‘What he wants is your job,’ Mario observed, ‘but heaven help the staff and patients of any A and E he’s ever in charge of.’
‘Amen to that,’ Kate observed. ‘And speaking of A and E,’ she continued, ‘we have a possibly fractured arm waiting for us unless, of course, you’re far too grand to assist me with such a mundane thing?’
‘Me, grand?’ Mario echoed. ‘Nah. Common as muck, that’s me.’
And a godsend on a day which, after a very peaceful start, turned out to be one of the busiest Kate could ever remember.
‘Do you think the entire population of Aberdeen has suddenly developed a death wish?’ she demanded after a lunch which had consisted of one half-eaten sandwich consumed on the run.
‘Maybe they just all want to wish you happy birthday.’ Mario grinned, and she shook her head at him.
‘Yeah. Right. You know, I never thought I’d miss Paul,’ she continued, ‘but we sure as shooting could have done with his help this afternoon. Do you think he might have put a hex on us before he went off to his cousin’s wedding to ensure we’d be inundated?’
‘I wouldn’t be at all surprised,’ Mario replied. ‘In fact, I’d bet money he’s probably made wax images of the pair of us, and is sticking pins into them even as we speak.’
She laughed. ‘Jumbo sized pins. Pins so big that…’
She came to a halt. The doors of the treatment room had slammed open and a young man was standing there, wide-eyed and sweating, his hands clenched tightly onto a wheelchair in which a young woman sat ashen-faced with pain.
‘Can somebody help me, please?’ he yelled. ‘It’s my wife, Alison. She’s having a baby!’
‘You need Maternity, Mr…Mr…?’ Kate began, hurrying towards him only to realise that Mario and Terri were doing the same.
‘My name’s Mackintosh,’ the young man replied. ‘Ben Mackintosh, and I don’t think Alison’s going to make it there.’
Kate didn’t think she would either when she lifted the young woman’s skirt.
‘Yikes, but her cervix is already fully dilated!’ she exclaimed. ‘Terri, phone Maternity and tell them we need someone down here fast. Mario, how much maternity experience have you had?’
‘None,’ he replied as Terri sped away.
‘What do you mean—none?’ Kate hissed.
‘Exactly what I said,’ he replied in the same caustic undertone. ‘When I was a junior doctor I watched two births, but other than that, zilch, nada, none. All the pregnant women who came into hospital when I was an A and E doctor managed to make it to Maternity.’
‘Well this one certainly isn’t going to,’ Kate muttered before fixing what she hoped was a suitably encouraging smile to her lips and turning to Ben and Alison Mackintosh. ‘I’m afraid there’s no time to transfer you to Maternity, so if you’d both like to come through here…’
‘This is not what we planned,’ Ben Mackintosh declared, wiping his forehead with a shaking hand as Mario swiftly wheeled his wife into cubicle 3, then slipped on a protective, sterile apron before helping the young mother-to-be up onto the examination trolley. ‘Alison’s not due for another two weeks, you see. In fact, we were at a wedding, and Alison just thought she had backache, then her waters broke when we were on our way to the reception, and—’
‘Oh, cripes, but this hurts!’ Alison Mackintosh exclaimed, gripping Mario’s hand as though it was a lifeline. ‘This really—really—hurts.’
‘OK, Alison, we want you to push when we tell you to push, and relax when we tell you to relax, and in between times huff, puff, and pant like a dog.’
He proceeded to give the young woman a demonstration and Alison looked at him then at Kate who burst out laughing before she could stop herself.
‘Mario, you sound like a constipated seal,’ she protested as she reached for her protective apron, and he gave her a very hard stare.
‘Look, I’m doing my best, here,’ he declared, ‘but never having given birth I’m at a bit of a disadvantage.’
Alison let out a laugh, that was very quickly overtaken by a groan, and swiftly Kate went to the foot of the examination trolley.
‘Huff, puff, and push as Nurse Volante said, Alison,’ she ordered. ‘Well done—well done—now relax, and wait until you feel another contraction before you start pushing again.’
‘Should it be hurting quite as much as this?’ Ben Mackintosh said, whitening visibly as his wife let out a cry that was halfway between a scream and a groan.
