fence. On the other side of the road was a row of shops, and a group of men was fixing a new fascia sign to one of them. Their aerial work platform, mounted on the back of a truck, caught Hannah’s attention.

  ‘Do you think we could reach the window with that?’

  Matt studied the vehicle for a moment and then, before Hannah could stop him, he made for the fence and began to scale it. It bent a little under his weight as he hauled himself over the top, twanging back into shape when he jumped down on the other side.

  ‘Hey...!’ A little discussion might have been nice.

  ‘What?’ Matt spread his hands in a querying gesture. ‘It’s a great idea.’

  ‘What if they’re nothing to do with the challenge? Are we allowed to ask for their help?’

  ‘Wouldn’t you and Sophie, if this were real?’

  He had a point. Hannah sighed, turning back to Isobel and calling up to her to stay where she was until they could reach her. When she glanced behind her she saw that Matt was talking to the men, and they were retracting the aerial lift work platform. Matt got into the passenger seat of the truck and it drove away.

  Five minutes later, the truck bumped across the service road at the back of the warehouses. The driver parked under the window, and Matt and Hannah climbed onto the aerial platform, donning their helmets.

  ‘What did you tell them?’ Hannah whispered the words as the platform began to rise towards the window.

  ‘I said this was a challenge, which was being filmed for TV, and that we were competing for Hamblewell Hospital. They were more than happy to give it a go.’

  Fair enough. Matt had turned his attention to directing the driver exactly where to place the platform. As soon as it was level with the window, he helped Hannah inside the building, making straight for the figure lying on the floor, while Hannah took a moment to calm Isobel.

  * * *

  The exercise hadn’t been just an exercise. It had made Matt think. Would he be a better surgeon now, having faced the kind of situations that ambulance crews had to contend with?

  They’d rigged up a makeshift splint and bandages, and ferried Isobel and their patient back down to the ground. As soon as she stepped off the platform, Isobel broke character, smilingly telling them that the challenge was now finished, and a couple of cars appeared to ferry them back to the hospital.

  It would be at least two hours before they were needed again. That was good, because Matt had something urgent on his mind.

  ‘What’s the matter with your leg? You’re limping...’

  ‘Am I?’ Hannah turned her mouth down, as if he hadn’t been meant to notice.

  ‘Yeah. I’ll take a look...’ There was no point in going through the toing and froing of Hannah denying there was anything wrong, and him telling her that he knew there was. It was only the long route to an outcome that he’d already decided on.

  ‘It’s nothing. I just twisted it a bit when I fell. Don’t make a fuss, Matt.’

  Making a fuss was a tempting prospect at the moment. But his childhood had taught him that conflict was no way to reconcile a disagreement. Matt swallowed his annoyance and tried logic instead.

  ‘You’re my teammate. I need you in full working order for next week.’

  That silenced her. She followed him into the hospital building, and Matt ignored her frown as he took the lift up to the orthopaedic department. A quick enquiry of one of the doctors that he knew elicited access to one of the treatment rooms, and he ushered Hannah inside.

  ‘This is entirely unnecessary. Do you think I can’t do this for myself?’

  ‘I’m sure you can. Since you haven’t yet, I’ll do it for you. Like I said, I need you to keep up with me...’

  That did it. She sat down on the couch, unlacing her boots and letting them fall to the floor with a clunk. Red socks. Matt studiously ignored the fact that they seemed somehow special and delightful when worn by Hannah. When she swung her legs up onto the couch, he quickly snatched up a pillow and placed it at the other end for her head.

  ‘Comfortable?’

  ‘No.’ She glowered at him. Clearly she’d prefer to be somewhere else right now. ‘I’m not your patient, Matt.’

  So that was what was bothering her. Hannah was far more comfortable with being invincible, and just taking him along with her for the ride. Irritation started to prickle his skin, and he took a step back, putting his hands into his pockets. The one thing that he could never be, with Hannah, was indifferent. He had to own that, and ignore the impulse to provoke an equal reaction from her. He was a doctor, and acting that way would be good right now.

  ‘All right.’ He gave her his best doctor-patient smile. ‘Point one. You have hurt yourself and someone needs to take a look at it. Getting yourself in the right position to examine your own knee properly isn’t easy, I’ve tried it.’

  She stared at him. Clearly Hannah took the point, and Matt decided to move on.

  ‘Point two, I’m an orthopaedic surgeon. Which means I’m qualified.’

  ‘Over-qualified, I’d say.’ Hannah still wasn’t going to give up. Neither was Matt.

  ‘Point three. I’m your teammate. When are you going to start trusting me?’

  He’d hit a nerve. Hannah sat up on the couch, grimacing at him.

  ‘Are you telling me that our partnership isn’t working for you?’

  It worked just fine. He was aware of Hannah watching him carefully from time to time—most of the time actually—but it still worked. ‘It could work a little better.’

  He knew that look. It was the wary, thoughtful look of someone who had been hurt.

  ‘And you think that’s my fault?’

  He shook his head. His father had blamed everyone else for his own shortcomings and that was something that Matt didn’t want to emulate.

