The Doctor's Longed-For Family

by Joanna Neil

  ‘We’ve a child coming in from a traffic accident,’ the senior house officer told her. ‘It looks like a displaced midshaft femur fracture. He’s three years old. Apparently he ran into the road and the car driver didn’t manage to stop in time to avoid hitting him.’

  ‘OK, Sam. Make sure that trauma room four is ready to receive him. We’d better have Helen on standby if she’s free…and tell radiology to expect him for a CT scan.’

  ‘Will do.’ Sam moved away to set things in motion and Abby prepared to take over from the paramedics when they wheeled the little boy into the emergency room.

  ‘He was unconscious when we reached him,’ the paramedic told her. ‘An airway’s been put in, and we’ve set up two intravenous lines. His right thigh appears to be deformed from the impact.’

  ‘Thanks for that, Lewis.’ She glanced at him. ‘I’ll let you know how he gets on.’

  He looked relieved. ‘Thanks, Abby. I’ll pop back later on. He’s such a tiny little thing. I hope he’ll do all right.’

  ‘So do I.’

  He moved away and she began to swiftly examine the boy. ‘The abdomen is distended, with decreased bowel sounds,’ she told Sam when he returned to her side. ‘The pelvis is stable, but the thigh is swollen and tense. He’s still unresponsive. We’ll get a CT of the abdomen to check for any lacerations, and X-ray the leg to see what we’re dealing with. It will most likely need fixation, so you should ring for the orthopaedic surgeon to come and take a look.’

  ‘I’m on it.’ Sam hurried away once more, while Abby checked with the nurse as to the boy’s immediate care.

  She was writing out the drugs requisition when a man came over to the trolley and said, ‘I think he may have banged his head on the road surface when the accident happened. I’m wondering if he might have a head injury as well as all his other problems.’

  Abby glanced up at the man. ‘We’ll take care of him,’ she said. ‘We always check for head injury in these cases. Are you the boy’s father?’

  ‘No, but his parents are on their way. Apparently he was playing at a friend’s house when the accident happened.’

  ‘Oh, I see.’ Abby studied him a little more closely. Looking at him was way too distracting, she discovered. He was exceptionally good-looking, with hair that was midnight black, and he was around six feet tall, broad-shouldered and fit, with an athletic build that gave her the idea that he probably worked out regularly. He was wearing an expensively tailored, dark grey suit that sat well on him, and his shirt was a mid-blue, crisp and fresh-looking. She dragged her mind back to the task in hand.

  ‘So who are you?’ she asked. ‘Are you a relative?’

  ‘No. I was on my way to the hospital when I saw the accident happen, and I stopped to see if I could help in any way. I was concerned about the little fellow, and I just wanted to see how he was doing. I wanted to make sure that you didn’t rule out the possibility of a head injury. I think there might be some damage to his spleen as well.’

  ‘You sound very knowledgeable,’ Abby remarked as she started to write out the forms for Radiology. ‘Are you a doctor?’

  ‘Yes, that’s right, I am. I have a strong interest in A and E and the way these departments operate.’

  ‘Well, we’ll take care of him. You can rest assured that we’ll do everything that’s necessary to make certain he’s looked after properly,’ Abby told him.

  She turned back to her small patient, making adjustments to the intravenous infusion she had set up, but after a while she realised that the man was still there, watching her every movement. Why was he so reluctant to leave?

  She glanced up at him once more, remembering that he had said he had already been on his way to the hospital when the accident had happened. Her gaze drifted over the clean lines of the suit he was wearing. He certainly wasn’t dressed for a casual visit. That, and the fact that he seemed to be taking an interest in what she was doing, appeared to her to add up to one thing. He was probably one of the candidates for the part-time position they had advertised.

  ‘There’s no need for you to stay,’ she said, ‘and I’m sure the little boy’s parents will be arriving at any moment. If you’re here for the job interview, you could perhaps go and make yourself comfortable in the waiting room. I won’t be ready to start on them for a while yet, but I’ll ask one of the nurses to show you where you might go and get yourself a cup of coffee in the meantime, if you like. I’ll come and find you when I’ve finished here and let you know how he’s doing.’

