‘Just lie still.’
‘I know what I’m saying—I’m an anaesthetist,’ Juan said. ‘I work in Emergency…’
‘They say that doctors make the worst patients.’ Still he smiled down. ‘I’m Ken.’
Trust his luck to get an over-eager Boy Scout come across him. Juan lay there as Ken’s wife came over, telling them that the ambulance was on the way.
‘Hold his head, darling,’ Ken said. ‘I’ll lift the bike.’
‘What about the helmet?’ She looked down at Juan. ‘I’m Olive, by the way.’
‘Don’t try and remove it,’ Ken warned. ‘Leave that for the paramedics.’
His day could not get any better, Juan thought, lying there. Of course he could shrug them off, get up and stand, but they were just trying to help. He should be grateful, Juan told himself. Technically they were doing everything right, except, apart from a grazed shoulder, there was not a thing wrong with him.
He was grateful.
Juan looked up at Olive and remembered the last time he’d had an accident. He had been lying on his side, begging bystanders not to touch him, not to roll him, not to move him.
It’s not like last time.
Over and over he told that to himself and held onto the scream that was building.
He’d explain things to the paramedics, Juan decided, closing his eyes and hearing the faint wail of a siren far in the distance. He tried to calm himself, but there was an unease building as he thought of the paramedics’ response when he told them about his previous injuries. An appalling thought occurred when he tried to work out his location and the nearest hospital.
He did not want Cate to know.
Juan did not want his past impinging on the little time they’d had, yet he could hear the paramedics making their way over to him and knew that it was about to.
‘Juan!’ Louise smiled down at him, shone a torch in his eyes as she spoke to him. ‘What happened to you?’
He told her. ‘It was a simple accident. I have only grazed my shoulder. I’m not going to hospital.’
‘Let’s just take a look at you, Juan.’ Louise was calm. ‘Were you knocked out?’
‘No.’
‘How did you land?’
‘On my shoulder.’
Her hands were feeling around his neck. ‘Do you have any pain in your neck?’
‘None.’ He felt her fingers still on the scar and then gently explore it.
‘Is there any past history that we need to know about, Juan?’
He stared up at the sky at the tops of the trees and he absolutely did not want to reveal anything, except only a fool would lie now.
‘I had a spinal injury.’
‘Okay.’ Louise waited for more information.
‘Eighteen months ago.’
He just stared up at the trees as the routine accident suddenly turned serious. ‘I’m fine, Louise.’ He went to sit up but hands were holding his head.
‘Just stay still, Juan.’
‘My neck is stable, better than before…’
‘What injury did you have?’
‘I had an incomplete fracture to C5 and C6.’
He lay there as they carefully removed the helmet and he was placed in a hard collar, and the spinal board was brought from the ambulance.
‘I don’t want to go to Bayside,’ Juan said as they lifted him in.
‘I’m sorry, Juan. We need to take you to the nearest Emergency.’
‘Nothing is wrong.’
‘We have to take all precautions. You know that.’ Louise cared only for the health of her patients and pulled out the words that were needed. ‘I’m following protocol.’
He couldn’t argue with that.
The best that he could hope for was that Cate might be on her break, that he could somehow slip in and out of the department unnoticed by her. She might even be holed up in her office.
Except she wasn’t Christine.
She wasn’t like anyone.
Cate was like no one he had ever met.
Juan stared up at the ceiling of another ambulance and said it over and over again to himself.
It’s not like last time.
CATE REGRETTED THAT she’d had to ask Harry, she truly did, but she had never been more grateful about how approachable Harry was than when he came in to examine young Timothy.
The boy was, in fairness to the paediatricians, markedly more distressed by the time Harry arrived. Harry took some bloods, called the lab and asked for the tests to be put through urgently. Then he called the orthopaedic surgeons as it began to look more and more as though the child might have septic arthritis, which was a surgical emergency and needed to be dealt with as quickly as possible.
‘They’re going to take him up for aspiration of the hip under sedation,’ Harry explained to Cate a short while later, ‘and they’re getting started immediately on antibiotics.’ He was just writing up his admission notes when Lillian, the director of nursing, came and asked Cate if she could have a word.
‘Over here.’
Lillian gestured to a place away from the nurses’ station and as they walked up to the drug fridge and out of Harry’s earshot, Cate took a deep breath, because she knew what was coming next. ‘Why,’ Lillian asked, ‘is the student nurse sitting in the observation ward, drawing pictures with Harry’s children?’
‘Because Dr Vermont, who was supposed to be the on-call consultant this weekend, has rung in sick. Sheldon was worried about a patient the paediatricians have discharged and luckily for us Harry came in. As it turns out, it would seem that the child has septic arthritis.’
‘Then why,’ Lillian persisted, ‘is a student nurse, who should be getting clinical experience, acting as a childminder, instead of being out on the floor?’
‘Because she was already rostered on the observation ward…’ Cate was saved from having to explain herself further when she looked up and saw that Louise was signalling her to come over so that she could have a word.
‘Excuse me,’ Cate said. ‘I’m needed.’
‘We’ll discuss this later.’ Lillian said. ‘This really can’t continue.’
Cate knew it wasn’t over yet, but for now she was happy to escape a lecture and walked over to Louise.
‘What you got for us?’ Cate asked.
‘A very reluctant patient,’ Louise said.
‘So, what’s new?’
‘It’s Juan,’ Louise said, and Cate felt the colour drain from her face. ‘He didn’t want to come here but I’ve stuck to protocol and brought him to the closest Emergency. He seems okay…’ Louise frowned at Cate’s pale lips. ‘He came off a motorcycle. He’s got a few cuts and a nasty abrasion to his shoulder, but he’s had a previous spinal injury.’ Cate stood for a moment as she heard that it wasn’t whiplash they were talking about, that, in fact, Juan had broken