Читать книгу Gift of a Family - Sarah Morgan - Страница 8
ОглавлениеKAT unzipped the neck of her wetsuit and stood still with her back against the jagged rocks, waiting until she judged it safe to reappear.
Only when the two men had walked a safe distance along the beach did she emerge and retrieve the surfboard that she’d left at the water’s edge. By then the ambulance had gone and the crowd had dispersed.
Maybe it was cowardly of her to avoid them, but she knew that if she’d hung around then the handsome, blue-eyed doctor would have entered into a conversation that she didn’t want to have. The strength of her reaction to him had shaken her and she sensed that it was mutual. She’d recognised the look in his eyes and knew exactly which direction the conversation would have taken.
And she just didn’t want to go there.
Did he think she was some sort of brainless idiot? she wondered bitterly as she tucked the board under her arm and walked in the opposite direction along the beach towards her tiny cottage. ‘I’m a doctor,’ he’d announced in a tone that had suggested that using those words usually delivered a willing female into his lap.
What had he expected her to do? Gasp and faint?
She gave a snort of derision, carefully dismissing the memory of the strange sensation she’d felt in the pit of her stomach when their eyes had met. As if a pair of broad shoulders and a near-perfect bone structure was going to be enough to interest her. She’d met men like him before and she’d learned to keep them at a distance. They weren’t worth the trouble.
And, anyway, she already had one man in her life and that was enough.
At the thought of Archie she looked around her and gave a nod of satisfaction. At the first opportunity she was going to take him down to the beach and show him what she’d discovered today. They were going to have such fun together, living in this place. It was a whole new life, as far removed from their tiny flat in the depths of busy, faceless London as it was possible to be.
All she could see for miles was coastline. Wild cliffs, crazy sea and soft grass all blended together to make Cornwall. And it had the best surfing anywhere in England.
A five-minute walk along the beach in the opposite direction brought her to the little row of fishermen’s cottages, which almost touched the sand. Kat stopped dead and stood for a moment, breathing in the fresh sea air, feeling the sun burning through her wetsuit, unable to believe that she had the right to call this wonderful place home.
Hers.
She couldn’t contain the smile.
It was like a fairy-tale.
Acting on an impulse that was totally out of character, she’d paid the deposit, taken out a huge mortgage and moved in. And now they lived here. She and Archie.
A new life.
Her gaze shifted slightly to the abandoned lifeboat station that stood proudly at the head of a slipway near the cottages. It had been sympathetically converted into a luxury home, and from her vantage point on the beach Kat could see that the floor-to-ceiling windows of the living area gave the occupant fabulous views over the Cornish coast. On the abandoned slipway that led down to the beach there was a boat, obviously in the process of being restored, and a wetsuit lay over a bench.
Whoever lived there obviously had taste and style and clearly loved the sea, she mused as she dumped her surfboard in the tiny shed in her new garden and walked towards her cottage with a smile on her face.
She had a few hours before Archie was due home and she intended to finish the unpacking, shower and then devour the new textbook on accident and emergency medicine that she’d ordered from a store in London. Not that a few hours’ reading would make much difference to her performance in a busy A and E department, she thought ruefully, experiencing a sudden attack of nerves at the thought of starting her new job in the morning.
Would it be very different from London? she wondered, and then gave a shrug. Accidents were accidents wherever they happened and whatever the mechanism. She was a good doctor, she reminded herself firmly. She had nothing to be nervous about. Whatever was thrown at her here, she’d be able to cope.
Her new life was about to begin.
And she was looking forward to it.
* * *
‘So, how was the weekend? Did you manage without me yesterday?’ Josh strolled onto the A and E unit early the next morning and grinned at a staff nurse who was just going off duty after a night shift.
‘Just about, but it was a terrible struggle,’ Hannah said solemnly, removing her locker key from her pocket and jangling it in the palm of her hand. ‘I suppose you were sailing or surfing or something similarly wet and watery? Did you have an exciting day?’
