The Doctor's Unexpected Proposal. Alison Roberts

       CHAPTER THREE

      ‘SHE won’t be far away.’

      Emily crushed a surge of panic. She shouldn’t have left Megan on her own, even for a minute.

      ‘She wanted to use a proper toilet.’ Emily spun on her heel and moved towards the department’s bathroom. ‘That’s where she’ll be.’

      But the cubicles were empty and Emily had known, deep down, that they would be.

      Things were falling into place. The sense of hopelessness she had perceived in Megan when she had first seen the teenager. Not only was the poor girl physically unwell, she had to be suffering from grief and guilt and quite possibly postnatal depression.

      And Emily knew a lot more than she had ever wanted to about all that.

      Talking about something as personal as menstruation in front of her father hadn’t been the real issue for Megan, had it? She had been terrified of the truth coming out.

      Emily could still feel the intensity of that look Megan had given her after the last examination. Megan knew that Emily had discovered the truth.

      Megan had fled.

      ‘She’s not in the department anywhere, as far as I can see.’ Mike met Emily in front of the main desk. ‘And her clothes seem to be gone.’ Black curls bounced with incongruous gaiety as Mike shook his head. ‘I just don’t believe this!’

      ‘I do,’ Emily said grimly. ‘She’s panicked. She’s trying to escape. Probably a rerun of what she did after she thought she’d given birth to a dead baby.’

      Mike shook his head again. ‘No, what I can’t believe is how she’s managed it. She was delirious when we were taking those blood samples. I wouldn’t have thought she was capable of even getting off that bed, let alone climbing over the sides you put up.’

      ‘She was feeling a lot better. Blood pressure was well up and her temperature was coming down. It won’t last long, though. She’s in shock and if it’s septic, she’s going to get a whole lot worse.’

      ‘It’s septic all right.’ With his usual ability to surprise, Charles had glided silently into the department. He held a sheaf of laboratory printouts in one hand. ‘White cell count is through the roof.’

      Jill was following Charles. She stared at her colleagues. ‘What’s going on?’

      ‘Megan’s done a runner,’ Mike said succinctly.

      ‘I left her alone for a minute,’ Emily confessed miserably. ‘To get her a bedpan. This is all my fault.’

      ‘But why would she have run?’ Charles looked puzzled. ‘Is she delirious?’

      ‘There’s a lot going on.’ Emily managed to sound a lot calmer than she felt. ‘My pelvic exam revealed that Megan’s given birth rather recently. She has a perineal tear that’s just starting to heal.’

      ‘She was at the Gunyamurra rodeo,’ Mike added. ‘We think she might be Lucky’s mother.’

      Charles took the implications on board instantly. ‘The von Willebrand’s?’ he queried. ‘Could hypovolaemia be contributing to the level of shock she’s in?’

      ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’ Emily groaned, and tried to marshal her thoughts. Searching for Lucky’s parents had been given medical as well as social urgency due to the inherited bleeding disorder the baby had. Like haemophilia, von Willebrand’s could cause major problems if unrecognised and not treated. ‘No, I don’t think so,’ she told Charles. ‘That tear is healing well and I didn’t notice anything unusual about bleeding from the puncture sites when we took those blood samples. Did you, Mike?’