Pregnant by the Single Dad Doc

by Louisa Heaton

  Grief and pain had stopped everything in its tracks. Not just the decorating, but their relationship, too. Neither of them had known how to talk to the other and they’d spent the rest of their time together existing alongside each other, but not living.

  This moment she was sharing with Logan and his daughter was giving her all the good feelings. It felt warm and comforting. Reassuring. Nice. They each had a purpose, they each knew their role, and they could rely on each other to get it done. There was a cosy atmosphere, and the smell of the pizza cooking in the oven filled the kitchen with a delicious aroma.

  ‘Smells great,’ she said.

  Logan peered into the oven. ‘Another five minutes, I’d say.’

  He looked happy in the kitchen. ‘Do you like cooking?’ she asked.

  He shrugged. ‘It never used to be my thing. But Rachel only likes certain foods, so we know what we’re going to have each and every day.’

  Ellie nodded. She understood that a lot of people who had autism liked order and repetition. It made them feel secure if they knew what was going to happen. It was a feeling she could understand. Everything in life was so uncertain—if you could control some things that firmly, why wouldn’t you?

  Perhaps I ought to make myself a weekly menu and stick to it? Then there’d be some certainty in my life.

  ‘What drink would everyone like with dinner?’

  Ellie filled the glasses. Orange juice for Rachel. Plain water for her and Logan. Then she sat down as he pulled the pizza from the oven and laid it on a wooden board in the centre of the table, before cutting it into slices.

  ‘This looks delicious.’

  ‘Wait till you taste it.’ Logan served out the slices and then passed her the salad bowl.

  She took a small amount and waited for Logan and Rachel to do the same before she started. Logan was right. It was delicious!

  Who’d have thought that pizza without cheese could taste so nice?

  ‘So, Ellie, what happened to all those ideas you had of running your own business?’ asked Logan.

  She dabbed at her mouth with a napkin, giving herself time to pause. This wasn’t the moment to mention Samuel. ‘I followed them. I had my own coffee shop and book store.’

  He looked interested. ‘Here in London?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And...do you still have it?’

  She looked away, forced a smile. ‘No.’

  ‘You gave it up to pursue medicine?’

  It seemed the easiest way to get out of explaining. Especially with Rachel at the table. ‘Yes.’

  ‘What was it called? I might have been in and not known about it.’

  ‘Stories on the Side. It was in Finsbury Park.’

  He looked at her in surprise and awe. ‘That’s amazing! Couldn’t you have kept it going with a trusted manager? So that you’d have an extra income coming in whilst you’re training?’ He must have seen the look of discomfort on her face, because then he said, ‘I’m sorry. I’m prying. I shouldn’t do that. It’s not my place.’

  Ellie smiled. No it wasn’t. Not any more. But it was getting harder and harder to remember the need to resist him. ‘Do you think you ever went in there?’

  Logan seemed to think about it. ‘I’m not sure I did. Sorry.’

  ‘That’s okay. It was quite small, and it wasn’t there for very long.’

  ‘Was it successful?’

  ‘In the time it was there? Yes.’

  To start with, anyway. Then Samuel had died and her business had crumbled to nothing.

  ‘And your parents? How are they? Dad still doing okay?’

  She nodded. ‘He’s done brilliantly since the transplant.’

  ‘Your dad had a transplant?’ asked Rachel. ‘What kind?’

  ‘His heart.’

  Rachel seemed to think about this. ‘That’s the best kind. Getting a new heart. Do you think it means that you would fall in love with all new things that you didn’t before?’

  Ellie smiled at her. ‘I don’t know. Some people say that they do. That before a heart operation they didn’t like classical music, but then afterwards they suddenly did. It’s strange, isn’t it?’

  ‘The heart has four chambers.’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘Here we go...’ Logan smiled. ‘Get ready for it.’

  And off Rachel went on her usual monologue about how the heart worked, the parts of the heart and how it pumped blood.

