‘My name is Heather Cooper and I’m the senior registrar in the accident and emergency unit.’
She couldn’t have counted the number of times she had introduced herself that very same way, yet for some reason the words sounded unfamiliar, as though it was the first time she’d ever said them, the first time they had really mattered.
Her shocked grey eyes flew to the man’s face and stopped, held by the expression in the hazel ones which were regarding her with exactly the same degree of bewilderment. In that moment Heather knew that it wasn’t her imagination that something odd was going on because he could feel it, too. And the panic she’d felt before was nothing to the fear that suddenly gripped her.
There was no room in her life for another hero!
‘IF YOU could just lean forward, Mr Tanner…a little more. That’s fine. Thank you.’
Ross felt his rigid muscles relax as the cool fingers that had been touching his bare back were suddenly removed. Dr Heather Cooper’s examination had been extremely thorough, although he wasn’t foolish enough to imagine that he should read anything into it. Even though he knew nothing about her, he sensed that she would treat all her patients the same way. Dr Cooper was just very good at her job.
Disbelief shot through him and the monitor blipped as his heart rate increased. He saw Heather Cooper’s eyes swivel towards the screen and willed himself to calm down. The last thing he wanted was for her to suspect that something was wrong with him, but it was hard to deal with the way he seemed to be behaving all of a sudden.
Since when had he developed the gift of ESP? How on earth could he know that Heather was good at her job? He had no idea but it was worrying enough to cause his heart to fit in several more beats in rapid succession.
‘Do you have any chest pain at all?’
Dr Cooper’s calm voice should have been the perfect antidote to his fanciful musings but Ross was past the point of no return by that stage. Blip, blip, blip went the damned machine as he shook his head, seemingly intent on making a liar of him.
‘Are you quite sure, Mr Tanner?’
Those cool fingers returned to hold the chilly end of a stethoscope against his chest. Ross sucked in as much oxygen as his burning lungs would allow but the blasted machine rattled out another volley of blips. Heaven help him if Heather Cooper worked out that the reason why his heart was hopping up and down like a kid on a pogo stick was because she was touching him!
‘Relax, Mr Tanner. I know how worrying this must be for you but I’m confident that you’ve suffered only minimal damage to your throat and lungs….’
She stopped talking while she listened, lightly holding the end of the stethoscope against his chest with the tips of her fingers. Ross focused on the pale ovals of her nails because that seemed a relatively harmless thing to do. Fingernails weren’t the least bit scary. Neither were they sexy, although Heather Cooper’s nails were particularly beautiful with those delicate half-moons at the base of each shimmering through the unvarnished shell-pink.
Ross saw her stiffen as his heart gave an almighty surge. He closed his eyes, praying that nobody would notice the matching response that had occurred in another part of his body. Thankfully, the nurse had only removed his shirt and he was still wearing his uniform trousers beneath the sheet. With a bit of luck they would save him from any major embarrassment.
‘We’ll monitor what’s happening overnight.’
Ross’s eyes flew open when he realised that Heather Cooper was speaking to him. She was calmly rolling up her stethoscope but there was a hint of colour in her cheeks that hadn’t been apparent before. His gaze dipped down then swooped back up in relief when he realised that the bulky trousers had safely preserved his modesty. If Dr Cooper was looking a little hot under the collar then it had nothing to do with him.
‘I’m glad I asked you for a second opinion, Heather.’
Ross’s eyes swivelled to the young man standing beside Heather Cooper and he felt a sudden stab of irritation. The fellow was gazing at her like a lovesick puppy! Didn’t he understand that a mature and intelligent woman like Heather wouldn’t be swayed by a good-looking face, that she needed a man of her own age and experience to satisfy her needs? A woman of Heather’s calibre wouldn’t look twice at someone several years her junior.
Would she?
Ross’s stomach sank when it struck him that he was making an awful lot of assumptions he wasn’t qualified to make. How could he say what Heather Cooper needed? Maybe that blush on her face was a direct result of working side by side with the handsome younger doctor? Maybe the pair were already involved in a relationship and being able to work together added an extra buzz?
He’d watched enough hospital dramas on television while he’d been working night shifts to know there must be some basis for portraying hospitals as hotbeds of romance. Maybe the beautiful Dr Cooper and the handsome Dr Carlisle were starring in their very own series. Love in the Accident and Emergency Unit.
Hell’s teeth!
‘It’s always safer to get a second opinion in a case like this, Ben.’
Heather smiled at the young registrar, praying that he couldn’t tell how on edge she felt. Was it her imagination or had the tension level suddenly upped several degrees?
She glanced at Abby McLeod, the sister in charge of the A and E unit that shift, and was relieved to receive a calm smile in return. Abby obviously hadn’t noticed anything amiss so it must be her imagination. Time to knock this on the head. Once Ross Tanner was off their hands then she could get back to normal.
Hopefully…
Heather blanked out that last thought by dint of sheer will-power. She turned to Ross Tanner again, finding it less stressful to focus strictly on professional matters. Tanner was a patient and it was her job to treat him as such.
‘I can find no indication of there being anything wrong with your heart, Mr Tanner, but, as I said, I shall recommend that you be kept on a monitor overnight.’ She shrugged. ‘We would have kept you in until we were sure that your lungs were clear so it’s simply a matter of attaching you to a bit more machinery.’
‘I had a medical last week and my heart and everything else that matters were fine.’
Ross Tanner had eased the mask away from his mouth. Heather just managed to suppress a shiver when she heard his voice for the first time. Although the swelling in his throat would have caused some changes to its tone, she guessed that he normally had a wonderfully deep voice. She was overcome by a sudden desire to hear how it sounded once he’d recovered before she briskly dismissed the idea. Once Ross Tanner left Resus that would be the last she saw of him.
‘That’s good to hear, Mr Tanner.’ It was hard to ignore how disquieting she found that idea but Heather had become an expert at controlling her feelings. ‘I know how rigorous the fire brigade’s medical examinations are and can only repeat that I don’t believe there is a problem with your heart. It’s purely a precaution, you understand.’
‘The old belt and braces approach?’ Ross Tanner grinned at her, his teeth gleaming whitely through his smoke-blackened skin, his hazel eyes sparkling with amusement. ‘Well, I certainly can’t argue with that approach, Dr Cooper. If there’s one thing the brigade teaches you, it’s always to try and minimise any risks.’
‘I would have thought that was impossible in your job,’ she said tartly, praying that he couldn’t tell how mixed up she was feeling. Why on earth