‘I don’t care about that,’ he roared.
Maggie jumped as his voice cracked across the short space that separated them. He looked crazy suddenly and she knew she was in trouble.
His voice dropped again. ‘I’m sorry but I just can’t let you do this.’
Maggie’s heart was practically jumping out of her chest and her eyes bugged as he pulled a knife, the one he’d been peeling the orange with, out of his pocket.
‘Wait,’ Maggie pleaded, holding out her hand to ward him off as he advanced towards her. ‘Here, take it,’ she said holding it out to him. One bag of blood wasn’t worth her life.
‘Oh, I’ll take it all right,’ he snarled, and raised his knife-wielding hand.
Maggie held her crossed arms up to protect herself, protect the baby as he slashed towards her with the knife. She was terrified, utterly terrified. The knife came into contact with the bag and freezing cold blood gushed from the ruptured plastic and ran all down her and pooled on the linoleum floor.
Maggie could smell the metallic scent mingle with that of her own fear as the moment seemed frozen in time. He wrenched the bag out of her hands, knocking her backwards in the process. Maggie tried to regain her balance but slipped in the sticky mess at her feet.
She twisted, cried out, fell and hit her head on the hard wooden arm of the lounge chair on the way down. Maggie heard the vague clattering of the knife and saw it land not far from her head in her peripheral vision before everything went black and she lost consciousness.
Nash and Gemma had finished in Radiology and were discussing Nash’s move to Great Ormond Street Hospital when Linda caught up with them, a bag of chips and a can of soft drink in hand.
‘Been raiding the machine?’ Gemma asked.
Linda nodded. ‘I was over visiting a friend on ward two. And you know me, Gemma, can’t go by that damn machine without sampling the wares.’
‘Well, all proceeds do go to Radio Giggle,’ Gemma pointed out. ‘So really you’re just making a charitable donation.’
Linda laughed. ‘Hey, yeah, you’re right.’
They reached the end of their corridor and turned right. Nash noticed some smudges on the floor. ‘What’s that?’ He frowned.
They all looked down. ‘Looks like a bloody footprint,’ Linda mused.
Nash looked up, noticing they disappeared around the corner they were soon to take. He looked behind him in the opposite direction, tracking them with his eyes as they travelled the length of the corridor.
‘Someone might have cut their foot,’ Linda suggested.
Nash nodded but had a strange itch up his spine as they followed the trail. The wall had a bloody handprint just before they rounded the corner.
‘Curious and curiouser,’ Gemma murmured.
Nash was the first to see Maggie, followed closely by Linda’s gasp. His heart almost stopped in his chest as his shocked brain, already reeling from seeing a body on the floor surrounded in blood, realised it was Maggie.
‘Maggie?’ He ran to her side, kneeling in the blood, uncaring of his clothes or getting blood on himself. His mind raced, trying to sort through all possible scenarios. What the hell had happened? Where had all this blood come from? Nash didn’t think he’d ever seen so much in his life.
‘Maggie.’ He shook her this time.
Gemma felt for a carotid. ‘Good pulse.’
Nash felt some of the edge to his panic dissipate but then Linda said, ‘Oh, no.’ She held up a bloodied knife and Nash felt sick. Someone had stabbed her?
‘I’ll call the crash team and Security,’ Gemma said pulling her mobile out of her pocket.
Nash yanked out the heavy-duty scissors he carried in a pouch on his belt and in a couple of seconds had sheared through Maggie’s polo shirt. Her white bra was soaked red as he ran his hands all over her abdomen and chest searching for a wound. The feel of her warm congealing blood made him more and more frantic.
When he couldn’t find an entry point, he sheared through each leg of her trousers and repeated the exercise, looking for the bleeding point.
‘This amount of blood has to indicate a major vessel, Nash,’ Gemma said as she too tried to locate where the fresh-looking blood was coming from.
Nash’s movements grew more frantic. He felt like he was watching the life force ebb from her, could smell her blood all around him, and he wanted to pick her up and hug her to him. Shake her. Tell her not to leave him.
‘Nowhere. There’s nowhere,’ Gemma said. ‘Where else could she be bleeding from?’