  Ellie gathered from his reaction that this was something he’d sat through many times before and it was an unstoppable description that they just had to let Rachel finish. She was astounded at the little girl’s knowledge, and truly believed that if she carried on this way she would very easily become a doctor.

  By the time Logan’s daughter had finished talking dinner was over and they all helped clear away. Rachel disappeared to her bedroom with her new jigsaw puzzle and left Logan and Ellie alone downstairs to talk.

  ‘Thank you for dinner. It was wonderful,’ said Ellie. ‘And thank you for opening up your home to me. I thought it might be weird, or difficult, but it hasn’t been.’

  He nodded. ‘Me too. It’s odd, isn’t it? That with some people, no matter how much time has passed since you saw them last, you can just carry on as if you’d only just parted five minutes before?’

  She smiled. ‘True.’

  ‘Can I get you another coffee, or tea? Something stronger?’

  ‘Tea will be fine.’

  ‘All right. I won’t be a sec.’ And he disappeared back into the kitchen.

  Ellie took the time to have a proper look at his sitting room, and saw for the first time a picture on the mantelpiece of a woman who just had to be Rachel’s mother. She was dressed as a bride. It was a wedding day picture. It was odd to look at it, knowing that at one point in time Ellie had believed she’d be the one to marry Logan.

  Jo’s dress was elegant. Off the shoulder, narrow bodice and a full tulle skirt. Her hair was swept up and off her face and she was smiling shyly at the camera, but looking very happy indeed. Content. It was a look that said, I know I’m going to be happy for the rest of my life.

  How long had she and Logan been together before the car accident? Just a few years? It had to be. Ellie hoped that she had had some of the happiness she’d believed she was getting. Logan was a good man.

  ‘Tea.’ He came in carrying a tray holding a pot and biscuits, hesitating when he saw her standing by the mantelpiece.

  Ellie felt awkward, being caught looking at the picture of Jo. ‘She was very beautiful.’

  He laid the tray down on the coffee table where Rachel had earlier completed her jigsaw. ‘Yes.’

  ‘I’m sorry you lost her.’

  ‘I’m sorry, too.’

  ‘Were you happy? Before...?’ She had to ask. Curiosity and her need to know were more powerful than anything else.

  He sighed. ‘Very much so. What about you, Ellie? Have you been happy? Has life treated you well?’

  Now would be the perfect time to tell him about Samuel. About everything that had happened.

  But she could see it in his face. The need to hear that she had been okay without him. And they’d had such a wonderful night so far. She really didn’t want to ruin that. She liked this closeness that they’d rediscovered. Why spoil all that when everything was going so well? Besides, she didn’t fancy crying her eyes out in front of him as she told her story, and she knew that would happen because she’d never got through Samuel’s story without bawling her eyes out.

  Was it imperative that he knew? How would it benefit him? It would only make him sad. It would only make him feel sorry for her, and she didn’t want his pity.

  Tonight she felt that she had got her friend back. Logan Riley. The man she’d once loved. The man she wanted to talk to and spend t
ime with. She didn’t want any of that to change. Not when it was all so new. So fragile.

  She plastered a broad smile across her face and sat down next to him on the couch. ‘It has.’

  He looked her in the eyes, as if he were searching to see if she were telling him the truth. But it seemed he’d come to the conclusion that she was being truthful and he smiled back. ‘Good. I’m glad to hear it.’

  His gaze dropped to her mouth before rising back to her eyes. Her own gaze couldn’t help but mirror his.

  She smiled...

  * * *

  ‘What’s going on?’ Ellie looked apprehensive as she saw all the hustle and bustle going on in the small hospital room.

  Logan could see she was wondering who all these people were, gathering equipment together, unhooking machines.

  ‘It’s Bailey Newport. One of the triplets. St Richard’s have got a space in their NICU so we’re transporting him over there to join his siblings.’

