go.’
‘I’m not going to.’
‘No matter how easy it is to drop down to part time
or—’
‘Mum! I’ve got a one-year-old to support so dropping my hours down isn’t even on the agenda. Not for the next seventeen years at least.’
‘He seems nice.’ Louise’s head jerked to the door. ‘Jed.’
‘He is.’
‘Penny said that you two have been seeing each other.’
‘Mum!’ Jasmine was firm. ‘It’s early days. Neither of us wants to rush into anything and there’s Simon to think of. Still—’ she couldn’t help but share the news, ‘—I’m going to the A and E ball with him tonight.’
‘What are you wearing?’
‘I don’t know yet.’ Jasmine ignored her mother’s horrified expression. ‘I’m going to look at lunchtime.’
‘In the village?’
Jasmine closed her eyes. There were about two clothes shops near enough to get to in her lunch break and, no, she didn’t think they would have a massive selection of ballgowns to choose from.
‘I’d lend you something, but …’
‘I’m not borrowing something from my mum!’
‘I’ve got very good taste,’ Louise said, ‘and a black dress is a black dress, but …’ she ran an eye over Jasmine ‘… it wouldn’t fit.’
‘Just keep pushing that pain medication button, Mum.’ Jasmine smiled. ‘You might need it soon.’
‘What about your wedding dress?’
‘Please.’
‘Well, it’s not really a wedding dress, is it?’ Louise pointed out. ‘It would look lovely.’
‘No.’ Jasmine gave her mum a kiss. ‘I have to get back.’
‘Are you getting your hair done?’
‘Yes!’ Jasmine lied. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to let the side down.’
‘I know. Can you drop by on your way?’
‘Mum!’ That was too cringy for words.
‘Penny is.’
‘Oh, Mum,’ Jasmine said. ‘I think I preferred the old you.’
‘Tough.’ Louise smiled. ‘You’ve got a new mum now. Right, you have a lovely day and I’ll look forward to seeing you this evening.’
Jasmine headed back down to Emergency and gave a brief nod to Penny, who was sitting at the nursing station writing up notes, and beside her was Jed.
‘Have you seen Mum?’
Jasmine blinked in surprise. ‘I’ve just been,’ Jasmine said. ‘She looks well.’
‘What’s her temp?’
‘Down to thirty-seven point five.’
‘Good.’
‘Well, she’s certainly changed her tune,’ Jasmine said to Jed as Penny was called back into Resus. ‘I’m actually being acknowledged.’ She made sure no one was listening. ‘Have you heard?’
‘What?’
‘Jed!’ He was so annoying sometimes. ‘About the job,’ she mouthed.
‘Not yet!’ he mouthed back. And then she remembered something. ‘This is too embarrassing for words, but on the way to the ball Mum wants me to pop in.’
‘No problem.’
‘For two minutes.’
‘It’s no big deal,’ Jed assured her.
‘For you maybe,’ Jasmine grumbled. ‘I think they bypassed the old mum when they did surgery.’
‘Jasmine.’ She heard a rather familiar call from Greg and, jumping off her seat, she dashed into Resus to see the head injury Penny had been working on looking significantly worse. His arms were extending to painful stimuli and Penny was sedating him and getting ready to intubate.
Penny was marvellous, barking out her orders as always, but she actually called for Jed’s help when the anaesthetist didn’t arrive. Whatever way you looked at it, she was fantastic at her job, just a cow around the staff. That was to say, all the staff, so she didn’t deliberately take it personally when Penny told her none too politely to hurry up as Jasmine loaded a syringe with propofol, an oily drug that was a bit slow to draw up. And she really was confident in her work. Penny’s hands weren’t even shaking as she intubated the patient, Jasmine noticed.
And then Lisa spoke and as Jasmine pulled up some more medication she noticed that her own hands were shaking.
‘There’s an ICU bed at Melbourne Central. The chopper is already out so I’ve called for MICA and a police escort.’ She told the anaesthetist the same when he arrived and then she told Jasmine to prepare the patient and get herself ready.
‘It will be fine,’ Jed said just a little while later when Mark and his colleague arrived and transferred the patient to the stretcher. ‘Jasmine, it will be.’
‘I know.’
‘No one’s going to say anything.’
‘And if they do?’
‘They won’t,’ Jed said. ‘But if they do, just tell them to mind their own business.’
He gave her shoulder a squeeze. ‘If I don’t see you before, I’ll pick you up about six-thirty.’
Oh, God … Jasmine would have closed her eyes, except she had to move now, had to follow the stretcher into the ambulance. No, she wasn’t going to be buying a dress this lunchtime, neither would she be sorting out her hair.
Instead she was going back to Melbourne Central.
With a police escort they practically flew down the freeway. The patient was stable throughout and Craig, the anaesthetist, was very calm, as were the paramedics. It was Jasmine whose heart was hammering as they approached the hospital she had loved and the place it had hurt so much to leave.
‘Are you okay, Jasmine?’ Mark asked, before they climbed out.
‘Sure.’
‘No one’s going to eat you.’
‘I know.’
Of course, it was a bit of an anticlimax. The hospital didn’t suddenly stop just because she was back. In fact, she didn’t recognise any of the staff on ICU as she handed the patient over.
The paramedics were going to be taking Jasmine and Craig back to Peninsula, but Mark wanted to take a break before the return journey.
‘We’ll just grab some lunch at the canteen,’ Mark told her.
‘I’ll meet you back at the ambulance,’ Jasmine told him. Tempting as it was to hide out in the canteen, Jasmine decided that she was tired of running away from things, tired of feeling guilty over mistakes that weren’t even hers, so feeling nervous but brave she walked into Emergency.
‘Hi.’ She smiled at a face she didn’t recognise. ‘I was wondering—’
‘Jasmine!’ She never got to finish her sentence as Hannah, the charge nurse, came rushing over. ‘Where have you been?’
‘I moved back home.’
‘You never even let us know you’d had your baby. Martha said that she heard it was