‘I’ll set up the equipment right away.’
‘Excellent. Lucy can help you with that—in fact, it might be a good idea if she were to shadow you for the next week or so.’ He sent Matt a querying look. ‘It’ll give her a good insight into what goes on in Paediatrics.’
Matt hesitated just for a moment, and then said, ‘That’s fine. I’m okay with that.’
Lucy held her breath for a second or two, trying to take it in. She was to follow Matt around? Her mind skittered, seeking a way out of the situation, before coming around to the inevitable conclusion that there was no escape.
She had to be professional about this, of course. Obviously the professor had no idea how she and Matt tended to avoid one another back at the house, if only for the sake of peace and quiet. Something that had been easy enough when Jade and Ben had been around, but now …? She was doomed. Not only were they being thrown together at home, now they were to work together, as well. How long would it be before they found themselves at loggerheads over something or other?
Matt looked at her, and for a moment their glances met, each of them keeping their innermost thoughts hidden.
‘I’ll leave things with you, then,’ Professor Farnham said. ‘Any problems, and James will be around to help you out.’
Lucy looked anxiously at the baby after the professor had left. ‘He’s so small and vulnerable,’ she said softly. ‘I’m glad it’s not me having to do an invasive procedure on him. Are you okay with it?’ She sent Matt a troubled look. She felt unnaturally queasy at the thought.
He shrugged. ‘It has to be done if he’s to get better,’ he murmured. ‘Let’s take him over to the treatment room, and then we’ll scrub up.’
She went with him and helped him to lay out a trolley with the necessary medical equipment. It was something she’d seen done many times, and she knew well enough how to clean the baby’s skin and drape the chest area with dressings.
Matt sedated the baby, and all appeared to be well. Even so, her stomach lurched as he anaesthetised the area and prepared to make the incision. She didn’t know what was wrong with her. It was odd, this feeling of being out of synch with everything. She was usually on the ball and quite happy to go along with whatever procedure was needed.
Matt carefully identified the area over the baby’s rib and began to insert the chest tube. Lucy felt a wave of nausea swell up inside her. It threatened to overwhelm her, and immediately she began to panic. All of a sudden she felt hot, with beads of perspiration breaking out on her brow, and her heart was pounding so much that she could feel it in her throat. She felt faint.
This couldn’t be happening to her, not here, not now. Whatever would Matt think of her if she were to disgrace herself by being sick, here in the treatment room?
‘Are you all right?’ he asked, pausing as he checked that the tube was in place.
‘I’m fine,’ she managed, keeping her head down. She handed him the collecting device and he connected the tube to it so that the drained fluid could be accumulated and made available for testing.
‘You don’t look all right,’ he commented. ‘You’re very pale. Are you going to be sick?’
She shook her head and swallowed hard. She wouldn’t allow herself to be sick. Heavens above, she’d seen this operation performed many times before, and it didn’t make sense that now, of all times, she should want to throw up.
‘We’ll have to take him down to X-Ray to make sure that the tube is in the right place,’ he said.
She nodded. ‘I’ll just … I’ll … Excuse me a minute, will you?’ The way she was feeling, she knew she wouldn’t make it as far as Radiology, so she grabbed the opportunity to escape. Their work was more or less done here, and she wouldn’t be missed for a minute or two, would she? All she could think about was getting outside and finding some fresh air before she made a complete fool of herself.
It was probably too late, anyway. Matt had already guessed that she wasn’t feeling well, and he would come to the only possible conclusion, that she wasn’t fit to be a doctor if she felt faint assisting with a commonplace surgical procedure.
She didn’t wait for Matt to answer. Instead, she headed outside and made for the paved area set out in the L-shape created by the wall of the children’s ward where it met up with the treatment area. Fortunately for her there was no one around, and she found a bench to sit on, where she bent forward and put her head between her knees.
She stayed like that for a few minutes, only coming up for air when the nausea had passed.
‘Are you feeling any better now?’ For the second time that day, Matt startled her by arriving when he was least expected.
‘Oh,’ she said, looking at him aghast. ‘I thought … I thought I was on my own out here.’
He nodded. ‘It’s okay. No one else knows but me. How are you?’
‘Better,’ she admitted. ‘Much better. I’m sorry I rushed out on you. I don’t know what came over me. Is the baby okay? Does he still need to go to X-Ray?’
‘I asked the nurse to take him over there.’ He studied her, his dark eyes brooding. ‘I’m guessing you’re not likely to be pregnant, so the other explanation for you feeling ill could be lack of food. Let’s get you over to the cafeteria, and you can get some proper food inside you.’
She shook her head. ‘I can’t do that—I have to get on. Professor Farnham wants to see my case notes. He’ll want to know where I am.’
He frowned. ‘I doubt he’ll be waiting with bated breath. Did you eat properly while you were at your parents’ house?’
‘Of course I did.’ She looked at him, astonished that he could think otherwise. ‘Though … well, I missed tea, because I went with Dad to look over one of his projects, and by the time we arrived back at the house there were visitors waiting for us.’ She thought things through. ‘I should have made myself a snack for supper, I suppose, but it was late and I was so tired I just wanted to crawl into bed.’
He raised a dark brow. ‘I thought going home was supposed to be relaxing?’
She gave him a wan smile. ‘You know how my father is. He never stops. He’s always on the lookout for new properties to develop. And whenever I did get half an hour to myself, I switched on my laptop and did some work for my exams.’
‘Lord help us.’ He rolled his eyes heavenwards. ‘You won’t even reach first base as a doctor if you don’t know how to keep yourself healthy.’
She mulled that over for a while. Of course, he was right. He must have a very low opinion of her, and she deserved it. It was very depressing, and all at once she was swamped with guilt for letting things get to this state.
‘Come on,’ Matt said. ‘I’ll take you along to the cafeteria.’ He placed a hand beneath her elbow and helped her to her feet. ‘And don’t even think of asking for a salad. Jade told me you keep that perfect figure by cutting out pasta and fries, and anything else that might tend to add the pounds. That’s a silly way to be going on. You have to be at the top of your game, for heaven’s sake. You need nourishment.’
Jade