  ‘Oh, right.’

  ‘I’m going over with the transport. Want to tag along to see how these things are done? But if you want to stay here, I don’t mind.’

  She seemed to be fighting an internal battle with herself. ‘Sure, I’ll go with you. It’ll be interesting.’

  ‘We’re using specialist neonatal transport, so we don’t have to take all our gear with us—there are monitors on board.’

  She nodded. ‘Okay. So St Richard’s don’t send a team to fetch a patient?’

  ‘No, it’s policy here that we accompany our own patients to a new hospital.’

  ‘Is Sam coming with us?’ Sam was Bailey’s mother.

  ‘Yes, she’ll be riding up front.’

  ‘Do I need to do anything? Can I help?’

  He looked about them. ‘I think we’re about done, but you can keep an eye on the monitors on the way down. Any decelerations or changes in the numbers, you flag it straight away. Here’s his file. Get familiar with his stats.’ He passed it over.

  ‘Are we expecting there to be any issues?’ She opened the file and began to flick through.

  ‘Well, Bailey has been stable since his birth, but neonates can surprise you—compensating for ages before suddenly crashing—so I don’t want us to be laid-back about this. I consider every neonatal transport high-risk until they’re safe and sound in their new hospital.’

  ‘Understood.’

  ‘Be ready to go in five.’

  He made sure Bailey’s mother had collected all their belongings and helped carry a couple of her bags. When the driver and a nurse were ready to go he notified the registrar that they were off and would be back as soon as they could be.

  ‘Great. I’ll get this section cleaned down and prepped for our next patient,’ the registrar replied.

  Ellie looked up from Bailey’s file. ‘We have someone already?’

  ‘Not yet—but it pays to be prepared.’

  Logan followed his team down the corridor, down in the lift and out to the bay outside the hospital, where Bailey Newport was latched into position in the back of the neonatal transport.

  Ellie stood back as the team connected up the wires and cables and the machinery leapt into life, and as their own equipment was handed back to a porter to return for cleaning before being used again.

  He watched her make a note of Bailey’s observations, and when he finally got in himself she gave him a thumbs-up. ‘We’re good to go.’

  Logan signalled to the driver. ‘All stable here. When you’re ready...’

  The engine rumbled into life beneath them and the vehicle began to move off.

  ‘How long should it take us to get to St Richard’s?’

  ‘Forty minutes. Give or take for traffic.’

  They were rocked from side to side as the vehicle went over some speed bumps, and then it was rolling down the hill to the junction that would take them to the ring road.

  ‘Rachel still loves your gift, by the way. I think she completed the jigsaw five or six times before I could get her to go to bed.’

  Ellie smiled. ‘I almost bought myself one. With more pieces. But then I figured I could revise better from books rather than scratching around for a piece I might lose and driving myself crazy.’

  She looked at the monitors and noted down Bailey’s stats.

  ‘All good?’ He could see that it was, but he wanted her to tell him.

  ‘He’s doing well. Perfect patient so far.’

  ‘That’s how we like them.’

  She smiled at him and he smiled back.

  It felt different being at work with her today, after last night. He felt that having invited her into his home to meet his daughter, and after they’d chatted in a relaxed setting, he had somehow removed some of the barriers they’d both had up before. Ellie knew about Jo now, and she and Rachel had got on really well.

  He’d known that they would, but actually to watch them interact with each other had been really nice. For so long it had just been him and Rachel every night. He didn’t often invite people over from work. He liked to keep his personal life personal. But Ellie was different, wasn’t she? And he strongly felt that their working relationship could only improve even more as time went on.

  It had felt good to be with Ellie again. He hadn’t realised just how much he’d missed her, but now that she was back he ached to spend more time with her. To make her smile. To make her laugh. He wanted to make her happy.

  Not that there was any chance of anything romantic going on. Of course not. They were just friends.

