A Very Single Midwife

by Fiona McArthur

  Bella didn’t know whether it was a good thing they weren’t talking about what just happened or a bad idea. At his continued silence she started to worry. Was he going to pretend it had never happened? Or was he going to assume that any time he wanted to kiss her she’d be happy with that? Bella squirmed. It had only been that wonderful smell of carpentry that had brought out the wanton in her.

  Finally the silence got to her. Honestly, she thought, he was a doctor, you’d imagine he’d be skilled at putting people at ease. ‘I don’t think much of your bedside manner, Dr Rainford.’

  Scott glanced across at Bella and almost pulled the car over to kiss her again. She was flushed and he could see she was embarrassed and she probably wanted to tear his eyes out. He hadn’t spoken because he didn’t know what to say. He’d almost pulled her down on the floor of the shed and lost himself in her and she’d have been helpless to stop him because they’d both been blind to reason. Didn’t she realise that?

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with my bedside manner.’ The sex maniac inside his head whispered, When I put a couch in the workshop I’ll show you. He almost groaned at the picture that painted.

  She folded her arms across her chest and stared out through the windscreen. She probably thought he was insufferable. Scott suppressed a smile. When the car pulled up outside her house, without looking at him, she said, ‘Thank you for bringing me home.’

  Before she could pull the handle he said, ‘Stay there, I’ll open your door.’ He could tell she fumed as she waited. She probably wasn’t sure whether she was more angry at him for telling her what to do or at herself for doing what she was told. He hid another smile and opened her door.

  She climbed out as if the hordes were after her. Scott just stood there as Bella muttered, ‘Thank you.’ And marched up the front path. Scott wasn’t sure if he’d advanced his suit or killed it.

  Tuesday

  The next morning Bella had decided to ignore the events of yesterday. The kiss had definitely been down to proximity, that and the ghosts of twelve years ago in Scott’s house which had still been at the back of her mind. The fact that their kiss had transported her to a place she’d felt inclined to linger in she didn’t want to think about.

  Bella tugged the brush through her hair in punishing strokes. She wasn’t the naïve girl from the past—the one awed by a handsome young doctor who’d seemed to understand everything about her.

  The Scott of today didn’t understand her at all and she didn’t want him to.

  When Bella went downstairs, Blake had Vivie’s baby, Ro, on his lap and both Vivie and the baby were laughing. Blake looked up when Bella entered.

  He grinned and bounced young Ro on his lap. ‘Your car won’t be ready till Monday because we’re waiting for a part for the engine.’

  Bella poured the cereal into her bowl and nodded. ‘Monday’s fine. I can take the bus if you need your car. I never thought mine would ever go again.’

  Blake rolled his eyes. ‘Take my car, please. That bus is embarrassing.’

  Bella grinned and finished her breakfast. ‘You’re a vehicle snob, that’s what you are.’

  Fifteen minutes later she parked Blake’s car outside Maternity and she smiled as the engine gurgled its way to silence. Her brother-in-law’s car was here so he must have been on call.

  Rohan was at the desk when she went in and he winked when he saw her.

  ‘Hi, Bella. So, where did you get to yesterday with Scott?’

  Bella looked around at the interested faces at the desk and raised her eyebrows. ‘Is this start-a-rumour day, Rohan?’

  Rohan didn’t even have the grace to look a little guilty as he realised how his statement must have sounded.

  ‘Oops,’ he said with a wicked smile, and left.

  Bella sighed as she sat down.

  Sharon, despite her eagerness to get home after the night shift, leaned towards Bella and pretended to elbow her. ‘And what was that all about, boss?’

  Sharon and Bella had been in the same class at school and Bella knew she wasn’t going to get away without replying.

  ‘Scott showed me a piece of furniture he’d made, and the rest was Rohan’s imagination.’ She looked at Sharon. ‘Did you know that Scott was a carpenter?’

  Sharon nodded. ‘He gave Abbey a beautiful round table to auction the year before last when we wanted to raise money for the ward.’ She smiled at the memory. ‘Half the women in the hospital bid for it but I think it went to some rich widow who fancied him. It didn’t do her any good. The money bought a new Sonicaid.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Bella. ‘Abbey didn’t mention it.’

