Worth Waiting For

by Burrows, Jax

  She wasn’t really in the mood for dancing, so wandered around the periphery of the dance floor, searching for Casey. After two circuits, she admitted defeat. He wasn’t there. And worryingly, neither was Dr Catalina Martinez.

  There was only one thing to do. She made her way out of the lounge to return to the tables. If Casey was there, she was going to talk to him and make him talk to her, whether he was alone or not.

  As she was leaving the lounge, a blast of cold air made her turn her head to look at the front door, and she caught sight of Casey carefully helping Catalina on with her coat and escorting her out. Casey was wearing his coat too and Catalina linked him as they hurried out into the night.

  *

  The temperature had dropped dramatically during the evening, so Casey left the car heater on. He had dropped Catalina off, then said he was going back for Lexi. He had to speak to her before he lost the chance of them being reconciled. Catalina was right, he had to tell Lexi he loved her. Even if she rebuffed him, he had to try and he had to do it now, he couldn’t wait any longer. Unfortunately, when he got back to hotel, Sarala told him Lexi had already left. Pete was giving a few people lifts home as he had volunteered to be a designated driver.

  So Casey had parked near the cottage, but a few doors down on the other side of the road. He would see Pete’s car when it arrived, then he would make his presence felt and tell Lexi he loved her. At least, that was the plan.

  It would have worked perfectly if he hadn’t fallen asleep. He had only drunk one glass of wine, but had eaten a hearty meal, including Christmas cake and mince pies. In fact, he remembered eating a few extra mince pies that his colleagues had piled on his plate. He was stuffed, and tired after a long day and evening, and the car was like a hothouse.

  He woke to voices and Lexi waving goodbye as Theresa leaned out of the car window shouting “Merry Christmas” in a loud voice as the vehicle sped away. He turned off the engine and scrambled out of his car, fumbling with the key. By the time he strode up to Lexi’s cottage she had gone in. The lights downstairs were switched off and a light came on in the front bedroom. Lexi’s room. She had gone straight to bed. He stood on the doorstep wondering if he should ring the bell, but then realised that he risked waking everyone in the cottage and scaring them half to death.

  He would have to wait to declare his undying love. Maybe it was for the best. Lexi had been drinking, he was tired, and they were both on duty the following day. He had the whole of the Christmas period in which to tell her. And he would. He had to. Somehow he would convince her that he was sincere and that he loved her more than life itself.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Lexi was glad to be back at work. Despite the organised chaos of bright lights, the flurry of people dashing all over the place, the incessant beeping of machines monitoring the patients’ vital signs and the underlying smell of vomit and worse that even Casey’s essential oils couldn’t mask, today she caught the notes of cinnamon and spicy orange, Lexi felt completely at home and confident of her place in the pecking order.

  Christmas Eve in A&E was notoriously busy at Leytonsfield General. To add to their woes, the temperature had dropped overnight to below zero and the sky was a heavy, grey blanket that threatened to fall on their town at any moment.

  The odds for snow on Christmas Day had just increased tenfold. The kids would be pleased but the adults went about their business with furrowed brows, wondering if their cars had enough anti-freeze, cursing for putting off the annual central heating boiler service and, in Lexi’s case, wishing she’d stock-piled more wood for the fire.

  She’d be away for two whole days at the O’Connors, the cottage would be freezing by the time she and Jade got back home. Jess and Craig weren’t returning until after the New Year.

  For now, though, she had other things to worry about. She was late and was on duty in Resus all day with the likelihood of having to work with Casey for most of that time.

  As she threw her things in her locker, Theresa arrived silently, and stood next to her, like a wraith appearing out of nowhere. Her face looked as green as the sprouts she’d been demolishing the previous night, and she stared ahead, unseeing.

  ‘Hi - are you okay?’ Theresa shook her head slowly but said nothing.

  ‘Do you want a coffee before we start?’ Really, there wasn’t the time, but she couldn’t let Theresa go on duty looking like that.

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ she whispered, then dashed into the toilet cubicle.

