the parents late today.’
‘I scheduled it for now as I thought you’d want to meet with the parents immediately.’
Juliet drew a deep breath. She needn’t have worried she was warming to him because Charlie Warren had very quickly given her a cold shower when he’d returned to being a dictator with a medical degree. She wasn’t sure if he had taken her cue or it was his intention all along but either way any attraction she had felt instantly disappeared.
Juliet had to think on her feet. She would not be made to appear less than professional by not attending the consultation. This was about the option of surgical intervention. Not Charlie Warren’s conservative treatment plan. Waiting for the birth was not in her expert opinion the best way forward. The best chance was surgery to remove the offending artery and save all four babies and she wanted the Abbiatis to have all the facts before they made their decision.
‘I want to meet with them as soon as possible.’
‘Then let’s go. I’m meeting with them in fifteen minutes.’
‘What about Bea?’
Charlie looked down at Bea’s little face and his heart began to melt. If life had been different he would have been looking at the face of his own child every night. He or she would have been younger than Bea but he and his wife had planned on children. Four of them if possible. Leaving the hospital every night to return to his wife and those much-loved children, to read them bedtime stories and tuck them in to sleep, was his dream but instead he returned to an empty house in the middle of renovations that he didn’t care about. His life was as empty as his house.
And suddenly the daughter of the overbearing woman who shouldn’t have any effect on him was doing just that. He wasn’t able to define what made her special—perhaps it was because she was like a tiny angel with a broken wing. Although he did not feel her mother had fallen from heaven.
‘I said, what do you propose I do with my daughter?’ Her voice was firm but not much more than a whisper. She didn’t want Bea to feel she was in the way or not wanted.
‘Bring her along to my office and I’ll ask one of the nurses to keep an eye on her,’ he told Juliet as he patted Bea’s hand.
‘I don’t feel comfortable with that.’
‘Then go home…’
‘Go home?’
‘I meant go back to the hotel and we’ll arrange a second consultation tomorrow.’ Charlie walked over and opened the door. ‘We’re all finished in here,’ he told the nurse as he left A&E.
‘So you won’t postpone the consultation until this afternoon, then?’ she asked, exasperated with his attitude and following slowly on his heels with Bea in tow.
‘No, definitely not. Postponing has the potential to make both parents extremely anxious, not to mention Leo’s taken time away from the family business to be here.’ Charlie pressed the elevator button for OBGYN on the second floor and turned back to face her.
Juliet’s gaze swept the hospital corridor as she rubbed her forehead. In her mind, the Abbiatis needed to be provided with both treatment plan options to consider. Charlie would no doubt suggest a ‘wait and see’ treatment plan or next propose medication as an option. After sleeping on it, the second option of surgical intervention, she conceded, would be the scarier of the two to Georgina and Leo. The delivery gap between both might sway them to what was not in their best interests. Nor the interests of the babies.
She felt trapped.
‘Fine, we’ll do it your way. I’ll attend,’ she said as the three of them stepped inside the empty elevator. ‘But I’ll need a few minutes to find the crèche and settle Bea in.’
‘Fine, you have ten minutes.’
‘Can’t you delay the consultation for half an hour?’
‘No.’
‘No?’ she repeated incredulously. ‘Not, perhaps…or I’ll see what I can do? Who made you the final decision maker? Oliver Darrington actually seconded me here, not you.’
‘But I’m Georgina’s OBGYN, so I make the final decision on this case. It’s how we run it at Teddy’s. Check with Oliver if you like, but he will without doubt defer to me.’
‘I don’t have time to chase down Mr Darrington.’
‘Good because I’m already running behind.’
The doors of the lift opened into OBGYN. The waiting room was full and all eyes turned to them. Charlie considered compromise was in everyone’s best interest. ‘I’ll give you twenty minutes to settle Bea into the crèche, Dr Turner. Then I’ll begin the Abbiatis’ consultation in Room Two-Thirteen.’
With that, Charlie disappeared down the corridor leaving Juliet and Bea standing opposite the nurses’ station. Juliet realised immediately that the middle ground he had offered had more to do with circumstance than generosity of spirit. The patients were all looking in their direction and had clearly been the impetus for the change in tone. She was well aware that he had the potential to be a medical ogre when out of earshot of others.
‘Dr Turner?’
Juliet looked up to see a very pretty willowy blonde nurse smiling back at her. ‘Yes.’
‘Hi, I’m Annabelle Ainsley. I’m the head neonatal nurse,’ the blue-eyed woman told her. ‘We’ve been expecting you.’
Juliet guessed the nurse to be in her mid-thirties as she stepped out from behind the station with her hand extended.
‘Juliet Turner,’ she responded as she met her handshake.
‘And who is this gorgeous young lady with the very pretty coloured cast?’
‘My daughter, Bea.’
‘Hello, Bea,’ Annabelle said.
Bea gripped her mother’s hand a little tighter as she looked up at the very tall nurse. Her long blonde hair was tied in quite a severe style atop her head that made her appear even taller.
‘Pink’s my favourite colour in the world,’ Annabelle continued and bent down a little to come nearer to the little girl’s height. ‘I love it so much I even have pink towels and pink soap.’
Bea loosened her grip a little. ‘Me too,’ she replied with her toothy grin and then smiled up at her mother before she continued. ‘I have a pink bed.’
‘Yes, you do, and a pink quilt. In fact your room is a pink palace,’ Juliet agreed.
‘Wow, that’s awfully special. I wish I had pink sheets and a pink quilt.’
Juliet was happy that Annabelle and Bea were engaging but she was becoming increasingly concerned about the timeframe she had to get to the consultation and she knew she was hiding the fact well.
‘Is there something I can help you with?’ Annabelle asked.
‘Yes, actually there is. I need to find the crèche