Josh thought of the girl on the beach. ‘Not as exciting as it might have been,’ he murmured regretfully, glancing at the whiteboard on the wall and scanning the list of patients. ‘So—we’re pretty full already, I see. Did you do any work at all last night or were you leaving it all for me?’
‘Filing my nails took longer than anticipated,’ Hannah said brightly, but she lifted a fist and punched Josh on the arm. ‘For your information, buster, none of us managed more than a snatched glass of water last night, so if you want to live to catch another wave on that board of yours, don’t make that remark to anyone else! Least of all the new doctor, who is waiting in Mac’s office. On first meeting she seems really nice, and I don’t want you teaching her bad habits.’
‘New doctor?’ Josh was still frowning at the whiteboard. ‘What new doctor?’
‘The new SHO. She was bright and early.’
‘The new SHO…’ Josh raked long fingers through his dark hair and pulled a face. ‘I’d forgotten the new doctors were starting today.’
‘It’s August,’ Hannah reminded him cheerfully. ‘And actually there are only three of them because most of the old lot are staying on, as you’d remember if you could put your mind to anything other than sailing and surfing.’ She gave a careless shrug. ‘Can’t think why they’ve chosen to stay on, personally. Given the chance, I’d be out of this place like a shot. Talking of which, how’s Louisa?’
‘Very pregnant,’ Josh drawled, ‘and Mac is driving me nuts. He’s totally lost his sense of humour.’
‘He’s certainly worried about her,’ Hannah agreed, ‘and I miss working with Louisa. She’s such a great nurse.’
‘She’s also a great cook, so at least one of her skills is still in use,’ Josh observed, thinking of the delicious lunch his sister-in-law had prepared for him the day before. ‘All right, I’ll grab the SHO, brief her and then we start the day. I hope she’s competent. Have a good sleep.’
Josh strolled down the corridor to his office, suppressing a yawn as he pushed open the door.
A girl stood looking out of the window, but she turned as he entered the room and Josh stopped dead.
Yesterday she’d been wearing a wetsuit and today she was wearing the light blue scrub suit worn by all the A and E staff, but there was no mistaking those incredible green eyes and the fiery hair, twisted on top of her head.
‘Well, well…’ His voice was soft as he let the door swing shut behind him. ‘The girl with the green eyes and the sharp tongue.’ And the perfect body. ‘You ran off yesterday before we could be properly introduced. I’m Josh Sullivan. Pleased to meet you.’
He walked towards her, his hand outstretched, and after a moment’s hesitation she slid her hand into his.
Her fingers were slim and cool. Delicate, like the rest of her, he mused, watching with interest as she quickly removed her hand from his. Did she know that she’d just taken a step backwards?
‘I’m Kat O’Brien.’ Her voice was steady, professional and more than a little chilly. ‘And I didn’t run off.’ Her eyes flashed slightly at the suggestion, and he smiled.
‘Well, you didn’t exactly hang around to chat.’ He cast her a speculative look. ‘O’Brien? A good Irish name. Does it come with a good Irish temper?’
Her eyes held his, accepting the challenge. ‘When provoked.’
His smile widened. ‘I look forward to seeing that.
What about the Kat part? Short for Katy? Kathleen?’
‘Katriona.’
He nodded. ‘Pretty name. Well, Katriona, welcome to Cornwall and A and E. As you’re obviously going to be my new SHO, we’re going to have plenty of time to get to know each other better.’
Was it his imagination or did her fingers curl into her palms?
‘You’re the A and E consultant?’
He nodded. ‘One of them. And you’re on my team.’
Her eyes slid towards the door as if she was expecting someone else to appear at any moment. ‘But I suppose I’ll be working mostly with your senior registrar.’
Josh gave a rueful smile. ‘You would if I had one, but unfortunately we’re a bit down on numbers at the moment, so you’re going to be landed with me. I hope you like hard work.’
She licked her lips. ‘We’re going to be working together?’
