Flying Doctors

by Fiona Lowe

  ‘We’ll have you feeling better soon.’ Flynn tousled the hair of nine-year-old Alice and kept a smile on his face as he inwardly sighed. He could have her feeling better soon but making her better was a different thing entirely.

  The sick young girl looked at him forlornly as she lay on the examination couch, her knees up under her chin.

  ‘What’s up?’

  He glanced up as Mia walked into the room, her face scrubbed clean of outback dust and her cheeks pink with good health. The familiar rush streaked through him, the one he got every time he saw her, even when she was filthy and bedraggled. Dirt couldn’t dim her innate beauty and neither had her grief.

  It was a tough gig, losing your family in one go. He assumed it had been a car accident. But despite her loss she still managed to glow with a life-affirming energy and it radiated from her eyes, her mouth, the sway of her hips…

  He ran his hand through his hair. He’d been convinced he could shut out his attraction but Mia had moved into his mind, taken up residence in his thoughts and dreams, and despite numerous resolutions to move her out he’d been pathetically unsuccessful. He’d resisted beautiful women before but Mia was different. Strength and vulnerability—he found the combination captivating.

  But it had to stop.

  He’d hated it that he’d flown back to spend the weekend on Kirra because of Mia, completely forgetting about Susie’s daughter’s wedding. Had his mind been more focussed he would have stayed on Barra this weekend, like he’d originally planned.

  It was a lapse like this that really drove home that the time had come for life to go back to normal, to the uncomplicated way it had been before Mia had arrived.

  And it started now with a teaching session. The moment that was over, he’d create a reason to fly to Barra. No way was he going to stay on Kirra for the wedding.

  He beckoned Mia forward with his hand. ‘I want you to examine Alice and tell me what you think she has.’

  Mia’s large blue eyes blinked in puzzlement. ‘Is this a test? Something you’re expecting me not to know?’

  He grimaced. ‘There’s every chance you won’t have seen this down south.’

  ‘Is her mother with her?’

  ‘No. Her uncle brought her in and he’s outside.’

  ‘And he won’t be able to come in.’ Understanding washed across her face and she walked over to a cupboard and pulled out a worn teddy bear in green scrubs. Then she returned to their patient. ‘I’m Mia, Alice, and I’m going to have a look at you. Would you like to hold my doctor bear while I do it?’

  Alice stared and then extended her chubby hand, grabbing the bear and clutching it tightly to her chest.

  As Flynn expected, Mia started by taking the child’s temperature with the ear thermometer.

  ‘It’s high. Thirty nine point four.’ She immediately recorded it on the chart. She then examined Alice’s glands, and checked for eye and nose discharge. Turning to Flynn, she said, ‘There’s some evidence of nosebleeds.’

  Flynn nodded. ‘Every sign builds a diagnosis.’

  Mia returned her attention to her patient. ‘Alice, I need you to say, “Ah.”’

  Alice stared at her.

  Mia glanced at Flynn.

  ‘Alice is from the north of the island and very little English is spoken.’ Flynn pulled out a chair and sat astride it to watch how Mia would handle this.

  Mia tapped Alice on the shoulder and then tapped her own shoulder and said, ‘Ahh.’

  The girl obediently opened her mouth and Mia, using a tongue depressor and a pen torch, examined her tonsils.

  A deep furrow appeared on Mia’s forehead as she dropped the tongue depressor into the bin. She studied the girl’s face very carefully. ‘I think she has a twitch or it could just be her being stressed by being here.’

  Flynn nodded, deliberately noncommittal.

  Horizontal lines crinkled across the bridge of her nose and suddenly she screwed up her face and said, ‘Ouch, ooh,’ and patted down her own body.

  Alice nodded and pointed to her ankles, her knees and her elbows and then her stomach.

  Mia laid her down with the teddy and tucked a sheet around her middle, leaving her arms and legs exposed. She started to examine the girl’s limbs. ‘I can feel raised bumps in clusters on her joints which move.’ She flicked on the light and peered carefully. ‘She also has scabies.’

  Flynn smiled. ‘Well spotted.’ He saw Mia’s shoulders relax slightly. He knew she’d feel like this was an exam but it was really important she could diagnose this condition.

