A Baby of His Own

by Jennifer Taylor

  She gave him a drink of water then went to the nursing station and phoned Connor’s office number, feeling her heart kick in an extra beat when she heard his voice coming down the line. ‘It’s Staff Nurse Adams, Dr Mackenzie,’ she said formally, deciding it would be easier if she used their professional status to maintain her distance. She didn’t want to think about him and Dee after what had happened last night…

  ‘I wonder if you could come and look at one of the children for me,’ she said quickly, before she could get sidetracked.

  ‘Of course. I’ll be right down.’

  He didn’t ask her what was wrong with the child before he hung up and Lucy’s lips snapped together. Was he feeling guilty about kissing her when he was having a relationship with another woman? She sincerely hoped so. Connor deserved to feel guilty after the way he’d behaved!

  Connor could sense an atmosphere as soon as he went into the ward and sighed to himself. Obviously, Bea had told the others what she had seen, and they’d added two and two and come up with a hundred! He gritted his teeth when Sandra stalked past him with her nose in the air. Short of gathering the staff together and announcing that he and Dee weren’t having an affair, there wasn’t much he could do. Anyway, he’d be damned if he would explain himself. Let people think what they liked!

  His resolve lasted just as long as it took to find Lucy and the minute he saw her expression, it started to waver. He couldn’t bear to see the hurt in her eyes and know that he was responsible for putting it there.

  ‘Look, Lucy, I don’t know what you’ve heard—’

  ‘Ben is in bed six, Dr Mackenzie. His temperature is a little higher than it should be so I thought you should take a look at him.’

  She stepped around him, making it clear that she wasn’t interested in what he had to say. Connor followed her into the ward, hating the fact that she’d made him feel as though he had done something wrong. He wasn’t answerable to Lucy for his actions so why did he feel this way? Why did he care if she was hurt? His only concern was Izzy and he had to remember that.

  Lucy handed him the boy’s chart then waited while he read through it. From what he could see, everything had been fine when Ben had been admitted, but his temperature had started to rise in the last couple of hours. A perforated appendix often resulted in peritonitis—inflammation of the peritoneum, the membrane lining the abdominal cavity—and that could be extremely serious. He could understand why Lucy had wanted him to look at the child.

  He hung the chart back on the bed and smiled at the boy. ‘Hello, Ben. I’m Dr Mackenzie. How do you feel this morning?’

  ‘I dunno. Sort of hot, and my tummy hurts…’ The boy tailed off miserably and Connor nodded.

  ‘Sounds as though I’d better take a look at you. I’m going to check the incision and feel all over your tummy so just yell out if it hurts.’

  He put on some gloves while Lucy folded back the bed-clothes, then carefully removed the dressing that had been placed over the incision. The surgeon had opted for the traditional method of removing an appendix by making an opening in the boy’s abdomen large enough to perform the surgery. Opinion was divided about the benefits of minimally invasive, or keyhole, surgery when performing an appendectomy, and many surgeons still preferred the more conventional method.

  Connor couldn’t see anything wrong with the incision: the wound looked clean and there was no discharge from it. A plastic drainage tube had been inserted through a separate incision to drain off any pus and that too seemed to be fine. However, he frowned when he gently palpated Ben’s abdomen. The muscles in the abdominal wall had gone into spasm, making it feel hard to the touch, and there was no sign of peristalsis—wave-like contractions of the intestinal muscles which were needed to pass food along the digestive tract. They were classic signs of peritonitis, which was something he would have hoped to avoid.

  ‘Is there anything in the surgeon’s report about an abscess around the appendix?’ he asked, glancing at Lucy.

  ‘I’ll just check.’ She opened the file she was holding and quickly read through the report. ‘No, there’s nothing here. It all seems quite straightforward, as you can see for yourself.’

  Connor leant over so he could read the report over her shoulder. He realised his mistake as soon as he inhaled the familiar fragrance of her shampoo, but by that time it was too late to do anything about it. He just had to grit his teeth and pretend that he couldn’t feel his body responding in time-honoured fashion.

