‘I always had a great deal of respect for Lucas’s abilities and I still do. I’m qualified for this job, and I want to do it well. I’m confident that the same goes for him.’
‘All right.’ Michael leaned back in his chair, a flip of his hand indicating that she was off the hook. ‘Go do it. Remember that my door’s always open.’
Lucas hadn’t failed to notice that Thea had followed her boss out of the conference room, probably responding from some signal from Michael. They’d been gone for ten minutes now, and he guessed that they were talking about him.
Fair enough. It was pretty much par for the course that everyone talked about an external consultant, weighing him up, deciding how capable he was. Lucas took it for granted and concentrated on proving himself. But this was different. He was half expecting to be summoned to Michael Freeman’s office and discreetly informed that Thea would no longer be working directly with him, as if he posed some kind of threat to her.
He waited. The half-open door of the conference room suddenly swung wide and Thea was in the doorway. ‘I’ve just spoken with Michael’s secretary. The microbiology results are in.’
There was an assurance in her face that said that something had been discussed and a decision made. Whatever the details, Lucas couldn’t help but applaud the outcome, because it had brought her back to him.
Responding to a silent alert, she consulted her pager. ‘Sorry, got to go. I’m needed up on the ward.’
‘Our TB case?’ When she nodded her assent, he picked up his papers and buttoned his jacket. He had heard all about the isolation procedures and the patient’s condition at the meeting, but he wanted to check on both. ‘I’ll walk with you.’
Lucas fell into step beside her, following her through the twists and turns of the hospital corridors. She was walking so fast that he had to lengthen his stride to keep up with her. ‘Microbiology?’ Lucas reminded her.
‘Ah, yes. It’s been confirmed as TB—a partially drug-resistant strain, which has markers in common with a known strain found in the Birmingham area a year ago.’
‘I’ll get the notes on which drug regime worked best there. The patient has contacts in Birmingham?’
‘Not as far as I know. We got some details from the wife, but I was reckoning on interviewing her more fully after we’d liaised with you.’ She smiled suddenly and the Thea he knew broke from the shell of the woman she’d become. Eager for the task ahead and ready to face its challenges.
After the bustling hospital corridors, the isolation suite was like an oasis of regulated calm. A nursing station gave access to four separate rooms, each entered via a small lobby. Dispensers at each door held protective masks, gloves and aprons.
Automatically, Lucas’s gaze flipped to the pressure gauge at the side of the door. In order to eliminate the spread of airborne particles containing mycobacterium tuberculosis, the room should be kept under negative pressure.
It was. The whole place seemed to exude a smug pride, telling him he could look as hard as he liked, everything was being done by the book. Quiet and efficient, even if the masks and aprons of the nursing staff did lend an impersonal touch.
And then there was Thea. She approached the man in the bed, who was coughing painfully and being supported in a sitting position by a nurse. Lucas could hear the scrape of lungs that couldn’t do their job properly screaming for air.
‘Hey, there, Derek.’ Despite the mask, Lucas could see her smile. It leaked out of her, in her posture, the way she touched the back of his hand with her gloved fingertips. Her eyes. It struck Lucas that if the last thing he ever saw was her eyes, warm and full of compassion, then he’d be a happy man.
‘Not so good today, I see.’ Derek was fighting for breath and so Thea voiced both sides of the conversation. ‘Okay, let’s have a listen to your chest.’
She nodded to the nurse, who helped her pull the gown away from Derek’s back. A careful, thorough examination seemed to confirm what was already obvious. Overnight, Derek’s condition had deteriorated, and the fluid on his lungs was now making it painful and difficult to breathe.
‘Good. You’re doing great.’ Thea helped the nurse settle Derek back onto the pillows. ‘I think that we can make you more comfortable, though.’
That smile again. And suddenly, in response, Derek’s face seemed to throw off the anonymity of pain. He was no longer just a patient, defined by what treatment the hospital could give. He was a man in his thirties, sandy hair, blue eyes. Who had a wife and a job and a life outside these walls.
And a sense of humour. Thea made a joke, the nurse laughed, and Derek’s eyes suddenly lit up. She patted his hand and gave him a wave, before sweeping out of the room, leaving Lucas to follow her.
Outside, she was all business. Standing by the glazed wall of the isolation room so that Derek could see she was still there, she looked up at Lucas, her gaze serious.
‘I was hoping that the pleural effusion would stay stable.’
‘We need to do a thoracentesis.’ Lucas provided the obvious answer. ‘You have a mobile ultrasound unit available?’
‘Yes. I’ll get it up here.’
‘The sooner the better. I think we should consider a drain as well.’
She nodded.
‘He has no blood coagulation issues?’
‘No. And he understands what’s happening and is co-operative. We can keep him calm while we do the procedure.’
Lucas nodded, removing his jacket. ‘I’ll need to take a look at the notes.’
They’d fallen so easily into the familiar pattern. Lucas in the lead, studying Derek’s notes and issuing instructions. Thea liaising with the ward sister and overseeing preparations. With two years’ seniority to her, that had always been the way of it.
That had been the way of it seven years ago. Now this was her hospital. Her patient.
‘You’ll be sitting in on this one, then?’ She murmured the question quietly.
For a moment he seemed lost for an answer. ‘You’ve done this procedure before?’
What did he think she’d been doing for the last seven years? Lucas badly needed to catch up. ‘Yes, many times.’ She kept her voice low and professional, the barb in her words and not her tone. ‘Some of them in conditions you could barely imagine.’
She might just as well have slapped him. The sting hit home and for a moment she saw hurt in his eyes. ‘This is not about scoring points, Thea. It’s about patient welfare.’
‘So you’re in the habit of questioning the competence of the doctors you work with?’ Seven years ago she would have screamed the words at him. Now they were uttered quietly, between clenched teeth.
‘Okay, I get it. This is your hospital …’ His lip curled slightly.
‘What the hell happened to you, Lucas?’ Thea flushed red as she whispered the words. It might be inappropriate, but so what? The question had been on her mind ever since she’d first laid eyes on him yesterday.
‘I got real.’ He almost spat the words at her and then the consummate professional took over. ‘I will sit in if that’s okay with you.’
‘Of course.’ She turned on her heel and made her way back to Derek’s room to take a breath and oversee the preparations. Anger had no place here, and neither did personal issues between doctors. What mattered was the patient, and that her hand was sure and steady.
A nurse helped Derek into position, leaning forward, and offering encouragement and a hand to hold. Thea concentrated on her job, the precise insertion of a needle into Derek’s back in the spot indicated by the ultrasound