‘Yes. As long as she doesn’t mind being seen by a doctor in full outdoor gear.’ Daniel injected the antibiotic into the cannula, his eyes on his patient’s face. ‘I’ve been in the mountains for eight hours. At some point I need to get back to base, drop the equipment and debrief. Where is everyone else? What’s the ETA of your pregnant woman?’
‘Ambulance Control just phoned. She’s about eight minutes away.’
‘That should give me time to get Sam down to Theatre. Give me a shout when she arrives.’ Daniel glanced at Stella. ‘Any sign of the orthopaedic guys?’
‘We’re here.’ A slim man with sandy-coloured hair hurried into the room. ‘Sorry. Black ice has kept us busy. I’ve only just got out of Theatre.’ He looked at Daniel’s bulky outdoor gear. ‘Is this a new uniform for the emergency department?’
‘Daniel?’ The boy’s hand shot out and clutched Daniel’s arm again. There was fear in his eyes. ‘Are they going to put me to sleep? Will I feel anything? Did you get hold of my mum?’
‘They are going to put you to sleep and, no, you won’t feel anything.’ Daniel’s voice was soft. ‘I spoke to your mum. She’s on her way.’
‘Will you stay with me until she gets here?’
A muscle worked in Daniel’s dark jaw. ‘Are you kidding? You’re wearing half my equipment—and it’s the expensive half. There’s no way I’m letting you out of my sight. We’re going to take you straight to Theatre and get that leg of yours stuck back together in time for Christmas.’ His glaze flickered to his colleague. ‘Are you ready?’
‘You’re coming, too?’ The man looked startled but Daniel’s gaze was cool.
‘I’ll stay with him until he’s under.’
The orthopaedic surgeon picked up the charts and gave a brief nod. ‘All right. Well, you’re obviously needed back here, so let’s move.’
‘If my pregnant patient was eight minutes away three minutes ago then I have five minutes.’ Daniel glanced at his watch. ‘I’ll be back in five minutes.’
He’d been out on an exposed mountainside for eight hours and he had five minutes in which he could have grabbed a hot drink. Instead he was going to accompany a frightened child to the anaesthetic room.
Stella gritted her teeth. All the reasons why she’d fallen in love with Daniel in the first place were still there. Nothing had changed.
‘Go.’ She started clearing Resus. ‘I’ll sort things out here.’
She barely had time to run through another bag of fluid and restock, before the paramedics arrived with the pregnant woman. After listening to the handover by the paramedics, Stella tried to make her patient more comfortable.
Her face was bleeding slightly from several small lacerations and a livid bruise was already forming over one cheekbone. ‘I’m so worried about the baby. We’ve been trying for five years—’ Her voice broke and she rubbed her hand over her swollen abdomen. ‘If anything happens to him I’ll—’
‘We’re going to check you and the baby, Fiona,’ Stella soothed, glancing towards the door as Daniel strode in. ‘This is Dr Buchannan, one of our consultants.’
Fiona looked in astonishment at Daniel’s outdoor clothing and he shrugged.
‘It’s cold in this department,’ he drawled, and she gave a choked laugh.
‘I read an article about you last summer. You’re one of three doctors in the emergency department that volunteer for the mountain rescue team.’
‘That’s right.’ Daniel glanced at the monitor that Stella had connected to the patient, tracking the readings. ‘There’s Sean Nicholson, although we do keep telling him he’s getting a bit too old for tramping up in the hills. And there’s Ben—both of whom are treating other patients, which is why you have me. Technically I’m off duty but there’s no rest for the wicked. I see Stella’s already given you oxygen.’ He turned to Stella. ‘I’d forgotten what it’s like to work with a nurse who is always one step ahead of me.’
Stella’s hands trembled slightly as she attached Fiona to the CTG machine. ‘This will help us get a feel for how your baby is doing.’ She adjusted the elastic until she was satisfied with the reading. ‘Daniel—do you want me to call Obstetrics and get someone down here?’
‘I’ll take a look at her first. Monitors only tell you so much—I learned that lesson as a medical student when the monitor told me a woman wasn’t having contractions. She delivered the baby five minutes later. I was more shocked than she was.’ Daniel took off his jacket, washed his hands and pulled on a pair of gloves. ‘Have you had any problems in the pregnancy, Fiona? Anything you think I should know about?’
If sexual attraction was enough to hold two people together then they would have stuck like glue, Stella thought helplessly, watching the flex of his biceps as he worked.
‘It’s all been really easy.’ Fiona twisted her wedding ring round her finger. ‘I’ve been doing everything by the book. It’s our first baby. And I’m terrified.’ Her voice wobbled. ‘Do you have kids?’
Stella’s gaze met Daniel’s briefly.
‘No.’ There was a sudden coolness to his tone. ‘I don’t.’
‘It changes you,’ Fiona said simply. ‘All I care about is this baby. I suppose that’s part of being a mother.’
Daniel didn’t respond and Stella stayed silent, too.
Marriage, motherhood, maternity—Daniel’s three least favourite topics of conversation. And she should know. They’d had that conversation on numerous memorable occasions. Memorable for all the wrong reasons.
‘It’s natural to be concerned about the baby.’ Daniel spoke the words the woman needed to hear, but Stella sensed that part of him was detached.
‘Babies are surprisingly resilient,’ she reassured the woman. ‘And we’re going to check him very carefully.’
Daniel conducted a thorough examination and Stella knew that he’d shut the conversation out of his mind with ruthless efficiency. He was looking for clinical signs that might suggest a problem. He wasn’t thinking about babies or emotion.
He was palpating Fiona’s abdomen when she gave a little gasp of fright and shifted on the trolley.
‘Oh!’ Her eyes widened with panic. ‘I think I’m bleeding. Oh, God, am I losing it? Please don’t say I’m losing the baby.’
More comfortable with a medical emergency than an emotional one, Daniel was cool and calm as he examined her. ‘Stella—give my brother a call, will you? Tell him I need him down here.’
Meeting his gaze briefly, Stella moved to the phone and spoke to Switchboard.
Fiona put her hand over her eyes and started to cry. ‘I can’t believe I’m bleeding. I wish I’d never left the house. We were going Christmas shopping. I know there’s another three weeks to go but I wanted to get it out of the way in case something happens. And now I’ve made it happen.’ Great tearing sobs shook her body and Stella slipped her arm around the woman’s shoulders, trying to imagine how she’d feel in the same position.
‘You haven’t made anything happen,’ she soothed. ‘You must try and calm down, for the baby’s sake.’
‘If I lose this baby—’
‘Fiona.’ Daniel reached for an IV tray, nothing in his voice betraying the fact that he was concerned. ‘I want you to relax and trust me. My brother is one of the best obstetricians in the country and he will take a look at you.’
‘One of the best?’