Then Nash knew. The baby. Oh, God, was she miscarrying? Had she haemorrhaged and fainted? A fresh wave of panic hit him. ‘She’s pregnant,’ he said, looking up at Gemma.
Gemma and Linda stared at him like he’d lost his mind. ‘Are you sure?’ Linda asked.
Nash nodded. ‘It’s mine. I’m sure.’
There were a couple more seconds when they continued to look at him in disbelief but then Maggie started to stir and everything was forgotten.
‘Maggie?’ Nash felt his heart leap in his chest as she moved her head and groaned.
‘Maggie, it’s Gemma. Can you open your eyes?’
Maggie’s head was thumping and Gemma’s voice sounded very far away but she prised her eyes open obediently. Gemma swam in and out of focus.
‘Maggie!’
Nash? ‘Nash? What’s wrong?’ She tried to sit up but hands held her down. ‘What happened?’ she asked dazedly.
‘Were you stabbed? Where, Maggie? Where were you stabbed?’ Nash ran his hands over her again looking for a wound.
Maggie frowned as her head continued to throb. ‘What? No.’ The events came flooding back. She struggled to sit and was held down again. She became aware of the congealing blood sticking to her arms, caking on her body. ‘He didn’t stab me,’ she protested. ‘He got the bag of blood. Not me.’
‘He who?’ Linda demanded.
‘Christopher’s grandfather. He slashed the bag and then ripped it off me and ran. I fell…slipped in the blood and hit my head, that’s all.’ Maggie lifted her hand to her head to try and ease the jackhammers drilling into her skull.
The crash team, consisting of an A and E doctor and two of their nurses, an anaesthetist and two wardsmen along with three burly security guards, burst through the nearby fire escape door. Ray arrived as part of the PICU response at the same time. They all froze as they took in the scene.
Had Maggie’s head not throbbed so much she might have laughed. She guessed it did rather look like a massacre had just occurred. And then they all moved at once and there was pandemonium in the corridor.
The head security officer called for back-up and made a call to the police. He sent his two officers to search for the perpetrator. Gemma organised the wardies to get a gurney and sent the A and E staff back to their department. Linda organised Ray to take charge of the unit and two of the newly arrived security officers went with him.
Maggie looked at Nash who was looking even worse than the morning he’d found the positive pregnancy test in her bathroom. He was running his bloodied hands through his hair and a smear of blood marred one otherwise perfect cheek. ‘Nash?’
Nash heard her small voice, usually so firm and assured, and he hauled her into a sitting position and tucked her into his chest. She was trembling and he hugged her closer. He didn’t care that he’d have even more blood over him or that the hand he had on her head, stroking her hair, was covered in the red sticky stuff. She was okay. The baby was okay. That was all that mattered.
‘Bloody hell, Maggie, you scared the living daylights out of me.’
Maggie rested her cheek against his shirt. It felt heavenly against her thumping temple and she turned her face into his shirt, smelling the essence of him, eliminating the sickly metallic aroma playing havoc with her nausea.
‘Come on, you two,’ Linda interrupted. ‘We need to get Maggie to X-Ray.’
Maggie looked at Nash and shook her head. ‘No, Nash, I can’t,�
� she whispered. ‘The baby,’ she mouthed.
Nash smiled and dropped a kiss on her nose, elated to see her sitting and talking and thinking and being all Maggie and bossy. For an awful moment he’d thought she was dead. ‘I’m afraid they know about the baby, Maggie.’
Maggie gaped at him. She would have been really mad had it not hurt her head, and Gemma and Linda were grinning stupidly at her so she just rolled her eyes. ‘Well, okay, then. So I’m not having an X-ray.’
Gemma cocked an eyebrow at Nash. ‘Maggie, you were knocked out. For quite a while. We need to check you didn’t do some damage.’
Maggie squirmed out of his embrace and tried to get to her feet on legs that felt like jelly. Nash helped her. As soon as she was up she pulled her elbow out of his grasp. ‘I’m fine,’ she said. Unfortunately a wave of dizziness chose that moment to assail her and she swayed.