  ‘Interview?’ He gave a slight frown, as though he had forgotten all about it, which wasn’t so unlikely, given his morning. Then his expression cleared, and he flicked a glance towards the name badge she was wearing.

  He smiled. ‘Yes, of course. Thank you, Dr Byford. I think I’ll do that. You’ve been very kind.’

  ‘You’re welcome.’ She called for a nurse to come and show him the way, and then she turned and gave her attention wholly to the infant, readying him for his CT scan.

  ‘OK, Sam,’ she said to the senior house officer. ‘You can take Adam along to Radiology now. I’ll be in trauma two with the girl with the respiratory infection if you need to find me.’

  She didn’t give the stranger another thought, except to reflect that he had been unusually persistent. He had waited, and she guessed that he was satisfying himself that all the resuscitation processes were in place so that the child would stand the best chance of recovery.

  No one could fault him for that, but wasn’t it a little out of place for him to attempt to ingratiate himself with the doctor in charge before any interviews had begun?

  Then again, she could have been misjudging him. Her views on men in general had been skewed by the unfortunate events of her past, and it could be that her opinions had been soured.

  He seemed to have the child’s interests at heart, and she would bear that in mind when next they met.

  She glanced at the watch on her wrist. She was already running late. Why was it that in this job the pressure never let up? There was a never-ending stream of poor little souls who needed patching up, and she did her best, but sometimes her best just didn’t seem enough.

  No wonder Matt Calder was able to breeze through life, charming people with his easy words and blithe spirit. What he knew about stress could probably be written on a postage stamp.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ABBY studied the results of Adam’s CT scan on the computer monitor. ‘There’s a small head injury,’ she told Sam, ‘but no sign of any swelling or haemorrhage, so that’s good news, at least.’

  Her senior house officer nodded, an action that caused a lock of brown hair to waft down over his brow. He was a long, lean young man, always keen to learn, and she was glad to have him on her team.

  She switched to views of the child’s abdomen, and indicated an area that was giving her cause for concern. ‘I’m a bit worried about these patches. There’s a laceration to the spleen and a slight contusion to the kidney. We’ll need to give him supportive treatment for those, as well as for the contusion we saw on the X-ray of his lungs.’ She frowned. ‘Our biggest problem, though, is the leg fracture. He’ll have to go up to Theatre to have the bones realigned and fixed in place.’

  ‘I had a word with the surgeon about that. He’s standing by right now.’

  ‘Good. Let’s transfer him over there straight away.’

  ‘I will. I’d like to stay with him, if I may, in case there are any complications. I could take him to observation as soon as Mr Bradley releases him from the recovery ward.’

  ‘That’s fine—as long as there’s nothing pressing to keep you down here?’ She sent him a questioning glance.

  Sam gave that some thought. ‘There’s only one child that I’m worried about—a two-year-old who was brought in earlier on. She’s feverish and very unwell, showing symptoms of infection, but I’ve ordered lab tests and I’m waiting on the results. I’ve given her broad-spectrum antibiotics until we have somethin
g more specific to go on.’

  ‘It sounds as though you have everything in hand, and of course the nurse will page you if there’s a problem. In the meantime, I’ll arrange for Adam to be admitted. Let’s just hope that we have a bed free. I don’t think he’s in any condition to be moved to another hospital.’

  Sam gave a wry smile. ‘I dare say you’ll be able to sweet-talk the ward sisters into finding something. You always seem to manage to get around the system when it’s really important.’

  ‘Maybe. We’ll see.’ Sweet-talking didn’t always work, and above all it was time-consuming. Time was yet another major resource she was short on these days, although staffing had to be her biggest headache.

  She sucked in a breath at the reminder of what she had to do next. The interviews—she was going to have to get a move on, or her goose was well and truly cooked. Would the man who had come in earlier with three-year-old Adam still be waiting around?