  ‘No, it’s our fault. Mine as well. I think that we’re both people who like to manage things on our own, and that we both have difficulty in trusting others. That usually works pretty well for both of us, but the whole point of this competition is to take us out of our comfort zones.’

  She was thinking about it. Hannah was either going to roll her trouser leg up and let him take a look at her knee, or she was going to get off the couch, grab her boots and limp off down the corridor.

  Her lip curled, and she reached for the leg of her trousers, folding the material carefully as she pulled it up.

  ‘You’ll be wanting to see the other knee. To compare.’ She reached for the other trouser leg, rolling that up too. Matt wondered if he should congratulate her on anticipating his next move, and decided that she might not take that too well.

  ‘Thank you.’ He stepped forward, looking at both knees carefully.

  ‘I don’t see any swelling, I’m going to check the movement... Tell me when it hurts.’

  She nodded, and Matt carefully bent her leg, watching her face intently. Maybe he should trust Hannah enough to just tell him when there was any pain...

  Or not. He saw it in her face but she said nothing.

  ‘That hurts?’

  ‘A little.’

  ‘Okay, how about that?’ He moved the leg again, checking the ligaments on the other side of her knee.

  ‘No, that’s fine.’

  ‘And this...?’ He dug his thumb into the side of her knee, and she shook her head. That was good.
Matt moved on to the spot that ought to hurt, and she winced.

  ‘Yeah. That’s a little tender.’

  He nodded. ‘And what’s your diagnosis?’

  Hannah smirked. ‘You’re the expert. You tell me.’

  Matt gave her a small smile. ‘I’d say it’s an injury to the medial collateral ligament. Grade One so it shouldn’t give you too much trouble. Treatment?’

  She gave him an argumentative look. ‘Don’t patronise me. I may not be a doctor, but I’m fully aware that rest, ice, compression and support should sort it. I’ll be okay by next week.’

  He rose to the challenge. ‘It should be improved. It’ll be a few weeks before the knee is back up to full strength.’

  ‘Right. I stand corrected, Mr Lawson.’

  ‘And I’ll know that I need to compensate for you a bit.’

  She didn’t like that one bit. Hannah flashed him a look that left him in no doubt that she was contemplating jumping off the couch and strangling him.

  ‘Just as you might like to compensate for me,’ Matt added, quickly.

  ‘Compensate how?’ Hannah had obviously decided to put the strangling on hold for a moment.

  ‘Getting help from those men with the aerial lift truck was a great idea. But I got the distinct impression that you thought I was jumping the gun...’

  She looked at him steadily. ‘And were you?’

  He may as well admit it. ‘Yes, I was. I reckoned I’d climb the fence before you had a chance to try it. You were already limping and I’m not sure you would have made it with that knee.’

  Hannah grinned suddenly. ‘You’re probably right. But a bit more communication would have been nice.’

  ‘Point taken. Can I trust you to remind me if I forget that?’

  ‘Oh, yes, I’ll remind you.’ Hannah thought for a moment. ‘Can I trust you to pick me up if I fall over again?’

  Matt chuckled. ‘Yeah. Any time.’

  Trust wasn’t something he usually shared with people he didn’t know well. But he and Hannah had to become a team if they were going to win the prize for their hospital. Hannah’s hospital. He might be moving on soon.

  Matt dismissed the thought of the job application forms, lying on his desk at home. That was the future, and as ever he was uncertain about where he’d be a few months from now. This was now.

  ‘Would you like to come back and have dinner with us afterwards?’ Hannah’s question broke his reverie. ‘Sophie’s bringing Sam along to see the results announced, and Mum’s making burgers, she always makes a few extra and puts them in the freezer so there’s plenty to go round. We could talk tactics for next week.’

  It wasn’t the kind of invitation he usually accepted. But getting to know Hannah better was the obvious precursor to building trust and teamwork.

  ‘Thanks. That would be great. I’ll go and see if I can rustle up some ice and a light knee support. Why don’t you stay here?’

  She nodded. Then she smiled suddenly. ‘Did you miss something?’

  Matt chuckled. ‘You mean did I miss telling you that your knee is just fine, and apart from a slight injury you have good movement and excellent muscle tone? Or the part about the small ganglion cyst on the side of your knee?’

  ‘So you did find it? What were you thinking, that you wouldn’t mention it?’

  ‘I didn’t want to sound like a know-all. I reckoned you must be aware of it, and I’m sure you also know that it might well disappear on its own, without any treatment. I don’t imagine it hurts.’

  ‘No, it doesn’t. It’s nice to know that you caught it, though.’ Hannah gave him a brilliant smile, and Matt smirked back.

  ‘Now that we have that cleared up, I’ll go and get the ice. Stay put.’

  He’d wanted to protect her. Matt had wanted to be nice to Hannah, and not make her feel that he was criticising or second-guessing her, the way his father had with his mother. But he’d been doing it all wrong. A woman like Hannah, and maybe a man like him, thrived on straightforwardness and honesty.

  ‘All right. Hurry up, we don’t have all day.’