‘It won’t be much longer now,’ Kate declared. ‘In fact—’
Her eyes fled to Mario with dismay. The baby’s head hadn’t crowned yet, but she could definitely feel the umbilical cord. It was presenting in front of the baby and in Maternity they would immediately have performed a Caesarean but she possessed neither the skill nor the experience to do one. She was going to have to do something, however, because if she didn’t the cord would gradually become more and more compressed as the baby was born and eventually its oxygen supply would be cut off completely.
‘What is it—what’s wrong?’ Ben Mackintosh said, glancing from Kate to Mario with concern.
‘It’s nothing,’ Kate said reassuringly as Mario came round to the foot of the examination trolley to join her, but Ben Mackintosh wasn’t convinced.
‘Something’s wrong—I know there is!’ he exclaimed. ‘What is it—what’s happened?’
‘Just a small hiccup,’ Kate declared. ‘Your baby’s umbilical cord is trying to come out first.’
She heard Mario’s sharp intake of breath, but to her relief Ben Mackintosh didn’t.
Think, Kate, think, she told herself as Mario gazed impotently at her, clearly indicating that she was on her own with this one. She was sure she’d read somewhere that sometimes it was possible to push the cord up and out of the way, while holding the baby’s head up. It would be as uncomfortable as hell for Alison, and she might not be able to do it, but if she did nothing…
‘OK, Alison, try not to push for a few seconds,’ she ordered, and the girl shook her head.
‘I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can,’ she gasped. ‘This baby…wants…Oh, hell, here comes another contraction…it doesn’t want to wait.’
Neither did Kate, but she had to until Alison had stopped pushing and then, as gently as she could, she slipped her hand as high up as she could into the girl’s vagina. The baby’s head was there, and so was the cord, pulsing with life, and tentatively she tried to push the cord up and away from the baby’s face.
‘Relax, Alison,’ Mario said soothingly. ‘Just relax. Don’t push.’
‘I’m…sorry!’ Alison exclaimed. ‘But I’m going…to…have to.’
And she pushed down again, and Kate bit her lip as she felt her hand being crushed with the strength of the contraction, but she held on to the cord, and when Alison stopped pushing she was still holding it.
‘The head’s crowning, Kate,’ Mario muttered, and she nodded.
‘When it comes out try to keep the baby’s head as high as you can,’ she said, wincing, as Alison started to bear down again.
She wasn’t going to be able to hold onto the cord for much longer. It was beginning to pull against her, and Mario must have sensed it because he leant over Alison, his face encouraging and determined.
‘OK, Alison, let’s go for the big one,’ he declared. ‘Do my constipated seal act. Relax, relax, and then I want you to push like hell.’
Alison did as he asked, and suddenly not only did the baby’s head appear, but also a hand and an elbow and both shoulders.
‘Great, Alison, just great!’ he exclaimed, and Kate could see beads of perspiration on his forehead. ‘One more push—as big as the last one—just one more…’
‘Oh, God, never again,’ the girl replied, her face scarlet. ‘No more children—ever.’
But she bore down again and suddenly, with a slide and a rush, the baby shot out into Mario’s waiting hands.
‘A girl,’ he declared. ‘Y
ou have a beautiful baby girl, Alison.’
‘Two arteries present in the cord?’ Kate said quickly, flexing her fingers to try to restore some feeling into them, and Mario nodded as he clamped it.
‘Just the placenta to deliver,’ he said, pressing gently on Alison’s uterus to help the placenta on its way and, as though on cue, a small gush of blood came from the girl, followed quickly by the placenta.
‘I don’t know what to say,’ Ben Mackenzie said, his eyes very bright, his voice choked. ‘What you just did—both of you—I…I…All I can say is thank you. Thank you.’
Vigorously he shook Mario’s hand, then turned to Kate, and she backed up a step.
‘I don’t think so, do you?’ she said, looking ruefully down at her fingers, and he laughed but Mario didn’t.
Mario’s eyes were fixed on the little girl as he wrapped her in a towel.
‘Isn’t she beautiful, Kate?’ he said, his voice soft, husky. ‘Isn’t she the most beautiful baby you’ve ever seen?’