‘Well, if you want to learn something about working in A and E, that is the general idea,’ Josh said gently, wondering why she was so tense. ‘Although judging from your performance on the beach, you obviously know quite a bit already. Why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself?’
‘What do you want to know?’
Suddenly Josh discovered that he wanted to know everything there was to know. He wanted to know whether she was always so tense and what it took to get her to relax. He wanted to know what made her laugh and what made her cry. He wanted to know what made her happy. He wanted to know what her legs looked like under the scrub suit…
He pulled himself together with an effort. ‘Why don’t you start by telling me where you worked last? Obviously this isn’t your first A and E job.’
She shook her head. ‘No. I did A and E and then a stint in Obstetrics but I missed the buzz of Emergency so I decided to apply for this job.’
‘I’m not surprised. Patching up drunks beats delivering babies any day in my book.’ He gave a mock shudder. ‘So where did you work?’
‘London.’ She named one of the prestigious teaching hospitals and Josh nodded.
That would explain why she’d known what she’d been doing. ‘Obviously good experience. You did well yesterday afternoon.’
She shrugged. ‘The guy just had a banged head.’
‘He’d also been drinking and, as you well know, drinking and head injuries don’t go well together,’ Josh said mildly, strolling over to his chair and sitting down. ‘I was impressed. So was my brother and, believe me, that takes some doing. He runs this department so you’ve got yourself off on the right foot.’ He watched the faint rise of colour in her cheeks. ‘Have a seat. You’ll probably find some of our cases a little different from London, but not much. Did you see any gunshot wounds?’
She perched on the edge of the only chair that wasn’t covered in papers, as if she was preparing to escape if she had to. ‘A couple. They were gang shootings. Just kids, actually.’ She frowned at the memory. ‘They looked as though they should have been in school.’
‘They probably should have been. I’ve only seen one gunshot wound since I’ve been here,’ Josh told her, ‘and that was a farmer who had an accident with his gun. We have quite a few diving-related accidents and, of course, reckless surfers who head-butt the board. Apart from that, it’s the usual round of fractures, road traffic accidents, heart attacks—and that’s just among the tourists. So what brought you to Cornwall, Dr O’Brien?’
Her face was suddenly shuttered. ‘I like surfing.’
Josh was left with a powerful feeling that she’d practised that answer. ‘Where are you living?’
‘I’ve rented somewhere.’ Her tone didn’t encourage further questioning.
Knowing when to probe and when to back off, Josh backed off, making a mental note to watch her interaction with the staff. Working in A and E was a stressful experience at the best of times, but one of the things that lessened the stress was the support that the medical and nursing staff gave each other. Would Kat fit in? Hannah had obviously liked her immediately…
Was it just him she was chilly with?
‘Right. Well, let’s give you the tour.’ He rose to his feet and lifted a couple of files off his desk. ‘I need to drop these with the girls on Reception so we might as well start there. Welcome to Cornwall, Kat.’
* * *
First days were always so nerve-racking.
Not knowing the people, not knowing your way around or the routine. Not that there was much routine in A and E, Kat acknowledged as she followed Josh through to Reception, trying to keep up with his long stride.
Part of her just wanted to get stuck straight into a challenging trauma case. At least then she’d feel comfortable.
Or maybe she’d never feel comfortable working with a man like Josh.
Why did it have to be him?
She thought she’d done well yesterday. Every time he’d come into her thoughts she’d resolutely pushed the memory away, assuring herself that she was never going to see him again. He’d just been a guy on a beach. Probably on holiday, she’d told herself. And now here he was, virtually her boss. And he was going to be under her nose every day.
She almost groaned aloud at the thought.
He was a man designed for maximum impact. Staggeringly handsome and more than a little disturbing. With that glossy dark hair and that wicked smile, he reminded her of a pirate. She could imagine him standing on the deck of a ship, planning daring escapes, plunder and the seduction of women. And as for those blue eyes—the way he looked at her made her insides feel funny.