  ‘It all appears to have been very much routine,’ he agreed shortly.

  ‘Would you like me to phone the surgeon for you to check?’ she suggested, glancing up at him.

  ‘There’s no need.’

  Connor stepped back, knowing that he couldn’t trust himself to remain that close to her for very much longer. Even now he could feel the memory of what had happened last night tugging at his senses and it was worrying to know how little control he had over his emotions. He should be thinking about Izzy, and how he was going to persuade Lucy to let him see more of her, instead of remembering how wonderful that kiss had been!

  ‘What antibiotics has Ben been written up for?’ he asked, determined to put an end to such nonsense. He nodded when Lucy told him the name and the quantity of the drug the attending surgeon had prescribed. ‘That’s fine, although I think I’ll increase the dosage. I’d also like the lab to run some tests. We need to know exactly what we’re dealing with and tailor the treatment accordingly.’

  He wrote down his instructions and signed the lab sheet then turned to Ben and smiled. ‘You should feel a bit better once the extra antibiotics start to kick in, but if your tummy gets any worse, you must tell one of the nurses immediately.’

  ‘OK,’ Ben promised, managing a smile this time.

  Connor left the ward and went back to his office, sighing when he discovered that it was still only seven a.m. It felt as though he’d done a full day’s work yet he still had many hours ahead of him. He had arranged to meet his new team at eight o’clock so he decided to get himself a cup of coffee then run through their personnel files before they arrived. It was important to understand his staff’s strengths and weaknesses if they were to work together successfully.

  He bought himself a large cup of coffee from the canteen and took it back to his desk then spent the next hour reading about the people he would be working with. There had been a lot of changes while he’d been away and both registrars were fairly new to the posts, but that wasn’t a bad thing in his opinion. Although he had a deep respect for his predecessor, Connor had his own ideas about how things should be done and it would be easier to implement any changes if the staff weren’t set in their ways. He had just finished when there was a knock on the door, heralding their arrival.

  Connor invited them in and introduced himself. Martin Fellows, his senior registrar, seemed a very earnest type, while Amanda Dobson, his junior registrar, seemed far more relaxed. The final member of the team was Tom Bradshaw, a houseman who had just started a twelve-month rotation in the paediatric unit.

  Once the pleasantries were over, Connor took them down to the ward. Although the personnel files had given him a background history on each member of the team, he wanted to see for himself how they fared with the patients. Lucy came out of the office to meet them, smiling politely as she bade him a formal good morning.

  Connor knew it was unreasonable to expect anything more, but he couldn’t help remembering how she used to behave around him. Even though she had been very discreet when they had been at work, she hadn’t been able to hide the warmth in her eyes whenever she’d looked at him.

  Lucy had really cared about him and that had been another reason why he’d left England. He hadn’t wanted to risk breaking her heart, yet all of a sudden he found himself wishing that he could roll back the months. If he could have had that time all over again then he was no longer sure if he would have left her.

  ‘This is Chloe Simmons. She was admitted last night follow
ing an RTA.’

  Lucy handed the child’s notes to Connor and moved aside as he approached the bed. So far the ward round had gone like clockwork and that was the way she intended it to continue. So long as she treated him in a totally professional manner, everything would be fine.

  ‘No vomiting, I see. That’s a good sign.’ Connor skimmed through the child’s notes then turned to Tom Bradshaw. ‘What other symptoms might you expect to see in a classic case of concussion, Tom?’

  ‘Confusion, an inability to remember events immediately prior to the injury, dizziness and blurred vision,’ the junior doctor rattled out on cue.

  ‘And how long would you expect such symptoms to last?’ Connor continued.

  ‘It depends on how long the person is unconscious. The more prolonged the period of unconsciousness, the more severe the symptoms tend to be, although I wouldn’t want to test out that theory,’ Tom added. ‘I’d want to find out sooner rather than later if there was anything serious going on.’

