A Family for Chloe

by Lucy Clark

  ‘Eddie! Eddie!’ Chloe clapped her hands in the back seat and hugged Captain Gumleaf close. ‘I want to talk to Eddie.’

  ‘Hopefully we’ll make that happen,’ Harriette told her. ‘Until then, would you like to listen to some music?’

  ‘Yes. Music! Music!’

  Harriette put a CD on, singing along with Chloe to the songs, surprised when Felix joined in, his lovely baritone blending nicely. ‘You have an incredible voice,’ she told him when the song had finished.

  His grin was a little sheepish and he shrugged one shoulder. ‘My mother used to like it when I’d sing to her. She told me I had the voice of an angel and I probably did, given I hadn’t properly gone through puberty.’ He chuckled and Harriette closed her eyes for a moment, not only delighted at the sound of his laughter but also the brightness in his eyes as he talked of his mother. ‘I don’t remember singing much after she died. I guess I never really had a reason.’ He reached out and laced his fingers with hers. ‘Until now.’ He glanced across at her. ‘You make me happy, Harriette.’ He kissed her hand then let it go before gesturing to the wide open space they were currently driving through. ‘Out here, in the middle of nowhere, I can start to believe that things can change, that life doesn’t have to be a drudge.’

  ‘And it makes me happy to hear you talk that way.’ She leaned over and placed a kiss to his cheek, her seatbelt restraining her from doing anything further.

  ‘Do that again,’ he stated and she did, but this time when she went to kiss his cheek, he turned his head so their lips could meet.

  ‘Oi! Focus on the road,’ she told him and was rewarded with another of his delicious chuckles. Today’s drive would take them closer towards Darwin but still three or four hours out of town. The clinic was a small one, for which she was grateful, and tomorrow they would go and see Felix’s father. She wondered whether he’d start to withdraw from her as the time neared for him to come face-to-face with the man who had caused him pain. She still had no idea what had transpired between the two of them all those years ago but hopefully they’d be able to restore their relationship before it was too late.

  By the time they arrived at the next homestead for the final clinic, it was almost midday and no sooner were they out of the car than they were swamped by a group of anxious-faced farmers who had all been talking together in a group by the barn.

  ‘You gotta come out with us. There’s been an accident. The air ambulance has been called but it’s gonna take them a while to get here. Get back in the ute,’ one man said as he climbed into the back, stopping when he saw Chloe sitting there, looking at him with her big eyes. ‘You got a squirt in here, Doc.’

  ‘I know I have.’

  ‘A squirt?’ Felix asked, bristling at the other man’s high-handed attitude.

  ‘A child,’ Harriette offered as Chloe started to niggle. ‘It’s all right, darling.’

  ‘Sorry, squirt. Didn’t mean to scare ya,’ the man said and waited while Harriette unclipped Chloe’s seatbelt, the child instantly throwing herself into Harriette’s arms. ‘My kids are inside playing. You wanna go see them?’ the man continued and Harriette nodded.

  ‘Good idea. I’ll take her inside, Clem, and you can tell Felix what’s happened.’ She looked at Felix. ‘That OK with you?’

  ‘Sure.’ He winked at Chloe and blew her a kiss, delighted when she blew one back. Harriette carried Chloe and her bag into the homestead and spoke with Clem’s wife, Josie. As soon as Chloe saw the other children, twin girls who were about her age, watching her favourite television show, she instantly wriggled out of Harriette’s arms and went to sit down with the others.

  ‘She’ll be fine,’ Josie reassured her. ‘Leave her here as long as you need to.’

  ‘She’s become quite adept at playing with other children these past few days,’ Harriette remarked as she kissed the top of Chloe’s head before walking towards the door. ‘Thanks, Josie.’ When she reached the ute, it was to find Clem sitting in the front and Felix already behind the wheel, buckling his seat belt. She quickly climbed into the back and buckled up. ‘What’s happening?’

  ‘Tractor accident,’ Clem told her as they drove off towards the outer paddock, leaving the other men to follow in a different vehicle. ‘Aaron Smithfield. He was coming over for the clinic and decided to drive across paddock in his tractor. Not the first time he’s done it and it won’t be the last. Cuts a lot of time off the journey.’