‘Anyone would think you’d never seen a newborn before,’ she protested with a chuckle, and Mario shook his head.
‘Not this newborn, I haven’t,’ he murmured and, as he gently stroked the little girl’s cheek, Kate’s breath suddenly caught and wedged somewhere in the centre of her chest.
He looked so right holding Alison Mackenzie’s daughter, as though he was the proud father, not Ben Mackenzie, and his face…All too often it was marred by a world-weary cynicism but there was no cynicism in his face as he handed the little girl to her mother. Instead there was a tenderness so warm, a longing so obvious, that tears sprang into Kate’s eyes and she had to blink rapidly to keep them at bay.
‘She really is special, isn’t she?’ Ben Mackenzie declared proudly. ‘Are you a father yourself, Doctor?’
‘No, I’m not,’ Mario replied.
‘You should try it!’ Ben exclaimed, and Mario shook his head.
‘I’d have to be married first, or in a long-term relationship, and I’ve no plans for either.’
Of course he hadn’t, Kate thought as the specialist registrar from Maternity appeared with his staff, and slapped Mario on the back, clearly assuming he was the doctor in charge. He’d told her repeatedly that he didn’t do long term, he didn’t do commitment, so why had she felt such a shaft of pain at his words? Why had she wanted to yell, But what about me?
Because she’d been stupid, so stupid, she realised as Mario grinned across at her, and she managed to smile back. She’d thought herself so clever, so smart. She’d told herself she could have a casual fling with this man, then walk away with no regrets but she couldn’t. He had been right, and she had been wrong, and
if he left—when he left—she was going to be devastated. Devastated because somehow, some way, she’d fallen in love with him, and now she was in trouble, big trouble.
‘Sorry about that, Kate,’ Mario declared as the maternity staff whisked the Mackenzies away. ‘I guess—because I’m a man—that guy just assumed—’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she interrupted with difficulty. ‘It isn’t important.’
And it wasn’t, she thought. What was important was that she was going to have to end their relationship. She was going to have to tell him that it was all over, that it wasn’t working, because the longer she remained involved with him the greater her heartbreak was going to be when it ended.
But not tonight, she thought, as she stared back at him. Not tonight when he’d got up so early this morning to string birthday balloons all over her sitting room walls. Not tonight after he’d bought her a present and ordered pepperoni and noodles for her birthday dinner. Tomorrow. She would end it tomorrow.
Chicken, her heart whispered, and unconsciously she shook her head. It wasn’t cowardice that was making her want to wait until tomorrow, she knew it wasn’t. It was something altogether worse.
‘It is important, Kate,’ Mario insisted, clearly misinterpreting the shake of her head. ‘Hell, you did all the tough stuff and that guy shouldn’t automatically have awarded me the credit because I’m a man. I’ll go after him—explain—’
‘Mario, it doesn’t matter whether you did it, I did it, or a passing monkey did it,’ she retorted, her aching heart making her sharper than she’d intended. ‘All that matters is Alison and her daughter are OK.’
He wasn’t convinced. She could see in his eyes that he wasn’t convinced but, to her relief, she could also see Paul striding down the treatment room towards them. A relief that very quickly turned to surprise when she remembered he wasn’t supposed to be here, and he also looked uncharacteristically panic-stricken.
‘Alison Mackenzie,’ he demanded. ‘Is she here—is she all right?’
‘She’s just gone up to Maternity with her daughter and husband,’ Kate replied in confusion, and saw Paul’s face crumple. ‘Do…do you know her?’
‘She’s my kid sister,’ he replied. ‘When she didn’t turn up at the wedding reception I thought there must have been an accident, but then our mother said Ben had phoned to say Alison’s waters had broken in the car and he was bringing her here. I went up to Maternity, but they said she was in A and E, and…’
‘She’s fine, Paul,’ Kate said softly. ‘She had a cord prolapse but both she and the baby are doing fine. I managed to push the cord back in until Mario could help the baby out, and—’
‘So Nurse Volante rode to the rescue again, did he?’ Paul interrupted. ‘My, my, but you really are turning out to be a regular knight in shining armour, aren’t you, Mario?’
‘Now, just a minute, Paul,’ Kate began angrily, but he didn’t give her one.