  Sharon shrugged. ‘It was before you came back from Sydney.’

  Bella pushed away the thought that Abbey hadn’t talked voluntarily about Scott to her for many years. She nodded and sat further back in her chair.

  ‘So, what happened on the ward through the night?’ Sharon shot a quick look at Bella and then shrugged as if to say, Was that it?

  Bella raised her eyebrows and waited and Sharon grinned. She started the handover report.

  An hour later, Bella had had time to speak to all the patients and was back at the desk. Scott strolled in and Bella tried to think cool thoughts to stop the blush that she could feel in her cheeks.

  ‘It’s warm this morning,’ Scott said with a saintly smile, and Bella narrowed her eyes.

  ‘So it seems,’ she said with restraint. She didn’t look at him again as she moved off down the hall with the patient files and Scott had to follow.

  In the first room, Melissa’s baby was in her mother’s arms. ‘Tina seems to have stopped her bradycardias,’ Bella said.

  Scott cupped the baby’s foot in his big hand and the sight pulled strangely at Bella’s stomach. She was noticing more and more about him every day and she couldn’t seem to stop herself.

  ‘That must make you feel better, Melissa.’ Scott smiled at the girl.

  Melissa smiled back. ‘Yep. When I heard the machine noises slow down I could feel my own heart go faster. It was pretty scary. Are you sure she shouldn’t have the machine when I go home?’

  Scott nodded. ‘Yes. I’m sure.’ He sat on the edge of the bed. ‘Tina’s bradycardias don’t change her skin colour so even though her heart rate and breathing slows down her breathing doesn’t stop. She’s still getting all the oxygen she needs. You’ll find that any bradycardias that she has now will usually be after a feed and she will have fewer and fewer of them as she grows. I would be very surprised if she was still having any by the time she’s ready to go home.’ He smiled sympathetically. ‘You need to get used to the idea there won’t be a machine to listen to her all the time, but I know it’s hard.’

  Melissa nodded and glanced ruefully at Bella. ‘That’s pretty much what Bella said.’

  Scott looked across at Bella and his face was deadpan. ‘Sister Wilson and I agree on everything.’

  Bella nodded, and refused to dispute anything that would undermine Melissa’s belief in Scott’s words.

  When Scott looked a little disappointed by her lack of dissension, Bella had to suppress her smile. He looked back at Melissa. ‘How’s Tina with her feeds?’

  Melissa shrugged. ‘I can’t get her to feed from me but she’ll take my milk from a bottle every second feed. Bella says that’s pretty good for her prematurity.’

  ‘My word, it is.’ Scott nodded and glanced at the feed chart. ‘And how are you after the birth?’

  The girl shrugged. ‘I don’t even feel like I had a baby. I can’t wait to take her home but I know I have to be patient.’

  ‘It’s tough,’ Scott agreed, ‘but you’re doing a great job.’ He stood up. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  They left Melissa and the rest of the round was accomplished swiftly.

  Back at the desk, Scott couldn’t resist commenting, ‘I see you’re still driving the hot rod.’

  Bella nodded. ‘Mine won’t be ready till Monday and it’s more fun than the bus.’


  Scott’s lip curled. ‘It’s a death trap.’

  Bella shook her head. ‘Now I’ll have to disagree with the great Dr Rainford there, which is strange when we agree on everything.’ Bella shrugged. ‘In fact, I’m planning on taking it for a spin this afternoon down to Port Macquarie. Just to open it up on the highway.’

  Bella had no intention of doing anything of the kind but Scott’s persistent ridicule of Blake’s car annoyed her.

  Scott was silent for a minute and Bella waited to hear what disparaging comment he’d make now. ‘Want a passenger?’ Scott’s question hung in the air between them and Bella froze. Her mind blanked and she had a horrible feeling her mouth was open.

  ‘Well?’ There was an underlying amusement in his persistence as he pressured her, almost as if he knew she’d never meant to do it.

  ‘Sure! Why not?’ Bella threw back at him recklessly, and they stared at each other, each daring the other to back down. In the end Scott nodded and headed for the exit.

