Daring to Date Her Ex

by Annie Claydon

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Week Four

  THEA SURVEYED THE empty waiting room. Three TB nurses had been working at full tilt all day to keep the numbers in the waiting room down, but it hadn’t been easy. There were forms to be filled out, questions from worried parents and real and imagined symptoms to be investigated and advised on.

  Lucas had seemed to expect all this, and was standing by to help when the flood of people wanting a doctor’s advice had threatened to overwhelm Thea. He was relaxed and cheerful, his sleeves rolled up in a certain indication that he meant business, his demeanour inviting the world in general to tell him what was on its mind. She’d seen a new side to him today. Passion, tempered by professionalism.

  ‘That’s everyone?’ He gave a farewell nod to a woman who’d gone into his consulting room looking as if she was on her way to a funeral and come out again looking as if she was vaguely considering going to a party.

  ‘That’s it. You were a long time with that last patient.’ Everyone else had packed up and gone home, leaving Thea to try and make some inroads into the pile of paperwork on her desk.

  ‘She was telling me all about the new leisure centre that’s been built just down the road. Apparently they’ve got a dance studio down there with a proper sprung floor.’

  ‘Really? They do classes?’

  ‘Yeah, apparently. Thinking of going?’

  For a moment his smile tempted her and Thea considered the prospect. She hadn’t danced for ages, and suddenly she missed it. But she had no partner.

  ‘I don’t have the time these days.’ Thea picked up her pen and then threw it back down again, deciding that she’d get through the stack of files much quicker if she took them home with her and had something to eat first. ‘Besides, I’d rather take a course that’s more practical. Something like self-defence maybe.’

  ‘You’re worried about your safety?’

  Thea ignored the question. She really didn’t want to get into that.

  Lucas shrugged, and let it go. ‘Would you like a lift? I’ve got my car with me today.’

  She couldn’t think of a good reason to say no. Other than the truth, and it wasn’t for him to know that she was enjoying working with him far more than she should. Thea returned his smile. ‘Okay, yes. I could do with a lift tonight, I’m tired.’

  They locked the door of the clinic and walked to the car park. ‘If you find a good self-defence class, let me know. I might suggest it to Ava.’

  ‘Okay. Ava and I could go together perhaps.’

  ‘I think she’d like that. I’m all for it.’

  He drove slowly towards the hospital gates, stopping to let an ambulance through to the forecourt of the A and E department. As he stopped again to let someone run across the crossing in front of him, the screech of brakes and a dull thud sounded from somewhere. Something right at the periphery of her vision, moving fast, made Thea instinctively shrink back in her seat, one hand flying up to shield her face.

  The engine shrieked in protest as Lucas changed gear and reversed, fast. A large chunk of metal hit the road a few feet in front of the car, just about where Thea had been sitting a few seconds ago. There was a moment of silence and then the sound of someone shouting.

  ‘You all right?’ Lucas had instinctively flung one arm protectively across her.

  ‘Yes. Are you?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  He wrenched his door open, and Thea followed suit, practically tumbling out of the car. An ambulance had been turning right into the hospital, across a lane of traffic, and it looked as if it had been hit by a car coming the other way. Its side had been stoved in, and the impact had pushed it out of control and into one of the brick pillars that supported the gates.

  People were running. A group of nurses who had been chatting and laughing together, off duty for the night, had dropped their bags and coats and were legging it across the road towards a silver car, which had spun across two lanes of traffic and crashed into someone’s front wall. Lucas sprinted past her and Thea followed him.

  ‘The ambulance driver…’ he called to her, before making his way around to the back of the vehicle. There was a doctor already running to the car, and Thea opened the driver’s door of the ambulance.

  ‘Are you all right?’ The driver seemed dazed, but she had been held firmly in her seat by her seat belt and protected by the air bag.

  ‘Think so. He came out of nowhere…’ The young woman suddenly snapped back into coherence, and she twisted around to look through the glass into the back of the ambulance. ‘Dave? My partner’s in the back.’

  And he would have been sitting right where the ambulance had taken the most impact. ‘There’s someone back there already.’ Thea leaned over and released the woman’s seat belt. ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Lisa. I’m okay, you don’t need to go through all that with me.’

