The Secret Between Them

by Clark, Lucy

  ‘Good point.’ Elliot nodded. ‘Thank you, Sunainah. You always support me and I want you to know it’s greatly appreciated.’

  ‘That is my job, as colleague and neighbour.’ And as the woman who knows she is starting to fall in love with you, she added silently as she offered him a small smile before turning and heading towards the ward room. Dealing with work would most definitely shift her thoughts back into alignment, and with Elliot at home with his children at least it provided her with some much-needed space.

  Together they briefed Nicole on the latest events and assisted with setting up an isolation area in the ward. They ordered extra tests, the nurses took the extra blood samples and Sunainah and Elliot started explaining things to the worried parents.

  ‘Right,’ he said an hour later. ‘I’ll go collect my children. When I called Liz an hour ago, she said neither of them were showing symptoms.’

  ‘That is good news, but it still is better to be safe than sorry.’

  ‘Agreed. I’ll let you know the instant I hear from Daniel. PMA has confirmed he headed off on a four-day drive to a distant village. They’re going to track him down as soon as possible.’

  ‘Good. I will let you know the test results the instant they come in. Now go. Look after your family.’

  ‘I will. Thanks.’ With a small smile in her direction and a brief lingering glance at her perfect mouth, as though he wanted nothing more than to press his lips to hers, Elliot turned on his heel and left the ward.

  ‘Now, if a man looked at me the way he looks at you, I wouldn’t be letting him walk out,’ Nicole murmured from behind her. Sunainah spun round to stare at her friend, eyes wide with shock.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Oh, you know exactly what I mean. That man is very much into you, Sunainah. You should go for it. You deserve a good man like Elliot Jones.’

  Sunainah opened her mouth to reply but closed it again, realising there was no point in having this discussion as it could never happen. She and Elliot were destined to be colleagues and neighbours, nothing more, so it would serve her better if she simply ignored the way his brief glance had left her body trembling with repressed delight.

  ‘I will be in my office, juggling the staffing rosters. Two nurses need to pick up their children from childcare. The hospital daycare centre is on high alert for symptoms and other hospitals are also starting to report incidences of these confusing symptoms.’

  ‘Only reports of children?’ Nicole’s tone was tinged with serious concern.

  ‘At this stage.’ Sunainah sighed, wanting Elliot to get hold of his friend Daniel Tarvon immediately. If his friend could shed any light on the symptoms, it would be a blessing, especially before things became any worse.

  Four more cases were admitted to the paediatric ward before the end of the day and Sunainah had never spoken more to Elliot, the two of them keeping in close contact via phone and email. She had sent him the test results, all reporting no signs of blood clots but definite spikes in white-cell production. The sick children were on intravenous drips and analgesics to reduce their fevers.

  ‘Are you heading home to rest?’ Elliot asked later that night. ‘You’ll probably sleep better in your own bed.’

  ‘I was thinking of it.’

  ‘Will’s going to be at the hospital. He’s a good doctor. He’ll call if there are any changes. Rest and refresh your mind. Come home, Sunainah.’

  ‘Come home?’ she queried as she eased back in her office chair and closed her eyes. Did he want her to sleep at his place? To be there when he received the call from his friend?

  ‘To the cul-de-sac, I meant.’ But even as he spoke he could not remove the intimacy from his tone as the image of Sunainah walking into his home, being enveloped in his arms, the two of them sleeping in the same bed... Elliot stopped his thoughts. She was married. She had told him she was married and while he wanted nothing more than to quiz her on this topic, now was not the time.

  ‘Oh.’ She sighed. ‘Yes. I think you are right. I am tired.’

  ‘It’s been a long day and tomorrow may be longer. Rest.’

  ‘Yes.’ Sunainah opened her eyes and rose from her chair. ‘I shall lock my office, say goodnight to the staff and head home.’

  ‘Call me when you arrive, just so I know you’re home safe. I’m in a worrying kind of mood,’ he added, as though to justify his comment.

  ‘All right.’

  ‘I’ll speak to you later, then.’ With that he rang off.