  ‘Naturally.’

  ‘Tractor got a split in the tyre and when Aaron was changing it, the jack broke and the tyre landed on him. Leg’s badly broken up. Lucky for Aaron, he had his cellphone in his pocket and managed to get an emergency call through to report it. Couple of my blokes are already out there, keeping him conscious and stuff like that, but from the reports his leg looks badly busted up.’

  ‘Any bleeding?’

  ‘Yeah. A bit.’

  ‘Has he lost consciousness?’ Felix asked.

  ‘Don’t know.’ Clem pointed out to a large tree. ‘Head over there and then turn left at the tree. I’ve put cattle grids in so we don’t need to get out and open any gates.’

  ‘Good.’ The sooner they were able to get to Aaron, the better, and when they finally arrived it was to discover that Clem’s blokes, the men who worked on the land, had erected a makeshift tent over Aaron in order to provide some shade from the hot summery sun and removed the tyre.

  ‘We’ve sprayed him with some insect repellent, too,’ one of the men said.

  ‘Thanks,’ Harriette remarked as she and Felix carried their emergency bags towards their next patient. ‘How’s it going, Aaron?’ she asked.

  ‘Feeling faint, Doc,’ he told her.

  ‘Understandable.’ She took Aaron’s pulse as Felix hooked the stethoscope into his ears and listened to Aaron’s heartbeat. She checked his eyes and asked if he’d hit his head.

  ‘I don’t think so. I may have blacked out at some point but I don’t remember.’

  ‘Are you allergic to any medicines?’ Felix asked as he took out a pre-measured syringe of morphine.

  ‘Not that I know of, Doc. Not usually the sick type, if you know what I mean, but the wife said I had to come to the clinic and get my immunisations or else I would end up being the sick type and she wasn’t gonna have me die from stupidity and leave her alone to raise the kids out here.’

  Harriette ran her gloved fingers carefully over Aaron’s legs, then reached for the heavy-duty scissors and cut his hard-wearing denim jeans open. Felix finished administering the morphine. ‘This will help you.’

  ‘That’s a nasty fracture you’ve got there, Aaron,’ Harriette remarked as she exposed the area, shooing away the flies. She could hear Clem talking to some of the blokes, mentioning that they had to make an area for the air ambulance to land safely.

  ‘The closer we can get the plane to Aaron, the better,’ Clem was saying. Harriette stared at the fracture for a long moment, wondering if the orthopaedic surgeons would be able to fix the badly crushed tibia and fibula. Aaron’s foot had also sustained a few fractures and the area was, generally, a mess.

  ‘How’s the femur?’ she asked Felix as he inspected the upper part of Aaron’s leg, checking the thigh for fractures.

  ‘It looks intact but his blood pressure isn’t strong so there may be internal bleeding.’

  ‘I’ll get his leg splinted,’ she remarked, but first she put a neck brace around Aaron’s neck. ‘Need to keep your head still so we don’t do any damage to your spine.’

  ‘Yep. Pain’s going now,’ Aaron said and started to close his eyes.

  ‘Aaron? I need you to stay with me,’ she told him. ‘Talk to me. Tell me about those kids of yours. How many do you have?’

  Felix performed Aaron’s observations as Harriette stabilised the leg and his report indicated that, even
though the badly fractured leg was a mess, there was obviously something else wrong. Somewhere, Aaron was bleeding internally.

  ‘How long until the air ambulance gets here?’ Felix called to Clem, a clipped and urgent note in his tone.

  ‘ETA two minutes.’

  ‘There’s a portable stretcher in the back of our ute. Can someone get it, please?’ No sooner had he asked, than it was brought over.

  ‘Leg is splinted,’ Harriette reported as she once more asked Aaron questions about his family. Aaron, in typically Aussie-outback fashion, was hanging in there, showing he was made of tougher stuff and wasn’t going to give in to a little thing like internal bleeding.

  ‘Plus, if I was to die out here,’ he tried to joke, ‘me missus would have me guts for garters.’

  ‘You’re not going to die,’ Felix told him. ‘Both Harriette and I are trained surgeons and if we have to open you up here and now in order to save your life then you can bet that’s exactly what we’ll do.’