  ‘What do you mean by serious?’ Connor queried.

  ‘Extradural haemorrhage would be my main concern. If there’s bleeding between the skull and the brain then it would need dealing with a.s.a.p.’

  ‘Good. It’s nice to know that some of the stuff you learned in med school has sunk in.’

  Lucy saw the relief on the younger man’s face and hid her smile. Obviously, Connor’s reputation had gone before him. He gave so much of himself to the job that he never settled for less than one hundred per cent from the people he worked with. He also never made any allowance for the fact that they had private lives, as his team would soon discover. He lived and breathed his job, and it was a salutary reminder of how careful she needed to be about his involvement with Izzy. She wouldn’t allow her daughter to become another casualty of Connor’s over-developed work ethic.

  The thought hummed away at the back of her mind as they finished the round. They were just about to leave the ward when Sandra came to tell them that there was a phone call from A and E for Connor so he went into the office to take it. Amanda Dobson staggered behind the desk and flopped down onto a chair as soon as he’d disappeared.

  ‘Am I glad that’s over! I couldn’t sleep last night for worrying if he was going to be as bad as everyone said he would be. To hear people talk, you’d think he was Attila the Hun, but he was OK, really. What did you think, Martin?’ she asked, glancing at the senior registrar.

  ‘He seems to know his stuff all right,’ Martin replied guardedly.

  Amanda rolled her eyes. ‘Of course he knows his stuff! He wouldn’t have got the job otherwise. It’s just that so many people have warned me how demanding he is that I’d built him up in my mind as some sort of a monster, but he was really nice, actually.’

  ‘Maybe there’s a reason why he’s loosened up,’ Tom suggested, grinning. ‘They say that people act completely out of character when Cupid’s arrow strikes, so that could explain it if the rumours are true.’

  ‘What rumours?’ Amanda demanded.

  Lucy turned away as Tom launched into a lurid account of what had gone on that morning between Connor and Dee. She didn’t want to listen to the story again when it would only remind her how stupid she’d been to imagine that last night’s kiss had meant anything to him.

  She went back into the ward and helped Daisy Banks’s mother pack up her belongings. The little girl was being discharged that day so she explained to Mrs Banks that Daisy’s throat would feel sore for a couple of weeks and that she should give her food that could be swallowed easily. She had just escorted them to the lift when Connor came to find her.

  ‘A and E have a ten-year-old with suspected meningitis. I’m on my way there to see him so can you get one of the high-dependency beds ready? If it is meningitis then he will need monitoring very closely. Sophie Fisher can be moved onto the main ward. There’s a bed free now that Daisy Banks has gone home.’

  ‘Of course, but what are we going to do about staff? Dee’s gone home and we can’t expect her to come back when she worked all through last night.’

  ‘I’ll sort something out, but there’s no way that I’m having that unit standing empty when we need to use the beds. I’ll see if I can find someone to fill in on the ward while you cover in there, then ask Dee if she will do the night shift again.’

  ‘Fine.’

  Lucy didn’t say anything else. Connor seemed to have it all worked out so who was she to argue, especially when she agreed with him that the unit should be open? It was a crime to have shut it when the beds were needed, although maybe Connor was so keen to use the facilities because it gave him the perfect excuse to have Dee around?

  She sighed. Even if that was true, it had nothing to do with her. It was up to Connor what he did, although it would be different if his relationship with Dee had repercussions for Izzy, of course.

  Lucy frowned. She had never given any thought to the implications it could have if Connor was involved with Dee, but maybe she should have done. If their affair really was serious then he was bound to have told Dee about Izzy and she wasn’t sure how she felt about the other woman knowing that he was Izzy’s father when she’d gone to such lengths to keep it a secret even from her own family.

  Then there was the fact that he would want Dee to get to know Izzy—how did she feel about that? Could she stomach the thought of them playing happy families with her daughter?

