Just Friends to Just Married?

by Scarlet Wilson

  She could have asked about this earlier—she’d wanted to. But part of it had been pride. She’d wanted him to tell her himself. And the other part? That was being afraid of his answer. The reasons why he wanted to go back. She didn’t need to hear that she just wasn’t enough for him to consider staying.

  Duc flinched. ‘You think I’m running away? And you think all this came on a plate?’ He flung out his hands. ‘I got this because my parents are dead, Viv. Not because I chose it.’ He was mad and he couldn’t hide it.

  But Viv didn’t back down, she was too riled up. She leaned towards him. ‘Well, you should. You should choose it. You should want it. Because I do.’

  The words came out of nowhere from a place deep inside her and they both stopped talking and stared at each other for a few silent seconds.

  Duc reached up and touched her shoulder. ‘You want to stay?’ His touch seemed to still her trembling body.

  Panic gripped her. She’d said that out loud. She hadn’t meant to, and Duc was looking at her in the strangest way...

  ‘No,’ she shot back quickly, trying to find a way to retreat. ‘Of course not.’

  ‘You do.’ He shook his head. ‘Admit it. You like it here. You want to stay.’

  It felt as if her throat was closing over. No words would come out. She felt exposed. As if he could see inside her. She didn’t like that—she wasn’t ready for it.

  Her head was pounding again. She stood up and walked over to the cupboard to find some more paracetamol. Duc followed her. ‘We need to talk about this.’

  ‘No,’ she said determinedly. ‘We don’t. What difference does it make anyway? You want to leave. I want to stay. What’s there to talk about?’

  She popped some paracetamol from the foil and grabbed some water. Duc’s eyes went to the medicine. ‘What’s wrong?’

  She shook her head. She didn’t want to discuss this with him either. But before she had a chance to respond his brow furrowed. ‘Who said I was going back to surgery? I might have made a few queries, but I haven’t decided that.’

  She was starting to see spots in front of her eyes. ‘If you’re not going back, why ask the question?’

  Her stomach cramped as a wave of nausea swept over her. All of a sudden she knew she needed to lie down. Maybe if she did, this headache would go away.

  Duc glanced at her, a worried expression on his face as he moved closer. He sighed. ‘I was keeping my options open. But the longer I stay here, the more I realise what I can do. You’re right, there’s a world of opportunity here. It’s just taken me a while to see it. I was so set on being a surgeon that I didn’t really take the time to consider other options. But now...’ He let his voice tail off.

  He blurred. Either that or he moved a supersonic speed. Or maybe he didn’t. She was going to be sick. The tiny spots that had appeared at the edges of her vision threatened to take over.

  Then all of a sudden everything went black.

  The last thing she felt was Duc’s arms around her as the world slipped away.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  ‘WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED?’

  Joe met him in the corridor as he carried the collapsed Viv in his arms over to the hospital. His arms were starting to shake as Joe took part of the weight and they carried her over to a trolley.

  ‘She had a headache. She felt sick, then she just went.’

  He was as confused as Joe, trying to put the pieces together.

  Joe moved straight into doctor mode—he wasn’t blinded by the emotion that encompassed Duc.

  ‘Let me check her over.’ He turned, giving Duc a look that told him he expected him to leave the room, as one of the nurses rushed in to assist.

  ‘Viv!’ She gave a strangled little cry as she realised who it was, and her reaction made Duc aware of just how much the staff here loved Viv.

  He took a few steps out to the corridor, staring down the hallway. The irony. Joe’s wife was in a room just up the hall and officially Joe shouldn’t treat her. Now Viv was in this room, and Duc knew deep down that the same rules should apply.

  Joe shouted out to him, ‘Go and check back in the bungalow and see if you find any clues. Any medications. Anything that could cause this.’