‘Whoa.’ Nash caught her, sweeping her up off her feet with Maggie protesting the entire way. The gurney arrived at the same time and he placed her on it. ‘See?’ he said gently.
‘No X-ray,’ she said mutinously. ‘Do a full neuro assessment if you must, but I’m not irradiating this baby.’
‘Maggie,’ Gemma appealed. ‘One X-ray is not going to hurt the baby. They’ll take appropriate precautions.’
‘No.’
‘You’ll have to stay overnight for observation if you refuse,’ Gemma lectured.
Maggie looked at the two doctors, united in their determination to expose her baby to deadly radiation. ‘Fine.’
Two hours later Nash was finally free to leave work and visit Maggie. She’d been whisked away by ambulance to the Brisbane General while he’d been held up with the police and handing over to Mac. Every instinct he’d owned had rebelled against their separation but he’d known hospital was the best place for her.
Still, the sight of her lying in that pool of blood kept running through his head with sickening clarity and the need to reassure himself that she was okay was paramount. He was increasingly frustrated by the amount of time it was taking and his nerves were stretched to breaking point when he finally managed to get away.
She was tucked up asleep when he entered her private room. She was wearing one of those awful hospital gowns and looked pale and fragile against the white sheets. An ugly mark marred her left temple, a purple bruise embellishing it further. At least the blood was gone. Nash didn’t think he’d ever be able to scrub that image from his mind.
He dropped a light kiss on her forehead but she didn’t stir. He pulled up a chair close to the bed, sank into it and reached for her nearest hand. She still didn’t stir. Nash could feel the warmth of her palm in his and see her chest rising and falling so he knew she was okay, but her stillness was almost as sickening as the blood.
Nash rested his chin on the bed and watched. He watched her deep, even respirations. The bound of her abdominal pulse. The fluttering of her eyes beneath her lids. He watched, relieved, overwhelmingly thankful that she was okay.
A nurse came in and smiled at Nash. She did a set of neuro obs and Nash leaned closer as Maggie stirred to the nurse’s insistent demand that she open her eyes.
‘Nash?’ Maggie murmured, becoming aware of his presence just as retinal-detaching light was blasted into her pupils. Nash was here? The thought helped soothe the ache a little and she threaded her fingers through his.
‘I’m here,’ he said, squeezing her hand.
Maggie answered a series of questions the nurse fired at her and dutifully moved all her limbs. ‘How’s your head?’
‘Feels like someone’s drilling a hole in it with a jackhammer.’ Maggie grimaced.
‘I can get you something for it,’ the nurse suggested.
Maggie shifted her free hand to her belly and splayed her fingers there. ‘No, thanks. I’ll cope.’
‘A couple of Panadol aren’t going to hurt, Maggie,’ Nash interceded.
‘I’m fine.’
‘Okay, then. See you in an hour,’ the nurse said as she left.
Maggie’s head throbbed. ‘Oh, goody,’ she muttered as her eyes fluttered shut.
Nash chuckled. It was good to see Maggie’s humour was intact. ‘You could have had the X-ray,’ he chided.
Maggie could feel herself drifting off to sleep again and let it slide. A nagging question pulled her out and her eyes struggled open. She rolled her head to the side to find Nash’s gaze firmly trained on her. ‘Did they get him?’
Nash nodded. ‘Yes, he’s been apprehended.’
Maggie pursed her lips, the whole crazy jumble of events too much for her sore head to contemplate. Her lids drifted downwards again. No, wait, there was something else. She forced her eyes open. ‘Did Christopher get his transfusion?’
Nash shook his head. Trust Maggie to be thinking of one of her patients in the midst of all of this. ‘Yes. He did. Bree popped in to visit you but you were asleep.’
Maggie smiled as she felt the tug of sleep pulling her under. ‘Not her fault,’ she murmured.
Nash watched her drift away, her grip on his hand easing, grateful that despite her ordeal she was still the same Maggie. His mobile buzzed in his pocket and he slowly extricated himself so he could switch it off.