Kat closed her eyes, irritated with herself. What was the matter with her? She wasn’t one to dream about pirates! In fact, she had her feet well and truly on the ground. If a man was good-looking, she just didn’t notice, and the reason she didn’t notice was because she wasn’t interested. She wasn’t on the market.
She was happy with Archie and men like Josh Sullivan held no appeal for her.
But judging from the way the receptionist’s eyes lit up when she saw the young consultant, she was in a minority of one. Clearly he was everyone else’s idea of a heartthrob.
‘Hi, Josh.’ A girl wearing a badge saying Paula, Senior Receptionist, A and E beamed in his direction. ‘Glad you’re finally here. There’s lots going on. That’s why I’m hiding away here in the back office, rather than manning Reception. I’m thinking of locking the doors and putting up a “closed” sign.’
‘Well, we’ve got an extra pair of hands to help us clear the decks,’ Josh said easily, smiling at Kat. ‘Say hello to Dr O’Brien. She’s just joined us. This is Paula. She runs the place and keeps us all in order. Anything you need to know, start with her. This is her control room. Out there…’ He jerked his head and gave a shudder. ‘That’s the battlefront, staffed by her generals.’
Kat felt some of the tension melt away under Paula’s friendly smile. ‘Hello, Paula.’
‘She’s come all the way from grimy London,’ Josh said, dumping the files on Paula’s desk. ‘But I’m sure she’ll soon recover. Here you are. Don’t say I never give you anything.’
‘You finally finished with them? You’re a star.’ Paula took the files and stacked them neatly. ‘Did Mac take a look?’
‘The only thing my brother looks at these days is his pregnant wife,’ Josh drawled, turning to Kat. ‘Mac is a senior consultant here and Louisa, his wife, worked here as a nurse until a few weeks ago.’
‘She’s on maternity leave?’
‘Pottering round the house, waiting for it all to happen. Never seen a woman so big in my life. She’s giving birth to a hippo, no doubt about it.’ Josh sprawled in a vacant chair and turned his attention back to Paula. ‘So how’s Geoff?’
Paula’s smile faded and she gave a little shrug. ‘Not great at the moment, to be honest. He’s very down, but I suppose that’s natural. I do my best to be upbeat, but it’s pretty hard in the circumstances.’
Josh’s eyes narrowed. ‘Has he been back to the neurologist?’
‘He’s got an appointment tomorrow morning.’
‘Do you need time off?’
Paula shook her head and looked away, shuffling some papers. ‘It’s fine. His mum is taking him.’
‘Why aren’t you taking him?’
Paula hesitated and her hands stilled. ‘We’re too busy, Josh.’ Her voice cracked slightly and she cleared her throat. ‘You know what this place is like in the summer—it’s the crazy season. Five million tourists all deciding to do stupid things at the same time.’
Josh grinned and stretched long legs out in front of him. ‘Slack day, then.’
Paula laughed in response to his humour but her eyes were strained. ‘Absolutely.’
‘You’re to take the morning off,’ Josh said quietly, his blue eyes suddenly serious and his voice firm. ‘I’ll poach from one of the other departments to cover you and I’ll clear it with Mac.’ He stood up and put an arm round her shoulder, giving her a quick hug. ‘Take the time you need but come and find me afterwards and we can talk about it. It must be the pits for you both.’
Kat saw Paula struggle with tears. ‘You can’t give me the morning off.’
‘Just did.’
‘But—’
Josh stifled a yawn. ‘You’re boring me now, Paula.’
Paula wiped her eyes discreetly and blew her nose. ‘Thanks, Josh.’
‘No thanks needed. And I hope it isn’t as bad as you’re anticipating. Right, well, that’s enough staff bonding for one morning.’ Lightening the atmosphere, Josh winked at Paula and walked towards the door, gesturing for Kat to follow him. ‘See you girls later.’
They walked back into the main area which was the hub of the department, Josh moving to one side as a staff nurse scurried past, clutching a pile of brown X-ray folders.