  Duc shivered. Did Joe think this was deliberate? No way. He ran back across the grass to the bungalow, throwing open the door to Viv’s room and looking around. There was nothing. Nothing to give him cause for concern. He tripped over a pile of pyjamas on the floor and bent down to pick them up, and then he froze. They were damp. Just a little. But the temperature in here was warm, meaning they had much damper when they’d been taken off.

  Had Viv had a temperature last night? Sweats? Why hadn’t she mentioned it? She’d just got up and gone straight to work this morning.

  Something sparked in his brain. Those paracetamol had been sitting out earlier. It was he who had put them back in the cupboard while making breakfast. She’d either had a temperature last night or a headache.

  He dashed back across the grass, stopping at the door of the examination room. ‘Paracetamol,’ he said quickly to Joe. ‘She’s been taking them since the middle of the night. She said she had a headache just before she collapsed but I think she’s had a temperature too as she changed in the middle of the night.’

  Joe looked up, his face grave. He was at the far side of Viv. But before he got a chance to speak one of the nurses rushed down from Lien’s room. ‘Lien said to check her over. She said at the accident scene a few weeks ago Viv rushed out to help wearing just her short-sleeved scrubs. Could she have been bitten by a mosquito? Lien thinks she remembers seeing her scratching a few times.’

  They all exchanged glances and Duc felt sick to his stomach. He’d been there too and hadn’t even considered the dangers for Viv. They’d all been too focused on the accident. Had he noticed her scratching since then?

  ‘But I always remind her about wearing repellent. She’s good at it.’

  ‘Has she been shaking at all?’

  Duc felt cold. The list of symptoms were forming in his head. ‘She was trembling earlier.’

  Joe pulled a face. ‘There’s a mosquito bite here. Right around the back of her upper arm. Impossible for her to see properly, but still somewhere she could scratch.’

  He gave some instructions to the nurse. ‘Get me some blood bottles and a cannula I need some ACT and a glucose drip.’

  Duc couldn’t help himself. ‘Let me help.’

  Joe looked up. ‘No.’

  ‘If it was Lien, would you take no for an answer?’

  Joe paused for just a second, then waved his hand. ‘You draw up the drugs while I take the bloods.’

  Duc was shaking his head as he drew up the broad-spectrum antibiotic. ‘How can it be malaria? It’s supposed to be virtually eradicated in city areas. She’s been taking her medication. I don’t get it—I just don’t get it.’ He couldn’t stop the frustration bubbling inside him.

  ‘Virtually eradicated,’ said Joe carefully. ‘Not completely. And we have to treat what we see.’ He finished inserting the cannula and attached the glucose drip. ‘What I do see is an infected mosquito bite. Maybe she missed a dose of her medication. Maybe she’s part of the ten per cent it isn’t completely effective for.’

  As Viv gave a few twitches on the bed, Joe kept his voice steady and calm. ‘I think we have signs of cerebral oedema. You know how we need to treat this. We can’t waste time fighting about it. Time is too important.’

  A chill spread over Duc’s body. He knew Joe was right, but he hated him right now for saying the words out loud. Duc couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a fatal malaria case—but he’d spent the last few years in the US.

  He’d brought her here. He’d asked her to come. She would never have set foot in Hanoi if it hadn’t been for him. This was all his fault. If anything happened to
Viv, he would never forgive himself.

  Her onset had seemed quick. She could have been bitten up to two weeks ago, but her actual symptoms only seemed to have been emerging over the last day or so. Just how virulent was this parasite?

  ‘What’s her blood sugar?’

  Joe looked up as he pulled up a chair to the bed and turned a chart around.

  Duc gulped. It was low. Malaria caused hypoglycaemia. The glucose drip should bring it up, but if she still remained unconscious once her blood sugar was corrected it meant that cerebral malaria had taken hold—and that could be fatal.

  He handed over the other drugs to Joe, who started to administer them slowly. If Joe noticed his shaking hands he didn’t say anything.

  Maybe he should go and spend time with Lien while Joe was here, but the truth was he just couldn’t leave Viv’s side.

