that she was impressed by the ease with which they slotted into their allotted roles, although she wasn’t surprised. Seb had always demanded the very highest standards from his staff because it was what he demanded from himself.
‘Do you have any pain anywhere else, Alison?’
Seb’s voice was clear and deep as he asked the patient various questions, and Libby shivered. She had always loved the sound of his voice. It had been the first thing that had attracted her to him, in fact. She’d been in the students’ union at the time, attempting to buy herself a glass of wine and failing miserably. The place had been packed that night and making herself heard above the din had been a major task. But then Seb had appeared and asked her what she’d wanted and, lo and behold, a glass had materialised in front of her as though by magic.
He had picked it up and led her over to a table—typically, he’d been able to find an empty one even in that crush—and then he had proceeded to charm her. By the end of the night she’d been more than halfway in love with him and by the end of the month they had moved in together. They had lived together all through med school and even though she had found the course extremely hard going at times, she had got through it because Seb had been there to help and encourage her.
She sighed. At one time she’d believed that he would always be there for her but it hadn’t worked out that way. Now she had accepted that divorce was the only answer. Once they made their separation legal, they would be free to get on with their lives, although she wasn’t foolish enough to think that it would be easy for either of them. Their relationship had been very special and there were bound to be regrets on both sides. However, painful though it might be, she knew they couldn’t carry on living the way they’d been doing for the past year. No, it would be better to end their marriage than endure any more heartache.
Seb frowned as he listened to what the patient was saying. ‘So where exactly was this other pain, then?’
‘In my shoulder…just here…’ Alison’s hand fluttered weakly as she touched the tip of her right shoulder, and he nodded.
‘I see,’ he said quietly, not wanting her to know how significant that snippet of information might turn out to be. He glanced over at Libby, wondering if she was adding up the clues as he was doing, and felt his heart jolt painfully when he saw the sadness on her face. She looked so unhappy that he longed to comfort her, but how could he when he had a patient who needed his help?
‘Have you experienced any vaginal bleeding?’ he continued, doing his best to appear calmly in control, although his insides felt as though they were on a merry-go-round. Even if he lived to be a hundred, he doubted if he would ever fully recover from the shock of seeing Libby standing in the waiting room.
‘I’m having a period at the moment,’ Alison muttered, obviously embarrassed at having to talk about something so personal.
‘So there’s no possibility that you might be pregnant?’ he persisted. ‘You haven’t missed a period recently?’
‘Well, I didn’t have one last month, but I’d just stopped taking the Pill and my GP warned me that my periods could be a bit erratic at first,’ Alison explained, blushing furiously.
‘Did you do a home pregnancy test?’ Seb asked, checking the monitor readings. Although Alison’s pulse, BP and heart rate were still within acceptable limits, there had been a slight deterioration in her condition so he decided not to waste any more time.
‘Tell Ben I’m going to need a transvaginal ultrasound done, will you?’ he told Cathy quietly, then turned back to the young woman as she answered his question.
‘No, I didn’t do a test. I didn’t think there was any need to do one because of what my GP had said.’ Alison was starting to look really scared now. ‘Do you think I’m having a miscarriage, Doctor?’
‘It’s possibly a little more complicated than that,’ Seb said gently. He nodded when Marilyn murmured that she would get onto the obstetric’s registrar. Obviously, she’d latched onto his train of thought so he could save his explanations for the patient. Moving to the head of the bed again, he did all he could to sound reassuring but he could tell how terrified the young woman was.
‘It’s possible that you’ve had an ectopic pregnancy, Alison. What that means is that instead of the embryo developing inside your womb, it started to develop somewhere else. The most common place is in one of the Fallopian tubes but we’ll have a better idea after you’ve had an ultrasound scan.’
‘But what’s going to happen if the baby’s growing in the wrong place? Will you be able to put it back where it’s supposed to be?’
‘No. I’m really sorry but that simply isn’t possible.’ Seb squeezed her hand when he saw tears ooze from her eyes. ‘It’s more than likely that the embryo is dead so it will be removed, along with any other damaged tissue.’
‘And that’s all that will happen?’ the girl said through her sobs.
‘A lot will depend on how much damage has been done. If the embryo has developed in one of your Fallopian tubes, the tube might have ruptured and the surgeon will have to decide if he can repair it.’ He squeezed her hand tighter. ‘If that isn’t possible then the tube will need to be removed as well.’
‘Oh!’
The girl broke into a storm of weeping. Seb sighed, wishing that he knew of a way to make this easier for her. He looked up when Libby suddenly appeared at his side.
‘Let me talk to her,’ she said simply.
Seb stepped aside, only half listening as Cathy came over to tell him that Ben was ready to do the scan. Libby was bending over the girl, stroking her hair and murmuring to her. Although Alison was still crying, whatever Libby was saying to her was obviously helping.
If only she would turn her talents to making their marriage better, he thought wistfully, then swung round because there was no point torturing himself with ‘if onlys’. What was done was done and he had to live with the consequences, even though he had no idea how he was going to do that. How did you manage to live without the person you loved most in the whole world?
Libby sighed sadly as she watched Alison being whisked away. Once an ectopic pregnancy was confirmed, the girl would be taken to the obs and gynae unit and prepared for surgery. She felt very sorry for her. It must be a terrible shock for a woman to discover that she was pregnant and that there was no hope of her baby surviving.
‘Thanks for that. I really appreciated it.’
She summoned a smile when Seb came over to her. ‘It was the least I could do.’
‘I’m still grateful, though. You’ve always had the gift of soothing people when they’re at their lowest ebb.’ He shrugged when she looked at him in surprise. ‘Not many folk have that talent, Libby, but you do.’
‘I…um…well, thank you.’ She stumbled over the words and had to make an effort to collect herself, but it was odd that Seb should have said that after what she’d been thinking about him. ‘We had a case similar to this during our first rotation on Casualty, if you remember,’ she said quickly, not wanting to go back down that route again.
‘Oh, I remember all right.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘A woman came in complaining of pains in her abdomen so we ran through everything we could think of—appendicitis, food poisoning, cystitis…’