Kat was still thinking about what she’d witnessed. ‘Her husband is ill?’
‘He has MS.’
Multiple sclerosis. Kat made a sympathetic noise. ‘Is he bad?’
‘He has the relapsing and remitting variety so he has patches where he’s good, but he’s relapsed twice this year so he’s being assessed for beta interferon.’
Kat nodded. ‘It’s not an area I know much about.’
Josh gave a rueful smile. ‘Frankly, neither did I until Paula’s husband was diagnosed a year ago. Then I rapidly became best friends with our local neurologist and picked his brains. He’s a good chap. He’s helped them a lot.’
Kat hid her surprise. He’d done that for a colleague?
‘Anyway…’ He smiled in her direction. ‘Quick tour and then we’ll try and make a dent in the mass of patients in the waiting room. Like most A and E departments, we run a triage system here so the triage nurse assesses everyone when they arrive and decides on the urgency of their case. But I’m a bit of a control freak so I still cast an eye over the stretcher cases when I arrive. Let’s start by showing you Resus…’
He shouldered open the swing doors that led to the resuscitation room but before he could speak a nurse hurried up to him.
‘Ambulance Control just called. They’re bringing in a girl found collapsed on the beach. There was a party last night—plenty of drink—and her friends left her to sleep it off. She’s semi-conscious and won’t wake up properly.’
Josh dragged on gloves and threw an apologetic look in Kat’s direction. ‘So much for showing you around.’ He turned back to the nurse. ‘Get the team together.’
As he finished speaking the doors to Resus crashed open and the ambulance crew hurried in with the girl on a stretcher, followed by a flurry of A and E staff. Swiftly the paramedics transferred her to the trolley.
‘This is Holly Bannister, seventeen years of age, on holiday for a few days with her friends. She’s been in and out of consciousness, very agitated, GCS of six,’ the paramedic handed over, detailing their observations since they’d been called to the girl.
‘Any relatives?’
‘Just a group of friends in Reception,’ the paramedic told them, and Josh gave a grim smile as he checked the girl’s airway.
‘I have a suspicion that she needs to advertise for new friends. OK, folks, I want an ECG a blood pressure and a temperature. Make that a rectal temperature. Kat…’ he lifted his eyes from his assessment of the patient ‘…I want you to talk to those friends. Find out what happened. I want to know everything there is to know about last night’s beach party, but most of all I want to know what she took.’
‘What she took?’ Kat looked at the teenager, who was now writhing and thrashing on the trolley. ‘You think she’s taken drugs?’
‘Almost certainly. My money’s on MDMA—ecstasy. She’s agitated, hypertonic, sweating, dilated pupils…’ He looked at the nurse who was checking the girl’s observations. ‘Temperature?’
‘Thirty-nine point five.’
Josh nodded. ‘Let’s get a line in and then calculate her weight and give her 1 milligram dantrolene per kilogram IV.’
Kat slipped out of Resus and went to find the friends. There were two of them, one dark and one blonde, and they were huddled in Reception, looking the worse for wear. Kat looked at Paula. ‘Where can I talk to a couple of teenagers?’
‘Take them into the relatives’ room,’ Paula said immediately, handing her a key. ‘Back through the door and first on your left. Let me know if you need tea.’
Kat smiled her thanks but she had a feeling that it wasn’t tea the teenagers needed, it was a good shake.
She walked over to them. ‘Are you with Holly?’
The dark-haired girl gave a sheepish nod. ‘Is she OK?’
‘Not at the moment,’ Kat said coolly. ‘I need some information. Do you mind coming with me, please?’
They exchanged wary looks but followed her without argument, each of the girls dressed in the traditional teenage ‘uniform’ of strappy tops, hipster jeans and big belts, and wearing the obligatory bored expression.
‘All right.’ Kat closed the door and turned to look at them. ‘You don’t need me to tell you that Holly’s very ill.’
