A Surgeon Worth Waiting For

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  ‘Word has it you have a new lady in your life, Jack,’ Gwen said.

  There was a short, hard silence, broken only by the sound of the anaesthetic machine doing its job. Jack’s eyes collided with Becky’s for a brief moment before returning to the patient on the table.

  ‘You shouldn’t believe everything you hear on the hospital grapevine,’ he said as he closed the wound.

  ‘No, but when a member of staff actually sees you together at the beach and then leaving your house this morning, one has to assume something’s going on. Right?’

  Jack was glad he’d put the last stitch in. He put the instruments in the dish Gwen was holding out for him and explained, ‘Quite by coincidence we happened to be at the beach when a lady with diabetes had a fit. Dr Baxter and I stabilised things until the ambos arrived.’

  Becky extubated the patient as the transport bed was wheeled in and positioned next to the operating table.

  ‘Ever the hero, Jack.’ Gwen grinned as the patient was slid over onto the bed. ‘But what about the rest?’

  He gave her an icy look. ‘The rest?’

  Gwen’s eyes danced with middle-aged mischief as she met his chilly look. ‘Was it also just a coincidence that Dr Baxter was seen leaving your premises with you this morning?’

  Jack’s mouth opened and closed, but before he could get anything out Becky spoke up on her way past with the patient.

  ‘I told you, Gwen, in the change room. I’m using Jack’s spare room until I find another flat, which I hope will be this evening after work. And as for coming to work in Jack’s car, my car has been in the garage and is being delivered to the hospital this afternoon.’ She pushed the trolley through the doors with the orderly’s help and added over her shoulder, ‘I can assure you there’s nothing going on. Jack’s not my type anyway.’

  Jack stripped off his gown and stuffed it in the bin, his stomach turning over in panic. Becky was already hunting for another place to live. He had to stop her, and fast. As for her car, he’d told the mechanic to take his time repairing it. He didn’t want her driving around in it until he was absolutely sure it was safe to do so. Shredded tyres were one thing, but the mechanic had mentioned something about the brakes being faulty. What if someone was tampering with her car?

  He glanced at the clock once more and stifled a groan of despair. It could be hours before he could speak to Becky alone.

  ‘What’s next on the list?’ he asked, as all eyes turned his way. ‘Tell me it’s not going to be the haemorrhoidectomy.’

  Gwen looked at up from the list pasted on the wall and sent him a teasing wink as he shouldered open the scrub room doors. ‘Bummer,’ she said.

  Jack caught up to Becky in the corridor outside the main tea-room once the list was over. Before she could offer a word of protest he ushered her into one of the equipment rooms and closed the door behind them.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she asked, brushing his hand off her arm.

  ‘I need to talk to you.’

  ‘Look, I didn’t tell Gwen or Jenny a thing, if that’s what you’re going to accuse me of.’

  ‘Who saw us?’

  ‘David Barker, the new orderly. He does the occasional stint as a lifeguard at Bondi. He also apparently lives near you, too.’

  ‘Damn.’ He clenched and unclenched his fists. ‘I didn’t want anyone to know just yet.’

  Becky threw him a caustic look. ‘Look, Jack, I’m a little tired of these mixed messages I’m getting from you. If you’re so embarrassed about having slept with me, why don’t you just come out and say it? I can handle it.’

  ‘It’s not that,’ he said. ‘I wanted to sleep with you. I just didn’t want the whole hospital speculating on our relationship before we had time to negotiate it.’

  ‘Negotiate it?’ She gave him a confused look. ‘Does that mean you’re thinking about having some sort of relationship with me? I thought you said last night—’

  He took one of her hands in his and brought it, palm upward, to his mouth, pressing a soft kiss to it before closing her fingers one by one as if to lock the imprint of his lips there.

  ‘W-why did you do that?’ she asked, searching his face.

  He held her gaze for endless seconds. ‘I’ve been doing some thinking and I’ve decided I want to have a relationship with you.’

  She gave one small swallow. ‘W-what sort of relationship?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ His mouth twisted as he fought with his emotions. ‘Can we just try it on for size and see what happens?’

