of the population around Crocodile Creek would be indigenous Australians, and she knew from experience how reluctant they were to leave their people. For a tribal elder to come to Crocodile Creek for an operation would be hugely stressful, but here at least here they could still be surrounded by their own. To be flown to Brisbane, where there was no one of their tribe and no one spoke their language, was often tantamount to killing them. The cultural shock was simply too great for them to handle.
That would be part of the reason Crocodile Creek would be set up so well, she knew. This base would do surgery which would normally only be done in the big teaching hospitals. Death rates would be higher because of it, but the population would accept it. The doctors involved had to accept it.
But this doctor in particular didn’t have to like it.
‘So we have no paediatrician and no cardiologist.’
‘We’re not normally this short-staffed,’ Cal told her. ‘We’ve had a couple of dramas.’
He sounded defensive, she thought. Good. It stopped her thinking about all sorts of things she should be defensive about.
‘Do you have an obstetrician?’
‘Georgie’s mother died last week. She’s flown down to Sydney with her little boy, and we don’t want to pull her back unless we have to. She had back-up—Kirsty was an obs and gynae registrar—but there was a bit of a dust-up and Kirsty and Simon left in a hurry. Emotional stuff.’
‘Emotional stuff?’ she demanded, astonished, and he looked even more discomfited.
‘Um, yeah. We don’t need to go there.’
Of course not. When had he ever?
But she had a baby to take care of. Cal’s emotional entanglement, or lack of it, had to wait.
Mike was waiting for her to make a decision. He was looking interested—as interested in the chemistry between them as he was in the baby—and that made her flush. She remembered how intimate working in this sort of environment could be. She even remembered enjoying it, but she didn’t relish the questions she saw forming in Mike’s eyes now.
‘I’ll wait for an hour and reassess,’ she said, trying to make her voice calm and professional. ‘We need to get him fully warmed and make sure the shock of delivery has worn off. Maybe once he’s settled we might get better circulation.’
‘But probably not,’ Cal said.
‘No,’ she said heavily. ‘Probably not.’
‘So Gina’ll need to stay.’ Mike wasn’t sure what was going on—his eyes were still asking questions—but he was certainly prepared to be friendly while he found out. He gave Cal a rueful smile. ‘Just lucky we have plenty of room in the doctors’ quarters, eh?’
Cal’s face tightened. ‘She can’t stay in the doctors’ quarters.’
‘Why not?’ Mike was confused.
‘I’ll stay in town,’ Gina said hurriedly, but Mike shook his head. He was obviously a skilled paramedic, accustomed to making hard decisions, fast decisions, and he made one now.
‘No way. I’m sorry, Gina, but this baby is sick.’ He cast a dubious glance at Cal—as if he thought Cal might just be losing his mind. ‘We all know this baby’s high risk. It seems to me that we need our cardiologist on hand, right here. Wouldn’t you say, Cal?’
‘Of course.’ The words were tight and blunt. Cal turned away to pack equipment and Mike shook his head at his friend. He was obviously still confused.
‘Cal’s being a bore,’ he told Gina, with another dubious glance at his friend. ‘He’s tired. Too much work. But there’s plenty of us around here who are gentlemen.’ He tried a smile. ‘Especially me.’ He waited to see if he’d teased a reaction from Cal, but a reaction wasn’t anywhere in sight. ‘OK.’ He sighed. ‘Let’s find your son and find you a bedroom.’
‘I’ll stay here and monitor the baby,’ Cal told them, still without turning around.
‘Of course,’ Mike said politely. ‘How did I know you were going to say that?’
‘The baby needs monitoring.’
‘Of course he does, Dr Jamieson,’ Mike agreed. He compressed his lips in disapproval and then he turned to Gina. ‘OK. There’s obviously just me being a gentleman, but I’m all yours. Take me or leave me.’
Charles entered the nursery silently, wheeling his chair across the smooth linoleum until he came to rest against the incubator under the overhead lights. Cal was gazing down at the baby and, seeing the look of his face, Charles thought, Uh-oh.
‘Will we lose him?’
Cal turned and stared, almost unseeingly, down at his friend.
‘I don’t know. He has a chance.’ There was a moment’s silence. ‘Gina’s here.’
‘I heard.’ Charles hesitated. He’d met Gina before, just the once. He’d been astounded by the change the relationship had wrought on his reserved friend, and when it had gone pear-shaped he’d felt ill. Now Mike had given him a quick update on what was happening, and he was even more concerned. He’d suspected Cal’s past would catch up with him sooner or later but, damn, he didn’t want him to be presented with it now.
From a selfish point of view they were too many doctors down already. He couldn’t afford to have another of his staff in emotional crisis.
‘Are you coping?’ he asked, and Cal shrugged.
‘I’m coping. You’ve seen the kid?’
‘I’ve seen the little boy, yes.’
‘Dammit, Charles, he looks like me.’
‘Could you be his father?’
It was a direct question and it jolted Cal. He stared at the question from all sides and there was only one answer.
‘Yeah,’ he said heavily. ‘I could.’
‘And that makes you feel—how?’
‘How do you suppose it makes me feel?’ Cal turned and faced his friend square on. ‘If it’s true… She got pregnant and left? Went back to the States to her husband?’ He closed his eyes. ‘Hell, Charles, I don’t want to think about it. I can’t think. I don’t have time. We need to get this baby viable. He needs urgent surgery and we’re stuck with Gina to do it. No one else has the skills.’
He stared down into the crib and his mouth twisted. ‘We’ll do the best for him, poor little scrap. He’s been abandoned, too. People…they play games. They have kids for all sorts of reasons. Who knows what the reason is behind this little one and who knows what the reason is behind the child who’s out in Mrs Grubb’s kitchen, waiting for his mother to take him home? I can’t face any of it. Just… Let’s stick to medicine. It’s all I know. It’s all I want to know.’
There was a moment’s silence. Move on, Cal willed
