by Fiona Lowe
Elly dropped the receiver back onto the cradle and returned her attention to John. She couldn’t smell any cigarette smoke on him but she asked the question anyway. ‘Do you smoke?’
‘Cancer sticks?’ Again he shook his head and started to cough. ‘No way.’
The last words were forced out amid a coughing fit that had John leaning forward, his shoulders hunched as he struggled to get in a breath. When it finally passed he slumped in his chair. ‘I tell you, Doc, it’s wearing me out.’
Elly rubbed the bridge of her nose. ‘How many times a day do you cough like this? ‘
He scratched his head. ‘A couple of times an hour, I reckon.’
She suddenly thought of his baby grandchild and with three clicks brought up the Morgan family’s medical history on her computer screen. ‘You said the baby had a cold too.’
‘Yeah. Told you I’m in the doghouse.’
Elly quickly scanned the date of birth of the baby and calculated the age. Three months. ‘Has your daughter come in with you?’
John nodded. ‘She drove me.’
Elly reached for the phone. ‘Sandy, please send in Rachel. ‘ She had a very strong suspicion that the baby had more than a cold.
‘John, have you been out much in Midden Cove while you’ve been here? To the pub or cafés?’
‘The wife and I took a cruise the other day, which was lovely, and most days I’ve walked down to the pub for a beer. You know, get out from under the wife’s feet.’
Elly stifled a groan. John had probably coughed over half the town.
Rachel walked in, cradling her baby, followed by an older woman Elly assumed was John’s wife.
‘Is there something wrong?’ The young mother sat down in the chair Elly had pulled up.
Elly spoke slowly. ‘Your dad says the baby’s had a cold so I thought while you were here I could examine her.’
Rachel relaxed. ‘Thank you. Yesterday I thought it was just the sniffles but Millie’s not feeding very well at all today.’
Elly laid the baby on the examination table. As she unwrapped the bunny rug, the wave of longing for a child of her own slugged her under the ribs in the same way it had done for the last three years.
The child whimpered. ‘Has she vomited or had trouble breathing?’
‘She keeps pulling off the breast but that’s because her nose is blocked, right?’
No. Elly noticed the child’s breathing was laboured and her lips were tinged with blue. Millie was one sick baby.
‘I’m going to send off some throat swabs from John and Millie and although we won’t know definitively until the results are in, I have a strong suspicion that they both have whooping cough.’
A stunned expression froze Rachel’s face. ‘But that’s a kid’s disease from a hundred years ago. I thought we’d cured it?’
John sucked in a sharp intake of breath as his wife gasped. ‘I thought the cough had to sound like a whoop?’
Elly shook her head in answer to both questions. ‘Unfortunately, it’s still alive and kicking, and adults and young babies don’t tend to have the whooping sound.’
Rachel’s eyes widened. ‘Oh, God, I thought it was just a cold.’
‘I want to admit you and Millie into hospital for observation and treatment.’ She wrapped up the baby and handed her back to her mother. ‘John, I’m going to give you antibiotics so you’re no longer infectious, but I have to ask you to stay in isolation at home for three weeks.’
John’s hand immediately touched Rachel’s shoulder, his face grey with despair. ‘Oh, love, I’m so sorry.’
‘It’s not your fault, John.’ Elly quickly tried to reassure them all. ‘Whooping cough has sporadic outbreaks and is always out in the community. It’s just unfortunate that Millie’s too young to have had all her immunisations. I need to treat everyone in the household and anyone else you’ve been in close contact with.’
John’s wife emitted a wail. ‘We were at the christening party on Sunday and we all cuddled the other three babies who were baptised with Millie.’
Elly pulled out a sheet of paper, trying to work out the best way to tackle the fact she had a possible epidemic of whooping cough on her hands. ‘OK, I need you to write me a list of everyone you know you’ve been in close contact with, especially young children and anyone who might not have been immunised against whooping cough.’
