The Doctor's Unexpected Proposal

by Alison Roberts

  To her surprise, Mike just echoed her sigh. ‘I know exactly what you mean,’ he said. ‘It’s not just a badge—I suspect they need to glow and they’ll only do that if there’s a reciprocal amount of electricity floating between the people in question. And they both have to feel the same way to generate that electricity, don’t they?’

  ‘I guess.’ Emily wanted to change the subject. They needed to, anyway. They were entering the hospital grounds again now. ‘You’ll need someone to go with you if you take the helicopter up, won’t you?’

  ‘Would you like to come?’

  ‘May as well. I’m still wearing these gorgeous overalls.’

  ‘You don’t sound too keen.’

  ‘My confidence has slipped somewhat now that we’ve been on the ground for so long. Maybe it’s like falling off a horse. I should do it again.’

  ‘You didn’t fall out of my helicopter.’ Mike sounded offended. He turned and blocked Emily’s path so she was forced to stop. ‘I hope you also noticed that I didn’t drop you like a stone either.’

  ‘No. Thank you for that.’ Emily smiled placatingly. ‘Are you always that good at keeping your promises?’

  She was standing very close to him. Close enough to feel his warmth. And to see an expression she couldn’t remember ever seeing before in his eyes. Something so deep and so serious her heart actually skipped a beat.

  ‘Always,’ Mike said softly. ‘Don’t ever forget that, Em.’

  ‘I won’t.’ Her heart thumped painfully as it made up for lost time. Or was it more that Emily could suddenly imagine what it would be like to hear other kinds of promises from this man?

  Or maybe it was simply because they were standing so close that they were almost touching, and that had always done very funny things to Emily’s equilibrium.

  She had already held the eye contact for a heartbeat too long—stepping over the boundary of friendship into dangerous territory. But Mike wasn’t breaking the contact either, and another heartbeat came and went.

  He’s going to guess, Emily thought desperately. Or maybe he had already, and was trying to work out how to handle an unwanted complication in his life at a point when he was fed up with women anyway.

  The blaring notes of Mike’s mobile phone cut the atmosphere like a cleaver and terminated the eye contact just as effectively.

  ‘What?’ Mike queried tersely a few seconds after he answered the call. ‘Who was it…? Where…? How long ago…? No, we’re almost back. We’ll meet you out front.’

  ‘Have they found Megan?’ Emily touched Mike’s arm in her eagerness.

  ‘They’ve had a call from a trucker who was listening in on the emergency services frequency.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And he picked Megan up by the bridge. Just after midnight.’

  Emily checked her watch. Nearly an hour ago now.

  ‘She apparently told him she’d had a fight with her boyfriend and really needed help to get home.’

  ‘Didn’t he notice anything odd about the way she was dressed? Or how unwell she looked?’

  ‘He thought she was upset and that was why she was acting a bit weird.’ Mike had bypassed the quickest route back to the emergency department. He was heading for the main hospital entrance and Emily stretched her stride to keep up with him.

  ‘So where is she now? How is she, more importantly?’ The second glance she took at her watch was an automatic double-check. ‘Thank goodness we’ll be in plenty of time for her next dose of antibiotics.’

  ‘Hopefully.’

  ‘What? She can’t be that far away. Which way was the truck going? North or south?’

  ‘West, so she chose the right direction for home but she’s not in the truck any longer. She made the driver stop on a lay-by. Said she lived on a farm close by and her mother was on the way to collect her.’

  ‘Oh, no!’ Emily’s spirits plummeted afresh. ‘And he just left her there?’

  ‘He’s not feeling too good about it now, by the sound of it.’

  Emily lapsed into silence. Of course he wasn’t. The driver hadn’t done anything worse than she had, had he? And Megan had been quite believable.

  At least she’s still OK enough to have got that far. We’ll get to her in time.’

  ‘She may have got a bit further by now.’ Mike didn’t sound optimistic and that was so unlike him that Emily’s very real fear for Megan returned in a rush.