  When she emerged, looking too ill to work, Lexi left her sitting on a bench nursing a mug of black coffee she made for her.

  ‘I’ll tell Sister you’ll be out in a minute,’ said Lexi wondering why they had all drunk so much the previous night.

  She didn’t have time to beat herself up as, when she made her way to Resus, she heard the familiar crash alarm and automatically started running. “Cardiac arrest, resus bay 3, cardiac arrest, resus bay 3.”

  The first person she saw when she arrived was Casey, standing at the bottom of a patient’s bed and barking orders. He was wearing purple scrubs and looked alert and completely in charge. She grabbed some gloves and waited for instructions. A doctor had secured the patient’s airway, and another had started chest compressions, so Lexi made sure there was IV access to take bloods, while another attached the defibrillator pads.

  After two minutes, Lexi took over from the doctor doing the compressions. The patient was still not breathing when the anaesthetists arrived and took over the patient’s airway.

  Lexi glanced at Casey. His face was serious, and his jaw clenched. Looking at him, Lexi had a bad feeling about the outcome for their patient. The longer it took to bring a patient back, the worse the prognosis.

  Her fears were realised after fifteen minutes when there was still no pulse and an x-ray taken earlier confirmed that the shortness of breath the patient had attended A&E with was caused by a large mass in his lungs.

  Casey, his expression closed and his eyes sad, went to discuss the situation with the man’s relatives. Lexi knew that the team were fighting a losing battle. Even if cardiac function could be restored, with the disease in his lungs, the man’s quality of life was likely to be severely limited.

  There was no pulse after fifteen minutes and further tests. The prognosis was looking bleak.

  Casey decided to call it. The family and the rest of the team agreed. Lexi wished there was something she could say but words weren’t enough. As the staff drifted away to leave the patient and his family together for one last time, she looked around for Casey. He had disappeared.

  *

  Casey filled a glass from the tap and drank deeply. Would he ever get used to losing a patient? And if he ever did, would that be the time to quit medicine?

  The man’s family had been brave; stoical. He had been elderly, but loved life, his family had told him. He had been looking forward to spending Christmas Day with his grandchildren. Simple pleasures that could suddenly be taken away, with no warning.

  Spending quality time with loved ones and making memories that stayed with you the rest of your life; they were the important things.

  Suddenly, he wanted to see Lexi, to apologise for not spending time with her at the Christmas party. Never mind giving her space, he should have been with her. She was the woman he loved, the only woman he would ever love, and he couldn’t lose her.

  When he hurried back to Resus, he was met with a code red that tested all his skills as a trauma consultant. Four young people, no more than teenagers, had been involved in an RTA. A young girl hadn’t been wearing a seat belt and had serious head injuries. She was transferred to intensive care. A young man had a thigh bone fracture and was prepared for surgery.

  The other two, it turned out, weren’t seriously injured but had been drinking and started to make nuisances of themselves to the extent that security had to be called to keep them in line. Casey wasn’t a bit surprised when, later, the police turned up as the car they had been driv
ing had been stolen. A teenage prank gone wrong, or were these kids serial offenders?

  As Lexi was about to go off duty, she came looking for him.

  ‘What time are we leaving?’

  ‘I’ll pick you up later, okay? I’m sorry we won’t get home for hours yet, but…’

  ‘I know, it’s been mad today. Glad I’m not on duty tomorrow.’

  ‘Yeah, me too.’ He gazed at her dear face, wanting to kiss her, to hug her, to tell her that he loved her. ‘We’ll have a good time this Christmas, I promise. I texted the twins – they’ve already been enslaved by Jade and are loving every minute of it.’

  Lexi grinned. ‘I can’t wait to meet them.’

  ‘They’ll love you.’ As he did.

  ‘Right. See you later then.’

  He watched her walk away, wishing he could have left with her, but would be in A&E for a while longer yet. There were still too many patients in Resus. His work was far from over.

