in which case I suggest you step out and attend to other patients, or we can get on with the procedure.’
Olivia felt the blood rush to her cheeks. She hadn’t been objecting to carrying out the procedure, just querying whether it would be better to wait until they’d taken him to Theatre. However, every minute they wasted arguing was time Mark didn’t have. She bit back the sharp retort that had risen to her lips and nodded. ‘I’ll stay and assist.’
The insufferable arrogance of the man. However, she wasn’t about to rise to the bait.
‘In fact,’ he said, ‘why don’t you do it while I assist?’
Olivia felt a frisson of excitement. She always grabbed any opportunity to acquire additional skills. His confidence in her was flattering and his aura of self-confidence immensely reassuring. Not all the attendings were prepared to teach the ER residents. ‘Thanks. I’d like to,’ she replied.
She scrubbed while Kelly set up the tray and one of the other nurses shaved Mark’s blood-matted hair and prepped the surgical field.
‘Good. I’ll show you how to get started then you can take over.’
David made a wide incision in the scalp below the dent in Mark’s head and peeled back the skin to expose an obvious depressed fracture of the skull. ‘This is the interesting bit. Take these elevators …’ he handed her two ‘… and lift the bone fragments up out of the way.’
Everyone seemed to hold their breath as Olivia did as David asked.
As soon as she’d lifted the shattered bone out of the way, a fat red blood clot bulged out towards her. Slowly and very carefully she removed the clotted blood and a satisfied glow spread through her as Mark’s vitals immediately improved.
She grinned at David. When he smiled back something seemed to tilt inside her chest, making her catch her breath. She dipped her head and concentrated on replacing the bone.
‘Good job, Dr Simpson. I’ll get him into the OR, patch up the skull fracture properly and repair the scalp incision.’
David peeled off his plastic apron and dropped it in the bin. The two ER nurses who were standing by exchanged smiles.
‘Could we get him up to the OR pronto?’ David asked. He removed his protective goggles and winked—winked!—at one of the nurses, who blushed furiously.
‘Thank you, Doctor,’ Olivia said stiffly. ‘We’ll get that organised.’
David indicated with a nod of his head that she accompany him outside. Olivia went with him, knowing if she didn’t he was likely to have his say in front of the staff.
But to her amazement he didn’t launch into an attack. ‘I meant what I said back there. Good work,’ he said. ‘You have the steady, delicate touch of a surgeon.’
Instinctively Olivia looked down at her hands. Did he guess that at one time she’d thought of being a surgeon? But that had been before Richard had become ill. Then the long hours and years the training would have required had been out of the question. She’d never regretted the decision, and when Richard had gone into remission and they’d decided to grab the chance to have a family, her dream of becoming a surgeon had faded into second place. The hours she’d worked in the ER had been long and hard enough as it was.
‘I wasn’t trying to argue with you earlier,’ she said quietly. ‘I was only wondering whether it would be better for our patient to wait until we got him to ER.’
His grin grew wider. ‘Hey, think nothing of it.’ He winked again, then his smile vanished and he lowered his voice. ‘Despite anything you might have heard about me, or will hear, I’m a bloody good surgeon. It is the one thing I take seriously. I expect we will brush up against each other in ER pretty often, so it is as well that you know.’
Brush up against each other! To her mortification an image of them brushing up against each other flashed into her mind. And it didn’t have anything to do with being in the emergency room. The blood rushed to her cheeks. Good God, did every pregnant woman’s brain turn to mush like this? Or was there something wrong with her?
‘I don’t intend to tussle with you every time we disagree about how to treat a patient,’ David continued. ‘Just as I won’t argue with you when you make an ER decision.’ He shot her a quizzical look but his eyes were glinting. ‘Hey, is it warm in here or what?’
‘They always keep the ER too warm,’ she said as nonchalantly as she could.
Candice came out of Resus and hurried towards them.
‘They say they’ll be ready for you in the OR in ten minutes, Dr Stuart.’
Without warning, an image of Mark’s exposed brain flashed back into Olivia’s mind, but instead of Mark she saw Richard on the operating table. To her mortification, her eyes filled. This damn pregnancy was playing hell with her emotions.
David seemed to do a double take and the smile left his eyes. ‘Damn. You’re crying. Is it something I said?’
Even more mortified, Olivia tried a smile. She blinked the tears away and pointed to her face. ‘Pregnancy hormones. Sorry. They’ve turned me into the oddest person—someone I don’t recognise.’
A strange expression crossed David’s face. Had she not known better she would have said it was regret, but just at that moment a white-faced woman carrying a toddler rushed through the doors and up to the reception desk. ‘I’m Mrs Lightbody. I understand my husband, Mark, is here. Where is he? Is he all right?’
‘Shall we have a word?’ David asked, tilting his head in the woman’s direction. ‘Or I can do it alone, if you need a moment.’
Olivia grabbed a tissue from the box on the counter and blew her nose. Then she looked him in the eye. ‘See! Back to a normal person. Told you it wouldn’t last. Let’s go and put Mark’s wife out of her misery.’
That evening Olivia left the ER later than usual. She was tired, and the thought of going home to her empty home held little appeal. She groaned as she remembered that she hadn’t been shopping for a while and ran a mental inventory of her fridge contents in her head. A couple of eggs, some stale bread and orange juice. That was it. Damn.
Although she wasn’t hungry, she had to think about the baby. Not for the first time, she sent a silent prayer heavenwards when she thought of the deli a few streets away from where she lived. It had a few tables and served delicious home-cooked meals. She ate there at least once a week.
As she stepped out into the car park, she saw a familiar figure bent over a bicycle. David was studying a flat tyre and looking around as if he expected a replacement wheel to appear out of nowhere. She’d passed him once or twice on her way into work and he had always been on his bike. It had surprised her. If anything, she would have expected him to ride a Harley-Davidson or a sports car. Maybe he did it for effect? He probably knew that he looked pretty damn sexy in his sleeveless T-shirt and cycling shorts. God! Now she was getting all hot under the collar again.
For a moment she was tempted to walk past as if she hadn’t seen him. She really was too tired to deal with someone as exhausting as David, but then good manners got the better of her. He’d helped her the other day, so she could hardly leave him to his own devices.
‘Problem?’