  Sunainah looked at her phone for a moment before smiling and slowly shaking her head. It was nice to have someone worrying about her again. It was one thing she had missed once her father’s dementia had become worse. Her father had always tried to do his best to protect her, to care for her and to worry about her.

  As she finished at the hospital, telling the staff to call if there was any change, no matter how small or insignificant, she headed home. When she drove past Elliot’s town house, she noticed one of the downstairs lights was on. Elliot was obviously in his office, hopefully talking to Daniel Tarvon and getting some answers. They had both scoured the internet as best they could, reread articles from medical journals, discussed and consulted with other personnel from different specialities, hoping someone, somewhere had some sort of clue about what they were dealing with.

  For now, though, most of the children who had reported with these strange symptoms were stabilising, but no one knew for how long. It was the unknown that concerned her most. What if these symptoms were only the beginning and things were about to get worse? What then?

  Sunainah garaged her car and headed inside, opening her fridge to look for something she could eat. She had her phone in her hand and was just about to call Elliot to report that she was home safely when it rang. Elliot’s name coming up on the screen.

  ‘Did you see my car headlights go past your ho—?’

  ‘Sunainah? Quick. Come quick. It’s Joshua. He has a fever. He has the symptoms. Sunainah?’ There was panic in his voice, panic she had most certainly never heard before. ‘Sunainah?’ His voice broke. ‘I don’t know what to do. It’s my son. My son!’

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  SUNAINAH FOUND THE front door open as she entered his town house.

  ‘Elliot!’ she called, racing through to Joshua’s downstairs bedroom, unable to believe her own level of anxiety. Was Joshua as bad as Elliot thought? What if they could not figure out the correct treatment in time? Her heart pounded with fear as her mind raced through several different scenarios.

  When she entered Joshua’s bedroom she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Elliot sitting in the rocking chair, holding a Joshua in his arms, a cold face washer to the little boy’s forehead. ‘How high is his temperature?’

  ‘Thirty-eight point seven. I’ve given him paracetamol but...but...’ Elliot looked up at her, anguish in his eyes. ‘I don’t know what to do, Sunainah.’ He pressed a kiss to the little boy’s head. ‘He’s my boy. My boy.’

  ‘I know, and I am here to help you.’ She placed a hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes. It did not matter what might or might not happen in the future between the two of them—right now they were a team. ‘We will get through this together. That is what friends do.’

  He looked up at her and nodded, his eyes sombre and filled with concern for his son. ‘After Marie’s death he was so sick but he fought back and won.’

  ‘He is a fighter.’ She nodded as she put down the emergency medical kit she had brought with her and reached for her stethoscope. ‘Let me have a look at him. Put him in his cot and go and refresh the face washer. Get it nice and cool.’

  ‘Yes. Yes.’ Elliot was pleased to be given orders and did as he was told while Sunainah quickly examined Joshua. He definitely had the same signs and symptoms as the other children in the paed
iatric ward but at this stage, he was not too bad.

  ‘Thank goodness your father knew what signs to look out for,’ she told the little boy calmly as she stroked his cheek. ‘It will be all right, Joshua. Daddy and I will look after you.’

  ‘Nen-nah,’ he whimpered, and Sunainah’s heart turned over with love for the little boy.

  ‘Nen-nah’s here, sweet one.’ She sighed as she rubbed her fingers gently on his legs. ‘Are your legs sore?’

  He grizzled a bit and nodded but he did not flinch from her gentle touch. That was a good sign. Joshua looked at her with his big blue eyes, so much like his father’s. ‘We will get you sorted out.’ She bent and pressed a kiss to his hot forehead, unable to believe just how precious he was to her. Elliot returned, cool face washer in hand, and immediately pressed it to Joshua’s skin.

  ‘His symptoms are still mild, which means you caught it nice and early.’ She smiled reassuringly at him. ‘Good job, Daddy.’ Sunainah spoke quietly as they stood by Joshua’s cot, watching the little boy as he dozed. ‘We should check to see if Mackenzie and John can look after Daphne.’

