haphazardly parked in the race to get to his desperately sick child.
Julia chatted and fussed, and then in came Peter smiling and waving at Penny; he came over and gave his little girl a kiss.
And Dominic watched.
You wouldn’t know that they were in agony.
Unless you knew.
And suddenly Dominic did.
Victoria was hurting.
Of course she was.
And probably she hurt a bit more with each and every passing day.
He thought of Glen, idly chatting, saying how you would do anything for your children.
And the firefighters who had run into a building to save children that weren’t even theirs.
Every single day it must be rammed home to her just what her mother had done.
* * *
Victoria was hurting.
She and Glen sat in the vehicle and Victoria got out her flask so they could have a coffee as the sun was coming up over London.
‘I’m going to miss this,’ Victoria said.
‘You’ll be back.’ Glen smiled.
‘I shall be,’ Victoria agreed. ‘But even though I’ll miss not being on the road, I am ready to give it away for a while.’
Since she had found out that she was going to be a mother, she knew it wasn’t just her life she was risking at times.
It wasn’t the heavy lifting, more the unpredictability of some patients, which meant that once she told work that she was pregnant, Victoria would probably be moved into dispatch.
Glen had looked out for her these couple of weeks and it was time now for her to look out for him.
Of course she wasn’t going to politely ignore his tears; it had just been something she’d said to Dominic.
They looked out for each other and she didn’t want to leave without knowing he was taking care of himself.
‘Glen,’ Victoria said, ‘did you see about speaking to someone?’
He nodded. ‘I’ve got an appointment in the morning. That’s why I didn’t offer to take you to the ultrasound.’
‘Have you told Hayley?’
‘Yep,’ he said. ‘She’s relieved,’ Glen told her. ‘It’s our anniversary now and she said it’s the best present I could give her.’
‘You’ve got that nice wine too,’ Victoria reminded him.
‘And a ring.’
‘How do you make it work?’ Victoria asked him again, and this time the radio didn’t go off so he thought for a moment and then answered.
‘You stop being too proud for your own good.’
She guessed he was referring to a recent conversation with Hayley, and that he had finally heeded the advice and was getting himself some help.
‘So we’re both getting ourselves sorted after this shift,’ Victoria said.
‘Starting to,’ Glen corrected. ‘Let him be there for the ultrasound, Victoria. Whatever happens between the two of you, whether you’re a couple or not, you can parent together, surely?’
Could they? Victoria pondered.
Who was she to deny her child a wonderful parent?
It would have made all the difference to her.
THE TRANSFER FINALLY arrived and required surgery.
Dominic liked the quiet of theatre.
Some surgeons chatted or listened to music; Dominic liked quiet so he could concentrate, especially when he had been on call all weekend.
By seven in the morning his latest patient was settled on the ward. After he had done a ward round and checked on all his other patients and handed them over, Dominic was tired enough to want to go home.
But instead Dominic showered and then hung around.
He knew that Victoria’s ultrasound was at ten.
But he wasn’t just there for that reason; there was another thing that he needed to do.
Victoria was right to be cautious about getting involved with him.
She didn’t need a man who came with baggage. He had been determined to get things sorted with his family before he approached Victoria. But then the baby had been sprung upon him and things had gone wayward for a while.
Dominic knew that the problems within his family needed to be dealt with, but more importantly, he finally felt ready.
He went to his locker and then Dominic walked through the hospital and made his way to the cardiac unit.
Some days were hard, when you were least expecting them to be.
Other days were unexpectedly not.
He walked onto the cardiac unit and there was Penny, hooked up to monitors and IVs but looking peaceful. She smiled and gave him a little wave.
Dominic waved back and then he went up to the nurses’ station where Thomas stood.
‘Morning,’ he said.
‘Good morning.’ Thomas nodded.
Dominic was waiting for a nurse so he could explain that he was just here to visit, but for the moment they were all tied up so he stood at the desk.
Thomas didn’t exactly invite conversation and he was back to busily writing up some notes.
‘Hi, Rebecca,’ Dominic said as she approached.
‘Dr Scott,’ Thomas greeted, and Dominic frowned at the rather formal address of her.
‘Dr Wolfe,’ Rebecca said, and her voice sounded strained but she pushed out her lovely smile for Dominic. ‘What are you doing on the cardiac unit?’ she asked him.
‘My nephew’s a patient here—William MacBride.’
‘Oh,’ Rebecca said in surprise. ‘I thought the name was familiar. I’m actually here to see him.’
‘I’ll come back later, then,’ Dominic offered. He didn’t understand the tension between these two but he didn’t want to make things worse. But then Rebecca declined