  Joe caught his gaze. It was almost like he could read his mind. ‘Lien’s sleeping right now. The vomiting has really taken it out of her. She needs some rest.’

  Duc nodded, his hand reaching across the sheet to intertwine with Viv’s. She was deathly pale. It was amazing. The whole time Viv had been here her skin had seemed kind of sun-kissed. But maybe it just seemed that way because she was normally so full of life. Right now, she was paler than he’d ever known her.

  His eyes fixed on the thin gold chain around her neck leading to the butterfly pendant. The one he’d bought. The one she always wore.

  Her hand twitched in his. He was back on his feet in an instant.

  Then her arm twitched, then her whole body started convulsing. Duc pulled her over onto her side, trying his best to get her into the recovery position. Ron appeared at the door and took one look, sizing up the scene in seconds.

  ‘What drugs do you need?’ he asked Joe.

  Joe rattled them off and Ron reappeared in the blink of an eye. ‘Let me help,’ he said. Joe was trying to support Viv’s airway as Duc kept a firm hold of her twitching body. He’d glanced at the clock as she’d started and was praying this wouldn’t last more than a minute. His head was close to her hair and the orange scent of her shampoo was filling his senses. He felt panicked. He’d only just realised that he loved her, and he hadn’t had a chance to tell her yet. To tell her that he’d been thinking about nothing else.

  He’d thought there was time. He’d thought there was plenty time. He’d been figuring out about the job—and she’d challenged him in that too. Viv seemed to know his life before he did.

  He’d just decided to turn down the position he’d been offered. He could still be a surgeon and work here. But he could also be a doctor. A person who worked with the most disadvantaged population on a daily basis.

  The thing that had driven him to go to medical school. He’d forgotten about it for a while, getting caught up in the bright lights and competitiveness of the surgical rotations. It had taken all this for him to realise he should take another breath, reassess.

  All the things that Viv had said to him.

  Viv, the woman he was holding in his arms. The woman that he loved. Maybe he’d always loved her and had just been afraid to say it out loud. Or maybe it was just the change of time and conditions for them both.

  Whatever it was, it was here. It was now. And, as his gaze flickered to Joe and he could see the worry in his colleague’s eyes, his heart plummeted.

  He could only pray he’d get a chance to tell her.

  Ron came around and held her arm firmly to access the cannula and insert the drugs. Worry streaked across his forehead. ‘When did Viv become ill?’ he asked.

  ‘In the last hour,’ said Duc, his voice cracking. ‘We think she may have been bitten when she helped at the RTA the other week. But she only complained of a headache today.’

  ‘That’s all?’ Ron’s brow remained creased.

  ‘I think she was having night sweats too and just didn’t say anything. I found her nightclothes back in the bungalow.’

  Ron winced. ‘A sudden onset, then.’ The words struck them all, and they exchanged glances. They all knew exactly how serious that could be.

  ‘Has she been taking anti-malarials?’

  Duc nodded. ‘Religiously.’

  ‘Could be a resistant strain or a new one?’ said Ron thoughtfully. Viv’s body started to cease twitching, the movements becoming smaller and less pronounced.

  There was a collective sigh of relief.

  ‘Did you take bloods?’ Ron queried.

  Joe nodded.

  Ron straightened. ‘Let me follow them up. I have connections at the city lab. I can get them fast-tracked and see if there is anything else we can start her on.’

  As he headed to the door he stopped and put a hand on Joe’s shoulder. ‘Give me five minutes and I’m all yours. We’ll get Lien sorted too.’ He gave him a smile. ‘Congratulations.’

  Duc felt numb. Of course. He should be celebrating his friends’ good news. But somehow that had gone completely out of his head. One of the nurses appeared at the door with a cardiac monitor and BP cuff on a portable trolley. Duc rolled Viv onto her back and let the nurse attach them. ‘I’ll stay with her,’ she said.

  But Duc shook his head. ‘No. I will.’ He sat down by her bed and took her hand again, raising his gaze to Joe. ‘Thank you.’

