The Doctor's Unexpected Proposal

by Alison Roberts

  ‘She denied it.’ Emily frowned. ‘But, then, she would, wouldn’t she? She might think she’d get into trouble for leaving it behind the bushes. I think she thinks I might know something now, though—after that examination.’

  ‘Her family didn’t seem to know anything about it.’

  ‘No.’ Emily’s frown deepened. ‘Maybe she doesn’t want them to know.’

  ‘Wouldn’t be surprised. An extra mouth to feed around there might not be very welcome.’

  Emily sighed. This wasn’t going to be as simple as she’d thought. Maybe she wouldn’t be producing a miracle. Maybe she was projecting too much of herself into this case. ‘What should I do, Mike?’

  ‘Talk to her. Carefully.’

  ‘She might prefer to talk to you. She trusts you.’

  ‘I’ll come and say hello,’ Mike suggested. ‘And see where she’s at. The number-one priority right now is to take care of Megan.’ Mike eyed the bedpan. ‘Does she need that?’

  Emily nodded and started moving again. ‘You’re right, of course. Talking about Lucky can wait. If she’s septic from postnatal complications, we need to get on top of things fast.’

  Emily drew back the curtain screening the resuscitation area, though it had been an unnecessary precaution in the empty department tonight.

  They both stared at Megan’s bed. And at the end of the IV tubing that was dribbling a dopamine infusion onto the floor, drop by drop.

  Emily turned to Mike in horror but he spoke first.

  ‘Where the hell has she gone?’

  CHAPTER THREE

  ‘SHE won’t be far away.’

  Emily crushed a surge of panic. She shouldn’t have left Megan on her own, even for a minute.

  ‘She wanted to use a proper toilet.’ Emily spun on her heel and moved towards the department’s bathroom. ‘That’s where she’ll be.’

  But the cubicles were empty and Emily had known, deep down, that they would be.

  Things were falling into place. The sense of hopelessness she had perceived in Megan when she had first seen the teenager. Not only was the poor girl physically unwell, she had to be suffering from grief and guilt and quite possibly postnatal depression.

  And Emily knew a lot more than she had ever wanted to about all that.

  Talking about something as personal as menstruation in front of her father hadn’t been the real issue for Megan, had it? She had been terrified of the truth coming out.

  Emily could still feel the intensity of that look Megan had given her after the last examination. Megan knew that Emily had discovered the truth.

  Megan had fled.

  ‘She’s not in the department anywhere, as far as I can see.’ Mike met Emily in front of the main desk. ‘And her clothes seem to be gone.’ Black curls bounced with incongruous gaiety as Mike shook his head. ‘I just don’t believe this!’

  ‘I do,’ Emily said grimly. ‘She’s panicked. She’s trying to escape. Probably a rerun of what she did after she thought she’d given birth to a dead baby.’

  Mike shook his head again. ‘No, what I can’t believe is how she’s managed it. She was delirious when we were taking those blood samples. I wouldn’t have thought she was capable of even getting off that bed, let alone climbing over the sides you put up.’

  ‘She was feeling a lot better. Blood pressure was well up and her temperature was coming down. It won’t last long, though. She’s in shock and if it’s septic, she’s going to get a whole lot worse.’

  ‘It’s septic all right.’ With his usual ability to surprise, Charles had glided silently into the department. He held a sheaf of laboratory printouts in one hand. ‘White cell count is through the roof.’

  Jill was following Charles. She stared at her colleagues. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Megan’s done a runner,’ Mike said succinctly.

  ‘I left her alone for a minute,’ Emily confessed miserably. ‘To get her a bedpan. This is all my fault.’

  ‘But why would she have run?’ Charles looked puzzled. ‘Is she delirious?’

  ‘There’s a lot going on.’ Emily managed to sound a lot calmer than she felt. ‘My pelvic exam revealed that Megan’s given birth rather recently. She has a perineal tear that’s just starting to heal.’

  ‘She was at the Gunyamurra rodeo,’ Mike added. ‘We think she might be Lucky’s mother.’

  Charles took the implications on board instantly. ‘The von Willebrand’s?’ he queried. ‘Could hypovolaemia be contributing to the level of shock she’s in?’

  ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’ Emily groaned, and tried to marshal her thoughts. Searching for Lucky’s parents had been given medical as well as social urgency due to the inherited bleeding disorder the baby had. Like haemophilia, von Willebrand’s could cause major problems if unrecognised and not treated. ‘No, I don’t think so,’ she told Charles. ‘That tear is healing well and I didn’t notice anything unusual about bleeding from the puncture sites when we took those blood samples. Did you, Mike?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Maybe she isn’t Lucky’s mother.’

  ‘Or maybe it’s the father he inherited the disorder from.’

  Emily interrupted the others’ conversation. ‘Septic shock’s quite serious enough on its own. We’ve got to find her…fast.’

  ‘She could be anywhere.’ Jill looked towards the automatic doors leading to the ambulance bay and loading platform.

  Charles was looking at another set of doors that led into the hospital.

  Emily glanced at the wall clock, registered that it was now midnight, and then caught Mike’s gaze. ‘Where will we start?’ she asked helplessly.

  ‘By getting help,’ he answered promptly. ‘You come with me, Em. We’ll check at least some of the grounds on the way to the house and then see who we can wake up when we get there.’

  ‘Jill and I will start looking inside,’ Charles added. ‘We’ll get any staff on duty to check their own wards and any potential hiding places.’ He swivelled his chair. ‘Let’s meet back here in fifteen minutes. If we haven’t found her, we’ll have to call the police.’

  ‘It’s only been about ten minutes since I last saw her.’ Emily trotted to keep up with Mike’s long stride as they headed for the ambulance bay. ‘She can’t have got far.’

  ‘At least it’s not cold.’ Mike held out a hand to help Emily jump down from the loading platform.

  ‘The wheelie bins!’ Emily ran towards the orderly rows of the large rubbish containers that beckoned as a place to hide. ‘I think I can see something.’

  She held it up a moment later, her mouth too dry to say anything.

  ‘It’s her hospital gown,’ Mike said heavily.

  The voice Emily found sounded oddly unlike her own. ‘And here’s the bag that had her own clothing.’ She picked up the large paper ‘patient’s property’ bag. ‘It’s empty.’

  ‘She’s serious, then,’ Mike said quietly. ‘She’s really trying to run away from us.’

  ‘And it’s my fault.’

  ‘You contributed by providing the opportunity but you weren’t to know. I wouldn’t be surprised if Megan used the excuse of wanting to go to the toilet as part of a plan to escape. And there’s absolutely no point in blaming yourself, Em.’

  It was getting to be a habit, Mike putting his arm around her shoulders like this, but Emily didn’t even try to remind herself not to feel too dependent on the support. Right now she needed it far too badly.

  ‘Come on. We’ve got to hurry. Should we split up and meet at the house?’

  ‘No. We should stay together.’

  Emily wasn’t going to argue with that. Being alone with her fears for Megan could be disastrous, given that she already felt too personally involved. Mike was so solid. So grounded. Being with him as they raced through the grounds between the new and old hospital buildings gave her the same feeling that flying in the helicopter had.

  This time it was Megan in danger, not herself, but Mike still repr
esented what felt like safety. A source of strength to cope at the very least.

  The moonlight helped, but cast shadows that kept looking remarkably like a crouching person.

  ‘There! What’s that?’ Emily pointed at a shape in the centre of the memorial garden.

  ‘Just the shadow from the sundial.’ Mike was moving fast, through the gap in the manicured hibiscus hedges that surrounded the old garden.

  On the other side of the garden was the fenced area that contained a swimming pool. A series of steps beyond that led to the big veranda of the huge old two-storey building that was the doctors’ quarters. Mike bounded up the steps, closely followed by Emily, and threw open the door that led into the large communal living and kitchen area of the house.

  Their abrupt entrance startled the three people sitting at a long wooden table.

  ‘What’s the rush, guys? You’ve already missed the party.’

  ‘We need some help, Hamish. We’ve got a patient missing.’ Mike smiled at a member of the group—a young woman with brown hair caught back in a ponytail. ‘Christina, you haven’t gone home yet. That’s great. We need everybody we can muster.’

