Saving Dr. Cooper

by Jennifer Taylor

  She summoned a smile for the little boy lying on the bed, hoping that the rest of the team hadn’t noticed anything amiss. Ben Carlisle was attending to the fireman so at least she wouldn’t have to deal with him, which was a relief. Deliberately, she blocked him from her mind.

  ‘You’ve been a really brave boy, Damien. Nurse is going to give you some special medicine to stop your leg hurting and then another doctor will come and see you.’

  ‘Want my mummy,’ the little boy wailed, his eyes filling with tears.

  ‘I know you do, poppet.’ Heather gently patted his hand then glanced at Melanie. ‘Is his mother waiting outside? It might be better if we let her come and sit with him. There’s no point in him getting upset.’

  ‘She didn’t come with him.’ Melanie lowered her voice so the child couldn’t overhear. ‘From what I could gather she’d gone out and left him in the flat on his own. A neighbour alerted the fire crew when they arrived and told them the child was still inside the building.’

  ‘But he’s only a baby!’ Heather found it impossible to hide her dismay. ‘How on earth could any mother leave a child that age on his own?’

  ‘No idea, but it happens all too often, I’m afraid.’ Melanie glanced across the room and sighed. ‘Evidently, the fireman who rescued him was lucky not to be killed. The whole place caved in just seconds after he got the kid out.’

  Heather shuddered, unable to stop the rapid play of images that flashed through her head. They were part of the nightmare that had haunted her since Stewart had died. Everyone had said that he’d been a hero but it was hard to find comfort in that fact when all she could think about was what she had lost that day.

  ‘Heather, are you OK?’

  ‘Fine. I was just wondering if we should ask the police to find the mother,’ she said briskly when she heard the concern in Melanie’s voice. She mustn’t think about what had happened to Stewart. She must focus on what needed doing, instead of allowing her emotions to run away with her. ‘If they questioned the neighbours then someone might be able to tell them where she went.’

  ‘Want me to have word with them?’ Melanie offered. ‘There’s a policeman waiting outside so I could ask him.’

  ‘No. It’s OK. I’ll do it. The burns reg should be here any minute….’ Heather glanced round as the door opened and Alan Fontain appeared. ‘Ah, here he is now.’

  She quickly relayed everything that had been done for the little boy for the benefit of the other registrar. Alan was of the same opinion as her, that the child had been extremely fortunate to have got off with such a small area of damage. He made arrangements to admit Damien to the burns unit then hurriedly left.

  ‘If you’ll take Damien to the burns unit, Mel, I’ll have a word with that policeman,’ Heather began, only to stop once more when Ben approached her.

  ‘Would you mind taking a look at this chap for me, Heather? I don’t think the damage is too severe but I’ve not handled any cases like this before and I’d hate to miss anything.’

  The young registrar’s handsome face broke into a rueful smile. Ben had caused quite a stir since he’d started working in the accident and emergency unit but, so far as Heather was aware, he’d not asked any of the nurses out yet. ‘The effect of smoke inhalation is not something you see very often in the maternity unit, which was my last rotation!’

  ‘I don’t suppose it is,’ Heather conceded, trying to hide her dismay. However, the fact that she should feel the least bit worried about dealing with a patient alarmed her. What was it about this patient that disturbed her so much?

  ‘I’ll ask the police to chase up the mother,’ Melanie put in helpfully, shooting a megawatt smile at Ben.

  ‘Thanks.’ Heather formed her mouth into a smile but her lips felt as though they’d been turned to rubber all of a sudden. She would have to help Ben, of course, because it would be unforgivable to endanger a patient’s life by missing some vital sign which the younger doctor had overlooked.

  In silence she crossed the room and took the notes Ben handed her, using the few moments it took to read through them to calm her racing heart. Then, when she could delay no longer, she handed back the clipboard and turned to the man lying on the bed.

  ‘My name is Heather Cooper and I’m the senior registrar in the accident and emergency unit.’

