by Joanna Neil
She couldn’t think straight any more. His hands stroked along the length of her spine, drawing her to him, so that her breasts were crushed against the solid wall of his chest, and she felt the thunder of her heartbeat so strongly that she felt sure he must feel it too. He bent his head and began to nuzzle the delicate column of her throat.
She ran her hand lightly over his rib cage, expecting to feel the fine linen of his shirt, and encountered instead the thin cotton of his scrubs. A faint sense of shock ran through her. Scrubs meant that they were in the hospital…how could she have forgotten that?
Through the thin material, she absorbed the warmth of his skin, and everything in her wanted to lean in closer, to revel in the sheer heaven of being in his arms…only by now reality had stepped in, reminding her of where they were…and of what he had said. He didn’t believe in long-term relationships, and from her point of view it would be madness to even think about getting involved with any man right now. She’d been hurt once before, and why would she want to set herself up for more unhappiness?
Her palm flattened, gently pushing against his chest, and at the same time she shifted a little, moving out of reach of his seeking mouth.
He looked at her, his eyes still smoky with passion, but he registered her withdrawal and gazed at her questioningly.
‘I can’t do this,’ she said.
He took a slow step away from her, giving her breathing space, and she stayed very still for a moment, allowing herself time to think.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t mean to step out of line. I don’t know what came over me. It’s just that from the moment you walked into A&E this morning, it felt as though the world was putting itself right. It’s odd, I know. But it feels good having you around, and whenever you’re near me, lately, I get this urge to kiss you and hold you.’
She gave a rueful smile. ‘Perhaps you should try to overcome it,’ she said. ‘Like I said, I’m an old-fashioned kind of woman. I may hanker after the warmth and delight of a wonderful relationship and all that goes along with it, but I also want love and commitment, and I don’t think I’m prepared to give up on that dream. Not that you were offering any of that, of course…but just so that you know…I have enough to deal with right now. I’m not sure I’m ready for any of this.’ Her life was chaotic as she juggled so many different roles. How could she even think of getting tangled up in a relationship with a man who admitted his career took precedence over everything?
‘Of course. I’m totally out of order.’ He pressed his lips together in an expression of regret. ‘I don’t usually behave like this, you know…but then again, I’ve never met a woman quite like you before.’
‘You haven’t?’ She wasn’t at all sure whether she could believe him. Didn’t all the women who had fallen for him in the past believe that they were the one and only woman for him? What good had it done them when he had eventually moved on?
He shook his head. ‘You’re one of a kind, Ruby. Which makes me all the more keen not to upset you in any way.’
He took another step backwards, emphasising his point by his actions, and then studied her intently. ‘Would you give some more thought to coming back to work on a formal basis?’
She marvelled at the way he morphed smoothly into business mode, but didn’t that just go to show how accomplished he was at separating his emotions from his physical desires?
‘I’ve already made arrangements to set on a couple of nurses,’ he said, ‘and I’m having meetings with the maintenance contractors to see if we can sort out some different kind of set up.’
She raised her brows. ‘You are?’
He nodded. ‘And that’s not all. I’ve worked out a plan for making huge savings on the drugs bill for the whole of the hospital.’
She sent him a cautious glance. ‘Isn’t that a bit risky? Surely we need all the medicines that we currently use—not only that, we should be certain that we have the right quality of drug.’
‘That’s true in all respects. But I’ve spoken to the board members about it, and they’ve agreed that we will arrange for competing suppliers to bid for our custom in an online auction. That way we bring in offers of lower prices—we’ve already tested it out, and the savings will be tremendous.’
‘You have been busy,’ she said. ‘I can see you’re a force to be reckoned with. No wonder the board set you on.’
He gave a short laugh. ‘You’re never going to forgive me for that, are you?’
Ruby shrugged. ‘I’m getting there,’ she said. ‘Slowly.’
He tilted his head slightly to one side. ‘So does that mean you’ll come back? We really need you here working alongside us.’