  She handed over to her second in command, and then paged Helen to let her know that she would be ready to see the candidates in twenty minutes or so. Taking a few moments to grab a coffee in the doctors’ lounge, she ran a brush through her hair and tried to tame the mass of wild corkscrew curls. It was a waste of time. No sooner had she put the brush down than her hair spiralled out of control once more, and she had to resort to placing a few clips in strategic places.

  She gazed at her reflection in the mirror. Her green eyes stared back at her, shimmering like emeralds, and her lips were a delicate shade of pink, full and pleasantly shaped. She made a faint grimace. At least she didn’t look as bad as she felt. There was an element of battle-readiness in the warm flush of her cheeks, and perhaps that was the key to whatever it was that kept her going through thick and thin. She would not give up. She would not cave in when all around her chaos reigned.

  The man was not in the waiting room when she went in search of him a short time later. Abby frowned, two small lines indenting her brow. She didn’t want to admit to herself that she was disappointed not to find him there, but instinct had somehow nudged her into thinking that he had more staying power than that.

  Obviously, she couldn’t rely on her instincts any more. They had certainly let her down where Craig had been concerned, hadn’t they? He had deceived her into thinking he cared for her, but now her ex-boyfriend was history and a couple of years had passed since she had learned the error of her ways. Her judgement of men was definitely awry.

  ‘Were you looking for me?’

  Even coming out of nowhere like that, the voice was instantly recognisable. In fact, there was something oddly familiar about it, considering that she had only met the man that morning.

  She turned away from the waiting-room door and looked up at the impeccably dressed doctor. ‘Oh, there you are. I wondered if you had given up on me and gone home.’

  He shook his head. ‘I wouldn’t do that. I was hoping that I would be able to talk to you again.’

  His glance flickered over her, taking in the soft fabric of her top where it gently caressed the swell of her breasts, and then paused to linger on the smooth line of the skirt where it faithfully followed the curve of her hips. His gaze slid down over the shapeliness of her legs.

  His glance lifted, capturing hers before taking a brief detour over the golden cascade of her hair. She felt a rush of heat fill her cheeks under that lazy scrutiny, but she could hardly object as she had been giving him much the same treatment earlier.

  ‘I could see that you were busy,’ he murmured, ‘and I took the opportunity to follow up on a couple of contacts while I was waiting for you.’

  She had no idea what he meant by that, but she said evenly, ‘Perhaps we should go into my office? It’s just along the corridor.’ She was a touch early perhaps, but Helen would be along shortly.

  ‘That sounds like a good idea.’ He gave a half-smile and fell into step beside her as she began to walk in the direction she had indicated. ‘How is the boy—Adam?’

  ‘He’s undergoing surgery at the moment to fix the fractured femur. None of his other injuries appears to be life-threatening, so I’m hoping that he’ll be on the mend and ready to leave hospital in two or three weeks.’ She pushed open the door to her office and ushered him inside.

  ‘That’s good news. I’m glad to hear it.’ He stood to one side and closed the door behind her, giving her a smile, and it was as though sunlight had suddenly filled the room. She stood very still for a moment or two. The breath caught in her throat and she had to quell a sudden leap of her senses that threatened to overwhelm her.

  It was very odd. This man was a total stranger to her, and her reaction to him was way overboard. She couldn’t imagine why she responded to his presence this way, but it must have something vaguely to do with her hormones, she guessed. They must be acting up, that was the answer.

  ‘So you think you might like to work here on a part-time basis?’ she murmured, indicating a chair where he could make himself comfortable. ‘Would you like to run through your CV for me while I hunt out your file?’

  She began to search through the paperwork on her desk. There were four candidates for interview, and it occurred to her that she didn’t know which of them he was.

  ‘I don’t think I asked your name,’ she said, glancing across the table at him.

  He hadn’t taken up the offer of a seat, but instead was looking around the room with interest, fingering the window-blind so that he could take a look at the view out onto the landscaped hospital grounds.

