. 'Amazing,' she threw over her shoulder as she walked into the kitchen. 'Whoever would have thought it? All that and beauty, too.'
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. Max's eyes darkened, and he followed her into the kitchen, set the plates and the bag of rubbish down, took her shoulders in his hands and turned her firmly towards him.
'I'm going to kiss you,' he said mildly. Easing her gently back up against the edge of the sink, he threaded his fingers through her hair, anchored her head with his big hands and lowered his mouth to hers.
She was helpless to resist. Well, she imagined she was. She didn't even bother to try. Instead, she just slid her arms round his waist, settled her palms against the strong column of his spine and kissed him right back.
He gave a deep groan low in his throat, and shifted closer to her, so close that nothing was left to her imagination. It was quite gratifying to know that she was driving him every bit as wild as he was driving her. The gap between them got even smaller, and their clothes were quite definitely in the way.
She was just on the point of forgetting every scrap of common sense she'd ever had when a miserable little wail cut through the haze of their passion and sobered her instantly.
'Alice,' she said unsteadily. 'Oh, damn.'
'Don't worry, you go and deal with her and I'll wash up,' he murmured. He kissed her again, just lightly on the forehead, and patted her bottom affectionately. 'Go on, scoot. I'll deal with this.'
She had no choice. Alice was wailing in earnest now, and she couldn't leave her another moment. Annie was so tired that all she wanted to do was join in, but she couldn't. Instead, she lifted the miserable baby against her shoulder and rocked her gently.
'It's all right, my darling, Mummy's here. It's all right.' She cuddled her daughter until she was calm, then put some more gel on her inflamed gum and changed her nappy. She'd hardly eaten all day, and was probably hungry, but Annie couldn't put her down again to go and get some food, and she couldn't take her into the kitchen because Max was there.
And then, just when she was utterly torn, he popped his head round the corner of the door and smiled.
'I'm going now,' he said. 'You give Alice a cuddle from me, and tell her I hope she feels better soon. And don't bother to come into work tomorrow, or I'll just send you home again.'
She stared at him over Alice's head. 'Are you sure? I'll feel so guilty...'
'Don't. Don't ever feel guilty for staying with your sick baby. And anyway, how guilty do you think I would feel, sitting at home with nothing to do while Alice was here crying for you and you were at work not properly paying attention and fretting yourself to death?'
She chewed her lip, instinctively rocking the still restless baby against her shoulder. 'OK, if you insist, but call me if you need me.'
'I won't—'
'Just promise, or I won't agree,' she said firmly, and he shook his head and laughed.
'OK, OK, I give in. I'll call you. Take care. Have a good day.' And with a wave of his fingers, he disappeared out of her sight.
She sighed with relief. Not only did she have the next day off with her daughter, but Max had gone before he'd seen any more than the back of Alice's head.
She went into the kitchen with Alice and made her some cereal, and while she was spooning it into her she wondered how and when she was going to tell Max about his daughter. She was stalling now, she knew that, but it was very difficult.
What was she supposed to say? 'Do you remember that time by the side of the lake? Well, guess what?'
She gave a dispirited sigh. There would be no easy way to tell him, she realised that, but she was going to have to do it, and soon, or else he was going to find out by accident and that would be a disaster.
'I wonder what he'll make of you, Tuppence?' she murmured to her baby. 'It might be nice for you to have a daddy, and I'm sure he'll be a very nice one. The thing is, how do we introduce you to him? I'm sure he'll love you to bits, but I'm not so sure how he'll feel about me. Oh, dear, Alice, what a mess.'
Annie wasn't sure if she was talking about the cereal all over her baby's face, or the coil she'd got herself into. Both, probably. Alice was at least peaceful now, so she gave her a bottle, cleaned her little teeth and popped her back into her cot before slumping onto the sofa to nurse her distended stomach and think about Max.
It was very kind of him to do the next day for her, and she was hugely grateful. It was another handful of Brownie points for him, not that he needed any more. He was already doing disgustingly well on that score.
