Harry St Clair: Rogue or Doctor?

by Fiona McArthur

  Had he forgotten anything about her? He doubted it. ‘Bonnie McKenzie. Tall, too thin, green eyes?’

  ‘Don’t know about the eyes …’ Steve slanted him a glance ‘… but that’s the one.’

  Harry could see some serious questions and answers coming and tried diversion. ‘So where’s your car? I have to pick up the other box of stuff. I brought you some beer.’

  ‘Cheers for that.’ Steve rubbed his hands. ‘Never enough beer in the desert. So when did you meet Bonnie?’

  ‘Bali.’ Nothing more. Hopefully they could leave it at that.

  Bonnie was in the middle of suturing a triangular laceration on a young man’s hand. She’d recognised the boy from the motorbike that first sunset.

  ‘So, you came off your bike, Bernie?’

  ‘Nah.’ He grinned. ‘Thumped a garbage bin ‘cause my girlfriend got mad at me.’

  Bonnie looked again and saw the way the scrape went from knuckle to knuckle and pictured it. Dumb kid. ‘Make you feel better?’

  A flash of white teeth in his ebony face. ‘Yeah. Took me mind off me troubles.’

  ‘What about the garbage bin?’

  ‘Yeah. Came off better’n me.’

  Bonnie shook her head. ‘Men are strange.’

  Harry walked in just as she said it. She glanced at him without a smile and tried to keep her face as neutral as possible. Not much else she could do. He looked disgustingly handsome and embarrassingly familiar.

  Steve followed him in, beaming. ‘Bonnie, Harry’s here. You two know each other.’ Steve was happy. Obviously. He had his doctor and it was his friend as well. His world was good. ‘I’m off to find Vicki to let her know we’re back.’

  Bonnie had no one but herself to blame for Harry deciding to come out of his shell in her direction. And she needed to remember it was a good thing for him to have made that choice. But he’d sucked her in once and she wasn’t falling for his new pack of lies.

  ‘Hello, Bonnie.’ Harry smiled that killer smile and she fought to hide her body’s instinctive reaction that, no matter what her brain said, decreed it was physically good to see him.

  ‘Harry.’ She nodded briefly and glanced at a point on the wall past his head. ‘Australia not big enough for the two of us?’

  ‘Seems not.’ Out of the corner of her eye she could see he did look ridiculously glad to see her. Did he have short-term memory loss or something? They’d left a long way from being on best terms and she wasn’t pretending they hadn’t. Obviously she seriously didn’t understand men so she looked back at Bernie’s hand in front of her.

  Unfortunately she could feel the warmth of just being in the same room as Harry seep into her like warm rays at sunrise creeping up a wall.

  He stepped closer and peered down at her neat work. ‘So you suture great as well,’ he said.

  She finished up the last stitch and tied it off. ‘No one else to do it at some of the places I’ve been.’ She peeled a dressing and sealed it into place. ‘Try and keep it dry, Bernie. Come back in five days. I’ll have another look and take the stitches out.’ She winked at the boy and smiled. ‘That okay with you?’

  ‘Yep, missus.’ Bernie picked up his cowboy hat and jammed it on his head. ‘I’m gonna go see that girl of mine.’

  ‘Just remember you have to look after her. She’s feeling big and clumsy. Tell her she looks beautiful to you.’

  Bernie grinned. ‘’Course she’s beautiful.’ He winked. ‘And so are you.’

  ‘Yeah, right.’ Bonnie accepted that with a grain of salt. ‘And take it easy on that bike of yours. I don’t want to have to scrape you off the road.’

  Bernie bolted out and Harry laughed. ‘You’ve made a conquest.’ He looked her up and down with serious warmth in his eyes. ‘Another one.’

  Bonnie washed her hands and dried them for longer than she probably needed to. Anything to hold off the moment when she had to look at him again. ‘So what made you decide to take this job in the end?’

  ‘Someone told me I should try medicine again. So I’m here to see what happens.’

  She let him have an exaggerated sigh. She was tired of holding it back. ‘I wasn’t thinking about a place next to me.’

  He raised his brows. ‘You have a problem with me being here?’