  ‘Why? Where exactly did he drop her off?’

  ‘The lay-by was on the way into the mountains. Past the banana plantations. At the start of the rainforest.’

  Emily stifled her groan of dismay as they rounded the corner of the building and she could see the convoy of waiting vehicles, headed by Harry’s police car, with an ambulance next in line.

  ‘Is that where we’re going? To start searching the forest?’

  ‘I am.’ Mike nodded. ‘I’ve got search and rescue experience and I know the mountains around here pretty well. I also have a first-class paramedic kit in a backpack. You don’t have to come, Em. You shouldn’t. You must be exhausted. Maybe you should wait here and rest. And be ready for when we bring Megan back.’

  ‘No way! I’ve got to help search!’

  Mike stopped abruptly and caught Emily, gripping both her upper arms. ‘This isn’t your fault, Em. You can’t try and take the whole responsibility on board.’

  ‘But…’

  Emily couldn’t begin to try and justify her vehemence. Nobody knew her history here and there was no reason for them to know. Maybe her involvement in this case was too personal to be professional but they all knew how hard she had worked to save Megan’s baby, didn’t they? Surely that was an acceptable motivation?

  ‘She’s Lucky’s mother, Mike,’ Emily said softly. ‘She thinks she’s lost her baby, and she hasn’t. We saved him. I can’t just sit around for hours waiting and wondering whether she’s ever going to have the joy of knowing her baby actually survived. Or that Lucky could lose his mother…maybe for ever.’

  She couldn’t prevent her voice choking on that last word or her eyes filling with tears. But Mike seemed to understand. He pulled her closer, just for an instant, into a rough but comforting hug. His own voice was suspiciously gruff a moment later.

  ‘Come on, then. We’ll both go and find her. You’ll have to stay with me, though.’

  Emily pulled back far enough to see Mike’s expression. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because…’ Mike hesitated and seemed to change his mind about what he wanted to say. He also seemed to drag his gaze away from Emily’s and he stepped away, ready to move. ‘I might need your help,’ he said briskly. ‘You’re the expert in emergency resuscitation after all.’

  It was a perfectly valid reason to request her company. But it hadn’t been the first thing to have sprung to mind, had it? The look Emily had received had suggested that he had intended to say something very different.

  Something far more personal.

  She must be more tired than she’d realised, Emily decided as she followed Mike towards the vehicles. And the tension was doing her head in.

  Why else would she be imagining that Mike would even think along personal lines like that?

  Or be getting the impression that she had the potential to be as important to him as he already was to her?

  She was tired all right. Part of her brain was already asleep. Emily knew that thoughts like that were just part of a familiar dream.

  And always would be.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THAT call had been way too close for comfort.

  Mike sat on one of the stretchers in the back of the ambulance, his backpack kit wedged between his knees, as the convoy of vehicles raced west towards the mountains. His friends Hamish and Cal sat facing him on the opposite stretcher and Emily was sitting by his side. Every bump in the road—and there were plenty—jostled her against him, so that Mike was increasingly aware of the touch of her leg or shoulder.

  Yes. He had come too c
lose to saying something he shouldn’t. When Emily had asked him why she had to stay with him if she joined the search party, he had nearly said because that was where she belonged. By his side. That he wanted her where he could see her—to protect her, if necessary.

  Not just from an environment he knew could be unforgiving. Mike wanted to protect her from herself. Emily gave so much of herself to others and she blamed herself too much when things went wrong. They had to find young Megan Cooper before it was too late because if this ended in disaster, Emily would never forgive herself.

  She was probably even finding a way to blame herself for the disaster of her relationship with Simon. Mike nearly snorted aloud at the thought. As if it could have been in any way Emily’s fault. Simon had used her. Taken advantage of her sweet, loving nature and tried to turn her into something she could never be: a clone of himself—shallow and self-centred and overly ambitious. And then he’d found a far more suitable and willing model in Kirsty and had just wiped his feet all over Emily on his way out the door.

