and in control when he spoke to patients suddenly had an unanticipated tone of understanding threading through it. It was as if he really did know how she was feeling. It all seemed surreal. First he’d touched the baby and now he had empathy she’d never seen in him before.
‘What do you think, Elly?’ Rachel’s trembling voice immediately grounded her. ‘Josh is on his way back from Launceston. Can we wait?’
She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, Rachel, but Gabe’s right. Millie needs treatment by a specialist paediatrician.’ She pulled her phone out of her coat pocket. ‘I’m ringing the retrieval team now.’
As she spoke to the triage doctor at Royal Children’s Hospital, she heard Gabe gently and carefully explaining to Rachel how the team would intubate Millie and attach her to a portable ventilator before taking off in the helicopter.
She rang off. ‘They’ll be here in forty minutes and, Rachel, you’re going to Melbourne with her.’
Gabe immediately handed Rachel his phone. ‘Ring your husband and tell him what’s happening. I can talk to him if he wants that and he can ring either Elly or me at any time.’
The terrified woman nodded mutely and with trembling fingers pressed the numbers on the touch screen.
Gabe caught Elly’s elbow and gently pulled her aside, his touch sparking off a traitorous wave of heat that spun through her, calling up the memory of every embrace and every kiss they’d shared.
That’s just silly. Not every kiss would have been wonderful.
‘Elly.’
He spoke softly and his warm breath stroked her ear. She felt her body start to sway toward him, seeking his as dangerously as a bug flying toward light. Be strong. She turned, which moved her slightly away from him but gave her a full view of his face. For the first time she noticed deep creases carved in around his eyes, and half-hidden in the shimmering blue was a seriousness she’d never seen before. A light shiver whooshed across her but this time she knew it wasn’t a ghost.
He ran his hand through his hair. ‘I’m staying with Millie until she’s airlifted.’
Surprise skittered through her. Gabe was a triage specialist—assess, prioritise, organise and move on. ‘One of the nurses will special her until the team arrives and we’re just next door, examining the other three babies.’
He shook his head vigorously. ‘You examine the other babies, send the nurse to set up the vaccination clinic in A and E and as soon as Millie leaves I’ll deal with all the suspected adult cases.’
Without waiting for a reply, he turned his attention back to Millie, examining her and rechecking that everything in the emergency intubation kit was ready just in case he needed it.
She’d never seen him drop the triage code like this or seen him so connected with a child. A million questions flooded her but not one could be voiced. Yet.
Six hours later, Elly came up for her first real break. The Jennings baby had been airlifted along with Millie, and the babies from the christening, although thankfully symptomless at the moment, were under close observation.
The local chapter of the Red Cross had joined forces with the state emergency service and had put together a phone-tree and a door-knock, notifying everyone of the need to come to the vaccination clinic over the next two days. Elly marvelled at how much could happen so quickly when a community pulled together.
Her phone beeped and vibrated as two text messages came in. She read the first one. ‘Hoping to see you this evening. Dev.’
A stab of guilt pricked her. She’d completely forgotten to get back to him after her one word text of ‘patient’ she’d sent earlier in the day. Now, after the day she’d experienced, she really only wanted to go home and sink into a bubble bath and pretend that her day off had actually been relaxing. Putting off her reply to Dev, she pressed ‘show message’ on her phone and the second text came through. ‘Just dim. U?’
She smiled and typed ‘dim’ on her phone, using predictive text, and got ‘fin.’ Some things didn’t change. Gabe’s fingers flew faster than his predictive text and he never checked before hitting ‘Send’. She walked down to A and E and as she rounded the corner of the central desk she saw him over by the window, talking on his mobile. She waved as he looked up.
He gave a quick, tight smile loaded with tension before turning away and ploughing his left hand through his hair. She caught the words ‘I won’t be too much longer but only if you think can you manage.’
Manage what? A ripple of sadness washed through her, reminding her of how much everything had changed and how separate their lives really were. Once his face would have lit up when she walked into a room and he would have pulled her into his arms, phone call or not.
Come on, get a grip, don’t go backwards. He obviously wanted privacy and not wishing to be accused of eavesdropping she moved away and tossed her white coat into the linen-skip. She’d just collected her bag from the bottom of the filing cabinet when Gabe appeared at the desk, pocketing his phone. His wide and generous mouth quirked up at the edges in a weary smile and again she noticed deeper lines that hadn’t been there two years ago.
‘So where can we go for an uninterrupted debrief?’
She hadn’t expected that, especially given the phone call. ‘If you need to leave we can always—’
He held up his hand. ‘As colleagues, we always debriefed our cases and the fact we’re no longer a couple isn’t a reason to stop.’ He plunged his hands into his pockets. ‘But can we get out of here to do it?’
Unwanted anticipation fluttered in her stomach and she tried to shut it down. This was work. ‘Sure, why not? I could do with some fresh air. Are you up for a walk?’
He grinned, the old Gabe suddenly front and centre. ‘Sounds good to me.’
They strolled through the hospital gardens, past the massed silver-bush plants with their cheery white flowers and silver-grey leaves, and then they turned toward the beach; two doctors discussing their cases, rethinking their treatment options and learning from pooling their thoughts.
Elly automatically turned left at a spindly tree and walked into the picnic area-cum-children’s playground nestled in the dunes above the sea wall. It was a popular place for families as the tidal river on this side of the bridge was quiet compared with further downstream where an eddying rip swirled at the tidal junction. She loved to sit on the sea wall and watch the parade of yachts, their brightly coloured spinnakers bulging in the wind as they raced between the channel markers, but most of all she loved to listen to the children’s shrieks of delight as they played on the swings and play equipment or on the beach below.
Often children would come and chat to her, holding up their buckets and proudly showing off their soldier crabs and periwinkles. Even though she knew it was a crazy daydream, she sometimes pretended she was part of it and was at the beach with her own children. One day. She bit her lip. She’d been telling herself that now for over two years and she wasn’t any closer.
Dev says he wants children.
Unease sat like a rock in her gut. The thought that had held tempting appeal last night seemed slightly tarnished in the full sunshine of daylight.
Gabe