  ‘Her joints are all swollen. It could be rheumatoid arthritis.’

  ‘It could be.’ Flynn deliberately gave no hints.

  Mia’s short, abrupt laugh sounded stressed. ‘This is as bad as my final exams.’

  ‘You’re doing fine.’

  ‘But I know I haven’t nailed it yet.’ Mia shot him a smile—a mixture of determination and challenge with a spark of something he knew was just for him.

  A picture thudded into his mind of Mia lying next to him, her eyes shining with laughter and lust. His blood immediately pounded hard and fast and he breathed out slowly, filling his mind with every reason why he couldn’t act on this attraction. His body ignored him.

  Mia sat Alice up and showed her the stethoscope and then listened to her heart. ‘I can hear a diastolic murmur.’

  She was getting close but he’d seen doctors get it wrong.

  Mia stroked Alice’s hair and then she came and sat down next to Flynn, her eyes perceptive and keen. ‘Does she have rheumatic fever?’

  He nodded slowly. ‘She does. You did well.’

  She half smiled and half grimaced, as if making the correct diagnosis was, in fact, the wrong thing.

  He understood how she felt. Sometimes being right didn’t give you a buzz of satisfaction.

  Mia bit her lip. ‘You’re right, I’ve never seen it before. Mind you, I hadn’t seen too much scabies either, although down south the kids all seem to get molluscum contagiosum.’ She glanced back to Alice, who clutched her bear close. ‘Poor little thing, no wonder she’s feeling so sick.’

  He rubbed his chin. ‘Current thinking is that scabies is the cause.’

  Mia started. ‘But I thought rheumatic fever followed a strep throat infection. How do skin mites fit into the picture?’

  He leaned forward, enjoying having such an enthusiastic student. ‘Untreated scabies causes skin infections and streptococcus is the culprit. Alice has scabies and her body is busy fighting the strep bacteria, but certain body tissues are similar so we get antibodies fighting heart values and joints.’

  Mia nodded, following his line of thought. ‘And that’s rheumatic fever.’

  ‘Yes, but the strep also causes glomerulonephritis, which leads to kidney disease.’

  Understanding crossed her face. ‘I wondered why there seemed to be such a high rate of kidney problems here. I don’t suppose all those dogs help.’

  ‘Actually, the dogs are in the clear. Mange is caused by a different mite altogether and doesn’t cause human scabies.’ He stood up and walked over to Alice. ‘Skin disease is also linked to high rates of gastroenteritis and pneumonia in kids. Their bodies are so busy fighting the skin infection, they have no reserves left to fight other bugs.’

  Mia’s blue eyes shimmered as the reality of poverty and overcrowding hit home. ‘So next week I get creative on how to tackle the scabies problem.’

  Her compassion and caring wafted over him and for a brief moment he wondered what it would be like to have her care for him.

  Every protective barrier shot back into place with a loud clang. Women don’t care for you. They leave you when you love them.

  ‘So what’s the treatment plan for Alice?’

  Mia’s question broke into his thoughts, grounding him. Giving him a perfect reason to leave Kirra today and avoid the wedding. ‘Good old penicillin, and ongoing treatment with antibiotics. She’ll need an echocardiogram, an
ECG and a full blood examination, as well as bed rest. I’ll take her to Darwin.’

  Mia’s pen paused over her notebook and she stared straight at him, confusion darkening her eyes. ‘But we can do all that here except the echocardiogram.’

  ‘Which is why I’ll take her to Darwin.’ The words rushed out brusque and snappy.

  She raised her brows and walked over to a list pinned up on the wall, trailing her long, slender fingers down the paper, pausing halfway down. ‘The cardiologist is due here for his bimonthly visit on Friday and it clearly says, “Echo clinic.”’

  She spun back to face him, a conspiratorial smile flitting across her cheeks. ‘I can sweet-talk the appointments clerk into accepting Alice, and as you say over and over, if we don’t have to evacuate a patient so much the better. And that way you won’t miss Susie’s daughter’s wedding.’ Her expression was one of ‘situation sorted’. ‘I’ll get the penicillin injection.’