  Thank goodness he was gone. Relief chased away any lingering anger on Emily’s behalf. He even turned to smile at her.

  ‘OK, babe?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m good.’ Emily smiled back but Mike could see the weariness and worry etched into her features in the flickering light.

  ‘It’ll be all right,’ he said encouragingly. ‘We’ll find her. How far could she have got after all?’

  ‘It’s pretty thick forest up there, isn’t it?’ Hamish queried.

  ‘Can be.’ Mike nodded. ‘I used to do a lot of bush walking around there as a teenager. It’s easy enough if you stick to the tracks but once you get off them it’s hard going.’

  ‘Impossible in places,’ Cal agreed. ‘There are huge tree roots and dead branches and leaves everywhere, and some of those vines are as thick as tree trunks.’

  ‘Strangler trees,’ Mike told Hamish. ‘They start off growing as air plants up in the canopy and they send their roots down to the soil. They can eventually kill the tree they’re covering.’

  ‘We’d better hope the lass has stayed on the track, then,’ Hamish responded. ‘Shame we haven’t got a tracker dog or something.’

  ‘Harry’s been in touch with Brisbane police,’ Mike said. ‘They’re sending a team with dogs but it’ll be at least a couple of hours before they can get here.’

  Cal turned to look out of the long window behind him where the headlights of vehicles behind them were lighting up vast fields of sugar cane. The track for the small train that carried the cane to the processing plant was running alongside the road. Then he looked at his watch.

  ‘We must be about halfway there.’

  Emily nodded. ‘Maybe another fifteen minutes.’

  The group lapsed into silence again and Mike heard Emily’s determined, indrawn breath, like a reverse sigh. It sounded as though she was gathering her strength and focusing on the task ahead of them. Willing herself to succeed.

  That quiet determination and strength had been the first thing Mike had ever noticed about Emily Morgan. It had set her apart because it seemed almost at odds with her pale colouring of fair skin and honey-blonde hair, her lack of height and a serious, almost shy demeanour on first acquaintance.

  ‘Solid’ had been the word that had occurred to Mike on that first glimpse. He remembered the occasion very well despite it having been over two years ago, and the clear memory was not just because it had been the welcome home/engagement party his parents had thrown for him and Marcella at the Athina.

  Not physically solid, although Emily was nothing like the tall, leggy beauties Mike had always been drawn to, and the fact that she’d been standing beside Marcella at the time had accentuated just how different she was. Solid as in genuine. Trustworthy and honest. When they were finally introduced that night, Mike had nodded approval on hearing her name. It was perfect for someone who seemed to personify the kind of old-fashioned values Mike had never been lucky enough to find in combination with the great looks his girlfriends invariably possessed.

  And Marcella had possessed them in abundance. The fiery Italian model he had met on holiday in Paris and brought home to Crocodile Creek as his fiancée less than a month later should have eclipsed Emily totally, but Mike had still noticed her.

  More than noticed her. He had rapidly found himself watching out for her at work or on the beach, enjoying the start of what had promised to be a very genuine friendship once they’d got past Emily’s shyness. Mike liked to think it had been Emily’s idea that he move into the doctors’ quarters after Marcella had stormed off and his mother had been was wringing her hands and loudly lamenting the impossibility of the gorgeous half Italian, half Greek grandchildren she’d hoped for, but he suspected he had planted the idea himself.

  Not that it mattered because it had been the perfect solution to a minor family crisis back then. It hadn’t even mattered that Emily had been in love with Simon. It had been friends that Mike had been in need of more than anything and the close living arrangements and camaraderie in the house were great.

  A deepening friendship with Emily was the icing on the cake. Mike had never had this kind of closeness with a woman who hadn’t been a lover. Hell, he hadn’t even had it with women who had been lovers. Not like he had with Emily. Where you knew you could just be yourself completely and say or do anything and still be accepted and liked.

