Emergency: Mother Wanted

by Sarah Morgan

  Half an hour later the man was stabilised and had been admitted by the medical team.

  'Will he live?' The student nurse stared at Zach, her eyes wide and slightly stunned.

  'Probably. And he'll probably do it again,' Zach said calmly, folding the ECG trace and putting it carefully in the notes.

  'You were amazing, Mr Jordan. You knew exactly what to do. You saved his life.' She stared at him with a mixture of awe and reverence and Keely felt some empathy with the girl. Watching Zach in action was a humbling experience. Not only was he clearly a skilled doctor but his cool self-confidence had transmitted itself to the rest of the staff. There was no panic with Zach around.

  The student nurse was still round eyed with admiration and Keely saw Zach frown slightly as he registered her longing gaze.

  How would he react? Would he demolish the girl? No, that wasn't his style. Look how kind he'd been to her for a start.

  But she sensed that his style had changed over the years. The easy charm was still there on the surface but underneath she sensed a cynicism, a hard edge that hadn't been part of the Zach that she'd known all those years ago. Was it just maturity? Or something else? Had something happened to change him?

  'Saving lives is what we do in A and E.' His tone was matter-of-fact and a touch impatient as he addressed the student nurse. 'It's the job. Any of the doctors here would have done the same.'

  Keely could tell by the look on the young nurse's face that she didn't believe him, that she'd suddenly turned Zach into some sort of god with supernatural powers.

  Nicky had obviously noticed, too, because she dealt with the situation quickly.

  'You're needed in the dressing clinic, Bella,' the A and E sister said hastily, ushering the young student nurse out of the room before she could say anything else.

  Zach made no reference to the incident, instead thanking them all for their help and issuing a few final instructions to Nicky before striding out of the room to talk to the patient's friends who were waiting in the relatives' room.

  Keely exchanged looks with Nicky. 'Does he have that effect on everyone?'

  Nicky nodded as she started to clear up the debris in the room.

  'Everyone female. They soon get over it when they realise he isn't interested.'

  Keely threw some rubbish in the bin and tried to sound casual. 'Isn't he?'

  'Never.' Nicky glanced up and shook her head slowly as she looked at her. 'Oh, no. Not you, too.'

  Keely stiffened. 'What do you mean?'

  'I recognise that expression on your face. I've seen it too many times before not to. Don't fall for him, Keely,' Nicky warned, lowering her voice as she spoke. 'It's a quick route to a broken heart.'

  Keely licked dry lips. 'Do lots of women fall for him?'

  'What do you think?' Nicky pulled a face and tilted her head to one side. 'Zach Jordan is so good-looking he can't walk down a street without women getting neck ache as they stare at him. He's clever—very clever—and on top of that he's got this air of calm confidence that women find irresistible. Pretty devastating combination of qualities. Of course lots of women fall for him.'

  'Is he married?'

  Now, why on earth had she asked that question?

  Nicky's expression was suddenly remote and discouraging. 'I can't discuss Zach's private life—it wouldn't be right. But take it from me, he's not available.'

  Keely frowned slightly, wondering why Nicky hadn't just answered her question.

  'Forget him, Keely. He's a colleague and nothing more.' Nicky opened a laryngoscope to check the bulb. 'I know he's good-looking but, like I said, falling for Zach is a quick route to a broken heart.'

  Unfortunately her warning was about eight years too late, Keely thought gloomily as she ripped off her gloves and tossed them in the bin. She'd fallen heavily for Zach when she'd first met him and she had a nasty feeling that nothing much had changed. He still had the power to turn her insides to jelly.

  CHAPTER TWO

  'Fancy a drink?' Nicky opened her locker and pulled out her coat and bag. 'There's a lovely pub just across the road. Log fire, nice staff, dishy barman...'

  Keely grinned. 'In that case, definitely.'

  It had been a long and stressful day so maybe a drink was just what she needed. A drink and the chance to stare at a dishy man who wasn't Zach. With any luck she'd fall madly in love with the barman.

  'I'll just give Fiona and Adam a shout,' Nicky said, fastening her locker and putting on her coat. 'They're both off now, too.'