  Chairs scraped on the floor. The young woman beside Christina was Alix, their pathologist. She flipped a long dark braid over one shoulder and bent down to retrieve a pair of shoes. ‘Who’s missing?’

  ‘A nineteen-year-old girl—Megan Cooper,’ Emily told her. ‘We brought her in by chopper not long ago.’

  Christina had been eyeing the flight suit that Emily was still wearing. ‘But I was on call for flight duty.’

  ‘You were all having a good time on the beach when the call came in.’ Mike was already moving back towards the door. ‘Besides, Em really wanted to come with me.’

  ‘I’ll bet.’ Alix was pulling the shoes on but looked up at Emily in astonishment. ‘You went up in a chopper?’

  ‘Yeah.’ The brief flash of satisfaction was a welcome reprieve from Emily’s anxiety, but it lasted no more than a heartbeat.

  ‘Let’s go,’ Mike urged. ‘Megan can’t have got far yet and it’s urgent that we find her.’

  ‘I’ll call Cal,’ Christina offered. ‘Gina will have to stay with CJ, I guess.’

  ‘What’s wrong with the lass?’ Hamish queried as Christina sped off.

  ‘Septic shock,’ Emily responded. ‘She hasn’t crashed completely yet but it could happen any time. She was on a dopamine infusion.’

  ‘What’s the cause of the infection?’

  ‘We think she’s postnatal. Could be retained birth products.’

  The group of young medics paused on the verandah as Cal joined them, hastily buttoning his shirt.

  ‘We think she could be Lucky’s mother,’ Mike told them.

  ‘Not that she’s admitted even being pregnant,’ Emily put into the astonished silence that followed Mike’s announcement. ‘She’s frightened. She’ll be trying to hide as well as escape.’

  ‘Where should we start looking?’

  ‘Let’s get back to Emergency and see what Charles has organised. He and Jill are alerting night staff and checking inside the hospital.’

  Charles had done more than alert staff. Sergeant Harry Blake, who manned the small police station on the hospital side of the creek, arrived as they gathered in an emergency department that was still, mercifully, free of any new arrivals in the way of patients.

  ‘I’ve contacted town,’ Harry told them. ‘If she’s trying to catch a ride she’ll have to cross the bridge. They’re getting someone down there to watch it.’

  Crocodile Creek was named for the waterway that curved around the northern side of the hospital grounds, cutting off the hospital and its small cove from the main township. The bridge linked the two distinct areas and provided the only access to any main road.

  ‘No sign of her anywhere inside so far,’ Charles reported. ‘Mike?’

  ‘We found the hospital gown out by the wheelie bins. She’s changed back into her own clothes.’

  ‘Which were?’ Harry flipped open a notebook.

  ‘One of those over-sized T-shirts for sleeping in,’ Emily told him. ‘It was dark blue, with a pink teddy bear or something on the front. She put some track pants on for the trip because she felt so cold. They were dark blue as well. Or they might have been black.’

  ‘Black,’ Mike decided. ‘And she didn’t have any shoes.’

  ‘Should be reasonably conspicuous, then.’ Harry closed the notebook. ‘Anyone checked the beach yet?’

  ‘I’ll do it,’ Mike offered.

  ‘Go with him, Emily,’ Charles suggested. ‘We’ll split everybody else up and do a thorough search of the grounds. You’ll all need to stay in touch. Make sure you’ve got either a radio or a mobile phone.’

  They jogged the entire length of the small cove, checking the shadowed areas around the large boulders that marked the base of the grassy slope, then Emily was forced to stop and catch her breath.

  Mike looked up at the house occupying the opposite and much higher bluff than the one where the doctors’ quarters was situated. ‘I should call my parents,’ he said. ‘You never know, Megan might have turned up asking for a room at the hotel.’

  George and Sophia Poulos ran the Athina, a small hotel and restaurant. It was an inviting place for anybody who went past, and you had to go past if you were heading for the bridge, but Emily shook her head doubtfully.

  ‘I don’t think so. It’s too close to the hospital and I doubt that she’s thinking clearly enough to consider resting.’

  ‘Could she have got much further away, though?’

  ‘She might have. If she made it as far as the main road she could have hitched a ride. A lot of trucks do most of their travelling at night to avoid the heat and any tourist traffic.’

