Diagnosis

by Lucy Clark

  ‘It’s not just the fact that you can’t remember, is it.’ His words were a statement and Charli didn’t bother pretending she didn’t know what he was talking about.

  ‘No.’

  ‘You were nervous and jittery at the hospital, not wanting to stay overnight. Something’s not right.’

  ‘You’re right…but I have no idea what it is. At the moment I just need to follow my instincts, and they’re telling me not to be left alone. It might be because you found me alone in a ravine. I have no memory of being there. Perhaps someone was with me. Perhaps I was pushed. I don’t know.’

  Logan shook his head. ‘Wil had a pretty good look around the area and he couldn’t see any signs of a struggle, but he isn’t one hundred per cent sure.’ He paused. ‘It’s OK, Charli. We’ll get to the bottom of it.’

  ‘That’s just the thing, Logan. I don’t know if I want to. What if I start to remember and find my life isn’t worth remembering? Maybe I’ve blanked it out for a reason.’

  He watched as she became more and more agitated as the words flowed from her mouth. She started to pace around the kitchen, as though walking around helped her put her thoughts into words.

  ‘What if I wasn’t happy, but was just going along with my life because that’s what you do? You say that I’m a smart person. I don’t feel smart right now. I read those papers from your conference and it doesn’t seem as though I’m reading about myself. I remember numbers at the drop of a hat but have no idea what they stand for. I’m supposed to be doing research for a multinational company and I can’t remember the first thing about it. What if I don’t get my memory back? What if, after quite a while, I never find out how I ended up in the middle of nowhere in Australia?

  ‘Then there’s my hospital. They said I’m scheduled to be away for another week. What’s this international conference I’m supposed to be speaking at next week? How am I going to do it if I’m stuck in Australia and can’t remember what I’m meant to be talking about? My mother isn’t answering her phone and that isn’t right. I don’t know why it isn’t right but it just isn’t.’

  She looked at him and shook her head, her gaze wide with fear. ‘I’m scared, Logan. I’m scared to remember and I’m scared not to remember.’

  Logan crossed to her side and put his hands on her shoulders. His voice was imploring yet gentle. ‘Not thinking about it is the best way for your brain to slowly unlock the door. You’re not alone, Charli. Know that for a fact. I’ll be here to help you. So will Wil. We’re the good guys and the good guys always win.’

  Charli couldn’t help but smile at him, momentarily enjoying the feelings of security, safety and not being totally alone in the world. His hands were warm and instantly reassuring and she knew what this man said was the truth. He would stand by her. He would help her, and it was a very nice feeling to know she had an ally.

  The moment she smiled, Logan instantly dropped his hands from her shoulders and took two huge steps backwards. ‘Right, now, how about you finish your coffee while I finish getting ready for clinic?’ He glanced at the clock again. ‘My mother’s going to be yelling for me soon enough.’

  ‘Yelling? Really?’

  Logan smiled. ‘You’d better believe it. I’ll be back in a second.’ He headed to his room and forced himself to relax. He didn’t much like the thought of Charli spending the morning with his mother for the simple reason that his mother would take Charli under her wing and protect her. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but it would draw Charli much closer into the bosom of his family and at the moment he needed distance from her…as much distance as he could get.

  He grabbed a tie from the drawer and put it on, before heading back towards the kitchen. ‘Ready?’ he asked. Charli looked across at him, smiled and nodded. The small action caused his gut to tighten and he immediately pushed the sensation away. She quickly stacked the dishes in the dishwasher.

  ‘Do you want me to put this on?’

  ‘I’ll do it later.’

  ‘It won’t take a moment, Logan, and it’s full.’

  He knew his smile was strained. All he wanted was to get out of the intimate atmosphere which would continue to build if he walked into the kitchen where he would be able to smell the subtle scent of whatever it was she was wearing. He couldn’t remember seeing any perfume with his sister-in-law’s things but, whatever she’d found, it was definitely working on him…and he didn’t want it to.