She smiled to herself. He'd managed to earn several for his kisses, and if she closed her eyes, she could imagine herself right back in his arms...
Max turned over in bed, stared at the chirruping alarm clock in disbelief and then remembered.
He must be nuts. Oh, well, no doubt he'd get his reward in heaven. He dragged himself out of bed, sluiced rapidly in the shower and pulled on, his work clothes. With any luck Suffolk would have a nice quiet day, and he'd be able to potter in his office for half of it, catching up with his admin.
Not a chance. Suffolk wasn't listening, or at least, not to him. There was a massive pile-up on the A14, and A and E were overrun. It was one of those horrendous days when they ran out of cubicles for treatment, beds were in short supply and staff even shorter.
Against his better judgement, he phoned Annie.
'How's the baby?' he asked without preamble.
'Much better. She's her usual sunny self today. I feel a real fraud.'
Max gave a hollow laugh. 'Is that right? Well, if she really is better, we could really do with your help in here. We've had a really nasty RTA and we could do with all the staff we can lay our hands on. I don't suppose there's the slightest chance your mother could help out with Alice, is there? If not, don't worry, but we are flat out. I'd be really grateful.'
She didn't even hesitate. 'Of course,' she said immediately. 'Mum was expecting to have her today anyway, so she is around. I'll just make sure. Any problems and I'll page you, but if you don't hear from me, I'll see you in about fifteen minutes.'
Max cradled the phone and heaved a quiet sigh of relief. His pager remained mercifully silent, and precisely sixteen minutes later Annie appeared at his side in A and E.
'Where do you need me?' she asked, and he shrugged.
'Everywhere. Anywhere. We've got five members of the same family that were travelling in the people carrier, and at least three of them need fairly urgent exploratory surgery for internal injuries. The other two seen to have sustained just orthopaedic injuries, but we've got the odd fracture in our three as well, so it'll be a joint effort with the orthopods.
'And then, just to make it jolly, there are the other cars.'
Her eyes widened. 'How on earth are we going to manage? We can't possibly deal with all these people, just two of us.'
'I know that. David Armstrong and Nick Sarazin have come in, and I think I saw Owen Douglas about here earlier, but he might have gone by now. If you want to make yourself useful, you could have a look at that chap over there on the trolley. I had a quick look at him a few minutes ago, and he didn't look too bad, but just from where I'm standing he seems to have gone downhill.'
Annie walked over to the man on the trolley, shaking her head as she went. 'Heaven knows where they're all going to go,' she muttered under her breath.
'At least you know I didn't call you in under false pretences,' Max said with a grin, and she shot him a grim smile over her shoulder.
'Apparently not,' she returned.
He didn't see her again for fifteen minutes, by which time the man on the trolley had been transferred to Resus and the crash team were dealing with him.
'He needs opening up fast,' Annie told him urgently. 'I think he may have had an encapsulated bleed, and it's just reaching a critical point. If we work very fast, we might get in there and stop it before it goes. Otherwise, I don't fancy his chances. He's very shocky alrea
dy.'
'Have you taken bloods for cross-matching? In fact, we'll need a whole load of tests.' He rattled off the list, but Annie was ahead of him and the tests were already under way, apparently.
'It's all done,' she assured him. 'All we need is a theatre, and somebody to open him up.'
'I think Theatre Four is free, and as for somebody to open him up, I would say you're available.'
Her jaw dropped, but then she snapped it shut and nodded. 'OK, if you really think I'm up to it.'
He gave her a reassuring wink. 'You'll be fine.'
He was in the middle of aspirating very bloodstained fluid from a middle-aged woman's abdomen to check for haemorrhaging, and when he glanced up again, Annie was gone.
He sincerely hoped that she would manage. She ought to, but without his reassuring presence she might suffer a crisis of confidence, although it would be quite unfounded. Only time would tell.
The next three hours passed in a blur. He was in Theatre Two, just opening up the last patient, when Annie appeared at his side, scrubbed and gowned and ready to assist.