  ‘Yes would be the short answer.’ Did she regret he was there? My word, she did. Even more so because he looked so darned good and her shoulders itched with memory of the weight of Harry’s arm around them. ‘I might have made a few different decisions if I’d known we’d be working together so soon.’ Like backing off straight after Jimbaran.

  The silence lengthened while they both thought about that until finally Harry stated the obvious. ‘I’m only here four weeks.’

  ‘I know. I’ve mentioned that to myself a couple of times already today,’ she said dryly. She steeled herself and met his eyes. ‘I won’t trust you again, Harry. You’re not on a good wicket here.’

  She wasn’t sure what reaction she expected from him but his sympathetic look made her eyes prickle.

  ‘Of course I understand that, Bonnie. What we shared in Bali was based on my deceit, and I’m sorry for that. Maybe one day you’ll see how that came about. But for now, what happened in Bali is left in Bali. I got it.’

  All very well to say that now. But the reasons she’d given for allowing herself to sleep with this man came back and bit her. There hadn’t been any good enough reasons. Even kissing and hand-holding would have made her skin heat with embarrassment. Let alone the fact that she knew every inch of his gorgeous body intimately.

  This was ghastly.

  So much for holiday flirtations not coming back to haunt you. She’d been such a fool and the heat still crept up her neck as she narrowed her eyes at him, trying to see if he meant it. She’d constantly underestimated his ability to con her. ‘Okay.’ Reluctantly her hand went out. ‘Strictly platonic.’

  ‘To platonicness.’ Not a real word, so not a real vow, and a flippant comment that reminded her she was taking this more seriously than he was. What a surprise.

  But when he took her fingers in his and gave them a quick shake, even with that fleeting contact, she knew anything to do with this man would have feelings and emotions attached to it.

  Bonnie pulled away and turned her back. Damn. Damn and triple damn.

  The rest of the day Harry spent with Steve and Vicki. Thankfully. It was good they worked out rosters, talked work, and despite Vicki’s updates to Bonnie it seemed a lot of time was spent laughing over old times and Bonnie didn’t feel excluded. Really. Honest.

  By the end of the day Bonnie was drooping, exhausted, more from the nervous energy expended over coping with Harry’s presence than the inconsistent workload. She could have done with a much busier workday to keep her mind occupied. Instead she’d been shoring up on her reasons not to fall under the spell Harry seemed to be able to weave over everyone. But not her. Certainly not her. She’d learnt her lesson.

  There was a sticky moment when she remembered Harry’s room was next door to hers but she didn’t see him when she went to bed that night. He was still out with Steve and Vicki. By the time she’d reconciled herself to that it was after eleven and she was so exhausted she fell into a deep sleep when her head finally relaxed into the pillow.

  When she woke in the morning, heavy-eyed and claustrophobic, she decided to return to the Rock for another dose of calmness.

  Unfortunately when she pulled up Harry was just ahead of her and he saw her before she could turn around and drive away.

  It was too late to avoid him now he’d stopped and was obviously waiting for her to catch up, and reluctantly she followed his footsteps in the red sand until she was standing beside him.

  ‘Pleased I’m here, I see?’ He didn’t seem too perturbed and she wasn’t in the mood to lie.

  ‘No.’

  He grinned at her. ‘As soon as your plane left I missed your complimentary ways, you know that.’

  ‘D
on’t tease me, Harry. My sense of humour is AWOL at the moment.’

  ‘Okay. Let’s enjoy the view.’ He looked up at the monolith in front of them and raised his brows. The rock face above was in shadow still, and the darker areas seemed to have a life, a past life, and eons of stories to tell. ‘Wow. Impressive.’

  She glanced around and walked across until she could rest her hand on the granules of rock on the wall. She sighed. Cool and calm and having collected so much wisdom and experience. She could feel peace seep into her. ‘Very.’ He was right. She was there for healing, not for argument. And she guessed he was too. They did have to work together.

  A peaceful walk sounded good. She buried her misgivings, tucked her hand in her jeans out of the way so she didn’t swing her fingers into his, and set off.

  A couple of hundred metres away, in the still coolness of the early morning, a toddler in a tracksuit wandered away from the visitor centre. She drifted further from her mum and her aunties and her grandmas cooking breakfast for the tourists to come, drifting across the sand like a floating grass seed, tiny footprints in the sand, a trail of flower imprints as she dawdled slowly, drawn towards the great monolith.