  ‘Better bring a spare pair of underpants,’ Bella muttered.

  Scott froze on his way to the door and looked back at Bella incredulously. ‘What did you say?’

  Bella looked up innocently. ‘I said I’d better check the spare on the off chance.’ Scott didn’t look convinced and Bella glanced with pretended nonchalance at the clock on the wall. ‘I’ll pick you up at six. That will give us almost two hours of light with daylight saving. Unless you want to change your mind?’ She showed her teeth.

  Scott bared his right back. ‘I’ll be ready.’

  When Scott had gone across to the other side of the hospital to see his patients in Children’s Ward, Bella sank into the chair and put her head in her hands. What had she done?

  She had little time to worry about it. The day nurse, Michelle, had just made them coffee when Bella heard the front door open. She walked out to see who it was and her heart plummeted.

  A terrified young mother rushed up to Bella and thrust her limp baby into her arms. The baby was blue and lifeless. ‘She stopped breathing. She’s sick. Get the doctor.’

  ‘Michelle!’ Bella’s call had Michelle on her heels as she ran to the nursery with the baby in her arms. Bella hit her fist against the raised red cardiac-arrest button on her way to the infant resuscitation trolley, and the reassuring beep echoed through the corridors. Help would be here soon. Bella squeezed back the panic in her throat and concentrated. ‘Airway. Cardiac output,’ she said under her breath.

  She placed the baby’s head towards her on the trolley, in the ‘sniffing’ position, but couldn’t see any reason for the baby not to be breathing. Quickly she tried to hear a heartbeat with the stethoscope but couldn’t find one.

  The baby’s mother was crying and wringing her hands and Bella glanced briefly at her. ‘Did you find her like this or did she stop breathing on the way here?’

  ‘She wasn’t breathing when I found her in her crib but she started again when I picked her up. Then she stopped again on the way here.’

  ‘That’s great. You did the right thing. Help is on the way,’ Bella said as she twisted the knob to send oxygen surging through the mask of the resuscitation bag. She held it over the baby’s face and gave three quick puffs of the clear bag, watching the infant’s lungs inflate and deflate. So there was no obstruction.

  Michelle came to a hurried stop beside her and Bella handed her the bag. ‘Grab this and bag her, please. I can’t find a pulse and we’ll do ECM until help arrives.’

  The next two minutes felt like a lifetime and although the baby didn’t breathe, her colour improved and Bella thought she heard a tiny thready beat when she stopped after the second two minutes.

  Scott skidded into the room and Bella had never been more pleased to see him. Two younger doctors from the emergency department followed him in, and if the situation hadn’t been so grave Bella would have laughed at how out of breath they were compared to the older doctor.

  She gave verbal handover to Scott. ‘Mum found her limp in bed. Baby started to breathe when picked up and stopped again on the way to hospital. Limp and blue on arrival and I couldn’t hear a heartbeat. Think there’s one now, though.’

  ‘Good stuff.’ His face was intense as he examined the infant.

  Bella continued with the ECM except when Scott listened to the baby’s heartbeat.

  ‘She’s got a good heart rate now.’ Bella changed places with Michelle when Scott indicated she could stop cardiac massage and Michelle drew the mother to a chair to sit down.

  ‘Close. Very close.’ They put a head box with oxygen around the baby’s head and watched her. ‘We’ll put an IV in and get her hooked up to the monitors, then transfer her to Port Macquarie so the paediatricians can give her a thorough going over.’

  He glanced at the mother and lowered his voice. ‘I’d say this was a too-close-for-comfort, sudden-infant-death-syndrome scenario. They may never find out why her baby did this, the poor woman.’

  Bella nodded and she could feel the sting of tears in her own eyes. She couldn’t imagine anything more frightening than the thought of losing a child. She wanted to hug the young mother but Michelle was doing that so Bella smiled mistily at Scott instead.

  Scott stayed while they waited for the ambulance to transport mother and baby to the larger base hospital. One of the emergency doctors was going with them just in case.

  Scott reassured the mother before she left. ‘Because she’s been so stable since she’s woken up, it does look better for her. The paediatricians will look after you both.’

  Bella hugged the woman. ‘Take care.’

