The Greek Doctor's New-Year Baby. Kate Hardy

      â€˜Hello. You must be the new…’ She stopped dead, clearly recognising him.

      Just as he recognised her.

      Even without the mask, he knew her instantly. Those beautiful eyes. That mouth. The prickle of awareness that ran all the way down his spine.

      Which was crazy.

      Apart from the fact he never mixed work and relationships, it would be impossible here anyway. He was only here for six months, and she was involved. The best he could hope for was a good working relationship. Which meant defusing any embarrassment right from the start.

      â€˜Doctor,’ he finished lightly. ‘Yes. I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself to you at the ball on Saturday. Theo Petrakis.’ He held out his hand.

      â€˜Madison Gregory. Everyone calls me Maddie. Welcome to the ward.’ She took his hand.

      Using her right hand. And he’d kissed her right wrist on Saturday night, touched his lips to the pulse point.

      The impulse to do it again shocked him, it was so strong. He just about managed to shake her hand and then drop it again. ‘I was making coffee. The kettle’s hot. What can I get you?’

      â€˜I’m impressed. You’re well trained,’ she teased.

      He shrugged. ‘I don’t mind taking my turn to make coffee. I certainly don’t intend to pull rank and expect my team to run around after me.’

      â€˜Doug’ll be pleased to know his department’s in safe hands—and that you share his attitude towards the team,’ she said. ‘Thanks. That’ll be a lot of milk and no sugar for me, please. And a little bit of cold water, too, so it’s cool enough to drink.’

      A trick most doctors learned very early on, Theo knew. If you waited for your drink to cool, the chances were you wouldn’t even get a first sip before you were called to a patient. ‘Busy morning, hmm?’ he asked.

      She nodded. ‘But I love mornings like this. When things look as if they’re going to go pear-shaped, and all the worst-case scenarios are running through your head while you’re maintaining absolute calm to stop the mum and her partner worrying—and then suddenly it all works and you end up with a new mum and dad, all misty-eyed and cuddling their little miracle. That first moment when the whole world seems brand new.’

      Clearly she loved her job. And he knew what she meant: those first moments with a newborn baby always took his breath away, too.

      He made the coffee the way she’d specified and handed the mug to her.

      â€˜Thanks.’ She took a sip. ‘Oh-h-h. This is perfect. Just what I needed.’

      She seemed to be about to say something else, but then her pager bleeped. She glanced at the readout, then sighed and put the mug on the draining board. ‘Sorry. I’ll finish it later. I have to go. The emergency department needs a second opinion on a pregnant patient with back pain.’

      â€˜Can I come and observe?’ he asked.

      She blinked, looking faintly surprised. ‘Well, if you really want to, sure. I’m not worried about someone senior observing me,’ she added, ‘but four would definitely be a crowd and I had intended to take my fourth-year students down with me.’

      â€˜Your students?’

      His surprise must have sounded in his voice because she admitted, ‘Strictly speaking, I suppose they’re your students, but before Doug went on sick leave he agreed I could take over the mentoring side of things. And Sanjay and Nita are doing really well—especially Sanjay, who’s blossomed since he’s been with us. I want to keep his confidence up.’

      Theo raised an eyebrow. ‘I thought only consultants were mentors.’ And she was a registrar, wasn’t she?

      â€˜Look, I’ll explain on the way down to ED. If you want to observe, we’d better not take the students with us this time—it’s not fair to our mum to have too many people in a cubicle with her, especially as she’s in the emergency department and probably panicking like anything right now. Plus Sanjay and Nita really need to meet you properly before you observe them.’

      Theo had to suppress a smile at the way Madison was taking control when officially she was his junior, but he liked her confidence and the way her first thoughts were for other people’s well-being. ‘Sure.’

      She stopped off at the reception desk and rang down to the emergency department to reassure them that she was on her way, then ushered him out of the department.

      â€˜So talk me through the mentoring stuff,’ he said.

      â€˜You know as well as I do, we have a recruitment crisis in our specialty,’ she said. ‘All the surveys say that students don’t want to work in obs and gynae because they have such a bad time on rotation—either they’re made to feel they get under the feet of the midwives, or they’re stuck in the furthest corner of an operating theatre watching a Caesarean.’

      â€˜So they never really get to do any of the work and they don’t feel part of the team.’

      â€˜Exactly,’ Madison said. ‘We’re organised nowadays so the team means a whole department, rather than the old way of having a “firm” of a consultant, registrar and house officers who always work together, and in a way that’s a shame because it makes it harder for junior doctors to settle into the team. I really think students need a single point of contact in a department to help them feel they’re really part of what’s going on. Yes, they have to sort out their logbooks and what have you, but they also need proper contact with patients and they need real jobs to do if they’re to get the best out of their attachment.’

      â€˜Responsibilities for something practical, such as a departmental audit,’ Theo suggested.

      That earned him another of the gorgeous smiles. ‘Absolutely. On our ward, we have two students at a time on attachment. I’m responsible for bedside teaching, and they attend my clinic and theatre sessions.’

      â€˜Are you pure obstetrics?’ Theo asked.

      She nodded. ‘Though I’m interested in foetal medicine as well.’

      â€˜So what about the gynae work?’

      â€˜I liaise with the consultants and the other registrars so the students get sessions with them, too—but I’m still their point of contact if they’re worried about anything, or if they want to see more of a particular subspecialty outside pure obstetrics. I also get them to spend time with the midwives, so they develop a rapport and a bit of respect for our colleagues, as well as a chance to see some low-risk births.’

      â€˜Instead of thinking that life in our ward is all epidurals and emergency sections,’ Theo agreed. ‘That sounds good. I notice you have a sensory room here.’

      â€˜And a water-birth suite. We want our mums to have the best, most natural and relaxing experience possible. Our midwives are fantastic, and we only intervene when we’re asked for help.’

      â€˜Amen to that,’ he said feelingly.

      The emergency registrar met them practically at the door and gave them a swift handover. Theo recognised the man’s voice—he was the one who’d swept Madison off her feet at the ball. Yet Madison didn’t greet him as if there was anything more than a professional relationship between them. And Iris had said that Madison hadn’t met the man to come between her and her career. So did that mean she was single after all?

      Crazy. He shouldn’t even be thinking about her like that.