  She couldn’t have counted the number of times she had introduced herself that very same way, yet for some reason the words sounded unfamiliar, as though it was the first time she’d ever said them, the first time they had really mattered.

  Her shocked grey eyes flew to the man’s face and stopped, held by the expression in the hazel ones which were regarding her with exactly the same degree of bewilderment. In that moment Heather knew that it wasn’t her imagination that something odd was going on because he could feel it, too. And the panic she’d felt before was nothing to the fear that suddenly gripped her.

  There was no room in her life for another hero!

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘IF YOU could just lean forward, Mr Tanner…a little more. That’s fine. Thank you.’

  Ross felt his rigid muscles relax as the cool fingers that had been touching his bare back were suddenly removed. Dr Heather Cooper’s examination had been extremely thorough, although he wasn’t foolish enough to imagine that he should read anything into it. Even though he knew nothing about her, he sensed that she would treat all her patients the same way. Dr Cooper was just very good at her job.

  Disbelief shot through him and the monitor blipped as his heart rate increased. He saw Heather Cooper’s eyes swivel towards the screen and willed himself to calm down. The last thing he wanted was for her to suspect that something was wrong with him, but it was hard to deal with the way he seemed to be behaving all of a sudden.

  Since when had he developed the gift of ESP? How on earth could he know that Heather was good at her job? He had no idea but it was worrying enough to cause his heart to fit in several more beats in rapid succession.

  ‘Do you have any chest pain at all?’

  Dr Cooper’s calm voice should have been the perfect antidote to his fanciful musings but Ross was past the point of no return by that stage. Blip, blip, blip went the damned machine as he shook his head, seemingly intent on making a liar of him.

  ‘Are you quite sure, Mr Tanner?’

  Those cool fingers returned to hold the chilly end of a stethoscope against his chest. Ross sucked in as much oxygen as his burning lungs would allow but the blasted machine rattled out another volley of blips. Heaven help him if Heather Cooper worked out that the reason why his heart was hopping up and down like a kid on a pogo stick was because she was touching him!

  ‘Relax, Mr Tanner. I know how worrying this must be for you but I’m confident that you’ve suffered only minimal damage to your throat and lungs….’

  She stopped talking while she listened, lightly holding the end of the stethoscope against his chest with the tips of her fingers. Ross focused on the pale ovals of her nails because that seemed a relatively harmless thing to do. Fingernails weren’t the least bit scary. Neither were they sexy, although Heather Cooper’s nails were particularly beautiful with those delicate half-moons at the base of each shimmering through the unvarnished shell-pink.

  Ross saw her stiffen as his heart gave an almighty surge. He closed his eyes, praying that nobody would notice the matching response that had occurred in another part of his body. Thankfully, the nurse had only removed his shirt and he was still wearing his uniform trousers beneath the sheet. With a bit of luck they would save him from any major embarrassment.

  ‘We’ll monitor what’s happening overnight.’

  Ross’s eyes flew open when he realised that Heather Cooper was speaking to him. She was calmly rolling up her stethoscope but there was a hint of colour in her cheeks that hadn’t been apparent before. His gaze dipped down then swooped back up in relief when he realised that the bulky trousers had safely preserved his modesty. If Dr Cooper was looking a
little hot under the collar then it had nothing to do with him.

  ‘I’m glad I asked you for a second opinion, Heather.’

  Ross’s eyes swivelled to the young man standing beside Heather Cooper and he felt a sudden stab of irritation. The fellow was gazing at her like a lovesick puppy! Didn’t he understand that a mature and intelligent woman like Heather wouldn’t be swayed by a good-looking face, that she needed a man of her own age and experience to satisfy her needs? A woman of Heather’s calibre wouldn’t look twice at someone several years her junior.

  Would she?

  Ross’s stomach sank when it struck him that he was making an awful lot of assumptions he wasn’t qualified to make. How could he say what Heather Cooper needed? Maybe that blush on her face was a direct result of working side by side with the handsome younger doctor? Maybe the pair were already involved in a relationship and being able to work together added an extra buzz?