  Still, she was right. It would take a few seconds to put the dishwasher on and then he wouldn’t have to worry about it later. He quickly crossed to the kitchen, making sure he gave her a wide berth, working automatically as he put the powder into the machine and set it going.

  ‘Sorry, Logan. I didn’t mean to push. It’s just that it—’

  ‘It’s fine.’ He wiped his hands on the towel and walked towards the door.

  ‘Logan?’ Charli was thoroughly confused by his attitude. He seemed to be running hot then cold, and it wasn’t at all like the man she’d met yesterday. Yesterday? Was it only yesterday they’d met? It seemed like a lifetime. Well, to her it was a lifetime—as much as she could remember of her life at any rate.

  He stopped, turned and impatiently raked a hand through his hair. He’d hurt her or at least confused her by his briskness, and it wasn’t what he’d intended to do. The woman was gorgeous! Didn’t she realise that? Didn’t she realise she could make his blood boil just by the way she was looking at him? He wanted to look away but he couldn’t. There was definitely something between them. Something neither of them should pursue and definitely something neither of them had asked for. It was just…there.

  Charli sucked in a breath as she looked into his eyes as he turned. It was then she saw it.

  The desire smouldering beneath the surface and his behaviour started to make perfect sense. Charli couldn’t help a similar feeling from stirring within her and then bursting to life. Knowing deep down that what she was about to do was ridiculous as well as stupid, Charli slowly crossed the room to stand in front of him. His gaze held hers the entire way, both mesmerised by the other.

  Logan could feel the tension mounting inside him with every step she took. Closer and closer she came while the burning within him turned into a raging furnace and he prayed it was one he’d be able to control.

  ‘Logan?’ This time there was no confusion in her eyes, in her body language, in her question. What Logan saw this time was a woman who was in complete control of her faculties, and he wondered if she knew that when she looked at a man with a passionate fire in her gaze, it was enough to burn the man up completely. That was how she was looking at him now and Logan knew, without a doubt, that if he didn’t kiss her immediately, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

  ‘Charli.’

  Her name was a caress on his lips and she loved the way it sounded. For one moment she honestly felt that Logan cared for her, that she was the sole focus of his life. Even though the logical side of her said otherwise, she pushed it away and concentrated on the here and now…and now she desperately wanted Logan’s lips on hers.

  He moved closer, her heart pounding fiercely against her ribs. As their bodies touched, her chest against his, Charli was astounded at the explosions that coursed through her.

  With barely any movement, his arm came around her waist, drawing her even closer. Lowering his head to hers, he brushed his lips briefly across hers and then pulled back a little to check that this was what she really wanted.

  He saw what he wanted to see in her eyes.

  The acknowledgement that she needed this as much as he did.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ‘LOGAN!’

  The sound of his mother’s voice was like a bucket of icy cold water thrown over the two of them.

  Logan dropped his arm from Charli as though burnt, and quickly stalked up the corridor to where his mother had entered his home through the external walkway.

  ‘Mum.’

  ‘There you are. Yo
u have two patients waiting to see you and as you have to go to the hospital this afternoon, I don’t want you to run late. Besides, it isn’t fair that people have to wait because the doctor needs to finish his cup of coffee.’

  ‘I’ve finished my coffee,’ Logan muttered. He turned to look back the way he’d come and saw Charli standing hesitantly not too far away. ‘Mum, let me introduce you to Charli Summerfield. Charli, this is my mother, Rose.’

  ‘Pleased to meet you, Mrs Hargraves.’ Charli stepped up next to Logan and extended her hand. As she did so, her arm accidentally brushed Logan’s and she gave a mild gasp, immediately covering it over with a smile. She ignored the tingles that flooded through her at the mild touch and instead forced her concentration on the handshake she was receiving, as well as what Logan’s mother was saying.

  ‘Call me Rose, dear. The town’s too small to stand on ceremony. First names all round. Now…’ Rose dropped Charli’s hand and gave her a concerned look. ‘How are you feeling, dear? Headaches? Nausea? Anything like that?’

  Charli was touched at the other woman’s concern. ‘No, thank you. I’m fine.’