He winked at her over the top of his mask. 'So how did it go?' he asked.
'OK,' she said modestly.
'That's not what I hear. I gather you were extremely cool and efficient and, according to the anaesthetist, you did a bloody good job, unquote.'
She coloured quite interestingly over the top of the mask, but her eyes were laughing. 'Is it insubordinate to call you a rat, sir?' she said very quietly, for his ears only, but Moira's eyes widened involuntarily.
He suppressed a grin.
'Credit where it's due, Dr Shaw,' he said mildly. 'Now, are you going to stand there bragging all day, or are you going to help me? Because if you are, you might hold that retractor for me in a rather better position.'
It was more than five hours from Max's phone call before she got home again, and to her enormous relief Alice was fed and bathed and gurgling happily on her grandfather's knee.
'Hello, darling,' he said, shooting her a keen look. 'How was it? You look tired.'
'I am tired. I'm very tired, but it went really well, and we didn't lose anybody.'
Her father nodded approvingly. 'Good, good. That's always gratifying, although you have to remember you're only human and anyway it may not be your fault if they die. Sometimes they have to take responsibility for that themselves.'
She sat down on the settee beside him and kissed Alice. 'So how's my baby?' she asked, and was rewarded with a juicy raspberry.
She laughed and wiped the fine spray of spit off her face. 'That good, eh?' She reached out her arms and Alice squirmed into them, hanging onto her hair to steady herself as she stood up and bounced up and down on Annie's lap.
Alice laughed, and for an instant she was so like Max that Annie's smile faltered. Soon, she promised herself.
Very soon. '
She scooped the baby up and got to her feet, bending over to kiss her father goodnight. 'Time for bed, young lady,' she said firmly, and carried Alice through to their little flat.
She went down with scarcely a protest, and within five minutes she was sound asleep.
Annie made herself a cup of tea and curled up in front of the television with a packet of biscuits and the Sunday paper. She had hardly scanned the headlines before the phone rang beside her, and it was Max.
'How are things?' he asked.
'Fine,' she assured him. I'm tired, but, then, I expect you are, too. It was pretty chaotic in there today, wasn't it?'
His chuckle was wry. 'You might say that,' he said dryly, and then his voice softened. 'I don't suppose you've got the energy for a little stroll around the block, have you? My body feels full of kinks and knots, and a bit of mindless repetitive action is just what it needs before I go to sleep.'
'All mine needs is a stiff whisky,' she said with a chuckle. 'But I expect I can manage. Shall I meet you out the front in a minute?'
'I'll be straight round.'
She pulled on a thin jumper, because although the August days were warm, it was beginning to chill off at night. Then she Stuck her head round her parents' sitting-room door and asked them to keep an ear out for Alice.
'I won't be more than a few minutes,' she promised, but judging by the look her parents exchanged, they wouldn't have cared if she'd been out all night, so long as it was with Max!
CHAPTER EIGHT
The hospital was absolutely heaving after the hectic events of the previous day. Their patients seemed to be spread around the hospital, with surgical beds tucked into medical wards, geriatric wards and anywhere else a slot could be found.
People were wandering around muttering about bed blocking under their breath, but for Annie all it meant was that she had to run from one end of the hospital to the other to check on them all. Mike, who had been away for the weekend, was closeted for most of the morning with the police, and so most of the responsibility for the patients fell to Annie.
Max was in Theatre, working his way steadily through the elective list, and Annie was just hoping that there would be somewhere for them to go when they came back down from Recovery. They were all allocated beds, but if another emergency arose they would be extremely pushed for space.
Max came down halfway through his list, while they were scrubbing out Theatre, and found Annie propped up in the kitchen, gulping down a mug of coffee.
He gave her a crooked grin, checked over his shoulder that no one was looking, and dropped a quick kiss on her lips. 'Any chance of a sip of that?'
She handed him the mug with a smile. 'How's it going?' she asked.
