To the Doctor: A Daughter

by Marion Lennox

  What?

  It was like an electric charge. Her body felt weird-tingly-strange, and Nate’s eyes were warming her from the toes up.

  When finally she found her voice it came out wrong. Like a breathless whisper. Which was stupid.

  ‘Um…maybe I’d best go back to bed.’

  ‘Maybe you had.’ He grinned but the tiny flicker of uncertainty behind his eyes told her that he’d felt it, too. Whatever it was. ‘Don’t worry about me,’ he told her. ‘I’m coping brilliantly. Superdad, that’s me.’

  And as he lifted his daughter toward her crib one small nappy hit the floor.

  Dawn found Nate wide awake, waiting for eight o’clock. Waiting until he could make a few phone calls to Sydney.

  ‘If I’m not back tomorrow I risk being sacked.’

  He remembered what Gemma had said when she’d been facing the long drive back to Sydney. That alone warranted a phone call but Nate hesitated before making it, thinking it through. There was an idea germinating in his head. A way out of this mess. Maybe…

  First things first. Gemma had to be a better doctor than her sister, he thought, and any fool could tell that she was.

  But he needed to check. Never again would he risk patients’ lives by employing someone without thorough checking. He’d employed Fiona on the basis of written testimonials and fantastic academic results and look where that had landed him. So instead of ringing Gemma’s direct boss he found himself ringing a friend of his. He’d trained with Jeff. Jeff was a pathologist based at Sydney Central and the hospital wasn’t that big. He must know Gemma.

  He did. Jeff’s response was direct and filled with warmth. ‘Gemma. Of course I know Gemma. What the hell’s she doing down there?’

  Nate told him and there was a long silence on the end of the line.

  ‘Poor kid. Is there no end to her troubles? And Margot will have kittens,’ he said at last. ‘Hell.’

  ‘Margot being Gemma’s boss?’

  ‘That’s the one. I could put you through to let you explain but I don’t like your chances of keeping Gemma’s job open until she gets back. Margot’s not one for suffering fools gladly.’

  Nate frowned. ‘Meaning Gemma’s a fool.’

  ‘Hell, no.’ There was no hesitation there. ‘There’s no one I’d rather work with than Gemma. She’s a fine anaesthetist-a fine doctor.’

  ‘But Margot’s attitude…’

  ‘Margot couldn’t stand the sister. Come to think of it, no one could-once they saw past that beautiful face. She was as mad as a cut snake and what she and that husband of hers did to Gemma…’

  Husband? Fiona’s husband? Nate was confused but Jeff continued without pausing for breath. He sounded indignant.

  ‘They fed her a pack of lies. And she believed it. Hell, as far as I know, she still believes it. She won’t talk about Fiona to anyone. And now she’s dead. I still can’t believe it. Of all the waste… Stupid cow.’

  Nate was no longer sure who they were talking about-and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Fiona’s lurid background had nothing to do with him any more. Except for one baby…

  ‘But Gemma’s OK?’

  ‘Gemma’s great.’ The indignation was replaced again with warmth. ‘She works herself to death-burning the candle at both ends just trying to stay afloat-but she’s a wonderful team member. When do you reckon she’ll be back?’

  ‘I guess that depends on Margot.’

  ‘Well, good luck with that, mate,’ Jeff said ruefully. ‘I’ll put you through but I warn you-hold your earpiece away from your ear or you’ll risk a perforated eardrum.’

  ‘Awake?’

  If she hadn’t been, she was now. Gemma opened her eyes and sat bolt upright, and she said the first thing that entered her mind.

  ‘Cady.’

  ‘Cady’s fine.’

  Nate’s voice said she’d better believe him and she did. She closed her eyes and a shudder went right through her. And then she opened them.

  She was in bed-and it was some bed. It was some bedroom.

  She’d been so tired the night before that she’d fallen into bed without noticing, and her foray into the hospital had been done in the dark. But now… Daylight brought reality and reality was…well, wow!

  The room was enormous, with a huge four-poster bed claiming pride of place in the centre of the room. There were high ceilings, vast, billowing curtains, a fireplace complete with glowing coals from the fire lit the night before-and wide French windows looking out to the veranda and down to the river beyond.

