busy morning, with the usual falls and sprains and strains, and a six-month-old baby with a temperature that wouldn’t go down and had then started having a fit. The baby’s mother had panicked and asked a neighbour to drive them in rather than waiting for an ambulance, and the triage team had rushed her straight into the department.
The baby’s jaws were clenched firmly together, so Harry looked at Isla and said quietly, ‘Naso-pharyngeal, I think.’
Almost as soon as he’d finished talking, she had an appropriately sized tube in her hand and was lubricating the end. Between them, they secured the baby’s airway and gave her oxygen, and Isla was already drawing up a phial of diazepam.
Clearly she’d come across convulsions in babies before.
Between them, they checked the baby’s blood glucose and temperature.
‘Pyrexia,’ Harry said softly. ‘I’m pretty sure this is a febrile convulsion.’
‘So we need to cool her down and check for infection,’ Isla said. At his nod, Isla deftly took off the baby’s sleep-suit and sponged her skin with tepid water while Harry checked with the baby’s distraught mother when she’d last given the baby liquid paracetamol. Once the fit had stopped and the baby’s temperature spike had cooled, Isla prepared everything for an infection screen.
‘I’ve never seen anything like that before. Is Erin going to be all right?’ the baby’s mother asked.
‘She’s in the best place and you did the right thing to bring her in,’ Harry reassured her. ‘I think the fit was caused by her high temperature, but we need to find out what’s causing that—if it’s a virus or a bacterial infection—and then we can treat her properly.’
‘Will she have any more fits?’ Erin’s mother asked.
‘Very possibly,’ Isla said, ‘but that doesn’t mean that she’ll develop epilepsy. Having a high temperature is the most common cause of fits in children between Erin’s age and school age. We see this sort of thing a lot, so try not to worry.’
Worry, Harry thought. Parents always worried themselves sick over small children. And so did their older siblings—especially when they were supposed to be taking care of them and things went badly wrong.
He pushed the thought away. It was years ago, now, and he was older and wiser. Plus nowadays Tasha would give him very short shrift if he fussed over her too much; she was fiercely independent. And you couldn’t change the past; all you could do was learn from it. Harry had most definitely learned. He never, ever wanted to be responsible for a child in that way again.
‘I’m going to admit her,’ Harry said, ‘purely because she’s so young and it’s the first time she’s had a fit. Plus I want to find out what’s causing the infection. We’ll keep an eye on her in case she has more convulsions. But you can stay with her.’
‘I’ll take you both up to the ward and introduce you to the team,’ Isla said.
‘And she’s going to be all right?’ the baby’s mother asked again.
‘Yes,’ Harry said, and patted her arm. ‘I know it’s scary, but try not to worry.’
Ha. And what a hypocrite he was. He knew that panicky feeling all too well. Would the baby be all right? The overwhelming relief when you knew that the baby would survive. And then the guilt later on when you discovered that, actually, there was a problem after all … Harry’s mistake had come back to haunt him big time.
‘Is there anyone we can call for you?’ Isla asked.
‘My mum.’ Erin’s mother dragged in a breath. ‘My husband’s working away.’
‘OK. As soon as Erin’s settled on the ward, we’ll get in touch with your mum,’ Isla promised.
Harry worked with Isla on most of his list of patients that morning, and he liked the fact that his new colleague was incredibly calm, had a sharp eye, and her quiet and gentle manner stopped patients or their parents panicking. The perfect emergency nurse. He had no idea where she’d trained or where she’d worked before—Scotland was a pretty big area—but he’d just bet that she was sorely missed. She’d certainly be appreciated at the London Victoria.
They hadn’t had time for a coffee break all morning and Harry was thirsty and ravenous by the time he took his lunch break—late, and he knew he’d end up grabbing something fast in the canteen so he could be back on the ward in time. When he walked into the staffroom, Isla was there.
‘Hi, there. Do you want to come and grab some lunch with me?’ he asked.
She gave him a cool smile. ‘Thanks, but I don’t think so.’
He frowned. ‘Why not?’
Her expression said quite clearly, do you really have to ask? But she was polite as she said, ‘It’s nice of you to ask me, but I don’t think we’re each other’s type.’
He blinked, not quite following. ‘What?’
She looked uncomfortable. ‘I, um, might be new here, but that doesn’t make me an instant addition to a little black book.’
Then the penny dropped. She thought he was asking her out? Some of the other staff teased him about being a heartbreaker and a serial dater, but that was far from true. He always made sure that whoever he dated knew it was for fun, not for ever. And he hadn’t been asking her out on a date anyway. Obviously someone had been gossiping about him and she’d listened to the tittle-tattle rather than waiting to see for herself. ‘Actually,’ he said quietly, ‘as you’re new to the team, I was guessing that you hadn’t had time to find your way around the hospital that well yet and you might not have anyone to sit with at lunchtime, that’s all.’
Her face flamed, clashing with that spectacular hair. ‘I—um—sorry. I’d just heard …’ She broke off. ‘Sorry. I’m putting my foot in it even more.’
‘Heard what?’ The words were out before he could stop them.
‘You have, um, a bit of a reputation for, um, dating a lot.’
He sighed. ‘Honestly, where the hospital grapevine’s concerned, you can’t win. If you don’t date, then either you’re gay or you’ve got some tragic past; and if you do date but make it clear you’re not looking for a serious relationship, then you’re at the mercy of everyone who wants to be the exception to the rule and you get called a heartbreaker. Not everyone’s desperate to pair off and settle down.’
‘I know.’ She bit her lip. ‘Sorry.’
But he noticed that she still hadn’t accepted his invitation to join him for lunch. Which stung. Was his reputation really that bad?
Pushing down his exasperation at the hospital grapevine, Harry gave Isla his sweetest smile. ‘OK, but I give you fair warning—if you try and eat a sandwich in here, you’ll be lucky to finish half of it before someone calls you to help out with something.’
‘I guess it’s all part of working in a hospital environment,’ she said lightly.
OK. He could take a hint. ‘See you later,’ he said.
In