  Mike called Charles to check in and they spoke for a couple of minutes.

  ‘We’re to head back,’ he relayed to Emily. ‘The search area is being widened. Everybody’s hoping Megan might ask for help when she’s feeling sick enough again, but they’re discussing whether I should take the chopper up and use the nightsun.’

  ‘Sounds like a good idea.’

  ‘She’ll be hard to spot at night with those dark clothes on. If she’s lying under a tree or bush or something, it’ll be impossible. We don’t have any of those night-vision goggles the police can use in this type of search.’ Emily could see the gleam of interest in Mike’s eyes, despite the darkness. ‘I know how to use them—we had them in the army. Maybe we should get some,’ he added thoughtfully. ‘Could be fun.’

  ‘Do you miss the drama of the army, then?’

  ‘Not really.’ A sweep of Mike’s arm took in the whole cove, the expanse of sea where a scattering of islands could be seen as black shapes in the moonlight, the gleam of pale sand and the buildings on top of the low bluffs that were now showing far more lights than normal and glowed against the night sky. ‘I love this place. And I get my share of excitement.’ His smile had a definite element of mischief. ‘Waking up the whole of Crocodile Creek by shining thirty million candle-power through their windows won’t be exactly boring.’

  The remnants of the driftwood bonfire were still glowing as they retraced their path to the hospital. Emily eyed the embers and welcomed a brief distraction from her anxiety about Megan.

  ‘Isn’t it nice? About Cal and Gina?’

  Cal Jamieson, a surgeon, had been working in Crocodile Creek for several years but nobody had met the woman he’d last had a relationship with. She had turned up only last week, with a small boy who looked just like Cal, and it had been Gina, in fact, who had found baby Lucky at the rodeo. It was clear to everybody that she wouldn’t be leaving again in a hurry and celebrating the couple’s reunion had been the precipitating reason for the fire night.

  ‘It’s great.’ Mike turned his head to smile at Emily and she almost stumbled as she tried to read his tone and expression. He sounded…wistful, she decided, which seemed odd, given that he hadn’t had any han
kering to marry either Kirsty or her predecessor, Trudi.

  Maybe he still missed that gorgeous Italian woman which, of course, wouldn’t be odd at all. But Marcella had loathed Mike’s home town and had refused to contemplate staying. Mike had been just as stubborn in refusing to consider leaving, and the fights had escalated until the relationship was in tatters.

  ‘You’ll find the right woman one day, Mike.’ Maybe it was already Emily’s turn to offer familiar comfort but she couldn’t resist adding a somewhat cynical rider. ‘She’ll love you, she’ll love Crocodile Creek and she’ll have great legs.’

  ‘How will I know?’

  ‘You mean, if she’s wearing trousers or something?’

  Mike gave Emily enough of a shove for it to take her a couple of steps to regain her balance.

  ‘It was a serious question, Emily. Look at Cal and Gina. Or Kirsty and Simon bloody Kent, for that matter.’

  ‘I’d rather not, thanks.’

  Mike’s only acknowledgment of Emily’s interjection was a brief, sympathetic grunt. ‘These people seem to know when they’ve discovered the love of their lives, though, don’t they? What am I missing? Do people have a little badge that says “I’m the One” and it’s only visible when the right other person gets close enough? Do women know something we don’t?’ His nudge was more gentle this time. ‘Come on, Em. Help a bloke out and divulge some ancient woman-lore or something.’

  ‘If I knew what it was, I’d be using it myself.’ Emily sighed. ‘I think there is a badge. Trouble is, you might see it on someone but if they don’t spot one on you, then…’ Emily had to pause in order to keep her tone very light. To make sure she didn’t reveal anything she shouldn’t. ‘Then it can make everything a lot harder. You go hunting to find a badge somewhere else or you think you see it because you want to, and then it all turns to custard.’

  ‘Did you think you saw a badge on Simon, then? And he pretended he saw one on you?’

  ‘Kind of, I guess.’ This was becoming way too personal. If Emily answered that question, maybe Mike would want to know if she’d been hunting because the person wearing the real badge was unavailable. Out of her league. Not even remotely interested in anything more than friendship.