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE CHEMISTRY BETWEEN Hannah and her new teammate had undeniably been growing, and even though she’d tried to ignore it, Hannah had to admit to herself that she enjoyed it. Maybe that, along with a fierce desire to keep up with whatever pace Matt set, was why she’d fought so hard when he’d suggested he examine her knee.

  But as soon as he’d walked into the consulting room, he’d changed. No less confronting, but he was cool and professional. Hannah let Matt place the ice on her knee, and sat patiently until he told her that would do for the time being. Then he wrapped a soft support around her leg, checking that it didn’t hamper her movement but that it was tight enough to aid the healing process.

  ‘I thought I’d go along to the orthopaedic ward and see Mia. You want to come?’

  ‘Yes. They won’t mind that we’re not their team?’

  ‘We’re on their team, in every way that counts. There are a lot of ambitions in that ward, and we’re the ones who are working to help them achieve those ambitions.’

  It was a nice way of putting it. ‘That’s what makes you want to win?’

  ‘One of the things.’

  He led the way to the ward, and when he and Hannah entered there was a small murmur of excitement. She saw Mia waving from the far end, and when the ward sister nodded in response to Matt’s request that they might spend some time here, she walked over to her.

  ‘How did you do?’

  ‘Hmm. Not sure. We did our best.’

  ‘That’s all you can do.’ Mia spoke with a wisdom beyond her years and Hannah suspected that it was what Matt and the rehab specialists had told her.

  ‘Would you like to hear about it? We had a rescue situation, a bit like the ones that you can come across, working as ambulance crew. We had to deal with it on our own, though usually an ambulance crew has back-up from the other rescue services.’

  ‘You bet I want to hear about it.’ Mia’s eyes were shining.

  Hannah heard Matt’s quiet chuckle behind her. ‘I’ll leave you to it. Would you ladies like some juice?’

  Mia nodded, and Hannah grinned at him. ‘Hey, we’re not ladies. What are we, Mia?’ She turned to Mia, mouthing the answer.

  ‘We’re ambos!’

  ‘My mistake. I’ll get you two ambos some juice.’

  * * *

  Matt had left her with Mia while he worked his way around the ward, talking to the other kids. He had a nice way with them, and they were obviously relaxed and confident in his company. Hannah reckoned he must spend a lot more time here on the ward than his job required.

  She ended up talking to Mia for over an hour, answering her questions, without being too blunt about the distressing parts of her job. It was clear that this was part of the dream that kept Mia going through all of the pain and the distress of her condition.

  ‘We have to get going now. Sorry, Mia.’ Matt returned, shooting Mia an apologetic look.

  ‘That’s okay. Thanks, Hannah.’

  ‘My pleasure. I’ll pop in again, and let you know what other scrapes Dr Matt has got himself into.’

  ‘Oh, really?’ Matt feigned outrage and Mia giggled. ‘Next time Hannah gets herself into a scrape, I’ll make sure to take a picture and send it to you...’

  They walked out of the ward together, and back down to the area where the outside broadcast trucks were parked. It felt as if it would have been almost natural to take Matt’s hand. As if they were close, in a way they hadn’t been when they’d arrived back here. That wasn’t appropriate, though, or wise. The alternate reality, where she and Matt could be that close, didn’t exist. There was only this world, and in this world Hannah didn’t take chances.

  They waited, and Hannah went across to greet Sam when he
arrived with Sophie. The crowd grew, along with the obvious tension amongst the contestants, all waiting to see who was going to be the winner.

  ‘I reckon they dug their way through...’ Matt nudged her, nodding towards the green team, whose T-shirts were covered in grime.

  ‘Maybe that’s what we were all supposed to do.’ Hannah turned the corners of her mouth down. They’d solved the problem, making use of the resources at their disposal. In the real world you didn’t question your luck, or the presence of the right person at the right time.

  ‘We’ll see.’ Matt took a deep breath as they were all gestured up onto the podium.

  There was the inevitable wait as microphones were tested and the judges got ready to announce their decision. Hannah saw Sam in the crowd and waved to him. Mia was amongst the home supporters, with her mother, talking excitedly.

  Then a judge stepped forward. She congratulated all of the teams, going through what had caught the judges’ eyes about each of them. The truck had been put there by the TV company to see if any of the contestants would spot it and ask for help. Hannah waited, trying to keep her face from betraying her thoughts.

  ‘And now for the winners. For the second time—it’s Matt and Hannah...’

  A roar went up from the crowd, drowning out the rest of what she was saying. And suddenly, without thinking, all the pent-up emotion burst through and she was in Matt’s arms.

  There was nothing else. Just his arms around her, and the feeling that she wanted to get closer, to touch his skin. Hannah couldn’t help letting out a sigh, as she felt herself melt against him.

  ‘Way to go, Robin.’ She felt his lips brush her cheek, a thrilling second that should have lasted longer.

  ‘You too, Flash.’

  Then he let her go. They shook hands with the other contestants, and Matt took her hand, leading her up to the judge to receive her medal. Hannah waved to the cheering crowd, unable to look at him but powerless to stop thinking about the feel of his strong body.