  Her heart sank when it struck her how complicated the situation was, and how little she could do about it. She could hardly issue Connor with an ultimatum and demand that he choose between his girlfriend and his daughter! She would have to wait and see what happened, but if she was at all concerned about the effect it was having on Izzy then she wouldn’t hesitate to step in. She might not have a role in Connor’s life any more, but she was Izzy’s mother, and her main concern was to make sure that her daughter didn’t get hurt.

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘I’LL organise a lumbar puncture as soon as we get Alan into the high-dependency unit. In the meantime, I’ve started him on a course of intravenous antibiotics. Even though I can’t be sure it is meningitis at this stage, I don’t intend to take any chances.’

  ‘How long is it going to take, Doctor?’ The man checked his watch and sighed. ‘I really could do without hanging around here for very much longer.’

  ‘Alan will be moved to the paediatric unit within the next few minutes. Once he’s been settled in, I’ll do the lumbar puncture. We will then have to wait for the lab to send the results back to us.’

  Connor didn’t bother trying to be polite. Ten-year-old Alan Johnson lived in one of the local authority’s care homes and it had soon become apparent that the care worker who had accompanied the boy to hospital was less than sympathetic to his plight.

  ‘So it could be ages yet.’ Graham White, the care worker, sounded extremely disgruntled by the news. ‘I’m supposed to be off duty in half an hour’s time, too.’

  ‘Then I suggest you see if one of your colleagues can relieve you.’ Connor walked away in disgust. Pity help the children in the home if all the carers adopted that attitude, he thought grimly as he went back into Resus.

  It wasn’t the first time he had encountered a situation like this, neither would it be the last. Normally, he didn’t allow it to get to him but he couldn’t seem to distance himself the way he used to. It was as though his emotions were simmering just beneath the surface, ready to erupt at the least provocation, and it was scary for a man like him who had always been in control before. It meant that he would have to be extra vigilant. He couldn’t allow his new, more emotionally charged state to affect any decisions he made.

  Once the transfer was organised, he went back upstairs. Lucy had moved Sophie out of the high-dependency unit and she was in the process of supervising a member of the hospital’s cleaning staff when he arrived. Good hygiene practice was vital in a place like this, where the very sick were nursed, and he knew that he could rely on her to maintain the very h
ighest standards. Her dedication was one of the things he had admired about her, although there had been many other things he’d found even more beguiling.

  ‘How’s it going?’ He cut short that thought as she came out of the room. Remembering all the reasons why he’d been attracted to her wouldn’t help, especially after last night.

  ‘We’re just about ready. Is it definitely meningitis?’ she asked as they made their way to the office.

  ‘I’d say so, although I’ll need to do a lumbar puncture to confirm it. There’s no stiffness in the neck, but the rest of the symptoms point towards it—photophobia, severe headache, fever and nausea.’

  ‘Is there any sign of a rash?’

  ‘Not yet, but there’s what looks like a bruise in the crook of the boy’s elbow. I’ve seen that happen before—first the bruise appears, then the rash develops later.’ He shrugged. ‘I’ve started him on intravenous antibiotics so they should help.’

  ‘How did you get on about finding cover?’ she queried, going over to the desk.

  ‘The nursing officer has agreed to hire an agency nurse to cover your shifts for the rest of the week.’

  ‘Really? I was told the powers that be had decided not to hire any more agency staff because of the extra costs it entails.’ She suddenly laughed. ‘You must have done some major arm-twisting to get a result like that!’

  Connor smiled. ‘Let’s just say that I made it abundantly clear that I wouldn’t accept any excuses.’

  ‘I’ll bet you did.’ Her smile faded abruptly and he saw her face close up. ‘Did you manage to get in touch with Dee about working tonight?’

  ‘No, I haven’t had time yet. I’ll phone her later. If she can’t come in then I’ll have to twist a few more arms, I expect.’