  Keely took a deep breath. 'And Zach?'

  Nicky shook her head. 'Not Zach. Zach never joins us and anyway...' she frowned at Keely '...I've already warned you.'

  'I know.' Keely wrapped a wool scarf around her neck and smiled brightly 'Just being sociable, that's all. He is one of the team.'

  'At work, yes,' Nicky agreed, walking across the staff-room and tugging open the door, 'but out of work—no. Zach keeps himself to himself.'

  Did he? Why?

  Keely followed her down the corridor, waited while she hassled the two SHOs into joining them and then walked out into the bitterly cold January night and across to the pub.

  The pub was warm and cosy and a welcome alternative to her chilly flat.

  'I need to find somewhere decent to live.' Keely sipped her orange juice and passed her crisps to Nicky. 'Because I was living and working in London until last week, I didn't have much time to hunt around so I took the first thing I saw. Believe me, it's less than exciting and, frankly, the landlord gives me the creeps.'

  'My wife and I are renting a house in Ambleside until we decide where we're going to settle,' Adam told them, savouring his beer with obvious enjoyment. 'What about you Fiona?'

  'Oh, I've got an aunt who lives about ten minutes from the hospital, so I'm staying with her for now. She's great fun, actually.' Fiona ripped open another packet of crisps. 'Where do the rest of the staff live?'

  Nicky settled back in her chair and stretched out her hands towards the log fire. 'Well, the senior consultant, Sean, lives about fifteen minutes' drive away in a converted barn with his wife and three utterly delectable children. Zoe, the staff nurse you probably met today, lives with her boyfriend in Ambleside and I live with my husband in a cottage about ten minutes away towards the Langdales.'

  'Nice. I want to live somewhere more rural. At the moment I'm stuck in a tiny flat in the middle of town.' Keely pulled a face. 'What I really wanted was to live in a rural retreat. You know, views of the fells, sheep at the bottom of my garden and an appalling trip to work every time it snows.'

  Nicky laughed. 'In other words, somewhere totally impractical.'

  'That's me.' Keely beamed at her. 'I came up here to escape from the city. If I wanted the city I'd still be living in London.'

  'So why the Lakes?'

  Keely shrugged and took a sip of her drink. 'Because this unit has a good reputation and because I love walking.'

  And because it was sufficiently far away from her totally oppressive family to give her some much needed breathing space.

  'I like walking.' Nicky munched at the crisps. 'So does Sean. He was in the army before he trained as a doctor so he's a real expert at climbing and things. And Zach loves the outdoors too.'

  That explained the athletic body...

  'Well, I'm going to go and see some rental properties as soon as I get a free moment,' Keely muttered, pushing thoughts of Zach's body away and glancing at her watch. 'I suppose I'd better be going. I've got some serious studying to do.'

  Fiona lifted an eyebrow. 'Studying?'

  'Yes, studying.' Keely gave a wry smile, deciding to confess. Even though they'd only worked together for a week, she already liked her new colleagues enormously. 'The last time I saw Zach I was sixteen years old and he obviously still sees me that way. I need to impress him.'

  'Sixteen?' Nicky put her drink on the table with a thump and stared at her in amazement. 'How did you come to meet Zach at the tender age of sixte
en?'

  'He trained with my brother,' Keely said, carefully missing out that he'd also worked for her father. The less people knew about her family the better. 'He used to come and stay sometimes.'

  'Wow.' Fiona gave her a saucy wink. 'I bet he played havoc with your hormones at sixteen.'

  Keely managed a weak laugh. He was playing havoc with her hormones at twenty-four, too.

  'Anyway, I clearly have to work harder to impress him than everyone else.'

  Nicky frowned. 'I don't think that's true. You impressed him yesterday—you told him that the man had taken tricyclics.'

  'Yes—and I was the one who didn't know the answer,' Adam reminded them with a sheepish grin. 'If anyone needs to go home to study it's me.'

  'No.' Keely stared into her now empty glass. 'Zach doesn't see you as a teenager.'