  He’d watched enough hospital dramas on television while he’d been working night shifts to know there must be some basis for portraying hospitals as hotbeds of romance. Maybe the beautiful Dr Cooper and the handsome Dr Carlisle were starring in their very own series. Love in the Accident and Emergency Unit.

  Hell’s teeth!

  ‘It’s always safer to get a second opinion in a case like this, Ben.’

  Heather smiled at the young registrar, praying that he couldn’t tell how on edge she felt. Was it her imagination or had the tension level suddenly upped several degrees?

  She glanced at Abby McLeod, the sister in charge of the A and E unit that shift, and was relieved to receive a calm smile in return. Abby obviously hadn’t noticed anything amiss so it must be her imagination. Time to knock this on the head. Once Ross Tanner was off their hands then she could get back to normal.

  Hopefully…

  Heather blanked out that last thought by dint of sheer will-power. She turned to Ross Tanner again, finding it less stressful to focus strictly on professional matters. Tanner was a patient and it was her job to treat him as such.

  ‘I can find no indication of there being anything wrong with your heart, Mr Tanner, but, as I said, I shall recommend that you be kept on a monitor overnight.’ She shrugged. ‘We would have kept you in until we were sure that your lungs were clear so it’s simply a matter of attaching you to a bit more machinery.’

  ‘I had a medical last week and my heart and everything else that matters were fine.’

  Ross Tanner had eased the mask away from his mouth. Heather just managed to suppress a shiver when she heard his voice for the first time. Although the swelling in his throat would have caused some changes to its tone, she guessed that he normally had a wonderfully deep voice. She was overcome by a sudden desire to hear how it sounded once he’d recovered before she briskly dismissed the idea. Once Ross Tanner left Resus that would be the last she saw of him.

  ‘That’s good to hear, Mr Tanner.’ It was hard to ignore how disquieting she found that idea but Heather had become an expert at controlling her feelings. ‘I know how rigorous the fire brigade’s medical examinations are and can only repeat that I don’t believe there is a problem with your heart. It’s purely a precaution, you understand.’

  ‘The old belt and braces approach?’ Ross Tanner grinned at her, his teeth gleaming whitely through his smoke-blackened skin, his hazel eyes sparkling with amusement. ‘Well, I certainly can’t argue with that approach, Dr Cooper. If there’s one thing the brigade teaches you, it’s always to try and minimise any risks.’

  ‘I would have thought that was impossible in your job,’ she said tartly, praying that he couldn’t tell how mixed up she was feeling. Why on earth had her heart started racing because Tanner had smiled at her? What could it mean?

  ‘Surely every time you attend a fire you’re putting yourself at risk? The unexpected can always happen and nobody—nobody—can guarantee that it won’t!’

  Heather only realised that she’d raised her voice when she saw the startled expressions on everyone’s faces. She took a deep breath but it was hard to pretend nothing was wrong and pointless, too, when everyone could tell just by looking at her that she was upset.

  ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.’

  Ross Tanner reached over and touched her hand, just lightly, but it was still too much. Her emotions were too raw at that moment to withstand anyone’s sympathy and especially not his. Heather jerked her hand away and turned from the bed, ignoring Ben’s look of concern as she brushed past him.

  ‘Phone the bed manager and tell him that we have a patient who needs admitting, please. I’m taking my break now but page me if anything urgent crops up.’

  She didn’t wait to hear what Ben said in reply. She strode to the door but was forced to stop when Melanie and a porter came back with the trolley they’d used to take Damien to the burns unit. Heather waited while they wheeled it into the room then hurried out of the door, cursing under her breath when the hem of her white coat snagged on a rough splinter of wood.

  She stopped to disentangle herself, automatically glancing round and shaking her head when Melanie offered to help. Through the gap in the doors she could see Ross Tanner watching her and her heart felt as though it was going to burst right out of her chest when she saw the compassion in his eyes. He knew that comment she’d made about the unexpected happening had been based on experience. He had recognised her pain and empathised with it. He wanted to help her.