Her head raced as she jotted down all the things she had to do, which included notifying the health department and filling in all the paperwork that a communicable disease generated. The phone interrupted her thoughts.
‘Elly.’ Sandy’s usually calm voice sounded stressed. ‘Karen Jennings has just arrived with her baby, who’s having trouble breathing.’
Elly closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She was just one doctor and she had two sick babies and a growing queue of patients with similar symptoms to John. The babies needed close observation and she needed to treat everyone else as well as set up a vaccination clinic. Help from the health department in Hobart was hours away.
Gabe.
No, there has to be another way.
But she knew that was just wishful thinking. The people of Midden Cove needed another doctor as soon as possible and Gabe fitted that criteria. The fact he was her ex-lover and had pulverised her heart was totally irrelevant.
It had to be.
CHAPTER THREE
‘WHOOPING cough?’ Gabe quickly absorbed Elly’s news, having rushed to the hospital after hearing her tense and stressed voice on the phone. He gave silent thanks that his children were all old enough to have been fully immunised, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to help.
‘Yes, whooping cough and at least four babies have been exposed to it.’ Elly tucked back the few strands of hair that he was learning always fell forward against her cheek. Hair that his fingers itched to brush back so he could feel the silken strands caressing his skin, just like they had in his dream last night.
From the moment he’d dropped her home from the hospital, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. Thinking about them as a couple. They’d been separated now for longer than they’d been together and when they’d parted he’d made the decision not to ever think back. There’d been no point; at first because he’d been too angry and hurt at her uncompromising position and abrupt departure, and then when his life had spiralled so far out of control with Jenna, thinking back and wishing for what might have been with Elly would have been a one-way ticket to despair. Elly hadn’t trusted him enough or loved him enough to stay, and Jenna had burned him so badly that the thought of any relationship had him ducking for cover. Yet last night he’d relived most of his time with Elly, in all its Technicolor glory, and he’d woken with an unfamiliar ache under his ribs that just wouldn’t shift. But right now she wasn’t looking at him like he’d been featuring in any of her dreams, although perhaps he’d made an appearance in her nightmares.
‘You should immunise your parents too even though they’re probably not mixing with kids, unless your brother or your sister’s had a child?’
The green in her eyes shimmered with barely concealed hurt; the main reason they’d separated. You have to tell her about the children.
But sick patients came first. The appropriate time for that story had to be finessed to avoid inflicting any more pain because he could still hear her departing words when she’d left. I want children now, Gabe, and it’s breaking my heart to love you.
He used every strand of concentration he had to return his focus to the present because the past was full of traps. ‘No, Vanessa’s still in Sydney, slaying corporate dragons, and Aaron’s still Aaron.’ He thought of his younger brother, whose easygoing lifestyle no longer mirrored his own, and immediately switched the conversation back to the job at hand, which, although dire, was in many ways safer. ‘Do you want a consult on the babies or shall I start with the backlog of walk-ins?’
‘I’d appreciate the consult, thanks.’
Sh
e smiled, her face lighting up with gratitude, and unexpected sadness throbbed inside him as he realised that was all it was. Yesterday he’d thought he’d seen desire flare in her eyes but perhaps that had just been wishful thinking. He’d been doing quite a bit of that in the last sixteen hours, which made no sense because he couldn’t turn back time, couldn’t change how they’d hurt each other or erase what had happened to him in the intervening two years. All he knew was that he was a completely different person from the man he’d been when he’d loved Elly. It stood to reason Elly had changed too.
She started walking. ‘It’s a bit of a rabbit warren to the children’s ward so follow me.’
The Midden Cove hospital sat high on the hill, its position garnering five-star views out across the Pacific Ocean. Like many Australian country hospitals, it had been built with money raised after the First World War specifically to care for returned servicemen. The position and spacious grounds would have been part of the plan because back in 1919 the healing qualities of sea-air had been as close to antibiotics as medicine got. Given the rising number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, it was frightening to think that some things had come full circle.