  He could see through the partition that they were getting onto the motorway now. He checked that Bailey’s IV drip was still feeding through at the correct rate, and then he donned a pair of gloves and stood up to use his stethoscope to manually check the baby’s heart-rate.

  Sam turned in her seat at the front. ‘Everything okay?’

  ‘We’re good. Just double-checking.’

  Sam smiled nervously and turned round again. ‘Traffic’s heavy.’

  Logan sat back in his seat and strapped himself in. ‘Chest sounds nice and clear.’

  The driver called through. ‘Coming up on a traffic jam, guys. Sit tight.’

  ‘Will do.’ Logan glanced at Ellie and raised his eyebrows in a way that said, Typical. Traffic was always bad, coming this way. But he let out a long sigh and rolled his neck, trying to relax as the vehicle slowly came to a stop. ‘Let’s take this moment to do a full check on our patient.’

  He and Ellie both unclipped themselves from their seats and stood up to monitor Bailey. But before they could check anything they were suddenly and loudly knocked off their feet as the rear of the vehicle came crashing inwards with a screech of metal.

  And all they could do was wait for the world to stop.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ELLIE WAS THROWN hard into Logan, and both of them slammed into the back of the ambulance, bouncing off the rear doors and then being whacked again in the other direction.

  She heard screams, and the whine and groan of metal, then shouts and yelling from outside as a high-pitched sound issued in both her ears.

  What the hell had happened?

  She felt disorientated, lying in a crumpled heap, face-down on the floor of the ambulance. Everything in her body was trembling with adrenaline and she had to take a moment to do a silent inventory. She could wiggle her toes, move her hands, and she was breathing. Her left shoulder hurt, and something was trickling down her forehead.

  She went to touch it and discovered she was bleeding. Terrified, she turned to look up at the incubator. It had been locked into place, and so hadn’t moved, but Bailey hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt.

  She scrambled to her feet, wincing at the pain in her shoulder. Bailey was crying, crumpled up at the bottom of the incubator, and she lifted up its lid to straighten him out and check his
limbs, giving him a head-to-toe assessment. Her hands were shaking madly as she checked his skull, his neck, his chest, arms and legs. She found a stethoscope and listened to his chest and abdomen. Remarkably all sounded normal except for his heartbeat, which was a little fast.

  ‘Logan? Logan, are you with me?’

  She was aware of him groaning as he got up from the floor beside her.

  ‘How’s Bailey?’ That was his first question, then she saw him reach out towards her face. ‘You’re bleeding.’

  She pulled away. There was no time for that now. ‘I’m fine. Go and check on the others.’

  He steadied her hand. ‘Let me look at Bailey. You check on Sam and the driver. Then see what the hell happened and if anyone needs help.’

  She could hear in his voice that he was just as shaken up by events as she was. Passing him the stethoscope, she grabbed a pair of gloves, put them on and shouted through to the front of the ambulance.

  ‘Sam? Are you okay?’

  Sam was unconscious and the driver was clutching his chest. Heart attack?

  ‘Tell me what’s going on. What do you feel?’

  ‘I’m okay. I just hit the steering wheel. Probably a cracked rib or something. Check the mother.’

  ‘I’ll need to climb through to you. The doors are ruined back here. Tell me—is she breathing?’

  He looked. ‘Yes. I think so.’

  ‘Count her breaths for me, and if you can reach straighten up her airway.’ Sam’s head had flopped forward, so her chin was on her chest.

  Ellie had no idea if what she was doing was right. All she could think of were the basics in emergency first aid. Something she’d learned ages ago, sitting in a drab lecture hall with hundreds of others. She’d made copious notes, and she thought she knew the correct way to do things, but she’d never found herself in this situation before.

  ‘Do you have a phone? Does the radio still work? Call this in. Get police, fire and ambulance.’

  The driver nodded. ‘Will do.’

  With one hand he supported Sam’s head, whilst with the other he tried to use his radio to call the accident in.