  ‘Truly? Operate in a field?’

  ‘Plane sighted! Coming in for landing!’ Clem yelled, jumping up and down and waving his arms about.

  ‘But if necessary, the plane will do,’ Felix added.

  ‘You’ll make it to the hospital in time,’ Harriette remarked. ‘Once we get you in that plane, we can give you some top-up fluids, which will definitely help you feel better.’

  ‘Yeah?’ Aaron sounded hopeful. ‘I’m not gonna die today?’

  ‘Sorry to disappoint you.’ Harriette chuckled. Soon, they had him safely transferred to the plane, both Harriette and Felix deciding to travel with Aaron.

  ‘If we need to operate, I’ll need you there,’ Felix had told her when she’d said she’d stay and do the clinic.

  ‘Don’t worry about your squirt,’ Clem told her. ‘We’ll take good care of her.’

  ‘We’ll be back as soon as possible,’ Harriette told him before the door to the plane was closed and they were getting ready for take-off. Thankfully, they were able to get some plasma into Aaron, which made a big difference to his status so that when they arrived at Darwin hospital, a team of emergency specialists waiting for them, their patient was whisked away into the care of the trained orthopaedic team.

  ‘So...’ Felix asked her as they walked through the hospital. ‘How do we get back to the homestead?’

  ‘First, we go to the cafeteria and have a coffee. Then we chat to the local pilots and see if we can’t work something out.’ As they headed to the cafeteria Felix looked around at the walls and smiled.

  ‘I’d almost forgotten what it was like.’

  ‘The walls or the feel of a hospital?’

  He grinned at her words. ‘The feel of a hospital. I took leave when I was notified of David’s death and then, when Oscar suggested I come to Meeraji Lake, I took a twelve-month sabbatical from my hospital in Sydney.’

  ‘And you’ll go back there when you’re done in Meeraji Lake?’

  ‘That’s the plan,’ he stated, but there was a hint of confusion in his tone.

  ‘You sound a little unsure.’

  ‘Well...’ He took her hand in his and laced their fingers together. ‘There have been quite a few developments in my life and, honestly, who knows what might happen? The fact remains that we’re only babysitting the hospital for Daisy and Oscar and when they eventually return, it’ll be time to move on.’

  ‘But to where?’ she asked.

  ‘That,’ he remarked as they sipped their coffee, ‘is the million-dollar question.’

  ‘Not back to Sydney?’

  Felix frowned thoughtfully, considering the question, but before he could answer they were interrupted when someone called his name.

  ‘Felix McLaren?’ A small, white-coated doctor was headed their way, the man having a moustache and a large mop of curly dark hair on his head. ‘Felix? Is that really you?’

  ‘Myron? Wow.’ Felix stood up, towering over the other man, and shook hands with him.

  ‘What on earth are you doing in a Darwin hospital? I thought you were ensconced in the hierarchy of Sydney General for ever.’

  Felix shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Times have a habit of changing.’ When Myron looked pointedly at Harriette, Felix quickly remembered his manners. ‘Allow me to introduce my colleague, Harriette Jones.’

  Myron shook hands with Harriette, smiling warmly, and Harriette found she instantly liked the man. He was bright and jovial and clearly held Felix in high esteem. ‘Your ears must have been burning,’ he told Felix a moment later as he pulled up a chair and sat down at their table. ‘As I was only talking about you this morning.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘We’ve had a patient come in overnight who requires an intricate hernia repair and bowel resection. I was explaining to my colleagues how you basically wrote the book on that type of surgery and it was a pity you were so far away in Sydney because it would be amazing for them to watch you perform the surgery, just as it was for me all those years ago. So...’ Myron grinned at him. ‘How long are you in Darwin? Feel like doing surgery?’

  ‘Uh...’ Felix looked at Harriette, then down at the table. ‘I’m not licensed to practise here.’

  ‘Actually, you are,’ Harriette interjected. ‘As doctors at Meeraji Lake, we’re automatically granted visiting medical/surgical officer status here at Darwin hospital.’

  ‘You’re at Meeraji Lake?’ Myron seemed shocked but quickly recovered. ‘At any rate, it’s my gain so why would I bother looking a gift horse in the mouth?’