As Gabe crossed the large built-in veranda, a shiver ran across his skin, which was crazy as it was a warm day.
Elly shot him an understanding look. ‘Often at three a.m. I think I can hear the ghosts of patients past lying in their old iron beds out here.’
He tried to shrug off the feeling. ‘You always did have an overactive imagination.’
She raised a questioning brow. ‘Oh, right, and you don’t? I saw you rub your arm.’
She’d always been incredibly observant and never missed much. Which is why you have to tell her about the kids sooner than later. He pulled open the door clearly labelled ‘Children’s Ward’ and ushered her inside. ‘Ironically, today we’ve gone back in time, dealing with an age-old illness.’
‘At least we’ve got antibiotics.’
‘True, but we both know how serious an illness this is for children under six months so we’re almost as impotent as medicos were before 1945.’
They walked into the isolation ward to see a pale and haggard woman sitting next to a cot. Elly put her hand on the mother’s shoulder. ‘Rachel, this is Gabe Lewis. He’s a … doctor too.’
Gabe heard the hesitation in her voice and wondered what she’d dropped from the sentence. Colleague, friend, lover? Once he’d considered himself to be all of those things. Ignoring the kernel of disappointment that buried itself deep inside him, he smiled at Rachel, totally understanding her fear for her child, and then reached out to stroke Millie’s head.
Recognition lit Rachel’s face. ‘Oh, you’re Cathleen’s son.’
He nodded as a rush of acid burned his stomach. Damn small towns, where everyone knows everybody. He tried to pre-empt the conversation and direct it away from him.
But Rachel got in first. ‘I bet you’re busy with—’
An incessant beeping split the air and Elly watched Gabe’s expression, which had already changed from open to tense, immediately become all doctor. He firmly stimulated Millie to take a breath by blowing on her face and rubbing her chest with his hand.
‘Why does that machine keep beeping?’ Rachel’s pinched and pale face stared up at her.
The question somehow managed to penetrate Elly’s brain, which was still spinning from the fact Gabe had greeted the baby by caressing Millie’s head. The Gabe she’d known had always been slightly aloof and uncomfortable around children, but right up until the machine had announced its urgent message, he’d looked anything but uncomfortable with Millie. If anything, he’d looked uneasy with Rachel.
She hauled her concentration back to the scared mother. ‘Millie’s having trouble breathing and sometimes she stops for a short time, and that’s called ap-noea. The mattress she’s lying on tells us when that happens.’
Rachel laced her fingers tightly. ‘But she starts again, right? She’ll always start again, won’t she?’
Elly wished she could promise her that. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Gabe examining the baby, his forehead furrowed by a line as deep as a trench. ‘Millie’s receiving oxygen and has started on antibiotics, but she’s not responding as fast as we’d hoped.’
Gabe swung his stethoscope round his neck and with eyes filled with concern he bobbed down so he was at the same height as Rachel. ‘Believe me, I get how terrifying this must be for you, and Elly’s done everything by the book, but Midden Cove’s not equipped to handle a baby this sick. Millie’s not improving, she’s getting worse.’
Rachel grabbed Gabe’s arms. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Millie’s going to need assistance to breathe. The sooner we evacuate her to Hobart or Melbourne the better.’
His melodic voice that had always sounded so deep and in control when he spoke to patients suddenly had an unanticipated tone of understanding threading through it. It was as if he really did know how she was feeling. It all seemed surreal. First he’d touched the baby and now he had empathy she’d never seen in him before.
‘What do you think, Elly?’ Rachel’s trembling voice immediately grounded her. ‘Josh is on his way back from Launceston. Can we wait?’
She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, Rachel, but Gabe’s right. Millie needs treatment by a specialist paediatrician.’ She pulled her phone out of her coat pocket. ‘I’m ringing the retrieval team now.’
