But it was the nod from Charles that Grace really wanted to see before she pushed the charge button on the defibrillator.
‘Stand clear,’ she warned as crescendo of sound switched to a loud beeping. ‘Shocking now.’
It was very unlikely that one shock would convert the fatal rhythm into one that was capable of pumping blood but, to everyone’s astonishment, that was exactly what it did. Charles had his fingers resting gently near a tiny elbow.
‘I’ve got a pulse.’
‘Might not last,’ the surgeon warned. ‘He’s still cold enough for it to deteriorate back into VF at any time, especially if he’s moved.’
Grace nodded. ‘We won’t move him. Let’s keep on with what we’re doing with active external rewarming and ventilation. We’ll add in some inotropes as well.’
‘It could take hours.’ The surgeon looked at his watch. ‘I can’t stay, I’m afraid. I’ve got a theatre list I’m already late for but page me if you run into trouble.’
Charles nodded but the glance he gave Grace echoed what she was thinking herself. They had won the first round of this battle and, together, they would win the next.
There wasn’t much that they could do, other than keep up an intensive monitoring that meant not stepping away from this bedside. Heat packs were refreshed and body temperature crept up, half a degree at a time. There were blood tests to run and drugs to be cautiously administered. They could let the parents come in for a short time to see what was happening and to reassure them that everything possible was being done but they couldn’t be allowed to touch their son yet. The situation was still fragile and only time would give them the answers they all needed.
His name, they learned, was Toby.
It wasn’t necessary to have two senior doctors present the whole time but neither Charles nor Grace gave any hint of wanting to be anywhere else and, fortunately, there were enough staff to cover everything else that was happening in the department.
More than once, they were the only people in the room with Toby. Their conversation was quiet and professional, focused solely on the challenge they were dealing with and, at first, any eye contact was that of colleagues. Encouraging. Appreciative. Hopeful...
It was an odd bubble to be in, at the centre of a busy department but isolated at the same time. And when it was just the two of them, when a nurse left to deliver blood samples or collect new heat packs, there was an atmosphere that Grace could only describe as...peaceful?
No. That wasn’t the right word. It felt as though she was a piece of a puzzle that was complete enough to see what the whole picture was going to be. There were only a few pieces still to fit into the puzzle and they were lying close by, waiting to be picked up. It was a feeling of trust that went a step beyond hope. It was simply a matter of time.
So perhaps that was why those moments of eye contact changed as one hour morphed into the next. Why it was so hard to look away, because that was when she could feel it the most—that feeling that the puzzle was going to be completed and that it was a picture she had been waiting her whole life to see.
It felt like...happiness.
Nearly three hours later, Toby was declared stable enough to move to the paediatric intensive care unit. He was still unconscious but his heart and other organs were functioning normally again. Whether he had suffered any brain damage would not be able to be assessed until he woke up.
If he woke up?
Was that why Grace was left with the feeling that she hadn’t quite been able to reach those last puzzle pieces? Why the picture she wanted to see so badly was still a little blurred?
No. The way Charles was looking at her as Toby’s bed disappeared through the internal doors of the ER assured Grace that she had done the best job she could and, for now, the outcome was the best it could possibly be. That he was proud of her. Proud of his department.
And then he turned to start catching up with the multitude of tasks that had accumulated and needed his attention. Grace watched him walking away from her and that was when instinct kicked in.
That puzzle wasn’t really about a patient at all, was it?
It was about herself.
And Charles.
‘BIT COLD FOR the park today, isn’t it, Doc? They’re sayin’ it could snow.’
‘I know, but the boys are desperate for a bike ride. We haven’t been able to get outside to play for days.’
Jack brightened at the prospect of leaving the tiny space that was his office by the front door of this apartment block.
‘Stay here. I’ll fetch those bikes from the basement. Could do with checkin’ that the rubbish has been collected.’
‘Oh, thanks, Jack.’ It was always a mission managing two small boys and their bikes in the elevator. This way, he could get their coats and helmets securely fastened without them trying to climb on board their beloved bikes.
As always, he cast more than one glance towards the door at the back of the foyer as he got ready to head outside. He remembered wanting to knock on it when Grace had first moved in and that he’d been held back by some nebulous idea of boundaries. He didn’t have any problems with it now.
They’d come a long way since then. Too far, perhaps, but they’d obviously both decided to put that ill-advised kiss behind them and focus on a friendship that was growing steadily stronger.
And Charles had news that he really wanted to share.
So he knocked on Grace’s door. He knew she had a day off today because he’d started taking more notice of her name on the weekly rosters.
‘Charles... Hi...’ Was it his imagination or was there a glow of real pleasure amidst the surprise of a morning caller?
He could certainly feel that glow but maybe it was coming from his own pleasure at seeing her. Especially away from work, when she wasn’t wearing her scrubs, with her hair scraped back from her face in her usual ponytail. Today, she was in jeans tucked into sheepskin-lined boots and she had a bright red sweater and her hair was falling around her face in messy waves—a bit like it had been when he’d come home to find her sound asleep on his couch.
Horse sneaked past her legs and made a beeline for the boys, who shrieked with glee and fell on their furry friend for cuddles.
‘I have something I have to tell you,’ Charles said.
Her eyes widened. ‘Oh, no...is it Miranda? Helena texted me to say she was involved in that subway tunnel collapse—that she’d been trapped under rubble or something.’
Charles shook his head. ‘She’s fine. She didn’t even need to come into the ER. A paramedic took care of her, apparently. No, it’s about Toby. I just had a call from PICU.’
He could hear
