Twin Surprise for the Italian Doc

by Alison Roberts

  ‘No.’

  Matteo was already going through the motions of drawing up the morphine.

  ‘What dosage are you administering?’ one of the judges asked.

  ‘We’ll start with five milligrams,’ Luke replied. ‘We can top that up if the pain scale isn’t reduced to less than five.’

  The judge nodded. ‘The drug has been administered.’

  Matteo began tidying up and Luke was checking their briefing sheet that gave a list of available hospitals and means of transport. They needed to choose the most appropriate option, which ranged from leaving the patient where he was, transport by helicopter or ambulance to the nearest general hospital, a higher-level hospital or a specialised centre.

  Matteo dropped the packages of IV gear back into his pack and turned to pick up the blood-pressure cuff.

  To his horror, he could see that their patient now seemed to be having trouble breathing and he was clutching at his chest.

  ‘Luke...’ The word was a warning. He reached out to take the man’s pulse. ‘Do you have chest pain, sir?’

  Their patient didn’t respond. His head fell back against the pillow and he was gasping for breath.

  Luke was still processing this unexpected twist in their scenario.

  ‘Do we see any skin changes?’

  ‘You see redness appearing,’ a judge said. ‘And hives.’

  Nothing more than a glance between Luke and Matteo was needed.

  ‘Anaphylaxis to morphine,’ Matteo agreed quietly. ‘I’ll get a bag of fluids up. And we need some adrenaline, stat.’

  They both worked swiftly to counter a potentially fatal situation, administering drugs, getting their patient on oxygen and a cardiac monitor. Within a couple of minutes the judges were nodding with satisfaction and declared the scenario complete. They just wanted to ask some questions.

  ‘What is your hospital of choice for this patient?’

  ‘Hospital A,’ Luke told them. ‘They have an internal medicine department and an intensive care unit and they are the closest.’

  ‘And what is the most important information to pass on about your patient?’

  ‘That he has a previously undiscovered allergy to morphine. We will write it on his notes and make sure the information is received by everyone we speak to. We will also advise the patient that it would be a good idea to wear a Medic-Alert bracelet from now on.’

  ‘That was good.’ Matteo slapped Luke on the back as they left the house. ‘I might not have thought of recommending the bracelet.’

  ‘I was too slow to spot the change in our patient’s condition. Well done, you.’

  Matteo grinned at his friend. ‘We make a good team.’

  ‘We’ve got a break now, haven’t we? About an hour?’

  ‘We should use it to do the driving test.’

  ‘Okay.’ Matteo was looking forward to this test. He might work on helicopters now but his early years as a paramedic had been on the road and he loved the challenge of driving fast and doing it well.

  A gravelled area beside the river that ran through this village had been cordoned off for this part of the competition and a line of orange road cones marked the course. They could see an ambulance completing the test as they arrived, clouds of dust billowing as it snaked around the cones at high speed and then came to a sudden halt between the cones marking the end of the course.

  Another car was waiting for its turn.

  The car with the Scottish flags.

  And there it was again...

  Distraction. A delicious buzz of anticipation at the knowledge he would be seeing Georgia again.

  It had always been a given that he would thoroughly enjoy coming to this competition again.

  A smile took over his face as he spotted Georgia sitting in the driver’s seat of the girls’ vehicle. He just hadn’t realised how much better it would be this time.

  ‘Cute,’ he murmured.

  The swift glance from Luke held a note of surprise. Or maybe concern. Did he think that Matteo was here to chase women rather than focus on their performance? He thought fast, putting a casual smile on his face as he shifted his gaze from the woman in the driver’s seat. ‘I didn’t notice that before.’

  The look of surprise increased as Luke raised his eyebrows. ‘You mean Georgia? Or Kate?’

  Okay. Maybe his interpretation of that glance had been accurate.

  He hoped his laugh was as casual as his smile.

  ‘Oh, the girls are both cute but that wasn’t what I was looking at. Have you seen what is tied to the front of their car?’

  It was a stuffed toy bear that was wearing a kilt and holding a set of bagpipes.

  Matteo rolled down his window and pointed to the toy, raising his voice so that Georgia could hear him. ‘He is going to get dirty, I think.’

  ‘All part of the fun.’ Georgia was grinning at him as she called back. Holding his gaze.

  Mio Dio... That smile. The sparkle in those eyes. It was enough to make Matteo’s breath catch. For an odd warmth to ignite in his gut and then spread all the way through his body.

  What was it about this woman that was so different?

  So compelling?

  Could Georgia feel this same unusual level of attraction? Possibly not, by how focussed she clearly was on what she was about to do.

  ‘Which one of you is going to do the driving? You’re only allowed one person in the vehicle.’

  There was a hint of something in her eyes. A challenge perhaps? Or did she want to watch him showing what he was capable of?

  His lips twitched in a suppressed smile. He would be more than happy to demonstrate any skill she might be interested in—and he was apparently good at many things that women liked...

  But did Luke want to do the driving?

  No. His companion was already unclipping his safety belt.