  *

  As Casey would be picking her up that evening, and she didn’t want to risk a spark jumping out and setting the cottage alight while they were all away, Lexi didn’t bother lighting the fire.

  She brought the cases downstairs and placed them on the floor in the middle of the lounge. Then she brought the carrier bags of Christmas presents and put them next to the cases. She hadn’t spent much money but had bought small, novelty tokens for everyone. Casey knew her financial situation and had, no doubt, warned his parents not to expect much from her. She just hoped they appreciated the gesture.

  Gradually, she was starting to relax from the horrendous day they’d all had. What a shift! Christmas Eve was notoriously busy but today had tested them all. Especially as they were one nurse down with Sister sending Theresa home to bed. She’d taken one look at her and shooed her out of the door. She’d be fine after rehydrating with a few glasses of water and a long sleep.

  Casey was more of a concern. They hadn’t had the chance to talk at the hospital; it had been frantic from start to finish. And losing that patient … the poor man had looked shattered. He took every loss as a personal affront, but the patient had been very sick even before he’d been admitted.

  Maybe there’d be the chance to talk in the car. She was going to tell him how she felt. She loved Casey and they should be together. She didn’t know why she had ever doubted that they were perfect for each other. Watching him with Dr Martinez at the Christmas party had made her realise how foolish she was being. She had never experienced such jealousy at the thought of him wanting someone else. She assumed they had left together because Casey gave Catalina a lift home.

  The air in the cottage was icy. She got up and walked to the window. The sky was full of snow. There wasn’t much traffic on the road and no sounds of people chatting as they walked past or kids shouting in the distance. It was eerily quiet.

  She shivered and turned around to look back at her cottage. As it was open plan, she could see straight through to the window at the back and then outside to the tiny garden. The cottage was immaculate. All the toys had been packed away out of sight and there were no slippers or shoes on the floor or dirty mugs on the coffee table, as there usually were.

  It came to her suddenly that this was the first time she had ever been entirely alone in the cottage. She felt as if she was leaving for good instead of just two days. Moving on with her life. She couldn’t wait to see Jade again but, surprisingly, hadn’t been concerned with their brief separation. Jade was in the loving arms of her doting family and would be showered with care and attention. She’d be lapping it up and playing the Princess for all she was worth.

  Lexi smiled at the thought of her gorgeous daughter. The next moment, the doorbell rang, and her heart leapt. It was Casey. Her first real family Christmas was about to begin

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Lexi had been prepared for the overwhelming surge of noise that the O’Connor clan produced whenever they were together, but not to her own reaction to it. The first time she had experienced them all talking at once, their voices getting louder as they fought to make themselves heard, she’d wanted to slink away into the shadows.

  Now, as she and Casey stepped through the kitchen door into laughter, light, carols on the radio and the delicious aroma of spices, she wanted to dive right into the middle of this marvellous, hyperactive family.

  ‘Mummy! Daddy!’ Jade came hurtling towards them and threw herself into her arms. She hugged her tight, the familiar feeling of all being right with the world that she experienced whenever she held her daughter washing over her in waves.

  ‘We’re face painting.’

  ‘Yes, I can see that – with glitter, by the looks of it.’

  As Jade hugged Casey, Lexi noted a young woman hovering at the kitchen table. She had long dark hair and hazel eyes.

  ‘I’m Josie.’

  ‘Hi, I’m Lexi, you’ve obviously met Jade.’

  Josie laughed, and Lexi warmed to her straight away. ‘Oh, yes – quite the little poppet. She begged us to let her open one present, so we gave in, but unfortunately, she chose the glitter face paint and it’s gone everywhere…’

  ‘I hope you’re going to clean up the mess,’ Casey said hugging his sister.

  ‘You’re the daddy, mate, we’ve saved that for you. I’m Jay, by the way, seeing as no one is going to introduce us.’

  Jay was a shorter and stockier version of Casey but with the same colour eyes as his twin.

  ‘Hi, Jay, I’m Lexi.’ She had barely finished her sentence when she was lifted off her feet by a pair of strong arms and swung around the kitchen.

