Healing the Single Dad's Heart

by Scarlet Wilson

  He wasn’t quite sure what she meant. In his mind, Lien was one of the most dedicated doctors he’d worked with. He’d hoped that she felt the same about him. Maybe he wasn’t convincing her he was as dedicated to his work as he’d hoped. But he could work at that.

  He shifted in the passenger seat. And he would.

  She gave him a sideways glance and her lips hinted at a smile. ‘Wait and see where we’re going next, then tell me it’s just like Scotland.’

  He bit his bottom lip as he glanced at her again. Every day he spent around Lien he found himself more and more attracted to her—even though he hadn’t acted on it. They worked so well together. He loved being around her. When ideas sprang into his head, she was the first person he wanted to talk to.

  He smiled to himself. Lien had no aspirations to come to Scotland, but maybe he could persuade her. He kept smiling and settled back in the seat.

  * * *

  When they arrived in Uông Bí Lien took them for a quick drive around a few parts of the city, before driving out towards the hospital and giving Joe some background on the people who lived here.

  By the time they finally pulled up in front of the hospital they were all ready to get out and stretch their legs.

  The hospital was a more traditional building for Vietnam, made from wood, bamboo and cane, and set on stilts. Lien smiled as Regan and Joe looked up in wonder. ‘Many homes in Vietnam are like this. Vietnam can be prone to flooding, so lots of houses built on flood-prone plains or in mountains are set on stilts.’

  ‘Has this place been here a while?’ Joe asked as he climbed the steps.

  Lien smiled and nodded. ‘We’re like magpies. We tend to take over places that are a little run-down and neglected and take them over for ourselves.’

  Joe’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, but she laughed and shook her head. ‘I’m kidding. The building in Hanoi was bought by Khiem and Hoa. This place was taken over and renovated by us after it fell into disrepair and the local community was requesting health care facilities. It does actually belong to us now.’

  Joe grabbed the replenished medical supplies that she tossed to him and helped carry them up to the hospital. Her smile had got brighter with every mile of the journey and he could see the tension leaving her shoulders.

  Lien opened the door to the hospital and showed Joe around. Even though it was set in a city, this hospital was very much on the outskirts and had a much more rural feel.

  She showed them into a wide waiting room at the front of the building, with the back of the building divided into separate rooms. ‘We have three consulting rooms, and six beds for patients if required. There is permanent staff here, so we generally only come down to cover holidays, or if there’s some kind of outbreak.’

  Two nurses came over to meet them and Joe quickly shook their hands and familiarised himself with the hospital setting and clinic arrangements. Lien appeared with a whole host of things she seemed to conjure up out of thin air. A pile of flat smooth rocks, along with some half-used bottles of paint for Regan. ‘You paint these while your dad and I work, and once they are dry we can varnish them. You could send one of them back home to your grandma and papa as a present.’

  ‘Wow, thanks, Lien,’ murmured Regan. She’d also found some snacks and set Regan up in one part of the clinic where Joe could keep a close eye on him. Her thoughtfulness impressed him. She never forgot Regan, and it was clear that he appreciated the attention.

  ‘We’re ready.’ She smiled as she moved over to the other treatment room with her nurse. ‘Let’s get started.’

  Joe glanced outside. People were already forming a queue outside the main door. He smiled. It didn’t matter where you were in the world—whether that was a GP practice in Glasgow or an outlying hospital in Vietnam—come opening time, there was always a queue of people waiting.

  He nodded. ‘Looking forward to it,’ he said, and he meant it. The drive inside him that had disappeared these last few years had seemed to magically reignite the longer he stayed in Vietnam. It was good to feel this way again. He’d forgotten just how much it invigorated him.