  ‘Charli was just asking if she could come and stay in the waiting room with you this morning while I do clinic.’

  ‘Of course, dear. The people in town are already a little curious about you so it will be nice for them to meet you.’

  ‘They know about me?’

  Rose laughed. ‘Of course, dear. Wil’s been asking around the town to see if anyone had seen you or knows anything about how or why you came here. You’re a great mystery and we’re all looking forward to helping you unravel what’s gone on.’

  Logan glanced at Charli, wondering how she felt at being described as a ‘great mystery’. As soon as he’d done it, he realised he should have just walked past the two women and started his clinic. At that moment she’d glanced up at him and their gazes held for a nanosecond before Logan found the strength to look away…but that brief moment had been enough to register the smouldering desire still evident in both of them.

  ‘I’ll get started,’ he muttered, and headed next door. ‘Get a grip,’ he lectured himself. Now was not the time to think about what had almost happened. The feel of his lips on hers in that one brief, feather-light touch only let him know what he was missing. In that frozen part of time he’d experienced a red-hot desire he’d never felt before. He shook his head, calling on his professional training to pigeonhole the incident so he could concentrate on his clinic. He walked out to the waiting room, apologised to his patients and called the first person through.

  As the morning progressed, he found himself reluctant to go out to the waiting room to call his patients through. Charli was sitting out there, obviously having a good time chatting to people and having lively discussions with his mother. She was smiling, laughing, her eyes twinkling and bright. It was killing him!

  Just after eleven o’clock, the phone on his desk rang. Logan excused himself from his patient and picked up the phone, expecting it to be the pathologist from Stawell with some news on Angie Morrisey’s results.

  ‘Logan.’ His mother’s voice came quietly down the line.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Harriet Ardnaught has just called through to say that Amelia’s pulled a cup of tea off the table and it’s landed all over her neck, shoulder and chest. Harriet’s beside herself, but I told her to keep Amelia under running cold water while she gets things ready, not to take her clothes off and to wrap her in a cold, wet towel and bring her in immediately.’

  ‘Put her straight into the second examination room and notify me as soon as she arrives. Ask Charli if she wouldn’t mind getting things ready in there. She’s probably more experienced with these things than I am.’

  ‘I’ll get it organised.’ His mother rang off.

  ‘Everything all right?’ Arnold Blackwell, the patient who was with him, asked, and Logan told him what had happened. ‘I’ll tell my missus to make sure young Harriet’s other kids are picked up from school and looked after.’ Arnold stood up. ‘Hope the poor little one’s all right.’

  Logan agreed and finished writing out Arnold’s prescription. ‘Thanks, mate. Come and see me next week if that hasn’t cleared up by then.’

  ‘Will do.’

  Once Arnold had left, Logan wrote up his file and headed to the second examination room he kept set up for emergencies just like this. Charli was opening cupboards, checking out his stocks, pulling a few things out and putting them on the treatment trolley.

  ‘Where are your IV lines, Logan?’

  ‘End cupboard. What’s the best way to handle this?’ Logan checked what she’d put out on the trolley and went to the sink to scrub. Once he was clean, he put on a white gown and then grabbed a new cotton sheet to drape over the examination couch before placing sterile drapes on top.

  ‘Wet the drapes for a start. We need to keep her cool. Your mother said the child is two—is that correct?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Up to date with immunisations?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Good. We’ll need to get oxygen into her as well as IV lines, stat. Do you have a child-size mask for the oxygen?’

  ‘Yes.’ Logan went to a cupboard and pulled one out.

  ‘We need to maintain her airway, assess how deep the burns are and then treat accordingly. Most scalding incidents are first-or second-degree burns and children find it harder to cope than adults.’

  ‘There’s no point in transferring her to Stawell, then.’ Logan nodded. ‘I’ll get Mum to organise a retrieval team from the children’s hospital in Melbourne.’

  ‘They’ll send a helicopter?’

  ‘Yes. It lands on the sports oval.’

  ‘Is that close?’