  Joe nodded. ‘I’m just down the corridor. Shout for me anytime.’

  ‘Me too,’ reiterated the nurse.

  They both left, leaving the only noise in the room the sound of the monitor and Viv breathing.

  Duc leaned forward and brushed a strand of her hair from her face. He couldn’t believe this had happened. All his fault. If he’d never asked her to come here, she would be back in England somewhere—somewhere safe.

  Her skin was soft to his touch. ‘Wake up, Viv,’ he whispered. ‘Please, wake up. Wake up and I’ll do anything you want. I’ll give you anything you want.’

  Her breathing continued, steady and calm. He’d thought the worst day of his life had been the phone call about his parents, but now? This was a close rival.

  He intertwined his fingers with hers. ‘I can’t lose you, I just can’t.’

  Nothing mattered more to him right now. Nothing at all. The pulse of attraction that had buzzed between them. The kisses they’d shared. The fights. All he wanted was his Viv back.

  But as he looked at her lying on the bed, so pale she practically matched the sheets, his guts twisted.

  There might be chance that wouldn’t happen.

  He adjusted their hands so their pinkies intertwined. ‘Friends for ever,’ he whispered.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  HE STAYED THERE for two days and two nights, terrified that if he left something else might happen.

  Her blood-sugar readings came back to normal relatively quickly. But still she didn’t wake up.

  The staff was great. He still had a job to do, so they would bring him charts to sign along with cups of tea and snacks. Joe brought him in a towel and a fresh pair of scrubs with a pointed nod, so he used the shower in the bathroom attached to Viv’s room so he wasn’t too far away.

  Lien was still unwell too. It was unlikely she’d be able to resume duties anytime soon. That didn’t stop her wheeling her IV down the corridor and coming in to speak to them both, clutching a sick bowl in one hand.

  Ron had been as good as his word. Viv’s bloods had been fast-tracked and after a quick consultation with another expert they’d started her on an alternative medication. Right now, Duc would try anything.

  It was late at night. Duc had pulled in a more comfortable chair so he could sleep next to her bed. It was the kind that could recline and even though the nurses could do it in the blink of an eye, it always took him about five minutes to figure it out.

  Just as he finally managed to push it back there was a little moan from the bed.

  He froze.
And spun around.

  It was the first sign of anything from Viv in two days.

  He leaned forward, grasping her hand again. ‘Viv, it’s Duc. Can you hear me?’

  Nothing. His eyes went to the monitor, willing the heart rate to speed up to give him some kind of sign that she was listening, that she was hearing him.

  But it just continued to blip along.

  Frustration gripped him and all the while he told himself to remain calm. It was something.

  After hovering over her bed for an age, he finally settled down into the chair beside her bed. ‘I’m here, Viv,’ he said quietly. ‘Whenever you need me, I’m here.’

  Sleep finally claimed him but he woke in the early hours of the morning. He sat straight up, wondering what had woken him. It was dark outside with only a smattering of stars in the sky. He frowned, straining to hear any noise in the corridor outside. Had it been one of the nurses? A phone perhaps?

  He pushed the chair forward, planting his feet on the floor.

  There was a noise, a groan again and he was instantly on high alert. ‘Viv?’

  Her nose was wrinkled. ‘Headache,’ she croaked.

  ‘Brilliant!’ he shouted, leaning over and gathering her up in his arms. Her body was still weak, and she didn’t return the hug. He pressed the nurse call button.

  ‘You have no idea how worried we’ve all been,’ he breathed. ‘I am so, so sorry.’

  It was almost like she wasn’t really processing his words. ‘Headache,’ she repeated as she sagged back into the pillows.

  The nurse appeared at the door, her eyes wide. ‘She’s awake?’

  He nodded. ‘Just. Can you get Viv something for a headache?’

  The nurse nodded and disappeared, coming back a minute later with a glass of water with a straw and a couple of pills.