It noticed him.
It reacted to him.
And Nina didn’t like it one bit.
She could feel his eyes lazily watching her as she took off her coat, was incredibly aware of him as she hung up the garment and headed to the table to commence the meeting. She almost anticipated the slight inappropriateness that would undoubtedly come from his smirking lips.
He didn’t disappoint her. ‘Nice to see someone at the meeting with their clothes on,’ Jack said as she made her way over, because everyone apart from Nina and Jack was wearing scrubs. Everyone present laughed a little at his off-the-cuff remark.
Everyone, Jack noted, but Nina.
Then again, he’d never really seen her smile, at least not at him. She was always so serious, so intense and the only time her face relaxed and lit up with a smile was when she was engaging with her clients.
This morning she had on a grey pinafore dress with a red jumper beneath, but this was no school uniform! The red stockings and black boots that she wore took care of that. Nina’s dark blonde hair was pinned up and her cheeks were red from coming into the warmth of the hospital from a very cold January morning.
‘Sorry I’m late,’ Nina said, taking a seat at the table opposite him. Just as Jack found himself wondering if the workaholic Nina had actually overslept, she corrected his thought process. ‘I got called to go out on an urgent response.’
And, rather inconveniently for Jack, he wondered if there was a Mr Wilson who got annoyed at having Nina peeled from his bed at the crack of dawn by the emergency response team, or even a Ms Wilson, who bemoaned her partner leaving her side. Jack realised then that not once had Nina so much as flirted with him. Not once had she turned those cobalt-blue eyes to his in an attempt to bewitch him, which might sound arrogant, but flirting was par for the course when your name was Jack Carter.
Just never with Nina.
‘Right.’ Nina glanced around the table. Every person present felt like the enemy in this meeting and so she didn’t bother to smile. ‘Shall we get started, then?’
Nina really wasn’t looking forward to this morning.
Normally she would have spent a lot of the weekend poring over the medical notes and histories, but she had been working at the pro bono centre as well as moving into her new three-bedroomed apartment. She’d hoped to get into work very early this morning and go over the notes again, but instead, at four a.m., just as her alarm clock had gone off, so too had her phone, and now Nina felt less than prepared.
Which was very unlike her.
Certainly, it didn’t sit well with her. In a few short weeks her own family would be under the spotlight of a case conference and she wanted her sister and brother’s case worker to be as passionate and as informed as she usually was. Still, even if Nina hadn’t prepared as meticulously as usual, she was still well informed and, given Sienna was only two weeks old, most of the details of the case were fresh in her mind.
She knew that most of the medical staff were opposed to Sienna being discharged home to the parents. Their concerns had been well voiced and they were repeated again now.
First she heard from Brad Davis, head of the prenatal unit. Brad had seen Hannah for her very brief prenatal care and had also delivered Sienna, but thankfully he was very matter-of-fact in his summing up.
‘Hannah presented to us at thirty-four weeks gestation,’ Brad explained. ‘She had recently resumed her relationship with Sienna’s father, Andy. He was seemingly the one who insisted that Hannah attend Angel’s. Andy was concerned about Hannah’s drug habit and the effect it would have on their unborn child—Hannah’s only concern was feeding her habit.’
‘At that time,’ Nina responded, and Brad nodded. ‘She complied with the methadone programme?’ Nina asked, and again Brad nodded, and so on they went.
Nina heard from the midwives and nursing staff and also the addiction counsellors who had been in regular contact with Hannah.
Eleanor Aston, though, was particularly difficult. Always a huge advocate for her patients, Eleanor was perhaps the most insistent that Sienna be removed from her mother’s care.
‘I looked after her son last year.’ Eleanor’s voice shook with emotion. ‘And I can remember—’
‘We’re not discussing Sienna’s half-brother this morning,’ Nina interrupted. She knew that it was terribly difficult to separate the two cases, especially as Eleanor had dealt with Hannah at her very worst and had looked after what had indeed been a very sick little baby boy with a very cold and unfeeling mother, but this was a crucial part of Nina’s job and one that made her less than popular at times with the medical staff.
‘The difference this time around is that Hannah is doing her best to get straight and she is also in a very different relationship with this baby’s father. As soon as Andy found out that Hannah was pregnant he brought her straight to Angel’s and has been rigorously making sure that she keeps up with the programme, and Hannah herself has made a huge effort—’
‘When?’ They were half an hour into the meeting and it was the first time that Jack had actually spoken. He looked across the table at Nina as he did so. ‘When exactly did Hannah make this huge effort that you keep talking about?’
‘Since she came to Angel’s.’ Nina’s voice was very calm. She had been expecting Jack to step in at any moment and she hadn’t been proved wrong.
‘She had nine months to dry out,’ Jack said, and then corrected himself. Nina was quite sure Jack’s mistake was deliberate. ‘Oh, sorry, make that eight months, because it was considered vital that we induce her early due to the baby’s failure to thrive in the womb.’ Still he stared at Nina, perhaps waiting for her to interrupt, or to speak over him, but she met his cool gaze without words of her own and Jack carried on.
‘So, all in all, she actually managed two weeks of antenatal care, mainly because of her boyfriend’s efforts, and then two weeks of huge effort postnatally, but only with every system and resource available in place.’
‘Your point being?’ Nina asked, and Jack didn’t answer. ‘Why wouldn’t we offer every resource that we have to this family?’ She watched his jaw tighten as she scored a point.
‘Hannah has been attending addiction counselling twice daily. For the first time she actually wants all the help and support that we can provide and there is also an extremely devoted father who, I am quite sure, will put the baby’s welfare first. Hannah has broken down with me on two separate occasions and told me that she doesn’t want another child taken off her and that she is prepared to do whatever it takes. Now, I know that this is early days—’
‘My doctors have been up with that baby night after night,’ Jack interrupted. ‘I personally have been called in when Sienna has become agitated and distressed.’ His eyes held Nina’s and she didn’t blush or blink but simply met his gaze. ‘The baby had severe withdrawal, she was small for her dates due to maternal malnourishment, just like her older brother, and it is my opinion that the last person the baby—’
‘Sienna,’ Nina interrupted. ‘The baby is called Sienna and to date there is nothing that I have seen, from my many observations, to indicate that any of the traits that