  ‘Leila?’ Her mother’s voice also drifted towards the rock, and the little girl hesitated at the sound, but then a bird landed in front of her and she tottered after it.

  When she came to the rock base a pool beckoned. The pool smiled at her and rippled with intriguing shifts of shadow and floating leaves and Leila reached down to capture a tiny twig that floated at the edge.

  Bonnie and Harry nearly stumbled over the little girl as she peered into the grass beside one of the pools filled by last night’s rain, and the memories of Bali slammed into both of them in the same instant. Not this time.

  Bonnie’s fingers reached down swiftly and gathered a handful of fabric from the little girl’s jacket as a lifeline, and Harry was right beside her as they tried carefully not to startle the child or communicate the fear that had grabbed them both. Their eyes met. There was no way this poppet was falling in with them there.

  Harry glanced around for the mother and suddenly in the still air she could hear a woman’s frantic call. ‘Leila?’

  ‘Pretty,’ said the little girl as she pointed to a lizard.

  ‘Yes, it is pretty,’ Bonnie said as she held out her hand. ‘But you need to bring Mummy when you come here.’ The little girl put her fingers in Bonnie’s.

  ‘Let’s find Mummy, Leila.’ Bonnie stood up and lifted the child into her arms as Harry cupped his hands over his mouth.

  ‘She’s here,’ Harry called out. Their eyes met, and she knew they were both thinking of another little girl. She looked away as sudden tears stung her eyes at the memory of near tragedy. That was the only reason for the tears.

  ‘She’s fine,’ Harry called out. ‘On the path beside the base. With the nurse.’

  Leila’s mother burst from the bushes, her brow beaded with perspiration and the stress of dread, and Bonnie passed the little girl into her arms.

  ‘She was sitting beside the rock pool,’ Harry said.

  The mother looked at both of them with such relief in her face Bonnie felt tears sting her eyes again. She could only imagine a mother’s fear.

  ‘Thank you. I don’t know how she got out but I’ll work it out before tomorrow.’ The woman clutched Leila to her chest. ‘Don’t do that, baby. You frightened Mumma.’ The woman looked at Bonnie again. ‘She slipped away while we made breakfast.’

  Bonnie nodded. ‘They’re so quick, I know. She was watching the lizard over there, I think.’

  ‘So close to the pool.’ The mother shuddered. They all saw the lizard trundle off and Leila’s mum smiled at the reptile as if it was a friend. ‘That ngiyari can drink with his feet, you know. Water moves from his feet to his mouth along grooves in his skin. Very clever lizard. But my baby should not be here.’ The mother squeezed her daughter and the little girl wriggled with delight. ‘Thank you, both. Again.’

  Bonnie glanced up at the sky and guessed sunrise would have taken place on the other side of the Rock by now. They’d have to go soon. ‘I’m Bonnie, the new nurse and midwife at the clinic, and this is Dr St Clair. Maybe we’ll meet again.’

  ‘I’m Shay. We’ll see you soon. My baby’s due for her needles.’

  Bonnie grinned. ‘I’ll be gentle.’

  When the mother had gone Bonnie and Harry walked another fifteen minutes around the base and tried to regain the peace of the Rock but it was gone. Lost in the memory of another child who’d nearly drowned and the lies of the man beside her, all Bonnie could think of was the way Harry had almost left her to cope on her own. How he’d lied.

  She didn’t need this. She turned away and walked quickly back towards her car. He knew why.

  The day was fairly quiet. A few cases of sunburn and a fractured cheekbone from a fall. And Leila’s immunisations.

  Bonnie smiled when she saw mother and daughter. It made her feel almost like she belonged here to see them again so soon.

  ‘I thought I’d come while I remembered,’ Shay said quietly. ‘My aunty said bring her in today.’ Bonnie managed to keep Leila diverted while she slipped the needle in and Shay was smiling by the time they left. ‘Not as bad as I thought it would be,’ she said. ‘I’ll tell my friends you’re good with the little ones.’

  By the end of the shift Bonnie was tired. Tired of knowing every minute of the day what Harry was doing, where he was standing, who he was talking to. And when he caught her eye and smiled it was even worse. That night it took her ages to fall asleep and when she did it didn’t last long enough.