  ‘Indulge me.’ Thea helped Lisa down from the cabin and walked her to a bench by the hospital gates. ‘Sit.’

  Lisa rolled her eyes but did it anyway. Thea beckoned to a nurse who had just arrived to help and left her trying to keep Lisa under control while she hurried to the back of the ambulance.

  Lucas was struggling with the doors, which had been bent out of alignment by the impact. She could hear someone crying for help now from inside. One great heave, accompanied by a roar of effort, and the doors opened and Lucas levered himself upwards into the back of the ambulance.

  Inside, a man was sitting upright on a carry chair, still secured in place by the straps across his body. On the other side, where the impact had been, it was a different story. The wall of the ambulance was twisted and buckled, and a man in uniform, who had to be Lisa’s partner Dave, was lying on the floor. In the silence, the beep of a monitor sounded loudly.

  ‘Help him. Please, help him…’ The man on the chair was conscious and seemed lucid, more worried about the crew who had brought him here than himself. Thea scrambled up into the ambulance to get a better view, as Lucas quickly checked Dave out. He wasn’t breathing and already going into cyanosis. Blood covered his face and the front of his shirt, and his jaw was obviously broken.

  ‘We won’t get a line in to intubate. You’ve done a temporary crike before?’ Lucas looked up at her.

  ‘Yep.’ A cricothyroidotomy was easier to do than a full tracheotomy in an emergency situation, and the results were more reliable. This close to the hospital, the question of how long it would remain stable was irrelevant.

  Lucas had already located the kit and broken it open, half filling the cannula with sterile saline. Handing it to Thea, he moved Dave’s head back.

  Her hand shook. She’d done this before, but never with the thought that a whole hospital full of medical professionals would be assessing her every move the next morning. The sudden thought that she might fail, and what she’d say to them if she did, paralysed her.

  ‘You’re good to go, Thea.’ Lucas’s voice was calm.

  Dave was going to die if she didn’t do this. That was more important than anything that anyone could possibly say to her afterwards. She positioned one hand around Dave’s neck, holding both sides of the airway, and slid the needle in. Bubbles rose into the body of the cannula, indicating that she’d found the airway.

  She held the needle in place, while Lucas removed the syringe and attached the oxygen tube. After an agonising moment Dave’s chest began to rise and fall.

  ‘Looks as if there are some chest injuries as well.’ Lucas glanced up at the paramedic who was outside the doors of the ambulance, talking to the other passenger, keeping his attention away from the lifesaving procedures that she and Lucas were undertaking. ‘We need to get him out of here as soon as he’s stable.’

  ‘We’ll be ready to move him in a few minutes,’ the paramedic replied quickly and then turned his attention back to his charge. There seemed to be no lack of resources at this particular accident scene.

  Lucas opened Dave’s bloodied shirt, and she caught sight o
f a little gold St Christopher around his neck. She swallowed hard, pulling her gaze away, concentrating on the injuries she could see. Dave’s breathing was fast and shallow, and his chest was rising and falling unevenly.

  ‘Flail chest?’ She nodded to the area that seemed to be moving in the opposite direction of everything else.

  ‘Yep.’ Lucas covered the area with a wad of dressing, keeping his hand firmly over the area. Dave’s breathing stabilised, and Lucas gave a grim smile of satisfaction. ‘Is the gurney here yet?’

  ‘We’re ready.’ A call came from outside, and Lucas acknowledged it with a nod.

  ‘Okay. We need to do this carefully. You’ll make sure the needle doesn’t move?’ His gaze met Thea’s for a moment.

  ‘Yes. You keep up the pressure on his chest. The guys will move him.’

  The tricky business of getting Dave out from where he lay on the floor of the ambulance and onto a gurney was accomplished with the minimum of fuss. His colleagues carried him carefully to the entrance of the A and E department, Lucas walking on one side, keeping pressure on his chest, and Thea on the other.

  Jake Turner was ready for them inside, ushering them to a cubicle. Thea waited patiently, concentrating on her part of the effort to keep Dave alive for long enough to get him to surgery. When her turn came to be relieved of her duties, her arms would hardly respond from the effort of keeping them in one place for so long.