The blonde girl was chewing gum. She glanced at the other and then gave what was supposed to be a casual shrug, but Kat caught the fear in her eyes. ‘She just had too much to drink and she isn’t used to it.’ She transferred her gum to the other side of her mouth. ‘It’s no big deal.’
Kat kept her tone neutral. ‘What was she drinking?’
‘I dunno.’ The girl shrugged again, her expression sulky. ‘Alcopops mostly. It was a pretty wild party. Whatever was going. I wasn’t really watching.’
In other words, she’d been drinking herself. For a moment Kat tried to remind herself that these were young kids, just beginning to push at the traces, test the limits. Was she being too hard on them? Then she remembered the girl lying in Resus and the grim look on Josh’s face.
They needed to know that pushing at the traces had consequences. ‘Who arranged the party?’
The blonde girl rolled her eyes. ‘Like we’re going to tell you that! I don’t think so!’
Kat kept her voice steady. ‘If you want to help Holly, you’ll tell me. I’m not the enemy here.’
The girls exchanged looks again and the one chewing gum gave a careless shrug. ‘Some guy we met in one of the pubs. He throws parties all the time on the beach.’
‘And was he offering drugs as well as alcohol?’
There was a sulky silence but Katy saw the panic in the dark-haired girl’s eyes and decided that she was the one with a conscience. ‘Holly is really ill,’ she said quietly, ‘and we need to know everything we can if we’re going to make her better. We need your help. Anything you can tell us might help. Anything.’
‘If?’ The girl stopped chewing and looked at her in alarm. Smudges of the previous night’s make-up darkened her eyes and her face was alarmingly pale. She looked tired and very much the worse for wear. ‘What do you mean, if? She’s going to be all right, isn’t she?’
Kat shrugged, unable to give the reassurance the girl was looking for. ‘I have no idea, but if she’s taken drugs and you know anything about it, now is the time to tell me.’
The girl swallowed, her breathing rapid, indecision flickering over her white features. ‘She took E,’ she blurted out suddenly, ‘but it couldn’t be that. She’s taken it before and she’s always been fine.’
Ecstasy.
So Josh had been right in his initial assessment, Kat thought. He was obviously smart as well as good-looking. Or maybe drug-taking on the beach was a common occurrence in this part of Cornwall? She had no idea, and made a mental note to ask him about it at the first opportunity.
The other girl closed her eyes and gave a sigh of exasperation. ‘Oh, for God’s sake, Tina.’
‘Well, what was I supposed to do?’ Tina turned on her defensively, her make-up smudging as the tears started to fall. ‘I’m not going to stand around here while Holly dies, am I? I don’t want that on my conscience, thanks very much.’ She gave a little sob and wrapped her arms around herself, looking more like a child than a teenager.
‘Oh, get a life. She is so not going to die,’ the other girl said in a derisive tone, and Kat shot her a cold look.
‘She could do. Have you any idea how dangerous drugs are?’
The girl rolled her eyes defiantly. ‘She’s just drunk, that’s all…’
‘How many did she take? Do you know?’ Realising that she stood more chance with Tina, Kat directed her questioning towards the other girl. ‘If you know, please tell me. It’s really important.’
Tina stared at the floor. ‘One,’ she mumbled, not looking at her friend, ‘just the one. Then she just keeled over. We all just thought she was drunk. She’s taken them before and she was OK.’
Kat let out a long breath but gave Tina a smile. ‘Thank you for telling me the truth, that was very brave of you. Why don’t you go back out to Reception and get yourselves some water from the machine? It might make you feel better. We’ll let you know how she is as soon as there’s some news.’ She walked towards the door and opened it, pausing in the entrance. ‘Oh, one other thing. Do you have the phone number of her parents? We’re going to need to call them.’
Tina blanched and the other girl shook her head, her jaw lifted in a stubborn tilt. ‘You’re joking, right?’ Her tone was nothing short of rude and confrontational. ‘No way are you phoning her parents. You can forget it!’