  A call came through at midnight. Bonnie dreamt her phone was ringing, persistently, annoyingly, until she woke and found it really was.

  The night concierge at Reception apologised quickly and then dropped his bombshell. ‘We’ve a call from a guest that her husband had severe chest pain and now he’s blue. Security will pick you and the doctor up in the ambulance to save time. He’ll only be a minute or two away to take you there.’

  Bonnie threw the bedclothes off. ‘Of course. Is someone doing cardiac massage?’

  ‘The night porter’s there. He’s trained in first aid. And the man’s wife is doing the ventilation.’ Amazing.

  ‘Great work. I’ll be ready.’ Bonnie tore off her nightgown and dragged on her loose trousers and jumper. It was cold in the desert at night, though she had no doubt she’d be warming up with the adrenalin that was rushing through her body already. By the time she was hopping to the door, pulling on her shoes, she heard Harry’s door open. She threw hers open just as he raised his hand to knock.

  ‘Good,’ he said, and she followed his disappearing back down the hallway and out to the ambulance that pulled up as they arrived.

  It seemed he was no slouch when he decided to attend. At least she didn’t have to worry about that. They scooted off into the night, and as the security man drove them along the twists and turns of the side roads between the bungalows she glanced at Harry’s face.

  Straight into a code one on his first night. He seemed calm and focused despite this being his first official emergency since he’d left medicine and the moment reminded her again of their last, much smaller patient—when he’d finally decided to help. She banished the thought and crossed her fingers for a similar positive outcome for the sick man and his family.

  The bungalow door stood open and Harry jogged ahead while Bonnie grabbed the defibrillator. Bonnie could see the porter on his knees as he gave cardiac massage and the slight blonde woman with the big resuscitation bag between her elbows as she held the mask on her husband’s face. She squeezed it twice after every thirty chest compressions.

  The light from the ceiling shone off the perspiration on the porter’s brow. Bonnie and Harry had come as soon as possible but five minutes must have felt like an hour for these poor people.

  Harry slipped in beside the porter and took over the compressions.

  ‘You�
�re doing great. I’ll take that from you in a moment,’ Bonnie said to his wife, and knelt down and quickly undid the patient’s pyjama jacket. Matted hair on the man’s chest would confound the pad, she saw, and grabbed the razor to make two quick hairless areas to place the pads of the defibrillator. ‘Darned hairy men,’ Bonnie muttered under her breath.

  When she had them attached in place she took the resuscitation bag from his wife, who collapsed back against the bed and watched as Harry ceased cardiac massage to view the tiny screen. Bonnie saw her jam her knuckles against her mouth and she nodded at her in sympathy. ‘Hang in there.’

  ‘Don’t touch patient. Press shock button,’ the recorded voice in the machine said in a monotone.

  Harry said, ‘All clear,’ and glanced around to check before he pressed the shock button. The man’s body lifted slightly off the floor and then sagged back.

  Bonnie heard the man’s wife gasp and glanced back over her shoulder with sympathy. ‘He can’t feel it. He’s unconscious.’

  Unconsciousness was the best scenario. They recommenced cardiac massage for another two minutes until the next ECG strip could be taken. The rhythm was slightly improved but not enough to sustain life. The message was repeated and they shocked him again. After the next two minutes of CPR the man began to shift and moan and Bonnie allowed a glimmer of hope to settle in her chest.

  This time the screen showed a more viable rhythm and the man’s colour began to improve.

  Bonnie slid the oxygen mask onto the patient’s face and put down the bag and mask, then handed Harry supplies for inserting an intravenous cannula on his side of the patient while she did the same on her side.

  Within five minutes of their arrival the man was stable, even rousing to consciousness while being manoeuvred onto the stretcher of the ambulance in preparation for transfer to the medical centre.

  Harry had already arranged on his mobile for the arrival of the Royal Flying Doctor Service to fly the man to Alice Springs. Pretty slick even for the most experienced of practitioners.

  She glanced across at Harry as he gave another injection. There was no doubt they’d worked well together in this situation, though as far as Bonnie was concerned most of the thanks should really go to those first on the scene.