  She pulled her hand out of his and stepped back from him. ‘You know, if I didn’t already know you were a Capricorn I would swear you were born under the sign of Gemini. Talk about a split personality.’

  ‘I mean it, Becky,’ he insisted. ‘I want to have a relationship with you.’

  ‘What sort of duration are we talking about here?’ she asked after a small silence.

  He gave a loose-shouldered shrug, hoping it would disguise his feelings of vulnerability. ‘Who knows? What’s your record?’

  ‘I don’t have a good record. Three months is the longest, but the last month of that was hell on wheels so it doesn’t count. What’s yours?’

  ‘A month or so.’

  ‘Not great odds, then, for either of us,’ she commented.

  ‘No, but at least the sex is great, so that should notch up a few more weeks or months.’

  ‘I can’t live with you,’ she said. ‘I’m getting a new place this evening. It’s all organised.’

  ‘But you have to live with me!’ Jack blurted, his heart dropping to his stomach in panic.

  Becky stared at him for a moment. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because…because I like having you around.’

  ‘You hate having me around,’ she said. ‘I see the way you grit your teeth when I don’t rinse my cup or straighten the cushions on the sofa.’

  ‘That’s just because I’m not used to sharing my space. I can change.’

  ‘Jack, come on. Surely you don’t expect me to buy that? You’re a control freak through and through. Every little thing I do annoys you. We wouldn’t last a week before you kicked me out on my butt.’

  ‘I don’t want you to live by yourself.’

  ‘I’m not going to be living by myself,’ she announced proudly. ‘One of the new recovery staff posted an ad on the staff noticeboard this morning, looking for a person to share a cottage at Bronte. I’m going to check it out this evening. It sounds perfect.’

  ‘Recovery staff? Which one?’

  ‘A new one. What does it matter which one?’ she asked. ‘What are you, some sort of snob? The recovery staff are just as important to running the theatre as a surgeon is, probably more important when you come to think of it.’

  ‘You know nothing about this person and yet you’re committing to living with them?’

  She rolled her eyes at him. ‘I will not be living with them in the sense you mean. I will simply be sharing accommodation.’

  ‘You shared accommodation with me, and look what happened,’ he pointed out.

  ‘That was different,’ she said.

  ‘How so?’

  ‘Well…’ She chewed her lip for a moment. ‘We have a sort of chemistry.’

  ‘Then move in with me and let’s get on with it.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Marry me, then.’

  Becky’s mouth dropped open, her eyes growing as wide as saucers. ‘W-what did you say?’

  ‘Marry me, Becky.’

  She slapped the side of her head with her hand as if to dislodge some errant thought. ‘I need to get my hearing tested. I thought I heard you ask me—no, not ask, tell me—to marry you.’

  ‘I did.’ His throat moved up and down in a swallow.

  ‘Are you feeling all right, Jack?’ She gave him a narrow-eyed, suspicious look.

  ‘I mean it,’ he said. ‘I want you to marry me. Let’s skip the engagement part. It obviously hasn’t worked all that well with
you, and I have no time for it. I want you in my bed and in my life without any unnecessary delays.’

  Becky couldn’t believe what she was hearing. A few hours ago Jack had been telling her she had no permanent place in his life. Now he was asking—instructing—her to marry him.

  ‘So I’m assuming from this out-of-the-blue proposal that that itch of yours hasn’t yet responded to treatment?’ she said with an arch of one brow.

  ‘It’s driving me out of my mind,’ he said, staring down at her mouth. ‘I want you, I’ve always wanted you. I was being a jerk last night. I didn’t mean a word I said. You got under my skin and I didn’t want you to know how much. Put it down to stupid male pride but believe me now, Becky. I couldn’t sleep last night for thinking about how you make me feel.’

  ‘Jack…’ She couldn’t help staring up at him in a combination of shock and growing wonder. ‘Are you saying you—you care for me?’

  His green eyes meshed with hers. ‘I love you, Becky.’