  ‘He needs to go to hospital?’

  ‘It will be best if he is there. We can start him on a drip to replace fluids.’

  ‘Yes. Dehydration is the one thing we don’t want. Yes, you’re right.’ Elliot breathed out and before Sunainah knew what was happening he had enveloped her in his arms. ‘Thank you, Sunainah. I feel as though my brain is beginning to return.’

  His words were spoken next to her ear, his voice deep, the vibrations tingling through her body, which was half pressed against his. She knew the embrace was more from relief than of a sensual nature but she could not help the way her body responded to his every time he was so close to her.

  She forced herself to speak, to say something normal because it would help her to stop wanting to snuggle closer to him. ‘Mackenzie also worries whenever Ruthie is sick. Thankfully, her husband usually keeps cool and calm.’

  ‘So now I have you to settle my mind and bring me back to a more respectable level of parental freak-out.’ He chuckled softly and she was pleased he had relaxed enough to laugh. That was a good thing as it would release some of his stress and tension. Her own stress and tension, however, was still mounting as he continued to hold her, both of them standing there watching Joshua’s steady breathing as though they were a proper couple, raising two children together.

  Sunainah knew she needed to move, to put some distance between them, and soon because if he turned and looked down into her upturned face she knew she would kiss him without hesitation. She was almost positive she was falling in love with him and that was fine so long as she did not lead him on. She would have to figure out a way to cope with loving him yet working alongside him day after day as nothing more than a colleague and friend. Standing in his arms like this might give him false hope, and she simply was not that mean.

  She eased back from his embrace and Elliot immediately dropped his arms, quickly shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He looked contrite and a little bit hurt and she was not sure why.

  ‘Well, at least I’m not the only parent who freaks out when their kid is sick,’ he remarked as he took a step away from her, turning his full attention back to his son. ‘Would you mind calling Mackenzie? I’ll pack a bag for Joshie. We can take him in my car. No need for an ambulance.’

  ‘Of course.’

  Elliot continued to look at his son, trying not to think how wonderful it had been to hold Sunainah close. The woman fitted perfectly into his arms and it was clear she honestly cared for his children, but the fact remained that Sunainah wasn’t free for him to hug whenever he wanted to.

  He kept his gaze trained on Joshua as he heard Sunainah leave the room, talking softly on her cell phone to Mackenzie. Her tones, the lilt of her words, her accent usually had such a soothing effect on him yet tonight all it was doing was reminding him that she couldn’t be a part of his life.

  He’d been ready to take a step forward, to really move away from his past life with Marie. ‘Until death us do part’ were the words he’d vowed, and when death had parted them he’d felt as though his life had been plunged into turmoil. Yet by some miracle, he’d met another woman, one who was driving him to distraction with longing, wanting and needing.

  There was so much he didn’t know about Sunainah, so much he wanted to know, and the unanswered questions were driving him crazy. He needed to be patient, to wait until Joshua’s health was improving and then he would sit down with Sunainah and figure everything out. He had to chance it, had to believe that all of these ‘coincidences’ that had happened around them actually meant something more.

  ‘It’s all right, little man. We’ll figure everything out in time,’ he told his son. ‘Daddy’s here.’ And that would have to be enough for now, even though it was all too easy to cast Sunainah in the role of surrogate mother.

  ‘Mackenzie is coming over immediately,’ she told him from the doorway. Now that Joshua was stabilising and the immediate alarm had disappeared, Elliot appeared more calm. It was a good sign. ‘She will take Daphne to her place, if that is all right with you.’

  ‘It’s fine. Thank you.’

  ‘Would you like me to wake Daphne?’

  ‘Yes. I’ll stay with Joshie.’

  ‘As you wish.’

  He heard her head upstairs and closed his eyes for a moment. ‘I shouldn’t have been so direct with her,’ he told Joshua as he once again checked his son’s temperature. ‘No change! What on earth is this thing?’