  His chest tightened as if bands of steel circled his torso. ‘Patient care is far more important than attending a wedding. She needs bed rest and I’m taking her to Darwin today.’

  Mia’s gaze immediately narrowed, zeroing in on his face with uncompromising intensity. ‘Of course patient care comes ahead of a wedding.’

  ‘I’m glad we’re on the same page.’ He breathed out, not realising he’d been holding his breath. ‘You can go to the wedding and represent the clinic and I’ll take Alice to Darwin.’

  ‘I don’t think so.’ She tossed her head and a fine layer of red dust floated around her, looking like a halo. ‘This treatment plan goes against everything you’ve ever taught me. It goes against everything you believe. She’s sick but not as critical as Jimmy, and you kept him here.’

  Her words rained down on him, their truth harsh and accurate. ‘I believe I’m the doctor, Mia, and I make the final decisions about patients in my care.’

  Mia folded her arms across her chest, her eyes glinting like sparks from a welding iron. ‘Primum non nocere.’

  First do no harm. The Hippocratic oath.

  Anger simmered inside him, as much against himself as Mia. ‘What about it?’ He strode over to the desk, planning on ringing Royal Darwin Hospital. Alice would benefit from some good food and real rest in hospital.

  ‘I want to know the real reason why you’re evaccing a non-critical patient on a Saturday afternoon.’

  The walls of the clinic seemed to close in on him. He had to deflect her, make her stop. ‘I don’t have to justify my medical decisions to you. I’m the doctor, you’re only the RAN.’

  She flinched, the tremor running along her jaw and down through her body, but she held her ground. ‘You do have to justify your decisions if they’re coloured by something personal.’

  He dropped the phone back in the handset as her soft words pierced him. He turned to look at Alice, whose eyes were wide with confusion, not understanding what was going on. He rubbed the back of his neck. Hell, what was he doing? He couldn’t take her to Darwin. Mia was right. He couldn’t let his personal feelings affect his medical judgement.

  He raised his gaze to Mia’s—a gaze full of steely determination and concern. Concern for him—despite the cruel barb he’d just sent her way.

  He didn’t want to see concern or pity in her eyes. That had been why he’d left Brisbane. ‘Alice will stay here.’

  ‘Good.’ She smiled at him as if he was a recalcitrant child finally doing the right thing. ‘I’ll organise for Jenny to come and sit with Alice.’

  There was no way he was going to that wedding. ‘No need to do that. I’ll stay.’

  She shook her head vehemently. ‘You’re not needed here. You’re the island’s doctor and that comes with responsibilities other than just treating patients. You’re going to support one of our most experienced health workers by attending the wedding of her daughter.’ Her eyes flashed as her hands gripped her hips. ‘We will get Alice settled and Jenny installed. Then, before we go to the church, you’re going to tell me what on earth is going on.’

  Right then he realised he’d lost the battle. After two years on the run his past had finally caught up with him and he had nowhere left to hide.

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘ALICE’S temperature has come down and she’s asleep.’ Mia poured a large glass of cold mineral water and pushed it toward Flynn, deciding not to beat around the bush. ‘You once said to me that everyone here is running away from something, so what brought you here?’

  Brown flecks flashed against green, his eyes defiant. ‘I lived here for a couple of years as a child and I thought I’d come back.’

  Surprise rocked through her. So that was why he seemed to belong so well. But she wasn’t going to let him fox her with sidetracking. She studied his face, tight with tension. ‘So you’d always planned to work up here?’

  He met her gaze for a moment and then it slid away. ‘Not exactly.’ He took a long drink from the cold glass, his Adam’s apple moving rhythmically against his strong neck.

  She held onto coherent thought by a thread and took a sip of her drink.

  His long fingers tracked across the circle of condensation on the table, the lines of moisture converging into a wide puddle. ‘I’d survived a gruelling selection process and had accepted a position at Central Brisbane Hospital and was about to commence dermatology.’

  Mineral water spurted into her nose and she immediately started to cough. She couldn’t imagine Flynn working in one of the least exciting branches of medicine, and working regular hours inside a large hospital. ‘Dermatology?’

  He shot her an accusatory look. ‘What?’

