a smile. “Apologies, Marina. It’s been a long day.”
“Marina’s worried about her baby,” Cailey explained in a confident voice.
Ah! Of course. This was her terrain. He nodded for her to continue. It was a relief not to have to ooh and ah each time a fist curled, or a hiccough came halfway through an exam. In his darker moments he sometimes wondered if the only thing his fellow islanders could think to do during the slow winter months was procreate.
“She’s not experienced any blunt trauma, thank goodness, but when the quake struck she was taking a much-needed nap, I presume...”
Both women smiled at Marina’s large bump. She was probably near full term by now.
“Are you at seven months, Marina?”
“Eight,” she answered, her brow creasing with worry. “The baby used to kick all the time, but when the bed collapsed, I just—Ooooh...” She blew out a steadying breath as tears popped into her eyes. “I haven’t really felt the little one move since.”
“Well, then.” Cailey pulled on a fresh pair of gloves. “I guess we’d better take a look at the little one.”
Her tone was bright, efficient, and exactly what a worried mum needed to hear at a time like this.
She held out the scanning wand to Theo. “No, no, you go ahead. This is your terrain,” he said.
“You’re a maternity doctor?” Marina asked, her eyes brightening.
A flash of something crossed Cailey’s eyes before she answered. Frustration? Sadness? But when she turned back to Marina it was as if he’d imagined it.
“No, no. I’m a nurse working on a neonatal ward in a London hospital.”
“No chance you want to stay here, I suppose?” Marina asked, then threw an apologetic glance at Theo. “Apologies, Dr. Nikolaides, but sometimes it’s nice to have a woman to speak with about...you know...”
He nodded. He knew. But they were a small, charitable clinic running on a limited budget on an island few doctors wished to call home all year round. He’d tried to get female obstetricians to come in at least once a month, but with weather, budget constraints, people’s busy schedules—things didn’t always pan out.
He didn’t blame them, those doctors who refused his invitations to take a massive pay-cut and cope with small-town life complete with an unlimited supply of Mythelios Olive Oil.
Big-city hospitals, well-funded research clinics...those were the places that drew talent. Look at Cailey—she’d gone to London and stayed there. And his best friends had left. Add to that an earthquake, and... Oh, well. No need to go down that rabbit hole again.
Obstinacy—or something like it—was the only reason he stayed. Whether it was a relentless showdown or a twisted truce he and his father were engaged in...
He shook his head and forced himself to tune in to Cailey’s exam. There were no answers when it came to his father. But there were in medicine. Which was why he all but lived in the clinic. Long shifts were a damn sight better than “family time.”
Cailey had just slid up Marina’s top to expose her swollen belly, complimented her on her lack of stretch marks—something he would have felt like an idiot doing—and was about to apply a huge dollop of gel when she pulled it back.
“Have you eaten or drunk anything in the past few hours?”
Marina shook her head, then stopped herself. “I did drink a lot, because I remember from my last scan they needed me to have a full bladder. It doesn’t take much these days!”
“I’m not surprised.” Cailey laughed, then put the gel tube above Marina’s stomach. “Ready for the cold?”
Marina flinched as it hit her skin and gave a nervous laugh. “This is my third pregnancy. You’d think I would be used to it by now.”
“Skin never gets used to a sudden hit of cold,” Cailey soothed as she placed the baton on the far right of Marina’s stomach and began the scan. “So...let’s see what your little one has got up to.”
Theo rocked back on his heels and crossed his arms. It was nice to take a backseat for a change, to watch Cailey slip naturally into a role that obviously suited her. He’d never known why she hadn’t followed her dream of becoming a doctor and had instead opted for neonatal nursing, but if her complete calm and confidence at this moment exemplified her professionally he’d bet that London hospital would be holding on to her for dear life. Dedicated quality nurses were like rare jewels—something you kept close.
Soon enough, the tell-tale rush of a liquid-sounding heartbeat was accompanied by the whooshed release of air from everyone’s lungs.
The women’s eyes connected and together they laughed, then returned their attention to the screen. where they could see the curled-up form of a baby sucking its thumb.
Theo picked up Marina’s chart, which Petra had somehow magicked out of the mayhem despite the ongoing chaos at the clinic. “Want me to take notes?”
The women turned to him, almost surprised to see him still there.
“Sure. Feels like a luxury to have a doctor take the notes,” Cailey said with a smile.
“Consider it payback for all your excellent help today.”
Cailey’s brows contracted together briefly, as if she were trying to divine something deeper from his words before turning back to the monitor. “The good news is we have a steady, regular heart-rate. One-thirty.”
“Isn’t that a bit low?”
“Mmm...it’s at the lower end of the spectrum, but well within what we would expect. Anything below one hundred or above one-seventy would be of concern.” She winked at Marina. “Your baby is obviously made of stern stuff! Now, I presume you’re up to date on all your antenatal scans?”
“Yep. Dr. Nikolaides makes sure of that.”
Theo nodded and lifted up the clipboard as a reminder that he was here to take stats. These lapses into chit-chat with mothers always made him nervous. There were the inevitable questions—when are you planning on tying the knot? Starting a family of your own? Bringing a little shining star into the world for your parents to spoil? Conversations he normally actively avoided.
Cailey threw him a hold-your-horses look, but gave him the baby’s BP in the same steady voice she’d been using with Marina.
She checked the baby’s growth, matched the results with the previous figures and pronounced them excellent. She measured the blood flow between the placenta and the baby, and checked the amniotic fluid.
Cailey pointed at the screen, then clamped her fingers over her mouth. Her fingers dropped to her chin and she threw an uh-oh look in Theo’s direction before asking Marina, “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”
Marina nodded her head. Yes, she did. “It’s another boy! I’m going to be officially outnumbered when this one is born.” A look of panic crossed her face. “If everything’s all right?”
