The Doctors' Christmas Reunion

by Meredith Webber

  Best of all, the blood had been collected in an approved blood collection bag, which held the appropriate amount of anti-coagulation chemicals, so it was safe to use immediately.

  ‘Did you also bring a filter line?’ he asked, unable to help grinning at her.

  ‘Of course,’ she said. ‘And if you’re doing a repair on a tricky little blood vessel you’ll need help, so there’s no point in my lying around resting.’

  ‘We might need more blood,’ he said, serious now.

  ‘Well, I’ve got plenty more,’ she assured him. ‘Let’s get this show on the road!’

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE WOUND TO the radial artery was more a nick than a slice, and the uneven nature made it harder to repair as one wrong stitch could close off the artery completely.

  Ellie watched as Andy used the finest gauge needles, and thread as fine as a spider’s web, to delicately join the torn edges. He was so careful, so precise with his microscopic stitches that she wondered why he’d never considered a career in surgery.

  But it would have meant a different life—mainly a city life—and Andy would have had to steer his registrar jobs in that direction almost as soon as they had become fully qualified.

  But Africa had called to them. Films they’d seen of the colour and the vibrancy of the people had attracted them, and the knowledge that doctors were badly needed in many parts of the big continent had sent them in that direction.

  They’d always seen their work in war-torn African countries as a kind of gap year—an adventure as well as a chance to hone their skills in often impossible situations.

  It had been good training, too, for work in remote areas back home—their ultimate aim—where you couldn’t just phone a specialist already in the hospital to pop down to the ED to see a patient.

  But when she had failed to get pregnant, they’d stayed on in the city, Andy keen to try IVF, more keen than she’d been in the beginning.

  Deep down she knew he’d always had this dream of reliving his happy childhood by living and working in a country town, bringing up a horde of kids in a place where life was not too hectic.

  They’d known the facts and figures about success rates with IVF, but like most hopeful couples had been sure theirs would be a lucky, first-time success. And when it hadn’t been, trying again had seemed the natural thing to do, and so it had gone on...

  Ellie pushed the thoughts away and concentrated on her job.

  Acting as Andy’s assistant, she had to keep the small wound clear of blood so he could see the artery at all times. When he’d tied his last knot, she held her breath, praying the stitches would hold when the tourniquet was released.

  ‘Done!’

  Andy gave a fist pump in triumph when no leakage appeared, then bent his head to piece together the wound itself.

  ‘I’ll need to repair the tendon,’ he muttered under his breath, and seeing how the pale sinewy strand had shrunk back into itself, Ellie knew it would be nearly as difficult as fixing the artery.

  Now her job was to ease one end of the cut tendon out from the mass of bone and muscle into which it had retreated, straining it towards the end Andy was pulling from the other side.

  Using forceps, she finally held both sides together, while, working slowly and meticulously, Andy joined the two ends, then finally cleaned and closed the wound.

  ‘BP’s still low,’ Andrea told them as she began to reverse the anaesthetic.

  Ellie glanced at the bag of blood that hung by the boy’s side.

  Nearly empty.

  ‘Do you want more or will you use FFP?’ she asked Andy, aware that the hospital had a store of fresh frozen plasma.

  ‘He’s only small so FFP should do it,’ Andy replied.

  ‘Which means you get to keep your blood,’ Andrea said, and Ellie smiled at her, aware they were all feeling relief that the operation was over, although the risk of infection would still be alive in everyone’s mind.

  ‘Do we know who he is?’ Ellie asked, having missed the introductions while she was giving blood.

  ‘Kid called Logan Grant,’ Andrea explained. ‘Dad’s a miner. Mum hated the country—she lasted about a month after he took the job out here. The family had barely settled in before his wife headed back to the city.’

  ‘Leaving Logan behind?’

  ‘He’s not the only one. There are three kids in his family and I know of at least one other family where it’s happened, although in that one the wife went off with another miner, so it broke up two families. It’s becoming the way we live these days, especially out here in the bush.’

  It’s not the way I live, Ellie was about to say, when she realised her situation wasn’t so different. Okay, so she and Andy didn’t have children to consider, but if they didn’t have the tie of the house and the responsibilities of the positions they’d taken, would they both have stayed?

  Would she have stayed?

  More to the point, could she have left Andy?

  Andrea was taking Logan through to the small recovery room, and Ellie and her thoughts followed Andy into the changing room.

  ‘Would you have taken off back to the city if it wasn’t for the house and job?’ Andy asked, shocking her with the words that were echoes of her own thoughts.

  ‘No!’ she said, and only just stopped herself saying, I love you, because at the moment she wasn’t sure how he’d take such a declaration.

  Even after the kiss—kisses—they’d shared...

  ‘Me neither,’ he said, stripping off to reveal more of his strong, lean body than she’d seen for ages, before disappearing into the shower.

  Ellie stripped off her theatre gear and used the second shower. They might have showered together many times at home, but never at the hospital—any hospital—although she did remember Andy suggesting it once when they’d been courting...

  Were they courting now? Could starting over be called courting?