  She wiped her mouth with a tissue. ‘It’s just that I can’t picture you in that role. I’m not sure dermatology would really have suited you.’

  He stared at her for a moment, his expression almost contemplative before it hardened. ‘Yeah, well, it didn’t work out. Turns out I was just the understudy in my own life when I thought I had the lead role.’

  ‘Pardon?’ She had no idea what he meant but her gut clenched at the antagonism in his voice.

  His mouth firmed into a grim line and he spat out the words, precise and harsh. ‘My fiancée—the one that was so keen for me to do family-friendly dermatology—stood me up at our wedding in front of three hundred friends and peers. She eloped with my best man.’

  His pain speared her. No wonder he didn’t want to go to the wedding. ‘Oh, that totally sucks. And you had no idea?’ She caught his searing look. ‘I’m sorry, stupid question. Of course you wouldn’t have.’ She thought of Steven, who had bailed on her but in less public circumstances, and for the first time in a year was able to think slightly more kindly toward him.

  He folded his arms across his chest. ‘Even in hindsight I didn’t have a clue.’

  ‘We only see what we want to.’ She wanted to take some of his pain away but her words sounded hollow.

  His jaw tightened. ‘Well, in that case, I guess I wanted to believe that neither Brooke, who professed to love me, nor my best mate, who was like a brother to me, would rip my heart out. I got that wrong.’ He slammed his fist into the palm of his hand, making a slapping sound.

  She touched his arm. ‘Those are reasonable expectations, Flynn. Trust is part of love. Love can’t happen without it.’

  He picked up his drink and her arm fell away. ‘Yeah, well, I’m not up for that much these days.’

  Her heart ached for him and unexpected anger against his fiancée and friend simmered inside her. ‘So Brooke and…’

  ‘Dan.’ He ran his hand through his hair. ‘Yes, I believe they’re still together living in our house.’ He flicked her a look. ‘We don’t exchange Christmas cards.’

  ‘They’re living in your house!’ Her indignation flooded over the words.

  A bitter smile tugged at his lips. ‘Oh, it’s a good story. It’s got all the elements—heart-warming friendship, money, lust and betrayal. It would make a good telemovie.’

  His biting humour la
nced her and she bit her lip. ‘I’d offer you a drink but…’

  This time his smile was wry and warm. ‘Yeah, but the clinic’s a dry zone.’ He leaned back on his chair, a resigned look on his face. ‘Dan and I had been mates since high school. We pretty much did everything together, even medicine. We shared digs at uni and then when we graduated and were sick of paying rent, we bought an old terrace house in inner Brisbane, complete with a rusting wrought-iron lace veranda. It was tumbling down around us.’

  She caught a hint of a happy memory cross his face. ‘The ultimate renovator’s dream?’

  ‘More like a nightmare, but some days it was very cathartic to come home from work and rip out a wall.’ His jaw tightened. ‘I met Brooke when she was a final-year medical student, not too long after we’d bought the house, and the three of us renovated it together.’

  ‘Brooke and Dan didn’t get along very well and they had some monumental clashes. But I desperately wanted my future wife and best friend to be good friends. Dan and I had been mates since boarding school and he’d been with me during some tough times with my family. I didn’t want to be in the situation where I got married but lost my best friend.’

  Mia tried to keep her face neutral but felt her brows draw in as the paradox struck her.

  Flynn grimaced. ‘I know, pretty ironic considering the outcome.’

  She had crazy desire to defend him to himself. ‘I think it was the aim of a caring and loving guy.’

  His look of derision silenced her.

  ‘Anyway, I became the peacemaker. I actively pushed them together so they could try and get to know each other. I did a hell of good job. Dan not only got the girl, he got the house.’

  Outrage pounded her. ‘But I don’t understand how they ended up with the house.’

  ‘When Brooke and I got engaged I thought the house would have to be sold but as the wedding got closer, Dan offered to sell his share to us so it could be our home. Brooke was so enthusiastic about the idea, saying how much she wanted to raise children in a house renovated by love, that I ended up agreeing.’

  His abrupt laugh was full of scorn. ‘Never fall in love, Mia. It makes a complete fool out you.’