Instead he shook her hand before she’d even realised what he was going to do, then nodded grudgingly at Mario.
‘I guess I owe you both, don’t I?’ he said. ‘Alison…Like I said, she’s my kid sister, and this baby was her first, so…Well, thanks.’
And, before either of them could reply, he’d walked away, leaving Mario gazing after him in disbelief.
‘Is that it?’ he exclaimed. ‘We deal with a life threatening situation, you have your hand damn near mangled up his sister’s vagina, and that’s the best he can come up with? Well, it’s not good enough. I’ll wring a proper thank you out of that pompous, arrogant, son of a—’
‘Mario, leave it,’ Kate declared, catching hold of his arm as he made to follow the specialist registrar. ‘It’s as much of a thank you as we’re ever going to get from Paul.’
‘But, Kate…’
‘OK, so it was a feeble thank you,’ she conceded, ‘but for Paul to thank us at all is pretty damn amazing, and I guarantee one thing. He won’t forget what we did. He might not like the fact that it was us who helped his sister, but in his own arrogant, pompous way he’s a fair man, and he won’t forget it.’
‘I suppose so,’ Mario said reluctantly, ‘but I’d still like to squeeze a better thank you out of him.’
‘And I said leave it,’ she said, more curtly than he’d ever heard her, but when his eyebrows rose she forced a laugh. ‘It’s really sweet of you to want to be my knight in shining armour, but there’s no need. I can take care of myself.’
No, you can’t, he wanted to reply, but he didn’t and it wasn’t because she’d just chewed his head off twice in the space of fifteen minutes—hell, he was used to her fiery temper. It was the blankness he could see in her eyes, the bleakness, that stopped him and he was relieved when their shift finally came to an end.
He was even more relieved when he accompanied her into her office to collect her handbag, and they found a birthday cake, complete with thirty-five candles, and two cards and a small wrapped present sitting on her desk.
‘I told you your staff wouldn’t forget,’ he observed. ‘And, best of all, your cake’s a plain sponge one with no marzipan or icing, so you can eat it.’
‘All my staff know about my allergy so none of them would be dumb enough to give me a cake that had almonds in it,’ she murmured.
‘What did they get you as a present?’ he asked, willing her to smile, to snap out of whatever was so clearly bothering her. ‘Hey, that’s neat,’ he added when she unwrapped it and a pencil sharpener in the shape of a syringe emerged.
‘It’s from Terri,’ she said. ‘We always get each other joke presents for our birthdays.’
So, how come you’re not laughing? he wanted to ask, but didn’t.
‘And the cards?’ he said.
‘One will be from my staff, and the other will be from Terri. Oh, that’s nice of them,’ she added as she opened the cards, and a voucher slipped out of one. ‘My staff got me two presents this year—the cake, and an all-day session at Tranquillity.’
‘Which is?’
‘A beauty salon where they steam you, and pummel you, and wax your legs and bikini line.’
‘This is a good present?’ he protested, wincing, and to his relief she smiled.
‘The very best if you’re a girl.’
‘I’ll take your word for it,’ he said, lifting the cake. ‘And now can we go home so I can start doing all the wonderful things to you that I promised?’
And make love to you until you tell me what’s wrong, he thought, as she nodded, and he drove her home.
‘Are you sure you want a slice of your birthday cake right now?’ he said, drawing Kate back against his chest and stretching lazily under the duvet.
‘Mario, all I had at lunch time was half a sandwich and I’m starving!’ she exclaimed, and he chuckled.
‘Your fault for flaunting,’ he murmured into her hair. ‘I fully intended waiting until after dinner to make love to you, but you looked so gorgeous and luscious when we got home that food became the last thing on my mind.’
‘Well, it’s on my mind now,’ she replied, ‘and I want a slice of that birthday cake.’
‘You’ll get crumbs in the bed.’
‘Mario…’
‘OK—OK, I’m going,’ he said, throwing back the duvet, and padding towards the bedroom door. ‘Stay where you are, and stay naked.’
‘Your wish is my command, oh, caped—and at the moment extremely nude—crusader,’ she said and he smiled when he saw her eyes dancing as she sat up and pulled the duvet round her.
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