  He glanced around at the people. Lien was chatting away with one of the nurses, her dark hair swept up in a clip. Regan was engrossed in the corner of one room with his stones. Another nurse was setting out vaccinations on a metal trolley in the next-door room. He licked his lips, feeling the buzz deep down inside. Part of his interest was in the place and the people. His eyes went first to Regan; his son was happy here. He’d been happy in Scotland too, but somehow, now Joe could see new sparkle in his son’s eyes. He was excited by the changes around him and seeing his son happy was feeding Joe’s soul.

  But there was something else. Something he couldn’t ignore.

  They’d been here three months, and the longer he was here, the more he was drawn to Lien. Everything about her pulled him in. Her work ethic, her passion, her drive, her sense of humour, and the electricity between them.

  As he watched Lien, he couldn’t stop the smile that had seemed permanently etched on his face since they’d all left Hanoi together. He hadn’t felt this alive or happy in years.

  A new determination spread through him. One thing was clear—now he’d found it again, he didn’t want to lose it. When he and Regan boarded that plane back to Scotland, he wanted Lien to be sitting next to them.

  * * *

  Lien was happy to be busy. She always liked covering in the other areas because it gave her a wider feel for the health of the population. Sometimes it was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of her own city.

  Had Joe really invited her to Scotland, and to stay with him in his house/castle? She’d struggled to find words as the offer had seemed to come out of nowhere.

  She couldn’t deny the blossoming attraction, but he’d seemed to think the plan was easy. Did he really think she would just pack up and go with them back to Glasgow—to a country she literally knew nothing about? As for his house...

  She shook her head at the thought. Her parents’ house could probably fit forty times over into the place that Joe called home. She couldn’t even imagine herself somewhere like that. The more she thought about it, the more she realised they were worlds apart. Just like she and Reuben had been.

  She pushed all stray thoughts from her mind. The queue outside the hospital was getting longer. She was here to do a job and she had patients to see.

  * * *

  Halfway through the morning, things started to go downhill. The young man in front of her had muscle and joint pains, a headache and a fever. When Lien examined him he also had a widespread rash. He was clearly exhausted and going downhill fast. She asked if he had anyone with him and he nodded and pointed to the waiting room. ‘My wife and son, they both feel the same,’ he added.

  Her stomach flipped. Her brain was already computing what was wrong and it wasn’t good news, but from the look in the man’s eyes he knew already what she would tell him.

  She swallowed and put a hand on his arm. ‘Give me a few minutes, Tadeus,’ she said. She needed to chat with Joe. If she’d found one with this disease, it was likely there could be others. But Joe was just coming out of his own door to find her. ‘I need to chat,’ he said quickly. ‘I think I’ve got two cases of dengue fever. It’s most common in the rainy season here, isn’t it?’

  She nodded quickly, glanced in his room at the two patients, and at his notes. Dengue fever was spread by mosquitoes and was more common in the south of Vietnam, and in the wet season. Her eyes couldn’t help but glance towards Regan. These people weren’t infectious. The disease could only be spread by mosquito bite, but it still made her feel a little anxious.

  ‘It does look like dengue fever. We don’t wait, or rely on, the blood test for antibodies, we just go with the clinical symptoms.’

  He nodded. ‘But why here? Why now? Isn’t it more common in the south?’
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  ‘Usually, but there can be lots of different factors. Just because it’s more common in south—and in the rainy season—it doesn’t mean that we don’t see it at other times too. We’ll need to ask about water storage, particularly if they store water in containers at their house—that can play a part in hosting mosquitoes.’

  He scribbled some notes on the papers he had.

  ‘How are your patients?’ she asked.

  ‘The mother has clinical signs and is tired, but I’m more concerned about the ten-year-old. He’s clinically dehydrated and looks as if he could do with some IV fluids for a short spell.’

  ‘Have they been anywhere unusual in the last ten days?’

  Joe shook his head. ‘Just at home.’

  ‘Okay, I’ve got the dad. He’s exhausted too, and a bit dehydrated. How about we hook up the father and child to IV fluids and some antipyretics for a few hours and assess them again. There’s no widely available vaccine for this, no cure. We just have to treat the symptoms and hope they don’t progress.’

