Mum.’ Katy dragged a chair away from the table and sat down with one leg curled underneath her. ‘Dad. Good night?’
‘Marvellous. Perhaps you would like to bounce on the sofa as well as the bed,’ Alessandro suggested with sarcastic bite, ‘and then I wouldn’t have to sleep on it.’
Ben frowned, puzzled as he poured milk into his cup, slopping it everywhere. ‘But you don’t like us bouncing on the furniture.’
‘Dad was joking,’ Katy said calmly, reaching for a cloth to mop up the mess her brother had made. ‘He’s obviously in a bad mood because he slept badly. Tonight he’d better sleep in the bed.’
Alessandro threw his daughter an exasperated look and then turned to Christy. ‘How does she suddenly know so much?’
Christy gave a weak smile. ‘She’s growing up. Don’t worry. I’ll sleep on the sofa tonight. We’ll take turns.’
She poured herself another cup of coffee and missed the thoughtful smile on her daughter’s face.
The first person she saw when she arrived at work was Jake Blackwell, the obstetrician.
‘Babe! I heard you were back.’ He strolled towards her and dragged her into his arms for a hug.
Christy closed her eyes and held onto him. He was their oldest friend and suddenly she wondered exactly what Alessandro had told him. ‘It’s good to see you.’
Jake gently disengaged himself and looked down at her with a searching gaze. ‘That bad, huh?’
‘Oh, no, everything is fine,’ she lied with a forced smile, and Jake gave a soft laugh.
‘If everything is fine, my angel, then why is Alessandro taking everyone’s heads off and walking round like a volcano on the brink of eruption?’
‘He’s angry with me because I took the children away,’ Christy muttered, and Jake looked at her thoughtfully.
‘You think so?’
Christy stepped back and ran a hand through her hair to check it was still in place. ‘What other reason would there be?’
Jake’s eyes narrowed. ‘Well, I can think of another one but this probably isn’t the time or the place to go into that. Are you going to offer to cook me dinner some time? Don’t forget I’m just a poor, starving bachelor and I haven’t had one of your meals for weeks.’
Christy smiled. It was so good to have friends, she reflected. ‘Of course.’ It would make eating with Alessandro less tense. ‘Are you dating someone special at the moment?’
Jake gave her a wicked smile. ‘You know me, still auditioning for Miss Right.’
Christy sighed. She did know him. Knew his fearsome reputation with women. ‘You should settle down, Jake.’
‘When I find the love of my life, I’ll settle down,’ he drawled, ‘and not a moment before. I have you and Alessandro as an example.’
‘Us?’ She looked at him, startled. ‘What sort of an example are we?’
‘The very best,’ Jake said softly, lifting a hand to her cheek. ‘And don’t you forget that. You’re crazy about each other.’
‘We’re separated.’
‘So?’ Jake gave a dismissive shrug. ‘You’re both passionate, fiery people. You’ve lost your way for a while but you’ll find it again.’
No, they wouldn’t.
She’d lost hope.
Suddenly Christy wanted to blurt everything out. She wanted to tell Jake that Alessandro had put her in the spare room and that he wasn’t interested in her any more, but she couldn’t do that standing in a draughty, hospital corridor.
As if to confirm that point, Jake’s bleeper suddenly sounded and he lifted it from his pocket and read the number with a rueful smile. ‘Here we go again. Women just can’t do without me.’
Christy couldn’t help the smile. ‘You haven’t changed.’
‘And neither have you and Alessandro.’ He put the bleeper back in his pocket and gave her a thoughtful look. ‘Remember that, Christy. I’ll see you later.’
She watched him go, knowing that he was wrong. She had changed. Probably more than she’d realised.
‘Christy?’ Nicky appeared in the corridor. ‘I’ve got a woman coming in by ambulance who collapsed on the tennis court. Can you deal with her?’
Christy hurried towards her. ‘Tennis? There’s snow on the ground.’
‘Indoor court.’ Nicky grinned and pushed her into Resus. ‘She’s on her way now. Billy can help you to start with and he can call Alessandro if he needs to. We don’t really know how serious it is. Her sister is following by car. I’ll put her in the relatives’ room with a cup of tea but don’t forget to update her when you have some news.’
The woman arrived still dressed in her white tennis gear and clutching a vomit bowl.
‘This is Susan Wilde. She was very sick in the ambulance,’ the paramedic said as they lifted her from their stretcher onto the trolley. ‘She was playing tennis when she suddenly complained of a headache and collapsed.’
Christy covered the woman with a blanket while she listened to the handover and then Billy arrived and started his examination.
‘Mrs Wilde? Can you remember what happened?’
The woman turned her head slowly and looked at him blankly, as if she was having trouble focusing and concentrating. ‘Don’t know… Pain…’ She groaned. ‘Neck, head.’ Her eyes drifted shut again and Christy checked her observations quickly.
‘Her pulse is down and her BP is up,’ she said quietly. ‘I’ll get you a venflon so that you can put a line in and we’ll give her some oxygen straight away.’
Billy stared at her and then nodded. ‘OK. Yes. Good idea.’ He ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath. ‘I might just give Mr Garcia a call. Ask him to take a look at her.’
‘You get a line in and I’ll call him for you,’ Christy advised, handing him the necessary gear and then attaching ECG electrodes to the patient’s chest. ‘He’s going to want you to have obtained venous access. It looks as though she might have had a subarachnoid haemorrhage.’
‘Right.’ Taking the tourniquet from the tray she’d handed him, Billy slid it onto the patient’s arm and pulled it tight. As he searched for a vein and slid the venflon into place, Alessandro walked into the room.
‘Everything all right in here?’
‘I was just going to come and ask your advice,’ Billy confessed, releasing the tourniquet and raising his eyebrows as Christy handed him a selection of bottles. ‘What are those for?’
‘BMG, FBC, clotting screen and U and Es,’