  Her mouth opened and closed and her heart seemed to trip over itself in her chest. ‘You love me? As in love me?’

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, reaching for her. ‘You got a problem with that?’

  She nestled against him, her head settling against his chest where his heart was beating, her senses filling with the scent of his maleness.

  ‘No,’ she sighed. ‘I don’t have a problem with that at all. I just can’t believe this is true.’ She wanted to believe it, but…

  He eased her away from him, looking down at her with earnestness. ‘I think I probably started loving you when you scratched my car.’

  She gave him a worried look and captured her lip between her teeth momentarily. ‘I still haven’t paid you for that. It totally slipped my mind. It must have cost a fortune.’

  He smiled. ‘I wasn’t talking about the other day.’

  ‘You weren’t?’

  He shook his head. ‘I was talking about that time I tried to give you a parking lesson twelve years ago.’

  ‘Oh.’ She looked away in embarrassment. ‘That.’

  ‘Yes, that.’

  ‘I was being petulant and childish—’

  ‘You were beautiful and irresistible and I’d wanted to kiss you for ages,’ he said. ‘It gave me the perfect excuse to do so.’

  She raised her eyes back to his, slowly. ‘Really?’

  ‘Really. Why else do you think I was out at your parents’ property weekend after weekend?’

  She gave this some thought, her brow furrowing slightly. ‘Does Ben know how you feel?’

  ‘I haven’t told him but I think he’s probably guessed.’

  She eased herself out of his hold slightly so she could look up at him properly. This was all happening so fast she had to put the brakes on to get her head around it.

  Jack loved her.

  He wanted to marry her when just hours ago he had said exactly the opposite.

  What in the world had changed his mind?

  She wanted to believe it had been one of those bolt-of-lightning revelations where the truth had hit him the way it had her, but something about Jack’s manner worried her. He seemed way too tense, his proposal hurried and out of character for someone who was renowned for his self-control.

  She gave an inward frown as she considered what had happened over the last few days.

  ‘Have you spoken to Ben lately?’ she asked after a little silence.

  Jack didn’t answer immediately, which he knew made her even more suspicious. He could see the reflection of it in her brown eyes as they centred on his, her expression wary, the line of her mouth hard instead of soft and trusting.

  ‘Ben? No,’ he lied, hating himself. ‘Have you?’

  ‘No, but I’m afraid for him.’ She stepped away from him, rubbing her hands up and down her upper arms as she paced the small room. ‘I can’t help thinking he’s in some sort of trouble. It’s been weeks since he called me. He never leaves it that long. I’m worried, Jack. Really worried.’

  ‘He’s an undercover cop, Becky,’ he said in his best reassuring tone. ‘You know he can’t contact you or anyone when he’s on a mission. It’s the name of the game. He’ll come out when he’s good and ready.’

  ‘If something doesn’t happen to him first,’ she said, her tone despondent.

  Jack put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him, his eyes steady on hers. ‘Stop worrying about him. He’s a big boy, he can look after himself.’

  She gave a little sigh and rested her head on his chest once more, her arms slipping around his waist and squeezing tight. ‘I don’t know what I would have done without you, Jack, these last few days.’

  He stroked his fingers through the silk of her hair, breathing in the scent of her, his chin coming to rest on the top of her head. He couldn’t believe it had taken him so long to recognise his feelings. It was like a whole facet of his personality had been locked away until now. The way she made him feel was a revelation. Each breath he drew in seemed to carry her on it until he felt as if she was taking up residence inside him, her softness soothing the rough edges of his embittered soul.

  He simply couldn’t imagine life without her now. She completed him in a way no one had ever done before. Why had it taken him so long to recognise it? Hell, what if he hadn’t and she’d gone ahead and married someone else?

  ‘Jack?’ Becky nestled even closer, her soft body pressing against him in all the right places.

  ‘Mmm?’ His voice cracked on the sound, his throat feeling as if a walnut had lodged itself halfway down.

  ‘I love you,’ she said.

  Jack wished he could believe her but she fell in and out of love like some people fell in and out of bed.