  He nodded seriously. ‘Leave it with me. I’ll take them all through to the ward and get things organised.’

  Most international doctors would have left this to her, and it was nice to have someone want to truly share the load. It was like he could read her mind. He gave her a smile. ‘My nurse, Eartha, will help me with the translations.’

  He was trying to reassure her. ‘I’ll give you a shout if I have any questions.’

  She was tempted to add more. To tell him about the one or two per cent who developed complications. But somehow she had faith he’d already looked that up himself. She needed to let him run with this—he was more than competent.

  * * *

  Four hours later she’d seen a steady stream of patients. She kept being tempted to go and find Joe and catch up with him, but she knew that would look as if she was checking up on him. So instead she busied herself with putting a temporary cast on a broken wrist, prescribed antibiotics for everything from a severe chest infection, pneumonia and a kidney infection to an infected insect bite that really needed attention on a daily basis.

  She also had a chance to catch up with a few long-term patients of the hospital who had tuberculosis, and a few with HIV. She always did her best to try and review the long-term patients to make sure they were keeping up with their treatment regimes and not suffering from any complications.

  By the time she’d finished, Joe was waiting for her at the door, holding Regan’s hand.

  ‘How are things?’ she asked.

  ‘Both patients seem quite stable. They’re going to stay in the hospital overnight and Terry will keep an eye on them.’

  Lien nodded. Terry was one of the other local doctors and she trusted him completely.

  ‘Let’s wash up and we can go and find some dinner, then,’ she sighed. ‘Let’s grab the car. There’s a place just down the road that I like.’

  They drove a little closer to the city and settled into a local restaurant half an hour later, but not before she’d made both Joe and Regan reapply their mosquito repellent. It hadn’t taken them long to adjust to wearing long sleeves and trousers on a daily basis. Today’s cases of dengue fever hadn’t been unusual, but it still made her nervous.

  Joe was surprised by her choice of restaurant. It was styled like an old American diner and even had a play area in the corner for kids. He glanced around at the street. It was dotted with a variety of international restaurants—some of them chains—but this one seemed a little more unusual. It was already crowded, with a host of locals and tourists.

  ‘What?’ she asked as she slid into one of the booths.

  He shrugged as he slid in on the other side. ‘I’m surprised this is one of your favourites.’

  ‘Ah.’ She nodded as she perused the menu. ‘When I worked in Washington there was a diner that I loved. I swear they’ve stolen the chef’s recipes and just transported him over here, because the burgers in here taste exactly like my favourite over there.’

  He eyed the menu with caution. ‘Okay, which one of these is your favourite?’

  She pointed. ‘The barbeque grand. Double stack with cheese, pickle, onion rings and fries.’

  He laughed and she pointed to something else. ‘If you’re not that hungry you can always have the southern fried chicken burger. I like that too.’ She paused a second. ‘But if you’re having that one, have it with the curly fries with cheese sauce and bacon.’

  He shook his head. ‘Where on earth do you put it all?’

  ‘Hollow legs.’ She smiled. ‘It’s a family secret.’

  The waitress came over a few moments later and they ordered quickly. The lights in the diner were bright.

  They’d booked into a nearby hotel for their stay. It was comfortable and run by a local family. Joe was tired, but in no hurry to head back. Once they went back to their rooms he wouldn’t see Lien again until the morning. This was the first time they’d had to sit down properly all day. Regan had made his way over to the kids’ corner and was playing with a garage, dinosaurs and a pirate ship. Joe watched him for a few moments then turned to Lien. Since the moment he’d got here, he’d found her to be the person he wanted to talk to most—particularly when it came to Regan.

  ‘I got a report from Regan’s nursery teacher just before we headed down here.’

  ‘Really? What did she say?’

  He played with the cutlery in front of him. ‘She said he’s been doing great and has settled in well.’

  She tilted her head to the side. That was the thing about Lien. She seemed to be able to read him so well. ‘So why the long face?’