  ‘You do it,’ he said to Matteo. ‘You’ve got far more experience with emergency driving skills than I have. I’ll wait with Kate.’

  ‘Cool.’ Matteo nodded as Luke got out of the car. He could focus now.

  He needed to know exactly what was required to make sure he aced this particular test.

  He needed to make sure he impressed Georgia...

  * * *

  ‘You’re a bit quiet, Georgie. Not worried about the next task, are you?’

  ‘Not at all. I was just thinking about that driving test. I could have done better.’

  Georgia wished she’d done better. She might not have been able to see his face but she’d known that Matteo was watching her and the effect had been to make her very uncharacteristically self-conscious. Clumsy even. She had felt his gaze on her like a physical touch of his hand on her skin and the hyperawareness it had created had messed with her concentration. How embarrassing had it been to send those road cones flying on her first attempt at the serpentine? It wasn’t until she had been able to shut him out of her thoughts that she’d been able to demonstrate what she was capable of.

  ‘You did great.’ Kate’s tone was reassuring.

  ‘Not as great as Matteo,’ Georgia muttered.

  Kate grinned. ‘He was something else, wasn’t he? I’ve never seen anyone drive like that. So fast. And he didn’t touch a single cone.’

  Georgia scowled. ‘Thanks for reminding me.’

  Kate laughed. ‘Let it go. I’ll bet there are other things he’s not as good at. He’s a boy. And he’s Italian. Maybe he had a Ferrari when he was a teenager.’

  Oh, man, there was an image to play with. A younger version of Matteo Martini. With much longer hair perhaps, behind the wheel of a very fast car. With that easy grin on his face and only one hand on the wheel because his other arm would be over the shoulders of the girl in the passenger seat. Because there would be a girl, no doubt about that. Or maybe his han
d would be resting on her leg, his thumb making lazy circles on that sensitive skin on her inner thigh. The girl would be smiling, too, of course. Georgia certainly would be...

  It was ridiculous to experience a twinge of something so easily recognisable as envy.

  No, it was even worse than envy. This felt like jealousy, thanks to the way Georgia’s eyes were narrowing. She shook her head to stop it happening.

  ‘What’s the next task about?’

  ‘It’s called “School Bag”. We’re being called to a teacher who has tripped over a school bag and is lying on the floor, not moving. She’s unconscious but breathing. Head injury, do you think?’

  ‘I’m sure it won’t be that simple. We’ll have to make sure we rule out other causes of unconsciousness. Was the fall the cause or did she fall because of something else?’

  ‘Like a cardiac event.’

  ‘Yes. Or hypoglycaemia, drug overdose, a stroke, seizures, anaphylaxis, alcohol. It’s a long list.’

  ‘Let’s hope there’s someone around who can tell us exactly what happened. We need to know how she was acting immediately before she fell.’

  The only other people in the classroom with the unconscious woman, however, apart from the silent judges, were a group of young children who were taking every advantage of their teacher being unable to control them. Some were having a race around the room, jumping from one desk top to another. One was ripping pages from a textbook. They were all shouting and laughing.

  The teacher was lying face down near the blackboard. A school satchel was close to her feet, spilling its contents of an apple, drink bottle and box of pencils. Kate felt for a pulse on their patient’s neck the moment they got close enough.

  ‘Hello...can you hear me?’

  ‘You have no response,’ a judge informed her. ‘The heart rate is one hundred and twenty.’

  They rolled their patient carefully so that they could protect her airway. The noise in the classroom increased and Kate was hit on the head by a ball of screwed-up paper. Georgia’s head swerved and caught the culprit—the boy who’d been ripping pages from the book. He grinned at Georgia.

  An impish grin beneath a wild mop of curly hair. Such a cute kid, she had to stop herself grinning back. Instead, she jumped to her feet and tried to find her sternest expression. If they couldn’t get this scene under control, it was going to make it impossible to do their job well.

  ‘Enough,’ she shouted. ‘All of you kids come here. At once.’

  A chair toppled with a crash in the sudden silence that followed. One by one, the children came closer. They were all acting so well, with their heads down to show that they knew they were in trouble. One little girl, with huge blue eyes and long plaits, was biting her lip and looking so scared that Georgia just wanted to give her a cuddle.

  ‘It’s okay,’ she told them. ‘But you have to stop being naughty. Your teacher is sick. Did anyone see what happened?’

  ‘She fell over,’ one of the children said.

  ‘And before that?’

  The children shook their heads. One boy turned away and pushed another one, who pushed back. Georgia caught a third boy who stepped past her, poised to start running again. From the corner of her eye, she could see Kate taking some baseline measurements, including blood glucose. Then she looked at one of the judges.

  ‘Is there someone available who could look after these children?’

  ‘There is a school caretaker outside the room.’ A nod from the judge was the signal for the young actors to leave the scene. The boy who’d thrown the paper ball grinned at Georgia again as he left and this time she did return the smile. Along with a quick wink.

  ‘Blood glucose too low to register,’ Kate said behind her. ‘Skin is cold and clammy and she’s still tachycardic.’