Maggie, teetering on the edge of the precipice between light sleep and total oblivion, felt his withdrawal as if her safety rope had been tugged away and her eyes flew open as her heart rate spiked. ‘No,’ she murmured, reaching for his hand. ‘Don’t leave.’
She felt an edge of panic swell up. Not yet. I have another few weeks with you. Don’t leave me yet.
‘Hey, shh, it’s okay,’ Nash said, ignoring his phone as she clawed his hand back into her grasp, holding it prisoner against her belly. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’
He smiled at her and Maggie’s pulse settled again as the panic receded and the imprint of his hand against her abdomen registered. She shut her eyes. ‘Yes, you are.’
The words were her last as this time sleep tugged her completely under.
Nash blinked at the streak of accusation in her mumbled words. Yes, you are.
Did she want him to stay?
Her stomach was warm beneath his palm as Nash turned her words over in his head. He recognised the flat contours he’d grown to know so well in such a short time and felt a pang that he wasn’t going to get to see her shape change, feel the roundness replace the smooth planes.
It was the first time he’d touched her in any intimate way in weeks, and the fact that his child lay beneath their hands made it even more intimate. His mind returned to the awful events and plagued him with what-ifs, and his hand tightened against her belly.
What if she’d really been stabbed? What if the baby had been injured? What if she’d died? What if something like this had happened while he was living overseas? He shuddered, thinking about it, and the feeling that he was shirking his duties returned with a vengeance as her Yes, you are mingled with the emotions of the night’s events.
Except it was about more than duty now. This was real. Maggie was real. The baby beneath his hands was real. It didn’t feel like a problem that had to be solved suddenly or a responsibility he had to bear. So what was it?
Maybe he was becoming a father?
Seeing Maggie like that on the floor—still and bleeding—had stirred something in him. Shifted something. The thought that the baby might be in danger had been equally as dreadful. Maybe his caveman protective instincts were kicking in? His woman, his child. His job to protect them.
But how could he do that from the other side of the world?
Yes, you are.
Nash groaned and laid his forehead on the crisp white sheet. This made no sense. They’d already figured out what they were going to do. And Maggie had seemed really happy. At peace with it. Except her grip on his hand and her mumbled words just now seemed to refute that.
His career plans and his future dreams inspired by his sister’s struggle warred with the emotions that flooded him as he sat here loo
king at Maggie.
What the hell was happening to him?
CHAPTER NINE
MAGGIE STIRRED EARLY the next morning and stared down at Nash’s golden hair. It took a moment to orientate herself. She’d shuffled down the bed overnight and was lying on her side, facing Nash, in a foetal position. Their heads were quite close, one of his hands tucked into hers, cradled in the juncture between her curled belly and tucked-up thighs. His head was angled awkwardly towards her, his right cheek against the sheets, his gorgeous face relaxed in slumber.
The usual wave of morning sickness appeared to be absent so she took a moment to just gaze at him. Her love swelled in her chest and she savoured the moment, knowing there would be no more of these. She felt strangely emotional as the impact of last night hit her anew. Before she could stop herself, she leaned forward and dropped a light kiss against his mouth.
Nash woke up abruptly. He’d slept fitfully all night with the constant interruptions from the nurses and had only fallen into a deeper sleep in the last couple of hours as the neuro obs had gone to four-hourly. Still, he was instantly awake at the brush of her lips.
‘Hi.’ She smiled as he raised his head off the bed like he’d been hit with a taser. ‘Sorry. Couldn’t resist it. Bad Maggie.’
Nash’s thundering heart rate settled as he realised everything was okay. He smiled back at her and laid his head down again. ‘She’s my favourite.’
Maggie laughed and the dull throb behind her eyes gave a vicious pulse. She winced.
‘Head still hurt?’
‘Only when I laugh,’ she murmured. ‘It’s much better. I feel much better.’
Nash let his gaze roam around her face. Her colour was back and apart from the bruise-encased graze on her temple she looked essentially normal. She’d certainly had more sleep than he’d had.
He lifted a hand and brushed her fringe off her forehead. ‘You scared me, Maggie May.’
Her Baby Out of the Blue/A Doctor, A Nurse: A Christmas Baby Page 28