She thought about it. This morning’s events had shown her just how important her work was to her, and surely it would be madness to give it up? The fact that she had done everything she could to save that little boy’s life meant more to her than anything. Besides, putting all other more professional and philanthropic considerations to one side, she had come to realise that if she wanted to buy the farm off her grandparents, the money would definitely come in handy.
‘I suppose I’ll have to come back,’ she murmured, ‘or you’ll be forever nagging me, won’t you?’
He gave her a beaming smile and draped an arm around her shoulders. ‘Now, would I do that?’ he asked.
‘Oh yes,’ she said as they started to walk towards the lift that would take them back down to A&E. ‘I’m becoming quite convinced you’ll stop at nothing to get your own way.’
‘I’m wounded you should think so,’ he murmured, ‘but since we’re on the subject, I’ve been trying to work out how I can persuade you to come over to visit my family estate at the weekend.’
She blinked. ‘I thought we just had a conversation about you mending your ways?’
‘So we did…but this is work related, you see. I’ve arranged to hold a fund-raising event in aid of the A&E department, and I think I need some input from you—it being your idea in the first place, of course.’
She sent him a narrowed glance. ‘Why is it I get the feeling you’re railroading me into doing things I wouldn’t normally contemplate?’
‘I can’t begin to imagine the reason,’ he said, assuming an air of innocence. ‘Beats me.’
Chapter Six
‘IF anybody needs me, I’ll be over in Intensive Care, checking up on young Jason. It’s been a couple of days since he was brought in, and I want to see how he’s doing.’ Ruby added her signature to the patient’s chart and handed it to Michelle. ‘Everything’s reasonably under control here, so I’m going to slip away while I have the chance to grab a few minutes. I’ve sent Olivia to the staff lounge to take a well-earned break, but James is around if anything should crop up. I’ve no idea where Sam is this morning, but you can page either of us if there’s a problem.’
‘Will do.’ Michelle quickly ran her gaze over the prescribed medication outlined on the chart and then lifted her head to look back at Ruby, her silky black hair swinging lightly with the motion. ‘That’s the thing about Sam, isn’t it? He’s always busy, either with patients or in admin, but he never bothers to tell anyone what he’s doing. He’s a workaholic, forever on the move.’
The nurse placed the chart at the end of their young patient’s bed. ‘I used to think he didn’t care much for mixing with staff, but it isn’t that at all…he’s fine when you do manage to collar him…it’s just that he always seems to have a thousand and one things to do and doesn’t feel it necessary to explain himself to anyone.’
‘He’s a complicated man, that’s for sure,’ Ruby said as they walked towards the central desk, ‘but he appears to be coping well under a lot of pressure. He has a lot of new systems to put in place if we’re to avoid closure, and they’re taking up a lot of his time. Eventually, when things settle down, I expect he’ll be more available, but in the meantime the trainees will have to come to me, or page him if they find they are having difficulties.’
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bsp; ‘I’m sure that’s what he expects them to do. If there’s a problem, he wants the junior doctors to come and find him, or sometimes he’ll already have stepped in and be there dealing with it…and he doesn’t see the point in making a fuss over anything. He just believes in getting on with the job.’
‘That’s true, though he ought to stop and take a few minutes for himself every now and again. It doesn’t do anyone any good to work at full pelt the whole time.’ Ruby had her suspicions that Sam had an inbuilt ‘on’ switch, and that he didn’t have it in him to wind down. This constant busy, busy, busy attitude drove her to distraction.
She hurried to Intensive Care, which was along the corridor from the A&E department, and spent a few minutes there talking to the sister in charge.
‘All being well, we’ll take Jason off the ventilator later on today,’ the nurse told her. ‘The consultant wants to make sure first of all that there have been no setbacks overnight, but from what we’ve observed he’s still making good progress. He’s looking altogether much better now, and his heart rhythm and respiration have both improved. The drainage tubes will most likely stay in place for another twenty-four hours, though. We have him on antibiotics because of the risk of infection, but all in all he seems to be going along very well.’