  ‘No, you didn’t,’ he murmured, letting the slats of the blind drop back into place. ‘Actually, I’m not here about the job at all. I was on my way to keep an appointment with the hospital chief when the accident happened. I was in the car behind the one that hit Adam and, as I said before, I stopped to see if there was anything I could do for him. I called for the ambulance and waited with him until the paramedics came along, and then I used their equipment to intubate him as he had slipped into unconsciousness. As soon as I could see that he was safely inside the ambulance, I followed him here.’

  Abby stared at him. ‘Oh, I see.’ He had stopped to help the child and do what he could for him, and that was good to hear. Somehow it didn’t surprise her that he would act in that way. ‘Your intervention right from the start probably did more than anything to give him a better chance of recovery.’

  Even so, she was a bit nonplussed about her mistake. She felt more than a little foolish now that he had explained what he was doing there, and she said flatly, ‘Did you manage to keep your appointment?’

  He nodded. ‘One of them, at least. I still have to meet up with someone from Administration in half an hour or so.’

  She blinked. ‘Oh.’ It occurred to her that she was beginning to sound repetitive, and she pulled herself together and sent him a puzzled glance. She said cautiously, ‘I can’t help feeling that I know you from somewhere. Your voice is familiar somehow, but I’m almost certain that we haven’t met.’

  His mouth made a crooked shape. ‘Only through correspondence perhaps. I’m Matt Calder.’ He gave her a look from under half closed eyes. ‘From the TV programme Emergency Call. You are the same, “Abby Byford from the Chilterns”, who sent in the email about the show, aren’t you? Do you remember me now?’

  She gave a sharp intake of breath. Her mouth dropped open and she quickly clamped it shut again. She stared at him in horror. ‘You,’ she said at last. ‘It’s you, of all people?’

  She shook her head. This was the man who had splattered her email all over his website and read out her comments over the airwaves, and she had actually been civil to him. ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ she muttered. It felt for all the world as though she had invited the devil himself into her office.

  He must have picked up on something of her train of thought because he said in a dry tone, ‘I realise that it must have come as a shock to you to find me here, but I can assure you that I’m a perfectly reasonable man. We may have confl
icting views, but there’s nothing wrong with airing both sides of the argument, is there?’

  She didn’t answer him right away. Instead, she stood up and started to pace the room, more to work off her rising sense of irritation than anything else. ‘You ridiculed me,’ she said at last. ‘You talked about using the off switch as though I was a moron. I have to tell you, I just don’t believe that’s the answer. The problem goes much deeper than that. Your programme is an intrusion. You invade people’s privacy.’ She used the words as though they were weapons, stabbing at him.

  He tipped his head slightly to one side, studying her as though she was an interesting specimen. ‘I don’t believe that’s so, and I wasn’t implying for an instant that you were lacking intelligence in any sense. I just feel that you can’t go on living in a time warp. This type of show is a regular on the media these days.’

  Her eyes narrowed. ‘Then I have to say I think that’s a great pity.’

  He frowned, but he wasn’t about to let up. ‘As far as I’m concerned, it would seem logical to switch off the TV set if you’re not happy with what is being shown. I happen to think that what we do is important. We keep people informed about what might happen in certain situations. We show them how the system works and help them to know what to do in an emergency. Knowledge is power after all, and you have to remember that the individuals we film have all given their consent for the footage to be shown on TV.’

  Had they really? Abby sniffed in disagreement, a wave of exasperation rising up in her at his bland reply.

  ‘Have they?’ She scowled at him. ‘And how informed was that poor woman’s consent while she was struggling to cope with her labour? From what I could see, she was more concerned that someone would give her painkillers than what was going on all around her.’

  ‘You know, these programmes don’t go out live on air, and if it makes you feel better, I can assure you that I made certain that we had Megan’s full consent. We asked her again after she’d had the benefit of analgesics and time to think it through. I feel that we were very discreet in the way we filmed the birth, and I don’t think the finished product would upset many people. Nothing was shown that couldn’t be watched on daytime television.’