  He leaned his head on one arm. ‘They said that sometimes he takes himself off into the quiet room and just lies down.’

  ‘The quiet room?’

  ‘It’s a space they keep in the nursery to allow kids to have some time out. It’s got a library, and some cushions. The lights can also be dimmed and it has planets and stars painted on the walls.’

  ‘What’s bad about that?’ Her question was reasonable. She made it sound so simple. But it didn’t relieve the knot that had been churning in his stomach since the nursery teacher had talked to him.

  He swallowed, his fingers drumming on the table. ‘Regan told the teacher that he goes in there to speak to one of the stars because it’s his mum.’

  * * *

  Her stomach flipped over.

  ‘Oh.’ She hadn’t expected that. In all the time she’d been around Regan he hadn’t mentioned his mum, and she hadn’t wanted to bring it up.

  His gaze met hers. ‘Yes. Oh.’

  She wasn’t quite sure what to say. ‘Is there a reason that he thinks his mum’s a star?’

  Joe nodded. ‘I told him a story a few years ago, about how someone had bought us a star to name after Mummy, and that she would always be up there to talk to.’

  Lien shifted a little in her seat. ‘That’s nice. And it seems a good explanation for a kid as young as Regan. So, what’s wrong? Is this unusual for him?’

  Joe’s eyes looked sad. He interlinked his fingers and Lien got the distinct impression he was wringing them together. She could sense his low mood and frustration. ‘He’s never done this before. At least, he’s never told me he does this. But he told his nursery teacher. What does that mean?’

  Lien glanced at the happy little boy playing in the corner of the restaurant. He was currently involved in a great battle between dinosaurs and pirates, complete with sound effects. She reached her hand out to Joe’s. ‘It means he’s a four-year-old boy who still wants to talk to his mum.’ The truth was, she knew nothing about any of this. But she could try to think about this rationally.

  ‘Now Regan’s at nursery he probably sees other kids being dropped off by their mums and their dads. Maybe it’s left him feeling a bit lonely. Maybe taking that time to go i
nto the quiet room and talk to his mum, the way he sees the other kids doing, makes him feel less different.’

  She put her hand between his and intertwined her fingers with his. ‘I know this is hard, Joe. I’m not an expert in kids—I’m not a parent. I can only tell you what I think it might be. Most kids don’t want to be different from each other, even though they are in a million ways. I bet if you think back to your childhood or teenage years you can remember doing something that stopped you feeling different from others.’

  Her heart squeezed inside her chest. For her, it had been in her late teens. It had been realising just how poor her family were, and all the different ways she’d tried to hide it from her friends. She’d tried to fit in every way she could. She had been pretty. And smart. Well mannered. When people had found out where she’d really come from—one of the most deprived suburbs in Hanoi—she’d seen them wrinkle their noses. And that was before all the stuff with her ex-boyfriend. He’d told her so many times how perfect she was—until he’d found out where she came from.

  It had taken qualifying as a doctor and adulthood before she’d realised she should be proud of her upbringing, her parents, and what she’d learned in life.

  Assumptions around poverty were made all over the world. Dang Van Lien made it her job to challenge them at every turn. She wasn’t stupid. She wasn’t dirty.

  Yes, she’d been hungry at times. Yes, the house she’d been brought up in would have seemed like a slum to others. Her clothes had mainly been second-hand, most of her school books had been borrowed, and she’d spent her whole childhood finding ways not to require money. But she’d been brought up in a simple, tidy house filled with love. Her parents were proud people. Even though she’d offered to help them move, they didn’t want to. They’d told her on lots of occasions they had what they needed.

  That didn’t stop her buying gifts that were gratefully received. She’d replaced most of the household appliances and pieces of furniture as they’d broken down or had got to the stage where they couldn’t be repaired. Every birthday and Christmas she bought her parents brand-new sets of clothes and a pile of books. Two years ago, her father had even accepted his first mobile phone.