  Wasn’t that what she was...not exactly planning but working towards?

  And was it in Andy’s head as well? After all, not only had his arm been around her shoulders earlier, he had definitely kissed her on the veranda!

  She could still feel the thrumming in her veins the second, harder kiss had caused...

  If Chelsea hadn’t suddenly appeared—

  But she had, not that it stopped Ellie thinking of the kisses now, or hoping there’d be more before too long.

  Andy was gone by the time she left the shower—the hospital had its own bore for water, so she sometimes sneaked a little extra shower time when she was there.

  Would Andy still be at the hospital?

  In with Logan perhaps...

  Ellie made her way to the recovery room. There was no sign of Andy but Logan was just waking up, while his devastated teenage babysitter sat beside him.

  ‘I need to get back to the girls,’ she said. ‘I left them with a neighbour but they’ll play up with her and they’ll be worried about Logan, but his father’s not off shift.’

  Ellie held up her hand to stop the flow of words.

  ‘I’ll stay with Logan,’ she said, taking the child’s hand in hers and giving it a little squeeze.

  ‘That okay, Logan?’ she asked, and the lad smiled.

  The babysitter left and Ellie asked Logan about his family and school, pleased he was becoming more coherent as he answered.

  ‘Am I in trouble?’ It was his turn to ask a question.

  ‘Maybe a little,’ she said.

  ‘Poor Dad,’ he said. ‘He’ll think it’s his fault, what with Mum going and all of that.’

  ‘Why did you do it?’ Ellie asked, sensing Logan was ready to talk.

  ‘I’d seen the safe there when I had to get a tetanus shot last year and I thought there’d be money in it, and if I got some money then Mum might come back in time f
or Christmas.’

  He made it sound so simple it made Ellie’s heart ache.

  ‘Love doesn’t always work that way,’ she said, gently stroking the boy’s cheek. ‘But it was a nice idea. And if you want to earn some money, I’ve got a garden that’s getting far too overgrown for me to cope with. You could come over after school a couple of afternoons a week to pull out weeds and I’d be happy to pay you.’

  Logan grinned at her.

  ‘I’d like that,’ he said, then slipped into sleep.

  Would he remember this plan in the morning?

  It didn’t matter, Ellie could contact him.

  But as her husband came in to check on his latest patient, she was wondering how love did work.

  ‘Logan seems to be doing well,’ Andy said, his hand dropping to rest on Ellie’s shoulder, sending messages—of love?—shooting along her nerves. ‘His blood pressure is back to normal, and his heart rate down.’

  ‘He was lucky the babysitter realised it was serious.’

  ‘The main thing is we got him in time,’ Andy reminded her. ‘He’s going to a ward now, so I’ll walk you home.’

  As they left the hospital, his hand brushed hers, and as the electricity from that casual touch shot through her body, she realised it hadn’t been so casual a touch because now his fingers were tangled with hers.

  They were hand in hand.

  ‘Is it better if we don’t talk?’ he asked quietly. ‘I think talking hurt us both too much.

  ‘I’ve been thinking the same thing,’ she whispered back, and his fingers tightened on hers—just briefly—signalling agreement, and something else; the beginning of a thaw...

  Although hope seemed brittle—fragile—something one wrong word could break, the warmth of Andy’s hand in hers, or hers in his, was sending so many messages leaping along Ellie’s nerves that her brain was sizzling with visions of the future they had dreamed of.

  Forget leaving Maytown at Christmas. This was where she belonged—with Andy by her side...

  Childless, but still with a future where they stood together, loved and loving.

  ‘Could get Rangi to take the younger boys and be their coach. He knows more about soccer than I do and if Chelsea would be willing to help him, we’d have a new, younger team in no time.’

  So much for sizzling visions!

  Andy had probably taken her hand out of habit and didn’t fully realise he was holding it.

  Well, she had agreed it was better not to talk about their problems...

  They’d reached the bottom of their stairs and Andy dropped her hand and peeled away.

  ‘I want to open up the shed and bang around a bit so anything that’s crawled in there to live might decide to leave.’

  And with that he was gone.

  * * *

  Ellie was in bed by the time he returned, and when Andy slipped through the shared bathroom to look down at her, there was enough moonlight coming through the French doors to see she was deeply asleep.

  It had been the nearly full moon that had made him think about kissing her earlier—not the first kisses but the later ones—when they’d walked home from the hospital together. He’d even picked out a spot, tucked against the old camellia at the bottom of the front steps.

  The idea was so overwhelming he was sure Ellie could feel his emotion through his fingers, feel his body trembling slightly at the thought of it.

  Then, like the idiot he was, he’d started worrying about pushing things too fast, about maybe her not wanting to be kissed. She’d only shifted back upstairs so news of their separation didn’t reach his mother while she wasn’t well after all. Maybe he’d imagined her wanting those kisses.

  So he’d started burbling on about the soccer team, and her hand had slid from his before they’d reached the front gate—let alone the camellia bush!

  But as she lay there, beautiful in the moonlight, he knew they had to patch things up.