  And between here and the river… There was a vast wing that looked like a conservatory but Gemma blinked and looked again as she saw through the huge wall of glass. It was a swimming pool! A magnificent indoor pool. She could see the steam rise gently from here and she thought, Wow!

  This was the bedroom of dreams-the house of dreams-and this was a doctors’ residence?

  Well, this was certainly a doctor. Nate was watching her with amused eyes, and this morning he was all doctor. He was wearing a white coat over his casual jeans, and a stethoscope dangled erratically from his pocket.

  Doctor at ease…

  ‘Good morning,’ he told her-and smiled. And she blinked.

  What a smile! It was enough to make a girl forget about taking the next breath.

  ‘Good morning,’ she managed, and if her voice was feeble, well, who could blame her?

  ‘Um… Have I died and gone to heaven?’

  His grin deepened. ‘It’s great, isn’t it?’

  ‘I feel like I should at the very least be wearing a tiara.’ She stared around her in deep appreciation. ‘It’s wonderful.’

  ‘It is at that.’

  ‘You did say it was the doctors’ quarters.’

  ‘We believe in living well.’

  We…

  Was he living with someone, then? The 1920s woman?

  Who Nate Ethan was living with was hardly important. Cady was important.

  ‘You said Cady is fine?’

  ‘I said Cady is fine. He’s been awake, he’s eaten a little breakfast, we have his sugar levels down to fourteen-still high, I know, but it’s a vast improvement-and he’s now asleep again.’

  ‘But he woke.’ Gemma’s face creased in distress. ‘And I wasn’t there. You said you’d wake me…’

  ‘If Cady needed you,’ he finished for her. ‘He slept right through the night, he stirred before Jane went off duty, she fed him herself and she cuddled him back to sleep. He’s fine. He’s a very self-assured young man.’

  ‘He has to be,’ she said, still distressed. ‘He spends his time in a crèche. It’s so unfair.’

  ‘He’s quite a kid.’

  Her eyes flashed to his-checking to see if this was just politeness. Something he’d say to all his patients about their children. But it was no such thing. His eyes met hers and held, and she thought she could believe what this man said.

  He liked Cady.

  ‘I like him myself,’ she told him, and he smiled.

  ‘Is that why you took him on?’

  She hesitated. ‘I took him on because Fiona refused to have him adopted and refused to care for him. She knew I couldn’t bear to see him neglected. She thought it’d finish my medical career, you see.’

  He shook his head. ‘No. I don’t see.’

  She shrugged. ‘Maybe you don’t have to. Fiona’s jealousy of me was almost unbalanced. Or maybe I should say it was definitely unbalanced.’

  ‘She was psychotic?’

  ‘In a way-yes.’ Then she glanced down at the clock on her bedside table and she started in dismay. ‘Yikes!’ She tossed back the covers-then she hauled them hastily back when she remembered what she was wearing. She’d gone to bed in her T-shirt and panties but she’d hauled off her jeans and she was scarcely respectable. ‘Um…sorry.’

  She must really look a sight, she thought ruefully, in her too-big T-shirt, with her black curls in a tangled mat around her shoulders and… And not much
else.

  But Nate was smiling. ‘Think nothing of it,’ he said magnanimously and his mischievous grin flashed out. ‘I’ll just think of you as a patient.’

  ‘Yeah, right.’ But her mind was moving on past his dangerous smile to the next problem. ‘I can’t believe it.’

  ‘You can’t believe what?’

  ‘It’s eight-thirty. Why didn’t you wake me?’

  ‘You needed to sleep as much as Cady did.’

  ‘But now…’

  ‘Now?’

  She bit her lip, reality dawning with sick certainty. ‘I was supposed to be at work at eight and I haven’t even rung. I think I’ve just lost my job.’

  ‘You have.’

  Her eyes flew to his. ‘What…?’

  ‘I phoned,’ he told her, and took the card she’d given him from his pocket. ‘You told me-remember?-that you’ve already taken every one of your sick days and if you weren’t back this morning you risked being sacked.’