‘That’s brilliant news, Jen.’ Ruby smiled at her. ‘I’ll go and take a peek at him, if I may?’
‘Of course. He’s still under sedation, so he won’t know much about what’s going on, but his mother’s been sitting with him a lot of the time. She isn’t here at the moment because the doctor on her ward wants to check her over, but the nurses bring her here from women’s surgical each day.’
‘I thought they might. What about his father? Is there any news of him?’
‘He’s in the adult intensive care unit. Last I heard, he was still experiencing some abnormal heart rhythms, but, considering the injuries he received, that’s not really surprising. It’ll take a while for him to heal.’
Ruby nodded and a few moments later went to stand by the boy’s bed, looking at the monitors that registered his heart rate, respiration and temperature, along with blood oxygen levels.
The child appeared to be sleeping peacefully, his brown hair spiky against the white of the pillow, and someone had placed a teddy bear against the side bars of his bed, so that it would be the first thing he saw when he woke up. He was still pale, but there was faint colour in his cheeks, and he looked to be in a much better state than he had when she had last seen him.
‘Thanks for letting me look in on him, Jen,’ she told the nurse as she was about to leave. ‘I feel much happier for knowing that he’s doing all right.’
‘You’re welcome, any time.’
Ruby made her way back to A&E feeling much lighter in spirit. Some things, at least, seemed to be going along well enough. Now all she needed was for her sister to come back home and repair the broken bond with her baby daughter.
‘I’ve been looking for you,’ Sam said, meeting up with her in the corridor as she was about to go back to work. There was a hint of exasperation in his voice. ‘I wanted to talk to you about one of your patients—a girl who fell off her bike—but I couldn’t find you anywhere in A&E.’
‘That’s because I was in ICU, checking up on my thoracotomy patient.’
He frowned. ‘The little boy? But you treated him two days ago, didn’t you? He’s not our patient any more.’
‘Maybe not, but I wanted to know how he was doing.’
‘Couldn’t you have given the unit a ring to find out how he was?’
‘I could, but it wouldn’t have been the same. I preferred to go and look in on him.’
‘Whatever for?’
She stared at him, raising her brows in an expression of astonishment. ‘Do you really need to ask?’
‘Yes, I think I do. What is it with all this touchy-feely stuff that goes on around here? You treat the patients, you do what you can for them, and then you need to move on. There are always other people waiting to be seen.’
‘That might be your way of doing the job,’ she said, tapping the security code into the main door of the A&E unit, ‘but it isn’t mine. I do what I can to make sure that I stabilise the patients who are brought in here as emergencies, but when I have a free moment, I like to follow up on them.’ She pushed open the door and walked into the department, leaving him to trail in her wake. ‘And I’m sure, if you give it a little more thought, you’ll realise that you’re misguided somewhere along the line. We do this job because we care. We’re dealing with people, children and individuals, not numbers or statistics that make up targets to be met.’
She sent him a sharp glance. ‘And while I’m on the subject, if you think you’ll get me to change my ways, you’re very much mistaken. If I wanted to become another version of you, I’d have taken a course in robotics or virtual medicine.’
Now it was his turn to raise his brows. ‘I’m shocked. Whatever did I do to merit that tongue-lashing? All I’m saying is that if you get too involved with your patients, you’ll come shuddering to a stop when anything bad happens to them, and then you won’t be fit for anything. It doesn’t do to have all this deep compassion and empathy for everyone you come into contact with.’
Her gaze narrowed on him. ‘I think you should stop digging yourself deeper in the mire while you still have the chance to escape. I don’t much care what your opinion is on the matter. I’ll do as I think fit.’ She made a brief, falsely sweet smile. ‘Now, what was it you wanted to ask about the girl who fell off the bike? Much as I felt compassionate about what happened to her, I didn’t offer to have the bike fixed. I simply treated her for a dislocated elbow and arranged for follow-up care.’