  Bouncy Trudi had come closest to being a mate, but that had just been a bit of fun. And a smokescreen to stop Sophia hauling any more ‘nice Greek girls’ close enough to be subjected to a family dinner and significant introductions to her single son. Trudi had never touched Mike on the kind of level Emily did. The kind where he wanted to protect and nurture. To create happiness.

  He loved her, dammit. How and when that interest and friendship had morphed into such intensity had slipped past without any lightning bolts, but the fact it was there and not about to go away had been undeniable for a long time. Catching Kirsty when she had thrown herself at him had been an attempt to discover whether distraction could work, whether those deeper feelings for Emily had been simply due to sexual frustration after Trudi had left.

  They hadn’t. And distraction would never work. An alternative would never be good enough because Emily was one of a kind.

  Mike sneaked a sideways glance and was disconcerted to find that Emily’s gaze swung to meet his virtually instantly. Coincidence…or some kind of subconscious connection?

  Yeah…right! Mike winked at Emily to disguise any heavier signals he might be sending out. How appalled would she be to know what he was thinking? That he was ready to leap into a gap in her life that Simon had left only a matter of days ago and thereby take advantage of a woman who was in emotional distress?

  He would be using an opportunity he had no right to exploit. And if it worked, he’d never know whether it had only worked because he had been in the right place at the right time and had caught her on the rebound. Mike wanted more than that. He wanted Emily to want him as much as he wanted her. Not as a substitute or an alternative, or anything else that wasn’t as solid and genuine as he knew Emily would want long term.

  How long would she need to get her heart and head into a clear space? Weeks? Months?

  Would she even have the slightest interest in more than a friendship?

  Fear that she might not gnawed at Mike’s patience.

  But he had sensed something tonight, he was sure of it. The way she had looked at him had been what had made that call so close earlier. He’d had the crazy idea she might have welcomed what he had really wanted to say about her staying close to him.

  Maybe not right now, of course, when the anxiety and tension concerning their missing patient was building to crisis level, but what if they found her and she was OK, and Emily would be feeling much happier…?

  If Mike was honest with himself, it wasn’t fear that was wearing his resolve thinner by the minute.

  It was hope.

  There
was a signposted track into the rainforest that started at the lay-by, and it was the most obvious route Megan would have taken if she had wanted to hide. The main track divided into three smaller branches within fifty metres of the entrance to the forest and Emily studied a board that had a map of the tracks and information about the forest.

  Highlights for tourists were noted, such as a stand of giant kauri trees, various creeks and a small waterfall, and a boardwalk structure that had been built to allow visitors to climb into the canopy of the forest. She also spotted the warning not to eat any fruit or berries and that many of the species of flora and fauna were protected.

  Equipment such as helmets with lights was being distributed and radios were being tuned to the same channel by members of the police and fire services who were called out for such purposes. Three groups were then formed to cover each of the tracks, and a doctor assigned to each group.

  Emily found herself in a group with Harry, their local cop, another police officer and Mike.

  ‘We went to school together,’ Harry told Emily as they set off on their designated fork from the main track. ‘Mike and I have done a fair bit of bush walking up here in our time.’

  They moved very slowly, turning their heads to shine the lamps into what looked like impenetrable vegetation on either side of the track. It wasn’t a complete barrier, however, for someone who was determined or frightened enough. You could push your way under and through the ferns and palm leaves and climb over fallen logs and root buttresses.

  The dilemma of how much ground they should cover or how far from the track to search had been discussed in the initial briefing. For the next thirty minutes they would cover a fair distance and search two metres on either side of the track. If they failed to find any sign of Megan they would then divide the area into a grid and work methodically over each section.

  There was a good chance they would simply find her on the track and, if so, the faster they could get her back to medical attention the better, but when thirty minutes had passed with no answer to their calls and no signs of the teenager, Emily began to think of other possibilities.