  ‘Yes, but-’

  ‘So I thought I might do some good,’ he told her. ‘I figured if I rang in early and found your boss I could explain before she fired you.’

  ‘You don’t explain things to Margot.’

  ‘I know that now. She’s an appalling woman.’

  ‘She’s a dragon. She’s unmarried and bitter as hell and she’s never taken a day off sick in her life. She thinks women who do are wimps. And me… She thinks I’m the world’s worst. She knew Fiona, you see, and she told me I should have let her rot rather than try to help. According to Margot, taking on the children was just ridiculous.’

  ‘Did you explain that in coming down here you were trying to offload one of the children?’

  ‘You talked to Margot,’ Gemma said shortly. ‘Do you think it’s possible to explain anything to that woman?’

  ‘Maybe not.’ Nate hesitated, watching her face. ‘She shouted at me, in fact. She said she’d reorganised your operating lists for the last time. That if you can’t make it in by ten this morning then you needn’t bother returning.’

  ‘Great.’ Gemma winced. In truth, she felt ill. The thought of the debts accumulating all the time was appalling and now she’d have Cady’s medical bills to add to them.

  Alan would have kittens…

  ‘I can go above her if you like,’ Nate suggested. She looked a real waif, he thought, sitting up in bed, hugging her knees, her deep black curls wisping over her eyes-the crazy red ribbon had given up the ghost and her curls were any which way. ‘I have friends who are higher in the medical establishment than your Margot.’

  ‘Yeah, right. So they’d get me my job back but I’d still have to work under Margot. Who’s impossible.’

  ‘That makes me feel better.’

  ‘Sorry? Feel better about what?’

  ‘About what I’ve done. You know, maybe it’s not such a satisfactory job.’

  ‘I know,’ she said bitterly. ‘But where else can I get on-site child care?’

  ‘Here.’

  Here.

  The one syllable took her breath away. She stared in open-mouthed astonishment. But Nate didn’t appear to notice.

  ‘It’s time to confess all,’ he told her, with an expression that said he didn’t feel guilty in the slightest about what he’d done. ‘You didn’t get the sack,’ he told her. ‘I saw which way the wind was blowing so you quit.’

  He had her pole-axed. ‘I quit?’

  ‘It seemed the best thing to do. I could have told your dreadful boss that Terama was a five-hour drive from Sydney and that you had a snowball’s chance in a bushfire of getting there by ten. But then she would have just said you were sacked. So I thought it was better that you leave on the high ground. I told her you felt her attitude made your continued employment untenable and that your resignation would be faxed through by lunchtime.’

  ‘My resignation…’ Gemma was almost speechless.

  ‘Your resignation.’ Nate smiled. ‘You were quite up-pity,’ he told her. ‘Talk about holding the moral high ground…’

  ‘I was quite uppity?’ Oh, great.

  His smile faded. ‘Gemma, there wasn’t any choice. You know there wasn’t.’ He hesitated as he watched her face. He was assessing her gathering anger. But he forged on, regardless. ‘I also rang a friend of mine who’s a Sydney barrister. I explained the situation. And I played him the tape…’

  By now she was thoroughly confused. Angry but confused. ‘What tape?’

  ‘I taped the conversation.’

  ‘With Margot?’

  ‘That’s the one. I thought I’d better tape the conversation and I was right.’ His cheerfulness reasserted itself-the man was incorrigible. ‘And it’s great. When I told her Cady had collapsed with ketoacidosis Margot said that had nothing to do with her-or your employment. Women who didn’t keep their lives organised weren’t welcome on her staff. In fact, doctors with young children were a damned nuisance and if she had her way she’d sack the lot of them. Given her attitude, your resignation was inevitable and the discrimination board will love it.’

  ‘The discrimination board…’ She was so confused she could hardly believe her ears.

  But Nate wasn’t confused in the least. He’d acted with ruthless purpose. ‘That’s right. Women with children have rights, too, you know. Mike-my lawyer mate-reckons the hospital will pay compensation so fast you won’t be able to blink. The tape itself isn’t admissible evidence but Mike knows-and the hospital administration knows-that it would severely embarrass them. He’s onto it now. He says you’ll have a cheque by the end of the month and if it’s not equal to a year’s salary or more, he’ll eat his wig.’