  ‘Okay, we’re going to take him down now.’ The beep of the monitor, assessing Dave’s heart rate, was fast but reassuringly regular. Intravenous drips were already in place, and Jake had assessed all Dave’s injuries. ‘Good work, everyone.’

  It had taken three quarters of an hour and seven people, all working together, to get Dave this far. They’d bought enough time to give the surgeons and the intensive care staff a chance to do their work.

  ‘Okay?’ Lucas had stripped his surgical gloves off and was washing the blood from his forearms, using the basin in the now-empty cubicle.

  ‘Yeah.’ Thea realised that she was trembling. ‘Just a bit stiff.’

  ‘I’m not surprised, the way you were bent over.’ He pulled a towel from the dispenser, leaving the tap running so that she could wash. ‘You know him?’

  ‘I’ve seen him around, that’s all.’ She heaved a sigh. ‘He’s one of us, though.’

  ‘Yeah. Makes it harder. Knowing that everyone’s going to have an opinion by tomorrow, whatever you do.’

  She shivered. ‘Don’t.’

  He was wiping his hands, looking at her thoughtfully. ‘Doing something is the reason we became doctors.’

  Thea had thought that in Bangladesh. She’d done something when no one else would, and had been condemned for it.

  ‘Yeah.’ She shook her head. This was an entirely different situation. Lucas had been there and he’d been with her all the way. And Dave was in surgery now, with a good chance of pulling through.

  ‘Cup of tea?’

  ‘I want to wait, see if there’s any news.’

  ‘That’s what I thought. So we’ll have a cup of tea while we do it.’ A commotion from outside made Lucas’s head jerk round and he strode to the door of the cubicle. As he opened it, Lisa’s voice rose above the others’.

  ‘How many times have I got to tell you? I’m all right. I’m going…’

  One of the A and E nurses was trying to pacify her. ‘You need to wait here until a doctor can see you. And everyone’s busy right now.’

  ‘Yeah, well, I’ve got somewhere I need to be right now. And I’m quite capable of working out if I have a concussion.’

  ‘No, Lisa, you’re not. I know you think you’re okay, and you probably are, but you’ve just been in a major accident. If it was anyone else, you’d be the first to tell them that they needed to see a doctor.’

  The nurse wasn’t having much success. Lisa had turned abruptly away from her and was about to walk away when Lucas blocked her path.

  ‘Hi. I happen to be a doctor.’

  * * *

  Thea supposed that she really should have done the examination herself, as she was employed by the hospital and Lucas wasn’t. But Lucas had exactly what Lisa needed at the moment, an easy, joking manner and the ability to make her see sense without ramming the regulations down her throat.

  ‘Wait…’ He was working carefully and thoroughly, and had got to the point of checking the reaction of Lisa’s pupils to light. ‘Don’t look up until I tell you.’

  ‘You were about to tell me.’ Lucas and Lisa had been battling their way through the whole examination.

  ‘No, I wasn’t.’ He paused for about two seconds. ‘Look up, please.’

  ‘Everyone loves a smart-arse.’ Thea suppressed a smile as Lisa took the words right out of her own mouth.

  ‘Yeah, and everyone loves a patient who knows better than they do.’ Lucas chuckled.

  ‘I’ve had a few of those in my time.’

  ‘Yeah, I’ll bet.’ Lucas flipped off the penlight. ‘Okay, well, I’m disappointed to tell you that I can’t find anything wrong with you.’

  Lisa slipped off the gurney, sliding her feet back into her heavy boots. ‘Sure you didn’t miss anything?’

  Lucas shrugged. ‘I can try again, if you want.’

  ‘Nah. Thanks, though. I’ve got to go and see what’s happening.’

  ‘Dave’s not going to be out of surgery for a while yet.’ Thea spoke quietly.

  ‘Yeah, I know.’ Lisa twisted her lips together.

  ‘Why don’t you have a cup of tea with us?’ Lucas looked around to see whether anyone was waiting for Lisa, but no one seemed to be.

  ‘I want to find out what happened.’ Lisa’s face took on a sullen look, and suddenly it hit Thea. She’d been busy worrying about whether her own actions would stand the test of scrutiny, and not even thought that Lisa had been driving when the accident had happened.