  Nicky wiggled her toes in front of the fire. 'If I were you I'd just be yourself. From what I've seen today you're going to make a great casualty officer. You're good humoured, you don't panic in an emergency, you're friendly to everyone and you're nice with the patients. Zach will see that for himself soon enough.'

  Would he?

  Keely wasn't so sure. After the way he'd reacted this week it was fairly obvious to her that Zach thought he needed to keep an eye on her.

  She'd give it a few more days and then she'd have to have a word with him.

  'There's been a pile-up on the motorway. Six cars. They've asked for a medical team. Zach, I'd like you to go.' Sean Nicholson glanced at the other cas. officers. 'And Keely.'

  Keely felt a rush of excitement which died immediately when she heard Zach contradict him sharply.

  'Not Keely. I'll take Adam.'

  Adam?

  Keely opened her mouth to protest and then shut it again, glancing instead towards Sean. Surely he'd object?

  But he didn't. He merely gave a brisk nod. 'Fine. Nicky and I will get things ready here. Nicky, which of your nursing staff do you want to send?'

  'Liz,' Nicky said promptly, and immediately everyone swung into action.

  Seething with fury, Keely helped prepare Resus for a large influx of casualties and she liaised with Ambulance Control and the wards.

  By the time the patients had been admitted and dealt with her shift was almost over, but she was determined to have a word with Zach. She thought she knew why he hadn't sent her out with the medical team, but she wanted to hear it from his lips.

  'May I talk to you?'

  He looked slightly surprised but he gave a nod and they walked towards his office.

  'Were there any fatalities?' It was small talk but she didn't want to tackle her problem in the corridor with the whole department listening.

  'Two. Trapped inside one of the vehicles. It was the usual story—everyone driving too close together, bunched up in the fog.'

  He opened the door to his office and she followed him inside and closed the door firmly behind them.

  His eyes drifted quizzically to her hands which were still holding the door handle. 'So what's the matter, Keely?'

  She took a deep breath. 'You're the matter. Or rather, the way you treat me is the matter. Why are you doing it, Zach?'

  He looked at her warily. 'Why am I doing what?'

  She gave him an impatient look. 'You don't ask me any questions, you don't let me see any complicated patients, you hang over me like a nursemaid and now you just refused to let me go out as part of an emergency team even though Sean obviously thought I was capable of it.' She ticked the reasons off one by one on her fingers. 'I know you' don't trust me but I think you should at least give me a chance.'

  There was a long silence and then he turned and walked over to his window, staring out into the darkness towards the fells. 'I do trust you.'

  'No, you don't!' She walked over to him, determined to make him look at her. 'You never let me work the way you let the other doctors work.'

  'That isn't because I don't trust you,' he muttered, raking long fingers through his already ruffled hair.

  Keely frowned, baffled by his response. 'Why, then? If you trust me then why aren't you just throwing me in the deep end along with everyone else? Why wouldn't you let me go out as part of the emergency team? It's obvious that you don't trust my clinical judgement—'

  'That's not true.' He frowned sharply, as if the thought hadn't occurred to him. 'From what I've seen, your clinical judgement is spot on.'

  'So why...?'

  He turned to look at her, his blue eyes suddenly hard. 'Because sometimes these pile-ups are dangerous and the medical team ends up operating in lethal conditions. You could have been sitting in a squashed car giving pain relief to some poor chap who was going to be trapped for hours, you could have been dealing with someone who'd been thrown through the windscreen...'

  She swallowed, taken aback by his grim expression and by the harsh tone of his voice. 'But you sent Adam.'

  He closed his eyes briefly and gave a sigh. 'Yes. I sent Adam.'

  'Because he's a man?' Keely frowned. 'Because you don't think I can handle the stress? Why can Adam handle the stress better than me? I didn't think you were a chauvinist, Zach.'

  He muttered something under his breath. 'I am not a chauvinist.'

  'Then why did you choose not to send a woman into that situation?'

  'I didn't choose not to send a woman.' His jaw was rigid with tension. 'I chose not to send you.'

  'Me?' Keely stared at him. 'So you're saying you would have sent another woman, but not me.'

  He held her gaze. 'Maybe.'

  She felt bemused and frustrated. 'Because you think I'm a child?'