Kat resisted the temptation to shake the girl. ‘They need to know that their daughter is in hospital—’
‘But we can’t! We’re not even supposed to be here,’ Tina blurted out, panic flitting across her face, her voice choked with tears. ‘Our parents think we’re having a sleepover with a girl in our class. They don’t even know we’re in Cornwall.’
Kat sighed and ran a hand over the back of her neck. What a mess. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said gently, ‘but we need to inform her parents. I’m sure if you give it some thought, you’ll understand that.’
Tina burst into tears and the other girl sat down on a chair with a plop, her face suddenly white.
‘My dad’ll kill me,’ she muttered, lifting her head and glaring at Tina. ‘This is your bloody fault! You never should have given her the stuff. You were so out of order!’
‘I didn’t give it to her,’ Tina choked, tears streaming down her face, and Kat took a deep breath, deciding that she had no choice but to intervene.
‘Look, it’s important that I tell the team that she’s taken ecstasy, so I’m going to do that now, and when I come back I want the phone number of her parents, OK?’
One glance at their ashen, sulky faces told her that it clearly wasn’t OK at all, but she decided that she didn’t have time for them at the moment. Holly was the priority.
‘Paula…’ She stuck her head into Reception. ‘Can someone keep half an eye on those two for a moment, please? I need to go back to Resus and speak to Josh.’
‘No problem. I’ll do it myself.’ Paula stood up and Kat gave her a grateful smile then walked briskly back to Resus.
It was a hive of activity, with Josh delivering instructions in cool, calm tones that kept everyone focused.
‘Kat?’ He glanced in her direction and raised a dark eyebrow. ‘Tell me you’ve got news for me.’
‘Ecstasy,’ she said immediately, and he gave a nod, a flicker of respect in his eyes as he looked at her. Clearly he’d anticipated that she’d have trouble extracting the information from the teenagers.
‘Anything else?’
‘Alcopops. It appears she lost consciousness quite early on in the evening, but they all assumed she was drunk.’
‘Presumably they were all too drunk to notice the difference,’ Josh said wearily. ‘Remind me to have a word with Doug, our community policeman. They need to keep a closer eye on the beach in the evenings. OK, folks, let’s give her that sodium bicarb.’
There was a flurry of activity and one of the nurses glanced at the machine with a frown. ‘She has severe tachycardia, Josh.’
Kat looked at the machine and noticed that the girl’s heart rate was incredibly fast.
‘Let’s give her 5 milligrams of metoprolol IV,’ Josh instructed calmly, his blue gaze flickering first to the machine and then back to the girl on the trolley. ‘Her blood pressure is going up, too. Let’s try some nifedipine and then we need to get a CT scan before we transfer her to Intensive Care. My guess is she’ll show cerebral oedema.’
‘Kat?’ Paula popped her head round the door at that moment and held out a piece of paper. ‘There’s the number you were after.’
‘You’re a genius!’ Kat took the paper and smiled at the woman. ‘How did you do it?’
Paula gave a modest shrug. ‘Appealed to the conscience of the little dark-haired one. She’s not such a tough nut as the other one.’
Kat read the number on the paper and gave a sigh. ‘I suppose I’d better phone and tell them where their daughter is.’
‘Is that the parents?’ Josh checked the ECG reading and then glanced across at her. ‘If so, you definitely need to call them. They need to get down here. After the CT scan we’re transferring her to Intensive Care. She’s going to need ventilating. Do you want me to ring the parents or are you OK with that?’
Kat shook her head. ‘I can do it.’
Just about the worst job in the A and E department, she reflected, but she could do it.
She called the parents, gave them the barest information but tried not to worry them, and then returned to Resus to find that they were preparing Holly for a CT scan of her brain.
The girl was unconscious now and something about her pale face tugged at Kat’s heart.
She turned to Josh. ‘Will she be OK, do you think?’
He gave a shrug. ‘Who knows?’ His voice was hard. ‘Drugs aren’t to be messed with.’