As she spoke to the triage doctor at Royal Children’s Hospital, she heard Gabe gently and carefully explaining to Rachel how the team would intubate Millie and attach her to a portable ventilator before taking off in the helicopter.
She rang off. ‘They’ll be here in forty minutes and, Rachel, you’re going to Melbourne with her.’
Gabe immediately handed Rachel his phone. ‘Ring your husband and tell him what’s happening. I can talk to him if he wants that and he can ring either Elly or me at any time.’
The terrified woman nodded mutely and with trembling fingers pressed the numbers on the touch screen.
Gabe caught Elly’s elbow and gently pulled her aside, his touch sparking off a traitorous wave of heat that spun through her, calling up the memory of every embrace and every kiss they’d shared.
That’s just silly. Not every kiss would have been wonderful.
‘Elly.’
He spoke softly and his warm breath stroked her ear. She felt her body start to sway toward him, seeking his as dangerously as a bug flying toward light. Be strong. She turned, which moved her slightly away from him but gave her a full view of his face. For the first time she noticed deep creases carved in around his eyes, and half-hidden in the shimmering blue was a seriousness she’d never seen before. A light shiver whooshed across her but this time she knew it wasn’t a ghost.
He ran his hand through his hair. ‘I’m staying with Millie until she’s airlifted.’
Surprise skittered through her. Gabe was a triage specialist—assess, prioritise, organise and move on. ‘One of the nurses will special her until the team arrives and we’re just next door, examining the other three babies.’
He shook his head vigorously. ‘You examine the other babies, send the nurse to set up the vaccination clinic in A and E and as soon as Millie leaves I’ll deal with all the suspected adult cases.’
Without waiting for a reply, he turned his attention back to Millie, examining her and rechecking that everything in the emergency intubation kit was ready just in case he needed it.
She’d never seen him drop the triage code like this or seen him so connected with a child. A million questions flooded her but not one could be voiced. Yet.
Six hours later, Elly came up for her first real break. The Jennings baby had been airlifted along with Millie, and the babies from the christening, although thankfully symptomless at the moment, were under close observation.
The local chapter of the Red Cross had joined forces with the state emergency service and had put together a pho
ne-tree and a door-knock, notifying everyone of the need to come to the vaccination clinic over the next two days. Elly marvelled at how much could happen so quickly when a community pulled together.
Her phone beeped and vibrated as two text messages came in. She read the first one. ‘Hoping to see you this evening. Dev.’
A stab of guilt pricked her. She’d completely forgotten to get back to him after her one word text of ‘patient’ she’d sent earlier in the day. Now, after the day she’d experienced, she really only wanted to go home and sink into a bubble bath and pretend that her day off had actually been relaxing. Putting off her reply to Dev, she pressed ‘show message’ on her phone and the second text came through. ‘Just dim. U?’
She smiled and typed ‘dim’ on her phone, using predictive text, and got ‘fin.’ Some things didn’t change. Gabe’s fingers flew faster than his predictive text and he never checked before hitting ‘Send’. She walked down to A and E and as she rounded the corner of the central desk she saw him over by the window, talking on his mobile. She waved as he looked up.
He gave a quick, tight smile loaded with tension before turning away and ploughing his left hand through his hair. She caught the words ‘I won’t be too much longer but only if you think can you manage.’
Manage what? A ripple of sadness washed through her, reminding her of how much everything had changed and how separate their lives really were. Once his face would have lit up when she walked into a room and he would have pulled her into his arms, phone call or not.
Come on, get a grip, don’t go backwards. He obviously wanted privacy and not wishing to be accused of eavesdropping she moved away and tossed her white coat into the linen-skip. She’d just collected her bag from the bottom of the filing cabinet when Gabe appeared at the desk, pocketing his phone. His wide and generous mouth quirked up at the edges in a weary smile and again she noticed deeper lines that hadn’t been there two years ago.