  ‘You’re kidding,’ she said faintly, and his smile blazed out in force.

  ‘Nope. I don’t kid about important things like this. So, can we move on?’

  Move on? He’d just removed her pressing financial commitments. A year’s salary…

  She could stay home and care for Cady.

  ‘You know, I don’t actually see how being a stay-at-home parent will solve your problems,’ he told her, and she blinked.

  ‘How do you know what I’m thinking?’

  ‘You have a very transparent face.’

  Oh, great. The man really could read minds and the thought was frightening.

  ‘Well, you’re wrong,’ she snapped crossly. ‘It would solve my problems and I’d make a very good stay-at-home mum. Cady needs me so much.’

  ‘And… Let me see. It’s my guess you have a tiny hospital apartment?’

  ‘Yes, but-’

  ‘Now you’re no longer a hospital employee you’ll have to move. And without a crèche… Can you find playmates for Cady? Do you have many friends outside work?’

  She caught her breath. ‘No. But I can find some.’

  ‘After you’ve found somewhere else to live.’

  She started to snap back-and then she paused. He was right. She’d have to leave the hospital, and city apartments were expensive. Maybe if she looked in the outer suburbs she could find something. The thought was daunting.

  ‘Um… I don’t think I can afford much…’

  ‘What about this place?’

  Here we go again. He was moving so fast he was taking her breath away. She stared at him across the room, then hauled her bedding up to her chin, hugged her knees and glared.

  ‘You’d better explain.’

  ‘It’s easy.’ Nate gestured around them at the magnificent bedroom. ‘This place is huge. We have six bedrooms. The doctor who built this was into palaces. He went bankrupt, by the way-but that was forty years ago so let’s not worry about him.’

  ‘Oh, right. Let’s not.’

  ‘But he left us this great place, and we’ve modernised it really well. The hospital’s a wonderful little set-up and the house is magnificent. We have a garden with huge trees-you can see them from here. They’re full of hiding places and are great for climbing. Graham brought his kids up here so the place is kid-proof and there are cubby
houses and tree houses and swings and…’

  ‘Stop!’

  But he wasn’t stopping. ‘Mrs McCurdle-our housekeeper-“does” for us, and she loves kids.’

  ‘What on earth…?’

  ‘And we’re desperate for another doctor.’

  And there it was. Stunning in its simplicity.

  We’re desperate for another doctor.

  The words swam round and round Gemma’s head, like some crazy rhyme she couldn’t decipher the meaning of.

  ‘London Bridge is falling down…falling down…falling down…’

  The nursery rhyme suddenly sounded really appropriate. Her sense of order was crumbling around her.

  ‘I’m an anaesthetist,’ she said at last, faintly, and he grinned.

  ‘Perfect.’ He beamed. ‘I’m a surgeon so it’s perfect.’

  A surgeon. ‘You’re kidding.’

  ‘Would I kid about something as important as that? I’m actually Mr Ethan but that just confuses the locals. They want a family doctor so a family doctor they have. But I’m a fully paid-up member of the Australian College of Surgeons, so if you’ve an appendix you’d like to be rid of then call on me. I’m your man.’

  Was Nate always laughing? He stood smiling down at her and it was all she could do not to throw something at him.

  ‘Will you be serious?’

  And all of a sudden he was. ‘I’m deadly serious,’ he told her. ‘This place is screaming for another doctor. We’re desperate. Graham can’t do anaesthetics any more, so all our surgery has to go to the city. I’m run off my legs. I have no social life to speak of-’

  ‘Except for Donna.’ It was a stupid thing to say but she couldn’t help herself.

  ‘Donna fits in at the edges.’

  ‘Poor Donna.’ She glared at him. ‘This job offer… It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that as of yesterday you have a daughter, would it?’

  ‘No, I-’

  ‘You think you’ll ask me to stay so that I can take care of Mia?’

  ‘No.’ His voice firmed on that one. And then that lurking twinkle appeared behind his eyes-as if he couldn’t help himself. ‘Though if you’re offering…’

  ‘No. I’m not offering. Do you intend to keep her in hospital for ever?’