  ‘Since when?’ he asked after a small silence.

  ‘Since always,’ she said, and reaching up on tiptoe pressed a soft kiss to his neck.

  ‘So, does this mean you’re going to cancel the apartment you were going to look at?’ he asked, running a fingertip down the length of her nose.

  Becky was torn with indecision. On one hand she could think of nothing she wanted more than never again leaving Jack’s side, but on the other she needed some time to get used to the knowledge of his love. It was all so new, so sudden and unexpected, and she wanted to be absolutely sure she didn’t ruin things in the way she had in the past, by rushing headlong into a relationship that had only just started to grow.

  ‘I don’t want to rush into this.’

  ‘But we don’t have time to waste,’ he said. ‘You might be pregnant.’

  She lifted her eyes back to his, her expression instantly clouding. ‘Is that why you’ve changed your mind so abruptly?’

  ‘No, of course not!’ Jack insisted hurriedly. ‘I love you, Becky. I want to marry you as soon as possible. I told you, I’ve finally come to my senses and I don’t want to waste any more time than I already have. You’re so good for me, surely you can see that?’

  Becky was still thinking about how to answer him when both their pagers went off, signalling an emergency in A and E.

  Jack read out the short message and instantly frowned. ‘Gunshot wound. Come on, Becky, looks like our day hasn’t quite finished. This doesn’t sound good.’

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  ‘ARE you on call again?’ Becky asked as they rushed down the stairs instead of waiting for the lift.

  ‘No, but all the other theatres must be tied up.’ He held the exit door for her and added, ‘What about you?’

  She shook her head as she brushed past. ‘Not officially, but I said I’d cover for Graham Rogers for a couple of hours. He had an important appointment.’ She checked her watch. ‘He’s due back in half an hour or so.’

  ‘Let’s see what we’ve got,’ Jack suggested. ‘You can always hand over when Graham gets here.’

  When Jack pushed open the doors of A and E there were at least five police officers in full uniform pacing the department, two of them shouting into mobile phones, with the A
and E nursing director shouting equally loudly at them to either turn off their phones or get out of her emergency room.

  On the trolley of the resus bay was a blood-soaked male body, which had trailed a series of splatters right from the front door of A and E to the resus room. He had obviously not been brought in by ambulance through the ambulance bay, and, judging from the bloodstains on a couple of the police officers hanging around the emergency room door, Jack guessed that they had rushed him in.

  ‘What have we got?’ Jack asked John Hickson, the emergency physician in charge of Resus.

  ‘Thirty-five-year-old male shot twice, Jack. In the left chest, entry wound left pectoral. We haven’t log-rolled yet to check exit wounds. Haemopneumothorax clinically on the left, breathing spontaneously and sats OK, but hypovolaemic, pulse 150 and BP 80 systolic.’ He glanced at Becky and asked, ‘Becky, can you assume airway management while I get a left chest drain and a second IV line in.’

  Becky stood completely frozen as she looked down at the patient. It was the plainclothes officer Matt Daniels had spoken to the other night. She’d thought then that he’d looked familiar and now she remembered why. He had come into A and E with a patient who had been under police guard a few weeks ago. She’d been called down to assess the prisoner prior to administering an anaesthetic, and the detective had introduced himself to her as Tony Dubrovnik. She’d remembered the name as it was the same as the Croatian city she’d visited on a European trip the year before.

  ‘Dr Baxter? Are you with us on this or not?’ John asked impatiently.

  ‘Right,’ Becky said as she moved to bag and mask the patient on high-flow oxygen prior to intubation. ‘Sucker,’ she ordered the assisting nurse, her heart thumping heavily in her chest as she forced herself to go onto autopilot.

  Becky suctioned out the mouth of the now semi-conscious patient, then bagged and masked him. ‘Give 100 milligrams sux now through that second line, John. He needs intubation now, he’s hard to ventilate and his JVPs are up to his jaw. Trachea’s midline.’

  ‘I’m putting in the chest tube,’ Jack said. ‘That’ll leave you to oversee the resus, John.’