  ‘Thank you.’ She brushed away her tears. ‘I’ll come and see you when we get out of hospital.’

  ‘I’d like that,’ Bella said, and she stood beside Scott as the ambulance drove away. Bella wanted to cry to relieve the tension but she fought it. As if he sensed how she was feeling, Scott rested his hand on her shoulder and leaned his forehead against hers. It felt so comforting Bella wanted to stay there all day.

  ‘Good job, Bella,’ he said, and she felt the tears prick her eyes again.

  ‘I was very glad to see you,’ she said in a shaky voice, and he smiled as she stepped away.

  ‘That’s what I like to hear.’ He tilted his head at her. ‘Make sure you’re glad to see me at six o’clock. That’s if you still want to get out this evening?’

  Not surprisingly Bella had forgotten about their plans for Blake’s car. The thought of wind in her hair and being right away from the hospital sounded good.

  ‘I’m no piker,’ she said bravely, and turned back into the nursery to help Michelle clean up.

  At six o’clock Bella’s misgivings had returned and multiplied ten times. Blake had thought it a great idea for Bella to go for a ‘decent spin’, as he called it, but he’d looked at her strangely when she’d mentioned she was taking Scott.

  ‘I think it will be good company for Bella to take Dr Rainford,’ Vivie said, and Bella smiled weakly back.

  ‘Thanks, Vivie.’ She glanced at the clock again. ‘Could you leave my dinner in the fridge, please? I’ll reheat it when I come home.’

  ‘Sure.’ Vivie tilted her head knowingly. ‘If you’ve already eaten, I’m sure we can find another hungry person to feed it to.’

  Blake looked up, not unlike a starving puppy, and both women laughed. Bella jingled the keys and waved on her way out.

  Scott was standing on his front verandah with a small basket when she pulled up. Bella leaned across the seats and pushed opened his door.

  He climbed in. ‘Thank you,’ he said.

  ‘I wasn’t being polite.’ Bella grinned. ‘That door doesn’t open from the outside.’

  ‘Great,’ Scott said, and leaned over the back to rest the basket on the floor. ‘I brought a picnic.’ Then he tested that he could open the front door from the inside. ‘So if we crash, the emergency services can’t get in to me, is that right?’

  ‘You’re such a pessimist,’ Bell
a said as she put the car into first gear and roared off down the street. Scott exaggerated the g-force slamback in his seat and Bella ignored him.

  She’d driven with Scott before in the bus. There was no reason to feel intimidated by Scott sitting beside her now. She was a good driver and she did love the way the car cornered like it was glued to the road.

  Bella double-shuffled back into second as she approached an intersection and then planted it as the lights changed to green.

  Scott loosened his collar. ‘Do you remember that Disney cartoon about the schizophrenic driver who changes when they get behind the wheel? Mr Walker becomes Mr Wheeler?’ Scott’s voice was conversational and Bella shot him a look.

  ‘I’ve stayed within the speed limit.’

  ‘Granted.’ Scott’s voice was dry. ‘At least turn your headlights on so the other cars have more warning that you’re coming.’

  Bella looked over the top of her sunglasses at him as if to say, It’s broad daylight. But she switched the lights on and then pushed her glasses back up her nose.

  Scott ignored her sarcasm and tried some of his own. ‘Can’t wait for the highway.’

  Bella had no intention of breaking any speed limits but he was being insufferable. She pushed in the tape deck and some high-voiced rap artist talked repetitiously with a mind-numbing bass beat in the background. She sneaked a glance at Scott’s horrified face and relented, but couldn’t help the giggle. ‘Sorry. That time I was pulling your leg. It’s not my taste either.’

  ‘Thank God for small mercies.’ Scott pretended to wipe his brow and Bella relaxed into her seat. This was fun. In fact, much of the last few days had been fun and not a little exciting. But she was too busy to worry about that now.

  They left the outskirts of town and Bella sped along the highway with the windows open. The little car whipped around any slower vehicles in the overtaking lane and the roar of the wind drowned out any hope of conversation.

  By the time they’d driven to the turn-off to Port Macquarie, Bella was bored with the highway. ‘How about we head past Wauchope? At least I can play with the corners.’