  'No.' He shook his head impatiently. 'This is nothing to do with your age. More your personality.'

  Keely's heart was thudding and her lips felt stiff. 'What's wrong with my personality?'

  'Nothing's wrong with it!' He lifted a hand and rubbed his fingers along his forehead. 'You've got a lovely personality.'

  'But?'

  'But nothing,' he said quietly, sitting on the edge of his desk and watching her steadily. 'I just know how sensitive you are.'

  Keely gave an outraged gasp. 'That is not fair! You don't know me at all—you're just remembering how I was as a teenager. I'm trying to learn and be part of a team, and you're stopping me. Anyway, why should it bother you if I do get upset? It's my problem, not yours.'

  He held her gaze without flinching. 'It bothers me because I feel responsible for you.'

  'Responsible for me?' She gaped at him. 'Why are you responsible for me?'

  'Because you're miles away from your family—'

  Her eyes widened. 'I'm a grown woman, Zach! Believe it or not, I don't need to keep running to Daddy!'

  'Keely, I just don't want you hurt.'

  She stared at him, touched and frustrated at the same time. 'But you weren't worried about Adam?'

  'Of course not!' He gave a short laugh. 'Adam can take care of himself.'

  'And so can I,' Keely said softly. 'So can I, Zach. Whatever you may think of me, whatever your memory tells you, I'm completely grown up now. I don't need your protection, however well meaning.'

  His expression was bleak. 'We see some hideous things in Casualty.'

  'Then I'll see them, too,' Keely said firmly, pushing her blonde hair behind one ear. 'Please, Zach, this is ridiculous. All week you've been hanging over my shoulder, asking everyone questions except me, treating me like the teenager I used to be. I am not a teenager any more. This isn't even my first job. You're driving me mad.'

  Zach winced and had the grace to look guilty. 'Have I been that bad?'

  'Worse!' Keely scowled and then grinned, her natural good nature reasserting itself. 'But I'll forgive you if you stop policing my every movement.'

  Zach walked towards her and stopped dead, his eyes scanning her face as if he was trying to see her for who she was and not for who he remembered her to be.

  'I just don't want you hurt,' he said gruffly. 'I know Prof would want me to keep an
eye on you.'

  'He certainly would,' Keely agreed sweetly, 'but you never did what Prof wanted when you worked for him, so don't use that as an excuse. I distinctly remember him saying that you were the brightest, most frustrating doctor he'd ever worked with. You questioned everything and you took risks that made his hair stand on end. And those risks usually paid off.'

  'OK. I take your point.' He spoke slowly, a wry smile playing around his firm mouth. 'You have a right to spread your wings, too. I'll stop treating you as a child. On one condition.'

  'Which is?'

  His voice was soft. 'If you have a tough day, you come and talk to me. As a friend. We all need someone to turn to in this department. I want to be sure that you won't bottle anything up just to because you're trying to prove yourself.'

  'I never bottle anything up—you of all people should know that.' She coloured slightly but decided that she might as well clear the air once and for all. 'If I was any good at hiding my emotions, Zach, I wouldn't have yelled at you just now and I wouldn't have proposed to you all those years ago.'

  The corners of his mouth twitched and his blue eyes gleamed. 'I thought we weren't going to mention that again.'

  She gave a groan. 'I know. You've been so discreet and I can hardly bear to think about it, it's so embarrassing. But I still feel that I haven't really apologised properly.'

  'I've already told you you don't need to apologise.'

  'Zach, I proposed to you!'

  His blue eyes twinkled. 'It was a leap year, sweetheart. You were allowed to propose to me. I was very flattered.'

  Sweetheart. The way he said it made her insides melt even though she knew it hadn't been meant in that way.

  Keely pulled herself together and cleared her throat. 'Anyway, I apologise for behaving like such an idiot and embarrassing you.'

  'You didn't embarrass me.' His gaze was steady on hers and for a moment she stared at him, her pulse picking up as she looked at the broad shoulders and the dark hair. He was seriously gorgeous...

  She suppressed a whimper. Why did he have such a powerful effect on her. Why? She wasn't a teenager any more, but when she was with him she certainly felt like one.'

  No!