Was he smiling at her? Did he find her amusing? Did he think she didn’t mean business?
She didn’t know where to look as she tried to ignore the funny tumbling sensation in her stomach. All she knew was that he was responsible for the feeling and that frightened her. She didn’t want to be attracted to him. She couldn’t imagine dealing with that on top of working with him. The stress made her belligerent. ‘Only when I think people are wrong,’ she snapped.
‘But I’m not wrong. We can edit you out but you can’t stop us from filming. I have the hospital’s permission and all I need is Kylie’s. If you like, I promise to show you the edited version before it goes to air.’
By God, the man was irritating. ‘I have no idea whether I can trust you to keep your promises, though, do I?’ Annie had learned through bitter experience that some people lied, cheated, made promises they had no intention of keeping and let others down on a regular basis. And to trust someone she barely knew didn’t sit comfortably with her.
‘This discussion could well be moot anyway,’ Caspar said. ‘It all depends on Kylie now.’
He pressed a button on his phone and made the call while Annie stood by, fuming silently. If he thought he could win every time by being stubborn she had news for him, but she knew that his chances of getting his own way were better than hers. Kylie’s babies would need Caspar St Claire. Annie couldn’t do this without him.
She could hope that Kylie would choose not to invite the cameras into the delivery suite but if that didn’t happen Annie knew she’d have to relent. She hated feeling powerless. She had sworn an oath to herself to take charge of her life, not to let other people dictate things to her, but ever since Caspar had walked into the hospital she could feel control being wrested from her.
She’d thought she would be able to avoid him and his cameras but she realised now that it wasn’t going to be her decision and, what was even worse, she realised that there would be times when she’d need him and she’d have to acquiesce.
‘Now, why don’t we agree to put our differences aside and you can tell me about Kylie,’ Caspar said as he ended his phone call. ‘Regardless of whether or not we film this delivery, I will be taking care of the babies, so is there anything I need to know? Has she had any medical complications? Have there been any issues with the pregnancy?’
Before Annie could answer any of his questions they were interrupted by Ellen. ‘The ambulance is nearly here.’
‘I want to meet the paramedics,’ Annie told him as she resigned herself to the fact that she was going to have to work with him. ‘If you come with me I’ll fill you in on the way, but her pregnancy has been pretty straightforward. She’s young, twenty-three, first pregnancy, fraternal twins. I’m not expecting any problems aside from the usual premmie issues.’
They arrived at the ambulance bay as the paramedics were opening the ambulance doors. Caspar was on the phone again and Annie could hear him instructing the crew to meet them in Emergency. She hoped Caspar was able to focus on more than one thing at a time. He needed to. Time would tell.
‘You know this patient?’ the paramedic checked as Annie introduced herself, and when she nodded, he continued. ‘Her waters have broken for at least one twin. Her blood pressure is elevated, one-sixty-five over ninety-five, and foetal heart rates are both around one-forty.’
‘Any contractions?’
‘A couple of mild ones. Several minutes apart.’
Annie spoke to one of the nurses who had followed them out to the ambulance. ‘Can you page Dr Williams and get her down here?’ she asked. Kylie’s blood pressure was much higher than she’d like and an epidural might help, but she’d let Tori decide.
The paramedics retrieved the stretcher with her patient and Annie bent over her, talking quietly. ‘Kylie, welcome. I wasn’t expecting you quite so soon. We’re going to take you into the emergency department and see what your babies are up to.’ Annie needed to determine how far along Kylie was. She didn’t need her wanting to push as they were on their way to Maternity.
She was aware of Caspar hovering at her right shoulder. She had to introduce him to Kylie as, like it or not, he was going to be part of this. But he wasn’t waiting for her. He stepped around her and spoke to Kylie.
‘Hello, Kylie, I’m—’
‘Caspar St Claire,’ Kylie gasped. ‘I’ve seen you on telly. What are you doing here?’
Of course, Annie thought, Caspar’s fame would have preceded him. Annie wasn’t quite sure how Kylie had found the energy to gush over Caspar. Surely if she was in labour she should have more pressing things to think about.
‘We’re filming the next series of RPE here at Blue Lake Hospital. Would you like to be a part of it?’ Caspar asked as Kylie was wheeled through the hospital doors.
‘You’ll deliver my babies? On telly?’
Annie felt her temper rising but Caspar shook his head and quickly put Kylie straight.
‘No, Dr Simpson will deliver your babies but I’ll be right here, ready to look after them as soon as they are born. We’ll get it all on camera and you’ll have a perfect recording of the whole experience to show your husband when he gets back to town.’
And with those words Annie knew Caspar would win the argument. Kylie was already looking at him as if he could give her the moon—knowing that her husband was going to miss the birth of their babies had to be bothering her. If Caspar could solve that problem by taping the birth, not only for national television but for Kylie’s husband, then there was no way Kylie would kick him out of the delivery suite.
‘I’ll feel better if you are here, Dr St Claire.’ Kylie turned her head to look at Annie. ‘Can you imagine, Dr Simpson? My family on national telly.’
And just like that Annie found herself overruled. She knew she had to be a gracious loser and she didn’t have time to argue anyway. Her patient was her first priority, her only priority, and she had more pressing concerns—Kylie’s blood pressure for one—than whether or not her patient wanted her fifteen minutes of fame.
Annie forced herself to smile as she said, ‘Okay, then, let’s get you inside.’
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