  ‘Put her down, Jay. He thinks he’s Tarzan,’ said Josie.

  ‘He did that to me, too!’ shouted Jade happily.

  The rest of the family came into the kitchen, and Lexi got lost in all the voices and banter. She didn’t try to keep up with it all, just sat back and watched. Someone thrust a glass of mulled wine into her hands, then the doorbell rang, and she heard a voice shout, “Carol singers!”

  They all trooped out to the hallway to listen to the choir from the local church. They sang Once in Royal David’s City in four parts and a lump formed in Lexi’s throat at the beauty of their harmonisation. Dan, who was standing next to her at the back was singing quietly; he had a lovely bass voice. She turned her head to watch him and noticed he also had glitter on the side of his face and adorning the shoulders of his woolly jumper.

  He moved closer to her and whispered, ‘I’m so glad you’re going to be with us this Christmas, it wouldn’t have been the same without you.’

  The lump in her throat grew bigger, but she managed to murmur, ‘Me, too.’

  Then the choir sang, Oh Come, All Ye Faithful and the whole family joined in. Casey was holding Jade, the twins had their arms around each other, Eloise had one hand on Tom’s shoulder and the other around Riordan’s waist and Lexi’s lump dissolved, the tears spilling over and running down her cheeks. If anyone noticed, they were too polite to say anything.

  *

  The room was warm, the murmur of conversation soothing, and the home-made mulled wine was working its magic. Casey felt his eyelids drooping.

  An enormous Christmas tree stood in the corner of the living-room, decorated with all the old family heirlooms. Things their parents had bought early on in their marriage, misshapen and strange ones the four of them had made as young children, and some they had been given by patients. His father had collected a whole box-full over the years. He, himself, had one he was rather proud of. It was a tiny set of blue scrubs with a red stethoscope. The wife of a patient whose life they had saved had made the whole team one each. Casey treasured it and would like to see it on his own tree one day. Maybe next year if things went well.

  Josie had told him they had left a dozen or so decorations for Jade to put on the tree, so she could feel she’d played her part. His daughter and the twins had bonded already.

  Tom and Jade were on the floor with the twins playing a board g
ame. The rest of the adults sat in armchairs and sofas, sipping wine and talking quietly. His father had his eyes closed. He looked tired. Casey worried about him; he worked too hard. Maybe he’d have a word with Riordan later.

  He also needed to talk to Lexi. She looked happy and had lost the rabbit-caught-in-the-headlights look she usually had whenever she was here. In fact, she looked at home, as if she belonged. At last.

  Jay had been staring intently out of the French windows at the garden. It was lit by solar powered security lights that stood around the perimeter of the lawn. Nearest the house was Casey’s favourite; a light that resembled an old-fashioned streetlamp. It had been a present from Riordan and himself two years previously, when they had been at a loss as to what to buy for their parents. Fortunately, it had been a resounding success as it served as a security light as well as being an attractive piece of garden furniture.

  ‘You owe me a tenner,’ Jay said, laughing at the expression on Riordan’s face. ‘He said it wouldn’t snow until tomorrow, but, guess what?’

  Casey returned his grin. ‘It’s snowing?’

  ‘Yay! We can build a snowman on Christmas Day. Can we go tobogganing, Dad?’ Tom was beside himself with excitement.

  ‘It may not stick,’ Riordan said with a frown.

  ‘It’ll stick,’ said Jay, ‘come on, give.’ He held his hand out for the money and Riordan, sighing, slapped a ten-pound note onto his open palm.

  ‘If it melts, I want that back.’

  ‘No way, a bet’s a bet.’

  Casey listened with half an ear to his brothers’ bantering. He was watching Lexi who gazed out of the window with a look of wonder that lit up her face making her look almost angelic.

  ‘Isn’t it beautiful? Look Jade, at the way the snowflakes dance in the light from the lamp.’ Jade looked. Seeing the two of them, their blonde heads together, their expressions of joy at so simple a sight, touched something deep inside him.