  ‘Actually, I have a clinic to do, plus I—’

  ‘At least come and review the patient,’ Myron interrupted, clearly not wanting to hear any excuses from Felix. Felix looked at Harriette.

  ‘Why don’t you go and I’ll organise our trip back to the homestead?’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘You don’t need to ask my permission,’ she told him, and before he walked away she saw that bright spark in his eyes, that lightness to his step and realised that, even though he’d made the sacrifice to work at Meeraji Lake for Chloe’s sake, it was a shame that he wasn’t able to do what he clearly loved, which was dealing with the difficult cases and saving lives.

  He might not want to head back to the big city after his stint in the outback, but she couldn’t see him not working in a hospital environment. He seemed to have come alive ever since they’d set foot inside the hospital and, although Darwin was nowhere near as big as Sydney or Melbourne, it was still a fairly decent size as far as cities went. He’d be able to work shorter hours, perform difficult surgeries and still spend time with Chloe. Plus there were some excellent schools here in Darwin so Chloe would be well catered for with her education.

  And what would she do? Would she return to Melbourne? The opposite end of the country? Would she stay? Move to Darwin? Start afresh...afresh with Felix and Chloe?

  Trying not to be swamped with an air of despondence, Harriette pulled out her cellphone and called the air ambulance and Royal Flying Doctor Service to see if anyone was heading towards the homestead where they were supposed to have started clinic almost an hour ago. There weren’t any flights scheduled at the moment but they promised to give her a call if things changed. Next, she called Clem’s homestead to check on Chloe and to give them an updated report on Aaron’s situation.

  ‘Aaron’s brother, Paul, has a chopper on his property so he’s going to fly Aaron’s missus to the hospital in about two hours’ time,’ Clem told her after she’d had a chat with Chloe, who seemed quite happy. ‘So if you and Felix want a lift back to pick up the squirt, then Paul can bring you back then.’

  ‘Sounds perfect,’ Harriette agreed. ‘Sorry about the clinic. Looks like we may have to postpone it.’

  ‘Already taken care of. People will either need to make a date in Dar
win for treatment or wait until next month for the next clinic. It’s no sweat, Doc.’

  ‘Thanks, Clem. See you later on, then.’ After she disconnected the call, Harriette tried calling Eddie but only got his voicemail so left him a message saying she missed him. She could really do with listening to some of Eddie’s adventure stories right now. Anything to take her mind off how Felix was starting to tie her in knots.

  She put her thoughts on hold and went in to the ICU, which was where she presumed the sick patient would be located. Sure enough, there she found Felix, a gaggle of nurses, registrars and interns gathered around him as he pointed to a set of patient X-rays on the large viewing box. He was explaining the intricacies of the procedure and some of the interns were furiously writing down notes. Myron was beaming from ear to ear, as though he’d done the impossible and snagged the biggest fish around and was proudly showing him off for his friends. Felix was...famous. Or, at least, in medical circles he was. She thought back to his first day in Meeraji Lake and wondered if Patrick realised just how brilliant the surgeon who had removed his appendix really was.

  When Felix glanced over and saw her standing off to the side, he raised his eyebrows in greeting before returning his attention to a registrar who was asking him a question. Harriette waited patiently, listening to everything he was saying, and when he was done, and had been thanked for his time, he walked over to Harriette, a large grin on his face.

  ‘I’d forgotten how much fun teaching could be. I always enjoyed educating the students...and registrars,’ he said pointedly and winked at her. ‘I could help you study when we get back to ensure you pass those end-of-year exams with flying colours.’

  ‘Uh...yeah. Thanks.’ It was a generous offer and she knew she should be more grateful but what she really wanted from Felix wasn’t a study buddy. What she wanted from Felix was the man deep down inside him, the man who had opened up to her, the man who, she realised in that split second, had stolen her heart. She wasn’t the type of woman to give her heart easily, but the fact that Felix had most certainly made an impression, and one that had caused her entire being to swell with love for him, was a miracle in itself. Stunned by the realisation, Harriette continued to stare at him, completely dumbfounded. It wasn’t until he waved his fingers in front of her face and called her name that she snapped out of it.