  Joshua started to cry again and put both hands on his legs. Elliot’s heart turned over with empathetic pain. ‘What is it? What’s causing this?’ He was annoyed that he didn’t know. ‘Think. Think.’ He picked his son up, holding the boy close, hoping the feel of his father’s big, strong arms would somehow help to ease the pain. His emotions were all over the place tonight and when he turned and saw Sunainah standing in the door, a sleepy Daphne in her arms, he shrugged his shoulders. ‘I feel so helpless.’

  ‘We will sort it out. I promise you.’

  ‘Hello? Elliot? Sunainah?’ Mackenzie’s voice came from the doorway and Sunainah offered Elliot a comforting smile before she went to greet her friend. Within ten minutes Daphne was settled at Mackenzie’s, and Sunainah was driving Elliot’s car to the hospital. Elliot sat in the back seat next to Joshua’s car seat, monitoring his son’s condition.

  ‘You’re doing great,’ he encouraged Sunainah as she drove his large family car towards the hospital. ‘I’m sorry you didn’t get a chance to rest.’

  ‘I am fine,’ she told him. ‘I have coped with less sleep before now.’

  ‘Haven’t we all.’ His words were wry and when she looked at him in the rear-vision mirror, she saw the corners of his mouth turned up, just slightly. They were only a few minutes from the hospital when Elliot’s cell phone rang. The noise startled poor Joshua, who whimpered and tried to move, but his body was listless. Sunainah kept looking at him in the rear-vision mirror, her heart pouring out to him.

  ‘It’s all right, buddy,’ Elliot soothed, his eyes lighting with relief as he noted the caller was Daniel Tarvon.

  ‘Tarvon. Thank goodness,’ he said, switching the call to loudspeaker so Sunainah could hear what was being said. ‘We have children here with a variety of symptoms and I wanted to pick your brains.’

  ‘Pick away,’ Daniel offered, and listened intently to what Elliot was saying. ‘Ah. Yes, yes. We’ve had outbreaks here. First seen just a few months ago by one of our German PMA doctors. He’s called it Hergeldorct Tela fever and it’s a new strain of Yellom Cigru found predominantly in pre-pubescent children.

  ‘It can be identified by the horrendous pain in the legs. Other than that, it presents with either cold or flu symptoms, sometimes with high fever and vomiting, but for some re
ason, which our German colleague is still doing tests on, it affects the legs, and that’s why there isn’t much literature available at the moment. Tests are still inconclusive.’

  ‘Treatment?’ Sunainah asked as she turned into the hospital’s emergency bay.

  ‘Initial injection of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs into both quadriceps for the leg pain, then elevate legs above the heart. As it’s not bacterial, antibiotics won’t work but a course of regular paracetamol will reduce fever and the usual intravenous drip will replenish fluids.’

  Elliot ran his hand over Joshua’s forehead before kissing it. ‘You’re going to get better, buddy. Daddy’s going to make you better.’

  ‘Your son has the fever?’ Tarvon asked.

  ‘Yes. We’re just pulling up at the hospital.’

  ‘Go. Treat them,’ Tarvon said. ‘I’ll stay by the satellite phone if you need any further information.’

  ‘Thanks, mate.’ Elliot rang off as Sunainah pulled up near one of the ambulance bays. An orderly came out to see what was happening and she quickly tossed him Elliot’s car keys.

  ‘Sunainah?’ The orderly seemed surprised, even more so when Elliot climbed from the back of the car with a sick boy in his arms.

  ‘Would you please park Elliot’s car, Douglas?’ Sunainah asked as she followed Elliot into A and E.

  ‘I’m taking him directly to the ward. I can’t admit him as I’m his father but—’

  ‘I will admit him,’ she replied, placing a hand on his elbow, wanting to reassuring him in his time of need. ‘Let us go there directly and—’

  ‘Sunainah?’

  Sunainah turned when she heard someone call her name. Her friend Bergan came rushing towards her.

  ‘I was just about to have you paged. I’ve had two more children brought in.’ Bergan beckoned for her to follow. Sunainah looked from her friend back to Elliot.

  ‘Go. I’ll get things started.’