  He wouldn’t think about the baby side of things, instead he would work out the best way for them to be together, slowly and tentatively, a bit like when they had first gone out. Even though what he really wanted was to climb into bed beside her and ravish her right now.

  Ravish her?

  Where had that word come from?

  Yet when he considered it, it was apt because surely the word covered kisses, and touches, and all the joys of foreplay. It covered kissing as much of her skin as he could manage, running his fingers through her hair, nibbling at the little erogenous zones he knew so well—all that and more—far beyond what might be described as sex...

  Ravishment?

  He padded slowly back to his own room—the room he’d sought refuge in when he’d walked away from her—unable to stay lest they tear each other to pieces even more and end up too wounded to ever recover what they’d had...

  * * *

  Ellie slept well but rose earlier than usual, anxious to see just how much mess remained in the surgery. But when she made her way downstairs after a swift breakfast of tea and toast, she was amazed at what Zeke and Chelsea had accomplished.

  True, there was a piece of chipboard where the window should be, but when she opened it, it was barely noticeable and she’d get someone in to repair it during the day.

  But the broken glass was gone, all signs of blood mopped up and, in fact, the floors were sparkling clean.

  And in the storeroom, where young Logan had obviously rummaged desperately for something to staunch his blood, the first-aid equipment was once more neatly arrayed, the shelves as tidy as Maureen had left them.

  Even the black soot from around the safe had been wiped away.

  She’d have to thank them both.

  ‘I came in early because I heard you’d had a break-in and wanted to clean up but you’ve already done it,’ Maureen said, looking around in amazement. ‘You must have been up at crack of dawn.’

  ‘Not me,’ Ellie told her. ‘Zeke, the young policeman, and Chelsea did it all last night while Andy and I were at the hospital with our young burglar.’

  ‘I believe it was Logan Grant.’ Maureen said with distinct disapproval. ‘He really shouldn’t be left on his own when his dad’s at work, but although Mr Grant’s had any number of women in to keep an eye on him, he outwits them all, and sneaks out to do who knows what mischief.’

  ‘Well, we know where he was making mischief yesterday but maybe now he’s learned his lesson,’ Ellie said, deciding not to reveal the child’s reason for the break-in. ‘And if we get him to join the soccer team, he’ll have less time for mischief.’

  Maureen checked that all was well, then settled down to run through the patient list and send it to Ellie’s computer, but Ellie was already out of the door.

  ‘It’s Chelsea’s first day at school,’ she said over her shoulder. ‘I want to see that she’s okay and has everything she needs.’

  Upstairs Chelsea was not only ready—in a uniform someone had found for her—but three of the soccer team, including Rangi, were waiting to take her to school.

  ‘Looks like I’ll have my own bodyguard,’ she joked. But Ellie could see how pleased she was to have someone with her on that nervous first day.

  ‘I’ve spoken to Mr Grayson, the head teacher, and as soon as you know who your home-room teacher will be, I’ll come up and have a talk to him or her as well.’

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ Chelsea assured her, coming across the kitchen to give Ellie a big hug. Then she stepped back and studied the woman who’d taken her in. ‘I think you’re more nervous than I am.’

  ‘Probably,’ Ellie admitted, wiping her slightly damp hands surreptitiously against her jeans.

  But as she stood on the veranda, waving to them as they trooped away, she wondered just how shaken up she’d have been if it was her own child—hers and Andy’s—going off to a new school for the first ti
me.

  Given how bad she felt, watching Chelsea leave, she had to admit she’d have been a complete mess, and been one of those mothers who stood outside the school gate, sobbing piteously...

  Though these days children were introduced to school early. Most would go to kindergarten or preschool first and from there visit whatever school they’d be attending next.

  Good grief! Was she really leaning on the veranda railing, mooning over a child that would never be—worrying about him or her going to school even...

  Ellie headed back down to work, where Maureen tutted because she was all of three minutes late for her first appointment.

  The morning passed swiftly, allowing her a little time at the end of her appointments to do some necessary paperwork, then phone Madeleine, who would be on lunch, to check on her knee and general health.

  ‘I’ve made an appointment with Maureen to come in on Wednesday for the other tests you wanted to run,’ Madeleine explained. ‘I have a half-day off because there’s a Year Nine school excursion to the mine, and the boss doesn’t want me walking around too much.’

  ‘Are you the Year Nine home-room teacher?’ Ellie asked, thinking that’s where Chelsea would probably fit.

  ‘Yes, I saw Chelsea this morning, and had her for a maths lesson. I think with some extra work over the summer holidays she can skip straight through to Year Eleven in some of her subjects. She’s a bright student, very advanced for her age.’

  She paused, then added, ‘At least that’s what I’m hearing from teachers who’ve already had her in their classes.’

  * * *

  Andy checked on the few hospitalised patients, and the elderly people who lived in the annexe, as the town was too small for a separate retirement village or nursing home.

  He had appointments in Outpatients from ten-thirty, but until then he had far too much time on his hands. Too much time to think about Ellie, and whether they could get back together again.