  The idea terrified her. The last thing Heather wanted was to talk about what had happened to Stewart. She couldn’t deal with the heartache it would unleash all over again. She needed to keep this pain safely locked away inside her. Opening her heart to Ross Tanner wasn’t an option.

  ‘Hey! I thought those were supposed to be for me?’

  Ross upended the paper bag and sighed when a solitary grape dropped onto the bed. ‘Thanks, guys—I don’t think!’

  ‘Blame Jack. He said there was no point giving you grapes because you wouldn’t be able to swallow them with your throat. He said he might as well save you a job.’ Terry Green grinned as he drew up a chair and sat down, but Ross could see the troubled light in the older man’s eyes.

  It was way past evening visiting hours but the crew from Red Watch had managed to persuade the ward sister to let them in to see him. Fortunately, Ross had been put in a side room off the main ward and the only other occupant—an elderly man—was watching television in the lounge. At least he didn’t need to feel guilty about disturbing anyone. He seemed to have caused enough upset for one day.

  He forced himself to concentrate on what Terry was saying, but the pain he’d glimpsed in Heather Cooper’s eyes had haunted him. There was no doubt in his mind that something dreadful had happened to Heather in the past and he resolved to find out all he could about it, although why he should be so interested was beyond him. However, if there was one thing Ross had learned to do it was to trust his instincts, and his instincts were telling him that this mattered. A lot.

  ‘I had no idea you’d turned back. One minute you were right behind me and the next time I looked you’d disappeared.’ Terry shook his head in dismay. He was obviously having a hard time dealing with what had gone on earlier that day.

  ‘I said that you needed your hearing testing,’ Jack Marsh—another of the crew—chipped in. ‘You have the telly turned up that loud in the break room that you have to be going deaf, and this just proves it!’

  ‘It was my fault,’ Ross cut in before a squabble could break out. Tensions always ran high after a member of the team was injured and he didn’t want to be the cause of an argument. ‘I was following you out, Terry, when I glimpsed something out of the corner of my eye and went to check it out. I should have told you what I was doing but there wasn’t time.’

  ‘Damn good job you did—check it out, I mean.’ Jack popped the last grape into his mouth and chewed it. ‘Another minute and the kid would have had it. The cupboard where you found him, Ross, ended up in the baseme
nt.’

  There was a moment’s silence as they all reflected on how close the child had come to being killed that day. Most of the men at Hexton fire station had children of their own and it was easy for them to imagine how they would have felt.

  At thirty-six, Ross still hadn’t found the right woman to settle down with and start a family, although he certainly hadn’t ruled out the chance of it happening. He loved kids and adored his sister’s twin boys. However, he was realistic enough to know that a woman who committed herself to a man who did the kind of job he did would have to be very special. Living with the risks involved was something he had long since accepted, but he’d seen too many relationships break up during his time with the brigade not to realise the toll it took. Would Heather Cooper be able to handle it?

  He coughed as the question caught him unawares. Although his throat was feeling a little easier, his lungs were still very sensitive. He accepted the oxygen mask Terry handed him, relieved that his expression was concealed by the opaque plastic.

  What would the guys say if they discovered he was having thoughts like that about a woman he’d met just a few hours ago? They’d probably think the smoke had affected his reasoning and maybe they’d be right, too. Heather Cooper wasn’t interested in him, as she had made abundantly clear.

  That thought was a little too close to the truth not to cause him some discomfort. As Ross drew in a few more breaths of oxygen his mind raced back over what had happened in the Resus room. Did Heather really have something going with that junior doctor?

  He tried to recall their body language even though he could scarcely believe he was doing anything so pathetic. He had a book full of phone numbers back at his flat, most of them belonging to women who were every bit as beautiful and desirable as Heather Cooper was. And yet when was the last time that he’d called any of them?

  It was alarming to realise that it must be a good six months since he’d been out on a date and that he couldn’t for the life of him remember who with, let alone where they had gone. Yet here he was, lying in a hospital bed and trying to remember exactly how Heather Cooper had looked at another man.