'Oh, you know, some of it's taken longer, some of it's been quicker. I had a tricky bowel resection—I could have done with your help. How's Alice?'
Annie's smile widened. 'She has a new tooth!' she said proudly.
'Well, thank goodness for that. Now you might be able to get some sleep.'
'And come to work when I'm supposed to. Thank you very much for doing yesterday for me.'
Max shrugged. 'In the end, of course, it didn't make a great deal of difference, because I would have been here anyway. How's the bed situation?' he added, and Annie rolled her eyes.
'Dire,' she told him bluntly. 'We've got one in Geriatrics, two on a medical ward, and even one in the side room of a children's ward. I tell you what, I won't be needing any exercise today.'
Max chuckled. 'It's good for you. It'll get you in training.'
'In training for what?' she asked indignantly. 'I don't need to be in training for anything!'
Max's eyes twinkled, and with a muffled chuckle, she punched his arm lightly.
'In your dreams,' she said, and he gave a wry laugh.
'Oh, absolutely—every single night.'
She felt her skin warm at the heat in his eyes, and looked away quickly before her own eyes gave her away.
She was too late, however, because Max groaned softly under his breath and said, 'Don't look at me like that, or I'll have to put a white coat on over my scrubs to cover up the evidence.'
'Nothing to do with me,' she said primly, and headed for the door. 'You'd better stay in here and count sheep or something until you settle down!'
His smothered laugh followed her out of the room, and with a smile on her face she headed back towards the geriatric ward to review the pain relief for their patient there. She was about halfway when her bleeper squawked, and she groaned to herself. If she had to go all the way back to the surgical ward, she'd scream!
She went to the nearest phone and called the switchboard, and they put her through to Max.
'You are a sexy little witch,' he said with a thread of laughter in his voice.
Annie hid her smile. 'I don't know what you're talking about.'
'Is that right? So why are you smiling? I can hear it in your voice. I think you need punishing for being so unkind to me. You can come round to mine tonight for dinner. I'll cook for you, and if you're very lucky it'll be edible.'
She felt her heart t
hump at the thought of being alone with him, and remembered she hadn't yet been to the clinic. 'I'll have to check with Mum,' she said. 'I'll let you know.'
'You do that. Where are you?'
'On my way to Geriatrics to see our patient. He's apparently in a lot of pain.'
'Call me if you need me,' he said, and hung up. She carried on up the endless miles of corridor, and all she could think of on the way was spending the evening with Max.
*
Max took a stroll outside at lunchtime to get the kinks out of his neck and back from hours of operating, and his feet took him past an entrance.
Sexual Health and Family Planning Clinic, it announced cheerfully, and he remembered he still hadn't acquired the wherewithal to organise any precautions. He hesitated by the door for a moment, and then to his surprise Annie came out, stopped dead at the sight of him and blushed scarlet.
'Hi,' he said gently, searching her suddenly evasive eyes.
'What are you doing here?' she asked a little frantically.
'The same as you, maybe,' he replied, a slow smile touching his mouth. 'Just to be on the safe side.'
She seemed to relax, then she gave a soft huff of laughter. 'Of all the people to run into...'
'I take it your visit was for my benefit and no one else's?' he asked, suddenly wondering if he was jumping the gun and assuming too much.
'Of course! What do you think I am?'
'Wonderful. Beautiful. Intelligent. Well organised, sexy, the star feature in every one of my dreams for the last year and a bit—'
'You're silly,' she muttered, her colour rising again.
'No. Only about you.'
Annie met his eyes, and her own softened and mellowed. He groaned again and rammed his hands into the pockets of his white coat, using it as a shield. He was going to have to do something about this adolescent reaction he had to her every time he saw her!
'Did you ring your mother?' he asked, and she nodded.
'Yes, she's fine with it. What time would you like me?'
Max's mouth opened, and he just stopped himself from saying, Now!
'Seven?' he suggested. 'Seven-thirty? Whatever.'
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