  ‘Wait here, Lisa.’ She rose from her seat.

  ‘I’m going—’ The argumentative tone sounded in Lisa’s voice again.

  ‘Sit. Down.’ Both Thea and Lisa started, and Thea almost sat down, even though Lucas’s words were directed at Lisa. She supposed that bringing up a teenager had honed the sudden command in his voice.

  Lisa sat back down on the gurney.

  ‘Stay there. If you don’t do as you’re told, I’ll admit you.’

  ‘What for?’ One last trace of Lisa’s defiance remained.

  ‘I’ll make something up. I don’t suppose you have a cough?’

  * * *

  Lucas fetched a cup of tea for Lisa, keeping his eye on the cubicle door. Thea had bolted, obviously on a mission to get whatever information she could, and he wasn’t about to let Lisa make a break for it in the meantime. Ten minutes later Thea returned, a grim smile on her face.

  ‘Okay. There’s no news on Dave yet, but there’s something else…’ She sat down next to Lisa on the gurney. ‘The other driver was drunk. There were a couple of eyewitnesses, who both said they saw you turning into the hospital and that the other guy came round the corner and shot the lights, going straight into you. There was no way you could have seen him.’

  Lisa stared at her for a moment, and then clapped her hand over her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut. ‘Oh. Thank God.’ She shook her head. ‘No…I don’t mean that…’

  ‘I know what you meant.’

  Lisa slumped against Thea, the tough exterior of an experienced ambulance driver suddenly dissolved. ‘I thought it was my fault.’

  Lucas just managed to hook a cardboard bowl from the pile and thrust it into Thea’s hand before Lisa was sick. It was a short, sharp reaction, and Lucas got rid of the bowl while Thea looked after Lisa.

  ‘Ugh.’ Lisa took the paper towel that Thea proffered and wiped her mouth. ‘Is the driver all right, then? The car looked as if it was a complete wreck.’

  Somehow Lisa managed to carry off the combination of utter disgust for the driver of the car with concern for his well-being.


  Thea grinned at her. ‘Broken arm. Apart from that and being under arrest he’s fine.’

  ‘The police are here?’

  ‘Yes. Keeping a low profile, but they breathalysed the guy and the last anyone saw of him was that an officer was following him round to X-Ray.’ Thea slipped her arm around Lisa’s shoulders. ‘Come on. I’ll help you clean up, and then we’ll get a cup of tea. By that time there might be some news.’

  * * *

  By the time they got to the relatives’ lounge Dave’s wife was already there, accompanied by two men, still in uniform and obviously just off shift. Lisa faltered when she saw her and Thea squeezed her arm.

  ‘Lisa! I’ve been worried about you.’

  ‘Marie. I’m so sorry.’

  ‘Don’t be silly. It’s not your fault.’ Marie took Lisa in her arms, hugging her tight, and Thea saw a tear roll down Lisa’s cheek. Someone brought a seat for her, and the two women sat together, Lisa’s arm around Marie’s shoulders.

  Lucas waited with them until Dave got out of surgery. When a nurse came to collect Marie, saying she’d be allowed a few minutes with Dave, she insisted that Lisa should go too, and the two women made their way to the ICU together.

  Thea didn’t move as the group of work colleagues who’d been waiting for news dispersed. Lucas was sitting, his legs stretched out in front of him, showing no inclination to do anything either.

  ‘We must do this again some time.’ He didn’t speak until they were alone.

  ‘Yeah.’ Thea knew what he meant. She always had with Lucas.

  ‘Not the serious injury part.’

  ‘Clearly. Or the drunken driver part.’ It was the realisation that even though they were both doctors, even though they’d done practically everything else together, they’d never done this. Never saved a man’s life.

  She could have just sat here with him all night, sharing that quiet satisfaction. Instead, Thea got to her feet. ‘Is that lift home still on offer?’

  ‘Yeah. Of course.’

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE WEEK DIDN’T let up on them. As soon as the Mantoux tests were all administered, there was the work of seeing everyone again to check the results. A hard, raised area at the site of the injection, which measured more than ten millimetres across, was classed as a reaction to the tuberculin test and required further investigation.