  ‘No. We’ll need Bruce here with the ambulance to transfer her there.’

  ‘OK. If you can do her obs, IV line and analgesics, I’ll monitor the burn wound.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘She’s just pulled up,’ Rose said as she stuck her head in the door. Logan gave his mother the instructions for Amelia’s ongoing care once they had her stabilised. Charli and Logan both pulled on a set of gloves and a moment later a sobbing Harriet carried little Amelia through.

  The sound was deafening as the toddler let everyone in town know that she was hurt.

  ‘Nothing wrong with her lungs and vocal cords by the sound of it,’ Logan whispered to Charli. He made sure Harriet wasn’t left out of the loop and explained what they’d be doing. They gently unwrapped Amelia from the towel and looked at the wound site.

  The right side of her neck, shoulder and chest, from what they could see around her clothing, were already turning a mottled white, pinkish colour.

  ‘She needs to know you’re still here. She needs her mum. Talk to her, soothe her.’ His voice was calming, hoping it would have the desired effect on both mother and daughter as he worked beside Charli, performing the neurological observations.

  Harriet was mopping at her tears but did as she was told.

  ‘It’s OK, sweetheart,’ Logan said as he looked down at Amelia. He was ready to put the IV line in but the little girl was so upset he was hard pressed to keep her arm straight. As he held her arm, she glared up at him, her brown eyes red and puffy from crying as she tried once more to push the oxygen mask off her face with her left hand. ‘We’re going to get you sorted out, aren’t we, Charli?’

  ‘Yes, we are,’ Charli responded as she began cutting away her clothes.

  ‘Harriet, I need you to hold Amelia’s arm for me. It needs to be still so I can get the IV line in.’

  ‘Why does she need it?’

  ‘We need to keep her fluids up as at the moment her body is sending all fluids to the areas which need them most. Also, once the line is in, I can give her something for the pain.’

  Harriet tried to hold her daughter’s arm but it wasn’t working. ‘I can’t,’ she cried.

  Logan smiled at her. ‘It’s all right. Can you ask m
y mother to come here, please?’

  Harriet left Amelia’s side for a moment and the child began to cry harder. ‘She’s coming back. She is,’ Logan promised. Harriet was back in her position like a shot and Rose came up behind her son.

  ‘I need you to hold her arm for me so I can get the IV in.’

  ‘Right.’ Rose firmly held the child’s left arm and then leaned over, blocking Logan from the child’s view. She soothed some hair away from Amelia’s face and kissed her forehead. ‘Hello, princess. It’s going to be all right. Don’t you worry about anything. No.’

  Amelia’s cries began to decrease. ‘That’s a good girl,’ Rose continued to soothe, long after Logan had the IV line in place. ‘OK. What a brave girl you are.’

  ‘You’re a whizz with kids, Mum.’ Logan smiled at his mother, thankful the noise in the room had decreased. ‘Poor baby.’ He looked down at Amelia, who was now whimpering and snuffling. ‘How are you doing, Harriet?’

  ‘OK.’ Harriet stepped closer when Rose moved away.

  ‘If you need me again, let me know,’ Rose said.

  ‘Thanks, Mum.’ Even though he’d been preoccupied with the IV line, Logan had been watching what Charli was doing. Carefully, she’d cut the clothing not stuck to the skin away to reveal the extent of the burns.

  ‘She has splash patches on her right thigh and knee. She already has blisters and the skin just under this piece of clothing…’ Charli lifted the corner with a pair of tweezers ‘…is almost cherry-red. Mild to moderate oedema.’

  Amelia started to cry again and Logan drew up some midazolam. ‘This will help her with the pain,’ he told Harriet and administered it through the IV. ‘Won’t be long, sweetheart. You’re being a very good girl.’ He looked at Charli. ‘Diagnosis?’

  ‘Second degree, at least.’

  Logan nodded and began performing the obs again. ‘Slow improvement,’ he said after listing his findings. When the ambulance and chopper finally arrived, Logan was glad little Amelia was stabilised.