His mouth turned down at the corners in a crooked grimace. ‘Sarcasm doesn’t become you at all, Ruby. I thought you were above all that. I was just interested to know if you’d found any other injuries or problems when you examined her—only, her mother was asking about her being feverish. She told me she thought that might have led to the fall.’
‘There was no fever. I checked the girl’s temperature and asked about dizziness or faintness, but when she was alone with me briefly, the child said she came off the bike when she swerved to avoid her young brother, who ran into her path. I have the feeling that she didn’t want to get him into trouble, so she invented a story about being headachy…if I’m allowed to use the word feeling, that is?’
‘All right, all right. You win.’ He put up his hands in submission. ‘Let’s call a truce, shall we?’
She gave a soft laugh and walked over to the central desk, where she began to check on new arrivals. Sam went to the computer and started to access information.
‘There’s a baby who needs to be seen right away,’ the desk clerk said. ‘He has a nasty case of diarrhoea, and the family doctor sent him here.’
‘I’ll go and look at him.’ Ruby took the baby’s chart from the rack and checked the details the triage nurse had written down. As she looked up, she saw a familiar figure coming towards her, a man that she had treated some time ago.
‘Hello there,’ Nick Dryden said. ‘Remember me? You treated me a few weeks ago, and I had to go to the operating theatre to have my spleen removed.’
‘Oh…yes, that’s right.’ Ruby gave him a quick glance. ‘How are things with you? You’re not here because you’ve done some more damage to yourself, are you?’
‘No, nothing like that.’ He smiled, his thin face lighting up a fraction. ‘I had to come into the hospital for my check-up with the consultant, and I thought while I’m here I would see if you were around. I just wanted to say thanks for what you did, for listening to me. The nurse said it would be all right to come and find you.’
‘I was glad to help,’ Ruby told him. ‘I hope things are going well for you.’
He nodded. ‘Actually, it occurred to me that I must have seen you here before that day. It was when I came about the pain in my back one time. You didn’t treat m
e, but I remember you because you were talking to a young woman over by the desk. She was having some problem with her hair, and you fixed a clip for her.’
Ruby frowned, thinking back. ‘Oh, yes, that was probably my sister. She came to see me at work one day…I think she’d caught her hair clip on something, and she was in a bit of a tangle.’
Sophie had been for her first post-natal check that day, she recalled, while their mother was looking after Becky.
Beside her, Sam made a restless movement, and Ruby collected her thoughts. Too much touchy-feely interchange going on, was there? Sam was clearly restless and on fighting form today. He had achieved his objective of bringing her back into work, and now he wanted things to move smoothly on, without interruption.
‘Well, it’s good to see that you’re feeling better,’ she told the man. ‘I can’t stop and chat, I’m afraid…I have to go and see another patient.’
‘That’s okay. I understand.’ He gave a slight waving motion with his hand and started to walk away.
The baby, who was a little younger than Becky, was suffering from a nasty tummy upset, Ruby discovered when she carefully examined him. Not only that but he was lethargic, with parched and cracked mucous membranes, had a very fast heart rate, and his breathing was disturbed.
‘It looks as though the diarrhoea has caused him to become dehydrated,’ she gently told the baby’s mother. ‘His fontanelle, this soft spot on the top of his head, is sunken, and he generally appears to be quite poorly.’
‘I’ve tried to get him to drink,’ the mother said, ‘but he keeps vomiting; he can’t keep anything down. That’s why I took him to my doctor, but he said to bring him here.’
Ruby nodded. ‘I’ll do some tests to find out if it’s a bug that we can treat with antibiotics, but usually these things are caused by a virus, and so that kind of treatment won’t be of much use. What we’ll do is admit him, and I’ll make sure he gets fluids and the correct balance of rehydration salts through an intravenous line.’