‘Weird really…’ Kat frowned. ‘This place is so far away from the streets of London and yet you have the same problems as a big city.’
‘In some ways we have more problems.’ Josh scanned a blood result that someone handed him. ‘That looks a bit better. Where were we?’ He glanced at her, momentarily distracted from their conversation. ‘Oh, yes, the problems of living in a seaside town. Unfortunately, because we have such good surfing beaches, inevitably we attract a pretty lively crowd. A young crowd. Generally it’s all pretty harmless but not always, and there are always unscrupulous individuals out to make money from the unwary. The main problem is usually alcohol. Teenagers come down here to surf and party and they over-indulge. Saturday nights are the worst.’
Kat gave a rueful smile. ‘I can imagine.’
He looked at her. ‘It won’t be anything you haven’t seen before. Teenagers behave like teenagers. It’s just the setting that’s different. Are the parents coming?’
‘They’re on their way,’ Kat told him. ‘They live about two hours away. They didn’t even know Holly was here. The girls said they were having an extended sleepover with a friend at home and then caught the train down here.’
Josh winced. ‘Ouch. Well, they always say that your sins will find you out.’
Finally the patient was transferred, but that seemed to be a signal for the whole of Cornwall to have accidents and the rest of the day was frantically busy.
By the end of her shift Kat’s feet were aching, her head was throbbing and her stomach was rumbling from lack of food.
And she’d thought London was busy…
Josh let out a long breath and glanced at the clock. ‘Long day. I’m conscious that we didn’t have a chance to talk at all. Or eat. Why don’t we go for a drink? There’s a lovely pub a very short drive from here. Sells great food. I can answer all those questions you haven’t even had time to ask.’
Kat stiffened, immediately on the defensive. Was he asking her out? ‘I don’t think so. I don’t—’ She broke off and he lifted an eyebrow in that slightly mocking, sexy way designed to test the resolve of the strongest female.
‘You don’t what?’ His voice was soft. ‘You don’t drink? You don’t drink with colleagues? Or you don’t drink with me? Which is it, Dr O’Brien?’
Her mind went completely blank. She wasn’t used to playing games with men and she had a feeling he was playing games. ‘I have to get home.’
‘And is there someone at home waiting for you, Kat?’ His eyes scanned her face and she felt something shift in her stomach. An awareness that she instantly dismissed.
‘Archie.’ She said the name firmly as if to remind herself as much as him. ‘Archie is waiting for me. Thanks for today, Dr Sullivan.’
Even though they hadn’t had time for a conversation, she’d learned a great deal just from watching him work. She’d seen enough to know that, whatever else he might be, Josh Sullivan was an excellent doctor. He used instinct as well as experience and training, and those instincts were obviously good.
‘Call me Josh.’ He smiled, and there was more than a hint of the pirate in that smile. ‘We’re very informal here, but I’m sure you already know that.’
She did know that, but somehow calling him Josh implied an intimacy that she didn’t want.
There was no way she was becoming intimate with Josh Sullivan.
* * *
Prickly, Josh thought as he walked towards his office to make a start on the mountain of paperwork that awaited him. If he had to find one word to describe Kat O’Brien, it would be ‘prickly’. Like a thorn bush, it was impossible to get too close without risking physical injury.
He sprawled in the chair and narrowed his eyes as he mentally examined the facts.
She was fine from a professional point of view. More than fine. She’d handled those teenagers extremely well and, from what he’d seen so far, her clinical skills were excellent—but the minute they moved from the subject of work the barriers had come up and she’d frozen him out.
Was that because of Archie?
Josh leaned forward and flicked on the computer. The fact that she was obviously involved with someone disappointed him more than he would have anticipated.
She wasn’t available, he told himself firmly, pushing away memories of her body in the black wetsuit. All right, so she had legs to die for and curves designed to drive a man out of his mind, but she was already taken, so as far as Josh was concerned that was the end of it. He didn’t poach.
Katriona O’Brien was a colleague, nothing more, and that was the way she was going to stay.