  ‘Cool. I’ll set up for a glucose infusion.’ Georgia turned back to the task as the door closed behind the last of the children. They could work in peace now but there was a part of her that was missing the energy that had been in the room a moment ago.

  An energy that only children could provide. That wholehearted enthusiasm for being alive that adults learned to control too well sometimes. Taking advantage of an opportunity for adventure was a hallmark of a happy child and it always seemed to involve either laughter or tears—a pendulum that could swing unpredictably.

  Georgia loved the unexpected.

  And she loved kids. Even more than babies. She’d had always had dreams of having a whole bunch of them. A messy house and lots of noise with hopefully more laughter than tears. A frantic routine of cooking, cleaning, cuddles and school runs to deliver her little tribe to classrooms just like this one.

  She had a job to do now that had nothing to do with small people and the fragment of that dream that the extras in this scenario had prompted was easy enough to push aside.

  But it was a reminder that it was still there. Getting stronger with every passing week. If she was going to achieve even a part of that dream she was going to have to do it soon.

  And having a kid you could take to school had to start in a very different place.

  With having a baby.

  And that brought her straight back to the plan she had just abandoned on moral grounds—of using this competition as an opportunity to start that journey to parenthood.

  Georgia dismissed that line of thought easily as well as she taped the cannula to their patient’s arm as evidence that an IV line had been established.

  As they monitored the effects of their treatment, she tried to think of anything they might be missing that could be another twist in this scenario.

  ‘She’s not wearing a Medic-Alert bracelet, is she?’

  ‘No.’ Kate moved the collar of the shirt their patient was wearing. ‘Or a necklace.’

  ‘Can you check her bag? Or the drawer in her desk? It would be useful to know what medication she’s on. Is she using insulin or medication to lower her blood sugar? She might have overdosed.’

  Kate did find a packet of tablets in the teacher’s bag but they weren’t what they might have expected.

  ‘These are antidepressants, aren’t they?’

  ‘Yes.’

  The woman lying on the floor began to move and she groaned softly.

  ‘Your patient’s blood glucose level is returning to normal,’ one of the judges said. ‘What is your plan for transport?’

  Georgia thought fast. ‘We will transport her to hospital. She has no one here to watch her and we don’t know what her normal regime is for her diabetes control.’

  ‘Which hospital do you choose?’

  ‘Hospital B.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because it’s a higher-level hospital and there are psychiatric services available. The fact that she’s taking antidepressants suggests that there are additional issues for this patient that might be affecting her control of her disease.’

  The judges nod was pleased. So was Kate’s.

  ‘Good job,’ she whispered, as they left the scene. ‘I probably would have picked Hospital A because it was the closest. And I might not have thought to check her bag either.’

  ‘You get patients delivered to you with a handover of any available information. I guess I’m just used to searching for clues.’ Georgia shoved the bulky pack of gear into the back of the car. ‘It’s one of the things I love about my job—getting to play detective on scene along with being the medic.’

  Matteo shared her passion for this job. He was probably as good at playing detective on scene as he was at emergency driving. They’d never run out of fascinating things to talk about, would they?

  Oh, boy...this was getting worse. She was actually thinking in terms of for ever? Of growing old together and still not running out of conversation?

  ‘You have to deal with all the distractions, too,’ Kate added. ‘Those
kids were doing my head in to start with.’

  The bunch of children was being ushered back into the building now, probably to prepare for the next scenario. As Kate and Georgia drove away, they spotted a car they recognised heading towards the school.

  ‘I think those boys are stalking us.’

  Kate’s lips twitched as if she was trying not to smile. ‘Just coincidence.’ But she turned her head to watch the car disappear. ‘I wonder how they’ll cope with finding a riot going on.’

  Georgia lapsed into silence. Matteo would cope very well. He probably wouldn’t even need to shout at the children to get their attention and gain control of the scene. He’d only need to smile at them and they would be eating out of his hand because they’d know how much he loved kids.

  And he did love kids. A large part of the conversation they’d had over drinks last night, when Kate and Luke had been talking quietly, had been about his family. About how much he adored his sister’s children and what a thrill the recent birth of a new nephew had been. It sounded as if the entire Martini clan had been at the hospital to welcome that new arrival and Georgia hadn’t missed the way Matteo had spoken about his other sisters and his mother. She could have sworn he’d actually had tears in his eyes at one point. Family was clearly of the utmost importance in his life.

  And wouldn’t he make the best father? He would be totally devoted to his children and there would be a huge, extended family in the wings to make every milestone a glorious celebration.

  If that was what Georgia was looking for, Matteo would be perfect.

  A few years ago even, when she’d still had the dream that she could find her perfect partner and be totally confident that her own children would never face the kind of fear that had poisoned her own childhood, Matteo would have stood out as being exactly what she was searching for. Gorgeous and confident and super-smart. She’d been more than impressed to learn about his postgraduate qualifications in resuscitation and aeromedical transportation.

  But the last remnants of that dream had come crashing down in the wake of the brutal ending of her last relationship. Her heart had been broken for the last time and she knew not to trust that tiny flutter of hope that had come from nowhere when she’d seen this gorgeous Italian for the first time.